Gohan ricocheted through the broad-shouldered crowd of competitors to the back of the staging area. He could barely make the top of Piccolo's turban beyond the sea of animated faces.
It's not that he was in such a hurry as he was simply incapable of moving slow, his excitement was so great. After all, it was the first World Tournament he was competing in. Sure, he'd been blackmailed by Videl to come, but as a result his father had returned for the day after seven years in the afterlife to compete as well, and from that all their friends were reuniting for the endeavor. If he could just be patient enough to endure the tedious preliminary testing…
"Hey Piccolo!" He waved and ran over to the withdrawn Namek leaning against a tree with his arms folded heavily across his chest.
Piccolo lifted his head and opened his eyes only enough to make eye contact and then immediately dropped his chin again and shut his lids as if doing so would make the crowds go away.
"They're drawing numbers soon," Gohan said. "…and if we finish this strength sensor thing early enough, then we can go and watch Goten and Trunks fight."
"Mmm." Piccolo gave a small nod.
"Great. I'll go ahead and save a place in line…" Gohan realized suddenly that something was bothering the Namek. The signs were subtle. An extra crease in his brow, a slight stiffness to his stance, a quick contraction in his jaw muscles… No one else would have noticed, but Piccolo had been a paternal mentor to Gohan longer than his own father. They knew each other well, and thus Gohan could tell that something bigger than the crowds was getting under Piccolo's skin.
"What is it?" Gohan asked quietly, alarmed. He felt his palms tingle in anticipation of some hidden evil afoot. "Do you sense something?"
Piccolo peeked at him through the corner of his eye. He spoke through his teeth. "That woman over there has been staring at me since we arrived," he growled.
"Huh?" It took Gohan a few seconds to understand the simplicity of what he said. "A woman?"
"Shhh!" Piccolo faced him. "Behind me."
Gohan trusted Piccolo's instincts and glanced behind his mentor, searching for an evil face among the innocents. Several people were staring at the Namek. They always did. "You know Piccolo, a lot of people are staring at you. It's-" And then he saw her. "Ooohhh."
A tall, attractive woman with obsidian-black hair stood a few yards off. A hint of mischief curled the corners of her mouth and she was indeed staring. And it wasn't the way people usually looked at Piccolo, either. Her large, heavily lashed eyes were hungrily fixed on the Namek as if he were a roasted mutton in a starving world. Gohan felt himself blush even though her blatant attention wasn't directed at himhis earlier anxiety giving way to a newfound amusement. He tried to stifle a chuckle. Piccolo's eyes snapped open, accusatorily.
"Well uh, Piccolo," Gohan cleared his throat and couldn't stop the grin from broadening his face as he contemplated just how much the Namek would have preferred facing a cocktail of both Frieza AND Cell over this. "It seems as though you have a female admirer."
Chapter 2
Piccolo had gone to the front with Gohan and couldn't help skirting around the crowd to put as much distance as possible between himself and the woman. Her attention was the most awkward thing he'd ever experienced. If she only knew she was wasting her time… The tournament is supposed to be a competition for serious fighters, not a meat market for carousing singles, he thought angrily. At least she won't be allowed into the sidelines with the final competitors. The idea relaxed him somewhat…
Fortunately she hadn't followed him, and after one broken hit sensor, and an armful of restraint for all the Z fighters, they had scored high enough to place them in the competition. The shock of seeing Goten and Trunks turn Super Saiyan in the youth trials made him forget completely about the gawking female, until they announced the line-up for the eight competitors in his category.
"And here we are! Will the following please come to the sidelines." The straw-haired announcer fumbled with the paper in his hands. "Goku."
Goku hopped up. "Well," he said as he gave a cheery wave to his friends, "See you in there!" The announcer continued on.
"Gohan, Number Eighteen, Vegeta, Krillin, Piccolo…"
Piccolo walked routinely across the fighting arena to the side room they had reserved for the fighters and leaned against the wall. He was only mildly curious to see what remaining weak earthlings had filled the last two spots.
"Mighty Mask."
A short-limbed fellow with a pointed mask ran across and stood far off from the rest of them.
"Aaaand…Gaszha."
A brief shuffling of the crowd and the last competitor stepped onto the arena. Piccolo felt his stomach drop out.
Gohan nudged him. "Hey Piccolo. Isn't that the-"
Piccolo snarled the affirmative. The woman that had been staring at him all morning danced giddily across the arena to the sideline. "Great," he muttered under his breath.
Gohan grabbed his shoulder and counseled in hushed tones, "Relax. The worst she'll do is come on to you, which you'll obviously counter with rejection, and that's that. Easy, really. It's actually quite amazing that you've avoided this kind of incident up until now, being a hero and all… Besides, if she beat out all the other fighters that showed up, then she must be pretty strong…"
"She probably cheated," he grumbled as he observed her ridiculous, girly manner; giggling, clapping her hands, skipping… "Flirted with the judges or rigged the machine…"
Gohan laughed. "Well, it could have been worse, Piccolo. At least she's pretty."
Piccolo snorted. "Makes no difference to me. I don't function like you gender-based species do."
They matched up the fighters, and Piccolo was relieved that this Gaszha was fighting Vegeta first. The Saiyan Prince would waste no time at all kicking her out of the ring. Unfortunately, however, they were fourth in line, which gave her plenty of time to approach him. Time that she took advantage of all too soon.
He felt a nudge on his elbow, despite his bowed head and closed eyes and all the other signals he was using to say, 'Don't bother me'. Her scent filled his nostrils-a cross between pine needles and soap. He opened his eyes reluctantly and frowned down at her. Her heart-shaped face was smiling up at him as if she could read his every thought.
"Hi," she said in a quiet, but aggravatingly upbeat voice. Piccolo looked away, but unfortunately, it didn't deter the woman.
"You've been ignoring me all morning," she said delightedly. "No one's ever done that to me before."
Again, Piccolo said nothing, but he believed what she said. Though he himself didn't feel the pulls and tugs of attraction, he could pinpoint which individuals seemed more comely than others. And this particular female seemed to have all the proportions right.
"So which one are you, anyway? Goku? Number Eighteen?"
Piccolo was still hesitating to speak at all, considering that any response would encourage her further.
"Come now. If you don't tell me who you are, I'll give you a nickname." She waited. "No? Well, let's see," she ticked her fingers in the air as if going down a mental checklist. "Beanstalk, Martian Boy, Eli the Grump-"
"PICCOLO!" He barked. "The name is Piccolo." He hated being called anything but his own name. "And your attention is wasted on me."
"Oh really?" she crinkled her eyes, more intrigued than intimidated. "So, where are you from?"
"Earth."
"Oh?" Her eyes grew in jest at his harsh ambiguity. "What a coincidence! Me too!"
He looked over to Gohan and Krillin who were watching with ear-splitting grins on their faces. He narrowed his eyes in a silent threat that promised a later flogging if they didn't come to his aid immediately. Slightly subdued, but still highly amused, they walked over.
"Hi. Gaszha, right?" Gohan, asked, with a residual twinkle in his eye from his earlier grin. "I'm Gohan. And this is Krillin."
"Hi," Krillin said.
Piccolo felt briefly relieved to see her gaze rest on someone else, for a change.
"Hello, gentlemen." She shook their hands. "I'm trying to hit on your friend here, so if you don't mind…"
Krillin chuckled. "Look, honey. He's not your type-"
"Oh, but he is," she said, leaning closer to Piccolo in unmasked adoration. "I have this thing for demons…"
"Demons?" Krillin cringed. "Why?"
Piccolo found himself wondering the same thing.
"I'm from the Yosolk Caverns," she said nonchalantly.
Really… he thought. The demons of Yosolk were a vicious breed. What was this human girl doing in a place like that? It gave a little more depth to her shallowness, but not nearly enough. "I'm not a demon," he growled.
She quirked her eyebrow. "Oh, really?"
"Yeah," Krillin began. "Piccolo is sexless, like an amoeba."
Of all the insulting… Piccolo held his tongue. It was a repulsive comparison, but what if it worked?
Gaszha seemed to think about it, and appraised him heartily from head to toe, winking at him when she was done. "Unfortunately for you, my friend, it makes you no less sexy."
Piccolo felt his eyes widen, and his jaw slack in the face of such a weird, unmanageable compliment. Gohan laughed outright.
The woman grinned, her large dark eyes sparkling from reflected pools of light. "Looks like I finally broke your demeanor, Piccolo."
Piccolo stiffened, and faced her. "I'm here to compete," he said in a slow, staccato voice. "Not to fight off your flirtations…"
"All right," she smiled, still undaunted. "Look. Tell you what, Captain Charisma. Let's make a deal. I'll leave you alone for now, but if I beat you in the second round-I've no doubt you'll win the first"
Krillin snorted, as he was Piccolo's first competitor.
"Then," she continued, "You have to spend one day with me."
"What!" His gut reaction at being forced to spend a day with her was immediate, but then he realized what she said. Gohan voiced it for him.
"IF she beats you," he said, smiling as if there was no way in the world she'd ever make it past the first round. Piccolo frowned at her, completely convinced that she'd contrived her way into the final eight. Even if she were strong, her attitude was all wrong. Besides, her first competitor was a Super Saiyan…
"Fine," Piccolo snapped, anxious to be rid of her. "Though I don't know how you even got to compete."
She smiled. "Now that you mention it, I think the scoring on the strength sensor was screwed up when I hit it, but hey! It got me this far!" She blew him a kiss and was gone.
"I knew it," Piccolo grumbled when she walked away. "She got in by chance."
"Man, I swear there's something familiar about her," Krillin said, scrutinizing the woman as she watched the match.
"Yeah," Gohan agreed as he in turn squinted his eyes in her direction. "I know what you mean. But I can't place why…"
As they watched, she flipped her shoulder-length hair upside down and wrapped it tight in a bushy pony tail and flipped back up, leaving her facial profile completely visible and unhidden by her shiny black tresses.
Piccolo shrugged and walked away to watch the match, but his acute hearing picked up Krillin's next comment.
"Man," Krillin started. "Her skin tone, her hair, her face… She could be Goku's sister for all she looks like him."