The next day at school was quite possibly the longest he'd ever encountered. All anyone was talking about was the incident with that CEO. And even though he knew none of them had a clue he was the Great Saiyaman, he still felt as though they knew it was him they were talking about. "Oh, ya heard 'bout it too, huh?" one boy said to his friend as the young Saiyan passed him in the hall before class. "Yeah, I never woulda thought the Great Saiyaman coulda done somethin' like this. I mean, tossin' the guy from the twentieth floor? That's pretty harsh, dude." the other teen replied once Gohan reached his locker nearby. "Y'know what I heard, though... That guy he killed was part o' some gang." "What?! That's bullshit!" At this point, Gohan's ears perked up. Piccolo had said that man was bad, but had never specified how. Maybe this was it?

"Naw, naw, s'true! I heard they found a tattoo of a black snake on 'im. Somethin' 'bout a gang symbol." "Black snake? It got wings an' is wrapped around a sword?" "Yeah, that sounds like it." "Sounds like th' Black Dragon to me." "Black Dragon? Whazzat?" "You fuckin' kiddin' me?! They're, like, the frickin' Mafia, man! Wha, you been livin' under a rock fer the past ten years?!" "No! I just... don't pay attention t'shit, is all! you know that!" "Dumbass..." The two continued their conversation far off down the hall, but Gohan had heard enough. He personally knew nothing about the Black Dragon, not being one to watch TV or gossip at all, but he had a good idea what the Mafia did. He let out a sigh of relief. So far, it seemed, Piccolo was telling the truth.

After retrieving his books from his locker, Gohan nudged the door closed with his elbow and started off towards his first class. He hadn't gotten two inches, however, when a hand shot across his path and slammed into the neighboring locker, cutting him off. Gohan peeked over his books up at a certain blond-haired jock. "Hey there, Solo. You seen Chubacca lately?" Sharpner teased with his usual smirk on his face, using one of his more recent nicknames to address him. Go-Han Solo had to be one of the stupidest ones he'd been called all year. However, he didn't complain. After all, it was better than last week's Peter Piss'n Pants. He didn't get that one either. "So... you have a fun weekend? Anything eventful happen?" he questioned, narrowing his eyes slightly. Gohan narrowed his eyes right back.

It was no secret, between the two of them anyway, that Sharpner had long suspected him of being the Great Saiyaman. And it didn't take a genius to know that was very bad for him. If that damn blond played his cards right, weather it be towards blackmail or immediately ratting him out, he'd have Gohan right where he wanted him. After a long staredown, Gohan opened his mouth to say something, but was interrupted. "Gohan! There you are, you idiot!" came Videl's voice from behind him. He let out a small sigh of relief. Ah, Videl to the rescue. He watched as she walked past him and got right up in Sharpner's face, showing no fear. "Quit pickin' on him, Sharp, or I'll kick your ass twice!" she said with her hands on her hips. Sharpner gave her a face, but didn't do anything. He merely turned around and walked away. Before Gohan had the chance to thank her, he felt himself being pulled away by his arm. Once Videl had dragged him all the way up to the roof, she turned around and slapped him across the face.

Gohan stumbled backward a bit, dropping his books in the process. "What the hell is wrong with you?!" she shrieked, her face absolutely livid. He didn't have to ask what she was talking about. He wasn't that damn stupid. "Look, Videl, it's not what you think! Honest! I didn't do that!" he retorted in his defense, holding his hands up in order to ward off any further slaping. "I know that, nimrod!!" she shouted back. Gohan blinked. Wait, what? "Ummm... then why are you hitting me?" he asked with a blank look on his face. "Fer running away and making them think you did, that's why!! What, you'd rather be known as a murderer than an incompetent moron?! I'm in it deep for this, too, because of you!" At that, Gohan lowered his head a bit, staring at the ground. "I'm really sorry... I didn't mean to leave, honest. It's just--" The young Saiyan was cut off by the sound of the first school bell. He'd never been so glad to hear that bell in his life. He had no idea how he could have explained why he suddenly went missing. Not without exposing his oldest and most trusted friend, anyway. Quickly, Gohan gathered up his books and sprinted for the door. "We can talk after school! See ya!" he said hurriedly as he ran down the stairs, leaving Videl sitting alone on the roof.

Gohan kept his head low all day during class. Even so, he felt Sharpner's eyes glaring at him from behind all day. The Saiyan teen found himself staring up at the clock for hours, praying for the hands to move faster. As soon as that last bell would ring, he'd get out of there as fast as possible. Finally, after what seemed like years, the bell rang signaling the end of the day. Gohan was out of there before anyone even started gathering their things. He must have taken too long putting everything back in his locker, though, as Sharpner and Videl caught up with him in the front courtyard, that other blond girl following closely behind. He hadn't really bothered to remember her name. Erasa or something like that. She just had her normal ditsy look on her face, though, as the other two had more serious expressions. Sharpner was the first to reach him and lifted him up by the neck of his shirt.

"Hey, hey! Where ya going in such a hurry, huh? Got somewhere you need ta be?" he asked with a smirk, his face only inches from Gohan's. He remained silent, however, just staring up blankly into the blond's blue eyes. After a moment, Videl got fed up with it and pulled the two apart. "Cut it out, you two!" she snapped, aiming it mostly at Sharpner. It's not that she didn't want to know what was going on, she just didn't want the subject brought up in public. Gohan took a few steps backward, away from the small group. "Look, I gotta get going. My mom's expecting me home, y'know?" he said nervously. It was true, actually. He'd spent the last night or two at Piccolo's house without letting anyone know, so his mother was probably worried sick about him. He then turned around to take off, but as soon as his back was to the others, he froze.

Leaning his back against a sleek black car parked just outside the school gates, a lit cigarette in his hand, a pair of sunglasses covering his eyes, was Piccolo. He was dressed in a neat black suit with a plain dark tie and, if you looked close enough, you could see a pair of black leather gloves hanging halfway out of his pocket. The first thought that came to Gohan's mind was, of course, 'What the hell is he doing here?!' Before he could do anything, though, he heard Sharpner start to chuckle from behind him. "Holy shit, who called in the Men In Black?" he joked, now having something far more interesting than Gohan's alter ego to talk about. Even though he was quite a distance away, Piccolo's ears perked up a bit and his eyes shifted behind his sunglasses towards the blond human teen. Gohan took that as a sign that he should leave now, not wanting his old friend to cause a scene because of Sharpner's stupid comments.

"Yeah, ummm... that's my ride. See you guys later!" he said hastily as he ran off towards Piccolo, waiving back at the three still standing there. Sharpner had quite the surprised look on his face. "H-hey! What do you mean 'That's my ride'?! Since when does a country hick like you have the kind of cash to be driven around in a car that looks like it belongs to frickn' James Bond?!" he shouted just as Gohan reached the Namekian. He glanced up at him, but could not see past those dark sunglasses of his. The Saiyan let out a sigh, his gaze returning to the ground as he made his way around to the passenger side. Piccolo got in just after he'd buckled his seatbelt and they immediately took off.

The two of them remained absolutely silent for a good few miles as Gohan stared out the darkly tinted window. There were so many questions he felt he needed answering, but he didn't have the courage to ask any of them. He let out a sigh. He had to at least try. As far as he was concerned, anything he would say couldn't possibly make the situation any worse than it already was. He turned his head slowly to face his friend in the drivers seat. Piccolo's face remained pretty much expressionless, his eyes fixed on the road ahead. After a long moment, he finally decided to speak up. "U-umm--" "You'll be staying with me for a while, Gohan." he interrupted out of nowhere. This caught Gohan off guard. "Wh-what? What do you mean, Piccolo-san?" he asked, still very surprised. Piccolo merely shook his head a bit. "I've already talked with Chi Chi. I told her that flying back and forth between your school and the East District was too tiring for you and offered to let you stay with me. She agreed surprisingly quickly. Seems she's finally gotten over her severe distrust in me."

Gohan merely stared at Piccolo for a long while. It was true, the Namekian's house was much closer than his own, being just outside the city, but he was still very confused. he knew that couldn't be the real reason he'd done this. "But why?" he asked simply. Piccolo let out a sigh, obviously growing tired of his stupid questions. "You didn't get rid of it yet." he replied simply. Gohan immediately covered the watch on his wrist, though he knew there was no point. "I told you to ditch it for a reason, Gohan. You don't honestly think you can ever be the Great Saiyaman ever again, do you? Even clearing your name won't be enough, people will still suspect you. That's just how humans are." Gohan's grip around his wrist tightened a bit as he looked away from his mentor. "I... I don't care, Piccolo-san... I can't just sit back and do nothing when people are in trouble..."

There was a long silence after that, which made Gohan extreamly uncomfortable. No reply at all turned out to be more stressful than if Piccolo had continued to argue with him. The Saiyan resumed his previous activity of staring out the window for the rest of the ride. He watched as the city buildings disappeared, replaced by a sea of trees. Luckily, it wasn't very much longer after that before the car turned off the main road and onto the narrow dirt road that led to the Namekian's house hidden behind those trees. It was a rather nice house, one that undoubtedly cost quite a bit. Not even Gohan was stupid enough to wonder how he could afford it. He knew exactly where the money came from, which still scared him a bit.

The silence continued as the car pulled into the garage and the two got out. Piccolo had said a few words when he directed him to the room he'd be staying in, but nothing that counted as a conversation. Gohan was a bit surprised to see some of his clothes from his house folded neatly on the bed, but had finally reached the point where he just didn't give a shit anymore. The silence remained for the rest of the evening and all throughout what was quite possibly the most awkward dinner in history. Gohan's eyes stared gloomily down at his food the whole time while Piccolo ate his without so much as a glance in the Saiyan's direction. After the Namekian left the table without uttering a word, Gohan left immediately for what was now, he supposed, his room.

Gohan flopped down on the bed, ignoring the clothes that had been left there, and buried his face in the pillow. What he felt then wasn't exactly an unfamiliar feeling to him. It felt exactly like when he'd first been taken by Piccolo when they'd first met. He remembered the fear, the uncertainty of what would happen to him, wondering if he could really trust this man that had promised what he was doing was in the boy's best interests. In fact, Gohan found himself wishing it was the same situation as last time, having some stranger doing this to him. Knowing it was his most trusted friend that he was so uncertain about made it hurt even more. He didn't want to think Piccolo had changed from what he remembered, but it was quite obvious that the man had rearmed himself with the same cold, defensive wall as he had back then. That's what Gohan had hoped it was, at least. He couldn't help but blame himself for it, though. Ever since the Cell Games, he'd never once visited Piccolo. He'd seen him over at Bulma's house many times, but it wasn't like before.

Eventually, Gohan ended up drifting to sleep while trying to think of what he could do to fix all that had happened.

Gohan was woken up hours later when he heard the front door slam open. He jumped out of bed and quickly made his way out into the hall. He peeked around the corner just in time to see a rather out of breath Piccolo throw the door closed again before leaning against the wall for a moment. Bracing himself against the wall with his arm, he then made his way slowly down the other hall towards his own room. Gohan noticed he was limping slightly, favoring his right leg. He waited until he heard Piccolo's bedroom door close before emerging from his hiding place. Gohan stopped just where he'd seen the Namakian pause for a moment. It was very dark, but as he looked down he could just barely see it, a small puddle of blood had gathered on the surface of the hardwood floor. Piccolo had gotten hurt? How was that possible? His targets were only humans, weren't they? As his eyes trailed down the hall, he could see another tiny drip every now and then, but they stopped once his eyes hit the door at the end.

Gohan opened the door slowly at first, peeking in to see if Piccolo was in sight. The room was completely empty, however he could here the shower running in the bathroom. He let out a sigh and went in, closing the door behind him. He then made his way across the room and leaned his back against the wall just next to the bathroom door. He stood there like that for a long time, a thousand questions spinning around in his mind. While he was waiting, he'd answered all the obviously stupid questions himself, leaving only the important ones. Perhaps he should always be given a half hour to think before he opened his mouth. He was so busy thinking, however, that he hadn't noticed when the sudden absence of the sound of running water. Before he knew what was going on, the bathroom door had flown open and the blade of a knife buried itself just a hairs width from slicing open Gohan's neck. The Saiyan froze, not daring to even breathe, afraid of what would happen to him if he did. Suddenly, he heard Piccolo sighing before the blade was removed from the wall.

"Don't do that, dammit..." he growled in a low voice, walking forward and placing the knife on the dresser beside his bed. Gohan let out a sigh of relief, trying to convince himself not to freak out about it. It was his own fault for hiding like that on an assassin, after all. Then, remembering the blood he'd seen earlier, he decided to look up at Piccolo to try to see where he'd gotten hurt. It was quite easy to tell, actually, as he was only wearing a towel around his waist. Gohan was very confused to see that there were no visible wounds at all. He wasn't limping anymore either. He supposed the Namekian had merely healed himself while he was in the shower.

"So? What do you want?" came his deep voice once again, pulling Gohan away from his thoughts. He looked up to see Piccolo sitting at the edge of the bed, his elbows resting on the tops of his legs. He then quickly looked off to the side again, his cheeks going slightly pink. It had just occurred to him how little the Namekian was wearing. He told himself he was looking away out of respect, knowing how reluctant his friend had been to even take off his shirt in the past. Yeah. Respect. That was it. That excuse still didn't explain why he was blushing. "U-umm... I saw the blood out by the door and was wondering if you were okay..." he said, trailing off a bit. Piccolo rose a brow at him.

"I'm fine. It was nothing." he answered simply. Gohan let out a whiny little sigh. He was getting tired of those short simple answers. It made it hard to get what he really wanted out of him. "S-so... you did get hurt?" he managed to continue on. "Who were you going after that you got hurt?" His voice was starting to gain a bit more strength as he slowly got used to speaking in such an awkward situation. "No one that matters anymore." A simple answer again. How frustrating. "How'd you get hurt?" he asked, turning to face Piccolo again. The answer came almost too quickly. "Got shot." he replied, his voice remaining calm as if it was an everyday occurrence. As far as anyone knew, it just may have been.

"What?!" Gohan exclaimed, finally hearing something that genuinely shocked him again. "What do you mean you got shot?! How is that possible?! You can dodge them! I've seen you do it!" At that, Piccolo let out a sigh and shook his head a bit. "Can't dodge all the bullets all the time. Some of them are bound to hit sometime when they're all flying at you at once."

Gohan still couldn't believe it. "But you took out that one guy with no problem the first time!" he retorted. Piccolo let out a single chuckle after hearing that. "He was also the easiest hit I think I've ever done. It was almost laughable. My normal jobs are much more difficult." he replied, now staring off into space a bit. Gohan rubbed the side of his arm a bit with his hand, looking down at the ground. He really didn't want to ask his next question, but couldn't stand not knowing. "How often do you get hurt like this?"

There was a long silence in the room, as Gohan had anticipated. Piccolo stared up at the ceiling after a while. "It depends. On average, I'd say maybe once a week." Gohan looked up at Piccolo again. Far more often than he'd hoped. He lifted his back off the wall and walked forward, now standing directly in front of his old teacher. "Why?" Piccolo's eyes shifted from the ceiling to the young Saiyan's face. "Not as fast as I used to be I guess." he replied, though something told him that wasn't what Gohan meant. It was too stupid a question, even for him. "No, why are you doing this? You're killing people, and getting hurt, too. I don't understand why you'd do such a thing, and for such a long time."

Piccolo didn't answer right away, which was becoming a habit. "It's a long story." he replied finally. Another vague answer, and another forming habit. Gohan gritted his teeth. Piccolo was a bit caught off guard when Gohan suddenly grabbed onto his shoulders and pushed him backwards, pinning him down on the bed. "Stop doing that!!" he shouted, glaring down at the perplexed Namekian. "You're been dodging my questions ever since last night!! I already know that you're a hitman!! What the fuck could be so much worse than that that you're still hiding everything from me?!" he shouted, finally fed up with it. Piccolo let out a sigh and looked away.

"I'm sorry, Gohan..." he said simply. Gohan waited for a long moment, hoping that wasn't it. Of course, it was. Growling a bit, the Saiyan pushed himself up off of Piccolo, stepping back. He wanted to say something so badly, but couldn't think of what he should say. There was nothing he could think of that would get through that concrete stubbornness of Piccolo's, so instead he merely dashed out of the room, not looking back.

Gohan found himself sitting on his bed for a long time, his chin resting on his knees and his arms wrapped around his legs. What the hell had happened? Everything had changed as far as he was concerned. He didn't cry, though. He was done crying. He had to fix this and no amount of his tears would help. There was only one way he'd have even a slight chance of getting where he wanted, and all of a sudden, that one thing came to him.

Piccolo hadn't even finished putting his clean clothes on when Gohan suddenly burst in the door again. The Namekian turned slowly to face him after buttoning up his pants. "Piccolo-san... I've made my decision..." he started, his eyes fixed on his old friend's. Piccolo let out a sigh, but didn't say a word. He did, however, take the pack of cigarettes out of his pocket and tossed them on the bed. He expected Gohan to start a fight again. However, he was off. Way off.

"I'm going to become a hitman, too!"