Light shone through the cracks in the wooden window of Old Gohan's hut. Our elderly hero was strangely out of sight inside. Sounds of movement and slightly accelerated breathing were audible outside. Son Gohan was outside, practicing basic martial arts moves to stay warm in the early morning chill of the Paozu Mountains. Years of discipline, ingrained through intense and continuous training throughout his life, had driven him to practice diligently. Waking before sunrise was a natural habit after so many years.
His face glistened with a fine layer of sweat, indicating that he was now warm and able to handle a moderate level of physical activity.
'Other old men would definitely die of envy over my lack of back pain. Ki really is wonderful for preserving the body's health', Gohan thought, marveling at the passive protective effects that a strong life energy provided. 'Maybe in the future I can share this knowledge with the public. There was even that game my son used to play, Dragon Ball Online, that, according to its backstory, had Ki mastery widespread among the population'.
Sharing this knowledge had its benefits: improving public health was one of them, but also minimally increasing the mortal level of his universe, if the story of Dragon Ball Super followed the path of this Son Gohan's timeline. For now, Gohan decided to return to the basic training he had formulated with the knowledge gained from his wish in the "waiting room."
Gohan continued to perform the movements of his martial art. After a few hours, his body was covered in sweat. He paused to breathe, and despite all his exertion, his body barely showed a hint of heavy breathing—a remarkable feat for his 89 years. He sat on a wooden stump he used as a seat, grabbed a gourd filled with water, and enjoyed the morning breeze as he rested after training. The physical portion of his initial training was complete; now it was time to practice Ki so he could fly.
"The old bird project begins now," Gohan said loudly, before sitting down cross-legged.
'Let's try the method young Gohan used to teach Videl to fly...' He thought.
The old man stood still, his breathing even, his mind clear and calm. He could feel his own Ki naturally. He had known how to draw his own Ki for a long time, thanks to years of practice, as well as training with Master Roshi, where he had also learned to use the Kamehameha. Now, with memories from another life, he knew of the existence of other energy systems: cosmos, mana, chakra, reiryoku, and so on. They were all different systems, some working in more complex ways, others simpler. He knew this from 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, one might choose to use clay or white marble. Clay is easy to mold when wet, and mistakes can be easily corrected, while marble is a solid rock, where mistakes can't be easily fixed. Ki follows a somewhat similar mechanic: it's difficult to move, complicated to mold, but easy to disperse to avoid mistakes with good control. Saiyans, Namekians, and Frieza's race are some of the species with high compatibility with energy manipulation, which greatly facilitates movement and modeling. Humans have average compatibility in these areas. But now, with other systems to compare functionality.to Ki, Gohan had a great "cheat code" in his hands.
'The Ki looks a lot like Cosmo energy in terms of difficulty to handle, but I can try some chakra control methods to make things easier,' Gohan thought before practicing the flight technique.
Unlike chakra, which has pathways within the body and a defined direction in which it flows, Ki travels freely throughout the body, without specific paths. In a way, it leaks into an aura, similar to Nen in Hunter x Hunter. Shaping the aura while it remains within the body is difficult, but shaping it outside is easy.
Gohan continued his reflections on the properties of Ki. He first imagined rotating Ki in one direction for a more controlled flow. His approach was rewarded with mild success: controlling raw Ki this way was difficult, but after a few attempts, 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 had passively helped strengthen his body. He soon realized that the Ki was cleansing his system and slightly healing some old injuries—not an energy boost, but rather a healing process.
'It seems that rotating Ki within the body could be a basic first aid technique,' he reasoned.
He knew how to train Ki most efficiently, but experimenting with other techniques based on his previous knowledge proved to be a great success. He knew how to make Ki stronger and more stable, as he was familiar with the Yardrats' training methods for improving spirit stability. This would help him control Ki much more efficiently, as well as allowing him to use Protean, Gigantification, Healing, Teleportation, and Forced Spirit Fission—techniques he didn't know how to perform and which weren't included in the knowledge he'd received. He was limited only to the training methods he'd requested: how to train the body and Ki efficiently.
"To fly, I need to use my energy as a lifting force and keep myself aloft. To move, I'll have to expel Ki, using it as a means of propulsion in the direction I want to go..." Gohan began to review 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. Levitating was easy; his energy responded readily to his will when he was out of his body. The problem was staying aloft; maintaining a constant, steady output was exhausting for long periods.
'Young people are truly gifted, able to fly without much difficulty,' Gohan said to himself, remembering the scene of Videl and Goten learning to fly quickly. 'Whatever talent they have, I can make up for with experience from this life.'
Gohan continued his training in the flight technique, minutes passed, and his body sometimes rose a few centimeters before returning to the ground, the difficulty in staying in the air even for a few minutes was evident.
"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 needed in this initial phase of the training plan. The focus was really on flight training, this was the last thing he did in the day and where he spent most of his own time. This was old Son Gohan's routine for a month. The more he practiced Bukujutsu, the more he could stay in the air and the better he became at managing his own energy for this activity.
Where before he only had the 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 elderly gentleman, and showed that his training was not in vain, hours of effort in meditation led him to this great progress for normal human standards.
"It really seems that young people have greater potential than old people. It took me a whole month when Videl only took ten days to learn how to use Ki to fly," Gohan thought, accepting his own lack of talent in using energy. "Well, maybe I'm too old, too; young people have always been more predisposed 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 the day, Gohan heads to his cabin to get his fishing equipment, the supplies in the house were almost gone in this single month in which he dedicated himself only to training.
While walking through the woods of the vast vegetation of Mount Paozu, Gohan heard from afar a great impact that made the ground tremble, this set off alarms in his head, this was the warning that Goku had arrived on Earth and a sign of the end of planet Vegeta.
'I thought there was more time before Goku arrived.' Gohan thought as a bead of sweat began to appear on his forehead.
Running toward the impact site, Gohan weighed his options: should he remove Goku's tail and spare himself a huge Oozaru headache, or risk taking on an overgrown monkey that blasted energy from its mouth? The answer was obvious, he'd cut off the tail. He was far too old to deal with a low‑budget King Kong. Besides, the tail could always grow back later, and when it did, that would be Future Gohan's problem.