The shriek of excitement from Erasa confirmed they were at the right place, from the outside it looked like a completely normal cafe, even a bit deserted but its name was suspicious, Videl didn't see a lot of innocent places with a name like 'Forever 18'.
Inside it looked relatively normal, she didn't see anything out of the ordinary but from her experience she learned that the most dangerous places didn't look like dens of villainy with drugs and weapons everywhere.
First thing she took notice to was that they didn't need reservations, no waiter greeted them nor was there a guestbook they needed to sign. It looked like a completely normal cafe made for teens to hang out in and have a coffee or two.
Then she saw how empty the place was, other than a bored looking teenager girl on the counter, there wasn't anyone in the establishment.
She asked, "Are you sure this is the place? You were hyping it up but I don't see it Erasa." without any hint of irony, she was genuinely wondering.
"Of course I am sure. I have been researching this place for a few months now. Capsule Corp definitely has extensive connections to here, but it is still somehow unpopular, I'll take some photos with a bill from here and get hailed as a trendsetter in a few weeks." Erasa raved on. Videl didn't get why this girl she knew to be intelligent was chasing that 15 minutes of fame.
After sitting down on a table and taking a look at the menu, she discovered the evil lurking at this place and it was sinister indeed, she didn't get angry however and just looked at Erasa dead in the eyes.
Even this shameless person looked a little apologetic at what she did, "Think of it as taking revenge from your father. It is his money you'll be paying with right?"
On the side the boys looked as if they were in an alien world but couldn't show shock due to the sheer amount of confusion. Gohan asked Sharpner while looking at a menu, "I am pretty sure this dessert costs as much as twenty hours of non stop ride on a Capsule Copter. did I calculate wrong?" with a calm voice.
Sharpner replied with a tone of voice that proved his voice didn't naturally sound passionate and said, "Yes, this indeed costs as much as a car. The taste must be positively delightful."
Erasa called for the girl on the counter who looked surprised herself that people who looked at the menu didn't decide to just walk out, she said, "Before anything, I want to mention that we take the payment before giving the food, if you are going to try and dine and dash, that won't work."
With a giggle Videl knew was fake, Erasa replied to her, "Why would we dine and dash silly? It isn't like these are expensive. Only Capsule Corp Exotic Delicacies Restaurant is worth doing that in." and winked at her.
The waiter said with a hint of disbelief, "Okay, I'll take your orders then." while paying the bill Videl felt terrible at paying enough money to buy a decent house for four desserts and drinks but thinking how this would be paid by her father, she felt slightly better.
Despite the shameless plead by the waiter for them to wait the cooking equipment to heat up, the very alien music they opened was very high quality, despite being familiar with most music be it classical or modern she couldn't think of any with a similar style.
After Erasa took a few photos, they started eating, to be fair it was really good but there was no universe where it was worth the price of a car. She could afford it but she was looking forward to how many people Erasa could sucker into coming here.
She said, "Okay let's go, I feel a bit better now. Erasa send a photo of that bill to me, I need to make my father feel a hundredth of what I do."
However between all the laughter and fun, while they were getting up, Videl felt like all the air in her lung forcibly extracted, her muscles crushed, her eyes blinded and her ears deafened. The next moment her body eased up a bit but a deep primal fear was etched into her bones.
When she looked around she saw Erasa was also terrified and showing even more cowardice Sharpner looked frozen still but Gohan was completely unafraid. The emotion on his face was different, he was really surprised, he said, "Dad?"
He then immediately frowned, "No, you aren't my father but why is my sister here? What are you doing with him Eschalot?" at these words, Videl snapped her head to where he was looking regardless of how afraid she was and saw four people coming into the cafe.
The 'sister' Gohan was talking about was a young girl with black spiky hair similar to her older brother's and an expression on her face that made her look like a nightmare to be around, she was holding the hand of a blonde woman with blue eyes who looked like a model.
Even though she was beautiful, her beauty looked sculpted out of ice rather than naturally occurred on a human. With her short blonde hair, blue eyes, cold expression and designer casual clothes without any dust or grime, to Videl she looked like a cutoff from the cover of a fashion magazine that came to life.
Third one of the four people was another one of those 'cut out people', the young man with black shoulder length hair and ice blue eyes looked very similar to the blond woman to the point where she was comfortable calling the two related. Other than their hair colour and genders, the only difference was a slightly warmer facial expression that made the young man look more like a human.
However none of the three was the reason for her fear. The pressure she only felt from her father now came from a blonde man with blue eyes in a colourful shirt. Unlike the 'model' whose hair was a more subtle yellow, his was a bold and bright gold. And she didn't know how but it was literally glowing with sparks.
His face was familiar to her, over the last few weeks she saw this confident and handsome face on that muscled body more than once or twice. Son Goku's confident face was right in front of her eyes.
He replied to Gohan, "You didn't even recognize your dad... I am so disappointed." the young girl added, "We only met a month ago! How could you forget father?"
Compared his normal expressions, Videl saw Gohan as much more determined and serious, he replied, "I saw a photo of you with dad. I know you aren't him."
"A professional body double Gohan, a friend of mine. I just changed my style a bit, we spent more than a decade together in a mountain with your mother. Don't you remember swimming with me after I snuck you out of your room?" he said while taking a seat. The people around him also pulled a few seats.
Gohan's face slowly crumbled, "Dad? That is really you?" Videl couldn't even guess what he was thinking, how he was feeling. Was he happy to see his family, was he angry, was he confused. She had to see.
The little girl, Eschalot, stuck her tongue out and said, "Are you stupid? How many times should he say it?", the blonde woman said, "Is he really your brother? I never met him before but he doesn't seem as sharp.", Eschalot replied with her head down, "He is! Can you believe it?"
To Videl, with how in sync those two were, she would first believe they were siblings, the little girl looked like Gohan but her personality couldn't be any more different.
Voicing the question on her mind, Gohan asked, "So Dad, who are these lady and gentleman? I haven't ever seen them before." even though Videl knew Son Goku was connected to a lot of people but nowhere did she see these two.
The blonde woman talked, "This is my cafe, when I learned some suckers actually bought anything from here. Give me a few hundred million zeni Hercule's child, I'll give you sense in exchange." Videl felt her face getting red at these words coming from the condescending voice of the ice cold woman.
Her friend came to her rescue, Erasa said, "This is your restaurant? I am such a big fan! Can I please have your autograph?" in an attempt to change the subject.
On a piece of paper napkin, the young man with black hair quickly wrote something and gave it to Erasa, he said, "This should suffice right?" and winked at her.
Before quickly shoving the napkin to her pocket, Erasa looked at him with disbelief and said, "Thanks so much Lapis. And I believe Lazuli is your sister, right?"
Blonde woman, Lazuli, answered, "Yes, I am called 18 however.", Lapis said his part as well, "It would be 17 for me." Eschalot interrupted the two siblings and added, "My brother is now 16 years old so I should be either 15 or 19, right?" between the laughter coming from Goku and even a small smirk from 17, 18 said, "Let alone 19, you aren't even 10. Get to double digits first kid."
Videl noticed that between all this banter coming from the three, Gohan's face was barely resisting getting twisted. She didn't know why exactly, the pressure from earlier stopped a while ago and the three had a very good relation with each other, he should have been happy that his sister had these two around her while growing up.
She asked, "Mr. Son, you are the same person who won the 23rd World Martial Arts Tournament, right?"
A hearty laugh from the tall man who said, "Finally a teenager girl who recognizes me from my martial arts accomplishments rather than my modeling. How rare an occurrence!"
After 18 said, "Didn't you went through all that ordeal with Puar to not get recognized?", Goku ignored her and answered, "Yes, indeed I am the champion before your father."
Vindication of being proven right brightened up her eyes from their dimness of this morning's deal with her father. She asked, "I keep hearing that 23rd World Martial Arts Tournament had the highest average quality and you won it, if you don't mind me asking, how strong are you?"
His eyes opened up and he leaned towards her, his smile gave off a weird energy that triggered that pressure and fear in her again and he said, "Do you really, really want to learn?", Videl felt like she could hear sparks coming from who knows where, but suddenly it cut off as 18 pinched his arm, "Don't do that here, you'll destroy my cafe."
Goku said "Okay, okay. Videl, I'll show you some other time alright? As long as you are around my son, I am sure we'll meet lots." with a carefree attitude. Unlike the other two, Goku looked much more like a human.
Sharpner who didn't talk a lot since Goku and his entourage came said, "Lapis, Lazuli, 17, 18... Is LL35 named after you two?" in an uncertain voice.
From Videl to Erasa to Gohan, all of his friends looked at him with surprise. Videl got angry at herself for not realizing the moment she heard their names.
17 did a little clap and said, "Congratulations, I wouldn't have expected you guys to make that connection, you really exceeded my expectations."
Finding courage from the praise, Sharpner said to Goku, "Can you please give me a few tips for training? I feel I can get a lot stronger." Videl wanted to ask something similar too but she could now just listen in.
Goku sized him up for a few moments before saying, "Yeah you trained a bit, alright. Above the human limit, decent body. But you need to struggle more, break the limits you imagine you have."
After thinking a few seconds, Sharpner asked, "So I should run faster and lift more?"
"Well that could work, sure." Goku said, "But I would recommend sparring with Hercule's daughter here. A fight breaks limits like no other. Under the threat of death your mind cannot have any weakness."
From his impatient look Videl realized Gohan wanted to say something, after a few seconds of silence he started to talk, "Father I started to train as well."
The blonde man looked at his son but weirdly Videl didn't see the same passion in them he had while talking to her or Sharpner, he said, "I see, I didn't realize. You just started probably." and left it there.
To Videl Gohan looked like he was about to blow up while saying, "Don't you wonder why I started to train?"
Just like how he looked at Sharpner, Goku was now looking at Gohan but he finished looking much faster, "Trunks did this intentionally... Not just to you, to this girl as well. I should have realized Gohan, sorry."
Videl realized that Bulma Brief's son wanted Gohan to train and used this method to make him. A feeling that compels you to train and made training feel good was horrifying. Even though she liked to train, she didn't want to be forced into it by what was essentially a drug.
Gohan argued back to his father, "I don't train exclusively to alleviate that energy, I do so because it feels good." Videl noticed that Eschalot was barely holding herself from laughing but it could just as well be the little annoying brat pretending.
Son Goku held his palm towards Gohan and said, "Then let's see if you are right." and Videl immediately felt like she was in a commercial for an energy drink. A feeling she could only vaguely describe with words like 'Summer' or 'Fresh', she was washed over with a very 'positive' energy.
Her friend sitting in the right next chair suddenly got up with a smile and said, "Thank you so much, sir. That antsy feeling was eating me away day by day." with a genuine smile on her face.
This was a nostalgic look for Videl. Under the fake smile of Erasa, there was a cold machine always scheming. She somewhat regretted helping Erasa break her human limits a few years ago, in her eyes this was the turning point of Erasa from a girl who liked to have fun to her current self.
The annoying kid Eschalot looked at Erasa and asked, "But that energy would have made you so much stronger. Five times, no, six times stronger than Uncle Hercule's daughter with barely any training." while her eyes showed curiosity.
Ignoring the words 'Uncle Hercule' for a moment Erasa explained, "I want to get strong but I want to get strong to be free, if I am not free, what does strength mean?" her friend opening herself up was great for Videl to see but she did it in response to a question by a seven years old child.
Despite being mostly silent this entire conversation, 17 did a slow clap and said, "Really admirable, such a reason is plenty enough indeed."
Gohan injected into the conversation again to say, "You will see that I will continue to train dad!" Videl thought she saw 17 glaring at him but she wasn't sure.
Goku said while getting up, "Well if you are that determined, let us meet the World Martial Arts Tournament, the stage where warriors and fighters are separated from common men." he patted his son's shoulder and walked off.
While they were leaving, other than Eschalot shouting her goodbyes and boldly waving and a glance from 17 to Erasa, there was no interaction between the group that stayed and the group that left.
Videl didn't know what to think. Son Goku was a very enigmatic personality, he seemed warm and friendly but she felt fear every time he moved a muscle. He helped her friends and gave advice but for some reason her mind was telling her that this was a crossroad for their entire lives.
However rather than her own thoughts, Videl was more focused on Gohan, she didn't have to be as adept in social situations as Erasa to realize that Son Goku ignored his son a bit.
She didn't know how she should deal with Gohan, from what she saw, Gohan liked both of his parents but in two days he learned they both lied about their entire lives to him.
His mother wasn't a simple housewife and a village woman and his father wasn't a simple farmer who grew up in a village. They were both select few fighters of their time, his father become one of the richest people on the world twice while he didn't have electricity until recently.
Videl's gut feeling told her Son Goku was head and shoulders above her father. She never felt fear like that, ever since she broke the human limit her gut feeling on how strong the man in front of her was very accurate, seeing common criminals made her feel superior to them in their first meeting while the feeling for people like LL35 bodyguards were either that they were her equals or she even occasionally felt wary.
Hercule Satan occasionally made her feel like an ant when he was serious about fighting, when he showed his strength or when he got angry. She afraid of being around him in those moments.
This fear was very insignificant compared to how Son Goku, she felt that the fear itself was going to kill her. The monster who singlehandedly destroyed an army, Cell, was said to be the greatest threat to humanity in history but her father defeated it.
So logic was dictating that her father was stronger but Videl felt like she could fight off an army if it was ill prepared. Common men didn't understand what breaking the human limit meant so they had wrong guesses on how far the human body could go.
If Cell was only as strong as an army, then it weaker than what people thought, why couldn't her father's strength be reachable as well? Son Goku surpassed it in her eyes. The more she thought about it, the more she convinced herself, she could be above her father as well.
Son Goku told Gohan to meet him in the World Martial Arts Tournament, she would do the same, she was going to 'meet' her father in the tournament.
Gohan asked, "Can you please tell me details about the tournament? I am unfamiliar with it." though he kept his polite speech, Videl could hear the undertone of impatience.
Before she could answer, Sharpner did instead, "World Martial Arts Tournament is a fighting organization that takes place once every three years or so. The competition takes place in the Papaya Island due to traditional reasons. After passing a preliminary round, fighters compete in a single elimination tournament until one wins. It is really respected. Just entering the main tournament is qualification enough to advertise yourself as a top fighter and not a lot of people would argue against it."
An annoyed Gohan replied, "I know the history, tell me important stuff like what are the preliminaries and when the tournament is."
Sharpner looked a bit dejected at getting told off by Gohan but he still replied, "The preliminaries have always been single elimination tournaments with more strict rules. The tournament is in a month and a half. I am getting ready to join as well, I think I can get top 4 if I don't meet anyone wrong."
Erasa asked in a playful voice, "Who are those 'wrong' people?", Videl didn't know what the trap was in this question but she knew there was a trap. If it was her, there was no way she would answer.
But clearly Sharpner didn't consider this and did answer, "Obviously Mr. Satan and Videl but Mr. Son seems to be way out of my league too. I just need to dodge them in the draw. You aren't joining right? You would be hard to beat as well."
Tragedy unfolded as Videl realized what the trap Erasa set was, the hunter's face was filled with a deep grin and the prey was still unaware.
The hunter's blade fell and Gohan talked with a voice and tone that didn't fit him, "I am joining the tournament too Sharpner."
Unaware the blade cut off his head, the poor prey continued talking, "I know Gohan, you are great! Very strong indeed. But you just have little more than a month of training and no fighting experience at all. You are never ever beating me."
Pushing the already upset Gohan seemed like a bad idea to Videl knowing how strong he already was and how much potential he still had. Even though she could see Sharpner being stronger during the tournament, in a year or so he could regret these words bitterly.
Instigator of this whole ordeal spoke again, "Well, why don't you two spar tomorrow, Sharpner can show you what you are lacking?" to an immediate approval from both sides.
Videl asked, "Where are you going to spar? I can hire a gym near school but we might be too conspicuous."
When she heard the giggling coming from Erasa she knew she walked into a trap too, she too was going to be a tangled into this mess, Erasa talked, "But you didn't train us for gyms Videl. We broke the human limit fighting thugs in backstreets. Is Gohan going to be different?"
From his zealous look on his eyes Videl knew he was going to be the same.