NOVEL ONLINE FREE Chapter 3: Small Steps
The light shone, passing through the cracks in the wooden window of old Gohan's cabin. Our elderly hero was strangely out of sight inside the residence. Sounds of movement and slightly accelerated breathing were noticeable outside. Son Gohan was outside, practicing basic martial arts moves to stay warm in the early morning cold of the Paozu Mountains. Years of discipline, ingrained through intense and continuous lifelong training, have led him to practice diligently. Waking up before sunrise was a natural habit after so many years.
His face glistened with a fine sheen of sweat, indicating that he was now warm and able to handle a moderate level of physical activity.
'Other old men would definitely be jealous of my lack of back pain. THE Ki really it is wonderful for preserving the health of the body', exclaimed Gohan in his mind, marveling at the passive preservation effects that strong vital energy brought. 'Maybe in the future I can spread this knowledge to the public. There was even that game that my son played, Dragon Ball, which, according to the backstory, had the knowledge of Ki spread among the population.'
Spreading this knowledge had its benefits: improving public health was one of them, but also minimally increasing the mortal level of his universe, should the story of Dragon Ball Super go the way of this Son Gohan's timeline. For now, Gohan decided to return to the basic training he had formulated with the knowledge coming from his wish in the "waiting room".
Gohan continued to perform his martial style movements. After a few hours, his body was covered in sweat. He stopped to breathe and, despite all his effort, his body barely showed a hint of heavy breathing, something impressive for his 89 years of age. He sat down on a wooden stump that he used as a seat, took a gourd full of water and enjoyed the morning breeze as he rested after training. The physical part of his initial training was complete, now it was time to practice Ki so he could fly.
"Old bird's project begins now," Gohan said loudly, before sitting down cross-legged.
'Let's try the method that young Gohan used to teach Videl to fly...' He thought.
The elderly man stood still, his breathing was even, his mind clear and calm. He could feel his own Ki naturally. He already knew how to draw his own Ki a long time ago, due to years of practice, as well as training with Master Roshi, where he will also learn how to use the Kamehameha. Now, with memories from another life, he knew of the existence of other energy systems: cosmos, mana, chakra, reiryoku, prana, etc. They were all different systems, some worked in a more complex way, others in a simpler way. He knew this thanks to watching so much anime with his own son. This knowledge led him to realize something important about Ki, it was rigid.
An example would be better to visualize things: when making a sculpture, you can choose to use clay or white marble. Clay is easy to mold when wet, and mistakes can be corrected easily, while marble is a solid rock, where mistakes cannot be fixed easily. THE Ki follows a slightly similar mechanic: it is difficult to move, complicated to shape, but easy to disperse to avoid mistakes when you have good control. Saiyans, Namekians and Frieza's race are some of the species with high compatibility with energy manipulation, which makes movement and modeling much easier. Humans have average compatibility on these points. But now with other systems to compare functionality to Ki, Gohan had a great "cheat code" on his hands.
'THE Who It looks a lot like cosmo energy is difficult to handle, but I can try some chakra control methods to make things easier', thought Gohan before practicing the flying technique.
'Unlike chakra, which has paths within the body and a defined direction to flow, Ki travels freely throughout the body, without specific paths. In a way, it leaks into an aura, just like Nen from Hunter x Hunter. Shaping the aura when it is still inside the body is difficult, but shaping it from the outside is easy.'
Gohan continued his reflections on the properties of Ki. He first imagined that he could rotate the Ki in one direction to have a more controlled flow. His approach was rewarded with mild success: controlling the raw Ki in this way was difficult, but after a few tries, he finally succeeded. Rotation could be the answer — a great exercise for improving energy control, but not a way to constantly guide it within the body.
This had other effects: his posture improved, he became slightly stronger, as if the Ki, passively, had helped to strengthen his body. He soon realized that the Ki was cleansing his system and slightly recovering some old injuries, it was not an energy boost, but rather a recovery in itself.
'It appears that the rotation of Ki within the body could be a basic first aid technique,' he reasoned.
He knew how to train the use of Ki in the most efficient way, but trying other things based on prior knowledge proved to be a great success. He knew how to make Ki stronger and more stable, as he knew the Yardrats' training methods to improve the stability of the spirit. This would help control Ki much more efficiently, as well as allowing the use of Multiforma, Gigantification, Healing, Teleportation and Forced Spiritual Fission, techniques that he did not know how to perform and that were not included in the knowledge he had received. He was only limited to the training methods he had asked for: how to train the body and Ki efficiently.
'To fly, I need to use my energy as a lifting force and keep myself in the air. To move, I will have to expel Ki, using it as a means of propulsion in the direction I want to go...', Gohan began to go over what he knew about the Bukujutsu technique, also known as the Sky Dance Technique in other languages from his other life. 'The first step is to try to hover or even levitate in the air, even if just a little.'
Gohan, still sitting on the ground, began to mobilize his Ki. Starting to levitate was easy, his energy responded easily to his will when he was out of his body. The problem was staying in the air, sustaining a constant and stable output was exhausting over long periods.
'Young people are really talented in being able to fly without much difficulty.' Gohan said to himself, remembering the scene of Videl and Goten learning to fly quickly. 'What they have in talent, I can make up for with experience from this life.'
Gohan continued his training in the flying technique, minutes passed and his body sometimes lifted a few centimeters before returning to the ground, the difficulty in staying in the air even for a few minutes was evident.
"It looks like I'm going to take longer than expected, hahahaha" Gohan said, laughing at his own miscalculation.
And so the routine of this old martial arts master followed, he would wake up early before sunrise, practice his movements with some improvised weights that he increased as the exercise became easier, his body was already hardened to fight, and the constant practice of his movements, even with weights, was working the muscles necessary in this initial phase of the training plan, the focus was really on flight training, this was the last one he did of the day and where he spent most of his own time, this was the old Son Gohan's routine for a month, as he practiced Bukujutsu, the more he was able to stay in the air and the better he became at managing his own energy for this activity.
Where before he only had slight levitation of a few centimeters for a few seconds, now Gohan floated half a meter above the ground for long periods, this was a great improvement for that old man, and showed that his training was not in vain, hours of effort in meditation led him to this great progress by normal human standards.
'Really, it seems that young people have greater potential than old people, it took me a whole month when Videl only took 10 days to learn how to use Ki until she flew.' Gohan thought, accepting his own lack of talent in using energy. 'Well, it could be that I'm too old too, young people have always had a greater predisposition to learn things.'
He improved a lot in this single month, his goal of going to visit Muten Roshi and Gyumao without days of traveling on foot was closer, having finished his training routine for this day, Gohan heads to his hut to get his fishing equipment, the house's supplies were almost running out in this single month in which he dedicated himself solely to training.
While walking through the woods of the vast vegetation of Mount Paozu, Gohan hears a large impact from afar that makes the ground shake, this sets off alarms in his head, this is the warning that Goku has arrived on Earth and also a sign of the end of Planet Vegeta.
'I thought I had more time before Goku arrived.' Gohan thought as a bead of sweat began to appear on his forehead.
Running to the impact site, Gohan continued to think about several possibilities, should he remove Goku's tail and save himself a big problem with the Oozaru, or would he risk his luck by having a fight with a super-developed monkey that released energy blasts from its own mouth? The answer was obvious, he would cut off his tail, he was too old to be stressed about the idea of fighting with a low-budget King Kong, besides, the tail could grow back later and when that happens it will be future Gohan's problem.