"Are you sure about this?" Piccolo asked with a bead of sweat running down his face, the Namekian watching his student limbering up a few yards away.
Taking a few deep breaths to steady his nerves, Gohan turned back to his old sensei to see Videl also standing by and watching on nervously. After looking between the two worried faces, the demi-Saiyan shared with them a small grin, "No. But I have to start somewhere."
Nodding, the green skinned warrior then glanced over the horizon and pointed across the hills. "Remember… pick a target that's close by. Don't try to aim too far or too wide with it, otherwise you might end up somewhere you don't want to be." It was advice he learned from the memories he was able to retrieve of Kami, who knew a technique very similar in this one's design that allowed him to travel to and from the Otherworld.
Though he'd lost the ability with his other half's inception into his subconscious, the Namekian still experienced phantom flashes of his previous forms that really contributed to his wealth of knowledge.
"The dimension you will be entering will be passing you at an insane rate, so use your reflexes to slow it down. It'll be like diving into a rushing river traveling hundreds of times faster than light."
"Yeah. No problem," the demi-Saiyan replied with a chuckle, which was noticeably nervous.
Zangya, who was standing behind the boy and also watching on with interest, grinned from ear to ear when she sensed the youngster's uncertainty. "Oh-ho… this is gonna be good."
"Okay," Gohan breathed out, skipping on the spot while clapping his hands and rubbing them together. Once he was certain he'd got his blood and energy flowing, he then looked across at the two in front of him and nodded anxiously. "Wish me luck." When he saw his raven haired friend and alien trainer acknowledge his words, he then stopped jumping around enough to flex his fingers uneasily and take a stance. "Oh yeah… and Videl…" The girl perked up, "in case I forget to say this later…ow."
He then vanished in a flash of golden light…
A split second after Gohan's form disappeared completely from sight, an explosion of dust occurred about two kilometers in the direction of the mountains, a sight which immediately caught the group's attention. Acting instantly, Piccolo and Zangya took flight in the direction of the blast, with Videl being carried by the former.
When they eventually landed at the site of the disturbance, they found themselves staring at a five-foot-wide trench that'd been dug through an entire field of grass for over five hundred meters, which ended at a suspiciously human-shaped crater at the base of one of the forest covered mountains. Peering into it, Piccolo, Zangya and Videl stared blankly at the upside-down form of Gohan wedged in its center, his clothing shredded, his body covered in dirt and bruises, and a dizzy look on his bewildered face.
Groaning, the half-Saiyan that'd clearly plowed the ground with his face, spoke in a weak voice, "Missed it by that much."
Exactly five seconds later, both Zangya and Videl burst out laughing, with the latter falling onto the floor holding her sides. The Namekian meanwhile, smirked at his beaten up student.
"You're going to have to work on that, kid."
XXX
After about a hundred face-plants into mountain sides and random valleys later, including several instances where he'd ended up teleporting himself inside of several walls and to the bottom of random masses of water, Gohan started getting it down… kind of.
Sure, his teleportation skills weren't perfect, but at least he was making progress.
It was just one of those 'no pain, no gain' instances and he knew that if he preserved enough, he would eventually get it right. He sure as hell was going to abuse the hell out of this move when he eventually mastered it, so until then he was just going to keep at it until he finally got to where he needed to go in one piece.
Over the entire month, Videl's routine remained mostly the same, with Gohan changing it up every now and again to cover all of the fundamental aspects of his group's martial arts. For example, while running her lap of the region at four in the morning, he had her hit the mountain slopes with boulders, in which she would spend a segment of that session dragging them up the side over and over again to build up her leg muscles. To push her even further, he even had her swim long distances in the lake with her weighted clothing on, and to coincide with her ki control lessons, he had her sparring with him blindfolded so that she could master ki reading along with her other fighting abilities.
As the days rolled on and Gohan kept pushing his friend, he periodically increased the weight on her clothing, an act that not only allowed him practice with Piccolo's technique, but also increased the difficulty of Videl's training.
It was an incredibly taxing time for the raven haired girl, who at first believed she wasn't making any progress at all. Sure, every once in a while she felt like it was getting easier, but every time she felt like she was making some kind of headway, Gohan would just up the regimen and it would become harder once again.
However, while she sweated away and worked her skills into the ground, the three powerful fighters watching her from the sidelines began to notice and sense remarkable improvements in her abilities.
One thing certainly became clear to all of them; she was an amazing prodigy.
XXX
(A few weeks later - Evening)
Controlling her breathing patterns, Videl extended both hands out and caught the golden sphere of energy that flew at her like an arrow. Managing to hold it above her palms while it pulsed away, the raven haired fighter then took a few seconds to focus before, with a grunt of effort, she launched it back in the direction it'd come, where it was promptly caught by Gohan in the same manner.
For the past couple of hours the two youngsters had been at this; passing a ball of energy between them, catching it using their own energy, and reversing its direction, at the same time keeping it in a state of constant flight and form. Even though it seemed like just some sort of fun game they were playing, it was actually a really effective form of training that not only focused on physical exercise through control, but was also a great way for the two to harmonize their energies and find equilibrium between mind and matter.
While the demi-Saiyan in charge of the session felt that this was an excellent way to work on his own control in the area of ki, as he was currently assumed in a suppressed Super Saiyan 2 state, this activity was mostly for the benefit of his student. Through continuous repetition, Videl had been able to gain a firm grasp of the concept of energy manipulation, and was doing incredibly well in catching, deflecting, blocking and absorbing ki blasts of varying degrees and forms.
This exercise of 'playing tennis' with an energy sphere was one of the many ways she was strengthening said control.
Picking up speed in their passing, the two martial artists continued hurling the attack between them. As this was going on, in the background Piccolo and Zangya were busy doing their own little thing, sitting across from one another with their arms and legs folded and their eyes tightly shut. The two were apparently wrapped up in a session of their own design, a really intense one from the looks on their faces, and were also being watched over by a currently present Mirai Trunks, who was adorned in his vest, trousers and blue jacket.
Looking between the two adults on the grass in front of him and then up towards Gohan and his partner, the lavender haired time-traveler sprouted a smile and nodded his head in approval.
"With Gohan and everyone here… and with Cell gone, I know things are going to be alright from now on." After witnessing the events that'd occurred following the whole Kana incident, he knew for certain that this world was in good hands.
The proof was right in front of him, hard at work with his best friend.
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