Back when Gohan first came to the island to train, on the very first day, Taro had made him run laps around the entire island... At the time, Gohan was just an orphan, chronically malnourished, and it was impossible for him to endure such training at first.
But Goku and Krillin were a different story.
Goku, of course, needed no explanation—he was a Saiyan, his natural physical abilities far surpassed ordinary Earthlings, and he'd trained under Gohan from a young age. Even Krillin, though, had spent three years in rigorous self-training, running up and down mountains every day. Muten Island might be big, but with some grit, he could handle it...
"If you're too slow, there's no breakfast."
Taro's voice echoed from midair behind them.
What?! Seriously?!
Krillin's heart clenched, and he had no choice but to give it his all. When he glanced at Goku again, the boy was running with a carefree look on his face, completely unbothered. Krillin felt a pang of envy, then took a deep breath and focused on his own footing. Jarvis had once taught him some long-distance running techniques... Krillin had taken them to heart, honing them every day for three years.
Just like when he'd trained Gohan, Taro floated leisurely behind his two young disciples, observing their condition as they sprinted through the forest trails... After a moment, he raised a hand and silently sent out a mental wave. A red flame came soaring in from the distance—it was the Phoenix, summoned at his call.
He stroked its blazing feathers a few times and then let it fly off.
The Phoenix circled high above the woods, letting out a long, majestic cry—like the king of birds and beasts. Soon, along the forest path where Goku and Krillin were running, various wild animals began appearing one after another. The Phoenix threatened them in birdspeak: if they didn't cooperate, they'd be its dinner by nightfall.
These beasts had been gathered from around the world after the Phoenix had nearly driven the local species to extinction or thrown the ecosystem into chaos.
Some of them were even a challenge for fighters like Krillin—or even Goku.
Especially since their main task right now was long-distance running, not fighting wild animals.
"Hey, hey… Goku, something's… something's off…"
Krillin was running when he suddenly turned pale and felt a chill down his spine. Something wasn't right. He looked around, convinced that something—or many things—were watching them...
"Move! Get out of the way!"
Goku heard the bird cries overhead, then spotted rustling shadows up ahead, and guessed it was probably that Phoenix's doing. Without slowing his pace, he shouted ahead. A saber-toothed tiger suddenly leapt from a bush, roaring as it blocked their path.
Krillin instinctively tried to stop, but Goku didn't. He charged straight ahead, raised his fist, and threw a punch at the tiger.
"Roar!"
The saber-tooth had never suffered defeat—it didn't know that back on Mount Paozu, Goku had fought off beasts like this many times over. So when Goku charged, it roared and pounced, drool flying, claws slashing.
"Watch out…"
Krillin was just about to yell when he suddenly remembered—Taro, their master, was watching from behind! He couldn't afford to be timid! This was his first day of training! It was just a tiger! Gritting his teeth, the little bald kid screamed and charged forward too.
Once he made up his mind, he actually felt more at ease.
Goku nimbly dodged the pounce, then kicked the tiger hard in its soft belly, sending it sprawling. Without stopping, he leapt over the beast and kept running.
The tiger, enraged and humiliated, scrambled back up and opened its jaws to bite at Goku's back. Krillin, catching up, let out a cry and kicked it hard under the armpit, making it roll in pain.
Goku looked back with a cheerful grin, then continued running alongside Krillin.
"Cawww…"
The Phoenix flew leisurely above them. Seeing the whole scene unfold, it let out a low, pleased cry.
Taro's expression remained calm. He looked up. The sun was now halfway above the sea horizon, casting a pale light over the black waters.
---
After the run, Goku and Krillin were drenched in sweat. After a brief rest, Taro told them to sit cross-legged by Mirror Lake—and not to move.
Once their bodies stopped moving, their minds slowly began to calm as well.
With eyes closed, both Goku and Krillin entered meditation, their heavy breathing gradually stabilizing... Krillin felt like he was wrapped in a warm spring breeze, and the overwhelming fatigue was gently melting away—or rather, his consciousness was slowly forgetting the pain in his body. He felt like he was drifting into that "transcendent" state the old monks in the temple used to talk about—his soul floating upward into a realm of bliss.
Taro stood quietly behind them, watching over the two young boys as they meditated by the lakeside.
His spiritual energy shrouded the area like a fog, gently guiding Goku and Krillin's minds—not with any specific goal, but letting their own comprehension determine what insights they might gain from being carried by his will.
And judging from the looks of it, Krillin was already on the verge of getting lost in it.
As for Goku... a faint smile tugged at Taro's lips.
He hadn't been affected at all.
Of course, that wasn't quite accurate either… In his current state, even Goku himself probably wasn't aware of what was happening. He was simply following what Taro had instructed moments ago: don't think about anything, don't do anything.
"It seems Gohan, that rascal… over the years, he's given Goku a real foundational enlightenment in the essence of ki," Taro murmured to himself, slowly reeling back the spiritual power he had spread across the world. In an instant, everything returned to normal. Krillin jolted awake, abruptly pulled from that warm, comfortable realm.
"Master…" Krillin turned around.
"Let's go. Time to head back."
Taro turned and began walking away. Halfway up the mountain, Hathaway and Bulma were already watching from a distance.
Krillin scampered after him but noticed that Goku was still sitting cross-legged, unmoving. He gave him a nudge—no reaction. "Huh…? Didn't Goku notice the environment change?" Krillin figured Goku must've felt something similar to what he had experienced during meditation, so why hadn't he snapped out of it?
He glanced back—Master was already far ahead. Thinking quickly, Krillin leaned in and shouted into Goku's ear, "Lunchtime! Tons of delicious food!"
"Where?!" Sure enough, Goku snapped awake instantly, jerking his head around in search of the food.
Krillin had already bolted.
---
Throughout the entire day, Goku and Krillin's training never stopped. One exercise after another… and not all of them were physical. With Taro's current level of insight, he understood deeply that if certain foundations weren't laid during this early stage, making up for them later would be exponentially harder.
That's why he placed great emphasis on training both their minds and spirits.
In the world of Dragon Ball, ki was closely tied to the martial artist's heart.
For a long time in the past, Taro himself hadn't realized this connection, and because of that, he had missed out on many things. But as his cultivation grew increasingly refined and otherworldly over the years, he gradually came to understand… Martial ki, while indeed having a material, energy-based component, could also be something highly spiritual—almost purely subjective.
For example, a martial artist, under special circumstances, could rely on sheer willpower to defy logic, surpass their limits, and unleash astonishing power.
Amplification, or perhaps… transcending limits—this was a form of divinity.
Taro was now quite certain of this.
Back then, when the God of Destruction Beerus had spoken, he said that Taro held three divine attributes within himself.
Natural energy.
Spiritual intent.
ki control.
Over the years, Taro had carefully examined them… Setting aside natural energy for now.
If the divinity of "spiritual intent" were taken to its ultimate form, then a person who achieved godhood through it would essentially become a pure thought—wherever their will reached, they would exist. Such a being could accomplish the unimaginable with just imagination, even defying logic…
Taro had once speculated vaguely that the Namekian who created the original Dragon Balls might very well have been a true god with this type of divine essence. That would explain how he created the impossible out of possibility, the unbelievable from the believable—making the Dragon Balls, a manifestation of the entire universe's dreams.
As for the divinity of ki control…
At first, Taro had derived this from his adaptation of the Mangekyō techniques into Muken—his martial arts fist. Originally, the ocular jutsu was all about the absolute control and amplification of chakra. Later, he repurposed it into an analogy for martial ki techniques.
So, for a while, he believed that this divine attribute simply represented "energy amplification."
But during moments of rest while cultivating natural energy, after much reflection, Taro arrived at a likely truth: the version of the divine attribute he had grasped was incomplete. Not inaccurate per se—after all, as Beerus had said, divinities came in varying degrees, with no fixed number. If Taro continued down the path of energy amplification, he might still achieve true godhood, but compared to the highest, ultimate source of this divine attribute—Boundary transcendence—his approach was… rather crude.
True ki control shouldn't be confined to just energy like ki. It should encompass physical power surges, ki explosions, even spiritual breakthroughs… The idea that "a single grain of sand can fill the sea, a single blade of grass can cleave the sun, moon, and stars"—that, perhaps, was the bearing of a true god who had mastered this essence.
And Muken? It was just one "facet" of that divine principle.
In this regard, Taro could say that his triumphs and downfalls both stemmed from the Sharingan. Thanks to it, he had a natural edge in treading this path. But at the same time, that very eye had imprisoned him—locking him in a small, dark cage.
Not only had it made it difficult to break out of the mindset of "amplification"… but even that very concept had eventually run into a wall—a fiftyfold limit that was almost impossible to breach.
---
These complex thoughts flickered through Taro's mind in an instant. In the end, he was already committed to the path of natural energy and focused most of his deductions in that area, so he didn't dwell on it. However… now that he was raising Goku and Krillin, he had started to pay closer attention—focusing more and more on guiding their spirits.
Perhaps one of them (and of course, he mainly meant Goku) could, through the Muken, step onto the path of the Transcendence divinity and ascend to true godhood.
That was what Taro thought.
He himself was bound by preconceived notions due to the Sharingan, but these two youngsters weren't. Muken would only serve as inspiration to them, not as a constraint. What Taro could do was simply to guide them, to the best of his knowledge and ability, along the right path… That's what being a master truly meant.
Even as these thoughts filled his mind, Taro's hands didn't stop. With a flick of his finger, he launched a clump of dirt.
Whoosh!
The dirt pellet shot toward Goku and Krillin, who were tied to a tree with rope. The two scrambled in a panic to dodge it. Krillin's head was already covered in bumps, and Goku's face was streaked with mud, bruised in patches of blue and purple. Yet his eyes were shining with excitement, his expression focused, carefully tracking the dirt pellets flying in from a hundred meters away, doing his utmost to evade them.
Little by little…
Goku's evasive movements became increasingly smooth. Krillin noticed that Goku seemed completely immersed in the act of dodging, as if the trajectory of the dirt projectiles and his body's movements had synchronized. They were two opposing forces, yet somehow harmonious. It felt like those flying clumps of dirt were meant to be met by this boy, dancing and weaving through them.
"Krillin, don't look with your eyes!"
Goku shouted, then simply shut his own eyes.
"No eyes? Then—ow!!" Krillin yelped as another pellet nailed him right in the brow, making him wince. "...You mean, listen to it?"
Across the distance, Taro smiled faintly. Placing his hand on the ground, he pulled more dirt toward himself. With a surge of ki, he instantly divided the soil into even more projectiles. The next volley came at the boys like a storm of bullets—far more than before.
The cries of pain continued.
---
That evening, after enjoying a hearty dinner with Bulma, Hathaway, and Taro, the utterly exhausted Goku and Krillin returned to their room. They collapsed into bed and fell asleep immediately. No dreams, no thoughts—just deep, peaceful rest.
It was only a couple of days past the full moon, so the moonlight was still bright. Through the semi-transparent wall adjusted by Jarvis, silvery light filtered in, veiling the room like misty silk and lending a serene stillness to the air.
Suddenly, Goku—who had been snoring soundly—snapped his eyes open. In that instant, his normally innocent gaze turned fierce and vicious… then just as quickly, the expression vanished.
"…"
Kakarot felt a heaviness in his body. After a moment, he kicked off Krillin's leg, which had draped over him during sleep. His face expressionless, he shifted to get out of bed. But the moment he stepped forward, his knee buckled and he fell hard to the ground.
Thud!
The sound was dull and heavy—it clearly wasn't a light fall.
Strangely, the house's AI assistant Jarvis, which should've been on duty 24/7, didn't activate the soft-floor mode to cushion the impact. Kakarot was left with a bruised, stinging nose.
"Damn it… Is it because that guy spent all day pushing this body to the limit...? It's too damn tired…"