22

"You mean, I can actually ride on this thing without falling?" Chi-Chi asked, curious.

"Well, sure," her beloved Goku answered. "But you do have to have a pure heart."

"Then there should be no problem!" the pretty young lady added excitedly. "My heart is as pure and clean as the water from the springs we use for drinking."

And her statement was true. She was able to ride the Flying Nimbus on that occasion without any problem, and she did the same on all subsequent occasions, thanks to having been able to maintain the purity of her heart.

Until that moment, she was now falling at full speed and without any brakes from Korin Tower, heading straight for the ground. Her body had passed through the Flying Nimbus as if it were just gas and vapor. And that could only mean one thing...

It can't be! It can't be! Chi-Chi repeated this several times in her head, unable to believe it was actually happening.

She twisted her body in the air as best she could to look down. The ground was still nowhere to be seen, but she was hurtling down too fast. At this rate, it wouldn't be long before she crashed and would inevitably end up as a paste of flesh, blood, and bones smeared at the foot of the tower. And the only thing that could save her had abandoned her.

Tears welled up in her eyes and flew through the air as she fell.

She was going to die, she was really going to die, and in a horrible way, and without having accomplished anything. She hadn't saved her son, been unable to avenge her husband, or even get that water... And now, with the horrible things she had just done, she might not even deserve to go to heaven after her death. It had all been for nothing...

"No!" she shouted with all her might, like a mighty roar. "Not yet! Not yet!"

Chi-Chi couldn't let herself be overcome by despair. If she had little time, she had to use it to think of something, to do something. With the wind hitting her face, she turned towards the tower, moving to its side, and uselessly extended her hands in its direction, desperately trying to grab onto it. However, it was too far away.

In her desperation, she waved her hands and feet as if she wanted to swim through the air to get closer, but her body didn't move one bit except downwards. She was so close; if only she could stretch her fingers a few more inches, fly like the others, or propel herself forward just a little bit...

And then something suddenly crossed her mind. An idea, and a memory.

The reality was that while studying his lessons with Gohan, she was rarely able to fully understand several of those texts that were so advanced for her. But something stuck in her mind: a lesson on physics that said: "For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction." That was called the "Law of action and reaction." The book explains it with several examples. Among them is that of a man pushing hard, another of similar weight and size in such a way that not only the man being pushed moves backward, but also the one pushing feels his body move in the opposite direction due to the impulse of the same push. Or, when in a pool, you push yourself with your feet against the wall to give yourself momentum. Or how an aircraft was propelled forward by the action of the turbine, which released its energy pushing in the opposite direction...

"Ah, like when you attack with ki, right?" Goku suddenly said from the other side of the dining table halfway through his dinner. Chi-Chi and Gohan, who were reviewing the lesson side by side at the table while the latter finished eating, simultaneously raised their gazes from the book to him.

"What?" Chi-Chi asked, a little flustered. She wasn't sure if that comment had been directed at them since Goku didn't usually pay much attention to Gohan's lessons.

The warrior quickly finished his plate, placed it on the table, and wiped his lips with his napkin to wipe away the traces of rice and sauce.

"It's like when I throw a Kame Hame Ha," he added excitedly as he stood up. He then walked to a clearer area of the room. At the same time, Chi-Chi and Gohan followed him with their eyes. "Launching an attack like the Kame Hame Ha, it's the same as throwing a punch: the energy is launched forward," he explained with unusual seriousness while adopting the distinctive pose of his technique, separating his legs, joining his hands at his sides, and then extending them together towards the front. Although, of course, for the purposes of the demonstration, he had only made the movements and not invoked his energy. "However, I always feel like a similar force is pushing me back. That's why, in addition to executing the technique with precision, you must also make an effort to keep your body firm in its position. Otherwise, it ends up being launched backward, and that's not always what you want. However, sometimes, it's useful if you want to propel yourself using that same force. But I didn't know it was something scientific," he added with a laughing tone, placing a hand behind his head.

"Yes, Goku," Chi-chi muttered with slight annoyance. "It's all... scientific. But please don't confuse Gohan with..."

"I get it!" the little boy suddenly exclaimed out loud, smiling widely. "It makes perfect sense. For one force to push in one direction, another pushes in the opposite direction."

"Something like that," Goku pointed out, although hesitantly. "Or so I think... What do you think, Chi-Chi?"

The woman looked at them both with a confused expression. After a while, she sighed and smiled in agreement. If Goku's example helped Gohan understand, who was she to complain?

"Yes, that's right," she nodded. "It's like throwing a Kame Hame Ha..."

And that was precisely what she needed: a force that could push her where she wanted to go. She just had to use her ki and shoot some energy to the side, and the momentum would bring her closer to the tower.

There was just one problem: she had never done such a thing. It was one of the lessons Goku had tried to teach her at the time, and the best she could do was generate a small light of energy, barely the size of a firefly, before giving up and deciding it was a waste of time.

But now everything was different. She had managed to sense the presence of people by concentrating hard enough; perhaps now she could do a little more. If she didn't, the only thing that awaited her was certain death.

Chi-Chi turned quickly in the air, staying upside down as best she could, with her back to the tower. She stretched out both hands in front of her and concentrated more than she had ever concentrated in her life, but nothing happened; not even the little golden firefly from that time was present.

"Just a little... I need... just a little push. Just a little, please!"

She wanted to focus on gathering her energy in her fingers, just like Goku had taught her, but this was not easy. The sound of the wind, the fluttering of her clothes and hair, the terror that filled her at the thought that every second she delayed was bringing her closer and closer to the ground...

I'm going to die, I'm going to die, I'm going to die...

Her head pierced her relentlessly, and the tears ran down her eyes until they rose and disappeared into the air. She couldn't do it, she couldn't even give her mind clarity, much less do something she had never done before.

She squeezed her eyes shut in frustration. There was nothing left to do. Her insolence, her weakness, and her impatience had brought her to this point. Now she would have to pay...

"You will never succeed if, instead of focusing on what is in front of you, you have your mind and heart elsewhere," Master Korin's voice resonated in her head at that moment, forcing her to open her eyes. Those were the words that he had just told her a while ago, before her outburst of anger, and that she did not want to hear. "You have focused all your attention and all your spirit on what you must do in the future or what you want to achieve by obtaining the power you desire instead of focusing on what is important at this moment: taking this vessel from me. Nothing else matters right now. In order to match my speed and predict my movements, you have to put all those worries aside. Clear your mind, and leave your heart without any feelings that cloud it. Only when you achieve this will you be able to obtain the Sacred Water and move forward."

Focus on what was important at that moment and nothing else. Her slip earlier, the impending fall, the state of her son and husband. None of that mattered at that moment; only summoning her ki to save herself. Everything else had to be let go...

Chi-Chi took a deep breath, inhaling through her nose, exhaling through her mouth, and closed her eyes again. But this time, not in despair or frustration, but to try to enter a state of absolute calm. To make her mind clear, to let her thoughts and worries fly away like butterflies. And to get rid of everything that was clouding her heart.

The sound of the air around her was no longer deafening but had even become a slight murmur. And her body felt so light, as if she were floating. It was a state of mind she didn't think she had ever been in before, much less in a situation like this.

When she felt ready, she focused her energy on her fingers again. This time, without even opening her eyes, she could feel an electric tingle coming from the tips of her fingers, and a warm, pleasant sensation forming in the palm of her hands, like the same feeling of having the small body of her baby Gohan against her.

She slowly opened her eyes and marveled at the whitish sphere that had formed between her palms, the size of a small ball, dancing and illuminating her like a flame. It was energy, her energy.

She could have remained lost in her thoughts but couldn't afford to. Her reality quickly became tangible again, and she forced herself to react.

Please let this work...

She stretched her hands forward, then released that energy, letting it go. The sphere shot forward with force, and just as she expected, her body was propelled backward with the same acceleration. Her back hit the tower hard, causing her great pain that she let out in the form of a scream. However, she did not let it dominate her. She turned quickly, extended a hand, and her fingers firmly grasped the first ledge of the tower that she could grab onto.

Her arm extended, and she felt a long pull on her shoulder as she had to abruptly slow the acceleration of her entire body, so much so that she thought for a moment that it would dislocate.

She let out another cry of pain, even louder than the last. Her fingers trembled and threatened to give way, but she forced them to hold on. As soon as she could get her body to react, she groped with her feet for another surface to support herself, and once she did, she was able to raise her other hand to steady herself. And only then did her mind become clear enough to understand that she had stopped falling.

"I did it..." she whispered softly, completely stunned. Little by little, a broad smile of happiness took hold of her lips. "I did it!" she shouted with all her might to the sky, like the most spectacular cry of victory.

A laugh of relief and tears of joy soon followed. Her heart was pounding in her chest, and her body was shaking. But she was alive...

And as the emotions calmed down, her breath returned, and she felt her body again, her smile faded as well. As the initial shock disappeared, the revelation and clarity of what she had just done bombarded her.

"I did it..." she repeated quietly, no longer joy or excitement in her words, but rather a marked skepticism.

Had she really done such a thing? How was that possible? How was she not dead at that moment...?

Chi-Chi looked down discreetly. The land and mountains were now clearly visible, although she was still relatively high. She looked up and was not surprised to see that she had fallen so far that the top of the tower was no longer visible.

Undoubtedly, she was much closer to the ground at that moment than to the peak. And now she didn't have the Flying Nimbus to help her. In that scenario, and after her more than apparent failure, the most sensible thing would be to go back down to solid ground and go home as Master Korin had told her. And a few days ago, she would most likely have done that without overthinking it.

But instead, Chi-Chi looked resolutely toward the top, stood firm on the ledges, tensed her hands, and began to climb. Step by step, inch by inch, she rose back up into the sky with her own hands and feet.