Gohan really couldn't lie—he was interested in Videl's preparations as he stared at the girl's naked back. Well, not quite naked since there were a few bandages running around her body. She was currently in the process of binding her chest, winding the bandage roll around her back and to her other hand, which completed the turn by handing the roll to the other hand in front. She was very practiced at this as she was moving efficiently.
On the bed next to the dark-haired girl was a shirt. There had been a pair of pants, but that was the first thing Videl had put on after pulling off her stockings. It became quite apparent that they were too short for her as the hem of the legs came to an abrupt stop about mid-calf.
Who would've thought that Krillen was that short?
Fortunately, a pair of boots belonging to Roshi had fitted her, so there was no need to try and find a pair outside the castle. Though the old man had tried to barter the boots away, the Lady Eighteen had stared him down with that cold, unfeeling look of hers and he relented. Those boots were now on the dark-haired woman's feet, the end of Krillen's pants barely tucked into them and successfully hiding their shortness.
In no time at all, Videl finished her wraps, tearing the bandage off the roll and tossing the roll onto the bed. She fiddled with the end in front of her, doing what with it, Gohan didn't know, but it had to do with something with keeping it up. Once done, she pulled on the shirt and quickly found the sleeves came up short of her wrists.
"I guess this is the best I'm gonna get," the lady muttered as she stared at the offending sleeves. Getting over it quickly, she began buttoning up the shirt.
"Why are you dressing up like a guy again?" Gohan asked as he continued to watch. "You don't have to hide in boy clothes anymore."
"Like I told you last night," Videl replied with practiced ease, "it's easier to travel as a guy. As a girl, I'm practically walking with a target on my back. No one even thinks twice if I look like a guy. Less savory people might think I'm an even easier target if they see me walking with you; they'd think I'm hanging around you for protection."
"Huh, never really thought about it like that," the young man admitted.
A knock at the door ended any further conversation between the two. When the door opened, the Lady Eighteen entered the room and gazed at them blandly. "I see you are almost ready," she commented as she took in their appearances. "Excellent, the coach is just about ready for you."
"Coach?" Videl questioned as she turned her head to the blonde woman. "What coach?"
Gohan immediately stiffened at this. Last night's conversation with the Lady came flooding back to him and he was not looking forward to his comrade finding out about it. He could only imagine what irritated thoughts would come from this.
"Your friend and I crossed paths last night," the Lady stated simply. "We were both restless and went for a late night drink. There, Gohan confided in me that you two were having trouble on your journey and I offered to assist you."
"Is that right?" Videl said as she narrowed her eyes in suspicion. Her eyes darted from the blonde woman to Gohan, obviously trying to figure out what was what.
"It is. There is a coach in the stables that is being outfitted with shades. This way you can ride in it without being seen."
"And what makes you think we don't…do not want to be seen?"
"Gohan informed me."
Videl's eyes focus on Gohan, making even more nervous. "How considerate of him."
"Quite. Now if you will follow me, I will lead you to the stable." With that, the Lady Eighteen turned around and exited the room.
"We need to have a very long talk, Gohan," Videl said lowly.
"Sh-shouldn't we go to the stable?" the young man asked nervously. "It…it wouldn't be nice if we kept them waiting."
"Fine, but the moment we leave, you're telling me everything." The dark-haired woman turned to leave the room, coming to a stop in the doorway. Glaring over her shoulder, she reiterated, "Everything."
As she left, Gohan gulped loudly. He had a feeling this carriage ride was going to be very unpleasant. Feeling as if his feet weighed a ton, he trudged out of the room and down the halls, following the two women until they reached the stables. There was a rather fashionable carriage sitting in the corridor between the horse stalls. The windows were cloaked in black. Yep, no one was going to be seeing through that glass.
Videl, in the meantime, was pacing around the carriage, examining it for some reason or another. "This is a generous carriage," she said at last before looking to the blonde woman. "There must be a catch."
The Lady Eighteen gazed at the dark-haired woman blandly. "You do not believe I am doing this out of the goodness of my heart?"
"Not at all."
"Rude, but you should not worry about that. You are wasting daylight and I would advise you to start leaving."
"She's right," Gohan added, trying to support the Lady. "We should get going."
That earned him a scowl, but Videl did as was ordered, climbing into the carriage. With a quick look to the Lady Eighteen, who was staring at him with a significant look, Gohan hurried into the carriage as well, the door shutting behind him. It took a few moments for the carriage to jolt into movement, the sound of hooves clopping against the stone pavement of the stable. The clopping dulled down some once they pulled onto pulled onto dirt. It'd be no time at all before they reached their destination, at least that's what the young man hoped for.
The carriage ride had been long and uneventful. No surprise attacks from bounty hunters, no sudden appearances from Sharpner even though they were long overdue for one; not even a broken cartwheel had hindered them. For once everything was going their way.
Of course, that hadn't stopped Videl from grilling the young man over the Lady Eighteen's generosity. It had been long and tiring to satisfactorily answer all her questions, but Gohan came out relatively unscathed. The dark-haired woman was none the wiser that they were on their way north to that valley the blonde woman told him about. It was even more fortunate that she didn't recognize any of the inns they stopped at for the night; if there was any chance the young lady would have found out about the deception, those were the places.
Unfortunately, the peace and quiet that had fallen over the two dark-haired youths came to an abrupt end when the carriage stopped. Curious, the two had climbed out to investigate why they had stopped and it was then that Gohan found they had arrived at the valley.
"Here we are," the cab driver announced as he tied the horse reins to a metal bar on the driver's seat. "Welcome to the Valley of Vanity."
And what a valley it was. A lush green valley stretched out before them, situated between two rather tall mountains. It was a bit odd to see them since there were no other mountain formations in sight, but there they were.
Of course, that had been all the proof Videl had needed to know something was wrong. Snapping her head over to glare at him, she demanded, "Okay, what the hell is going on?!" she bellowed at him. "This isn't Demon Country, this is Ribbon Country! Why did we go back north?!"
Gohan flinched from the anger in the lady's voice. He had expected her to be furious, but not quite this much. If looks could kill, he would've been a bloody carcass at the moment—him and the cab driver knowing the dark-haired girl. "W-we had to come here," he answered meekly, cringing away from the woman. "L-Lady Eighteen asked—"
"I knew it!" Videl exclaimed. "Why didn't you tell me? Huh? No, better yet, why didn't you tell her we couldn't go into Ribbon territory? You let her send us back into the worst place we could go!"
"She asked for a favor, that's it," Gohan said, taking a couple of steps away. He felt it was best if he was out of jumping distance; that way he stood a chance of running away. "Since she was unable to go and we were on the road, she asked for us to come here and get something for her."
"An errand. You decided to put your neck on the line for a freaking errand? Damn it all, Gohan! Why didn't you say no? Was saying no that hard, or did she promise you something in return?"
"Well, she did say she wouldn't cut me into pieces."
Videl was silent for a moment. Her eyes narrowed then. "I've made that threat to you before and you didn't do as I say."
"That's because you didn't have a hoard of servants that would track me down either," Gohan pointed out. "And she could've gotten Roshi's bunny brigade to do it too and you know how persistent they are."
"Then why didn't you tell me about it? I could've told her to back off."
The young man raised an eyebrow at that. "A bounty hunter telling a noblewoman to not threaten me? Umm, I don't think that would work."
Videl looked as if she were going to counter that, but came up short. It took a few seconds before she slumped her shoulders. "You still should have told me, Gohan. You're trusting some stranger more than you are me and I'm the one that's trying to keep you alive."
Seeing the dejected look on Videl's face twisted the dark-haired youth's stomach into knots. With a sigh, he said, "This is more for her daughter than the Lady. There's a fruit in this valley that will help her and if we get it, the Lady will let us use the carriage until we get to the Demon lands. How could I say no to helping a little girl?"
"Let's just get this done, alright?" Videl said, still looking unhappy. "The sooner we get this done, the better, alright?"
With nothing to say to that, Gohan followed the dark-haired woman into the valley. Oddly, the cab driver didn't follow them, opting to stay with the carriage. His loss. A forest had grown through the hilly valley and the two had to weave their way through the overgrowth. At first they stayed in silence, much like the trees and bushes around them. It was almost eerie since most wooded areas were filled with the noise of animals, insects, and wind. Down one hill and up another, they ventured deeper and deeper into the quiet forest.
The silence was broken as they were ascending another hill. "Why don't you trust me?" Videl asked out of the blue. The entire time, the young man could see his comrade was troubled. Since she wasn't one to just sulk in her feelings, it was only a matter of time before she spoke and it seemed she had chosen now to do so.
"I trust you," Gohan replied, looking towards the woman.
"Then why didn't you tell me about this? Why keep quiet about it the entire time?" she questioned.
"If I had told you, you would have said no," he answered calmly. "And I had agreed to help."
"After she threatened you," Videl retorted grumpily. Obviously she wasn't buying his explanation. "You said she threatened to cut you up, right? Of course you would agree to help."
"Hey, I need my nose just like everybody else," Gohan defended. "I can't be like that Krillen guy, however he manages to breathe."
Videl stopped in her tracks, blinking her eyes owlishly at that. "She wanted to cut off…your nose?" she questioned curiously. It was almost as if she didn't believe what she was hearing.
"Yeah, what else would she want to cut off?"
At this, she got thoughtful. "Well, if I was in her shoes, I would have threatened to cut off your penis."
This time it was Gohan's turn to stop. "Why does everything you threaten involve removing that?"
"I don't always threaten to do that."
"There was this one time you were chasing me and you shouted, 'Your balls are mine'."
"Okay, just that one time…" the woman began to acknowledge before Gohan cut her off.
"And there was another time you fought off a bunch of bounty hunters and said you'd castrate one of them if they ever came near me again."
"Fine, that's another—"
"And then another guy you said you'd feed his penis to him if he came within a hundred yards, of you or anything that remotely looked like a girl."
"Hey, that guy deserved th—"
"And then there was Sharpner when he rigged that wooden cage with that odd silver bandage stuff. You said you'd rip out his entire package."
"Now that's just not fair—"
"Then there was that time when Sharpner jumped out a bush half naked and scratching himself raw. I think he said something about an itchy plant or something. And then there was another time when Sharpner almost cornered me and you started crushing his—"
"Alright, I get it!" Videl snapped. "So I have threatened that place a lot. Happy?"
"And there was this other time with Sharpner—"
"Enough Gohan!" she bellowed, causing the trees to shake. "Seriously, I get it. Can we move on now?"
"Okay, sure."
The lady huffed loudly as they neared the top of the hill. "Anyway, back to what we were talking about." She paused then for a moment, looking thoughtful. "Umm, what were we talking about?"
Gohan opened his mouth to reply before he frowned. What had they been talking about? He honestly couldn't remember. How odd. "I…don't remember," he managed to say after a long while.
"That's weird," Videl looking bothered by that. "I guess it wasn't that important then."
"Guess not," Gohan replied with a shrug of his shoulders. And to be honest, who cared about something they had been talking about minutes ago? There were more important things to worry about, like…well…hmmm…what were they doing here again?
"Hey, do you hear that?" Videl suddenly spoke up, her head looking from side to side.
At this, the youth began focusing on his hearing. It didn't take more than a second for him to realize that there was a sound, something that stood out in this forest of silence. If he wasn't mistaken, that sounded like water—running water. Was there a river close by?
Immediately, Gohan picked up his pace, leaving Videl scrambling behind him. Out of nowhere, a thirst hit the young man he his body demanded water. So consumed by that urge, he ignored his companion's calls for him to slow down. Once he reached the top of the hill, he found more trees scattered before him, yet the sound of running water had grown louder.
Pressing on, he maneuvered through the trees, crashed through bushes, and caused as much noise as he possibly could. Nothing was getting between him and that water and damn it, he wanted it now!
And then the youth burst into a clearing where a stream ran through. There was almost a heavenly glow about it as he stared at it. Oh lovely, lovely water, how much he wanted to…
It was then that something caught Gohan attention, reluctantly making him tear his gaze from the crystal clear water. From the corner of his eye, he saw something parked next to the water, making soft, cooing sounds. With a frown on his face, the dark-haired man looked at the thing and quickly discovered it was a person. From where he was standing, he could make out rather simple clothes and long blond hair…
Wait, was that Sharpner?
Taking several steps closer to the person, Gohan found that yes, that was indeed Sharpner. The blond was sitting on the river bank, leaning over the steam and staring at something in it. That wasn't all that odd. Yet, the young man was talking out loud. Focusing on his hearing, Gohan tried to make out what the guy was saying.
"Where have you been all my life, you handsome devil, you? It's like we were meant to be, ya know? I can't imagine finding someone more perfect for me than you. Oh? You feel the same way? I…I'm so happy!"
Oh lord, what the heck was going on? This was too strange, even for Sharpner. As he stared at the blond with horror, a loud crashing sound went off behind him, making Gohan feel grateful for the disruption.
Turning around, the dark-haired youth found Videl entering the clearing, not the least bit happy. "Geez, you didn't have to run," the lady complained as she looked right at Gohan. "What was the big idea running off like that, huh?"
"Videl, I think we have a problem," Gohan said instead, pointing a finger to the disturbing sight of Sharpner. "Sharpner's acting strange."
Videl merely looked at the guy, studied him, then said, "I'm not seeing anything different."
At that point, Sharpner suddenly exclaimed, "Of course I'll have your baby!"
The dark-haired couple stared at the blond for that sudden announcement for a moment, right before Videl shrugged her shoulders and added, "See, there's nothing wrong with him."
Gohan wanted to argue, truly he did. But for as long as he knew Sharpner, he had to agree with the dark-haired woman. Still, in the interest of keeping a clear conscious, he had to come up with reasons, no matter how pointless it would be. "Couldn't there be a spell or something? Like there's something in the water charming him?"
Videl merely rolled her eyes. "If it bothers you so much, go and check."
Nodding his head, the young man made his way to the blond guy. The closer he got, the clearer Sharpner's words got, and they were disturbing. Very, very disturbing. They were so disturbing that the censors completely cut out the next sections to protect the story's status as "family-friendly." Woman dressed in sexy bunny suits were okay, but not the mindless ramblings of a deluded airhead.
Standing behind Sharpner, Gohan cleared his throat loudly to get the blond's attention. All he got in response was the young man saying, "I'm not sure how that'll work, but I can be very flexible." Staring oddly at Sharpner, Gohan tried clearing his throat louder, but was once more ignored. Annoyed, the dark-haired youth looked over Sharpner's shoulder to see what exactly was so fascinating to him.
The only thing he saw was Sharpner's reflection.
Sharpner then, for whatever reason, lowered his head to the water and did something Gohan couldn't quite see. When the blond raised his head up, he said, "You know, you have a very sloppy French kiss."
Oh…oh gods, did Sharpner…tongue the water?
Slapping a hand to his face, Gohan wondered why he bothered sticking up for some people. "Why didn't I listen?" he groaned out loud.
"What did I tell ya?" Videl suddenly said, standing right next to him. "Just Sharpner being Sharpner." Looking to the taller male, she then asked, "What was he doing out of curiosity?"
"Kissing the water," the dark-haired youth replied glumly.
"That's it? Huh. That's actually pretty mundane for him."
"…he used tongue."
"Oh. Now that's more like it." With a smug smirk on her face, Videl rested a hand on the back of the young man's shoulder and comfortingly began to rub him. "Don't feel too bad. I didn't think he was capable of this sort of stuff too once. We should go looking for that fruit tree of yours though."
While a part of him wanted to figure out what was wrong with Sharpner, aside from the usual oddities, Gohan felt his comrade was right. They had other things to deal with so the blond could wait, not that it seemed he minded. "Where should we start looking through?" the youth asked out loud. "There's so many trees here."
"You mean Eighteen didn't give you any?" Videl questioned. "That's just great. She sends us out here, but doesn't give us any clue where to find her stinkin' fruit."
Well, when you were right, you were right. Scratching the back of his head, Gohan began looking around, wondering which way to go. "It might be further into the woods, I guess. Legendary stuff rarely is at the front of…"
A few moments of silence fell on them, which caused Videl to frown. "Front of what? Why did you trail off?"
With his back to the stream, Gohan moved the hand behind his head and pointed it directly in front of him. "I think that's it."
It was a giant of a tree. Tall, wide, lots of low branches. It made one wonder how they could miss it when they first enter the clearing. Gohan definitely felt that way. However, the most important part was the fruit hanging from the branches. Their plump, red skin beckoned him, urging him to pick it and eat it. Saliva flooded his mouth the longer he stared at it. In fact, his stomach rumbled without actually doing anything.
"Damn, I'm hungry," Videl spoke.
Those sudden words tore the young man's eyes away from the fruit, making him stare at the little lady. The moment that happened, his desire evaporated, making the youth wonder if he had even felt that way at all. "That was you?" he asked. "Could've sworn it was me."
Videl ignored him. Instead, she approached the tree until she stood right beneath one of the fruit. "I think I'll just eat one of these," she said to no one in particular. As she reached up to a branch that was clearly out of her reach, Gohan could've sworn he saw the branch lean down towards her, offering the red-skinned fruit to her. It was the only explanation he could come up with as she was able to pluck the round fruit and bring it down. She licked her lips hungrily as she stared at it before she took a large bite out of it. A low moan slipped through her lips, along with some juice dribbling down her chin. "This is so good," she sighed before taking another bite. "And sweet. Oh, you have got to try one of these, Gohan." Rapidly, she devoured the rest of it, the sweet juice dripping down her chin.
It was then that Gohan felt something was off. There was something in the back of his head that was warning him, but about what he didn't know. As Videl licked her fingers clean, turning back to the young man as she began to saunter her way towards him, that wrong feeling grew more.
For instance, while Videl did her best to conceal her breasts, Gohan couldn't help but notice how her shirt at her chest seemed to be tighter than he remembered. In fact, he could've sworn it was getting bigger. As if to confirm this, Videl's hands moved to her chest and began pulling at her shirt. "This feels a little tight," she complained, her face looking more and more uncomfortable. "It didn't feel this way a moment a—"
Her words were interrupted by a loud ripping sound, which was immediately followed by Gohan's eye bulging out of his skull. There was no way he could tear his eyes away from the sight of Videl's shirt expanding greatly, pale skin emerging between the gaps between the shirt buttons. The buttons, to their credit, looked strained as they tried to keep the shirt closed, but it was only a matter of time before one—
A thread broke then, sending one of the buttons racing through the air and right by Gohan ear. Instinctively, he jerked his head away as he turned to see where the projectile went.
"What the $#%*!" Videl screeched, causing Gohan to turn back to the woman and immediately stare right back at her enormous melons. She had her arms wrapped around her front, trying to hold them at bay, but she was clearly struggling with it. "What's going on here?" she continued to shout, anger and fear laced in her voice. "What happened to my breasts?!"
"Boobs?" Sharpner suddenly said before Gohan could reply, the blond's head perking up and breaking eye-contact with the water and drawing the combined attention of the dark-haired couple. "Where? Where are the boobs?" he frantically exclaimed as he looked left to right and back. Turning around, his eyes fell onto Videl's enlarged chest. "Boobies!"
Instantly, the blond was on his feet and running at Videl, lunged at her the last few feet with his arms out wide so he could wrap them around the lady's body to keep her from escaping. In response, Videl shot a fist out and slammed it into his face, stopping him instantly. For awhile, they stayed in that position, Sharpner holding his arms out with an irritated woman's fist in his face.
Ultimately, Videl removed her fist, revealing a dark bruise in the middle of the blond's face. A drop of blood trickled from his crooked nose and made its way around the corner of his swelling lips. A second later and he toppled onto his back, still holding his pose. "Now's not the time to be dealing with you," the young woman growled angrily before her rage-filled blue eyes zeroed on Gohan. "And you."
Normally Gohan would have cringed from her tone, but he was just too distracted by her sudden increase in assets. It wasn't until her voice damn near broke his eardrums that he looked at something higher than her chest. "QUIT STARING, YOU IMBECILE!"
Snapping his eyes up to meet hers, he gulped audibly. "Sorry," he stammered out.
"What's going on here?" the lady demanded as she tried to reign in her hooters. "Why did I suddenly break through five cup sizes in seconds?"
The young man wanted to answer that question, but at the mention of her bosom, his eyes dropped right back to them and all thought was lost. That was until Videl was suddenly in front of him, one of her hands roughly clutching his chin and forcing his head up to look her in the face. "I swear to the heavens above, if you don't stop looking at my breasts, I will suffocate you with them," she growled lowly.
This time he successfully did not look down at her bust, though he had to admit he could barely see her cleavage from the bottom of his eye. Regardless, his life depended on him thinking straight for a minute, even if the thought of such large knockers on his face were quite tempting.
When he said nothing, Videl reiterated, "Do you have any idea why this happened?"
Well, that was a good question. As far as Gohan knew, the fruit they were getting was supposed to grow a little girl a nose, but obviously this didn't happen here. That kinda stumped him until he recalled the Lady Eighteen saying something about preparing the fruit in a certain way. So did that mean the fruit naturally increased boobs? Why would anyone want that? You'd have to be very self-conscious or vain to want to…
Oh…so that's how they named the valley.
Wincing, Gohan began explaining his theory. "I think it's the fruit. It grew your…boobs."
"Well, no duh," Videl snapped angrily. "Mind telling me why you and I were sent here to pick one? I can't see why a five year old needs to grow a pair."
"The Lady Eighteen said she could prepare it a certain way to make it grow another body part," the young man replied. "That's what she claimed anyways."
Videl was silent for a moment before saying, "So I'm stuck with these ridiculous breasts until we return to Roshi's mansion? You've got to be kidding me!"
Actually, Gohan wasn't sure if that was possible, but he wasn't going to tell Videl that. He didn't want her taking out her anger on him. He liked his teeth where they belonged, thank you.
To Zerolink100: Sort of a like a fake sword, huh?
RyRy tested; MaMa approved
