Ch. 30: Hanna and the Giant Ape

I screamed from the depths of my soul as I watched Pigero's last, desperate attempt to stop Gohan's rampage. Pigero would never have enough strength to do it, though.

Even with his guard down quite a bit, Gohan's ape form was likely literally a hundred times stronger than Pigero. Just being able to catch Gohan's movements while he was in that form was a testament to the Giant Ape form's low speed. This was why I'd not wanted Pigero anywhere near this battle... Now, he was gone.

I didn't think of Pigero in the same way as I did my Core girls. I'd never truly trust him, as much as I saw him as the Earth's future hope. One day, I'd wanted him to open a real dojo and spread the teachings of Ki mastery far and wide, so that future humans had a higher power level than 5 or so.

I'd trained Pigero because his sole devotion was to helping others, but that was a double-edged sword. I never should have taught him the roots of my Silver Mode. Not until he was stronger...

When I'd taught it to him, I could still remember what I'd said, "Pigero, you're weak. Never use this technique. It's volatile. It'll kill you, especially if you use it in conjunction with another technique. Limit Break is incredibly powerful, but it's only the basis of the skills that I'll teach you once you're stronger. It gives you an insane boost of power, but only toward a directed objective. Meanwhile, the energy that your cells give off increase so much that it literally rips your body to shreds." Essentially, it was kind of like a Kaio-ken X5 or so, but without the control.

In order to learn the Kaio-ken itself, you needed to master the Limit Break. In order to use Silver Mode, you needed to truly master the Limit Break, all without using it once.

"Just stick to the Solar Flare technique when you're in a pinch. Then, you can get out of there and find me. I'll help you out." He'd stuck to about half of my advice. He'd used the Limit Break to enhance his Solar Flare, turning it from a blinding technique into a self-combustion technique instead. He'd probably intended to take Gohan down with him, but he'd failed. 

Now, flying on top of Gohan, on the other side from Krillin, I was angry at this ape for stealing my pupil's life. If Gohan ever remembered this, he'd be scarred for life.

'So,' I thought with a smirk, ignoring the fact that Gohan was likely 20 times stronger than me at the moment, 'Let's give him some scars. He'll heal with a Senzu bean.' 

Gohan will thank me for this later.

...

"You'll thank me for this later, Gohan!" Krillin heard Hanna shout from the other side of the crater formed by Gohan's body. 'Are you insane!?' Krillin thought, remembering how Gohan had broken virtually every bone on the left side of his body with a single hit. 

But Krillin's doubts stopped the moment that he made eye contact with Hanna. There was something deep, terrifying, in those eyes. Gohan's ape form didn't seem to care about friend or foe, but this was something far deeper than that. It was like her very being was soaking up all of the fear from the world, simply because there wasn't enough of it to contend with her rage. 

Her strength didn't actually increase at all. She didn't power up a single bit, yet her presence somehow magnified itself until it overpowered even the ape's brain. Unfortunately, the ape's brain wasn't smart enough to truly understand the fear that it was feeling. Seeming to understand that she was the source of its strange feeling, the Ape tried to shoot a blast of ki at Hanna. Krillin almost screamed "No!", realizing that the blast would go straight towards the battlefield where Goku and Raditz were fighting right now, catching them all unaware, but something in him stopped the outburst. 

His outburst wouldn't have done anything, though. As his instincts had somehow known before he did, Gohan's blast never connected with anything. In a moment, Hanna was at his throat, kicking his mouth, where the ki was gathered, toward the sky as it released the devastating beam that ripped through the heavens, hitting nothing but the clouds.

From there, the battle between Gohan and Hanna was sadly lopsided. Hanna's attacks didn't seem to do much, and she didn't have enough strength to cut down Gohan's tail, but she could stop or redirect every blast he shot.

Every time he tried to grab her, he'd lose a patch of forearm hair due to some sort of energy blast, and maybe suffer a cut or two in the process. Every time that he tried to hit her with a physical attack, he'd either punch himself, slip and fall on his butt, or belly flop onto the ground. Before long, Gohan's body was covered in tiny cuts and bruises, but Hamma still seemed to be running on full.

"Krillin!" Hanna finally yelled at him, snapping Krillin out of his reverie. 'That's right. I'm not a bystander here... I can help!' He realized as Gohan bruised his knuckles, boring them into the hard earth for the possible hundredth time. Gohan was incredibly irritated at Hanna by this point, and he didn't even notice it when Krillin started charging up his own ki for a sneak attack.

"You need better control, Gohan! Learn your lesson by letting me vent a little!" Hanna shouted, dodging another one of Gohan's fists. "Ka-me-ha-me!" She flipped in midair, jumping right in front of Gohan's forehead as she charged up the familiar blast, "HA!"

With no chance of hurting Gohan, not with her tiny power level, Hanna didn't hesitate to unleash her full power right into his forehead. The giant ape screamed in pain, trying to grab her for the upteenth time as Krillin finished charging his attack,

"Destructo-Disk!" He shouted, shooting off his original move. The disk easily cleaved through Gohan's tail, finally ending the fight.