"It should be about time, shouldn't it?" Kami Upa turned to Mr. Popo who was sweeping the God Temple and maintaining it after the training of everyone awaiting their turn in the Room of Spirit and Time grazed and cracked many of the tiles decorating the temple grounds. After straightening his back, Mr. Popo dragged the back of his hand across his forehead, crossed his arms behind his back, and nonchalantly strutted off inside the temple.
Kami Upa followed. Seeing the pair becoming serious and vanishing inside the temple grounds made Chayote, Chi-Chi, Muten Roshi and Videl cease training with the less disciplined students noticing something was off only when their mentors and sparring partners began acting strange. Everyone rushed after Kami Upa and Mr. Popo. Inside the temple, Mr. Popo walked upstairs and approached an ancient wooden pendulum clock. After staring at it blankly for a brief pause, Mr. Popo turned around to face Kami Upa.
"Yes, it should be time," Mr. Popo nodded.
With a hasty step, the fighters rushed off through the endless hallways deceptively concealed within the limited size of the God's Temple palace. After approaching the old wooden door leading into the Room of Spirit and Time, the assembled warriors and attendants stopped and began waiting patiently for Goku and Piccolo to leave the Room of Spirit and Time.
They would not need to wait for long, as just a couple of minutes later, the door's handle turned, and the door sprung wide open with bright light shooting out from inside the room. Raggedy and sweaty, yet looking content and confident, Goku and Piccolo walked out of the Room of Spirit and Time and faced the welcoming committee.
"Yo! We're done, whose turn is it now?" Goku snickered with a sheepish grin.
"Never mind that now," Piccolo grumbled with his arms crossed, eyes closed, and chin tucked to his chest. "Did anything happen while we were training? Did Cell reveal itself or what it was up to?"
Pearl tried finding the broadest pair of shoulders to hide behind, but most were either too short or too frail while powered-down to serve as viable cover. The woman had long since wept her make-up clean off her face, so there was no concealing the swelling of constant crying on her face. No matter how much Sharpner tried offering gentlemanly comforting or Chi-Chi tried relating to the struggles of the other half of a martial artist constantly fending off threats against the planet or the entire universe, the woman was a shaking bundle of nerves and depression. It was Pearl who attracted Piccolo's attention as the party who wasn't here the last time Piccolo saw the temple grounds before entering the Room of Spirit and Time.
"Navy, we're up now," Chayote turned to the energetic pre-schooler, who was pumping his fists and knees impatiently, waiting for his mother to utter those exact words in that exact order.
"Wait, Chayote," Goku turned to the short Saiyan woman with an even shorter fuse before they passed each other. "Don't focus too much on just powering up in there. Try to learn to control your Legendary Super Saiyan form. I've already just about mastered Super Saiyan 2, so there's no use in you chasing after it."
"Don't tell me what to do, Kakarot," Chayote answered without as much as looking at the Saiyan. After replying, Chayote and Navy walked into the light with the little troublemaker sticking out his tongue and pulling down his eyelid with one hand, while flipping Goku off with the other. With a hopeful and content smirk, Goku turned back at the gathered fighters welcoming him and Piccolo after a grueling year inside the Room of Spirit and Time training to the best of their abilities.
"Hmm… So, Cell targeted Yamcha then, huh?" Piccolo noted with his eyes closed and his solemn expression perfectly reflecting the grueling situation that they were in. "That means that everyone else looking for the Ultimate Dragon Balls is a potential target too. Also, Cell possessing the Instant Transmission is the worst-case scenario for us. It can be anywhere, at any instant, and vanish without a trace whenever it feels like."
"Maybe you should check in with King Enma in the Other World if Yamcha's checked in, just in case? Yamcha might have fun training with Gohan at King Kai's Planet and Gohan could use a training partner," Goku turned to Kami Upa.
"I already checked," Kami Upa shook his head with a somber expression. The reply made Pearl weep and collapse on Sharpner's shoulder, with Videl comforting the depressed woman with gentle pats on the back. "King Enma claims that Yamcha hasn't checked in. In fact, neither I nor King Kai can even trace Yamcha's Ki. Could it be that Cell's victims don't go to the Check-In Station, maybe they travel to Limbo, or something similar?"
"That is unlikely," Mr. Popo replied. "Cell is a creature of wicked human science. The Evil Tribe were creatures of pure malice, more mystical in nature than scientific. There is no possible way for science to replicate the effects of dark magic."
"Well then, I've got no clues where Yamcha might be," Kami Upa submitted to despair, biting his lip and tucking his chin down.
"How can you say that!?" Pearl flipped out, lunging from Sharpner's shoulder and lashing out at Kami Upa, grabbing a man nearly twice her size and three times her bulk by his cape and yanking him front and back. It was as if the tormented woman tried shaking some sense into the baffled divine guardian. "Aren't you supposed to be the God of the entire world!? How can you not know that!? How can some parasitic bug monster throw God for a loop!?"
"You shouldn't really be giving Upa such a hard time, missy," Goku leaned in to connect with Pearl through eye contact. Confronted by Goku's aloof attitude and hearty smile, Pearl stopped crying and ceased her tantrum to hear what this clueless goofball had to say for himself after asking that she laid off of the God's back. "After all, can't you see that this is all good news? If Yamcha ain't in the Otherworld, that means that he's still alive. I'm not sure how, but Yamcha must have tricked Cell somehow and ended up surviving after all."
"Y-Yeah…" Pearl muttered, wiping her tears and aggravating the swelling of her face. "I guess you're right. Yamcha-kun must still be alive! Yamcha-kun is the greatest, fastest and strongest martial artist in the universe, he had to have survived!"
"That's the spirit!" Goku winked and tapped the woman on the back. Chi-Chi's eyes widened in terror, being reminded by a few instances in their past when Goku got overly excited and failed to control his strength, patting Chi-Chi's back so hard that she crashed out of the house. Chi-Chi didn't mind it too much, of all people, she could take more roughhousing than she dished back at Goku's expense sometimes, but Pearl was just an ordinary, frail human woman. Despite Chi-Chi's worries, and Goku's skyrocketed battle power, Pearl barely budged from her place as Goku flawlessly managed his bottomless power.
"So, Goku, do you think you could stop Cell if it were to attack out in the open?" Muten Roshi wondered.
"Who knows?" Goku scratched his head. "I've gotten a bit strong in the Room of Spirit and Time. It's hard to imagine anyone we've ever faced before challenging me or Piccolo the way we are now, but… If Cell steps out in the open, that means it thinks it can win, right? One thing's for certain, I'm excited to see what Cell cooks up when he tries taking us on!"
"Sheesh, what's with everyone? Even after Bulma sent everyone warnings, that Cell might come after them, they must still insist on collecting the Ultimate Dragon Balls…" Chi-Chi sighed while Goten crawled up his father, scaling him like a massive mound of muscle and cheer and beginning to play-wrestle with him, tug on Goku's spiky hair and pummel his old man with hammer fists as a tease.
"It's not like it can be helped," Piccolo observed. "The Ultimate Dragon Balls must be collected for the Earth to be saved."
"Besides, everyone who's looking for the Ultimate Dragon Balls is a martial artist," Muten Roshi observed, fixing his shades while turning his attention to the infinite cosmos laying above even the peaks of the God Temple. "They welcome and thrive off of a challenge to their skills. They know what they've signed up for. Some might even be eager for the challenge."
"Nice job today, Gohan," King Kai proclaimed, putting his tiny knuckles to his wide waist that seemed impossible to separate from his shoulders as he stared at his parked Red 1957 Chevrolet Bel Air Hardtop in the garage with the loving eyes of a husband giving one last and intimate look at his sleeping wife before leaving to work in the morning.
"Say, King Kai-sama, do you think I could begin learning your secret technique now?" Gohan wondered after turning to the God of Martial Arts and the master of the entire North Galaxy quadrant of the universe.
"Huh? Can't wait until morning, huh? Oh well, I can hardly blame you. If I were you, I couldn't wait to learn from the greatest and handsomest martial arts master across all the galaxies either!" King Kai chuckled to himself. "Fine, I'll show it to you. My prized new technique and the pinnacle of everything I've worked on before. The King Kai's magnum opus technique–The Spirit Succession Method."
"Spirit Succession Method? What kind of technique is it?" Gohan wondered.
"As I've alluded to before, it's incredibly similar to the Spirit Bomb, however, it bypasses all of Spirit Bomb's usual shortcomings. It does not require wellness energy to be submitted to you, you do not have to channel it for an extended period of time while staying wide open. Also, it does not need to constitute its own technique, it merely enhances the technique of the user beyond the world of power one might dream of," King Kai pointed out.
"Hmm… I'm still not sure I fully understand," Gohan scratched his chin.
"What's there not to understand!?" King Kai barked out, flailing his hands over his head before clearing his throat and regaining his composure. It was evident that he couldn't stomach the fact that what he saw as his pinnacle technique baffled Gohan instead of sending him over the moon over the opportunity of King Kai choosing to pass it down to him. "Maybe you just need to give it a shot to visualize it better? Here, try performing the Kamehameha, or another technique, however, before firing it, try to feel the presence of wellness energy around you, like you would when using the Spirit Bomb."
"Well… Okay, I guess…" Gohan scratched his head, cupping his hands together and drawing them back. "Ka… Me… Ha… Me…" he chanted out before closing his eyes and sensing the good vibes and the spirit of goodness all around him, as if he were channeling the Spirit Bomb. There was Gregory, sleeping on the windshield of King Kai's beloved car, Bubbles was pumping its tiny fists into the air, dancing, rolling and hopping around and cheering for Gohan. Feeling amped up, Gohan snapped his eyes wide open and thrust his arms forward. "HA!" he exclaimed, sending a strident energy wave to shoot off into the vast expanse of Otherworld, splitting apart lemon-colored clouds and hurling off into nothingness before overextending and fizzling out.
"Was that it?" Gohan wondered, turning to King Kai, who looked troubled as he was rubbing his chin. Gohan felt like the Kamehameha was powerful, but it wasn't really to a point where Gohan could definitively claim that something was different. Maybe Gohan still had only picked up scraps of the Spirit Succession Method and could only bolster his attacks to a limited degree? "I'm not sure if it was that much more powerful, but I did feel something…"
"Hmm… I don't mean to crush your spirits, but that Kamehameha was plain, no doubts about it," King Kai replied. "To be fair, I've only ever visualized the technique and I've never really used it."
"What!? You mean it's only a vague idea, a theory and not an actual technique!?" Gohan exclaimed, beginning to feel like King Kai might have wasted his time and impeded Gohan's training to become strong enough to protect his friends and family.
"Shut up! Just because I couldn't pull it off, it doesn't mean that it's not real and that it can't work!" King Kai scolded his student. "It's just… It feels like the goodness that you've drawn into this Kamehameha wasn't enough. Like… Maybe you need to draw more. Understand that if you only retrieve a speck of wellness energy, it will snuff out in the wave of your own mighty Ki."
"B-But didn't you say that I'm not supposed to compel to draw it out?" Gohan scratched his head in frustration. "If I reach out and take any more of it, it won't be that much different from the Spirit Bomb. I might as well have to ask for that energy then, which, in term, brings us back to the flaw of the Spirit Bomb of the channeling time. I hate to say it, King Kai-sama, but this technique is still very raw."
"You're the one that's raw!" King Kai shook his fist in the air. "In any case, let's just sleep on it and pick it up in the morning again. After you're all rested and after you've had your breakfast. I can't afford you throwing your teen tantrums at me and criticizing my flawless work because you're hangry, after all."
"U-Understood…" Gohan deflated in frustrated submission, wondering if he was just wasting his time here and if his father will be disappointed in him after seeing the big flat nothing that all of his training had come to. At the very least, he'll be able to drive his parents to the town or the market a good five years later, if nothing else of use will come of this training.
Navy was shooting everywhere with his fists out, like a human missile. He had incredible talent in him, likely coming more from his father's side and that problematic Vegeta bloodline. His battle power was simply incredible, even if he didn't have the Legendary Super Saiyan factor in him like Chayote did. It must simply not have been something that people inherit. It was a once in a thousand years miracle, that was all. Navy's battle power grew even further during his time training with Gohan, Videl, Sharpner and Goten. His rivalry with Goten may have unearthed an unexplored well of latent power that Chayote could vaguely feel with each punch the boy missed.
"Fight me!" Navy cried out after missing another reckless charge and skidding across the Room of Spirit and Time floor. It was remarkable how the greater gravity of the room barely even registered with the boy. He could feel that something was off, that much Chayote could see. His movements were lagging compared to his usual energetic outbursts, but it was like he simply didn't understand the concept of gravity nor the effect it could have on a fighter. Despite demanding Chayote fight him back, the brat was already panting and sweating up a flood.
"You can't just make demands and have it your way," Chayote crossed her arms. "Of all people, you should know this best. You've always bullied and terrified the servants at Satan's Estate into submission, but that's never worked with me, and it never will."
"Why!?" Navy clenched his little fingers and tucked his arms by his sides to strengthen how much his chest could tense up before crying out. "You're always gone, always at work, always fighting people or you're hurt, or you're turned to stone! Now we've got a whole day to ourselves, and you still won't play with me!"
"My stupid son," Chayote smacked her forehead with a relaxed smile. "Don't you understand what this room is yet? We don't just have one day to ourselves, we've got a whole year to spend time together. Just you and me."
"A… Whole year!?" Navy freaked out. "But that freaky guy all of you were scared about. Won't he cause all kinds of harm out there?"
"Ugh, you just don't listen, do you? You can't just yell, charge and punch your way through life, Navy. Sometimes you have to listen to what people are saying. It will only be a year inside of this room. On the outside, it will be just one day that's passed," Chayote explained what this room meant to her thick-skulled boy.
"Y-You mean… We'll get to play some more together, just you and me!?" Navy pumped his little fists in excitement, beginning to tear up a little as his bulged out in awe eyes glistened like fist-sized diamonds.
"That's right, just you and me," Chayote nodded with a softened look of someone who's discovered true happiness and was living her best life. After everything, all the hard work, all the fighting to get to come home to her son and to get to see him grow up, Chayote was finally here with Navy and finally they had each other all to themselves.
"Alright!" Navy yelled out, erupting with a transparent yet robust burst of aura that sent a concussive gale to spread in all directions and even made the temple of the Room of Spirit and Time rumble a bit. "Let's play then, mom!"
"Yeah, let's play," Chayote nodded as Navy hurled himself across the space between them with another flying tackle charge. With little effort, Chayote weaved out of the way and tucked her knee up to flip Navy over his front and send him into an unstable vertical spin that made him face plant into the ground after the spinning rattled his brain and caused vertigo to take over, robbing Navy of control over his body.
"Your form and style are non-existent. That's okay, we've got plenty of time to teach you some proper martial arts in here," Chayote pressed her hands to her waist, lecturing her son while he insisted to drag himself back up on wobbly feet like the big boy he thought he was. Defiantly, he pressed his arms to his sides and gnashed his teeth to power through the tears that were sprinkling in the corners of his eyes, refusing to acknowledge the bruise on his forehead.
The white void suddenly turned black and a chilling gale of an absolute zero blizzard hit the two from the side, leading deeper into the void of the Room of Spirit and Time. Chayote leveled her Ki to respond accordingly, warding off the cold by controlling her emotions and turning them into a passionate enthusiasm that made her Ki blaze on inside her, making Chayote burn like a furnace deep down and ward off the coldest imaginable temperatures that can ever occur naturally.
After the skies whitened again and the blizzard passed just as suddenly as it came, Chayote gasped after turning to Navy who seemed to have frozen solid, with only his stiff tail sticking out from the little frigid icicle he's turned into. Heaving it up and over her shoulders, Chayote rushed off to the temple inside the Room of Spirit and Time to warm Navy up some. It'll be a long and tough year ahead of them, but Chayote already knew that she'd likely remember as the best year in her life.
Best year that lasted one day on the outside, at the very least, for certain.