Chapter 19: "Fun" with 18

18 was a few steps ahead of Gosen. "We're about to enter a city on the way to your house." She tried informing him, but he was lost in thought. Looking back at him, 18 didn't know what to think. It was a mixture of sadness for him and annoyance for his constant worrying. She sighed and walked up to him.

"Hm? What's wrong 18?" She immediately grabbed his arm and starting pulling him. "What? W-What's wrong!"

"Shut up and come with me!" Gosen rose his eyebrow, and trying to pull himself back, but 18 strangely overpowered him. They entered the city on the way to the house, but 18 took Gosen to different areas, rather than heading straight home.

"Where are you taking me? Don't you remember I wanted to go see my Mom?" Gosen tried reasoning.

"You're not going to go see her the way you are now. You're an emotional wreck. If she sees you like this, all you'll do is stress her more, and that's exactly what you're trying to prevent."

Gosen couldn't deny that she had a point. But the unease wasn't intentional. He couldn't help it. "That's why we're going to have some fun first to take your mind off Cell. You need it."

"Some fun? What kind of fun?"

"I'll show you instead of explaining to you." 18 smiled. She pointed to the shopping center and Gosen's eyes opened wildly with his jaw dropping ferociously.

"A shopping mall...Really? A SHOPPING MALL?" Gosen said yelling in her face, attracting attention. 18 pushed his face away.

"Stop making a scene. We wouldn't have to do this if you'd just get your act together."

"But why shopping?" Gosen asked with tons of curiosity.

"Well, I don't know. Maybe it's because I'm a teenage girl who loves fashion!" Gosen's eyebrow began to twitch. 18 dragged him inside and had him wait while she tried on various clothes. One time she came out in a bikini and the look on Gosen's face told the whole story. 18 showed interest and laughed to her heart's content. Next she tried on lingerie. Gosen's nosebleed began to flood the entire shopping mall.

She looked at him with seduction and pulled on the strap of her bra. It was at that moment, that Gosen new what it was like to be a man, even a little bit. She laughed again and got dressed in her usual attire. She brought a mountain of clothes with her as she walked.

"Do you really have the money to pay for all those things?" Gosen asked.

"Money?" 18 answered with a question. She took one step beyond the scanner that would normally catch thieves red handed. The siren went off immediately and 18 stopped in mid-stride, listening to the siren completely clueless.

The tears started welling up in Gosen's eyes as his life flashed before his eyes on a rather "trivial" matter considering what they're going through. With each noise the siren made, a single tear fell. He was now an accomplice to robbery and the tears just kept falling. This is what he was thinking, but there was one more thing he knew for sure. If they were to catch him, they would need to earn it.

He immediately ran and took 18's hand and they both began running at top speed before anyone could really see their face. When they were a good number of miles away from the scene, 18 watched Gosen's pitiful wheezing, hunched over, as if that run really affected him. Gosen grabbed her shoulders, and shook her relentlessly. "ARE YOU CRAZY! HOW COULD YOU TAKE THOSE CLOTHES AND JUST WALK OUT AS IF IT WERE A NORMAL ROUTINE?"

18 rose an eyebrow and avoided his eyes. "Haha...well, yeah. Things happen." That sorry excuse for an explanation annoyed Gosen even more than the robbery itself. "Anyways."

"DON'T JUST IGNORE IT!"

"Ignore what?"

Gosen's eyebrow twitched even more violently. "She just ignored the fact that she ignored it...This girl is the devil incarnate..." He said to himself. She put her hand to her hip and leaned to the side.

On the other side, Krillin and 17 continued to fly to get Goku the treatment he needed. But from a mountain top, masking his energy, Cell stalks his prey...

Next Chapter: The Rain and Everything Else (Past Revealed II)

NOTE: This was meant to be a short, (fail at comedy) chapter acting as the "calm before the storm". Next chapter, chapter 20, will be the last chapter of Book 1 and will be DOUBLE, TRIPLE or even QUADRUPLE the length of my normal 1,000+ words per chapter. It all depends on how I'm able to write everything out. But do expect the next chapter to be long.