Chapter 5: Dealing with Interferences
The weekend training followed a similar structure to any previous training Noca had undertaken with Gohan. The older, more experienced Saiyan, would demonstrate some abilities, show what it took to bring out that energy and control it, and then he would hand off to Noca. The teenager followed the instruction, all with the hopes of learning more about fighting and bringing out real strength. He could feel his Ki control and energy usage getting more efficient, and he was beginning to get rather confident in his own abilities.
So, when was the sparring going to start? That was the burning question on Noca's mind. He didn't think to ask Gohan, he didn't want to overstep any boundaries. Gohan was doing Noca a massive favour by agreeing to train him in the first place, best not to ruin that.
After the brief instruction from Gohan, Noca felt like he spent the rest of that Saturday training all by himself. Sure, it was better for Noca to get stuck in with the Ki control alone so he could really concentrate, but he continued to hope Gohan would walk out and say it was time for a spar. That didn't happen over the weekend, at all, and Noca was starting to wonder if Gohan was stalling that part of the training, putting it off perhaps. It was only a niggling thought in Noca's mind at that moment, he wasn't dwelling on it.
He just remained focussed on the Ki control for that whole Saturday. Except for when he had to eat lunch and then, of course, dinner.
The Sunday was different. Noca found some time to train himself in the evening and did a tiny bit of meditative training in his room during the morning, but most of the afternoon was dedicated to homework. Noca's first weekend of homework, and the first time Noca realised he shouldn't have let it all pile up during the week. It was a bit much to work through on Sunday, by himself. He plucked up the courage to give Bra a phone-call and ask her for help. She was more than happy to do so.
It was roughly around 11pm before Noca was finishing it all up, and then he decided to do some meditative training, which took him to a little after midnight. So, Noca didn't get the earliest night and that affected his morning.
Monday 5th February Age 792
Noca must have forgotten to set his alarm because when he woke up, he only had ten minutes to get ready before he would leave with Pan. As soon as he noticed the time, he flung himself from his bed, the covers dropped to the floor, and the Saiyan rushed towards the bathroom. He brushed his teeth as rapidly as he could, he also had to forgo the shower, there just wasn't enough time. He threw on any old clothes he could reach quick enough. A blue t-shirt emblazoned with the Capsule Corp. logo, and pair of black jogging bottoms, and whatever shoes he thought matched. Then there was a knock on the door. Noca rolled his eyes and quickly opened it, coming face-to-face with Pan.
"What? I'll be down in second," Noca said, the frantic nature of his morning getting the best of him. Pan pulled her head back slightly, seeming quite put off by Noca's tone. She was just being nice and coming to make sure he was ready on time, but now her somewhat content mood was shaken. She huffed and turned away, storming down the stairs away from Noca.
He had frozen on the spot, realising he never even gave her a chance to speak. He cursed himself, ran back, grabbed his bag, and rushed on down the stairs. Pan had already walked out of the door and taken off, beginning her flight to school. Noca ran outside after her and jumped into the air, taking flight. He followed, as closely as he could. She was proving to be a little too fast for him, speeding off ahead. He could still see her, but he wasn't sure catching up would be easy.
He started to call out to get her attention so he could explain himself, but she wasn't stopping or turning back to say anything to him. She didn't appreciate being snapped at that early in the morning. Especially by someone she couldn't tolerate.
Eventually Noca did find himself catching up to her. Pan had obviously decided not to tire herself out and slowed down a little. Noca got closer and decided to just fly near her but not draw attention to himself. He kept going to say something and Pan could actually sense the changes in his breath as he went to do so. Finally, she had enough and stopped, turned, and darted towards him, stopping a foot from his face.
"What do you have to say? Spit it out!" She yelled in his face. Noca didn't like that but accepted that he probably deserved it. He backed up a couple more feet and cleared his throat.
"I… I'm sorry, I didn't mean it. I didn't mean to get annoyed with you… it was an accident," Noca explained, sheepishly. He looked down away from Pan, feeling nervous, and truly sorry. He knew Pan wouldn't see it that way and her mood had most likely been ruined for the whole day. She just sighed and scowled at him as she started flying again, although not at a ferocious pace.
Noca cursed out loud, drawing Pan's attention in the way of hearing. She didn't turn to face him, and didn't say anything, she just let him mumble to himself. Although she did hear it.
"I can't believe that. I want to try and be friends with her, not make her hate me anymore than she already does," Noca muttered to himself, believing no one would ever hear him. "I always fail at everything."
Pan took the words onboard, locking them away for analysis later, but she didn't have anything to offer him in that situation. Satan City was fast approaching, and school was to be the focus.
Noca had not settled into the school life as well as he had initially hoped. Sure, he understood everything, and anything he initially didn't click with he would grow to understand, thanks to the help he sometimes had from Bra. The beginning of his second week didn't feel any different to the days of the previous week. He was already beginning to feel lazier. He preferred to be active and learning things with his hands, but sitting in classrooms day in, day out, just wasn't doing him any good.
Of course, they would sometimes get outdoor stuff, sports, P.E., whatever it was, but Noca would prefer to be doing that more often. All that dwelled on his mind throughout the day was how badly he wanted to focus on his Ki training and that wasn't something he could really do when sitting in the classroom. Or could he?
To the untrained eye, it looked like Noca was drifting off, or his attention was wandering, but in fact he was just trying his best to narrow his mind, control his senses, and meditate a little bit. It didn't help that any changes in his energy was easily sensed by Pan, and with his eyes closing it looked like he was falling asleep. The teacher wasn't a fan of this and had to call out Noca's name, drawing some unwanted attention. He learned from then.
Noca willed himself to get through the lessons without doing anything else, although he did get trapped with his own thoughts and seemed to be on autopilot, at least until lunchtime. He was eager to get to lunch, eat his food, and spend it with his new friend.
Kiera was waiting at the Lockers for Noca once he and the girls had finally been let out of their lesson. Bra approached Kiera first.
"Hey, what's up? You haven't come to see us at lunch for a while?" Bra asked, almost shocked to see Kiera, "You ok?"
"Yeah, I'm good. Hey Pan," Kiera said as Pan said hello and went to her own locker. "I'm sorry about that, but I've been hanging out with some friends from my classes," Kiera explained, turning back to Bra.
"I thought so, still, you should come to lunch with us again sometime," Bra suggested.
"Yeah, of course," Kiera said, smiling and turning to Noca, surprising both girls. "How was your weekend? You ok from Friday?" She asked him. The girls looked from Kiera, to Noca, back to Kiera.
"You know about what happened on Friday?" Pan asked. Noca rolled his eyes, but only Kiera noticed that.
"Yeah, I…" Kiera started.
"She was there with me," Noca finished.
"Yeah, and I asked if he wanted to have lunch with me today…" Kiera explained to the raven-haired girl.
"Well, that's nice, right Pan?" Bra said, talking to Kiera and then turned to her best friend. Pan seemed to keep a neutral expression, but it wasn't hard to tell that she was annoyed about that. It was almost like Noca was taking another one of her friends. Pan just took her lunch, closed her locker and turned to face them.
"Yeah, very nice. Come on, Bra," Pan said, practically pulling her friends arm, albeit gently.
"Oh, ok, well, speak to you two later," Bra said, chuckling nervously as she was pulled away by her friend. "What the hell is wrong with you?" Bra asked her friend.
"Nothing, I just want my lunch," Pan said, looking ahead as she walked up the halls towards the cafeteria. Bra did her best to keep up with Pan and decided it best not to press too much otherwise Pan would continue to get annoyed with her.
Back with Noca and Kiera though…
"What was that about?" Kiera asked, turning to Noca. The boy shut his locker and shook his head.
"I may have accidentally been rude to her this morning, I overslept, but I apologised and…" Noca explained, stopping himself and chuckling, "She's not exactly making an effort with me."
"Well, let's just have lunch, yeah?" Kiera suggested, nudging Noca. He smiled down at her and they went off to find somewhere to eat their own lunch together. They just made small talk through their lunchtime. Talking about homework, what they had done over the weekend, things like that. It was a nice lunchtime, and it was honestly the best part of the day for Noca. He wasn't sitting in silence by himself like he had for most of the previous week, and he wasn't being glared at every time he did something that Pan deemed wrong or annoying.
It was just nice. Nice not to have to worry about doing the wrong thing or being the wrong person. He was happy to be having the conversation with Kiera, even if it was just small talk. It meant something to him. He wasn't looking forward to the rest of his day because of it though. He was hoping he could spend the rest of that day with Kiera and wished he was a year younger or she was a year older so they could be in each other's classes.
But that wasn't going to happen and when lunch came to an end both seemed disappointed to have to go back to their lessons. The duo returned to the lockers at the same time as Bra and Pan, and that just made everyone feel a little bit awkward, although Bra and Kiera were amicable.
"Did you two have a nice lunch?" Bra asked, just being nice, as was her nature.
"Yeah, it was nice to chat with someone different for once," Kiera joked. Noca smiled at them both and caught Pan's eye for a second. She glared at him, looking away quickly and getting what she needed for next period out of her locker. Noca sighed. Pan slammed her locker and went to walk away but as she stepped away, she noticed that Billy and his friends were heading down the hall, towards them. She knew it was because they wanted to start something with Noca and a part of her was going to warn him, but she didn't want to.
That didn't matter though, because of the locker slamming the attentions of Noca, Bra, and Kiera had all been drawn that way and they noticed the new arrivals. Noca chuckled and turned away shaking his head.
"Not this crap," Noca said, slightly amused. Kiera noticed something that almost seemed like excitement in Noca. The boy just turned to his locker and made it seem like he was distracted by something far more important.
"Hey," Billy said as he approached them. Bra stepped forward to try and say something to stop them, but Pan pulled her back. Noca ignored them, but Kiera was still facing them. "I said HEY!"
Noca continued to ignore it.
"Don't ignore me!" Billy snapped, slamming his hand on the locker next to Noca. The Saiyan didn't flinch, and Billy wasn't happy, he turned to Kiera. "Tell him to answer me!"
"Me? Why should I? Just leave him alone," Kiera said, standing up for Noca, trying to put on a tough persona. Billy didn't like being talked to like that. He was just amused by it. Meanwhile Noca was wishing that Kiera wouldn't get herself involved.
"Back off, bitch," Billy said as he went to shove Kiera out of the way but Noca turned around swiftly and grabbed Billy's arm, glaring him in the eyes.
"There's no need to be so rude. Don't talk to her like that," Noca said, nicely, surprising everyone by the speed at which he turned and grabbed his arm.
"Or what?" Billy questioned, soon getting his answer as he winced in pain when Noca started to tighten the grip on Billy's wrist.
"Leave us alone," Noca uttered in the most severe tone he could muster. Billy groaned and tried to pull his wrist away, Noca let go and the other boy fell to the ground, jumping up quickly. Noca turned back to his locker but lost his concentration as Billy flung a fist towards the Saiyan teen. The punch connected with the back of Noca's head and due to the lack of focus it actually caused some pain. Bra tried to step forward again, but Pan continued to hold her back, while Kiera successfully stepped forward, getting between Billy and Noca.
"Go away!" She yelled at him, drawing the attention of more students passing by. Noca turned around and placed a hand on Kiera's shoulder, gently pushing her to the side, to safety. Billy stepped back, moving into a (poor) fighting stance. Noca cracked his neck and stepped up to him. Billy swung his fist again, with Noca easily moving his head and dodging that one. It was in that moment he realised he was faster than Billy and could easily anticipate his movements.
Billy attempted to punch again and this time Noca moved past Billy and around him, giving himself a clear shot at his own attack but he resisted the urge. It wasn't a real fight. It was just someone trying to make a point. Pan noticed Noca's movements and saw that he was actually aware of what he was doing, at least a little bit. Pan actually ended up loosening her grip on Bra, and the blue-haired girl realised, turning to Pan.
"He might hurt him," Pan muttered.
"Noca will be fine, right?" Bra questioned. Pan nodded.
"That's what I mean. Noca might hurt him," Pan said, clarifying her point. Bra turned to face them, and then looked at Kiera, she realised what the girls were talking about. They needed to stop that fight before it went further than it needed to be.
Billy went to punch Noca in the head again but the Saiyan teen dodged again, moving closer to Billy, causing him to stumble backwards and fall into his friends who pushed him back into the fight. Billy went for another punch and Noca caught this one, tightening his grip.
"Noca, leave it," Bra said, trying to get his attention. Kiera stepped up beside him.
"He's not worth it, right?" the blonde said, holding his arm. Noca nodded and let go of Billy. He turned away but Billy didn't like being told he wasn't worth it.
"You little bitch… I'm not worth it?!" Billy snapped, rushing towards Noca again but he was more than prepared this time. Noca turned around and before Billy could know what had hit him, he was laying on the floor, and Noca stood with his arm out. He had punched Billy in the face, knocking him to the ground, easily. Noca glared down at the boy and proceeded to reach down and pull him up by the front of the shirt.
"Threaten me or anyone I know again, and I'll hurt you some more, you got that?" Noca muttered quietly so only Billy could hear it. With the intensity of Noca's eyes, and the stinging from that one punch, Billy could only nod in silence. Noca let go, dropping him to the ground and turned back to his locker. Billy's friends helped him up and they all rushed off together. Noca opened up his locker again and started to sort things out.
"Noca, that wasn't right," Bra said, "You could have really hurt him."
"I was as careful as I could be, he just pushed my buttons I guess," Noca said, trying not to distract himself from the locker, he knew that others in the hallway were watching him.
"Yeah, you really handled that well, showing off for everyone to see," Pan scoffed, leaning against her locker. "All eyes on Noca, you must love that, all this attention." Bra turned to say something to Pan but another slamming locker distracted and shocked the trio of girls.
Noca stood with his hand against his now closed locker. He took a deep breath and turned to face Pan.
"I've been quiet about it, I've tried my best to be nice, to be amicable, but I can't handle this. What is your problem with me?" Noca asked, glaring at Pan. She certainly wasn't expecting that and fell silent. Everything seemed to fade away in the second and it felt like only Noca and Pan were standing in that hallway.
"Just leave it, Noca," Kiera said, placing a hand on Noca's arm but he pulled it away and shook his head.
"You know what, I can't," Noca said, stepping towards Pan. "You're quick to say things under your breath, or in private to your friends, which I guess is ok, but don't pretend you don't have something you want to say to me. Say it. If you have a problem, let me know."
Pan was still speechless.
"I hate the attention. I hate this. School isn't for me. The Capsule Corp. life isn't for me," Noca said, turning to face Bra when he mentioned the Capsule Corp. life. "I was happy in my village in the mountains. With my best friend. With my mother." Noca did his absolute best to hold back when he mentioned his mother, and he somehow succeeded. He grabbed his stuff from his locker and turned away from the girls.
"Go back to that life then," Pan said. Noca stopped, fist clenching as he held back his emotions from exploding out. Kiera, knowing from context that this was a very difficult topic for Noca, looked to the girls wanting to say something but out of respect for Noca she didn't. Noca looked over his shoulder at Pan.
"If I could go back and leave you alone with your spoiled life… I would, in a heartbeat," Noca said. And with that, he walked away, down the hall towards the next class. There wasn't much else for the girls to do in that situation. Pan was pretty upset about the situation but more because she never expected Noca to come back at her like that. Kiera left the girls to go back to her own lessons. Bra didn't mention anything more to Pan but both girls were out of sorts for the rest of the school day.
Noca didn't even sit with them in their next classes, sitting alone and doing his best to pay attention to the schoolwork even though his anger was reaching boiling point. He didn't mean to get so worked up and wished he had kept his mouth shut, but it was very difficult to do so.
At the end of the school day Noca received a text from Kiera asking for him to meet her outside the gates. Bra did try to approach Noca, but he moved quickly to get what he needed from his locker and get out of the school. He met Kiera as she had asked and the two walked off together, pretty much in silence. Neither was ready to address the happenings that day. The same went for Bra and Pan. The raven-haired girl mentioned how she just wanted to head home.
Kiera finally found her voice though.
"That was messed up," She mentioned, easing into the topic. "The whole day, I mean."
"Yeah," Noca muttered.
"She did kind of push your buttons but…" Kiera started, trying not to take any sides.
"I didn't need to say anything. I didn't have to open my mouth," Noca interrupted. He stopped walking and cursed, leaning against a wall. "I don't know where it came from."
"Like I said, she was pushing your buttons. She was trying to get a rise out of you," Kiera said, trying to make Noca feel somewhat better.
"But she didn't expect that from me," Noca said, "She hoped I would just keep taking it and maybe, I don't know, leave in the middle of the night or something." Noca shook his head and looked into the distance. "A part of me really wants to. I just can't do this…"
Kiera moved and leaned on the wall with Noca.
"You shouldn't give up because of this hurdle. You and Pan can figure things out, right?" Kiera asked. Noca scoffed.
"It's a matter of whether either of us really wants to, I guess…" Noca replied.
"Do you want to?" Kiera asked.
Noca thought back to Pan offering him the medical kit to help patch himself up. It was the one nice gesture she had made. Literally, the only one. Everything else was hostile. Sure, Noca hadn't made the effort he should have but it wasn't all on him to do so.
"I guess… maybe?" Noca said, questioning himself. He really wasn't sure that trying to force a friendship with Pan was something he actually wanted. Then he thought to seeing her in the garden training and it made him think about how that one moment delivered a brief glint of happiness. He saw Pan in her comfort zone, if only for a brief second, and there was something good about that.
"Maybe you should try talking to her about yourself then. Talk about what you've been through… help her to understand you," Kiera suggested, "There's no real sense in keeping so many secrets, is there?"
Noca looked down and sighed.
"Just think about it, that's all I'm saying," Kiera continued. Noca nodded gently before standing up straight again and continued to walk along with Kiera. "Also, thanks for standing up for me today. I appreciate it." Kiera said, holding Noca's arm. The closeness felt weird. Kiera really did remind him of Holline somehow.
"No problem. I wasn't going to let him lay a hand on you," Noca said, smiling. He was glad to have made one friend who seemed like someone he could genuinely spend time with.
About two hours later Noca returned home, he was greeted by both Videl and Gohan. They were unaware of anything that had happened at school that day. Pan hadn't said anything and Noca wasn't about to. He sat with them to have dinner but was quiet the whole time, as was Pan. The adults knew something was up but didn't press it. At the end of the day, it was probably best if the kids figured it out themselves.
Pan excused herself after dinner and went to her room, saying she had some homework to get on with. Noca offered to help clean up and did so. While he was there with Gohan he decided to ask a question that had been burning in his mind for a couple of days.
"When do you think we can start fight training?" Noca asked.
"You want to start sparring?" Gohan questioned, in return, "I guess we don't have to keep holding it off. You seem to be grasping Ki stuff pretty easily. I think it's just a matter of spending time on your own to really iron out the kinks." Gohan sat back in the kitchen chair and chuckled. "Why not? We can start this weekend, if you want?"
"Please. I would appreciate moving to that next step," Noca said, starting to get a little excited at the prospect of advancing his training, but more importantly, the sooner he improved with his fighting ability the sooner he could leave. Noca had no intentions of spending his life there.
His real training would begin that Saturday and Noca was more than excited to get it going.
Characters Seen/Mentioned in this Chapter:
Noca (OC)
Son Gohan
Bra
Pan
Kiera (OC)
Billy (OC)
Holline (OC) – Mentioned
Emna (OC) – Mentioned
Videl
