Akutenshi Nakare Kyo

Evil Angels Don't Cry

By Toku Tenshi

Disclaimer: I don't own DBZ but I did get these knock-off Mexican toys for Christmas called "Fighter GT" where they're colored funny and only on the front side. The back is all blue plastic. ; ah, my family loves me.

A/N: Sorry for the long wait, but I wanted to update my other DBZ fic as this one was really pulling ahead update wise. I don't have many readers on that fic and I don't want to lose them so I try to update whenever I can. I hit a writer's block on it and that kinda put a halt on all my writing. ; whoops! Anyways, please enjoy this chapter – it's baked with love in every bite! Wait…

Chapter 16: Nukeru Missing

'No, she did deserve that,' Gohan finalized in his head with a nod as he walked through the school doors. He had been replaying yesterday's events over and over in his head the entire way to school, debating with himself on his actions. 'I deserved that too.' His hand rubbed his cheek slightly as he remembered the stinging slap she'd given him after their fight. The teen had been in many fights in his young life, but this had to be his first verbal one. All things considered, he'd rather fight cell again than make Videl slap him.

The students glared daggers at the genius as he walked through the halls but he ignored them. Gohan opened the door and walked into his classroom only to find more eyes boring holes into him. There was but one set of blue eyes that looked at him with a different intensity. "Gohan!" Erasa cried, dragging the boy to the back of the classroom where no one would hear them. "About Videl,"

"She deserved it," Gohan cut in angrily and turned to go to his seat.

"What?" the blonde grabbed Gohan's arm firmly and tried to turn him back around but found it useless. "How could she? What did she do to deserve it?"

The boy turned back to Erasa quickly, nearly knocking the girl over. "You know as well as I do that Videl is still injured."

"Exactly! That's-" Erasa tried to cut in but Gohan raised a hand to silence her and continued talking.

"I was just trying to help her out but she wouldn't let me and we got into a fight. She's the one that slapped me so why are you taking her side?"

The blonde stared at him for a moment before furiously shaking her head. "No.no! Not that, I would have done the same as you with that!"

Gohan looked at the girl curiously. "Then what is it?"

Erasa clenched her fists and looked at Gohan worriedly. "And you – you haven't seen her since then?" Gohan slowly shook his head. "Gohan, Videl's missing." Erasa whispered hysterically. "He father called my house this morning to see if Videl slept over but after she left school early yesterday I haven't seen her at all! I thought that if she wasn't home and wasn't with me then there was only one logical place for her to be."

"Did you check there?" Gohan asked worriedly, quickly nearing the level of hysteria Erasa was already in.

"I just did," Erasa looked at the floor, "but you just said you haven't seen her. Oh Gohan," The blonde began to cry, "if she's not at home or with me or with you, where could she be?"

The demi-saiya-jin ignored the fact that Erasa thought Videl would be with him and moved on to trying to find the raven haired girl. "What about the police station? Maybe she helped out with some crime –even thought I told her not to," Gohan added under his breath.

Erasa shook her head again and chewed her lower lip. "I checked already. They said that they haven't given her a new communicator watch yet so we can't reach her that way either."

Gohan lowered his head in thought and closed his eyes. "Piza's trial is coming up soon, right? Maybe she pulled some strings to have someone take Videl so she can't testify."

Erasa nodded. "Yeah, that could be it. I've seen things like that in mobster movies." The pair looked into each others eyes and nodded before racing out of the school to the police station.

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"I told you, I don't know anything about that!" Anchovi Piza slammed her fists onto the table angrily. Her once beautiful appearance had been replaced with a rather average looking one. Her hair was cut and matched the orange of the jumpsuit she was wearing – both dull and dingy looking. Her unpainted face was twisted in anger and frustration at the repetition of the line of questioning coming from the detective. "What 'strings' do you think I have anyways! I'm a publicity manager for fighters!"

"Exactly," Sherbert smirked while leaning forward and placing her elbows on the table. "You work with a lot of strong, muscular guys. I bet it wouldn't be hard to convince at least one of them to kidnap an injured girl."

"Yeah, right." Anchovi snorted and rolled her eyes. "And just what would be in it for them?" The detective smiled and raised a brow as she stared at the woman in the eyes. Anchovi tilted her head in confusion before the light in her head came on and she bolted up in her chair. "WHAT! I can't believe you think –what! Are you- what! Have you seen the guys I work with! There's no way I'd ever do that with any of them! Even IF it meant a 'Get Out Of Jail Free' card!" Anchovi continued to shout and make disgusted faces as she tried to get the mental images out of her head.

Gohan turned to Erasa as the two watched the interrogation from the other side of the glass. "It doesn't look like she had anything to do with it." He sighed in disappointment before turning back to the glass and scratching his head. "Still, what is she so opposed to? Do what with those guys? I thought she would pay them off or something but the detective didn't say anything and Piza started to freak out…"

"Gohan…" Erasa hung her head as a small sweat drop formed, "Sometimes you are just too innocent for your own good."

"Huh?" Gohan turned back to his classmate with that innocently confused look his family was known for. He quickly shook his head and sighed, refocusing on the real problem. "If Piza didn't have anything to do with Videl's disappearance then I guess we're back to square one. Granted, we weren't that far from it, but it's still disheartening."

Erasa nodded and the two sat down in the lobby. They sat in silence, each racking their brain for any other ideas.

"Sometimes I just don't know why they send the police out to fires," a young officer complained to his partner as they entered the building. "I mean, we can't go inside and really help them out. We don't have the right equipment and aren't even trained to use that big ol' fire hose."

"It's true that we are mainly there for crowd control, but we can help out in other ways like when the people inside get out." The senior partner replied.

"Aww, that's what the paramedics do! Why can't we just run in and help like Miss Videl does?" Erasa and Gohan perked up at this comment and listened to the rest of the conversation carefully.

"Oh, that was only one time. Its too dangerous to run into a burning building without the right gear – we'd just be another body to carry out."

"It was not just once!" The younger officer cut in. "Remember that fire on Kino last night? Well, while we were keeping the rubber-neckers at bay, I swore I saw Miss Videl run in to really help."

The other officer turned to his partner and rolled his eyes. "I didn't see her, you must have imagined it."

"I guess so," The man admitted disappointedly. "After all, it was only a glimpse and I didn't see her afterwards." The policemen joked and continued down the hallway as two high school students sat frozen in their chairs.

Gohan's mouth went dry and his throat tightened as he remembered the time he had helped Videl rescue people from a fire. If he had been just a few seconds late that time, she would have died along with all of those she was trying to help. There were two major factors that were different if Videl went into the burning building last night: first, Videl was injured this time around, and secondly Saiyaman wasn't around to help. The teen somehow managed to gulp some air into his lungs as deadly scenario after scenario ran through his head.

"Come on." Erasa yanked Gohan from his seat and began running out of the police station. The boy was in a daze and his body felt numb all over, but still he followed. Erasa glanced behind her and put on a stern face. "Come on Gohan, pull yourself together." Gohan looked up at the back of Erasa's blonde head. "There's no way that Videl would die from something as small as a fire. She's been through a lot more than that to let some flame get the best of her." The girl turned around and smiled reassuringly. "Let's have some faith in Videl."

Gohan nodded slowly and began to take notice of their location. "Erasa, are we…?"

"Yep," Erasa replied quickly. "We're going to check out that fire on Kino Street. The firemen should be there clearing it up and checking for signs of arson. The best way to find out if Videl was there or not would be to ask the people who were actually inside the building, don't you think?"

Gohan nodded again and tried to hope for the best but the knots in his stomach wouldn't relent and neither would the phrase that had been echoing inside his head since they left the police station. 'It's my fault if something happened. It's my fault…'

End Chapter16

Shield Angel: Whoo! I did it. Chapter update success! Hmm, it dosen;t seem too long though… disappointment! shakes fist and punches self in head

Videl: what did you do to me?

SA: Oh, You'd love to know that, wouldn't you?

Videl: Uh, yeah! It's kinda important you know.

SA: hmm hmm, I see. Well, too bad. You have to wait.

Gohan: I ALSO WANT TO KNOW! crazy with worry

SA: 00;

Gohan: What happened to Videl! Will Mom kill me for skipping class! What did Piza mean by 'that'!

SA: Oh my, so innocent.