Chapter Eight: A New Life

Chapter Notes:

A/N:

Steam rose from the pots and the chefs in the kitchen were running around like headless chickens in the process of trying to complete their work on time.

It was a well-known fact that the 'Mandarin Duck' was one of the most venerated Chinese restaurants in the whole of Satan City and the amount of customers it got every day was not a trifle.

Starting from a humble background, through its 'food-made-from-home' recipes, the owner managed to attract a lot of customers from moved from East City to Satan City. These people later became their regular patrons thus providing the owner with enough funds to start another branch and market his business until eventually it grew into the well-known chain of restaurants that it is today.

Lime walked briskly, carefully maneuvering her way through tables and customers' feet while expertly carrying five dishes of food.

On her way to work, she encountered Gohan and Erasa and something about the young man piqued her interest. Though, now was not the time to ponder about that, so she concentrated on delivering the customers' orders to their table.

She was doing very well and was on her umpteenth delivery when a hand shot out of nowhere and squeezed her bum.

Shocked and surprised at the same time, she dropped the plates that she was carrying and slapped whoever it was on the face.

As the plates hit the floor with a loud 'crash', people's heads turned towards her direction.

The man in a perfect business suit who groped Lime's arse clutched his face in pain. There was a red mark where Lime slapped him, but more importantly, he felt like he was hit by a brick!

With tears in his eyes, he exclaimed, "HEY! What the hell?"

Lime's eyebrows furrowed in anger and she shot back, "'What the hell' yourself, you pervert! I know it was you who touched my arse just now."

"I did not!" the man denied. "Don't accuse me of such bull just because you dropped those plates, you lousy waitress!"

"You liar!" an exasperated Lime retorted. "We can check the surveillance cameras if you want."

Knowing that he was caught, the man shut up and could only glare back at Lime as a large man wearing Chinese clothing walked over to their table. Around this man's chest was a name-tag showing his name and his position.

"What seems to be the problem here, Sir?" the man enquired calmly despite the situation.

The man opened and closed his mouth like a fish and was just about to speak when Lime beat him to it.

"Manager, this man groped my arse and committed a form of sexual harassment towards me!"

"I did not! A lowly waitress like you dares to accuse me of such insolence? And more importantly, I can have you sued for assault and physical violence!"

The man knew that he was at fault, but it was for the sake of keeping his pride that he denied the accusation.

"As I said, go ahead and check the camera," Lime said smugly.

The manager cut in and said, "Sir, I deeply apologize for this, but if you could please come with me for a moment…"

He led the man through the crowd of people into his office with Lime following closely behind. Then he opened his computer and rewinded the camera by a few minutes.

Now, the owner knew that he couldn't be stingy on the infrastructure of the building and he also had to meet industry standards by paying for expensive exhaust pipes, kitchen stoves, refrigerators, etc. He also wanted to project a professional look to attract his customers so he spent a fair bit of capital on the plates and other utensils to be of a premium grade and design. Also, he knew that there were jobs available everywhere and so he had to pay his staff a higher wage to retain them, which explains why Lime worked there. As such, despite the advanced technology at that time, the owner tried to cut down on the rest of his expenses by only paying for the basic, low-end surveillance cameras used in the restaurant.

These cameras were fine for recording faces of people in case of a robbery, but the videos it took were choppy and wasn't enough to capture an arse groping that happened for only a fraction of a second.

Thus, against his better judgement, the manager had to apologize to the man despite his caring for his staff's well-being, but, using the lack of evidence to his advantage, the man insisted, "I want this girl fired or I will sue this company for false accusations!"

The nerve of the guy!

With that, the manager had no choice but to dismiss Lime in front of the man. However, afterwards when the man had left, he apologized to the brown haired girl and attempted to employ her again but Lime declined.

Lime, after witnessing people from her village hail Mr. Satan as a hero and be blinded by him that the Z-fighters were fakes despite them seeing first-hand that the so called 'light tricks' were real, could only wonder what the world had come to. After Mr. Satan's lies and this incident, her faith in humanity further diminished.

Knowing that incidents like this could happen again if she continued working in the 'Mandarin Duck', she declined the offer and worried about getting a new job to support herself.

Up on Kami's Lookout, Dende shook his head.

Humans are creatures driven by their emotions.

"Sure, there are humans that are logical and have better control over themselves, but nobody is perfect and there will come a time when even the most reasonable and logical person will have his shortcomings," Dende concluded.

He had witnessed many scenes where unreasonable humans got their way and, in fact, he had also witnessed how Erasa got disowned and kicked out of her house. During all those times, he wanted to intervene but alas, he knew that he couldn't mess with the natural order of life.

Everything happened for a reason.

Dende, as the Guardian of the Earth, knew this and so, he could only intervene when the balance of good and evil between humans was tipped too much to one side otherwise he couldn't directly interfere with how fate worked. Therefore, he could only sigh and continue silently observing the world.

The sleek, brand new, prototype jet copter landed on the grass patch near the Son residence.

It was already dark by the time they had arrived and Gohan, despite cursing silently and impatiently to himself throughout the whole journey about the machine's speed, still found space in his heart to thank his God-mother for inventing a faster version of the jet copters out in the market because otherwise, it would have took them longer to arrive at their destination.

As soon as they arrived, Gohan led Erasa through the front door of his house without knocking.

"The house is small, but it's well maintained and cozy," remarked Erasa as she entered the house while noticing the wonderful smell of cooking.

The moment they entered, Chichi rushed from inside the kitchen to greet her son.

"Gohan, you're finally home!" she said. "I've heard everything from Bulma."

Turning to the blonde girl, she said, "And you must be Erasa. Oh this is so exciting! I'm going to have grandchildren at last!"

Truth be told, Chichi's initial reaction when she found out that Gohan was coming home with a girl was far from what it was now.

During the conversation on the phone with Bulma, Chichi bit through her handkerchief and cried, "My baby is eloping with a girl!"

Then, through clenched teeth, she angrily said, "Bulma, I can't believe you encouraged my baby to do such a thing. Shame on you! The moment they reach here, I will tell that shameless hussy to keep her hands off my baby and send her back where she came from."

Then she added, "If Gohan didn't need a high school qualification to go to university, I wouldn't have sent him to high school in the first place! I mean, it's just a piece of paper! Can't you just forge one for him and sign it, Bulma? That should be enough, shouldn't it? Do that, while I call the school and inform them of Gohan's withdrawal."

Bulma already expected this reaction and said, "Calm down, Chichi. You're over-reacting to the situation."

"I AM PERFECTLY CALM YOU BLUE HAIRED WOMAN!"

Holding the phone at hand's length, Bulma waited until Chichi had spoken her mind.

When she was sure that her good friend had finished talking, she put the phone back to her ear and continued, "Think about it, Chichi. Aren't you glad that you raised your son to be so gentle, caring and kind hearted? Don't you think that it's good that he saved a young, teenage girl from being kicked out into the street?"

"THAT DOESN'T MEAN THAT HE HAS TO BRING HER HOME!" Chichi shouted before crying emotionally and saying, "Only the first week of school and my poor baby's already bringing home women. Uwaaaa…"

Sensing that Chichi couldn't be convinced with the normal approach, Bulma decided to take drastic measures.

"Look, Chichi, I'm growing old. And you're growing old. What do you think would happen if Gohan married when he's in his late twenties or thirties? You would have less time to spend with your grandkids then, wouldn't you? In fact, he might decide to postpone having kids for five more years even after he marries at that age. You might even die before you meet your grandchildren!"

There was a few seconds of silence in the phone before Bulma heard Chichi's voice again, this time, with a tone different from the angry one that she had.

"Oh my Dende! You're right. Oh, this is so exciting. I'm going to have to start planning for names…"

Bulma sighed in relief. It appeared that her threat had worked and, somehow, she had successfully convinced the somewhat psychotic wife of her best friend to concede with letting Erasa stay in her house.

"Moooom!" Gohan groaned. "We're not in a relationship like that! Erasa's just a friend!"

Erasa's felt like she was just stabbed through the heart, but she knew that what Gohan said was true, though, a part of her hoped that there was room for a change of heart in the young half-Saiyan.

Chichi, on the other hand, dismissed her son's words and said, "Oh hush. Is he taking care of you properly, dear? Tell me how you two met. Oh, this is amazing! My son, bringing home a beautiful girl – I'm the world's happiest mother!"

Attacked by a barrage of words from Chichi, Erasa could only be bewildered and stammer, "Um… I… wha-?"

As Gohan tried to continue his denial, Chichi just grabbed the young blonde's hands and led her through to the second floor.

"...that right there is mine and my husband's room. And right across is Gohan and his younger brother's room. Oh, I'm sorry dear, I would love to let you both stay in the same room and have time to yourselves," she said suggestively, "But Gohan's younger brother is rather attached to him so I can't make him stay in another room."

She ushered a rather bewildered Erasa through a third room which contained a large bed that could probably be slept in by five people.

"Right. This is the guest room. It's normally used by my father whenever he visits, but it's all yours from now on. If my father ever comes by, I'll just make him sleep on the couch."

With that, she told Erasa that she had to continue with cooking dinner and bid her a short farewell.

Somewhere in Chazke Village, an old man coughed.

He covered his mouth with his hand only to find that blood had dyed his palm red.

He was dying.

Mr. Lao was dying and he knew it. He felt it in his bones and he knew that his time was almost up. He thought back and blamed it on his age. He was 102 years old though he didn't look like it. Living in an area free from the air pollution, eating healthy, fresh food from the mountains, drinking natural and clean water and exercising daily, he managed to preserve his life longer but even that wouldn't be enough to stop the course of nature.

Seven years ago he wouldn't have minded passing away. He was glad to have lived up to 95 at that time and still manage to retain his physical abilities unlike most elderly people who lived in the cities. However, an incident happened that would change his and his granddaughter's lives.

A monster known as Cell had come to the world and killed his son and his daughter-in-law's lives.

They were revived through the Dragon Balls, but they died again shortly after in a car crash.

Having no other relatives, he took care of Lime and worked long hours as a shopkeeper in his general store. When he had free time, he would also do odd jobs - mostly which required physical labor.

Now, he was nearing the end of his life but he held on, hoping to at least see his granddaughter complete her education. It was then that he and Lime watched the news and heard of the Golden Fighter.

He knew from experience that this mysterious crime fighter was the boy that he had met seven years ago. Lime seemed to know that too and so, she tried to convince him to send her to Satan City in the hopes of meeting and settling down with the mysterious figure, though, he didn't really need convincing. He knew that the boy would be perfect for his granddaughter. He knew that if they ended up together, the boy would take care of Lime.

So, he decided to pool up his savings to send her to Satan City. He didn't have much, but it was enough to send her to a cheap homestay.

Lime knew this. She knew that her grandfather was dying and she knew that despite that, he still worked himself to the ground to support her, and so, she decided to work part-time to help her grandfather pay for the rent and support herself through high school.

As Mr. Lao reflected, a tinkling sound could be heard signaling that a customer had come.

"Welcome! How may I help you?" he said hoarsely. His voice was not how it used to be. "Ah, it's you, Sherry."

A dark haired girl entered the store. In her hands, she carried a lunch box.

"You're always working so hard, Mr. Lao. Here, take this lunch box. It's the least I can give you for your efforts," she said somewhat shyly.

Mr. Lao smiled and accepted the lunch box. The teen had been visiting him for about a year now and had always given him a boxed lunch much to Lime's chagrin. He knew that he shouldn't be accepting the lunch box, but the girl had cried when he rejected the first time and so, he continued accepting these lunch boxes even after Lime had left.

Mr. Lao thought that he was coughing blood and dying because of his old age, but in fact, that wasn't the case.

As soon as she had left the general store, Sherry looked around to see if anyone was watching her. When she was sure that it was safe, she made her way to the rubble that used to be the Protective Dome.

"Have you given him the lunch box?" a short, dark haired man asked.

"Yes, Mr. Borbonne," she confirmed. "Now, as per usual…"

The short con-man nodded his head and handed the girl a wad of cash.

Then, he smiled cruelly and thought to himself, "Soon, my revenge to that girl - the brat who spoiled my plans will be complete."

Dinner came and Erasa found herself sitting in front of a battlefield.

She tried taking her share of the food when, out of nowhere, a hand would grab the dish before she could even touch it. This happened continuously for a while before she eventually put down her spoon and fork and gave up.

"Huh, why aren't you eating, honey?" Chichi asked her. "Did you want chopsticks as well?"

"Ah, no. I don't even know how to use them," she replied politely.

She still felt awkward about living with Gohan and it still didn't seem real to her.

Goten chose that moment to speak with his mouth full of food.

"Rhat? Ru ron't know haff to ruse ropschtix?"

"Goten! How many times have I told you not to speak with your mouth full?" she said after she hit him on the head with a ladle before adding, "Shame on you, young man."

Goten swallowed his food in one big gulp and said, "Sorry, mum," before addressing Erasa.

"You don't know how to use chopsticks?" he said eyes wide with astonishment. He had been taught how to properly use them since he was a child so he couldn't believe that someone would not know how to use them.

A tiny bead of sweat poured down from Erasa's head down to her temple as she tried to not be embarrassed.

"Well, I lived in a Western home and so I've always used spoons and forks my whole life."

Goten furrowed his brows in thought and smiled widely.

"No biggie! I'll teach you."

He scooted over to sit beside Erasa before he forced her to hold a pair of chopsticks.

"You know, bro, you really shouldn't be forcing her since she can just use a spoon and a fork."

"Shut up, you meanie! You told me that you were going to play with me when you come home, but you never did," Goten pouted.

"Now, now, Goten. Be nice. I've already told you that Gohan had to save this young girl."

"Oh yeah. That's right! Mummy said you're going to be my big sister!" Goten beamed as he looked at Erasa with eyes full of respect.

At this, both Erasa and Gohan blushed before Goten continued.

"Alright, brother, I forgive you. But you have to play with me after dinner, okay?"

Forgetting to deny that statement, Gohan smiled and patted Goten's head. "Sure thing, squirt."

And so, Gohan and Goten finished eating their dinner and Erasa was joined by Chichi on the table.

They both watched as Goten presented Gohan with a rubber ball which Gohan took and threw around the house gently while yelling "Fetch!"

She was quite amused at this sight and Goten reminded her greatly of a puppy, when all of a sudden, Chichi bombarded her with a series of questions specifically about how she and Gohan met and avoiding sensitive topics like about her parents and her home.

After Chichi was done grilling her, I mean… when Chichi was satisfied, Erasa excused herself and took a long hot bath while thinking to herself, "Is this really alright?"

She was happy staying with the Son family but she was conflicted. "They seem to accept me so well, but I'm worried."

She thought that the more Gohan's family accepted her, the harder it would be for them to accept Videl when the time came and her and Gohan did start going out with each other. This conflict within herself kept on going until she entered a troubled sleep.

It was dark.

And in that darkness, a light shone.

The light revealed a crying little girl. She had long, waist-length blonde hair like her father's, but her eyes were blue like her mother's, but that didn't matter. All that mattered was that she felt alone. Neither her mother nor her father cared for her.

It was so cold.

And then, another light appeared.

The other light revealed a raven haired girl. She had a frown on her face like the one she always had when they grew up, but when she noticed the blonde girl, she walked over to her, held out her hand and smiled.

"What's wrong?" she asked.

The blonde girl sniffled and told her story, and the raven haired girl nodded sympathetically then hugged her and said, "It will be all right. I'm here… I'm your friend."

Then she took out a large pair of scissors and looked at the blonde haired girl menacingly.

The blonde girl screamed in horror and tried to push the raven haired girl away but the girl was too strong and she stood steadfast ready to use the pair of scissors.

"Don't worry… I'm your friend."

Gohan had finished showering when he heard Erasa scream.

He rushed over to her room and gently shook her awake.

"Erasa… Erasa!" he raised his voice.

Erasa jolted awake, her body shivering.

"Gohan, I-"she sobbed as she remembered the vivid dream that she just had.

Gohan just made a shushing noise and embraced her in his arms while saying, "It's alright. It's just a nightmare. I'm here now."

He did so because he genuinely cared for his friend's well-being. Not knowing what she was dreaming about, he assumed that Erasa was still traumatized by the events that afternoon and so he took it upon himself to console her, but, for some reason, he found himself wanting to kiss her on the forehead.

And he did.

End of Chapter Eight

To be continued...