Showing off

After that whole incident with my arm, I didn't leave the whole for almost 2 weeks. Not because I was being cautious, but because my mother simply didn't let me leave the house until I was fully "healed".

I would have been mad, but I could tell she did it because she was actually worried about me. If she's this concerned about that level of injury, I don't want to think about how she will react when I ask her if I can go to the world martial arts tournament.

The time spent at home wasn't totally wasted though. Even if I was prevented from doing my physical training for a few weeks I could still meditate and experiment with my ki. I just made sure I wasn't floating while I did it.

One thing I did discover was another way to use my ki.

My arm had started to scab over and of course, I couldn't help but pick at it. But when one of the scabs started leaking blood, which I should have known would happen, I tried something new.

I focused my ki towards the open wound from the scab and tried to create a blockage of some sort to stop the blood from flowing.

If the ki could force itself outward almost making my arm explode surely I would be able to maneuver it to some extent.

While it took a few days and a bit of practice I was eventually able to get my blood to stop flowing out from the scab.

While it wasn't anything ridiculous like Dende being able to heal life-threatening wounds in minutes, the trick would let me stop the bleeding if I was ever injured and give me time to get help.

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After I was finally released from my grounding, I began to train at full force.

I increased. my physical training, now that I could use Ki to increase my power and stamina my body could take a lot more.

But I did it with caution, when I used the ki inside my body I felt as if I was a balloon. I could keep on using ki until a certain point where it would become too much and I would pop.

I was also able to realize that the amount of ki I could use increased as I got stronger physically. But not a lot of physical growth was happening, no matter how hard I trained. And if there was any, it was minuscule or simply due to me getting older and naturally stronger.

But with only around 10 months left till the tournament, I knew I would have to start changing my way of training. I was hitting a plateau and getting increasingly frustrated as the days went on. Also, it would be useful for me to practice actual martial arts for the rest of the time until the tournament, not just physical labor since it wasn't helping me anymore.

I knew that with my newfound abilities to use ki I could probably already win the whole tournament but that wasn't what I was working towards. Using ki blasts to just explode everyone wouldn't be satisfying at all and I didn't work this hard to just not get challenged at the competition.

No, I would use the ki to enhance and stamina and strength, but ki blasts and other ki attacks were off-limits. At least until I fought someone strong enough to match me.

But to get actual experience I would need to leave home, and that's where the difficulties started.

I doubt my mother would be very excited to let her little boy run off to explore the world looking for ways to get better at fighting, and my sister wouldn't be too happy either.

I think dad already kind of knows what I'm planing. He has seen me do all my training and my exercising around the farm, and I asked him when the next Budokai would be. But I don't think even he was ready for me to ask about it this early.

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"NO. ABSOLUTELY NOT. Why do you think there is even an option for it. I knew I should have made you go to school, then we wouldn't even be having this conversation."

I glanced at my dad hoping for some help but he clearly wasn't going to argue with mom, putting his hands up, pretty much saying don't look at me.

"But mom," I tried once again to plead my case.

"No buts. No. And that's final." She stood with her hands crossed in front of her clearly not willing to humor any argument I was about to give her.

"Please just give me a chance, let me show you what I can do. And if you think I'm still not ready after that I won't ask again. Please?"

This time it was my dad who spoke up, "Cmon honey at least you can give him a chance, if you still think he can't handle himself then you can just say no after that."

"Fine fine. You can show me. But I'll still say no anyway, what's the point?" Mom relented with a sigh of resignation.

We all walked outside and I stepped in front of a huge Boulder that was almost time my size.

"Ready guys? Watch closely," I said to my parents with a grin as they stood by unimpressed.

I focused my ki and directed as much of it as I could to my right arm, then I punched the rock as hard as I could, watching it crack then fall apart in the process.

I looked back at my parents and couldn't help but laugh at the shocked look on their faces.