Gohan was an exceptional young man.
By the age of 16, he was possibly the strongest warrior on Earth. He had saved
the planet, or at least helped, on five separate occasions. <A.N.: Garlic
Jr. twice, Raditz, the Saiyans, and Cell> He could destroy an entire world
if he felt like it. He was powerful. He was skilled. He was intelligent. He was
also very, very lost.
The young half-Saiyan looked around
in confusion. “I knew I should have taken Nimbus, it never gets lost.” He was
supposed to be going to Satan City to go to high school. He was not
supposed to be standing in a forest in the middle of nowhere. ‘Where on Earth
am I now!’ he wanted to cry out. To his amazement, he could swear he heard that
very phrase echoing through the trees. A confused look came over his face as he
glanced around, wondering if he had actually spoken while thinking. To his
immense relief a young man who appeared to be about his age came stomping out
from some brush while grumbling to himself.
“Hi!” Gohan called out him. The
other boy looked up, startled. He glanced around to make sure that he was the
one being spoken to.
“Uh, hi,” he mumbled.
Gohan was confused by the boy’s
attitude, but chose to ignore it for the moment. “Do you know which way it is to
Satan City?”
The boy scratched the back of his
head and glanced around again. “Uhm… I think it’s that way,” he commented,
pointing in one direction.
“Oh, thank you! You’re a
lifesaver. My name’s Son Gohan.” He extended his hand.
The young man took it after a moment
of hesitation. “Uhm, I’m Hibiki Ryoga. Do you know which way it is to Nerima?”
Gohan shook his head as he shook
Ryoga’s hand. “Sorry, I’m not from around here. Thanks for the help. Sorry I
couldn’t return the favor.”
Ryoga shrugged as he waved and began
walking off. “I’m used to it.” He started grumbling to himself again, and Gohan
thought he heard the word’s “Ranma… seen hell… fight… coward… prepare… die…”
The half-Saiyan shrugged to himself, and headed in
the direction Ryoga had indicated. After an hour of walking, he found himself
entering a rather quaint looking city. He completely missed the badly trampled
city limits sign proudly declaring the town as Nerima.
-----///////|||||||\\\\\\\\------
Inside a dojo in Nerima, the patriarch
of the Tendo clan sat reading a postcard. Soun Tendo felt tears of joy
streaming down his face. The card read simply, “Hi. Bringing Son. Genma.”
“Oh, how I’ve w-w-waited for this
day!” Soun wept in happiness. He ran to the kitchen and peaked in, seeing one
of his daughters cutting up a watermelon. “Kasumi!”
The young woman in question was
quite lovely with a pleasant expression on her face and a smile that could
bring sunshine to any situation. Her long, dark hair was tied into a pony tail
that fell over one shoulder. She turned towards her father, a curious look on
her face. “Yes, daddy?” She looked after him in confusion as Soun turned and
ran up the stairs. After a moment of consideration, she quickly set about
finishing cutting the watermelon and setting it out on the dining room table.
Soun stopped in front of the open
door to the room of one of his other daughters. “Nabiki!”
The shorthaired girl glanced up from
the magazine she was reading with a popsicle in her mouth. “Mm?” she inquired,
but her father had already turned around and left. She could hear him yelling
out “Akane! Akane! Where is that girl?” Nabiki sighed as she got off the bed
where she had been lying and followed her father.
Akane came in through the front gate
as she finished up her morning jog. Without going into the house, she headed
for the dojo, changed into a gi at nearly light speed, set up a few cinder
blocks, and proceeded to smash them into oblivion.
“No wonder all the boys at school
think you’re weird,” a rather emotionless voice commented from behind her.
Akane glanced over her shoulder to see her older sister, Nabiki.
“So why should I care? Not everyone
thinks the world revolves around boys, Nabiki,” Akane nearly growled.
Nabiki smirked as she turned around
and put her hands behind her head in a relaxed, non-chalant way. “No? Then I
guess this wouldn’t interest you,” she commented idly.
-----///////|||||||\\\\\\\\------
Gohan looked around in surprise as
he heard what sounded like a chorus of girls cry out, “Fiancé!?”
-----///////|||||||\\\\\\\\------
Back inside the dojo, Soun and his
three daughters were seated at a table. Akane, Nabiki, and Kasumi were sitting
opposite their father with a variety of looks on their faces. Akane looked
bored and uninterested while Nabiki had a cheerful expression as she asked, “Is
he cute?”
Kasumi, however, nearly scared her
father. She wore a look that bordered on angry, something that Soun hadn’t seen
on his eldest daughter in a long time. “How old is he? Younger men bore me.”
As Akane gazed disinterestedly at a
wall, Nabiki and Kasumi spoke in unison. “What kind of guy is he?”
Soun laughed nervously. “No idea.”
Nabiki raised an eyebrow at her
father. “’No idea?’”
“I’ve never met him.”
Something occurred to Nabiki.
“What’s his name.”
“No idea,” her father replied.
Before any of the girls could speak,
a knock came from the front door. “That must be them!” Soun cried out as he ran
for the door. Nabiki started to follow, but she sat back down as she noticed
both of her sisters hadn’t moved.
-----///////|||||||\\\\\\\\------
Gohan knocked on the door of the
large house. It seemed as good as any other for trying to get directions to the
high school, and judging from the shouts he heard coming from it a minute ago,
he was sure that someone was home and that he wouldn’t be waking anyone up.
A few moments after he knocked, the
front door opened and a middle-aged man appeared in the doorway with a strange
expression on his face. Gohan took a small step back at that and gave a quick
bow in greeting. “Hi, uhm… I was wondering if I could get directions. I’m Son
Gohan and I-“ Gohan was interrupted as the man shouted, “At last!” and gave him
a strong hug. Gohan could only blink in surprise.
When he opened the door, Soun took
one look at the visitor and quickly put several facts together. The person he
was waiting for was supposed to be a great martial artist, well traveled, and
the son of a good friend. This young man had been asking for directions,
something any well-traveled person is willing to do. He was built and even at a
glance his skill in the martial arts was obvious. To top it all off, he had
said he was son Gohan. Soun mentally shrugged at the way the young man had said
that instead of “Genma’s son, Gohan.” It didn’t matter. All his dreams were
coming true. Soun finally stepped back and looked around in confusion. “Where
is your father?”
Gohan blinked in confusion a bit,
then a sad expression came to his face. “He’s dead. He died to protect me.”
Soun’s eyes widened as more long
unused gears began turning in his head. ‘That explains it. Since Genma sent me
that postcard a couple of weeks ago, that means he died very recently. That
must explain why he didn’t mention Genma’s name. In order to get over the pain
so quickly, he tries not to think of his father.’
Soun patted Gohan on the shoulder
consolingly. “I understand. Come in, come in, we’ve been expecting you.”
Gohan blinked some more. “You have?”
Soun nodded. “Of course. Your father
and I made arrangements many, many years ago. Come in, come in.” Soun led a
confused Gohan inside the house.
-----///////|||||||\\\\\\\\------
Nabiki was sitting in a relaxed
position. She was doing a remarkable job of hiding her mixed feelings of
anticipation and dread. However, the young man walking through the door
dispelled that illusion. Nabiki’s eyes widened noticeably as she took in his
strong, muscular frame, his nice orange and white clothing, and the gentle,
confused naiveté she could see in his brown eyes. ‘His body, my brains… I smell
money and lots of it!’ As her eyes took in his form, her mind began to wander
into other areas. A small blush began to form, but she managed to cut it off
with her force of will. She recovered herself rather quickly and assumed an
indifferent mask, hoping the boy hadn’t caught her lapse of control.
Akane glanced over at the young man
her father led into the den. She took one look at his body and sniffed in
disinterest. ‘Sure, he’s built,’ she thought to herself. ‘He’s probably a lousy
pervert, all ready to start drooling all over us and thinking we’ll be ga-ga
over him, just because he’s a guy. BOYS!’
Kasumi’s hopes sank a little as she
took in the young man. Boy, really. He was obviously younger than her. She let
out a sigh of disappointment as she picked at some imaginary dust on her
housedress. ‘Oh well, it was too much to hope for, I guess…’ she thought to
herself.
“Girls, this is the son of my old
friend. His name is Gohan,” Soun introduced his guest. “Gohan, these are my
daughters: Kasumi, 19, Nabiki, 17, and Akane, 16. Pick which one you want for
your wife.”
“My wife?!” Gohan’s panicked cry
could be heard for miles.
‘Healthy set of lungs on that boy,’
Soun thought to himself. “Didn’t your father tell you? When you were first
born, we agreed that our families would unite by having you marry one of my
daughters.”
‘Considering my dad’s understanding
of relationships, this does not surprise me,’ Gohan thought to himself. ‘After
all, he agreed to marry my mother without even knowing what ‘marry’ meant.’
Gohan sighed softly. “No, he didn’t. He may have meant to, but he died before
he could tell me.”
Soun patted him on the shoulder
again. “I understand. The loss of a parent can be a difficult thing. The path
of a true martial artist can be a terrible thing. That is why it can be such a
comfort to have a companion on that journey and it is one of the reasons your
father and I made the arrangement, so that you and one of my daughters would
not have to suffer alone.”
To Gohan, this made a lot of sense.
He knew that his father had gotten married to his mother while rather young,
and the two seemed quite happy when they went on adventures together, according
to the stories he heard from his mother. However, he was not exactly thrilled
with the idea of getting married right now. ‘Mom would kill me if I didn’t at
least finish high school first.’
“Uhm, I don’t… uhm, that is… uh…
eheh.” Gohan had never been good when dealing with women. It was something he
had inherited from his father, Goku.
Nabiki snapped up the opportunity.
“I think what he’s trying to say, daddy, is that it’s too soon for him to make
a decision. He needs a chance to get to know me- US better, before he decides.”
She mentally cursed herself for the bad slip, but it seemed to have gone
unnoticed. The look of relief on Gohan’s face made Nabiki mentally smirk. In
her mind, she saw him already half-way wrapped around her finger. ‘Now I just
complete the circle.’
Soun hmmmed in thought. “That makes
perfect sense. A very enlightened viewpoint, my boy.” He slapped Gohan on the
back, ignoring the facts that it felt like he was slapping steel and that it
had actually been Nabiki’s idea.
“Uh, aheh, that’s great… uhm, well…”
Gohan’s mind tried to find something to lock on to. It found his bookbag. “Hey,
could one of you tell me where the local high school is? I need to register for
classes. I also need to find a place to stay, so if you know any good
apartments, I’d be very grateful.”
“Nonsense, my boy! You will stay
here! There’s plenty of room for you and, after all, when you marry one of my
daughters you will inherit the dojo.”
Nabiki smirked to herself again.
‘And I didn’t even have to prompt daddy for that one.’ In her mind, the circle
closed and she would soon have a new cash crop to play with.
Gohan started to consider arguing,
but he felt his willpower drain from him and he just nodded in acceptance.
“About the school?”
Before Nabiki could volunteer, Akane
stood up. “I’ll take him,” she told her father. ‘There’s no way I’m going to
let that pervert anywhere near my sisters. I’ll keep a close eye on him, and
when I can prove he’s a worthless, perverted jerk, I’ll get daddy to break off
the arrangement.’ She missed the glare from her older sister.
-----///////|||||||\\\\\\\\------
The two walked in silence for most
of the trip to the school. Gohan was extremely nervous due to the fact that he
kept catching Akane glaring at him in a most alarming way. It was a look nearly
identical to the one that his mother, Chichi, had often used when she thought
he was slacking off in his studies. He chuckled a little nervously, putting a
hand behind his head to try to distract himself from her glare. It didn’t work.
By the time they reached Furinkan High, Gohan’s nerves were shot.
Akane waited impatiently outside the
office while Gohan registered. When he stepped out, she leveled her best glare
at him. “Took you long enough,” she growled.
Gohan blinked at her. “Uh, you
didn’t have to wait around for me.”
“Ohhh, no. I am NOT letting you out
of my sight. My sisters are very important to me and there is no way I am
letting some macho, perverted, arrogant jerk try to steal their hearts and
break them just because my dad thinks it’s a good idea,” she growled at him.
Gohan waved his hands defensively.
“Nonono! I wouldn’t even consider doing something like that!”
Akane rounded on him. “Oh sure.
That’s what they all say. I saw that look you gave Nabiki. ‘Get to know you
better’ indeed. “ She turned around and stormed her way back to the house.
Gohan considered not returning with
her, but his mother had beaten manners into him and he knew it would be rude
not to. ‘Not to mention that they might get worried. Well, Akane wouldn’t, but
the others might. I don’t want to cause people to worry over nothing.’ With a
resigned sigh, he followed after Akane. ‘I wonder why she’s so hostile.’
-----///////|||||||\\\\\\\\------
Gohan caught up with Akane just
outside the gates to the Tendo residence. He started to head inside, but Akane
suddenly grabbed his arm. “Why don’t we check out the dojo,” she said. That had
not been a question. It was an order and the look in her eyes seemed to say
‘Just try and say no.’ Gohan gave in to what he felt was inevitable and nodded.
Once they were inside, Akane quickly
changed into a gi and squared off in front of Gohan. The young man just stood
there, not adopting any stance that Akane could recognize. ‘He’s not taking me
seriously,’ she thought. ‘Well, I’ll just have to teach him a little lesson.’
Without preamble, she launched a hard kick straight at his stomach. She blinked
in surprise and almost lost her balance when Gohan didn’t even move to block or
dodge. Her foot slammed into his stomach and stopped like she had tried to kick
a tank. The pain in her foot raced up her leg as she tried to recover her
balance. “Ow!”
Gohan rubbed his stomach a moment.
‘That was a pretty good kick…she’s got potential, but she’s just no where near
my class.’ “You okay?”
Instead of answering, Akane grabbed
his shirt and yanked it up, expecting to see some kind of steel plating or
something. Instead, she saw a rather muscular chest that slowly began to tint a
pinkish red. She looked up at Gohan’s face and noticed him blushing. Only then
did it click in her mind what she was doing and she quickly let go of his
shirt, a small blush forming on her cheeks. The fact that she was blushing only
made her more angry. “What are you made of?” She yelled at him.
“Flesh and bone, same as you,” he answered
after tucking his shirt back in. “I’ve just been training with some of the best
martial artists since I was old enough to crawl.”
“Do you think you’re better than
me?” Akane asked dangerously.
“In fighting, yes,” Gohan answered,
unaware of the mistake he was making. He was rewarded with a fist in the face.
He barely felt it, but Akane was shaking her hand painfully. Before he could
say anything else, she started punching and kicking him as hard as she could,
but she couldn’t even budge him. Gohan became concerned that she was going to
hurt herself and finally acted. Moving faster than she could see, faster than
she believed was even possible, Gohan grabbed her by the shoulders and lifted
her a bit off the ground. “Please stop. You’re only hurting yourself.” Again,
he was rewarded with a swift kick to the jaw that did nothing but create a loud
cracking noise as Akane’s right foot broke.
Akane cried out in pain as Gohan
nearly dropped her. He manage to shift his hold in time so that he was actually
carrying her in his arms. “Aww, geez… I’m sorry, I tried to warn you.” Akane
couldn’t speak as the tears began to flow and she gripped her ankle tightly.
She had to bite her lip to keep from crying out in pain. Gohan ran quickly
towards the house and saw Nabiki sitting in the den. The middle daughter
glanced up from the magazine she was reading and raised an eyebrow at the odd
sight before her.
“Akane hurt herself in the dojo. I
think she broke her foot. Where’s the nearest doctor?” He asked worriedly,
guilt tearing through him. ‘I should have dodged that. I knew she was going to
hurt herself!’
Nabiki felt concern for her sister,
but fought to keep it off of her face. “Ono Tofu is our usual doctor,” she said
as she gave him some directions. To her absolute shock, Gohan seemed to jump
into the air. It was a very high jump. A very, very high jump. As a matter of
fact, he seemed to still be going up. As a matter of fact, he seemed to be
flying. Nabiki’s only outward reaction was a raised eyebrow, but inside her
mind was trying to fight off shock. After a few moments, a wicked grin came to
her face and she began to calculate ways of making a profit off of this new
situation.
-----///////|||||||\\\\\\\\------
Gohan landed in front of what looked
like a doctor’s office, grateful that no one but Akane and Nabiki had seen him
flying. The whole reason he had come to Satan City was to avoid any prejudices
that his powers could cause, but seeing Akane in pain like that and feeling
that it was his fault, he was willing to take the risk. He stepped inside and
called out to see if anyone was present. No one answered and he began to worry
that he’d come at a bad time. Suddenly he felt a hand on his shoulder. He
glanced at it and saw boney fingers laying on it. A little further over he saw
the whole skeleton. His battle aura flared into existance as he almost
panicked. The sheer power of the aura sent the skeleton flying back out the
doorway, as well as the spectacled man that Gohan now realised had been holding
it. Akane, safe in his arms, was unaffected by the power, but she did manage to
gape at him through the pain she was feeling.
‘Aww, man… twice in one day. Mom’s
gonna kill me.’ “Are you all right?”
The man stood up and dusted himself
off as he picked up the skeleton. “Me and Betty are quite all right. I guess I
need to quit surprising my new customers like that. I’m Doctor Tofu, how can I
help you?” He smiled amicably to let Gohan know there were no hard feelings. It
was then that he noticed Gohan’s burden. “Oh my, Tendo Akane, is that you?
What’s wrong, young lady?”
Since Akane seemed unable to
respond, Gohan answered. “I think she broke her foot while we were sparring in
the dojo. I’m sorry. Can you help her?” He followed Tofu to an examination room
and carefully set Akane on the table.
Tofu looked her foot over carefully
and, with a skill that amazed Gohan, set the bones in her foot with a minimum
amount of pain. Gohan waited patiently as the doctor finished his
ministrations. Tofu noted the bruises on Akane’s hands and her other foot as
well and raised an eyebrow. “Well now, have you moved from breaking bricks to
trying to break metal, Akane?” He asked with a touch of humor in his voice.
Akane blushed a little as she wiped
the last tears from her eyes. “No, Doctor Tofu. I was sparring with him.” She
pointed towards Gohan. Tofu frowned a little as he looked over at Gohan.
“You did this to her, young man?”
There was a hint of disapproval in his voice.
Gohan laughed nervously. “Well, not exactly.
I didn’t hit her or anything. I just didn’t dodge when she tried to hit me.”
Gohan grew more nervous as Tofu gave a him a very close inspection.
“My, you’re a healthy boy aren’t
you? You’re a martial artist, and a good one from the looks of it. Stone Fist
style?”
Gohan smiled, feeling a little more
relaxed. “Not really. I use more of an ‘anything goes’ style.”
Tofu nodded. “Ah, much like Akane.”
Tofu whispered softly to Gohan. “Try not to let her hit you any more. Her
strength is fine, but she could use some endurance and speed training, if
you’re going to spar with her.” Gohan nodded in surprise and Tofu turned around
and began to wrap Akane’s foot in a cast. “You’ll need to stay off of this foot
for at least a week, young lady. I’ll give you a crutch to help.”
Gohan moved to the waiting room and
sat patiently. ‘Mom’s going to kill me for sure. I just can’t figure out why
Akane is so hostile.’ His thoughts were interrupted as Tofu came into the
waiting room.
“If you don’t mind my asking, how
did you come to be sparring with Akane? I don’t remember seeing you around here
before,” the doctor asked.
“Oh, I’m new in town. I came to go
to high school and ended up running into an old friend of my fathers. And now I
find out I’m engaged to one of the three Tendo girls.” Gohan sighed.
Tofu tensed up a little bit. “Which
one?” ‘Please don’t say Kasumi, please don’t say Kasumi, please…’
“Apparently whichever one can stand
me. I think Nabiki might like me, but there’s something about the way she looks
at me that kinda creeps me out. Kasumi seems nice, but I get the idea that she
disapproves of me in some way. And Akane violently dislikes me, and I can’t
figure out why. I mean, it’s not my fault that this is happening… maybe she’s
bipolar or a sadist. I don’t know.”
Tofu felt relieved that Gohan didn’t
seem to have any interest in Kasumi. He chuckled softly. “Actually, Akane can
be very sweet. She just has a lot of things on her mind right now. Give her a
chance and I think you’ll find that she can be quite nice.”
Gohan thought on that as Akane came hobbling
into the room, giving him such a glare that he automatically took one step
back. She hobbled out on her crutch after giving the Doctor a grateful smile.
Gohan followed quickly after her, waving goodbye to Tofu.
Gohan tried to apologize to Akane a
number of times as they walked home, despite the fact that a voice in his head
was saying that he had nothing to apologize for. Finally she spun around, using
her crutch as a pivot point. “You want to apologize to me? Fine. Apologize by
not getting any perverted ideas about my sisters. Apologize by helping train
me. But quit TALKING about it.” Without waiting for a response, she wheeled
around again and started home, but in her frustration she used to much strength
and started to go sprawling. Gohan was by her side instantly, keeping her from
falling. Akane glared at him for a moment and then looked at the broken crutch.
Gohan spoke softly. “Akane, let me
carry you home.” When she turned her glare back on him, he closed his eyes in
exasperation. “Your foot is broken, Doctor Tofu told you to keep off of it, and
your crutch is broken. Please let me help you.”
“Fine. But just try one perverted
thing…” She let the threat hang in the air. Gohan nodded solemnly and carefully
picked her up again. Holding her carefully in his arms and doing his best to
avoid looking at her, he began walking back to the dojo.