Chapter Five: Mischievous Trunks

Chapter Notes:

On introductions:

In Japanese, when one introduces himself/herself for the first time, more likely than not, a person will use "Hajimemashite" which directly means "It's the first time" or literally "Pleased to meet you" followed by "Yoroshiku-onegaishimasu" which means "I'll be in your care." I just thought that I would incorporate this in this fanfic.

On Lime's surname:

I'm assuming that Lime's father is Mr. Lao's son therefore making her surname Lao as well.

A/N: I just want to point out that I support the polygamous pairing between Bulma x Goku x Chichi, therefore, I will try to cushion my bias in the best way I can possible for the Vegeta x Bulma fans.

"Are you really Videl Satan?"

"Oh boy, here we go again." Videl rolled her eyes, expecting enquiries about her father and how he defeated Cell. Either that or she expected Lime to ask for her autograph because of her reputation as the city's best crime fighter.

It was immediately after Lime introduced herself that Ms. Mademoiselle asked her to occupy Sharpner's seat since he wouldn't be attending school until he had fully recovered both physically and mentally from the trauma of losing his baby seed makers.

As soon as she sat down, Erasa talked past Videl and introduced herself and Videl to Lime and, when she heard Videl's full name, Lime asked her the question which Videl was so used to being asked.

"Yeah," she replied in a bored tone.

Although took pride in being 'The Man who Defeated Cell's' daughter, she was sick and tired of fake people trying to be her friend because of the very same reason. In fact, she hated it when people befriended her for the purpose of bragging to their other friends about as though she was some prize trophy. She didn't expect Lime's reply, however.

"Wow. What's it like to be the daughter of a phony?" Lime sneered.

"Excuse me?"

Videl Satan was offended. She suspected that her father was lying about defeating Cell, but she had no proof yet and so, no matter how much she hated being lied to; she couldn't bring herself to dislike her own father until she had proof which is why she was so obsessed with finding out who the Golden Fighter was so that she could corner him and interrogate him. For now, however, she still prided herself as Mr. Satan's daughter and that pride was wounded by Lime's response.

"You heard me," Lime said with disdain. "What's it like being the daughter of a liar and a weakling?"

"Now you look here, missy," Videl huffed while standing up in anger. "What gives you the right to call my father a liar?" she half shouted.

"Vat are you doing, Ms. Satan? Sit down!" screeched Ms. Mademoiselle before continuing with her lesson, "Now… Alice says to ze mouse, 'Ou est ma chatte?'"

Lime snickered and whispered back to Videl, "Because I know who really defeated Cell."

Videl made a 'hmpf!' sound before falling into deep thought. This could be an opportunity for her to find out more and so, she vowed to have a word with the new student later on.

The next period was P.E. which was a nice break from hearing Ms. Mademoiselle's voice for two hours straight. Having her as their homeroom teacher as well as their literature teacher was no joke. The students were glad that they only had to deal with two consecutive periods of her every Friday and as soon as the bell chimed, they rushed out of the classroom as quickly as they could.

The series of unpleasant events that Dende and Piccolo predicted continued and Gohan found himself facing his muscular P.E. teacher Mr. Neggerschwarze once again.

"To quote Arnold Schwarzenegger, 'Bodybuilding is much like any other sport. To be successful, you must dedicate yourself 100% to your training, diet and mental approach'," the buff teacher began. "With that said, look at my beautiful muscles! Ahem. Please, forget I said the last part. Yes… now, where was I? Oh, yes."

Gohan prayed to Dende asking his alien friend for a light consideration, but the young Namekian had different plans.

"Since it's raining, we can't go out to the fields today," Mr. Neggerschwarze continued. "So, my young ducklings, I will give all of you a treat. Instead of being out in the cold rain, I booked the heated pools at the last minute and I hope you appreciate that because I had to fight with the other P.E. teachers to give you that privilege. With that said, please go to the locker rooms and change to your swimming wear. You know where the pools are. I will see you in about five minutes."

All the students rejoiced except for Gohan. There was a reason that he wore long sleeved and baggy clothes and now he was certain that he would attract unwanted attention to himself despite how hard he tried to keep a low profile. To top it all off, he now had to worry about both Videl AND Lime.

Resigning himself to the situation, he followed the males to the changing room and hoped for the best.

"Hey, isn't that new girl hot?"

Gohan's sensitive hearing picked up a conversation. The entrance of Lime was a hot topic among the boys and, following the conversation, Gohan couldn't help but remember the time when he saved her and accidentally touched her breasts and he would never forget how soft they were.

He blushed. Unfortunately for him, Lime didn't forget their awkward meeting either. In the girl's locker room, Videl confronted Lime about their talk earlier.

"So, tell me, Lime. What do you mean when you said you know who really defeated Cell?"

Lime snickered. She didn't actually know, but she had a good feeling about who really defeated Cell. Call it a woman's intuition. As she watched the broadcast of the Cell Games, it didn't escape her notice that the young, blonde haired boy that saved their village from the tyranny of Mr. Borbonne was participating.

Having witnessed first-hand how easily the boy destroyed Mr. Borbonne's Protective Dome with a ki blast, she knows that Mr. Satan is lying about the light tricks and claiming to defeat Cell. She had watched him being easily swatted by Cell and she knew that he was actually a weakling. Normally she would just let him be, but her hate for him started when all the members of Chazke Village (apart from her and her grandfather Mr. Lao) starting hailing the man as a hero. She couldn't believe how easily the villagers forgot who really saved them from Mr. Borbonne and she couldn't take it that they believed Mr. Satan's lies about the light tricks when they too had witnessed first-hand that it wasn't a trick. She smiled sardonically.

"You know what I mean. Do you really believe that your father defeated Cell when you saw how he got swatted down so easily? Do you really think that he could beat him when there were others who could perfectly keep up with Cell when he couldn't?"

Then she said in a bad imitation of Videl's voice, "'But he told me that those were all tricks!'" she laughed. "Well, it's time to wake up and smell the coffee, sweetheart. How blind can you be if you really believe that lying afro?"

It was official. Videl now hated Lime. She didn't know that she could hate somebody this much. She hated the new girl's guts but she grit her teeth and swallowed her pride. She wanted to find out more about what really happened or her conscience wouldn't let her rest.

"So who do you think really defeated Cell, Lime?"

"I don't 'think'. I know who really defeated Cell. He's my fiancé and I think you know him as the Golden Fighter."

"Well, that's not quite true. He's not my fiancé but he might as well be since he has to take responsibility for groping my breasts," thought Lime. As they say, 'once a liar, always a liar'.

Coming from a backwater village, it was common for women in Chazke Village to remain 'pure' until they got married. It was tradition that once a man taints a woman's 'purity' he would then be inclined to marry her and support her for the rest of his life. Therefore, as soon as Lime and Mr. Lao saw in the news videos of the Golden Fighter, Lime convinced her grandfather to send her to Satan City in the hopes of once again meeting Gohan.

"Hmm, so you claim that the Golden Fighter is your fiancé, huh? Alright then, prove it. What's the Golden Fighter's name?" Videl said smugly, expecting Lime to start stumbling around her words in search of a name.

Once again, Lime grinned.

"And why should I tell you? I won't get anything from doing that. I'll tell you what: on the occasion that our teacher holds a martial arts sparring session, fight me. I want to know how weak you are if you were trained by that man," she taunted. "If you can beat me, I'll tell you my fiancé's real identity."

There was a commotion by the poolside when Videl, Erasa and Lime came out of the girl's changing rooms.

The girls crowded around Gohan and were all drooling at the sight of him.

Set aside from the crowd were the males of the class who watched with envy as their crushes or their girlfriends went gaga over the nerd boy. They didn't expect him to hide a muscular physique underneath those baggy clothes and all they could remark was, "He's probably on steroids!" as they tried – and failed – to convince the girls to stop paying attention to him.

"Alright, break it up, break it up!" called out Mr. Neggerschwarze as he entered the pool. "What's going on here – oh, I say!"

Gohan stood with his feet together, looking down at the floor as he blushed in embarrassment. As soon as Videl saw him when the crowd of girls parted, she too was amazed.

"Right, Mr. Son. I think you've just become my new star pupil," Mr. Neggerschwarze joked before he asked the girls to disperse and give the embarrassed teen some space.

Gohan was… muscular. He wasn't just well-defined. From his pectorals, biceps, triceps, abdominal muscles all the way down to his calf muscles, one could say that Gohan was definitely not as geeky as he projected himself to be. If the girls were attracted to him being cute before, they definitely were in love with him now. Such were their thoughts while they dispersed to enjoy the heated water of the pool.

Erasa just smiled knowingly. She knew from her encounter with Gohan that he was hiding a muscular physique. She would never forget the definition of those muscles to her touch and, in fact, she had used his image to fantasize and relieve her… uh… frustrations the other night.

Lime too was entranced, but she couldn't make out one thing. When she looked at the half-Saiyan, she could swear that she had met him somewhere before but couldn't quite make out where. Knowing this, she asked Erasa – whom she got along quite well with unlike Videl, "Hey, Era, who's that guy?"

Delighted that they were close enough to make nicknames for each other, Erasa eagerly replied, "Oh, him? He's a cutie, isn't he? His name is Gohan. Here, I'll introduce you. Gohan!" she waved to get the embarrassed teen's attention.

Gohan was glad to move out of the limelight and was more than happy to walk over to his friends.

"Hey there, cutie. I didn't know you were so muscular underneath that geeky façade," Erasa lied.

Gohan could only laugh while scratching the back of his head while Erasa continued.

"Anyway, I'd like to introduce you to the new girl. Lime, Gohan. Gohan, Lime."

Pretending that it was the first time he met her, Gohan said politely while shaking Lime's hand, "Pleased to meet you, my name is Son Gohan."

Noting Gohan's firm grip, Lime thought to herself, "His name is the same as that blonde boy I met seven years ago. Could it be - ?"

"Hi, nice to meet you. I'm Lao Lime, I'll be in your care from now on," she said while bowing slightly to Gohan.

She then made it a point to investigate further about Gohan while searching for the Golden Fighter, though, like Videl, she suspected that Gohan had something to do with the Golden Fighter.

The rest of the day passed by with only a few incidents where Gohan was assaulted by various females asking him if he was taking anyone out for a Valentine's date and if he wasn't would he be willing to take them instead, causing Erasa to step in and claim that he had already asked her out and she had agreed thus ending the matter altogether.

During lunch, Lime was exposed to Gohan's incredible appetite though she didn't see it as strange as the others had when they first saw Gohan eating.

"So are you two going out together?" she asked Erasa and Gohan.

Gohan simply blushed and stuttered, "N-no! You got it wrong! Erasa already has a b-boyfriend."

Erasa just teased him by cheekily saying, "Wow, the way denied it so strongly makes me feel sad," causing Gohan to blush even deeper.

There was a mischievous glint in Lime's eyes as she teased further, "Ehh… so that means Gohan and Ms. Satan here must be together then, seeing how much she's been staring at you for a while now."

Videl had had it enough with the new girl. She had been getting on her nerves since this morning when she made the remark about her father and when she challenged her (which she eagerly accepted) and now she couldn't contain herself anymore when she teased her about Gohan.

"Can't you keep your trap shut for just one minute?" she huffed angrily before storming off to join the queue of students grabbing their lunch. "Erasa, I'll get you your salad this time."

Gohan and Erasa just stared at each other blankly before asking Lime, "What's gotten into her?"

They weren't aware of the conversations between Videl and Lime beforehand and so they were left to imagine the reason why Videl was so angry.

"Oh my, isn't she always like that?"

"Uh… she's normally angry all the time, but I've never seen her burst out like that before," confirmed Gohan.

Lime just patted Gohan's shoulder as if sympathetically and said, "Must be that time of the month for her. Don't worry, you'll know when you get yourself a girlfriend," leaving a very confused Gohan indeed.

The rain had subsided by the time school ended and Gohan had changed into his Great Saiyaman suit before he shot off to the skies.

There was a small hostage taking at a convenience store which he quickly took care of after doing his usual entrance poses before he once again encountered Videl on her jet copter who gave him chase. He normally could outfly the jet copter with his speed, but he knew that Videl would push the machine to its limits in an attempt to catch up to him which could potentially cause her to stall mid-air and crash so he did some maneuvering for thirty minutes before she finally gave up and decided to let him go.

It was a Friday so he decided to pay his God-mother Bulma a visit and so, he made a beeline for the Capsule Corporation headquarters which also served as the Brief family's home.

Walking through the main entrance, the receptionist – a pretty girl called Secretary – recognized the young half-Saiyan and greeted him cheerfully.

"Hiya, Gohan. Here to see Mrs. Briefs?"

"You betcha!" he returned the cheerful greeting before a loud shout echoed across the reception area.

"Secretary, how many times have I told you before? When you refer to me, address me as Bulma. Mrs. Briefs is my mother."

"Bulma!" exclaimed Gohan. He ran up to her and delightedly gave his God-mother a hug.

"Hey, tiger. You greet me like you haven't seen me in ages when I only last saw you this Monday," Bulma laughed.

"I'm sorry, Mrs. Briefs, but I'm afraid I have to address my boss in an appropriate manner," Secretary smiled.

Bulma sighed and shrugged her shoulders. "Oh well, then 'ma'am' should be fine."

"Yes, ma'am."

With that, Bulma ushered Gohan to the 2nd Floor of the Capsule Corporation which served as the family floor.

"So how was your first week of school, tiger?" she asked him affectionately.

She treated Gohan like her own son seeing that he was the child she would bear if the what-if -I-married-Goku situation happened. Bulma didn't deny that the adventures she had with Goku as a teenager had a big impact on her life and, at some point, she even harbored a crush on him after he returned from training at Kami's Lookout as a teenager. Of course, that was all in the past now that she had married Vegeta, but there are times when she wondered if she really made the right choice looking at how her husband treated her. However, whenever she saw her son, Trunk's smile, those thoughts would immediately disappear and she was glad to have carried and given birth to a fine young warrior, mischievous as he is. Still, there was a certain amount of affection that she held for Goku and his family and, if they ever needed help, she wouldn't hesitate to go out of her way to provide it.

"It was alright, I had a little bit of trouble but nothing I can't handle," Gohan reassured his God-mother.

"You certainly don't sound like you can handle it," laughed Bulma. "So what is it? Girl problems?"

"Aha, ahahahaha," chuckled Gohan nervously while scratching the back of his head which greatly reminded Bulma of the late Goku. "Yeah, throughout the week I've been hounded by this girl called Videl because she suspects that I'm the Golden Warrior and the Great Saiyaman. Then today, a girl I saved seven years back transferred to my class. Thankfully she doesn't seem to recognize who I was since I was in Super Saiyan form back then."

Gohan had deliberately excluded information about Erasa clinging on to him because he knew that Bulma being Bulma would tease him about it.

It was at that moment when the young Trunks entered the room.

"Hi, mum. Do you know what happened to my – Gohan!" the purple haired half-Saiyan exclaimed. "How have you been? Did you come here to play with me?"

"Hey, sport. Not quite, but I can always make time if you want me to," Gohan smiled.

"Really? Cool! Gohan, you're the best!"

"Now, Trunks-honey, me and Gohan are talking right now. Come back later when we're done talking, alright?"

"Yes, mummy," Trunks said before going off to God-knows-where. He stopped by the doorway though when an idea came to his mind and asked, "Hey, Gohan, which class did you say you were in?"

"Uh, I'm in Class 1A in Orange Star High School," was Gohan's puzzled reply.

"Right. I'll see you in the Game Room when you're done, okay?"

"Sure, sport. I'll see you then."

With that, Trunks left Bulma and Gohan to talk in peace.

"Look at him, the energetic little snowball," Bulma remarked.

"Haha, yeah. He reminds me of Goten."

"Hm, Goten's a lot more innocent than him though. Sometimes I have a hard time making sure he doesn't go overboard with his pranks. In any case, what were we talking about again? Oh! Right. Girl problems."

Bulma continued to give Gohan advice while somewhere in Capsule Corporation, Trunks Briefs had a genius idea. He looked up to his mother for her love and kindness plus the fact that she was a lot looser with him compared to Chichi with Goten, but that doesn't stop him from using her name to play a prank on Gohan.

He dashed to his room and started throwing things around from under his bed in search for something. Finally, he found it. Holding up a bow-tie with various dials, he played with the settings until he got his mother's voice pitch before he picked up the in-built phone in his room and dialed the reception.

"Yes, Secretary speaking, what can I help you with?" Secretary answered with a puzzled expression.

It was unusual for the Briefs family to contact her through their private home phones which were hooked up to the receptionist's desk such that a light will flash on the dashboard to show her that it's an important call and she must put any call on hold to answer.

"Hello," the voice of Bulma Briefs came through. "Secretary, could you contact Orange Star High School and request for Class 1A – that's Class 1A for Alpha – to have a three day two night visit here at Headquarters?"

"Not a problem, ma'am. When would you like to book this visit?"

"Hmm, let's see. How about a month from now? Tell them to surprise the students and announce it only the day before the visit."

"Duly noted, ma'am."

And with that, Trunks smiled mischievously throughout the afternoon while playing with Gohan all the way up till when he slept.

End of Chapter Five
To be continued...