Disclaimer: I do not own DBZ
...
Sitting around the lunch table in the cafeteria was a bit of an awkward position for Gohan to be in, and surprisingly enough it wasn't because of the huge amounts of portions that resided in front of him. Word had spread like wildfire about how Hercule had stormed the school the previous day after classes had finished and challenged Gohan to a duel, to which he sensibly declined. While some were foolish enough to step in front of Hercule in the ring it seemed that Gohan's smarts weren't only limited to books. One had to wonder though how everybody seemed to know about this situation immediately after it happened. Gohan had a rough idea about who it could have been but he wasn't one to point fingers.
"Isn't that the guy that Erasa said is going to fight members of the Satan Dojo later today?"
Yep, definitely not pointing any fingers.
Gohan, surprising nearly everybody nearby, didn't seem to be nervous in the slightest. Word had already spread that a television crew was going to be filming his battles against Satan's finest simply on the fact that nobody in history had dared to stand against Hercule in one way or another. There were some who wondered whether or not Gohan would shatter under the pressure knowing that the entire city would be watching him duke it out.
"You seem calm," said Videl as she sat opposite Gohan with her lunch tray with food portions quite noticeable smaller than Gohan's.
"Should I be worried?" asked Gohan not taking his eyes off of the mountain of food in front of him before he picked up a bowl of rice and started shovelling it into his mouth. "I mean all your father is going to do is be testing me, it's not like something can go wrong."
"Gohan," said Videl sternly as she glared at him, making him pause his eating for a heartbeat before continuing on like before. "My father is going to do his best to humiliate you, I heard him making a call to one of his highest ranking sensei's last night asking them to make themselves look like they're nothing more than a white belt."
"Alright then, destroy the white belt guy, got it," said Gohan in between mouthfuls before Videl slammed her hands on the table.
"Gohan this is serious," shouted Videl before turning her venomous glare upon the rest of the cafeteria causing everybody who had been looking at the scene to turn their heads fast enough to almost get whiplash.
"And why do you believe that I'm not serious about the situation?" asked Gohan causing Videl to turn to him with a confused look upon her face. "Right now, the people who your father asked to fight for him are likely wasting all of their energy on proving themselves worthy of his decision. They'll spend the next couple of hours slamming their fists into punching bags or ensuring that they manage to get a specific technique down to scratch."
"Then what about you, what are you going to do before fighting them?" asked Videl.
"It sounds like you're worried about me," said Gohan causing Videl to flush slightly before silently praying that nobody was mistook the red on her cheeks for anything other than anger. "I remember a tournament, long ago that I fought in. You may have heard of it but when my father and I learned of it we trained for over a year straight. We only had breaks in order to eat and sleep; the rest of the time was spent sparring with one another."
Listening to his story, Videl immediately became sceptical about what tournament could possibly be announced so far in advance that competitors felt it necessary to train for twelve months straight with only that one tournament as their goal. Despite wanting to complain about this fairly obvious detail she allowed Gohan to continue his story.
"I can still feel my dad's fist slam into my face day in and day out, that adrenaline high was something I became intoxicated with," said Gohan as he leaned back and looked at the ceiling. "There was always this sense of pride which came from landing a successful hit or blocking one that would have put me out of commission for hours. The day before the tournament though we simply stopped, at first I couldn't help but wonder why we were stopping so close to the finish. That extra day could have been used to push us that little step further, raise the bar the tiniest of margins higher but we did nothing, we had a picnic with our friends and family. That was how I spent the day before everything changed."
Videl couldn't have helped but get absorbed into Gohan's words before he stood up from the table, the mass of food in front of him far from his mind. "Anyways, I need to calm my mind a bit; I'll see you in class."
"Wait, what tournament was this, you said I might have heard of it?" asked Videl wanting to know this crucial bit of information.
"It doesn't matter," said Gohan as he walked away from where Videl sat, feeling as if he had just pushed her away slightly by not opening up about this one topic. Suddenly feeling that she was no longer hungry, she picked up her lunch tray and walked away before the rest of the students became seagullish in nature and started tearing into Gohan's mountain of leftovers.
For the next few lessons very few of the students in Videl's class actually spent any attention to the learning at hand, many of them focusing on Gohan and whether or not he was going to survive the rest of the day. A couple of the boys could be seen by some of the students handing money to one another in a little makeshift gambling ring, a piece of paper being handed around to the other guys in the class with odds whether or not Gohan would succeed in defeating one or multiple opponents. Needless to say the shortest odds were for Gohan to not beat anybody stronger than a white belt.
The bell couldn't come soon enough and as it did excited chatter filled the classroom as the students quickly became able to talk loudly about what had previously been said only in hushed whispers. It also became a rush for those with Zeni at their disposal to rush to the person who had organised the odds, tossing money at him like no tomorrow. The ring operator however became very pale as Videl stepped in front of him, everybody else taking a large step backwards less they get caught up in the raven haired girl's fury. To everyone's surprise however, Videl merely looked at the odds sheet, lifting it up so that her eyes were covered.
"I'll bet five thousand," she said calmly.
"Excuse me?" repeated the bookie.
"It says here that the maximum you'll take is five thousand, so that's my bet," said Videl as she lowered the paper, placing it back on the table.
"Um...so I'm not going to be in trouble over this?" asked the teenager sweating profusely.
"Word of this does not leave this room," said Videl warning everybody within earshot. "So long as you can follow that single rule I believe that I didn't see anything out of the ordinary here."
"Ah, I see," said the boy with a sigh of relief. "So...uhh...what did you want to bet on?"
"Gohan to defeat everyone," declared Videl, placing her bet on the longest odd selection at fifty to one, making the boy pale at realising if he was to take this bet and by some miracle it came through he would be forced to payout two hundred and fifty thousand zeni.
"Uhh...sure...?" said the boy accepting Videl's money before the raven haired girl walked away as if nothing had happened.
"That was bold of you," said Gohan as he stood outside the classroom door seemingly waiting for her.
"Well, I figure a better punishment to just having him shut down the operation was for him to lose all his money in a stupid bet," said Videl confidently. "This way it'll probably stop him from doing something stupid later when I'm not watching."
"Fair enough then," said Gohan as he started to walk to the exit, his satchel held in his right hand as he scratched the back of his head with his other hand.
"Any last minute nerves?" asked Videl.
"Nope," said Gohan with a smile across his face.
Videl couldn't help but question that, as it wasn't natural to have that much confidence. Gohan was going to be stepping directly into the opponent's lair through the front door as if it was nothing. If Videl was in shoes she would likely be losing her stomach in some trash bin.
"Hold on, I just need to get something out of my locker," said Gohan as he rounded the corner to where the metal lining the walls contained one piece of equipment he had brought for the day. It only took a few seconds for him to enter the correct code, allowing him access to the contents inside where he then grabbed at the plastic bag inside. In this moment however Videl was able to see that there was something around his wrist underneath his long sleeved shirt much how there were training bracelets around her own wrists.
"Gohan, are you wearing weights?" asked Videl.
"Yea, what of it?" asked Gohan casually as he got what was needed and closed his locker before walking back towards her.
Videl didn't answer; simply choosing to stand there and wonder just how heavier Gohan's weights were set as opposed to hers. In all honesty she couldn't help but wonder if he even needed to wear them for any kind of training method. They didn't do anything to hinder his movement but since she was aware that the amount he could already lift was ridiculous she doubted whether or not the weights had a setting high enough to affect him.
"You alright Videl, you spaced out a bit there," said Gohan snapping Videl back into attention.
"Yea it's all good," said Videl as she brought herself back into the real world. The two of them then walked in silence, every student they passed watching in silence. Well most of them.
"KICK THEIR ASSES GOHAN!" shouted Erasa as she waved a banner above her head as if she were leading a cheering squad that consisted of...just herself. Despite being quite ecstatic in her delivery, nobody else really wanted to join in the blonde's belief that Gohan would walk away without suffering some bruises to both his body and his ego.
"Thanks Erasa," said Gohan with a smile as he continued on his way to the exit. It was nice to know that a couple of people believed in him. As he pushed open the door to the school he found a black limousine at the gates, the chauffer standing next to the open back seat. "This feels a little over the top."
"Mr Satan merely wishes that you get there on time," said the chauffer. "He also wishes to let you know that if you run now he'll tell the media to go easy on you."
"Like I care," said Gohan with a smile as he entered the back seat and sat down, Videl watching as the entire limousine seemed to drop onto its suspension much harder than it had before again making her question just how much weight Gohan was carrying. "You coming?" asked Gohan.
"Yea, of course," said Videl as she climbed into the back seat of the limo with Gohan. It didn't take long before the driver began to make his way through the streets and with every passing moment Videl could feel the temperature in her cheeks rise ever so slightly. Here she was, trapped in a small enclosure with Gohan of all people. Chances were she was never going to hear the end of it tomorrow from Erasa.
"Are you alright?" asked Gohan. "You look a little hot in the cheeks; you may be getting a fever or something."
"I'm perfectly fine," said Videl in a hastened tone. Several seconds passed before she turned her eyes away from him. "Thank you for caring."
"Umm...okay," said Gohan wondering if Videl was merely putting on a brave face. He knew whenever Goten got sick he would argue and make a huge fuss about how he wasn't and could never get sick.
"We'll be arriving at the gym in a handful of minutes," stated the chauffer informing the two teenagers of how much longer they had to remain in one another's presence.
"Thanks," said Gohan loud enough for the driver to hear. The rest of the tip was silent, seconds ticking by with Videl knowing that her faith was in Gohan to easily take on her father's handpicked warriors. She knew that all of the people her dad would choose would be incredibly skilled. She had seen Gohan's raw strength however and knew that very few people around the world could accomplish what he could. That wasn't what made her believe that he would win however, it was more the fact that he was so confident. She knew first hand that before any kind of fight there were nerves that played a factor, something that controlled the system about whether to fight or flee. Gohan seemingly didn't even know that fleeing was an option.
Eventually the limousine began to slow down before coming to a halt, paparazzi already at the ready with cameras flashing in the hope of getting the first shot of the person who dared defy the word of Hercule. When the door opened and Gohan stepped out he was immediately bombarded by people asking him questions left right and centre. He paid them no heed however as he continued his march forward, ignoring the interviewers who seemed to be getting mildly agitated by the fact this teenager had nothing to say to them. Videl meanwhile saw it as something different, it wasn't as if Gohan didn't have anything to say but rather there was nothing that needed to be said.
The doors slid open and Gohan stood in front of the entirety of the dojo's students, each of them driving their hate into him with their eyes alone. "So, you came," stated Hercule as he stood in front of his students and fellow teachers, his arms crossed over his chest. Along the sides of the walls were several television crews as photographers went snap happy knowing that if by some manner of chance this kid was able to defeat a handful of students than there was front page news to be had.
"Why wouldn't I?" said Gohan with a shrug of the shoulders. "Is there a change room somewhere where I may be able to get dressed into something more appropriate?"
"Over there," said Hercule pointing to a faraway door.
"Much appreciated," said Gohan as he made his way towards the change room, the Satan Dojo students whispering behind Gohan's back. Videl made her way into the building much later having not been able to make her way through the paparazzi as easily as Gohan had. When she got there however she found that Gohan had changed attire into a blue gi with an orange belt wrapped around his waist. She was also able to see that her earlier deduction that he was indeed wearing weights was a correct one. The red bands encompassed his wrists to complete the getup, his jet black hair standing upright as if defying gravity itself.
"This here's Yowai," introduced Hercule to the person Gohan believed was the instructor in disguise. "There are seven opponents for you to face in total and I will judge whether you are worthy or not dependant on how you fight, not necessarily if you win or not. I'd need to judge it this way because I know that you're not even going to get past Yowai here."
Jumping onto the raised square ring, Gohan quickly made some calculations and believed that the layout was the same size as the Cell Games ring was before it had been destroyed. "I think you're underestimating me," said Gohan causing several of the students to laugh. With a shrug of the shoulders, Gohan took off the weighted bracelets and held them over the edge before allowing them to fall to the floor, a sickening crunch sounding out as the tiles that had landed upon shattered and a small dust cloud rose into the air. Everyone who had been laughing suddenly went dead silent.
"Shall we begin?"
...
Hope you enjoyed.
Peace