How long did Gohan train Trunks in the alternate timeline?

[SilverArmada]

How much time did Gohan spend training Trunks in the alternate timeline? The manga chapter "Trunks: The Story" is pretty short and doesn't give a lot to go on as far as how long the two of them had been training. The obvious discrepancy is that Trunks can already turn SSJ in the manga chapter, while "The History of Trunks" special has him training to achieve it with Gohan--and only transforming for the first time after Gohan has been killed. The manga doesn't make any mention as to how long they had been training, but we do know that Gohan dies in 780, when Trunks is 14. In the anime special, when Trunks and Gohan are at Capsule Corp. and Trunks is crying, Trunks says to Gohan (the subtitles I'm referencing are from the Funimation Blu-ray release of "The History of Trunks" from 2008):

Trunks: I can't take this! I can't just let the Artificial Humans keep having their way! I want to become stronger! I want to get stronger and beat them! Gohan-san, please! Will you train me even harder?

Trunks saying "Will you train me even harder?" implies they had already been training together, though perhaps not with the intent that Trunks fight the androids. Since he was already SSJ in the manga, then he definitely would have already been training with Gohan to get to that point. Since everyone else died when Trunks was a baby, someone had to have taught him how to control his ki, how to fly, etc. In the manga chapter, the only fight we see Gohan in is when he flies off to confront the androids without Trunks and gets himself killed. Seventeen and Gohan have a short conversation during the fight that includes (in the Viz English translation):

Seventeen: It's been a while, Son Gohan. A whole year, hasn't it? I'm amazed you escaped all that...

Gohan: I've been training hard, you won't beat me this time. It's your turn to lose!

Now I'm getting into merging the anime special and the manga chapter together, but bear with me. If we assume that the anime special took this exchange and created the fight at the amusement park where Gohan's face is scarred and he loses his arm, then we can assume that Gohan and Trunks have the conversation at Capsule Corp when Trunks is thirteen (this is backed up by the anime special indicating in the beginning after the title, "And now, thirteen years later..."). So at a minimum, Gohan trained Trunks seriously for a year. How much more time can we say they trained together than that? I don't know. Based on what Bulma says in both the manga chapter and the anime special, and how Trunks asks Gohan not to say anything after their conversation at CC, it sounds like Bulma doesn't want Trunks trying to fight the androids. So if Gohan was training Trunks for more than that one year, they must have been hiding it from Bulma and/or doing it against her wishes.

Based on all of that, I don't think they trained seriously much more than the one year we can assume they did if we accept the anime special as canon-compliant. I know, this is a minor thing to write up a whole thread on, but I'm trying to build a reasonable timeline for Trunks's own personal history, and how much time he spent with Gohan is part of it. What does everyone else think?

[Angelus]

I've been looking through volume 33 and I realized I haven't read this story in the manga. I haven't full read the manga anyways and thought this was a special. Do you have a link as to where to read this?

[SilverArmada]

No, I have no idea where you could read the chapter online. I have the VizBig edition of the manga so it's included in volume 6 of that version. It is a special chapter, so it's not part of the numbered manga chapters, so you're not wrong when you say it's a special. Sorry if I confused you.

[Super Saiyan Turlast x4]

I pretty much agree with you. I think that whole yr was the majority of their training together. Gohan was pretty impressed with Trunks's improvement, and even thought he might surpass him soon. I always thought Gohan taught Trunks the basics before that yr of training, but I guess it's possible he learned everything in that yr of training.

I haven't seen the TV Special in a good while, but was that #17 quote the same there as it was in the manga? I don't recall him mentioning their last battle being a yr before, but I probably forgot. I wish the chapter was longer. There's quite a few things I'd like to know more about, such as the senzu plant being gone in that time, what happened to Bulma's parents, Trunk's first time achieving Super Saiyan, and things of that sort.

[Angelus]

It's funny how Popo and Korin didn't bother to inform Future Gohan and Trunks about the ROSAT. I bet that would have been heaps useful against those androids.

[Super Saiyan Turlast x4]

I also found Trunks's quote about the senzu plant dying strange. Almost makes me believe the Androids eventually got to Karin's tower and destroyed it along with the lookout. Unless the Androids constant destruction somehow had an effect on the senzu plant or something.

[SilverArmada]

I pretty much agree with you. I think that whole yr was the majority of their training together. Gohan was pretty impressed with Trunks's improvement, and even thought he might surpass him soon. I always thought Gohan taught Trunks the basics before that yr of training, but I guess it's possible he learned everything in that yr of training.

I haven't seen the TV Special in a good while, but was that #17 quote the same there as it was in the manga? I don't recall him mentioning their last battle being a yr before, but I probably forgot. I wish the chapter was longer. There's quite a few things I'd like to know more about, such as the senzu plant being gone in that time, what happened to Bulma's parents, Trunk's first time achieving Super Saiyan, and things of that sort.

I agree with you - I think Gohan taught Trunks the basics of how to fly and control his ki, because everyone else was dead. I just think Trunks didn't learn how to really fight until Gohan started training him for that year before his death.

The quote from Seventeen is from the manga chapter special, "Trunks: The Story" and is the English language translation from Viz. Even though I just watched the anime special again, I don't remember Seventeen saying those lines in the anime special. So we don't know what exactly Seventeen is referring to, but I'm inferring that the anime team decided to use that line and portray that fight in the anime special, thus the fight at the amusement park.