So i feel i should say the story will be starting to show more of the mature side of what i have in mind starting this chapter. that's why i had it as M from the start.
Beyond that, enjoy everyone!
Walking up to all the gym equipment, Gohana was mostly fascinated and curious as to what everything actually was. She never trained with anything like these before, or had the opportunity either. She had seen them of course, but never bothered to use them.
"So these are what you guys use for your training, huh?" Gohana asked as she looked around. It was interesting to see what most people considered a gym.
"Yeah." Videl said as she watched Gohana walk around and look at everything. "Have you seriously never used stuff like this before?"
"No, I havn't. I've always done different stuff. I mean I have used weighted clothing myself before, but it's mostly bodyweight training or the gravity chamber most of the time. I've never had a reason to even be in a normal gym." Gohana answered as she noticed something in the middle of the training area.
Going up to it, Gohana notices it was covered in round circular plates, and they all had numbers on them. They stuck out from two different sides, and the plates becames bigger the lower on the stand it was, and there were six groups of them. Grabbing it and lifting it off the ground, Gohana quickly realized if she tilted it that the weights would fall off, so she kept it leveled.
"So what exactly is this thing used for?" Gohana turned to them and just casually held it out. Videl and Sharpner both just stared at her both in confusion and shock.
"Um, that's used to hold the weights people are not using." Sharpner pointed out.
"Oh, okay then." Gohana sighed and placed it on the ground.
"Gohana, just how heavy did that thing feel to you?" Videl asked, knowing that she couldn't lift it even with her whole body behind it, let alone casually holding straight with one arm.
"How heavy? Um, I don't know. Not that much honestly. I didn't feel much of anything other than the weights would shift if i tilted it." Gohana answered them honestly as she could staring at the device.
"Well that does give us at least some type of bench mark." Sharpner said. "Though to be honest though Videl, if that didn't register much for her, I don't know what we could do. The bar wouldn't even be able to hold that much weight to begin with." Sharpner pointed out doing some quick gym math in his head.
"You do have a point about that. I can lift with my arms maybe ninty pounds each, but close to six hundered with my deadlift. So that's at least a six times difference. You think that it would be the same for Gohana?" she asked him back.
Gohana just stood there, knowing that they would probably figure something out. To be honest, she was in their world now and decided to just trust whatever they were doing. Besides the entire reason they were there in the first place was so that Gohana would be able to at least compare her strength to theirs.
"You do know that this room had a gravity multiplier built into it, right? It sounds like that may be helpful."
"Hey yeah, if we can physically load the bar up with enough plates, we can just increase how much each thing weights. Gohana, how high does this room go to?" Sharpner asked.
Gohana had to think about it for a moment. She knew all about her gravity chamber and Vegeta's gravity room, but she didn't know off the top of her head specifically the one in here.
"Well, Vegeta's and mine both max out at eight hundred. Though i can't even go that high yet. i just future proofed it If that is anything to go by? But let me check." Gohana said and spotted a control panel just like in their gravity chambers off oon one of the walls.
Walking up to it, she even noticed that the display was the exact same. The numbers were just not as high. It simply had a up and down button, and it was a touch screen. Hitting the start up button, Gohana saw the display change. Selecting up, she noticed that it went up by point one. Just ten percent higher, Gohana knew that couldn't be right. But then again this was a public model. It wasn't designed for her and her family. The few that did have one had their own that was drastically more advanced than this. Noticing a section marked 'max', she hit that and saw that it only went to three times. Gohana knew that she would barely even feel a difference. In fact she was certain that she would not even register a difference. Even Lime used ten times as a warm up because she could just barely feel the difference. What on Earth would three do.
"This only goes to three."
"Is that not going to be enough?" Videl asked, noticing the odd inflection Gohana used.
"To be honest I am not sure, but we could use that as a start. So the heightened gravity is only effected by the floor with the yellow stripes on it by the way. I'm just doing to start it. So as long as you just stay on the regular flooring then you will be alright." Gohana warned them and hit the go button.
She could hear the gravity starting to pick up, but had the machine not announced that it was three times normal gravity, Gohana would nave not even known anything happened. She walked over to them, walking out of the hightened gravity, and towards Sharpner.
"So what exactly did you have in mind for me to try anyway?" she asked.
"Well to be honest after you picking that thing up earlier, and you telling us you training in hundreds of times gravity, I think that sort of just negates my entire idea actually." Sharpner swallowed his pride as he said that as well.
He had come to accept that Videl was stronger than he was in some aspects, but knowing that both Lime and Gohana were also even far above that did hit his namehood pretty hard. But he knew to respect them both and learn as Gohana was going to help him get stronger.
"Sharp, what lift were you thinking of having Gohana do anyway?" Videl asked curiously.
"Well I was going to say just a basic power lifting total like we do. But with her strength, I don't think we could even do that."
Videl tried to think for a moment. She knew she had seen Gohana lift a lot of heavy stuff before, even an armored truck on the television. So she had that to work with for a rough estimate. She knew full well even her dad would have a hard time pushing or pulling that down the road, let alone budge it even a fraction of an inch. But what could they do so they could at least have some concept even if it was something smaller.
'That's it!'
"Why not just a basic curl then?" Videl offered.
"What? You're joking right Videl? How will that help us determine anything? When has anyone ever used that to judge someones strength?" Sharpner tried to rationalize how stupid that sounded to him.
"Well if it was anyone else than Gohana then I would agree with you. But look at it this way. It's not technically a strength thing no you're right. But considering we could easily load it up with about seven hundred pounds, add that to the three times gravity over there and suddenly it is over a ton in weight. Do you have any better ideas?" Videl gave Sharpner her 'you know I'm right' face.
Sharpner took a moment to let that sink in. And to be honest, he really couldn't agruee with that logic at all. It was stupid for anyone else to do that but given this was Gohana, it did at least give them something they could use to guage.
"Alright, lets do it then."
Gohana just stood there looking confused. Nothing that they said even made any sense to her at all, but she figured just let them do what they needed to do. So she just stood there and let them set whatever they were doing to do up. Sitting on one of the benches, Gohana watched them grab a bar and then put those plates on either side of it. It looked like it was getting harder and harder the more they put them on though, so she just went over and helped pull the bar up. With extreme ease at that. Once they literally ran out of space, Sharpner and Videl both put on a collar on both ends, Gohana assumed it did something.
"Alright, finished. So looks like..." Sharpner quickly counted the plates on his fingers and looked as if he was doing some math in his head. "Okay so eight hundred and fifty five pounds total. So with three times gravity, that's like...what..." Sharpner quickly lost track, as did Videl who was trying it in her head as well.
"Two thousand five hundred and sixty five." Gohana said rather quickly.
"What the, man that's quick." Sharpner was impressed, and Videl seemed so as well.
"When you do literal rocket science and theoretical physics all day, you learn to do pretty basic math in your head insanely fast."
"Uh-huh. And I imagine being able to move as fast as you can doesn't hurt either." Videl pointed out sarcastically.
Gohana just rubbed the back of her neck and smiled. It was true her capacity to move so fast did actually help her think and process stuff faster. All the others in the gang even mentioned sometimes being annoyed even simply watching tv as they can always make out the delay between the frames,even when they try not to. So doing math quickly always did come easier to her. Then again in her head maybe it was just her normal speed that others saw as super fast.
"Well onward to this. So what exactly am I doing with it anyway?" Gohana asked as she got up from the bench and walked over to the loaded bar.
"To put it simply, you're going to lift if up." Sharpner said. "Just need to make sure that you lift it properly. Other wise you-"
Without waiting to hear anything else, Gohana just leaned forward and grabbed the bar and just stood up. She had to admit she could register the weight in her hands now, but it wasn't really much to her. She wasn't sure what she was supposed to do next though.
"Yeah, I guess we're going to have to get used to that." Sharpner said with his eyes rather wide, Videls as well.
"Okay, now try lifting it up like this." Sharpner motioned bringing his hands up to his shoulders, and which Gohana easily did. She still wasn't sure what this was supposed to accomplish for a workout, other than do something for her arms since that's what was moving.
"Okay...so um...now just go stand in the gravity." Sharpner couldn't help but stutter at her.
Without even moving the bar from where it was, Gohana just walked over to where the gravity was higher and walked in. While she could feel the instant difference once she entered the hightened gravity field, she still was able to move the bar up and down rather easily. The only reason she stopped was she could see the bar bending, a lot.
Looking back at them, she could tell what she was doing was a shock to them, so she just put the bar down and went to turn off the gravity. Luckily even the off button was the exact same.
"So how did I do? Did that help answer your question?"
"Actually no not at all. Really only made it more of an anomaly." Videl said.
"Yeah, that's more than the world record of what Videl and I compete in, and that's with three things combined. You just did that with on thing." Sharpner spoke up.
Gohana had to think now. She knew she wasn't allowed to move anything from here, so they couldn't use the gravity chamber. Not to mention that Vegeta was in there and he looked pissed off. No way in hell she could ask him if she could use it for something. And her Gravity chamber was not only too big for this room, it was also back at her place. But then it hit her. The same way Vegeta and her compete from time to time.
"Well, how about this. How many pushups can you guys do in a single round? And how much do you weight, both of you?" Gohana asked having a good idea.
Videl's face instantly glared at Gohana for asking that question. Though not very girly herself, there were still some things you just didn't ask girls. Sharpner just took a few steps away from her, and a confused Gohana just looked at her confused having no clue why Videl was glaring at her. She just stared blankly back at Videl.
"Two hundred and thirty five pushups." was all Videl said in a low voice.
"Um, I'm about one ninety, and I can do a bit less than that. My record is two hundred and twelve. But why are you asking?"
"Is that really all you guy's can do?"
Gohana looked confused and shocked and she failed horribly to hide any of it on her face or voice. Even Lime when she started trainer her had some experience thanks to her grandpa by the time Gohana started taking over her training from him and she was fast stronger than that.
"Yeah, that's pretty good actually for us humans. At least normal humans. Most of the guy's at school can barely do fifty at once, and the girls...Well minus Videl here, lucky to even do fifteen. But how many can you do?" Asked in a lowered voice, not even sure if he wanted the answer.
"Um, fifteen thousand on each arm singly, in about four hundred times gravity." Gohana answered.
Sharpner and Videl both just looked at her in disbelief. No wonder she was so strong! But to even be able to do that many pushups, regardless of the gravity, on a single arm was something unheard of by them. Even if it was on both arms, it was still something inhuman. Then again, Gohana was half non human, so maybe that was normal for her? Or her Saiyan side? It certainly wasn't normal for humans.
"How?" was all they both could get out.
"Hey don't worry, if you train hard enough you can get a lot stronger as well. Lime typically does about ten thousand reps of whatever she's doing when she trains in the gravity chamber at fifty times gravity. Just train real hard and you can do the same." Gohana tried to cheer them up with an example of someone who was fully human, but also hadn't been through the same stuff they all had gone through. She knew Lime was probably the strongest female in the world, minus herself and 18. But she was actually one of the weaker of the group as she did this for fun. Everyone else that still trained did so with the intent of something will come along and threaten the Earth, and we must get stronger. She had no qualms that Videl or Sharpner wouldn't get to that level if they put their minds to it.
"Look if it helps, when my dad and Krillin were younger and trained with Master Roshi, they could just move a boulder that probably weighed a couple of tons easily. Most likely more than that though. And that was just eight months of training with him. What I'm going to put you guys through will be a lot stronger than that. Even Lime was stronger than them with half the time! You'll be a lot stronger in no time!" She tried again to cheer them up.
"But what about compared to you?" Videl asked, which caught Gohana off guard a bit.
Looking down at the ground, Gohana wanted to tell them the truth, but at the same time didn't really have the heart to do so.
"What do you mean compared to me?" Gohana tried to act dumb.
"I mean how long until we are as strong as you are?" Videl yelled at her.
"Well, to be honest you can't bec..."
"And why the hell not!" Videl screamed even louder now at her now angrily though, thinking that Gohana was looking down on them now that she realized how 'weak' they were compared to her. Videl was now in Gohana's face screaming.
"What gives you the right to tell us we could never match you if you went all out, huh?"
"I know, but. Videl it's. It's nothing against you guy's at all!" Gohana said
"Then why say if we work hard enough we can get as strong, but can't become as strong as you? You think we don't have what it takes? That we can't catch up to you!"
"What? No! i mean yes you can't but thats because"
Gohana's mind was not spinning. She had no idea what Videl was on about, or even how to slow her down so she could explain how Super Saiyan's worked.
"I'll ask you again, can we ever get as strong as you?" Videl trembled.
"Well, no but..."
Without thinking, Videl struck Gohana's face with her palm in anger as at this point Videl had lost it. She had enough sense to not punch her though, she'd seen her face stop bullets and squish them. But her palm, it felt like she had hit a solid steel wall. And it didn't make her hand hurt any less.
"I can't believe you Gohana! Just because your half alien doesn't mean you can look down on us! Well fuck you! I don't ever want to see your lying face again!" Videl yelled and quicky ran out of the room.
Gohana watched as Videl quickly bolted to the door. She couldn't bring herself to even move! She wanted to go after her and explain more what she meant but she couldn't move. It was like her whole body was made of lead. Erasa, having been present but in her own little world up until now in the corner, quickly went over to Gohana and tried to shake her out of it.
"Hey Gohana, it's alright. Videl's just mad." she tried to reassure her, noticing how hurt Gohana looked and tried to calm her down.
"To be honest, I don't blame her. In a way." Sharpner started, which snapped Gohana out of her state, and she looked over at him.
"W...what do you mean? You too?" Gohana asked with a hint of worry.
"It's just, well you're teaching us these things right. And we expect to become stronger than anyone else. But then you just flat out say that we will never be as strong as you. I mean, honestly that did sting a little bit to me as well as a martial artist." Sharpner started and looked away nervously.
Gohana didn't know what to say. All she did was answer Videl's question honestly. She promised she would try telling them the truth and not hide anything from them. And when she did they got closer, only to now have this happen? She was only trying to keep her promise. She was only telling the truth and now this happened.
"I'll go try and find Videl." Erasa left quickly noticing Videl probably needed her more than Gohana did now that Gohana was at least talking.
"Gohana, when you said we can't get as strong as you...why do you say that exactly?" Sharpner asked.
"Because of how Super Saiyan works." Gohana simply stated.
"What do you mean 'how Super Saiyan works'. You never really explained how it works at all other than it gets you stronger." Sharpenr asked.
"I'll try to explain it as best as I can with how I understand it myself." Gohana took a few moments to try and figure out how to explain how it works for Sharpner. This was the first time though she really had to explain it. "I have to train my ass off to become stronger like this. Just my normal form I guess, not a Super Saiyan. Just like you and Videl and my friends I have to train to get stronger like this. But the moment I transform into a Super Saiyan, think of it like a multiplier. It instantly makes us stronger, so like an on and off switch. If i go back to normal, my power goes back down." Gohana started, and noticed that Sharpners face didn't seem so pissed off now. "And then even going into an ascended Super Saiyan, it multiplies it even further on top of the previous state."
"I see, so it's like a cheat code in a way for an instant strength boost." Sharpner said, mostly to himself though but it wasn't a soft sentence either. Anyone could have heard it.
"So how much stronger are we talking exactly?" Sharpner asked, getting a slight confused question from Gohana who interporated that question a couple of ways.
"How much stronger does transforming make you?" Sharpner clarified.
Gohana wasn't exaclty even sure herself how much stronger it made her exactly. She knew how much strength she could muster at her max without transforming, and with transforming to both Super Saiyan and her second level. But that wasn't really helping in this situation as she had no real context for even herself to answer this question. Though in teaching her siblings, and Lime over the years, as well as Piccolo, they have mentioned a few times what it felt like to them. Maybe she could use that.
"Well, based on what my friends have said over the years when sparring," Gohana started and thought for a moment. "They've said transforming makes my ki feel fifty times as strong when I go Super Saiyan, and then double that again when I go to the next level. So I would say fifty and a hundred times stronger respectively."
The look on Sharpners face upon hearing that looked like he just shit a brick. He had no concept of what even doubling your strength instantly would do, let alone fifty or a hundred. But having heard that it made perfect sense why they would never be able to catch up to her level. At least if she trasformed.
"What the hell, does just your ki increase?"
"No, its almost everything. Our strength, speed, endurance. Just about any trait we use in a fight is increased. The problem is just initially having it triggered. Then learning to control the transformation at will. And at this point Super Saiyan could even be my normal form if i wanted as im so used to it."
"And that's why we will never be able to catch up to you, isnt it? You have an instant multiplier." Sharpner asked, to which Gohana just nodded.
"I'd say you should probably go find Videl, and try to explain that part to her." Sharpner said.
"But, what about eariler? You saw how mad she was."
"Yeaaaah. But trust me Gohana, I know Videl way better than you do. There is a reason for what you said, and its something we humans physically can't do. Just explain that to her and she'll understand. She may be jelous and angry about that, but she'll forgive you. I promise."
Giving her a thumbs up, Gohana just nodded and sniffled a bit. And he was right, there wasn't anything she can do about it. It was just a gift she had from birth. And hard work. But it wasn't something she could teach them, it was unique to her and her race. Videl couldn't stay angry about that. Quickly heading out the door herself, Gohana reached out and tried to feel Videl's ki, but she couldn't. So she would have to look around Capsule Corp the old fashioned way, by looking.
Using her speed, Gohana quickly made the rounds of Capsule Corp near the area they were in. Videl couldn't have gotten too far in such a short time, so Gohana focused close to her. But she didn't find her. So she headed towards the exit that they had entered from earlier as that was the quickest path out of here. On the way she almost ran into Erasa as she rounded a corner, but Gohana quickly stopped and appeared in front of Erasa, causing her to fall back in shock.
"Erasa, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have stopped, I should have just gone around you." she said, offering her hand to help her up. Taking the hand offered to her, Erasa stood up and rubbed her but a little bit as she landed hard.
"It's fine, I'm not hurt. But Videl is. I know you should go after her and explain it to her, but I don't even know where she went to. She just got in her air rider and zoomed off towards the city."
"Do you think that she went home?"
"No, I can almost guarantee she isn't. Whenever she is really angry like this, she always goes somewhere but we've never been able to figure out where. And we dont ask honestly."
This wasn't helping Gohana at all. She needed to find Videl so she didn't hate her. Why does her temper always get the better of her anyway? it always got to Videl at the worse time it seemed. And then she had to explain herself so Videl would understand and forgive her. But did she mean what she said earlier? That she never wanted to see her again?
Without much to go on other than 'towards the city', she quickly flew off back towards Satan City. By the time she got there, she knew Videl couldn't have gotten there. Even if she took the fastest vehicle in the world the moment she went out the door, Gohana could still fly here faster as an ascended Saiyan, which she did. Quickly scanning the city, Gohana couldn't find Videl's ki still. This wasn't too odd, as Videls ki only increase exponentially when she was practicing or fighting. But with such a busy area it was easy to get muffled in the noise. But her Ki had already increased the last week just from the weighted cloths and her ki training. She should be able to detect a ki signiture that was about five times higher then almost everything else, at least when fighting or practicing.
Gohana spend another twenty minutes trying to find Videl's ki. If she was heading to the city, she should have already arrived by now as well. But she was nowhere to be found. And she didn't know of anywhere else that Videl could be either. And if Sharpner and Erasa don't know where she is, then she as out of luck.
Knowing Videl, she needed to try and find her anyway, because the longer she went without explaining, the worse it would be even trying to do so later. Finding a relatively quiet place much higher in the sky, Gohana got into her mediation and extended her reach outwards. She knew she should be able to find Videl's ki if she just focused enough with how strong it was comparatively. After a short few minutes, Gohana was much more able to sense everyone in the city. Even if she coulnd't tell who they individually were, she could individually sense them. Now all she had to do was search for Videl's. But even after a few more minutes of searching, she couldn't find it.
'Is Videl not in the city?'
Reaching out even more like Piccolo taught her, Gohana started trying to search specifically for Videl. It helped she probably didn't need to hunt too far, already knowing the limit of how far she could go in the time passed helped, but she started none the less to let her sensing go where it needed. If only she was better at this like Piccolo or Dende, they could have probably found her a lot faster. But they were too far away to begin with. And this was something she had to do on her own if possible.
After a few minutes, Gohana strongly felt Videl's ki. She wasn't in the city, that's for sure. In fact she wasn't even near Satan City. She was the opposite way from Capsule Corp. Quickly heading that direction, it didn't take her that long to reach the area. And when she got there, she was surprised by the area. There was a little town, maybe about the same size as the place Lime is from. Maybe a tiny bit bigger. But it was surrounded by trees and greenery everywhere. And what surprised Gohana the most was where Videl seemed to be, in the towns graveyard. She couldn't say that she expected this, but then again she had no idea of what to expect anyway. Returning to her base state, Gohana slowly lowered down towards the Earth
Videl kept her chin firmly burried between her knees, feeling the wetness on her thighs as tears dripped down her face. She had only been there a few moments before she broke down and softly started crying. She knew she bursted out on Gohana, but she felt lied to and betrayed by the same person promising to make her stronger. Too many times Gohana says something and she reacts violently towards. She never gives anyone a second chance that does that, yet this is not even the first time this had happened with Gohana. A part of her felt terrible for what she said and wanted to take it back, but why? Why did she still want to?
"I'm sorry mom. I promised you I would do my best." Videl spoke and she softly rocked back and forth trying to comfort herself.
"I just don't know what to do. I don't know if I should trust her. I want to for some reason. I fell so calm being around her. But..."
Wiping away the newer tears coming down with her hand, Videl took a deep breath of the chilly night air and sniffled.
"She keeps so many secrets, it's so hard to know just how much else she is hiding from me. I hate that, but I can't fault her either. Knowing what I know now."
Thinking back on all the times Gohana kept trying to hide things, or make up obvious stories. Anyone else doing this Videl would have written off almost instantly! And yet Gohana repeatedly did exactly that.
"She does nothing buy lie and hide things. But I feel so safe with her and she the most genuine person I have ever meet."
She defeated Cell and didn't take the credit. She flat out told her friends and family to not let the world know it was her. She had been fighting since she was just four. Traveled to space and had to fight off monstrous aliens. And even now she trains to keep the Earth safe from Kami knows what, and all she wants is to be as normal as she can. She just wants a normal life, yet she has no problem protecting those that can't protect themselves. She is incredibly humble and goes out of her way to help others. She even already has a job, Capsule Corp and Earths protector. Just those alone are all reasons enough for some of the behavior. It's normal for Gohana, but to everyone else it is completely out there and unbelievable. Though that seems to also be a part of her charm.
'If Gohana were a guy, I'd swear I would be falling for her or something.' Videl thought to herself before suddenly becoming bright red and flustered.
"Stupid Videl, what on Earth are you thinking?" Videl said to herself and she softly started smacking her cheeks for thinking that before shrieking from a sudden voice behind her calling her name.
With a quick shriek and moving quickly a few feet away from the noise, she noticed that it was just Gohana, and she remembered her anger at her. But it had subsided a little bit now. Why?
"Videl, listen. About earlier I." Gohana started before Videl interrupted her.
"I don't care what you have to say, Gohana! You flat out said I'll never be as strong as you! There's nothing you can say that will fix that!" Videl quickly turned back around and crossed her arms angrily again and huffed.
"Super Saiyan multiplies my strength."
Videl was suddenly now curious what the heck she meant by it multiplies it. She thought that is what ki could do! It could help make her stronger, and in turn getting stronger make her have more ki. Isn't that what her Super Saiyn thing did? Against her better judgement, Videl turned back and glared at her.
"Explain."
"Turning into a Super Saiyan multiplies my strength and ki by about fifty. And my second stage just doubles it again. That's what I meant by what I said." repeating the simple numbers she told Sharpner, trying to keep it short and to the point.
'What, but that means you would be suddenly a hundred times stronger! How can something like that be possible to that extent?'
Gohana could tell that Videl was deep in thought to herself. She had learned to tell based on the subtle ways her face moves a bit anytime she told her something and then out came a question. But ultimately she said exactly what she came here to say, and all she could do now was just wait to see what happens next.
"So, your saying that even if I were to get as strong as you are without you transforming. All you would have to do is just, change and instantly its game over?" Videl tried to clarify with the hypothetical.
"Yes. All Super Saiyan is anyway is a power boost from a need for a power. At least in a nut shell. It isn't going after it for the sake of it. For me and dad to unlock it, it was pretty traumatic. But we survived because of it, but we both almost died unlocking it." Gohana explained.
Videl was just staring at Gohana now, unsure of even what to say. Not just to what she had said, but also now about earlier. If she could instantly just become stronger at the flick of a switch then of course it made sense why she said they would never catch up to her. And now Videl felt even more pathetic than earlier. And here, yet again, she was forgiving Gohana again. Only proving her thought from before she showed up.
"Are you still upset?" Gohana asked cautiously, unsure how to react as Videl had been staring at the ground for a few moments.
"Of course I'm upset! That means I can't ever catch up to you!"
'Well she's talking to me at least.' Gohana thougth and slowly started walking towards Videl, sitting down next to her when Videl didn't try pushing her away when she noticed.
"I really am sorry I didn't explain better. I just figured to answer the question." Gohana apologized.
"It's not your fault. I know I flip out for no reason." Videl said with a sigh.
For a little while, neither of them really said anything. Videl mostly because she didn't know how to apologize for always blowing up at her without letting her explain. And Gohana was to afraid to say something to piss Videl off. But just sitting there with the evening breeze did feel rather nice for Gohana. She always enjoyed the breeze, and even the slight chill. Though after a few moment she noticed that Videl was shivering a lot.
"You're cold. We should head back so you dont get sick." Gohana stated in worry and stood up.
"No, I want to stay here for a bit longer." Videl said, staring softly at the intricate tombstone in front of her.
"But you're shivering."
"I don't care." Videl stubbornly fought back.
This must be what her mom and Bulma always mentioned. They would always complain about being cold when it wasn't. Even if she was wearing something almost identical to them she would be nice and warm. Might have something to do with being a Saiyan perhaps. Guess it really is cold, for human females then.
"Fine, if you insist on staying."
Moving right behind her, Gohana sat right behind Videl and wrapped her arms around her, pulling Videl close to her. She figured if she wasn't ever cold, she just generates more heat and isn't bothered by it. Though the moment she held onto Videl, she could feel just how cold her forearms were and figured she must actually be freezing. Though more to her surprise was that Videl didn't fight back against this. In fact she seemed to lean back into Gohana for warmth. Due to their height differences, Gohana could easily rest her chin on top of Videls head. With nothing better to do, she just looked at the tombstone in front of her.
"Um, can I ask about the tombstone?" Gohana asked.
"It's my moms." Videl weakly said.
Gohana's heart instantly sank, and completely regretted even asking but there was no name or anything on it, not even any words. But this explained why she was in the graveyard at all to begin with!
"I'm sorry." Gohana lightly held onto Videl a little bit more.
Videl wasn't used to this at all. But the warmth all against her, and feeling Gohana's comforting embrace, Videl just hugged Gohana's arms against her even more. It felt really relaxing. Not only because of how warm Gohana seemed to be, but having someone who cares for her right now. She had tried many times to get her father to visit ever since it happened, but other than when she was buried here, he never came with her. And to her knowledge he never has since.
"You must be wondering?" Videl eventually spoke up after a few minutes of silence.
"About what?" Gohana tried to lie.
"I mean, I know how...about your dad." Videl cautiously ventured into the topic. "You must be wondering what happened to my mom." Videl clarified.
Gohana had indeed been wondering that once Videl told her this belonged to her mom. But she didn't even have the heart to ask. Not to mention she didn't even know how to ask and figured she would know if Videl decided to tell her. All she knew was from what Erasa and Sharpner told her that it was the cause of her extreme distrust towards people that lie to her, and that she died saving Videl.
"Well I mean...I just...didn't want to ruin the moment I guess." Gohana stuttered an answer. she was glad Videl wasn't angry at her anymore, at least didn't appear to, and she didn't want to get her upset over anything else.
"Gohana?"
"...Yes."
Videl took a few deeps breaths, and without realizing it she was trying to get closer to Gohana as her mind raced back to the day it happened.
"We trusted him, with our lives. But then Lee, he tried to take them" Videl started, now being her turn to try holding back some tears, unsuccessfully.
10 years ago*
Migeru ran down the alley way as fast as she could, with Videl trying her hardest to keep up with her as best as her little seven year old legs would take her. She struggled to keep up with her mother, but she did her best.
"Mommy, where are we going?"
Stopping for a moment to catch her breath, Migeru knelt down and held onto her daughters shoulders softly.
"Videl, sweety. I want you to listen to me okay. We need to get home as quickly as we can, okay?" Migeru tried her hardest to not let her daughter freak out. She was already losing her own mind, but she had to make sure Videl was alright and safe.
Migeru took a few more panting breaths and continues down the alley. They were only a few more blocks from their home, and she had to get there as fast as she could. If even just her husband Mark was home early from his wrestling match, or even their good friend Lee, she would feel safer. Luckily, she soon saw her house with Lee coming back from somewhere.
"Lee!" She cried out as she ran with Videl.
"Migeru? What's wrong? Why are you not at the match? I was worried about you, you weren't in the fighters room for Mark!"
Migeru didn't even wait to answer him and pulled both Videl and him into the house, locking the door behind her. Leaning against the door, Migeru finally tried to catch her breath, as the entire run she felt okay. But now she hit the wall and the exhaustion hit her like a freight train. Slowly sliding down the door, Lee quickly ran to the kitchen to get her some water. Videl stayed next to her mothers side worried.
"Mommy, are you alright?" she held onto her mothers shoulder crying.
Seeing that at Videl was now safe, she held onto her tiny hands in one of hers, giving Videl a reassuring squeeze and a smile.
"Just need...to catch...my...breath...sweety." she panted the words out.
She was already breathing a bit easier by the time Lee came back with water, which she quickly drank down. With help with Lee, Migeru got up and made her way into the living room sofa, with Videl asleep on her lap as she gently stroked her daughters hair.
"Is she finally asleep?" Lee asked as he kept peering out the window.
"She is, yes. I tried my best to not get her to worry. Thank the heaven's that you showed up when you did! I dropped my keys and bag in my rush back here."
Lee walked across the room and sat down on the single seater adjacent to the sofa and pushed his glasses back up to the bridge of his nose. He had known Migeru and Mark since they were all in middle school when she moved here for a better education. And he had been the one to help keep Migeru and Videl safe from the crowd and paparazzi during Mark's fights ever since he started becoming and up and coming fighter. He even started calling himself Hercule due to how many people compared his strength to that of Hercules. Migeru thought it was cute, but Videl hated it. More importantly though, Lee helped keep them safe from the dirty side of fighting. Mark wasn't exactly doing things by the books. He had taken a few deals that Migeru wasn't supposed to know about. But those deals gave them a roof over their head when they needed it the most. Migeru was smart, she knew what was happening. That's why she knew to bolt, but if Mark just wins this one match, they can up and leave Orange city and start anew, and get away from the Black Fist mob.
"That's good. We don't need her to know about what's going on." Lee said looking at Videl asleep.
"How much longer do you think the fight will be?" Migeru asked.
Rolling up his sleeve, Lee looked at his watch.
"Well, if I had to guess. It should end any minute now."
Should end? Why would he guess that? The fight was specifically a no time limit. There is no should. Still, Migeru didn't think much of it. He had grown up with Mark, and helped study the fighting techniques and style of his opponent tonight anyway. He must be guessing based on that. Still didn't make her feel any less safe. She had been playing like she was in the dark for the last two years now. She knew Mark's recent ruse of moving away to the country, possibly her home town, was a cover for their safety. He hated the country, he wasn't too fond of her home town. He was always very honest about it, but he never bashed them or bad mouthed them. And his constant calling to check on them during his training? It didn't start until those suits showed up. She knew how much danger they were in, she knew what Mark was sacrificing to attempt to keep them safe. She knew what they were capable of. But he was giving that all up after he won tonight, all for her and their daughter.
Lee's cell suddenly playing over the silence caused Migeru to jump in surprise suddenly, and made Videl groggily wake up.
"Hello? Yeah. Okay." Lee was talking on the phone and headed off to the kitchen.
"Mommy, is daddy home?" Videl tugged her moms sleeve as she sat up and rubbed her eyes, still very tired.
"Not yet sweety. But he will be soon."
"Well that truly sucks." Lee said as he walked back into the living room. "Yeah, yeah, I know what to do if Mark crossed us. Don't worry bro, I'll get it done." and hung up with a beep.
Migeru's heart stopped for a split second, and she looked up and saw the knife Lee was holding in his gloved hand.
"Now, what do you think, hmm Migeru?"
Migeru didn't say anything but slowly stood up from the couch, just pulling a still groggy Videl with her.
"Mark makes a big bad deal with the Black Fist mob. Constantly annoys the boss. But he was always good at paying everything back." he said, very animated with his hand as he talked.
"But there was this one fight tonight. We've been building him up, so that this fight is the talk of the world. And all he had to do was lose the match. This one god damned time. He was already on thin ice for not doing so before. But no no no, he doesn't listen."
"Lee, why? We've known each other so long."
"Oh, yeah that's true and all. But, *tsk* uh, there is one thing that none of you really tended to ask much about. Black fit mob. Ever know who the big head honcho is? My pop. But I lived with my mom when we meet. Why do you think I'm so good at picking up dirt on people. Runs in the family. Oh, and speaking of family, lets see what happens when Mark finds his, shall we?"
Migeru quickly grabbed Videl and pulled her as she bolted towards the back of the house, Lee quickly running after her. Migeru knew how to fight a bit, but against a knife, while trying to keep Videl safe? She didn't know if she could, and she would not risk it. It didn't take long to get to the back door of the house, but Lee was a bit faster. Grabbing Migeru by her hair, he yanked back hard causing her to fall back onto the floor in pain. Videl screamed as she continued to run through the house trying to get away from Lee. She didn't understand what was going on overall, but she knew full well she was in danger.
Lee walked over Migeru and went to go after Videl, until Migeru grabbed him by his boot trying to stop him. It didn't work though as she soon felt a searing hot pain slash at her wrist and she couldn't move her fingers anymore.
"Videl, run!" she screamed.
Lee could hear her though, running through the house. It always annoyed them all when Videl would run around late at night. But this night it just made it all the easier for him to find her. He could hear her run upstairs quickly. Guessing she would try to run down the other flight of stairs near the front door, Lee just walked that direction. Sure enough, he could hear her quickly trying to make her way to the front. Walking over to it, he hid just around the corner. When Videl quickly got down stair, he easily scooped her up and she tried kicking and screaming to get away.
"Don't worry little one, I won't let you suffer. I'll make sure it's your parent's that do. I'll make it quick."
Throwing Videl onto the couch and holding her down, he aims the knife at her neck, but is quickly stunned when something smashes into his head. Loosing his grip on Videl, she quickly runs and hides in the closet to get away from him. Migeru, holding onto her injured wrist front kicks Lee in the gut. Though feeling woozy herself, she tries to quickly grab Videl so they can try to run again towards the front door but they don't make it. Lee returns the kick to Migeru knocking Videl into the wall where she hits her head and falls over unconscious.
Migeru tries to get up, but was to weak and disoriented from how much blood she has lost from her wrist. She sees Videl unconcious just a few feet away until Lee steps on her good hand and kneels down, knife in hand.
"Now why did you have to go and do that? You know I was going to do you first, in my mind. But why did you have to do all of that." Holding the knife up against her throat. "But I think I'll let you bleed out in front of your precious little corpse of a daughter instead."
The door erupted open as a large force kicked it it, figures silhouetted by the flashing lights and headlights behind them.
"This is the police! Turn around slowly or we will shoot!"
Lee glanced back a bit, and realized Mark must have figured it out and called the police. 'Always smarter then you really let on, eh Mark.'
Looking back at Migeru, he pressed the knife harder against her neck and then back at Videl, not taking his eyes off of her anymore.
"Well" he said as he noded his head a bit, "at least this will still send the message."
With a quick straightening of his arm, Lee soon felt the worst searing pain he had ever felt, before falling over and not feeling anything anymore.
end flashback*
Videl huddled herself as much as she could against Gohana, both for warmth and comfort. Outside of her father, Sharpner and Erasa, Gohana was the first person Videl had ever shared this with. Gohana just gently squeezed her comfortingly, holding her against her as she rocked Videl back and forth. She hadn't said anything for a few minutes now, but Gohana didn't mind. Nor did she even say anything. She just held onto Videl a bit more and let her softly cry for a bit. It wasn't tears rolling down her face kind of crying, but soft sniffles from painful memories from a long time ago. She knew Videl was okay, just reliving some bad memories, but she had to admit that Videl was way more stable than she was.
"That's why I have such a hard time trusting people that lie or betray me ." Videl said. 'Except for you for some reason. It goes against all my instincts.'
"I'm sorry. I'll try to be more open and up front about stuff. Or just work on my wording a bit I guess."
"Yeah, for someone as super smart as you, you can sure be dense sometimes." Videl playfully shot back a bit.
Gohana just looked up at the stars, now fully visible as there were no lights anywhere else except the moon. She was just very glad to see that Videl didn't hate her at all, and that she was able to explain herself. And have Videl understand.
"So, now that you know why I blow up on you when you try to hide stuff...can I ask a question from your point of view?" Videl asked.
Videl's wording of that confused Gohana as she wasn't even sure what she was getting at.
"Um, sure."
"I blow up on you all the time over silly little things, And it is always my own damn fault. But you always try to make it right. Why? No one's ever done that." Videl asked. Not that she really minded of course in the end, because it always seemed to be on her end that the problem happens.
Gohana had to really think about it. Her instant response was to say that she didn't want to lose her. But why was the sensation so strong to fix it? Sure she has lost before, or the fear of losing someone. But this, she was slowly realizing, was slightly different. She wasn't as worried about losing Sharpner earlier. Of course she was really worried about it, but the more she thought about it, she realized that Videl was more important to her then either Erasa or Sharpner.
"I guess I can't imagine my life now without you." Gohana answered without realizing what she was saying at first.
"Huh, what do you mean?"
Gohana's brain clicked into place what she just said and she was blushing a bit now.
"Um, well what I mean is..." Gohana stalled for a moment to think. "I really like fighting crime with you I guess. I've gotten so used to it really. And outside my family, who already know all this stuff anyway, you're the first person I've every been able to be myself around. Even before you guys found out about my secrets, i could mostly be myself. Just not the super human part. So I guess that just makes you really important to me." Gohana tried to answer.
'Really important, huh?'
Gohana just looked at the top of Videl's head, not even sure where else to even look to begin with. Though she tended to look more at the tombstone in front of her. She was able to see a little bit some of the details. From what she could tell with her heightened night vision, there was a lot of detail on it. Though she figured that she would be able to see more in detail if she were to see it at night. She could swear that, while at first glance there were no works, that the design on it did in fact form a word. Still at the moment it wasn't that important, and Gohana just did a mild meditation, deciding to just stay until Videl was ready to leave. She wasn't in any hurry to leave anyway until Videl was.
Videl could feel and hear Gohana's breath. Just like Gohana sharing her life with her, she was slowly letting Gohana into her own life. And why wouldn't she want to? She clearly could trust Gohana, even with her own brash nature getting in the way of that And Gohana obviously cared about her friends. Videl just leaned a little bit more into Gohana and just relaxed. She felt rather peaceful here with Gohana. And why shouldn't she? Gohana was really strong so nothing would happen to her. Yet Gohana never really flaunted anything over anyone. She was selfless just like she was, and she felt the most safe with her in almost any situation she could think of. She was like the perfect guy. She didn't want to get up and leave yet. She just wanted to stay here for right now be in Gohana's arms. Then it hit her as her face flushed red.
'Wait a minute. Am I...'