This chapter epitomizes my troubles with this story. I keep thinking I have plenty material for a chapter and I keep ending up with a shorter than expected chapter. It's starting to get worrisome for me. For now, I'll keep to the format I have for this story, mostly because I have a lot written down so there's no point to change it, but in future ones I'll be doing something different. Anyways, sorry for the short chapter.

It had taken Gohan two whole days to scour the city for every jewelry shop he could find within the city limits. It had been a time-consuming endeavor, going from store to store, street to street, and the only thing he managed to learn in all of that searching was that the bracelet was a custom-make—and no one in the city had made a piece like it. If anything, it had been imported from another country, but never showed up in one of the shops in the city. That led Gohan to believe that the piece had been bought in some other city.

In other words, the whole thing had been a waste of time.

That meant he had to personally stop following the lead. Considering he was a murder suspect, it wasn't like he could just take off to any city he chose and continue the search. Someone could interpret that as him making a run for it and the last thing he needed at the moment was to be called a flight-risk.

However, when he walked back into his office, the last thing he expected to find was Goten waving some weird-looking wand around and wearing a pair of large, bulky headphones. It was bizarre to say the least.

"Uhh, Goten? What are you—"

Goten whipped around at that, his eyes wide as his empty hand went to his neck and made a jerking motion from one side to another. Gohan instantly went quiet, staring owlishly at his weird-acting brother.

Quickly, Goten moved to Gohan's desk and removed the headphones from his head, shoving them and the wand-thing into one of the drawers. After that, he hurried over to Gohan and grabbed him by the arm, dragging him out of the office. "Why don't we go out for some breakfast," Goten said more than asked and continued pulling Gohan down the hallway.

"But it's almost time for—"

"Breakfast, Gohan. It's time for break...fast."

Okay, someone had hit his brother upside the head one too many times—probably by Videl considering her perchance for hitting people. He was gonna have to have a talk with her about that. Anyone with a watch would have known it was almost lunch time, no where near breakfast time, though breakfast did sound pretty good at the moment. Well, maybe you could call it brunch time, but it you would've been pushing it there. And for someone that followed his stomach—like any self-respecting Son would—Goten would have known this, should have known this.

Unless...unless there was something wrong. Okay, that would make sense—explain why Goten was acting like a lunatic. Catching up to his brother's quick pace, Gohan followed the younger Son's lead.

The two of them soon ended up at a diner a few blocks down, though they had Vegeta's men follow them there. Gohan couldn't help but notice the two large men lumber into the diner shortly after they had been seated, taking over a booth a few booths away. All the while Goten seemed jittery, as if he were expecting some surprise attack to come out of nowhere. Deciding to let the boy calm down and figure out his thoughts, Gohan perused the menu until he found something he liked.

Once the waitress had stopped by and taken their orders, Goten decided to open up about what was making him nervous. "Gohan, did you know your office was bugged?"

To his credit, Gohan managed to keep a straight face. After everything he had heard concerning the District Attorney that was after him, it shouldn't have been surprising. "Is that what you were doing when I walked in? Searching for bugs?"

For a moment, Goten looked disappointed. "You don't look too shocked about that," the detective heard him mumble under his breath. Then in a louder, calmer voice, he said "Yeah, I was searching the office for them. I found some too." With that, Goten reached into his pocket and pulled out a small device. From what Gohan could tell, it was a small disk-shaped speaker with a small antenna sticking out of it. "I did a bit of research on this one yesterday," his brother began to explain. "It's a high-quality microphone with a short transmission range. I don't think the frequency could go very far, so who ever is listening in would have to be within a couple blocks to hear it."

Gohan glanced down to the bug. "Did you turn that off when you found it?"

Goten nodded. "Yeah. It was the first thing I did."

The elder Son flicked his eyes over to Vegeta's men, who were periodically glancing over at them, trying to make their looks look casual. "Did you find them anywhere else?"

"No, just the office. I already checked your apartment and didn't find a single one, not even a wiretap. That's weird since they know where your office is and all."

"What if I told you I have a good idea on who bugged us?"

Goten seemed startled by that. "Y-you do? Who?"

"When you can, look over your right shoulder. There's these two large men sitting in a booth and they keep looking our way." Although Gohan could tell Goten wanted to look right then and there, he managed to keep himself still until his best opportunity came. As that turned out, it was when the waitress arrived with their food. As the waitress set their plates down, Goten had turned his head to her to thank her and then made a quick look to the two large men, spotting them quickly before returning his attention back to the waitress. Gohan had to smile at the boy's antics.

Once the waitress was gone, Goten restarted their conversation, lazily pushing his scrambled eggs around with his fork. "Okay, I saw them. Who are they?"

"They're men who work for the DA here, Vegeta. They've been sitting outside the building for the last several days, following me anytime they see me leave. Vegeta wants them to find out anything they can involving my upcoming trial."

A surprised look appeared on Goten's face. "The trial? I thought they were involved with that guy you busted."

Gohan perked up at that, a forkful of French toast hovering before his mouth. "You found out something about that man?"

"Yeah, I did. I found out this guy—Toma, I think—also works for this Vegeta fellow, doing some dirty business for him. Illegal stuff if you get me. I couldn't find out exactly what that was, not even the charges you arrested him for. It's as if any record of it has been wiped clean other than him being arrested. What did you get him on anyways?"

"I'll tell you later," Gohan answered quickly. "Everything you've found out, where did you put it?"

"I hid it. I would have brought it right to you, but after finding out about the bugs, I didn't want to chance having someone sneak in and find it."

"Probably for the best," Gohan sighed. "I'm gonna warn you now, after this bug stuff, things are going to get a lot worse before they get better. You sure you want to keep going with this?"

Goten stared at him as if he had a giant insect on his face. "Gohan? What's going on?"

"I'm not too sure to be honest." Gohan paused to take a sip of his coffee, allowing himself to figure out the words he wanted to say. "We've got microphones hidden around my office, two guys watching the building at all times, most likely hearing everything the bugs catch, another guy doing who knows what while in the employ of the city's most famous—more like infamous—District Attorney. On top of that, there's a dead girl and everyone is pointing at me for her murder. There's a lot more to this than what we're seeing and I get the feeling that who ever is involved in this is a lot more dangerous than we've bargained for. I don't want to drag you further into this than you already are, so if you want to go, I highly encourage that you do so."

"And leave you on your own?" Goten looked aghast at the thought of that. "No way, we're brothers. We stick together when the other needs help and you need all the help you can get." With a resolved look on his face, he proclaimed "I'm with you until the end."

A wry smile appeared on Gohan's face. He should've known better than to try and deter his brother. That wasn't to say that he didn't want his help—in fact, he appreciated it a lot—but considering that they were starting to get an idea of what they were up against, the elder Son didn't want to see the younger one getting hurt. Unfortunately, the odds of either one of them coming out unscathed was decreasing with each day that passed.

Not the sort of odds he liked.

"Alright Goten, thanks." Taking a deep breath, he let it all out in a prolonged sigh. "I'm sure there are a few other things I can get for you to do. Just be careful, alright?"

Goten nodded his head. "You got it. Oh, and one other thing?"

"Yeah?"

"That girl that showed up at the office the other day, is that really your lawyer?"

The wry smile became a bigger, more amused one. "Yeah, she is. She didn't leave much of a good impression, huh?"

Goten snorted. "If I didn't know any better, I'd think she thinks I'm some sort of accomplice or something. Any idea why she would think that?"

"That's because she thinks I did kill that girl. It's a bit screwed up I'll admit, but she's working for free and promises to do a good job. Besides, she's given me some access to stuff I wouldn't have without her."

Goten stared at him for a moment before hanging his head. "I sure hope you know what you're doing, bro. I wouldn't want someone that thinks I'm guilty representing me. She might not try her best for you."

"Possible. But I don't think that would be the case. I had her thinking I was innocent until something recently happened. Now she thinks I'm even worse scum for hiding things."

"What was it that changed her mind?"

"Nothing you need to worry about." Sitting his silverware down, Gohan picked up his napkin and wiped his mouth clean. "But now I need to be getting to the office. Got too much to do and not enough time to do it in." Pulling his wallet out, he tossed some bills onto the table. "That should cover breakfast. Take your time and I'll see you later."

With that, Gohan stood up and made his way out of the diner, vaguely aware of Vegeta's men keeping an eye on him, preparing to leave as well.

Goten watched his brother leave, as well as one of those men tailing him. Apparently one of them was staying to keep an eye on him as well. Letting out a sigh, he turned back to his half-eaten food and began to pick at it.

Gohan was hiding something from him, he could tell. He knew more than he was revealing and it was irritating that he wouldn't just tell him about it. Goten wasn't surprised by that though; when he had been a kid, his brother would purposefully not tell him things so he wouldn't get scared or upset. Gohan was always trying to protect him and being the subject of a murder trial wasn't going to change that.

A shame really, especially since he was the one that needed protecting now.

Between this Toma fellow he had been researching to finding those bugs, there were some bad people involved in this—he would bet the family house on that. But whether it involved this famous DA or someone that just happened to have an association with him, Goten had no clue. A lot of the information he had been looking for had been absent, especially with some of people working under Vegeta. Toma was one of many people that only had basic information on—birth records, school records, employment records, and such. Anything that had to do with his shadier dealings—which hadn't been easy to obtain mind you—was wiped clean. There was literally nothing on it other than word of mouth. He even had to call up a couple friends he had that had previous involvement in that sort of stuff just to get the information he currently had. Hey, no one was perfect and he was friends with a lot of people. Don't judge.

But yeah, a lot of the dealings Toma had done, they were definitely questionable at best, down right illegal at worst. How a guy like him got a job working for a law office…well, actually that shouldn't have been surprising now that he thought about it. There was a reason why lawyers weren't looked upon as completely ethical. Yet, it was still discerning to find this guy had ties to such a prominent public servant.

Scratch that, having ties to a public servant actually made much more sense than a lawyer's office.

So from his stand point, there was something rotten going on and the people responsible were using his brother as a scapegoat. The elder Son had to know this though, since he had always been the smart one out of the two of them. What Goten wasn't sure of was what his brother would do about it. Hopefully Gohan had some kind of plan. He had to have one, right?

Why did that not sound encouraging?

Goten shook his head. This wasn't the time for having negative thoughts. He needed to finish his breakfast and get back on the job. His brother was counting on him and he wouldn't dream of failing him.

Cleaning his plate off, Goten paid the bill and made his way out of the diner, catching sight of Gohan's second tail leaving soon after him. Hmm, so was he going to have someone following him too? Was it because of his association with his brother or had his digging caught their attention? Maybe even his discovery of the bugs had tipped them off? Either way, he was going to have to be careful. He knew these were dangerous people and one misstep could prove deadly.

The fact they were involved in a murder investigation was proof of that.