Chapter Three: Increasing Suspicions Based on Hunger
Chapter Notes:
Custom Surnames:
Forgive my lack of imagination but since some characters in Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z were not given surnames and, because the majority of their names are puns, I will take the liberty of giving them a surname based on the pun which they were named from.
Examples of these would be:
· Erasa which is a pun on 'eraser', therefore, her full name will be Erasa Eraser.
· Sharpner which is a pun on 'sharpener', therefore, his full name will be Sharpner Sharpener.
· Krillin which is a play on Japanese words where his name contains characters that mean 'chestnut' and 'monk'. From this, his daughter's name: Marron also has something to do with 'chestnut' (and if I'm not mistaken, it means chestnut itself). Therefore, Krillin and his family will be given the surname "Chestnut" (e.g. Krillin Chestnut, Eighteen Chestnut and Marron Chestnut).
On Strength:
Gohan's and the Z-fighters' Strength – In the anime, when Gohan as the Great Saiyaman fights off robbers, hijackers and Videl, it's always shown that he dodges them and, for some reason (anime logic), they can keep up with his speed and also, they don't die when he punches them.
In my opinion, since Gohan and the Z-fighters are so strong, even a simple poke should be strong enough to make any human fly – including Videl. If you have watched Dragon Ball, when Goku and Krillin were kids, they were able to push people out of the ring in the World Martial Arts Tournament in the preliminary rounds with just a tap of their fingers. That was when they were trained by Master Roshi. Now, they have of course grown A LOT stronger than that.
Furthermore, in the anime, Videl is definitely stronger than her father, yes. But that doesn't mean that she's THAT strong. In my opinion, Videl is definitely, DEFINITELY weaker than Chichi as compared to other fanfictions out there.
You: "But, Kyough, Videl learned how to fly! Chichi can't do that."
Oh, I'm sure Chichi can learn how to fly easily if she wanted to. Don't forget, Chichi was able to keep up with Goku in the World Martial Arts Tournament back then – and that was after Goku had been trained by Kami, meaning she is definitely stronger than Videl and has better handling of Ki compared to her (not to mention she can do impossible martial arts feats that Videl can't – e.g. jumping several feet into the air). I'm assuming her father, the Ox-King, being a student of Master Roshi, trained her in a modified variation of carrying 50kg turtle shells and doing crazy cross-country milk deliveries while being chased by dinosaurs to gain strength.
To me, from watching the anime, I am of the opinion that the only training Videl got from her father would be lifting weights (which, at the most would be 90kg bench-presses), boxing and other martial art forms. So, I conclude that Videl is strong, but definitely not stronger than Chichi, and that any Z-fighter can defeat anyone with just a flick of their finger without having to pointlessly dodge them.
A/N: With that, please enjoy the chapter. And thank you for reading and bearing with the slow pace. I know it's a bit slow, but I'm not planning a short story and I do plan to update quite frequently so it's all properly paced.
Dinner at the Eraser household was always a quiet affair.
Erasa's father: Rubber Eraser was a successful and wealthy businessman. Her mother, Vinyl Eraser, on the other hand was nothing more than a housewife.
Her mother's devotion to her father was so great that Erasa couldn't bear even being in the same room as her. This was because Erasa's father, being wealthy, always brought home different women and had more often than not abused his wife's kindness. Indeed, Erasa knew that the problem lies not with her mother, but with her father for being a womanizer. However, she ignored this fact because, though it broke her heart to see her mother being taken for granted, she had already argued with her on several occasions yet Vinyl never acknowledged her point of view and continued blindly following her husband. It was also the fact that Rubber never really talked to his family much because his marriage to his wife was arranged between their parents and the fact that he pretty much didn't want to have Erasa that there was not much interaction between any of them.
"Thanks for the food," Erasa said as soon as she finished the dinner that was given to her.
Whenever she could, Erasa would avoid being around her parents and there was a large, empty hole in her heart. She was never happy at home and had lived a difficult childhood until she met her two best friends Videl and Sharpner. She knew then that she didn't want them to needlessly worry for her, so she took on a cheerful and bubbly personality which carried on towards others outside of her family. She also tried to fill the hole in her heart devoid of parental love by going out with various men, but she had it set in stone never to fall in love with a man so deep that she'd end up like her mother.
It was when she reached her room that she checked her phone.
You have: 1 New Message
Opening the message, she read:
:: Hey, babe.
I'm going to visit your house this weekend along with some mates. I hope you don't mind.
Love you,
Durago ::
Forgetting that Gohan and Angela were supposed to come over during that time to work on their music project with her, she hastily replied: "Sure, I'll see you then xoxo"
Thursday morning came by in a blur and Gohan found himself being woken up by a loud 'Klunk!'
"Wake up, Gohan, you're going to be late!" screeched Chichi while being poised ready to hit her son again with her notorious frying pan.
Gohan was clearly not a morning person and a quick glance at his alarm clock told him that he only had fifteen minutes left before school started.
"Oh no! That means I only have five minutes to eat breakfast!" he exclaimed as he quickly shot out of his bed to get ready for school.
Brushing his teeth and washing his face took him two minutes and he told himself that he didn't have time to shower not that he considered he needed one since he took one right before going to sleep.
"Grah! Only three minutes left for breakfast!" he complained as he dashed down to the kitchen to cram as much food as possible in his stomach within that time.
Unfortunately for him, his younger brother Goten – who pretty much idolized him – was already sitting down at the table and, as soon as he caught sight of him, he immediately ran up to him excitedly screaming, "Gohan! Gohan!"
"Hey, what's up squirt?" he said while patting Goten's spiky hair. To his disappointment, there were only crumbs left on the plates when he sat down.
"Guess what? I took the Flying Nimbus to visit Chobi!"
Gohan frowned. "Uh, Goten, you wouldn't know what happened to the food, do you?"
"Oh, that? I ate all of it since you didn't seem lik-"
"You WHAT?!"
Gohan couldn't believe it. Sure, Goten had a large appetite, almost as large as his, but that was no excuse for his younger brother to eat his food.
Chichi who had just come down to the kitchen after clearing up Gohan's bedroom said, "What's going on, boys?"
"Mum, he ate all the food!"
"Calm down, Gohan. Don't yell at your younger brother like that," Chichi said calmly though she could clearly feel the subtle rise of temperature in the room.
"Nobody touches my food," Gohan cut off pointedly, nearly turning Super Saiyan.
"I-I'm sorry, big brother."
Goten was genuinely sorry. It was an innocent mistake on his part to eat all the food and Gohan knew it. He knew he couldn't stay angry at his younger brother for long especially when he was giving him one of his puppy dog eyes. That, added to Goten's very similar looks to his father, made him almost instantly forgive him.
He sighed. "Fine, but next time don't eat all the food and remember to leave me some, alright?"
Chichi smiled. At least her son had a big heart.
"Gohan, you're going to be late for school," she nagged. "Go! And when you come back home, I'll make sure to cook you an extra-large dinner to make up for this breakfast."
"Really? All right! Thanks, mum. Love you, bye!"
With that, Gohan dashed out of the house somewhat slightly appeased. The fact that he didn't have breakfast however didn't change, and so his mood for the day was miffed which carried on until his hunger was satiated by lunch.
It was annoying.
Gohan grit his teeth as he landed in front of the bank. "Darn it, why is there so many bank robberies in this damned city?"
He was on his way to school when his Saiyan hearing caught the sounds of police sirens. He was already in a bad mood because he skipped having breakfast (though, he wasn't mad at Goten anymore), and now to top it all off, his conscience wouldn't allow him to ignore the cries of the people so, of course, he just had to help.
Normally a very polite and kind boy, Gohan's attitude would do a complete 180 degrees whenever he was angry – and going hungry makes him angry though, in this case, he was only slightly miffed. Unlike his father, Goku, who becomes slightly weakened when he's hungry, Gohan's hunger fuels his anger which in turn causes his power levels to rise. As the saying goes: 'a hungry man is an angry man' indeed.
In fact, Gohan was so angry that he completely skipped his Saiyaman entrance poses and just quickly proceeded to ward off the robbers with a flick of his fingers to their foreheads. "I hope none of their skulls got damaged in the process," he thought.
As soon as he rounded up the criminals, he tried to immediately rush off without basking in the praises of the public, but he was stopped by a loud, commanding voice.
"Wait!" the voice demanded.
"Aw, great," he thought, recognizing the voice. "Can't she leave me alone in peace?"
Gohan was really not looking forward to being pestered right now. On top of being hungry, he was already late by five minutes. He knew that if he kept his late-coming up, no matter how good his grades were, the teachers would eventually complain and they might even take him off the roll which would definitely upset his mother.
He turned around to see a glaring Videl.
"Well, hello there!" he greeted her airily in his fake voice. "Fancy seeing you here. Well, it was nice seeing you. I have to go - plenty of things to do. Bye!"
Videl just kept up her glare as she folded her arms across her chest and said sarcastically, "Hold it. I have a few questions to ask from you, Mister Great Saiyaman."
Gohan wasn't really in the mood to deal with her at the moment, so, when a loud grumble of his stomach echoed audibly, he quickly pointed to the sky and said, "Hey, look! A giant flying dinosaur!" before flying off at a high speed so that Videl couldn't follow him around in her jet copter.
"Huh? Where?"
In spite of how serious and seemingly sharp Videl was, she still fell for the oldest trick in the book. Feeling like kicking herself, Videl consoled herself by recounting the loud stomach grumble from the Great Saiyaman which brought a devilish, knowing smile across her lips. "Well, what do you know? Super heroes get hungry too, huh? You haven't seen the last of me, Saiyaman."
Class had already begun in full swing for ten minutes when Gohan entered the classroom. His homeroom teacher, Ms. Mademoiselle, was a strict, bespectacled blonde who was quite full of herself being only in her early twenties.
"And vhy are you late, zyoung man?" she demanded, while peering at Gohan through her horn-rimmed glasses.
Too hungry to come up with a lame excuse, Gohan just wanted to be left alone and reprimanded her.
"Well, you're our homeroom teacher and if you actually bothered to know your students' details, you'll know that I live in the 439 East District area. Can't you please give me a bit of a grace period? It's hard enough to wake up early as it is."
Ms. Mademoiselle's face fell in forlorn. It was true that Gohan had a point, and she knew that it took five hours by car or three hours by the fastest jet copter to travel from Orange Star Senior High to the boy's address. It was also a fact among the teaching staff that Gohan held the impossible record of scoring a hundred percent in all of his entrance exams. Still, she was not used to being talked back to, so she screamed, "Varning, Mr. Son! You get tvoo varnings and every subzequent vone after zat vill be detention. Is zat clear?"
"Yes, ma'am."
"Good. And you have a point. Very vell, I'll write a note to ze ozer teachers to give you a ten minute grace every firzt period sinze you live so far away. But no more than zat. Understood?" Then she added, "And as your homeroom teacher, I've been hearing from ze ozer teachers about your frequent visits to the toilet. While zat is not a problem, I've been told zat you don't come back to class afterwards. Living far away does not excuse zat, Mr. Son. I hope I don't hear of zis again."
Glad that he practically got himself a ten minute grace period every morning, Gohan was more than happy to comply before taking his usual seat beside Erasa.
"Wow, she chewed you out good, huh?" she stated with her usual, high pitched, girly voice.
The words "I know, right?" haven't even left Gohan's mouth when Videl burst into the room.
"Sorry I'm late, Ms. Mademoiselle," she panted before rushing to sit beside her best friend, Erasa.
"Ees all good, Ms. Satan. We all know zat you have been contributing to ze public peace by helping zose useless policemen."
"Hey, girl. Fighting crime as usual? What was it this time, a hostage taking or a bank robbery?"
"Bank robbery," Videl curtly replied before sitting down and focusing her attention to Gohan. "But I didn't make it on time. Just as I got there, the Great Saiyaman had already taken care of the situation – with a flick of his fingers," she added for emphasis, strongly hinting something at Gohan.
Erasa nudged her best friend and whispered to her, "So what's going on between you and Gohan-cutie?"
"I told you before, Erasa, what do you mean? There's nothing going on between me and Gohan."
Erasa rested her head on her hands and said dreamily, "Whatever you say, Videl. But I know there's a reason why he always disappears after you run off to fight crimes. In fact, you came in just after he did this morning. How do you explain that?"
"He does, huh?" Videl noted this information down in her memory. Normally, Erasa just made baseless assumptions, which she was fine with most of the time until - on rare occasions - they got out of hand, but today she was grateful for this piece of information.
Shrugging her shoulders, Erasa went back to listening to the teacher before she got bored and started paying more attention to her fingernails instead. She knew that her best friend won't admit to anything involving romance but she really thought that Videl and Gohan would make a good couple so she left her alone to bug her about it for another time.
It was then that the whole class heard the sound of a dying whale. Except, they were in the city and were far away from the ocean. As everyone looked around to find the source of the noise, Videl's suspicions of Gohan grew. "I've heard that sound before. That was when I met Saiyaman this morning. I've got you now, Gohan."
Gohan blushed crimson red. "Oh, boy. That's embarrassing."
After that, both Gohan and Videl paid an unusual amount of attention to the time. Both of them were eagerly waiting for lunch, but for different reasons. Gohan couldn't wait to eat his lunch while Videl was excited with the prospect of cornering Gohan at last.
The bell chimed and Gohan cleared away his books, once again beating his personal record for packing up and getting ready for lunch. In his mind, he was chanting his own personal mantra: "Lunch, lunch, lunch, lunch, LUNCH!"
Videl got up and tried to corner him, but Erasa had beaten her to it.
"Hey, cutie. Joining us for lunch again?"
"You bet!" Gohan exclaimed enthusiastically, before lifting Erasa up prince-charming-style and dashing off to the cafeteria.
Surprised, Erasa's mind went blank for a moment, then shifted to panic mode when she realized how fast Gohan was running. Afraid of falling down, she wrapped one arm around Gohan's neck and another went to his chest. When she was sure that she was secure, her mind recovered from the shock and finally processed what was happening.
"Wow, this is so romantic. I've always wanted to be carried like this. This is the first time…" she thought. It occurred to her that Gohan's neck and chest was actually very firm and muscular which contrasted from the nerd image that he projected.
"Mmm… these muscles," she thought, getting slightly aroused. "Gohan, I didn't know you were hiding more than secrets underneath those baggy clothes."
When Gohan finally reached the cafeteria, he put Erasa down on a chair and took the seat beside her, not noticing the looks from everyone in the canteen.
As soon as she was put down, Erasa's thoughts snapped back into reality and she blushed slightly. "Oh my God, girl! You were basically thinking of having an affair from your boyfriend AND stealing the first guy your best friend fell in love with. Bad Erasa! Bad Erasa!" she mentally scolded herself.
Meanwhile, Gohan had already begun chowing down his massive lunch and with that, his hunger was appeased and his temper gone back to normal just as Videl came racing into the cafeteria.
Panting to catch her breath, she flopped herself down on the seat directly opposite Gohan and looked at him in contempt. "I'll never get used to watching him inhale that large amount of food."
As usual, Erasa excused herself to join the queue to get her salad while asking if Videl wanted anything.
"Hmm, maybe a Set C this time, Erasa. Thanks, I owe you!"
Erasa just laughed and dismissed Videl's thanks jokingly. "If it's like that, then you'd have owed me many times over," she said before walking off to join the rather long queue of students battling to buy their food before it sold out.
"Gohan, I have a question to ask you."
Having just ate, Gohan's temper had subsided and he was back to his normal self. "She always asks questions," he complained.
"Yeah?"
"Do you know anything about the Cell Games?" she began accusingly, knowing that Gohan won't be able to weasel himself out of this one if he so much as answered in his usual manner. "My dad always tells me that those people were using light tricks and – "
"If that's what he says, then what else could I tell you otherwise? He's been there, I haven't." Gohan cut her off.
Gohan was still half-Saiyan and it hurt his Saiyan pride to be called a fake, especially when it was said by a weakling like Hercule Satan, but that wasn't what made him cut her off. His human side allowed him to be humble and be gracious that at least his family didn't have to deal with the publicity and the media which was good for maintaining their peaceful and reclusive lifestyle. No, what upset him was that she was basically bringing up memories of his failures which resulted in his father dying. He knew that it was Goku's choice to remain in the Other World, but he still hated himself for what happened.
Not expecting to be cut off, Videl felt that she touched a nerve and asked Gohan more kindly, "I'm sorry. Is there something wrong with what I said?"
"No, nothing. I'm sorry too, for snapping back at you like that. It's just-" Gohan hesitated for a second. "It's just that I lost my father during the Cell Games."
"That's not possible," Videl said matter-of-factly. "Everyone that was killed by Cell was revived when my dad beat him, for some reason. My dad explained it to me that it was all part of an act. A trick."
Gohan just remained silent and shook his head.
"So this runs deeper than I thought," Videl thought, while rubbing Gohan's back consolingly.
To Videl, she just started off investigating Gohan because she thought that he had some relation to the Golden Warrior and the Great Saiyaman. This was because she couldn't stand not knowing who they were when they were taking away her spotlight. It was also partially because she didn't like the fact that the Great Saiyaman was hiding his identity under (in her opinion) that ugly bucket of his. To her, if you were fighting crime, you shouldn't hide your identity under a mask otherwise you would be no different from a criminal hiding your identity. However, this time, Gohan's secrets intrigued her to the point that she was slowly making it a personal investigation about him compared to what began as an investigation of the Great Saiyaman and the Golden Warrior.
In any case, she decided to drop the matter for today seeing how upset Gohan became. She even let the matter about the coincidental stomach growl drop and told herself to hold asking him questions for another day.
"Just you wait. I'm not done with you yet, Gohan."
End of Chapter Three
To be continued...
