Krillin's heart raced as he bounded through the forests southward. His speed was so incredible that he wasn't even touching the ground half the time, simply bouncing from tree trunk to tree trunk like some massively fast pinball, practically flying down toward the south seas.
At that point, he simply dropped a capsule into the water, and out popped a small rowboat, complete with oars.
The fact that he had to row the boat by hand didn't slow the bald boy's progress at all.
In minutes, he was at his destination. A small island in the south seas, location known only to a few.
A wide smile split Krillin's face as he read the word painted on the side of the house. 'Kame'.
The Turtle Hermit. He was finally there.
Today, Krillin would truly take the first step on his road to master martial arts. He'd surpass all of those boys that made fun of him back at the temple, and then he'd keep going till he was at the top of the martial arts world!
The bald boy could see it now!
…
Roshi's nose didn't leave his magazine as he sensed the ki signature approaching, his mind not straying from the pages of underwear-clad girls that he could finally read in peace, now that he wasn't raising Kakarot anymore.
This was the best week he'd had in twelve years. Turtle was visiting relatives, so it was only Roshi, and a mountain of porn. Finally, the retirement that the old man had always dreamed of!
It just took three hundred years to get there.
But now, he had two worthy successors, who would definitely carry his teachings on to the next generation.
He planned to live his last century or so of life exactly like this. It was utterly perfect.
But that bald-headed brat just had to ruin it.
Roshi could tell that the kid had misstepped, the exact moment that he jumped out of the boat, confidently doing three flips in midair…
Before planting his face firmly in the sand. The old man raised an eyebrow as the kid's lower body stuck out of the ground like some sort of really big vegetable.
But he didn't move a muscle to help the boy. It was clear why he was here, after all, and Roshi wasn't in any hurry to take on new disciples.
It took the boy several minutes to pull himself out of the hole his face had made. Every time he tried, the sand would shift, making it more and more difficult for him to pull himself out. But eventually, he succeeded.
And as soon as he did, he raced over to Roshi's chair and dropped to his knees. "Master, I-"
"Traveled a long way to learn martial arts from me-"
"Please, sir! My name is Krillin, and I want to learn everything possible about martial arts from the man touted as the God of it!"
"I'm not looking for any students right now, Krillin. I'm sorry-"
"So… I can't… change your mind?" Krillin said, dropping a capsule on the ground as a clear bribe.
A massive stack of magazines covered in pictures of women clad in skimpy clothing appeared.
Roshi was impressed. The bribe was effective and targeted.
It was likely quite literally impossible to find a much better bribe for Roshi than that one. He was always short on pictures like those…
But it still wasn't enough to convince him to give his retirement up. He simply didn't want to train another person this soon. Not after all of the time he'd spent on Kakarot. Twelve years living with a child, he didn't have any desire to do it again any time soon. Especially since he knew that the Turtle School would live on as one of the greats without him training another student.
Still, this 'Krillin' kid had a bit of potential.
Not only was his power level nearing the normal human peak, somewhere around 25 or so, but he'd accurately identified Roshi's greatest weakness, despite very little information pertaining to Roshi being publicly available.
Plus, the fact that he'd gone to Roshi at all was a big mark in Krillin's favor.
Normally, people who wanted cheap, optimal-level martial arts strength went to the easier-to-access Crane school.
Crane had a few small schools dotted all over the country. His disciples would train anyone who showed promise, and the best of the best would get passed on to him. As far as reputation goes, most thought that he was just as good as Roshi, if not better.
Only those who'd truly met the both of them knew just how much better Roshi was.
The rest of the world pretty much just thought that the title 'God of Martial Arts' was something that he'd been lucky enough to win back when they fought at the first World Martial Arts tournament just over a hundred years ago.
In the century since then, that crafty old Crane had spent all of his time and energy amassing followers and destroying Roshi's reputation, brick by brick.
Roshi let him. Quality always beat quantity, and true quality students would always end up finding their way to the better teacher. The death of his reputation meant that it was much easier to focus on only training the diamonds in the rough.
In fact, he had too many prospective students. Which was why he wasn't quite willing to take Krillin in as a student right now.
…Not without certain… Compensation.
"Krillin, here's the deal. I'll train you, but only if you do one thing for me, first. If you don't do it well, then don't bother coming back."