Akutenshi Nakare Kyo
Evil Angels Don't Cry
By Toku Tenshi
Disclaimer: I don't own DBZ, sadly, but I do have a few years of LARP under my belt for Videl.
A/N: I hit a bit of a writer's block for this story, but no worries, it's gone now.
Chapter 15: Hibiki --Echo--
It was a beautiful day. The birds were singing a merry tune that mirrored the one playing in Videl's heart. The girl took in a deep breath of the morning air and let it out in a content sigh. Today she was going to school.
Its not that sitting through lecture after lecture was incredibly appealing to the girl, but after finally being released from bed rest any activity, no matter how boring and tedious, was a welcomed relief. Her leg was almost completely healed and her thick cast was gone. A cloth wrapping held a small splint in place and her arm was cradled in a sling but she was well enough to do just about anything.
Videl felt like skipping to school, but that would surely have numerous negative repercussions both physically and reputation wise. She was just about to turn the final corner to OSH when she heard the one sound she had missed so badly: Police sirens. Videl gave a half-glance to the school before rushing off after the sirens. She arrived at the scene shortly after and ducked behind a car to keep out of sight and survey the area. A bank robbery that hadn't quite made it out of the bank and a police stand-off. Two men with small handguns ducked behind their getaway car which had two flat tires. The three police cars blocked the exit and covered the policemen on the other side. Videl smiled. It was good to be back.
She quickly took off her sling and unwrapped her arm. Everyone knew that she had been injured but she had also been out of the public eye for awhile and no one knew just how bad her injuries had been. It wouldn't be hard to believe that she was fully recovered – at least that's what she hoped these idiots would think. Videl jumped to her feet and rushed out into the open, her arms to her side.
"What do you think you're doing, you idiots?" Videl sneered at the robbers and placed her good hand on her hip. "Just drop the money and turn yourselves in. If you end this now you'll get in a whole lot less trouble then if you actually open fire on a police officer," she instructed to the men and saw one of them nod quickly and turn to the other man.
"She's right, Dente!" the man said. "Let's just give in. We'll never get away anyhow." Videl smirked. This was going to be easy.
The other man snarled at his partner. "Not with an attitude like that we won't! We need to use force to get out of here!" To punctuate his point he raised his gun and fired at Videl. The teen ducked and rolled to the right, smashing her shoulder and arm against the hard pavement. She bit her lip to keep from crying out – she couldn't let them know that she was weak. With all her will, Videl came back up and rushed for the man who shot at her. He was taking aim again, but his partner was tugging at his gun, trying to take it away. Videl cringed but kept moving forward knowing full well that crazy things happened when people fought over a gun. A bullet shot out and hit the ground a few feet behind the charging girl as she leapt at the robbers. For the second time in the span of one minute, Videl's shoulder collided with something hard and brainless. The first man snatched the gun from Dente's hand and tossed it aside like he had done with his own gun. The police quickly arrived and cuffed the robbers, dragging them over to the police cars.
"Thank you so much, Miss Videl!" One officer exclaimed happily as he clasped Videl's hands in his own and gave them a little shake.
Pain flashed across Videl's face briefly but she hide it with a smirk. "I'll be waiting for my new watch."
"Of course, of course!" The officer replied as he hurried over to the retreating cars. Once they were out of sight, Videl dropped her façade and let out a tiny cry of pain as she headed back to the car she had left her bandages behind. What she found, however, was one of the last things she wanted to see.
The Great Saiyaman held her wrapping in his hands and a disapproving frown on what she could see of his face. "Videl, you weren't ready for that. You're still recovering."
Videl huffed and grabbed the wraps from the 'super hero'. "Whatever! These are just for show anyways; I'm perfectly fine so butt out!" Saiyaman simply reached out and touched her upper arm which made Videl squeak in light pain and betray her statement. "So it's a bit tender, big deal." She grumbled and tried to move away only to walk right into Saiyaman. She stared at him, turned to where had been standing a moment ago, then back to him. He took the bandages from Videl and lifted her arm carefully. The girl tried to protest, but he ignored her and gently wrapped the splint back into place. He slid her arm back into the sling and connected it around her neck.
"You may want to have your shoulder checked out, just to be safe." He mumbled, his head turned away.
"What?" Videl laughed, "No X-ray vision?"
Saiyaman looked at her from the corner of his concealed eyes, not sharing in her joke. "You could have really hurt yourself with that stunt you pulled. Until you are completely healed, just leave these things to the police and myself or at least let someone help you."
"I don't need your help with every little thing!" She shouted back angrily. She pulled back slightly as the familure words hung in the air. She quickly scowled again and shoved the male aside with her good hand. "What's it matter anyways so long as the perp got taken care of?" She called over her shoulder.
"Exactly my point. There's no need for you to get hurt anymore when there are others who can get the job done." Saiyaman let out a sigh. "I don't want to see you get hurt anymore, alright?"
Videl stopped and turned around quickly only to find herself alone on the sidewalk. Her cheeks burned a faint pink and she couldn't get them to stop. She shook her head and hurried into the school just as the warning bell began to ring.
888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888
"Bonzai!" Erasa cheered as she pulled the string on a tiny party favor, shooting little streams of paper and confetti over the raven-haired girl. "It's so good to have you back at school, Videl!" She grinned widely and hugged her friend around the neck, dancing slightly in the front of the classroom. Videl's eyes slid over the room to find all eyes on her and she scowled at them. She quickly dislodged her friend and pulled out her make-up work. She set the stack on the teacher's desk and hurried up to her usual seat where she could better ignore those nagging stares from her peers.
"'Sup Videl? Where have you been?" Sharpner asked as the girls sat down.
"Um, I've been in the hospital and home recovering from getting attacked by Anchovi Piza," Videl replied irritated. 'Is Sharpner really so dense that he didn't know? Surely Erasa had been whining every day and Gohan would have at least…' Videl turned slowly to Gohan and smiled shyly. "Morning Gohan," She said timidly, unsure of why she was acting so oddly. Next to her, Erasa giggled and was soon eye to eye with Videl. "What's so funny?" She almost growled, thinking she was somehow being made fun off.
"Whoa, whoa, calm down." Erasa waved her hand to ease the other girl. "It was just… Did you eat this morning?"
"Um, yeah?" Videl raised a brow, not sure where her friend was going.
"Really? It's just that it seemed to me you were asking him for breakfast." Erasa pointed to Gohan and both teens stared at her.
"What are you talking about?" Videl sighed.
"Well you said 'Morning Gohan' which would be 'asagohan' which is 'breakfast'!" Erasa giggled again as the others around her sighed and shook their heads at the lame word-play joke.
88888888888888888888888888888888888888888888
Videl sighed irritably and looked to the ceiling for guidance. She would need a lot of books for her next class and they all rested on the top shelf of her locker, too far away to simply scoop them into her left arm like she had done earlier. "Well smurf it all," she grumbled and grabbed the first book, setting it between her sling and her torso. 'That wasn't so bad,' she mused and took out the next book, then the next one. The weight against her arm was beginning to take its toll and she gritted her teeth against the pain while placing the last book on the pile. Why she had agreed to take a foreign language, she couldn't remember, but lugging around two workbooks, a conjugated verb dictionary, and a normal dictionary was beginning to make her reconsider. Videl shut her locker and tried to maneuver the heavy texts to her other arm as she jogged to her next class.
Videl rushed past the drinking fountain, skidding on her injured leg and falling over onto the damp tile. Her books scattered and the girl was torn between clutching her throbbing leg or shoulder when the class bell rang. "Great," she laughed sarcastically – the whole reason she was running in the first place was to not be late.
"Oh my gosh, Videl! Are you alright?" The girl looked up at Gohan as he knelt down beside her with a stack of folders in his arms. "What happened?"
"What do you think?" she spat while gathering her books. "I slipped on some water and fell on my fat butt."
"Your butt isn't fat," Gohan replied meekly with a slight blush on his face.
Videl turned to him and rolled her eyes. "It's an expression, Gohan, and since when have you been looking at my butt?" Gohan's face reddened and he cleared his throat, avoiding eye contact and the question. The girl smiled mentally and got up slowly, using her left arm to steady herself which set the weight of four, thick books back onto her wrapped arm. She tried to hide her wince and walk away but the other teen noticed and followed her quickly.
"I can carry those for you," Gohan offered with concern in his voice. Videl shook her head and put on her 'tough girl' act. Gohan wasn't buying it. He moved the stack of papers he had copied for his instructor to one arm and quickly pulled the books from Videl. The girl turned to him angrily, her hair spinning long after her head stopped moving.
"I can carry my own stupid books, Gohan." She silently wondered how he could be carrying o many papers with one hand.
Gohan likewise turned to Videl with the same, if not greater, degree of anger. "Not with your injured arm you can't and especially not after that fall. Didn't I already tell you today to take it easy?" He was the closest he had even been to yelling at Videl but he felt no remorse. She deserved it, somehow, but even when he yelled at Goten for doing something like blow the exterior wall of the kitchen up he still felt bad about it. Why was this different?
"Oh, yeah?" Videl shot back, slightly unnerved by the normally calm Gohan glaring at her. "And when did you say that? This is practically the first time we've talked all day."
"At the bank!" Is what Gohan almost shouted back but he caught himself in time. That was Saiyaman, not Gohan, who reprimanded Videl about taking on those robbers. "Fine, maybe not today," Gohan muttered while looking away, "but you really need to stop doing this."
"Doing what? Walking? Attending school? I've had a big enough break from that, thank you very much." Videl turned her head away and crossed her arms as best she could with one in a sling and stomped ahead.
"THIS!" Gohan was next to the girl before she could blink. "You're hurting yourself to make a point. Dang it Videl," he shook his head angrily; "I'm fed up with your stupid pride! You don't have to prove anything to anyone; you're human and humans get hurt – it happens! – no one will think anything less of you if you ask for some help when you need it."
"I don't need it!" Videl shot back as she made a grab for her books which Gohan jerked out of the way. The shriek from Videl perked the interest of the nearby classrooms and doors slid open quietly so the students could see what was going on.
"See! Videl, you don't have to act tough when you aren't!" Never in a hundred years would Gohan think he would be arguing with Videl like this. Never would he think he would tell her all that he did. And never ever did innocent Gohan expect that he would make the fragile girl in front of him slap him. But he did and she did and the sound of flesh slapping flesh echoed in the quiet hall as Videl stood there panting angrily before running off, stumbling slightly but always catching herself before falling as her leg throbbed in pain.
Gohan stood completely still with his head turned in the direction the slap had pushed it, his cheek a bright red. Somewhere in the back of his mind he marveled at how that slap stung him so painfully when being hit in the head with a baseball or punched in the face couldn't faze him. He turned slowly and noticed the students staring at him in disbelief. Just as Mr. Satan was the city's savior, Videl was like the school's own personal hero and no one –no one – talked about their hero that way. The students glared at Gohan heatedly and went back to class, each door slamming louder than the last. The demi-saiya-jin stood alone in the hall and slowly walked back to class for the sole reason that his instructor was expecting the copies. He faked an illness and was sent home where he promptly ignored everything and everyone and went to bed, his cheek still throbbing as it rested against his pillow.
End chapter
SA: man, sorry it took so long guys! I kind of had a writer's block after Erasa's little joke, but I think I pulled through. What do you guys think? I know that last chapter 'wasn't the best', but I tried. I hope this one is better. AND QUIT ASKING WHEN VIDEL AND GOHAN WILL HOOK UP! whispers with finger to lips It's a secret.
