Disclaimer: Me = No own DBZ.
Reviewer responses will be at the end of the chapter. The author's notes will, like last chapter, be found down there as well.
* * *
That Warm and Fuzzy Feeling From the Back of a Saiyan
A fanfic by ShaggyDiz
Chapter Two
* * *
Wednesday, 3:15 PM.
School had long since concluded for the day. Gohan was on his way home, casually sitting on the nimbus cloud. Well, more like casually lying down.
A recap of sorts first.
Gohan went home from school on Monday and told his mom the many splendors of high school. He was pleased to announce that he had already made two, possibly three friends. He didn't give the specifics about it; for his mom might have thrown a mad rant about girls and how they interfere with, quote, 'my baby's studies', unquote. He also told her about the slight problem with PE class, but reassured her by saying that he would try hard in the future PE classes to avoid that problem.
Tuesday was a breeze. Classes were fun, though boring. Videl came over to his table again and talked to him about the free period after lunch, and the rotation that occurs between that and PE every other day. Erasa continued her…erm, 'thing' with Gohan, and he and Sharpener had a slightly good discussion about school sports.
Not bad for the first two days, especially for a boy who never met anyone, minus Dende, that was his age before.
Wednesday would be remembered as hell to Gohan.
Nearly everything that could have gone wrong that day did. First, he woke up late, and had a drastically shortened breakfast. Lunch that day proved to be an exercise in A) complete embarrassment and B) dropped jaws along with eerie silence lasting for a full five minutes.
Gohan cringed at the thought of what happened during lunch earlier that day…
…
"What's everyone looking at?" asked a rather confused Gohan. The student body – most of them anyway – had stopped whatever they were doing after hearing about a large amount of food being bought and eaten. No one suspected Gohan, who went and bought five burgers, five hot dogs, three servings of spaghetti, lasagna, cheese shells and tortellini, and about four meatball sandwiches. They heard a bit of sloppy eating, but nothing much to cause a ruckus. Still, one turned head turned into ten, which went in waves until nearly the whole crowd had turned to see this feat.
The surprising thing was that he didn't feel full at all after the large meal.
Videl walked over to him once she saw that everyone suddenly stopped what he or she was doing. She sat across from him in the same fashion that she did the last two days. This time the discussion wasn't about school, but rather to defuse a rather sticky situation.
But first…
"STOP LOOKING OVER HERE!" was all it took for the student body to resume their normal conversations. Gohan still had the confused look on his face. It vanished when he realized that Videl had begun talking to him. "Big lunch, huh?"
"What? Oh yeah. I had a smaller than usual breakfast this morning."
"I can see that," she said, chuckling a bit. "You have a big appetite or something?"
"You can say that. It runs in my family a bit. And in someone else's I know."
"Well, how bout you keep that little trait of yours outside of school, so that this doesn't happen again, and I don't have to raise my voice."
"Will do."
"Now, tell me something. Why did…"
…
Videl made his day slightly better at that point. Still, by then it was already in shambles. PE class made it worse…
…
"Now son, I will give you exactly one minute to do as many push-ups as you can."
"Okay sir."
"Ready…go!" After the display at lunch, Gohan could only hope that his day didn't turn from horrible to the next word that describes…well, horrible. PE class had come, and now he would finish those exercises that he didn't do on Monday, which were push-ups and sit-ups. He elected to do push-ups first.
In sixty seconds, he pressed himself up and down sixty times.
In sixty seconds, he had done seventy-eight sit-ups.
Indeed, people were bound to talk about it. Curiosity extended the most to Videl, Sharpener and Erasa. Erasa, well, for obvious reasons. Sharpener, because he still doesn't have a clue about nerd boys having any kind of strength. And Videl, whose curiosity was already sparked that day. She became even more intrigued about Gohan during the course of the day, and with this display, nearly put the twenty questions marathon into the spotlight…
…
Gohan groaned at the thought. He sat up and positioned himself so he was crossed legged on the cloud. He hung his head down, still going over the day's events. "How will I explain this to mom?" he though out loud. "I mean, it was my fault I got up a little late today, and I kind of over did the PE stuff, but what will she say about Erasa?"…
…
History had come and gone. The bell rang, signaling the end of the day. Videl was the first to leave as always, quickly exiting school through the rooftop. Sharpener also left early, heading towards the gym for weighting training. That left Erasa and Gohan, and, in yet another cruel twist of fate, was just the way Erasa had planned it. [1] Earlier in the day, during another bathroom discussion, the two girls talked about ways in which Gohan could get suckered into a date with Erasa on Saturday. Videl objected to it, but Erasa had pressured her immensely, begging her to give her a way to get Gohan alone with her to talk to her.
"Just wait till after school. I'm visiting my mom again and I'm sure Sharpener has something to do."
Fast forward to the end of the school day. Gohan was slowly walking to his locker, with Erasa currently in tow. Gohan was trying to ignore her constant babbling about makeup and other necessities. They arrived at their lockers, which was Erasa's moment to strike. She swung around to face Gohan while he was rummaging through his locker. He closed it just to see Erasa with a huge smirk on her face.
"Sooo…Gohan."
"Yeah Erasa?"
"I was wondering…there's this new movie that's coming out this week. And I was wondering…"
"Wondering what?" he asked, confused as ever as to why Erasa was acting like this right now. Sure, he had known that Erasa was giggling and fawning over him the past few days, but never like this.
"I was wondering if you wanted to go with me silly!"
"Um…I don't know…"
"Oh come on Gohan! It'll be fun!"
"Um…I really don't know Erasa. I mean, I've never been on a date before."
"Well, duh! Living in the country all your life wouldn't sport you any dates."
"Um…" Just then Erasa got an idea of how to get Gohan to go with him.
"Fine, if you don't go with me…I'll…I'll…I'll tell the whole school your deepest darkest secret." That got Gohan right in the…well, it got him bad.
How would she know my deepest darkest secret?! He thought. I'm sure no one saw me earlier today! Gah! I might as well go along with her. It shouldn't be too bad. "Okay…I'll go with you."
"Great!" Ha! It worked. He's more gullible than I thought! "We'll discuss this after school on Friday, so don't forget…"
…
"Man. I wonder how things went so bad today. Erasa can't possibly know my secret, can she?" The thoughts continually circled through his head. He went through several other instances, like messing up once in math class, and another time in language arts class. Physics was a mess for him as well.
He had the nagging notion that it all started on his way to school, with the first appearance of his alter ego…
…
It was 7:45 AM. Gohan was going rather fast on the nimbus cloud this morning, after the late wake up. He showered quickly and had a smaller than usual breakfast. He brought a couple fruits with him on the flight, but was intent on arriving there on time. Soon Satan City came into view, and it brought Gohan some relief. Good. I'll be on time today. That seemed to be the case, until he heard a loud sound coming from below. He looked down to see a bus traveling really fast down the road that led away from the city. He also saw a yellow helicopter hovering above the bus, matching its speed.
"Nimbus, slow down a bit. I want to watch this." The cloud obeyed his command, and slowed down to allow Gohan a better view of what was occurring. He was taken by surprise when he saw the driver side door of the copter swing open to reveal Videl. What's she doing down there?! He thought to himself. "Nimbus, go lower!"
Down at the scene, Videl jumped down onto the top of the bus. It was loaded with school children, apparently going to school. Police reported that three men had robbed a bank and took the bus as the getaway vehicle. Videl rushed to the scene, and now was ready to take out the men. She landed on the roof, and swung around to the side, kicking one of the windows in. By luck, she dropkicked one of the hostage takers. She turned to the front of the bus. One of the hostage takers was driving the bus, with the driver unconscious at the time. The other villain was at the back of the bus, and had his gun trained on the teen.
"One move and you're dead!" shouted the man. Videl stayed in her spot and smirked a little. She had a clear run of the guy, since all of the kids were crowded into their seats. She squatted down, which brought the attention of the hostage taker. He fired, and Videl quickly jumped up and forward. She placed a hand on one of the seats and pushed her forward. The force propelled her extended foot into the gut of the gun holder, winding him and knocking him out. She turned to the front and saw the last robber walking towards her. He was clearly the biggest of the three, but apparently the dumbest of them as well, for he left the bus running without a driver. Videl quickly ran forward and disposed of the last threat.
Which, of course, left the bus without a driver.
Videl ran forward to assess the situation. The last robber had shoved the acceleration pedal through the floor, which made the bus increase its speed with every passing second. The steering wheel was twisted and turned in such a way that made driving the thing impossible. The door release was also ripped out, leaving no possible escape, even though at this speed it was nearly impossible.
She did the only thing she could do, which was use the drive shift to decelerate the bus. She threw it into neutral, which promptly slowed the bus down, but its momentum continued to move it forward. She went for the brake, but as she did, the bus smashed through a side rail, flying off the road onto the grassy field. The field sloped down for about two hundred feet until a cliff appeared. Videl was thrown out of the driver seat when the bus flew off the road, and stood up just to see the cliff appear about thirty feet away. She knew then it was too late.
Time seemed to stand still when the bus rumbled off the edge. Gravity seemed to have no effect on the inside occupants, as the kids, Videl and the unconscious robbers floated up into the air. Screaming was heard from the kids, scared to death, as they would soon fall to their doom. Videl could only hang her head, defeated, as she would soon die, along with kids that wouldn't deserve this fate.
Fate would give her another day.
As the bus continued it's decent, a bright flash zoomed past the falling vehicle. No more than two seconds later, the bus stopped in midair. Videl looked out the window and saw the ground, which was around three hundred feet below. "What happened?" That questioned was immediately answered, as the bus began moving up. All the kids stopped screaming and looked out the window, just as amazed as Videl. She continued to look at the ground, growing smaller and smaller until it disappeared from view. The bus moved over the cliff and carried over to the road.
By now two cops cars had pulled up to see the bus being placed down by a strange man with bright gold hair. He went forward to the side door and looked inside. Gohan saw Videl sitting in the seat looking right at him.
"The door's jammed!" she yelled out, muffled slightly by the door. Gohan saw this and placed his hands on the door. He curled his fingers into it, grabbing a chunk of metal. He then pulled the door right off its hinges and threw it behind him.
"You can come out now," he said, reaching his hand out towards the teenage girl. She reached out slowly and took it, then allowed herself to get caught in his arms as he carried her off the bus. Several of the police officers walked over to the two.
"Wow, kid. That was great!"
"Yeah. How'd you do it?" The question took Gohan a bit by surprise. He answered him with a:
"Working out."
Two-anime body drops later, "Wow, that's great."
"Yes. But now I must get going."
"Wait!" Videl spoke up, still in Gohan's arms.
"What?"
"What's your name?" Again, Gohan was taken by surprise. He couldn't tell her his name, since he wouldn't hear the end of it. He didn't think of one before now.
"Just make one up. See ya!" he said, letting her down to her feet and flying straight up to the sky.
"Wait!" she yelled out again. It went on deaf ears though. The gold streak soon disappeared above the clouds, leaving Videl to wonder about her savior that day…
…
Gohan arrived home at about four o'clock. He went inside and was immediately attacked by Goten. "Gohan! Gohan! How was school?"
"It was good squirt," he said, lying. "Listen, I got to go talk to mom. Where is she at?"
"Um…she doing the laundry outback."
"Okay. Oh, we'll spar a bit later."
"Okay!" the young boy chirped. Gohan walked through the house to the back door. He saw his mom hanging up a huge load of clothes on the several lines spanning the back yard.
"Hey mom." Chichi looked up to see her eldest son walking towards her.
"Hi Gohan. How was your day?"
"Bad," he simply said.
"How so? I watched the news today and saw you in action."
"You did?!"
"Well, it isn't everyday that boys with gold hair and can fly appear on the TV. Still, you did a brave thing there today."
"Thanks mom. But it wasn't that."
"Oh, then tell me what went wrong."
"Um…we better sit down for a bit. It'll take some time." So the two sat down at the picnic table. Gohan went into discussion about the day's events. He told her about Videl's constant interrogating, and about all the random trouble spots in all of his classes except history. He told her to make sure he has a hardy breakfast each and every morning after what happened at lunch today. "Um…there's one more thing." He had to tell his mom about Erasa, but he wasn't completely clear on how to go about this.
"Well, what is it Gohan?"
"Well…I think I got blackmailed into a date on Saturday." He feared the reaction that he though he would be getting. At least at first glance.
"A date?!"
"Mom! It wasn't like I had another choice!"
"Well what did this girl say?"
"Um…if you don't go out with me I'll tell everyone your deepest darkest secret. I think she said something like that." His mom chuckled lightly when he said this. "What's so funny mom?"
"Oh nothing dear. I could only remember the days when Goku and I were dating…make that trying to date."
"Mom, this girl has been nothing but a nuisance since I accidentally bumped into her Monday. She's cool, but I really don't like her that much."
"Well you might as well do this just one time. At least it'll get you some experience about dating when you finally meet someone that'll get me grandchildren."
"Mom…not this again."
"I know. I'll stop now. Now, I got to pick out something nice for you. When is it again?"
"Saturday."
"Saturday. Okay. By the way…"
"Yeah mom?"
"Bulma called earlier. She said Vegeta was in a particularly good mood today and was looking forward to talking to you. I was reluctant at first, but decided 'what the heck'. You might as well go over and get a good spar in." Gohan was in complete shock at the moment. He wanted to say something, but nothing could escape his lips. "Did you do your homework?" He nodded ever so slightly. "Good. Now take Goten and be back by seven for dinner." Gohan finally came out of his trance.
"Thanks mom!" he said, running off into the house. "Come on Goten! We're flying to Capsule Corp.!" An ecstatic cheer was heard from the boy's room. He came running out and met Gohan outside, and the two took off to West City [2].
* * *
Good mood was an understatement. At least for Gohan it was. It'd been a long time since Vegeta and Gohan sparred, and although Gohan remained the stronger of the two, the lack of training the past seven years had given him reason to believe that Vegeta was merely toying with him. The training had proceeded in only super saiyan for both of them. Vegeta had yet to achieve the ascended level and Gohan would easily defeat him in the ascended form. Super Saiyan it was then.
Gohan got a vacation of sorts four months before when his mom decided to let him stop studying for a period of time to do whatever he wanted. He took this time to train and meditate. It only took three months to regain some of his lost fighting sense. Still, it was not enough against the battle hardened Vegeta, who seemed to train constantly over the last seven years. He noticed something different about Vegeta though. The most obvious was the fact that seven years of peace had done a lot to a man who once wanted nothing but to be content with himself. For a simple moment, everything changed, when his son was killed at the Cell Games. For a bare sliver of a moment, he fought for someone else.
He would never admit that he had gone soft over the years. He carried enough of his pride to do that. Still, he had gone on to love his wife Bulma, and his only child Trunks, more than anything else. Not many arguments existed between the three, except for Trunks occasionally getting into mischief with Goten, and Vegeta still being the occasional pain. Life was good though in Capsule Corps.
"What's wrong there boy?" the prince asked him, grinning madly. "Your mind isn't in this fight today. Is it that damn school your harpy mother sent you to?" A clean shot to Vegeta's jaw answered his last remark.
"Nothing is wrong with the school. It's the people inside the school that are pissing me off."
"I can see. What has these pathetic humans done this time?"
"Why do you care?" Vegeta walked up slowly to Gohan, looking up at him the whole time, acting calm and – strangely – understanding.
"Well, besides losing a good sparring partner, I'd like to care what happens to you while you're at school. That's what the woman says at least."
"I see."
"It's nothing like that boy. Being on this worthless planet has taught me many things. Being a family has its…rewards." Gohan nodded his head and relaxed himself. For now, the spar was off.
"Well, the biggest problem at school is that I just got blackmailed into a date on Saturday." A rather huge laughter erupted from the smaller man. Gohan turned a bit red at this. As soon as it started though, it stopped, and Vegeta composed himself.
"What she say, the 'deepest darkest secret' trick?" Gohan's face erupted in redness. He tried to hide it, but it was too late. Vegeta saw it, and could only grin even more than he had before.
"How do you know?"
"Let's just say that there's some things that Bulma has used on me to get her way. Besides, you're better off talking to me than to Kakarot. Damn fool thought wedding was food." Both men chuckled a bit at the remark.
"You're right about that Vegeta. It'd be nice to see dad again though, now that you mention him."
"As much as I hate to say, it would be good to see that baka of a father of yours once more."
"What you two talking about?" The two men looked down to see where the voice came from. It was the voice from the other son of Goku, Goten. Trunks was right along side him, looking up and wondering what the discussion was about. "Were you talking about dad?"
"Yes boy. We were talking about your father."
"What was he like?" the young spiky haired boy wondered. The teen and the adult looked at each other for a moment.
"You want to take this?"
"No. It's your father."
"You tell him. I've told him a hundred times over the years."
"Fine! I'll tell the brat!" He returned his stare to Goten and sat down on the gravity room floor. The rest of the saiyans followed suit. "Listen boy. I'm telling you this once. Your father was a great man, though sometimes a fool. He was an honest man. I respected him like you do with Gohan. It may not seem like it, for I never reached the strength that your father achieved.
"What made your father different was that he was carefree and looked over everyone else before himself. He was pure of heart, like you, and he could do a great many things, even when his strength couldn't. I learned the hard way about that. I know you would be glad to see him one day."
"Wow…" Goten let out. He listened to every word Vegeta had said, and was inspired even more than what Gohan had told him many times before. Gohan told him the same things, but he never got the perspective of a rival before. Vegeta opened that up to him, and his eyes filled with wonder.
"Now, let's get back to training. I know that harpy mother of yours wants you two back home soon, and I'm not done putting Gohan into shape." The two boys giggled at the statement, to which Gohan let out a loud groan. The group split up again, as Gohan and Vegeta powered up to fight and the boys sparred in their normal forms. They soon stopped and watched the older two attack each other in what appeared to be an evenly matched fight. They studied their form intently, watching their respective fighting styles and learning them.
They also wanted to be super saiyans when they fought.
Which is exactly what they did.
Which sent Gohan flying to the opposite wall, stopping once he felt the enormous power surge generating from the two boys. Vegeta stopped, after he had clocked Gohan in the jaw.
"Goten?"
"Trunks?"
"They're super saiyans?!" [3]
* * *
"Ooo, Gohan! Let's go over here!"
The dreaded day had come. It was Saturday, otherwise known as 'Gohan's Date in Hell'.
With none other than Erasa.
Gohan arrived at Satan City at close to one, the designated time for this little adventure to begin. Technically, he was five minutes late for the date. He had trouble finding the exact spot where Erasa was, and because of his lack of knowledge, received an ear full from the girl. It was now three o'clock. The plan for the day was as easy as cake: take Erasa to the mall and then to the movies.
No problem was Gohan's original though.
What he didn't know was the movie didn't start till four thirty. That had left Gohan three hours to kill at the mall.
Three very long, brutal hours with Erasa.
Did I mention it was only three o'clock?
At the current moment, Erasa took Gohan to another woman's underwear store. Gohan lost count after the first three stores because of the sheer embarrassment it would give him to stare at women's undergarments. He also became weighted down with the sheer amount of bags Erasa had given to him. Sure, he was a saiyan, but it really doesn't matter if you are with a girl like Erasa.
All that matters is that he wanted to get home alive, and to also schedule a couple of chiropractor visits for the bad back he would be getting soon.
"How…much more…of this pain?" he wondered aloud.
"Don't worry Gohan. I always do this with my dates," she giggled.
"Maybe I can go talk to them about this…"
"What was that?"
"Oh! Nothing, Erasa. Just wondering what movie we were seeing."
"Oh that. Well, they just released Titanic Redux. It has some two hours worth of extra footage and goes more into the love triangle formed between the main characters." [4]
"WHAT!"
Time seemed to go a bit faster, as it was now four o'clock. The shopping in hell was completed, but now he was forced to sit through five hours of being Erasa's sobbing shoulder. As the two walked to the movies, several fire engines whizzed by them.
"Hey Gohan. Let's go check this out. It looks like a fire, and Videl might be there."
Yes! Anything to lose this heavy load and prevent us from going to the movies. The two teens hurried down to where the smoke was coming from. One of the cities high rises was on fire. The water system on the twenty-fifth floor, where the fire started, had short-circuited, leaving people trapped on the top five floors in the building. There were numerous fire personnel and trucks at the scene. There was also a yellow copter hovering at the top of the building. No! That's Videl up there! What is she doing?
Up on top, Videl had exited her copter and made her way over to the huge water tower situated on the top of the building. She went over and proceeded to turn the valve.
It was jammed, and the metal itself burned her hands. She didn't give up though, using all of her strength to twist the valve. It moved ever so slightly, but that was as far as it would go. Defeated, she let go of the valve and stepped back. She looked up at the tower, and then over to the people crowded on the roof. Not this again. I'm going to lose again.
Fate would be on her side again this week. A finger tapped her shoulder. She turned her head and saw what appeared to be a man dressed in blue pants, a blue long sleeve shirt, dark sunglasses and a white turban. What a dork was all she could think at the moment.
"What do you want?" she asked him rudely.
"I came to help out," the man said, using a cheap deep voice to conceal his own.
"Help out? In that?"
"Yes. Now, if you excuse me, I'm going to put out this fire." He brushed past her and walked up to the tower. He looked up and down it, trying to find a weak point.
"The valve is busted. There's no way to get water out of it."
"Oh, there is another way," he said calmly. From there, he thrust his fist into the side of the tank, creating a huge hole in the side. He pulled out and let the water flow onto the roof. He walked to the other side and did the same, making two sides for the water to pour out. He then punched the roof on the far side of the building, making the water seep inside. He did the same near Videl, and the water rushed inside. It ran its course down the stairs and onto the descending floors, putting out the fire. Satisfied with his job, the masked hero turned to leave.
"Hey wait!" Videl yelled out, causing the man to turn and look at her.
"Yes?"
"Are you the Gold Fighter?" she asked.
"No. I'm afraid I'm not. I know who he is though, and I plan on meeting him soon."
"What? How do you know who he is?"
"I was trained by one of his friends. He, the Gold Fighter, is a great martial artist, just to let you know. He is far stronger than me, I know for sure. I must get going now. Goodbye," he said, turning and flying away from the building. Videl was left awestruck by who the masked man was.
Two heroes? I don't like this one bit.
Back on the ground, Gohan and Erasa witnessed the entire event. They watched as Videl struggled with the valve and also the new hero arriving. Gohan would have helped out if, but he would have had to ditch Erasa. He had come up with an excuse, but just before he said it, he felt a ki surge coming in his direction. That surge turned out to be the new hero. As the man left, Gohan kept a steady eye on him, getting a good feel for the new power. His power was just as strong as Krillin's, if not more.
He was also cursing to himself the whole time, for what reason he wasn't sure, but for some reason he would hate the competition he would be getting from this new hero. It would deal a serious blow to his saiyan pride if he ever met up with the person.
Videl would provide them with the answer as she came down off of the building to file her report. She saw her two friends standing across the street, waving their hands at her. She finished up her report and ran across to greet them.
"Hey you two!"
"Hey Videl," Erasa said. "What happened up there?"
"Yeah…what happened?" Gohan asked, struggling with the load still in his hands.
"Well, the valve got stuck, and then this guy just showed up and busted up the tank."
"That's cool. Was he good looking?"
"Erasa! Why must you always constantly think about boys? Hell, you got this one in a bind right now."
"Thank you for noticing."
"Sure thing Gohan." She paused for a moment before starting up again. "There was one other thing though."
"What was that?" Erasa asked.
"He wasn't the Gold Fighter, and he said he knew him."
He knows the Gold Fighter?! Gohan screamed in his head. He had a worried look on his face that the girls did not see. Just then he brought his hand up and looked at his watch. Four…forty-five. Yes! No Titanic Redux! I guess I could go home. "Hey Erasa. I'm sorry to do this but I got to get going. My mom wanted me home by dinner."
"Oh man. I really wanted to see that movie with you too."
"What movie was that?" Videl asked.
"Titanic Redux."
"You don't say," Videl deadpanned.
"Why do you think I want to leave?" Gohan inquired, loud enough for only Videl to hear. She chuckled lightly under her breath.
"Go ahead Gohan. I'll take Erasa's stuff to her house." He immediately dropped the blonde's items and wrapped up Videl in a huge hug.
"Thanks," he whispered. "See you two in school!" He ran off, and a few moments disappeared around a corner. Erasa walked up to Videl, both of them confused as to what happened just now.
"What was that about?" Erasa asked.
"I have no idea." That hug was something though…
* * *
Monday brought something new for Gohan. The rest of last week went very well for him, with nothing happening like the shenanigans from Wednesday. Videl came over to her seat at lunch at his table a bit earlier then she usually had, resulting in longer, more intelligent conversations than the ones she would have had with Erasa and Co. Erasa came over at one point too, on Friday, but just to discuss the events that were to take place on Saturday.
It was now Monday, and as Gohan walked to school he noticed something strange. He didn't see the strange occurrence, but rather, he felt it. Instead of one relatively high power in school, there was one relatively high power and one…extraordinarily high power in the school. Gohan also immediately recognized the power as the one from Saturday. A new student, huh? Hopefully I'll be able to find out my so-called competition.
He went to his classroom as usual and noticed no one new sitting there. He sensed around again, and found the new student on another floor. Oh well. I'll look for this guy later. He went to his seat, where he was immediately assaulted by Erasa, namely on why he suddenly jumped ship on Saturday.
Videl was forced by Gohan to switch seats with Erasa, which made him all the happier, and Sharpener all the more pissed. Sure, nothing was happening between Videl and Gohan, and no rumors had started. Sharpener had other ideas though, seeing Videl talking with Gohan everyday more than he had been talking with the girl of his dreams. So naturally, he was pissed. He was a good friend with Gohan though; with the amount of talking they did about certain things.
Erasa, meanwhile, was mad at Gohan for the ditch job he pulled on Saturday. Videl was forced to hear the entire tantrum on the flight home from the city, which involved missing the five-hour sob fest. Gohan was lucky to never give the girl his phone number because of this, for she went on about it for the better part of the weekend. Even now, Erasa couldn't shut up. By ten thirty, she faced a week's detention for her outbursts.
Videl had gone through the weekend contemplating the hug she received from Gohan. From the moment it happened, she went through a silent, unnoticeable shock that carried her from then till now. Getting to sleep on Saturday night proved to be troublesome, to say the least. In the end, though, she got to sleep, deciding that she didn't need any of this now. Even in class today, she still looked over to him from time to time and thought to herself. I've only known him for a week. There's no way that he likes me more than he does. Sure I'm nice to him and all…but I don't need him. That hug was probably nothing anyway.
Gohan, the whole time, wasn't even bothering to look to his right, for fear of Erasa's deadly stare. He didn't notice Videl's curiosity at all.
* * *
Lunch couldn't have come any faster for Gohan. He made it a promise to himself to set out on a search for the new person, but if anyone close to him would know, food takes precedence over searching for new people. Once the aroma of the cafeteria set in, Gohan's focus shifted, and he completely forgot about his mission. He bought his food and went to his usual table, but today was completely different.
Videl followed him immediately.
"Hey Videl. You're here early." She sat in her usual seat across from him.
"Yeah. I decided to come by early today. I'm going to need help with some of my history homework." She lied about that. History was one of her best classes, but she needed something to say to sit next to Gohan for the next forty-five minutes. Gohan cocked his eye at the statement, knowing the fact that Videl never needed help in history. At least, just for the first week.
"Really?" he asked.
"Not really. Sorry, I just needed something to fall back on."
"That's perfectly all right."
God, why does he think this is perfectly all right? Such an easygoing guy. Much better than those brainless simians that try to talk to me. "Okay. I got a question for you."
"Go ahead." She decided to get the topic on her mind out of the way.
"What was that hug for on Saturday?" Gohan was slightly puzzled for a moment.
"That hug?"
"Yeah."
"Oh…well, I just wanted to thank you for getting Erasa off of my hands. I never realized how bad going out on a date could be."
"Well not all dates are like that."
"Really?" Videl chuckled slightly.
"That was your first date, right?"
"Well…yeah. It's not like I had any up where I lived at."
"I figured just as much." An evil grin slowly etched itself on her face. Gohan took immediate notice and cringed in his seat. He knew it that whatever formed in her head couldn't have been a good thing.
"What?"
"Come down here on Saturday. I'll take you out around town, since you seem to think that Erasa's way of dating is the only way."
"So…we're going on a date?"
"Not really. We're just hanging out. And don't tell anyone else otherwise."
"Sounds…good enough…to me."
"Good. This will be fun."
"Yeah…fun." As you can tell, Gohan was slightly out of it at the moment. Videl jumped on that though.
"What? You don't want to hang out with me?"
"What? Oh, it's not like that!"
"Then what is it?"
"Well, I guess you wouldn't act like Erasa did last weekend, huh?"
"No," she responded, rather sternly.
"Oh good. For a moment there I thought that I'd have to carry another twenty bags of clothes." Both of them laughed at that.
"You don't have to worry about that. I don't like shopping much anyway. One thing though."
"What's that?"
"I've changed my mind. I don't want to go anywhere near here."
"Why?"
"Well, everyone knows me here. If anyone sees me with you suspicions might rise. Don't get me wrong, you're a nice guy and all." Gohan scratched the back of his head.
"Well, I know I'm a nice guy. Where are you getting at?" Videl's jaw dropped. She stared at him, shocked at his naivety, for a few seconds before regaining her composure.
What a block head! Oh well. At least I don't have to worry about him liking me. "Erm…don't worry about it kid." Kid?! "How about we go to West City on Saturday?"
Gohan thought it over for a moment. West City, huh? Hmm…maybe I can visit Bulma. Do I want Videl to know though? She kind of suspects me as the Gold Fighter, but then again, he only appeared once so far. Okay, we'll go there. I'll just make sure Vegeta or his brat doesn't do anything out of the ordinary. "Sure, we'll go there. I got a friend there that I'm sure you'll love to meet."
"Really?"
"Yeah, really."
"Nice. I want to try and stop by Capsule Corp., see if they'll let us come on a tour. It's one of those times where it's great to be the daughter of an obnoxious champion."
"Sure, we can go there."
"Great!" she said, ecstatic. They spent the remainder of their lunch eating and going over some homework, including history. Videl was surprised, to say the least, about Gohan's infinite knowledge of a many great things. During the duration at lunch though, Gohan had a feeling in the back of his head that someone was staring at him. He looked around from time to time but found nothing out of the ordinary. He had nothing to go on now, with the fact that the energy signature he found earlier was cleverly concealed within the mass of students eating and talking in the cafeteria. He'd have to do a search after school.
* * *
The end of school came quickly though. The two hours that contained the classes free period and history breezed by, and Gohan soon found himself out on the roof of the school. Erasa was stuck in school, facing the first of her week's worth of detentions. Videl left the school quickly again. Gohan inquired about this and got an 'I'll tell you later' response. Sharpener had gone to another lifting session, leaving Gohan by himself.
He stood at the edge, looking down at the students vacating the school. He studied them all, scanning the various energy levels of all of them. None of them proved to be the person he was looking for. Gohan was ready to give up on the day when he heard the door opening behind him. He turned to see a boy, about sixteen years of age, come through the door. Gohan did a quick scan of him but found nothing abnormal about him.
Nothing, until the boy walked over to the ledge and stood there for a few moments, in silence, before saying, "So, you ever going to call the Flying Nimbus?"
It was obvious what Gohan's reaction would be. How does he know about the Flying Nimbus? It's not everyday knowledge about me flying the nimbus. Hell, it's not everyday knowledge to know about a Flying Nimbus. Gohan turned to the boy, who looked to be at least four inches smaller than the saiyan, and proceeded to question him. "How do you know about the Flying Nimbus?"
"A little bird told me. He came to my window last night."
"Really? What else did this little bird say?"
"Something about trying to find a kid who doesn't care about hiding his power. He also say he'd stick out like a sore thumb." Gohan let out a laugh at the comment.
"Do you mind if I killed this bird?"
"I do mind. He is my sensei."
"I see. Raise your power for me." The mystery boy did just that, raising his power up until he reached a level slightly higher than Krillin's. "Nice."
"That all you have to say?" the teen said, slightly irritated about his energy level getting a 'nice'.
"Pretty much."
"So when you going to call the nimbus cloud?"
"You really want to see it?"
"Yeah."
"You sound cocky, you know that?"
"So?"
"Sounding like that, I don't think you'll be able to ride the nimbus cloud. In fact, I won't bother to call it," he said, and with that, he lifted off of the roof, floating upward a bit. The teen, not easily outdone, floated upwards as well, until they both reached the clouds. Gohan watched him come up in front of him. "What's your name, boy?" he asked, sounding almost Vegeta-like.
"Shinji. And I do believe you're Gohan."
"Tell me: since you know my name, then I must ask about who your teacher is."
"Sorry," he said, shaking his head no. "I promised him that I wouldn't tell you. With everything that I've said so far, you should know who it is."
"I might have an idea. For now I must get going. I'll see you around, Shinji." He turned to leave. Shinji wasn't done though.
"Wait!" he shouted, causing Gohan to turn.
"What is it?"
"I want to fight you."
"You want to fight me?" He laughed out loud for a second before continuing. "You realize that you have no chance against me?"
"I know. The little bird told me something else, though."
"What's that?"
"He told me that if I pick on your pride long enough, that you'll end up wanting to fight me." Gohan smirked at this.
"Nice try, but not today. If you want me to I'll take you under my wing in the near future. You could use a lot of work."
"You sure? I was trained by one of the best on the planet."
"I can see. You haven't been trained by the best, however."
"Who is the best then?" Gohan smirked again.
"He's floating right in front of you. See ya!" he said, and powering up a bit, he blasted off away towards home, leaving Shinji floating in the air, high above OSHS. He stayed there for a moment before turning towards his home, flying away in the same fashion that Gohan had done.
* * *
[1] I'm horrible, I know. Too many cruel ironies that befall our hero.
[2] For the sake of this story, both Goten and Trunks will be able to fly. No need for them to be trained in flying. Just a waste of space for now.
[3] Please excuse Vegeta's OOC in this story. There is a reason for this. I see Vegeta as an exceptional character, whose pride and with held emotions keeping him moving forward. People are bound to change after seven years, which is what Vegeta has done. He cares deeply for the people around him – including Gohan and Goten – and would probably do anything for them. Of course, no Vegeta is complete without constant training and the waiting for the day for when 'that blasted Kakarot' returns. You also got those mini-super saiyans. Look at number two for an explanation.
[4] If anyone knows his or her movies, there was a movie, Apocalypse Now, which was re-released on DVD with the name Apocalypse Now: Redux. I don't have that, but that's where my inspiration came from for that little scene. I doubt anyone would want to sit through five hours of a ship sinking with three people fighting each other for each other's love.
Response to reviews:
Kaylendra – Thanks for the glowing review. Sorry bout FF.net not letting you log in though.
RDBRaptor – Thanks for the suggestion. I actually took some time to think of a name for this and ended up with the one you see here. I know my summary was kind of shitty, but I couldn't think of anything for that either. I'll be doing chapter summaries from now on though, so that should bring some attention to the story.
Penchy-Chan – Interesting…
Going back to the second reviewer's comment, if anyone has any suggestions for a story name go ahead and let me know. I really don't know if that is the reason why I only got three reviews at posting time for this or the fact that FF.net was constantly down for the past two-three weeks. Hopefully reviews will go up, which will make me happy. Hopefully I can bang out the next chapter soon, which I hope will come out good. If there was anything wrong with this one, it's that I wanted to just finish this and get it out soon. I literally just came up with the Gohan/Videl lunch scene and the ending scene you see above. I'll try to get chapter three up within the next two-three weeks though. Speaking of which…
Next Chapter: As Gohan and Videl tour West City and make a stop at Capsule Corps, the Gold Fighter makes another appearance. Meanwhile, Gohan and Shinji become better friends and yet another student makes his way to Orange Star High School. Is this a good thing, or a bad thing for our hero and his friends?
Nothing to advertise by the way. Sorry.