Videl kicked off the ground, dashing right at Chayote, who waited for her opponent with her arms spread out. It was a neutral wrestling position, but it was a compliment to Satan's daughter. In just a couple of months, she's progressed like crazy to where her decisions made Chayote curious and intrigued, and the Saiyan would have never permitted herself to power up to where she could read her opponent easier. She wanted to be surprised.
The lively rascal left an afterimage behind, disappearing into the air and moonsaulting right over Chayote. Videl's chest nearly grazed the dojo ceiling, but her aura erupted all at once when she stiffened her body and transitioned into a diving kick. The Saiyan felt a thud at the back of her head, though it didn't as much as make her wince. Reacting to Videl's moves, she turned around, looking to grab the tomboyish prodigy.
This time, it was Chayote's turn to surprise her opponent. The Saiyan rolled on the ground like a cannonball until she had homed in on her opponent and burst out with an uppercut. Videl flipped to the back of the dojo and kicked off of the dojo wall to soar like an arrowhead toward her Saiyan tutor. Chayote covered up her face, absorbing the flying kick. Obnoxious wooden thuds alarmed those in the vicinity that Videl had busted the dojo wall with her earlier touch.
Chayote pounded downward, aiming at the side of Videl's knee, but the girl twisted it and bent her leg, letting the blow whizz right past while Videl spun around with a hooked leg into a kicking flurry. Just as Chayote expected to take a bit of a beating from it, Videl's leg phased right through her. Another afterimage. Chayote didn't lower her guard, but a lesser brawler would've. Videl's rushing knee strike bounced off of Chayote's chest, but Videl wasn't ready to give up.
Springing off of her right hand, the little whirlwind shot her feet out to slam them into Chayote's gut and leave her mentor huffing. The Saiyan's arm exploded in a flurry, pressing Videl to the ground as chain strikes made the teen wince and grunt in pain. Her guard held just fine. She didn't freak out. Her breathing was solid. If Chayote was an opponent of comparable power and skill to the kid, she'd have taken this chain strike flurry and one could've expected to take a thorough pounding.
She wasn't content with just laying and getting battered either, Videl wound the rhythm of Chayote's chain and rolled aside at just the right moment to catch and opening from Chayote's right side. Then, engaging flight, Videl countered with a spinning back fist from that side. That was a neat and flashy move, but a spinning fist was too slow to exploit an opening this early in a fight. Chayote made sure to punish it with a whip of her lightly amped-up kick to Videl's side and sent her slamming into the dojo wall. Unlike Videl's dinosaur feet that crushed and broke everything they touched, upon taking Chayote's kick, the girl just bounced off and landed on her back all the way on the mat.
With her head on the ground, she heard Chayote approach slowly and methodically. The kid kicked up and threw an uppercut with the air pillow of flight under her feet, serving as a support for a balanced wake-up strike. Chayote may have been sleeping there, she caught it grazing on her eyebrow and it produced a light swelling too. Videl crashed back down with a horizontal elbow drop. It was a neat transition, but an elbow drop after such limited success with the uppercut may have been too sluggish. Still, commending the girl's progress and skill, Chayote didn't punish that one, choosing to gracefully bounce back and straighten out.
"Jeez…" Videl whined, standing up from the ground and rubbing her elbow. "Can you at least act pressured? Take your blazer off, stretch out at least a bit?"
"You're too cruel to yourself," Chayote sighed and clapped slowly, though with a limited amount of volume to the controlled contact of her hands. "Your rate of progress is amazing. Keep this up and you'll learn in six months what took me decades to learn."
"What do you mean? I can still go…" Videl pouted.
"I need to feed Navy. If I put him to sleep before lunch, I won't need to shave off my lifespan trying to do it. He gets lively during lunchtime and things break when he gets lively," Chayote excused herself.
"That's nonsense! We've got servants that can take care of Navy! They can make way better food for him than you can too, so just stay, and let's keep sparring. We haven't sparred until I can't move in like forever!" Videl almost begged, clapping her hands together.
"Sorry, if I let servants take care of Navy, soon enough he won't know his mother's face. It's bad enough he won't know his father's… Or… Well… He'll know what he looks like but not that version of him… Ugh… Stupid time travel," Chayote groaned, running her hand over her hair which forced a few strands out of the slick ponytail formation and stuck out wildly in needle-like spiky strands.
"Okay, tell me about Navy's dad at least!" Videl jumped up and down, shadow-boxing since Chayote wouldn't train with her until she felt winded anymore.
"There's not much to tell…" Chayote rolled her eyes and approached the wall that Videl had busted down, seeing if it fit back or if she should have left it to the servants to fix it again. "God, I hope you never meet Trunks. The whole situation is just so weird…"
"Why do you not want me to meet your son's dad? How come you've married him if he's such a bastard?" Videl squinted with her right eye.
"I didn't. We… Sort of didn't have the chance. I didn't mean Future Trunks, I meant little Trunks," Chayote explained herself. "A man came from the future to warn us about Artificial Humans and Dr. Puri's betrayal. Well, he didn't come specifically to warn us, though circumstances made it happen that way and… That man turned out to be the future version of my mentor's son."
"I wouldn't believe you if you weren't this crazy-strong and know so much about fighting. Your life's amazing, they should make it into a TV show or something!" Videl pumped her little fists while running after Chayote. "Where are you rushing to? Won't you give fixing the wall another try?"
"I sense a familiar Ki nearby. It's a bit too specific and odd to sense it here, meaning he's probably looking for me. I need to hear what this is all about," Chayote replied while walking up the stairs to the ground floor and approaching the door where a young man in a suit and wild, black, spiky hair was trying to talk his way into the house with a maid.
"It's okay, I know this young man," Chayote placed her hand on the maid's shoulder while Videl sought a towel to wipe the sweat off of her face. She hadn't worked up enough stink for a bath but she got proper warmed up for action, which was why Chayote's sudden abandon of their training session irked the girl so much.
"Chayote-san!" Gohan waved his hand over his head with a rich smile. "I've been trying to explain to this lady that I just want to see you…"
"What a coincidence, I kind of wanted to see you too after sensing your Ki. What are you doing here? Seems to be far away from home, no?" Chayote inquired.
"Yeah, while dad's busy training and watching over Goten, mom's been cruising me around the entire world looking for a school. With Goten taking up most of everyone's attention, mom says I can't focus on my studies anymore so she says it's okay if I attend actual school. Mom's changed a bit after all this time, I'm not sure how, but she didn't want me attending school before…" Gohan scratched the back of his head with a lively smile.
"Why would your mother parade you around the world looking for a school? Why don't you just go to the school closest to you?" Videl crossed her arms, wondering if this friend of Chayote's was as weird as she was. She looked suspicious of Chayote being friends with some kid her age too, though by now Videl had known Chayote far too long for it to mean much.
"Hmm?" Gohan turned to Videl and blinked twice while an awkward pause worked in. "Aren't you going to introduce us since you know both of us?" he then leaned to Chayote.
"I thought you were supposed to exchange business cards…" Chayote scratched her head.
"That's for businessmen during formal meetings. Ordinary people don't have their business cards meant for life and carrying personal information!" Gohan scolded Chayote by wagging his finger up in her face and making a strict look on his face. Videl's eye twitched as she must've been struggling to comprehend how this teenager could've been more mature than the woman she's been looking up to.
"Anyway, this is Gohan. He's Kakarot's son. Kakarot's another Saiyan I've met here on Earth," Chayote introduced Gohan before turning to Videl. "This is Videl, she's the daughter of Mark Satan."
"Huh…? Wow! You're crazy strong for just an ordinary Earthling!" Gohan gasped after having felt Videl's Ki. "I was wondering who Chayote may have been training with. You're much weaker than Krillin or Yamcha, and it made little sense for Chayote to train with Yajirobe…"
"I'm no ordinary Earthling!" Videl pointed her finger up in Gohan's face, making the young man lean back with worry that she'd poke his eye out. "I'm the daughter of the legendary hero–Mark Satan, the owner of Satan Security. The Guardian of the World! And you didn't answer my question…"
"Oh… It's because I can use Kinto or flying to just zip around the world in no time at all that it's okay if I pick any school. Still, picking schools from the entire world really broadens the circle… How do I even choose?" Gohan deflated with misery. "It's way worse than when mom used to pick my clothes. We had to check all the big cities around the world too…"
"I'm glad you've come, Gohan. Navy's been taking up as much of my time as Goten has been giving your parents trouble and I don't have anyone to tag out with," Chayote gestured for Gohan to walk further through the hall and directed him to the guest room.
"Huh? What do you mean?" Gohan turned to Chayote with a look that was radiating pure curiosity.
"Videl here's a pretty good fighter, as you've sensed already. I've been showing her a thing or two, but I don't have all the time in the world. I'd like it if occasionally you'd tag in and teach her," Chayote suggested, seeing Gohan freaking out progressively more with each passing blink as he couldn't stop shifting his eyes from Chayote to Videl. He looked at Chayote because he had trouble believing she'd set him up for something like that and he looked to Videl trying to imagine how awkward it'd be showing a girl his age fighting moves. Not to mention, this may have been Gohan's first-time teaching someone martial arts as opposed to learning them from someone.
"Huh!? Me!? No way… No way, I can't!" Gohan waved his hands out in front of him, shaking his head so fast and with such force that his face began forming afterimages of its own and his head became blurry.
"Huh? This guy? No way! You're just trying to shake me off like some burden, is that it?" Videl clenched her little fists and threw a fit at Chayote's back. It came packaged with all her vintage best hits like death-inducing stares that sought to stare a hole through someone, sticking her tongue out and thrashing at empty air with surprising awareness of her surroundings. "Wait, what did you just say? You think you're better than me or something?" Videl shifted her ire toward Gohan after her peer refused to train her so vehemently.
"N-No… That's not at all what I was implying…" Gohan leaned back and began excusing himself with defensive body language, looking to avoid getting pummeled. "I was just… Well… I don't think I'm at a point where I can teach someone martial arts!"
"You're selling yourself short there, kid," Chayote waved her hand while peeking over Navy's cradle and making a funny face to get his attention. "In terms of raw martial arts technical knowledge, you've aced several martial arts schools from the Turtle School to Piccolo's Demon Arts. You've also studied from King Kai, he's a big wig in the divine world from what I've heard. Someone who ranks far beyond the likes of Kami Upa or the previous Kami. You're the only disciple King Kai has trained in however many years, the one who inherited his precious signature techniques and would carry them along into the new age."
"I wish you weren't giving him the pep-talk while grimacing at the baby…" Videl squinted, poking Chayote's back with a stiffened index finger to disturb her. "Wait… You mean this punk is that amazing?"
"I'm not a punk. I may have let my hair go for a little while but only because I live on the outskirts and we have to trim our own hair," Gohan pouted and crossed his arms. "Plus, you're just saying all that. My dad's inherited the King Kai Fist too through observing King Kai's lessons and everyone else inherited it through watching dad."
"Yeah, well…" Chayote was about to give the kid a piece of her mind before Navy grabbed a handful of her hair and pulled it right out of the slick hold she had it in, dislodging an unruly spike of hair and ruining Chayote's restrained ponytail. The Saiyan was about to lose it but seeing Navy giggling to himself made her sigh and smirk herself while she bumped her hips to lull her son. "Look, you're an amazing martial artist. You've got an amazing amount of theoretical knowledge about all this stuff because you're naturally curious. Unlike me and Kakarot, you don't just learn through muscle memory and the feel of things, you really try to understand the techniques and how they work. You're just the best option to teach a promising newcomer because you can produce someone just as technically sound as you. Plus, if you're to become an awesome martial artist, eventually you'll have to teach someone and it's good to get a feel of it early on."
"There's no way mom's going to let me meet a girl to teach her martial arts…" Gohan sulked, prodding his fingers.
"Jeez, you're such a momma's boy…" Videl crossed her arms and turned away.
"No, that's a sound concern, his mother can be pretty brutal…" Chayote shook her head while avoiding Navy grabbing a pencil off of the nearby case and trying to stab it into Chayote's head just like the crossed pins that barely held her mucked-up hairdo together. "Hmmm… You can just tell her that this is a job you took up. Given how much of a freeloader Kakarot is, she should appreciate the money. You can pay him with your allowance, right?" Chayote turned to Videl.
"Come to think of it, I could probably use a good school and university fund, 'cause no one in our family has been bringing in any money since they stopped hosting World Martial Arts Tournaments and that was before I was even born…" Gohan shriveled up.
"I could pay you a wage. Something similar to one of our butlers, I suppose…" Videl shrugged. "But if I feel like you're slacking off or if you're not all that Chayote cracked you up to be–I'm giving you the boot, got it?"
"What have I gotten myself into…?" Gohan's eye twitched. A jingle filled the guest room, making everyone present turn their eyes to the telephone plugged into the wall. A manservant slowly crept up to the phone and picked it up with a muzzled "Hello, hello…".
"It seems like this is for you, Chayote-san. It's Bulma-san from Capsule Corps," the butler extended his feeble old hand that held the handset. Because of the man's age, it was nigh impossible to see into his eyes, for they've always hung in a form of perpetual squint and his underneath the brush of his grey eyebrows.
"The Bulma from the Capsule Corps!?" Videl stumbled back. There were few people richer and more influential in the world than their family after the Android Conflict settled down and society reformed into something resembling normalcy. Bulma and her family were some of those people. Capsule Corps were so influential through tight association with Chayote Security, now Satan Security, that the bad rep of being affiliated with Puri & Co just slid right off of them. Those guys had a whole personal, corporate planetoid flying out in space.
"Yikes!" Gohan gnashed his teeth in terror. He must've known something about this, judging from his reaction to the fact that Bulma called Chayote personally after he failed to complete his part of the errand.
"Jeez, Chayote! I can't seem to catch you at all. Do you ever plug your old headset into your ear anymore?" Bulma's whiny voice reached Chayote before she even pressed the handset from the old butler's hands to her ear.
"Nice to hear from you too, Bulma. Haven't heard from you in months…" Chayote replied in a sour tone. While the two were friends and Bulma was even Chayote's mentor in the corporate world, that didn't mean that the Saiyan enjoyed being the butt of Bulma's entitlement all the time they spoke to each other.
"Anyway, I sent Gohan-kun to you but he must have gotten sidetracked or something… He was in the vicinity and I couldn't reach you so I sent him to ask you to do an errand for me, like good old days," Bulma got to the business.
"Heh… Things got a bit complicated there…" Gohan chuckled with a goofy, airheaded tone, scratching his lower eyelid in shame. "The subject changed so many times I couldn't get to the point there…" he excused himself to Chayote.
"I'm not in charge of Satan Security anymore. I don't authorize missions, I just pick which ones I want to lead personally," Chayote yawned before Navy became enthralled by the handset he's seen around the house dozens of times over but only now realized it came detached from the telephone and that one could hold it to the ear. The little prankster began pulling on the wire and tying it into knots. It was only a matter of time before the whole telephone went down, but the old butler Hakucho was there for the save. It was an odd instance where he wasn't the one dropping a thing or two due to absurdly old age and actually salvaged something about to be dropped.
"You might want to abandon this Satan Security charade for this. That furball King of ours allowed some company I haven't heard of to make full use of our labs in West City…" Bulma was explaining the situation before Vegeta's grumbling came from somewhere in the same room.
"No, I'm not talking about you, you ogre, I'm talking about the literal dog for a King that rules the world!" Bulma began feuding with Vegeta while still hanging onto the phone. "Anyway, I can't look into it, because the King's uniformed goons are all over it and they say it's "state secret" but my scans from the Capsule Corps Star bring up some very familiar raw drafts of… Artificial Humans… No, Vegeta, we can't just blast them all away! They're the King's men, I don't want my entire company to be shut down and to face prison time, it'd be a death sentence to my fabulous complexion!"
"Artificial Humans? Are you sure?" Chayote's look became more severe than it's ever been. Despite not being on the fondest terms with the exiled queen of Artificial Human technology, somehow, Chayote just couldn't bring herself to believe that Dr. Puri would spring to action so quickly and openly by building Artificial Humans from Bulma's own labs like this.
"I'm actually not fully sure. That's why I need you to check on it. Your security company's done wonders protecting the world from conflict, then you've done marvels giving the Artificial Humans the boot the first time they reared up. Time to go to work, Chayote," Bulma finished her request and hung up as if that sealed the deal.
"What a profoundly mean lady, she didn't even wait for my confirmation…" Chayote sighed.
"If it really is Artificial Humans, I've got to come with!" Gohan pumped his fists and loosened his tie for a more combative and comfortable feel. "I was the one making the case for Dr. Puri and Artificial Human No. 16. If they truly are up to no good again, it's my responsibility to help deal with them."