c2 Change The Past! Change The Future!
His thoughts gradually returned to clarity, and Son Gohan shook his head slightly, rainwater memories and fragments of battle still flashing through his mind, especially the image of Android 17 smiling coldly while Android 18 looked on indifferently.
There are still many issues to consider now, and there are many things he has to do in this ruined future timeline where Son Goku died of a heart virus and the Dragon Balls have long since turned to stone after Piccolo's death.
Having just crossed over and merged souls, he needs time to get used to it, time to analyze the situation of Age 784 carefully, and even more time to fully recover his Saiyan body that was nearly destroyed by the combined assault of the Artificial Humans.
"Let's go, leave this place first. In case Android 17 and 18 suddenly return for amusement like they often do after destroying a city, even if I can fight one of them one on one, you have just become a Super Saiyan for the first time and cannot control it steadily, you will still be killed!" After saying a word to Trunks with a serious expression, Son Gohan directly used Bukūjutsu, the Flying Technique mastered since childhood under Piccolo's training, to rise into the stormy sky.
There was no time for Trunks to react verbally, but the kid who had just awakened as a Super Saiyan was not so sluggish.
After a few seconds of stabilizing his turbulent golden aura and remembering Gohan's previous guidance about ki control, he followed up into the air, leaving behind the shattered battlefield where history was supposed to record Gohan's death.
...
Time flies.
In the blink of an eye, two days passed in this bleak world ruled by Android 17 and Android 18.
Within the devastated and desolate Western Capital, the Capsule Corporation building, once a symbol of technological brilliance founded by Dr. Brief, still exists in this timeline, though only partially intact.
There are only a few people who live here now, and in this time and space the core resident is Bulma, the genius scientist and mother of Trunks.
Moreover, she lives primarily underground in a reinforced shelter built beneath Capsule Corporation to prevent detection and persecution from the Artificial Humans who frequently attack the surface for fun.
In a dimly lit underground room reinforced with steel and capsule technology, Son Gohan slowly tore off the bandages wrapped around his waist and face, which Bulma had carefully applied after dragging his nearly lifeless body back.
After doing some simple movements, stretching his torso and rotating his shoulders while carefully feeling the circulation of ki through his meridians, and sensing the fully recovered body that had benefited from Saiyan resilience and near-death recovery, he said to himself: "Finally, I have fully recovered! I recovered in just two days, and my strength has also been greatly improved. Sure enough, the Saiyan body that can grow stronger after surviving near death is truly terrifying."
As he spoke, he walked toward the cracked mirror fixed against the underground wall.
Looking at the scars left on his face, the long diagonal mark that symbolized years of desperate resistance against the Artificial Humans, and the resolute and masculine expression far beyond his actual age, Son Gohan carefully examined himself: "Should I say it is lucky or unlucky... These scars are proof of how hard you fought in this future world where even Vegeta and Piccolo fell. Only now do I truly understand how hard the future version of you struggled alone..."
"In this world, the strongest single fighter left on Earth! A Saiyan with bottomless potential inherited from Son Goku and awakened through rage against injustice! In the original manga timeline, you could not fully stimulate your own potential before being killed by Android 17 and 18. Later, in the main timeline, you even became the so-called 'Great Saiyaman' and focused more on peace than limits. But now I am you in this devastated future. Can I fully develop this dormant potential? Can I surpass even the limits shown in the original work?"
Talking to himself, Son Gohan slowly clenched his right fist, feeling the surge of ki gather naturally in his palm without leakage, far more stable than before.
Although one arm is missing, just as in the original future timeline where he trained Trunks with only his right arm, this loss will not greatly reduce his true combat efficiency, because ki control and battle experience are the real keys.
Diverting his attention from the mirror, Son Gohan returned to the simple bed beside him and continued to lie down, staring at the reinforced ceiling and thinking deeply.
During these two days of recuperation beneath Capsule Corporation, he has been thinking constantly about the Artificial Humans, about Trunks' future time travel, and about what to do to truly change both the past and this destroyed future.
In simple terms, he has now roughly figured out the approximate strength of the Artificial Humans in this timeline and the fastest path he can take to reverse destiny.
In the original manga and television special depiction of this future, Son Gohan with one arm had the ability to contend against either Android 17 or Android 18 individually for a short time, and based on his growth he might even have reached a level where defeating one of them in a one-on-one battle was possible if pushed to the limit.
But unfortunately, in the final confrontation shown in this timeline, Trunks was still too weak to assist effectively. Facing Android 17 and Android 18 together, who possessed infinite energy reactors and did not suffer stamina depletion like Saiyans, Gohan was overwhelmed in a two against one situation, which directly led to his tragic defeat in the rain.
Combining these points with his current enhanced perception, Son Gohan is confident in affirming that the strength of Android 17 and 18 in this future world is at most around the 500 million level in terms of comparative battle scale relative to early Super Saiyan benchmarks.
To put it more clearly, Android 17 and Android 18 in this future time and space no longer pose the same insurmountable threat to the current him as they did before the near-death recovery and soul Fusion.
Because his current normal combat power level, after his body has fully recovered and benefitted from the Saiyan near-death power boost similar in principle to what Goku experienced after battles on Namek, has reached approximately 12 million units in base state.
That means once he transforms into a Super Saiyan with the canonical fiftyfold amplification established since the Frieza arc, his combat power would theoretically reach around 600 million!
This near-death resurrection, although partially stabilized and accelerated with the assistance of the mysterious system rather than purely natural recovery, still triggered the Saiyan zenkai-like enhancement effect.
And this time, he would not simply fight to survive.
He would change the past, change the future, and rewrite the tragic history of Age 784.
"The threat of No. 17 and No. 18 is indeed not that great to me now after this near-death recovery, but I still have to become stronger! In this future world, there is also Cell who will appear from another timeline in Age 788, and Majin Buu and the Demon King Dabra who are connected to Babidi will also exist years later… I have to find a way to grow continuously. This arm also needs to grow back somehow. Otherwise, even if I become stronger like the Super Saiyans in the main timeline, I will still be limited in certain combat situations. It is manageable to fight one against one like I used to against Android 17, but if I have to fight two or even three opponents at once like in the final battle against 17 and 18, the disadvantages of having only one arm will become even more obvious."
As a time traveler, and also a former fan deeply familiar with the Dragon Ball manga plot written by Akira Toriyama, he can think of far more long-term variables than the original Future Gohan who lived purely within that tragic reality.
It is a pity that in the original manga there is too little detailed description of this future timeline beyond the chapter where Trunks tells Goku about it, and even in the special depicting Future Gohan's death, many events are only briefly shown, so there are not many ready-made methods he can directly copy.
The so-called long-term vision makes the current Artificial Human crisis within the next ten years seem like only the beginning of the storm.
What Son Gohan sees now is not only Android 17 and 18, but the extended future of this devastated timeline, including the crisis brought by Goku Black and Zamasu who later ravage Trunks' world in another era.
In the Dragon Ball multiverse structure, whether it is the main timeline where Goku defeated Frieza on Namek or this fractured future branch created by Trunks' warning, the later each timeline progresses, the stronger and more absurd the enemies that appear become.
For now alone, he still has enough time before the appearance of Cell in Age 788, since Cell in this timeline originally killed Trunks and stole the time machine before regressing into a larval state underground.
...
The more he thinks about it, the faster time passes.
Before he knew it, another hour had passed inside the underground shelter beneath Capsule Corporation.
The door of the room was gently opened, and Bulma, whose appearance now carried visible traces of hardship compared to her youthful self during the Saiyan and Namek sagas, walked in with a pot of simple porridge made from their limited stored supplies.
In the past two days, Son Gohan had completely gotten used to seeing her like this.
Compared with Bulma who exuded youthful vitality in the main timeline when she traveled with Goku to search for Dragon Balls or stood boldly against Vegeta during the Android crisis, the Bulma of this future world was obviously more haggard, bearing the weight of two decades of catastrophe.
But even so, she still retained the elegance and beauty that once captivated Vegeta, her blue hair tied back casually as always.
"Bulma Aunt." Son Gohan stood up respectfully and greeted her in the same tone the original Future Gohan would have used.
Hearing this, Bulma smiled gently and nodded, her eyes showing both relief and lingering fear from nearly losing him.
"Looks like you're almost fully recovered, Gohan."
As she spoke, Bulma placed the pot carefully on the table and could not help but sigh with emotion: "It should be said that you are indeed a Saiyan. Your recovery ability after severe injuries is even more amazing than I expected. Originally, according to my calculations based on human medical standards, it would have taken at least a week for you to fully stabilize your internal injuries."
"That is also thanks to the careful care of Bulma Aunt. Without your treatment and shelter, I would not have been able to recover so quickly after being beaten so badly by Android 17 and 18." Son Gohan replied calmly.
"Haha~~! Sure enough, you are better at speaking than your father. In this regard, Son Goku really cannot compare to you." Bulma chuckled softly, recalling how straightforward and battle-obsessed Goku always was. Then she found a chair and sat down. "Eat quickly. Now that your body has recovered, the pressure on me can also be relieved a little. Although Trunks keeps saying he wants to go out to search for supplies and test his Super Saiyan power, I was still worried about him, so I didn't allow him to go out without authorization."
"Hmm." Son Gohan understood immediately and nodded without hesitation.
In fact, there are not many resources left in this future world.
Even if some warehouses or abandoned facilities still contain food or water, they are scattered far from West City and require dangerous flights across ruined regions that Android 17 and 18 often patrol for entertainment.
The supplies around West City have actually been evacuated or destroyed long ago.
With the devastation caused by the two Artificial Humans over the past seventeen years since Goku's death in Age 767, the future world is almost completely ruined, and most cities have been reduced to rubble beyond recognition.
Not to mention, there is also the lurking monster Cell, who in this timeline secretly absorbed entire cities of humans to evolve into his Imperfect Form, wiping out a large portion of the remaining population.
Seventy percent of the human beings on Earth have died in this timeline, and a significant part of that destruction in the later years was caused by Cell's absorption rampage.
Resources, food, and water had largely been secured by Son Gohan over the years through careful scouting and combat deterrence, so Bulma had long relied on him as the main pillar of survival besides her own scientific genius.
While eating the porridge slowly, Son Gohan continued thinking about training methods, regeneration possibilities, and even whether Namek still existed somewhere in this timeline after Frieza's defeat in the past.
He did not notice the subtle change in Bulma's eyes as she quietly watched him.
[If Son Goku were still alive and had not succumbed to that viral heart disease, perhaps none of this would have happened, and the burden would not have fallen entirely on you, Gohan. ]
[It's truly fortunate that you survived this time. I almost lost you just like I lost so many others. ]
[After a little more time, if my calculations are correct and I finish repairing the prototype… I can complete the time machine that uses the limited energy core I preserved from Capsule technology. When that time comes, Trunks can travel back to Age 764 to deliver the heart medicine and warn everyone…]
Bulma's thoughts became heavier and heavier as the weight of twenty years pressed on her shoulders.
She wants to change the past! ! Change the future! !
Everything began with Son Goku's viral heart attack three years before the Androids appeared.
Twenty years ago, when Goku collapsed from the virus and there was no medicine available, she was helpless.
However, after twenty years of research, absorbing countless medical documents and combining them with the data Goku left behind, along with her own genius intellect, she has finally developed a special medicine capable of curing that specific heart virus.
As long as Son Goku does not die from the heart virus in the main timeline, the Z Fighters will not be leaderless when Android 19 and Dr. Gero appear, and many tragedies that led to this ruined future may never occur again.
...