Chapter 9: Operation fear factor
It was a normal day in the Son household. Gohan was hard at work, studying for an upcoming exam. Chichi was getting ingredients ready for dinner, and Goten was playing with his blocks in the living room. Sitting in his room, Gohan leaned back and stretched. He put his arms behind his head and closed his eyes, basking in the few moments of normalcy in his life. Nothing for him to worry about but a good book, the smell of delicious food wafting through the house, and good old peace and quiet.
"KYAAAAAA!!!" Zangya's scream cut through his reverie and without a second thought, Gohan rushed out of his room and into the blue girl's, nearly tearing off the hinges in the process.
"Zangya! Are you ok! What's… Wrong?" Gohan looked around the room, expecting to see a threat to his friend's life. Instead of some insanely powerful robot demon from outer space, all he saw was Zangya, huddled on top of her desk against the wall, half dressed. At the sight of her red underthings, Gohan blushed and looked away, though his eye wandered occasionally.
As for Zangya, maybe she would have blushed at the thought of her crush seeing her half nude, but that thought was buried by the sheer terror she was caught up in. Currently, her face was an even paler blue than normal. Seeing her in such a condition, Gohan's concern quickly overcame his interest in her choice of garment.
"Zangya, what's the matter? What happened?"
Clearly something had shaken her. She tried to respond, but all she could manage was "S-S-S-S-s…"
"What?" Gohan couldn't hazard a guess at what she could be trying to say. Zangya pried one of her hands from off her knees and pointed diagonally at the floor, still repeating the same "S" sound. Gohan looked in the direction she was pointing. He saw nothing but the bed.
"Is something wrong with your bed?" Gohan asked going over to inspect it. Zangya nodded. The saiyan looked at the bed over and over again, from mattress to bed post. "Zangya, I don't see anyth-"
"SNAKE!!!" Zangya finally blurted out. "THERE'S A HUGE HORRIBLE SLIMY UGLY SNAKE UNDER MY BED!!!"
Gohan stared at her. Then back at the bed. Snakes weren't a big deal to him, having lived in the mountains all his life. He knew some people were scared of them, but he didn't think Zangya of all people would be. It must be one heck of a snake to scare someone like her. Gohan got flat on his stomach to look under the bed, ready to do battle with the monstrous reptile. After a minute of searching he finally said "Oh yeah, I see it now. Come here little guy, I'm not gonna hurt you."
"DON'T TALK TO IT!" Zangya yelled, as if talking to a snake was going to make it lash out and attack everything in sight.
Gohan crawled out from under the bed and stood up, holding in his hand a greenish snake, barely a foot long. He held it up to Zangya and asked "Is this the huge snake?"
If he had thought her scream was loud before, Gohan hadn't heard anything till now.
"KYYYYAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!" The scream shook the entire mountain.
"GETITOUTGETITOUTGETITOUT!!!" She yelled at Gohan while throwing everything she could grab hold of at the scaly intruder. Gohan ran out, holding his hand over the snake to protect it from the assault.
Break
Chichi placed a mug of cocoa on the table in front of Zangya. "You ok hun?" Chichi asked while rubbing her back. The blue girl just nodded. While she was now fully clothed, her cheeks held a slight blush of embarrassment.
"Sorry Zangya." Gohan said, trying to hide a smile. "I didn't mean to scare you when I held it up. I just didn't expect that the 'huge snake' would be a little garter snake. They're actually harmless you know."
At his words, Zangya's face went from a rosy hue, to a splotchy tomato. Gohan was about to go into a well-meaning lecture on the facts about garter snakes, but upon seeing the dirty look his mother shot his way, he shut his mouth.
"Um… I'll just go check on the firewood… or something." He left two ladies alone in the kitchen.
Chichi rolled her eyes then turned a soft expression onto Zangya. "I feel so stupid." The younger girl moaned into her hot chocolate.
"Oh sweetie, don't say that." Chichi told her in a soothing voice. "Everyone has something their afraid of. As a matter of fact, snakes are a pretty common fear. I don't blame you one bit for being scared of them."
Zangya looked up at Chichi. "Are you afraid of snakes too?"
The Son mother shook her head. "For me, it's spiders. Blegh." She gave a shiver. "I can't stand them."
"I'm scared of ghosties." Goten popped his head over the table with a smile which Zangya couldn't help but return. "And mister Piccolo hates whistles."
"See, everyone's got something." Chichi reassured her. "Goku was deathly afraid of shots and…" She lowered her voice and spoke directly into the Hera's ear. "According to Bulma, Vegeta is terrified of worms."
This revelation elicited a laugh from Zangya, making her spit out her cocoa. Wiping herself up and feeling less foolish for her outburst.
"So what's Gohan afraid of?" She asked casually.
"I… I don't know." Chichi admitted. When he was little, Gohan used to be a bit of a crybaby (in large part due to her pampering). But ever since he had been kidnapped by Piccolo, Gohan never seemed to show fear.
"Ooh, ooh! I know!" Goten raised his hand. "Big brother's afraid of mommy."
"Hahaha!" Zangya laughed hard. "Yeah, he and everyone else who's met her. Haha ahem…" She cut her laugh off with a cough when she saw Chichi's expression. "So, uh… nobody knows what rice ball is afraid of?"
Chichi shrugged. "Well, I can't think of anything."
Zangya looked down at her hot beverage with a thoughtful look. "Interesting."
Break
The next morning, Gohan woke up for training as usual, though something felt different. He stretched his arm then scratched his head. Something fell out of his hair and when he looked down to see what it was gave a shout. "WOAH!!!"
No sooner had he cried out than Zangya slammed open his door, grinning like a cat who caught the canary.
"Oh my, Gohan what's the matter?" She asked with fake concern. "I heard you scream and rushed over. Are you okay?"
"Okay! I'm more than okay!" Gohan replied with delight and Zangya's face fell.
"O-oh… Really?"
"Yeah! Do you know what this is!?" Gohan held out the thing that had fallen from his hair with a big grin.
Zangya replied with disappointment. "A bug?"
"It's not just any bug! This is a subterranean Eumillipes Persephone! This is the rarest centipede in the world! Man I can't wait to show my bio teacher." So saying, he ran out of the room.
"That's great Gohan." Zangya said to an empty room. She pulled out a note pad with a page titled "Operation fear factor" and crossed off 'bugs' from the top of the list. "Stupid nerd."
Break.
Gohan landed just outside the city, deciding that today would be a great day to walk to school. After all, it was such a nice day and it already started off so well. Whistling as he walked and clutching his millipede specimen in his hand, he seemed like any normal middle school boy.
As he rounded a corner, he bumped into a rather solid wall. Gohan felt a little silly and decided he needed to pay more attention where he walked. Just as he was about to keep going, the wall turned to face him. What he mistook for a wall was in fact a giant mastiff, the size of a garage. The drooling beast eyed Gohan with a hungry stare and growled menacingly.
"Oh wow. You're a big fellah aren't you?" The dog continued to growl and stepped forward baring his teeth at the teen.
"You look hungry." Gohan said to the dog. "Here, let me see what's for lunch. I could go for a snack myself." He turned his back on the dog to rummage through his backpack. Just as the hound was about to pounce, he popped a dyno cap and brought out a delicious assortment of meats.
Within 5 minutes the dog and Gohan had eaten, he rubbed its belly and was playing fetch with it. When Gohan bid it farewell, it whimpered and started licking him all over.
"Hahaha! Hey stop that! Come on, I promise I'll come back, I'll even bring a friend. I bet you'd love Icarus. He's about your size. You'll get along great." The dog accepted the offer with a bark.
Gohan wiped the slobber off his face and went on his way.
At the top of a nearby Building, Zangya smacked her forehead with her notepad. "I forgot he had a pet dragon. What's a dog compared to that!?" she crossed dogs off her list. "I gotta start thinking about this more."
Break
Gohan was eating lunch on the roof when he was approached by Erasa. Things had been a bit awkward ever since the whole nearly killing her thing, but they had reached a comfortable acquaintanceship. She was now the only one in school who talked to him like he was normal.
"Hey Gohan." She greeted. "How's lunch?"
Gohan swallowed his giant mouthful before replying. "I'm good. You?"
"That's great, so listen, there's this new game that everyone is playing. I bet you'd really enjoy it."
Gohan tilted his head. "What kind of game?"
"Well, it's pretty simple." She pulled out a dyno cap and popped it open, revealing a small iron box, just big enough for someone of Gohan's size to squeeze into. "You just hop into this box, we close the lid and you stay there till we say to get out.
Gohan stared at her incredulously and she stared right back with a dazzling smile.
"That… sounds stupid. It doesn't seem like it would be fun at all."
"Oh, come on, don't be such a dork, it'll be super fun, I promise."
"Well, if you're sure…"
30 minutes later
"Hey Erasa, the bell for class just rang. Is the game over?" Gohan asked from within the box.
Erasa sighed. "Yeah, I guess so." She opened the lid and Gohan unfolded himself painfully, working out the kinks in his neck.
"That wasn't fun at all you know." Gohan frowned and made his way back to the main floor, muttering about the weird trends of so called 'normal kids'.
Erasa shook her head and walked to the opposite side of the roof. "Your boyfriend doesn't seem to mind closed spaces. But he sure is gullible Miss Zangya."
The blue girl floated above the edge of the roof while grumbling and crossed off 'small spaces' from her list. She then pulled another page from the notepad and handed it to Erasa.
"Thanks for your help anyway." She said with some annoyance. "Here's your payment. All the times Broly usually visits the bakery. Don't know why you want it but whatever."
"Thank you very much." Erasa took the paper and skipped all the way back to class.
Break
Gohan had just gotten done with his after training shower when he found a surprise in his room and, in its own way, was far more pleasant than the surprise this morning.
"Why hello there Gohan."
The teen froze when he saw Zangya. More accurately, he froze when he saw what she was wearing. From top to bottom, the Hera girl was dressed in a white hat with a red plus sign, a very revealing nurse's blouse, a super mini white skirt, white thigh high stockings and white high heels.
Zangya held a needle in her hand and a triumphant look on her face. It seemed 18 was right. The outfit definitely enhanced the boy's fear of needles judging by his frozen state. Unable to resist the urge, she decided to tease him.
"What's the matter Gohan?" She said with a devilish smile that had a very different effect on Gohan than what she meant it to. "Afraid of a little needle?"
"What needle?" Gohan asked, confusion momentarily overtaking his other feeling.
Zangya was getting frustrated. "What need-THIS Needle!" She thrust the syringe in front of his face and for the first time, Gohan actually noticed the needle.
"Oh! Hey a needle. Why do you have a needle?" He was genuinely curious, but while he asked this, the other side of him was screaming 'WHY ARE YOU ASKING SUCH STUPID QUESTIONS!? JUST FOCUS ON WHAT'S IN FRONT OF YOU!'
Fortunately, or unfortunately as the case may be, Chichi chose that moment to walk in with Gohan's laundry.
"ZANGYA! WHAT ARE YOU WEARING!?"
Zangya almost dropped the needle as she turned around in fear. "Chichi! Wait, this isn't what it looks like!"
"Zangya, I thought we covered this with the whole school uniform fiasco! AND IS THAT A SYRINGE! ARE YOU DOING DRUGS!? OH You are in SOOO MUCH TROUBLE YOUNG LADY!"
"Chichinotheneedleisn'tformeitwasforGohan OWOWOW!" She howled in pain as Chichi grabbed her by the ear and marched her to her room for a very long talk.
Despite Zangya's cries of pain, Gohan couldn't help but think that today had been a pretty great day.
Break
All was dark in the Son home as a shadowy figure glided gracefully through the hallway. Quietly, the shadow opened the door to Gohan's room and it crept swiftly inside. The alarm clock read 1234, the perfect time for ghosts. The figure glanced down over the edge of the bed and stared at the peaceful form of her victim. She climbed on top of him, but still he slept. She poked his face, hoping to rouse him, but it had no effect. Finally, fed up with subtlety, she violently shook him till at last, he opened two drowsy eyes. "Wazgonon?"
"WooOOOOooo. I am the ghost of fighters paaaast woooooo." A white sheet with a vaguely human form was waving its arms around in what it was sure was a very spooky manner.
"What?" Gohan asked groggily, still nowhere near fully awake.
"I am here to haunt you ooOOoooo."
"Zangya?"
The sheet paused. "NooOOOooo. I am very clearly a ghoooost."
Gohan fell back down and closed his eyes. "Go back to sleep honey. Piccolo's making muffins in the morning. I'll take you and Pan to the lab later."
Zangya pulled the sheet off her head in a huff. "Lab? Muffins? Gohan you wake up right now! Don't you fall back asleep when I'm haunting you! Eeep!" Her rant was cut short was Gohan turned over on his side, draping his arm around her and pulling her tight to him while he slept.
For a moment, Zangya thought about trying to wake him up again. Then, she recalled that he had just called her honey. She smiled and scooted her body closer to his, holding his arm tight against her.
"Pan is a nice name." She said with a soft yawn. Then she too was fast asleep. Operation fear factor would have to wait for another day.
End chapter