Inside Bulma Manor
Inside a circular Gravity Chamber, Sun Wukong focused his mind and steadied his breath!
"Kamehameha!"
A thick blue beam shot from his hands, circled the gravity-control pillar in the middle of the chamber, and came straight back at him!
He bent his knees slightly, crossed his arms, and tensed every muscle in his body!
BOOM!!!!
When the light faded, Sun Wukong collapsed limply to the ground!
"Ah, that felt so good. So good!" Though his body was weak, Sun Wukong felt deeply satisfied!
He could clearly sense how his body had changed over these nine days!
His battle power had multiplied several times over!
If anyone scanned his battle power with a Scouter now, they would find that his base battle power had reached around 100,000!
Since he hadn't taken any Senzu Beans from Korin Tower this time, after every training injury, he had to rely on his body to recover naturally, which had wasted quite a bit of time!
Otherwise, he would probably be even stronger!
Natural recovery had another benefit, too: it let him clearly sense where his body was lacking!
Sun Wukong had also trained to address those weaknesses!
For example, his lower body. After his tail had been cut off, his balance had suffered a slight flaw, leaving his stance unstable!
This time, he had trained to correct that weakness as well!
It wasn't as good as when he still had his tail, but it was far better than before. His stance was now incredibly stable!
As for Son Gohan! Nine days earlier!!
After Piccolo left Kami's Lookout, he didn't leave. Instead, he turned to look at Mr. Popo!
"Mr. Popo, my battle power has increased too quickly, and I don't have enough combat experience. My dad and the others are far behind me, so could I ask you to spar with me?" Son Gohan looked at Mr. Popo somewhat nervously.
From the way Mr. Popo had explained things to Piccolo just now, it was clear that even when he said the words Dragon God Zalama, there wasn't a trace of reverence in his voice!
It was as if he were talking about someone he didn't care about at all!
Kami and Piccolo couldn't tell, because they didn't understand how powerful Zalama was. But Son Gohan knew exactly what sort of being Dragon God Zalama was: someone on equal footing with Zeno!
Yet Son Gohan couldn't hear even a hint of reverence in Mr. Popo's voice. That was enough to show how terrifying Mr. Popo was!
As soon as he had transmigrated, he had carefully recalled the history of Dragon Ball!
The more he remembered, the more he realized that there was something extraordinary about Mr. Popo!
Mr. Popo had already been around during the previous Kami's time, and the current Kami had been in office for several hundred years.
The great disaster on Namek had occurred around Age 260. It was now Age 760, a full five hundred years later!!
Kami was still old, with little time left to live!
But Mr. Popo hadn't changed in the slightest!
And during the Majin Buu arc in the original story, Mr. Popo had actually been able to fight Son Goten and Trunks, both Super Saiyans!
Sure, their battle power wasn't very high even after transforming into Super Saiyans. But they were still Super Saiyans!
A lifespan with no discernible limit, a perpetually expressionless face, and battle power that couldn't be gauged!!
He could even create clay puppets. When Sun Wukong was a child, Mr. Popo's puppet had given him a terrible beating!
On top of that, Whis had once said in Dragon Ball Super that Son Gohan had a trace of Ultra Instinct within him!
Ultra Instinct was a technique even Gods of Destruction struggled to learn!
Why would Sun Wukong have a trace of Ultra Instinct within him?
Son Gohan searched through his memories and recalled that when Sun Wukong was a child and trained at Kami's Lookout, Mr. Popo had personally created a puppet identical to him!
Thinking back on the details of their fight, he realized the puppet had shown traces of its body reacting on its own!
The body reacting on its own, dodging attacks!!! Wasn't that a precursor to Ultra Instinct?
Mr. Popo could casually create such a terrifying puppet...
Son Gohan didn't dare think about it anymore. The more he thought, the more unfathomable Mr. Popo seemed!
Beneath that cold, emotionless face, what sort of terrifying being was hidden?
"Mr. Popo, please help him for my sake. I don't have much time left. Earth's future will have to rest in their hands!" Kami slowly stepped forward to plead on Son Gohan's behalf.
"All right, Kami." Mr. Popo nodded.
In his eyes, usually as calm as still water, a trace of affection flickered for the Kami he had known for several hundred years!
That's right... affection!!!
Son Gohan became even more convinced that he must have seen wrong!!!
It was bizarre, far too bizarre!
"Gohan, aren't you going to thank Mr. Popo?" Kami reminded him.
"Thank you, Mr. Popo!" Son Gohan said.
"Come with me!" Mr. Popo headed first toward a mysterious room.
Son Gohan followed close behind!
Creeeak!!
It was as if the door hadn't been opened in ages!! Mr. Popo opened it and walked straight inside!
Son Gohan followed him in!
The moment he entered, Son Gohan was stunned!!
"Is this... the Hyperbolic Time Chamber? No, it doesn't feel oppressive, and there's plenty of oxygen!"
Before him stretched an endless white space!
"This is a failed product, an Experiment made for the Hyperbolic Time Chamber. Though it failed, I kept it. Time flows at the same rate here as it does outside, and the air is the same, too. The only difference is that the space is a little larger! There's no day or night. It always looks like this," Mr. Popo said calmly.
"Forgive me for asking, but... you created the Hyperbolic Time Chamber?" Son Gohan couldn't hold back his curiosity.
"If you know it's rude, why ask? Never mind, it doesn't matter. I'll tell you. I guided the... previous previous previous previous... Kami in making the Hyperbolic Time Chamber. I didn't make it with my own hands, but it was pretty much the same thing!" Mr. Popo mechanically repeated "previous" so many times that Son Gohan couldn't keep count.
"Mr. Popo... Earth's civilization hasn't even been around that long, has it?" Son Gohan's eyes widened in disbelief at what Mr. Popo had said.
After all, even Kami had been in office for five hundred years. By Mr. Popo's account, the history of Earth's intelligent life must have stretched back millions of years!
"Civilizations are destroyed, then reborn. I've lost count of how many civilizations Earth has had by now. Enough talk. Are you going to train or not?" Mr. Popo had said more that day than he usually did in a year!
He was getting a little annoyed!
"Training, training! I'll stop talking. Shall I begin, Mr. Popo?" Son Gohan took up a fighting stance.
"Mm. Attack me with all your strength! Let me see what you can do. I can't be bothered to spar with you. I'll make you a puppet, and you can fight that instead. Come on, show me everything you've got!"
Mr. Popo kept one hand behind his back and raised the other, gesturing for Son Gohan to attack!
"All right, then I won't hold back!! Hyaaa!!!!"
Son Gohan unleashed all his energy and transformed into a Super Saiyan!
"A Super Saiyan? I haven't seen one in over a thousand years," Mr. Popo murmured.
Son Gohan didn't hear him!
"Here I come, Mr. Popo!!"
After transforming, Son Gohan charged straight at Mr. Popo!!
BOOM! CLANG!!
He lifted a foot and glided through the air at incredible speed, drove his right elbow forward, braced his right arm with his left hand, and struck at Mr. Popo's chest with all his might!
But Mr. Popo seemed to have read his movements. He had already raised a hand to block his chest!
It looked as though Son Gohan had aimed straight for the palm Mr. Popo had put up to block him!
The moment they made contact, Son Gohan felt as if he'd crashed into an unbreakable slab of Thunder Steel!
The powerful recoil numbed his entire arm!
Son Gohan became even more certain that Mr. Popo knew Ultra Instinct!!
Tat-tat-tat-tat-tat!!!
Son Gohan attacked rapidly, but not a single blow had any effect on Mr. Popo. Mr. Popo's feet hadn't moved even an inch!
Every time, his attack was either blocked in advance or its weakness spotted, and Mr. Popo struck first to break his move!