Morning reached the Lookout in a golden band across the horizon, the world stirring under the life-giving sun. All was quiet, the world still waking under gentle ministrations of the life giving star.
"1997, 1998, 1999, 2000"
Except for one man, breathing heavily as he worked through what would become his new morning routine.
Weighed down with the same weighted clothing that Son Goku wore during the 23rd world tournament, Yamcha had already been working for hours by the time the sun rose. After his last push up he collapsed face down, directly into the puddle of sweat that had formed beneath him. To his side "sat" Kami, peacefully meditating, floating 5 feet off the ground, wearing a small smile.
"You've improved," The guardian offered, " I can feel your Ki settling. Your body and soul are beginning to fully synchronize."
"Yeah," The exhausted Yamcha answered from the ground, "and all it took was a month of training nonstop, and never taking off all 250 pounds of these clothes." He grumbled, but was inwardly pleased. He had been feeling more complete recently. He hadn't noticed until the climb to Kami's lookout, but his mind and body hadn't been fully working together since his merging with Neji. To compound the issue, the sudden influx of spiritual energy threw his ki out of balance. Thinking this, he decided to ask a question that had been bothering him since he got to the lookout.
"I still don't fully understand how you and Piccolo exist," He asked, pushing himself up from the floor. "I mean, just the spiritual increase I got threw my control out of whack."You and Piccolo are literally split in half — doesn't that mess you up?"
"Who says it doesn't?" Kami asked, opening one eye to meet his student's gaze. "In our original form we were many times more powerful than we are now."
"But still," Yamcha pressed on, "A bit of power loss doesn't seem extreme enough for this energy imbalance."
"Our lives are still one Yamcha," Kami explained, "We are ultimately one soul, split in two. While we are separate, the one soul we share anchors our beings. Thus, should one perish, the other simply ceases to exist."
"That makes a bit more sense," he admitted. Since his own fusion he had wondered about the mechanics of Piccolo and Kami's existences. Initially it brought to mind the shadow clone jutsu. Splitting spiritual power into multiple vessels, but he had heard Goku mention Kami dying if he killed Piccolo. In his analogy, that would make piccolo the original. Kami's explanation filled in some gaps in his understanding. In the terms of his previous analogy, the two were simultaneously shadow clones, and the original body. One soul splits into vessels, but since both are the original, destroying either destroys the other.
"Now, about your training," Kami interrupted his train of thought. "With your meditations you have begun settling your spiritual energy, and through your physical exercises, began bringing your ki back into balance."
Yamcha nodded. Weeks had passed since the battle of wills that opened his training. The routine was merciless, but it was the first time his soul had felt completely his own. It had been a tiring month. Nearly everyday was a constant grind. From before the sun rose to sunset, he donned his weighted training attire and exercised. Though his strength had naturally increased a bit, that was not the point of the training. No, the point of the training was to, in a sense, remaster his own body. That mastery translated to the aforementioned slight rise in power level, and the strengthening of his yang ki. Unlike Kami, the natural state of a human was balanced towards yin, but with a plentiful yang. Humans leaned toward yin, but carried enough yang to act — roughly seventy to thirty, if such things could be measured. Saiyans reversed that. Kami, though, was nearly all stillness, a staggering ninety-five percent yin.
"If you wish to pursue what you described as the sealing arts, I would suggest you start focusing control."
This made sense to Yamcha. In the ninja world, fuinjutsu required a high level of control and finesse, and with ki being a more potent form of energy those requirements would only rise. Luckily for him, he had the byakugan. Its capabilities lent him a higher level of control. Being nourished by the more potent energy, he had also noticed that his byakugan was improving. The range had increased, as had its magnifying effects. He could now see out to 25 kilometers, and he could focus to view anything within that range to a microscopic level. He idly mused that finding the dragon balls would be easy now.
With this increase of ability, he could see the flow of ki with great detail. This pin point accuracy meant that he could train his control down to the microscopic levels, directing his internal energy to and from individual cells if need be.
"If I could, Kami," Before earth's guardian could go into detail, Yamcha interrupted. "I would like to take a small break."
"May I ask why?" He asked. Visibly curious.
"It's for Goku, you see…" He went into detail regarding the issue he had spotted in Goku's heart. Explaining how they had narrowed it down to likely be a result of Goku drinking the ultra divine water, and how he had procured a small sample from Korin.
"If one of our friends can examine it, she may be able to come up with an antidote for the poison. Or at least develop a treatment plan for Goku."
"I see. Then please, deliver the sample to your friend." After hearing the details, Kami immediately acquiesced. If what Yamcha had described of the future truly came to pass, then Goku would be of vital importance. While he had great hopes for Yamcha, there was no denying Son Goku's strength.
With permissions granted, Yamcha got ready to leave. Washing the sweat away, and storing his weighted clothes at the lookout, he prepared to leave. He would have worn the weighted clothes, but he wasn't yet to the point of wearing them as comfortably as his friend.
Retrieving his jet car from his capsule case he set off, calling Bulma to let her know he was on his way.
"It's about time," she said after he told her he would be there soon. "I thought you'd be back way sooner.
"Well, I had to get my ki back under control. Didn't want to start breaking stuff you know."
"Yeah yeah, excuses excuses" She teased. "At least it gave me the chance to work with the space ship you gave me."
"She sounds excited," He thought, "She's cute when she's excited." He blushed lightly at the thought.
"Well I'm on my way, I've got something else for you to look into as well."
"If it's half as impressive as the space ship, I can't wait."
With a few more minutes of talk, the two hung up.
Thinking of the ultra divine armor, he saw flashes of Trunks's dark time line. "I won't let that dark future happen."
With that solemn thought, he settled into silence, taking his first real steps into changing the grim events from his memories.