I remembered the training regimen Goku followed on his way to Planet Namek in my original timeline. With my father's help—and whatever spare hours I could steal from sleep—I built a gravity room ahead of schedule in this timeline.
It wasn't perfect.
With limited time and incomplete data, the chamber could only reach ten times Earth's gravity. Still, it was better than nothing.
Because my power level was far lower than Goku's, I trained separately from him and Krillin. I couldn't afford to slow them down. Even so, I couldn't live inside the gravity room either. At best, I could manage two to four hours a day.
The rest of my time was spent refining the prototype armor.
I improved the generator, focusing on efficiency rather than raw output. Ten minutes of amplified ki wasn't enough—not for what I had planned. My growth rate was slower than Krillin's and nowhere near Goku's, but that was expected.
I didn't need to surpass them.
That was the armor's job.
Still, I couldn't neglect my base strength. No matter how advanced the system became, it could only amplify what already existed. If my foundation was weak, the whole structure would collapse.
Days blurred together under tight schedules and tighter deadlines.
Gohan turned one.
Raditz's arrival crept closer.
I didn't tell anyone what I knew.
They deserved to train without the weight of the future pressing down on their shoulders. There was still a chance—however slim—that Goku would survive his encounter with Raditz. He already felt stronger than he had at this point in my original timeline. How much stronger, I couldn't say.
I wished I had a scouter.
In theory, I could build one. In practice, I barely had time to eat. Every hour was accounted for.
Once Goku and Krillin grew accustomed to ten times gravity, I upgraded the chamber. Thirty times Earth's gravity was now possible—for them.
For me?
Ten times was still hell.
To my surprise, Chi-Chi began training with me.
Her father watched Gohan while we sparred, the old man laughing loudly every time one of us stumbled. Unlike Goku and Krillin, we didn't go all out. Chi-Chi treated our sessions more like exercise than combat—stretching, striking, testing her limits without pushing too far.
Two hours a day. That was all we had.
One evening, after a sparring session left both of us breathing hard, I finally asked her.
"Why did you decide to train with me?"
Chi-Chi wiped sweat from her brow and smiled, softer than I expected.
"I'm grateful," she said. "You gave Goku a stable job. An income. That matters—to us."
I blinked. I hadn't expected that answer.
She continued, "Gohan's going to school one day. It's peaceful now, and I want it to stay that way. He doesn't need to grow up fighting all the time."
She hesitated, then added, "But… seeing you work so hard made me think. Maybe he should at least know how to defend himself."
I didn't interrupt.
"You create opportunities," she said. "For Goku. For everyone. I think that matters more than strength."
I nodded slowly.
Something had changed.
It was small—barely noticeable—but I could feel the future shifting, inch by inch, away from what I remembered. Whether that change would save us or doom us…
Only time would tell.