2 Chapter 2: Complcations

As we walked out to the front yard, I looked up at the gray sky once more and thought to myself.

'So… This is where it officially begins. My very own character development arc.'

Gohan, approaching from behind, put his hand on my shoulder and spoke a few words of encouragement.

"Today, you'll be taking your first steps into adulthood. From this day forward, you will be walking the path of the martial artist."

Looking up at him, I shrugged my shoulders at his comment.

"Yeah. I've been prepared for a situation like this for a while now.."

Looking slightly concerned and confused, Gohan tilted his head speculatively.

"You've been prepared?"

"Yeah."

With a brief pause, he raised a brow.

"Did you somehow know that one day I was gonna come here to take you in as an apprentice? Did Bulma tell you?"

Shaking my head, I gave him my line of thinking.

"No. Before today, I had no idea when I was gonna meet you."

Putting his hand on his chin, Gohan paused for a brief moment.

"Then, what caused you to gain that sense of awareness? Who caused it? Was it the existence of the Androids?"

"Well, they did play a large part in forming my ideology. But they're not the main reason I steeled myself."

I replied.

"Then, what else did it?"

He asked.

"The fact that I know who I am. I know what I am. I know what this world is. I know the dangers it holds. I see it every day."

Quickly blinking a few times in surprise, Gohan couldn't help but ask more questions.

"Wait… What do you mean by that? Would you by chance happen to already know?"

He inquired with his posture slightly broken.

"That I'm a Half-Saiyan? That my dad died after once being evil and repulsive and ended up flipping over a new leaf once the world needed him? That piccolo, our only chance at the world going back to how it was, died and now death is permanent because we don't have any inkling as to where New Namek is?"

"Uh…"

Stunned, Gohan didn't know how to reply.

"Then the answer to your question is yes. I'm aware of all of that, Mr. Gohan. I know that in order to have peace in this world, we need to defeat those Androids. And that's why you're taking the reins in training me."

For a moment, Gohan kept that same look of bewilderment on his face. He was truly at a loss for words.

After a few moments of awkward silence passed, he then looked as if he was contemplating something. Then, in a brief moment, I saw his facial expression shift a couple of times. I didn't know what he was thinking, but afterward, he gave me a strange nod and a serious look manifested on his face.

"*sigh*"

"Well… It looks like you understand the assignment. That's good. If I'm being honest, it's a relief that I won't have to hold your hand through this."

He continued.

"But… I can't shake something."

"Yeah?"

"The way you talk."

Gohan added.

"What do you mean by that? Is it not respectful enough?"

I asked.

"No. That's not it at all."

"Then, what do you mean?"

"What I mean is…"

Putting his hand behind his neck, massaging it, he proceeded.

"I've only known you for a total of 30 minutes."

"Yeah…"

I mumbled.

"Every time you speak, I realize that the words that come out of your mouth aren't that of a toddler."

This was his third time saying this. I knew deep down that he wouldn't be able to discover that I had been reincarnated into this world. Even my mother, one of the smartest people in the world, hadn't. But the fact that he was so damn speculative began to concern me. It was probably written in my body language.

"I'm gonna be honest, I don't know how to respond to that," I said with a frown.

"It's not an insult by any means. It just makes me wonder what you witnessed throughout your life. From what I can gather, you seem pretty cold and calculative. But to be fair, with everything that's happened up to now, I guess it's hard to play the role of a child."

Thinking about his words for a moment and putting myself in the shoes of a child growing up in this era, I couldn't help but to agree.

I saw and heard everything that was going on in the world. Crime, War, and all other different forms of debauchery were happening all around the globe at excessive rates.

With that realization, it made me wonder how another version of Trunks would have felt living here.

"Yeah… the world does have a way of poisoning its people. Strange how things work."

My words caused Gohan to frown strangely enough.

"See, that's what I'm talking about. That, right there."

"I beg your pardon?"

I said slightly irritated at this bloodhound.

"What you just said about the world and its people."

"..."

I just stared at him, again, not knowing how to respond.

In these brief little moments, he made me reconsider rather or not specifically dumbing myself down upon entering this world was a mistake or not.

"Sorry… I didn't mean to be aggressive. It's just that when you speak in terms like that, it makes me feel as if I'm falling the world."

"But… You don't have a reason to feel like that though. You're just one person who got tossed into a situation that was out of his control. From the stories that my mother told me, you were tossed into the sea without a life preserver, just like me."

I said while making a few hand gestures to bring home my point.

"But I could have done more. I should have done more."

He said while clenching his fist.

A few seconds passed before we exchanged words once more.

"*sigh*"

"Look. I apologize for my outburst. It's just that-"

Interrupting him, I put my hand up.

"Look, Mr. Gohan. This is a deep conversation. We just met each other. Perhaps it would be better to continue it once we get to know each other a little better."

I said, giving him a warm smile. I didn't need to be a rocket scientist to know that this man had alot on his plate.

Not only had all his friends been brutally murdered in cold blood, but he lost his dad at an early age. And Goku wasn't just his superhero. He was all of earth's from what my mother had informed me. I couldn't fathom the pain he must have felt upon his loss.

For me, it was different. When I came here, I was already a grown man, mentally. My only two struggles were learning the languages of this world and learning how to walk again.

In my last life, both of my parents had died, but I was well into my adulthood. But unlike my last world, here, I was born privileged, although I did acknowledge the former as a privilege as well.

For Gohan… he never even got the chance to be a child. All his life he had to fight. He had my sympathy in all regards.

"Ha. I can't believe I'm being scolded by a kid."

"Mr. Gohan, that wasn't my-"

"Stop it, kid. You're completely right. It was unfair of me to throw all that on you when we just met. For that, I'm sorry."

"Ah… It's no problem."

I replied.

"Also, you can drop the Mr. And just call me Gohan. I know I'm your master now, but it feels weird. I'm only 16."

'16?'

I thought something felt funny about that number.

I knew he was younger but for some reason, I didn't feel like that math added up and didn't quite know why. Was he older than in the original? Was he younger? Was this the age he was supposed to be? Perhaps I was misremembering.

"Well, alright. I'll just stick to Gohan by itself from now on, then."

"Good."

He chuckled.

"Now then. We've been standing here for a bit now. What do ya say we get out of here?" He smirked.

"Uh… Sure. Where are we- Woah!"

With minimal effort, he picked my little body up like a dad walking through a theme park with his child on his shoulders.

"You'll find that out soon enough."

He winked, picking up my luggage.

"A little warning, the air gets kinda thin up there. You might get lightheaded."

"...Noted,"

I uttered.

"Also. Hold on tight. It's gonna be a long way down."

His emphasizing the word tight made me slightly nervous. Taking a big gulp, I did as he asked and held on for dear life.

"Okay. I'm ready, I think."

"Good."

Slowly, his body magically began to levitate off of the ground.

My eyes were wide with anticipation.

While being shocked, I tried to capture every detail I could.

Currently, I couldn't sense Ki nor had I trained in anything more intense than pushups or situps because of my mother's fear of stunting my growth.

But I believe, if I concentrated hard enough, perhaps it would lead me to something.

"I'm about to start picking up speed, little guy."

Nodding my head, I grabbed on even tighter.

We began to levitate higher and higher.

The capsule corp building and all of its greenery started to become more and more distant.

The street started to look like they did every time I would go on my phone to open up its GPS app.

Butterflies began to flutter rampantly as if they were trying to start a hurricane.

Part of me wanted to shut my eyes and pray to any deity listening that we would make it to our location safe, but another part of me didn't want to lose out on seeing the world from a brand-new vantage point.

"Woah…"

I whispered.

Cracking up, Gohan voiced,

"From this high up, the world seems so small, doesn't it?"

"Yeah… You said it."

I answered back in awe at the tiny walking pedestrians.

"Wanna know something?"

He asked, which piqued my interest.

"Hmm?"

"This isn't even the best part."

"What do you mean?"

I asked, not catching on to what he was intending.

"It's a pretty ugly day outside, wouldn't you say?"

"I mean, we haven't been under the best weather conditions this past week with the storm coming and all."

"Agreed. Mind if I show you something?"

"Uh… Sure"

I said, uncertain.

Then, as if the man had become rocket-powered, he launched us upwards so fast that I had to force my eyes closed due to the intense wind pressure.

"Ahhhhhh!!!!"

I couldn't help but let out a scream.

This was essentially riding the world's tallest roller coaster without a seatbelt, after all.

As we elevated, I felt my ears popping due to the altitude. A problem I didn't think people of this world would have.

We kept going up and up until one moment, there was no more wind blowing in my face.

"Trunks."

Gohan voiced.

Although it was slightly hard to hear him due to the condition of my eardrums, I responded.

"Yeah?"

"Have you noticed that it's a little warmer up here?"

He asked.

Hesitantly opening my eyes, the beautiful rays of the sun bled through my eyelids.

'What the…'

It only took a few seconds for my eyes to adjust, but when they did, I was amazed at the picture before me.

The n in all its radiant glory beamed down upon my skin while the beautiful blue skies filled my very core with endorphins.

The air… It was so fresh. Fresher than anything I ever inhaled before.

In the distance, I could see a bevy of swans heading south.

I saw stunning white cottony clouds in many different directions ranging from various different shapes and sizes. Some were small enough to make me think that I could capture them in a jar while others were so big that one might be convinced that the entrance to heaven's gates was somewhere nearby.

'I've never seen anything like this in my life.'

I thought while my mouth was agape.

"Nice, isn't it."

Gohan asked.

"Nice is an understatement."

I replied.

"Whenever I have a lot on my mind, what gets me to relax is flying around up here. I find it really therapeutic."

"Yeah. I can see how you might have come to that."

"Now, although sightseeing is nice, we have places to be." He said as he began to fly forward.

As we flew, I felt as if I was dissociating from reality.

For the first time, I actually felt as if I was in a world full of make-believe and I was loving every moment of it.

I could tell that Gohan was eating up every moment of it, but I was just too immersed to care.

After about 30 minutes, Gohan had Finally stopped and started to descend.

We had arrived in a strange junglery area and landed on a mountain peak.

"We're here?"

I asked.

Putting me down, Gohan sat down next to me wordlessly and motioned for me to do the same.

Following his lead, I did just that.

"Hey, I noticed it a little while ago, but why is the sun already down? It was morning when we left. Not only that, but the sky is clear now and I can see the stars."

"Well, the reason the sun is down is that we're on the other side of the planet right now." He said while looking up at the glittery starry night.

"We…we were moving that fast?"

I was a little surprised. If what he said wasn't an exaggeration, that meant that we were moving faster than almost any jet on the planet, and I somehow didn't notice.

"Yeah. With Ki, you can do pretty much anything. Me wrapping my Ki around you is the reason you didn't suffer any adverse effects from our flight, like whiplash."

"That's… Impressive."

"Yep."

This bit of information made me want to learn to fly even more.

Him and I sat on the mountain for quite a while.

During that time, I took the opportunity to ask him questions about the world. Everything ranging from Ki to the world's current conditions in his view. After gaining all the information he was willing to give me, I decided to stretch my limbs for a bit.

Walking over to a cliffside. From it, I saw a lot of movement from the jungle. It was odd.

Although there was a slight breeze, I could tell that there were animals down there making heavy movements causing them to shake.

"So, Gohan."

Turning around, I smiled.

"What's the plan? Are you gonna start training me on Ki up here? If so, why do we have to do it up here?"

Standing up, Gohan looked slightly nervous as he got closer with my bags in his hand.

His actions quickly made my smile disappear.

"I guess you could say that being up here is a part of your training… In a way."

"What do you…"

As my words trailed off, he started to levitate which made me start to panic.

"Wait a minute. What are you doing?"

I asked, slightly irritated.

"Well… You look ambitious when it comes to learning more about Ki. Like I told you before, if you want me to teach you anything about it, you first need to train your body."

This was the way he danced around every KI-based question that I had for him.

It was then coupled with the realization of him taking all my capsules that I had a flashback. A flashback of a show that I loved dearly as a child, Dragon Ball Z.

'Shit. This fucker!'

With my eyes widened, Gohan gave a nervous smile, as per usual.

"Haha. Looks like you realized what's going on, Trunks. You catch on quickly. You should be able to survive out here without a problem."

Realizing that he intended on having me train the same way that he once was, I balled up my fist at his ineffective stupidity.

My mother had a gravity chamber. With his help, we could've convinced her to use it. But no, for dumb fucking sentimental reasons, he wanted to leave me in this bug and dinosaur-infested Jurassic park-like jungle.

"You gotta be kidding me."

At this point no matter how hard I jumped, I wouldn't be able to reach him.

"Nope. My master gave me 6 months

I'll give you 6 months. If you survive after the 6, I'll teach you how to sense, manipulate, and manifest Ki."

Sighing in defeat, I asked, "Where do you want me to meet you after the six months is up?"

"That's good. You're already this driven. These 6 months shouldn't be an issue for you… You'll meet me right here." He stated.

"Okay."

Without hesitation, I started to make my way down the mountain, but as I was about to start climbing, He stopped me.

"Trunks, wait. Did you plan on just going down there and surviving with your bare hands?"

He asked.

"I mean, yeah. What other choice do I have? You took all my luggage."

Digging in his Gi in search of something, he pulled out a capsule and tossed it to me which I almost dropped.

"What's this?"

"A gift that your mother gave me when I began to practice different types of Martial arts. It's sturdy enough to chop wood, and sharp enough to cut a person in half. No idea what it's made out of, but it should serve you well."

Taking a moment, I clicked the top of the capsule and allowed it to drop on the ground.

I was expecting an ax, but what I received was a sword that I knew very well. It was the sword that a future version of myself dawned.

"T-thank you."

Gohan nodded his head, then, without exchanging another word, departed into the night sky.

'This… isn't what I expected. Who would have guessed that my mother was the one who made this sword.'

I thought.

I know absolutely nothing about swords, but I guess now was a better time than any to start.

Attempting to pick it up to place it on my shoulder, I realized it was much much heavier than I expected, but all the workouts I had done up to this point had seemed to pay off as I was successful in putting it on my back.

'Now I'm not exactly certain of how weighted clothing works on Saiyans, but I'm sure that carrying this sword around should increase my strength… in theory, anyway.

The sword itself was almost my height and as I walked, it just barely missed grazing the ground.

"This place is… really high up."

I voiced with a few sweat drops dripping down my face.

This was gonna be a pain.

Slowly and carefully, I began to make my way down, slipping here and there, but I managed to make it down safely.

"*Roar*"

But I guess the word safely was subjective when I was in a jungle full of prehistoric monsters.

As I stood idol, I could hear nearby wild animals.

I knew that the body I possessed was that of a Saiyan, but to be frank, adrenaline was pumping throughout my body with every footstep that I had taken up to this point.

From above, the trees had looked like bushes, but from my perspective now, they looked more like skyscrapers.

From above, the animals looked like house pets, from my current eye level, they looked like monsters.

From above, I felt like a god. From down here, I felt like a fly.

'Yeah… If a magical being had granted me 3 wishes, this would have been a lot more convenient.'

Cursing internally, I began to walk in the opposite direction of which I heard the monstrous roar.

The same direction where I had noticed a few herbivore-looking species conglomerating from the mountain.

"*zzz*"

As I continued to walk towards my destination, mosquitos, or whatever they were, began to target me, seeing as I was an all-you-could-eat buffet in their eyes.

"*smack*"

"Ha. God... I really hope that Saiyans are immune to Lyme disease." I mumbled.

Even in this strange predicament, I couldn't help but find my situation slightly comical. I was in the Dragon Ball world where Gods lived, yet here I was stressing over something so trivial, but remembering that the 4-year-old Gohan was able to survive a situation like mine definitely calmed my nerves slightly.

As I moved through the humid jungle, I realized that the sword on my back was getting heavier and heavier as I exerted my stamina.

I was getting thirsty. I was getting hungry.

Although that may have been the case, I knew that in a survival situation like this, it was best to ignore negative thoughts and keep moving, fighting through my pain, no matter how many times I tripped and scraped my knees because of this cursed tiny body of mine.

As time went on, I lost track of how long I had been awake.

I was convinced that if I kept walking my path, I would eventually arrive at, or even hear a source of water.

'If I had to guess… It's been about 4 hours since I got here.' I thought while wiping the sweat off of my forehead.

'I need to find some food and a place to sleep.'

I thought.

Straying from my endless path, I decided it was time to scavenge for fruit. Meet was off of the table for the time being. Firstly, I had never hunted a day in my life. Secondly, I was far too exhausted at this point.

After a little bit of searching, I stumbled upon an oddly colored blueberry-looking bush, but decided it was best to avoid those for the time being.

I couldn't detect whether or not they were poisonous.

I needed something that I was more certain of deciding that I wasn't going to have an early meeting with King Yemma because of a rancid snack.

After realizing there was no safe food that I could eat that grew from the ground with 100% certainty, I decided that my best bet was to start searching high.

Once I did, the relief of succession finally hit me.

Almost having to aim to break my neck looking upwards, in one of the larger trees above, I saw that there were naturally wild banana-coconut hybrid-looking fruits dangling about 6 stories above me.

'Jackpot.'

I thought with a smile manifesting on my face.

The bloodlust I harvested towards Gohan had momentarily disappeared.

Tossing my sword over my shoulder and gently placing it on the ground, I realized that I had felt much lighter than before. Enough for it to be a noticeable difference.

Delaying my feast no longer, I began to climb the ridiculously large tree which had bark thick and sturdy enough to grab handfuls of.

Like climbing a ladder, I elevated one hand and one foot up after another at a steady pace.

"*hoot*"

Hearing bird and cricket noises from the distance, the sounds of nature began to calm my nerves in a therapeutic-like manner.

'Maybe… Just maybe this isn't that bad. After I eat, I can build a little shelter out of some of the leaves, branches, and vines I saw on the ground. After that, I can start some Saitama training and see what this Saiyan body can really do for the first time. If everything goes well, pretty soon I'll be the King of the jungle.'

With sparks of motivation and hope, I briskly increased my speed without the thought of looking down occurring to me.

"*Hoot*"

Stopping momentarily, I realized that the bird sounded kinda familiar to an owl.

'Huh… Guess they have owls here. But why does it sound like it's getting closer? I mean… They're nocturnal and this is a forest/jungle so it only makes sense, I guess.'

Waving my thoughts off to the side, I shrugged my shoulders and kept climbing. I was almost at my goal. Just a few more feet and I would be able to fill this empty stomach of mine.

"*woosh*"

Hearing a faint wind sound, I couldn't help but halt once more.

'Wait… Something's not making sense here. It's not windy right now. If it was, I would have felt it. Especially with me being so high up. What's…'

Stopping my train of thought was a strange dark figure moving through the air.

Soon, my good friend, adrenaline, started to make my heart race once more. Why? Because the shadow was getting closer. And as it did, it got larger, exponentially so.

Peering at me were two gigantic large and seemingly glowing yellow eyes belonging to a pitch-black gigantic bird of prey with the wingspan of at least 3 grown men.

"Oh, fuck."

Orbiting me a few times to assess whether I was predator or prey, the bird then swooped and with its bladed talons, looked to snatch my torso right off my lower half.

I was panicking. In this situation, I only had two options considering I was right in its line of sight.

The first one was, of course, to become one with the bird, and by that, I didn't mean fusion.

The second… I was hesitant. How could I not be?

I was god knows how high up.

"Fuck!"

Looking down to see if there was something I could land on, I saw a few trees that looked like they could break my fall.

'I gotta move. It's coming right for me!'

Because it took me so long to make a decision, in a brief instance, the owl was mere feet away from me.

"Screw you, roid bird!!"

With all of my willpower, I mustered the internal strength to use my leg muscles to launch myself off of the tree, but because of my hesitation, the bird had gotten too close to me and was able to change his trajectory mid-air, Slashing the left side of my face with a talon which caused blood to spurt into my eye, blinding me while gashing my chest open with another talon.

Plummeting downward, I saw with my one good eye that the bird didn't even attempt to chase me. It was as if he just wanted to hunt me for sport.

The very idea of this… pissed me off. But currently, I had a more pressing matter to attend to. That matter being, I was falling to my death.

"Ahhhh!"

Falling my arms in the air, I braced myself for the impact of the impending trees.

Slamming in a sturdy branch with my sternum, the wind was knocked out of my lungs. Said branch had knocked me backward, causing me to cartwheel in the air, slamming my shoulder on another.

"*snap*"

Unfortunately for me, that wasn't the sound of a breaking branch, but my humorous snapping in half, folding like a boomerang.

Unable to control my trajectory I was now falling head first.

Using every working muscle I had to correct myself, as if I had been struck by a miracle, I managed to rotate myself to the extent that I was falling feet first right before hitting the ground.

Making sure to go limp, I relaxed my body while shutting my right eye as tightly as I could.

*poof*

Now, lying on my back, eyes closed, alone, in the empty forest was me alone, not being able to feel any pain because of the trauma of my situation. Unfortunately, I knew I would soon.

'Alright… legs'

Wiggling my toes, I felt as if all ten digts were intact while also moving my legs a little.

'Arms'

My right arm was immobile, but my left still had all functions.

'Alright… From what I can tell, my head… Is fine. So probably no consusion. That's good."

Finally, lady luck struck me. I survived.

Slowly opening up my eye, I took a deep breath and sat up.

"Damn."

I voiced, looking at my arm that had been bent sideways at a 90-degree angle.

Attempting to touch it, a surge of pain washed over my body.

"Ughhh!"

Gritting my teeth, it had set in my head that it was actually.

"*sigh*"

'I gotta set this so it doesn't heal wrong… Wait, where is Gohan? He should have steeped-'

"*rustling*"

In the nearby bushes, I heard someone.

"Gohan?"

I voiced, but got no return after 5 seconds of erre silence.

But on the 6th second, the presence revealed itself.

Coming out of the bushes was not just one large feline creature with large protruding fangs, but two.

My heart sank to my stomach.

"..."

I didn't have any more words to spew.

They had already locked on to me and marked me as their prey.

'You have to be fucking kidding me! Two Sabertooth Tigers! Why is THIS WORLD SO FUCKED UP!'