Chapter 20 - Progress

"DODGE!"

Gohan shot a blast out, not a real one, but one slow enough for training. Videl's training was progressing well. A couple weeks had passed since training began, and she had improved by leaps and bounds.

Videl leapt to the side, energy sparking around her hand, diverting the the training blast to the side. While her energy control was far from perfect, she could draw it out at will, and was learning to apply it more and more effectively. Far faster, far stronger, and learning to adapt to the new heights she could push her body to was the purpose of their current exercise.

While her physical abilities had improved, she was beginning to feel the effect of such rapid growth. She may have been fast and strong, but she wasn't able to perceive things as strongly as she was able to perform them.

Or more simply, she was at a level her mind couldn't keep up with. She might have been moving fast, but her reaction speed wasn't on par.

A few more blasts flew out of his hands, as Videl scrambled to dodge them. The blasts would knock her on her ass, but they wouldn't do any real damage to her. It was enough of an incentive to make a real effort, and she was performing rather well.

Five blasts later, and Gohan lowered his hands. "Alright, that's enough for now" he said. "Maybe we'll do more later."

Videl was panting, but leveled an even glare with Gohan. "What, you think I can't keep going?" she asked. "I got tons of steam left."

"I'm sure" Gohan chuckled. "But we've been at this for a couple hours today already. You're doing well enough, I think it's time for something new."

"New?" Videl asked, wiping her brow.

Gohan smirked. "I wanted you to improve your natural senses first, but I've got something that's going to make things a lot easier on you. And it's arguably one of the most important skills an energy warrior can learn."

Quickly, Videl changed from a glare to an expression of excitement. "Am I-"

Gohan raised his hand. "Sorry, not flight yet" he said, as her expression crumbled back into annoyance. "But still extremely important." Raising his head into the air, he searched for a second, before nodding. "I asked someone to come help with this today, and they're on the way here right now, so we might as well start getting the basics down."

"Guest teacher?" she asked, raising an eyebrow. "How important are we talking?"

He gave her a smile. "Remember how I've been telling you to avoid fighting criminals for a while so that you don't kill them?"

"Don't worry, when you get a bit more control over your output, I'll teach you something new, and you can use that to help you fight."

"Oh yeah" Videl remembered. "At the end of the first day I got my energy out, you told me that when we trained some more, you'd teach me how to fight normal criminals."

"That's right" Gohan nodded.

"So what is it?" she asked. "How will it help me fight?"

He looked around his surroundings briefly. "I think a demonstration would help" he said. "Let's go for a quick flight" he continued, extending his hand out to Videl.

Videl walked over to him, allowing Gohan to scoop her up and jump into the sky. "Hmm…" Gohan mused, scanning the landscape. "No, not there… that's no good either…"

"What are you looking for?" she prodded.

"I want a nice thick patch of forest" he said. "I think that's the best way to show off what I'm about to teach you. Somewhere with a lot of hiding places, preferably… ah! There's a good place."

Videl let out a small yelp as Gohan dived into the thicket. It seemed like they were about to crash headlong into the canopy, which covered the ground below almost like a carpet. But before they struck, a wave of force emanated from Gohan, blowing a clear hole through the trees with a powerful gust. He swooped down into the dim forested area, touching down lightly beneath the canopy.

She jumped out of Gohan's arms, looking around at where they landed. "What's so special about here?" she wondered aloud. "And what are we doing here?"

"Simple" Gohan said. "I'm going to take off for a few minutes, and while I'm gone, you are going to hide to the best of your abilities. Do everything you can to make sure I can't find you."

Videl raised an eyebrow to him. "Seriously?"

"Have I misguided you yet?" he countered.

Not having an answer, Videl huffed. "Alright, so it's hide and seek. How long do I have?"

"I'll zip back to my house, and be back to find you in about three minutes" Gohan said. "Do whatever you can to hide yourself. Anything's fair game." He floated back towards the hole he made in the canopy. "And time starts… now!"

He zipped out of the forest as Videl willed her energy to flow into her legs. She smirked to herself as Gohan left sight. "Anything goes, eh?" she thought aloud. She may not have learned how to fly, but she could run pretty damn fast if she wanted to now.

She took a few seconds to climb the tree, and view her surroundings. Seeing a mountain standing tall a short ways away, she decided that would be her target. She dropped out of the tree, and hit the ground running, the forest passing in a blur around her as she dashed out, making her way out from under the canopy.

Two minutes…

"It's gonna be tight" she thought, but she had no doubt that she wanted to do everything in her power to beat him at his own game. Her target was a ways away, but she kept pouring energy into her legs to keep up the sprint. "Damn, this stuff is good on my stamina" she realized, having covered so much ground without even beginning to feel winded.

She reached the foothills just as, by her calculations, she should have been down to her last minute. Surveying her surroundings, she smirked as she found a small nook in the side of the cliff. A small outcropping left just enough space between it and the mountain to completely shield her from view, while still leaving her enough to barely fit in.

Thinking fast, she used some of her leftover strenth to break a large chunk off of a nearby rock formation. Grabbing her stone slap, she squeezed into the small space she had found, before propping up the rock against it to shield even the entrance. Only a small opening at the top was left exposed to the outside, one she was certain wouldn't be anything significant.

"Ten, nine, eight…" Videl counted down in her head, waiting for the moment Gohan would be on the hunt. She grinned to herself, feeling slightly like a kid with the extent she went to win a game of hide and seek, but if Gohan wanted to play a kid's game, then what was wrong with stepping things up a notch? "He'll be searching the forest, and even if he checks the surrounding area, he won't be able to see me."

Five…

Four…

Three…

She shook her head. "Quit acting so childish" she scolded herself. Game or not, she shouldn't be feeling so giddy about it.

Two…

A deep breath was taken. "Here we go…"

One…

Zero…

Gohan was officially out there looking for her. Knowing his speed, it would probably only take him a moment to make his way back to the forest, meaning that the hunt had already-

"Not bad, that was a good try with what you had going for you."

Her breath hitched in her throat, before she let out a huff of annoyance. Kicking the rock out, she emerged from her hidey-hole. "Now this is just demeaning" she said shortly, glaring at the grinning teen before her. "What's got you so freaking ecstatic?" she growled.

"I'm not ecstatic" Gohan denied, though the grin never left his face.

Videl rolled her eyes. "Suuuuure you're not" she huffed. "Alright, what's the lesson this time, there's some sort of trail that energy leaves behind so you can follow me or something?"

"Actually, you're not too far off" Gohan admitted, before extending a hand to her. As they took to the sky, Gohan began explaining. "You see, you're training to harnass your inner energy. Every living thing has their own energy, just like you."

"Alright, what's the moral here?" Videl asked.

"Straight to the point" Gohan chuckled. "One of the most important skills to learn is to sense the energy everyone has. Every living thing has energy inside them, and because of that, you can detect living beings."

Scrunching her face, recognition slowly dawned on it. "That's how you've always been able to find me…" she mused.

Gohan nodded. "That's right. As you train it, you can detect where someone is, where they're going, and most importantly, just how strong they are."

"I'll teach you something new, and you can use that to help you fight…"

"And by knowing how strong someone is, I know how much power I can use against them" Videl pieced together.

"Exactly."

"...So basically you can never hide from someone with this ability" she realized. "That's annoying."

"Actually, not quite true" Gohan said. "If you suppress your ki as much as you can, you can actually be practically undetectable."

"How does that work?" Videl asked as they descended near his place. "Maybe I could blend in with a crowd of people, but if I'm not around others, wouldn't I stick out like a sore thumb? I doubt I could lower my energy enough to blend in with a blade of grass."

"That's because the planet has its own energy too" Gohan said as he let her down on the ground. "If you're in a vacuum, like if you were hiding in space for some reason, you'd be easy to find. But the planet is the exception to the living thing rule." He paused, looking confused. "Well, that's not completely right. The planet is a living thing too, but even the most barren mountains have their own energy to blend in with. And the atmosphere as well. If you suppress yourself enough, you can become completely invisible to any natural ki sense."

"Huh" Videl hummed. "How do you remember all this kind of stuff?"

"I've had to live and breath it a lot of my life" Gohan said with a smile, before looking to the sky. "My friend should be here in about a minute."

"Friend?"

"Yeah, I said I'd have someone come over to help me out with this one" Gohan said. "I have a specific exercise in mind that I can't do on my own. And he agreed to help." He backed up a couple feet. "In the meantime, let's get the basics down" he said. "Eventually, sensing Ki can become second nature, a sixth sense. But to begin, you're going to have to actively focus on locating energies nearby."

His body tensed slightly as a clear aura began licking up his body. "I'm raising my power a bit to make myself an easy target for you" he explained. "It's not how you'll always have to do it, but for now, picture spreading your own energy out like a net over the surrounding area. Cover as much ground as you can, and feel for feedback, sorta like echolocation with energy." He backpedaled a little further. "Give it a shot!"

"Like a net… echolocation…" Videl said to herself. "I'm guessing I'm not supposed to spread it like a blast…" she remembered a particularly entertaining time trying to get her ki to come out easier. She got impatient and tried to force it out, and it ended up creating an explosive field around her that blew the unprepared Gohan away.

"Not this time though" she thought, letting her energy bubble beneath the surface. Gohan specifically said to picture it, not to actually send out a net of ki. She scrunched her brow, imagining her energy spreading through the surrounding area…

A weird sensation, like a painless throb, but constant, not fading in and out, began prodding at her mind. She looked directly at Gohan, sure she was feeling his presence. On a whim, she turned around, and the prodding, throbbing, sure enough, began pressing against her senses from a different side of her head.

"I… I'm feeling something" she said. "I think I'm getting it!"

"Let's see then" Gohan said. "Close your eyes."

Listening to him, she closed her eyes again, as he talked a little more. "I'm going to fly around a bit and land somewhere else" he explained. "Without opening your eyes, I want you to turn towards where I land, and fire a small blast at me."

"Fire a blast at you?" Videl asked, slightly put off.

"Don't worry, Videl, it's perfectly safe. I'm tough enough to take it and you're not firing with the intent to hurt me… right?"

His voice caught up a bit at the end, a bit of playful fake terror. She smirked. "If that's what you gotta tell yourself, sure, let's go with that" she taunted back.

"Then let's go with that" Gohan said. "It'll be a good warmup for when my friend gets here." She felt a small gust as Gohan presumably left the ground. "I won't be more than ten feet away from you to start, just try to find me without opening your eyes!"

The wind kicked up violently, making Videl feel like she was in the middle of a storm, battered by the gale at all sides. As intense as it was, though, it lasted no more than a few seconds, before dying down, leaving the air still once more. "Gohan is somewhere in a ten foot radius from me" she thought to herself. "I doubt he's underground, there was movement in the air but the earth didn't move at all." Of course, she had never seen Gohan burrow, but she wouldn't put it past him.

"He also never said he'd be ten feet away on the ground either" she realized as she spread her rudimentary ki sense out. Sure enough, nothing pinged low, but when she began searching upwards…

"There!" she whirled around, extending a hand to shoot a small blast of energy at the signal in the air behind her. The telltale explosion rocking her other senses was proof enough, especially since she was aiming to the sky, where it would have nothing to detonate against.

"Good, again!" Gohan shouted as the air began whirling around again.

They settled into a rhythm, rapidly increasing the tempo of her training. Gohan might not have mandated it, but she felt the need to push herself. Especially after she missed two following her first shot. "You're aiming in my general direction, but you need to pinpoint what you're sensing, Videl!" Gohan had told her as she started to feel frustrated. After that, she had taken a moment more to sharpen her focus before firing. She was annoyed that even as the exercise went on, she couldn't get a direct lock any faster, but Gohan also made sure to remind her that her ki sense would get much sharper, quicker than most of her abilities.

"I don't know why he waited so long to teach me a basic skill like this though" she thought, spinning around and firing another blast, hearing the satisfying detonation. She almost felt like she was getting more practice blasting than she was detecting energy. Beyond learning to focus her energy as a basic blast, they hadn't touched the subject much. Hell, in their 'dodgeblast' ("Blame Gohan for the corny name") training, he was shown slinging blasts quickly, in arcs, in varying sizes, effortlessly. She still felt like she was aiming a Wii remote with how stiffly she had to be to accurately fire even small blasts at a decent pace.

She twisted around to fire another blast towards her target, when she heard a startled shout ring across the field. She opened her eyes just in time to see a stranger bat her blast far into the distance, disappearing into the sky. Her eyes widened for a second, her first thought being about how she shot at some random person, her second considering how effortlessly he dealt with it after her initial surprise.

"Jeez, remind me to call ahead next time!" the new individual said. He looked none the worse for wear, but traces of surprise still lingered on his face.

Gohan landed beside her, shocking her with his sudden drop out of the sky. "Sorry Yamcha, I was trying to get her warmed up for the lesson" he said apologetically. "She was supposed to be firing wherever I was, and I guess she sensed you first that time."

"It's fine, I just forgot to be careful around your family" Yamcha laughed, walking towards Gohan and embracing him. "We really don't get to see each other much nowadays, do we?"

"Eh, mostly when the world's ending" Gohan chuckled, returning the quick hug. "I've been thinking we need more than the yearly party at Bulma's to get everyone together lately."

"You wouldn't hear me complaining about that" Yamcha chuckled, before turning to her. "So you must be Gohan's prodigy friend, eh?" he asked.

She shrugged. "Dunno about prodigy, but yeah, I'm Videl Satan, nice to meet you" she said, offering her hand.

"The name's Yamcha, nice to meetcha too" he greeted, shaking her hand in response.

She remembered Gohan briefly telling her of Yamcha before, though there wasn't a lot of elaboration. He had said he was fairly weak as far as their group was concerned, but didn't hesitate to defend the planet as hard as any of them. Now she was just curious why he was here. Gohan had mentioned a lesson. "It couldn't be sparring" which was her first thought of why Gohan would bring someone else in to train with. "Warming up my ki sense for a fight, I don't think that sounds quite right…"

Yamcha looked around the area. "So this is where you want to do it? I thought you might want someplace a bit bigger."

Gohan shook his head. "Actually, I was figuring this could be the starting point, but we could use the forest over there" he said, jutting a thumb at the treeline.

"You sure?" Yamcha asked, raising an eyebrow. "There might be a lot less forest when we're done if we do it there."

"Just keep it low power so it doesn't destroy much when it goes off and it should be fine" Gohan said. "Plus, the forest will make it extra challenging, which I think we'll need here."

"Do either of you plan to fill me in on what's going on?" Videl asked huffily, not appreciating them carrying on a conversation like she wasn't there.

"We're just discussing your lesson for today, Videl" Gohan said, smiling. "I think it'll be a great way to kickstart your ki sense."

Yamcha flashed her a thumbs up. "Always happy to help out" he said. "Gohan had honestly a pretty cool idea for an exercise, he just needed help from a special technique of mine." He raised a hand in front of him, palm facing upwards as he grasped his wrist with his other hand. His hand shuddered, as a perfectly round sphere of shimmering yellow energy burst from it, hovering in place. "Say hello to Yamcha's patented Spirit Ball technique!" he announced.

Barely avoiding rolling her eyes from him referring to himself in the third person, she observed the ball of energy. "It just looks like a normal energy blast" she commented, not understanding what was so special about this ball of energy.

"Consider this a two in one lesson then" Gohan said. "Ki sense and to not judge a book by its cover. Appearances aren't everything, Videl, you should know that by now."

Videl fought the urge to blush, as the living example of the point he was trying to make lectured her. "So what's so special about it then?" she asked.

"For starters, this isn't your normal boomstick" Yamcha said, twirling the energy in his palm. "The Spirit Ball doesn't explode on contact like most blasts, though that's not exactly hard to achieve." He smirked as it levitated higher off of his hand. "Here's the cool part" he said, as it flew at Videl with lightning speed.

Videl yelped. She didn't have time to dodge, but she didn't have to, as the Spirit Ball flew over her shoulder. She whipped around, just in time to see it stop in place, perfectly frozen, before blasting back towards her, narrowly avoiding her again.

Lights dancer in her eyes as it flashed all around her, leaving streaks in the air, before stopping inches from her face. From behind it, she saw Yamcha with two fingers raised. "The Spirit Ball's main power is the perfect control I have over it" he said smugly. A little too smugly. "Those mini heart attacks were his way of getting back at me for making fun of it" she realized grumpily.

The Spirit Ball floated back towards Yamcha as he moved his fingers in the same direction. "It's no Super Kamehameha as far as power is concerned, but my Spirit Ball has a lot going for it. Since it doesn't detonate on any impact, I can use it to batter an opponent into submission, or else distract them to create an opening. Oh, and just because it doesn't do so automatically…" he said with a drawl, letting the orb shoot into the sky, before it exploded violently. "...Doesn't mean I can't still let it go off when it needs to."

"...Huh…" Videl commented intelligently.

Gohan had a bit of a smirk of his own. "And it'll be the crux of today's lesson" he said. "Care to explain how, Yamcha?"

"Nah, you're the teacher here Gohan, go right ahead" Yamcha said.

Gohan nodded. "Yamcha's control and the lack of volatility in his technique are perfectly suited for the idea I had in mind" he began. "I think you'll enjoy it too. Yamcha will begin by creating a Spirit Ball, and he's gonna throw it underground. Once it's a few feet below the surface…" he pointed towards the treeline that the two had been talking about a moment ago. "He'll make it fly deep into the forest, and keep it in place wherever it goes. At that point, your task is to go into the forest, and use your ki sense to search out where the Spirit Ball is buried."

"After that, same deal as earlier. Locate the Spirit Ball with your senses, and blast it" Gohan continued. "Since we want you to hit the Spirit Ball and have it create the explosion, I'm going to need you to create a piercing blast when you aim."

"A piercing blast? The heck is that?" Videl asked.

"It's pretty simple" he answered, raising a hand. "It's a thin, condensed blast of energy, designed more for piercing through something rather than impact and detonation. A simple way is to channel your ki into a small point before firing." Pointing his hand up, he fired a blast into the sky. "You've been using your palm as a conduit for your blasts, but this time, I want you to try something different." He closed most of his hand, leaving only two fingers out. "Channel your power into a couple fingertips before letting it fly, but channel just as much as you would out of your whole hand."

To demonstrate, he aimed his two fingers sideways. They briefly glowed with power, before a thin dart of ki flew out into the forest. It disappeared from sight quickly, but not before boring a hole through the closest tree to them. "You'll only need to blast through a few feet of ground, so it shouldn't take much power, but it's important you pierce through and not just blast the Spirit Ball out. After all, your confirmation is the explosion of Yamcha's technique, not just a plume from your own energy."

Videl sat still, nodding as she absorbed the information. "So I'm basically playing hide and seek with a ball of energy, and making it go boom when I find it" she said, smirking a bit as she walked through her task. "That actually sounds pretty fun."

"I'd hoped so" Gohan said with a smile. "But it's not going to be easy. Remember, all living things have energy too. You need to make sure you're tracking the Spirit Ball, not a particularly large tree or a dino cub. So in addition to searching for it, you're going to have to remember what it feels like?"

"You mean… the unique energy signal, right?" Videl questioned.

"That's right, I'm glad you remembered that. Since everything has its own unique energy signal, you can learn to differentiate what signal is coming from one source. A lot of us can know exactly who is nearby if we've felt their energy before" Gohan explained. "So beyond helping you track energy, it'll also help you begin to detect specific energies. Yamcha, are you ready?"

"Sure thing buddy, let's go!" Yamcha said, materializing another Spirit Ball. "I hope you're getting a good read on it, Videl. Three, two, one, now!"

Yamcha chucked his attack into the ground, and immediately, his arm went to work, directing it away. Videl, actively trying to sense it, felt it flee beneath her feet. Power surging through her limbs, she took off into the forest, chasing down the fleeing ball of energy.

She had exhausted her mind earlier in their training, when Gohan still had her focus on meditation for hours at a time to help her draw her power out. Now, after several hours straight of using an entirely brand new sense constantly, she could safely say that this was an ENTIRELY different kind of mental exhaustion. Gohan's comparison to physical therapy for an old muscle you've never used before was a scarily accurate representation of how she was feeling at that moment.

Her physical exhaustion wasn't as severe, but she was more than happy to finally sit down. She was starting to wonder if Gohan amused himself with her struggles, considering the sheer size of the forest he had her exploring, and the free reign he gave Yamcha to send it as deep into the forest as he felt necessary.

But tired or not, she was making important steps forward today. Progressing much faster than most of the other techniques she had learned up to this point, like Gohan had assured her. The first search took almost an hour and a half, but they got progressively shorter, until her last search of the day, which she actually managed to clear in twenty minutes! Of course, she was too tired to pat herself on the back, but at this point, she'd be worried if Gohan's training left her with enough energy to do so.

Right now, she was sitting with her back to one of the trees on the edge of the clearing, getting some rest before she got ready to head home. Gohan was saying his farewells to Yamcha a little ways away, with the latter warrior taking to the sky after a few short exchanges. Her eyes were closing a little by that point, but they snapped back open as Gohan approached her, impressing himself upon her senses. She could definitely see how this sense became just as natural as her others, one day, and she was already faintly registering his presence without trying. It was foggy, unfocused, but it was there.

"You did great today" Gohan praised, sitting down next to the tired girl.

"Damn straight" Videl said, laughing lightly. "I'm gonna surpass you soon. You're gonna eat my dust, you hear? Just watch me."

"That must have sounded funnier in your head" Gohan teased, jabbing back at her.

Videl chuckled, settling back. It was nice, nice having someone like Gohan to hang out with. Erasa was bubbly and there always seemed to be some competition when Sharpner was involved. Not that those were bad things, but Gohan's light teasing and ease were something refreshing after a few years in a single group of friends.

"Not to mention the perks" she smiled to herself. She doubted she'd get views like this if Gohan wasn't in her life, the neon orange sunset reflecting off of the purple clouds, shining down on the gently waving grass and trees, and the light slowly sliding up off of the distant mountains. She never thought herself a nature person, but it was hard not to be pulled in by the beauty of something as simple as this sunset in this field.

Sadly, she couldn't stay forever. A thought that made her grumble in protest as she forced herself to her feet. It was an early day tomorrow, and she still had a few things she ought to check up on beforehand.

"Leaving so soon?" Gohan asked.

Videl nodded. "Gotta try to get back on a schedule, remember? We have to be up early tomorrow."

"We do?" Gohan asked, perplexed. "How come?"

Videl paused, shaking off her tiredness for a moment to level an odd look at Gohan. "Seriously? I would have figured you'd be prepared, given that you're the big bookworm and all." As he continued to look confused, she sighed. "You did get the email that repairs to OSH are finished and classes are resuming in the morning, didn't you?"

At this point, Gohan's eyebrows shot up so far that they almost disappeared into his spiky hairline. "Wait what?!" he exclaimed. "Why didn't I hear about this?!"

With a facepalm, she groaned. "This is why we've got to get you more familiar with technology" she muttered. "Probably because you didn't check your email enough. You at least saw the assignments we got to keep up while the school was closed, didn't you?"

"Oh yeah, I just knocked those out that afternoon" he said, much easier now that he realized he wasn't 100% out of the loop.

"A month's worth of assignments in five different classes, knocks them out in one afternoon. Somehow, still find that the most unbelievable thing about him" Videl thought, torn between chuckling and groaning at the thoughts. "You are a paradox wrapped in an enigma."

"Do you need a flight back?" Gohan offered, standing up beside her.

She waved him off. "Nah, it's fine, I'll get back more than early enough" she assured him. "Besides, you ought to be resting up. Even boy wonder geniuses need their beauty sleep too."

"'Boy wonder'?" Gohan asked, pouting.

Videl couldn't help but laugh at the face he was making. For someone so serious and awkward all the time, he could really come off as a big teddy bear when he wanted to. "It's a surprise none of the girls at school have tried to ask him out yet. The guys might tease him for his facade at school but a lot of girls tend to like the nerdy sweet guys." She may not think of him in that way, but that doesn't mean she was blind to all the charms the guy had. She couldn't help a bigger smile at the thought. "Seriously, I'm fine, Gohan. You should get ready to head back in the morning too anyways."

She reached into her pocket, tossing the capsule containing her primary method of transportation on the ground, letting the vehicle appear in a cloud of smoke. "Hopefully soon, I won't need this thing" she thought to herself aloud, before climbing in. Buckling herself in, she turned the machine on and waved to Gohan. "I'll see you tomorrow!" she called out as she took to the sky.

"I'll see you then, have a good night Videl!" Gohan called back, returning her wave as she rose out of sight.

As the field left her vision, Videl settled comfortably into her seat, flying off towards the sunset. It wasn't that she didn't enjoy flying her jetcopter, but it was so slow compared to the alternative that she had seen. The fly home took quite a while in her vehicle, yet Gohan was able to make the trip home within seconds if he really wanted to… And to be honest, she sort of wanted to take Gohan up on his offer today. She had to buy some school supplies, which sounded weird, but she wasn't about to go back to Hercule's house to get the ones she left behind.

"Hopefully there will still be a store open by the time I get back…" she thought aloud. It was getting late, after all, but worst case scenario, she could fake her way through a day without too much trouble, and get prepared tomorrow.

The flight back was peaceful, the serene sky not jostling her path at all on her way home. She couldn't help but compare it to her first trip up into the mountains, where she had nearly been smited… smote? Smote. She had nearly been smote by a violent storm trying to strike them down. It was a wonder they had gotten away without injury, now she wondered if she'd really get all that hurt from an event like that. Gohan's training had her tougher than she thought humanly possible.

It was a while before the tall buildings of Satan City started cropping up over the horizon, but by the time they had, she was back in town within moments. A glance at her clock left her frustrated, showing that it was, indeed, too late to go grab a few supplemental school supplies. "Oh well…" she huffed, making her way back to her hotel, which was rather close by.

She landed on the roof and capsulized her jet copter, ready to rest up for the morning. "I wonder how badly school is gonna affect my training time with Gohan…" she thought to herself, hoping it didn't cut into it too deeply. She wanted to fly, damnit!

Focusing on that thought, she opened the door and made her way downstairs. If she hadn't been so distracted, it was possible that she might have noticed the faintest pulse of a rather ominous energy across the city, spiking quickly before completely vanishing from the area.

Not the best chapter I've ever written, but I rather enjoyed the training concept I came up with for honing her ki sense. It was actually one of the first ones I visualized when I imagined Videl's expanded training arc.

I'm gonna stop apologizing for the long wait between chapters, because while it kinda sucks, it seems to have become a constant in my life. All I can really say at this point is that I'll try. I should also mention really fast that I updated my name recently. It may look completely different, but I assure you that it's still me!

This chapter was a bit shorter, but don't worry, I plan to have something else for you guys out in about a week. It'll be another short one, but I'm hopeful that you guys will enjoy it. And hopefully this one too, heh. I'll see you all rather soon (with any luck)!