It was dusk, and Gohan scowled as he leapt from one roof to the other. He was grateful for the fact that the city council didn’t have many of the streetlights on. It made staying hidden much easier as he tracked his target. As the limousine pulled into a warehouse, Gohan considered the ironies of life.
Earlier that evening, Kasumi had approached her father. “I’m afraid we’re out of food, father. I have to go shopping.”
Soun had immediately burst into tears. “But Kasumi, my sweet, innocent daughter, what about those hooligans? They’ve been robbing the shopping district mercilessly for several days now. You might get hurt!”
Gohan waved his hand to get Soun’s attention. “Tendo-san, if Kasumi doesn’t mind and it will make you feel better, I’ll go with her.”
Soun’s tears became a veritable waterfall. “Oh, this is wonderful! You’re willing to risk your own life to protect my daughter! I’m so happy!”
Gohan’s eyebrow twitched again as he turned to the eldest Tendo sister. “Do you mind, Kasumi?”
Kasumi smiled back sweetly. “If it makes father feel better, then I don’t mind.”
As they walked down the street, Gohan tried to strike up some conversation with Kasumi. She listened politely, but she didn’t seem to be in a very talkative mood so Gohan dropped it after a while. When they got to the market, Gohan was somewhat surprised at how everyone seemed to know and like Kasumi. After a few moments consideration, he realized that it really wasn’t much of a surprise. Kasumi was the nicest, sweetest person he had ever met.
As they stood together at an herbalist shop, Gohan noticed something. “Hey, these herbs and that root would be useful.”
Kasumi looked at him. “Whatever for, Gohan?”
“Well, I’m going to be training Akane soon and my old sensei, Piccolo, taught me a lot about herbs and the like. These take care of pain and bruises really well.” Gohan blushed a little. “And they also taste pretty good if you cook them just right, but that’s something I never quite got the hang of.”
Kasumi looked at Gohan with mild surprise for a few moments before reaching for the items he had indicated. “Wait,” Gohan stopped her. “Let me buy those. After all, I’ll be the one causing most of the bruises, unfortunately.” He pulled some money from his wallet and paid for the herbs.
As they walked away, Kasumi was slightly worried. “You’re not going to hurt Akane are you?”
Gohan’s face went through several emotions before he answered. “I’m not going to hurt her unnecessarily, but unfortunately training involves getting hit, thrown, and hurt. It’s all a part of being a martial artist. Besides, I much prefer having friends to enemies. I mean, my dad managed to turn several of his worst enemies into his good friends. I hope that I can do as well, if I ever make any real enemies, that is.”
Kasumi smiled warmly. “While I hope you never make any enemies, I do hope you make many friends. You’ve already done a wonderful job with Akane.”
Gohan blushed a little. “Do you think so? I just thought she could use some help getting over all that anger. After all, it’s not fun being mad all the time.”
Kasumi nodded. “You’re a very kind, observant, mature young man, Gohan. I’m glad you’ve come into our lives.”
Gohan blushed mightily. “Thank you, Kasumi. It’s been pretty interesting for me too.”
Their pleasant conversation was interrupted as they noticed a rather unfriendly looking man yelling at one of the vendors. The merchant seemed pretty shaken as he handed over an envelope to the man, who then walked over to a waiting limousine. The window rolled down and someone inside took the envelope. Gohan frowned as he scanned the car. There was something very familiar about the ki signature inside. Suddenly he remembered it. “General Tao,” Gohan growled to himself.
Gohan had escorted Kasumi home shortly after that and then headed off to ‘go visit a friend he bumped into earlier’. Akane and Nabiki assumed he meant the Great Saiya Man while Kasumi figured that he meant a friend from school. The young half-saiyan had tracked down the limousine again and followed it to this point. Gohan concentrated as he shifted to his Super Saiyan form.
Inside, over twenty punks stood around, joking, laughing, and telling stories about their heists. Many of them were playing with the new guns they had gotten from their leader, General Tao. They looked at the man with a mixture of respect and fear. Tao had impressed them with his ability to sneak automatic weapons into Japan, and he had cowed them with his fighting abilities. Several of the punks could remember the time that a hotshot punk had tried to muscle Tao out of the way. The part-machine General Tao had just pointed what used to be a hand at the man and disintegrated him with an energy blast. Since then, no one had even considered trying anything against the assassin-turned-mob-boss.
Gohan listened as Tao prattled on about his great plan to start a new Yakuza group in Nerima. Gohan had heard enough. Panic swept through the hoodlums as Gohan exploded from his hiding place and took down punk after punk with quick, vicious jabs. As the last one fell unconscious to the ground, General Tao smirked.
“Nice trick.” He looked closer at the golden-haired young man glaring angrily at him. “You look familiar. Who are you?”
“Son Gohan.”
Tao nodded. “Right. Bye!” The feared General Tao fled in terror.
“Not this time,” Gohan growled. He noticed a cargo van in the warehouse. He opened the door and tossed the unconscious criminals into the back. He wasn’t exactly nice about it and ended up having to pack them in uncomfortable to make them fit. He then picked up the van and flew off after General Tao, catching up to him easily. He grabbed the man by the scruff of his neck and flew into the air. Tao struggled at first but gave up quickly. ‘If he could beat me seven years ago when he was just a kid, I don’t want to risk getting him really mad,’ he thought to himself.
Gohan flew high in the air until he noticed the police station. He landed and dropped the van onto the pavement, ruining its suspension and cracking the asphalt. With one hand, Gohan crushed Tao’s cybernetic hand, making it impossible for him to fire on the police. He then walked in, dragging Tao behind him. The police watched in stunned silence as Gohan dropped the man off at the front desk. “This is General Tao, formerly of the Red Ribbon Army and the source of the recent crime wave you’ve been having problems with. The evidence is in a warehouse.” Gohan gave the startled officer the location of the warehouse and waited until Tao had been taken away in manacles.
The police chief walked up cautiously to Gohan. “Can I have your name, mister?”
Gohan grimaced. “I’d prefer to remain anonymous, if I can.”
The police chief nodded. “I can understand that, sir. We will not release your name to reporters, but we must have a name to place in the file.”
Gohan sighed. “Can you accept ‘The Great Saiya Man’?”
The chief managed to avoid snickering. He thought it over for a while. “Give me a number to contact you in case it becomes necessary, but I think we can accept that for now.” Gohan gratefully gave the man his home phone number. The chief then invited him into one of the interrogation rooms and started asking him questions in order to get the full details of what had happened.
After a while, Gohan commented, “You seem to be handling this rather well.”
The chief smiled at him. “This town is known for having occasional weirdness. There used to be a thief that terrorized the town, but the only things he ever stole were panties and bras. Then there are the Kunos. All three of them are public nuisances, but they’re tolerated. Someone who can take down an entire gang solo and carry a van in one hand is different, but not that unusual. Now, if you could change genders, then maybe…”
Gohan laughed. “That’s not likely to ever happen. Well, are we done yet?”
The chief nodded. “Thank you for the help. Normally we don’t like to involve civilians, but these guys were giving us a headache.” At that moment, there was a knock on the door. A younger officer stepped in and handed the chief an envelope while whispering to him. The chief’s eyes widened and then he dismissed the other police officer. “Well, it looks like that Tao guy you brought in had a hefty reward on his head. It’s already been approved, so here it is.” He handed Gohan the envelope.
Gohan started to refuse the money, but his mind drifted back to his promise to Nabiki. He struggled with accepting it when the chief firmly pushed the envelope into his hand. “Take it, son. If it makes you feel uncomfortable, find a good charity and donate it. Put it away for college, or consider it a down payment on a house, or whatever. You stopped a major criminal and the city would like to thank you with this.”
Gohan finally nodded and accepted with a smile. The chief escorted him out and then turned around and launched into a verbal attack on his own officers. As the doors closed, Gohan heard him yelling, “Some out-of-town kid does in one night what you’ve been trying to do for months! And you call yourselves cops?!” Gohan hurried off, never noticing the sign that said ‘Nerima Police Department’.
Something occurred to Gohan as he walked past the warehouse on the way to the Tendo’s. He stepped back in and checked out the limousine. Inside was the packet of money that he had seen collected earlier from one of the merchants. On the envelope was the merchant’s address. He also noticed several others. Gathering the envelopes, he flew quietly towards the shopping district. Once there, he shifted back to his normal appearance so as to avoid arousing suspicion. He slipped each envelope into its owner’s area and then quietly sneaked away. ‘It could be quite a while before the red tape allowed any of those people to get their money back. This way, they get it all now.’ Gohan walked the rest of the way back to the Tendo dojo, feeling a bit better about his life.
He got home just as most of the Tendos were getting ready for bed. “What took you so long?” Akane asked, a hint of worry in his voice.
“Oh, I’m sorry, Akane. I just needed some fresh air and I wanted to see a bit more of this town.”
“At night?” Nabiki asked. “Didn’t your mother teach you that it isn’t particularly safe to do that by yourself?”
Gohan felt terror grip his heart. The Tendos froze at the look of absolute horror on his face. “Oh, by Kami…”
Kasumi looked at him worriedly. “What’s wrong, Gohan?”
“I forgot to call my mother,” he answered quietly.
Akane looked at him in disbelief. “You forgot to call your mom. For two days?”
Gohan nodded. “She is going to kill me.”
Kasumi motioned him towards the phone. “You had better call her.”
Gohan nodded and dialed. After a few rings, everyone heard the loud voice shout through the phone, “GOHAN IS THAT YOU?”
Gohan hung
his head. “Yes, mother.”
“WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN?”
“I’m sorry, mom. I got busy with school and other things and I forgot to call.”
“WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN SLEEPING? IN THE STREETS? MY SON HAS BECOME A VAGABOND!” Everyone could hear here begin to cry through the phone.
“Mom! It’s okay! I’m staying with the Tendos.”
“WHO?”
“They’re friends of dad’s. They’re letting me stay here while I go to school.”
“OH. Well, that’s better. Just remember to call your mother next time, okay?”
Gohan smiled. “Yes mother. I love you.”
“I love you too, Gohan.” He hung up the phone.
Soun was smiling. “I see Nodoka still has a healthy set of lungs.”
Gohan looked confused for a moment. ‘Nodoka? Oh yeah, mom’s middle name. I better warn them.’ “Uhm, actually mom hates being called that. Everyone calls her Chichi.”
Soun blinked in obvious surprise, but he shrugged after a moment. The sisters all managed to avoid chuckling at the fact that Gohan’s mom preferred to be called, ‘Breasts’. “Well, when it comes to your mother, she always gets what she wants, eh Gohan?” Gohan nodded.
As everyone headed for bed, Gohan got Nabiki’s attention. “How much money are you needing?”
Nabiki smirked. “How much can you get?”
Gohan shook his head. “No, I’m not that naïve. How much is enough to help keep the household running smoothly.”
Nabiki thought it over carefully and quoted a figure. To her own surprise, she found that she wasn’t tacking on any extra costs. Gohan simply nodded at her and bid her good night.
The next day, Gohan announced the fact that for the next week, anyone who attacked Akane was going to answer to her, then Gohan, and then Nabiki. No one, except for Kuno, took them up on the offer.
He hurled a small statue of Buddha at Gohan. The metal figurine bounced off of the young man’s skull and landed on the ground. Kuno seemed stunned as Gohan rubbed his forehead. “What did you do that for?”
“It is said that demons can not stand the touch of a relic which brings forth good luck. Obviously that statue was a fake, otherwise thy vile presence would be gone hither from this place! I shall simply have to remove you myself!”
Gohan prepared to meet the charge when a crutch suddenly slammed into Kuno’s face with enough force to make him flip over completely and land face down. “Wait a week like everyone else, Kuno.” Akane growled.
Gohan looked at Akane, frowning slightly. “I was supposed to handle him if he came after me.”
“I know, but I just really needed to hit something,” Akane grumbled before hobbling into the school on her crutch. Any ideas that had been forming in some of the boys’ heads about possibly ambushing the young Tendo vanished.
School seemed to be going normally, but around the third class for the day, Gohan started feeling ill. Fortunately the bell rang and he managed to run to the bathroom without losing too much of his pride. Nabiki watched curiously as suddenly the bathroom emptied and a vile odor emerged, driving off everyone nearby. Nabiki hid in the shadows until Gohan stepped out, looking around sheepishly before heading to his next class. Nabiki pulled out a notepad and wrote down the time.
At lunch, Gohan opened up the lunch that Kasumi had made for him as he sat under a tree by himself. Akane was eating lunch with her friends again, which honestly didn’t bother him at all. He was a bit surprised to find a note in the box.
‘Dear Gohan, you mentioned that you liked the way these herbs tasted when cooked properly. I found a recipe that I think might work. I hope you enjoy it and have a pleasant day at school. Sincerely, Kasumi.’
Gohan smiled as he tasted the food. A blissful look crossed his face as he relished the flavor. “Wow, Kasumi is an incredible cook.” He actually managed to eat at a normal pace as he thoroughly enjoyed the meal.
From a short distance away, Nabiki scowled as she watched the young man. “Great, now I’m competing against Kasumi too. This is not going well at all.”
That night, Gohan was treated to a double meal. Kasumi had cooked, much to Soun and Nabiki’s relief, but Akane had also prepared a special meal just for Gohan. That night’s experiment had everyone but Gohan terrified. “I found a great recipe for fugu!” Everyone except for Gohan froze in horror. “Unfortunately I couldn’t find any puffer fish, so I had to substitute flounder. I hope that it’s okay.” Gohan consumed the entire meal, finding it difficult to decide whether the food tasted good, bad, or just different. Akane’s smile was all the answer Gohan needed, however.
After everyone finished his or her meal and the dishes had been cleaned, Gohan watched Akane. She sat on the floor in the living room, flipping through TV channels idly. She looked extremely bored. “Hey, Akane.”
She glanced up at him. “Hm?”
“I just noticed you looked bored. Would you… uhm… uh… like… to… er… go out? To a movie or something?”
Akane smiled after a few moments of stunned silence. “Sure.”
Nabiki watched as the two left. She was extremely not happy with the way things were going. She had not really had an interest in boys before, but there was something about Gohan that she just couldn’t ignore. He was nice, a bit naïve, intelligent, perceptive, and good-natured. In short, he was everything she normally avoided. Perceptive and intelligent people were too hard to con, and naïve nice people had a tendency to give away their hard earned money.
And yet her she was, trying to figure out how to get Gohan for herself. Nabiki leaned back in her bed and stared at the ceiling for a while. Since Gohan had come into their lives, she was actually starting to find herself being very lonely. Money had last just a little of its glamour and some of the thrill was gone from acquiring it. She spent a long time searching her own feelings, trying to figure out what she really wanted. It wasn’t until she heard Akane and Gohan coming home, laughing, that she realized just how long she had spent. Finally, she decided on a course of action.
The next day, Kuno didn’t attack. He only glared at Gohan for a while before turning up his nose and walking away. Akane couldn’t believe that she was actually going to school without getting involved in any kind of a fight. Because of this, she was in an exceptionally good mood, which many of her fellow students viewed as one of the signs of the Apocalypse.
Nabiki waited outside of the bathroom around third period. She checked her notepad and made a few more calculations. Suddenly she saw Gohan slipping into the bathroom. A few moments later, a horrible ripping sound emerged, followed by an even more noxious odor. Nabiki smirked as she jotted down the time before heading to class.
It was during lunch that something happened to break Akane’s good mood. She had decided to sit with Gohan that day and was holding a normal conversation with him about one of their classes. A short distance away at the main gates to the school, a rather scruffy-looking boy was grabbing a student and lifting him by the lapels.
“Where is Furinkan High?” He asked. He blinked in surprise when the student pointed at the sign behind the boy.
“At last! Where is Saotome Ranma?”
“Who?”
“RANMA!”
“I don’t know anyone by that name.”
The boy looked frustrated. “A black-haired cocky martial artist who showed up recently?”
The student looked relieved. “Oh, him! I thought his name was Gohan.” The student pointed at where Gohan and Akane were eating and talking.
“Ha! Changing your name to hide from me, huh? I’ll make you pay!” The boy pulled an umbrella from the rather large backpack that he wore. “DIE RANMA!” He screamed as he charged towards Gohan.
Gohan looked up at the cry, not because of the name used, but rather at the intensity. He had let himself get distracted again and completely missed the relatively strong ki signature that was approaching. It was nothing anywhere near his, or even his friend Kuririn’s level, but it was a lot higher than most of the other students. He finally realized that he was the target of the attack as the oddly familiar boy swung an umbrella at his head. He caught the end of it in one hand and was relatively surprised when he felt himself being pushed back a bit from the impact. ‘This guy’s pretty strong,’ he thought to himself. ‘He could probably take on Mr. Satan.’ It was a small complement, but a complement nonetheless.
“I’ve seen Hell because of you, Ranma!” The boy screamed as he threw a vicious side kick.
Gohan blinked as he dodged the kick, letting go of the umbrella at the same time. He started to open his mouth to say he wasn’t Ranma when the boy suddenly threw the umbrella at him. He started to dodge when he remembered that Akane was right behind him. Frowning unhappily, he caught the flying object and dropped it to the ground. The boy seemed a little shocked with the display of strength, but he recovered quickly. He threw a barrage of bandanas that Gohan could tell were infused with ki.
“Are you nuts?! You could hurt some people with those!” Gohan yelled as he focused his power invisibly and forced the projectiles to explode.
The boy blinked in surprise. He could sense the power his opponent was putting out and, quite frankly, it scared him. He suddenly realized that Ranma must have fallen into a spring at Jusenkyo, a good spring, one that amplified his martial arts abilities. The answer became clear. He reached into his backpack and pulled out a thermos. Opening it up, he threw the contents on Gohan. Nothing happened except that Gohan looked rather displeased with having ramen noodles dripping form his face. Ryoga stared in shock as he threw another thermos of hot ramen on the boy, yelling, “CHANGE BACK!”
Gohan just stared at the obviously deranged boy. Finally he wiped his face off. “Do you mind? I have a few things to say. One, I am NOT Ranma. My name is Gohan. Two, I do not have an allergy or weakness to noodles, so would you please stop throwing ramen on me? Three, be careful where you throw those things! You could have hurt Akane or someone else.”
The boy seemed to notice Akane for the first time. A guilty look plastered itself onto his face. “Oops. I’m sorry. I was told Ranma was going to be here. I’ve been waiting so long for my revenge that I kinda lost my head.”
Gohan snapped his fingers suddenly. “Now I remember you! You’re Hibiki Ryoga. We met in the forest, remember? We were both lost.”
Ryoga shrugged, a sheepish look on his face. “I get lost a lot and meet a lot of people. I’m afraid I didn’t recognize you.”
Gohan smiled. “That’s all right.” He finished picking ramen out of his clothes. “So, what’s your beef with this Ranma guy?”
Ryoga scowled. “We went to the same school together. Every day he would steal my food and make me look like an idiot. Finally I challenged him to a duel. He accepted. But when I got to the site of our duel, he had fled like a coward. I followed him and his father all over Japan and into China… it was there that I saw hell… and it’s all Ranma’s fault!”
Gohan frowned. “He does sound like a jerk all right, but can you really blame him for your following him all over the place? It does seem like it was your choice.”
Ryoga thought it over for a moment. “But if he hadn’t skipped out on our duel, I wouldn’t have had to follow him to avenge my honor.”
Gohan nodded. “I can understand that, but you do need to take responsibility for your own choices. And you also need to be careful when your throwing things around. There are some innocent people here who could have gotten hurt, you know.”
Ryoga sighed. “You’re right.” He turned to Akane and bowed deeply. “I apologize for my arrogance and lack of discipline.”
Akane scowled a little, but she was still mostly in a good mood. “All right, but be careful next time.”
Ryoga nodded. “I will. But I still have to track down Ranma and stop him and his evil ways. Stealing food from his fellow students, running out on duels, womanizing…”
Gohan smiled and handed Ryoga back his umbrella. “Well, I hope you find him. Good luck.”
Ryoga smiled back. “Thanks.” He wandered into the school.
Gohan blinked. “Uh, shouldn’t he have headed towards the gate?” He ran to follow Ryoga, but to his amazement, the boy was gone. “That’s odd.”
The rest of the school day passed normally. Akane started into her homework and was going to ask Gohan to help her, but Nabiki intercepted him. “Gohan, I’d like to talk to you in private.” Without waiting for a response, she headed towards the dojo. Gohan followed her nervously.
Nabiki waited with her back to the door until she heard Gohan enter. She turned around, her speech all planned out, but her plans vanished at the sight of the money in his hands.
“Here. It’s what you said you needed.” He it was only a portion of the reward money. Gohan wasn’t stupid enough to hand Nabiki everything he had received.
Nabiki took the money without even thinking. “How?”
Gohan shook his head. “I’d rather not say. It’s… too embarrassing. But it should help with the bills.”
Nabiki nodded a bit numbly as she counted the money. It was enough to take care of the family for several weeks. ‘How could he have gotten this much so soon?’ An unpleasant thought ran through her mind. ‘He disappeared for quite a while two nights ago… could he have done… no, he said he’d only do things that were legal… he couldn’t have… Still, how did he get this money?’ She snapped back to reality as Gohan started to leave the dojo.
“Is that it?” She blurted out.
Gohan stopped, a confused expression on his face. “It’s what you asked for.”
Nabiki’s voice broke a little as she spoke. It was a skill she had developed for dealing with bleeding hearts. “Is that all you think I care about?” Gohan just stared at her in confusion. “You took Kasumi out on a date two days ago, you took Akane yesterday… I had hoped you were going to ask me out tonight.”
Gohan blushed a little and rubbed the back of his head. “Well, uhm, ya see…”
Nabiki shed a tear. “Am I really that repulsive? Does my very presence sicken you?”
Gohan waved his hands frantically. “No no not at all! You actually are pretty cute and all, and I don’t mind your company, it’s just…”
Nabiki sniffed. “You mean you can barely tolerate me being around…” Another tear joined the first one.
Gohan shook his head. “No, not at all… I just didn’t think you were interested is all! I’d love to take you out tonight!”
Nabiki smirked internally, but on the outside she gave a small, sad smile. “You’re just saying that to make me feel better.”
“No, really! I’d like to get to know you all better. That was the idea, remember?” He gave her a winning smile.
Nabiki nodded slowly and smiled back. “Ok. Let me get cleaned up and do my homework and then we can go somewhere for dinner.”
Gohan nodded and headed into the house.
Nabiki’s smile turned into a smirk. “Well, he’s a sucker for feminine wiles, that’s for sure.” She wiped away the tears she had faked and walked into the house.
Author’s Notes:
Fugu is pufferfish. It is considered a prized delicacy, but it can be extremely toxic. The necessary skills and training to get a license to cook fugu are extraordinary, and there’s a good reason for this. Of the 1,500 or so restaurants in Japan that serve fugu, approximately 150-200 of their patrons develop food poisoning from fugu. Of those so affected, 61% die. (This information was acquired from a web site, and may not reflect actual statistics.)