Son Gohan lay flat on the ground, chest heaving like a broken bellows.
"Aunt Aeris… you… today… haah… haah…"
"I don't have much time left." Aeris looked down at him, arms folded. "So now I can only crank up the training by force and squeeze out whatever strength I can. You should know better than anyone how special Saiyan bodies are. Training at this level won't kill you."
She pointed ahead with her chin. "Alright. Get up. Keep running. This afternoon we're training your ability to take hits. You and your father are both damn glass cannons. All power, no durability. Like two heroic, muscle-bound pieces of cheap tableware."
Aeris stared at Gohan with open disgust. Look at him. A few tiny attacks and he was already covered in bruises. Aside from the times she had deliberately let herself get hurt, she had never taken damage from something this small.
"Yes, Aunt Aeris…"
Gohan shot up and immediately started running for his life.
Why?
Because the farther he ran, the fewer lashes he would take. This was not strategy. This was survival.
This time, Aeris did not whip him right away. She simply floated behind him in silence. Of course, the moment Gohan slowed down, the whip would still come out.
Today, Gohan trained with terrifying effort. He ran until foam practically started coming out of his mouth before he finally stopped.
After resting briefly, he got up and kept running again. Right now, with the training clothes suppressing him, he was basically just a normal person. If he could break past his limits in that state, then once he recovered, the improvement would be obvious.
According to Aeris, if he could still refine and control his Ki while wearing those clothes, then he could call himself graduated. Because at that point, the clothes' restrictions on him would have become much weaker.
Under Aeris's repeated abuse, encouragement, and what any court of law would probably classify as attempted murder with educational intent, Gohan finally collapsed again.
"Haaah… haaah… Aunt… Aeris… back then… did Dad train like this too?"
Aeris scratched her cheek, suddenly looking a little guilty. She could not exactly tell him that when she trained Goku and Piccolo, part of the point had been her enjoying herself while torturing them. Back then, those two had almost never gone a single day intact. Well, except for the first few days.
Piccolo did not count, though.
You could not really tell when his face was bruised.
Because it was already green.
"Cough. More or less… probably."
Gohan saw that expression and immediately began imagining things he absolutely did not want to imagine.
"Alright, you've rested enough. Training continues."
On the other side, inside Dr. Gero's laboratory...
"Number 19 has likely run into trouble… Forget it. Leave him."
Dr. Gero, Android 20, stared at the nearly completed creation before him. Even so, disappointment lingered in his eyes. Not because he was dissatisfied with the work itself. No, the problem was that he still lacked Aeris's genetic material.
Aeris's power was something everyone had seen with their own eyes.
If he could obtain her genes, this creation would become far more perfect.
He had never seen her transform into a Super Saiyan, but even without that state, she had once beaten Super Saiyan Son Goku into the ground. That form, that natural strength, that absurd physical foundation. It was fascinating.
He watched for a while, then walked over to two other machines.
Inside them were a young man and a young woman.
Dr. Gero stared at them and sighed. These two were already close to perfect, but they were impossible to control.
After another sigh, he clasped his hands behind his back and walked out.
Number 19's fate was unknown, and that really was troublesome. It was not that he particularly cared what happened to 19, but this was a critical moment, and the fool had picked now of all times to drop the ball.
What a headache.
He had been obedient enough before, but ever since absorbing all that energy from those people, he had started ignoring orders.
"Son Gohan, why are you running? Charge at me."
"Aunt Aeris, I don't understand! This is way too dangerous!"
Gohan stared at the sword in Aeris's hand, condensed entirely from energy, and his expression practically screamed, Are you kidding me?
The sharpness of that thing did not look any worse than Uncle Krillin's Destructo Disc.
"What are you scared of? I covered the blade with healing energy, so don't worry. Come at me."
"No! That's still dangerous!"
Gohan sprinted harder. If she wanted him to take punches, fine. Energy blasts, fine. Whips, fine. He could suffer through a lot of things.
But that thing had almost cut him in half just now. If he had not dodged at the last second after noticing something was very wrong, he would already be 2.5 Son Gohans.
Also, listen to what she was saying.
Covered it with healing energy?
Other people dipped the whip in iodine so it disinfected while it hurt. Aeris had invented a healing greatsword. What was this, Mercy Blade Saint nonsense?
Seeing that Gohan had no intention of stopping, Aeris condensed a whip in her other hand and snapped it at him.
At this point, Gohan no longer cared whether it hurt.
Pain was temporary.
Being cut into collectible pieces was not.
In the end, Aeris gave up on the sword technique she had just learned. She dissolved the blade, dismissed the whip, and switched to firing small energy blasts instead.
Naturally, Gohan ran even faster.
At this rate, the anti-impact training was turning into endurance training again.
And so, one person ran like his life depended on it while the other carpet-bombed the surrounding area.
At this point, it was honestly hard to tell who had done more damage to the ruined city: the androids or these two lunatics.
Gohan did not dare stop for even a second. He was terrified that if Aeris caught up, she would decide to test the sword again.
And somewhere in the middle of being chased, blasted, and psychologically violated, Son Gohan broke through one of his own limits.
He just did not realize it yet.
By the time the chase finally ended, night had already fallen.
Aeris dragged Gohan, who was foaming at the mouth, back to where they were staying.
"I'm back."
"Welcome back… Where's Gohan?"
"Here."
Aeris lifted one of Gohan's legs and showed him to Bulma, clearly indicating that yes, the person was present.
Bulma looked at Gohan's current state and could not help feeling sorry for him.
The kid barely looked human anymore.
There was even foam at his mouth.
Bulma silently lit a candle for him in her heart.
"He's… going to be okay, right?"
"He's fine. He'll recover soon. He's just exhausted."
After saying that, Aeris casually tossed Gohan aside and stopped paying attention to him.
He was not dead. Why panic?
After dumping Gohan in a corner, Aeris walked outside by herself.
Her condition was becoming unstable again. Parts of her body had already begun turning transparent.
"So using my own power speeds it up, huh?" she muttered. "Feels like I won't even make it to tomorrow."
Bulma walked over and stood beside her. She seemed to have sensed something.
"Aeris… can we talk?"
Aeris glanced at her, then walked to the front yard and sat down. Bulma followed and sat beside her.
"Aeris… I'm sorry about what I said earlier. I was being naive."
Aeris tilted her head back and looked up at the night sky.
"No need to apologize, Bulma. You've felt it too, haven't you?"
"Mm…" Bulma answered softly.
"Our worlds were probably split apart at some point in time, branching into two timelines with different endings."
"I know…" Bulma lowered her gaze. "I only figured it out just now. With your personality, if you had known what would happen later, you would have stopped it in advance. But the result still ended up the same. Maybe from the moment you first came here, all of this was already set."
Her voice trembled.
"Aeris… why are people so cruel?"
The more Bulma thought about it, the more her grief rose inside her. In front of others, she could pretend to be strong. She could be the genius, the survivor, the woman holding together the last pieces of a broken world.
But not here.
Not with Aeris.
Because Aeris had always been the person she trusted most.
Always.
"Aeris… I want to hear you sing."
"Okay."
Aeris did not tease her this time.
She simply sat there beneath the moonlight and sang softly.
Her voice was low, almost lazy, but warm in a way that made the ruined world feel a little less cold. The song was about light passing through darkness, about dawn arriving even when the night seemed endless. It spoke of fear, courage, storms that could not be avoided, and the stubborn little miracle of moving forward anyway.
Bulma leaned against her without saying a word.
Aeris kept singing.
Not loudly. Not beautifully in some polished, professional way.
Just gently.
Enough for one exhausted woman to finally let her guard down.
After a while, Bulma fell asleep in Aeris's arms.
Aeris looked down at her for a long moment, then carefully picked her up and carried her back to her bedroom.
"Good night, Bulma…"
She set her down, pulled the blanket over her, and stood beside the bed.
Then, in a voice so soft it almost vanished before reaching the air, Aeris whispered,
"And… goodbye, Bulma."
"I have to go."
...