Chapter Seven: Disowned

Chapter Notes:

The currency in the Dragon Ball Universe is 'zenny'. Apparently, it is a rough equivalent of the Japanese yen, but for this fanfiction, assume that it's equivalent to your currency - unless you live in one of the countries where zeroes in money is insignificant unless in the millions - then assume that it's equivalent to the U.S. Dollar.

Videl Satan was carefully searching through the phone directory in search for a lead about Gohan's private life. She had done a careful search on the internet and found nothing on BookFace and Tweeter about Gohan's profile.

"Doesn't this guy use any social networking site at all?" she complained.

Of course, living out in the sticks, Gohan only had access to cabled TV and the basic phone lines thanks to Bulma's influence. He didn't have access to the internet and, even if he did, he would most likely be only using it for educational purposes since he didn't really need a social networking account seeing that he didn't have any friends his age until now.

Not knowing that, Videl did a thorough background check on Gohan, but even her contribution to public security didn't grant her access to the police's database so she had to make do with the limited resources that she had access to.

"Another dead-end, huh?" she thought to herself. Pushing off from her table, she swiveled and spun around in place using her adjustable computer chair with her eyes closed.

She was trying to relax and let off some stress. It was the first time in her life that she had difficulty getting what she wanted. Normally, with a snap of her finger, her father would get her anything that she wanted (as long as it wasn't related to dating a guy – not that she was interested in dating one anyway, she thought to herself). This also worked with anyone who knew who she was, but for some reason, it didn't apply to Gohan. Indeed, she felt that he treated her like she was just another normal human being instead of the celebrity treatment that everyone else gave her.

In a way, it felt nice to be treated like another human being, but she was frustrated. It had already been a week since she knew him and a week since she started her investigations, but still – nothing.

There was a knock on the door followed by a soft, humble voice.

"The bath is ready, young miss."

It was one of the monks that served as the Satan family's butlers. Shaved bald and clad in orange, her father had gotten their absolute loyalty when he saved the world.

"Alright, I'm coming!" she called out.

She stood up and left for the bath room – a large room in the Satan mansion that housed a large heated pool that her father, Mr. Satan, called a bath tub - separate from the shower rooms. It was getting late and she had to rise early to accompany her father in one of his public speeches.

Investigating Gohan would have to be continued on another day.

"Daddy!" exclaimed a surprised Erasa. "What are you doing here? Weren't you supposed to be on an important dinner with other businessmen?"

At the broken oak door entrance, a blonde, waist-length haired man stood with a furious expression on his face. A quick glance at him and you could tell that he was a very wealthy man. Everything he wore on himself are designer branded and, looking at his watch, one could see that it was a brand that costs at least 25,000 zenny, so it wasn't hard to imagine how much the rest of his clothes cost.

"I was. Until a certain maid called in panic about a person breaking down my front door," he said pointedly.

He held out his hand and touched the broken hinges of the door.

"This..." he paused, "Cost me 5,000 zenny to install. Ah, yes. It's a very fine piece of oak… very old, very expensive."

Then he looked at Gohan and then at Erasa and continued.

"So tell me, daughter," he never referred to Erasa by her name, showing how distant their relationship as father and daughter is. "Why would this young man come to my house, destroy my door and cause distress to my servants? More importantly, why are you naked with him?"

"Ah! I, um, uh…" Gohan stammered, not knowing what to say. He wasn't scared of the man, no. He was simply considering how to reply to make the situation less worse for Erasa. Unfortunately, this had the opposite effect.

"SILENCE!" bellowed Rubber Eraser. Then he sneered at Gohan.

"I am talking to my daughter right now. You best learn not to interrupt, you low-class plebian."

"Daddy, he has nothing to do with this! Leave him alone – please!"

Rubber Eraser glared at Erasa just as Vinyl Eraser came in.

"What's going on – oh my!"

"Your daughter… has brought home a man and slept with –"

"I didn't sleep with Gohan! I swear I didn't!"

"- and slept with him!" Rubber raised his voice to show that he didn't care about what Erasa wanted to say. He didn't want to be interrupted. "Not only that, the boy also broke through the front door and caused our servant distress! And, if I'm not mistaken, the servant also reported being asked to allow a group of rowdy teenagers to enter our home."

Vinyl listened to her husband speak and she too, looked at Erasa and Gohan with disdain.

"We were in the middle of a very important conversation about business just now and your father suddenly excused himself and left. Do you know how damaging that would be to his reputation?"

At this point, tears began to flow from Erasa's eyes. "Yes, it's always about dad! Dad and his business, dad this and dad that, isn't it?"

"I will not be spoken to like that, Erasa!"

"Both of you, QUIET!" a very irritated Rubber shouted. "I thought you were useless to have as a daughter. I didn't even want you to be born in the first place. But things finally started to look up! I was going to arrange for your marriage with the son of the owner of a large company and expand my business empire, but I see this! How can I marry you off when you've already given your chastity?"

"I did not! I swear I haven't!"

Either he ignored her or he genuinely didn't hear her, but Rubber continued. "You have disgraced the family, girl! I think it's time you learned a lesson. From here on, I disown you! Get out of my house, or I will call the police and hand you over as a trespasser."

Erasa looked at her mother, hoping for support, but her mother only continued to look at her as if she was a piece of trash. Vinyl obviously agreed with her husband unconditionally.

Erasa, seeing the look that both her parents were giving her just sat frozen in shock. She couldn't believe that they would go to the extent of disowning her.

"Where am I going to live now?" she asked herself.

She didn't want to inconvenience her best friend Videl.

"Maybe I can live at Sharpner's for a while. I'm still in good terms with him and his parents."

It was then that Gohan lifted her up and asked Rubber politely, "Um, excuse me, but where's her room?

"What?" was Rubber's confused reply.

He couldn't believe that the young man, after witnessing the shouting and the situation between him and his daughter, could remain so calm.

"I said, 'Where's her room?'"

"And why should I tell you that?"

"Well, you're disowning her, right? She'll have to have her clothes at least."

Rubber grunted. It was a logical argument so he gave Gohan directions to Erasa's room and added, "I'll give her ten minutes to grab whatever she can before I'll consider it trespassing."

Gohan acknowledged and carried Erasa to her room.

"Gohan, what are you doing?" she asked confusedly.

Gohan blushed and said sheepishly, "Well, it seems to be my fault that you're being disowned so I'm taking responsibility."

"You don't have to do that! You know it wasn't your fault. You just saved me from Durago and his gang, that's what you did. You didn't do anything wrong," Erasa argued.

"Ah, well. I still feel bad about the whole thing, so…"

"Gohan, you're so sweet, but really, you don't have to. I can ask Sharpner if he could let me stay at his house. I'm sure his mother would be glad to have me around."

"I've made my decision, Erasa. You're staying at my house," Gohan said definitely thus ending the argument.

In reality, Gohan didn't want Erasa to stay at his house. He had so many secrets that would be revealed if Erasa stayed with him, but his conscience told him that it was partly his fault that Erasa had been kicked out of her house and so he felt compelled to offer her shelter.

He thought about asking Bulma to offer Erasa lodging, but he realized that living with Bulma would be worse for keeping his secrets since Vegeta was too proud to lie and hide that they - the Z-fighters - were the ones that helped hold Cell at bay. He also thought about the ordeal Erasa would live through if she lived with Trunks and his pranks, so ultimately, he had no choice but to offer her accommodation at his house.

"It wouldn't be so bad," he thought as he tried consoling himself. "With Bulma and the Capsule Corporation, Erasa will find out about all of my secrets, but if she stayed at my house, she'll find out about some, but I know she's reasonable and I can ask her to keep it a secret," he told himself.

He genuinely felt that Erasa can keep quiet about his secrets seeing that she didn't argue with him about his strength even after she witnessed it. With those thoughts, he waited for Erasa to pack some of her clothes and essentials in a small backpack.

"Are you sure about this, Gohan?" Erasa asked him uncertainly after she had packed and worn something decent.

She was grateful for the offer, but at the same time, she didn't really want to impose on him as she had only known him for a week.

"I'm positive. Now come on, let's boogie. We have to drop by somewhere first."

"Now, don't be surprised if I tell you where we're going, okay?"

"I've seen you send a person flying with a flick of your finger. What else can surprise me?"

"Uh… yeah… about that. Would you mind keeping that a secret from everybody else? I would really appreciate it."

"Hmm… well, you are letting me stay with you so I guess it's only fair to keep your secrets."

Gohan thanked Dende that Erasa was reasonable unlike someone that he had to deal with almost every day in school.

He scratched the back of his head in a very Goku-like fashion and laughed nervously.

"Thanks, Erasa. I mean, I really appreciate it."

Erasa just smiled back at him. "He's so cute when he does that," she thought to herself.

They walked for around fifteen minutes to the train station before Gohan stopped.

"What's the matter, cutie?" she asked him.

She was feeling slightly calmer now that she had a few minutes to process what just happened.

Again, Gohan scratched the back of his head, laughed and said, "Aha, ahaha, ahahaha. Actually, I've never taken the train in my life before! Hahaha."

He had a rough idea of what to do from reading books, but he had never actually taken the train before so he was stuck. He wanted to go to Bulma's house to ask her to lend him a jet copter.

He knew that Erasa already knows about his strength, but she has yet to know that he could fly, so he wanted to keep that as a secret for as long as he could until she eventually finds out after living with him for a while. He also wanted to talk to Bulma and explain the situation to her so that his God-mother could give Chichi a call in advance and explain what was going on, otherwise, he was sure that his mother would skin him alive for bringing a girl home.

"Uh… uhm… Well, you see…" he stumbled around looking for words to say.

Erasa knew that Gohan was about to tell a lie. It was obvious that he was a very bad liar, but she waited for him to come up with a lie anyway. She didn't really mind. To her, she was already madly in love with the young half-Saiyan and she would follow him to the ends of the Universe if she had to without doubting him for a second. In fact, she wouldn't even be surprised to find out if he was an alien and would just keep on loving him unconditionally. Such was the power of love that manifested itself within Erasa.

"Yeah, that's right! I'm going to my God-mother's to borrow a jet copter."

"Huh? Don't you have one already?"

"Um… well… let's see… oh yes. I have one. But it's a one-seater, so I'll have to borrow one that can seat both of us."

Knowing that it was a lie, Erasa didn't ask questions anyway and just followed Gohan blindly.

Soon, the pair encountered a large problem. Gohan didn't know exactly how to use the subway and, despite Erasa teaching him how the system worked, Gohan had never taken the public transport to visit Capsule Corporation, so he drew a blank.

"Let's see…" he mumbled to himself while staring at the map. "This line is yellow – not that that helps – and this line is green…"

Erasa just stood behind him as a few passers-by looked at them strangely.

Gohan scratched his head with both hands in frustration.

"Argh! Why is this so complicated?" he exclaimed. Then he thought to himself, "Man now I know how it feels like to be Vegeta right now, wanting to blast this map to smithereens!"

He calmed himself down and spent a few more minutes trying to make sense of the train lines when he felt a tap on his back.

"Hm? What's up, Erasa?"

"Not Erasa," a familiar voice said.

Gohan turned around and came face to face with a brown haired, green eyed girl.

"Lime!" he exclaimed in surprise.

"Hi there," Lime smiled. "Need any help?"

Noticing that Lime was there, Erasa walked over and greeted her.

"Oh my, oh my, am I interrupting your date?" Lime teased.

Gohan blushed and stammered, "Ah, n-no! We're… we're not on a date. Right, Erasa?"

He turned to Erasa looking for support, but Erasa just added to Lime's teasing by entangling her arm around his and lifting up her bag to show Lime before saying, "That's right. We're not dating. We're eloping."

She then winked at Lime who got the message and went with the flow.

"Oh my! Wow, I never knew you had it in you, Gohan," she nudged him with her elbow. "Anyway, it looks like you need help. May the honorable Lao Lime be of assistance to you two young elopers?"

Gohan was about to deny that Erasa and him were eloping again, but Erasa cut in and said, "Yeah. That would be great, Lime. So where were we going, Gohan?"

"Ah… um… Capsule Corporation."

"Capsule Corporation!?" exclaimed both Erasa and Lime.

"Well," a recovering Lime started. "I don't know why you're going there, but it's on the Green Line five stops from here. After you get down from the station, walk about ten minutes east and you won't miss it."

"Gee, thanks, Lime. You're a life saver," Gohan smiled at her. "By the way, what are you doing out here on a Saturday?"

Lime smiled as she revealed a Chinese dress beneath her overcoat and twirled around. "Tada! Look, it's a cheongsam! I work for a famous chain of Chinese restaurants every afternoon on weekdays and from 5pm to 12am every weekend."

Erasa looked at her with worry.

"Aren't you pushing yourself too much, Lime?"

Lime just gave them a cheerful smile and dismissed her worries.

"Nah. My grandpa works hard alone back at home to send me here. The least I can do is ease his burden by helping with the rent."

It didn't escape both Gohan and Erasa's notice that she had a pained expression while saying that, but they didn't press the matter. Whatever it was, it seemed like a sensitive topic to talk about.

As they said their goodbyes, Gohan wondered if anything happened to the old man, Mr. Lao, back in Chazke Village in the past seven years.

On the other hand, Lime's interest with Gohan grew. Not only did he have the same name as the boy she met seven years ago, his expression was also different from Erasa's when she mentioned her grandfather. While Erasa showed a face of sympathy, worry crossed Gohan's face. It was almost as if he had met her grandfather before. But that couldn't be possible, could it?

The sun had set by the time they arrived at the front doors of Capsule Corporation.

Erasa panted and put her bag down as soon as Gohan stopped walking.

They had been walking for only five minutes, but she was out of breath because Gohan walked too fast. Instead of leisurely walking the distance in ten minutes, Gohan brisk walked and completed the journey in five while Erasa had to half run to keep up with him.

It was getting late and Gohan was worried that his mother would over-react so he was in a hurry to get to Bulma's and explain the situation as soon as he could.

Stepping through the automatic doors, Erasa felt a cool breeze and thanked the legendary Dr. Briefs for inventing the air-conditioner. She didn't mention it to anyone, but she was a great fan of the Briefs family and someday hoped to become a scientist like them.

It was her first time visiting the Capsule Corporation and she marveled at the size of the place. Her parent's house was huge, but it felt like she could fit two hundred of that in here and still have room to spare!

She wondered what business Gohan had at Capsule Corporation as not even her father - who was quite well known in the business world – nor Videl could gain entry into the place and yet, here Gohan was waltzing into the place as if it was his own backyard!

As soon as they entered, they were greeted by the receptionist who seemed to be an acquaintance of Gohan's.

"Gohan! Hiya, there. Here to see my boss?" she said familiarly.

"Hey, Secretary. Yeah. And could you tell her that I'm with a friend please?"

Secretary looked behind Gohan and saw Erasa standing there, scanning the room with her eyes almost popping out. She smirked at Erasa's facial expressions and she knew that the young blonde was burning every image of the place into her mind.

"Sure thing, Gohan. Would you like to go to your room or would you like to wait here?"

"I'll wait in my room, thanks. I have something to discuss with Bulma."

Secretary nodded her understanding and called her boss and informed her of Gohan's visit. She knew that Gohan came by often to help Bulma with her calculations when the eccentric scientist was too busy designing something new to invent and so, she was used to having him come over and discuss matters in strict confidentiality, though today, the reason seemed different altogether.

Gohan led Erasa through the hallways of Capsule Corporation and tried his best to give her a detailed description of the rooms that they passed by.

"If you continue down that way from the receptionist, you'll find yourself in the Atrium. That's where the Brief family pets are housed. The Atrium also leads to the Capsule Room where production of the DynoCaps technology and all the items inside them are made."

As they continued, Gohan led Erasa through an elevator.

"That's the first floor. Guests only get access to the first floor. Other than the first floor, there's the Basement, the 2nd Floor and the 3rd Floor. The Basement and the 2nd Floor is strictly for family members only and can only be accessed by a Red Card. The 3rd Floor leads to the East and West Towers and is available to Staff Members who hold Blue Cards."

As the elevator reached the 2nd Floor, Gohan swiped a Red Card through the reinforced, Saiyan-steel doors.

There were once staff members who tried to break through the family quarters using brute force so the Briefs created artificial Saiyan-steel using the data obtained from researching the Saiyan's spaceship. Of course, it wasn't as strong as the original, but it was definitely an improvement from the normal steel found on Earth. In fact, it was at least twenty times stronger than Carbyne which is the hardest material known to man, so no one had been able to walk through the 2nd Floor unless they were a family member of the Briefs – and for good reason too, seeing that a chance encounter with Vegeta would definitely be detrimental to whoever breaks through.

In a way, the reinforced Saiyan-steel was placed to prevent damage to outsiders, not to the ones who lived there.

As Gohan explained as he walked along, Erasa's head turned to every direction as she tried to take in as much as she could. Her mind was too busy trying to retain the images and information as much as she could in case this was the last time she was allowed through here. She was so preoccupied in fact, that she didn't even ask Gohan why he knew all of this and why he had access to the Brief's personal floor.

The tour ended when Gohan entered a room towards the end of the 2nd Floor.

This was his exclusive room whenever he came by to stay, while his mother, father and even young Goten had their own rooms as well. He sat down on the bed and offered a chair for Erasa to sit on.

There was a few minutes of silence while Erasa digested all that she had seen until the silence was broken by a knock on the door.

"Come in!"

"Gohan! My, what a pleasant surprise. I didn't expect you to start bringing home women already after just one week of school," his God-mother, Bulma, joked.

Erasa just sat there speechless for a few seconds before she snapped out of it and stood up hastily to offer her hand.

"H-hi! My name is E-erasa. I'm ve-very p-pleased to meet you, M-ms. Briefs," she stammered.

She couldn't believe it. She was now in front of the richest woman, no, the richest human in the planet far richer than Mr. Satan and offering to shake her hand!

Bulma took her hand, shook it and said, "Please, call me Bulma. And it's Mrs. Briefs, by the way – though I'd be glad if you didn't tell that to the public."

"Huh? I didn't know you were married, Mrs. Briefs."

"Bulma. And, yes. I'm already married. For a few years now," she laughed. "I even have an eight year old son!"

Erasa couldn't believe it. Bulma's figure was still as though she had never had a child before! Little did she know that Bulma maintained her figure due to the rigorous exercise that she went through in bed with the Prince of Saiyans. Besides that, Erasa also couldn't believe that she missed out on knowing that THE Bulma Briefs, richest and most influential human in the planet had gotten married and had a child.

"Ah, but I've never heard you've gotten married, Mrs. Brie- I mean, Bulma. And I hope it's not too rude to ask, but why did you choose to keep your family's surname?"

"Of course not. I never made it public. And I don't really know. 'Mrs. Bulma Vegeta' didn't exactly sound right, so I decided to keep my family's surname."

"Uh… Bulma," Gohan tried to join the conversation. "I kind of have something important to talk to you about."

"Oh, that's right! How does Gohan know you personally?" exclaimed Erasa. She was so excited at finding out more about the man that she loved as well as the woman that she idolized.

"Oh, that? Gohan's my God-son. His father and I have been best friends since I was a teenager and when he was just a boy. Well, at least, I consider myself his best friend. He considers that short baldy his best friend," Bulma lamented.

"Wow! Gohan, I didn't know that! Why didn't you tell us?" Erasa said.

"Well, um… I-"

"Excuse my God-son, Erasa, he's a very bad liar. But I would be really grateful if you could keep anything you find out about him a secret. Do it as a favor for him and me, please?"

Erasa didn't understand why there's a big need for such secrecy, but she had already given Gohan her word earlier and she never once thought about going back on it. She knew that this was not all and that Gohan was hiding more secrets, but she was content with what she knew and did not intend to delve further, so she nodded her head.

Bulma smiled. The blonde girl was very easy to talk to. She thought that Erasa would make a good girlfriend for Gohan.

"So what did you want to talk about, tiger?" she asked Gohan.

"Actually, Erasa got kicked out of her house and it's kind of my fault so I offered to let her stay in my house, but I'm worried that mum would start shooting her or be nasty to her if I just came home like that so I was wondering if you could contact her and explain the situation for me," Gohan said sheepishly.

"Hmm… I can imagine Chichi doing that," Bulma contemplated the thought. "So tell me, how was it your fault?"

And so, Gohan told his God-mother the whole story starting from when he rang the doorbell. When he finished, Bulma sat in silence for a bit as she processed the information that was given to her.

She thought about it, and no matter how many times she changed her point of view, she could only conclude that it wasn't Gohan's but in fact, it was actually Erasa's fault that she got kicked out and disowned, but she didn't voice that aloud. She has yet to hear Erasa's side of the story and so she refrained from saying anything rash.

For now, she could see that the girl had been through a tough ordeal and so she let the matter slide.

"Alright. I'll explain the situation to Chichi," she finally said. "I know I'll be able to convince her, so rest assured, honey –" she referred to Erasa, "We're all on your side. Come by anytime when you need me, alright?"

In her mind, Erasa was the first girl that Gohan had brought home, so she didn't discount the possibility of them dating in the future despite it starting off as Gohan simply helping the poor girl. And so, she treated Erasa like she was already part of the family.

"Is that really alright?" Erasa asked.

It was an honor and a privilege for her to be able to meet THE Bulma Briefs once in her life, but now she was saying that she could come and visit her anytime! Though she didn't fall in love with Gohan for that reason, she was grateful to him even more for the opportunity.

"Of course, dear. In fact," Bulma pulled out a wallet, a Red Card and a DynoCap. "This is a prototype jet copter that's just been made today. Since you'll be living with the Sons now, you'll have to commute to school, so I prepared this for you. With this, you'll be able to get to school from there in an hour and a half. Pretty neat, huh? This Red Card's so that you can have access to the family quarters of Capsule Corporation the next time you come and visit. I'll tell Secretary to recognize you next time and prepare a room for you here as well. Also, in the wallet's some pocket money for you. I put in a bit of extra so you can buy yourself some clothes seeing that you only managed to salvage a few. You might not know it, but Gohan and his family are just getting by so use the money sparingly until you get yourself a job, alright?"

For the second time that day, tears welled up on Erasa's eyes but, unlike the tears she shed earlier, this time, they were tears of joy. She couldn't believe how nice Bulma and Gohan were being to her. It was as if they were her real family members unlike the parents that she had just left behind.

Thanking Bulma profusely, Erasa left with Gohan on her new jet copter and undertook an hour and a half ride to the 439 East District area.

She was wary of how Gohan's mother will react to her imposing, but little did she know that she had a nice and peaceful life waiting ahead for her at the Son residence.

End of Chapter Seven

To be continued...

A/N: If you are confused on why the story is leaning heavily on Erasa's side, good. It's all according to plan -evil laugh-.

No, seriously, the story isn't going to end anytime soon. There's still Lime's and Videl's side of the story to explore so don't be too quick to make a judgement. Thank you for your patience and please keep reading and reviewing :)