Only one day after he met his father who ignored him as he did for years now. Gohan was standing in under a bridge getting ready to fight for the first time in his life. This damp place filled with trash, rubble and filth would be the start of his legend.
The man in front of him was way too cocky and he had to do something about it, Sharpner was talking to Erasa and had her take pictures of him flexing, Gohan caught him saying, "Record the fight. Videl allowed this, I won't get the chance for a beatdown this bad any time soon."
He saw Videl make an incredibly ugly face at Sharpner's words but he was sure his was uglier, he shouted, "If you are done documenting the last time anyone will see your pretty face, get ready!" and heard Sharpner make an impressed voice.
Erasa said to him, "Sharpner are you going to live that down? You heard what he said to you? Go get him champ!" while laughing. After her words Sharpner put his guard up and walked towards Gohan.
When he got to Gohan face with a grin on his face that had aggressiveness Gohan never witnessed before from anyone, they both heard Videl shout, "Go!" and Gohan's reflexes told him to dodge in the exact same moment.
His body was barely able to react but as he took a step back he saw a hook from Sharpner flash past where his chin was. He tried to punch him back but it felt really sluggish from the moment it started.
After Sharpner nimbly ducked, Gohan could only take another step back to avoid his uppercut. He tried a hook himself but Sharpner easily blocked it. When the blond boy tried to jab him all he could do was back off again.
Exchange after exchange happened with neither of them getting a hit on the other, after a while Gohan got used to this loop, he would miss his attacks and dodge Sharpner's by taking a step back. He knew he wasn't doing too well but he was still happy that he could be compared to Sharpner who trained with Videl for years.
But when he took another step back to dodge Sharpner despite his inner voice telling him not to, he felt the cold and wet wall of the bridge on his back.
Sharpner started to laugh and said, "Game over!" and threw a punch Gohan could barely react to. Far faster than any he did until now, this jab hit Gohan in the stomach and pain he never felt before came from both his stomach and his back.
Before he could comprehend what happened, Gohan couldn't even listen to his inner voice telling him to duck to the side and dodge the second hit.
After the second came the third, then the fourth, then he stopped counting due to pain. The only reason he was still standing was Sharpner making him get up every time he was about to fall. The beating continued but Gohan was now unable to feel the pain, he felt impacts but they didn't register. His eyes were going black but they never closed completely.
But suddenly the impacts stopped and he heard Videl say, "That is enough, he got the point." he slowly fell to the ground and his eyes closed fully. He couldn't do anything against Sharpner.
Gohan's eyes slowly opened to a sore feeling all over his torso and a sizzling voice. He thought out loud, "I know I probably broke a rib or two but did my ear get messed up as well?"
A male voice he was familiar with replied, "Not at all, no permanent damage. The voice is just eggs cooking." Gohan looked around to see he was in a messy living room with clothes thrown around everywhere, a TV on showing the replays of some sports competitions from yesterday and a kitchen with a blonde haired boy cooking in it.
"Didn't you go too far?" Gohan asked while taking a look at his body, it was swollen and bruised all over, if someone saw it now, he would be confused for a bizarre alien from outer space.
Eggs, milk, cereal and a chicken sandwich were put in front of Gohan and while he started Sharpner replied, "Not even close, I barely used a fifth of my power and barely any of my experience. This is what you have to realize. People in World Martial Arts Tournament would murder you as you are now."
Gohan talked after swallowing what was in his mouth, "But Videl said I broke the human limit. There shouldn't be too many in the world." he was being honest with Sharpner, this was a genuine discussion with a friend where both sides were being true to each other.
After quickly gorging on a sandwich that contained half a chicken Sharpner replied, "There are a lot. Hundreds probably but most won't join the tournament. LL35 bodyguards, top students of Satan Dojo, old masters living in mountains and previous finalists who returned to normal lives."
He looked at his body which he was proud of and said, "So I am not that special?" in a dejected way. He really thought he had something over people other than studying for 10 hours when they did 5.
Gohan finished his breakfast quickly before Sharpner even got to the half point, who looked at how fast the beaten up boy ate and sped up while talking, "Of course you are extremely talented, prodigious even but you don't have enough time. You can be stronger than me in a year not in a month and a half."
When Gohan went to clean up on the kitchen sink he asked, "How hard did you try while fighting me?" he now understood he was weaker but he had to learn by how much weaker.
Sharpner thought for a while and answered, "A fifth of my power was plenty to enough for me to dodge your attacks and move you around as I wanted to. Calculate from that."
He sighed thinking about what he would do to prove himself to his father at the tournament. Maybe he was right and Gohan had only trained until now because of Trunks' energy. To stop these thoughts Gohan shook his head and thought about how he couldn't let Videl down, she was so happy that he was training so he had to train with her. After the time they spent together last time Gohan wanted to see her happy.
"I look awful, give me some clothes." Gohan said with a sigh while throwing his ripped apart shirt to Sharpner's trash. He couldn't go to school with that.
For the first time he was going to school without his books, notebooks, pens or anything. He was like a delinquent but he could still follow the lessons easily.
Reaching the school in mere minutes made Gohan envious of people who lived in reasonable places, his father was just flaunting this wealth buying that expensive house instead of getting someplace useful.
Videl and Erasa asked him about how he felt but he was fine, really. What was not fine was how Mr. Satan still didn't open the gym. He had to train as much as possible, as soon as possible, so he said, "There is apparently a private gym that came with my house, we can use that?"
Sharpner looked intrigued, "A gym that came with a Satan Star house? I have to see that."
But Videl looked more skeptical, "Could that gym have equipment that can be helpful to us? We need a few times higher stress equipment than what is commercially available, everything in my gym is custom made."
"What about your father? Does he train there too?" he asked. Learning about Mr. Satan's training could be really helpful to him. If he was going to aim for the throne, he had to learn from the king.
The cutest pout he saw in his life came from Videl while she said, "He has his own training center made by Bulma Brief herself. I want to go there too, it has technology I didn't know was possible."
Right as he was saying, "What technology-", Sharpner cut him off and started to describe it with zeal, "Gravity control, air density control, temperature control, training robots capable of fighting back, specialized drills and more. It is the best training you can get on this planet."
A surprised Videl said, "Yeah, that. Anyways that place is out of bounds, we need to find a good gym, I hope yours is enough." and left the discussion at that.
The school that he was supposed to love felt like a burden to Gohan today. He had to accept his mother was right a bit, training would ruin his studies but it didn't matter, this was his calling.
After school, they immediately went to the gym that was given to him, it was a bit far away from his home but Erasa explained that Satan Star expected their residents to have at least cars anyways.
When opened the doors to his gym with his card and opened the lights, shocked gasps came from both Videl and Sharpner simultaneously. Sharpner said, "This looks about as good as Videl's gym. Weights that go up to a ton, the cables are as thick as the ones used in construction machines... At a first glance, this place looks insane."
"This place was definitely made for someone who broke the human limits." Videl said while lifting a dumbbell that weighed 100kg.
Erasa speculated, "Satan Star probably more than a few LL35 employees living in it. Maybe these are intended for them?" that was reasonable, there was no way for them to know exactly so they stopped speculating here.
The rest of the day flowed like water for Gohan and it ended too fast. He couldn't even use a fifth of the machines here and it had already been more than a few hours here. However there was a problem, without Trunks' energy, he didn't get the high from training he used to.
But no matter what he was going to push forward and show both of his parents, his mother who forced him to study without getting out of his room for years and his father who ignored him for as long.
He trained today, tomorrow and the day after that, through the weekend and the next week. For two weeks after he first went to his personal gym, he was there every day after he got out of school. Sometimes Erasa was there, usually Sharpner came but Videl used the machines here more than he did.
Sharpner not coming every day had a simple explanation, he was injured for the rest. Gohan watched Videl, Sharpner and Erasa spar with each other multiple times a day, he only then truly understood what Sharpner meant, he really went easy him.
From all the sparring going on Gohan got benefits as well, he got to spar against Erasa and Videl too. Even after a dozen or so tries, he still didn't get a good hit to any of the three but his hits were starting to graze their arms. After looking at how much he could lift compared to them, he knew once he started to get good hits in, he would do damage.
Erasa said while looking at her phone, "Gohan it's been a while since we have been at your place. Mind if we come?"
Gohan thought if his house was clean or not and he said, "Yeah sure we can hang out. I don't know if my TV has a good movie saved though, we'd have to find one."
An interrogative voice from Videl asked him, "When do you find the time to even watch TV? My life has been just school, training and studying for weeks now."
Laughing after getting caught Gohan said, "I didn't study for a while now. I already know what we are going over at school, it won't be a problem."
Last few weeks had been the best weeks of his life, when Gohan saw Trunks the next time he promised himself that that he would thank the little kid. If it wasn't for him he would stay close minded. He would just keep studying and studying.
When he opened his front door his train of thought got cut short as he saw his sister who shouldn't be here and she said, "You have been very bad brother! Repent!" with her little kid voice while wagging a finger with a pout on her face.