Getting accepted into one of the world's most prestigious high schools was an honour for Son Gohan, the private Orange Star High School only accepted either the most brilliant of minds or the richest of people, usually both. So he could easily say that the day he learned he could study there was the most triumphant one of his life.
Looking down at the Satan City from the studio apartment his mother bought for him, Gohan knew this would be the first day of his new life. After wearing his school uniform and taking his backpack, he took off for Orange High, though he was glad to be able to live here in the first place, the place he was living in was fairly far away from the school. Waking up early had been a habit of his from as early as he could remember however now it would be required as taking two different buses to get to school was a necessity. Even though he didn't know how to pilot a capsule copter, his mother couldn't afford it anyways.
Thankfully the rumours he heard about living in the city appeared to be false. His old neighbours who came to Satan City from time to time had told him about there being muggings, robberies and highwaymen at every corner however that didn't seem likely from what he saw.
As he was thinking about this, the world proved him wrong with the sound of an explosion from close. When he looked out of the window he saw a bank robbery going on with a shootout between the police and the criminals. What shocked him even more than the shootout was the reaction of the other people in the bus. Despite the death and destruction happening right in front of their eyes, the strongest emotion he saw was mild annoyance, presumably from the noise, and most common one was apathy.
If he was still unable to see what was the truth, he couldn't be able to find pride in being smart anymore, those rumours he just dismissed were the cold hard truth and that scared him. Immediately creating scenarios of terror in his own mind, Gohan realized he wouldn't be able to do anything in front of a criminal.
Being the son of a farmer and a simple village woman, living on a remote mountain, hours away from any other human, Gohan never got into a fight in his life. His mother was also very adamant about him not learning anything about fighting. Regardless though, knowing about fighting a bit probably wouldn't do anything in front of guns so learning about how to kowtow sounded like a more practical way to stay safe.
With his heart heavy about his safety, Gohan finally made it to Orange High and looked at the building he would hopefully spend his next year in. Despite being here before for his application and interview, the building seemed to have a different majesty when looking at it as its student.
After a lengthy registration process, he was finally ready to start school after 17 long years.
His teacher introduced him, "We are getting a new transfer student this semester through the scholarship program. Everyone, please welcome Son Gohan.", with light clapping that couldn't be any more insincere Gohan started looking for a place to sit and perhaps seeing his confusion, a blonde girl with short hair called out to him.
Gohan not wanting to stand up any longer and without a reason to refuse her offer, sat next to her. The girl who looked like the personification of the concept of 'positive' introduced the people sitting on this bench, "Hi, I am Erasa and this blondie next to me is Sharpner. Don't ask if we are siblings though, we aren't!" all with a smile in her face.
After the small joke Erasa made, Gohan giggled and lost the nervousness he didn't know he had. Sitting next to Sharpner was a girl with black hair and blue eyes who looked angry however that felt more like her resting face than her actual emotion.
"And she is Videl, you might have heard of her before, Videl Satan." Erasa introduced her. However this introduction was a truly shocking one, daughter of the man who saved the world from the terror known as 'Cell' was a big deal.
Gohan looked at Videl with eyes of wonder and the realized that the resting anger face on Videl's face turned to one of disgust as she realized how he was looking at her.
She said with contempt in her voice, "What, Never seen a celebrity before?", realizing he came off very rude. Gohan immediately explained himself, "I heard about how you gave your all to make this city safer, as someone living in it I appreciate that a lot."
With a clear look of disbelief and a scowl, Videl said "Flattery won't get you anywhere, I know that my father is a far bigger hero in your eyes than I am."
Replying without the shyness he started out with Gohan said, "Don't get me wrong, your father isn't my idol like you are, he is my goal. I also want to be known as a hero through my scientific achievements, however I am selfish unlike you, though maybe that is what a hero really is."
With a loud snort, Videl turned the other way but perhaps at being called an idol or perhaps at being called a true hero, her mood seemed to have improved.
After a few lessons, Gohan got used to the way schools work, after studying by himself for more than a decade, the atmosphere of school was still a bit alien to him but Erasa and her friend group hanging out with him was a great help. Despite Sharpner calling him a bookworm and Videl scowling the entire time, being around people his own age was a first for him.
Last lesson before the school ended was PE and apparently the students of Orange High were expected to be proficient in as many sports as possible so after some light warm up, they would play a different sports almost every week and today's was baseball.
After a bit of arguing, Gohan joined Videl's team despite her not wanting to coach some bookworm with no experience in the game.
Gohan understood where he needed to stand and what he needed to do but he wasn't sure if he could do it but he wanted to at least try, living practically locked up in his room while his father and mother did all the work required to live in a place as remote as the one he was born in was hard on his heart. Now that he had started to achieve his goals academically, he could also start to help his mother.
While his mind was occupied by these thoughts, he suddenly heard the noise of the bat hitting the ball and his body started to move on its own. His eyes locked on to the fast ball and his legs that didn't exercise in years gave their all to move towards it and jumped with all they had.
Before Gohan realized, he was on the air with the ball in his hand, the autopilot that allowed him to move this way stopped and he was left completely baffled, however showing how quick his mind is, Gohan remembered what he had to do and threw the ball with all his might while falling down.
A whistling sound was what all that could be heard before the ball found its target in a second or less, Gohan was proud not have been a burden to his team but when he looked around he saw the entire field looking at him in shock.
Someone off field asked him, "Just how high did you jump? Was it 9-10 meters?"
Gohan laughed it off, "No way, it was probably lower than it looked." There were people in the world who could jump that high like the hero Mr. Satan or his daughter Videl but Gohan wasn't a part of that select few.
When he looked at that person who could actually jump that high he saw that her usual face turned to one of suspicion, with some genuine anger but he didn't know the reason.
After a while after everyone realized Gohan truly didn't realize how weird he looked, the game continued and now it was his turn to bat. Sharpner, whose ball Gohan miraculously caught just now, was pitching.
Videl, who just taught Gohan how to hold a bat was watching the match with great interest in her eyes.
A whistling sound just as the one Gohan produced when he threw the ball was heard from everyone and then he same instinct that took a hold over Gohan when he jumped did so again and he started tracking the ball through the air with perfect clarity. The ball was coming straight towards him and his hand moved before his mind could and caught it.
He excitedly asked the coach, "This means I can run, right?", who answered meekly with "R- right."
Unaware of the shocked gazes of everyone watching, Gohan felt proud of his newly found talent in baseball. For the rest of the match both teams played under a daze with the reason for them being like that as the only exception.
After the match ended and Gohan was preparing to go home, Videl approached him with clear fury in her face. Not wanting to face the rage of someone who could easily break him into two, Gohan quickly asked, "What happened Videl?"
"No, you tell me what happened?" Videl retorted with anger, "How are you so strong?"
Confused at her question, Gohan answered, "What are you asking about Videl? I am not all that strong. Now I know that I jumped a bit high and reacted a bit fast but I think that was because I lived in a bit of a rural area my whole life."
Showing that she was listening in to their conversation the whole time, Erasa asked, "Wow where could someone as cute as you have grown up in?"
Gohan felt happy that someone was interested about his birthplace and quickly answered, "It is in Mountain Area XY, a bit far from here but I make do."
Despite the shocked expression in his face Sharpner could barely say, "That place is 'a bit rural'? I didn't even know people lived there until now." with how Videl and Erasa looked they seemed to be thinking the same thing.
"So, where do you live now?" Videl said in an interrogative way.
Not expecting to tell to three of his friends about his home address in his first day, Gohan said in a slightly nervous way "I stay in Satan Star area. I can give you my exact address if you want to come."
With a shocked gasp Erasa said, "I didn't know you were rich! Satan Star is both so far away from here and so unreasonably expensive, what a waste of money, I could buy an entire wardrobe with a month of rent there."
Seeming confused Gohan asked, "What do you mean by rich? Don't misunderstand, I come from a humble farmer's family and where I stay is little more than a room pretending to be a house."
Sharpner snorted in a manner that either looked like a cheap copy of Videl or a mocking parody of her and said, "If you think that then you either mustn't know just how expensive the place you are staying in is or your family must have gotten scammed into a rent contract."
Hearing these words and seeing the approving nods of the other two Gohan said in a confused way, "But there is no rent contract, my mother said she bought it in a single payment and gave me the proof of ownership."
Videl said after thinking a bit, "So your family is nearly as rich as mine but you don't know it for whatever reason..."
Finally losing a bit of his patience made Gohan take out some paper and wrote a bit on it before saying, "Here, this is my address, please come this weekend and solve your misunderstandings."
Erasa took a picture of the address with her phone and said, "Oh yeah Gohan, tell me your phone number so I call you before we come."
Sheepishly Gohan laughed and said, "I don't have a phone yet, it would be great if you could tell me your plans the day before in school."
"What kinda person doesn't have a phone these days? Your family is so rich yet they aren't buying you a phone." Videl said in her usual tone of voice.
Gohan was resigned at the fact that these people wouldn't understand that he wasn't all that rich until they saw his house and didn't retort at all.
Erasa waved at him and started walking away towards her own home, "See you tomorrow in school, Gohan don't forget that we are coming in the weekend." with Sharpner on her side.
After those two left Videl said to Gohan, "I'll get to the bottom of why you are so strong but let's leave it for today. See you tomorrow." and went towards a capsule copter take off pad.
Reaching his house made all the weight of this tiring day press down on Gohan's shoulder at once and he crashed into a couch. From the lengthy travel both ways with seeing robberies along the way to the stress of going to a school for the first time, Gohan felt very worn down.
However after thinking about it a bit, none of his tiredness came from the physical exertion, even the impossible feats he pulled in the baseball game, which he started to accept was real after seeing Videl's reaction, didn't seem to have affected his body much.
Being a man of rational thought, Gohan started to think how this could be, he knew that for sure he never physically trained, what physical activity he did went as far as carrying some logs around the house and nothing more and he was sure that couldn't be enough, otherwise his mother who did far more would be many times stronger than Mr. Satan.
So the only conclusion he could reach was that he was a natural prodigy in using his body. He looked at his scrawny body in he mirror and thought about how this body could be the best in the world and felt a bit excited.
But then he shook his head, he remembered the instinctual fear that took over his body when he saw Cell's picture in the newspaper and the words 'Run away' repeating loudly again and again in his mind until he learned Cell was defeated.
Mr. Satan who could accomplish such a feat was definitely not someone who he could hope to overcome by just having a good body. And the focus of his life and the hopes of his mother for his future was his academic life, he definitely couldn't afford to spend time learning how to fight after his mother was so adamant in him not doing so.
Gohan then started to frown when he thought of his mother. Though he still believed that this room pretending to be a house couldn't be expensive, he had to think about the case that it was.
He knew that by all accounts he lived a modest life until now, his house didn't have electricity until last year and the food he ate came from nature. During the time his father was around, he was just a hunter and a farmer who barely sold anything of what he got while his mother was always a housewife as far as he knew.
There wasn't a way people like them could gather enough money to be a considered rich by Videl Satan's standards but Gohan had to investigate.
Though that could be left for later. Now he just wanted to eat some food and sleep. He made his usual two servings of food, he ate way more than the average person, and realized that he was going to miss his mother's spectacular cooking, however even after finishing he still felt hungry for whatever reason.
He thought "I am such a glutton." to himself and ate his third serving before going to bed.
At school the next day, Gohan was glad to see that the few friends he made didn't act differently towards him because of their perceived wealth of his no matter how untrue.
Erasa talked to him about where he could go in his free time, she seemed like a connoisseur of Satan City's night life. While Sharpner recommended him some gyms so Gohan could 'Graduate from his bookwormness'. The warmth of friendship was one that was completely different from family.
Even Videl seemed like she was worried about him and gave him the numbers of a few accountants, she said that according to her father the number one reason for people losing their wealth was a mismanagement of assets.
Though Gohan didn't think he would ever have enough assets to have a need of hiring accountants, he appreciated her concerns.
However what surprised him far more than her being concerned about him was her dedication to fighting crime.
She would get up in the middle of a lesson if you got a notice and go off to fight criminals. She would always come out unscathed too. Gohan thought this was the perfect image of a hero that he would strive to be.
The week continued on as such. Excited about his friends visiting and confused about the price of his house, Gohan lived through one of the most exciting times of his life. The rest of it, as much as he didn't mind it, was spent in his room, studying for a future he didn't understand day in and day out. But now even something as simple as his friends coming for a visit was a big event.