Chapter Nine: Videl vs Lime

Chapter Notes:

For those who don't know, in an interview, Akira Toriyama revealed that Hercule Satan is actually Mr. Satan's stage name.

His real name is Mark Satan which, in Japanese, is read as Maaku Satan. This is an anagram of akuma which means 'devil', thus, keeping the theme of the Satan family names.

A/N: -

It was chilly the next morning and Erasa found herself waking up in an unfamiliar bed.

Then, she remembered that she had actually been disowned and kicked out of her own house and now, she was living with the Sons.

She sat up, rubbed the sleep off her eyes and hugged her knees.

Last night, she had a nightmare. It had elements vaguely about her childhood when she had longer hair. She shivered at the memory of the nightmare but recounted how Gohan shook her and woke her up before hugging her and kissing her on the forehead.

She blushed.

What could it have meant? Did Gohan perhaps have feelings for her as well?

She shook her head and lightly slapped her face with both hands.

It couldn't be. She knew that Gohan was a kind guy who cared for his loved ones and his friends deeply. It probably didn't mean anything other than to comfort her. In her heart, however, she hoped that it wasn't the case. She clung to a tiny hope that it meant what she thought it was.

Son Gohan woke up three hours later to the smell of fried rice.

He got up, took care of his personal hygiene and went downstairs only to be greeted by his mother shooing him away.

"Gohan," she said. "Go out there and take care of the radish farm. Go. Go!"

"But mum!" he argued. "I haven't had my breakfast yet."

It was usual for him to have his breakfast first thing in the morning before he took care of household chores and taking care of the radish farm.

"Don't argue with me, young man. Go out there and take care of those radishes or there will be no breakfast for you, mister!"

Not wanting to compromise his chance of having breakfast, Gohan resigned himself to a slow jog outside before he was greeted by the familiar sight of the neat rows of leaves.

He smiled to himself.

After defeating Cell, he felt like he was the strongest being in the Universe.

After he started going to Orange Star High School, he felt like he was the smartest person among all of the students his age.

It felt like there was nothing more to achieve other than to continue training with Vegeta or to study further and try to become as smart as Bulma - which, he knew was impossible.

As such, the only thing that he felt achievement at was by working hard and watching the family's radish farm grow.

He took a rake and took care of the weeds that grew near the radishes before he watered the whole area.

He didn't bother using insecticide because him and Chichi normally shipped the radishes as 100% organic products.

It didn't take him more than ten minutes to take care of such a large area of grown radishes, but he made a mental note to himself to watch out for Erasa the next time that he did this task. He didn't want her to find out yet that he could move at inhuman speeds.

When he was done, he made his way back to the little dome shaped house.

"Gohan, we're not done yet. Why don't you go outside and play with your younger brother?"

"Aw, but mum… I'm hungry."

Chichi only scowled at him and said, "This is a good exercise to control your hunger, young man. I'm sure you can hold it for about thirty more minutes."

"Th-thirty minutes!?"

There was a shocked expression on Gohan's face and his body posture said it all.

"What could you possibly be doing out there that would take thirty minutes?"

"That's for me to know, and for you to find out. Now go and play with your younger brother," Chichi insisted.

Gohan could only be dispirited. As his shoulders slumped, he called out to his brother passively.

"Alright, squirt. I guess you and me will have to play for thirty minutes."

Goten too, pouted. He had not had breakfast as well, so instead of enthusiastically taking up the offer, he only mumbled a weak, "Okay" before him and Gohan went out to the fields.

Chichi peeked outside the window and watched as her two sons disappeared into a cluster of trees.

When she was sure that they weren't coming back because they forgot something, she finally turned back and said, "Alright, the coast is clear."

Erasa had been in the kitchen the whole time, stirring the food that was frying in the pan and making sure than none of it got stuck or burnt.

She had woken up at five o'clock in the morning unknowingly due to the cold and had woken Chichi through the sound of her showering.

Chichi, instead of being angry for being woken up, only smiled at her. In her head, the thoughts of Bulma's threat about dying before meeting her grandchildren were still fresh and so, she was glad to wake up and see her potential daughter-in-law the first thing in the morning.

"Gee, Mrs. Son. It's cold today," Erasa remarked.

She still felt awkward about staying with the Son Family so she found herself not knowing how to start a conversation with Chichi.

Chichi chuckled and replied, "Well, that's how it is everyday, dear. Don't forget, we live beside a river and at the foot of Mount Paozu so it's only natural. Oh, and please, call me Chichi."

She looked at the time and noted that she had only been woken up ten minutes early from her normal routine and so, she offered to teach Erasa how to cook.

Coming from a rich family, Erasa had never had to cook in her life. That and the feeling of not wanting to simply be a free loader plus her wanting to learn how to cook the food that the man she loved ate, she eagerly accepted the offer much to Chichi's delight.

The two of them had been at it since six o'clock in the morning and it was now two hours after that but it looked like they were nowhere near done.

"Um, do you normally do this everyday?" she asked.

"Oh, yes, dear. Everyday, rain or shine," Chichi laughed. "It's not a surprise if you look at my two boys' appetites."

Erasa looked at the knife that she was holding. She had been slicing pieces of meat and vegetables while Chichi cooked them. This was because she admitted to Chichi that she had never cooked before and so, Chichi taught her that she had to learn from the basics.

"Wow, she must be very dedicated to her children if she did this everyday," she thought to herself.

It was that time that they were interrupted by Gohan and, after a while, Chichi managed to get rid of her son for a further thirty minutes.

Exactly thirty minutes after, Gohan and Goten raced each other home and was greeted by the usual sight of food.

"FOOD!" both of them exclaimed.

They had been holding their hunger in for thirty minutes and they were more than happy to sit down at the table to eat.

As soon as Gohan fed himself with his chopsticks, he noticed the subtle difference in the taste of the food.

"Mum, did you use a different recipe for cooking?" he asked politely.

The food tasted good, but not as good as how it normally was and so he had to ask as politely as he could to not hurt his mother's feelings.

"Oh. No, dear. See, Erasa helped me make breakfast today," Chichi said delightedly.

Gohan smiled. He thought the food tasted different. Not as good as how his mother normally made it, but it was still quite well done.

"Wow, Erasa. It's good! I never thought you could cook."

Erasa blushed and thanked him as she battled with Goten to grab her share of the meal.

"Actually," Chichi began. "Erasa has never cooked before. This is the first time."

"That's nice. Keep it up, Erasa."

"Oh, no. I only chopped the food and stirred it. Chichi did most of the work."

At this point, Goten interjected with a beaming face.

"Wow. You can cook? That's neat!"

Erasa felt a warm feeling in her chest. She felt a sense of achievement and made a mental note to continue learning how to cook under Chichi's tutelage.

Monday morning came and, as usual, our young half-Saiyan hero was deep in sleep when he was woken up by the usual 'klang!' of the frying pan.

"How long are you going to sleep, Gohan? You're going to be late!" his mother screeched.

"Seriously… I purposely bought you an alarm clock and you pound it to dust on the first day of school. Oh, why Dende? Why can't you be up on your own like Erasa?" she grumbled.

Gohan had gotten used to this by now and could only apologize to his mother before he did his usual morning routine and went down for breakfast.

Halfway through eating, he realized that there was one person missing from the table.

"Hey, where's Erasa?" he asked.

Chichi, who was sipping coffee in her '#1 Wife' mug which Goku had gotten for her birthday, said, "Well, she can't fly so she had to wake up earlier than you and leave earlier for school using the new jet copter that Bulma gave her."

"Right," Gohan said, chewing through a piece of toast. "Um, about that. I haven't exactly told her all of my secrets yet, so is it possible to keep as much of them as we can? I know she'll eventually find out, but I hope that won't be until she's ready to accept them."

Chichi nodded. She understood how a normal human would react if she was suddenly exposed to all of their family secrets and she didn't want to scare away her possible future daughter-in-law.

"You heard your elder brother, young man!" she barked at Goten.

Poor little Goten didn't really know what was going on, but he acknowledged anyway.

"Yes, mummy."

Gohan arrived at school late as usual.

He didn't have to fight crime that morning, but he was given the usual morning chase by Videl.

As soon as he entered the classroom, he immediately took his usual seat beside Erasa who greeted him as usual.

He was thankful that Erasa was a very good actor and she acted as though everything was normal and nothing had happened.

Videl arrived a few minutes after him and continued her observation of him just as she had last week.

In her mind, she was thinking about how she couldn't find any lead into Gohan's private life and so, she vowed to observe him ever more vigilantly from now on.

Beside Videl, Lime was more quiet than how she was that Friday when she transferred in.

She was worried that she hadn't managed to get a job yet despite one day of thoroughly looking through the newspapers and scouting the city for job vacancies.

Of course, Videl noted this behaviour down as well as she continued to investigate about the Golden Warrior and the Great Saiyaman. Gohan and Lime were her two main leads and she couldn't afford losing them.

A few boring lessons afterwards, Gohan found himself welcoming the sound of the bell that signalled the start of lunch.

As usual, while he was wondering what his mother had packed for him, he was invited by Erasa to join herself and Videl for lunch.

"Hey, cutie," she said flirtingly. "Wanna join us for lunch?"

It was quite awkward for Gohan who was now living under the same roof with Erasa, but it did a great job of making the situation seem normal and fooled Videl and Lime.

However, both of them weren't blind.

As soon as Gohan had gotten out his lunch, he began inhaling his food as per usual, but Videl was the first to notice something.

"Hey, Erasa aren't you going to go and get your salad?" she observed.

"Oh, no. I made my own lunch today," she said in her usual high-pitched voice.

"Right… That's weird, because I thought you didn't know how to cook."

"Oh… you know. I thought it was about time I started just in case I wanted to get married," Erasa laughed nervously, sweat dripping down her temple.

Videl seemed to accept this reasoning and stood up to order her lunch when Lime too, noticed something.

"Hey, isn't your lunch the same as Gohan's?"

Gohan choked on his food and Videl stopped to thump his back, but that wasn't all of why she stopped to remain at the table instead of joining up the growing queue for her lunch.

"Yes, that's weird. Isn't it?" she glared at her best friend and at Gohan.

Something fishy was going on.

"I- uh… I'm sure it's all just a coincidence!" Gohan exclaimed.

Erasa felt like face-palming herself. She might accept Gohan's lies, but she knew Videl very well and there was hell to go through when her interest has been piqued.

"Really… a coincidence, huh?"

"If I'm not wrong, I saw both of them taking the train together last Saturday."

"Is that so?"

Camaraderie through the same goal!

Videl Satan and Lao Lime had formed an unspoken, temporary alliance between themselves despite their differences.

Throughout the whole of lunch, Erasa and Gohan found themselves being grilled by their friends and were both very thankful when the bell had finally chimed to signal the end of lunch.

Knowing Videl, however, they both knew that the questioning wasn't over yet.

Fortunately, Videl and Lime both seemed to drop the subject at the start of the next period and they enjoyed a relatively peaceful afternoon until P.E. arrived.

"A very good Monday to you, boys and girls!" an enthusiastic Mr. Neggerschwarze greeted them.

"Did you have a good weekend? Hm? Had a wonderful time watching TV shows and getting fat? Well, good news, ladies and gentlemen. Today, we're going to be doing…"

He paused for effect.

"Martial arts!"

As Gohan groaned, the rest of the class cheered.

Typical of teenage boys, they were glad to have an excuse to throw punches at each other while the girls were quite happy to be learning some self-defence.

For Lime and Videl however, they were simply glad that the time had come for their showdown to begin.

Sure, Lime had been laid off her job - and she was depressed about it, but not even that could contain her excitement to finally be able to test how strong the daughter of Mr. Satan was.

The same went for Videl. She wanted to protect her pride and she wanted to prove that she was stronger than the bragging of the new girl. That and she also looked forward to finding out the identity of the Golden Fighter if she won.

"Right," Mr. Neggerschwarze clapped his hands together. "All of you pair up with the same gender. Today will just be sparring sessions."

Gohan wanted to run out of the gym and skip the session, but he already had a horrible record, so he had no choice and found himself facing Ruler, the jock.

On the other hand, Erasa knew how strong Gohan was, so she wanted to parter up with him to help him keep his secret. However, that wasn't to be and so she found herself facing Angela in a sparring session.

"Scared?"

Lime tried to provoke her opponent Videl, but it didn't work.

Videl grinned.

"You wish."

As Mr. Neggerschwarze gave the signal, Lime found Videl dashing straight towards her.

She had been trained by her grandfather, Mr. Lao, in the art of combat and, unlike Videl, she had learnt how to sense and control her ki (though she didn't know how to use it for ki blasts or flying). She also had experience fighting with wild bears and other wild animals that roamed the mountains in the area where she lived.

This was a huge advantage, because unlike her, Videl only had experience fighting amateurs in her father's gym or criminals who didn't have a lot of strength and relied on guns. It was two completely different worlds altogether, and so, the difference in their strength was obvious.

While Videl tried to punch Lime, the brown-haired girl found that Videl's punches were either too slow or didn't have enough force in them. She sensed Videl's ki and found that the raven-haired girl was far inferior to her in terms of strength.

It wasn't even a fight. It was a one-sided humiliation.

All, Lime did was side-step and grab Videl's arm and use her opponent's momentum to pin her down to the ground.

Of course, Videl saw that coming and tried to dodge, but Lime was too fast for her and, she found herself pinned down with a shoulder lock to the ground.

She tried to free herself from the lock, but Lime was too strong. It wasn't a surprise, because Lime had experience fighting bears that were twice as big, twice as strong and twice as fast as Videl.

"What's the matter? Is that all you have?" Lime sneered.

She really disliked Videl and her father to the point that she even considered popping Videl's shoulders out of their sockets.

Videl struggled to get herself free, but found that she couldn't.

Complete disgrace!

For the first time in her life, Videl had to concede defeat.

"What's the matter? If you're this weak, I can imagine how weak your father is."

Humiliated and her pride crushed, Videl found herself unable to retort back to Lime.

When Lime had pinned her down, she skinned her knee and so she used that as an excuse to go to the infirmary.

Gohan on the other hand, had lost purposely to Ruler.

He got himself hit on the face and pretended to be knocked backwards. He then pretended that his nose was injured and asked permission to go to the infirmary.

As he left, Lime looked at him.

"Videl may have a weak ki, but this guy's ki is enormous! So much that it's scary to even think about it. But why would he be hiding his strength and pretend to lose? More importantly, I didn't know how to sense ki seven years ago, but I'm sure if I could, then the Gohan from back then would have the same amount of ki as this one."

Son Gohan had been hiding his ki, no doubt. But no matter how much a person hid their ki, they would still exude a small amount of ki and that amount was more than enough - compared to an average human - for Lime to form an opinion of how strong he was. In fact, Lime had formed a hypothesis that the Gohan that saved her from seven years before was the same one as the one now. Still, she couldn't explain the difference in the hair colour and eye colour unless Gohan dyed his hair and used coloured contact lenses seven years ago. And so, she decided not to question him about it until she had evidence.

Gohan walked into the infirmary while clutching his nose.

He had supposedly injured it and so he had to keep up the act all the way.

He hoped that the nurse wouldn't catch on to him faking an injury, but fortunately for him, the nurse was away.

Instead, he found himself alone in the room so he decided to have a lie down and take a nap.

"Sniffle."

He was hiding his ki so he didn't manage to sense that someone else was already in there.

Someone was crying and, because he was too kind, he just had to poke his head in and try and console whoever it was.

Videl Satan.

Daughter of the man who saved the world from Cell.

Her pride had been damaged, but that wasn't the reason why she was crying.

When she was a young girl, her mother died and she was raised on the earnings of his father from winning the World Martial Arts Tournament. That was before Mark Satan 'defeated' Cell. At that time, his fame had already gotten to his head and with the loss of his wife, he bought home different women every night.

After he had 'defeated' Cell, he got worse and the strong man that Videl once admired became her ultimate goal.

Her toddler self once confronted her father, "Daddy! Stop going out with women other than mummy!"

Mr. Satan just laughed. His daughter was very precious to him, no doubt, but there were times when a man had to indulge in such pleasures and so, he joked with Videl.

Patting his young daughter's head, he said, "Alright, sweatpea. I'll make you a deal. If you can defeat me in a fight, then I'll stop going out with women."

That was many years ago.

Now, Mark Satan had forgotten his little joke, but Videl had always remembered.

When she was young, she thought if she trained hard enough, she certainly had a chance to defeat her father but, after he 'defeated' Cell, she thought that it was a mere dream when she thought she could beat her father in a fight.

Still, she clung to a small hope that one day, if she trained hard enough, she would actually have a chance. And so, she trained, and trained, and trained and dedicated her whole life to bettering herself so that one day she could beat her father.

Once she had grown too strong for the members of Mr. Satan's gym, she moved on to crime fighting to grow even stronger, but she still felt that it wasn't enough. She was still lacking.

And then, she discovered the Golden Fighter and the Great Saiyaman.

At first, she couldn't believe that someone could be so strong. She had been brainwashed by her father that all such feats were done by wires or light tricks, but after spending time fighting crime with the Great Saiyaman, she knew that this wasn't the case. In fact, she had begun to doubt her father due to that. Still, a part of her chose to believe in her father and, she thought that if she could corner the Golden Fighter or (in her words) the Buckethead, she could blackmail him to teach her how to fly - something which she deemed was a skill that would help her defeat her father.

That was the reason why she was so adamant in finding out who the Golden Fighter and the Great Saiyaman is, but, after her humiliating defeat in the hands of the new transfer student that is Lime, she began doubting herself. She doubted herself and her strength and so, for the first time in her life after her mother had died, she found herself crying.

"Hey, are you okay?" Gohan asked kindly.

She was depressed, yes. But she wasn't deep enough in her sorrow to let anyone see her like this.

Quickly wiping away her tears, she realized that the worst person possible found her crying in the nurse's office.

"G-gohan! What are you doing here?" she said in surprise.

"Well, I broke my nose and-"

"It sure doesn't look broken to me," she said, glaring at him.

Not letting himself be caught in Videl's pace, Gohan insisted, "Isn't it? Well, lucky me. So why were you crying just now?"

"Sh-shut up! I wasn't crying or anything like that," Videl denied strongly, her face turning red with both anger and embarrassment.

She was expecting Gohan to press the matter and was getting ready to come up with more lies to cover up the situation when Gohan handed her a handkerchief.

"Here. If you don't want to talk about it, then that's fine. But if you need someone to talk to, I'll always be here for you."

Gohan smiled and left while Videl sat on the infirmary's bed in a daze.

She knew that most men would take advantage of her and even blackmail her in that situation seeing that she had just displayed a weak side of herself, but Gohan's actions didn't add up.

She felt her face go hot and her heart started beating abnormally faster. She didn't understand what was going on with her, but she knew that she had to come up with a way to thank Gohan for his consideration some day.

End of Chapter Nine

To be continued...