Disclaimer: see parts one and five.
Notes: Well, this is the conclusion to the prologue of P&P. Nothing much to say here except read and enjoy. The final notes for Chapter Zero are at the bottom.
Pre-reads were done by PsYChO (who is still on a "Matrix: Reloaded" fix) and Psycho Ann (who apparently melts whenever she becomes the "Satan" in the "Satan Sonwich").
* * *
Parallel and Perpendicular
A romance/fiction story by ShaggyDiz
Chapter Zero: Parallel
Part Eight: Taking the Path Less Clichéd Than Most
* * *
He woke up slowly, rubbing his eyes in an attempt to open them. Looking to his left, he spotted the time on his alarm clock. "Six thirty… where did this last week go?"
It had been one week since the registration at school. That one-week gave the teen little time to gather everything he needed. The constant shopping and phone calls to school caused his discomfort, and his nerves had been bent numerous times. The weekend was a welcomed relief, and with Monday here, school was set to begin.
He followed his normal routine: waking up, taking a shower, and then dressing. Afterwards, he joined his mother and his brother down at the table.
"Good morning Gohan," Chichi said, greeting him with two plates of breakfast.
"Thank you Mom! Breakfast looks good today!"
"Yeah!" Goten said after swallowing a bit of food. "Pancakes galore!"
The two boys attacked their plates in a mad frenzy, quickly munching down their meals. Goten ate nearly eight plates before hopping away, off to play with one of the newest toys he got during the previous week.
"You ready to go Gohan?"
"Yeah Mom." He got up and grabbed his bag from his room. He got back and got a bag from Chichi. "Lunch?"
She nodded. "I hope it's enough for you. I know you said that you wanted to fit in at school, but I made you a little extra so you would get through the day."
"What did you make?"
"I got two sandwiches made with your favorites on it, plus a bag of chips. I trust you have money for a drink and another snack?" He nodded. "Good. Now get going; school starts in about a hour."
"Right." He ran to the stairs, yelling a quick goodbye to Goten. After receiving a hearty shout back, he met his mom at the door. She gave him a quick peck on the cheek, standing on her toes to do so.
"Now I want you to have fun and work hard Gohan. I expect you home within two hours of the last class you have. I'll give you some leeway there so that when you make some friends, you can do something with them for a little while after school." He nodded his thanks. "I think that's all for now… I'll make any amendments to these little rules when I see fit."
"Okay Mom." He lifted off into the air, flying backwards away from Chichi. "I'll see you this afternoon!" With a final wave, he turned and blasted off, rocketing away towards Satan City.
He got to the outskirts of the city thirty-five minutes later, touching down in a secluded spot just outside of it. He started walking the short distance remaining to the school, but he didn't get far. Just a few minutes in, several cop cars flew down the street a short distance ahead of him. Deciding to check it out, he ran to the corner, looking down it. There, he found a bank, a pickup truck, and several cop cars, with the cops being pinned inside their vehicles due to the submachine gun fire.
"So this is the crime of Satan City that I've heard of, huh?" he wondered aloud. He briefly looked around, looking for some sort of hiding spot to transform. He found an empty alley a few feet away, on his side of the street. "Perfect," he whispered. He disappeared down the alley, transforming and flying up onto the roof. He looked down at the scene, noticing that it hadn't changed at all from seconds before.
"How to make an entrance… I know!" He back peddled a few steps, keeping track of where the robbers were. He slipped his bag off his shoulder, and then, crouching slightly, he sprinted forward, running to the ledge and flipping off it. He sailed through the air, twisting his body around and using his energy to push himself towards the robbers. He landed on the back end of the cab, crushing it into the ground, blowing out all the windows and tires and knocking nearly everyone at the scene onto their backsides. Standing up from his bend landing position, he looked around, first to the police officers, making sure they were all right, before diverting his attention to the robbers, who were now picking themselves off of the pavement and redrawing their guns.
"Who the fuck are you kid?" the lead robber said, nearly wetting himself in the process. The teen only smirked before flying forward, "tapping" his elbow into the leader's gut. He clutched his stomach before dropping to the ground unconscious.
"Anyone else?" he asked, looking around. The three standing before him quickly looked at each other before looking down into their hands. A resounding "click" occurred in each of their heads when they saw their own submachine guns still in their hands. They opened fired a split second later, emptying dozens of bullets towards the half-Saiyan. He lifted his hand up, and with a simple exertion of energy, he blew up many of the bullets while knocking the rest out of the way, each of them landing in either the sidewalk or the building next to them. The wave of energy continued on towards the three gunmen, and had promptly knocked them out, before reaching the fourth and final gunman, who had innocently come out to check on the commotion before receiving the tail end of the energy wave, knocking him out as well. He looked around briefly, seeing as they were still breathing, before looking back to the officers.
"They're all yours," he said, before shooting back off into the sky. He quickly landed back on the building where he started his little adventure at, taking a quick breath before returning to his normal state. "That was fun," he simply said. He picked up his bag before returning to the street, still having a decent amount of time to get to school before the opening bell rang.
Gohan smiled along the way, and never saw the black haired girl, nor the look of shock plastered on her face from the robbery scene.
* * *
She woke up slowly, rubbing her eyes in an attempt to open them. Looking to her left, she spotted the time on her alarm clock. "Seven… where did this last week go?"
It had been one week since the registration at school. That one-week gave the teen little time to gather everything she needed. The constant shopping and police calls for various reasons caused her discomfort, and her nerves had been bent numerous times. The weekend was a somewhat welcomed relief, and with Monday here, school was set to begin.
She followed her normal routine: waking up, taking a shower, tying her hair back, and then dressing. Afterwards, she joined her sister down at the table.
"Good morning Videl," Kagero said, sitting with a stack of pancakes already set before her.
"Morning Kagero. Breakfast looks good today!"
"Yeah!" The girl said after swallowing a bit of food. "Pancakes galore!"
"Pancakes galore it is," Faye said coming in from the kitchen. She placed a plate in front of the teen, and she immediately went to work on it.
Kagero finished first, going through a second plate before hopping away, off to finish getting ready for the first day of school she had.
"You ready to go Videl?"
"Yeah Faye." She got up and grabbed her bag from the adjacent room. She got back and got a pair of bags from Faye. "Lunch?"
She nodded. "There's one for you and one for Kagero. This should be enough for the both of you for lunch today. Just let me know when you get back whether or not you want more or less for lunch."
"Sounds good. What did you make?"
"I got two sandwiches made with your favorites on it, plus a bag of chips. The same goes with Kagero's lunch. I trust you have money for a drink?" She nodded. "Good. Now get going; school starts in about thirty minutes."
"Right." She ran to the stairs, yelling up to get Kagero. A few moments later, she came running down the stairs with her bag on her back, ready for school. They turned and met the maid at the door, each of them giving her a quick hug.
"Okay you two. I want you to go and have fun today, but also work hard where you can. Videl, make sure you pick up Kagero and bring her home before you go anywhere with your friends. Dinner will be ready at about six, so you'll have some time to do stuff with them once you drop your sister off. Understood?" She nodded. In her thoughts, she was wondering why she got this same speech again for the third year in a row now. "Good. Have fun girls!"
"Okay Faye." They walked over to the street, where her jet copter was waiting. Before getting in, they turned back one more time. "I'll see you tonight!" With a final wave, they got in and lifted off, flying away towards the school district.
They arrived at the school district about ten minutes later when she got the call on her watch.
"Videl! Videl!" yelled the chief.
"What is it?" she said in a dead, neutral voice. Kagero giggled slightly at the look her sister was giving the watch.
"There is a robbery in progress at the Second National Bank of Satan City! We need your assistance!"
She sighed. She could only ponder as to why they couldn't take care of something this small in the morning. "I'm on my way," she finally said.
"Thanks Videl! We real- what the?!" An explosion in the background cut off the chief, and the line went dead.
"Chief!" she yelled into the watch. "Damn… Kagero, we're going to the bank." She quickly changed course, pulling back up into the air before rushing through the street, hoping to reach the scene before anything else happened. "I need you to stay in here," she informed the girl. Kagero nodded.
They landed a half block away from the scene. She quickly got out of her copter and ran down the street. She froze though, staring in shock at the scene before her: all the robbers were being gather up in handcuffs, and a truck – she presumed that was the robbers getaway vehicle – that looked as if was hit with a wrecking ball. As she got closer, she saw fragmented bullets imbedded in the outside walls of the bank as well as the pavement.
"How odd…" she muttered.
"Videl!" She turned around, seeing the chief coming up beside her.
"Chief… what the hell happened here?" He caught his breath, not from the way he didn't look – the typical, overweight, donut eating "pig" – but because he was still recovering from the scene displayed out before him.
"There was… this boy! He came out of nowhere and just flattened their truck!" She looked over to where the truck still sat, and indeed saw a pair of footprints where the back of the cab would be.
"That wasn't the only thing that happened though," the chief said, bringing the teen back to focus. "He somehow stopped bullets in midair and knocked out all these robbers with a wave of his hand!"
"With a wave of his hand? Insane! No one can possible do that!" she yelled at him in disbelief.
"Believe me Videl: there were witnesses. None of us got a good look at the kid except for the hair he had: pure gold, I'll tell you."
"Pure gold," she wondered aloud. She was puzzled beyond belief. "Wait… where did I see golden hair before?"
A car horn brought her out of her thoughts, as she looked up to see a tow truck coming down the street, presumably to pick up the demolished truck. She looked at her watch and saw the time.
"Shit! Chief, I got to go!" Videl ran off, the question of the gold hair still on her mind.
* * *
He stood in front of the school, his bag over his shoulder and his gaze looking towards the top of the five-story building. He didn't understand why he was doing it now, other than the fact that he didn't have a chance to gaze at it before. Removing himself from his dream like state, he entered the building, making a left down the first hall to pick up his schedule. He looked over it while making his way to his homeroom, taking note that nearly all of his classes were in the same room.
"The teachers must move around instead of the students," he said quietly to himself. "It probably reduces the amount of people in the hallway at one time. Ingenious, I guess."
He made his stop in front of his homeroom, twelve-eight, before opening the door and walking in. He was early – homeroom itself wouldn't start for five more minutes – so he made his way to the teacher's desk, seeing that the homeroom teacher was already present.
"Good morning," he said to the teacher when he made his way over. "My name is Gohan. I'm one of the new students."
The teacher looked up from his notes, seeing the tall, lanky – and somewhat dork-y looking – kid before him. He pushed his glasses up his nose and stood up, taking the teen's hand. "I'm Mr. Lou. Pleasure to meet you Gohan. Let's see your schedule, shall we?"
They looked over the schedule for the next few minutes, with Mr. Lou telling him the various things that were going to happen in the first few classes, and the normal routine that would start later on in the day. They went on until the bell rung, in which time he was given an empty seat next to a bubbly blonde in the third row. He went up there and immediately recognized the muscular blonde sitting next to her.
"Hey Sharpener," he said as he sat down.
"Whoa! Gohan, what a surprise to see you here!" The jock's voice was somewhat thick with sarcasm, which the Saiyan teen picked up easily. He smirked in response, a little too arrogant and out of character for himself.
"I told you those tests were easy." He leaned back from his discussion with Sharpener and held his hand out to the girl. "I'm Gohan, if you haven't guessed."
"I didn't need to, with the way idiot breath here said it. I'm Erasa, by the way." They shook briefly before looking towards the teacher, who was busy preparing for the homeroom.
"Good morning class. Welcome to the first day of the final year of your high school careers. Hopefully all of you will pass and graduate so I can get paid more money, or else you can fail and spend another year with good old me." Most of the students laughed at the comment, with one or two shouting out "Yeah Mr. Lou!" at the top of their lungs.
"Quiet down students. Now, before I go any further, I have two things to say. First, we have several new students joining us for the year today, and it so happens that one of them was the first ever to score a perfect on the entrance exams. Just be glad his last name is in alphabetical order, or else you wouldn't be able to learn off of this boy. Oh, and if I hear of any toilet flushing, hazing or the like on him, or on any of the new students, the punishments will be severe. Now, would all of the new students stand up and introduce yourselves? You don't have to make any mention of where you live or how you live; just say your name and take a seat."
The routine was painless and quick, as the new students – five in total – went around and said their names, immediately taking their seats after doing so. No one knew that the half-Saiyan was the incredibly smart one (minus Sharpener and Erasa), so he lucked out for now. No needed to know now, and the anonymity that Mr. Lou provided for the new students eased a bit of the tension that was built up inside of him.
"The second thing I have to say is," the teacher said, resuming his earlier monologue, "where is Ms. Satan this morning?"
It was at that moment that the door opened slowly. All eyes shifted to the person standing at the door, to which everyone – including most of the new students – knew. The black haired girl stood tall and confident, knowing that she was late, but for obviously good reasons.
There was two things the teen picked up as the girl walked into the room with the slip in her hand. The first was the sudden change in the demeanor of the teacher. He looked closely and was able to see some sort of "tick" develop in his right temple. He also noticed that his brow was set in a dead serious attitude, some that he hadn't shown before.
The second thing picked up was the change in his voice, and how he inquired on the whereabouts of Ms. Satan. Most of what came through his mouth before was obvious sarcastic humor, but when he spoke there, his voice was filled with a gross level of dislike and disdain.
It was obvious to him that something was up between Mr. Lou and Ms. Satan. Inquiry would have to come soon.
For now though, his senses blocked out everything around him – the slight chuckles being ensued from the students, the slight argument happening at the teacher's desk – so that his attention was focused on the black haired beauty known as Ms. Satan. His mind immediately clicked on in an attempt to figure out if he'd seen this girl elsewhere before.
He suddenly remembered his shopping trip from two weeks ago, and the black haired girl he stared at for a mere second before being dragged away by his brother. If only he had more time that day… surely Goten would have to be talked to about things that would not concern him for many years to come, such as young love.
Love? His mind spoke the word to him. It was impossible to not even know someone to be in love. Love was a long process, not something that happened in three seconds of an hour. It was something that he wanted to experience from someone that he would meet and be friendly with. Of course, "being friendly," meant "hi, how are you" to the person, and not the obvious innuendo part of "being friendly".
His thoughts were stopped by a phrase uttered by the teacher, which went something like "seat next to the new kid with black hair". Looking around quickly, he saw that he was the only new kid with black hair.
What luck! He would be sitting next to the black haired girl that he saw two weeks ago!
If only he had the courage to say anything meaningful to the girl.
Gohan had no time to think, as the moment he turned his head to the left, he saw the girl standing over her seat, looking down at him.
* * *
She landed her jet copter at the top of the school building, arriving at what she hoped was a few minutes before the bell. She dropped off her sister a quarter mile away at the first level school, where Kagero had plenty of time to do what she wanted before class started.
The teen, meanwhile, had no such luck this day, for as she re-capsulated her copter and opened the stairway door, the bell rung, signaling the start of homeroom. "Damn it!" she yelled out. As quickly as she could, she vaulted down the five flights of stairs, running around a couple of corners before reaching the main hallway and entering the main office. She stopped at the desk, pausing to catch her breath before standing up fully to speak. The secretary was way ahead of her though.
"Another police incident, Videl?" she asked. The girl was relatively young: maybe twenty-three or twenty-four, and the black haired girl had learned a little while ago that she was new. It was only the beginning of her second year working at the high school, so she didn't know a few things that would be damaging to character.
"Yeah Ms. Tokoi. I didn't expect to get here late, but I didn't realize the time until I actually got here."
"It's quite all right, Videl. Anyway, how's Kagero?" It was always the second question the young secretary asked while writing the teen's late note. The two had hit it off pretty well in the last year, and had managed to become quite good friends despite the status of celebrity that the girl held.
"Same as she's always been, though she is becoming quite the perceptive little one."
"Does it concern Mr. Satan?" It was never the third question, though the look in the teen's eyes told the whole story.
"Yeah. I'll tell you about it later though. I don't want Mr. Lou getting on my case again about being late to one of his classes."
"I know. He seems like a nice guy, though you always tell me he doesn't like you for some reason. It's unfortunate you have him for homeroom this year if it's going to be that bad of a thing."
She shrugged. "Another story for another time, I guess. I got to run now. See you later Ms. Tokoi!"
"Bye Miss Videl!" the secretary said, waving at the teen as she left the room.
She climbed up the stairs to the second floor, moving to stand in front of her classroom – twelve-eight – when she heard the teacher say something about her whereabouts.
"Shit," she muttered to herself. She knocked on the door lightly before opening it. The first thing she did was to make her self-assured, which was easy, since she knew Mr. Lou wasn't going to be pleased. That would end up being the second thing she saw upon entering the room.
The first thing she ended up seeing was the class's eyes peering down on her. A quick glance showed where Sharpener and Erasa were sitting at – and a third student there, one she swore she recognized. She had little time to dwell, for the teacher had begun his questioning and rude sarcastic remarks towards her. She didn't quite remember how this morning conversation went. She had explained the situation and in fact provided the note necessary for acceptance into class.
The mystery student bugged her immensely though. Who was he? That was the burning question on her mind. She got a somewhat better look as she got more into the classroom and noticed something quite familiar about him. The black hair she immediately thought, as out of the ordinary, though she couldn't place it. Maybe if she got a look from the back, she might know.
She was brought out of her inner ramblings by a simple line uttered by Mr. Lou: "Go take a seat next to the new kid with the black hair."
And then she looked up, and marveled in her luck. She would be sitting next to the mystery kid. But was he really a mystery, or something else? Something that could have plagued her for some time now? What was this thing burning inside her about the boy with black hair?
Videl didn't get a chance to answer as she soon stood over her seat, looking down at the boy next to her.
* * *
They stared at each other for what seemed like an eternity, for what really was only a few seconds. No one made a sound, nor did they care, since most were diverting themselves back to the front. The two were in their own little world. Of course, something would have to break, and it did.
Gohan smiled, and then reached out with his hand. Videl could have sworn heavily at how wonderful that smile was, but then she would have gotten a few detentions at least. Instead, she smiled back at Gohan and looked down at his hand. She reached out with her own, accepting his in a handshake.
"Gohan," he simply said. She nodded.
"My name's Videl," she responded. He smiled again as Videl took her seat. They turned to the front, ready for whatever festivities the day held.
And no longer were their lives parallel, for they have reached the final crossing point.
Their lives have become perpendicular to each other's. Nothing would be the same again.
* * *
End Part Eight
End Chapter Zero
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Final notes: the unofficial final word count for this is 32,324. That is from the forty-four page, ten-font Word document that this story was originally written in. Twelve-font enthusiasts may only guess at the page size if converted. It took somewhere close to four months to write this out, from late February to middle June.
Current plans right now involve getting back on track with "That Warm and Fuzzy Feeling From the Back of a Saiyan", continuing on my side project, "Amour Foncé", and taking a break at some point in July from writing to getting back on track with my drawing. Work on Chapter One of P&P, entitled "You May Think You Hate Me", will begin on August 1st, with expected launch of the chapter between the middle and end of August. Also, Chapter Zero will undergo revisions and be reposted as one whole chapter (people who feel the need to complain about this will see that I will keep up the eight part section of Chapter Zero).
Finally, my thanks and deepest respects to PsYChO and Psycho Ann, and my even greater thanks and love to my sister, Disturbed Courtney, for their many contributions and assistance for this endeavor of mine. It was greatly appreciated, you guys.
Coming soon, Chapter One: You May Think You Hate Me
