nightmarebat: *smiles*

Itharax: Well, you get to find it right out right now!

Here's the chapter about the presentation.

Love, Keta

Chapter 4: A Secret Found Out

The little research room in the library is full of the sounds of clicking keys as Toby types away at a PowerPoint, filling the slides with small catchphrases to keep them on topic when he and Gohan finally give their presentations on Wednesday. Gohan on the other hand is scrolling through a sight to find popular lore on the dragonballs that he might have missed; he glances at the clock offhandedly and sighs. "Do you want to meet up somewhere else tomorrow to finalize our project?"

Toby looks over a the raven then, his fingers hovering over the keys to keep from pressing something that he shouldn't. "Define somewhere else."

"I don't know… I mean we could meet up at your house or mine, if you don't mind taking a ridiculously long… drive to the mountains. Or… wherever. It's up to you."

Toby swallows rather thickly, and his hands move to his lap. His face twitches just slightly, nervousness making his tics more prominent, and he sighs. "Gohan, it's better if we keep it in the city. I can't drive out to see you… and my place… isn't suited for company."

Concern darkens Gohan's eyes, and for a brief moment, anger accompanies the heartfelt emotion; Toby wonders what he could have done to anger the gentle teenager. "You know that you can tell me anything right…" Surprise crosses the brunette's face, and he isn't sure of how to respond. But Gohan beats him to it anyway. "Where do you live anyway?"

"Arclight Avenue," Toby replies honestly. "It's about three miles out from the school."

"And you walk from there."

There's no question in his words; Gohan's seen him walking to school many times. So Toby settles for saying, "every day."

"Why don't you take the bus?"

"Don't need it."

"And your parents let you?" There's the kicker, and Toby flinches, unconsciously affirming a thought that Gohan has had. "What happened to your parents?"

"What do you mean?" Toby asks, smiling brightly as if the question doesn't make him simultaneously ill and angry.

"I've been on Arclight Avenue. There are only four houses on it, and all of them have been abandoned… Now, what happened to your parents?"

He isn't sure what he should say, but Toby doesn't want to lie; not when there's this tempting offer to be honest and receive kind acceptance in return. "My dad's dead, and my mom left me… I hope that she got ran over a bus, honestly…. And my sister…" He flinches as that memory comes back unbidden, leaving his sick to his stomach. "She's gone too…" –Description of the carcrash- "I'm the only one that's left." His voice quickly turns cold in the aftermath of those words, and he all but glares at the raven teenager. "Don't you dare tell anyone about this!"

"But, Toby-"

"No one! I'm not going to be a goddamned orphanage drop off or ward of the state so I can be left behind or treated like property… I'm fine where I am."

Gohan sighs once more and moves to sit beside the slightly shaking teen, and as he reaches out, his movement falls short when he sees the twitching increase and intermingle with shakes. Eventually, he lays a hand on the brunette's arm. "Toby… I'm not going to tell anyone if you don't want me to, but would you consider… Would you consider moving in with my family?"

"What?"

At that confused question, Gohan laughs nervously and rubs the back of his head. "WE've got an extra bedroom, and you shouldn't have to live on your own… So consider it?"

"I… I can't… I-" Toby stops short. 'It would be nice not to be alone, but my assignment.' In his own mind, another voice speaks up, a treacherous one that he would normally follow without a second thought. 'As long as we don't spill our secrets, Slender wouldn't matter. So what does it matter?' Toby smiles rather weakly. "I'll think about it."

In the days following the 'confrontation', Toby barely talks to Gohan, leaving the raven to wonder if he's overstepped his boundaries too much. Then Wednesday rolls around, and Toby finally breathes a word not concerning the presentation.

"Hey," he says and takes his seat beside his 'friend'.

"Hey, what's the matter?"

"I just had a question… That ki thing that we've been talking about… Can you use it for offense rather than just mediation and the other things we talked about?"

Gohan blinks at him and eventually nods. "Yeah, a lot of well-trained martial artists in the past could use it that way, but it's kind of fell out of practice because of Videl's dad…"

"Then… you said your family has a lot of martial artists in it… Can you use ki offensively?"

After looking around to make sure that no one is listening to their conversation, he replies, "yeah, I can, and if you wanted to learn, I'm sure that you'd be able to too…"

"I doubt it… But thank you. That's all I wanted to know."

The sound of their teacher clearing his throat is enough to stop all conversations dead in their tracks, and the teenagers start to turn to the front of the classroom. Mr. Hisoka wears a rather bright smile on his face as he motions to the computer behind him. "I know that you're all excited to share your research, but none of you will volunteer. So I've taken the liberty of deciding for you. Mr. Rogers and Mr. Son, if you would please come down here. You'll be first today."

Toby finds himself standing to the left as Gohan upload's their project, and he fights down the urge to turn away. Instead, he fixes his gaze upon his partner, until at last, he's ready. "We've decided to do our project on the dragonballs." Gohan comes to take a stand beside Toby, and his presence lessens the anxiety that he feels. "The dragonballs are mystical objects that are said to grant the wish of whomever gathers the seven balls."

"In order to have the wish granted, the collector has to command the dragon Shenron who will appear to grant the wish."

The slide clicks over to show a rather detailed drawing of the dragon in question, and Gohan smiles just slightly. "Shenron is said to live in the balls until he's called... As for the balls themselves," the slide switches to a picture of the four star ball, "this is what they look like, but each of them will carry a different number of stars... It was after the appearance of the dragonballs that this city and the school were originally named."

Mr. Hisoka looks rather interested and that gives Toby the conviction to continue. "After a wish is made, the balls will revert to a state in which they are indisconcernable from a normal white stone, and they will scatter across the globe. They remain in this state for exactly one year."

"They are said to be able to even bring the dead back to life if they have died in the year previous. One day more, and they cannot be returned." Gohan flips the screen again, instead showing notes for the two teenagers so they can keep their facts straight. "Now to wrap up our really brief presentation, there are a lot of theories for their origin."

"Some people think that they were fossilized dragon eggs. Others think that they were organs from the dragon Shenron which is why he can be summoned if they are brought together.

"However, the story that makes the most sense is that Kami created them," Gohan finishes. "Any questions?"

After a moment of silence, Worm decides to speaks up. "Do you really believe in this stuff, Gohan?"

"Yeah, I do."