I looked at Alice and noticed that she was waiting for me to speak. I let out a sigh and started telling her what was wrong.

"It's just that I've been working as hard as I can to try and achieve something. But when I stopped to actually see how much I had progressed I realized that I am still so far away from my goal." I didn't really feel the need to hide what I was thinking from Alice, she was my sister after all, and she knew I was a lot more mature than kids my age should be, so she would take what I said seriously. But obviously, I wasn't going to start talking about how I got reincarnated in an anime world, that I think would freak her out.

"Well, what I find best when trying to reach a goal or accomplish something is setting small steps on the path of what you want to achieve. It helps keep you motivated, and right now I think you could use a bit of motivation."

I took a second to take in what she was saying. Yea, I guess I had set the bar way too high right away at the start. People trained their whole lives to compete in the tournament, and I was trying to do that in just 2 years. I needed to stop comparing myself to Goku or Krillin, one of them was a literal alien. Of course, I wouldn't be able to get stronger at the pace they did. Also, my training had worked, I was so much stronger and faster than I had been 2 years ago when I started it. Just setting my standards to what was maybe unreachable had made me think I was not getting better.

I realized that I started to get introspective while Alice was waiting for me to respond. I shot out of my seat with a smile on my face, gave her a quick kiss on the cheek, and ran out the door.

"Thanks for the talk, I really needed it," I shouted as I left the house.

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I continued my training for a few more weeks keeping up with my routine thinking of what I could do to keep getting stronger for my goal. I followed my sister's advice and I didn't think of winning the upcoming world martial arts tournament that was in a year. I think it may be impossible based on my strength right now.

My new goal was to at least win one match in the preliminaries, against the best fighters in the world that is a nice benchmark for the future.

Then a few weeks after I had tested my growth I finally realized the difference between me and the z fighters.

They used Ki when they fought or trained, and that was what I had been missing. How could I be so stupid, I hadn't even been thinking about learning how to use ki or how to meditate at all.

But where to start, how do I even use ki?

I tried to think about how they trained with ki in the early stages of the manga, but there wasn't really any explanation. Goku just looked at master Roshi and knew how to use it, being the genius he is.

I scrunched up my forehead trying to think through the whole anime for anything that would help me at least get started and that's when I remembered. Videl had caught Gohan wearing his silly saiyaman costume and blackmailed him into teaching her how to fly.

I tried to think through their lessons, I didn't have a very clear memory of them but I do remember Videl meditating and trying to reach for the energy or ki or chi inside of her, whatever you what to call it.

I sat down with my legs crossed and tried to relax my breathing. I felt pretty nervous but eventually, with a couple of deep breaths, I was able to get my heartbeat steady as I tried to feel for the energy inside me.

And I felt it, a warmth inside me like I was standing by a campfire on a winter night. I tried to get closer and closer to that heat and grasp it. Control it.

Then suddenly it all went wrong, I had been sitting so still, so focused on my meditation that a bird landed on me, right on my hair. I snapped out of my meditation as I fell to the floor with a thump. The bird quickly flew off startled by my sudden movement.

Huh? Fell to the floor. It wasn't a long drop maybe a few inches off the ground but, I had been floating. Well, I don't think I could even call it floating at this point. I was at most hovering above the ground. Still, it was a step in the right direction, proof that I was making progress, quick progress at that. Videl had also managed to float on day 1. But she practiced martial arts her whole life, she had a much bigger lead than me. Showing signs of success was already good enough for the first day for me.

I got off the ground, patted off the dirt and small bits of grass that had gotten stuck to my pants, and walked home with a smile. Finally, I was starting to step closer to my goal of the world martial arts tournament.