Gohan, Shampoo's Childhood Friend
By: CrazyJoeKungFu
Chapter 3: Terms and Agreements
A few minutes after Ranma and Gohan meet
The little group knelt around the small table as they looked at their newest guest. None knew what to say as each of them had different feelings toward the young saiyan. Shampoo looked over at her friend, waiting for him to say something. Just then the middle Tendo daughter, Nabiki, entered the room. She looked at the silent group and noticed the man sitting beside the Chinese Amazon. She couldn't help but give the well-built man a lookover before she winked at the purple haired girl.
"Whoa Shampoo, you landed yourself a gem there," she said in a rare compliment.
"Oh he no Shampoo's airen," Shampoo told the girl with a faint blush on her cheeks. Nabiki, being the perceptive one of the Tendo clan, picked up on the reaction and pressed her face closer to Gohan. The young man couldn't help but feel like he was in an interrogation room the way she looked at him. She felt that deep down there might be some connection other than friendship between the two amazons, though they themselves haven't figured that out yet or it could be nothing at all. Nabiki took a mental note to talk to Cologne later about the subject as she sat at her spot around the family table.
"So tell me, since you and Shampoo aren't dating...are you here to eliminate my dear daughter Akane?" Soun cried as tears streamed down his face. Akane glared at Gohan upon her father asking the loaded question.
"Wha...NOO...why would I want to hurt any of your daughters sir!"Gohan shouted, trying to defuse the increasingly tense situation.
"Why, WHY!" Soun shouted,"you know perfectly well WHY!."
"No, actually I don't," Gohan replied honestly. Ukyo picked that moment to tap him on the shoulder.
"You asked me if Ranma had any more fiancees right? We'll the girl over there glaring at you is number three." Ukyo told the saiyan, which caused Shampoo to get a little nervous.
"Evidently someone didn't tell me the whole story. Happy couple huh," Gohan said as he looked over at the Amazon, who could only stammer as a reply. However, he did give his word that he would train both Ranma and Shampoo and any son of Goku would never go back on his word if it could possibly be helped. He took in a deep breath and exhaled as he tried to find a solution to this new dilemma.
"Why don't we just hear what he has to say?" Ranma's mother Nodoka asked the group, which seemed to calm everyone down. Akane was still glaring at the guest.
"Where to begin...ok well I'll just come out and say it. I'm here to teach Ranma and Shampoo how to control their ki without emotion and fly." Gohan simply stated while ignoring the glaring Akane. This statement did earn some laughter from a certain overweight martial artist.
"You know people can't fly!" Genma chided the young saiyan. Gohan smirked at the skeptical old man as he stood up on his feet. After just a moment the young teen started floating above the ground effortlessly. This act amazed and shocked everyone, and even got Akane out of her angry mood. Gohan took it a step further and gently glided out of the door toward the koi pond.
'Well I'll be...one things for sure the old ghoul don't disappoint most of the time,' Ranma thought, also noting the few times she has trained him on certain techniques.
Gohan was outside and motioned the little group to join him. The Tendos,Saotomes and the okonomiyaki chef clamored to the back porch to see the floating young man. Shampoo just walked over and leapt over them, using the old man as an unwilling springboard and landed into the backyard on her feet.
"Shampoo should I give them a bit of a show or not?" Gohan asked his friend. The amazon gave a little nod and with that Gohan shot straight up into the afternoon air. The young man then dived downward and went into a figure 8, which amazed the small group and made a certain fat martial artist look quite foolish.
"So people can't fly, huh pops," Ranma snickered toward his father.
"Show me some respect boy!" Genma shouted at his son, despite the fact that a certain half saiyan made him look like a fool.
Gohan touched down and looked at both male Saotomes glare at each other. The young half-alien walked over to Shampoo, who just greeted him with a smile.
"Are those two always like this?" he asked his tribal sister.
"Yep, those two no know when to not argue." she replied as the two of them went into fighting stances. Gohan leapt up and landed inbetween them.
"Can you two settle your differences later?" Gohan asked of the father and son. The father responded by throwing a punch at Gohan. The boy let the hit connect but to the old man's surprise didn't cause the slightest bit of discomfort for the young guest. In fact Genma heard a few bones in his fist break and cried out in agony as he held his own hand. His wife went over to him and grabbed the hand that struck Gohan. She touched it in various places and saw the grimace on her husband's face as she touched certain spots.
"It is broken indeed. My, my young Gohan certainly is a tough one isn't he."Nodoka said as she let go of her husband's hand.
"Aww dammit..I gotta take Pop to Dr. Tofu now!" Ranma groaned as he walked over to his injured father.
"That's two things you've broken so far in combat!" Ukyo said to the young saiyan, " and you haven't thrown a single punch."
"Eh, didn't really have to I guess..." Gohan replied as he scratched the back of his head. Ranma went up to the other teenage boy and gave a bit of a glare to him.
"I could've beat him you know. Don't think you was just doin' that to protect me or nothin," Ranma told the half alien as if to say he didn't need his help.
"I know you could've but I really didn't like the way your father snickered at me when I explained why I was here. Think of it as a bit of payback for me." he replied to Ranma, who kind of wanted to laugh at what he thought was the stupidity of his father striking someone with that hard of a jaw.
"I have a feeling he's learned his lesson," Nodoka interjected between the two boys, "now I have to take my husband to the doctor. I'm sure you and my son have much to discuss."
Nodoka walked out with her injured husband and left the group alone with Gohan.
Now that he felt everything was back in order, Gohan cleared his throat and took a deep breath. The saiyan had much to consider, as the situation became much different than what he had expected. First, Ranma had three fiancees, and all were probably martial artists. There was Shampoo, to which Gohan felt was very capable to learn the techniques that he would teach her. Then there was Ukyo, to who Gohan could tell was very strong for not knowing how to fully control her ki and was deadly to anyone with her battle spatula that isn't superhuman like him, Vegeta, or even Krillin, Tien and Yamcha. Which left Akane, a real wild card for the super saiyan. He could deduce that she was a fighter, judging by her gi and relatively strong aura compared to the others, but had no idea how well she would receive instruction. Lastly there was Ranma himself, who Gohan could tell was stronger than his father and any other martial artist in the room, except the saiyan himself of course.
"Hmm...this is a pickle indeed. My, my Ranma you certaintly are popular with the ladies," Gohan joked, which started to get on the pig-tailed boy's nerves a bit.
"Could you please get to the point!" Ranma growled at the much stronger fighter.
"Of course Saotome. As I said before I came to teach you and Shampoo how to control your ki without using an emotional base, and how to fly. Not to say that emotions do not play a part afterall. I was just going to teach you and Shampoo, but considering the current situation I think that it would be disasterous to follow that course. You know how Amazons detest "obstacles" and I fear that this training might be used the wrong way..."
"What you mean "wrong way"!" Shampoo shouted as she interrupted Gohan's speech.
"Please don't interrupt, Shampoo, or I won't train you at all," Gohan said with the seriousness that he felt it demanded. Shampoo abruptly stopped talking, for the saiyan was held in high regard in her village despite the fact that he wasn't raised in China.
"Now I will continue...Ah yes, there is only one solution to this situation. Ranma I will train regardless, that is if he wants training," Gohan paused awaiting the other teenage boy's reply.
"Your damn right I want you to train me!" Ranma replied quickly, which garnered a smile from Gohan.
"Thought so, I like your enthusiasm. Ok then I have one thing I must say and it is very important. Since I believe in an even playing field, here is my condition... I will either train all three of you...or none of you, your choice." Gohan finished his speech. He felt three different emotions from the three different women vying for Ranma's hand in marriage. Ukyo he could tell was excited to have her abilities pushed to a high level. Shampoo he could tell didn't like his solution one bit, but she knows how Gohan operates and how he liked to create a challenge when he so desired, so she bit her tongue.
The saiyan looked over at Akane, who was just a big 110lb bag of mixed emotions. She was conflicted on the inside. Sure, from what she could tell and how easily he was able to subdue Genma Saotome by taking a punch that he was good, but there was a little nagging question in her mind.
"Gohan, did you really defeat Cell?" the youngest asked, not being able to hold that question in any longer. Ranma's official new sensei knew that he couldn't lie to this girl. He did give an amused smile to Shampoo as he suspected she told Akane of said feat. True, Gohan never talked about that day much, but after seven years he was able to look at that day without regret and self-pity.
"Yes I did Miss...Akane is it," Gohan replied, hestiant to remember her name for she was quiet up to that point. The girl decided to test the saiyan warrior by producing a mallet and tried to whack him with the blunt object. She charged and swung the weapon as fast as she could, however Gohan simply placed one finger on the mallet, shattering it into many pieces. Akane could only stand in disbelief as she held out her empty hands.
"Nice Bakusai Tenketsu, you didn't even leave the handle. You don't even shout the name either." Ranma complemented as if he had seen it before.
"Thanks Ranma! I'm surprised you know the name of that technique. Not very useful directly against any animals or humans, but let's me clear obstacles without any unnecessary destruction," Gohan pointed out," so fiancees are you in or out."
"Shampoo in!" she replied while standing at attention.
"I'm in sensei!" Ukyo replied, duplicating her amazon rival's position. Gohan turned his attention to the youngest Tendo daughter who had shaken herself out of her amazement after a moment.
"I'm in," Akane told Gohan with a look of determination. She was going to see this through no matter the obstacles.
"Good, good...then your training will begin tomorrow. Meet me at the Cat Cafe at 6 am. I also have another student coming and its a surprise," Gohan said to his new pupils.
The young man also reached into his pocket and pulled out his wallet. The young saiyan brought out around 2200 yen and placed it in Ukyo's hand. The chef just looked at him blankly as she held the money.
"This should cover my bill at Ucchan's. I don't like having debts go unpaid you know," Gohan told Ukyo, who placed the money into her pocket and made a mental note to place it in the cash drawer when she went back. One person saw the yen however, and ran up to grab his arm.
"How about I show you around town a bit, eh Gohan," Nabiki smiled and winked at him. Gohan just scratched the back of his head nervously in response.
"Yeah, and he can have empty pockets to show for it," chided Ranma, which earned a glare from Nabiki. Afterall, in Nabiki's mind at least, how dare he try to stop her from at least getting to know the guy eventhough it would take some of his yen to do so.
'Why is con artist girl trying to get to Shampoo's Goh...why am I thinking of him that way all of sudden. Shampoo supposed to love Ranma!' she thought as the scene with the middle Tendo daughter and her friend developed.
Gohan managed to free his arm from Nabiki's grip, much to her surprise. She stood up straight and looked Gohan eye to eye.
"Ok Gohan, I just want to take you around town." the money savvy one of the Tendo clan told him.
"I don't know.." Gohan replied, wary of the information Ranma told him. Nabiki at this point was getting tired of his apprehension with her and decided to compromise a bit with him.
"If it will make you feel better, why not have your new students come along," the short haired girl offered to the half-saiyan," and besides, its been awhile ever since Ranma had an ice cream anyway."
As if on cue the pig tailed boy grabbed a bucket and dipped it into the koi pond. He then proceeded to dump the cold water onto his head, and he became his girl form.
'Bizarre...good thing I was told about this earlier,' Gohan thought as he looked at his new, now female student.
At the ice cream parlor...
The small group walked up to the counter and looked over the selections of various ice cream desserts. Ranma, as she did many of times in girl form, looked over and decided to order first.
"I'll have the peanut butter and chocolate deluxe with extra M&Ms and hot fudge," the red headed pig-tailed girl ordered. The male employee scooped up the two scoops, one peanut butter and one chocolate, necessary for the dessert and applied bits of peanut butter fudge, M&Ms and the hot fudge, which would make anyone craving ice cream probably salivate.
The red headed girl started to turn on her charm and gave her best puppy dog eyed look that she could muster.
"Could I have an extra scoop of chocolate please?" Ranma asked, batting her eyelashes at the young man behind the counter and her hands folded together.
"It's on the house. Your just so cute and all." the employee told the redhead before he reached over to the scooper to apply the extra ice cream. Before he could though, another red head girl took the scooper away from him. She was only slightly taller than Ranma's girl form and her head was wrapped in a bun with a visor and the same white and red uniform that the male had on.
"You know my aunt almost fired you when you gave her the free scoop last time," the young girl associate chastised to him.
"But...But," was all that the man could stammer as she held the scooper in hand. Girl Ranma at this point was seething a bit beneath the surface. Ok she was getting pretty angry as she turned her attention to the other red head.
"Hey listen here little girl, it's just a scoop of ice cream. What harm does it do?" the sometimes Saotome girl seethed. The other auburn haired female whipped around and glared at the slightly shorter girl.
"It eats into our profits. You know, I see so many people like you bat your eyelashes and get freebies all the time and it makes me sick," she replied to Ranma. One chestnut haired girl didn't appreciate the fact that this girl was trying to make an example out of her fiance. This was a rare treat for her for she hadn't been out of the restaurant in a while and had taught Konatsu how to make a decent okonomiyaki so she could enjoy herself sometimes. Ukyo was ready to flatten the red head with the spatula, but before she got a chance Gohan stepped in front of her and gave a grin to the two bickering red headed females.
"Feisty as ever, aren't you Lime," the saiyan simply stated. Both girls snapped out of their fighting mood and looked at the interjecting party. After a moment, a smile of pure happiness came on the face of young Lime as she recognized the spiky haired teenager almost instantly.
"Gohan!" the young employee girl called out as she ran around the counter and gave him a huge hug. Gohan embraced the girl back and placed her back onto her feet. Shampoo felt another one of those pangs of jealousy again, but kept it down my mentally telling herself that she loved Ranma over and over.
'Shampoo love Ranma. Yes Ranma not Gohan. Though Gohan is handsome and...no,no,no! Shampoo love Ranma!' she thought, not paying much attention to anything else but Lime and her childhood friend. Akane noticed how the amazon looked at the scene and cleared her throat. Shampoo luckily heard the noise and it knocked her out of her conflicting emotions...for now at least. Meanwhile Lime looked at Gohan and back at the counter where her aunt/boss had been standing and giggled sheepishly. She looked a bit like Lime, though was slightly pudgy and around her early forties.
"Oh Auntie Keiko, where are my manners, this is Gohan. The boy who saved my life all those years ago," she introduced to the older woman, who in turn gave a kind and gentle smile to the young demi saiyan.
"She's told me a lot about you young Gohan. Even how you stopped that evil man from hurting my father. It took a lot of convincing to get my stubborn old father to leave that village and move in with Miss Lime and me. They even threw him a going away party." the woman told Gohan, seemingly reminiscing. Then the woman got an idea, though brilliant or not would remain to be seen.
"I tell you what. Lime why don't you join Gohan and his friends over here and well...ice cream's on me," she said, whispering the last part so that other customers couldn't hear. Gohan was about to protest when Lime whispered something in his ear on how it was probably a small reward for what he had done for her and her grandfather. Auntie Keiko then placed the extra scoop on Ranma's order and handed it to her, which caused the martial artist's face to light up.
"Well Gohan, what would you like to have?" the somewhat overweight woman asked her niece's longtime friend.
"Hmm, a Strawberry Sundae with graham crackers would be nice," the young saiyan replied.
"And your friends over here?" she asked the girls.
"I'll have a Banana Split," Akane ordered.
"Rocky Road with graham crackers," Ukyo ordered.
"Triple Chocolate Attack," Nabiki ordered.
"Vanilla with broken up Chocolate Chip Cookies," Shampoo ordered.
"Chocolate, Vanilla and Strawberry with graham crackers," Lime ordered
"Well I will get those to your table momentary," Keiko told the group before they went to their seats. While there waiting for their orders to arrive, Nabiki scooted herself between Gohan and Shampoo.
"You don't mind, do you Gohan dear," Nabiki rhetorically asked the young saiyan. Gohan really didn't know what to do in this situation. The middle Tendo sister seemed like a real wild card to him. At first she seemed like a gold digger to him, but then he remembered what Lime's aunt just said and that he wouldn't have to spend a single yen on anyone today.
The girls turned their attention to Lime, who was a bit nervous around Gohan's new friends.
"How is it you know Gohan?" Shampoo asked the girl point blank.
"Well, here's the story.." she said before telling the story on how she reached for the apple and fell into a raging river. She elaborated on how Gohan dove in and saved her from drowning, leaving out the tidbit where he accidently touched one of her breasts much to Gohan's relief. She continued on how he saved the village from a crime boss named Bourbon and saved her grandfather from a man named Mercenary Tao. Ranma had a few comments to say about the story.
"So let me get this straight. He blew up the shelter to show them how impossible it was to hide from Cell. And the coward named Tao cut down a tree, threw it in the air and surfed away in the sky. Hah! Would be farfetched if the hero of the story couldn't fly. But since he can...well I would have loved to see it for myself," Ranma replied honestly, since she was a terrible liar anyway. Nabiki decided to change the topic from what she thought was a good story, but unlike Mr. Bourbon she felt that she wouldn't be so stupid as to get caught by the villagers.
"You know what Gohan, you should be thankful," Nabiki pointed out to the lone male of the group, not counting the cursed form of the other male.
"Umm...why is that?" he asked.
"Well you have five lovely young ladies with you for one," Nabiki pointed out, which earned a sneer from Ranma. Ranma thought himself a guy thank you very much, eventhough he sometimes does use the girl form to his advantage and he was a girl at the moment.
"Hmm...well isn't one of them really a," Gohan replied before Nabiki shushed him.
"And two you didn't have to spend a single yen on either one of them," Nabiki winked at him, "I would consider you very lucky indeed."
'Gohan better watch out for Mercenary Girl. She'll have him poor before he know what happened,' Shampoo thought of the few interactions she has had with her. Regardless of what she really thinks of him as a potential crush she's a true friend to Gohan. Then the young male employee showed up with their perspective orders and placed them on the table.
"Thank you," Gohan said, relieved at the interruption of his conversation with Nabiki and began to eat his ice cream. The other ladies took their desserts and began to leisurely eat them. Ranma, on the other hand, was eating his ice cream at a rapid pace.
"Ranma, I think you would enjoy it more if you eat it a little slower," Gohan pointed out to the pig-tailed girl.
"I'll eat it how I want," Ranma simply groaned before going back to her ice cream. Not long after however she did experience a common affliction with eating her ice cream too fast.
"Ow...ice cream headache.." he/she groaned.
"See, Gohan was right," Akane pointed out.
"Man you are so uncute," Ranma replied like he does many a time that she had scolded him, however lightly.
"Uncute huh, ya big jerk!" the youngest Tendo girl replied, her temper beginning to simmer.
"Yep uncute, unsexy, your built like an ox and your thighs are too thick!" Ranma replied as tempermental as he could get sometimes. Akane's temper got the better of her and she just whacked her fiancee over the head with her new mallet.
"Gohan, are they always like this?" Lime asked her friend.
"I don't know," Gohan shrugged as he went back to his strawberry sundae.
"Poor Ranma honey," Ukyo responded to the situation before silently vowing to get him and Akane broken up.
'Akane too, too violent sometimes,' Shampoo thought as she went back to her ice cream and thinking about a way to break those two up also.
Meanwhile at Kami's Lookout...
One could call this place heaven. It was a giant tower which seemed to go at least three times as high as Mt. Everest with three buildings on top. The structures were ornate with gold and jewels at certain places and marble collumns at each of the three breezeways at the center building. At this small palace lived two green skinned aliens with antennae and a short, black genie like figure with white baggy arabian pants and a maroon vest.
"Piccolo, you know the project that Gohan has undertaken in training some of the new Z-fighters. Well I might have a couple of people with great potential in mind for you to train," said the little teen Guardian of the Earth in the long, white robe and dark red vest.
"Hmm...is one of them that friend of Gohan's. You know the blind one who has the duck curse," Piccolo, the one with the white cape and turban with blue gi, replied to his fellow Namekian.
"Actually he's just really near-sighted, and his name is Mu Tzu, or Mousse, but yes he is one of them," Dende responded.
"Ok...but only to help Gohan out and nothing else," Piccolo retorted back, knowing that it would bring a smile to his first friend's face and the warrior really didn't feel like arguing with the young guardian today.
"The other's name is..." Dende said before the black, genie-like figure presented a giant book called "The People of Earth."
"This book has helped many of your successors Dende. It will help you as well," the short figure pointed out.
"Thank you Mr. Popo," Dende replied in gratitude before flipping through the book. After a few moments he found the name with a picture of Piccolo's new student.
"Ryouga Hibiki, hmm...he's said to be really strong for an untapped person, has no sense of direction and tends to blame a person named 'Ranma' for anything wrong in his life. Actually I think he could be of some help to us, as it also says that he has done many acts of kindness for people in his 'accidental' travels," Dende read to Piccolo.
"Hmm...Mousse will be easy as I met him and Shampoo before. Ryouga might be a tough sell though. Mousse might know him so I will probably bring him just in case," Piccolo told Dende," I'll train them."
Dende just nodded as his friend leapt off of the lookout and flew away out of the young guardian's sight.
A/N: I know that Piccolo and Dende are technically "genderless", but it's hard not to think of them as males when you hear the male voices of the show. Plus Piccolo is much more masculine than feminine and I don't feel comfortable calling Piccolo an "it".
Don't worry Piccolo will not be in any romantic entanglements.