Chapter 10:
What's wrong with this Kami?
It was odd indeed. Such a weak.... Fragile looking creature holding her own against one of his pupils, even if it was one of the weakest. But most confusing was the fact the girl was always one step ahead. Like she knew where Seri was going to show up, what her next move would be.
Sensei Avocco fumbled for his scouter and fastened the apparatus to his face to better assess their performance. He watched carefully at the display of their power levels. Videl's was so much below his student's and yet she was holding her ground. True, by dodging all of Seri's moves, but holding her ground nonetheless. He noticed her eyes darting one way only seconds before the scouter beeped the other girl appearing in that direction. 'How can she know?' he wondered, but was thrown back to reality as a desperate kick was sent to Videl's back of the knee and she fell, only to not getting up again. His pupil moving up to her... only to be blocked by the other brat.
His scouter picked the boy's power level at 50,000 and kept rising at an alarming rate before it exploded. A look of fury crossed Gohan's face. This was supposed to be a spar, not a death match! He had been taught not to beat up on those weaker than he, especially not on women, but this girl wasn't being honorable and he was just getting angry.
The scouter exploding caught the attention of the majority of the students, but they only understood when they saw where the gawk on their sensei's face was directed: the tailless new kid.
"That's enough." They heard Gohan say in a low rumble.
"What do you think you're doing?" Seri asked in an annoyed tone. Obviously, you never deprived a saiyajin of their finishing a fight. But then again, you don't want to fool with an overprotective super saiyajin level 2 in an angry fit.
"That's enough!" He repeated louder, subtly tightening his grip on her fist. Seri looked at the sensei, who up until some seconds before, was still stupefied by his scouter blowing up.
"Why did you interfere, Gohan?" he asked.
"Videl's defenseless after that last attack and she was still going on!" he said indignantly, gesturing to the girl in front of him.
"And?"
"And!?" Gohan yelled wide-eyed. "And!? That is not honorable! She could have really hurt her, even killed her if I don't step in." Gohan had turned on the spot to face Avocco. "In case you haven't realized it yet, Videl's not a saiyajin!"
With that, he kneeled next to the prone form of the Satan girl and checked her right leg.
"Hurts..." He heard her say in a pained whisper.
He took her leg and moved it a little, feeling through the muscle for any kind of fracture, while she cried out suddenly.
"There's nothing broken, but your knee's dislocated. I'll have to put it back in place." She nodded. He could see her pained frown and the way she was biting her lower lip. She was embarrassed, he could tell, of her failure, and of being observed in this vulnerable state... She who had always been known for being brave and tough.
"Now Videl, I want you to power up to keep the adrenaline pumping in your system, that way it won't hurt that much", he said, self conscious of the glares he was receiving from the group.
Gohan waited until Videl's ki had formed an aura around her to snap the bone in place swiftly. Videl cried out again, tears rolling down her slightly sweaty, red face. He then proceeded to infuse the joint with some ki to calm the nerve ending there and lower the pain a little.
Gohan looked at Sensei Avocco from his crouch. The man just huffed and crossing his arms, he gave in.
"Pathetic. She won't ever fair against a powerful opponent like that! Listen girl. You get off the hook this time, but be prepared for a good share of training. I'm gonna be extra hard on you and make you a decent opponent for a saiyajin. Go sit under that tree", he pointed to a weird looking tree a short distance from the wall. Why did it give her the idea it was fake?
"Hai sir" she responded in a better voice, but still quite hoarse and started climbing to her feet.
Gohan made a move to help her up but she chose to save her leftover dignity.
"I can do it", she said looking at him in the eye.
"If you lean on it it'll swell. I'll carry you." He insisted hooking up his arms under her. She stiffened in protest.
"No. Let me do it by myself", she insisted. He sighed.
"Don't be stubborn, Videl. I'll carry you." His stern, but at the same time soft tone of voice ended up defeating her and she just lowered her gaze to her offended knee and breathed out a little "okay". She couldn't raise her eyes to the possibility of meeting the glare of any of those saiyajin in front of her, so she just encircled Gohan's neck and looked down at Goten, who had a worried, puppy dog look on his face. She smiled sweetly and watched his expression change to a bright smile.
***********
After depositing Videl under the tree, Gohan told her not to move her leg too much and to meditate, as well as practicing ki control whilst they were there.
Watching the lines remerge, she felt her stomach fall. Her shame and the blow to her pride after that spar were enough to make her stick her head in the sand and cry herself to death. But then again, there was Gohan. She would have died had it not been for him, if not physically, at least figuratively. She decided to honor him and start a course of meditation. It felt strange at first, due to the fact that she couldn't take the right position.
Avocco had turned to glare at Gohan when he came back. He took him away to the side and in a moderately irritated tone started:
"Look, boy. You are new here, that's why I'm gonna let this pass. But I'll make it clear for you. I'm the one who makes the rules here. I'm the teacher. Fuck! I'm a god for all I care! And all of you, no exceptions, do what I say." He said gesturing to the other students, who had started to spar once again, and finished in a final tone. "Don't challenge my authority, brat."
Gohan didn't miss the implicit: 'I know you're powerful' of acknowledgement in Avocco's last sentence and nodded sheepishly.
"Gomen nasai, sensei. It's just that I promised to protect her. She's my best friend." He confessed, not dwelling in the fact that saiyajins didn't have friends, and if they did, they never said.
The sensei nodded, wanting to drop the friend subject as soon as possible and lead the boy back to the group.
**********
Videl was bored. Meditating was no use due to the noise the others were making. She was no adept like Piccoro-san so she just couldn't tune them out. Thus she thought it best to practice her ki control and produced two balls in a flash. She started moving them around independently, then made another. The way they danced before her and around her was enough to catch her attention, making her forget the pain in her leg and induce a certain pattern of concentration in her mind. The balls stopped. She brought her palm up and produced a fourth. This time they didn't fuse, but began to move slower. After a few minutes, her energy balls began to pick up their lost speed.
In her focused state, Videl failed to notice the attention she was attracting to herself. Another sphere released and again they slowed down, not to mention they started to pulse slightly. A frown made itself present on her face. The last energy ball was gradually getting smaller. The other spheres stopped suddenly, surrounding Videl's form while she concentrated in the agonizing one. It pulsed, and grew, only to get smaller again. At long last she could get to control it and after some minutes, they were all back in motion.
A flux of ki entered her sensing range. It was a paltry amount of power, which, she noticed, was too well aimed to be a random blast, and instead of an actual attack, it was more of a diversion. She chuckled at the childish intention and realized how this practice had honed her awareness in a short time. Videl launched her pre-senses outwards, pinpointing the fast approaching energy and suddenly frowned again, realizing the signature as Asparu's. In a flash, one of her balls shot out to cancel the intruder. Without opening her eyes, she produced another ball, all of them sizzling in response to her annoyed state. Her ki sense flared as another energy approached her. This one was a person.
"If Asparu wanted to get my attention, all he had to do was come to me and speak. I'm not particularly fond of childish games or middlemen."
Kale's eyes widened. She hadn't even opened her eyes. How could she know it was not Asparu? Better yet, how had she known it had been Asparu's beam?
"What are you doing?"
"Practicing my ki control." She answered without looking at him again. Kale's blank expression right then was eternally condemned to oblivion as far as she was concerned.
Saiyajin pride was very valuable, especially to high class ones like Kale. That meant he was not about to let anybody know his ignorance of any certain matter. And he would be caught dead and rotting before he let that girl know she knew something he didn't. So he just kept quiet and turned back to his previous spot, only to be welcomed with a cock of an eyebrow from Asparu. He just shrugged it off and lowered to a battle stance once again.
************
Gohan smiled at Videl's attitude. He was glad she was handling the situation so well, considering her relative limitations in this environment. After all, he was the one who had to put up with a mad Videl with an injured pride!
Having confidence that his friend was in no danger, the young demi-saiyajin turned to the sensei, who was closely watching the matches before him with critical hawk-like eyes.
"Um, sensei? What do I do?"
The man looked up at Gohan with tired eyes and actually considered letting him off the hook.
"Well, you don't have an opponent."
"Can I get two instead?"
"Sure. If you can take them."
"Trunks! Goten! Allied!" Gohan yelled at the kids blurring away in the sky. An excited shout of Yeah!' resounded and not two seconds later, the couple of children were already in front of him.
"No transforming." Gohan warned while lowering to a fighting stance.
Trunks and Goten took theirs, a combined perfect stance with both of them facing away from each other. Silence fell, as their breaths seemed to catch in their throats and they charged at the older half-breed in synchronized perfection.
Sensei Avocco once again felt his jaw slack. He knew he was gawking again, but this time he couldn't help it. There was a kid who was sparring single-handedly with a couple of chibi super saiyajin, but the most interesting fact was that the children were fighting like they shared a single mind and still, Gohan managed to keep them at bay.
**********
Some time later, all of Avocco's students were ushered to the showers
What was wrong with this Kami?
Was it that just because they came from out of his jurisdiction, he should disregard their lucky rights?
The last thing that had crossed their minds was the showers were co-ed.
Goten and Trunks went in without a second thought, taking advantage of the eyefuls they were getting at the older female populace. Gohan and Videl froze some steps after entering, thoughts racing inside those teenage heads, and just burning to blush to death.
The saiyajin youngsters rushed one by one to remove dirt, sweat and blood from their bodies without giving a second thought to the ones around them.
Gohan was instantly reminded of both his father's and Vejiita's lack of modesty where clothes came. He now understood Vejiita's logic: in saiyajin culture, nudity was not considered offensive. But that did not mean he had an answer for his father's attitude. Was it genetic? Cause, he didn't find anything wrong with nudity himself, even though he was raised by a classic stereotype of a Japanese mom, and the high morals his mother had taught him (despite his father's influence) had certainly cut in deep.
Again, that didn't stop him from liking to sleep in the nude.
As his eyes unconsciously scanned the crowd, his gaze was soon caught in the sight of those tanned, voluptuous, curvy femmes in their spring, gallivanting across the all of a sudden rising-hot shower room... From under the spray of a shower, to the stack of towels and then to the neatly piled uniforms on the other side, only to go out the door covered in the skin-tight garment they called a uniform.
As he was unconsciously fed more eye candy by the minute, he noticed how his body started to react with a violence it never had before. Being from the all too familiar rush of blood to his face, to the slight feeling of extra moisture in his eyeballs, to the delicious heat developing in his lower abdomen. He knew what was happening. He had felt it before, so much more as of late. Sometimes the feeling left just as suddenly as it had come, leaving him in a frustrating state of confusion. But others it developed until it demanded physical reactions Embarrassing physical reactions that he was not too eager to experience right then.
Averting his eyes, he fixated them on a guy heading his way and wondered in the back of his mind if Videl to his side was having his same plight. Turning to look her way, he saw her flushed face as her adventurous eyes reluctantly roamed the masculine nude form that just now passed by her.
Feeling the weight of eyes on her, Videl felt like her face had come up with a new shade of red. This couldn't have been more embarrassing. Oh, wait. Yes it could. She had to strip in front of all these people! 'Oh, Kami! All of a sudden a shower doesn't sound so good', she thought, whilst playing a mental image of Gohan watching her nude body.
Those eyes were there still, and she looked up only to find they belonged to Gohan himself. He was as red as she was. She thought he looked cute like that. It gave his innocent face a whole just-grab-me-and-cuddle-me-to-death look practically screaming at you to do just that.
"What do we do?" she asked at last. He cleared his throat as he collected his thoughts, trying with all his might to keep his gaze OFF any nude female inside the room.
"I don't know, but one thing I tell you is I don't feel comfortable walking around in my birthday suit."
"Me either."
"We're ready, Gohan." They both heard Goten say from their side. The kid was wearing the leaf green uniform all the other students were wearing to go off. Trunks walked up behind Goten and frowned.
"Aren't you gonna get cleaned up?"
"Um well, you see, I don't like the idea of taking my clothes of in front of all of them." Videl said.
"Any problems?" They turned around to watch Asparu come in the door and approach them.
"Well, on Chikyuu you were never allowed co-ed shower rooms and I'm not quite at ease with the idea either." Asparu smirked, catching the deal right away.
"Well, you didn't much of a workout and you're not obligated to shower if you don't want to." He watched Videl sigh and Gohan grimace. "But the uniforms are mandatory, so you better change."
"Come on Videl! Just put on the uniform and let's go!" Goten whined pulling the girl away by the wrist.
"Now where's luck when I need it." Gohan grumbled low in his throat as he watched the boys leading a limping Videl to the other side of the room.
He turned to ask Asparu for directions but found the young man to be already at the corner, stripped down to his waist and taking his boots off. So, like a man, Goku's firstborn sighed and went up to follow his example.
Already freed of any garments, Gohan proceeded to an empty half stall, which automatically released a warm spray onto him. All the while he was aware of the stares he was receiving, as well as not so discreet whispers of tailless' and weak' drifting off along the sound of the running water. He tuned them out. He didn't care. No matter what they said, he didn't care. Because he was who he was, he knew his capabilities, as well as his limitations. They didn't know him. They knew nothing about Son Gohan...
But then, why was it that he was now wanting them to know who he was, WHAT he was, only to shut their mouths and make them eat their own words?
A small hand sliding down his back made him jump and turn around. There was a young girl of 13, maybe 14, looking curiously at him.
"Your skin's so pale." She said wonderingly. Gohan was aware of the questioning but couldn't think of anything to answer. The girl raised her eyes to his.
"How did you lose your tail?"
"Um- in battle." He answered honestly, brushing his hair off his face as the water fell down his back. He heard several snorts erupt from his vicinity and some indignant questioning of his truthfulness.
"No, really, how did you lose it?" the girl asked again. He was starting to get annoyed at the way they doubted his word.
"I lost it in battle, when I was five."
He turned his back to her, a little crease appearing in the middle of his brow as he finished rinsing himself.
"You were a purger?" Came another voice.
"Iie."
"Then how could you be in battle if you weren't a purger?"
"What's with all the questions?" Gohan was thoroughly intrigued by now. He stepped out of the spray, noticing with half a mind how it immediately turned off.
"What she means is that you couldn't have lost your tail in a battle cause we haven't been in one for a long time. Since even before we were born. Really. Next time you lie about it, make sure to know the facts beforehand."
"I'm not lying." He was ready to walk away any second now.
"Prove it." There. Simple as that: a challenge. No saiyajin could say no to that.
"I don't have the means to prove it, but it is the truth. Besides, the battle was not on Vejiita-sei. It was on Chikyuu-sei, so, anyway you wouldn't know."
"So you ARE a purger?" said the guy in the stall next to his.
"I am not. I've never been. I was born on Chikyuu-sei and I would never destroy my home." His eyes swept the crowd of frowns around him.
"You're the half-breed." Sounded one voice in the back, as well as shocked murmurs.
"Hai. One of them. So?"
The door outside opened to let Trunks in. Now he was wearing a black vest over the uniform, green crest of the crown sewn on the right front.
"Are you done anytime this century, Gohan?" the boy asked taking the trademark Vejiitian stance. Apparently, the king also used it, for all the kids present recognized him as the little prince.
"Yeah, I'm coming." Gohan said quietly, walking up to the uniforms and donning his as fast as he could.
"Took you long enough."
"Hey, nice outfit. You think I can get one like that?" Trunks just snorted.
"You tell chichi-oya to adopt you and you might. Though, I don't think you'll survive after the message gets through." Gohan chuckled and he ruffled Trunks' lavender locks as they walked to the door.
"Wanna bet?"
"You know I'm always up to win some zeni."
Both half-breeds walked out leaving the heavy silence behind in the room.
YEAH, GOHAN, YOU'RE THE MAN!!! You show 'em! Hey, I had a lot of fun writing this chapter, and concocting some other situations for the future ^_~
Thanks to Mrs. Videl Son, perrin, otepoti, Messiah of Darkness, Lady Foeseeker (about time you updated u.u), blazzing, Katie West (welcome, welcome u_u), Astrid Ackerley Fausta Darcy (well, to tell you the truth... I have no idea o_O;; I haven't decided yet), WeyrdSister and Phire Phoenix. And to Cyber and ChibiDragon, who emailed me! ^ ^
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