Hello and welcome the next chapter of my story. Now I am going to say this right now before I forget. I am sorry but this probably will either be late or a short chapter. I have a lot of things that need to be done this month and of course family plans happen to add onto that as well. I don't want to skip a month to get these finished but honestly we will see what happens.

Chapter 21

=Satan Gym=

The day after Videl learned the truth her mind was still a mess. She was trying her hardest to think through the new knowledge she got for once she couldn't make a quick decision.

"I still can't believe that dad was lying all this time. He isn't able to use energy but yet somehow is strong enough to fight against people that use it. It just doesn't make sense I mean I couldn't beat someone that Gohan said used a 'rough' version of ki and dad said I was getting close to his level. Either he lied that time to and just doesn't want to share his secret or things just aren't adding up….I don't even know which side is better for me." Videl thought.

"Are you ok Videl?" Gohan asked somewhat surprising her.

"Ya. I am fine why?" Videl asked.

"Your ki is fluctuating. I know that you want to go to flying already but we must learn in steps. Getting stressed will only make your practice slower." Gohan told her. "Honestly I just want to ease her into ki and its uses before she goes for something as 'crazy' as flying. Sorry Videl but honestly you learning different techniques is helping your control and building your ki pool anyways…*sigh* who am I kidding I just fear that soon enough she is gonna start to put things together and I just can't lie to her…well I can't lie to anyone but still!" He thought stressed. Afterall Videl was picking up ki at a fast pace for being a human. She has already made it far enough that he dreaded each new step he had to create to pace her before flying. Yes he was well aware that he was being a coward but the later he has to tell her the truth of the world the better in his mind. He's already had a couple nightmares of her reacting badly. Nightmares that ranged from her straight up leaving him after calling him a liar to her literally exploding after trying to copy a technique to show that she is as strong as her father seems.

sigh* "It's not that Gohan…it's just…" Videl starts saying but hesitates. "Should I tell Gohan? I mean does he know seeing as he is a ki user? Or is he just gonna call me crazy for thinking this way?" Videl thinks knowing very well how fanatical some people got over her father. But she couldn't help but feel that Gohan would be different. She didn't know why though and could only figure the feeling came from knowing that he is a competent ki user.

"Videl?" Gohan asked confused bringing her back to the conversation.

"S-sorry this is just hard for me to talk about." Videl admitted. "Y-you know how my dad said that he was the strongest ki user and was just hiding it?"

"Yes?" Gohan quickly answers fearing where this conversation was going.

"W-well I just talked to my dad yesterday and tried to get him to teach me more but he couldn't. At first I thought it was just gonna be the 'it's too dangerous speech but no. He lied and really can't use ki at all! He just said he was able to work together with those that could to beat Cell. Can you believe that?" Videl asks purposely leaving out the fact that her dad didn't kill Cell for the moment.

"Huh? That's what has you stressed? Of course, your dad doesn't have ki. Most of us that can use ki knew that he was lying about it." Gohan answered with a small smile relieved the conversation didn't go too crazy. After all she said he 'worked together' instead of cowered like a fool.

"All energy users can? How?" Videl asked surprised.

"Well those that can use ki can gain the ability to sense ki of all things around them…and your father's ki has never grown any larger than the regular person's would."

"Wait if you know how to do this first of all why didn't you tell me! Secondly why didn't you teach me this ability?" She asks with a bit of a glare.

sigh* "Always so impatient." Gohan told her with a small chuckle that died as her glare got worse. "H-hold on there. I didn't tell you because I thought that you would stop learning thinking I am just trying to undermine your dad. After all would you believe someone saying that the truth your family has had all these years was just fake? And I mean without knowing what you currently do about ki."

"I guess I would call you crazy and ignore the rest of what you said." Videl admitted deflating her rage.

"Exactly. And as for why we haven't learned how to sense ki…well you seemed to be more focused on the fighting aspect of ki. So, I let the more technical parts be postponed a bit."

"Tsk, wish you didn't seeing as that lead to an awkward realization with dad…but I still don't know what to say to him about all of this." Videl told him conflicted. Gohan then put a hand on her shoulder.

"It's ok to feel that way at times Videl just go slow and figure things out. I am sure that all parties involved would be willing to wait and see what happens." Gohan told her leaving out the fact that he is one of those parties.

"…whatever" Videl muttered trying her best to push the thoughts still swarming in her head to the side. "Now no more cutting corners teach me that sensing stuff." Videl ordered.

"Ok." Gohan told her simply.

One hour later

After going over the basics all that was left was for Videl to work on the ideas herself. Which left Gohan with nothing but his thoughts. Meanwhile Videl struggled to try to focus on the technique instead of her thoughts. A trial that was proving even more difficult than normal for her. Eventually she began to have a strange feeling that slowly spread around her.

"I-is this what Gohan was talking about? This ki sense thing feels a lot like sonar going out around me." Videl thinks as she pulses a minute amount of energy around her. Course what surprised her the most was that even with her eyes closed she swore she could see a large shinning light.

"Hey Gohan- ahhh!" Videl started to say with her eyes still closed but turned her head towards him. Something that she immediately regrated seeing as it felt like she was staring at a sun.

"Huh? Oh Videl great you almost go the idea of it. OH! I am sorry!" Gohan told her happily then quickly realized he didn't even think to mask his energy further than he normally did. Thankfully Videl seemed to recover from her blindness pretty fast and turned into a glare at him.

"You could have warned me that you were going to be a damn lighthouse when I was learning this thing!" Videl growled out.

"I-I am sorry Videl I didn't even think about it but hey at least you are as fast as ever with learning stuff. But anyways try to expand your range farther away…and I promise that I have made my ki less blinding."

"Uh huh. You better have." Videl muttered before refocusing on her work. Some more time passed but finally she felt like she could see a decent amount of light orbs all around her.

"Woah so this is what the sensing stuff is like? I mean I know he said everyone had a different signature but I didn't think you could almost tell by the different intensities of the orbs." Videl thought amazed but then cautiously glanced over towards Gohan and let out a sigh of relief when he was bright but not blindly.

"Great job Videl it seems like you really have gotten the basics of this down." Gohan told her with a small smirk.

"You can tell when you are being sensed?" Videl asked confused.

"Well no…but judging by how you are reacting I am assuming you manage to at least see the kis around us. Am I wrong?" Gohan asks.

"No…but it is harder to figure out who is who other than how strong their brightness is." Videl states.

"Heh, ya that is the issue. There are too many people around the same level close to us so they are muddling all into one set. Things like sensing specific people, distance, and accuracy is all things that will come to you as you practice over time. As they say rome wasn't built in a day." Gohan told her simply.

"Tsk, great just what I need. More homework to go with what school gives me." Videl mutters but clearly wasn't really all that bothered by it. Afterall she is learning ki which she has quickly finding herself enjoying more and more.

"Don't worry Videl I am sure that you will get it down in no time. You've already proven yourself to be more than smart enough to apply these techniques." Gohan told her with a wide smile.

"T-thanks" Videl muttered turning her head as a small blush formed on her cheeks. "Darn him and his good looks…wait I don't pay attention to peoples looks! Gah this crush thing is still messing with my head. And here I thought after we got engaged all this mushy crud would go away." Videl mentally complained but couldn't help but find the feeling at least a bit nice. "Anyways I guess that is where we are going to call it today. But we better be learning that flying stuff soon." Videl told Gohan.

"G-got it" Gohan told her and watched as she stretched out after sitting for a while. "I guess I can't really push off the 'big' technique for much longer. At least she seems like she will be able to take the truth coming out a bit more. I mean she practically has received both a big hint and a big secret at once. And thankfully it wasn't even me that did it. Though I do feel a bit bad for Mr. Satan that Videl seems to be distancing her but I mean it is his own fault. I am still happy he took the credit so we could hide but he didn't need to blow it up so big…let's just hope that the bubble bursting doesn't cause too much trouble for us. It feels like a massive waste to hunt the dragon balls just to make people change their thoughts about us hiding…and even worse if we have to actually help Mr. Satan." Gohan thought. Still he enjoyed a bit more of a conversation with Videl as she walked him out of the gym and they said their goodbyes.

_Videl_

"Well I feel a bit better after talking about my secret and getting to focus on something else. But I still need to figure out what I am gonna do. I mean the public will surely take it the wrong way if I expose it right? I don't want dad to have to show that he is still is one of the strongest people out there and end up destroying something. But I mean even with him saying that he helped I am seeing less and less of a way he could have competed without KI. I mean I've only ever seen those gangster guys and Gohan use it other than watching the cell games videos. Well I guess the old man as well but Gohan said that he didn't use 'complete' ki….things just aren't fully adding up." Videl thought as she walked into her room in the gym. She then grabbed a fresh set of clothes and walked to a female bathroom for a quick shower. She might not do that much of a physical workout with Gohan but they still did some.

sigh* "We really need to get back to the house as soon as we can. This still feels strange. But at least it shouldn't take THAT long with the tech that's out there. Anyways I need to refocus on stuff that I can actually change. I have way too many things going on to be able to worry about something I can't change after all. What with my weird relationship with Gohan, ki training, that gang still being on the loose and worst of all what to do with dad." Videl thought as she cleaned up. She then tried to use her ki again and felt nothing but normal signatures around the area.

"The neighbors I can understand being weak but isn't your starting ki somewhat proportional with how strong your body is? I mean yes I trained to have more but Gohan said that I had unlocked it because I am a martial artist….So, why does dad's ki not feel much stronger than all these random people? Surely he must have a strong enough body to at least start with more ki than this right?" Videl thinks as she tries to more accurately measure those ki's around her currently.

Well that was all I had time for. I am sorry that it is a lot shorter than I would normally like but I really just did not have time to work on this story this month. AND to top it all off I got horribly sick in a good chunk of the time that I could write. Let me tell you nothing makes life harder than having your head already foggy and trying to think…either way I am sorry but this will not be the normal. But for now Ja Ne.