Piccolo ran towards Gohan ready to launch an attack. The Namekian stretched out his arm trying to hit the boy's abdomen, who smiled.
"You make it too easy for me!" exclaimed the smiling boy. He took Piccolo's arm and began to spin around Piccolo's body.
'What the hell!' Piccolo exclaimed in his mind trying to free himself from Gohan's grip but he couldn't. But then the boy tossed him into the air.
"Kame...Hame...HAA!" Gohan launched his big attack in the direction of the sky, where Piccolo was watching this stunned.
Though he quickly got up in the air and realizing that Gohan's attack was close to him, he held out his arms to stop it.
"GAAH!" Piccolo recoiled slightly, that attack contained too much power to stop smoothly, 'This brat...'
Kami looked at everything very surprised. He was speechless at the battle between Gohan and Piccolo, who was practically being one-sided...
"Goku's son is quite strong, much stronger than I thought" asserted the guardian, earning a nod from Mister Popo, his faithful servant.
And meanwhile Piccolo continued to block the boy's Kamehameha, despite all his efforts the attack continued to pressure him.
"Piccolo I am here!" a voice sounded above him and after raising his head his eyes widened like never before. Gohan was on top of his head.
The younger clasped his hands together and using all his strength gave the Namekian an ax blow, who fell precipitously to the floor as a result of Gohan's savage blow.
The place where Piccolo sank ended up badly destroyed. Gohan noticed this and smiled nervously before looking at Kami-sama and Mr Popo.
"I'm sorry about that... I promise I'll fix it" the little boy put his hands together in apology. He knew how sacred this ancient temple was.
"Don't worry, it was a great battle" Kami shrugged him off and approached him, "I didn't imagine you would be able to beat Piccolo so easily..."
Kami couldn't finish when suddenly a green arm stretched out like rubber and caught Gohan preventing him from escaping.
"What?" Gohan was quite stunned, in his calculations he hadn't foreseen this action from Piccolo. The Namekian smiled confidently.
"You let your guard down kid, now you will pay for each one of your blows" Piccolo smirked viciously and began to whip Gohan from side to side.
"Aaaahhh!" Gohan cried out in pain at Piccolo's jolts, who seemed to enjoy his activity, 'If you want war ...then you'll have it!'
Piccolo kept hitting the boy's body with the hard ground of the watchtower. Kami frowned at this sadistic situation, but it didn't stop him.
"And now brat..." Piccolo stopped hitting him and raised two fingers to his forehead, gathering Ki there, "You are going to see my most powerful technique"
The Namekian concentrated a good amount of energy on his two fingers in order to fire the Special Beam Cannon. Gohan saw it and tried to break free.
"It's useless you can never get away brat" Piccolo scoffed at Gohan's useless attempts, and suddenly he saw him with a smile.
"Who said I wanted to run away?" asked Gohan leaving Piccolo confused and with thousands of doubts by those words, "HAAAAAAA!"
He unexpectedly released a Ki blast from his mouth and his attack hit Piccolo squarely. The impact raised a small layer of smoke.
The boy sighed when Piccolo's arm released his grip. If that hadn't occurred to him at the last minute, he would have been attacked with more than 1300 fighting units.
'I could have been killed, or at least badly injured. Maybe that would have given me a zenkai' Gohan thought doubtfully but he didn't want to think too much.
Kami was stunned by what he had seen. With this little boy and Piccolo, they still had a chance to survive against the two Saiyans.
'And if Goku returns in time the battle will tilt in our favor' thought the most animated guardian, "So you were able to beat him, it's amazing..."
"Yes, although with that attack Piccolo could have beaten me. The only disadvantage is the time he needs to concentrate energy to launch the attack" Gohan explained smiling.
'He was able to figure out Piccolo's weakness so quickly, this kid never ceases to amaze me' Kami inquired before turning to his evil counterpart.
And there was Piccolo. His clothes were destroyed in places and he had light scratches, but no serious injuries despite the attack.
"I'm sure that wasn't your full power, was it child?" Piccolo asked approaching the little boy, who nodded with a big smile.
"My maximum power goes further, if I had fought with everything from the beginning you wouldn't have had a chance" Gohan replied.
Piccolo had 408 units and in his base state he already had 450; with his Ki released he reached 825 units. The Namakian could only pass that figure with his powerful Special Beam Cannon.
"Although I have to admit that if your technique had reached me I would be lost" added Gohan, "But using it in a one on one battle is not convenient because of the enormous time it takes"
Piccolo frowned at the boy's response. Of course he knew that, but what bothered him was being told by a brat.
"Hpmf" the namekian snorted and went to a secluded part of the palace. If he let Goku and his son get stronger than him… it would be pretty humiliating.
______________
Time went on and finally a month passed since Gohan started training. One month since Goku left to train with Kaiō-sama heading into the fight in eleven months.
Gohan meditated every day, at least for ten hours. The rest of the time he spent practicing his punches and attacks.
Piccolo would appear from time to time to fight him, and then he would retreat again. And so those three weeks passed in Kami-sama's watchtower.
The younger Son knew well that Piccolo trained mentally and that he also practiced against a clone of his, just as he did in the original series.
And even though he also fought against him at times, the training he did would only serve to give him about 3500 units just like in the manga.
'I have to help him get stronger, I don't want to be a mere spectator' Gohan thought as he interrupted his meditation and straightened up.
Anyway, the story itself had already been changed. Besides, it was his life, he had to stop living as if he were an outside spectator.
So without giving it another thought, he got up to look for Kami. But he didn't see him, instead he saw his faithful and bizarre assistant Mr Popo.
"Mr Popo, could you take me to the pendulum room? I would like to test my power" asked the little boy to the mysterious assistant.
"You don't need it, you already know yourself and you also know the enemy" answered Mr Popo leaving Gohan with doubts for such words.
'This man was always quite enigmatic, it's a pity that the series didn't investigate much about him' he thought seeing how Kami-sama approached.
"However, it would be an ideal way to know how strong you have become" Kami-sama intervened looking at him with interest, "Come on boy, it's this way"
Kami led him to the palace and in a few seconds they came to a room with a pendulum hanging from the ceiling and a crimson circle in the middle.
"Here the past, the present and the future converge" explained the guardian, "I guess your father has already taught you, isn't he?"
Although it wasn't, Gohan nodded. He also couldn't tell Kami where his knowledge came from. He had to be careful with that.
"Stand in the center circle and once you are there close your eyes slowly" Kami pointed out, "Your mind is the one that will move from here"
"Okay" Gohan obeyed and moved as the guardian instructed. Once there, he closed his eyes ready for the coming challenge.