That day at school, things were actually looking up for him. Maybe it was the fact that he had something he could do, to find that boy who might have the Android blueprints. Maybe it was because, that day, he didn't feel entirely lost during class! But, either way, it felt like he was finally getting his life back in control.

Of course, the universe just loved to prove him wrong, didn't it?

At the end of the day, as he and Videl were just leaving the school gates, Videl's watch started beeping.

"Oh!" he exclaimed. It was a crime. How convenient! He was right there.

"It's a siege," explained the policeman's voice over the watch. It wasn't Bayonet. Clearly, it was someone he hadn't heard before. "They've got 14 hostages, and are threatening to kill them unless we come with money."

Videl winced. "14. That's going to be tough."

But then she looked at him, and smiled. But there was something…almost sad about that smile.

So they left to stop the crime together.

"Saiyaman?" she asked, as they were flying.

He shook his head. "I told you, I'm not doing it until your outfit is finished. It's going to look ridiculous."

Videl rolled her eyes. "You're telling me that something's going to look ridiculous…"

The siege wasn't too far away. As they landed near the building, Gohan examined the situation. The crime had clearly been going on for a while. A police barrier had been erected around the building, and a multitude of officers were waiting outside.

The police recognised Videl, and started crowding around her, explaining the situation.

"It's OK," she said. "I'm going in."

"Wait!" One of the older officers, perhaps of a higher rank, protested. "We need to assure the safety of the hostages first!"

"Gohan will deal with them," she said, almost bored. "Isn't that right, Gohan?"

"Oh, of course!" he said, confidently.

The policemen looked at him with curiosity.
She sighed. "This is the Great Saiyaman. He's not in costume today."

And, as the men looked in disbelief, she gestured for him to come inside the building. No one even tried to stop them.

As they walked up the stairs, trying to be as quiet as possible, Gohan took control. 14 people hostage…but there were only 7 criminals. That wouldn't be too hard. If they didn't see him coming, which they never did, he could disarm them quickly.

They arrived at the top, and they saw them. Seven armed criminals. 2 were holding their guns around the hostages, ready to fire if someone tried to attack. He'd have to take them out first. The other 5 were in various places around the room. Most of them didn't even have their guns out. Too easy.

Still, to be sure, he'd try and do this quickly. First he disarmed the two men holding the hostages, knocking the guns out of their hands with his speed. And then, for good measure, he knocked them unconscious. Gohan had gotten experience in just how much force was needed to knock them out. And it was a lot easier to do it now he'd had his potential unlocked. He wasn't worried about accidentally killing them.

Once those two were gone, Gohan decided to move to the others. They were spread out apart from one another, so he'd have to disarm them and knock them out one by one. But that still didn't take very long. How long was it in seconds? He didn't know. Maybe, one time, he'd actually time it. But, then, wouldn't it waste more time if he had to keep starting and stopping the stopwatch? And, now he thought about it, did his Great Saiyaman watch even have a stopwatch in it? It had the time, but he never checked if it had any other features. Perhaps he would check after this.

Those were the thoughts going through his mind as he stopped a terrifying siege, holding over a dozen people hostage. And soon, it was over, and he was surrounded by 6 unconscious bodies.

Wait a second…there's only 6. Where's the seventh one? He turned around, and then he saw him. Shocked at the rapid disposal of his comrades, the criminal charged, determined to get someone as a bargaining chip. And he went towards…Videl!

Gohan rushed towards him, getting in-between of the criminal and his girlfriend. He had to stop him, quick! So he gave him a light punch to the stomach. Wincing in pain, he slumped to the ground, knocked out.

So, that's all of them. With 7 criminals and hostages, Gohan had almost expected it to be harder. Oh, well. Everyone was safe. That was all that mattered.

"Alright. That settles that," he said out loud, confidently. "I guess we can tell the police to come inside now. Right, Videl?"

But all he heard was silence.

He turned around. "Videl?"

Videl was staring at him with a strange expression on her face. She seemed partly scared and partly…angry?

"Is something wrong?" he asked with concern.

That seemed to be the wrong thing to say.

"You could have let me do something!" she yelled. "I had that guy, and you took it from me. Again!"

What? Gohan was puzzled. "But…he was going to hurt you. I couldn't let that happen."

"How do you know that?" she snapped. "You just assume I can't deal with this stuff! If you must know, I've been fighting criminals for longer than you have!"

Not really, Gohan thought. I was 4 when Raditz arrived. And he was more dangerous than any criminal. But he had a feeling saying that wasn't going to help.

"Well, next time, I'll let you deal with them." Gohan was desperately trying to calm Videl down. But he still didn't know what made her so worked up.

And then, something in her expression changed. Her fierce attitude disappeared. It was like she just suddenly…gave up. "Maybe not…" She turned away from him.

"What, you mean you don't want to fight them? But I thought you liked that!"

"That's not it!" she burst out. "Maybe…maybe we shouldn't do this anymore."

"Why not?" Videl's sudden change of tone surprised him.

She started slowly walking away, staring at the floor.

"I…I can't keep doing this," she said softly. "Not with you. I just want everything to go back to what it used to be."

It looked like she was holding words back.

"I don't want to fight with you anymore. I…I shouldn't even see you anymore. It just makes it…"

Gohan approached her. "Videl? Are you OK? If something's wrong…"

She recoiled, stepping back. "Leave me alone! You wouldn't understand. I…just…I need some time on my own. OK?"

"On your own? What do you mean?"

Videl stood in silence, staring at him. Then she spoke, hesitantly, as if the words were being ripped out of her. "It's probably best…if we don't see each other," she said softly. "It'll be good for you, and for me."

Gohan was still confused. "I don't-"

And then the fierceness came back. "Oh, my god! Do I need to spell out everything for you? Do you not get it?"

As Gohan stared at her, Videl took a deep breath, looked him straight in the eye, and said:

"I'm breaking up with you, Gohan."

Immediately, she turned away from him, and started running away.

Gohan, still confused, tried to follow her. They had reached the stairs when Videl seemed to realise that she was still being trailed. Hands on her hips, she turned to him.

"Gohan!" she yelled. "Don't follow me! Just…just give me some space, OK? Please!"

And, as Gohan stood there, dumbstruck, Videl ran out of the building and flew off.

What's wrong with her? He didn't understand. They had…broken up? But how? He would have followed her. He knew he could catch up with her, easily. But her last words echoed in her mind. Just…just give me some space! He shouldn't ignore what she wanted, right? That could just make it worse.

But what did he do wrong? Why was she so upset? He ran his fingers through his hair. Why did girls have to be so hard to understand? He didn't think he had done anything wrong, and now, all of a sudden, Videl decided that he didn't want to see him anymore?

All he wanted was to understand what was wrong. But if she didn't want to see him…he would have to ask someone else about it. If he didn't understand, maybe someone else would. And then he could work out what Videl's problem was, and they could get back together again.

Perhaps he'd ask his mother. Maybe this was just a 'girl' thing.

Videl flew away before Gohan could truly react. She needed to get away from him. She needed to leave before he could see her tears.

She flew, as fast as she could in the direction of her house. She just had to get home, far away from him. She needed something familiar.

It didn't take too long before she saw the huge silhouette of her house. But she didn't go through the front door. Instead, she flew up to the balcony on her room.

Videl ran onto her bed, placed her head into her pillow, and started to cry.

I did it. I finally broke up with him. But why am I so depressed?

She thought she knew the answer. I'm still in love with him. But she had to forget about him. She needed to. Every second he stood there was a reminder of how pathetic she was.

From now on, everything is going to go back to normal. I'll just let Gohan forget about me. He'll find someone else. I'm sure he'll meet some other girl who is also smart and maybe she'll also be an alien. And I can live my life the way it was supposed to be. No more craziness.

In her heart, Videl knew it wouldn't work. Buu was still living in their house. And it wasn't like she was never going to see Gohan again. But she couldn't deal with it anymore. Now that the world wasn't in danger anymore, she had to live with knowing how useless she truly was. And she couldn't do it. She couldn't handle it anymore.

She just wished she was ignorant again. Knowing the truth just made everything worse. If only she could go back in time, and warn herself about it. Don't talk to that Son Gohan, she would say. Don't even look at him. He might be weird, but that's it. There's nothing else about him.

Aliens don't exist. Monsters don't exist. Your father is every bit the hero people tell you he is. And you…you're amazing, and you can do anything you set your mind to.

And that made her start crying all over again.

God, she was pathetic!

There was a small part of her that wanted to go running back. OK, make that a large part of her. It was that part of her that she felt belonged to him. And now that she'd resolved not to see him anymore…that part was breaking.

But she had to dry her tears. She had to be brave, and deal with it. She had survived criminals, tournaments, and 2 days stuck on the lookout, believing everyone she knew and loved was dead. She at least had to get through breaking up with her boyfriend.

It took a long time, but the tears finally stopped. And then she flew back out her balcony, down to the front door, resolving to act as normal as possible.

Normal. That was it. She would be normal, once again.

At dinner that night, Gohan decided to ask his mother about what happened.

"Mum?" he asked.

Chi-Chi turned to look at him. "What is it, Gohan?"

Uh…how do I put this? "Videl was acting…really weird today," he explained. "She was getting all mad at me, and I think we've broken up-"

His mother dropped the spoon she was holding.

"Break up? But why?" she exclaimed, running up to him. "Videl's an excellent girl!"

That, and she has a lot of money. Did his mother still care about that?

Gohan sighed. "I don't know. I made her angry for some reason, and I don't know why. I thought you might understand."

Chi-Chi sat down on her seat at the dining table. "Well, what happened?" she asked, suddenly filled with concern.

"Well…" He tried to think back.

"We were at this siege, trying to stop it. A guy was going after her, so I took him out quickly. When it was over, Videl was yelling at me, telling me that she could have dealt with him and she didn't need my help. And then she got all sad, and told me that it would be better if we didn't see each other. She was saying something about how it made her feel…I don't know what it made her feel. But I don't think she was happy about it."

Chi-Chi's eyes were wide with realisation.

"Do you know what the problem was?" he asked, eagerly.

Chi-Chi nodded. "I think I do."

"Well, what was it?"

"You see, she's-"

She abruptly stopped, frowning.

"Actually…I don't think I'm the best person to be explaining it to you. Maybe, if you talked to someone with more experience…"

Experience?

Chi-Chi started counting on her fingers, muttering to herself.

"Krillin," she decided. "You should talk to Krillin about it. I'm sure he understands what Videl's feeling right now."

Krillin? Gohan wasn't expecting that. Perhaps he could go to Kame House today and talk to him…

Maybe not. It's a bit late. Marron's probably sleeping. He didn't want to wake her up.

Tomorrow. He'd go tomorrow, and ask Krillin what was wrong. Then he could start getting back together with Videl.

The only problem was – he'd see her at school tomorrow.

[AN: I hope you guys aren't too hard on these fictional characters! Just so you know, there isn't a particular 'right side' to this argument. If you don't agree with Videl, that's fine. And if you don't agree with Gohan, that's fine, too.]