บท 69: Chapter 69

Gohan-"Wait Sage, at least all-"

I didn't let him finish his sentence as I flashed in front of him and punched him in the gut, causing him to cough out saliva, and grunt in pain before I kicked him away.

Sage-"Tsk, I know you're weaker than me but c'mon that wasn't even warm-up worthy of strength."

In the distance, Gohan finally gets out from the crater and puts his hand up to stop Videl from helping him.

Gohan-"Don't come Videl, stay there. This is out of your league."

After saying that Gohan stands up straight and Immediately transforms into a Super Saiyan 2 and charges at me with me a punch. Smirking, I bring my arm up to block his punch and retaliate with my own punch straight to his face, which he dodges, Gohan then backs away from me and gets into the same stance as Kakarot. Powering up, I stop only when my Ki's strength is similar to when he fought Cell, and didn't even bother getting into a stance as I charged straight at him.

The moment our fight started, Gohan was already on the losing end, he wasn't as strong as me nor was he as fast either and he damn well didn't have more experience in fighting than me. Now that I think about it, the only one who I believe has the same amount of fighting experience as me would be Vegeta, then I think Piccolo would be next. And that's mainly because I believe he has the fighting experience his father had, and his father definitely lived far longer than me or Vegeta.

Paying attention to Gohan again, I can tell he is having a very hard time trying to either block or dodge my attacks, and in doing so he barely has enough time to attack me. Grabbing his fist that was aiming for my head, I pull him closer which caught him off guard, I head-butt him so hard he starts bleeding, kneeing him in the stomach I let go of his fist and launch a Galactic Burst at him. Once my attack got close to him, it quickly expanded before exploding right in front of him and flinging him to the ground at supersonic speeds.

Hovering in the air, I watch as Gohan climbs out of the hole in the ground his body made, once he fully emerges the clothes on his upper body have been destroyed. He is currently injured and bleeding with his body covered in bruises, and although it looks quite bad I made sure to hold back on the attack, otherwise he would be in even worse shape.

Sage-"C'mon Gohan, I'm sure you wouldn't want to lose in front of your little girlfriend now, would you?"

Although It didn't look like my words had made a difference, I could see his fighting spirit that wasn't there before appearing in his eyes, Gohan finally seemed to take this fight somewhat seriously, as he started powering up to his max, before charging at me.

Sage-"HAHAHA, This is what I'm talking about! This is the Gohan I remember, not that weak and pathetic one from before!"

Laughing, I charged straight at him as well, hoping he learns something during our fight as well.

___

Right now I'm standing above Gohans unconscious body, that's riddled with injuries, bruises, and blood. Reaching down to pick him up, when I suddenly sensed Videl run up from behind me and hit me on the head, although I barely even felt it. Turning around, I spot a teary-eyed Videl, who continues attacking me, while yelling at me.

Videl-"YOU BASTARD, LET GOHAN GO!!"

Sage-"And if I don't let him go, what are you gonna do about it?"

Videl-"I'll DEFEAT YOU THEN!"

Sage-"Hmph, you, a human, expects to defeat me even when Gohan couldn't?"

Videl-"I DON'T CARE, I'll KEEP FIGHTING YOU EVEN IF I DIE!!"

Smiling at her claim of fighting me even at the cost of her life, I was about to scare her by releasing some of my ki, when Gohan woke up and was speaking stutteringly to Videl.

Gohan-"St-Stop Videl, b-back away, l-let me d-deal with it."

Hearing Gohan's voice, I turned around to look at him while Videl ran past me to check on his injuries, and help him stand up. Watching this, I reached into my pocket, grabbed a Senzu bean and threw it to Videl.

Sage-"Feed this to Gohan, it'll heal him up."

Catching the Senzu bean, she looked at me with obvious anger and hate, she looked like she was about to yell at me again but Gohan intervened.

Gohan-"F-feed it to me, h-he's telling the t-truth."

She looked back down at Gohan with reluctance, but she did eventually feed it to him. After he ate the Senzu bean, it only took 5 seconds for him to fully heal and be able to stand back up, seeing Gohan perfectly fine, Videl jumped on him with evident joy. While it looked like Gohan wanted to reciprocate the emotion she felt, he looked back at me and questioned me.

Gohan-"Why, what was the point of this?"

Sage-"Hmph, I already told you why didn't I?"

Gohan-"I've known you for several years Sage, and I'm quite sure you wouldn't do something like this, especially to someone who you considered a comrade. So can you tell me why you did all this?"

After he said that, Videl finally let go of Gohan and stood right next to him while looking at me with some anger still in his eyes, looking back at Gohan I can tell he will continue bothering me about this unless he gets an answer. Sighing, I decided to tell him the truth.

Sage-"Tch, the reason why I fought you was to show you how weak you've become and to motivate you to train again. Did you know throughout that whole fight I limited my strength to the same as when you fought cell, yet you could barely fight me."

Gohan-"It's true I've gotten weaker than before, but if you wanted to motivate me to train again, why did you just come now and not a few years earlier?"

Sage-"Haa, that's because I forget about it, but that doesn't matter right now. What matter is that something is going to happen in a few days, something terrible and I know we will have to stop whatever it is, so I need all the help I can get."

Hearing me say something so dangerous is going to happen that even "I" decided to gather help, seemed to be a wake-up call for him.

Gohan-"It's not like you to ask for help, but what type of danger is it that could even get you to do something out of the ordinary?"

Sage-"Tch, the only reason I even bothered asking for help was that I have a child to protect now! But I have no idea what the disaster is going to be, all I know is that my instincts have been giving me constant alarms since a few days ago, and as each day passes the alarms are getting stronger and stronger. So make sure to get ready, I have a feeling it will appear during the 25th world martial arts tournament."