Chapter Text
Chichi's voice rang out loudly around the Son house, waking Gohan from his Saturday afternoon nap.
"Gohan! I think that girl that follows you around at school is on the news," she yelled.
The boy groaned. "She's always on the news, mom. She's famous," he called back.
"Gohan, just get in here," his mother ordered, sounding serious. He padded barefoot down the hall from his bedroom into the living room.
The female newsreader was visibly upset. "...reports are now being confirmed, Miss Satan fell from the roof of the police station in downtown Satan City sometime around midday, and died at the scene due to the injuries suffered from the fall." The woman took a moment to compose herself. "I repeat, Videl Satan, the daughter of the man who saved the world, has died."
Gohan strode back into his room, and came out ten seconds later fastening his Saiyaman watch to his wrist. Chichi struggled for something to say to him. She knew that the two of them hadn't really got on that well right from the start, when Gohan had begun to attend high school two months previously. Gohan had often come home complaining that the girl was always bothering Gohan about his secrets.
But she knew her son well and undoubtedly he was feeling guilty right now for not being there to help her. They had certainly formed some sort of bond as a crime fighting duo, as unwilling as it was, particularly on her part. "It was an accident, Gohan." He didn't answer her as he pulled his shoes on. "Where are you going?
There's nothing you can do."
Gohan looked around at his mother. Chichi didn't think she'd ever seen such a serious look on his face. "I'm going out," he said as he shrugged his jacket on, and pulled the door open.
"Not everything is your responsibility," Chichi said to his back.
He turned around and kissed her on the cheek. "I might not be back for dinner."
The Monday before the accident…
Gohan walked across the classroom to his seat slowly, feeling her eyes on him all the way as he went.
"Morning, Videl."
"You've said that to me already this morning," she replied.
Gohan tried to look confused. "I don't know what you're talking about, Videl."
She rolled her eyes at him. "You're not that good of an actor, Saiyaman."
"I really don't know where you got this crazy idea from..."
"One of these days I'll prove that you're him," she growled back at him.
"OK," he said simply, his eyes remaining locked on the teacher's desk at the front of the room.
"You make me so angry," she said after a few moments. Gohan couldn't prevent an enormous grin spreading across his face, that didn't go unnoticed by the girl. "I swear, by the end of this week I'll be proving that
Gohan Son is Saiyaman," she declared, pointing directly at him.
"Good for you," he replied. His grin somehow became even wider when he heard her snapping a pencil in half.
It was her own fault really, thought Gohan. When he first started attending school he would never have considered wilfully angering someone like that, but she'd brought it on herself with the constant bothering that she had subjected him to for almost the last two months. Of course, he really was Saiyaman, but he didn't really feel like it was his responsibility to tell her that just because she didn't like a little help. In fact she'd suspected that he was Saiyaman for almost as long as Saiyaman had existed, but as she always said, it was what you could prove, not what you knew or thought.
Soon Erasa had arrived and taken her seat between them. This usually cooled the relationship between Gohan and Videl down a little, the girl seemingly able to dilute Videl's venom.
"Hey guys!" the blonde said cheerfully. "Good weekend, Gohan?"
"Not bad." Gohan closed his eyes and leant back in his chair. "Really tired though this morni-" Gohan was interrupted by half a pencil hitting him on the chin. Erasa's venom-diluting powers didn't seem to be working this morning.
"Videl! That's not very nice. You could have taken Gohan's eye out!"
"Oh, I think it would take a lot more than that to poke Gohan's eye out," Videl said, staring at the boy in question around Erasa's shoulders.
Gohan returned her gaze with a barely suppressed grin on his face, his eyes lit with mirth. "You know, Videl, that really was a very irresponsible action," Gohan said with as serious a tone as he could muster in the
circumstances. Erasa nodded in agreement.
Gohan saw an angry fire light in Videl's blue eyes and allowed the other half of the pencil to hit him square on the nose.
About a mile from his home Gohan contemplated activating his Saiyaman watch but for some reason thought better of it. The costume was far too recognisable, and as soon as people saw him poking around the scene of Videl's fall he'd be facing a deluge of attention. He could much more easily take a look just posing as some curious teenager.
With a surge of anger at the thought of a good-hearted young girl freefalling to her death and not being able to do a thing about it, Gohan transformed into a super saiyan. In this form Gohan reached the outskirts of the city much more quickly than usual. Deciding to remain transformed, due to the added benefit of being able to go incognito as a super saiyan, he landed in a quiet area and jogged the rest of the way to the police station.
As expected, the area was crawling with journalists and news crews. A white forensics tent had been erected around the area where Videl must have landed.
Gohan turned to an onlooker stood on his left, a short man in his forties. "Do you know if anyone saw anything?" he said to the man.
"Heard a few people saw her land," he replied. "Streets don't get too busy round here at the weekend."
Gohan looked up at the police building, an old five storey brick structure. All around it were tall office buildings that seemed to be closed for the weekend.
"No cleaners or anything in these offices? No workaholics looking down at the roof from any of those windows?" Gohan said with a wave of his hand at the windows in question.
The man shrugged. "Don't need no witnesses, boy, it ain't a murder. Pretty obvious she just slipped and fell," he concluded.
Gohan didn't say anything but he didn't think that was pretty obvious at all.
The Tuesday before the accident...
Gym class was probably Gohan's least favourite. It was easy enough to hide your superhero-like powers while sat at a desk taking notes, but trying to do it during required physical activity was a whole different story.
Generally Gohan just donned his baggy clothes and took part as little as possible. On that front, today was his lucky day - gymnastics. When the class did gymnastics he could just do some forward rolls and attempt a few handstands every couple of minutes.
He was sat cross legged on the floor, allowing his partner the use of the rubber mats they practiced on, the boy clumsily trying to perform cartwheels. Gohan eyes scanned across the room. All of the boys seemed to have a similar attitude to him, taking little interest in their assigned activity.
At the other end of the room there was a bunch of three girls who were at an advanced level of gymnastics watching another on a balance beam – Videl.
Gohan watched as she flipped backwards, her head only inches from the beam, pigtails whipping about. She landed perfectly and launched into another flip instantly. Gohan admired her gracefulness as she completed her routine, full of all sorts of flips and movements that he was sure had technical names that he would never know.
He also admired the way her powerful thighs flexed and moved as she did, and the look of pure concentration on her face. He definitely appreciated the way she looked in her shorts and well fitting tank top as well. OK, gym class did have its advantages for Gohan.
As Videl dismounted, landing on her feet on a thick rubber mat, she looked right at Gohan, catching him staring. Her cheeks were flushed red from the physical exertion and she breathed deeply. Gohan didn't take his eyes away, if anything he felt that he shouldn't. Her three friends gathered around her and quietly congratulated her, but Videl kept her gaze locked on Gohan. Her expression was impassive.
After a few moments Videl looked away, annoyed at herself for blinking first. Gohan kept his eyes on her as she wandered back to the female changing rooms with her friends, the end of the lesson approaching.
"Hey, Gohan, did you see that last cartwheel?" his gym partner asked.
"Yeah, it was great buddy," he replied, lying. A freight train could have crashed through the gymnasium during Videl's routine and he wouldn't have noticed.
Gohan walked around the back of the crowd towards one of the buildings that overlooked the police station. He really wanted to get a closer look at the place Videl fell from but at this time of day with all those people milling around there was no chance of that.
Instead he'd decided to see what he could see from one of the other buildings. After checking he was alone in the alleyway, he launched from the ground. In an instant he was on the roof. Slowly, without drawing attention to himself he walked to the edge and looked down at the police station roof.
The wall surrounding the flat portion of the roof was not very high at all, perhaps only two feet. From this range he couldn't tell exactly quite how wide it was but it looked to be at least eight inches. Gohan thought back to when he had watched her on the balance beam. Videl Satan could have tap danced on that wall for twenty four hours straight and not fallen off, Gohan was sure of it. However, the idea of someone managing to overpower her and push her off, especially on the roof of a police station, seemed farfetched to Gohan.
But, thought Gohan, if Videl were to let her guard down, the one place it could conceivably be would be a police station.
The Wednesday before the accident…
The speed and manoeuvrability of Videl's jet copter never ceased to amaze Gohan. At least once a week since he had been Saiyaman he'd had to outrun her before school started. Usually he played around and made it seem like she had a chance to actually catch him before he took it up a gear and simply disappeared from her sight, something that he knew she absolutely hated. His abilities were something that she couldn't comprehend or understand, and he'd learned quickly that she hated not being able to understand something.
About a thousand feet up Gohan was tearing through the air, followed closely by Videl. Quickly he looped back behind her and landed on the roof of her jet copter. He took a few steps forward and bent over the front, looking into the cockpit, waving at the girl as he did so.
Videl shook her fist angrily but then a smug look began to occupy her face. The girl reached over, flipped up a clear plastic case and pressed a button. "Engine cut off," she said with an enormous grin, Gohan not able to hear the words but being able to lip read them.
Despite being told what that button did, Gohan was still overcome with surprise when the engine spluttered and died. Videl gave him a hearty wave as she began to plummet towards the ground.
Gohan followed quickly, speeding downwards with the aircraft. Inside Videl's arms were crossed against her chest, one leg crossed over the other. She was looking curiously out of the window as if she were a passenger on a plane flying over an unfamiliar land.
As the two of them got to within about three hundred feet of the ground, above one of Satan City's many parks, Videl's expression became more forced. Since she didn't seem too bothered about doing anything to prevent her impending death, Gohan took action. Grabbing the copter from underneath he slowed the vehicle down steadily, then manoeuvred behind it so that he could set it down gently on a patch of grass.
"What the hell were you doing?" Gohan shouted as Videl jumped from her seat to the ground.
The girl shrugged and replied, "I knew you'd catch me." Although her answer was relatively nonchalant given the circumstances, she was still breathing deeply. She wore a grin that told Gohan adrenaline was still coursing through her body.
"That was so irresponsible! You could have killed yourself, or worse, someone else. Why did you do that?"
"My goal for the morning was to catch you to have a little chat. Seems I achieved that goal," she said.
Gohan shook his head, the sun blinking off the visor of his helmet. "You're crazy. What if I had just disappeared?"
"Jeez, give me a little credit, Gohan. I could have reengaged the engine at any point. I'm not stupid."
"You could have fooled me..." Gohan said, exasperated.
"Interesting that you didn't deny that you're Gohan, hm?"
"What's the point? You never believe me when I tell you anyway."
"That's because you're lying," she said with barely unrestrained glee. "You're an awful liar."
Gohan waved a hand at her in dismissal, slowly taking off from the ground. "Worried that you're going to be late for school?" Videl asked.
He stopped in midair and looked back down at the girl. "I'm leaving before I'm forced to knock some sense into you."
"Pfft, like you could..." she replied as he began to move higher, but before he could gain too much altitude the girl jumped, grabbing one of Gohan's ankles.
"What are you doing?" Gohan shouted when he realised she was swinging from one of his legs.
"Looks like you're gonna have to take me wherever it is that you're going," she said in reply.
Gohan decided to fly a little higher, expecting her to let go before they got too high, but before he knew it the pair of them were well above a height that she could land safely from.
Videl, knowing that he'd never actually fly anywhere with her clinging to him, settled upon a course of action that would annoy the superhero even further.
Gohan felt the pressure on his ankle disappear, and once again had to catch her before she crashed to the ground. About ten feet from the ground, after a fall that lasted considerably longer than Videl was expecting, Gohan caught her in his arms and swiftly landed on his feet, dropping her unceremoniously to the hard ground.
She stood, rubbing her back a little, a little angry at having been dropped. "The dropping was unnecessary, thank you very much."
"Sometimes I think that you're too reckless," Gohan said seriously. "I won't always be here to catch you."
"I was fine before you arrived," the girl retorted angrily.
Gohan sighed. "Yes, well you're stuck with me."
"Lucky me," the girl said dryly.
With a smile Gohan blasted into the air.
Upon realising that he wouldn't be able to get onto the police station roof while the area was so crowded, Gohan dropped back down into the alley. Briskly he walked back up to the scene, walking as close to the white tent as possible.#
"Is she still under there?" he asked a police officer stood behind the police tape keeping an eye on the crowd.
The large man looked down at the teenager. "I can't answer that I'm afraid."
"I went to school with her," Gohan said quickly.
The officer heard the truthfulness in the boy's voice and took compassion. "She was taken to hospital."
"So what are they doing in there?" Gohan said, nodding at the white tent.
"Police stuff."
Gohan looked up to the roof, then returned his gaze to the officer. "Did she die straight away?"
"Come on, kid, do you really want to know that?" Gohan didn't reply, he simply held the man's gaze, his teal eyes as a super saiyan hard and unrelenting. "OK, OK," the officer whispered. "She survived for a few
minutes," he said quietly.
"Did she say anything?"
"OK, that's enough. Maybe you were her friend, but I can't go disclosing that kind of information."
Gohan looked again at the roof, then back to the white tent, picturing the blood that stained the paving stones inside.
"Thanks," Gohan said as he turned to leave, walking briskly away from the scene.
The Thursday before the accident…
Videl watched Gohan as he walked down the corridor beside her to lunch, Erasa and Sharpner in front, the four of them alone after having been subject to a telling off by their previous teacher about talking in class. Unsurprisingly it had resulted from a back and forth between Gohan and Videl about the identity of Saiyaman. The dark-haired boy was absentmindedly studying his hands as they walked, balling them into fists and studying them as the knuckles appeared to pop out.
"Those are some big ol' fists you've got there," the girl said. Gohan turned and raised his eyebrows at her.
"All the better for bashing my skull in, right?" she joked.
"I don't really like violence," Gohan replied placidly.
Videl snorted. "As if that matters anyway. You don't need to like something in order to use it."
"I know you don't like being nice but you could use that ability more often."
"You're so witty that it actually hurts..." Videl replied. Gohan just smiled.
"Going to try to follow me to see how I get home again tonight?" Gohan asked after a moment's silence.
"I wasn't actually. I do have interests besides you," she replied, blushing a little at the possible implications of her own words - that she found him interesting.
Gohan, also a little red in the face, didn't reply.
"You know, despite how much I enjoy beating criminals up, I much prefer investigating crime. The chance to catch a hundred bad guys instead of three or four fills me with so much happiness," she said with a cheerful sigh. "And you're not my only current investigation," the dark-haired girl added, her eyes narrowed at Gohan.
"Hey, why do I get lumped in with the criminals and evildoers?"
Videl only shrugged. "But come to think of it, I could probably find the time to chase you around the city for a little while before I go home."
"Ugh, I shouldn't have said anything..." Gohan groaned.
Videl laughed. "I guess I could...no wait that wouldn't help me find out how you get to and from school…"
"What?" Gohan said inquisitively.
"Well, I hopefully won't be busy this weekend so I could just fly out to your house and ask the Son family a few simple questions..." she said nonchalantly.
Gohan stopped walking, as did Videl when she noticed. "You wouldn't," the boy said, his earlier cheerful mood lessened. "You don't know my address."
"Like it would be hard to find that out," Videl said casually. They were alone now in the corridor, Erasa and Sharpner having out strode them before the dark-haired pair came to a halt. "The school records certainly have your address, contact details for some family members too I suppose."
"That's private," Gohan said sternly. "The staff wouldn't let you see that kind of information."
"Come on buddy, who are you talking to?" the girl said as she took a step closer to him, enjoying how uncomfortable he was over the subject. She patted his chest with the palm of her left hand, noticing how firm and solid he felt, as she always did when she came into physical contact with him. Touching him was something that she also noticed she had begun to do on a remarkably regular basis recently. Her small palm remained resting on his chest as she said, "I am Videl Satan after all."
Gohan's right hand shot up and took a firm grip on her forearm, her hand coming away from his chest. He immediately missed the feel of the contact, but the skin beneath his shirt still tingled slightly.
"Don't bother my family," he said as Videl looked up at him, unable to speak, caught out by the speed of his movement and timbre of his voice. When she didn't answer Gohan backed her into the lockers behind her, the cold, hard metal groaning as he roughly pushed her into them. She was amazed at how effortlessly he could physically control her with only a grip on her forearm.
"Understand?" he asked. Due to fear and discomfort, as well as a sudden overwhelming attraction towards Gohan, Videl's breathing quickened, her chest heaving. She gave thanks that she had worn jeans, because she felt that she'd feel way too vulnerable being this close to him if she'd worn the shorts that she occasionally wore.
Gohan himself was also confused by the emotions he was feeling in the situation. Already he felt guilty for his actions, but her constant prodding and questioning, along with the thought that she might turn up at his home to ask all sorts of awkward questions of his mother and brother pushed him to a certain point.
But he was also enjoying seeing how she responded to being dominated for once in her life. She hadn't taken her eyes from his own since she first had met them. Gohan broke contact to roam over her face and slender neck, and realised that never before had her lips looked so pouty, her skin so soft and her eyes so blue.
"Understand?" he asked again, somehow managing to push her further into the lockers.
She nodded, biting her lip as she did so, her big, blue eyes wide open, the action amplifying the stirring that Gohan had been feeling in his boxers since he'd studied her face moments before.
Gohan released his grip and turned to leave, striding off, leaving Videl alone, the girl needing a few minutes to compose herself as she replayed the incident over again and again in her mind.
As Gohan left the taped-off scene, the police officer that he had been speaking to let out a sigh of relief. Not only was he glad to be rid of any risk at being caught by a superior telling members of the public something he shouldn't have been, but also because there was something about that kid that made him feel uncomfortable. He'd never met anyone with eyes of such a peculiar shade of green, and there was a certain intensity about them that unnerved him a little.
The police officer noticed that the sky was darkening, not due to nightfall but due to a number of dark clouds converging above the scene. Rain began to drizzle lightly and he pulled his jacket around him more tightly.
"Officer Barnetta, who was that boy you were speaking to just now?" said a voice off to his left. He turned to ee a bearded, grey-haired man of about 55.
"Detective Mithon," Barnetta said, hoping that the man hadn't heard the conversation he'd had with the blond boy. "The boy told me that he went to school with Miss Satan."
The detective nodded a few times. "And you believed him?"
Barnetta swallowed. "Yes sir."
"What did he ask about?"
The officer knew that he hadn't said anything particularly sensitive, but it still wouldn't do for a police officer saying much that hadn't already been officially announced so he decided to be careful how truthful he was.
"He was just wondering whether she died straight away."
"What was your answer?"
Barnetta thought about lying but this wasn't an easy man to lie to. "I told him that she survived for a few moments." He took a pause before adding, "I'm sure that he was just wondering whether it was painful for her before she passed." Mithon nodded. "Although I'm not sure telling him that would have put the boy at ease. Perhaps I should have lied and told him it was quick for her."
The detective surveyed the scene, studying the crowd that still remained, some people having left at the onset of the rain. "If anyone else starts asking questions, let me know would you?"
"Sir, do you think...should I have been suspicious of that boy? It was an accident, right?"
"Of course it was an accident," the detective said, then he smiled, the hairs of his grey beard bristling. "Just let me know if anyone else pokes around."
The Friday before the accident…
Gohan and Videl had spent the rest of Thursday ignoring each other, as well as the entirety of Friday. Luckily there had been no calls from the police for Videl so there had been no contact between them as crime fighters either. Gohan hadn't initiated contact due to the immense shame that he felt for his actions, Videl hadn't out of embarrassment for the way she had reacted, or rather the way she hadn't reacted. Despite the confrontation lasting mere seconds she still had plenty of time to try to fight him off.
When the two of them returned to class after lunch on the Thursday, Videl having rejoined Erasa and Sharpner without telling them what happened, Gohan having disappeared off somewhere else entirely, Gohan immediately noticed a series of bruises on her arm where he had manhandled her. The bruises had only been even more vivid and colourful when they'd returned to school the next day and had caused the shame to well up within Gohan even more.
When the final bell of the day rang, Gohan realised it was his last chance to apologise to her. "Videl, could you wait a minute?" he said softly, not looking at her as the class rushed to pack away their things. She didn't reply but slowed her own rate of packing her bag.
"You coming, Videl?" Erasa asked.
"I'll meet you at the front," she replied. Erasa looked between Gohan and Videl, the boy looking down at his shoes. She turned to Sharpner, who just shrugged his shoulders.
"OK," Erasa said as she left the room with the rest of the class and the teacher. Eventually Gohan and Videl were the only two left in the room.
"I'm sorry about yesterday," Gohan said. "I shouldn't have lost my temper."
"I shouldn't have pushed you like that. At least I know what gets you angry now," Videl said with a smile.
"I..." he paused, "I don't usually lose my temper that. Maybe I was just frustrated about other things too."
"Like what?" Videl asked. Gohan just shrugged and reached a hand out to her injured arm. He held her wrist steady in order to examine the bruises, frowning at his handiwork. As he did so Videl studied his hands as they gently moved over her skin. She hadn't been lying when she talked of his big fists, his hands were unusually large, with thick, strong fingers that resembled those of someone who'd been doing a manual job all of their life. His skin was rough too, something that she assumed came from his life lived in a rural area.
After a few seconds he let go and her arms drifted back to her side. "What did you tell people?" he asked, aware that she'd avoided long sleeves and may have been the subject of questions.
"I've got a rough and tumble life, whenever I get injured people automatically assume they're from training or taking a hit in a fight."
Gohan nodded and leant back against the row of desks behind them. He looked down at his shoes again and asked a question that surprised the girl, "Videl, are you lonely?"
"What?" she spluttered.
Gohan sighed, but still didn't look at her. "Sometimes I get the impression that you're lonely, that's all."
"Well, I'm not," Videl said sternly. But the truth was that she was lonely, and that was half the reason she chased after him, but she wasn't about to admit it out loud.
"Oh, OK," he said as he looked up at her face and smiled. "I really am sorry."
"It's fine," she said as they both began to descend the steps out of the classroom. At the door Videl went to turn left towards the main exit but Gohan went to go right. "Off to the roof?" Videl said with a sly grin.
"Er..." Gohan stammered. "Bathroom."
"You sure do spend a lot of time in there."
"Haha, yeah, I guess," Gohan said as he scratched the back of his head.
"You should know, Gohan, that I've redoubled my efforts to prove who you are after what happened yesterday."
"What? I thought that you might stop all this!"
"Stop? No, I just decided that I'd leave your family out of it. You're still fair game," she said with a grin.
"Great," Gohan said with a moan.
"Anyway, I'll leave you to it," she said as she began to stride off down the hall.
"Videl," Gohan called after a few moments of watching her leave before he made his way to the roof.
"Yeah?" she said as she turned back to face him, beginning to walk backwards down the hall.
"See you on Monday," he said with a smile.
"You can bet on it," she called back as they both turned away from each other.