#groundbreakingscienceupdate

After enduring the poison my father obtained the ability to consciously interact with the ki field. Though he wouldn't learn to amplify his abilities with any measured and focused intent for a while, needing guidance from more divine or experienced sources and more powerful, urgent motivators, every one necessitating the honing of a particular element in efficiency or technique. My father's spiritual awakening was slow-going then, though that is not an insult to his effort - even the Monk among our ragtag band took decades to fully master his unlocked potential, and I know there are towering heights I could yet reach.

It is that endless struggle that ultimately gave me the confidence to include this chapter. My current proficiency and my promise to impart certain skills make the work seem simple, but I know I have reached this level with a genetic advantage and a range of thankfully unique life experiences. Yes, nefarious forces could use this chapter to escalate their havoc by orders of magnitude, but that is a highly unlikely outcome, as I'm sorry to say the majority of readers will never achieve a level of amplification that could cause any material damage. Instead I believed it more pressing to think of those curious individuals compelled to perform the "super" techniques covered in the rest of this chapter and beyond, and these skills require ki amplification to perform safely, if at all. And besides, it would never have been fair to keep from you a skill that is considered an Earthling technique at heart.

So whilst I am no God, nor a questionable feline apothecarist making my home amongst the clouds, I am able to employ more traditional teaching methods to improve your ki output with conscious intent, rather than resorting to cryptic life-and-death experiences. And so, in a more measured way, we begin to tie together many elements you have already explored.

Before we delve back into the ki field, I wish to return to the ki we already possess - genki - and the two elements that contribute to the total energy output: the charge (energy per particle) and the flow rate (particles per second). Increasing one or both of these will increase your total genki power output.

The easiest way to achieve a step-change in power output - although impossible for many - would be to utilising a transformation. Simply growing larger means more cells need to be governed, which requires more parcels of genki to be released. You can think of the size of the centre (and therefore the centre's hypothetical surface area) increasing along with the body. A larger surface area with the same flux (flow per unit area) gives a greater power output.

Namekians are able to physically grow in size and therefore power, as demonstrated by Piccolo (the Junior) at the 23rd Martial Arts tournament. This ability is a learnt skill and under conscious control. Saiyans can also grow to gigantic proportions taking on a more ape-like form as Oozaru. Whilst this is an innate transformation and so more accessible (for Saiyans with tails, at least), it requires the reflected sunlight of a full moon to induce, and the Oozaru form does not naturally have a rational mind. Mastery and use of the form is therefore restrictive.

Earthlings on the other hand aren't known for their strength-inducing transformations; the mysterious Shapeshifting Schools utilise magic and transformations in this manner do not appear to grant a power increase. The innate transformation magic of Giants, Manwolves and similar teratoidal folk does grant an increase in power, and zoomorphic people of larger frames will have a greater genki output than the average anthropoidal person, but anthropoidal Earthlings are not granted either of these advantages (by their very definition).

However, Earthlings of all kinds do have access to one technique that will raise the ki particle flow rate: the Kaioken. Against received wisdom I will detail this technique later, if only to emphasize the dangers of trying to learn this skill away from the healing properties of the Heavenly Realm. The technique involves warping the centre's surface, therefore increasing the surface area but preserving the effective volume, allowing more ki particles through. Performed with too much gusto this technique can tear the body apart cell-by-cell, so for those of us bound to the mortal realm, mastery of this technique could take a lifetime.

There is a trade-off to these size increases, however. The pool of ki particles in your centre depletes far faster when deviating from its natural surface area and size. If all particles are used up, you will be left without a way to draw on ki, and will have to rest for an hour to fully replenish.

A further way to boost power output and to much greater effect is to increase the ki particle's average charge. Again some species have access to physical transformations that can achieve this; Frieza's race being one, where various naturally armoured and therefore lower-energy consumption forms reduce the draw on the centre's ki (both in flow rate and charge), and these forms prevent the individual from overwhelming lower ki energy folk around them.

Saiyans have access to another transformation called "Super Saiyan", one that does not increase the size of the body, but does impact every cell, creating a greater demand for charge per particle on the centre. From the combined research of scientists across the Universe, including my own, we know the transformation requires a level of circulating so-called "S-cells" in the body. In brief (as this transformation will be detailed later), high levels of emotion in the body trigger the S-cells to release a message in ki to all cells, asking them to call for more ki in readiness, in turn triggering the centre to release more ki which manifests as a transformation with recognised stages.

The final way to boost your genki output is to use a different version of genki entirely. The Gods and other non-mortals appear to use their own version of ki that is functionally the same in nearly every way, though God ki is more powerful - the reason for which remains unclear. Curiously, God ki is undetectable by mortals unless they receive specific training. Given how parallel they are, I believe then God and mortal ki to be of different chirality.

Chirality is a concept we find in nature. It is woven into the very structure of our bodies, even. When we look at ourselves in the mirror, our mirror image has the same make-up as us - the same number of blemishes on our face and hairs on our head - but there is no way to spin you around to make you look exactly like your mirror image. You and your mirror twin will always be left-right flipped as "optical isomers" of each other. Similarly, some molecules can have exactly the same chemical formula, but the structure can be left-right flipped. In our bodies, one molecule we ingest can fit snugly into a receptor and work as intended, but the optical isomer will be completely ignored (or worse, cause unpredictable damage in the body).

Mortal and God ki then, with their dyadic relationship, can be thought of as chiral mirror images. Unlike chemical optical isomers however, mortals can learn to accept and use the chiral God ki, but it is not natural and so must be unlocked in some manner and developed.

3.2.1 Raising Yuuki With Kiai

Earthlings are Universally known for their ability to change their ki output without reliable access to transformation or divinely developed techniques. Their wide emotional range and social nature can be repurposed or redirected to drive that increase in power. For an instantaneous boost of genki, we can rely on our yuuki. If you recall section 1.9, yuuki (courage) is not a true form of ki but a mechanism of bolstering the flow rate, and comes from reducing fear to free up "effort" and ki-particles and therefore energy otherwise poised to react in a more animalistic fashion to the stressors before us.

Consider the question - "when we run from a bear, do we run because we're afraid? Or are we afraid because we run?" This truth is a mix of both. Calming the mind can calm the body, yes, but changing our physiological state can also affect very real change in our emotions too, which can in turn free up mental capacity for other purposes. Likewise, amping up the body can amp up the mind and ki in tandem.

In section 2.3 we discussed kiai, the guttural yell. We slowed our breathing, using the inward and outward breaths to create a rhythm that our ki synced to. When our core tightened to yell our ki flowed steadily with the breath, expelled with the kiai. Kiai also raises yuuki, as the steady, conscious breathing slows the heart rate, reducing the physical sensations we attach to fear and therefore fear itself, a calming feedback loop. We can then think of that freed energy as released in a short, sharp burst of "courage" instead.

To practise this, perform a push intent with and without kiai. Notice the increase in strength as ki becomes more dense when paired with kiai. Then repeat the exercise, this time explicitly utilising yuuki. Calm the body to begin with, and with the freed capacity of mind, genki should be easier to focus and kiai more effective, the rush of emotion with each kiai honing the intent rather than distracting from it. Practice these four states until you can sense the difference in power, both in quality and quantity. Throughout your practice keep in mind whether your yuuki is well-maintained or not. There is no need to be perfectly physically calm every practice, only to be able to note how calm to better estimate the strength of that day's intents.

3.2.2. Yuuki - Advanced Calming

Slowing one's breathing has the ability to start a soothing chain reaction through the body. But there is a shortcut - to hack our bodily ki intents themselves, intercepting the messages intended for the heart and other systems.

To learn though we must be quiet to begin with. Sit quietly, slow your breathing, and feel the subtle pulse of ki intent that ripples with your heartbeat. Not the ki itself, as that will be flowing through the body at a near constant, rippling with the breath and heartbeat, but the change in intent that drives the heartbeat. This ripple will track back to the upper-right of the heart (close to the body's centre-line) to the pacemaker cells which control the heart's contractions, and will spread from the pacemaker cells to the rest of the heart. These are the intents we must intercept.

Follow these ripples and imagine them slowing - I think of a soothe intent to envelope and slow the beat intent, and before long you'll feel your heartbeat begin to slow too. The other physical symptoms of fear will leave you as the mechanisms triggering them unwind, freeing your mind and therefore affording you yuuki to use for ki manipulation. With familiarity you'll be able to track these ripples when under huge mental and physical stress.

It should go without saying that upsetting homeostatic equilibrium is extremely dangerous. This technique should only be performed for a few seconds before you let the body drive itself again. I only ever use this technique as a kick to my system, like a full-body shiver to reset. Slowing the heart too much will leave you breathless, drop your blood pressure and cause you to faint. Playing too harshly with pacemaker cells directly could cause them to fall out of sync, triggering cardiac arrest.

The next question both the curious and antagonistic among you will ask is whether this same soothe intent will work on others to incapacitate them. The answer is yes but, thankfully, there is an inbuilt difficulty; these homeostatic intents written with a ki signature are so tightly bound to that person's subconscious that overriding the messages takes considerable skill. I know of one assassin using this method to trigger cardiac arrest, and the genki "injection" must be delivered with great, well-practised precision within close-range. Miss and the assassin is wide open for a counter. I do not recommend developing this technique both for the safety of others and your own.

3.2.3 Field Ki

Genki manipulation has its limits. We have a finite amount of genki (created from chemical (food) energy) and a finite number of ki particles to assign it too. So there is a maximum amount of genki that we can release in one instant and whilst substantial, it is most unsustainable.

Instead the most reliable, near limitless way to amplify ki is to increase the charge per particle by converting genki to field ki (banoki). In section 1.9 we discussed the ki field; how the ki field is a lower energy state consisting of a soup of decayed and garbled ki energy separated from us by a barrier of ki particles. In 2.2 we visited the surface of the ki field to read the ripples created by the ki of others. Now we will reach through that undulating surface to harness the ki energy beyond.

Find a comfortable and well-centred position. Lower yourself to the ki-field as when learning to read the ki-signatures of those outside of auratic contact (exercise 2.2.2). Feel the waves of others, those vibrations, and settle 'above' them. Remember, your spirit is tethered to this reality by its very existence, so it would take a deliberate act to cut that tie and fall in. I'd hope by now you would be familiar with this exercise and such visualisations would be of little use, but for now attend to the ripples to aid the next step.

Now, you must expend a little effort and genki. Let your mind follow your decaying genki down to the field and visualise yourself penetrating the waves' surface with a hollow reed of ki, finding your way between the surface of empty ki particles at the still spots between the waves. A through or part intent works well here. Your genki and the field ki energy will meet through the imagined reed. The link will feel tenuous at first, as both your effort and genki used in the process will render the exercise counterproductive in net ki, but do not fret - with a little practice you will break even and then excel.

Once the connection is established, you will need to gather field ki. Imagine the reed straw you've made growing roots, spreading through the endless sea of field ki below to efficiently fill the space. Imagine those fine tendrils reaching, your ki signature spilling out as genki converts to give a semblance of structure in the field ki. Then, suck that captured ki back through the reed, palming it into your very real hands. Retrieving the ki can be tricky - overextend and your fine genki root system will break, essentially wasting that genki as it breaks down far too fast. Spread too little and, whilst safe, some genki will be wasted, unable to touch field ki and convert. Take your time - the amplification will come. Aim to be able to repeat this cycle of reaching and capture as a smooth, continuous flow. When this convoluted process becomes second nature, amplification can be achieved with a simple boost or swell intent.

3.2.4 Storing and Moving Ki

At first, this mix of kis will be heavy and unwieldy to move between foci as your ki signature is weakened through the mass. The usually chatty and fast to react genki will take a while to send intents through the rest of the more neutral ki, the genki acting as lit touchpaper. The best way to manage this mass of ki is to maintain the "rootlike" structure of genki through the mass, enabling fast communication between genki and the furthest section of field ki.

To practice, focus genki between your hands and swell the mass. As you sense the energy convert, try to send the ball of ki from left to right between your hands. Notice how, as you continue to amplify (and at first even lose total ki energy during the conversion) this movement increases in difficulty, demonstrating that as the fraction of genki energy in the focussed ball lessens, it takes more time to propagate your intent from the ordered, ki-signature laden genki to the unstructured mass of field ki.

Notice too, that if you were to apply for example a push intent, the strength of the ability would falter at first, the genki now having to learn how to send out this particular intent as well as apply it to itself. You will be frustratingly back to those early days of learning the basic intents. With time and practice though your skill and dexterity with intents will return - and faster this time around. When you've matched your previous skill level across a variety of intents when using only a tenth or less of the genki usually required without field ki, you will be ready to move on.

In the heat of the moment more powerful techniques will require more ki than can be created instantaneously, necessitating you to charge up the ki intent. There is a fine balance to be had between adjusting your genki flow as and when you need it for amplification, versus letting your mind work on autopilot at a fixed conversion rate to over-produce ki. The former of course saves you energy, but the micro-management could make you slower to counter. It is therefore prudent to know how to amplify and store that ki for later. If charging and amplifying a specific attack, of course bring ki to the focus in question, but to be ready at a moment's notice to push, to explode upwards to fly and to guard, you will need to store ki in an aura.

The fundamentals of this particular technique were covered in exercise 2.4.5, but to recap, use your centre as a focus, but this time expel ki. The ki should surround you in an approximate sphere, ready to be gathered into external foci like hands or feet, to report back to you nearby danger, or to create a near-instantaneous barrier. Remember when charging to use a hold intent too, otherwise the genki, untasked, will degrade. This technique is named "aura-shoring". When performed at high ki energy densities, ki will spontaneously interact with the world, creating an impressive and intimidating visible glow around the body.

3.2.5 Raising Shouki

We don't only trade genki for field ki during amplification. We expend effort to maintain spiritual calmness, shouki. If yuuki is the calmness between mind and body, shouki is our self-assuredness, the calmness between mind and ki. The stronger our connection between mind and ki, the easier amplification becomes. As discussed in 1.9, disrupting this link by agitating an opponent through very incisive taunts will knock their power-level down considerably, as they will be unable to efficiently convert genki to field ki. Now we wish to raise our own shouki.

To do so we must get in contact with our spiritual selves - not necessarily in a religious manner, but to know and speak our own truth. For my father, his brush with death was enough for his young self to begin to attend to that spiritualness, but you do not need to go to such extremes.

Mindfulness, the ability to just be in the present, comes easier to some than others. Mindfulness is not the ability to empty the mind, for that can be frustrating to achieve as worries for the day pop in and out. Instead we must notice those thoughts, the emotional and physical feelings, and maintain curiosity toward them before setting them aside for the moment. This benign distance affords us the ability to take stock. Spending time attending to how genki moves through our body and the environment around us can also assist in this mindfulness process. It is a focus on the here and now, and is something we can do alongside other exercises.

Mindfulness however is not dissociation, where we disown thoughts and experiences as not happening or not our own as a defense mechanism. And that leads me to a warning. For individuals dealing with dissociation as a result of, for example, psychological trauma, forcing the mind back in the body can cause an abreaction and worsen your state of mind. If you find you have constant bad reactions to mindfulness, or exercises and martial arts that encourage this open state of mind, then please seek professional support before continuing further. I know of one individual who broke through life-long trauma through sheer force of will, but it took him decades and could have ended poorly. However, dealing with the emotional block monumentally improved his raw power through yuuki and shouki, so your mental health is worth working on in whatever capacity you can. I also speak from experience. Fluctuating shouki was a difficulty I had in my childhood, and it took a lot of self-compassion and support from family and friends to let go of the guilt a child can swallow when they do not know any better. Simple grounding exercises - feeling the earth between your toes, naming sounds, colours and smells in the world around you - can suffice to bolster shouki somewhat in the meanwhile, and was the technique I used until I could be truly still and in the moment.

I told you once that I made the fortuitous decision to sit cross legged over seiza for twenty hours of a twenty-five hour ceremony. This ceremony, to unlock my fullest potential, required me to keep very still at a time I wanted to do anything but; my friends and family were in grave danger, some even passing away in the meanwhile, and the god performing the magic did not come across as particularly competent. As the hours ticked by I felt no different, only frustrated and wrestling with all my concerns with little else to distract me. It was only as my anger boiled over that I felt the ease at which ki enveloped my clench fists, and I understood the power of stillness. Whilst I know the silent magic of the god played a more than substantial part in my increase in power, I know holding out hope for Earth while confronting myself and my fears during those endless hours did play some part in repairing and raising my shouki, and I am grateful for that time to reflect. I hope you can find this time, too.

With every possible type of amplification in your knowledge and the most accessible at your disposal, it is now time to relearn all techniques with field ki in the mix. I know, I know it feels a step backward, but trust me, this step is a huge leap forward, and will give you access to all the work following on. When - or if - you can amplify the strength of your techniques by a factor of two with only a tenth of the genki available, you will be ready to proceed to the next section on guarding.

But they didn’t truly hear what their scanners screamed, that clear message hidden in the woeful statistics on geology and organic chemistry. Earth does not have a worthwhile abundance of one particular resource because we have a modest abundance of everything. Earth’s richness is in its diversity. Life on Earth is short-lived but hardier than elsewhere in the Universe because of the adaptability we require to cope.

The hostility of Earth’s ever-shifting environments created evolutionary pressures on mind as well as body. The ability to innovate in fields like construction and medicine enhanced our survivability far faster than any generation-to-generation chain of genetic mutations could, and so our society has learnt to greatly prize the traits of inventiveness, lateral thinking and the ability to dream. Combined with our isolation from the Universe at large, Earth has developed a series of unique technologies; from Capsule Corporation’s dyno capsules and time machine to the seemingly simple home comforts of boba and pizza. (In fact, Earthling cuisine is highly sought after. I hear ramen-runs are now made to Earth, with cups of dried noodles and flavour packets going for a fortune in the central galaxy’s curiosity stores.) Where once our planet was dismissed as a bubble of primordial scum, our potential Universal standing is rising, and Earth is on the cusp of being welcomed to the Galactic Commonwealth.

More nefarious entrepreneurial minds have other ideas, however. Why trade when you can own outright? Earth would be unprofitable when scoured of human life, true, but what if that Earthling creativity could instead be subjugated and utilised? Further, an Earthling's power level is minuscule, making our planet perfectly conquerable by the type of ‘real estate’ teams previously led by Freeza. I and my Saiyan-blooded friends and family are noted as far stronger and willing to help, but we have no guarantee that our potency will pass to our descendants. I have thirty years left in me to aid in planetary defence, my daughter not much more than fifty. The sharks are circling.

But there is hope. Our first encounter with a Saiyan - on the same day my father and I found out our extraterrestrial heritage - also taught us a useful fact. Whilst able to both manipulate ki with intent and raise his genki somewhat, the Saiyan relied entirely on his scouter (his heads-up-display eyepiece) to find ki users. What’s more, he judged his chances in a fight purely on our reported ki output at rest. He thought he was sure to defeat us. A terrified and briefly overpowered child headbutting his solar plexus taught him otherwise.

Whilst Saiyans were never renowned for their general knowledge, they do have impeccable intuition for battle. My Uncle Raditz believing he had the upper hand wasn’t bravado but a fair assumption based on previous experience. As such, a competition of strength based purely on scouter readout was just as valid as a full-on brawl. When our own little band ventured out into the galaxy we found the same attitude - along with a reliance on technological augmentation or genki-boosting techniques like transformations. Most other species of human were unable to sense, amplify, or suppress their ki.

You see, the elemental diversity in the very rock we stand on and the climate we swim through is built into our peerless creativity. Earthlings may not have the most magic, the longest memories, the rawest strength or the greatest genki, but dear God have Earthlings learnt to overcome their natural shortcomings to literally punch above their weight. Never underestimate the value of being underestimated, I say, as time and time again a fall from hubris has been in our favour.

Knowledge of us is spreading now - whispers of the amplification technique have reached elite warriors and a multitude of planets are developing their own takes in dojo equivalents and (regretfully) military facilities around the galaxy. But it remains that Earthlings are currently the species with the greatest capacity to use field ki. Any chancing shark wishing to do you harm will still have to judge your strength on scant knowledge. They will be wary, fearing a sharp punt on the nose or even irreparable damage to their gills.

It is with this context firmly in mind we proceed to the third chapter where we cement the basics of genki amplification, field ki manipulation and appling ki to raw physicality - the techniques that form your unique planetary heritage.

3.1: Suppression

Warning - The following section contains exercises that could cause hypothermic-like symptoms, fainting, and with great incompetence, death. The reader proceeds at their own risk.

Prerequisite reading and exercises: 1.4 (on centring, posture and breath), 1.6 (on vibrations and oscillations), 2.1-2.3.

The technique of suppression is front and centre in this first section because I believe it to be of utmost importance. I hope many readers will want to take the skills I’m teaching into planetary defence, and with that hope comes a frustrating truth - most Earthlings will need a lifetime of dedication to reach the power levels needed to tackle the very strongest threats.

As of writing, the enemies we face rival the powers of Gods; in some cases they are Gods. Our strongest fighter cannot hold a candle to them, being fifty times weaker even at their maximum. I am over a thousand times out. Any tactical advantage we as a planet can bring to the fight needs to be seized upon, including knowing when to run and how to hide to live to fight another day. I hope to all that is sacred in the Universe that with dedication and technique development skilled indigenous Earthlings will reach those heights without off-planet assistance. But until you are ready, suppression, rather than amplification, should be your first thought.

Now that I’ve sufficiently terrified you with the truth of the situation we find ourselves in, let us begin.

Ki, if you recall, has two components: a ki particle acting as a vehicle and an (average) ki energy assigned to the particle. Suppressing your overall genki will require a reduction in both or one of those outputs. But the most fundamental processes in the body are not easily fooled. The centre knows the body needs a consistent level of ki to function and will therefore endeavour to assign a minimum level of genki to the particle, only dipping below that minimum as the centre depletes. Instead we must change the number of particles leaving the centre - the flow. The body resists change in this, too; those with the keenest memories will recall that the number of ki particles leaving the centre per unit area, the flux, is a constant (at least in my model). So whilst we can’t stem the flow of ki easily, we have one more variable available to us - the surface area of the centre.

In reality your centre has no physical surface, being a point in your body from which ki emanates. How then, can we change properties of something that doesn’t exist? The processes that govern ki are peculiar in that a ki-user’s intention is understood and interpreted in good faith. The very act of picturing the centre as having attributes like a changing surface seems to map well onto whatever unknown law of the Universe governs ki particle flow.

Picturing the centre as a ball as we did way back in 1.4 will now pay dividends. If you can imagine squashing down the ball-like centre, you can reduce the hypothetical surface area, in turn triggering a reduction in flow and therefore ki overall. This does not come for free - from 1.8 we know that changes in ki output take effort, a mental strength and concentration which is not limitless. Despite the inherent difficulties, there is a helpful trick of the imagination we can use to see out the technique.

3.1.1 Folding the Centre

Sit comfortably, steady the breath, calm your mind and attend to your ki flow - a process that should be second nature by now. If not, I implore you to return to section 1.4 to save yourself wasted effort here. Now, picture a hollow ball, like a perfectly spherical balloon. Let the ball settle over your centre until they’re aligned. Breathe and shift your body until your imagination is able to project that ball in a steady position, until your centre and the ball become one.

Then - and this is the neat trick - imagine twisting the ball in half, as you can a balloon. You’ll be picturing two smaller balls sitting side by side (or one on top of the other). Finally, imagine one ball passing into the other and edges overlapping until you're left with the one ball. The number of ki particles you produce will drop in an instant.

Drop by what? Well, curiously, that depends on your imagery. A naive view would see creating two balls as a halving and so output would drop by a factor of two. A more mathematical treatment would show that the surface area of a ball will drop to a quarter when the radius is halved. Someone more vividly-minded picturing how the air in the balloon increases in pressure and stretches the skin when twisted may believe the value somewhere in between. You may have yet another completely different intuitive take, some more realistically correct than others, but remember it is your expectation and imagination creating the intention.

My point is, there will be a way to visualise this change in centre such that the image is simple to hold in your mind and simple enough to repeat. A repetitive halving (or quartering) is a simple concept to picture. A nuanced sliding scale of centre size is not. These easy-to-visualise states act akin to harmonics, the stable states we discussed in 1.8 and 1.6. With practice your centre will understand your intention and play along - with the caveat that it is ever-ready to pop back to a more natural state of rest.

If you are fortunate enough to be learning with a partner, they should be able to detect your drop in ki as a drop in auratic pressure, the ki in your aura fading as what remains is summoned back to your body to help keep you ticking. At a quarter to a half ki you probably won't feel any ill effects for a long while. If you're sensitive to the moods of others, maybe you'll find your ability to detect those changes a little stunted - given your aura has less energy available for that social contact - but otherwise you'll be safe.

Should you succeed in this fractioning, the first danger you will encounter is “snapback”. In the case of ki, what goes down must come up, and the moment your concentration slips your centre will take the cue to relax and snap back to its original flow rate. The return is usually accompanied by an extra pulse to cleanse your body of foreign ki which can have unintended consequences. If you are performing a delicate technique with reduced ki, for example, the effort you're putting into finessing the fine intent will blow outward and overwork, sometimes obliterating your target. Startling someone is one way to induce these dangerous results; eliciting any strong emotion is another. At this early stage, where you don't quite have a handle on techniques, I recommend either working without your centre being manipulated or releasing every technique before relaxing your centre, lest you blind, burn, or otherwise maim yourself.

Even with this two-stage release there can be repercussions. Remember - genki keeps your body in step too, and would have compensated the best it could with the reduced flow.  During release  there will be a momentary overcompensation in your homeostatic functions because of this coping mechanism. Maybe your heart skips a beat, you flush in temperature, you experience a dizziness or a moment of nausea, all due to the overcorrection and subsequent swing to normality. Further, remember genki performs social functions, and thus your sensation of warmness or hostility towards others may spike when returning. Even those without trained ki-sense may detect this abrupt shift and become unsettled.

3.1.2 Folding to Infinity

When you can reliably hold the first reduction in flow, repeat the fractionation process. You’ll need an increase in effort to do so, to the point you may feel like you’re back at square one, but stick with the expectation and imagination processes. The second drop will soon lock into place. Once you’re comfortable, repeat ad nauseum. Remember to also practice the release from each stage.

Two to four folds in your aura will deplete and your body will require more genki than it’s being fed. Your body will register that you’re not making the wisest choice and so the effort required to fold will skyrocket, just as if you were twisting a balloon and feeling that tense resistance grow.

Pan has told me that this is the point she sees even the most attuned students making a rookie error by holding their breath. Now - ki will leave the centre with you breathing or not, but as we know ki is encouraged away from the centre by forms of flow. By holding the breath, genki builds and stagnates inside that imaginary ball you've created and sneakily runs its functions, hoping to give you the impression that genki is not leaving your imagined centre as you willed. But don't be fooled! If you find yourself suddenly dizzy with others saying how red in the face you are, then you best take a breath.

Folding will fractionate genki until the drop in ki pressure each time will be difficult to discern. To remove that last detectable spark of life you will have to imagine your centre vanishing to nothing, and genki fading out with it. This is far easier said than to perform. At small enough sizes the degree of folding makes the tension the centre is under excruciating. That final vanishing will take a further burst of effort.

At this final collapse any lingering wisps of ki will be quickly expended by your ki-hungry body. You will become a void in the world and the background ki will flood in. The usual ripples your ki-signature generates on the ki-field will dissipate and your unique rhythm will be undetectable in ki-sense.

To push this exercise further look to perform this suppression during exercise and particularly while anxious, as this will be the physical and emotional state in which the ability becomes of paramount importance. Speed, then, is another aspect to work on. As the effort required to reduce your ki flow decreases, so will your need to invoke powerful imagery to achieve the same results.

To the outside observer, the extinguishing of ki is an instantaneous or staggered collapse in the world, those elicited memories making up someone’s ki-signature popping away from thought. Even those who are not actively training their ki-sense will feel a lack of presence. For those who have read ki as a “sixth sense” for their entire lives, witnessing a living being without ki is anywhere from mind-boggling to outright disgusting. Pan describes the sight as a stomach-churning unease, like seeing a headless body somehow walking and talking, and is a feeling you never fully get over.

A note on absolute suppression

There is an added danger here: ki-starvation. Genki is required by the body to maintain allostasis. Going without will eventually force your body out of sync and allostatic processes will begin to break down. The body knows the seriousness of this predicament and so will reverse as many flows as possible, attempting to drag ki back to your vital organs. Blood will be lost from the extremities in this process which leads to a condition much like hypothermia. If you stubbornly continue to suppress despite the warning signs, blood will eventually be lost from the head too, leading to hypoxic symptoms such as reduced oxygenation of brain cells, confusion, and finally unconsciousness. At that point you will not have the awareness to control your genki and your flow will snap back, consciousness returning soon after. In almost all cases unconsciousness will occur long before the body begins to break down and so you may believe there is no keen danger here. But if the reason for your suppression was to hide, snapback could lead to your discovery and subsequent death.

In summary, those very first signs of ki starvation are similar to hypothermia and important to act upon.

The hierarchical symptoms of ki-starvation are - - Paled skin - Muscle weakness or stiffness - Spontaneous to sustained shivering - Slurred speech, mumbling or teeth chattering - Impaired coordination - Slowed breathing - Confusion - Drowsiness - Weakened pulse - Loss of consciousness

Unlike in true hypothermia, the symptoms of ki-starvation cannot be remedied by warming the body, although rubbing your hands together or applying layers so your body needs to cool itself by forcing blood to the extremities and skin again can alleviate symptoms for a time.

3.1.3 Tolerating Ki-Starvation

Building endurance to this uncomfortable state therefore is a worthwhile skill to develop. To practise, lower your ki to zero for minutes at a time and observe your body. Stop when the symptoms begin to manifest to a strength that keeps you from holding a conversation. Then leave practice of suppression for at least a day to enable your recovery. Eventually you will build your tolerance from minutes to hours. Two hours of suppression while running on a treadmill and upon release performing memorised kata forms part of the minimum requirements Pan insists upon for those looking towards Heroing and front-line planetary defence. This isn’t an arbitrary choice of test. Many of our battles last less than two hours and we’ll ask those with talent but lower power levels to lie in wait, ready to deal with threats tangential to the main adversaries.

Completing the technique of suppression needs one final puzzle piece. This element is such a guarded secret that we officially kept it from our own children, but in the interest of a full education I am now going to share the secret with you. If you are training your children - which despite me warning you to refrain from I am sure a significant fraction of adults are - you may want to keep this tip from them to preserve your own sanity.

During suppression the body is starved of the genki required to regulate normal function. In most situations however, there is a ready replacement available - the wandering auras of other life forms. We learnt in 2.5 how to pass and how this is a progression of a natural social ability. It is possible then to suppress your own genki and let your body absorb the genki of others. Your desperate body will enable pass and draw that much needed generic instruction from any scraps of friendly genki it can find.

Anyone searching for someone suppressing their genki should learn to look for those little eddies that indicate life and flow, but this time as a subtle depression in the background of ki as the ki is re-purposed. The ripples, though, are at least an order of magnitude fainter than a ki-signature would be and take time and patience to find. Using this searching technique is thankfully nigh-on impossible in the heat of battle, but worth-while when you need to find - and sneak up on - mischief makers.

And that’s why we deliberately neglected to instruct our children fully for a number of years. Teaching Goten, Trunks, Marron, Papayaman, Pan and Bra how to suppress their ki was imperative - anyone looking for us to cause trouble would hone in on them and, as rambunctious as those kids in aggregate were and remain, they would not be able to handle themselves against some of the more dangerous threats in the Universe. But a child that can fully camouflage themselves in ki can also camouflage themselves against their parents too, and whilst we did not care to know exactly what they were doing at all hours (children do need their privacy after all), detecting kids attempting to sneak out was as simple as waiting for their vanishing ki and honing in on the child-shaped hole. Pan and Bra eventually pooled their knowledge and worked out the trick to letting in ambient ki ("turning see through", they said) at age 11 and ten respectively. Trunks and Goten, well…

Pink House (my home) in Satan City, January Age 797 with Trunks and Goten.

Trunks: I can’t believe I’m admitting this on camera… Let’s get the record straight - for those that quote this story back at me, anyway. I’m a man of Science, but from an early age I was convinced beyond all reason that my father had psychic powers. I mean, I did believe in magic and still do, I know magic users personally. But my father? I was an idiot.

Gohan: He’s not the gifted type?

Trunks: You tell me, you’ve known him longer. As far as I know he wouldn’t spot a spiritual awakening if it was doused in hoi sin, dancing naked on a table and spoiling for a fight.

Goten: I believed your theory for a long time, too. Only thing that made sense as a kid.

Trunks: Exactly. So, why? Well, we learned to hide our ki early. Dad taught both of us.

Gohan: I was surprised he was so keen to teach you suppression over more powerful moves. I should have known he wouldn't have been forthcoming with the full knowledge.

Trunks: Right. As soon as we’d mastered suppression at what - Four? Five? I barely remember learning - we thought we'd have the upper-hand against our parents, that we could escape whatever mess we'd made and no one could pin it on us.

Gohan: And that wasn’t your experience.

Trunks: Ha, pretty much. Dad could still hunt me down, no matter where I ran off to. Didn’t matter how sneaky I’d try to  be, how careful I was slowly lowering and raising back my ki, he'd always catch me and throw me in the Gravity Chamber. It drove me crazy. One particularly bug-eyed afternoon I scanned my entire body thinking Mom had jabbed me with a tracker chip in my sleep. Goten refused to help look for the scar.

Goten: Yeah, because by then I’d grown out of it - figured it was a coincidence. But full credit to you, bro, you stuck to your loopy guns on the magic thing.

Trunks: And you’re still not helping.

Gohan: How’d Vegeta let you down gently?

Trunks: So, not long after my 18th birthday, Dad noticed Bra had gone AWOL and dragged me along on the recovery mission, all to finally demonstrate what I'd been missing. That a small child - or anyone, really - who suppresses their ki carelessly leaves a person-shaped ki-hole in the world, unless they completely let background ki flow through them. It was so painfully obvious I can’t believe we hadn’t noticed. I was such an idiot. Dad laughed for a solid week. Thought it was the funniest joke he's ever told, and definitely the longest. I can't believe you all kept it from us, not knowing could have got us killed.

Gohan: Then armed with this potentially life-saving technique, what did you do?

Trunks: Used it against Bra at every opportunity, of course. It was great to be the magic one for a change, and we drove her and Pan just as crazy.

Goten: Sure, this is a sweet story of a man showing he has a sense of humour and all, but it doesn’t explain Mom. Now she’s a psychic. She says she can’t sense ki, but when she’s fuming she just knows, you know? She could track down your lifeless body from the other side of the world just to rail on you for having the nuts to die before you did the dishes.

3.1.4 Restricting Pass

To become part of the proverbial furniture you will need to switch off the reception of pass. Now, pass usually doesn’t suck up ki as you mosey around - from loved-ones yes, but your body will want to ignore foreign ki for the most part to prevent any intra-body miscommunication. Usually there’s work involved in learning how to receive ki. When you’re low on energy, though, the body is less concerned with the risks of incorrect ki-signatures and will do what it can to stay alive. In this extreme you have to work to stop the process. Think of yourself as a transparency, an emptiness, a statue that does not require life force. Restricting pass is not rejecting ki. Rejecting with thoughts of mistrust, threat and alienness will set up a guard (which we shall cover soon) and make you a literal black hole against ki, the opposite of your intention. Instead let go and feel that ki pass you by. The hypothermic-like ki-starvation response will subtly worsen, which is another counter-intuitive sign that you are on the right track. Ideally, a partner in the form of a practised ki reader will ensure you are performing this part of the suppression correctly.

3.1.5 Amping Pass

Logically then you can do the complete opposite. Consciously increasing the level at which you’re absorbing ambient ki will both continue to hide your ki-signature and extend the time you can remain suppressed. A scouter won’t look for negative ki spots, and a ki-senser scanning long distances for your ki-signature will not be able to discern that tiny eddy, so in particular circumstances this modification to the technique is perfectly sensible. To perform, relax as when detecting ki and let the surrounding ki wash over you. Now smile. You won’t need to do this every time, but a friendly face helps immensely when learning. You’re attempting to welcome the ki around you, to let it understand that you’re present and happy to be worked with. Should the ambient ki trust you as friendly enough it will take to your body’s instruction. Using this foreign ki, particularly when using none of your own, is a dissociative sensation - you’re connected to the world around you and yet feel like your body is not quite yours. You can grow accustomed to this with practice.

Suppression will always be the first nuanced technique I recommend students learn due to its life-saving potential. Although, as always, I hope you never find yourself in a situation where suppression is required.

In the next section we will be learning the second of the Earthling techniques, amplification - both in genki and field ki. These are techniques you will need to perform should your cover be blown, and are the techniques that form the backbone of the rest of the chapter.

That afternoon, as Mr Satan posed for cameras and collected his accolades, out of the spotlight my friends and I gathered ourselves and limped home. I flew back to the mountains - alone.

My solitary return did not go unnoticed. There on the veranda I had to break the news to Mom that Dad had died to save us all, and he was put into that predicament by my own recklessness. Mom collapsed on the spot. She heaved sobs into my shoulder, clinging my still-torn gi. In that moment I was her strongest connection to him. I could do no more than try and comfort her the way she would have me - by petting her head, telling her everything was okay even if it wasn’t, and hoping she’d come round.

The trees’ shadows grew long before she had strength enough to hold me tight and remember to reassure me in kind. She was right, he had made his own decision to treat this death as his final and I was not the cause. But the depth of her grief said otherwise. Loss is a funny thing. For my family and friends, loss of a loved one can be temporary, but the moment hurts as keenly. For Dad to make the decision to stay dead indefinitely, to hear his reasoning for doing so in his own words before his final goodbye… in some ways was harder to understand than if there was simply the expected empty silence.

The next day was declared a worldwide public holiday. West City, too, became a wall of noise and colour, although Capsule Corp was notably muted in its display of reverie. The little energy we mustered for celebration was for Trunks - a thank you and goodbye - with some of the day as a memorial service to my father. I pushed to keep that portion short. I knew wishing for others to grieve with me would be tantamount to an admission of my guilt-ridden devastation, so I kept my longing deep.

Even with constant love and reassurance from family and our friends, many years passed before I accepted that I was not responsible for shattering Mom that day. Dad had flitted in and out of my life growing up, but he always returned to us to be by our side. Now he couldn’t. My little brother was on the way, and me, Mom and Grandfather would have to be all the small family he had. At first we were scared what would happen should a new menace surface, but very quickly - too quickly some would say - we relaxed. I threw myself into my studies, trying to learn all I could about the world I had worked so hard to save. That went a long way to providing me what solace I needed and would give me a taste for the career I love to this day.

Time marched on. Little Goten went from crying to babbling to non-stop chit-chattering and tugging on my writing arm at all hours to go play with him and so, sensing the valued distraction but distraction nonetheless, when I hit the right age Mom suggested I attend Orange (now Satan) City’s main high school. Making friends my own age sounded wise in principle - I’d never kept in touch with those fleeting friends I had made other than a Namekian named Dende - but I was nervous. Would I score high enough to get in? Would I fit in with non-martial artists? Would my life’s history be uncovered?

As is typical of me I visited the school and got into hot water twice before my real attendance.

The first time was for the entrance examinations. Coming from out of district, my tests took place on a Saturday. The six were brutal in schedule, one after the other with lunch in-between. Mom was insistent on travelling with me, and whilst I tried to argue with her on grounds that I could navigate a city I’d flown over many times just fine, I eventually caved. In truth I’d never quite believed her (or anyone else for that matter) that I was a smart kid (at least smart enough to pass these tests) and her presence on the ride over calmed me. I could read her nerves but her reassurances weren’t lies. She believed that I could pass at least.

Orange Star High surprised me in its familiarity. Despite never having stepped foot in a school before, I’d read books and comics set in them, and Orange Star High was a picture-perfect representation of one. There were lockers, water fountains, places to change your shoes, signs above each classroom door and long, discoloured shadows on notice boards where class rankings must have been posted the semester before. I didn’t feel as out of place as I expected to and that settled me just in time for the long slog.

To cut a long day short, my Mom’s careful balancing of tutoring and letting me explore the world’s knowledge at my own frantic pace paid off. I finished every exam with time to spare and was given permission to leave the final one early, an opportunity I gladly took, much to the chagrin of my fellow testees.

True to her word that she would busy herself, Mom was not where I’d waved her goodbye. My ki-sense pointed to her browsing the mall two streets back. I took a moment to stretch and breathe in on the steps bathed in sunlight - before a flash of silver caught my attention.

A switch blade.

I saw enough of the possessor before he disappeared into the sidewalk’s crowds, jacket on and hood up even in the afternoon’s warmth. His intent was trained on a young woman laden with bags.

My feet carried me before my tired brain had a chance to intervene.

He grabbed her by the shoulder and pulled her into an alley, the tight throng of distracted pedestrians masking her silent panic to everyone but me. I followed and only then in cold shock realised I had no concrete plan.

He pressed the knife to her neck. She closed her eyes and whimpered. I had to defuse the situation of course, but a selfish part of me feared for myself. I hadn’t even started school, yet I was risking exposure? I needed to hide my identity. I grabbed the first idea I could.

I concentrated my bubbling anger, forcing it to a frisson on my back. Gold light exploded over me. The Super Saiyan transformation. Blue eyes, blond hair and a mean glare doesn’t sound much of a disguise I admit, but it was all I had to hand and was remarkably effective.

I snatched the blade.

Disarmed before he could fully register my presence, the mugger’s anger dissolved to a primal fear, cemented when I squeezed the knife, the blade as pliant as butter. The switch mechanism snapped. The blade and handle tinkling to the floor became the only sound in the alley. Knowing he was outmatched, he ran. The woman let out a belated strangled yell.

Not wanting to risk misunderstanding I jumped to the apartment building roof faster than she could follow. From on high I watched her tentatively rejoin the crowd and find her way to a meter maid, the mugger long gone.

Assuming her safe I left to find Mom, letting my appearance snap back to normal but my heart still pounding and rattled by my boldness. I had, in the middle of the day, in the middle of town, mere metres from a crowd, transformed. And it had felt the right thing to do.

For someone who claims she can’t read ki, my mother sure is accurate with her hunches. She chalked up her suspicion over my mood to me nervous about the exam results. I barely avoided having to admit my recklessness, and vowed to not let my soft-heart cloud my judgement again.

I did not keep my word.

The second time I visited Satan City was for registration. I had (“of course”, according to everyone else) passed the entrance examinations with flying colours; my high score in science had even stood until they changed the exam style some ten years or so ago. I travelled alone this time. After all, a high school student shouldn’t need their mother holding their hand. This ended up being a very wise decision as no sooner as I’d landed in that same alleyway, screams erupted from the street. An old man stood frozen to a crosswalk, wide-eyed, watching helplessly as an out-of-control truck careened towards him.

Without conscious thought I transformed. It gave me the speed I needed to bring the truck to a screeching stop mere centimetres from the fear-stricken man, my fingers twisting the metal of the grill despite my gentle efforts. The truck persisted, then slumped back onto its tires with a short groan. I fled in the following silence.

The rescue took three seconds at the very most but a whole street of people saw me that time. I had to hope that their distraction helping both the gentleman and clearly ill driver would make them doubt my existence, though I knew the deep gouges my heels made in the asphalt could not be waved away as pure imagination.

I stowed my green jacket in my bag for the rest of the visit. The ink hardly had time to dry on my school paperwork before I high-tailed it out of there.

You might say then that these two incidents were my first foray into heroism, marking the true beginnings of The Great Saiyaman. I’m not so sure. In both cases I left the scene as soon as the obvious risk to life was averted, but there was still grave danger - the mugger could have come back, the truck driver could have needed a short flight to the ER. Perhaps with such lofty hindsight I expect too much of myself, though I’d like to think any aspiring Heroes reading this belaboured story will do better than I did and stay the course.

The next appearance of the Super Saiyan (or Golden Fighter as he’d been named, unbeknownst to me) was on my first day of school proper. I’d fallen behind schedule by landing too far from school, feeling that alleyway to be cursed. On my suspiciously athletic run through the streets to class, a commotion caught my eye.

A car screamed around a corner on two wheels, police in pursuit. Pedestrians dived for cover. Loose cash fluttered to the ground.

A bank heist, a real-life bank heist, and a serious risk to life at that.

I knew I’d have to do something. One routine transformation, a whiplash-inducing stop for the getaway car, bullets safely disposed of then I was back on my way. I barely broke my stride. My disguise was working - no one seemed to care, I was perfectly safe.

What I did not count on, however, was Videl.  

I wish I could say our first meeting had a spark, a Cupid’s arrow to our hearts or a red string’s tension pulling our destinies closer. I wish I could tell you a romantic story starting with me full of coy confidence and her the taken damsel that worked its way to a steady crescendo, or each of us taking a passionate disliking to the other over a misunderstanding of circumstance and falling in love suddenly, accidentally. Those would have made tidy stories to tell. But if there’s one constant thread in my life, it’s this: whilst the end of every life-chapter has at the very least a quiet joy, the process of getting to that sweet ending is pure, convoluted torture for everyone involved.

In truth I’d say Videl and I met four times.

The first time was in passing on that very day. She’d arrived a moment too late to see the Golden Fighter in action and accosted me, quizzing me as a bystander. Meanwhile I was in the process of sneaking from the scene with all the subtlety of the bank robbers I’d laid flat. I feigned ignorance and was fortunate enough that her ire at missing the show meant she paid me no heed and I could scamper away.

My first impression of her? Only the sigh of relief that this boisterous and intimidating girl drew more attention to herself than me.

So you see, not much of a spark to speak of.

Our second meeting and first real introduction was less than an hour later. We have Videl’s old, now mutual friend to thank for that. Erasa, the social butterfly and romantic fiend, was the first person to formally welcome me into our class by pulling little lost me into the empty seat beside her. Flagrantly ignoring the class that was being led from below, she introduced herself and her friends, including Videl. It was only then I found out that the young lady searching for the block of the Golden Fighter to knock clean off was Mr Satan’s daughter - the man who had taken credit, limelight and burden for my defeat of Cell. And it was also then I learnt the Golden Fighter was already a local celebrity. Whilst she recognised me from the crimescene that morning, Videl (thankfully) dismissed me as too great a goober to be the Hero. This defence has saved me an offensive number of times, actually.

Beyond my initial shock at her parentage, I didn’t pay Videl much heed beyond steering clear of her suspicions, either. My first day of school was such a mess that I was preoccupied up to the eyeballs with other worries. The teachers had singled me out as having the highest entry scores and as such I was an officially-sanctioned target. By the end of first period they’d found out I supposedly commuted for ten hours every day, lived in the mountain district (my subtle accent that pops out when stressed probably didn’t help me here) and was wearing the same clothes as the now infamous Golden Fighter. All that was saving my heritage and feats from exposure was the colour of my hair, natural knack for social awkwardness being mistaken for a lack of physical prowess, and the ubiquitous dimwittedness of teenagers (I include my young self in that - like I said, I was never subtle).

And slow to piece together the puzzle they were. After lunch I played baseball for the first time. In my eagerness to win social points I jumped a good ten metres to make a catch. Mom warning me to act normally was all well and good but I didn’t truly understand what normal was. When you use ki all the time those amplifications are as easy as breathing. Even after limiting myself my performance was impressive and I was invited to every after-school sports club you can dream up. Thankfully my ‘long commute’ made declining participation reasonable and, after a hard day that my identity barely escaped intact from, I could finally relax.

So there we go. The first time Videl heard of me she wanted to flatten me. The first time she saw me she treated me with casual indifference. And both times I was terrified of her. Soulmates.

That near-disastrous first day brings me to my third meeting with Videl, and the origin story I wanted to tell you. You see, I knew I had to retire the Golden Fighter - that day had been too close for comfort and even the most self-absorbed of teenagers would have done the math eventually; Videl got close enough during our introduction. But I also knew I wouldn’t be able to resist getting myself in heroic trouble again, leaving me and my family exposed.

So I did what all my friends and family do when they have a tricky problem with no obvious solution: pay a visit to Auntie Bulma and hope she can engineer you out of the hole.

In retrospect I’m sure she would have much preferred to tackle the “possible trouble with a girl” she assumed I was having at first, but at that stage even I wasn’t aware of the problem brewing there. Still, she offered to help and her solution to the Golden Fighter was simple: to jerry-rig a prototype device she’d been working on, the capsule watch. Not the standard discrete-capsule-inside-watch that you all know, but a specific design that threads the shrinking matrix throughout fabric and default targets to the wearer’s form, rematerialising over the wearer’s body. In short, it was an instantaneous costume, one I could pop on and off to fight crime in a moment.

The Great Saiyaman’s name was my idea but it was Bulma who designed his look. To this day I’m impressed she managed to pull the outfit together in one afternoon. I very much consider myself indebted to her for the success of The Great Saiyaman and all who follow. That chunky watch is not much different to the slim-line version Heroes and Shadows wear today - though theirs are discreetly hidden in jewellery and other accessories. Here’s an inside scoop for you: those outfits don’t replace my current clothes but shrink over them. Wearing the costume is atrocious in the heat, and what do we experience a lot of in Satan City? I have many-a-time begrudgingly hit that button when in full suit, (yes, with tie and suit jacket) and have waddled my way across the city to deal with some shoe down or another. Contrary to popular belief, there was never a meaner stand-in for me, I was just perpetually tired and sweaty on those days and therefore not in the mood to give many chances. Give a man a break, and offer your friendly neighbourhood Hero or Shadow a drink.

Bulma’s disguise worked well. Within days the Golden Fighter was consigned to history and The Great Saiyaman garnered admirers and nervous detractors alike. Kids loved the look (well, Goten did - he was six) and the Hero even got a movie, my cameo in which was sadly cut out. My stuntwork on the Age 780 loose-reboot is front and centre, at least!

The Great Saiyaman gave me the breathing space I desperately needed to work out the kind of adult I wanted to be. Though my absolute secret wouldn’t last long and at the time I cursed by luck for that, being unmasked turned out to be the best thing to ever happened to me. You see, the disguise worked perfectly against everyone, except the one person it needed to. The one person beside myself and family who had unwittingly the most to lose. Videl.

I spent half of my first expedition as a Hero catching up with Videl in a vain attempt to save her. I’ll admit I was underestimating her; I feared both that she’d been given the title of Crimefighter purely due to her father’s massaged achievements, and that she was in more danger than she realised, luck and sheer bravado carrying her safely through any previous skirmishes.

(NB in truth this was my second outing, but I don’t count the reckless drivers I put to right. They had no taste in Hero names and spread the wrong one so I’m going to rewrite history if you don’t mind.)

When I reached the scene she was more than holding her own, knocking down two men twice her size with admirable efficiency and methodical style.

I’d like to state for the record that I did play my part by saving her from a stray bullet, though she maintains she only got into that predicament because I was a bumbling distraction. We’ll have to agree to disagree. Still, we rallied and captured the fleeing robbers before they had chance to cause more trouble. Working together the task was simple. A quick success, I thought, one that would lead to future professional collaborations.

But despite my very best efforts to play the mysterious Hero, Videl rumbled me, and that was the third time we met.

Perhaps she recognised my voice, or maybe her ki sense was more developed than I believed and her ‘intuition’ clued her in. Either way, within thirty seconds of interrogation she’d tricked me into explaining how I’d snuck out of class, thus undoing my night’s hard work developing a cryptic Hero’s persona. I had the dance down pat and everything.

Auntie Bulma was right when she said I can be all brain and no sense at times.

What was worse, Videl hadn’t only seen me leaping about in a costume. I’d used enough of my abilities to both shock and intrigue Videl, and unfortunately she knew from our very brief interactions that I could be a bit of a push-over.

You see, one of Videl’s greatest traits is her tenacity. If she has an idea, or a goal, or any nebulous vision that she deems technically achievable, however low the probability, she will have no qualms pursuing her desires. In this case - Videl wished to learn to fly.

Nowadays she’s sweeter and more subtle than she was when we were in our teens - then being as blunt as the broad side of a tree-trunk to the face. I’d wager that anyone who’s worked with her on one of her many altruistic projects wouldn’t feel as though they’d been guided by her. In fact, many come away with the impression that they were the brains and muscle of the entire outfit. After watching my wife work the floor of a charity auction, it’s plain to see she inherited her father’s charisma with a stark upgrade in finesse. If my wife wants something, she will bend wills and even reality to get it.

I said to you a long time ago that my first student was Videl and I trained her all backwards. Let me elucidate. The choice to train Videl backwards was less a conscious choice and more the mad scrabbling of a boy attempting to save his own neck.

When she discovered I was due to compete in the Tenkaichi Budokai, she saw only one path to prove herself. I was to teach her how to fly, and then I was to fight her in the upcoming tournament. This was not up for discussion. She dangled my identity and family’s safety over the precipice with casual indifference and I had to yield to her. Yes, my first student blackmailed me into giving up my secrets. That may sound horrific to you. I’m surprised it hasn’t happened more often, really. But I forgave her. She’d grown up in the limelight and saw the attention at worst an irritation but with overall great benefits, so why wouldn’t I learn to like the same? At that point she didn’t know my last and greatest secret either, and one that I was desperate to keep from the daughter of the man who took credit for my victory. I could not in good conscience allow her to find out that I was the Golden Fighter, a Super Saiyan and therefore the young boy in the Cell Games. Her father’s success back then was predicated on a lie and I did not want to be the one to drive a wedge between them, or cause the world, her world at least, to be laid to ruin with one tiny admission. So I lied through omission again.

The upside of competing in the Tenkaichi Budokai was skipping school. You wouldn’t think I of all people would have taken so easily to the idea, but with the stress of keeping The Great Saiyaman secret and behaving like a normal human, absconding  to work from home with a stack of books was far easier - just like old times. I don’t think I could have managed my time at school juggling all that and a hot-headed Videl waiting for one misstep before blurting out my identity.

Goten was convinced that my silly foray into public school was over by then, a two week flight of fancy and I was back for good to play with him all day. My mother, despite being a stickler for academic focus, is also an extremely practical woman. She saw the benefits of the prize money that our family could sweep, so let him train. Even my father was able to attend nominally for the day - yes, that surprised us all, too.

I had to recondition myself and train Goten in that time, though I found his skills suspiciously well-honed. Not only had he been roughhousing with Trunk,s but our mother had been teaching him forms both as a reward for completing his homeschooling and for his own protection. Given that, I was confident our family could at least put in a good showing against the others. All I’d need were a few days alone with him.

But those few days were cut short by the arrival of Videl.

Videl was indeed serious about me teaching her how to fly, so much so she’d broken into the school administration office and dug out my address. Did I mention there was a five hour jetcar flight between Mount Paozu and Satan City to boot? Like I said, she chases what she wants and sinks her teeth into it until all protestations are subdued. I was the dead deer in her jaws. She chewed my ear off for leaving school to train, assuming I was ditching her. And because of that accidental transgression I was coerced into making up post-haste. So, having no time to teach the nuances of sensing ki and everything else you, dear reader, have had to learn, I had to go straight to flight.

I was an extremely fortunate teacher, however. Videl had trained her body hard her entire life and was already honed in mind enough that her ki flowed strongly, her power far greater than her father’s. This observation made a weird sort of sense. Like many people she watched the Cell Games and that day learnt the “great feats” her father was capable of. Since she idolised him and wanted to make him proud, she’d spent her time striving for those dizzying heights, hoping one day she could be a worthy successor. That one lie spurred Videl on so much that by her mid-teens she had already surpassed her father.

My intention had been to fit in two weeks of solid training with my brother. Despite Goten’s terrifying progress with Mom he couldn’t fly. Imagine that! The kid had puzzled out the knack of the super saiyan transformation and yet had not quite worked out the ki control required for flight. I guess this speaks to the motivating power of stories with children, plus Goten’s backwards-yet-ultimately-successful way of doing most things. That talent he got from Dad, I’m sure.

Thankfully then Goten took very little prompting, given he had otherwise perfect ki control. I even had to tell him to slow down and buzz off as Videl was getting snappy, her pride taking a beating; she was not used to struggling in martial arts. After enough failure to obliterate anyone’s confidence, I managed to convince her to sit still and learn a few basics. Whilst I did not have the words I have now, I muddled through, teaching her the exact intent that I will now teach you.

2.6.1 - Shine

That afternoon we sat facing each other. I spoke to her of the life all around us, how energy flows within us and in the carpet of lush mountain grass unrolling beneath us to the horizons and mountains - how I could sense that life, and she would be able to too, if she took the time to listen. I needed to show her ki was real, that she too possessed it, and to do that she had to physically see it. So, I put my palms together, took that breath, and drew my ki to a focus between my hands. Then I thought of sudden understandings, the first rays of dawn, the first breath of a newborn, announcing my own presence to a room, stars, light streaming through windows chasing back shadows and the Sun appearing from behind a cloud -  the mobile of ideas that in my mind support the intent to shine.

The ki transformed to visible photons - just enough to see in the daylight, and Videl’s face, both literally and metaphorically, lit up. She inspected the light, shuffling close enough to touch, although her nose would have passed straight through.

I recommend you get that close, too. See shine’s shape and how the light pulsates with the wavering intent, how that communicates back to you and you hear its whisper. There’s no shame in marvelling at truly seeing your ki for the first time (or rather, such a direct effect of it) and you should take every moment to relish it.

Videl set to work, and she tripped through all the faults we’ve covered so far together (holding the breath, subconscious tensing, ki frantically clinging to its original purpose) but eventually a jewel of light appeared between her shaking hands, flickered in surprise and confusion at its manifestation, then as suddenly as the light blossomed it blinked out of existence. Videl near-collapsed through the effort, but she’d done it.

Her shining eyes, the pride swelling in them… for me that memory is as crisp as the present reality. At that exact moment I felt that same pure pride in her as her teacher.

That first session went remarkably smoothly. In another reality it may not have done. You may think shine a benign ability. And it is, if it behaves itself. Whether it does or not is less to do with runaway accidents and more a reflection of your ability to control your curiosity.

Intents are just that. Your intention. If you intend to make a soft glow and hold that confidence you will. But a slip of thought when straining your mind can overcharge the intent, making a flash grenade. If your mind treads lightly and sticks to topic then shine will come to life without you having to know the exact wavelength of light or quantity of energy required.

Given both intents work on a similar principle (conjuring photons to interact with light), then like push, shine can have similar difficulties when focusing the intent. And like push, curiosity can get the better of some users. I did think about shying away from listing these possibilities, but I believe it more prudent to flag them and the consequences of not heeding my warnings.

The visible section of the light spectrum is only a very narrow band. Other wavelengths are available; radio and microwaves at longer wavelengths (lower energies), and UV and X-ray at shorter wavelengths (higher energies). In fact a shine intent created with the Sun in mind will create a blackbody shine, meaning there will not be one pure colour but a mix of many wavelengths, some extending into the infrared and UV in very low quantities, exactly like the Sun. One has to add the idea of ‘purity’ to narrow the band of colour. If you can make a vibrant green I’ll be very impressed.

Within that simplicity lies a danger. Creating high energy photons isn’t without consequence. Go too high, even by double the energy, you’ll be creating UV photons and give yourself sunburn. Go too low, think the light too faint and pump up the quantity of photons, and you may hurt yourself with infrared light.

Get even sillier and increase the energy per photon by orders of magnitude and you’ll create X-ray and gamma radiation. Note, do not think radiating yourself with this light will help you develop ‘superpowers’. Practising with this textbook is what will help you develop ‘superpowers’. All shineing high energy light on yourself will do is cause cancerous mutations.

I know, I know. Playing with such power is tempting. Thankfully, I believe anyone interested in eventually using their newfound abilities to conjure a gamma radiation torch for their macabre amusement would have long killed themselves off by attempting the stunts in the next chapter.

Applying a direction to the light much like push can both spare you energy and accidentally blind someone, so be mindful of the intensity of light you’re creating in these circumstances. Stick to an omni-directional shine until you’re confident gauging the strength. Although, a laser shine can be useful. I have a feeling I will soon be strong-armed into demonstrating my abilities at work, and when I eventually relent to pressure I have decided to create my own laser pointer for use in lectures. A well-controlled laser can be fun with pets, too - I know the cats (and old dinos) at Capsule Corp got a good run-out with a flick of our fingers!

But I’m off track again. I have a story to finish.

I’m not sure when I began to fall for Videl. It would be neat of me to say I fell in exactly that moment, as the breeze trailed through the long grass, with Videl’s deliberate breaths and determined muttering, her brow, temples and chest shining with the effort. In reality I only observed those things in passing, overcome with admiration only. If you would have told me then and there that I was to marry this girl I would have been beyond confused and mightily embarrassed. Given the difficult situation she’d put me in, I was more continually baffled by her sheer force of will. If I did find that as attractive as I do now, well, my frontal lobes were certainly not informed.

Videl has since admitted that she fell for me first, that she wanted to impress me by both taking to my teaching quickly and catching my eye. I wouldn’t have noticed her prettied appearance if she’d kicked me in the head (which she has done many times) and my lack of social prowess at that age compounded matters. Still, reminding her she’s a softie at heart is a fun tease.

Whilst Videl graduated from my cobbled-together classes we never fulfilled the second of her demands by having a one-on-one at the Tournament. I even attended as the Great Saiyaman, by then our public personas known acquaintances. Sadly, Videl was by all appearances gravely injured by an unscrupulous competitor, the damage’s extent made worse by her stubbornness - she refused to throw in the towel even as her bones shattered. I had to be held back to prevent me interfering with the match. So I do know her feelings towards me were reciprocated by then, even if I denied them at the time.

And that day became the fourth and final time we met.

The unpleasant individual who nearly took Videl’s life was part of a larger, far more formidable group. These outright villains were targeting me, my family and friends, then set their sights on the entire world. We had to abandon the tournament to try and save everyone from the horrors they promised would befall the planet. The Potential Apocalypse was not televised this time. I’m glad no one remembers witnessing it.

Videl wanted to take a stand too, but was unable to keep up on the journey. She knew then she wouldn’t stand a chance.

Then the moment I’d been fearing for so long came and went.

She asked, ever so quietly, whether I was the golden fighter. I steeled myself, knowing this to be the end of our growing friendship. I thought a full stadium had seen me transform so there was no point hiding it. I tried to apologise for lying but she stopped me, asking if my friends and family were the ones at the Cell Games, and whether that made me the little boy, whether we were the ones to kill Cell instead of her father.

My heart was in my throat. I couldn’t choke out an explanation.

But my breath was caught more by the way she looked at me.

Not in shock or fear that a mere child would have been capable of such a feat, or anger at my lies, but only a relieved peace as the final puzzle piece clicked into place.

Despite having confirmation that her father was for all intents and purposes a sham, she, above all, was proud of me.

She sent me off with good luck, a ‘keep safe’ and ‘hurry back’. And I did indeed return to her.

She says it was then she decided to date me, as though I wouldn’t have had a choice in the matter. And I really didn’t, but I didn’t complain. Even with The Great Saiyaman’s identity in tatters, looking back to that day and many more after in those verdant meadows around Mt Paozu, I don’t think I’d have life any other way. 

In the next chapter we will begin to amplify genki to enhance the basic ingredients, and develop the supers - super-strength, super-stoicity and super-speed.

As I’m sure you’re already finding, staying on top of all the elements of ki manipulation can be somewhat daunting. Upsetting the natural flow of genki may have been a difficult enough, so how can anyone fly or even glow ki in their hand when continually drawing from the centre? Even my experienced brain would fry. But there is a way to bypass the immense effort required, and that is by using a focus.

The focus of a ki technique is, in some respects, mimicking your centre, a kind of stop-gap for ki during your technique replication. That natural overdensity in the upper chest, the pool, created at first by a restriction of breath that we split and moved? The centre point of those two pools were foci for our ki.

More than just an anchor, a focus then is an object or point of attention close to or within the intended technique that can gather ki in reserve. Having ki closer to the point of use makes life far easier for a ki-user.

Natural (or, more accurately, subconscious) foci do occur: when we attend to those we love and our own genki reaches out; when we have an injury and genki rushes to assess the damage and to marshal the body’s response; or even when holding tools in our hand and our mind incorporates the object into our own self-image. A focus does not have to be part of you, another person or an object, either. In many cases the focus will be a point outside your body defined in relation to a part of you. Between your hands is the most common focus and indeed will be the first external focus we shall attempt.

If you’ve ever witnessed a demonstration of ki, I wager you’ve seen a spark of ki hovering above an upturned hand. This technique is the most common one used to impress as it requires minimal effort (you are not going to work up a sweat), can be performed in close quarters (unlike some of the more spectacular and explosive manipulations), and is far easier for beginners than hovering a half a metre in the air (though the glow elicits the same excited disbelief from a crowd). In fact, I used one of these tiny points of light to shatter the worldview of the journal editors. Convincing a board of hard-lined skeptics to give my research a fair hearing with unsolicited papers alone was always going to be a trial. A simple demonstration (and in my case a meeting arranged under false pretences - thank you, Professor Junkyou!) can go a long way.

The purpose of this section’s exercises are not to create a spark in the hands, not just yet. Whilst the move does rank on the easy end of the spectrum, there are a number of elements to nail down before one can perform a tiny glow. Shiny things may blow away those who have no ki-sense or training and win you that phone number at the bar, but your peers and teachers will be impressed more by your ability to split and redirect ki’s flow with nuance within and without the body. Aim high, and you may even coax a ghost of a smile from Piccolo himself.

If your only goal in reading this textbook is to make friends at parties or to see into the back of your cupboard then I permit you - and only you - to skim through the exercises over the next three sections. If you are planning on using ki for a number of tasks like flying (as I suspect many of you are chomping at the bit to do), the simultaneous components need to be mastered in isolation before combination, and one quick recreation of a party trick will not prepare you for those.

2.4.1 Hands

As tradition dictates, we will begin by building to a focus between the hands. Sit crossed-legged, in seiza or seated with your hands resting palm up on your knees or thighs - whichever is easiest to keep a relaxed-but-upright back. If you are unable to use both or either hand, keep the symmetry in the genki flow for as long as possible, and take when I say ‘palm’ as the part of the arm you would use to press or hold an object, and ‘fingers’ to be the furthest point from the body.

Split your genki to your shoulders as in the previous section. You should experience a fullness, a sense of warmth, comfort, security and correctness attributable to these pools. The centre point of the whirlpool of ki is the focus. As the genki settles there, the light pressure and warmth should build in tandem. Some genki will of course continue to thread its way along the flow of blood in the arms, performing its natural function to regulate allostasis, but most will stick to the focus.

Without breath in the arms to help push the focus to your hands the visualisation required - that expectation and imagination - is harder to conjure this time. If you’re having trouble, imagine the genki caught around the focus as water held back by a dam or barrier, only a trickle passing through, the pressure building behind. Turn the valve or lift a sluice gate to let that water flow where it most “obviously” “wants” to. By expecting genki to flow in this manner, your genki will eventually deign to do so. Your genki may get stuck on its way as it ventures too far from normal experience and that is a typical stumbling block. If you find yourself stuck with warm elbows, reposition the mental dam to this new spot and try again and again until your genki reaches your hands.

Eventually the warmth, tingle and pressure will fill your hands, in particular the palms and along the side of your thumbs. Whilst these sensations will verge on the corporeal, genki is not physically manifesting itself just yet, it is still passive. This pressure is not from an active intent like push, but is the sense of life and presence that exists in and around your centre at all times. The sensation is only remarkable and unnerving in the hands as it is so out of place here. When we move to intents in the next section, the difference between active and passive ki pressures will become obvious.

Moving ki to the fingertips does not necessarily require you to split the focus into five. Pumping the fingers by flexing your fists a few times will stretch the shape of the pool. As the fingertips hit your palms, the eddies in the current will be disrupted and encouraged to divert to the fingers. Once your have experienced this sensation, it will be far easier to imagine and therefore encourage your genki to do so without you needing to flex your fingers each time.

If you are finding these exercises too easy (a minority of you, I’m sure!) and wish to push yourself, try to formally split your ki and make each of your fingertips a separate focus. When performed correctly your palm will empty and the tiny pools of genki will happily settle in the distal phalanx (last finger bone) of each digit, under the nail.

2.4.2 Between the hands

As part of your body, the hands are classed as an internal focus. Now for an external example - between the hands.

Adjust your body so you are still sitting tall but this time palms facing, wrists relaxed and near-straight. Your fingers should be curled inwards, tips or pads facing their counterpart to form an arc but not touching, as though you are holding a ball. If this position is too difficult, one hand with fingers in the same position, mimicking holding the ball on one side, will work just as well.

Your new focus will be the centre of this ball, a point usually level with the base of the middle fingers. Move your genki to your hands (across the palms and fingers) to begin. That same sensation of life, of yourself, that current of ki flourishing within the hands? Project it, willing it to extend around the new focus, the flow from both hands converging like water from two faucets. Though the genki will wax and wane, tumbling over itself at first (more a roiling anxious mist in your ki perception than a serene ball), your genki will settle if you will it to calm. At first your genki will stubbornly cling to you and be confused as you encourage it to let go - this genki was not necessarily expecting to leave the body after all - but it will get used to the new status quo. If you wish to use your breath to aid the “expulsion” of ki, that is a great way to start! But again do not rely on this method, you need to ultimately untangle genki from the breath.

Congratulations! You’ve created a happy ball of genki. Your first external focus!

Why have I made you to go the extraordinary effort of forcing ki down your arms, into your hands and fingers to only expel it mere centimetres from your centre? Wouldn’t concentrating genki around your stomach and jumping the genki across the gap to that focus make more sense? Well, there is a method in my madness. Although ki does like to follow a simple path, remember ki is very much tied to flow, and so prefers to mimic those present in the body - much like electricity tries to follow the path of least resistance, or water flows downhill. For most people, of all their appendages the hands have the best dexterity, proprioception and therefore most nuanced ability to manipulate ki, far greater than an arbitrary spot on your stomach. And finally a practical reason - as you raise your hands this external focus will not always  be near your centre but always between your hands.

Ki doesn’t always behave like electricity - imagination trumps its stubbornness. Against received wisdom this exercise will work if your fingertips are touching, albeit slightly harder to perform. This difficulty is not because your ki will ‘follow the path of least resistance’ and refuse to jump to the central focus as some people believe, but because the sensation of touch will create and reinforce natural focusses along the fingertips and thus discourage ki to leave the hand.

Notation

Before we dive into other forms of focus and their uses, I want to introduce two notation systems to you. This will be a lot to take in at first but don’t fret, I’m introducing them together so you grow accustomed to seeing the very basics in tandem, not for you to become an immediate expert. The first I will expand on in the next chapter, the second the next section.

First is choreology, the study and notation of dance… Given this and the previous section I promise I am not tricking you into joining the theatre! Many of the techniques you’ll be learning later will have signature stances and rehearsable rhythms to the movements. Choreological notation, as opposed to my rambling, is the most precise way to record them.

As dance is typically accompanied by music, the notation is helpfully written on the same kind of five-line stave. The lines correspond to parts of the dancer’s body and surrounding space: the top of the head, shoulder height, waist height, knees height and the floor line. When reading you are looking at the back of the dancer, so actions on the left side are to be performed with your left. The stave shows a series of snapshots - frames - with movement lines indicating how to change from one position to another. The clef for this stave is a circle and straight line below, an abstract upright body.

The feet and hands are the parts of the body most transcribed, and are written as |, _ and a dot when they are in front, level, or behind the core of the body respectively. When elbows and knees are bent, they are indicated with a shorter, perpendicular line crossing them (or as an x when behind). The arcs below the stave indicate the direction the toes point in, and the hooks on the hand line follow the direction the curl of the hand follows (relative to the dancer’s core) to show where the wrists are pointing.

A diagonal line instead of a level line implies there is contact with the body (\ and / for left and right, adding a perpendicular line or circle if in front or behind). A fainter right diagonal line (/) crossing through the symbol implies the body part is on the wrong side of the dancer’s centre line (i.e. crossed-over), and a fainter left diagonal line (\) is used if the extremity is on the wrong side of the waist line (so hands and elbows aren’t confused with feet and knees).

There are plenty more rules of notation in choreology, but that is enough to start reading the staves below.

A note for those already familiar with this particular notation: the default is to assume ballet positions, that arms in front are slightly bent at the elbows, hands held with a characteristic delicate grace and level feet are fully turned out. Whilst you can adopt this, no such grace is required here. Arms out straight means arms out straight, and feet are marginally turned out for your stability and comfort.

The stave beneath this is for the fluxology, so-named for the study and notation of ki’s flow through time and space. Each of the five lines and gaps between the lines represent something different to the dance stave. From the top-down for the lines we have: a free line defaulting to the aura for neatness, the left hand, the right hand, the right foot and the left foot. Again this is as though we’re looking at the person from behind, but this time they’re leaning over - the clef for this stave shows this position. The gaps correspond to the head, the upper chest, the centre, and the pelvis. Below the stave can also mean the aura. Lines can be added above or below to refer to objects or other people.

Time progresses left to right as the with the dance stave, but this time as a continuous flow rather than a series of frames. Circles represent foci, both dotted and solid lines the flow of ki. Various modifications to the focus indicate whether there should be a change in flow rate, charge, amplification, or a rejection of ki (see diagram). Dashed lines represent genki, solid amplified ki or a mixture. A dotted line means ki from others. Vertical lines drawn between ki or foci shows a connection between them, like simultaneous action or a focus positioned relative to the foci indicated e.g. between the hands. When a line passes through a shape, that means the corresponding intent has been applied to that branch of ki. A tight row of ki lines serially connected with vertical lines are all branches of the same flow of ki at the focus they surround, though different intents may be being applied to the branches. Line weights can indicate if the proportion of ki is intentionally different between the branches.

Above are examples of relaxed positions and the simple flow of genki we have used for exercises 2.4.1 and 2.4.2. Note how, from context between the hand positions in the dance stave and whether or not the hand focuses are connected in the ki stave, it is possible to deduce the foci’s position.

2.4.3 - The feet

Much the same way ki can be pooled in the hands, the foot can be a handy focus, too. The feet and legs are already a strong focus as mitigating the stress of walking is managed in-part through genki.

In this case I want you to treat the instep of your foot like the palm of your hand. Of course, you probably don’t have the same flexibility in your feet as your hands and so cupping the feet in the same way will be tricky. If you can sit soles of the feet near-touching that would be perfect, though extrapolating from the average person’s flexibility you may have to make-do with outstretched feet turned marginally inwards. Thankfully this old dog’s still got it!

The same principles as before apply, but this time begin with the split focuses at the top of the thighs and expect genki to want to flow to your toes. Release the dam to nudge your ki along the intended path to your feet. Ki is more accustomed to pooling in the legs than the arms to brace when walking and so it will happily settle around your joints. It may then need some gentle persuasion in the form of visualisation to tighten up inside the foot. Remember to wiggle your toes to force genki right to the tips, too.

Now, imagine the external focus either directly between the the feet, or projected from both insteps to the centre of the ball they are trying to grip. If it would help at first to use a sports ball to find this point, please do so.

Why concentrate ki here? One preemptive (and potentially dangerous) leap of logic Pan students often make is to assume this must be the first step towards flight. Indeed, pooling ki at your feet and pushing yourself from the ground like a firework is a very effective form of propulsion. But fireworks have carefully designed fins to stabilise them and no method to reliably turn. Using a ki blast from the feet to fly will cause you to careen off into the blue and leave you hurtling towards an untimely death.

Although, such a risky move may just be what you need…

My parents’ home in Mount Paozu Sept 795, discussing unusual implementations of techniques with my father Son Goku, and Piccolo.

Goku: Oh! And there was the time I did the Kamehameha with my feet in the Tenkaichi Budokai! Have to admit, I’m still proud of that one. Gohan: In the 23rd, right? How did that thought even cross your mind? Goku: Well, I couldn’t fly back then you see, so Piccolo - being the super smart guy he is and all - had flown way up to get the height on me. I was getting pretty desperate and jumping to trade blows wasn’t cutting it. Then I remembered a time I’d seen the scene before. Do you remember, Piccolo? When I was a kid. Piccolo: To my eternal torment, yes. Father seared the image onto my retinas. Goku: [Chuckles] Way back when we fought King Piccolo, he’d grown to the size of a house to try and stop – Piccolo: He wasn’t the size of a house - at that moment, anyway. Goku: You sure? He felt like the size of a house. Piccolo: Because you were tiny, making the memory all the more humiliating for me… At some point King Piccolo had Goku right where he wanted him, half-dead with a broken arm and shattered knee. He couldn’t stand, so my father wrote him off. A huge mistake. Never write Goku off. Goku: Aww, you flatter me. Piccolo: King Piccolo flew up high, preparing to finally put an end to Goku’s meddling with a ki blast, when the kid shot up from the ground like a rocket with his working fist outstretched. He punched straight through my father’s chest. Goku: You see, I couldn’t jump anymore because my legs were useless, so I did a ki-blast with my good hand to push me off the ground, and then turned mid-air to slam him. It worked, and we won. Are you sure he wasn’t a giant? I went clean through. Piccolo: Very sure, pipsqueak. See? What normal child would think to do that? Never write Goku off. Or any of you Sons for that matter. Gohan: ‘Desperate times’, as they say - we’re pretty accustomed to those… So, the tournament? Goku: Ah yeah. Well, I remembered that fight, but this time I had my feet and both arms. I needed my hands free to deck Piccolo, naturally,– Piccolo: ‘Naturally’? Goku: – so by saying ‘Kamehameha’ as I fell I tricked him into thinking I was going for the blast with my hands when I actually channelled ki through my feet, threw myself at him, and smacked him in the face with both fists. It wasn’t enough to win that time but I got you good! Piccolo: The callback was not lost on me. Of course, I did a little hands-free blasting of my own as payback…

Being just as competent using a part of the body other than your hands (Dad his feet and Piccolo his antennae) can both release you from a bind and gift you the element of surprise, and with that the advantage.

4.2.4 Tongues and other focuses

Speaking of, one oft neglected focus (and yet arguably the easiest to use) is the head - specifically the tongue. As we’re not used to thinking of the head as anything other than a house for the brain and something to protect most don’t train this focus out of lack of imagination. But like the feet, learning to use your tongue can be an effective counter and, given the ease of the focus, free up effort to allow very complicated intents.

I skipped over the head until now as despite being the easiest focus, the idea of forcing you to sit cross-eyed with your mouth agape and tongue drying to a sad, shrivelled slip of jerky is - whilst amusing for me to watch - not hugely appealing for many students.

Since by now you will have brought ki to your hands and feet, this should be an easy task. If you need to do so, use one breath to bring the natural upper pool into the head. The tip of the tongue, which we are often cognizant of, will gladly harbour that genki (sorry, I know many people hate being made aware of their tongue and how it sits in the mouth). As you do this you may instinctively feel the need to poke out your tongue, as though continuing the breath’s flow from the mouth. Your eventual goal will be to close your mouth and have the ki concentration secretly grow behind your teeth to preserve the element of surprise.

Don’t panic that your mouth will fill with ki and explode! Unless you assign an intent to the ki, the ki will only gather, not interact with your body in any way. Many students are scared to hold their tongues back thinking they will break their teeth. Although, if you do wish to use the tongue to release a generic form of push intent, please remember to open your mouth when launching - I’m not going to pay for your dentist!

Using this focus isn’t exactly a pretty sight; it elicits bizarre kiai from users and fits of giggles from onlookers. Some of the most complicated intents, such as Gotenks’ Kamikaze Ghosts (a long story) use this focus, as well as their more simple Ki-Butterfly cousins. In the latter case their creators often breath directly into cupped hands out of politeness. Please push to surmount the anxiety of using this focus, as being able to unflinchingly use the tongue when your four main limbs are pinned is something not a lot of assailants will see coming.

With counters in mind, the eyes are another helpful focus and I’ve seen them used many times (Piccolo even used them in that same Tenkaichi Budokai final). However, I will not encourage you to use them at this point. You have not learnt to control intents yet and I do not wish you to do even the slightest hint of damage to your eyes. The eyeball itself can act as a very convenient spherical focus and the pupil a perfect exit to channel through. Even the lens can be used to focus and direct the ki if your imagination wills so. However, to do so means allowing your ki to interact with the lens and this opens the door to permanent injury. To that end I caution against using the eye for a focus right now, but if you feel like you need more practice on the face, creating a focus a handspan away from the tip of your nose will be far safer.

Finally, those readers with tails may also find the tail tip a useful focus, too. For those possessing the most dexterous types, I’ve seen ki-users bending the tip around to a curve - much like one would cup a hand - and focussing in the crook. The tail tip can be used much like a finger tip too, and if the tail is long enough to get behind an opponent at close range, you can attack where their defence is usually weaker.

2.4.5 Aura

The aura can be a useful place to pour genki into. Setting up a pattern of high flow rate from the centre outwards can help drag ki from your centre without you needing to actively drive it. Though be careful - ki that has left the centre begins to degrade (unless imbued with a hold intent, more in the next section). This mean you cannot carry around an infinitely dense cloud of ki in case of emergencies, so pick your moment. This preparatory technique is called aura shoring, and forms the basis of a number of nebulous and surrounding techniques we will cover in the future.

The focus for the aura then is the centre or more generally the body - only this time instead of concentrating the genki we are expelling it. This is a harder technique as we usually understand a focus as a point of attention to bring ki to, not to avoid. At first you may find splitting ki and channelling it out through the hands, feet and even head easier, but in this case that is very much making ki take the long way round.

To expel ki cleanly one can imagine an empty, calm bubble growing from the centre, genki riding the surface like dust on a shockwave until the bubble leaves the body. If that doesn’t work for you, just as a river’s eddy can be disrupted by putting your hand in the centre of the whirlpool and causing all the flotsam and jetsam to flow onward, so you can still the internal natural pools through visualisation and allow genki to meander its own way out the body.

When creating a barrier most ki users will default to using their hands to channel ki outwards (then anchor to the centre once the technique is in place), however being able to pop a barrier without gesturing can help you escape from some hairy situations. Utilising already held ki for a barrier is far faster and more efficient, to boot!

2.4.6 Compacting Ki

Go back to exercise 4.2.2 now, drawing ki into a focus between the hands. I want you to pay close attention to how your genki flows around the point focus - how it is denser at that point and tapers away, the particular flows and branches, the speed and frequency of how these flickers change direction. The exact nature of the densities and behaviour of those eddies will be unique to you. Next, I want you to compact the ki down to a point however you can. Try this without reading ahead. Remember the method of expectation and imagination.

What happened? Did you try to squeeze the ki, it caving at some point and slipping back through your mental fingers like a water balloon? Or did you spin the ki and tighten the whirlpool, with some licks of ki flying out? Or a mixture of both, a folding and squashing?

There are two schools of thought on the best way to reduce ki down to a point - whether to compress directly, encouraging the ki to head towards the centre point; or to rotate it all together, applying one tight and orderly movement to the whole flow. They both have their pros and cons.

Compression is the most direct way to compact ki, maintaining a similar density profile to its resting state within a smaller volume. Play whack-a-mole with the ki takes a lot of effort due to ki’s resistance of this squeeze trying to maintain its more nebulous form, though this method will come marginally easier with practice. The equal compression will keep the spherical shape, and these balls are relatively simple to direct when they have been released.

Rotating ki requires only one command and so is less taxing in terms of effort. The rotation keeps ki orderly and stable, too. However it will gravitate towards forming a disk, so the ki needs to be pulled out at the poles to form a sphere. The tighter the rotation, the harder the shape is to maintain, as the ki tries to fling itself apart along the outer edge. When imbued with particular intents and released, rotating ki is harder to direct than its compressed counterpart.

Some techniques will require compression (ki balls), others rely on rotation (kienzan), and some a mixture of both (beams). We all have a natural inclination towards one or the other, and so whichever is more natural to visualise and maintain will be the best for you to lean on.

The figure shows the symbols for compression and rotation followed by another symbol that the ki flows through, an intent. This intent - hold - and two very common friends - pass and push - will be detailed in the next section, 2-5, ready to finally put together in the last section of this chapter, 2-6.

To learn effectively in this section there are again real prerequisites. Before proceeding you must be able to: - Attend to the flow of your own genki along with your breath - Easily distinguish your own genki from that of those around you - Have a high level of autoceptive precision and discernment to ensure you are reading flow correctly and not inventing your success or failure to do so

If you have skipped any of the previous exercises that enhance the above abilities you will flounder. Whilst I understand your impatience I again implore you to review previous sections. You will reach your favoured techniques far faster by following my instruction, I promise you.

The link between breath and inner strength will not be a revolutionary concept to most. Think on how we use the breath to align, brace, and mentally prepare ourselves before running a race or lifting a heavy weight. Breath brings in oxygen which in turn allows us to utilise glucose acquired from food, fuelling our muscles to cope with the strain. Along with the elevated muscular activity is an increased need for genki to monitor performance, and both types of energy work in tandem to bolster our strength.

Exhaling while performing the most difficult part of an exercise protects us from the harmful effects of e.g. high blood pressure, but this action also encourages the maintenance of genki flow. Conversely, holding and straining the breath can cause physical damage and fatigue us with a lack of oxygen, and if repeated in quick succession the ability of genki to monitor and guide the behaviour of cells will also falter. When next lightly exercising note the difference between inhale, exhale and holding the breath, paying close attention to where genki is flowing to or struggling to reach. When genki flows well, so do you.

For those that have practised martial arts (or even attended a performance), you will know of the importance of breath there too - particularly how the use of voice enables the practitioner to perform extraordinary feats of endurance or pain suppression. These often guttural yells are known as “kiai”. You can try kiai yourself - notice the change in tension and readiness in the body when first breathing out quickly, then adding voice. The voice provides resistance, tightening the core, and acts as a beat on which to coordinate your actions. When you’ve found the perfect sound for your action (as bizarre as it may sound), kiai can encourage more genki to be released from the centre and even raise your yuuki. The simple and raw power of both breath and voice is not to be underestimated.

We will be using kiai fully at a later stage, but for now hold off. I do not wish you to shout yourself hoarse when you cannot yet manipulate your ki in a calm fashion. Still, please come to terms with the idea of shouting. Depending on the techniques you favour, you may end up making an embarrassing amount of noise in future.

2.3.1 Steadying the breath

All of these exercises will require you to comfortably perform a steady breath. This gives rise to an equally steady natural flow of genki which we can then begin to untangle. Let’s recap what should be second nature now from section 1.4.

Stand tall in front of a mirror, or if standing isn’t possible, find a comfortable position that will allow you to breathe freely. Centre yourself - in particular keep your head high and shoulders upright.

Take that first deep breath in. Was it abdominal or clavicalar in nature? If your shoulders rose first it was the latter - tsk tsk! Remember we want the movement of the breath to first reach right down into the abdomen to help whip our centre into motion. By this point those square breaths we used in 1.4 (inhale, hold, exhale, hold) to begin to sense the flow of genki from the centre should be more of a hindrance. If you breathe in a slow but comfortable rhythm, the sensation of your own genki flow will be apparent without the need to add pauses in such an excessive fashion.

Breathe steadily, keeping the flow of air as consistent as possible. You can check this by placing a finger in front of your mouth as if you were shushing someone, with your lips lightly pursed if necessary. Exhale slowly but not unreasonably so - keep the breath gentle on the finger yes, but do not breathe so slowly as to pass out! Remember not to slam-shut your throat between inhale and exhale, either. If at any point you’re holding your breath this should be purely the diaphragm’s doing and not through blocking the back of the throat with your tongue. That builds unnecessary pressure and causes a spluttering in breath when restarting. A rattle from a lack of air can occur on the turn from exhale to inhale. You are trying to for the steadiest breath not the longest, so do not try and force the end of the exhale.

When you think you have the breath steady attend to your genki. On the exhale it should naturally be lightly pooling anywhere from just above the heart to the head, but most commonly behind the jugular notch at the base of the throat. To me the pooling feels like an eddy in a stream - those little whirlpools in rivers catching debris formed when the water rushes past a sharp edge. Much like the water, genki swirls a little in this knot before wandering off. On the inhale, the eddy between the clavicles will empty and instead pool at the bottom of your breath, within the pelvis or even at the top of the thighs. Note the natural position of your own pools so you can attend to them when required.

2.3.2 Unsteadying the Breath

Undoing all our hard work may seem counterproductive, but unsteadying the breath in a controlled manner will allow you to practice reigning in the genki as a repeatable exercise. Whilst we will not be performing full kiai, I do want you to involve the voice a little. Engaging the vocal cords provides both a light restriction to the air flow and therefore a change in ki, and an auditory indication of how steady your breath is. Further, the sound will vibrate your centre, encouraging genki flow much like tapping a salt shaker.

First, try a long vowel sound - ‘ah’ - again going for that unwavering breath light on your finger. You should notice the pool of genki high in your chest deepens as it becomes trapped for longer. If you’re picturing that genki as an eddy, the whirlpool will feel larger, deeper, faster or tighter. This will happen naturally, much like the pooling when tensing the body during exercise. Flick between voicing the breath and not and you’ll feel the density of genki subtly wax and wane.

Adding consonants will very much highlight this difference. A nasal sound like “ng” will force air through your nose, a further restriction than just tighter vocal chords, and the step-change in pressure will wind that eddy further. It would be easy at this point to keep increasing the air flow (i.e. make a louder sound) to heighten the difference and if that helps you go ahead! But be wary of how and what you’re yelling, and try not to pass out. Get back to those light breaths when you can.

The biggest effect comes with plosives. Whilst the change in the eddy from unvoiced to vowel to nasal consonants flows well, a plosive sound, like “ba”, “ka,” “pa”, “da” and “ta” (and indeed North’s City’s infamous glottal stop, the break of sound instead of the t when they say ‘water’) all involve arresting airflow completely for a moment, followed by an explosion of air quite readily sensed on the finger. In that moment the eddy of genki builds then sharply relaxes, tightening then unravelling itself abruptly.

By this point observations of your own genki flow on the exhale should come easily. Take stock here and look at how far you’ve come; a few sections ago I’m guessing you couldn’t centre yourself, now you’re using your natural breath to move genki around your body and are now reading that very movement! We finally need to take the reins without the breath for assistance, keeping that flow consistent no matter what sound we’re making.

2.3.3 Unhitching Genki

Untangling genki flow from the breath (and any further manipulation of ki for that matter) requires two chained ideas - expectation and imagination. First, you must expect your ki to continue to flow in a steady fashion if you modify your breathing pattern, then you must imagine it doing so as you change your breath. This is far stronger a concept that merely ‘wanting’ or ‘wishing’ something to happen. You must suspend disbelief, convince yourself - and as consequence your genki - that the behaviour you are willing your ki to follow isn’t a fleet of fancy but perfectly normal. By imagining your genki behaving in a particular way you are giving your genki a template for your abstract expectation to follow.

At heart this is not an unfamiliar concept. Wanting to turn the page of a book involves an expectation that you can do so, and some fleeting forethought in your mind’s eye to know exactly what you wish to do with your hand. The only difference between pinching your fingers and shifting your genki is how the latter will be akin to willing muscles to twitch in fingers you didn’t know you had. This is difficult, but the process will eventually become second nature when using and developing ki techniques.

For now we’re focussing on this one simple exercise. Beginning with the simpler vowels then the nasals, first expect your genki’s flow to remain stable through the voiced disruption in breath. Then use your memory of its stability from the first exercise to imagine and will your genki so.

I agree, this is far easier said than done. There’ll be false starts where the strength of your expectation falters - have some confidence in yourself! The first few times this unhitching works for you you may experience flutter of excitement and nervousness, your genki and mind panicking at the achievement - much like letting go of the pool noodle and realising you don’t immediately drown. This switch in emotional state will cause your effort to slip a little and you may feel as though you are regressing. Don’t worry, keep working and the double-take will fade. Eventually you’ll be able to move onto the abrupt plosives and do the same, that flow maintained and pooling perfectly.

For the very final test here, stop the airflow by holding your breath for a few seconds and still keep drawing that genki upwards as if you were exhaling. At first the genki flow will peeter out as your strength of will fades until you resume the exhale. When you can bridge that gap of a few seconds you know you are doing well.

This is indeed a difficult exercise and not something I can provide any smaller steps to help you puzzle out. One of the reasons I believe children are so adept so early with ki-use is not just due to their sponge-like minds but both the strength of their imagination and ability to suspend disbelief. Some of the most advanced, wild and downright bizarre techniques I have seen were brought into existence by children purely because they assumed anything was possible.

Speaking of the foibles of children: whilst their ability to learn ki-use is unparalleled, so is their impatience.

Pan took to ki-use like the proverbial duck to water. Like all with Saiyan heritage she’s a natural mimic (quite literally ‘monkey-see, monkey do’). Flight was easy enough, strength came as she willed it, reading the ki of others’ as simple as reading the expression on their face. Young Bra too could use ki when she wished, although she was a little more boisterous in her application, often ‘accidentally’ letting her strength spill over in ‘disagreements’.

This may lead you to believe that there was never any trouble in training the girls. And that’s where you’d be wrong. Any child with a talent -  an early aptitude for a skill of any kind - will fold that talent into their identity. Often then, any perceived failure in that domain scares them. Not winning fights, not hitting milestones as fast as their family did, not meeting Piccoyo’s exacting standards for ki-amplification all turned them off learning to use ki in a structured manner. Running through exercises similar to the ones you’ve been undertaking so willingly would have been torture for any child even without the additional self-pressure.

This is a problem, as early ki-users have many lazy habits that need to be ironed out. But drills sucked all fun from using ki abilities, much like shuttle runs for exercise pale in comparison to exploring the woods all day. As young girls they dragged their heels and threw tantrums when asked to repeat themselves - Pan groaning and insisting instead on a grand adventure to push her limits the ‘proper’ way, and Bra stamping her foot, claiming she knew it all already so why bother.

And so, after months of struggle, we hit upon a plan - to turn training into a series of games. Some of those games are still in use by Pan with her students today (to great effect), many of which I will recommend to you as we progress through the textbook.

This first one I will describe is one of the more terrifying I believe - for adults, at least. Children on the other hand very much enjoy this exercise and will even perform it spontaneously.

In the context of breath control I am, of course, talking about singing.

2.3.4 Karaoke

Now, repeatedly screaming for kiai isn’t that fun and neither is making nonsense noises in front of a mirror for twenty mind-numbing minutes a day. But singing whilst controlling your ki can be. Some light karaoke with friends, sing-alongs with children or even bursting into song as you go about your day can help you squeeze in a little ki-manipulation practice.

My advice is to pick a song you like, preferably something a little wordy, or a song with long notes to hold. You want a song that is going to challenge your breath. By that I don’t mean the notes themselves must be challenging - sing a song at a comfortable dirge if you must. I’m a terrible singer, singing more off-key than on, but the exercise still works well for me (just not for anyone else within earshot). Rather than only a steady breath and genki to concentrate on like in previous exercises, in song there are unnatural stops and starts in breath. You must monitor your pacing to ensure you have enough air for an entire line of lyrics. There are tone and crescendos to concern yourself with too and all whilst keeping that genki flow consistent on the exhale. I am not being flippant when I suggest public singing in the form of karaoke, either. If you are able to hold your nerve and genki steady when doing something as terrifying as being on stage and at volume to boot, an opponent in battle will find the task of knocking your confidence very arduous indeed.

Be brave! Manipulating ki when distracting yourself with singing is an ultimate test of uncoupling breath and genki.

The one purely directional note I will pass on is, when specifically using this exercise to practice ki-manipulation, please keep the voice as a chest voice even when aiming high. Do not switch to the breathy head voice even if it means you make a terrible, flat racket. Your ki resides primarily in your abdomen and chest remember, so focussing on high notes from the head will not help stir up your genki.

Stuck for a song, you say? No matter, there is no escaping this exercise. I present to you an extremely cheeky song written by my brother about Vegeta to entertain Pan and Bra, when they were aged seven and six respectively, I believe. Children are sponges and Goten knew that - I don’t know what he was expecting to happen when Bra went home that afternoon but he did receive the beating of his life not long after (or at any rate, the worst I’ve ever seen from ‘friendly’-fire). 

Despite being an incorrigible imp he is a good brother, and backed up my fervent denials that I had any hand whatsoever in censoring or jigging around some lines so they scanned better (my rationale being that since I was having to hear my daughter sing this from the bottom of her lungs, I might as well not have to wince at the lyrics). He took all the heat and for that I am publicly announcing my gratitude by including the entire epic below.

The verses are spoken rather than sang, and the chorus deliberately mid-range. In that sense the song is simple, but the lyrics are fast and twisting in places, and won’t make much sense outside our family and friends. Still, now you have no excuse to skip this exercise.

2.3.5 Driving the Ki

Uncoupling genki in a limited context is one thing. To move genki consciously to other areas in the body it must be driven and we will again utilise the breath to provide the kick needed to do so.

Remember in section 1.6 when we were outlining the concept of vibrations and standing waves on a guitar string? A vibration is an oscillation, a repeated back and forth motion that can be described with equations. For this section picture a mathematically identical oscillation - playing on a swing-set. As you swing backwards and forwards you can either maintain a comfortable height, or kick at exactly the right time and drive the swing higher and higher.

We’re now going to do the same with your breath, finding the exact rhythm needed to flood the pools of genki on both the inhale and exhale, to tug on the flow from the centre and to move those pools away from their natural position within you.

Breathe in deeply - no rush to the action - but imagine the breath going into the centre and then past it, like the breath itself is drawing the genki low into the pelvis. Then on the exhale, imagine the opposite, the breath dragging the genki towards the upper torso. Keep performing this swing, each time expecting and imagining the genki to move further into your legs, then upwards into the head and shoulders. It should feel like an an ever-growing oscillation, an elastic pull, yo-yoing around the centre. Remember to not rush the breath and leave yourself dizzy! The enhanced flow will be straggly and unsure at first. It will appear to billow and dance ahead of the pool as only some your genki will understand what you’re trying to achieve, but keep up the attempt and the entire pool will follow with your ever-increasing experience.

This will be your first movement of genki enhanced with imagination and so may take you some time to learn depending on your ability to suspend disbelief. Thankfully when you feel comfortable doing so these last exercises will fall like dominoes (relatively so, anyway).

2.3.6 Flipping Direction

So far you have untangled genki from the breath and used rhythm to push genki beyond its usual resting position. This is all fantastic work, but a steady flow of genki upwards can be stalled by the inhale, naturally causing it to reverse direction. So far we have focussed on enhancing the natural direction for genki to flow but now you need to break that assumption. Now we need the inhale to cause ki to pool high in the chest, too.

To keep genki flowing in one direction as you perform a full breath requires a moment-to-moment changing expectation. In this case, a strong belief that it is natural for genki to pool upwards on the exhale as usual, and a switch to an equally strong belief that it is just as natural for genki to pool upwards on the inhale.

One approach to this switching visualisation is to imagine piloting with an airplane’s yoke (the joystick), or what might be more familiar to younger readers - a computer games controller. Against expectation pulling back (down) on a plane’s yoke raises the nose and the plane climbs, pitching forward (up) lowers the nose. In games (yes, yes, pick your jaw off the floor - I may look like I’m from the thirties but I have played them) the toggle to look around the environment can either work in the same way as a yoke, or as one would expect it to - pushing the toggle up makes the camera look up. Changing this setting usually involves arguing over something called the ‘y-inversion’ in some deeply buried menu screen. I hear debates over which setting is better can end friendships and cause family estrangements.

Switching that y-inversion setting on and off in your head every half a breath will be tiring and often uncomfortable at first, though  the flip will become second nature as your strength of visualisation improves. Be careful you don’t switch to a clavicular breath - chest rising on the exhale - to help perform the “inversion”. The change will help you perform the exercise as genki will be pulled up with your breastbone but you will fall behind on the learning objective. Watch those shoulders!

2.3.7 Pooling Low

We have heavily focussed on the top pool of genki as many of the flashiest ki techniques begin with a lift. The more workhorse types draw ki from all over including the aura and heavily utilise the broader lower pool. I want you to pay attention to that pool now. Using the inversion technique discussed above, keep your inhale natural and flip the genki movement on the exhale.

Your abdomen will be working as a bellow in its movement so this is particularly tricky on the exhale, as your genki will very much want to follow your diaphragm’s direction of travel. Likewise with the shoulders in the previous exercise, take care not to subconsciously roll your abdominals down on the exhale like a tube of toothpaste in an attempt to squeeze the genki lower. Keep willing genki below the pelvis and beyond. For some the pool may even escape the body or split and follow the thighs.

At this stage you should be able to enhance genki’s natural flow along with the breath, directly reverse this, and pool the ki consistently high and low with a steady flow. And of course, all whilst singing in from of a mirror. You got all that? There is one final element to put into place.

2.3.8 Splitting the Pool

Before I let you go, this very final exercise is crucial for the next section. Without this skill you will hit a figurative wall on the symmetric exercises, and later you will inadvertently smash yourself into a literal wall as you’ll struggle to provide the brace required for some techniques. This is technically the hardest exercise to perform in the sense your imagination is again being requisitioned, but if you have mastered the previous exercises there will only be one new element to learn. You need to define your own pools of genki or, in other words, split the natural pool of genki into two.

First, imagine not one pool but two overlapped completely - two candles so close their flames combine, or two jets of water brought together. Two sources with one output. Expect the pools to behave that way and imagine them so to reinforce this idea of two streams. You then want to separate them back out, like the two pools you ‘know’ them to be.

You may have experienced this splitting already, particularly if the default natural position for your lower pool of genki is below the pelvis, as the genki will attempt to stay in the body and so will increase the density in your thighs instead. If that’s been happening for you - great! This splitting should be a lot easier to visualise. The rest of us will have to be inventive.

Depending on what’s easier for you based on your experience with this section, there are two main approaches to this exercise. The first is to breathe naturally, letting that knot of genki move freely up and down with each inhale and exhale. On each breath however, attempt to split the two flows left and right, causing these mini pools to zig-zag up and down your torso until they are comfortably oscillating between your thighs and shoulders. Then you can work on steadying the flow again to keep the pools fixed in place. If that’s not appealing, keep the flow constant and try to crowbar the pools straight apart. The top or bottom pool will suffice. You may want to use the breath’s rhythm or heartbeat to do this inch by inch, it’s up to you.

Any way you approach this, you must eventually be able to perform this split within one exhale or less. If you can whittle the time required down to three exhales that’s more than adequate for the time being. To move on to any of the techniques in chapter three and beyond you will need to be able to move pools around the body near instantaneously, lest your ki be far too sluggish to do anything meaningful for you, or you be too reliant on the coupling of genki and breath for techniques the breath is detrimental for.

Remember: the ultimate goal is to perform this splitting consistently and steadily when standing, walking, running, talking and yes, when singing. Keep practising and the skill will come.

This has been a lot of nuanced work. I understand, so thank you for your patience. Some of you will have found vast swathes of this section almost immediately performable and may have wondered why I went to such a huge effort to explain the work. For others a throwaway line would have been excruciatingly painful and taken you days or even weeks to master. Everyone is different, so do not think my relative word count is an indication of the amount of effort you “should” have spent mastering those exercises - there is no right or wrong pace to be approaching the practicals, so do not be downhearted if the seemingly “simple” concepts were tricky!

In the next section we will discuss the concept of a focus - harnessing the pools of genki and the lax aura around it. There will again be some exercises for you to perform and I’ll touch on some of the more advanced focuses to whet your appetite.

Full lyrics: Gather round kith, kin (and clowns) to listen to my story   (Of a) man you know, a prince - although his line a faded glory. (Sold) as a pet so circumvented Saiyan demolition (He) flew to Earth for secrets worth the compromise of mission.

(Immor)tality his goal you see, our planet had the means to Grant requests but for the best Earth’s fighters won’t amene to. (Though) small in stature cameras captured his stupendous glee, “I’ll have a ball, killing you all!” - our forces disagreed.

(With a) big bald man, a half-baked plan and confidence astounding, Geets - that jerk - he set to work dealing out a major pounding. (The) man unleashed the King of Beasts - Oozaru loomed above them, (But) Geets forgot that Goku’s tot could do the same - he squashed him!

Uncle Vegeta, bruised and battered flat Got let go by Dad and co And Earth said that was that. Uncle Vegeta, his win streak knocked for six, Swore vengeance on our hero Son And with that he did split.

(Earth’s) forces dazed and broken raised a problem for our defence. (A) trip was planned to mystic lands - the undertaking immense. (The) rumours true we found our boon a magic to revive them, (But) in pursuit was Freeza too - Vegeta close behind him.

(The) local’s weak and quick to beat Lord Freeza thought them suckers. (Bro) had the gall to steal a ball that clever monkey brother! (With) Geets upon them our team froze and held their breath in anguish, (Though) needn’t freaked - poor, wretched Geets, he didn’t know the language!

Uncle Vegeta, the Saiyan now irate, wish not granted strength he wanted To indulge his hate. Uncle Vegeta, his work gouged out that frown, (His) boss a tyrant, even I’dn’t want to face him down.

(Then) came in view the motley crew of Krillin, bro and Geets. (To) take boss down and steal his crown would turn out no mean feat. (Un)lucky heroes - Freeza he rose up intentions cruel - (A) last defense to stave against the despot’s endless rule.

(The) band afeard but Dad appeared to help them save the day, (They) had five min to flee, to win, to make Lord Freeza pay. Dad got p***ed - he bore witness to Krillin’s grim destruction - (His) anger seared, it raged, it cleared his path to gold eruption.

Uncle Vegeta, was quickly pushing daisies (Dad) tried to save him, vision fading was he going crazy? Uncle Vegeta, convinced of his own legend (But) failed to reach that foretold peak “Earth’s” Son was truly destined.

(Not) quite defeated Freeza’s retreat ‘came a fast invasion, (But) Trunks appeared and quelled all fears by turning Super Saiyan. Geets glared on his boss now gone diced into red confetti. (He) needn’t fret Geets weren’t beat yet - just time got mighty messy!

(Three) years rolled past and so at last the gang were fin’ly ready (To) take on foes from Trunks’ woes two androids would be plenty. (In)stead found five, bad twins alive their strength not comprehended, “Tell me dears, do you feel fear?” - our Prince at last ascended.

Uncle Vegeta cockier than ever, (In)sulted one and she was done - She went and upped the pressure. Uncle Vegeta, learned to value women - Geets got bashed, his arm real smashed By Eighteen’s feminism.

Cell was braced to take its place as Earth’s new terror reigning. (With) Dad its target, Geets he started up his loud complaining. “Challenge me!” he shouted freely knowing that allowed for (It to) power up and tower over our team drawing uproar!

(Lost) to his son (the future one) on morals and intentions (As) Uncle knew the Games were truly of his own invention. (He) learnt his lesson flew to help them counteract his sins, (With) Cell distracted Geets smiled back as Gohan sealed the win.

Uncle Vegeta, his brave facade had crumbled. Overpowered, ego soured Went on kinda humbled. Uncle Vegeta, life now a sitcom - (Our) Prince, a cat, the technocrat And their b*****d son.

(I) came along the younger son, but with Pa then rather absent, (Ve)geta pained he caved and deigned to train what Mama hadn’t. (A) Saiyan’s Pride, our chins held high, old ways cemented surely,   (Though) Pa returned and Geets ‘bout turned - got baited to a tourney!

(Dad’s) tales of travels, spars and battles set Vegeta seething, (His) jealousy was plain to see, he barely sneered a greeting. (A) wizard quietly sought out piety, strength would be a bonus, (So) Geets’ psychosis ‘course got stoked with bogus hocus pocus.

Uncle Vegeta, was gifted his desire (Re)straint now lost but at what cost? In evil he was mired. Uncle Vegeta, slipped back to his old ways - (His) midlife crisis (that’d be my guess) Leaving us dismayed.

(Dur)ing their fight it came to light worse danger was a-lurking - (A) force called [XXX] snapped ‘Geta to, that demon needed hurting. (We) tried to help but only whelps Geets played the nicest guy, (Di’n’t) mess about he knocked us out and blew himself sky high!

Trunks and I, then met a guy named Gotenks - he’s so crazy! (We) trained and played all night and day, that ‘week’ was pretty hazy. (Hit) three did he, surpassed old Geets before his dust had settled - Safe to say in Hell that day our Prince was truly nettled!

Uncle Vegeta, he couldn’t let it lie, (Climbed) out the grave, the Earth to save and make [XXX] wave goodbye. Uncle Vegeta, failed pleading with the nation. Though absurd the voice all heard? Our hero Mister Satan!

Geets? …Oh he chilled out - you see, the battle did subdue him. (He’s) settled down in West Downtown, great father to his children. (He) trains all day for future frays and barely stops to rest, (But) after all his sweat and toil… My dad’s still the best!

Uncle Vegeta, our Saiyan Prince redeemed. (With) Bulma’s hand and CC’s brand Their hellspawn reign supreme. Uncle Vegeta, if he should hear this sung? (I’m) dead, long gone, deceased - hold on–! I better ****ing run!

In the last section (2.1) we covered autoception - the internal sense, and learnt to consciously read the messages moving throughout the body that keep us functioning as a single organism. Remember those messages are written as intents (a form of programming) on the genki released from our centre. Also recall that some genki leaves the body to form an aura (section 1.5). The aura reaches out to others near us to facilitate subconscious social interactions, like passing on reassurances or warnings of danger, helping to create a sense of a person’s emotions and motives beyond what mere visual clues can provide. In effect, the messaging between auras supports the remarkable empathic abilities we possess as a social species.

For ki-sensers in auratic contact and feeling mutually open with others, picking up nuance in someone else’s genki is natural - not just their strong ki-signature impacting on your ki-sense but some of their open, intended actions and the emotions they wear on their sleeves. As that closeness in feeling deepens, the reading ability can extend to abstract thoughts we wish to share. Taken to the extreme, auras will become inextricably intertwined and a ki-senser’s genki ignores some of its own checks and balances with friendly genki, treating another person very much an extension of the self. We can in effect pass exteroceptive sensation like touch, proprioception, even vision to others when we are lost in them. This is beyond the mere heartbeat and breath synchronisation between two partners. In short - for those who can perfect the ability, ki-sense at its height and pushed to its limits can enable a telepathic closeness no other ability can.

Though the above heavy nuances are only possible to detect in auratic contact, remember the centre is forever in contact with the ki-field, drawing up particles energy from it (1.7, 1.9). That interaction is not without consequence. The interaction disturbs and vibrates the ‘surface’ of the field, and that vibration - propagating outwards instantaneously, as reactions down there are wont to do - can be detected by others whose attention is in tune with the surface. A practised enough ki-senser can hypothetically read a ki-signature coloured by their most major intents from the other side of the Universe.

I hope you can understand why then I believe this ability is such a world-alterer. Having the coveted ability to fly, an ability I’m sure in part attracted you in part to this book, allows us to see the world below from a different perspective. Having the ability to read another’s ki enables us to see from all perspectives.

Those giddy prospects are unfortunately a ways off for a novice. Getting to grips with the world closest to us will do for now. We shall discuss the differences between the two types of sensing in this section through a series of exercises increasing in difficulty. Whilst complete mastery of each exercise is not required before moving on, please try for a hint of success first - for the impatient I will indicate when you can start trying the next. You must also be at least proficient at autoceptive insight (2.1.1) and discernment abilities (2.1.2 and 2.1.3) before trying these exercises. Without those skills enabling you to identify your own genki’s noise reliably, your attempts will be a messy, uphill struggle. Lastly, these are basic exercises that like autoception I recommend you revisit often to ensure your proficiency in connecting to your ki, the ki of others and the ki-field.

Choosing a target

Before we start outright, I want to discuss the set up needed for this exercise - some of which may seem obvious to you but from experience won’t be to everyone - and what you can expect.

The easiest way to begin to sense ki is to be in auratic contact with someone. Ideally they will be a willing and patient participant in your studies, a person who will move around the room at your command, and are happy for you to slink away to pastures unknown whilst they remain in a tight location for what could be an hour or more.

However, I am aware many of you will be working alone or in secret. This is fine and the same exercises can be performed, you will just have to adhere to an unsuspecting someone’s timetable.

Your helper (or target) must be someone known to you and at least neutral to friendly with you. The more familiar you are with them and their presence, particularly in terms of emotional closeness, the easier this will be. A partner, family member you genuinely like or a friend would be perfect, though a pleasant enough neighbour will suffice. This person should either be in the next room (within your home or an adjacent neighbour’s) at a distance of three to five metres. This separation is just enough for two median-average Earthling auras to barely overlap. Remember, genki without an intent to interact with the physical world will not be hindered by something as trivial as a wall - however vision and sound is blocked by those, two cues you may use to subconsciously cheat.

Note: whilst we do love our pets and they particularly love us, this exercise will be orders of magnitudes easier to only practice on humans to begin with. Any kind of human will be perfect - using someone from the anthropoidal, teratoidal, zoomorphic or even (part-)alien subgroups won’t help or hinder you.

Ensure for the first exercise at least that your target is the closest person to you to allow their ki-signature to dominate your senses. In most contexts and environments this is a fair assumption to make and will be the assumption we will make to help isolate another’s genki from our own. I emphasize here the word most. If you are attempting this exercise at the back of one of my lectures: one, please don’t - as boring as I or the material can get I am trying to impart on you important knowledge so I would be grateful for your attention and two, even in the expansive Miguel Hall at UoSC, the brightest ki-signature you’ll be picking up won’t be the object of your affection five rows in front, but me. Hello!

Where and how will I ‘see’ ki?

This is an interesting question and the precise answer will rely on your level of experience, your brain’s plasticity (ability to adapt) and some individual quirks, and this will change over time.

For most of you this will be a brand new conscious experience and will be bizarre to say the least. Thankfully there are analogous situations with other senses that can elucidate. Sometimes individuals without much visual experience - say, are born with or develop cataracts very early - can have medical interventions to restore, greatly enhance or outright give sight. Equivalent interventions like cochlear implants can do the same for those born without hearing to provide some semblance of sound.

When the processing for these senses is suddenly required due to a new type of information appearing in the brain, the brain’s underdeveloped architecture in these regions warps the perception of the information. To explain - we don’t just experience the raw input we take in (see section 1.6 on colour processing). For those with all their senses intact, the world the brain shows us has already been neatly divided into individual shapes and sounds, distances, colours, names, etc. Many of us take the ability to match the sound of a human voice to a human face for granted - but for those who are gaining these senses, the brain just does not have the previous experience to marry the two and the world is extremely confusing. Someone who has gained sight can easily tell the difference between a cube and a ball through touch, but would struggle to find the cube when looking at the objects. Someone who is experiencing sound for the first time can be overcome with a sense of pain as the sensory information becomes overwhelming.

Processing and gaining a conscious sense of ki then, when there is no or a very rudimentary architecture in the brain to do so, can cause a similar confusion until the brain prunes and grows more connections between regions. As I’ve delved into before (sections 1,2, 1.6), for those coming to ki-sense later in life the mind will process the information as a mix of exteroceptive sensation and thought. For those young enough (or with a greater brain plasticity) an entirely different sense will eventually develop; although when trying to describe what they’re sensing these individuals will default to using the other senses and complex analogy, too.

Often the words “see” or “feel” (in an emotive sense) are used to describe sensing ki, though the choice of language is ultimately up to you. Saying you can perceive a touch on (rather than from) the other side of the room sounds odd, but when sensing ki all bets are off. As sources of ki can be isolated in space much like vision can isolate objects (i.e. with a position and depth)  ki-sense is sometimes considered a form of second sight, although not encumbered by the normal restrictions of vision. The accuracy of our visual depth perception is governed by the distance between our eyes, but for ki-sense only experience and ongoing practice draws the line. Further, our vision is limited to taking in the world in front of us with forward-facing eyes and is a defining feature of all subgroups of Earthling humans. The idea of seeing out the back of our heads in absurd - there is not black in our vision but literally nothing. In fact, if you try and imagine the scene behind you (I’ll wait…) your first instinct may be to picture what the world would look like if you turned your head, rather than imagining the world around you as an unbroken whole. With ki-sense however, behind you is going to light up just as well as the front.

We don’t just have one “layer” of perception, either. There are many “locations” within your perception that ki can be sensed. Usually the first place your sense develops is within the mind’s eye, your internal world, before moving to the external world.

As a one-off experiment, keep your eyes open and switch your attention into your headspace, your mind’s eye. Often you’ll find idle memories bubbling up from your subconscious or you’ll have an earworm - one of those incessant songs stuck in your head. Now, imagine a cat in this space. Recall the cat as vividly as you can - its sound, its movement in a familiar environment. The cat exists in a space separate from the world your eyes are processing and, although you are imagining the cat in the same space as those earworms and memories, this conscious effort is easy to separate, as if they are on different layers of the mind. Your imagination is “closer” to you, those other thoughts triggered in other ways are more “distant” from you.

Now imagine the same cat but in the world around you. No matter how well you can project the image of the cat running along a wall beside you is, you know the projection to be separate from the world you are truly seeing. This imagined cat is again closer to you than the external world. For those individuals with synaesthesia you will know that the synaesthetic responses are very close to those automatic thoughts (if internal) or very close to your perception (if projected). That is the same with ki-sense - ki-sense is extremely close to those automatic thoughts and the external world (behind even the synaesthetic response), and far from your imagination. The difference between imagining sensing ki and actually sensing ki is pretty much as strong as imagining seeing a cat and genuinely seeing one. You won’t mistake the two.

(As a curious side note, not everyone will be able to do all of the above; around 2% of the population do not have a mind’s eye, known as aphantasia. Being aphantastic will not hinder your progress in sensing ki; although you may not directly “see” ki in the mind’s eye, your gut reaction will remain.)

No matter where ki appears in the internal or external representation of the world around you, there are some constants. The ability to localise sources of ki-signatures, your “acuity”, will come first before your depth perception and the representation will broadly mimic (though not limited to the visual) the image of the world I painted in section 1.2. Further, whilst you can go to great lengths to describe the ki-signatures of everyone you meet, you will not be able to get an explicable handle on your own ki-signature straight away - save a sense of uncanny familiarity. As our own ki forms a background to our lives, our ki-signature becomes the ‘default’, much in the same way we believe ourselves and those in the local area to be the only people in the world without an accent (whilst buried deep under my tutoring, I hear my Paozu accent surfaces at times). Though, unlike an insubtractable accent, you will eventually learn to suppress your ki and thus sense the world with and without it to gauge the difference your ki causes. As a consequence of our own ki interfering, we do not have a completely objective sense of the ki of others; I can discuss the feel of someone’s ki-signature with friends and family, but there are subtle differences in how bright or colourful they present. The image below I was hoping would illustrate this, but not everyone took the task quite so seriously.

[Click for fullscreen] I dreamt up this game well before starting research proper for Groundbreaking Science, some time in Age 785. The idea was for friends and family to choose the best way to represent the ki-signatures of people they know. Indeed, not everyone has an overwhelmingly strong visual sense and that is expressed above. Whilst I was hoping the image could display the similarities between parents and children and the possible variations in perception, a lack of participation (Trunks), collusion (Pan and Dad) and very probable delegation (Vegeta to I suspect Bra, with him at least having creative direction on two of images) have made that harder to see. Still, I hope you can appreciate how difficult working with these test subjects has been over the years.

You will find some beats of the ki-signature reliably correspond to intent, moods and indeed personality. Those threads have been put to bizarrely good use by my brother Goten who, if there is indeed an official playbook for ki-use I’m not privy too, has I’m sure invented most of the irreverent uses. As a case in point Goten found the perfect way to make an impression - at first tailoring cocktails at college parties, then later creating bespoke sweets and hot drinks to match individuals, for many the best treats they’d had by far. Now his entire business revolves around his knack for “taste profiling” in just ten questions. The interrogation begins with reasonable, standard questions like “bitter or sweet?” and winds its way up to “I take you to a random place blindfolded. For ten million zeni, would you jump backwards?”, changing completely for each person. His secret? The questions are all for the crowd’s entertainment, more a patter to give him time to throw something tasty together. Instead he relies on reading ki-signatures (plus the hefty experience of trial and error used to develop his mental look-up table) to provide the ingredients list. Competitors have tried and failed to mimic his trick over the years, feverishly listening in on every profiling session customers willingly pay extra for and leaving frustrated, finding no pattern to the questions and results. Well, now I guess they can start to catch up. He could use the competition.

Exercise 2.2.1: Within Auratic Contact

Now you know exactly where and what to “look” for, let’s begin.

Please sit in a comfortable position (cross-legged, seiza, seated), centre yourself and calm your breath. At first access your own bodily sensations and use that to monitor your own genki’s flow for a time. In particular, pick out your breath and heart rhythm. Again how this manifests in your mind or projected in the world will differ - some will feel a physical rhythm, others a visual flash or a sound, a combination, and others an isolated emotion. Cruciall your own genki should feel normal to you, neutral in tone. You can feel your genki’s presence and its intent but it is otherwise clear, like how water has a weight and resistance but is otherwise without colour.

When you are comfortable in that sensation, open your ears to other beats. Listen not within now, but without, shifting your attention towards where you know your test subject is - somewhat of a cheat to start with, yes, but there’s no reason to make the work unduly difficult just yet. The temptation will be to reach with your own genki like our auras do when wanting to find or longing for someone, and whilst that will bring your own genki closer to theirs and so help telephone back their ki-signature, reaching is not a habit to fall into if you want to progress to sensing disturbances in the field. Wait, be patient, do not strain to reach.

As your attention is turned your skin may prickle and tickle, a tinnitus may be induced, a sensation of pressure on the mind itself may manifest. Your own thoughts of the person will be triggered in recognition as expected, the same thoughts and images that surface when you hear their voice from a distance. Seemingly unrelated memories or imagery, or smells and tastes and sounds may trigger within your own headspace, though on a separate layer of perception from that ongoing pop-song you’ve been unable to shake for the past three weeks. If you break from this direction of attention the sensation should leave (and the earworm sadly continue).

That cacophony of sensation is a ki-signature.

How will you know if the ki you are sensing is that of your target’s? This does not sound like much of an answer but the sensation will literally feel correct. This is why we were working on our autoceptive discernment in the previous section. The good and bad feelings we have in our gut can be accurate if we train them to be, and that gut feeling will tell you whether you’re picking up the person you expect. If in your over-enthusiasm to learn how to fly you’ve skipped autoceptive training, then your gut feeling will be all over the place and therefore useless. Sorry! Back you go.

After you’re sure you’re able to find someone within auratic contact, it will be time to train your sense of direction.

Turn your attention away now, perhaps in the opposite direction to your target. Early in your study the sensation of a ki-signature should fade across the entirety of your perception like an enveloping pulse, with no directional information. This means you can use the changing sensation to play a game of hot and cold, brute-force finding where someone is. With increased experience that sensation will immediately resolve itself into a gradient across you then slowly focus down until you are able to resolve their shape in your mind’s eye. This is the sensory equivalent of slowly moving from mono to stereo, then to surround sound. Again, keep practising and the sensation will begin to overlap on the world around you too, growing in acuity until you can resolve the filaments of flow in others to the same level as your own genki.

Whilst you can also (necessarily) read your own intents, you will need a high degree of closeness - effectively a permission from the other person - to read someone else’s to a nuanced level, and even then it will never be a perfect read. Pure, long distance and exact telepathy is reserved for those with magic. Never fear though, the gist of meaning can easily be sent between the auras of nearby friends through strong emotions or a coded message of imagery.

Consequences of over exertion

Be cautious in your practice, however. Zealousness in the early days can lead to a tiring of the brain and your ki. This will not manifest as mere exhaustion. You’ll first experience warning flashes of intensity lasting a split-second. These zaps can feel like breakthroughs in your practice and may encourage you to push further but that is a misinterpretation - your progress should be slow in ramping. Instead, this is a faltering of your brain and genki’s ability to modulate the new sensations relative to the sensations you’re used to processing. Ignore these warning signs and your mediocre ability to sense ki will slam in the other direction, creating an overstimulation, a sudden hallucinogenic-like experience. Ki will become indistinguishable from other exteroceptive sensation, your brain’s interpretation moving to that furthest layer of perception. In other words, you will see and hear, taste, smell, and feel the ki around you with the same immediacy and clarity as the solid world.

Does this sound like the perfect way to hack your way to mastery to you? It shouldn’t, not when “blinding” all your senses in its strength. And unlike having a bright light shone in your eyes or a foghorn blaring, squeezing your eyes shut or tightly covering your ears will not make the sensation stop. The effective seizure may last only a few very long seconds, or it may persist for minutes at a time. The over stimulation will cause you to reflexively vomit, scream in imagined but very real-feeling pain from your eyes and ears, and feel like you’re tumbling down a hill whilst being simultaneously exploded and crushed alive from all directions. Thankfully, you’ll pass out pretty quickly.

Don’t ignore those first strange zaps.

The risk is only in the first few weeks until new connections are made in your brain to process ki information properly. Until then however, be careful.

Exercise 2.2.2: Exploring the Ki-Field

Before attempting this exercise you should at least be able to sense a gradient of correctness across yourself when sensing a particular person’s ki-signature - in other words, your ki-sense should at least effectively be in stereo. If you’re still working in mono, you’re about to get lost. Quite literally.

Reading the ki-signature of a ki you’re practically enveloped in is one thing. But being able to find that ki-signature again when there’s a block, a city, a vast mountain range or even an entire planet between you is a different skill entirely. You need to be able to read the ki-field, that membrane all centres and therefore ki interacts with (1.9). Now, rather than being in the room over, you need to put a fair amount of distance between you and your target. This could mean you moving to a bench nearby or an empty café, though ideally somewhere others won’t be in auratic contact with you at first like a park (if available). That, and so people won’t be stopping every five minutes because you’re inadvertently pulling a strange face in concentration(!).

To begin, look for genki in general, your own and the ambient genki around you. Picture the genki fading away, those wisps depleting like steam from dumplings or coffee, energy and particle uncoupling to return to that lake of tappable energy. As part of its uncoupling, the intent within unravels - thought and ki-signature alike - losing voice and identity. Now imagine this separation affecting you, peeling yourself away from the surface of your own identity to become closer to the wider world around yourself, akin to those moments of sheer awe one can experience when in connection to the wilderness or the city rushing past you. Let the feeling take you and let yourself fall into that rush towards the ki-field, that expanse of lake, until you feel a sharp tug back. That tug is literally your life. The line acts as a life-preserver of genki threaded around your centre preventing you from completely losing yourself to the oblivion below. Do not worry that the tether will break accidentally. Though severing this line is possible to do, to do so would take an extremely deliberate act by a master of ki manipulation.

Getting close enough to the field to ‘touch nose’ to it (metaphorically speaking) isn’t necessary to read the currents and ripples of ki-signatures - though being able to get that close without fear of permanent loss of self will help you when we move to amplification of genki and the theory behind techniques such as ‘instant transmission’.

Once immersed, the quiet few ki-signatures you can possibly feel around you will multiply in volume. The world, the Universe even, will be yours to grapple with. Most will be a sheet of static to you, some buzzes louder and more unfamiliar than others and at first you won’t know if the intensity is due to their power or distance. To begin with, let the ripples of ki-signature wash over you. Like hearing an orchestral piece for the first time and struggling to pick out the french horn or tuba, the noises will eventually resolve themselves into individual signatures. You can then begin to pick out separate threads of ki to compare what you feel with your memory of the target.

At this point your target will only be in some vague direction and have an intensity to you, and will feel much fainter than before to boot. The ki-signature will slip from your grasp often, but as you practice you will be able to hold tight and study, even from a distance. Shifting attention to deliberately drop and find the signature again is a good exercise to increase your confidence.

Exercise 2.2.3: Homing Beacon

When you are able to reliably find your target, start winding back the sense of immersion in the field. This is most easily achieved by paying attention to the physical world around you. When the signature slips from your grasp go back down to find it again. At some point you’ll be able to hold that thread reliably (with minimal attention on the field) whilst engaging eyes open with the world around you, then eventually when standing and walking. At this point you will be ready to find your way home. Using the vague sense of direction you’ve gained with the ki-signature, aim yourself towards the source. With every stride the intensity of the ki-signature will increase (if imperceptably at first) until you bump into the source.

Technically, you can perform this task with your eyes closed, though I wouldn’t recommend navigating anything but a very flat and empty expanse without vision to guide you - remember genki is not by default hindered by physical objects .so your ki sense is not naturally likely to prevent you from tripping (unless you have deliberately set your genki to search for obstacles, but that’s a discussion for another time).

If you have a very willing participant, you can ask them to hide in the city or woods and see if you can hunt them down. Don’t get too ahead of yourself - wherever you go to do this, make sure you’re able to safely return home without using ki-sense, too!

Exercise 2.2.4: Multiple Targets

This last exercise will stimulate the development of your depth perception, and is best started when your acuity is such you can pinpoint the direction of your target’s ki - faint though it may be against the background - at the distance of a few kilometres.

Learn a few more ki targets; three or four total is a good number. Again, the closer the person is to you emotionally the better, but in this case you need the individuals far apart - so friends, family across town or work colleagues would be ideal. Get some distance again and double-check you can find these individuals.

Then pick any direction and start moving. Public transport would be ideal as you won’t have to concentrate on driving but I understand not everyone has access or the means to ride trains and buses all day. Walking will do, although changing your position relative to others is the goal and doing that quickly with motorised (or vapourised) transport will help your sense develop faster.

However you travel, both the position and intensity of your targets’ ki-signatures will change. Some will be growing then fading as you go past their home, others will remain the same intensity but change in position as you inadvertently circle them. As these signatures circle and wax and wane, your mind will begin to map where they are in space, and eventually - pop! - you will be able to ‘look’ in their direction and ‘see’ exactly where they are. Depth perception will appear first for ‘important’ ki-signatures like your targets and then signatures you care about, before settling across all, finally forming a 3D coherent image with a noisy, truly distant background you aren’t yet able to resolve.

Of course, we all have our limitations and that is due in part to the faintness of the ki-signature. As mentioned in section 1.2, Videl learnt the sense of distance the jarring way - by knowing the ki-signatures of powerful people on the other side of the globe. She learnt what 12,000km felt like as though looking over a cliff face at it and it made her ill. In that regard I do not recommend learning ki-sense by choosing a local hotshot as your target, less they change city for a day and you’re left quaking in your boots as the distance resolves itself! Still, you may at some point experience some vague vertigo as you sense us training or entire cities on the other side of the world. It will pass, but daily life may be extremely difficult for a few days. Sorry about that.

If you keep this practice up, dropping into the field or sensing aura will be simple enough and you’ll always have a part of your mind on it, like a fishing line trawling behind you. This is a useful skill as any big disturbances in the field will draw your attention, and your aura will keep a weather eye out for people sneaking up on you, much like hearing an alarm. Your ‘sixth sense’ can and will unnerve anyone not in a similar situation to yourself however, so try not to vocalise your observations too often. People still like to knock on doors to announce themselves even if you both know they know you know they’re outside. Maintaining the pretence of privacy is of great comfort even amongst ki-users.

I can’t promise you will master ki-sense over the course of a few weeks. The sense will take years to perfect, but ideally your acuity when in auratic contact will develop over the course of the next few sections, and you will be able to access the ki-field by the time we begin amplifying genki. Wishing to master the exercises in this section before moving on is a noble goal for sure, however in this case I believe you are more than capable of moving on to the exercises in the next section if you are able to sense a vague directional component of ki whilst in auratic contact.

I’m excited at the prospect of the world at large learning ki sense. Not just to bring us closer together as a planet but for the immense power the sense adds to daily life. The first benefit I can bring to mind is for medicine. There’s a reason some older medical techniques discuss flow of ki in the body - practitioners of these arts use a different paradigm than my own, though they are not incorrect per se. Disruption in flow, pain, a concentration of buzzing genki around a problem area can all stick out like a literal sore thumb to the most skilled practitioners. Ki can also in part be used to heal, a form of externally-induced transformation. However, healing is a combination of ki-use and magic I am not experienced in and so the technique will not be covered by myself in great depth.

One further, frivolous use of ki-sense I’ve always found handy is never, ever making the mistake of asking a heavier person if they are pregnant. To be clear, this not a conversation topic anyone should dare to broach first - but in those rare, unavoidable situations you find yourself needing to make a judgement call, being able to sense the child could save you the social faux pas.

To expand for clarity, every living creature with a centre has a ki-signature. That includes bacteria, plants (great forests of the same organism can have multiple apparent centres though they stem from one and the same, see the “multiform technique”) up to multicellular organisms with their own coherent drive to survive like animals and humans. This means children before birth, whilst connected to the parent to survive, will have their own centre and therefore genki helping to direct growth as soon as they begin to develop. Although this ki-signature is extremely difficult to detect early on - the uterus lying in roughly the same position as the parent’s centre - the differentiation becomes far easier when the heart cells start beating and the flow of genki begins proper in the tiny growing embryo, somewhere after the third week from conception. Hormonal pregnancy tests are still by far and large the more reliably test, then! Although in one case, the pregnancy was noted far earlier.

Age 798: Marron with her parents Krillin and Eighteen at the family home in Satan City.

Krillin: It was a beautiful day. Sun was shining, waves lapping up the beach, Turtle humming, breeze rustling the palms– Marron: Dad… Krillin: –Hold on I’m getting there - fine sand warm against your tootsies, and Eighteen punching me in the face. All in all, a pretty standard day for the island. Marron: He means they were sparring. Eighteen: I wouldn’t punch him without his consent. Krillin: Oh really? I’m sure that happened once or twice… Eighteen: Tit-for-tat. Embarrassing me in public is tantamount consent. Krillin: Well if kissing you to show my love to the world is a crime then I’m guilty as– Marron: Can we return to me, please? Krillin: Keep your pants on! The only not-normal thing about the day was me having the upper-hand for once. Eighteen couldn’t land a hit. After we recovered from the shock (that I’ll admit damaged my pride that we should be so shocked) I worked out it was because I sense her. Which should be impossible - she had no ki-signature before. Eighteen: We guessed that b*****d‘s work was undoing itself. I even felt the need to eat. Krillin: I cooked for you to celebrate! Eighteen: That first mouthful was the sweetest food I’d ever eaten. Krillin: And then we continued with our lives, watching Eighteen’s ki grow back every day. But before the month was out my Master - who we were staying with at the time - suggested Eighteen may be growing in - let’s just say… two particularly symmetric places and there might be another explanation? Marron: Trust him to notice. Eighteen: By that point you had a heartbeat we could track, Marron. I learnt to sense ki that way. Yours was the only one I could sense for a long time because I’d spent months listening to it. Marron: I didn’t know you guys first thought the cybernetics were deactivating. Were you disappointed? Krillin: Never. Eighteen: No. I got you and kept the strength to protect you from harm. What more could a mother want?

You may infer that in the case of part-Saiyans, with their larger base genki, the child would be noticed faster and quickly outshine an Earthling parent. A reasonable extrapolation from what we have covered so far, but that is not quite true. A Saiyan child remains worryingly tiny in size for many months - developing instead in complexity and only exploding in size, genki and therefore nutritional need in the last two months. This is, I believe, to keep the parent unencumbered for fighting for as long as possible. For the last few weeks, whilst the child’s hormones assist the parent in feeling the need to eat far more than usual, an Earthling digestive system (even slightly modified by the child’s stem cells) struggles to cope and therefore this stage is a little more uncomfortable than a Saiyan parent would find it. The saying “eating for two” is particularly literal in this case!

Even given this, those carrying Saiyan pregnancies have a lot more energy and are far stronger than usual in those last few weeks in particular, especially if they are able to utilise the genki given to them by the child. The child is a little more boisterous during development, however the pregnancy and birth is easy (or easier, I should stress, before I am hunted down) and is an evolutionary advantage to encourage Saiyans to have more little soldiers, I’m sure. The excessive number of stem cells leaked back from the child to parent even speeds up recovery time and fixes current ills. I’m told there’s not even stretch marks - though I’m sure we all would have been worth the hassle with or without. Videl assures me Pan definitely was.

Tangents aside my point is, ki-sense is not just about finding people or homing in on the next dangerous being to land planet-side. It’s about connections, helping us empathise with others and for us to see our place in the world around us as one web, to understand the subtleties of life in all its forms.

So you see, if everyone could enhance their lives with this skill and see their fellow human as such, I’d be a very happy man.

Now you can sense your own ki and others’, the next section will cover consciously drawing on and moving genki in and outside your own body at will, and the importance of both breath and words in doing so. Be warned - one of the exercises in particular could terrify you. Start summoning that courage - you may need it to see it through.

For an ability that tends to be seen as an outwardly projected one - affecting great speed and strength, creating ranged attacks, sharing energy and thoughts with others, flight - ki-use is remarkably reliant on our inner lives and senses to work. As we have discussed in section 1.3, genki is responsible for helping maintain homeostasis in the body, and if ki is going to be used elsewhere, these messages embedded in genki must be read, understood and then hijacked.

To use ki then one must first be on top of everything we’re feeling internally. We must be connected with ourselves and understand our body’s changing needs. We must attune ourselves to a little-known set of senses - autoception.

When the blurb of this book said I’d be teaching you to attend to the sixth sense, I made sure the copy-editor used quotation marks. I do wonder if this seeming oversight in saying “sixth” was picked up by savvy readers. In truth we naturally have far more than five senses. Depending on how you divide them, they can be almost too numerous to bother counting.

First we have the more familiar exteroceptive senses; vision, sound, touch, smell, taste - the basics most people have and what we’re often taught as our only connection with the outside world. Combining all these does not give you a full picture of yourself in the world, however. For example - tilt your head. What sense is telling you your world is now on its side? It certainly isn’t taste, smell or sound. Vision? Well no - if you close your eyes you still know your head’s tilted. Is it touch? Again no, there’s nothing ‘touching’ your skin to tell you where your head is. Your sense of balance (equilibrioception if we’re to get technical) allows you to perceive your orientation in space, direction of motion and acceleration. The sense is governed by the inner ear. Three loops (the semicircular canals) contain fluid and this fluid moves, like water sloshing in a bucket, triggering hairs in the canals. The movements of the hairs are interpreted by the brain to tell you which way up you are. Like all senses, balance is sensitive to disruption; you can make yourself dizzy by spinning, and an infection in the inner ear can leave you with severe vertigo as these tubes become inflamed and unable to function normally.

The sense of balance is important in battle - allowing you to right yourself when hurtling towards the floor. Sometimes though being able to put this sense to one side is very useful, lest the spinning and quick changes in direction cause you to feel ill. Dancers and ice skaters mitigate this effect by keeping their head as still as possible and whipping around at the last moment, though this takes some skill. Even then, with the ability of flight, many ki-users still orientate themselves as though standing to reduce their balance warnings. A smart ki-user can suppress these warnings, manipulating messages embedded in genki to trick the body and mind to being comfortable tumbling. Being able to engage an enemy whilst upside down equally well can put you at an advantage, ensuring you are truly unpredictable and difficult to counter.

Another quick test - hold your hand out to the side, close your eyes, then bring your hand in to touch the tip of your nose. Could you do it? Most people can. How? You can’t see your hand, nor are you using your sense of touch until the very last moment. Again this is a further sense, proprioception, the sense of where our body is in space relative to itself. Teenagers are often extremely clumsy because their growth spurts throw out their sense of proprioception. They literally believe they are smaller than reality and are therefore more likely to trip.

Other exteroceptive senses include detecting changes in temperature (thermoception) and pain (nociception), again both of which can be manipulated (against advice) with ki. The adrenaline rush alone would not keep me upright and on task with a shattered arm!

The result of these senses are very conscious and immediate. We can have subconscious reactions to them (picking up something hot results in a quick drop governed by reflexes, the signals only reaching the spinal column instead of the brain to speed up the reaction) but on the whole we have a vivid, conscious experience of them. They are noisy, and as such tapping into the genki messaging associated with them is very difficult for a new ki-user.

The autoceptive senses are a different ball game altogether.

Remember when we were discussing priors in 1.3? The idea that your body holds some kind of internal understanding and expectation of what its optimum state is supposed to be? This ranges across a number of systems including internal temperature, carbon dioxide levels in the blood, blood pressure, sense of hydration and sense of fullness. Occasionally these will come to our conscious attention (a sense of suffocation, a need to go to the bathroom) but mostly they are ticking in the background. They’re not as loud as the exteroceptive senses, but the genki messages are there all the same, freer to detect and be read in the quiet. Understanding the autoceptive senses then is a good a place as any to begin to detect genki.

Tight priors govern homeostasis, the balance the body wishes to return to and is most comfortable functioning at internally. Briefly, for the body to maintain homeostasis our senses must record observations about our body’s current state, compare them to the prior, and then calculate the difference - the surprise - between the observed and expected value. The direction of the surprise guides what action needs to be taken for the body to return to homeostatic equilibrium, and the magnitude how rapid that reaction must be. For an exteroceptive sense like pain this could be a command to reduce the sensation, such as dropping the hot pan. The same happens with the body’s internal senses - autoception.

To be consciously aware at all times of autoceptive senses would be a huge cognitive load - can you imagine having to manually remember to quicken your breath when you’re doing exercise? Or momentarily pump your heart faster when you go from a sitting to standing position? I don’t know about you but I would very quickly be a puddle on the floor (also, apologies if talk of breathing manually made you conscious of your breath. Also, sorry if that apology did, instead! Or blinking! …I should stop).

Most of these sensory inputs travel from the body to the brain via the vagus nerve -a nerve running from the head, following the jugulars into the chest, branching out to all the organs and finally reaching down into the lower intestines. The vagus nerve gathers information about how full your stomach is, how your liver’s doing, the carbon dioxide levels in your blood, your blood pressure, how your kidneys and bladder are feeling and so on, and delivers the information to the insula in the brain (a region which also governs your emotional responses). Genki, of course, takes this same information to pass around the body laterally, loosely following the flows of e.g. breath and blood, regulating priors and coaxing the changes that cells must undertake to keep those individual building blocks working as a unit, as a person.

Some individuals can manipulate those priors and this is known to science. There have been documented cases of yoga practitioners willing their body temperature to change by a fraction of a degree by nudging that prior written in genki. Now, a fraction of a degree doesn’t sound impressive, but body temperature is a tightly controlled prior, with a very narrow precision in terms of how well-regulated it needs to be and how well it is measured. Thus, to move the prior by even a little is a feat in itself. This ability to consciously change homeostatic priors is far more than we need right now - we “just” need to be able to tap into that pathway to find and hijack free genki for other purposes.

Autoceptive sensations will come to conscious attention at some point to enable us to act, but the threshold for when we have that awareness, and how well we can consciously choose to attend is dependent on the individual. As these senses are linked to genki, we will work to enhance that autoceptive awareness and begin to get a feel for our genki - for its flow, messages and the manipulatable blank space it contains.

We have, in section 1.4, covered the concept of centring. In that case, we were defining correct posture and breath, physical aspects of our body that - shape and ability willing - we can improve to heighten our ability to access the centre of our genki. If you recall I reminded you to practice that over the course of the last few sections to be ready. So. Let us finally begin.

There are three areas of autoception we will be attempting to improve: Insight, precision and discernment, which I shall define as we go.

Exercise 2.1.1: Assessing and boosting autoceptive insight

Insight is exactly how it sounds. How in tune are you with your body naturally? We want to improve your ability to tap into those senses, the usually subconscious messages, as this will open up the pathway to ki manipulation.

A note - you may consider the following a form of mindfulness or meditation training, and that’s true after a fashion. Do not skip this section if you are proficient in mindfulness, however. There is a subtle difference to be, ah, mindful of, and I shall get to that later.

First, please centre yourself and sit in good posture. Is this essential right now? No, a very good habit to develop. This exercise can also be undertaken lying down when trying to sleep or as you wake in the morning, so there is no excuse not to start.

Consider your body as a whole. What internal messages are currently piquing your attention? Are you too hot or cold? Thirsty? Hungry? Exhausted? Are you out of breath or is your heart thumping? If there’s nothing that’s okay, too - maybe you don’t need to attend to any needs at the moment.

Now to start actively attending. Starting at one end of your body and focussing on one part at a time, ask yourself the following kinds of questions - effectively, hunt for symptoms of change in the body that indicate a changing status. For example:

How do your eyes feel? Are they dry? Itchy? Watery? Aching? Are the lids heavy? What could this mean in terms of tiredness and dehydration? Or eye strain? Should you rest?

Ask the same of the inside of your nose and mouth when breathing and your lungs. How is the air for you? Too dry, too humid? Can you bring the air all the way into your lungs or does it get stuck in the chest due to the position you’re in or an illness? How deep are you breathing now and what do you default to - clavicular or abdominal breathing? How much can you inhale in one go? What nostril is your dominant one right now? Is your mouth too dry? Your lips? How easy is swallowing for you? Are you salivating because there’s food nearby and you’re hungry (even if you don’t feel the need to eat) or should you being feeling hungry if you haven’t eaten enough today?

Continue down and down. What about your heart beat? Is it fast? Slow? Pounding? You may not be able to feel your heartbeat without touching your chest - please attempt this exercise without searching for a pulse! Just ask yourself what you can sense naturally. How does your stomach feel? Full from a meal? Empty? Causing queasiness? What could that mean? How full is your bladder? Do you need to go to the bathroom?

Laboriously attending to these symptoms of needs can help your brain interpret them as they float near the surface of your consciousness.

Now, to perform a second pass. This time actively centre yourself and breathe in such a way to begin detecting that internal flow of genki drawing upwards and around the body. Using the square breathing method as outlined in 1.4 will help, though you need to ease off to a more natural breathing pattern eventually - holding your breath for long periods of stillness doesn’t help when trying to get on with your day! Then begin making those same observations again, paying mind to the filamentary flow of ki through the body, how it diverts with purpose with your request for information, how the wider free aura is recruited to take on this task. Think of that genki as a bubbling or wave or burgeoning sense of information, of intent, of vibrancy, that turns to clarity as you grasp the genki, and you’ll find the messages.

The second pass is difficult, but taking the time to make these observations will be the start of improving your autoceptive sense.  By linking these observations to genki you will be taking your very first steps in ki-control.

An important final note - if at any point you find you are concentrating too much on your bodily sensations to the point of distress, please stop. The goal of increasing autoceptive insight is not to be aware of all parts of your body at all times, but being able to access this information should you need to. Please stop if you are finding the exercise too salient - you probably have enough insight already.

Exercise 2.1.2: Improving autoceptive precision through the breath.

With autoceptive insight improving, the next area to work on is precision. How accurate, objectively, are your insights? This could be hard to determine from the first exercise alone - only you have the ability to judge whether you truly needed to make okonomiyaki at midnight again (and not offer me any, Videl). But there are a couple of things you can try outside of a clinical environment to assess how good your insights truly are.

The first is a breathing exercise, and the actual test will need a good friend who either knows what you are trying to do or is used to your many eccentricities and is willing to help. To test, you will need a thick straw (like a milkshake straw) and some filter pads, or anything you can use to apply resistance to breathing - something as simple as gripping the straw tighter in a repeatable fashion would work. Breathe out through the straw once without any resistance to gauge the difficulty, then ask your friend to add resistance. You must guess how much resistance they’ve added. Do this around ten to twenty times at the most.

It is important your friend gives you no feedback at this point. Instead, after each trial, rate how confident you are - from “I’m sure I know how much resistance was there” to “I just guessed”. I beg of you, do not try this exercise when breathing in! You don’t want to starve yourself of oxygen! Make sure you catch your breath in between. Also, be careful should you have any general breathing issues. Please ask your medical practitioner before attempting any of this.

On your own, run this exercise yourself. Learn the different stages of resistances, the pressure on your chest and your lungs’ expansion, testing yourself each day for ten minutes at the very most. Then, maybe a week or two later, ask your friend to perform the same test. Has your precision improved? How about your confidence?

The breath is the largest, conscious control of flow we have in the body and therefore understanding our breath is integral for learning ki control.

Exercise 2.1.3: Improving autoceptive precision through the heart

Our next task is similar, though a little harder in my opinion. In this case you will be monitoring your heartbeat, a more subtle sensation as there is not the same strong physical movement as with breath. This exercise you can perform on your own. It will require a high precision sports watch that can count heartbeats over a set time interval (in this case a minute). Capsule Corporation does indeed make a watch and chest strap with this function included. Suggesting you patronise a company I am tangentially involved with may seem a little daring of me, but I assure you that Capsule Corporation has the best on the market for this task - by design, in fact! Also, be cautious of the accuracy of some sport watches - they can under- and over-report the heart beats per minute, so check reviews. Getting an accurate reading is imperative, and a chest band will help with that. Ideally you’d use a medical device, but I don’t believe many other people have one to hand for idle tinkering.

First, sit still and quiet for a time to relax, then set the timer and counter running over a minute. In this time you need to count the number of heartbeats you believe you’ve had, then record your guess and how confident you are. Perform a few more trials then check your results to gauge your accuracy and whether your confidence was warranted.

The idea here is not to feel your pulse, or sit in such a way that you can physically feel your pulse beating in your legs or feet or hands or ears, but to guess from your own internal clock (tapping into that genki flow) to detect when your heart is beating. This is difficult. That’s the point. As with insight some people are good at this off the bat, others terrible. That’s okay, the important part is to try and improve.

To get the ball rolling on improvement, perform a little light exercise to physically feel your heartbeat in your chest or ears and run the counting task, recording your confidence, again. This should be a lot easier. As your pulse fades to normal use your fingers on your neck or wrist to help this training portion of the exercise. Like when breathing, you are trying to marry up the beat that you know is present to the sensation in your genki telling the your brain and the rest of you your heart is beating. After a few weeks training - again for only a few minutes a day - you should find your ability to tap into the heartbeat at will greatly improved upon repeated testing.

These exercises have the dual benefit of improving both your precision and your awareness of your accuracy - otherwise known as your autoceptive discernment. The discernment is just as important as the accuracy in some respects; you need to have confidence in your abilities, and your repeated training will enable you get an honest sense of how well you’re truly progressing at developing your conscious autoceptive senses. Being terrible at autoception at first is perfectly reasonable - as long as your discernment quickly adjusts!

Autoceptive discernment was the reason I stressed individuals with previous mindfulness or meditation training should not skip this section. Whilst these techniques focus on gaining insight in particular, they do not emphasise ensuring discernment matches precision.

But surely similar previous training can help? Well, yes and no. You may notice I did not go out of my way to suggest a calming, music-filled atmosphere with candles and cushions and incense when discussing these exercises, instead keeping it rather clinical - almost cold. This isn’t my background in science dictating a preference. I’d rather be under the trees in the quad outside my office, listening to the breeze pass through the leaves and let that dictate my pace. You are welcome to add that sort of decoration to your training if you so wish, but do heed my warning.

For those that have previously undergone mindfulness training, whether that is through counselling or yoga or martial arts, there is a perceived ability to be better at autoception than the average person. After all, practitioners of martial arts and yoga do a lot of centring, breathing and attending to the body, so must be better at understanding their autoceptive senses by default, correct?

In these ‘experienced’ groups there is a propensity to over-report confidence in precision in these abilities. The initial training does make the task easier to understand and the person feel comfortable and relaxed performing such tasks, but when starting autoceptive work these individuals are not statistically better with their insight than the rest of the population. Do not be caught out by your own expectations!

Having bad discernment is positively dangerous for ki-work, and why it is important to really reflect on how accurate your self-reporting is across all exercises, and to work to correct for it. If you believe that you are better at autoception than you truly are, you will move onto the next sections before you’re ready. If you are unable to read, and therefore write intents onto your genki correctly, this at the luckiest will lead to ineffectual ki-work - using far too much genki to produce the same result - and at worse will leave your ki muddled and cause you great harm.

Sounds far-fetched? One intent we will be relying heavily on is push. If you are unable to direct push correctly, believing you have (a reasonable for a new user) 99% accuracy in directing the intent rather than the true pitiful 90%, that 9% mismatch backfiring could begin to tear you apart on a cellular level.

Without you knowing.

Until it’s too late.

Please do these exercises.

Many of Pan’s earliest students accepted her offer of ki-training because they have an interest in meditation and mindfulness from martial arts training. Others were complete novices, only taking to the Pan Fighting Network for fitness reasons and by chance attending a local workshop where Pan spotted them. With few exceptions in either direction, she repeatedly found her novice students were more diligent learning autoception - the concept being so alien to them. Her more 'experienced’ students were impatient, more likely to do the wrong thing, skip out on training and, when she tested them herself, found they had been over-reporting their abilities. Such is the importance of adhering to honesty for efficiency and safety, no matter their age or stature within their respective traditions, she would send them back to the first session. They only argue once; when disagreements come to a head and Pan must assert her expertise and authority, she can summon her Grandmother’s temperament.

Finding your twenty years of meditation experience may not have been subconsciously helping to develop your autoceptive senses can be upsetting, I understand completely. Remember however that meditation, drilling in martial arts and mindfulness all have slightly different goals than specifically developing your autoceptive sense and you will find other tasks simpler. On the plus side for everyone else, this means you do not have to have twenty years of mediation experience to be good at ki-work and to develop your internal, then external, ki-sense. How lucky!

What level of autoceptive sense can you expect to reach as your ki-sense grows over the years? If I wanted to I can accurately count my heartbeat even when on the move, give a rough estimate of my elevation above sea level by monitoring how subtly out of breath I feel, can tell you how drunk I am even when drunk (a very rare event for me to be in that state I assure you), can tell if I’m developing a fever… and I can definitely decide whether I am going to need to use the bathroom before leaving the house. Should I be attending to my body, I know exactly what it needs and can consciously pre-empt these things. And, because I can access that information through reading my own genki, I can shout that information down. I can effectively suppress sensation more than non-ki-users ever could to the point of danger.  

To expand, genki maintains homeostatic equilibrium yes, but it is an allostatic system, allowing deviation from the optimum state to preempt upcoming change. For example, when in danger my heart rate rises to force oxygen and glucose to my muscles to help me escape. I also feel fear, which is detrimental to my ki-use, and I’d like to stop that. How? Ask yourself, when we run from danger, do we run because we feel fear, or feel fear because we run? The truth is both; emotion and physical response go in tandem. If I can intercept my heartbeat messages then I can counteract the response and slow my heart even when in danger, and suppress that fear. Without genki interception we usually slow our heart rate by consciously slowing our breath, but with ki I can remove all facets of the fear response entirely. This restores yuuki and allows me to access those higher levels of ki ability again.

I can even expand this ability to ignore exteroceptive senses like pain and temperature - however be aware you are blocking only the sensation and not the effect. I could ignore the fire I’m walking through, but without a barrier against flame I would still burn. I can ignore pain to stand and fight but my bones would still be broken. I could use this ability to stare at the Sun without need to squint, but I would still destroy my retinas. But we will discuss how to do this in a measured fashion in a later chapter.

The breath and the blood are the two fast-flowing systems in our body genki has an affinity with and are therefore crucial to understand to begin to read and talk to our genki. By being able to read these two changing flows and understand the associated triggers in ki, we can in turn influence them back. Soon we will be completely hijacking genki for our own purposes.

In the next section we will be looking around us to sense other people’s ki. By reading this, especially finding and seeing the flow in the aura of others, we will gain a greater understanding of our own and the steps we will need to take towards manipulating genki outright.

Now. The Trunks in this story was not the Trunks we know and love today. Yes, they both were the son of an uncrowned King from a long-lost kingdom and the Good Witch, and they both grew up in those vaulted corridors of Capsule Castle. They even looked the same: the same set jaw when serious, the same high hairline inherited from their father, hidden behind those bangs. They both could swing a sword. But this Trunks was a little more polite, not as self-assured, would have to learn to laugh a little more - and I’m sure he wouldn’t have played tricks on his sister and niece half as much as the Trunks we know.

This Trunks was waiting. The cliffs from which he watched the unfolding scene below were like those at home - all but desolate for miles around. But he could feel the world and this world was truly alive; millions upon millions of people across the land, more than he’d ever sensed. And that gave him hope.

He had heard stories of the warriors in past-times led by the Golden Knight, your own Grandpa Son Goku; the strongest and bravest fighter there had ever been. At home and in foreign lands the secret order battled against evil wizards, demons and monsters to keep their chosen homeland safe for the King and his subjects. The warriors and knights were different from the rank and file of the King’s soldiers, for they knew how to harness the power of Words to bring forth great strength from within; echoing the powers of beasts, or of fire and the Sun, great winds, and even dragons. Trunks had been taught the same secret Words, but he was all alone in his land, not even yet a grown man but defending it as best he could from terrible monsters. He had come to our land to find your Grandpa, the Golden Knight of Legend, and to warn him.

Down below I was waiting too, though in great fear. I was just a lowly squire back then, surrounded by the great warriors Trunks had only heard of, along with the Good Witch - your Auntie Bulma. Your Grandpa had been travelling in distant lands to learn more Words and secrets and had promised to return soon. But now it would be too late. Far from the joyful reunion we were one day hoping for, we found ourselves yet again rushing towards trouble. Your Grandpa had not vanquished that conqueror of other lands - the evil “Lord” Freeza. The Tyrant had risen again, and this time we were to face him alone.

Now Freeza was upon us, his ship weighing anchor behind our hideaway cliffs. His forces flooded ashore, followed by himself and his much stronger father. We panicked. For the third time in my seven years of life I was preparing myself to face down impossible odds.

However, high on the cliffs the lonely knight was not concerned. He knew the story - the Golden Knight of Legend would appear in a few hours and save the lands once again. Trunks would just hold on until the battle was over to give his message in secret before travelling home…

But something was wrong.

Soon, Trunks could see, we would be abandoning our hiding spot to make our desperate surprise attack. He knew that would spell our doom, the difference in strength between even this land’s greatest warriors and the Tyrant far too great. There wasn’t much time. With Grandpa not around, Trunks would have to intervene.

As we readied ourselves for what could be our last moments I sensed the impossible and froze - Freeza’s henchman dying in a moment beyond the rock, their lives snuffed out as if a candle flame in a gale. But before I had a chance to grapple with this, above us flew a figure bright against the sky, shining golden, almost as blinding as the Sun itself. A memory of crystallized righteous rage came back to me then: a Golden Knight, a legend realised in the distant land of Namek. Was this Grandpa? No. Stronger than I remembered. The apparition cleaved Freeza in two with his sword, sliced him to pieces and blasted him into nothingness with just his breath. Freeza! Grandpa’s struggle with the Tyrant had razed the entire Namekian’s homeland to the ground, but here was a new Golden Knight, so much stronger than your Grandpa, and he’d destroyed Freeza with barely a shrug.

We rushed closer to see, hoping the miracle was not a trick of the distance. Even Freeza’s father wasn’t a problem for him. The Golden Knight defeated him easily, burnt their ship - then turned to greet us warmly and politely. We were relieved to find out he was on our side. He told us he knew when and where your Grandpa would come ashore and asked us whether we wanted to come and greet him. But how could anyone know that?

Knights were born not made, that was a fact, and I thought I knew all of them. What’s more, the Golden Knight was only supposed to appear once every thousand years. Up close the boy didn’t look much of a knight to me - his eyes and hair were too light - but there was no doubt about his bloodline. And if he could become a Golden Knight, could I?

I had a lot of questions for this young knight. The others asked theirs in turn but he rebuffed them all. He couldn’t explain himself or how he knew your Grandpa. A secret mission from a far away land, I guessed.

True to the boy’s word Grandpa came ashore exactly when expected and we rushed to greet him. He was glad to see us after his long journey, but looked past us to the new knight. Your Grandpa had never met the boy either, even though the knight claimed to know of him.

They spoke away from us for some time, the boy revealing in secret to your Grandpa who he truly was, his name and parentage. A knight indeed from a far away land - but far away in time, not distance. This Trunks was from the future, and carried a grave story of our fates.

In Age 767, on May 12th at around 10 am, two monsters of immense destructive power would appear on an island 9 miles southwest of South City - Amenbo Island. Wanting nothing more than to kill for fun, these monsters would easily obliterate every fighter and soldier in the land in their first onslaught. From there they would decimate the population, cruelly hunting the King’s subjects for sport to pass their time. The monsters never stopped. Your uncles would hardly make a stand, run through almost instantly. I would escape, and use the understanding of the Golden Knight I had gained as a squire to become one myself. I’d teach the boy the same in turn, acting as his mentor to hone him as a warrior and pass on every Word I knew until I too would succumb. And Grandpa? The great Golden Knight himself would never even see the battle - he would die of a sudden sickness of the heart in a matter of months.

The Fates in the boy’s time said we were all doomed. But not now, not with his warning. His land was nearly lost but we still had time to save our future. The boy gave Grandpa a potion to cure him when he would fall sick, and before leaving gave us his word he would return when the day came, should he survive the time between trips. Then, almost as suddenly as he’d entered our story, he vanished into the ether.

Seeing his magic as proof of the boy’s prophecy, the warriors all vowed to meet again at the battlefield in three years time, fully prepared. For the most part we went our separate ways, myself with Grandpa back home to your Grandma and our tranquil farm in the hills. But it would not remain quiet for long - we’d need to train together.

Those three years were an odd time for us. Dreaming of a future felt wrong (knowing what was coming), but I am grateful your Grandma insisted we live as normally as possible. I continued my schooling with her, learning my words and numbers to fulfil my wish to become a Great Scholar someday, to take advantage of the peacetime we hoped for, and with Grandpa I trained to become a real warrior Knight, preparing to one day hold the flame of the Golden Knight, him teaching me many of the Words he knew, ready for the future we knew was coming.

Often I would lay awake at night wondering about the boy, the knight we met that fateful day, whether there was anyone thinking of a future for him like Grandma was for me. With May 12th fast approaching I hoped we’d see him safe again.

We would only find out what truly happened to Trunks’ land and how he came to find us when we met him the second time. In his land there was no Uncle Goten to play with, no little Bra to carry on his shoulders, not even a little Pan to defend his castle against. Trunks was a sworn soldier through and through. When his teacher - the me in the future - had lost his life in battle he made a promise to protect all he could and vowed to defeat those great monsters. There weren’t many people left in his land, but Trunks did what he could all the same.

His only constant company was his mother: the Good Witch Bulma. Like Trunks she helped everyone she could by making potions and spells and enchantments. But try as she might, she could not magic away the worst evil - those two monsters. After years of trying their best and still retreating at every turn, most would lose hope of ever finding a way out of that nightmare. Not the Good Witch. She knew that if her magic couldn’t get them out of the situation they were in now, maybe they just had to change what now was…

Time travel should be impossible, but that word meant nothing to your Auntie Bulma. She worked day and night for years to construct her own special enchantment, the like of which no witch or wizard in the world has ever made before or since: a time changer. Whoever used the device could travel in time, but there would only be enough magic for a trip to the past and back before it needed to be restored, and that could not be done quickly. Bulma had sent Trunks off to see us and held her breath for those few hours, overjoyed when he returned safe and sound. Her magic vindicated, she immediately she set to work restoring the enchantment.

From then on Trunks faced his monsters with renewed vigour. Now he knew the past had a fighting chance because of his warning and if he could just visit us once more to assist he might learn a secret to defeat them in his own time. As he fought on to stem the loss of life, the Good Witch worked as fast as she dared, fearing the monsters drawing closer and closer.

Two years in Trunks’ time would pass before the enchantment was ready to use and his fateful trip finally a reality. He said goodbye to his mother not knowing whether he would ever see her again - neither his return trip or her survival in the meanwhile assured.

With one command he made his way back to us hopeful for our progress and found - well, a mess, quite frankly.

Death and destruction greeted him at our meeting place nine miles south west of South City. Trunks’ prediction was wrong; the monsters had crawled out of their cave too early and had rampaged through the island we had so desperately wanted to defend. Barely anything was left standing. He found us in the midst of tracking down the perpetrators. Worse, your Grandpa wasn’t with us to turn the tide; he’d only just fallen ill and taken the Good Witch’s potion, now bedridden at home.

And to complete our misery, those weren’t the two monsters Trunks knew. The past had truly changed. Trunks was as lost as we were.

Thankfully our training had paid off at least - early in your uncles’ desperate chase, your Uncle Vegeta caught and crushed the first monster. Up close we could see this one’s true nature; it wasn’t a demonic beast but manmade, conjured with a dark and powerful magic, an imitation of life puppeting nuts and bolts. The magic was a type the Good Witch hadn’t seen in many years: the work of Gero the Dark Wizard. In fact, the Good Witch informed us that the other monster was none other than the Wizard himself - though not in human form. He had used his wicked magic to transform himself, becoming stronger and smarter. In his cunning he had led us to his lair, where more creatures laid in wait to defend him.

Three creations laid in wait. The first he called 16, the kind of opponent we were expecting - a giant in stature with an overwhelming menace emanating from him, a great wall of possessed machinery who scowled and scrutinised all as though looking for someone.

The last two monsters were finally those of Trunks’ warning - 17 and 18. Though we found them wanting in appearance - we envisioned horns and teeth and tails and wings, and given Trunks’ fear you would have thought that’s what he saw, plain as day.

In truth, the terrible twins were human. Young and beautiful, they could pass unseen amongst us if they wished. Far from the full artifice of their companion, they had once been human. But the wizard had mutated them, blood and bone and all, to draw out an unnatural strength; then cursed them as he had done his creations of metal. They had but one purpose, one itch to scratch, the Wizard cackled - to seek and destroy Son Goku.

The wizard bade the three to kill all those who stood before him. Your uncles braced for what would be the final battle. And then… nothing. Instead, the twins turned on their creator, their torturer, running him through in an instant for the crimes he had committed against them.

Cruelly however, his curse was not broken. 16 in particular, not being made of flesh, could not battle his driving desire and so the trio left to help him fulfil his binding, all the while paying the warriors no mind. This turn of events was far from expectation, and the small army now found itself without an enemy.

In Trunks’ future, the monsters 17 and 18 were pure evil and without care - that much was true. But Uncle Krillin did not see this in the Seventeen and Eighteen of our time when they pushed past him into the wide world they’d been hidden from for so long. Far from the murderers Trunks had painted them as, Krillin instead saw a tired, wretched pair who might be reasoned with. Everyone thought him mad, but Uncle Krillin hoped the damage to our land may not be as deadly as we’d first feared.

Regardless of the twins’ eventual intentions, our focus now turned to protecting your Grandpa from the trio. He had barely recovered, and would not be able to fight the three monsters if they soon found him. I helped move him from home in secret, and your uncles worked to intercept the monsters; the great warriors now coming to the aid of their leader in his time of need.

Despite two Golden Knights supporting the band - both father and son in Vegeta and Trunks - without your Grandpa the warriors would struggle. Though not as cruel in our time, the strength of Seventeen and Eighteen was even greater than in the stories Trunks had told. We were prepared to match Trunks’ future and no more.

Whether your uncles would have won in the end is uncertain. A greater threat still was heading towards both us and the monsters, indifferent to our respective causes.

We didn’t notice the disappearances right away, distracted by the struggle at hand as we were. While our back were turned, entire towns of people had emptied, only their clothes left for passing travellers to stumble across. On any other day we would have sensed the void of life growing and helped, if we could. But this day we learnt something was wrong only as the whispers reached our friends at home. Something else was out there, something beyond the horrors that even Trunks had seen.

The Chimera had arrived.

Cell stepped out of the shadows to announce itself to us, its sheer brazen confidence terrifying to behold. The history books speak of it as a demon from another land, but Cell was instead the pinnacle of The Dark Wizard’s creation. In secret he had gathered blood from the strongest warriors in the realm and beyond, and used blood magic to create a creature so grotesque, so wicked, I wouldn’t dare describe it to someone as sweet as you. It was a Chimera, and called itself Cell. To gain strength it would need to eat hundreds of people alive, and to complete itself - to reach the peak of its evolution - it would have to take Seventeen and Eighteen. It was already stronger than us, and we knew if it achieved its goal its power would be beyond our imagination. Our home - and very lives - would be lost.

What should have been a battle against the twisted 17 and 18 to save our future had exploded into a fight to save our lives and our present. Within seconds everything had been turned upon its head, and we were now doing the unthinkable given our three years of preparation - defending the cursed creatures Seventeen and Eighteen from this new monstrosity. They were just as scared as we were.

But just in time, a near miracle! The Good Witch of our time sent your uncles her magic. She had been pouring over the Dark Wizard’s work and had found instructions for a potion, one that would undo the wizard’s sorcery on the human monsters, killing them in the process but making them useless to Cell. She entrusted this potion to Uncle Krillin. All he had to do was to fling the potion on them - a single drop would do the job.

Uncle Krillin rushed to find them, difficult though it was when both he and they were keeping low and away from Cell. He found them with moments to spare and aimed his throw, but he could not release. Uncle Krillin knew that everyone was counting on him to kill the monsters before Cell could eat them, but as he watched them cowering, trying to help the heavily damaged giant Sixteen, he faltered. He realised how they had not killed anyone for fun like in Trunks’ time and were only afraid for themselves, for each other… Instead, he poured the potion at his feet. Against everyone’s protestations he had stayed his hand, unable to bring himself to kill innocent people. He hoped against hope it was the right thing to do.

In the short term, it is fair to say that this was not the best decision. Cell caught the monsters and completed itself, becoming far stronger than any of us could have believed possible. Despite our efforts we had lost the battle. And yet, choices we make with a kind heart, even if initially regrettable, often have a habit of helping us in return when we least expect it.

Cell could have killed your uncles right then and there. But pride is a funny thing and Cell - to its detriment - had plenty. It could not face killing us before it had had a chance to best your Grandpa in battle. It wanted everyone in the land to weep hearing the sad laments of bards learning their one true secret champion had been defeated, and to tremble upon learning that Cell was on its way to set the land - and the world - to burn.

This is where the story begins for most everyone else. For years people would ask each other where they were the moment Cell announced the Games, his call for a worthy challenge and the nine day countdown to the everyone’s doom. On that fateful day, Cell’s proclamation filled the people with an overwhelming fear. They had no faith in the King’s Guard, weakened after years of peace throughout the land. And they had no faith in the King’s champions.

But the world had forgotten that long ago, there lived a little boy who fought the Great Demon King Piccolo.

The world had forgotten the warrior who turned aside the threat of the invading Knights and Tyrants.

The world had forgotten your Grandpa.

And in doing so they - and Cell - knew nothing of me.

In the nine days between the announcement and the Games, the land panicked. Your uncles panicked. I panicked. But not Grandpa. After recovering from his illness, he worked patiently with me so I could learn and finally master the way of the Golden Knight he, Trunks and now Uncle Vegeta knew; everyone would be needed for this fight, after all. Scared as I was holding this new Wordless flame inside my heart, I was willing to do my part to help. Then, with still a week to go, we stopped. Grandpa said we were ready.

The news excited me. Do you think you can beat Cell? I asked him. Not a chance, he sang, but I have a plan. He just smiled at me, like I should be in on his secret strategy too. Our friends asked the same and he repeated his reply. To not think he could lead us to victory, yet be so happy? Some wondered whether Grandpa had lost his mind. I didn’t understand him, but I believed in him, and had faith in his unspoken plan.

The only training we were to do between then and the Games was to live as a Golden Knight day and night, to feel as though this was normal for us so we would not tire or be overcome with that wild emotion. In trying to navigate our day on the homestead we learned restraint, how to hold onto that power without wastage, and how to avoid being burnt from holding the flame so close. Otherwise, Grandpa told me, my job was to relax.

At the same time, not quite half the world away, your Gramps came to exactly the same conclusion. As the winner of the recent tournament of warriors, he knew he was the strongest person in the land - no foreign-trained upstart could stand up to the likes of him. He told the bards to spread the word, that Cell better watch out - Mr. Satan was on his way. The land rejoiced; they had their hero, and the world’s best no less. They were saved! The rest of the week filled itself with celebration, as though the match were already won, and the people now waited with excitement for the downfall of the alien invader.

Finally, the day and time was upon us. We travelled into the wilderness where the Games would be, and were greeted on our arrival by Cell itself. Our not-so-merry band was composed of your Grandpa, most of your uncles, the grown-up Trunks… and little me. The up-jumped squire to the warriors I lined up with, dwarfed by the simple yet bulky armour I’d asked your Uncle Piccoyo for. Even Sixteen, now repaired, came to help us in honour of his fallen friends and the mercy your Uncle Krillin had shown them; Krillin’s hope the Dark Wizard’s creations could be redeemed and freed of the curse was well-placed indeed. We were an imposing sight for any warrior to face off against to be sure, but Cell only had eyes for your Grandpa.

Unlike the rest of the land, now readying to feast and celebrate the sure result, I was nervous. And still Grandpa said not to worry, all was in hand, yet he would tell no one the secret.

Of course, we weren’t the only challengers. How could we forget the Greatest Warrior in All the Land, Mr. Satan? The first time I ever met your Gramps he called me an idiot for not knowing who he was. How’s that for a first impression? We were even called reckless by the bards accompanying him, and they composed rude songs calling us weak. We’d get caught in the crossfire if we weren’t careful, we were told. On your heads be it.

We thought the same of them in return - merely fools and jesters. Mr. Satan knew no Words, he would be powerless in this fight and unable to defend his followers. Still, as much as we wanted to protect them from harm, we knew any life the Chimera stole would be restored if Grandpa could win, so we did not expend any effort shooing them away.

Your Gramps, great showboat that he is, insisted on trying his luck against Cell first. The bards began their song, the Champion faced the monster down and roared… yet Cell simply breathed on him to throw him from the ring in seconds. Truly a court jester against a dragon. The bards were in shock. Surely this was a trick? A cheat? Your Gramps claimed the same, stammering his way through explaining witchcraft and explosion magics, but he wasn’t as sure of the deception as he asserted.

Entertainment over, Grandpa and Cell readied themselves. Both were razor sharp - excited even - the Golden Knight of Legend trained onto the Chimera and ready to give his all. I felt it again then, that sense of hope he can bring out in you. He did in the land of Namek and he would do it again here for all of us. I now knew why Trunks believed in Grandpa so much without even meeting him - his mom and myself in the future would have spoken of him highly, weaving stories of his great battles and victories in a such a way you couldn’t help but feel your heart rise.

One breath. The land stilled - and the clash began.

No one would believe the intensity of the battle from the stories and songs handed down from bard to bard. Though their tales were never an exaggeration. The speed, the force, the damage. The noise. Cell and your Grandpa’s Words brought forth great power, shattering the ring and wilderness all around. The display was beyond most people's’ limited imaginations, and nobody had ever seen the likes of it. But your Gramps had. He’d felt this kind of strength once before, many years ago, from the man who killed his master and left him for dead with just one Word. It was a type of magic, yes, but an ancient and visceral one, and he feared it greatly. He was quickly learning that the hope of the land was misplaced in him and he, like the rest of us, would have to put his hope in Grandpa too.

Watching their fight from a safe distance, your uncles gaped then whooped at the turn of events. They said they’d lost track of Grandpa in the fray, that he was awe-inspiring, truly the warrior of legend. Were they joking?, I thought. I could follow easily, and what was more I could tell Grandpa wasn’t matching Cell. He had to be holding back, maybe to surprise it. But that didn’t make sense, why would he do that with so much at stake? Grandpa was inflicting damage but he looked to be tiring, whilst the Chimera used its blood magic to heal injury after injury.

One giant blast from Cell in defence and the ring was blown clean away, and whatever pretence of rules the Games had fled in the wake of the explosion. This was truly a fight to the death for both warriors.

Cell taunted your Grandpa as they broke apart, and we willed him to fight harder. Why wouldn’t he? It didn’t make sense to me. Grandpa was the strongest, the Golden Knight, and I was only a boy, and yet I was sure I could put up more of a fight that he was now –

Grandpa gave up.

He turned his back on the Chimera to return to us. I couldn’t believe it, no one could. Grandpa had been fighting his very best to no avail. I had overestimated him. If he couldn’t win we were doomed. Yet, he was still smiling as though his loss was expected. He then let us all in on his trump card.

Me.

I was to defeat the Chimera. My hunch was right. I was only a boy yet my heritage and exposure to battle from such a young age had honed me. I had surpassed my father. Though there was one problem, one misstep in Grandpa’s secret plan. In my desire to please him, I’d never truly told him how much I hated fighting.

In principle I was willing to. I had repeated as much to Grandpa over the three years, and the me in the future had fought monsters, too. But like Trunks, that Son Gohan had grown to be a different man to the man I would become. He never became a scholar - there was nowhere left to learn. He never got to catch criminals for fun nor have a chance to be the luckiest husband. And the very worst of all? He never got to be a Dad to the the most amazing little girl in all the world. I’m sure, as much as he cared for the Earth, the Son Gohan of the future did not want to be fighting as he died, and I knew at that young age I did not want that either.

Even so, despite my reluctance in that moment, Grandpa was right. If I wanted to grow up to be the scholar I always dreamed I could be, this time, just this once, I needed to try and fight.

To everyone’s shock I agreed and stepped forward to take up the hero’s mantle from Grandpa. He even told me to enjoy myself. The Chimera laughed and laughed, anticipating a second round of entertainment. A snack before its main course and a chance to catch its breath. If the Golden Knight wanted to sacrifice his boy in vain that was his choice. It approached, completely recovered, and launched into its terrible onslaught.

The bards would tell tales of Cell’s overwhelming power, how the poor boy would be tossed around like a ragdoll and they had averted their eyes from the sheer cruelty of it all. They couldn’t see the truth; that blow for blow I was withstanding Cell better than Grandpa ever had. It landed some heavy hits and Words for sure, and even Uncle Piccoyo believed I was on the ropes, scolding your Grandpa. Yet smash after smash I stood up again and again, barely understanding how I could be so resilient. Slowly, your uncles came to realise that Grandpa was right. I was the only one who had a chance, I really was a secret weapon. But not everything was going to plan.

For the first time, I was wrestling with a new fear - not in the same way as before, when I was scared for myself or my family and friends when fighting tooth and nail for our lives. This time I feared what I could do. I knew I could end this miserable creature’s life easily enough. It had killed many people and wanted to kill more. I could stop that. But was it right for me to pass such a judgement? Wouldn’t that make me just as bad? I looked to my uncles on the hill for guidance. Trunks would have killed it without hesitation, and he was a good man. But Uncle Krillin had stayed his hand against the monsters, believing they could be reasoned with. The Chimera was also created by the Dark Wizard; maybe it could come to its senses? And maybe, just maybe, I didn’t have to be a killer. My self-doubt stopped me from being as strong as I could be; I became slower, unresponsive. The tendrils of indecision creeped in.

I could not fight back.

My lack of enthusiasm frustrated Cell to no end. It wanted to fight me at full strength to humiliate your Grandpa, and to do so it realised it had to provoke me. It decided to torture me physically. What the bards say is true. Burning and branding me with his Words, fracturing bones with each strike and forcing dislocations as he squeezed me; aiming in such a way as to maximise my pain without killing me. Doing that to anyone, let alone a child, is immeasurably cruel. Cell hoped to reignite the flame of the Golden Knight I had tempered those past days. But its efforts were all in vain.

Still I could not fight back.

Failing to bring forth the rage it wanted from me, it turned it’s attention to your Grandpa and Uncles, forcing them to fight for their lives against magic creatures of its own devising. The warriors struggled, close to death at times, fighting the replicants and Cell itself where I could not. Sixteen was all but destroyed in the fray, throwing his life away trying to protect us all. This horrid creature was going to kill everyone and yet, even as I willed it…

Still I could not fight back.

Hope was dwindling, the light fading.

Then came the greatest surprise. Your Gramps, still clinging to the sidelines in a show of defiance as the Champion of the People he would prove himself to be, did one of the bravest things I have ever seen to this day. Knowing in his hearts of hearts that these ‘tricks’ were real and truly understanding the mortal danger he was in, he approached what was left of the battlefield to bring me a dying Sixteen. The gentle giant had fought alongside us against orders, the faith Uncle Krillin had placed in him and his friends encouraging him to see the good in the world. And now he wanted to speak his last words to me.

Sixteen told me he understood. I was gentle, I valued life and didn’t want to hurt anybody no matter their actions. But our words don’t always work and sometimes, just sometimes, we have to go against our own rules to stand up for what is right. It is because I valued life that I must protect it.

And for that sentiment, Cell killed him.

Cell’s final act of cruelty against its own brother pushed me over the edge. My resolve finally solidified, and the Golden Knight I had grown so used to as a power within me raged with fuel once again. I broke my limits, strength more than doubling in an instant, my Words now echoing around the sky like thunder to the lightning weaving new armour around me. In moments I destroyed the Chimera’s familiars, saving your Grandpa and uncles.

For the first time, Cell was afraid; for the first time it ;knew; I could kill it.

…Sometimes, Pan, small people have big feelings. They’re hard to explain if you’ve never had them before but you feel them just as much as any grown-up can. I was barely ten years old and I had an angry feeling, more angry than I’d ever felt before. It clawed at my face and boiled inside, made an itch I had to scratch until something bled. The calm control over the Golden Knight I’d gained with Grandpa the week before had slipped; I was taken over by it, drunk on my own power. I had hated Cell with all my heart for what it had done from the start, but now I let myself feel it, not caring if that was right or wrong to do. I wanted Cell to feel the same pain as all those people it had killed. I wanted Cell to pay.

Pursuing that desire was the worst thing I could have done. It may be hard to put aside how terrible and wicked someone is, but don’t chase what I did then, Pan. Always be quick, without passion for blood. In wanting my own revenge on Cell I let my new strength and huge feelings cloud my judgement. They fueled me, yes, but the power it gives is not easy to stay or wrestle. It can - and will - consume you, as it nearly did me.

That day I toyed with Cell using my new-found strength in the same way it had toyed with me, ignoring the calls of your uncles to come to my senses in favour of the bloodrush in my ears. Why would I listen? I was finally enjoying this fight. Isn’t that what your Grandpa had told me to do? But by not heeding their warnings I gave Cell time to think - to plan. One push away from me and it had the space and time to breathe and speak a deadly Word, an explosion I would never have been able to defend against. Grandpa, still tired from his struggles but knowing he could help, rushed in. And in doing so, Grandpa died.

The world stopped for me. In that one blast your Grandpa had sacrificed himself to save us all - to stop our land falling to the same fate as the old land of the Namekians. Because I did not want to control my emotions I had killed the Golden Knight of Legend. Even worse, Cell lived, coming back stronger still and now enraged, ready to end the world without hesitation.

Grandpa had been wrong to place his faith in me. For a moment I had had the upper hand, before losing it through folly. Now no one could stop it. The situation was hopeless.

With the fight taken out of me I felt every break and bruise, my left arm dislocated and damaged so badly it hung lifeless at my side. In an instant my resolve had shattered into pieces and I could barely muster the energy to stand, the magic of the Golden Knight now dulled again. It was too late. Cell was to have the last Word. The world shook, and I could do no more.

Now, in stories of monsters and knights and dragons, when all hope is lost, there comes a voice on the wind to help the hero, to tell them what they need to hear. Like in those fairy stories I had been sent to sleep with, it was then I heard a voice - your Grandpa Goku’s voice - speaking to me from beyond the veil. He told me not to give up, that I still had the strength - I just had to find it in myself. I tried to apologise but he shushed me. After everything he still believed in me, he still had hope in his little boy. All I had to do was have that same faith in myself. I chose to believe him one last time, and legs shaking, squared up towards the Chimera.

Cell’s final deadly Word howled towards me like a nightmare yet with one steadying breath, one hand outstretched and Grandpa’s unwavering faith I dug deep. And yelled. And matched it.

Our struggle was like two great dragons, blue and yellow, claws locked in a stalemate, their clash carving great canyons in the landscape around us. Whichever of us faltered first would be instantly overcome in the wake of the others’ Word, their cause lost. There was no going back. Your uncles fled for their own safety and I was left completely alone to face this creature, seemingly nothing but the roar of our voices for comfort. Barely a ten year-old boy, the fate of the realm on my shoulders. But I wasn’t alone, not really. Your Grandpa was with me, urging me on. Dig deep Gohan, he said, just let it go!

Your Uncle Vegeta could see my resolve returning and thought fast, using the last of his voice to scream at Cell, dividing its attention. It worked! Cell’s focus slipped. One chance. I pushed as hard as I could, the final charge, and a power I would never have otherwise believed myself capable of burst forward as I screamed.

I felt its last attempts at resistance reverberate back - less the wall it had been and now a weak struggle, my words a jet of sand, of glass shards, forcing their way between its fingers, into and through it. One great dragon swallowed the other whole and it was done. The evil was vanquished, and everything turned to silence and stillness once again. The land was safe.

Cell was gone.

In that moment I was too exhausted to think beyond an overwhelming sense of relief, the magic dispelled and I was left numb. Your uncles surrounded and congratulated me, helping me from the pile I’d collapsed into to take me home to rest. We’d forgotten all about the bards, cowering away unable to find their own words to explain the cataclysm they’d born witness to. Luckily, someone was on hand with their own story to spin and embellishments to boot. Your Gramps would take the credit for the win and become the most lauded man in the land. He may have told a lie, but it was a good lie; he saved me, your Grandma and Uncle Goten from a lot of trouble. Besides, his claim to heroism wasn’t a complete falsehood. He had brought me Sixteen’s wise words that allowed me to tap into a strength I never knew I had. For that, and for many, many brave deeds thereafter, your Gramps is every part the hero he’s praised to be; just not in the ways you’ve been taught.

We prepared to send Trunks off the next day, our mood sombre for the loss of your Grandpa. Unlike the Chimera’s other victims he would choose not return to us for some time, travelling beyond the veil to find new masters and secrets to bring home one day, trusting his mere absence would keep the peace - and it would, for a time. As Trunks had learnt from my counterpart, I had a learnt a lot from him in turn about what a knight could be. We would meet again, and we would come to learn his experience with us allowed him both to defeat 17 and 18 in his own time and prevent Cell from ever appearing. Seventeen and Eighteen here would awake with all of Cell’s victims, their curse now lifted and freedom granted, and would fight alongside us to defend the land in future battles, their help indispensable. Uncle Krillin’s decision to follow his gut and stay his hand that day was the right one in the end.

For many years after I’d believe my father not just spoke to me but returned in that final moment, both of us working in tandem to deliver that final blow. Of course in reality the overwhelming strength was all from me - I just needed to find the balance in myself, absorb my father’s words and have conviction, and like the boy from the future all those years ago, have hope we’d prevail.

There once was a boy called Son Gohan, and he defeated Cell.

Maybe you find it a little galling that I sent my daughter to sleep with stories like this. In truth Pan would have heard this story and others in a fragmented fashion as we adults spoke, especially given who both her grandfathers are, so having a coherent (if slightly fantastical version) was helpful for context.

For her to know the truth of the struggle was important to me, even if it meant she had to keep a big secret. She had to know the magnitude of the work we did and understand the danger, lest she romanticise the games. After the harrowing childhood I had starting at four years old I never wanted anyone to go through the same. My little brother would not escape my fate, dragged into a conflict and quite literally told at not even seven years of age he was the last line of defense for the world, possibly even the Universe. I never wanted Pan to see the horrors I and Goten hold. But I am not a fool, and since she showed interest in fighting we let her learn, encouraging and supporting her beyond mere drilling so she could keep her head should peacetime break. I kept her away from serious conflict until she was fifteen. That’s all I could manage.

Sometimes we’re thrust into situations we’d rather not be in, forcing us to act against our better nature. In those moments the greatest challenge is not the monster we’re facing but the battle within ourselves, our fear of losing our sense of self in the ensuing mess. Though I can assure you, if in those times we can hold onto hope - whether that is hope in the truth of a story we were told long ago, hope that others can do good and be good despite what circumstances say, hope in the potential of those closest to us even as their doubts rage and even gain a glimmer of hope in ourselves - well, like Bulma in the future, we can do what we believe right now to be impossible.

What I did as a child may have been impressive. It may be beyond what many full Earthlings would ever be capable of, and it may have all worked out in the end. But it is not right to hide behind the courage of children. No one who learns any of the techniques in the rest of this book is under any obligation to lay their life on the line should the world be in danger. I would however like some people to make that choice, a real choice that neither I nor my brother and daughter ever had, and as a consequence I hope my grandchildren, should I ever have any, will have that same free choice, too.

It is my hope now that, despite the difficulty and despite how impossible it sounds, you will now show that same courage to learn, to step up, to rely on your own strength - and defend the Earth.

Myself, Little Trunks and Big Trunks on the day of the latter’s departure after the Cell Games. Three pictures were taken - one for me (the image above), one for Little Trunks as a surprise for when he was older, and the third for Big Trunks, though he said he’d pass it to his mom. Because of that, I gave him the one where he had the biggest smile.

This chapter is dedicated to Android Sixteen.

“It is because we value life that we must protect it.”