Chapter 6: The search
"No way... Brains?" Sharpener stared into the distance, his voice weak.
"Please tell me this is a cruel joke," sniffed Erasa. "That poor boy, he wouldn't just disappear for no reason, would he? He always seemed like a real mamma's boy to me. I don't think Gohan would just leave without telling her." Erasa looked at Videl, who was staring at her table, "Maybe he got in trouble with some bad guys, you know, like they always trick the innocent into doing stuff they don't want to do." Since Videl didn't respond, she tried again: "What do you think happened to him, Videl?"
Videl got up so abruptly that Erasa flinched. "I...," she wanted to give her an honest answer, but she didn't have the heart. She clenched her fists and fought away the tears, "I have to go."
Even though her history lesson wasn't over yet, the teacher didn't stop Videl as she left the class. She took a quick stride to the nearest bathroom and rushed inside. There she turned on the sink and with both hands she caught the cold water to wash her face. The raven-haired teen looked in the mirror and studied her wet, dripping face.
She was a mess. Even though her black eye had diminished greatly, the bags under her eyes had gotten worse. She grabbed the sink on both sides and hung her head. Why did all this happen? She tried to picture Gohan's friendly face and closed her eyes. How could she not have known? She had to admit that she had her suspicions at first, but ruled it out as a possibility for him to be Saiyaman due to his innocent nature. She really didn't know her friend at all, did she?
Videl got up and dried her face with a paper towel. She left the bathroom behind and walked up the stairs toward the second floor. As she passed a group of third-year students, she heard them talking excitingly about none other than Bulma Brief, who had apparently passed them a little while ago. Videl ignored them and made her way to the door at the end of the corridor. She hesitated for a moment, took a deep breath, then knocked.
"Yes, come in," came the voice of the principle through the door.
Videl pulled at the door handle and let herself in. The principle's office wasn't very large, containing only a bookcase wall and a mahogany desk with a small tv, which was muted. Behind the desk, the principle sat in his office chair, briefly brushing his mustache with his fingers.
"Ah, Videl! Have you come with any information about Son Gohan?"
Videl looked across the room. There stood Bulma Brief with her arms crossed, leaning against the wall as she looked down-hearted out of the window. When the principle announced Videl's presence, the scientist turned her attention from the window to her. She remained silent, waiting for Videl to say.
"Miss Brief, I -"
"It's Misses Brief, but please, call me Bulma," Bulma said and straightened her posture.
"Misses Brie-, I mean, Bulma... I think I was the last person to speak to your godson at school last Tuesday," she began hesitantly. "I was still in class after school had ended and he came back because he had forgotten something. We chatted for a bit and left the school together. He offered to bring me home, but I declined. That's where our ways parted." Videl looked at Bulma and continued, "But nothing seemed out of the ordinary."
Bulma turned her head back to the window, "Thank you for sharing this information with me."
"You know, Gohan isn't the only one who is gone missing," Videl tried her luck. She herself was convinced that Gohan and Saiyaman were one and the same person, though she didn't know who else knew. She didn't want to screw up his secret identity to tell the wrong person. And with that, the principle was still in the room, too, so she had to be careful with her words. "Saiyaman had disappeared as well."
Bulma was surprised by her remark, but soon recovered herself into her cool demeanor. "Are you sure? To my information the Great Saiyaman is still fighting crime as we speak," Bulma looked straight at Videl.
"She is right, Videl, the hero is on the news right now," the principle added, pointing to his small TV screen on his desk. On-screen, Saiyaman was standing next to the same reporter he flirted with the other day, clearly trying to keep his distance this time – much to the blond woman's annoyance. "Don't bother Misses Brief with some school rumors, she's worried enough already."
"But I...," she looked at Bulma, and to her surprise, Bulma gave her a piercing look and hinted to Videl that she should not delve into the matter. She gave Bulma a small head gesture to let her know she understood. "My apologies, it was probably a rumor then."
"So – Videl was it? – what is your relation regards to my godson, if I may ask?" her posture relaxed again.
"We are friends, we are in the same class," she replied. "May I ask, do you have any information about Gohan yourself?" She wasn't sure it was an appropriate question to ask under the circumstances, but she really needed to know.
"I don't want to get you worried," Bulma observed Videl and decided to continue, "But he did try to call his best friend that Tuesday afternoon, but the only words that came through was a faint 'Shit, no' and then all lines were broken."
Videl looked suspiciously at the blue-haired person in front of her, "How can Gohan call someone without a cell phone?"
"Observant, are you?" a smile appeared on the scientist's lips. "They have their own means of communication, as it were. And sadly, that type of communication isn't recorded or retraceable to a specific location, like you can do with cell phones."
The teenager looked over to the principle, she hated that the man could overhear their conversation. From this point on, she had to be very careful about her choice of words. "Misses Brief."
"Bulma"
"Right, sorry. Bulma, I must know, what do you know about your godson?"
"The same things you seem to know and much more. Gohan entrusts almost anything to me. I know even more than his own mother. Why do you ask?"
There is it, the confirmation Videl needed! The woman before her knew the secret life that Gohan led. Now she knew she could keep asking her questions. "What if something bad happened to him, like if he got poisoned or something, what would he do – hypostatically speaking, of course?" Videl added.
"Miss Satan, there's no need to get Misses Brief all worked up for nothing!" the principle said emphatically, "It's time for you to leave."
Bulma looked intrigued. She looked at the principle and then back at Videl. "To answer your question, he would come straight to me, the quicker the better." Her eyes slid back toward the principle, who had now risen from his office chair. "But perhaps it's indeed time for you to go. Thank you for our interesting conversation." Bulma walked over to Videl and put a hand on her shoulder. "So you're the Satan girl, huh, Gohan told a lot about you," she said with a wink, then walked over to the desk to write something on a piece of paper.
Videl didn't knew why, but that comment made her blush deeply. Had Gohan talked about her with Bulma Brief? Was that a good sign, or not? They were friends, of course, and Bulma was his godmother after all, so it kind of makes sense that he did. But why did she wink at her?
A hand appeared and held the piece of paper in front of her. The teen looked up and found Bulma's friendly. "Here, I'll give you my personal phone number. Call me right away if you have any additional information about Gohan. But please, treat it with respect." Videl took the piece of paper. It was a standard Capsule Corp. busines card with a handwritten phone number on it. "And you may also call me for some Saiyaman school rumors, I'm interested in your point of view on the man."
"I will" Videl promised, then followed the principle's gesture to the door and left.
Videl didn't return to her class, but left the school and eagerly inhaled the fresh air. The air was filled with the moisture from this morning's rain, but now that the sun was breaking through, she welcomed it. The schoolyard was full of students. Apparently recess had started, so she couldn't decapsulate her chopper here. The park was the closest place with enough space to do it, besides the roof of the school. She could use a little walk anyway to clear her mind.
Gohan had been missing for 6 days by now. If they didn't find him soon, he would die – if he wasn't death already. No, she refused to think like that! There was still hope, they just had to act quickly. There was no time to lose, so school had to wait.
Her walk made her turn a corner and Videl noticed she had stepped on something. Videl looked down and saw her foot was standing on a flyer. When she picked it up, she was greeted with the friendliest smile she'd ever seen. The flyer featured a photo of Gohan in one of his regular school clothes, smiling this big grin. It was probably taken just before his first day of school. The word 'Missing' was written above the photo and his details and contact information at the bottom. Her heart dropped, this whole situation got really serious. After her conversation with Bulma Brief, she had an idea where to start her search for her friend, but she needed her copter for that. With a lump in her throat, she folded the flyer and tucked it into her backpack and continued her way at a faster pace.
"Miss?"
Videl was almost at the entrance of the park when she was held up. A boy dressed in neat traditional clothes looked at her with teary eyes. His dark hair was sticking out in all directions and it was almost as if she was looking into the face of her missing friend.
"Have you seen my big brother?" he held up one of the flyers she'd found earlier.
Her heart sank even more. Videl looked from Gohan's friendly smile in the picture to the broken face of the child in front of her. The similarities where undeniable. Why did Gohan never tell her he had a little brother? She didn't knew her friend at all.
"No, I'm sorry, I haven't seen him in a while," Videl said with difficulty. She didn't want to break the kid's heart, but what else could she say?
The kid bowed. "Thank you," and then he ran to the next person to ask the same question.
Videl took in her surroundings. Not far form Gohan's little brother, there was another boy handing out flyers. She wondered what his relation was regards to her missing friend. To the right there was an older woman, also traditionally dressed, handing out the same flyers. She must be his mother.
She drew her attention away from the scene. Staring didn't help the situation and she had to act now. The young crime fighter ran into the park and opened her capsule. She flew up and made her way to the last place she'd seen Gohan alive, the state bank.
When her vehicle landed, she pulled out a map from her glove compartment. Videl then jumped out and hurried to the exact spot she had stood that unfaithful day. A part of the state bank had been condoned off as a construction site, as the explosion had caused some serious damage to the building. She unfolded the map in front of her and positioned it to match her surroundings.
According to what Bulma said, Gohan would immediately come to her if something serious had happened to him. She picked up a pen and crossed out her current location. Then she searched for the location of Capsule Corp. and crossed it too. She rummaged through her backpack and found the ruler she was looking for. With that, She connected both dots with a straight line.
Exactly what she thought, it's the same direction Gohan took off that day so quickly.
She rushed back to her copter. Videl entered Capsule Corp.'s coordinates. and since all 2.485 miles had to be flown in the exact line she had drawn on her map, she turned on the autopilot. Even though her jet-copter was one of the fastest on the marked, it still would take her up to 8.5 hours to reach her destination. Nonetheless, she took off.
Traveling west for about 3 hours, nothing seemed out of the ordinary. She had crossed endless grass fields, farmyards and mountain ranges. At first, she flew at top speed, but eventually she was afraid she would miss crucial clues, so she adjusted her speed so that she could still search the terrain below her, but also not lose much unnecessary time. This brought her an additional 4 hours to her journey, but that didn't stop her from continuing her search.
She flew over an old abandoned industrial site where iron ore used to be processed. This place used to be very abundant back in the day, but due to new techniques this place became outdated and eventually it was closed 10 years ago. It was a shame that they didn't reuse the area to build something else. When she flew over this huge storage building, she swore she saw something atypical through the holes in the roof. She turned off the autopilot and turned her jet. She hovered over one of the larger gaps and looked down. There was indeed something down there cloaked in red. Although Videl couldn't quite see what it was, a bad feeling came over her.
Unable to land her vehicle on the roof, she looked for a spot nearby. She grabbed her bag and tossed its contents onto the passenger seat. Then she filled it with her first aid kit, a bottle of water and bar of chocolate that happened to lay around. Without even bothering to capsulize her copter, she ran to the storage building. A panic overtook her. What would she find? What if she was too late? What... what if her nightmare came true?
There was the metal door that led into the building. She jerked at its handles, but chains prevented her from opening the door. Videl was breathing heavily and grabbed an iron bar that lay on the ground. She slammed it against the lock of the chain, but in vain. She tried again and again, but the damn thing wouldn't budge. Tears filled her eyes and tried a different approach by slamming her shoulder against the door. But after a few times trying, she understood that there was no point in continuing. She growled in frustration and picked up the iron bar again. She placed it so she could get some tension to the chains. Maybe if she used the bar as leverage, the chain might break. And using her whole body, she put as much force on it as she could.
The chain broke.
Without a second thought, she opened the heavy door. Light fell into the storage building and amid some rubble, she saw it lying on the floor, face forward:
The motionless body of none other than Saiyaman.
Hi there, I'm going on a 4 week vacation, so I'll not post in a while... sorry
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Just kidding, I'm writing the next chapter as we speak ;)