Chapter Three
Her Investigation
Sitting cross-legged on his magic cloud as it zipped through the sky, Gohan held his chin, his face scrunched up in deep thought. He failed to notice the warm glow of the afternoon sun on his face, or the brisk wind rustling his spiky hair, or how the browns and greens of the fields and farmlands below him became gradually scarce, only to be replaced by the grays and whites of the more familiar metropolis. His mind, however, was still with the city he had just left.
His first day of school was certainly not what he had expected. Sure, most of it had been rather eventless, and it had been nice that he got to hang out with kids his own age. Erasa had been especially welcoming and friendly.
Videl, however… Gohan's frown deepened at the recollection. That girl's behavior made no sense whatsoever, nor did it add up with how she seemed to… know him, somehow? But how could that be? It just didn't make any sense. Yet it was the only way Gohan could fathom Videl's weird reaction on their first encounter, not to mention her lack of reaction to his unintentional display of physical prowess at the baseball game earlier.
Could it be that he'd met her before after all? Maybe when they were really young, which would kind of explain why he didn't remember her?
Plausible as it was, the explanation just didn't sit well with him. Gohan knew in his gut that he didn't just forget Videl. Something else was going on.
It took him a few moments to realize that his transportation had stopped moving. Gohan looked down and was met with the giant dome that was Capsule Corporation. Nimbus was hovering over the round building, the friendly cloud knowing his destination well enough not to need any direction from its owner.
Well, hopefully, Bulma could offer him some insight on the matter.
The printer hummed smoothly as another sheet of paper rolled out. Videl narrowed her eyes at the computer screen, studying the photo she had just printed to add to her investigation file.
Pieces of evidence were rapidly accumulating. She was making a list of all the people from her dreams that she had ━ or, rather, that she would have encountered in her future.
Some were easier to look up online than others. The shot of the famous baseball player, Yamcha confirmed that it had indeed been he who she had seen in one of her dreams. It had been a big reunion with all kinds of people: family and friends; a close-knitted group who seemed to live in a foreign world.
Reading about Yamcha's life was all Videl needed to make the connection between him and Gohan. In his youth, the baseball star had actually been a three-time finalist of the World Martial Arts Tournament. Looking further into the web of information, Videl learned that Yamcha had been one of the rare students of Master Roshi's Turtle School. Two other names were related to the famous yet greatly selective martial arts school: Krillin and Son Goku ━ both of which had also been in her dreams.
Of course, Videl knew about Son Goku. She'd always loved reading about the history of martial arts, and Son Goku was one of the biggest names. Getting to the final round of the tournament each of the three times he'd entered the fighting competition, his first participation at the mere age of twelve, and winning the world tournament at only eighteen years old; people even speculated that Son Goku had saved the world against the Demon King who had attempted to take over the world. His legacy, however, had been stained by her very own father, who had the world regard Son Goku's accomplishments and martial arts prowess as cheap magic tricks ━ something Videl herself had let herself believe, even though a part of her had never been fully convinced. Now, though… she felt as though she was seeing everything through a new lens.
It only clicked now that Gohan was most likely related to the former world champion. Son Goku, Son Gohan… they had to be father and son, right?
Videl leaned back on her desk chair, crossing her arms, her eyes unfocusing as she contemplated what all this implicated. Goku was Gohan's father… which meant he had died seven years ago. Goku knew Yamcha and Krillin because they all went to the Turtle School, and it even linked Goku to the famous Bulma Briefs, another face from her dreams, who had been Yamcha's on and off girlfriend for over ten years.
Something didn't add up, though. Videl leaned forward and put her hand on the mouse, opening a new tab on her internet browser to use the search engine once more. Her fingers drummed on the keyboard briefly and then she hit Enter.
Was Son Goku really dead? Videl was certain she'd seen him alive and well in a few of her dreams. He had looked a little young to be the father of a fully-grown man with a wife and kids of his own, but it had been him. Yet Gohan had said his father had passed… and he certainly hadn't sounded insincere as he related those events. The way his voice had toned down, the notes of melancholy, of wistfulness, of admiration as he spoke of his late father… no, there was no way Gohan had lied. Absolutely no way.
But Goku had been alive in her dreams.
Her online search led her to the obituary section of an article, confirming that, to the world, Son Goku was indeed declared deceased.
Videl's eyebrows knitted together, wrinkling the bridge of her nose. "What does it mean?" she wondered out loud.
Could this inconsistency be proof that her dreams were bogus? But what about everything else that they got right?
What did it mean?
In the living quarters of Capsule Corp., Gohan sat on the sofa while Bulma stood on the other side of the coffee table, smoking a cigarette. The blue-haired genius slowly blew the nicotine mist as she trained her intelligent gaze on the teenage boy.
"So, what's the matter?" she asked.
A slight frown furrowed Gohan's brow as the day's events replayed in his mind. He leaned forward, his forearms resting against his legs, his fingers intertwining. "I had a really weird encounter this morning. It was right after I took care of the bank robbery."
"Ah, yes, they talked about you on the news," Bulma recalled, a knowing smile playing on her lips. "You turned Super Saiyan, right? Nobody should've recognized you. Although, they talked about what you were wearing, and they even mentioned your high school pin…" she added, letting her eyes go over his attire, causing Gohan to look down at himself and come to the realization that Bulma was right. "I can make you a disguise and put it in a capsule if you'd like."
The demi-Saiyan blinked at the scientist's simple solution. While this wasn't the reason why he had come to seek her advice, getting a disguise to fight crime in Satan City sounded kind of like a really neat idea. Crime seemed especially terrible over there, and if he could conceal his identity better, he would only have to focus on helping the police put the bad guys away without worrying about having his name displayed everywhere in the media. From what he had seen in the three times he had been in Satan City, they certainly needed the assistance, but Gohan still hoped to blend in at his new school.
"Yes, that'd be great, Bulma, thanks," he said with a grateful smile.
She tapped on her cig over the ashtray on the coffee table before taking another whiff. "You just can't resist getting involved when there's trouble, huh? That's so like you," she remarked with a chuckle. "Anyway, I should be done in two hours."
"But, um…" Gohan got up to hold Bulma back, who was already turning around, ready to get to work as she understandably assumed that the conversation was over. "There's something else I wanted to talk to you about."
Bulma looked at him and tilted her head, and then she brightened in realization. "Oh! The weird encounter. Sorry, sorry, do keep going." She stubbed her cigarette on the ashtray and sat on one of the armchairs adjacent to the sofa, to which she motioned with a wave of her arm, inviting her guest to sit back down. "Who did you meet and what was weird about the encounter?"
Gohan settled back on his previous seat and his face scrunched up once more as he thought about Videl's reaction to seeing him for the first time.
"Well, right after I took care of the robbery and turned back to normal, I guess I let my guard down because a girl managed to sneak up on me. She started saying something, but when I turned around she just, kind of…" His brow furrowed deeper as he continued, "…froze. Like she was seeing a ghost or something."
Bulma raised her eyebrows and pulled her head back, her chin slightly dipping into her neck. "Huh. That is weird."
"But that's not all of it," Gohan went on, the words coming out more easily now that he had gotten started.
He told Bulma everything else, how Videl turned out to be in his class, though she arrived late; how she'd reacted in the same way once again, freezing from head to toe when her gaze had stopped on him; how she ended up settling down just two seats away from him because, as it turned out, he was sitting next to her friend. How, from that moment on, she made a point not to look at him, a deep scowl seemingly glued to her face permanently as she made sure to show that she wanted nothing to do with him.
Bulma listened on as Gohan kept going, telling her about the baseball game in PE, how he hadn't been careful enough not to show off his strength, how everyone had stared at him in disbelief – everyone but Videl, that is. She didn't even look like she'd seen anything out of the ordinary. Gohan recounted what she said to him later, after school, confirming that she indeed saw through his pretense. How it felt like she already knew about him.
"Huh," Bulma reflected once again.
"Yeah," Gohan nodded. "It's weird, isn't it? I mean, it's not like I wanted to stand out or anything, but the way she seemed to know everything, somehow…"
"And then what happened?" Bulma inquired, an eager glint in her eyes. "You didn't just leave it at that, did you?"
His gaze dropped and he scratched the back of his head, a little embarrassed to relate to his adult friend how he kinda lost his temper and acted quite childishly as a result.
But he carried on anyway and felt his cheeks warm up as he spoke of his earlier behavior. His friend was biting her lip, looking like she was about to burst but waiting for him to finish his story.
"And then she said something so weird and confusing," Gohan added, a frown creasing his brow at the memory. Bulma fidgeted in her seat, clearly having the toughest time to stay serious. "She said that she couldn't believe she would ever bake brownies for me…?"
That was the last straw for Bulma who couldn't hold it anymore — she guffawed and wheezed like a madwoman, throwing her head back. Gohan felt his face burn up once more. His mouth clamped shut as he let the genius scientist openly mock him.
"Oh, geez, oh, man," Bulma giggled, wiping her tears with her index finger, one eye after the other. "I can't believe you'd run after her like that! Do you have a crush on her or something? " she added as a joke.
His face bright crimson, Gohan made sure to keep his stare fixated on his fists which rested on his lap, unwilling to look at the blue-haired genius who was still laughing at him.
"So, um…" he mumbled, shifting uneasily in his spot as Bulma's mirth toned down to an amused grin. "Why do you think she acted like that?"
"Beats me," Bulma said with a shrug. "It's definitely weird." She took a moment to think, her gaze dropping to the coffee table, staring at it without seeing it. "Hmm… Maybe she's psychic?"
His eyebrows scrunching up, he forgot his earlier embarrassment and looked over at the Capsule Corp. heiress. "Psychic…?"
Bulma shrugged, lighting herself another cigarette. "Wouldn't be the first time we've encountered one of those. People seem to forget in today's times, what with Mr. Satan filling their heads with silly beliefs, but magic is real."
"Wouldn't that be rich? Mr. Satan's daughter actually being psychic…" Gohan chuckled at the thought. "Though I guess it would explain how she'd know about me without having met me before."
Bulma paused, the ash of her cigarette accumulating as she stared at him, her lips parting.
"Wait, that Videl you were talking about, that's Mr. Satan's daughter?"
He tilted his head. "Didn't I mention it?"
In response, Bulma cracked up once again. "Mr. Satan's daughter! Bwahahaha! Oh, the irony!"
She was still laughing as a robot on wheels rolled to her and extended a pincer-like hand holding a cordless phone; a metallic voice coming out of the speakers on either side of its oval head informed her that she had a phone call.
Gohan observed the scene wondering if he should go and give his friend some privacy for her call. But she didn't seem to care at all; a broad grin stretched across her lips, eyes twinkling with mirth, Bulma got up and grabbed the receiver, a giggle still tickling in her throat as she said, "Yes?"
His better than average hearing allowed the teenage boy to make out a distorted female voice on the other side of the line. "Um, h-hello…" She cleared her throat. "Is this Dr. Bulma Briefs?"
"The one and only! And you are?"
"I'm, uh, I'm Vicky. It's an honor to speak with you, Dr. Briefs."
"It's nice to meet you, Vicky," Bulma chirped, and Gohan could see that getting her ego stroked brightened her mood some more. He cracked a smile, recognizing his long-time friend and her shameless ego. "How may I help you?"
"I'm doing an assignment for school about powerful and influential women of today. If it's not too much to ask, may I take a few moments of your time to ask you a few questions about your life?"
Huh. That girl certainly knew how to get in Bulma's good grace. The apprehensive waver had gone from her voice, and the way she spoke kind of sounded rehearsed. Gohan was impressed by her dedication to doing her work. If it were him, he wasn't sure he would've overcome his nervousness that quickly.
"Well, you're in luck, because I'm in an excellent mood," replied Bulma. "Sure, go ahead ━ but I do reserve the right not to answer any question that I would deem too personal. That okay with you?"
"Of course," came the expected reply. "Thank you so much, Dr. Briefs."
"Alright then, give me a moment." Bulma put her hand loosely over the phone speaker, carelessly not covering it enough not to be heard from the other side of the line. She turned to look at her young guest and said, "Gohan, Trunks is in the GR with Vegeta. I'm sure he'll be happy to see you, so why don't you go see him in the meantime? I'll still need about two hours to work on your thing anyway."
Gohan put his hands on his knees and got up. "Sure. I'd love to play with Trunks while I wait for you to be done."
Wait, Trunks is in the Gravity Room? Was it kiddie playtime in the GR now? Was Vegeta training with baby weights? It hadn't been that long since he'd last visited the Briefs, was it?
Gohan refrained from asking Bulma about it; she put the receiver against her ear once more to get back to the conversation. Walking past the famous scientist, the boy wondered if he would have that kind of assignment now that he went to school. A grin drew out his lips little by little as he pictured everything he would get to do that he hadn't been able to while studying by himself. Working with a partner, using tools from the school, doing science experiments… The prospect was exciting.
"Huh? What the… She hung up?"
Gohan turned around and saw Bulma stare at the cordless phone in her hold. They shared a look, not quite sure what to think.
Bulma growled like a wild animal ready to pounce on its prey. "What happened to wanting to interview the most influential woman of today's modern times?"
Her ego certainly hadn't diminished over the years, he mused in amusement.
"Maybe an outside cause cut the line and she'll call back?" Gohan offered.
With that in mind, which did sound like a legitimate explanation, they both stood in their spots and waited for a few moments. Gohan was near the archway, Bulma, by the coffee table, while the robot patiently waited for its mistress to be done with the phone ━ yet it did not ring again.
Bulma and Gohan looked at each other again, incomprehension and confusion taking over their expressions. And then, in the same motion, they both shrugged.
"Ah, well." Bulma handed the phone back to the robot, who thanked her politely and rolled away on its tank-like wheels. Gohan gave her a silent salute with two fingers and went on his way to see Trunks while she took another exit to go to her lab and start working on a superhero suit for him.
"Hmm, where's the GR again?" Gohan looked around as he tried to identify the hallway he had wandered in. "This house is so big. I always end up getting lost here."
It sure was weird that the girl didn't call back. Ah, well, like Bulma said. Logic didn't always go with human behavior: his earlier actions certainly proved that point. The demi-Saiyan still didn't get what came over him after school. His temper would make itself known at the oddest times, for sure. Granted, he had reasons to believe Videl somehow knew about him, and her running away like she did only made him more upset because she wouldn't even offer a simple explanation to finally throw some light over to him and his confused brain.
Was she actually psychic? Could she have seen his past, and that was why she'd paled in horror when she saw him for the first time by the bank this morning? If she saw even a glimpse of any of the violent battles he had to partake in when he was a kid… Freeza, Reecom, and even Vegeta came to mind… not to mention Piccolo beating him up every day for nearly six months to teach him how to fight; Gohan grimaced. Indeed, that would certainly explain why she didn't want anything to do with him.
A deep line creased his brow as another, much more worrying possibility crept up into his mind. What if she saw his future? What if something horrible would happen to him or anyone close to him, and Videl was afraid to get involved in that?
Did that mean that his father stayed dead for nothing? That enemies would still target the Earth even if he wasn't there to attract them? They'd had seven years of peace, which was the longest time without a powerful villain threatening the planet since he was born, so they all figured Goku was right, that he should stay dead. Could it have been for nothing? Was the planet doomed to keep getting attacked by evil tyrants time and time again whether his father was alive or dead?
Gohan shook his head sharply. He was starting to sound paranoid. They weren't even sure that Videl indeed had psychic powers and if that was the reason for her behavior today. He'll have to try and figure it out somehow, which should prove to be quite complicated given that Videl made it perfectly clear that she wanted nothing to do with him. Nonetheless, Gohan wasn't one to back down against adversity. He would get to the bottom of this, one way or another.
Now, to the Gravity Room…
Her breathing shallow, her mouth opening and closing, making her resemble a fish, and her eyes so wide open they nearly fell out of their sockets, Videl stared at her hand still holding the landline phone against the hanger on her desk where she had slammed the receiver just moments ago.
"What. The. Heck."
And then suddenly Videl threw her legs out and pushed herself as far away from the phone as possible, as though it was possessed by a demon or a contagious illness. She rolled backward in her chair but used a little too much force in her panic: the wheels caught the rim of the carpet and the swivel chair toppled backward, shamelessly dragging Videl down along with it.
"Eeeep!" she squeaked, flailing her arms around instead of stopping herself from tumbling back, and thumping hard on her back in a tumultuous heap. At least the chair was cushioned and eased the impact on the floor — but in its momentum, Videl's legs flew up and one of her knees hit her face causing her to yelp at the pain, and then her legs slammed once more on the seat and Videl winced as the back of her thighs hit the seat once more.
"Oof.." Her face twitched as she touched the tender spot on the side of her forehead, and wondered if she would get a bruise; she didn't mark easily in general.
A scowl distorted her young face as her narrowed eyes stayed on the ceiling.
How humiliating, letting herself get into this position… Videl felt more ashamed of herself for not reacting quickly enough to avoid getting pulled down with the chair than she was hurt. And she called herself a martial artist.
The position made it hard to get up and Videl had to wriggle and roll to the side onto the carpet.
Only to land face-first onto the carpeted floor. A handful of colorful curses slipped out of her breath and she hoisted herself up.
At last, she was back on her feet. The teenage girl growled and glared at the fallen-over chair, forgetting reason as she blamed it for the fall. "Stupid chair. Couldn't just go down alone, huh? Just had to take me down with you, didn't you? You spiteful piece of furniture."
The chair, obviously, didn't answer, then again, if dreams could be visions of the future and if a sixteen-year-old had actual, legit superpowers and could change his appearance at will, what was even real anymore? Either way, Videl was too upset to bother putting the chair back to its rightful place by the desk.
She looked over to her computer screen and her mood worsened. The picture of a nineteen-year-old, newly-wed man was smiling at the camera, looking like he had not a single care in the world. It was the same stupid smile she's seen numerous times in her dreams on his son and even today, despite her effort to avoid him at all costs.
Gohan. Right. For a second, her animosity toward the chair made her forget that she might be destined to fall hopelessly in love with that boy, marry him, and have his children.
Gohan had been with Bulma at the time of her call. How did he even get there so fast? She figured he was fast, but this? Not only was it in the opposite direction for him, but it was even farther away from Satan City than the tiny village in Mount Paozu where he lived, which was five hours away by plane and no less than twelve hours by car.
Actually, not important. Videl shook her head to push away her pointless musing.
Back on topic — what on earth was Gohan even doing there? And damn it, why couldn't she get a hold of herself instead of slamming the phone down and cutting short to what should've been a great source of intel?
She collapsed on her bed, arms and legs splayed out, heaved a deep sigh, and fixated her unfocused stare on the ceiling. Her mind was reeling.
Through her investigation, Videl had decided that the Internet could only provide so much information, therefore, she sought to contact any of the people she'd been seeing in her dreams. Yamcha was retired and there hadn't been any update on him for a few years. There wasn't a lot about Krillin or anyone else, either, except for Son Goku, but he was supposedly deceased, and Bulma, who was none other than the daughter of the inventor of the hoi poi capsules and a renowned scientist and inventor herself.
She'd had to make a lot of calls to find a direct line to Bulma, using her name and her dad's connections to get the number. She'd actually been surprised that the famous Capsule Corp. heiress didn't even question how she'd gotten her home's number. She had even come up with a fake name, a fake story, and made the call on incognito mode. Everything had been set, and Videl had all her questions already jotted down so as not to forget anything.
And then she heard Bulma say Gohan's name… and Trunks', and Vegeta's, who were respectively the woman's son and husband-to-be. But the blue-haired genius was very private about her personal life, and while the common people knew that she had a son with a man who lived with her (and they clearly got married later), nobody outside of her inner circle knew their names.
And yet, somehow…
She rose from the lying position and sat on the edge of the bed, directing her gaze to the computer screen once more.
Hearing those names, not to mention Gohan's… It had been too much to handle, and Videl had hung up on a whim, too shocked and shaken by what she'd just heard.
So it was all true, wasn't it? Her dreams were indeed visions of her future. Gohan knew Bulma just as she suspected, and Trunks and Vegeta were real and not mere figments of her imagination.
Her hands balling up into fists on her lap, the girl scowled, her lips tightly pursed. Well, she was still the master of her own destiny. Nothing would ever make her marry Gohan.
She got up and grabbed the binder she'd put together over the past few hours. Standing by the desk, stubbornly refusing to put her chair back in place, Videl observed her handiwork, taking her time turning the sheet protectors, one after the other.
She still didn't understand how Goku could've been in her visions considering he was supposedly dead. The only explanation the raven-haired girl could come up with was that Goku went missing and would eventually come back to his family. Maybe he got in trouble. Maybe he was lost somewhere with no memory and would eventually get it back. Maybe he was a secret agent and had to fake his death to protect his family.
She scoffed. Yeah, right. What could possibly harm someone as strong as Gohan? A guy who was powerful enough to turn over a jeep, to catch bullets in his hand and who took down five armed robbers in a blink (and that had only been that morning); someone like him definitely didn't need any protection.
Videl rolled her eyes at herself and at the silly turn her thought process was taking.
Her gaze shifted over to the landline phone sitting on the right corner of her desk, and the tired girl heaved a sigh, her shoulders hunching slightly in discouragement. She had meant to ask Bulma about her connection to the Son family and eventually lead the conversation to Goku, to what became of him and how he died. And now it was all for nothing.
Should she call back? She could always make up a story to explain why she hung up so suddenly and why it took her so long to call again…
But Videl was tired of all this. She didn't get to train or even fight today, both of which thanks to he-who-should-not-be-named. Her brain was heavy and constricted with all the information she had gathered, and she needed to get her blood flowing and blow off some steam.
With that in mind, the girl turned on her heels to finally get out of her room for a much-needed training session at her home's personal gym. Hopefully, some of her dad's students were still around and she could get a sparring session out of them.
Just as she reached for the doorknob, the door flew open and hit her flat on her face.
She put a hand over her sore visage and sighed deeply as her father fussed over her. Apparently, her embarrassing mishap with the petty chair had been so loud that her father rushed to her, which hadn't been a short run considering that their gigantic house had about fifty bedrooms, not counting the other kinds of rooms like the theater room, her dad's office, the many living rooms…
"Papa, I'm fine, really." Videl sighed deeply. She was so done with this day.
But that didn't stop the overprotective father, not in the least.
Can today be over already? Please?
Sitting on her bed and holding the crystal ball in her palm, Paige guffawed loudly, her head thrown back. Oh, how enjoyable. The show of the misfortune of the girl who had put her father behind bars and caused his death gave her so mch joy.
Her powers were even stronger than she would've thought. If she could give bad luck to Videl in such a way, she wondered what else she could do... At the rate her psychic powers were growing, testing her magic would be interesting. Paige smirked. And she just happened to have the perfect test subject...
Shootout to ieheretic, Rockstone (aka Rs), and Mr. Me for helping me with and proofreading the chapter. I just updated the chapter with 's corrections, for that matter.
Hope you enjoyed the read! DD is meant to be a comedy not just a romance story, and from what I saw in the comments so far I seem to have succeeded. ^_^
Or have I? Lol. If it made you laugh or at least chuckle, please leave a comment to tell me. ^^
April 14, 2020
