"Not Alike, Part Two."

Having spent some hours in this city made Goten wonder what the hell was wrong with its people. Many people hid in alleys, bruised and wounded with lots of bandages, which could only mean they engaged in a very recent fight.

He quickly discovered that the only market in the zone was the one he damaged the last night, and considering the light of the sun hitting his face as he walked, everyone should have seen the disaster that was that market and the neighborhood it was on, speaking of which…

Did the stray bullets hit anyone nearby?

His gaze averted the road ahead, he looked down.

He would have to change his holed jacket soon; it was earning him too many glances.

Almost absentmindedly, he directed to another street.

He got quickly used to the sensation of going upwards with each step he took. As admittedly ecstatic he was to meet the strongest persons this tough place had to offer, Goten really had no hurry.

After all, he could be wrong about that market being the only one in this place.

Such a thought made his stomach roar, reminding him of his hunger.

Damn, he had to think about that!

He pulled his wallet out of his pants indifferently, knowing there were people probably around who could see it under the daylight, and they weren't exactly gentle.

A grin appeared in his face.

"I've got enough for another week."

THUD!

"Ouch!"

Goten looked up once again, noticing a young, brown-haired boy. He was sitting on the ground with a grimace of pain, and his black shirt slopped off from his right shoulder.

"Hey dude! What's yo' problem?!"

"Uh…sorry, brat. I was kinda off-world." Goten chuckled lightheartedly, putting his wallet in his pockets and extending a hand to the boy, only for it to be received by a back-handed slap from the boy.

"Fuck off! I'm sixteen, and I can get up alone loser!" he smugly exclaimed, getting up in a blink and patting off the dust from his shirt and cut-off shorts just as fast.

Goten briefly stared at him, before shrugging his shoulders. "Alright. See ya around then, kid."

He was about to walk away from the boy until he purposefully stood on his way. "Wait. Don't you think you owe me somethin'? You can't just get outta here after pushing me, you've gotta pay for what you've done."

Goten considered this for three seconds before grinning. "What about no?"

"Then I'll kick yer ass."

After those words, a dead silence flooded the area they both stood on. They hit Goten so hard, that fear invaded him in a second, and what he said afterwards reflected the all-consuming dread forming in him…

"I hope that's a joke, because it sure is funny, kid!"

…yeah, dread.

"The only joke here is you, bastard!" the boy yelled angrily as he pointed a finger to Goten, regardless of the fact that the bastard in front of him was way taller than him. "Just look at yer wig! What kind of person in his right mind would wear that?!"

"Me, it seems, and it's not a wig, brat," Goten answered, inclining and giving the boy a finger flick on the forehead. It proved to be strong enough to force the boy to tilt his head back in pain, causing his white sunglasses to fall from his head.

"Ah! What the fuck was that?!" he cried out, glaring at Goten again, this time touching the spot he hit him on. The neverending grin on Goten's face made his blood boil.

"You aren't gonna cry, are you?"

The boy realized a tear was VERY eager to escape from one of his eyes, and immediately passed a hand over it. "You…THAT'S IT! GUYS!"

Out of the blue, three more boys arrived at the scene, all carrying something dangerous; one had a chainsaw, other had a simple chain, and another had a metal rod, typical of a Japanese gang.

"You've brought your buddies here? Can't you face me on your own?" Goten teased, completely unfazed by the group surrounding him.

"I was gonna ask for your wallet nicely, asshole, but now we're gonna take it by force! No one messes with Lightspeed Mataro and lives to tell the story! This neighborhood's my turf, Honnou City's blind alley, and if you don't wanna go home in pieces, you've gotta pay us the rent!"

"Just hear yourself, wimp. You were about to cry before and now you're acting as if you were the toughest around! Do you expect to scare me? Because I'm telling you, you aren't." Goten stated, every and all of his words laced with a relaxed mockery that only served to ignite Mataro's anger with even more intensity.

"So that's how it is, motherfucker?! We're gonna erase that grin off your face, you'll see! EVERYONE, ATTACK!"

With a war cry, the other three boys did as Mataro told.

Goten's grin became wider and toothy.

Adrenaline coursed through him, and from a moment to another, he found himself slamming one of the boy's head against the ground with a hand, choke holding another with the other, and twisting one's arm with his once still tail.

Mataro's mouth dropped.

"What's the matter, Mataro? I'm still grinning." Goten said, looking at Mataro with a certain expectation. "Won't you lend your buddies a hand?"

"H-Hold on!" Mataro shouted, kneeling in a blink. "We give up! Right guys?!"

"Huh?"

Goten let go of Mataro's friends, and just as quickly as he kneeled, they ran to him and did so too. "Yes! We give up!"

"You…give up?" Goten let out, narrowing one eye in disbelief.

"Yeah!"

"…Just like that?" he asked, a slight trace of disappointment accompanying his voice.

"Well…we're weak, yeah! We're weak against strong people, that's our stronger suit!" Mataro affirmed, nodding.

Goten looked at them with uncertainty, but after realizing that the other boys were shivering under his presence, he came to the conclusion, and to the certainty, that they weren't lying…which meant they wouldn't attack him once he turned his back on them.

"…Heh, of course."

"Ah?"

"I shouldn't have expected much from you…I'm a fool," Goten said, more to himself than to them, shaking his head. The gang looked at each other, wondering what was he talking about, until Goten chuckled. "Hahaha! Whatever, sorry for the trouble, boys."

"Uh…hehe, don't worry pal, we're good," Mataro answered as he raised a thumb, even if he was still scared. His eyes fell on the brown thing moving behind Goten, and he paled.

How did he forget about that?

Goten noticed his reaction. "Hmm? What's wrong?"

One of the boys pointed a finger to the moving thing. "What…what's that?"

He looked behind, then over his shoulder, and looked back at the boys. "What does it seem to you? It's a tail!"

"…You have…a tail." Mataro uttered, his mind processing what he just heard.

This guy was a freak.

"What about it?" Goten asked with a raised eyebrow. He seriously didn't want everyone to discover he had a tail, it could cause…riot. He didn't expect himself to get so over-excited by the prospect of beating the crap out of those guys, but now that they saw it, the best was to act as calmly as he could.

They were already freaking out a bit.

"Hey, kids."

"We're not kids. We're all sixteen." one of them quickly responded.

"Well, you're still kids to me. I'm seventeen."

"What? You're just a year older than us!" other exclaimed, and Goten sighed.

"To hell with this…look, I don't want you all to go around telling everyone this about me," he said, motioning to his tail with his head. "Let's keep it…a secret."

The boys stared at him and proceeded to nod slowly.

Goten smiled.

Perhaps that beating he gave them worked for something.

"Good, see you later then!" Goten simply said, waving a farewell as he walked away. Everyone watched him leave, but they didn't watch it when he looked around with critical eye, checking the windows of houses in his surroundings and the alleys where anyone could be hiding.

No one saw what happened.

Great.

He'd have to be more careful next time he decided to fight.

"Geez. He's one crazy douchebag." Mataro said, taking his sunglasses from the ground and cleaning them up.

"He was pretty damn strong too. D'ya think he had…one of those?"

"No. What could somebody with a Goku Uniform be doing down here? That bitch president doesn't care about us one bit."

"Ah…my arm still hurts, guys."

Mataro watched his friends discuss, but at the same time, he didn't. A girl was coming this way, and in her, he saw the possibility of successfully mugging someone.

"Hey, y'all should hide. We'll talk about the weird asshole from before later."

His friends, after looking to where he was looking, did exactly as he told them, and Mataro grinned evilly.

"So this is Honnouji Academy. What a sight, huh."

Finally, at the front door of the place he searched for, he was wide-eyed. Goten didn't think the walls of the school would be so tall, so towering and imposing. It was clear the people here were really enthusiastic when constructing this.

However, would they live up to their reputation?

That was yet to be seen.

What he could see, though, were those guards at the entrance of the school. Three in total and they had grey uniforms with a single black star emblazoned on the center of it. Though they looked oddly the same, with their bowl cuts and shady eyes, it didn't stop him from immediately remembered the conversation with that guy from last night.

"This. Is. Wonderful!"

"Hey there!" he greeted amicably, walking carefreely to the guards. They looked at each other, and one stepped to him when he was close enough to the entrance.

"You must stop here and identify yourself. If you are a new student, pull your certificate of enrollment, otherwise, you must get out of here."

"Huh, sure thing, buddy! Let's see…"

Goten put his school bag in front of himself and crouched, searching for the certificate.

A bold smile appeared on his face. "Hehe…how can I say this? I can't find it."

"Then, by all means, you shall not enter. Not until you show us your certificate."

"Eh? Why not? I've come all the way here, I can just make a call later and bring you the certificate."

"These are the orders of the student council. Now, return from where you came, or else, we'll have to make use of our might." the guard threatened, and Goten feigned fear. He noticed the glances the guards were giving his dark-green jacket, surely at its holes.

"Hey, no need to be so mean. Fine, I'll return from where I came…" Goten said, closing his school bag and putting it behind, turning his back on the guards, about to take a step away from them. "I'll be seeing you later…"

Once his foot touched the ground, Goten spun on his heel and gave the guard the strongest gut punch he ever received in his life. "GUH!"

The guard fell to the ground in a fetal position, a hand on his belly.

"You miserable bastard!"

Goten looked to the left side, welcomed by the force of a good swing at his cheek that left him momentarily stunned. The pain, of course, didn't take long to kick in.

Trying to take advantage, another guard threw a kick at his chin, but Goten's eyes burst open as he moved his head backwards at the last moment, dodging the kick by an inch.

"AAAH!"

The same guard who hit his cheek approached him rapidly, swinging at his nose. Due to his attack being a frontal assault, it wasn't hard for Goten to parry the punch aside with his forearm, taking his own swing at the guard's face. A satisfying crack soothed his ears, accompanied by a loud scream of agony.

"My nose…! He broke my nose…!"

The guard was holding his broken, bleeding nose in the ground.

But Goten only saw a golden opportunity.

He delivered a heel kick to the screaming guy without hesitation.

He did see the other approaching and immediately approached him, too.

At shocking speeds, of course.

"Wha-"

"LET'S SEE WHAT YOU'VE GOT!" he exclaimed, performing a rising knee strike on the guy's chin, causing him to bite his tongue in the process. Not content with that, Goten followed with a roundhouse kick that hit the poor bastard on the torso.

It was enough to take him down.

With all three guards laying down on the ground, Goten grabbed his bag, rummaged through it and casually pulled out a paper. "Whoa. Guess what I found, buddy?"

The guard Goten was looking at could only mutter, "…the…the certificate…"

"Yes, my certificate. Since I'm showing this to you, I should get permission to get in, right?"

"…"

"Cool. I suppose I don't need it anymore, then." Goten said, throwing the paper to the guy's face. He crouched upon seeing the angry grimace the guard was making. "Ah, don't put that face, dude. I'm sad we can't have more fun together, too, but I've got classes to attend!"

"…You're gonna pay…Satsuki Kiryuin will know about this!"

"And I bet she's gonna beat me up." he let out, adding a subtle provocation to his tone. "Fine by me," he added, standing up. "For now, let's pretend I'm your typical No-Star student…goodbye!"

Waving his hand, Goten abandoned the spot and stepped into the corridor that led to the school's premises.