Time In

by januarytala

Summary:

It's been two years since Videl's father, Hercule Satan, was exposed as a fraud. Down on her luck and with very few prospects, Videl seeks out a position at the palace of the restored Ox Kingdom in Mount Paozu. There, she finds herself as a servant under the management of the Ox Prince, Son Gohan, who seems to be hiding a few secrets of his own. AU Post-Cell divergence.

Chapter 1: The Paozu Stalk

Notes:

Hey everyone! Would you believe I've had the idea for this fanfiction since 2010? I'm so happy that I've found the opportunity to write fanfics again. I went through my old documents from way back when, and this idea still really appealed to me. I think it's fascinating to think of how Gohan and Videl would meet if Videl had known that her father hadn't actually defeated Cell. So I brushed it up, created a spanking new outline, and here it is! I hope you all enjoy this idea as much as I do!

I'm angling for a more whimsical atmosphere here, sort of reminiscent of the OG Dragon Ball series, with more reliance on fantasy elements that are just there, not a lot of background explanation for them. I'm hoping it works out!

NOW HIRING: General labour | Ages 16 - 50 | Must be in good health | Available on-prem 5+ days a week | 439 Mountain Area | Present yourself to the Ox Prince

Videl clutched the yellowed sheet of advertisement she had ripped off of a newspaper like it was her last piece of hope. In many ways, it was, though most people would probably turn their noses up at an opportunity to work in a backwater village tucked away in the mountain ranges. Yes, it was true that the Ox Kingdom had a resurgence, and it was also true that there was a burgeoning industry there. But it was nowhere near the grandeur of West City nor of a powerhouse business like Capsule Corps.

Which was why it might be the only job posting that could be open to someone like Videl Satan.

The bus carrying her towards the foothills of Mount Paozu hit a bumpy part in the dirt road and the passengers jostled against one another. There was only one public bus a day that made the trip there and back, and this one was packed like a can of sardines. She was lucky she managed to find a spot to stand near the window where she could watch the sceneries pass by.

Videl resettled her cap over her head. She hadn't yet shirked the urge to hide her face in its shade, even though she rarely had the intention of hiding the fact that she was the daughter of the most hated man in the world. There would be no point. Still, the few moments of calm before the storm, the sliver of chance that she could be overlooked, were blessings she'd learned to cherish in the last two years.

Blessings that seemed to be running out for her right now, judging by the way one elderly man was making double takes at her. He was sitting adjacent to her, on one of the chairs facing inward. The corners of his eyes wrinkled with every squint in her direction. Videl's hand gripped the pole tighter, and she tried not to give away any signs that she knew she was being watched. She was used to this.

Whispers bloomed across the seats. Heads leaned closer to one another, and surreptitious glances shot her way. Before long, there was an eager buzz rivalling the hum of the bus's engine and the rolling of its wheels.

"Hey, you there!"

Videl exhaled, a mixture of adrenaline and resigned acceptance simmering in her chest. Her luck had run out.

She turned to the voice. It was a portly woman, standing by a pole on the opposite side of the bus. Her cat's-eye glasses and pink wide-brimmed hat made her stand out among a sea of people clad in the more neutral tones and simpler garb of rural life. "Are you Hercule Satan's daughter? You are, aren't you?"

"Yes, ma'am," was all Videl said, and she calmly looked back to the forest out the window. The buzzing stopped for a tense, breathless moment. Even the bus itself paused. It was always interesting to observe how people reacted to her admittance. Sometimes they were more surprised by how easily she confirmed the truth than they were to find her there in their midst. Perhaps they expected her to deny it, expected her to pretend she was someone else by badmouthing her own self. Her father had whipped out that move plenty of times during the weeks they'd been caught in the maelstrom of his fraud exposure. They'd been able to retreat to a seaside cottage soon after, but not before a very painful, very humiliating time in the public eye.

The tension in the bus broke, and the previous silence was buried in an avalanche of scandalized shouts, overzealous scoffs, and inventive name-calling. The man standing next to Videl elbowed her in the ribs, another passenger pulled at her backpack, and more than several pairs of feet stepped on her toes, not quite by accident. A heavy, persistent wave of pushes and pulls transported Videl towards the door of the bus, and although her latent martial skills helped prevent any grave injuries, the last set of hands deposited her roughly out of the door. She landed ungracefully on her rump on the dirt road.

"Hey!" she cried. "I paid my fare!"

Metal coins hit her on the head and slid down her cap's visor.

"Have it back then!" the driver shouted. "It's probably fake, anyway." The decisive shut of the door walled off the echoing cheers from the passengers. The bus tutted away, and Videl scrambled to her feet before the belch of smoke from its exhaust could blast her in the face.

She watched the bus grow smaller as it climbed the inclined path up the mountain. On either side of the road were tall trees and bushy undergrowth. She'd been so close to getting all the way up to the Mount Paozu village.

Heaving a sigh, Videl patted the dust from her clothes and readjusted her skewed cap over her short hair. Once upon a time, when she had brandied about the torch of justice, she wouldn't have allowed those people to land even a single slap on her. But two years had blunted her rigid sense of justice. After all, these people who had once been fooled by her father most likely felt that harassing her was payback for the lies she had unjustly benefited from.

She stooped to collect the coins from the ground. It was the full fare, all 22 zennis of it. How the driver could have known which coins had come from her, she didn't know, and it was a testament to just how loathsome he considered her that he would rather lose 22 zennis of very likely real money than have her in his bus for just forty-five more minutes.

Videl shrugged. At least she had 22 zennis more pocket money again. Not a bad trade, not at all. 22 zennis was nothing to laugh at.

Now, she had better start walking. It would take her just short of two hours to trek to the village by foot, and she wanted at least a chance to meet the Ox Prince before she could be turned away for being so late.

-o-

The newly established Ox Kingdom in Mount Paozu was something of a marvel. From Videl's research, the old Ox Kingdom used to be situated in Mount Frypan, which bore the nomenclature of Mount Pleasant before it had been engulfed in flames from a fallen fire spirit. About twenty years ago, the flames were eradicated along with most of the mountain and the Ox King's treasure, but the kingdom managed to persist.

Then two years ago, right around the time Hercule Satan's heroics at the Cell Games had been exposed as fraudulent, Videl caught news that Mount Frypan had once again been destroyed by another fire spirit. Sensing that this could be a regular occurrence henceforth, the Ox King and the villagers he ruled over had packed up their things and resettled in Mount Paozu where the Ox King's daughter was starting to make a name for herself as a culinary genius.

The village of Mount Paozu, cradled lovingly in a valley between two towering rocky peaks, bore the marks of its culinary genius bold and clear. The wooden welcome signage at the entrance to the village and the various paraphernalia being sold at the stalls lining the main road were all decorated with carvings or paintings of the Paozu Stalk: a thick, edible climbing vine found at the tips of the mountains.

A cool breeze swept past, bringing with it a sweet, savoury scent most likely emanating from the grand restaurant at the farthest edge of the village. Videl popped up her jacket collar, bracing against the cold and the possibility of running into one of the bus passengers here.

Fortunately she didn't see any of them as she treaded the main path through the village. Vendors peddled windchimes in the shape of the Paozu Stalk, or ladled hot water steeped with its leaves. A group of village children gathered at a wonky puppet stall where a broad-faced doll scaled a paper-mache mountain.

"Without the Ox King's treasure, the widowed Ox Princess combed through the forests and the mountains to find a way to feed her starving family," the puppeteer said. "And up at the very top of one of Paozu's mountains, that's where she found--"

"The Paozu Stalk!" the children yelled in a chorus. It seemed to be a well-known story. Perhaps the Ox Kingdom's reversal in fortunes was a legend in the making.

"Through trial and error and brilliant talent in the kitchens, the Ox Princess was able to turn the bitter, tough stalk into a tasty delicacy!" The puppeteer switched the background of the small stage from a mountainous painting to one depicting a humble kitchen. He pushed a miniature cauldron onto the stage. "And to her surprise, the stalk wasn't simply something to pass hunger. No, it is full of nutrients! A single serving can keep an ordinary person full for an entire day!"

The puppet play went on, and Videl resumed her walk through the village. It was tempting to linger, as she didn't know the whole story about the Ox Kingdom and the royal family yet. But if she missed her chance at an interview, she couldn't afford an overnight stay at an inn, and she wasn't particularly keen on camping in the mountainside.

It wasn't long until the pride of the kingdom appeared before her. It loomed in the form of a large wooden structure fashioned after the traditional houses, with a triangular roof made of ceramic tiles. A large sign hung just below the roof: Stalk in the Frypan. Circular windows with stylish designs adorned the walls of the structure, and a wide porch surrounded the entire thing. People crowded the tables and chairs laid out on the porch, and Videl knew, despite being unable to peek inside the restaurant, that the inside would be just as packed. Walking farther down the path, she glimpsed an enormous platform where several jetcopters were parked.

Humble though the actual Mount Paozu village was, the reputation of the Paozu Stalk attracted many people from the lowlands. And because the stalk was supposedly difficult to extract from the mountains, its supply was kept limited by nature. It meant that getting to sample the delicacy fetched exorbitant prices. After all, it wasn't just a superfood. It was an ultra-superfood. Which was lucky for the Ox Kingdom. That stalk was now its lifeblood, its new treasure.

Videl took out the job ad from her jacket pocket and looked at the black-and-white image printed in low resolution below the hiring announcement. It wasn't a picture of the Stalk in the Frypan restaurant, nor of the village. Instead, it showed an elaborate series of houses and pavilions connected by a serpentine flow of bridges, all crouched against the wall of a mountain. It was the Ox Palace. That was where her potential job would be.

Videl rounded a bend in the road and found the real-life version of the palace before her. But the inky picture hadn't prepared her for the grandeur of the real thing. Outlined by the intense glow of the afternoon sun, framed by luscious green trees and blooming plants, the palace looked like a vision from a fever dream. There were even falls flowing down from higher up that the printed version hadn't been able to depict at all.

Her heart raced. This place looked like it could more than afford to be picky with its servants. Would she even have a chance at all of securing a job?

Well, there was only one way to find out.

-o-

The staircase to the palace, built into the mountain face, took Videl over an hour to climb. If she was still the hale, well-fed teenager she'd been two years ago, it wouldn't have been a problem. She would have skipped over half the steps on the way up. But having a simple diet of mostly millet and fish nowadays — and not even in abundance — the climb had left her breathless.

There was a gate before her, manned by a guard. He wore a helmet with horns, much like the images she'd seen of the Ox King from her research. Videl brushed down the dust and dirt from her clothes, hoping she didn't look too pitiful. Then she approached him.

"Hello, good evening," she said, holding up the job ad. "I'm here for this."

The guard squinted at the paper, then nodded, barely taking a look at her. "All right, miss. Wait here." He opened the gate and disappeared on the other side. He hadn't closed it behind him, and now that she thought about it, it hadn't even been locked. Strange that there would be a guard here that didn't seem to be doing a very good job guarding. But then again, the Ox King did once have a brutish reputation, so perhaps that would deter anyone up to no good.

Videl waited, but thirty minutes passed, and still the guard did not return. Restless with impatience, feeling like an opportunity was passing through her fingers, she crept to the gate and peeked inside. There was a wide courtyard decorated with potted plants. A couple of pavilions blocked her view of the rest of the estate.

Just then, a young girl of about ten years old passed by and noticed her. She was carrying a bucket of water, and the apron hanging around her waist was stained with flour and some orange sauce. Probably a kitchen servant.

"May I help you, miss?" the young girl asked.

Seizing her chance, Videl pushed through the gates and tried once again. "Yes, actually, I'm here for this ad." She showed the girl the newspaper clipping. "I'm supposed to present myself to the Ox Prince, it says here."

"Ah, the prince!" the girl brightened. "Yes, yes, follow me. I can show you to him."

Videl grinned and strode into the courtyard. "Thank you! I'm so glad for your help."

For a moment, Videl steeled herself, a familiar habit to her now. She waited to see if the girl would recognize her and suddenly decide not to help her after all. But the girl only sent her a smile and led her past the pavilions. They continued down a cobbled path that seemed less maintained than Videl had thought the estate would be. But perhaps that was why they were hiring. There was work to do here, it seemed, and she ought to be grateful for that.

Strangely enough, the kitchen servant didn't lead her anywhere near the palace, the roofs of which she could see above the lychee and mango trees surrounding the paths. The servant led her down some dirt tracks, the grass around them uncut.

"So, you've been working here long?" Videl tried for a conversation.

"Not at all, I only started yesterday."

"Did you also have to present yourself to the Ox Prince?"

"Nah, miss. I got the job by word of mouth. See, my cousin's husband's brother works here already and heard of a position in the kitchens. Lucky for me, the kitchen matron agreed to take me on. But I met the Ox Prince this morning. He's very friendly, miss."

Well, that's good news. Perhaps Videl would have an easier time trying to persuade him to take her on.

They dirt tracks ended in a large garden, but one that hadn't seen the sharp edge of pruning shears in a long while. Tall grass and dandelions choked the ground, and wild snowball viburnums lined the sides against the mountain wall along with various other bushes and shrubs that Videl didn't know by name. Butterflies and dragonflies and bees flitted from one flower to another, while small colourful birds whipped past tree branches.

And there, hopping from one spot to another, chasing after the insects with a net, was a boy who was a few years younger than the kitchen servant.

Videl looked around in a hurry, trying to find if there was anyone else in this garden, but the leaping boy was the only one there.

"That's the Ox Prince?" she said, the tremor in her voice betraying the confusion and disappointment brewing in her.

"That's him!" the servant confirmed. "I served him breakfast this morning."

The boy must have heard them, because he turned around and performed his jumpy walk towards them. "Oh, hello!" he greeted. "What's this?"

The little boy had large, black eyes, an eager smile, and dishevelled black hair that spiked in all directions. His chubby cheeks, ruddy with physical activity, would have given Videl the urge to pinch them if she wasn't overly aware that her livelihood was now apparently in this boy's hands. Because clearly, he was the prince; his clothes attested to that. He wore a light blue silken tunic with a fine embroidery of herons, and matching pants that were grass-stained at the knees. This was no servant boy or page.

"Hello, Ox Prince," Videl said, a little uncertainly. "I'm here for this ad."

The Ox Prince grabbed the clipping from her, stared at it for a long moment, then grinned. "Ah, this looks familiar!"

The fact that he was holding it upside-down did not inspire much confidence in her.

Still, he said, "All right, come along. I have to ask you questions now."

"And I must go back to the kitchen," the servant girl said, starting to step back down the path they'd taken. "Best of luck with your interview."

Oh yes, Videl would certainly need that luck now. This was not at all what she'd been expecting.

She found herself again being led around the estate, but this time, she hardly paid any attention. Her stomach was in knots. On one hand, perhaps her reputation wouldn't be much of a hindrance to a child. On the other hand, perhaps it would be and no amount of logic or rationalization would change his mind.

But why would a little boy be in charge of hiring servants for the palace anyway?

It wasn't the first time Videl wished she had consulted a few more resources on the Ox Kingdom. But the seaside village she and her father had cooped up in didn't have the best library. Only select books were available to borrow. She would have needed to travel fifty kilometres to the nearest town that had a network, and she was already scrimping all the coins she could for food, necessities, and the journey to Mount Paozu.

She took a deep breath. There must be a logical explanation to this. Perhaps there was a printing error at the newspapers. Yes, that must be it! Maybe what it actually meant to say was Present yourself to the Ox Princess. Somehow the last two 'ss' were missed. That made more sense, didn't it? It was the Ox Princess who was in charge of the business here, after all.

"Um, Ox Prince--"

"Call me Goten," the boy replied. "Wait, no. Make that Sir Goten. Or actually, maybe Mr. Goten. That has a better ring to it. Like Mr. Piccolo!"

"Uh, all right Sir Mr. Goten," Videl ventured. "Where is your mother?"

"Mommy's at the restaurant, of course!"

"Er, should we wait for her, then? Or how about your grandfather, the Ox King?"

"No need, we're here!"

'Here' was a side entrance to the palace, which now loomed over Videl. Goten opened the sliding door and ushered her inside.

The room they entered was spacious, panelled by gleaming wood. The only furniture was a large, bulky table on one side, piled high with folders and papers and books. One chair was behind it, another one in front of it. The room had an air of both formality and boredom.

"Take a seat, please."

Videl took the chair opposite the table, feeling like she'd entered a completely different dimension and wasn't quite sure how to get out. Perhaps she was having a fever dream. Maybe she'd never left their cottage. Maybe she'd never left her bed. That questionable fish her father had caught for dinner must have been a powerful hallucinogenic.

Goten ruffled through the papers, snatched a pencil and looked at hear with zeal. "What is your name?" he asked, but in a tone that suggested it was a question he'd heard too often and was reciting in a similar manner; not that he was genuinely curious.

"Videl Satan," she answered. Again, she felt the familiar stiffening of her shoulders, anticipating his reaction.

But the boy only hovered his pencil above the paper, frowning. "How do you spell that?"

"Uh, v-i-d-e-l, space, s-a-t-a-n."

"And how old are you?"

"Eighteen."

"Wow, that's old. Where do you live?"

"82 Seaside Cliff. Actually, about that... the ad implies that there would be room provided here, and—"

"What is your favourite kind of dinosaur?"

"Uh, what?" Favourite dinosaur? How was that relevant to the job? Was this kid playing a prank on her? Her entire life — and her father's — depended upon this job, and this child was treating it as a game! Maybe he did know who she was. Maybe he wanted to see her squirm, get her hopes up, then dash it. He wouldn't be the first one.

However, what if this child really was the person in charge of hiring, for some unfathomable reason? Or what if the real test was to see how potential applicants treated a young prince? And only people who passed it could see the Ox Princess or the Ox King?

Suddenly, the door slid back open so hard, the edge of it rattled against the wall. Videl almost jumped out of her skin.

In the doorway was a young man, tall and broad-shouldered, clad in a similar silken outfit as the Ox Prince. He had the same big dark eyes, but his hair was a bit more tidy, cut in shorter spikes from his scalp. A lone fringe fell across his forehead.

"I'm so sorry about this, miss! I got held up by other duties and I only heard about your arrival a few minutes ago," the young man declared, rushing into the room and glancing between Videl and Goten. "I... um, Goten, what are you doing? You should have led her to the guest quarters."

"Aww, but you always get to ask our visitors questions. You have tons of entries in your slam book! It's my turn!"

"It's not a slam book, Goten. It's the applicant records. Now, hop along."

"But—"

"Tell you what. Next time we get a visitor who isn't applying for a job, you can ask them all the questions you want."

"Promise?"

"Yes, now go on." The young man gently lowered Goten to the ground and patted him on the back on the way out the door. With a sigh, he turned back to Videl. "I really must apologize. I hope my little brother didn't bother you too much."

It took Videl awhile to find her voice. Brother. Of course, that made even more sense. There was more than one Ox Prince. Heavens above, she was more exhausted than she thought.

She cleared her throat. "It's fine," she said, still a bit dazed. "It's all cleared up now, I suppose."

The elder Ox Prince rummaged through the files and books on the desk, stacking them in some attempt at organisation. "Ah, there's the book of records." He opened a spiral-bound notebook with a black cover, and sat down on the chair.

"I'm not sure if my little brother asked you for some personal information already, but I'll have to repeat them. We're still working on his letters, as you can see." He lifted one page with messy pencil marks, but as far as Videl could tell, no discernible words or numbers. "Name, please?"

Videl took a silent inhale. "Videl Satan."

This time, her mental preparation paid off. The Ox Prince froze, then raised his head.

"Videl... Satan?" he repeated.

"Yes, sir," she said, in a tone not at all different from the one she'd used with the woman on the bus.

"Satan. As in... Hercule Satan? That Satan?"

"He's my father," she replied in the same tone.

"Oh?" The corners of his lips lifted in an amused smile. "Fascinating. I didn't realize he has a daughter."

Videl's eyes almost bugged out of her head. The Ox Kingdom must be more secluded than she realized; or at least, it had been two years ago. While she had managed to eschew much of the limelight her father had basked in as saviour of the world, she hadn't at all been sheltered from the infamy of his downfall.

She steeled herself for the Ox Prince's next move. Likely, he would write down a note in his book about who she was, and shortly after, show her to the door. If he had a mean streak like many employers she had approached over the years, he would keep her for a few more minutes and poke her with pointed comments about her father and his crimes and possibly hers; how ashamed their family should be, what audacity she had showing up here in a respectable place. He didn't look very mean, but she'd met angel-faced humans before who had the tongue of creatures that could rival her last name.

The Ox Prince didn't do any of those. He blinked, then asked, "Do you have a resumé?"

"A... a resumé? Yes, I have it right here!" Videl swung her backpack to her lap and dug below the clothes and other travelling gear she'd brought. The folded sheet of paper that held her past experiences met her fingers, and she pulled it out. She had rarely ever been asked for her resumé.

Videl stood and handed it to him. It was a one-pager, hardly impressive. The bulk of it referenced her time volunteering for the Orange City police force. But after her father's secrets had been revealed, the chief had highly discouraged her help; it would look hypocritical, he'd said, if the daughter of a fraudster tried to enact justice.

The more recent experiences she'd listed were various chores and errands she'd run in the seaside village. She figured those would be more relevant to whatever position she could fill as a servant in a palace.

"You used to fight crimes," the Ox Prince observed. "You have martial training then?"

"The basics, yes. Then self-taught after that."

He placed the resumé down on the table, walked to the door and slid it closed. He glanced back at her, appraising her from head to toe. "You seem on the scrawnier side, but that doesn't tell me much. One of the strongest men I know is half my height. What do you say to a demo?"

For the second time in as many minutes since he'd stepped into the room, the Ox Prince caught Videl off-guard again. She balked at his suggestion. She hadn't been able to keep up with her training these last couple of years. And although deep in her bones martial arts still called to her like a friend, it was difficult now to associate positively with something that caused so much turmoil in her life.

"I... I haven't trained a lot lately," she said.

"No worries, I'm sure it'll come back to you." The Ox Prince popped the buttons on his silken tunic from their loops, and in a graceful shrugging of his shoulders, he discarded the tunic to lay it over the back of the chair. Beneath, he only had a tight black tank top, which afforded Videl a generous view of his muscled shoulders, chest and arms.

Clearly, this was no simpering royal she was dealing with.

She must have taken too long to respond, because the Ox Prince backed up a step and raised his hands. "The reason I ask is because we have a position that recently opened up, but... well, it's a bit dangerous. So if you're in good physical form and have a bit of athleticism, it could be the perfect position. Plus, it pays three times more than any other spots in the palace."

Videl got up from her chair faster than her mind had time to think things over. The Ox Prince waved to the vast empty space in the rest of the room, and she chose a position far from the table. She settled into an alert stance, arms up, fists closed in front of her. The prince did similarly, and as soon as he signalled to start, Videl launched herself to strike.

She aimed for his chest, and he blocked her punch just as she expected. But she followed up quickly, swinging a foot against the crook of his knee. To her surprise, his posture stayed sturdy, as if she hadn’t hit him at all. Videl had little time to think it through, as she raised her arms to swat away his oncoming hit. Though it looked like there had been no effort on his part, it sent her crashing to the ground.

Damn, this was what she got for thinking she could perform a decent martial arts demonstration while half-starved, exhausted, and out of practice.

Still, Videl’s instincts kicked in, and she somersaulted back to her feet. As she surged upward, she delivered an upper-cut to the prince’s chin, but he managed to grab her wrist in time. His grip was so tight she was able to hang her weight on it, helping her leverage a kick right against his stomach.

It was her first successful hit. He released her and backed away a few steps, but he still remained unfazed. Adrenaline was pulsing through her body now, and Videl knew that it was just a matter of time before her energy drained out of her, so she pressed on. She poured all strength and speed into every punch, kick, swipe, jab, and dodge, but she could count on one hand all the hits that actually landed. In a last desperate attack, she hooked her ankles over his neck, dropped her weight to the floor, and took him down in a roll.

The prince didn’t even land next to her. She blinked and there he was, standing several feet away. If she accounted for his height and weight and the force behind her move, it was mind-boggling that he’d gotten that far that fast.

Videl staggered to her feet. Well, she had tried her best. She had been honest upfront, managing his expectations. Yet it was her own expectations she hadn’t calibrated well. Her heart lodged at the top of her belly, her eyes stinging with the urge to shed frustrated tears. She’d known she wasn’t prepared. This was the Ox King’s grandson after all, the Ox King who’d cultivated a fearsome presence for many decades back in Mount Frypan. What other outcome could she expect? Still, it was difficult to face just how poorly she’d done, just how rusty she’d allowed herself to become.

“Excellent!” The Ox prince clapped. “Strong attacks, graceful form, snappy reflexes.”

Videl stared at him, slack-jawed. Was he mocking her now?

“You say you haven’t practised lately? With some good food in you and regular exercises, you’ll be in tip-top shape in no time!” He dashed back to the desk, picked up the applicant notebook and wrote down a few notes.

“Are you serious?” Videl asked. This entire day felt like a skit from a sitcom.

“I’m putting you among the Stalk Gatherers.”

“Wait, you’re hiring me?”

“Of course!” He looked up just then, and his guileless expression made him look much younger than Videl initially thought he was. He seemed to be just around her age. “You performed well, you have the experience, and we could certainly use the help. Will you need lodgings?”

“I, uhm, yes,” Videl replied, mind still reeling from how quickly things were happening.

“All right, I’ll need you to sign some papers. Your salary will be 80k zennis per annum, and as part of the compensation package, you will be provided with a room and 3 meals a day. You’ll have access to the medical team in the palace — very important for your line of work — and you’ll have fifteen days of paid time-off per year adjusted to your starting day. Which will be tomorrow.”

The Ox Prince presented her with half-a-dozen papers, pointing out the blank lines on which her signatures were required. He handed her about a dozen more, outlining the terms of her employment in more detail, a map of the palace and the village below, more forms that needed to be filled out later — emergency contacts, dietary requirements, non-disclosure agreements related to the family’s restaurant business, etc.

Videl collected these in her arms, ensuring she didn’t drop a single one as the Ox Prince led her out of the interview room. Her mind was still short-circuiting on being hired. It was looping over her salary. Eighty thousand zennis, goodness gracious, if she could keep this job she and her father would be quite comfortable.

“I’ll show you to the residential wing for employees,” he said.

They exited the room, crossed a courtyard and several bridges, then entered the palace once again through a different entrance. Maze-like corridors greeted them, all lined with dorms. Videl’s stomach knotted at the idea of having to share a room with someone, but she managed to peek inside one open room, and it seemed to be big enough for just one person.

The Ox Prince turned down a few more corridors, until they seemed to reach a very tucked-away corner of the house. He slid open the door and revealed a clean, square room furnished with a cot, a dresser, a table and a lamp.

“Room 121, let me jot that down,” he mumbled to himself.

Humble though it was, the room was more than Videl had hoped for. The cot was padded with a cozy looking mattress, the window opened to a group of mango trees, and there were no other rooms in this corner. She could have some privacy.

“Communal bathrooms are down the hall to the left,” the Ox Prince said. “Now, I’ll take you to the dining area and introduce you to the other Stalk Gatherers. Leave your things here. Is that all you brought?”

Videl glanced at her backpack. “Uh, yes, I didn’t know if I was going to get…” A job.

“Right, well I suppose there would be time enough for you to get more things from your house on your days off.”

She dropped her backpack and papers on the desk hastily, and followed the Ox Prince back out of the residential wing and into the largest part of the palace. All the while, he related to her the nature of her new job.

“The Stalk Gatherers are responsible for harvesting the Paozu Stalk from the mountain tops and keeping Mother’s restaurant well-stocked with the ingredient. It’s not easy to gather them, as you’ll see, so you’ll be outfitted with the appropriate gear. Steban will see to that. He’s the leader of the team, a native of Paozu, so he knows his way around really well.

“The Stalk in the Frypan is open six days a week, so you’ll have to make the morning trip to the mountains six times a week as well to keep the ingredient as fresh as possible. That means you only have one full day off a week, but most of the time your days would be pretty light after the morning. Outside of gathering stalks, your team just operates as floating help.”

Not too bad, Videl thought. For eighty thousand zennis, not bad at all.

They were now traversing a long, spacious hallway that was occasionally punctuated by large potted plants and what Videl assumed were the Ox Family’s fighting accessories in glass display cases. There was a large axe with a handle half as tall as her, a helmet with ivory horns protruding out of its temples, an armour made of leather and steel.

Next to it was a large portrait of the Ox King, posing on a beach with a big turtle on one side and a short older man on the other. Behind them was a bright pink house.

“Ah, that’s Grandpa with my great-Grandpa,” the Ox Prince said, noticing where Videl was looking. “On my father’s side, that is. They studied martial arts together. I’m named after him, Mother told me.”

Videl read the inscription beneath the portrait. Ox King and Son Gohan on Kame Island.

Son Gohan. So that was this prince’s name.

“Wait, the surname Son…” she mumbled, and the next portrait appeared in her view as if to answer her question.

A man with black spiky hair much like Goten’s stood behind a beautiful woman sitting on a chair with a baby on her lap. Videl’s eyes went immediately to the inscription. Son Goku, Son Chichi, and Son Gohan in Mount Paozu.

“Son Goku.” Videl had heard of that name before. And the man’s black-and-orange gi triggered exactly the memory she needed to identify him. “He was the winner of the 23rd World Martial Arts Tournament, wasn’t he?”

She had learned of Son Goku much earlier than she had of the Ox King; the man had been an admirable figure in her lessons of martial arts history. But none of the resources about the Ox King she’d read mentioned that Son Goku had married the Ox King’s daughter. Another drawback of the limited materials in Seaside Cliff, it seemed.

Videl looked back at the Ox Prince with a somewhat renewed understanding. The fighting skills she had attributed to being the Ox King’s grandson now seemed more likely the result of being the son of whom the martial arts community considered to be the most talented winner of all the world tournaments in history.

“Is he Prince Consort now?” she asked. Was the incredible Son Goku lurking around in this palace at this very moment?

“Oh, he passed away many years ago,” Gohan replied.

Videl blanched. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t hear about it.” Her own mother had passed on several years ago as well, and she knew first hand how deep the grief could go, how resonant the echo of that loss could be.

“It’s all right.” He gave her a small smile as they resumed their trek through the palace.

The dining area was not too far from the grand hallway. It almost looked like a school canteen, with tables and benches occupying most of the space. Servants and guards were eating their meals in companionable conversations. A few glanced at their entrance, and many of the younger women smiled eagerly at the prince.

One wall had an aperture to the connecting room, which Videl assumed was the kitchen. Through there, servers ladled different dishes into small reusable containers and packed them with utensils.

"You can grab a meal now," the Ox Prince told her.

"Even if I'm only starting tomorrow?" Videl found the bravery to ask, despite the stinging pinch of her stomach. She only had a sandwich on the bus, and that had been hours ago.

Gohan chuckled. "We're not so bureaucratic here that we can't feed our guests. Go on, take a box."

Videl approached the servers almost tentatively and took one of the packages they'd just finished. Through the clear plastic, she found a heap of rice, chunks of stir-fried chicken and vegetables, one large spring roll, and what appeared to be a tub of soup.

"Thank you," she said shyly.

The server directly in front of her smiled, then blinked and stared for a bit longer. "You look familiar," she replied. She was a middle-aged woman with frizzy hair and motherly eyes. Oh, how Videl hated to be scorned by motherly women.

"Oh, perhaps," was all she said, before she made her way back to Gohan.

He was standing by a door opposite the one they'd come through. This one led to a patio surrounded by a cluster of trees, which parted on the west side to afford those sitting on the benches a perfect view of the setting sun.

A group of assorted folks sat on the benches, leaning towards their shared table as they ate their dinner. One man stood upon noticing Videl and Gohan, and he stepped towards them. He was around the same height as her, with lightly tanned leathery skin that spoke of someone who was used to labouring under the sun. His dark brown hair and beard framed a face that was neither young nor old.

"Ox Prince, what can I do for you?" he asked. He had the same mountain accent as the princes.

"Hello, Steban. I finally found someone for your team," Gohan replied. Ah, so this was the leader of the Stalk Gatherers that the prince had mentioned.

Videl peeked at the others on the table, wondering if they were the rest of the group. There were four of them. One was a slender young woman with long black hair dyed red near her face and large round spectacles sitting on her nose. Videl didn't think she looked very athletic, which was one of the requirements that the Ox Prince had named for this job, but who was Videl to judge? There was another woman too, but older, middle-aged. She had a deep tan, salt-and-pepper hair pulled up in a bun, and the build of someone who probably once served in the army. The other two were men, one similar in stature and features to Steban, though younger; and the other was an even younger man who was probably around the same age as Gohan. He had luscious blonde hair that fell to his back. His crisp flannels and deep blue denim jeans gave him an air of a city boy.

The blonde boy's eyes met hers and they widened. He leaned across the table quickly, gesturing for the rest to get closer to him. With a sinking feeling, Videl knew she'd been recognized.

"Aha, fresh blood, I see!" Steban commented, and he swung a hand in her direction. "What's the name, lass?"

Videl took a deep breath, and balanced her dinner box on one hand, while the other reached for Steban's. "Videl, sir."

"Videl... ah, Satan?"

Gohan laughed. "That's right! Would you believe that, huh?"

Steban's handshake went limp, and so did his smile. He turned around to look at the others on the bench. They were now conversing in low tones, their faces in various states of shock and distaste. The blonde boy was positively glowering at her.

"Well, I'll leave you all to get acquainted," Gohan said, and Videl barely stopped herself from grabbing his arm and begging him to stay. She didn't need someone else to fight her battles for her, no matter how exhausting it was to have to fight them everyday, multiple times a day.

The Ox Prince went back inside, and Videl gritted her teeth against the awkward atmosphere that descended upon them.

"It's good to meet you," she forced herself to say with a final firm shake of Steban's hand. She did mean it; after all, she had come here on the very thin hope of getting a job, and that hope miraculously came to fruition. Now that she'd secured a position, she was intent on keeping it.

"Quite," Steban said. There was an air of anticipation behind him among the others on the bench. They probably wanted to see what their leader would do. A strong leader could sway the behaviour of his subordinates without losing face, and Steban didn't look like a pushover. But he might also stand by his team against a troublesome newcomer to consolidate support.

Videl silently wished he would behave like the first.

"We start work at 4:30 in the morning," Steban replied. "Meet us in the garage at that time, and I'll give you all the proper equipment. Then we'll head out to the mountain tops. I always say the best way to learn is on the job, so I'll be guiding you through the tasks tomorrow. Might be a good idea to retire early for tonight. I'm sure you've had a tiring day."

Videl knew a dismissal when she heard one, no matter how politely it was delivered, and her soft wish evaporated. She didn't know why she even bothered to think otherwise. Perhaps, despite everything, she still wanted to believe that some people were good and would do the kind thing. Because she was trying so hard to do the same.

Well, she'd take what she could get. Son Gohan had already shown her more kindness than she'd received from others in a week.

"Thank you, I'll be there," she promised. She turned around and headed back indoors, but not before she heard the burst of whispering from the benches.

"You sure it's her?" One of the women asked.

"There can't be more than one Videl Satan. I saw her all the time on the news back when I lived in Orange City." Ah, so one of them — must be the blonde boy — used to be an Orange City resident. Videl understood his vitriol, then. Shame spread so easily, and the previously named Herculopolis city had not been immune to it.

"I wonder if she faked her resumé." Snickers and giggles.

Videl pushed through the doors. If she had a zenni every time somebody thought she'd faked her experience to get work, well, she wouldn't quite be a millionaire, but she'd have about two hundred extra zennis in her wallet.

It wasn't too difficult for her to trace her steps back to her room. She found solace in its privacy, and it was all she could do not to slump in the bed. Instead, she sat by the desk, opening the bento box. The food was still warm, and she forced herself to take slow bites and sips, really savouring the taste of well-made food.

The sun had fully set by the time she finished. In the blue glow of early night, Videl unpacked her meagre belongings from her bag. A quick bath and then she would slip into bed. Steban was correct: it had been a very tiring day.

As she was fishing out soap and her pajamas, a laminated newspaper clipping fell on the cot. Not the job ad, but something much older. It shouldn't have taken Videl by surprise, as she brought the thing everywhere. It was a reminder, a memory made concrete, of the day everything changed.

Hercule Satan proven a FRAUD. Anonymous hacker releases PROOF with excavated footage of the Cell Games.

And there, accompanying that bold header was an image of Cell disintegrating from a powerful blast, all the while her father and the rest of the TV crew were cowering behind a boulder. It had been captured by a camera, still recording, left behind on the ground during one of the many chaotic moments of the games.

Videl stuffed it back into her backpack. As grim as it may seem, it reminded her exactly why she was doing all of this, doing all she could to care for her father. The important thing was that she made one step forward today. There was hope.

Notes:

When I first tried to write this premise fourteen years ago, I was angling for a more mature, saucy type of story, more heavily focused on court intrigue, relationships, and scandals. But these days, I gravitate more towards comforting stories with hijinks type of conflicts and ample space for character work. I hope I've set the stage appropriately with this first chapter.

You know, I always found it a little strange that the Son Family was on the brink of poverty, when Chichi seemed to be a hardworking, creative woman with a somewhat privileged background. I understand that the narrative needed her to be on the sidelines, but I figure I give her a bit of spotlight here. I think there's definitely enough canon material to suggest that she could be a top chef if she really wanted to and she had the opportunity for it!

Chapter 2: Matters of the Kingdom

Notes:

Hello everybody! I'm overwhelmed by the amount of interest in this concept, and I thank everyone who left a review, comment, kudos, fave, alert/follow/subscribe/bookmark, here and over at FF.net. Honestly, when I posted the first chapter, I didn't think many people would be interested in it. So I'm really happy to find out otherwise (but I also feel a little pressured now, lol, though in a good way)!

I took some time to flesh out my outline a little bit more, and I'm hoping that you would all like where the story goes!

Videl wasn't daunted by the early rising time that Steban had set for the next morning. Having lived the last two years in a fishing village, it was common for her neighbours to set out at sea hours before dawn, and she'd always been keen to take up the odd job at the docks in exchange for some coins.

She aimed to be at the garage fifteen minutes early, but when she arrived by its entrance, it turned out she wasn't the only one with the same idea. Steban was leaning against the enormous steel doors. This wing of the palace featured more modern facilities — glossy concrete floors, card-activated locks, and long bars of fluorescent lights overhead.

"My hunch was right," he said with a slight smirk. "Folks like you tend to come early."

"Folks like me?" Videl didn't think he was talking about fishers.

Steban pushed himself off the doors and shrugged. "Folks with something to prove."

"Better than being late, no?"

"Fair enough."

It was only then that Videl noticed that Steban was carrying a pack. From inside, he pulled out a bundle of neatly folded clothes, black and made of the same material as what he was wearing. "This is your uniform. Head on over to the shower room and put those on. Then we'll get your geared."

The shower room was conveniently located just to the left of the garage. The scent of strong bleach hit Videl's nostrils as she entered. A row of five sinks stood like sentinels against one wall. Across from them were five stalls with tiled floors and white waterproof curtains. The rest of the space was taken up by five wooden benches.

Videl entered one of the shower stalls and pulled on the uniform. It was a jumpsuit, covering her from ankles to wrists to neck. It was loose enough that she could move without restraint, but not so baggy it might get easily snatched by branches or twigs. She was quite impressed that Steban managed to get the right size for her.

The leader of their team thought so too, because he nodded with approval as she emerged from the shower room. From the pack he carried, he pulled out a compact bag with many straps.

"Now, turn around." Videl did so, and found her shoulders saddled with the bag. Steban then stepped in front of her and arranged the straps across her chest and waist, clicking shut each of the buckles with familiar ease. "Practice putting this yourself after our shift," he remarked, adjusting the fit of the straps. "The bag contains a parachute. If you ever fall, pull this rope at the bottom right.

"And this," he continued without waiting for a breath. He snatched yet another item from the pack. Videl wondered how often he'd done an orientation that he seemed to have everything memorized. In his hand was a bar of metal as long as her forearm. "This is what we use to hack the stalks. Watch your head."

Videl had barely taken a step back when Steban pressed a button, and the bar elongated on both sides. Then the top-most end shot forth a four-feet curved blade. She realized after a moment that she was looking at a sickle. A giant sickle that could probably behead three people at once.

"Keep it in this loop here by your waist," Steban said and he retracted the tool to slide it in place. "It's handy when scaring off the dinosaurs too."

"D-dinosaurs?"

But Steban was already walking towards the garage. He swiped a card across a reader above the knobs. A heavy click followed, and he pushed open the doors.

Videl entered without prompting, enticed by the vastness of the space she glimpsed within. Bright lights blinked open the farther they forayed into the garage, which was too humble a word for this. Hangar, might be more appropriate. It housed multiple jet copters of various models, motorcycles, cars, bicycles, 4-wheelers. All were stamped with the logo of Capsule Corps.

"Here's your ride." Steban dragged a sleek-looking white electric scooter by its handles. It had one large wheel at the front and two at the back. "Power lever is up here, you can't miss it. Push the handles away from you to speed up, towards you to slow down. Rotate them to whichever direction you want to go. Push the handles down to gain altitude, up to lose it. It's the opposite direction, remember that. But you've flown a copter before, right? Same thing."

"Wait, this is a sky-scooter?"

Steban chuckled. "How did you think we get to the mountain tops?"

"Uh, copter?"

"There's no place to park a copter," he said in a tone indicating he was disappointed she hadn't thought of it.

Videl reached for the straps of her parachute bag. Suddenly, it felt not quite as much protection as she had thought.

"I'll be frank with you," Steban said. "I have no qualms with you or your father. Never gave him a dime of my money, so what's it to me if he was a sham? I'm a fair man, so if you do a good job, all will be well between us."

Steps echoed from the entrance of the garage. The four others on the team strolled in, wearing the exact same uniforms and carrying the exact same gears.

"With them, however," Steban continued. "You'll need to play things by ear. So I'll save you the awkward introductions. The short boy there is my nephew, Miki. Quiet lad, shouldn't give you any trouble, but he tends to ignore things that don't interest him. Mind that if you need to get his attention.

"The woman beside him is Yanni. She's a professional, but enjoys a good joke or two at someone else's expense. Just don't take things too personally. The young lass with the glasses is Lin. She's technically not a stalk gatherer. She's our paramedic and mechanic rolled into one, so be nice to her.

"Finally, muscled lad at the far side is Sharpner. Don't know if you've ever ran into him in the past, but he was from Orange City. Came here when work dried up there."

Of the four, only Yanni gave Videl more than a fleeting glance as they made their way to grab their own sky-scooters. She had a glint in her eye and a mischievous smile playing on her lips.

"Up bright and early, I see. Looking forward to the dinosaurs?" she said.

If Videl said yes, it would be a lie, and people had a nose for lies when it came to her. She didn't want to start off on the wrong foot. But if she said no, would it seem like she wasn't eager to do the job? "It would be a new sight, I suppose," she replied, which was neither here nor there.

Yanni's brows rose, her smile disappearing. But she turned the frown to Steban. "Hey, you already told her about the dinosaurs? That's my thing with the newbies." At Steban's shrug, she sulked. "Spoilsport."

Steban pushed a helmet onto Videl's arms. "Put that on, and ready your ride. We're heading out now."

Three sky-scooters whipped past towards the opposite side of the hangar. Miki, Sharpner, and Lin raced ahead, and the gate lifted as they approached it. The view outside stole Videl's breath. After a lead of about a hundred feet, the ground fell away into a broad expanse of predawn sky decorated by a mosaic of stars. Darker shadows loomed in the distance, outlining the tall, rocky outcroppings that peppered the land across Mount Paozu.

Yanni had joined the other three as they sped out of the garage, gained momentum over the ground, and shot off to the sky.

"Follow my lead," Steban said, now also sporting his own helmet and sky-scooter. He revved up the vehicle and accelerated out of the garage.

Hurrying so she wouldn't get left behind, Videl pushed the handles of the scooter away from her, and she shot forward. She braced her feet tightly on the narrow platform, trying not to think about how exposed she felt to the environment, how easy it would be to fall. If someone like Sharpner and Lin was able to do this, then surely she could too.

Steban was waiting for her, floating just beyond the drop. "Go faster, then pull down the handles!" he instructed.

Videl ramped up her speed, the wind rushing across her hands. Then just a few feet away from the cliff, she pulled down the handles, and the sky-scooter lifted off. Pressure mounted on her feet, her ears popped, and at that moment, there was nothing between her and a long, fatal drop except for a length of rubber and metal. The view hundreds of feet below was a shadowed carpet of treetops. Good thing she wasn't afraid of heights.

"Good going," Steban said. "Now stick close to me."

He veered left, and Videl followed suit.

The scooter was smooth and easy to control, a top-notch model from a clearly reputable company. Even the helmet was snug, clear-viewed, and allowed voices to carry while drowning out the wind. Was the Ox Kingdom really this wealthy to have an entire garage filled with Capsule Corps' bleeding-edge products?

Steban glided through the air, Videl not far behind. The other four were dots ahead of them. It seemed like the entire team knew which mountain they would be harvesting from today. For now, Videl focused on the scooter navigation, memorizing the resulting speed of every push and pull, the angle of rotation, the altitude gained or dropped.

Between one blink and the next, a handful more dots appeared in the distance. They were soaring higher up in the sky and lowered gradually towards Lin, Yanni, Sharpner and Miki as the group neared one of the high, rocky peaks. Steban and Videl drew closer, and she found that the dots were gliding on long, muscular wings. Goosebumps rose on her skin, inspite of herself, inspite of all the warnings she'd been given. Her hand went to the weapon by her waist.

"Careful," Steban warned. "We're not here to kill the dinosaurs. They're an important part of the Paozu Stalk ecosystem."

"And if they try to eat us, what then?"

Steban laughed. "That species doesn't eat humans. They're not hunting us, they're playing with us. We dub them dolphins of the sky."

That wasn't reassuring. Aggressive dolphins could kill, couldn't they?

As if to prove her point, one of the dinosaurs swooped down, head inline to bump Yanni's scooter. The woman's sickle lashed out just in time, and the blunt edge of the curved blade whacked the dinosaur on the head. It pulled back, wings pumping to gain altitude.

"There, you see what Yanni did?" Steban said. "Just give them a friendly tap and they'll get the message."

Careful to keep her path straight with only one hand navigating, Videl loosened her retracted sickle from its loop and pushed the button on the shaft. Its sudden elongation and the sprouting of the blade tipped her balance to the right, and the sky-scooter wobbled dangerously. One of her feet slipped off the platform. Steban grabbed one of the handles to steady her scooter.

"Thank you," she exhaled.

No sooner after she had planted herself firmly on the platform did she feel a shift in the wind and a scaly creature swooped down from above. Alarmed, she struck out with the sickle, and it connected with the dinosaur's underbelly. The creature released a piercing cry and whirled away. She almost sighed in relief, when she noticed that it wasn't simply flying away — it was gearing up for a stronger attack.

"I said a friendly tap!" Steban admonished. "Now you've angered it!"

Well, how was Videl supposed to know the difference between a soft pat and hurtful shove for a dinosaur?

The dinosaur sped towards her. She dropped some height and ducked low, narrowly avoiding being punctured by its claws. Sharp edges raked against the top of her helmet, and the momentum of the attack tipped her scooter sideways. Both of her legs slipped from the platform this time, and she found herself hanging one-handed on the scooter's handle.

Steban unleashed his own sickle and waved it at the dinosaur. Videl collapsed her weapon for the moment, hung it back in its loop, and pulled herself onto the scooter. Then balked.

Up ahead, the group of dinosaurs 'playing' with their other team mates seemed to have lost interest in them and were now surging towards Videl and Steban. Great, oh great.

Steban sidled up to her, so close that she would have been able to hop onto his platform if she wanted to. He grabbed one of her scooter's handles, and instead of slowing down or circling away, he sped up even more through the mass of winged beasts.

"Hold on tight!" Steban flipped and turned their scooters in sync, avoiding every claw, wing, tail, tooth, and crest that headed their way. It was all Videl could do to prevent herself from lurching off of her scooter, feeling like she was in a roller-coaster that had no belts or guardrails.

When they'd cleared through the crowd of dinosaurs, an immense rockface greeted them. They hurtled towards it at top-speed, but Steban swerved just in time before they crashed. They climbed up, slowing considerably, until finally, he deposited them on a flat ledge near the peak.

Videl stumbled out of her scooter, falling on all fours to the ground. Her bones shook, her belly roiled, and only the desperate grasp to her pride stopped her from throwing up.

"She ain't so tough," a voice said, and Videl realized that the other four were already on the ledge.

"Neither were you on your first day, Sharpner," Steban laughed. "Lin, check up on her!"

"Right away, sir!"

Slim hands pulled Videl up to her feet. Lin's bespectacled gaze roved over her. She patted Videl's shoulders, arms, waist, then legs. Then she looked at the scratches on Videl's helmet and grimaced. She tugged the helmet off and inspected it closer, then squinted back at Videl's head.

"Does your head hurt?" She patted at it, mussing the short strands of her hair.

"Um, not really." Not yet anyway.

"How about your neck? Look this way." Lin pointed right. "Now look that way. Any pain?"

"No."

"You're fine, then. We'll need to get you a new helmet though. This one's no good anymore." Lin pulled out a capsule from a bandolier across her torso that sported rows and rows of other capsules. She popped its button, and in a poof of smoke, there was a brand new helmet in her hands. She strode over to Videl's sky-scooter and dangled it on one of the handles.

"Got your breath back?" Steban asked. "Now, the real work starts."

The sun was now starting to creep over the mountainous horizon in the east, and in its light, Videl got her first good look at the Paozu Stalks.

All around them, crawling across the rockface, were giant vines, each one as thick as seven men hudled together. Fuzzy leaves as tall as Videl herself sprouted from the stalks. There were no blooms, as far as she could see, and she also couldn't find where the plants were rooted.

Steban whipped out his sickle and gestured at one of the stalks. "Our job is to gather three-meter slices of the stalks. Ten slices are usually enough for the restaurant to operate for one full day, but don't let the low number fool you. The stalks are very tough and very heavy." He gave a mighty slash with his sickle — and Videl could tell he was using his full strength — and it barely bit into the stalk. "We usually work in pairs. Go on, give it a try."

Videl whirled to find her own stalk and crashed into Sharpner. The blonde boy hopped back with a face one would make if they'd just stepped on dog poop. Then he rolled his eyes and weasled away.

Over the years, Videl had noticed that those who displayed the most disdain towards her and her father were actually the ones who had had some skin in the game. Perhaps an avid fan, a business partner in a company Hercule Satan was endorsing, a gambler betting on his fights. Which bucket had Sharpner fallen into?

She shrugged off the matter for now and faced a heap of stalks that looked like giant boa constrictors slumped on the ground. Videl opened her sickle, hefted it in her palms, and took one shot at the nearest stalk. The blade struck the flesh and stopped a couple of inches in. She heaved with her entire body to get it back out.

All right, Son Gohan was correct. This did require quite a bit of physical prowess.

For the next few minutes, Videl hacked into the stalk, muscles tight, shoulders burning. By the time she had sliced through the stalk, her back muscles were cramping. Ignoring the possibility of snide remarks from her team mates if she rested, she took a few minutes to stretch out her muscles. Then she found a new position three meters down, and started the process all over again.

Once she had a complete chunk separated from the main body, she looked for Steban. She found him with his nephew, Miki, working together on chopping their chunk of a stalk. Sharpner and Yanni were paired off a little farther away.

"What do I do with this, now?" Videl asked.

Steban and Miki looked over, and their eyes widened. Miki's mouth formed a shocked 'o'. Even Sharpner and Yanni paused to stare at her.

"You finished one by yourself, huh," Steban remarked. He wiped sweat from his forehead. "I thought you were just practicing. Anyway, good job. Get Lin to capsulize it."

Lin, for her part, had been wiping down the scooters and checking their mechanisms. At the mention of her name, she jogged across the ledge and pulled out a capsule from her bandolier. Videl stepped away from the piece of stalk to give Lin some room.

"Show off." Although mumbled, Sharpner's comment reached Videl's ears. "Her father used to do that all the time."

"At least she didn't strike a pose," Yanni said, although Videl wasn't sure if she was defending her.

Videl crossed her arms and did what she was good at: pretending she couldn't hear other people. Minutes earlier, Sharpner had been unimpressed with her ride to the mountain. Now that she'd shown some competence, he thought her arrogant. It just proved that most of the time, what people thought of her had more to do with them than herself.

When she was much younger, she used to pride herself in not caring much about what people thought. But she no longer had the luxury of discarding other people's opinions so casually. Unfortunately, now their opinions dictated whether she went hungry or not.

In the horizon, wide bands of brilliant yellow sunlight slipped over the shadows of the mountains.

It was going to be a long morning.

-o-

Back at the Ox Palace, they were served a delicious lunch of grilled salmon, purple rice, and some creamy mushroom soup. It was so tasty that Videl hardly noticed the incriminating circle of empty seats around her, as if people thought their food would curdle in her presence.

When she finished, she headed out of the dining area. She wanted to write a letter to her father, telling him she'd finally found a job and that she would be staying at Mount Paozu for the time being. Perhaps she would visit him at the end of the month with a decent stash of savings.

"Psst, hey, Videl!"

She turned around and found the source of the call by the door to the kitchens. It was the young girl from yesterday, the one that had led her to Goten.

"Oh, hello there," Videl said.

The girl waved her over, anxiety furrowing her brows. "Videl, I just want to say I'm sorry."

"What?" Videl couldn't remember the last time anybody had apologized to her.

"For leading you to the wrong prince yesterday!" The girl twisted her apron in her fists. "The truth is, I also thought he was the only Ox Prince at that time. I just assumed that little kid was really impressive and important to have been doing everything I heard the prince was doing. I hope I didn't get you in trouble in your interview."

"No worries. As you can see, I passed well enough." She smiled at the girl.

"What a relief." The girl sagged against the wall. Videl wondered what it was that made her so nervous. Did she think Videl would get angry and take it out on her or something? "I don't want you to think I was pranking you or being mean to you just because of… well, you know. I didn't even know who you were. And even if I did, Ma always said we should be nice to people, even the ones who lie and cheat!"

"Oh." Videl wasn't sure if the girl was implying that Videl herself was a liar and a cheat. Oftentimes people simply conflated her with her father. "I suppose that makes your Ma a wise woman."

"My name is Maisy, by the way. I want to give you something to make up for the mishap." She ducked her head around the door to the kitchen. "Erasa, is it ready?"

"It's here, it's here!" A young woman about Videl's age rushed out of the kitchen. She had short blonde hair, a dolled up face, and manicured nails long enough that Videl wondered if she had a habit of puncturing through a pair of oven mittens or ripping dumpling wrappers. But in her hands was a very colourful cupcake.

"We made this for you," Maisy said. "Erasa helped me decorate it."

Videl reached for it, a surreal sensation coming over her. It was only a cupcake, barely taking up her palm, but it seemed to weigh like a stack of gold coins. Especially after the very lonesome lunch break she'd just had.

"You don't stare at it, silly," Erasa said. "You eat it!"

"Yes, I um… thank you." Videl didn't want to eat it. She wanted to put it in a glass case and display it in her room. Congratulations, an inscription underneath would say. You're still worthy of kindness.

A finger poked her cheek. Erasa had stepped up close to her, eyes wide with wondrous curiosity. "Incredible," she whispered. "The last time I was this close to your face was when you were on the cover of Orange Peel Magazine."

Orange Peel? "Wait, you're from Orange City?" That magazine had been a local publication. And Videl remembered the issue Erasa mentioned. The picture of her had been a candid shot taken just after she'd knocked out a gangster.

"Yup. Just a block away from Central Mall. Remember it?"

"What are you doing here, then?"

"I followed a boy here."

Videl suppressed a groan. "You don't mean Sharpner, do you?"

"That's right! He mentioned you're in team Stalk Gatherers."

Videl looked back at her cupcake. "You don't seem as upset as he is about me."

"Is he giving you a hard time?" Erasa pouted. "Ignore him! He can be such a drama queen about the whole fraud thing. Did you know, he used to have no less than eight posters of Hercule in his room? He also had a couple of yours too. He used to exercise while staring at those posters. Honestly, a few years ago he would have fainted if he'd know you two would be working together."

Ah, he was squarely in bucket 'avid fan' then. "I take it you were… less invested?"

"It was a shocker, sure. But that was two years ago. Do you know how many celebrity scandals have happened since then?" She rolled her eyes. "Anyway, should we all get going? We might not get a good spot if we're late."

"Yes, yes let's go!" Maisy hopped on her tiptoes.

"Late for what?" Videl asked as she followed both girls down the hallway. They were untying their aprons, signalling the end of their shifts. Which made sense; Videl doubted they would be this excited to perform a chore.

"The Ox King and the elder Ox Prince hold court three days a week," Erasa explained. "We can sit in and watch from the balconies."

Interesting. "I didn't realize that the Ox Prince can already make official rulings."

"He's being trained to," Erasa confirmed. "His mother has pretty much relegated herself to the restaurant business and has no interest in governing the kingdom's affairs. The crown would pass directly to Son Gohan. He's currently responsible for managing the estate full-time, while his grandfather teaches him politicking and stuff."

Well, there went her time to write that letter to her father. Videl was not going to miss her first opportunity to watch Son Gohan decide the kingdom's cases. If her interview from the previous day had indicated anything about him, it was that he wasn't easy to sum up. He had an interesting mixture of worldly ignorance and a level head on his shoulders. And as far as Videl was concerned, it was always a good idea to know what kind of person her employer was.

Erasa led Videl and Maisy to a courtroom with wooden vaulted ceilings and pillars sculpted with frolicking oxen. A circular platform mounted on five steps dominated the far wall, which unlike the other walls of the room, was made of rough stone. Videl realized this room was built right up against the rockface of the mountain. On the dais were two heavy chairs, carved with the twining stalks.

One was occupied by the Ox King, a huge man wearing a helmet with long horns. Thick black frames helped to highlight his eyes in a face dominated by bushy brows, mustache and beard. A strip of ox fur draped across his shoulders, over the shiny indigo silk of his tunic. A large, wicked axe hung at the back of his chair, and Videl wondered if he ever used it during court.

Beside him, Son Gohan looked almost diminutive. Similar to yesterday, the young man wore a silken outfit, although this time it was in a deep shade of green not unlike the colour of the Paozu Stalk. It was embroidered with dark gold threads in the shape of koi fish. He didn't sport a helmet with horns, but he did have a sash formed from brown ox fur like his grandfather's shawl.

On either side of the room were recesses into the floor separated from the main area by a low guardrail. A small crowd were already mingling in the two audience spaces. Erasa waved them over to the one on the right, and she elbowed her way to the front of the room near the dais.

"Ah, isn't he dreamy?" Erasa leaned against the guardrail, eyes softening in Gohan's direction. "He's one of the most handsome men I've ever laid eyes on."

"Aren't you and Sharpner a thing?" Videl whispered.

"So? Just because I can't order from a menu doesn't stop me from looking."

That answer took Videl aback. She herself had never gotten into the habit of looking at a menu she couldn't order from, much less afford. Literally, and in a romantic sense too. She'd long accepted that she would live a loveless life, which sounded pessimistic, but there was no practical alternative. No family with a good name would willingly accept her as one of their own.

A covert door near the dais opened and Son Goten hopped into the room. He carried a bundle of sketchpad in one hand and a tiny bucket of crayons in the other. His creamy tunic bore crayon marks that Videl was certain the laundress would lament over. An ill-fitting horned helmet wobbled on his head, and as soon as he plopped himself cross-legged next to his brother's feet, it slid down his forehead.

Gohan reached down to adjust it, but it was simply too big, and every time Goten looked down to colour his sketchpad, it slid over his eyes. It didn't seem to bother him to keep pushing it up.

Videl was so absorbed by this mindless repetition, she must have missed the signal that the court session was starting. The doors at the far end of the room opened up, and two guards brought in a man whose hands were tied with a rope. He had the haggard look of someone who'd journeyed far and barely gotten any rest.

"Ox King, this man was caught by our scouts in Mount Frypan looting from the remnants of our abandoned homes," one of the guard explained.

"Looting!" the Ox King echoed. "From our beloved homes that are, to this day, routinely getting engulfed in flames! What punishment do we mete out on thieves?"

"Execution!" Goten cried out with a mighty frown and an accusing finger at the man in ropes, whose eyes widened at the declaration.

"Well, now, let's not be hasty," the Ox King replied. "Only if this is an escalated case." Then he turned to his other grandson and waved a hand out for him to take the floor.

Son Gohan stood up, hand rubbing the nape of his neck. He climbed down the steps of the dais. "Right, well. I suppose we should give this man a chance to defend himself. Tell us of your intentions."

"It's not stealing!" the man said, gaining more colour and indignation now. "There are many valuables in those houses that are up for grabs by anyone brave enough to tackle the flames or the unstable infrastructure. You clearly don't need or want them, and there are people like me who can feed themselves by pawning them off!"

"Unwanted?" Gohan crossed his arms. "You're wrong there. Those treasured possessions were left behind in haste and duress. I'm sure many of our people would love the opportunity to retrieve them, if not for their financial value, then for their sentimental one which may even eclipse the former.

"But it's dangerous for them to venture into the village even during the times it's not burning, because of how damaged everything has become. There are dozens of hazards, including the fumes left behind by the fire. I'd say, the more practical move would have been to offer those possessions to the previous residents while charging a service fee for risking the dangers."

The man blinked several times, as if the thought had never occurred to him and he was finding it more palatable.

"But the crime has already been committed," Gohan continued. "And our laws need to be upheld. What you did falls under theft in our laws. You will spend one week in jail for every piece of valuable you took. After that, perhaps you'll think on what I said."

At Gohan's nod, the guards began to take the man away. But the man hesitated. "Your Highness," he called. "Does a pair of earrings count as one piece or two?"

"Good question." Gohan rubbed his jaw. "I'll rule one."

The man's relieved sigh made Videl wonder just how many pairs of earrings he'd stolen.

The next petition was made by a group of hardy labourers requesting a bridge from one ledge of a mountain to another. "It will save time transporting our wares if we don't have to climb down and back up," their representative said.

"Agreed," Gohan said. "You'll have your bridge."

Clapping and cheering erupted from the group.

"I know just the person who can build it quickly." He turned his head to his grandfather. "Maybe Yamcha or Krillin, right? Either one of them can probably do it in two weeks." His voice was low, but the acoustics of the room was excellent, and his voice carried well enough.

The cheering stopped, and the group of petitioners turned to one another, disappointment in their eyes.

"Who's Yamcha and Krillin?" Videl whispered to Erasa. What kind of man would be able to build a bridge singlehandedly in two weeks? And there were two of them?

But the blonde gave her a shrug. "Never heard of 'em."

"Gohan, we can't ask Yamcha or Krillin to build a bridge," the Ox King replied back, similarly in low tones that could still be heard without any straining. "They're not our subjects."

"But it would be so fast," Gohan said.

"These people aren't just asking for a bridge. They're asking for jobs."

"Oh!" Gohan spun around to face the petitioners. "A state-funded infrastructure project!"

"Yes, a state project," the representative nodded, and eager sparks returned to the petitioners' eyes. "It would be so helpful for everybody."

"Let me schedule a meeting to discuss the schematics, the budget, and the timelines." Gohan took out a notepad from his pocket and wrote down a few notes. The labourers chatted happily away from the dais.

Videl was still mulling over the idea of a single man building a bridge, when the next petitioner sauntered across the courtroom. Although with his slicked-back red hair and custom-tailored suit with an accompanying cape, it almost looked like he was the one expecting to be petitioned.

"Cant Merches, at your service." He gave an elaborate bow at the royals at the front of the room, but when he stood up, he looked down his nose at the audience and servants watching from the balconies. He was a young man, probably not yet thirty, but he held the authoritative quality of someone who held an important position somewhere. Or a nepo kid. Videl used to have something like that too, though she hoped, not quite so blatant.

"Uh, hello, nice to meet you." Gohan's smile wavered at the edges as if he wasn't quite sure what to make of this man. "And how may I help you?"

"On the contrary, I am here to help you. I'm the liaison sent by Merches and Co., the canning company that the Ox Princess had reached out to to discuss opportunities for canning the Paozu Stalk."

"Aha! Yes, I remember now. Mother would be glad to see you."

"And I her. That said, it's been a long journey, and I'm ready to be assisted to my rooms."

"Of course, yes, we have something ready for you." The way Gohan flipped through his notepad indicated he wasn't quite as ready as he implied. "Yes, here. The Lavender Room in the northeast wing." He turned to a servant on the left balcony. "Would you be able to help Mr. Merches there?"

"Your Highness," the servant loud-whispered. "The Lavender Room has broken windows. We reported it to you two weeks ago, remember?"

"Ah?" More flipping through his notepad. "In that case, the Burgundy Room?"

"That would do quite well, Ox Prince." The servant walked up from the balcony, and with a demure bow to Mr. Merches, she led him out of the courtroom.

Gohan barely had time to settle back in his seat, when yet another man strode across the room towards the dais. He, too, was wearing a suit and held himself with an air of importance. But that was where the similarity with Cant Merches ended. He was short, with thinning hair, and his beady eyes appeared enormous through his round spectacles. In one hand, he held a thin device that Videl knew in an instant to be a voice recorder.

Because she recognized that man.

"Mr. Ed Torr," she whispered at the same time Erasa did too. Erasa, who was up to date with the tabloids. No wonder she also knew who he was.

Ed Torr was an infamous opinion piece writer in the world of entertainment, and for the last two years, he had covered Hercule Satan's fall from grace with the most scathing reports. Videl could be sharp-tongued herself, but neither her words nor physical force had ever worked on him. She'd broken his wrist once, and she'd ended up indebted to his insurance company. The next day, the newspapers had printed that she'd lost her civility and humanity. When people said that the pen was mightier than the sword, they were referring to Ed Torr.

And now he was here all the way in Mount Paozu.

I hope it's not about me. I hope it's not about me, Videl thought.

Ed Torr clicked his device. "Greetings, Ox King and Ox Princes. I'm ecstatic to visit this quaint little kingdom of yours."

"Welcome," Gohan said amiably, clearly not yet knowing what kind of man was before him. "And what can we do for you, sir?"

"I'm here to report on your mother's droll restaurant, er, Stalking the Frypan, and—"

"Stalk in the Frypan," Gohan corrected.

"Yes, that's what I said. And as I believe it would be best for my readers to have full context on this restaurant, I hope you don't mind if I ask a few questions about current matters of the Ox Kingdom."

"Not at all, what would you like to know?"

"Your Princeliness, are you aware that yesterday you had hired Videl Satan, the daughter of the biggest fraudster in world history?"

Videl's hopes, which had risen a little upon hearing that Mr. Torr's purpose was to write about Stalk in the Frypan, plummeted immediately. Erasa shifted beside her, and Maisy gave her a curious look.

"Yes, I'm aware of that," Gohan replied.

"So you, the crown prince of a newly re-emerged kingdom, a crown prince working hard to cultivate the loyalty and admiration of his people, hired a person of ill-repute to work alongside those very people?"

"Here at the Ox Kingdom, we believe in hiring people with the right skills for the job." Gohan crossed his arms. "And as I had given Videl a sparring test myself, I believe I can say I have assessed her fairly."

"Meritocracy, I see." Ed Torr adjusted his glasses. "And Princey, would you say that here at the Ox Kingdom, your philosophy is to uphold skills above community and cooperation? That, if given the choice, you would rather patronize genius jerks?"

"Genius jerks?" Gohan's brows drew together. "I'm sorry, sir. I have no clue what you're talking about. Videl Satan, as far as I've seen, is neither one of those."

Videl wasn't quite sure if she should be flattered.

"Apology accepted," Ed Torr said. "And do you believe your mother's business would be safe from the repercussions of your 'fair' decision? That should the Stalking the Frypan incur any setbacks — less clients, damaged reputation — are you confident it has nothing to do with Videl's employment?"

Videl's heart shuddered in her chest. She wasn't even working at the restaurant! Would her presence at the palace really be so detrimental to the restaurant, the kingdom's major source of income?

Gohan snorted and finally stood up. "Sir, I think you have overstepped the bounds of politeness. I don't know what kind of publication you're writing for, but I can tell you're not here in good faith."

"Evasion, love that!" Ed Torr leaned into his voice recorder. "The Princey stands with tension in his shoulders and his hands are in fists, suggesting an underlying frustration. Perhaps there's fear of ruining his mother's business? Of appearing to have made a lapse in judgment?"

"I'm going to ask you to leave."

"Just one more question, Princey."

"No, sir. You don't deserve to ask any more questions at this point."

"What do I deserve then?"

"Execution!" Goten yelled, and he broke three crayons in half as if to make his point.

"Ah, it appears the Ox Kingdom still adheres to ancient, barbaric practices of—"

"That's enough!" Gohan's voice echoed in the spacious courtroom.

A deep chill blanketed the crowd, suffusing every nook and cranny with the heavy hand of dread. Videl's heart raced, her skin broke out in goosebumps, her breaths came in short gasps. Erasa drew her arms across her chest and shivered. Maisy sidled up next to her. Across the room, the servants and audience members in the balconies shuddered and hunched their shoulders in a cower.

And yet, part of Videl knew this was no normal reaction to a display of anger. At least, it wouldn't be her reaction, anyway. She wouldn't feel so spooked that Ed Torr was getting yelled it; in fact, she would have rejoiced. So why was she getting so fearful? With every step Gohan took towards the reporter, the dread pressed harder.

"Please leave." The words were spoken so softly, yet it still reverberated in the room that had now gone ghostly quiet.

It was probably a testament to Torr's wretched dedication to butchering the truth that he managed not to quail as he walked the long way back to the doors.

As soon as he'd crossed the threshold, the suffocating pressure in the air vanished. Videl sucked in a breath. Erasa started giggling; not out of amusement, but rather, discomfort. She was rubbing her arms for warmth.

"See, things get interesting here, don't they?" she said, and let out an almost deranged chuckle.

Back at the dais, Gohan slumped down in his seat. He rubbed his temples, and his lips were twisted in a grimace.

"You all right, my boy?" The Ox King asked. "I wanted to throw my axe at him, but I didn't want to prove our supposed barbarity."

"We were kind of in a bind, weren't we? But I'm fine. I just… this wasn't what I hoped for." He rose from his seat again and addressed the crowd. "I think that would be all for today. Thank you for coming. If you have petitions we didn't get to, please come back the day after tomorrow."

Goten leapt to his feet and clutched his brother's hand. The Ox King followed the two princes as they exited through the door behind the dais.

Videl followed the shuffle of people out of the courtroom. Everyone was much subdued, and Erasa and Maisy accepted her farewell without much comment.

She headed for her room, still shaking off that strange cold energy. At least the warm afternoon sunlight streamed liberally through the windows lining the hallway of the servants' residential wing. Yet her mind kept replaying what had happened in the courtroom. What did Gohan mean when he said that wasn't what he'd hoped for? What was he hoping for?

"Videl."

Videl spun at the sound of her name, and found the object of her thoughts standing not five steps behind her.

"Ox Prince!" She clutched a hand to her chest. Getting surprised like that while remnants of fear still crawled on her skin was not pleasant. Had he been following her all this time? She didn't even hear any sound, feel any presence.

"Sorry if I startled you. Look, I need to speak with you. Could you come by my apartments later tonight at 10:30? I know it's late, but it's the only slot I could clear up."

She stared at Gohan. There was a small wrinkle between his brows. He'd sought her out himself here in the empty hallway instead of sending a servant to fetch her. She may not be a genius, like he'd said, but she could deduce that whatever he wanted to talk to her about was serious.

Videl was either getting fired or she was in some other, deeper trouble.

Notes:

Whew! This chapter is kind of OC-heavy and there are a lot of different things going on. But most of this is going to be peripheral to the story, so don't worry! All I really wanted to do was establish the state of the Ox Kingdom. Going forward, I'll try my best to keep the lenses close to Videl and Gohan by having them work together more. I had planned to include their subsequent meeting here, but I think there's enough stuff in this chapter, and I need to let those breathe a little.

I really enjoyed writing this chapter though! It was exciting to explore situations in which Gohan and Videl are a bit out of their depth.

My family and I are leaving for a trip in early September, and we haven't planned much of it yet, so most of my free time in August would likely be dedicated to that. I don't know if I can post the next chapter before then. But I hope you guys still liked this one and are still interested in finding out more of Gohan and Videl's adventures in this AU!

Chapter 3: The Diplomacy Project

Notes:

Hey folks, sorry it took a while for me to update. Life was so busy in August and most of September. Thanks for waiting patiently for this chapter!

At night, the Ox Palace exuded a coziness more often found in fairy tales than in real life. Small lamps emitted a warm golden glow in the hallways, contrasting with the cool mountain air wafting from the open windows. Outside, a crowd of fireflies floated like orange mist from one tree to another while crickets chirped among the dark blue shadows.

None of those eased Videl's hammering heart as she trekked across the palace towards the royal wing. Towards Son Gohan's apartments.

There was a 90% chance she was being let go, she felt it in her bones. What other explanation could there be? Gohan had sought her out directly after that rumour-mongering writer had insinuated that Videl's employment would endanger the Ox Princess' restaurant business. What need would they have for another stalk gatherer if not enough people frequented the Stalk in the Frypan because of her?

Videl reached a set of double oaken doors twice her height and three times as wide. She was certain she'd read the map of the palace grounds correctly, but even if she hadn't, this attention-grabbing entrance at least announced that the room behind was reserved for someone important, someone like a prince. She raised her hand, surprised it wasn't shaking. She took a deep breath, then knocked.

A moment later, she received a surprise when Gohan himself opened the door for her. She'd been expecting a servant. But there was the prince, still in his green and gold silken tunic and pants, ushering her through the door.

"Thanks so much for coming, even if it's late. I know you and the other stalk gatherers wake up early in the morning." Gohan scratched the back of his neck.

Videl wasn't entirely sure how to respond to that. It wasn't like she could refuse an order from a prince, no matter how politely it was delivered.

The room she entered was not as luxurious as she thought it would be. It was large, sure, but it was divided neatly into sections. The receiving area was the closest, marked by a plush sofa set surrounding a glass table. Beyond that was some kind of workspace with two large desks piled with papers and books, and crowded bookshelves teetering against the walls. Off to the right, sequestered by glass panels, was the sleeping area. A bed with blue sheets and a quilt waited patiently for its occupant to retire for the night.

"Here, have a seat. Would you like some tea?" Gohan waved to the glass table. A pot and a few tiny cups sat on a tray in the middle. "It's herbal so it shouldn't keep you up late."

He wouldn't offer her tea if all he'd do was fire her, would he?

Videl dismissed the hope. Gohan had been the image of politeness so far, and she couldn't imagine this situation would inspire him to act any differently. But while she had appreciated his pristine manners the previous day, this time around it was almost unbearable. She wished he'd just cut to the chase.

"Thank you." Videl sat on the nearest chair. She avoided tapping her foot impatiently, but was unable to stop herself from blurting, "Is this about Ed Torr?"

"Who?"

Videl was about to take a sip of her tea, but her hands stopped midway. "Ed Torr. The last man during the court hearing earlier this afternoon."

"Him? Not at all!" Gohan stared at her with eyebrows raised. "Why would I talk about him with you?"

"Well, he did say that my presence here would threaten your mother's business."

Gohan sipped his tea. "To be fair to him, that wasn't an angle I predicted when I took you on. It's true that perhaps hiring you might affect some people's opinion, but so far you haven't done anything that would put me or my mother in a precarious situation. As of right now, you aren't the biggest thorn in my side. In fact, depending on how this conversation turns out, you might not even be a thorn at all."

"Oh?" It was as if the ground had tilted beneath her. Videl had been bracing herself to be plunged into disappointment. Instead, Gohan's answer elicited a rush of relief and curiosity, and it left her a bit disoriented. "Not a thorn, how?"

Gohan settled his teacup back on the table and approached one of the desks in the workspace behind them. The messier one, with books and journals and loose sheets tossed haphazardly on the surface without regard to whether they might fall to the floor or not. The spines of the books bore intimidating titles like Historical Policies of Mountain Clans and Intricacies of Taxation: The Fifth Edition.

Next to it, the other table was starkly neat in comparison. Textbooks on space, geography, biodiversity, and geology stood in a row like sentinels. A globe performed the role of a paper weight, pinning what looked to be atlases and topographical maps. An open notebook showed a prim handwriting with well-labelled diagrams.

Videl's gaze scanned the shelves, and now that she had the eye for it, she found the same pattern repeated there. Books and other materials related to governing were battered and worn, some shelved upside down or slumped over like tired guards on overtime duty. But the books on sciences were laminated with care, reverently standing in alphabetical order.

Huh, that was interesting, though she wasn't sure if the section on sciences were so clean because they were more loved or less.

The prince sat back on the couch, bearing several sheets of paper. "Have you heard of Scar Town?"

Videl combed through her memory. "Can't say I have."

"It's a small settlement south of Mount Frypan. The Ox Kingdom had a history of rivalry with it some decades ago, which piped down after Grandpa stopped being so menacing and reformed from his treasure-looting.

"However, the old resentment has rekindled recently when we've been unable to put out the fire on Mount Frypan. The smoke from the mountain rides the southerly winds and chokes the town. The people there are especially angry that we've relocated to Mount Paozu, which they interpret as our way of giving up solving the problem. In recent months, thugs from Scar Town have snuck up on Mount Paozu and vandalized our village. Some even went as far as raiding our food stores. There was an attempt to set mother's restaurant on fire."

"You want help stopping the thugs?" Videl wasn't sure how she felt about returning to crime-fighting. The officer from Orange City had made a pretty good point about it being hypocritical for someone like her. And while she still experienced the itch to knock down a bad guy or two, she wasn't sure if she wanted to return to that in an official capacity.

"No, we're able to take care of that just fine," Gohan answered. "They're just being a nuisance, trying to get our attention so we don't forget that they're still suffering from Mount Frypan's fire. The thing is, if this was just about showing force, I would have gotten them off our backs a long time ago. But I don't want to be seen as a tyrant, and Grandpa gave this project to me as my first training in solving disputes diplomatically."

Gohan had delivered all of this in a soft, matter-of-fact tone, which made his statement all the more hair-raising. He seemed so certain that if he used force, he could subdue the terrorists of Scar Town. Perhaps he was simply that skilled in martial arts? And yet the possibility that he could be a tyrant at all indicated that something more menacing was lurking beneath his innocent demeanor. Videl remembered the touch of cold, ominous energy that permeated the court room earlier that afternoon. What kind of power was Gohan keeping at bay?

"I've been mulling over the situation for a while, and the only true solution I see is to put out the fire in Mount Frypan for good. And that's where I need your help."

Videl blinked. "You… want me to put out a fire? Made by a fire spirit?"

"I need help investigating how to even do that," he said. "I've tried many different ways to extinguish the fire, but nothing seems to work. I even tried—" he cut himself short, eyes flashing briefly to the side. But all Videl saw in that direction was a child's hat with a shiny orange ball on top resting upon a velvet pillow. "Look, I've tried everything I can think of. The only thing that seems to keep the fires at bay is the Bansho Fan."

Gohan pushed a picture towards her of something that looked like a banana leaf outlined in red. "We have this in our armoury, and it puts out the fire for a while. But the fire keeps coming back. It's returning at a faster rate too. There was a gap of a few years between the first time Mount Frypan was set ablaze and the second. Nowadays, we have to visit Mount Frypan every fortnight or so to wave this fan and keep Scar Town from being too unhappy with us."

Videl inspected the picture of the Bansho Fan for a moment, buying herself time to think. But in the end, she was still puzzled. "I'm still not sure how I can help you with this, Ox Prince."

"I looked up some of the cases you helped with as a crime-fighting volunteer." Gohan placed the rest of the sheets on the table. They turned out to be newspaper clippings of takedowns that Videl had participated in, the ones with bigger scale and higher stakes. There was the operation to extract hostages from a terrorist group in a mining town; the foiling of the jewellery heist in West City; the busting of the Hibiscus Casino gambling scam.

"You don't just throw punches, Videl. According to these news articles, you were also deeply involved in the research, scouting, and deployment of these operations. And those are the skills I need in someone who can help me with this. Someone who can investigate and execute, and maybe block an attack or two if things turn ugly with Scar Town."

But there was a big jump from apprehending criminals, no matter how savvy, to stopping fire spirits from… well, producing fire. "I don't know about this," Videl admitted. "I had a lot of privileges while working on those cases you've read. I was close with the police and had access to files and records and databases. I could ask people questions and they were willing to answer. I don't know if you've seen how people interact with me lately, but most would think twice if I ask just for their name."

Back then, Videl even had some clearance and protection to navigate the dark recesses of the cyber network, an advantage she had used for personal projects from time to time. That, of course, was gone too. If she accessed those shadowy spaces now, she would be arrested if caught.

"The resources we have here at Mount Paozu would be at your disposal," Gohan offered. "And speaking of your new reputation, well, wouldn't this be a good chance to shift that a bit? The rivalry between Scar Town and the Ox Kingdom has spanned decades, so easing any tension caused by the fire in Mount Frypan would be a monumental improvement."

The fact that Gohan had been assigned to lead this diplomatic project only underscored that. He was a young prince who needed to prove his political mettle for the first time. And as her employer, Gohan's reputation was just as important as hers now. What good would it do her if Gohan became known as a poor successor? Or if a full-out skirmish between the Ox Kingdom and Scar Town broke out? Very likely, the restaurant would suffer, they would no longer need stalk gatherers, and Videl would be out of a job once again.

"I can see you've been learning a lot of rhetoric and persuasion techniques," Videl said. He was clever to have tied his own goals to hers.

"Is that an agreement, then?"

"What about stalk gathering?"

"You'll still perform that job, and you can help with this project during your downtimes. I'll inform Steban not to assign you too much other work. And of course, I will be increasing your compensation to address this new scope."

Videl bit her lip. "I'll try. While I'm aware that there are inexplicable things in this world, I've never had direct experience working with magical phenomenon." Like fire spirits and mystical fans. "So I can't promise anything."

"I'm in the same position, that's why I'm hoping that this can stay between us for now. I haven't announced my intention of solving the fire to Scar Town precisely because I don't want to make promises I can't keep."

She nodded. "All right."

A pleased smile stretched over the prince's face. Erasa was correct; objectively speaking, he was quite a looker.

"Thank you, Videl." A sigh loosened the tension in his shoulders and he cupped his tea between his palms. "Your help would mean a lot. I haven't been in this role for long, and the expectations are very different from the ones I had when I was younger. In a lot of ways, being a student and a martial artist seem much simpler."

"Well, Ox Prince, at least people expect something of you. It's a lot worse when they don't."

He glanced up at her then, his black eyes boring into hers like he was seeing her for the first time. Pink spots bloomed on his cheeks, and he scratched the back of his neck.

"I'm sorry!" Gohan said. "You must think me petty, being a prince and all, but still complaining."

Videl cleared her throat. "No, pardon me. I didn't mean to dismiss your hardships. You're right, navigating expectations can be quite delicate. I was once in a similar situation, and it's not easy when there are so many eyes on you, so many people hoping you can make their problems go away with a wave of a hand. But it's never that simple."

"No, it isn't." His gaze softened, but remained on her face. She tried not to fidget under his stare, but she couldn't remember the last time somebody looked at her that way, as if they were trying to pick her apart and put her back together. Not even when she was still someone worth admiring. "Videl, I'm sorry about what happened to you and your family. No matter what the truth may be, the method used to expose it was unkind."

She shrugged. "Can't do anything about it now."

"Did… the person want something? Was it blackmail, or…"

Goosebumps crawled on Videl's skin, and she wanted nothing more than to be out that door and in her own room in silence. "What do you mean?"

"The person who exposed the truth. Did they want anything from your family?"

She shrugged again. The police and investigators had never followed up on sunsetbeluga36, the username of the hacker that had released the incriminating footage of Hercule. What would have been the point? With enough pressure, the employees of the media company who'd colluded with her father to hide that footage had confessed, and if her father had continued to lie, he would have been charged with perjury. So he'd confessed too. And after all of that came to light, the police had seen no further activity from sunsetbeluga36.

"I'll see if I can start on some research tomorrow," Videl said, standing up and giving Gohan a neat little bow. "Maybe something on the history of Mount Frypan."

Gohan stood up too. "Feel free to use our library. It's in the north wing. Thank you again for deciding to help me."

Videl left the prince's apartments stewing in a mix of emotions. She thought she would have been elated at not having been fired, but the new challenge in front of her seemed like a fool's errand. And Gohan's questions about the hacker that had revealed her father's fraud unnerved her. Not to mention, all the subtle implications he'd dropped about how powerful he really was. This all felt so far from the simple job she thought she'd landed yesterday.

Soft footsteps echoed from the intersecting hallway ahead, and Videl pulled herself from her thoughts just in time to avoid crashing into a man who seemed just as absorbed in his own thoughts. Or rather, a large piece of paper.

He blinked up at her, and she recognized him as the fancy young man from the afternoon's court hearing who was sent to help the Ox Princess with some canning ventures. Merches was the surname, wasn't it? He was in loungewear with a towel over his neck and a toothbrush poking out of his pocket.

"Do you know where the sauna is? Whoever drew this map needs a visit to an optometrist," he said.

"I'm sorry, I'm not sure," Videl answered. The sauna had been the last place on her mind to check on the map.

Merches grumbled. "Where are we now? Is that the entrance to the pool?"

"No, that's Prince Gohan's apartments."

He flapped the map with annoyance. "The Ox Prince's apartments! What in the…? Wait, hold on." He lowered the map, squinted at Videl, then at the door several steps behind her. Then he looked at her again, up and down, up and down. A sleazy smile split his face.

"Oh, I see. I understand now why he defended you so strongly during court. I would have thought he preferred something more refined, but you never know with this mountain folks, do you?" He laughed as he continued down the hall.

Videl crossed her arms, suddenly beset by a sticky discomfort. She had no illusions what Merches must be thinking. It wasn't the first time she'd been on the receiving end of that type of look. She'd encountered it a handful of times from men who believed that just because a young woman was desperate for a job, that they didn't need to treat her with dignity.

Blast it. It was just her first day and already someone believed she was sleeping with the prince.

-o-

Gathering stalk the next day felt like a much simpler mission than it did the first time around. The practicality of it, the tactile nature of the work, appealed to Videl now that something more daunting and uncertain had been added to her plate. She was getting a hang of the sky-scooter's navigation; her muscles were adjusting to balancing the scythe during the ride; even the dinosaurs seemed less fearsome. There were no barbs today from her teammates, including Sharpner, surprisingly. And while hacking away at the enormous stalks, she found some time to think.

The first thing for her to do would be to look up Scar Town. Who was its leader? Who were the audacious folks who attacked Mount Paozu? How weak were they exactly that Gohan felt he could be branded a tyrant for retaliating?

The next thing was to figure out what a fire spirit was. If it was falling onto Mount Frypan, where was it falling from? And how was its fire different from a normal fire? She needed to compile a dossier, like those she'd been handed whenever she'd worked on criminal cases.

When she and the rest of the Stalk Gathering team made it back to Mount Paozu, Videl was itching to find the library that the Ox Prince had mentioned. But when they landed back in the garage, an official was waiting for them.

"Videl?" the official said, approaching her. She was an older woman, with shiny gray hair pulled up in a stately bun. Wrinkles adorned the sides of her eyes and mouth, though she stood with her back straight and chin up. "You're required to attend an audience with the Ox Princess."

"The Ox Princess?" Videl echoed dumbly. The intensity of the stares that shot her way more than made up for her team's bland disinterest that morning. Even Steban's lips pursed.

"Yes, I'm to lead you to her," the official answered.

"Now?"

"Yes."

Videl glanced around her, but her uncertainty was reflected in every other face. "Should I clean up first, or—"

"No, you must come along now."

Lin reached out to Videl's sky-scooter, taking the handles away from her grip. Too rattled to bid her team farewell — and unsure whether she needed to in the first place — Videl followed after the official without a word and glance at anyone else.

"Do you know why she wants to see me?" Videl asked as they traipsed through the interlacing hallways of the palace.

"I do not," the official replied, though Videl had the feeling that she wouldn't say even if she did.

There could be several reasons, especially after what Gohan had shared with her the previous night. Maybe the princess wanted to talk to her about Scar Town and Mount Frypan too. But as far as Videl was told, the Ox Princess kept away from matters of state to focus solely on her cooking ventures.

More likely it would be about Ed Torr. The Ox Princess must have heard of what the tabloid writer had said during court yesterday, and now she intended to set things straight with Videl the way Videl had thought Gohan would do last night. Only he'd wanted to talk about something entirely different.

Or perhaps it could be that again: something entirely different. Something that would blindside Videl once more.

The official ushered her not into the princess' apartments like Videl had expected, but into a meeting room similar to the one in which she'd had her interview. This one was smaller, about half the size, which made the oaken desk and chair at the other end appear way too bulky. No one was there.

"Wait here," the official said and shut the door on her way out.

Videl didn't have to wait long. A moment later, a door on the far wall opened and a striking woman strode into the room. She had the kind of pretty face that would have marked her as delicate if not for a physique that spoke of someone who didn't shy away from physical labour. Her jet black hair fell straight to her waist, which contrasted with the cream-coloured traditional dress she wore.

But what caught Videl's eye the most was the giant axe the woman had slung over one shoulder. Its blade glinted in the morning light, lending an even more ominous atmosphere to the meeting.

"Don't mind this," the princess said, obviously noticing Videl's attention on the weapon. "What, you think I use a kitchen knife to chop up those stalks you and your team bring to the kitchen? I'll go bankrupt just replacing all those knives."

Videl had never actually put too much thought into how the restaurant cooked the Paozu Stalk, but the Ox Princess using an axe meant for battle wouldn't be one of her top guesses.

The Ox Princess settled the axe down against the table, before sitting down. She pulled her hair up into a bun, squinting at Videl the entire time.

"So, you're the new girl, huh. Videl." The princess studied her for several seconds. Then she propped her chin on her hands. "Well, Videl, I heard rumours of you visiting my son's bedroom late last night."

Oh goodness, this meeting was about that? But only Cant Merches had seen her. Did he already spread the word? What a malicious little twit. He had absolutely no reason to do so.

"Your son summoned me, ma'am." Videl tried not to let exasperation seep into her voice. Trouble just seemed to find her, and not the kind she could punch in the face like she used to before.

"That doesn't sound like him. He's very shy, you know."

"He talked to me about Scar Town," she explained. Hopefully the Ox Princess wasn't so distant with politics that she didn't know what was happening to her previous home mountain. "He didn't want to discuss it in the open."

The Ox Princess frowned. "And what does he hope to gain by bringing you into the loop?"

"He wants help investigating how to put out the fire on Mount Frypan, which will hopefully end the conflict with Scar Town."

"You don't strike me as an expert on fire extinguishers, but I won't do my son any favours by undermining his decisions. I suppose I should be glad he's learning how to delegate some tasks." The princess crossed her arms. "But I expect you to maintain a respectable distance from him, you hear. Sure, exchange notes, have discussions, whatever. But always remember that he's the grandson of a king, and you're the daughter of a fraud. Don't ingratiate yourself too much with him, lest you bring down his reputation by being associated with you too frequently."

Well, at least this woman was blunt. Videl could at lease appreciate frankness, and it wasn't like the princess had said something she hadn't heard before.

"Understood, your Highness. And you have nothing to worry about."

"Good, you're dismissed."

Videl turned to the door, but the princess called her back.

"Wait, you're off duty now, correct? Be a dear and wait at the front gates. We have a family friend visiting for the day, and I want him escorted to the Wildflower Courtyard. That section hadn't been built yet when he last came, and I don't want him to get lost."

"How would I recognize your friend, ma'am?"

"He's got a scar across one eye, and another on his cheek in the shape of an 'x.' You won't miss him."

"Yes, ma'am."

At this rate, Videl would only be able to start her research after lunch. Already she could feel the early grumble of her stomach. Not that she hadn't learned how to deal with hunger before, but the extrenous task of gathering stalk in the mornings meant her body used up so much energy so quickly.

When Videl arrived at the front gates, she found it surprisingly unguarded. She wondered what happened to the guard that she'd seen two days ago when she'd first climbed the mountain. Was he on his day off? Did Gohan forget to assign a guard this morning? She recalled the jumbled assortment of papers and notebooks on one of his desks the previous night. Or the way he'd forgotten to fix the windows in the apartments he was supposed to assign Cant Merches. Perhaps the Ox Prince should hire an assistant next.

There was a little stool by the gates, and Videl sat on it. She wished she'd made a detour to the kitchen first to get some snack and a drink. The morning sun was enthusiastic today. But at least it gave her a wonderful view of the landscape. Lush greenery carpeted the mountain face, and far below, farms and rice paddies made a quilt of the flatlands.

The buzz of an engine interrupted the serene moment, and a skycycle landed on the mountain ledge not too far from the gates. It was emblazoned with the Capsule Corps logo, a newer version of the Cloud Threader model that Videl had wanted to buy for herself back when she could afford it.

The man sitting astride it shut off the engine and took off his helmet. The scars on his face told Videl this was the man that the princess was expecting. He looked to be around the princess' age, perhaps several years older. There was a blue cat perching on his shoulder, and as soon as he got off the cycle, the cat floated up in the air.

Videl was almost surprised, except the last couple of days had been so chock full of surprises that a flying blue cat almost felt tame.

"Nice weather we have today," the man said. Videl had always thought that scars made one look jaded and haggard, but not so with this man. He had a bright smile and an energetic vibe. It would have been easy for him to appear roguish, but Videl felt quite at ease.

"Good morning," she greeted. "I'm to lead you to the Wildflower Courtyard."

"You're a bit young to be a guard," the man remarked. The blue cat settled once again on his shoulder and peeped at her with curious eyes.

"I'm not a guard," Videl said. "I'm a stalk gatherer. I just finished my shift and I was asked to help you."

The man rounded his skycycle and untied some packages crouching on its back seat. There were boxes of pies and cakes, a thin pile of comic books, and a handful of gift boxes. He scooped all of these up before walking towards the entrance.

As they passed through the gate, the man squinted at her face. "Do I know you? I feel like I've seen you before."

"We've never met. I'm Videl Satan, Hercule Satan's daughter," she said, injecting as little emotion into her answer as she could.

"Videl Satan?" His eyes widened in recognition and his smile stretched a tad more. "Videl, the crime-fighting teen of Orange City?"

She was taken aback that that was the second thing he'd thought of. It had been a while since that was the immediate association people made about her.

"Videl, the person who cracked the fraud ring operating at Hibiscus Casino?" The next thing Videl knew, the packages the man was holding were all on the ground, and her hands were clasped between his. His eyes shone with fervour. "I must thank you! I lost so much money to those awful scammers."

"2 million zennis," the cat added, because apparently not only could it fly, it could also talk.

"Hey, no need to discuss numbers here, Puar." The man released her hands and picked up his packages again. "I don't want Videl here to think I'm careless."

"Sorry, Yamcha," the cat replied.

Yamcha? Wasn't that one of the names that Gohan had mentioned at court? One of the men who could build a bridge in two weeks? He looked fit and healthy, sure, but could he really do something like that?

She filed the information away for now and focused on their conversation instead.

"Don't be sorry," Videl said, a small little joy blooming in her chest at getting the opportunity to talk about something she was proud of for a change. "Those fraudsters were savvy, and someone from the casino's security team was in cahoots with them. Many smart, and otherwise responsible, folks got caught in their snare. 2 million was on the lower end of what some of the victims lost."

"Hah, good to know! So, Videl. What are you doing here? This is the last place I expected you to be."

"Like I said, I'm a stalk gatherer."

"Why?"

Videl wasn't sure how she was going to explain something to someone who seemed to not have paid attention to the news the last two years. For a moment, she wanted to bask in the surreal feeling of being respected again.

But her silence must have jogged his memory, because his eyes widened again, though in a different manner this time. "Oh." Then a more elaborate, "Oohhh. Yes, the whole Hercule is a fraud thing."

"Yes, that whole thing."

"Well, you're in a good place, at least. Lay low for a bit, get your feet back under you, and in a few years, I'm sure you'll be fine again."

Videl smiled. This was the second person after Erasa to have treated her like her current circumstance was only temporary. Like she would wake up one day and all of a sudden her father wasn't going to be the man who'd lied to everybody for five years. She admired their easy confidence in the power of time to erase misfortune, but she wasn't sure she had the same faith.

"Don't believe me?" Yamcha gave her a good-natured smirk. "You should. I know a thing or two about being life's punching bag. The trick is to just keep going and stay true to your values."

Staying true to her values was exactly what got her here, but she wasn't about to admit that to a person she just met.

From the map she'd been given of the palace, the Wildflower Courtyard was part of the extended east wing reserved for the royals. Videl hoped she wouldn't get lost — and get this poor man lost with her — but the path there was rather well-tended, probably by virtue of being newer. A wooden gate bordered by blue and lavender hydrangeas led to the courtyard.

Videl opened it and waved Yamcha and Puar through. Beyond, she found the Ox King, the Ox Princess, and the two princes gathered around a table heaped with platters of food.

"Yamcha!" Goten ran from his high-seat and sprinted towards them. "You made it!"

"Sure did, squirt!" Yamcha pushed all of the things he was carrying into one arm and reached down to ruffle Goten's hair. "And I got those comics you wanted."

"And Puar's here too!"

Videl didn't linger, as she knew it wasn't her place to watch the Ox family spend time with whom appeared to be very close friends. She shut the gates and started back towards the servants' entrance to the palace. She tried to focus on the pinch of her stomach and the urgent need to fill her belly before it started cramping.

But a part of her recognized the stab of envy she'd felt, not at the plentiful meal, but at seeing the Ox Family greet their friends and eat together with carefree smiles on their faces. When was the last time Videl had experienced something like that? Even before her father's fall, they hadn't eaten that way as a family. Their dining room had been spacious but devoid of laughter, and oftentimes, Videl had dined alone.

If she worked hard, maybe Yamcha was right; maybe someday in the future she could build a reality for herself and her father that was meaningful and happy. Even if they would never be as rich as they'd been, she could still prove to her father that it was better to live a humble and honest life, than to live an ostentatious one mired in lies.

-o-

Maybe it was because Videl was hungry, but when she found Cant Merches cornering Erasa in a sparsely used hallway leading to the dining area, her mood immediately soured. It didn't help that even though she was still at a distance, the leer on his face was obvious, and so was Erasa's displeased scowl.

"Erasa," she called, perhaps a little sharply than she'd intended. "I'm heading off to lunch. Want to come?" She didn't know if Erasa had already gotten off her shift, but right now it didn't matter why she was here and not in the kitchens. What mattered was getting her away.

Merches leaned away from Erasa and flashed Videl a cocky smile. "Oh, hello there. Funny running into you again. You seem to be popping up in interesting hallways."

The stare that Videl shot him was straight and hard and full of warning, the type of stare that used to halt criminals in their tracks, the type that once sent shivers down the backs of even those much bigger and older than her. It was rare that Videl had the gall to do this now — with her much reduced social standing, she felt she didn't have the right — but with Merches, it seemed justified.

She didn't break eye contact until she'd looped her arm with Erasa's and they turned down the hall towards the dining room. She hoped it would send the message that she'd seen him, that she'd remember. Oftentimes that was all it was needed to curb any kind of tomfoolery.

"What a creep," Erasa mumbled.

"He didn't hurt you, did he?" Videl asked.

"Just my ears with his lame pick-up lines."

"Let me know if he bothers you again."

"Ooh, are you going to kick his ass like you used to do?"

"I doubt I can without getting fired, but… I don't know. Maybe I still have a few more tricks up my sleeve."

It was a relief to get some food in her stomach, and Videl's mood improved considerably after spending lunchtime with Erasa and Maisy. By the time she found herself in the library, she was once again energized and ready to get down to the task at hand.

Books about Mount Frypan and Scar Town were easier to find than fire spirits. In Famous Reformed Warlords of the World, Videl found a short chapter on the Ox King and some of his previous nemeses.

Counted among those who harboured enmity towards the Ox King were the various quarrelling gangs of Scar Town. Since Scar Town is devoid of an official governing body, the gang leaders often used encounters with the Ox King as showdowns to prove their strength and compete with one another. Primary among these gang leaders was a man named Endy Vora. When he succumbed to a lung illness due to fumes from the burning Mount Frypan, his son, Endy Vora Jr., succeeded him.

All right, it seemed there was at least one person of significance from Scar Town with a personal axe to grind against the Ox royal family. That was something of note. There was a picture of Endy Vora Jr. beneath the text. He was a youth not much older than Videl. Hard to believe someone that young was a leader of a gang vying for rule over a town.

Oddest Places To Live In Vol. 5 gave a short description of Scar Town: the settlement got its name from the crack in the valley south of Mount Frypan that resembles a scar. Inside this fissure in the land, twenty thousand people have made their homes. There are few natural resources in the area, and most of the population subsists on the wild plants growing around the fissure.

Videl rounded the corner of the aisle, tilting her head to read the titles of the books. She was starting to grow a picture of what kind of people she might encounter if she got more involved in this assignment. Scar Town seemed like a bleak place to build a life, and any kind of inconvenience might spur the residents into desperate measures.

"Hi!" a loud voide pierced the silence in the library.

Videl startled and dropped Oddest Places. Right in front of her, smiling like a little imp, was the younger Ox Prince. Had she been so absorbed in her task she hadn't even heard a child walk up to her?

"Oh, hello." Videl looked around but there didn't appear to be anyone with him, not even Yamcha whom Goten had been so excited to see earlier. Perhaps Gohan should hire a babysitter next.

He flashed a book up at her. "Can you sign my slam book?"

"Um… sure, why not?" She sat cross-legged on the floor and pulled a pen from her pocket. Goten sidled up to her and gave her the book.

"Why do you have a slam book anyway?" Videl flipped to the first empty section. "These went out of trend about a decade before you were born."

"What I really wanted is an account on FriendyPals like my friend, Trunks. He collects so many friends there! But Mommy says the cyber network is dangerous and she wouldn't let me. So she told me to make a slam book instead."

"Your mother isn't wrong, you know." Videl thought of all the horrible comments and videos and articles she'd read about herself and her father. "The cyber network can be a scary place."

She wrote her name and birthday and began answering the listed questions one by one.

What is your favourite colour? The golden orange of sunset.

What is your favourite food? Anything in black bean sauce.

What is your favourite animal? Definitely not dinosaurs. She supposed she liked cute animals like most people. Pandas, elephants, belugas, cats, those types.

Videl filled in the entire questionnaire, and once she was done, she handed the book back to Goten. "There you go."

"Thank you, piranha!"

"Piranha? Why would you call me that? Do you think I chomp on people?" she chuckled.

"No, silly. I mean you're always alone and nobody likes you."

Videl burst out laughing, unable to find it in herself to be offended. "Ohh, you mean a pariah."

"Exactly! Like, Mr. Piccolo. At least that's what Mommy calls him."

This was the second time Goten had mentioned this man. "Who's Mr. Piccolo?"

"He's this really strong green guy that's kind of a slug but shaped like a human. He's awesome! Gohan likes him a lot and so do I!"

Getting compared to a slug-like green man was a new low for Videl, but perhaps Goten had meant it as a compliment because he seemed to adore this person so much.

"I'm sort of flattered, Ox Prince. But I have to get back to reading now," she said, standing up and dusting off her pants.

"Okie dokie, guess I'll see you later!" the young Ox Prince zipped down the aisle and disappeared around the corner.

Videl stooped to pick up the books she'd left on the floor, and she noticed a slip of folded paper that hadn't been there before. She opened it and found a colourful drawing of the Ox Family. It must have been tucked into Goten's slam book and fell out while she was writing in it.

"Goten, you dropped something," she called, but the boy didn't come back. "Sir Mr. Goten?" Videl walked down the aisles, but she'd made it back to the entrance and couldn't find a sign of him. He must have gone out very quickly.

She glanced at the picture again and paused. She had thought it was a drawing of the Ox Family, but now she wasn't so sure. The Ox King was obvious with his bushy beard and horned helmet, and the Ox Princess was also clearly depicted with her dark eyes, black hair, and large axe. But there were three people on there that could have been Gohan, Goten, and possibly Goku (he had a halo on top), except their hair were not coloured in black. They were coloured in yellow. And their eyes were a bright turquoise.

Strange. Videl folded the drawing again and tucked it into her pocket.

Chapter 4: The Fire Spirits of Mount Frypan

Notes:

Hello folks! Thanks for the continued interest in this fic! I always look forward to reading your feedback.

I received a couple of comments regarding Gohan's power and strength in this AU. I know a lot of fans wish that Gohan kept training and that he took his responsibility as earth's defender a little more seriously. Sometimes I'm in that camp as well, because I think he's capable of so much. That said, this AU isn't really a battle story. It's a quieter, whimsical, more political maneuvering kind of story. We know he's a strong martial artist and he goes on to be a great scholar, but how would he fare with princely duties? That's what I'm trying to explore in this fic. I'm hoping this would set up the right expectations for Gohan's role here!

Oh, I also forgot to mention in earlier chapters, but I've never seen or read Super before. So I don't know much canon (or "canon" depending on your view of Super) information about Gohan and Videl post-Buu.

All right, that's all! Let's get on with the story.

It would be Sunday tomorrow, the one day of the week that the Stalk Gathering team didn't work, and Videl could already imagine what a long, restful sleep she would have that night. She was unfolding the blankets on her bed, when a soft knock came on the window. The face of the elder Ox Prince filled the pane, a sheepish smile on his lips.

What in the…

Videl hurried to the window, heart beating fast in her chest. Did something happen? Was she in trouble again? An why was he at her window, and not her door?

"Ox Prince?" she said, lifting the lower pane. "Is something the matter?"

"Want to visit Mount Frypan with me? I'll be fanning out the flames," he said, voice soft in the quiet of the night. Gripped in his hands was a fan about a metre in length, deep green in colour with a red strip running around the edges. The Bansho Fan, if she recalled the picture he'd shown her the previous night. "I think it might be a good idea for you to see what it's like."

"It's almost midnight."

"I know, but I'm so busy during the days. If I were going alone, I might squeeze it in between meetings, but together we'll need a bit more time."

Videl didn't know that one person could make such a big difference in travel speed. Efficient copters usually had at least two seats. He must be thinking about giving her some kind of tour.

"Uh, give me a minute to change." She hated the thought of shifting out of her pyjamas, but it would be good for her to learn more about the mountain and see the Bansho Fan in action.

"No need, I brought instant-fits." Gohan fished in his pocket — turned out he was already in his pyjamas too — and brought out two watches. "It's dangerous to be in Mount Frypan in regular clothes. These watches will gear us up with the appropriate protection in just a press of a button."

"Oh." Seemed like he planned this quite well.

"We'll take Nimbus here." Gohan stepped away from the window and waved behind him. Floating above the ground was a golden fluff of cloud.

Videl blinked at it. It hovered in the air, bobbing a little, but otherwise stayed in the same spot. "What do you mean, 'take'?"

"Ride it, of course!" Gohan leapt on the cloud and settled on it, cross-legged.

Another inexplicable phenomenon, Videl supposed. Like Mount Frypan and its magical fires, and the Bansho Fan, and the Paozu Stalk. It was almost like she was discovering that fairy tales really existed. The only thing missing was a genie who could grant her three wishes. Except if she were in a fairy tale, she wouldn't be this stressed and keyed up all the time, would she?

"We're not taking a copter?"

"Oh, copters malfunction near the heat of Frypan fire, so we wouldn't get very close."

Figures.

"If Nimbus makes you nervous, I have a friend dragon that—"

"No, no! Nimbus is fine!" Videl didn't know if she had the capacity to absorb what one could do with a friendly dragon. At least not right now, not tonight. Not when she was still spooked by dinosaurs.

She peeked around the windows, but being in the corner room gave her the advantage of relative seclusion. Trees and shrubs gave the area outside some privacy. Videl hadn't forgotten about the Ox Princess' warning not to get too close to her son. She didn't have spies around, did she?

But surely, going on an excursion to Mount Frypan counted as research. An abandoned, burning kingdom hardly made for a romantic backdrop.

"Don't worry, nobody's watching," Gohan said with encouragement. "Come and hop on. Nimbus is really nice! At least to those who are pure of heart. Otherwise, you'll just fall through."

Videl had just managed to land on the other side of the window, but now she paused. "Pure of heart?" she echoed. That thing could sense whether you were a good person or not? Did it judge you based on who you were right now or your life as a whole? What would happen if she hopped on it and dropped right through?

"Videl? Come, try it," Gohan coaxed. "I doubt you'd have anything to worry about. It's not you that lied to the world."

No, she wasn't the one who lied to the world, but did Gohan think she didn't have other flaws? Made other mistakes? But then again, who hadn't? Surely Gohan himself wasn't perfect, and Nimbus bore him easily.

Tentatively, she approached the cloud. It was almost glowing with its own innate hue in the dark. Videl pressed her hands into the fluff, surprised how something so soft could be so sturdy at the same time. Sturdy. It wasn't giving away against her force. Could it really hold her up?

She pushed herself up onto it, settling beside Gohan. Her feet dangled in the air, but her body was safely secured on the cottony fluff. She could hardly believe what she was experiencing.

"Neat, huh?" Gohan smiled and laid a hand on her shoulder. "Now, we go up!"

Videl's stomach plunged as they rose to the sky, the tops of the trees zooming out in a few blinks of an eye. The horizon widened around her as Nimbus flew past the mountain ranges. The generous dusting of stars in the sky illuminated the fields rushing past below.

"So, what's this Nimbus?" she asked, voice just a tad shaky. "Is it… a sky spirit?" There were fire spirits, so perhaps this was another type of spirit.

"Honestly? I'm not quite so sure. It was given to my father by a friend who owns a really big Nimbus and can give pieces of it away."

Videl rubbed her forehead. She shouldn't have asked. What made her believe she would get a sensical answer?

If all these magical phenomenon seemed to operate differently, how would she ever figure out how to stop a fire spirit from burning? None of the rules of deduction and extrapolation she had learned in the past could possibly help her now. The world that the Ox Family inhabited seemed to be an entirely different world than the one that she'd lived in all her life.

But maybe that wasn't entirely a bad thing. As much drive as she had to make a better life for herself and her father, sometimes she did just want to escape it all.

Gohan shifted behind her, and Videl realized that she'd been avoiding the edge of the cloud so much, she'd leaned right up against him. Warmth bloomed in her cheeks, and she pushed herself away.

"Careful!" He gripped her arm. "Nimbus is pretty good at balancing its load, but if you do make abrupt movements, you could fall. But don't worry, we'll catch you if you do."

Videl swallowed and tried to find a safe spot. Gohan didn't seem all that bothered about their closeness. His gaze remained intent on the horizon. She tried to mimic his nonchalance, even though this was highly unusual for her.

About twenty minutes from when they left the Ox Palace, Videl glimpsed a red blaze in the distance. As they approached it, the air around them began to dry and crackle. Soon, she could also hear the fierce buzzing of the raging flames and smell the acrid stench of smoke.

"We should probably put these on now." Gohan handed her one of the watches, the slimmer of the two. "I got your measurements from Steban, so it should fit you more or less."

Gohan strapped his own watch to his wrist and pressed a white button on the side. Instantly, he was clad in a dark grey bodysuit made of a material that looked a lot like nylon, but was surely something more heatproof. Nylon would melt on his skin in high temperatures. His head was protected by a helmet with a full-faced visor. There was a small circular ventilation by the jaw that Videl guessed helped with the fumes.

"Nifty," she mumbled, as she buckled in the watch. She pressed the same white button as Gohan did, and the next thing she knew, her vision darkened as the visor slid across her face. A freshness blossomed in her nostrils as she took in filtrated air. The sting of the heat vanished beneath the curious grey cloth that wrapped her from neck to ankles.

Nimbus swooped down only steps away from where the first row of houses were engulfed in flames. They climbed off and faced the burning Mount Frypan.

"It truly doesn't look like a mountain anymore, huh?" Videl said, hoping her voice would still carry despite the helmet. Before her were the skeletal mounds of abandoned homes, but beyond those was something that looked like a craggy hill. It couldn't have been more than several dozen metres off the ground. She'd read in her brief research on the Ox Kingdom that the mountain had crumbled when the first fire had been put out.

Gohan must have heard her just fine. He confirmed, "Much of the original Mount Frypan was destroyed when Dad and his friends extinguished the first fire. Those are the rubble."

He took a capsule from his belt and stored away the Bansho Fan in it. "I want to show you something first before we put out the fire." Then he walked right into the blazing town.

Videl followed suit, bracing herself for the stinging touch of the heat. But Gohan didn't lie about the protective gear. Although the fire raged all around them, the warmth she felt was not stronger than an early summer sun.

With the shade of the visor dimming the brilliance of the flames, Videl was able to observe the structures around her. The fires fed on crumbled walls and caved-in roofs, broken concrete and mashed up pavement. Half-melted metal glowed like bulbs beneath the flames.

"Yesterday during court, there was a man who'd been caught looting here," she said, as she followed Gohan down a walkway that still had its cobblestones intact. "How could he have withstood the heat?"

"He must have worn an outfit similar to ours," Gohan replied. "You can find cheap versions in the black market. Of course, there's no guarantee that the quality would be the same, so it's still risky."

They crossed a bridge that once must have squatted over a flowing stream, but there was nothing beneath it now except for cracked ashy earth. From there, they wound through alleys and streets bordered by blackened skeletons of houses and trees. Gohan seemed to be taking her to the centre of the town.

Not far off from the tall hill of rubble that had been Mount Frypan, Gohan stopped and looked around.

"Aha!" he snapped, and pointed through a broken window of a roofless structure. "Fire spirits!"

Videl approached the window, squinting through the mixture of light and shadows to discern exactly what Gohan was referring to. It took her a while to figure out that there were bright yellow figures moving around the room. They were about as tall as her hand, and that height was taken up by a disproportionately large round head. Videl couldn't see any eyes or nose or mouth, just one shining orb. They had arms and legs in the way a stick figure had arms and legs, but no defined fingers or toes. There were three of them in there, tossing and spinning and somersaulting in the air.

"Those are fire spirits?" Videl exclaimed. "That's not what I was expecting." She had conjured up an image of crackling beasts, evil-looking things that wreaked havoc upon anything they touched. These looked… cute. They could be a mascot for a dough company.

"Took me by surprise too the first time I saw them," Gohan replied.

"How many have you seen in the two years since this kingdom went up in flames again?"

"It's hard to tell. Every time I visit to put out the fire, I see two or three. But there could be more I don't notice."

"Are they the same ones or new ones?"

"New ones, I believe. I'll show you why I think that." Gohan pulled out the capsule he'd stashed in his pocket. With a press of the button on top, the Bansho Fan rematerialized in his hands. "Stay close to me, okay? If you get hit by the wind, you'll shoot off into the sky. Or into one of those burning buildings, which is worse."

Gohan hadn't finished saying his warning yet when he wrapped his arm around her shoulders and tugged her right next to his body. Videl tensed. She had the sudden urge to look for the scouts who'd caught the looter. Would they see how close she was to their prince and report to the princess? Would she lose her job if the princess decided she was being too close to Gohan? Surely, even with her prior crime investigation experience, they could replace her easily with someone else.

But she didn't have time to dwell on all of that. Gohan flapped the Bansho fan in front of them, and a gust of wind erupted from it so tremendous that the ground vibrated and the walls of the surrounding structures shuddered. Videl felt its reverberations in her muscles and bones. The flames writhed, then dissipated in wisps of smoke, which themselves vanished with the tide of the wind.

Gohan spun and did the same in the opposite direction. This time, along with the powerful wind, a trickling of rain began to patter down from the sky. The fire all around them vanished. Videl's vision dimmed, made darker now by the visor that shadowed the only remaining source of light: the silver glow of the moon.

Slowly, Gohan released his hold on her. Videl crossed her arms, suddenly cold now that the heat of the fire was absent. Raindrops trailed down her helmet and pattered on her firesuit, which to her surprise, turned out to be waterproof as well.

"Here, take a look." Gohan hid the Bansho fan back in its capsule, and he entered the broken house where they'd seen the fire spirits. She followed him, wiping away the wetness from her visor with an arm. She wasn't sure if it was safe to remove her helmet yet. There could still be lingering fumes from the wreckage that she shouldn't be breathing in.

Gohan pressed a different button on his watch, and a beam of light shot out from its side like a flashlight. He scanned the floor with it, until he came to something that looked like a crisped up doll. "This is one of the fire spirits now."

Videl caught up to him quickly and squatted down. Aside from its shape, very little of the spirit's original features remained. Its surface was dark and brittle, cracked and crumbly, like an overcooked cookie. It lay on the ground unmoving.

"It's dead?"

"I assume so," Gohan answered. He moved the flashlight across the room, and they found the two others slumped on the floor. "I haven't noticed any of them regain their powers from this state. They usually just crumble away into ashes. So, what do you think?"

Videl stood up and rubbed her hands. "Hard to say at this point." Hard to think about all of this at all. "It's probably best to figure out where they come from. Stop them from falling in the first place. How often do they fall?"

"There will likely be new ones in a few weeks."

She rubbed her chin. "Would you be able to loan me some equipment? I'm thinking of maybe installing a camera outside of the town to monitor the area."

"I'll give you a card, but you'll likely have to purchase the equipment yourself. I don't know if we have the ones you need in the palace. If it helps, I'll also give you an access pass to the garage, so you can take a vehicle so you come and go more easily. Unless you prefer Nimbus?"

"Copters," Videl said without pause. "Definitely copters."

"You sure? If you need Nimbus, all you have to do is call out, 'Nimbus!' and it will come to you in a cinch. Nifty, huh?" Gohan chuckled. He seemed like a little kid showing off his cool toys. A wave of unexpected pity came over Videl. When was the last time Gohan had played? What kind of life had he led, being the son of a royal and a martial artist at the same time? Perhaps it was only during stolen moments like this out of his busy schedule that he managed to be playful at all. Which was sad, because he was still technically working.

And he was spending it with the daughter of a criminal.

"It sure is nifty," Videl relented. "But I would be more comfortable in a copter."

"All right, suit yourself."

They found their way out of the town of Frypan, now a very different place than when they'd entered it. It was cold and wet, and the drizzle formed puffs of mists in the corners. Videl and Gohan clambered on top of Nimbus, who had waited patiently at the edge of town, and they took off to the sky. Videl switched back to her pyjamas while they were still in the air, and she returned her watch to the prince.

"You should keep it," Gohan suggested. "If another fire spirit falls, you'd still want to be able to visit Frypan if you need to."

"Ah, good point. Thank you."

Videl pulled herself into as tight a ball as she could, giving herself some space from Gohan while ensuring she wouldn't fall off the cloud. But just like their earlier ride, he didn't seem at all flustered at being so close. His mind seemed simply intent on getting home. Or maybe he often had night rides with girls. Ugh, why was she thinking about this? It wasn't her business anyway.

Soon, Mount Paozu loomed in sight, and Nimbus whirled down to the dark patch in the palace gardens right across from Videl's room.

"Thanks for taking me to Frypan," she said as she hopped off the cloud. She steadied her steps, wobbly from the flight, as she ventured towards her window.

"No problem at all. I hope it helps to have a bit more idea of what you're dealing with. Sometimes I feel like the answer is just staring me in the face, but something else clamours for my attention, and then it's gone."

Videl hooked one leg over the window sill, and stopped short. On the bedside table, she found the folded sheet of paper that had fallen out of Goten's slam book earlier that afternoon. She reached for it and turned back to Gohan.

"Your brother forgot this in the library." She opened the paper as Gohan got off Nimbus. "I think it's a family portrait. He's quite talented with those crayons."

"Ah, thanks! I'll give it to him." He barely glanced at the picture, which surprised Videl. Didn't he think it was strange that he had the wrong hair colour?

"Is that your father? The one with the halo?" she prompted.

Gohan took a closer look, and Videl was sure he was going to notice the odd colours now, but he just smiled. "Yes, that's him. See, Goten was born after Dad passed away, but he still likes to include him in family drawings. The halo's there to show that he's gone."

"I see, it must be hard for poor Goten. I suppose he just draws your father based off of other pictures, then?"

"Yes, we kept lots of photos of him."

"I've never seen a picture of Son Goku with dyed hair and contacts."

It was like lightning had struck Gohan. His muscles froze and for a split second, his eyes roamed the picture as if truly seeing it for the first time, seeing the major discrepancies that for some reason, he hadn't picked up on right from the start.

"Aah, yes, I mean, no, Dad had never dyed his hair or worn contacts! I mean, Goten just does this all the time, plays around with different crayons and such! Mom hates it when he draws us like delinquents, haha! Thank goodness she hasn't seen this, you know!"

"Why are you yelling?"

He grimaced, but continued his rambling in a lower voice. "Goten watches those cartoons with the gang of kids, you know, whatchama call it —"

"The Afterschool Clubhouse?" Videl offered.

Gohan took the bait. "Yes, that's the one! The Afterschool Clubhouse, the one with the main guy who has blonde hair and green eyes. That's why Goten draws us like this."

She smiled at his explanation. "Don't worry about it. I was a doodler too when I was his age. It's great he's expressing himself artistically."

"Haha, yeah, for sure." Gohan rubbed the back of his neck. Sweat beaded on his forehead even though it had been half-an-hour since they were surrounded by the heat of Frypan's fire.

"Well, I'm gonna try and catch some sleep. Why don't we call it a night, Ox Prince?"

"You know, that is an excellent idea. Good night, Videl. I'll see you around tomorrow." He leapt on Nimbus like he couldn't get away fast enough.

Videl entered her room through the window. Son Gohan was a little liar. The Afterschool Clubhouse wasn't a cartoon show about a gang of delinquents at all. It was a cooking show about how people across the world made different sandwiches. Why would he lie about Goten's drawing? Why did he seem so stressed out about it?

She sighed as she slipped into her bed. This was the kind of curiosity that would have nagged at her a few years ago, the kind that nipped at her senses until she had it gripped in her palms and laid it all bare. But now, it was easier for her to nudge it to the back of her mind. So what if Gohan had secrets? She did too. Besides, one could hardly expect royalty in positions of authority to be an open book. And so long as it didn't stop her from earning an honest living, why should she care so much?

-o-

Videl had planned to wake up a little later on her off day, but she was wide awake by 6 am and getting restless before 7 even hit. Her body was getting used to waking up before dawn, it seemed. So although her bed and room were comfortable, she surrendered and finally got up.

Breakfast was a freshly made pot of congee, and Videl took her bowl to a corner of the dining room. There were a few others lingering here this morning, but not enough to make her aloneness feel deliberate. In the past two days, she had eaten dinner leftovers to avoid having to make the trip to the dining room before going to the garage, so she wasn't sure what to expect here in the mornings.

"Oh, look, it's the Ox Prince's new bestie, finally deciding not to skip breakfast!" An arm swung over Videl's shoulders, and she found Yanni smiling down at her with a teasing glint in her eyes.

"I never skipped breakfast," Videl answered. "I just had them in my room. And I'm not the Ox Prince's new best friend."

"I suppose you're right." Yanni's smile widened as she settled herself on the bench beside Videl. She set her own bowl of congee on the table. "'Bestie' isn't what we typically call someone who visits your room at night."

Ugh, Videl could kill Cant Merches for spreading that rumour. She imagined the man's fancy little neck squeezed between her fists. Then her imagination balked. Cant just might be the kind of man who would enjoy getting strangled. Videl shuddered.

"If you must know, the prince asked me to work on a project," Videl deflected. "I can't say much about it, but Steban will say the same thing if you ask him."

"No need to ask 'him'," a new voice said, and Steban took a spot on the bench across from them. Instead of one bowl of congee, he'd brought two. "I already explained to the others, but it seems they'd rather believe unsavoury rumours."

His nephew, Miki, and Lin and Sharpner materialized as well, and settled by the table, taking Videl by surprise. Two days ago they made it quite clear they weren't interested in spending time with her outside of work, and now they were cozying up. Did Steban get them to be more agreeable towards her? Or did the rumour make her seem more interesting? Videl wasn't sure if that was the kind of attention she wanted.

"We don't believe the rumours, exactly," Lin said, spooning a heap of congee into her mouth. "It's only that nobody else ever had a private audience with both the Ox Prince and Ox Princess on their first two days here."

"The Ox Princess rarely ever talks to any employee not working at the restaurant," Miki added. That was the first time Videl had ever heard the boy speak. His voice was lower than she initially thought it would be for his age.

"Well, she heard of the rumours too, so she warned me to be careful." Videl didn't think the others would stop teasing or needling until she'd given them something. "It's not an unreasonable request from a mother."

"Did you know you have a strange way of saying something and nothing at the same time?" Sharpner quipped. "Did they slap you with an NDA or something?"

"How's your girlfriend, Sharpner?" Videl asked. She knew Erasa was doing well, but did he? She'd never actually seen them together around the palace. "Don't you think you ought to be worrying more about her than me? If we're discussing hearsays, after all, one of the newcomers is getting a bit handsy."

"You talking about Merches?" Lin asked. She was already halfway through her congee and was surreptitiously eyeing Steban's second bowl through her glasses. "Glad I'm not the only one who finds him sleazy."

"Oh no, has he bothered you?" Videl squinted at Lin, but the young woman seemed all right.

"Not me specifically, but servants talk."

"We should invite him to the Mimosa Courtyard," Sharpner snickered. "It's a convenient place to have an accident."

If memory served Videl well, Mimosa Courtyard was situated at a vantage point on the mountain. It was outlined in red on the map she'd been given as a warning not to go there, because the fence that bordered the cliff was still being repaired.

"I'll have no such talk around me," Steban barked. "You all better be on your best behaviour when I'm around."

"Well good thing you're almost finished your breakfast, old man," Sharpner retorted. "Aren't you and Miki visiting your family village today?"

Videl finished the last two spoonfuls of congee in her bowl. "Speaking of places to visit today, I have a few errands of my own to run." She took her bowl and sat up from the bench. Awkwardness pooled in her belly as five pairs of eyes followed her. She was never sure if she ought to be prompt and formal with them, or offer a little bit of friendliness that may or may not be returned. Erasa and Maisy were easier to get along with. She added unconvincingly, "Thanks for the chat."

Back in her room, Videl found a package waiting for her by the door. True to his word, Gohan had sent her an access pass to the garage and a sleek metallic credit card. Videl smiled. He may be a liar, but at least he was an an accountable one.

It wasn't difficult to find a hardware shop on the way to Mount Paozu. Videl checked out one of the smaller copters from the garage and navigated in the same direction that Nimbus had taken her and Gohan last night. She recalled a small town whose lights had twinkled in the dark not far from the foothills of Paozu, and there, she was able to purchase a wireless camcorder.

Finding a good position for it, though, turned out to be quite tricky. Videl couldn't put it too close to the town of Paozu. Gohan had mentioned how copters malfunctioned when they neared Mount Frypan when it was blazing. If a fire spirit did fall, the camcorder should at least have enough time to upload the footage before breaking down. But it also couldn't be too far that she wouldn't be able to see enough details of the fire spirit.

In the end, she placed it about five blocks away from the outskirts of the town. There was a group of rocky outcroppings there, and she embedded a tripod in a little recess between them. She attached the camcorder on top and trained it towards the sky. It had about a week's worth of battery. If a fire spirit hadn't fallen by then, she'd come back and replace it. This would do for now.

-o-

A week passed, and no fire spirit fell on Frypan. Videl continued gathering stalks in the morning and doing research in the afternoon. Gohan hadn't summoned her for another meeting yet, and she hadn't found out enough information to deliver any meaningful ideas to him. It was difficult to even find resources on fire spirits. Even when she searched on the cyber network, what came up were usually music videos by a band called Fire Spirited, which were not at all helpful.

In the meantime, Videl poured her efforts into mastering all aspects of stalk-gathering. In some of her free time in the afternoons, she would ride the sky-scooter to better familiarize herself with its controls. She also practiced swinging the scythe in the gardens outside of her room, memorizing its heft and the way its centre of gravity changed whenever its blade was retracted. Slowly, she began to incorporate the workouts she used to do back when she was a volunteer crime fighter; not because she wanted to fight again, but because it helped her gain strength and get back into shape.

Their Saturday morning shift came, and Videl noticed a rushed exuberance in the way her teammates performed their tasks. She hadn't been aware of it the previous week, but it must be because it was their last shift before their day off. She remembered a similar energy back when she was a student and everyone couldn't wait until Friday classes were over.

After collecting their customary ten slices of stalks, they hopped on their sky-scooters to head back to the palace. They hadn't gotten very far, when a deep sense of foreboding sunk in Videl's belly. She wasn't sure what it was, but something felt off. She scanned the horizon, her gaze taking in the peaks of the mountains and the tree-covered flats below. Nothing seemed different, but there was something strange she couldn't shake off.

Then she knew. There were no dinosaurs in sight. Not for miles. She might be a metropolitan girl but even she knew that when animals acted strangely, it meant danger.

Only a split second after that realization, the mighty buzzing of jet copters swooped overhead, casting the stalk gatherers in shadow. There were two of them, crudely made and heavily patched, but slim enough to be fast and high. A sharp-pitched whirring echoed in the air, and the tip of the mountain they had just passed exploded into pieces. Wind, dust, and shattered stalk blasted outward and rocked the gatherers on their sky-scooters.

"Everybody, make for a landing!" Steban cried out. Videl was at the back of the group but she could hear the note of panic in the voice that entered her helmet's earpieces. "Don't head for the palace, just land!"

Videl was about to pull up her handles, when one of the sky-scooters ahead of her swayed erratically, emitting smoke. A moment later, Sharpner dropped from it and the scooter erupted in a cloud of flames.

Sharpner's parachute bloomed a moment later, the bright yellow of the fabric easy to spot among the falling blackened debris and smoky air. Videl held her breath as she watched Sharpner struggle against the turbulent movements of his parachute.

"Watch out!" Lin called out, angling her own scooter to dive after him. A large metal piece from the destroyed sky-scooter tumbled through the air, and its sharp edge sliced a hole in Sharpner's parachute. The boy began to plummet to the ground again.

Videl wasted no more time speeding towards Sharpner's shrinking figure, revving up her scooter to catch up with gravity. Wind rushed past her, rocks and vines blurred past. She twisted the scooter just in time to sweep up Sharpner mid-fall, his body slamming against hers. The scooter rattled as she tried to adjust her balance while carrying another passenger.

"You okay?" she asked.

An indecipherable babble came out of Sharpner. His feet kept slipping off the platform. The scooter wasn't meant for more than one rider.

Videl glanced up at the copters. They were no friends or allies passing for a pleasant visit. They had targeted the stalks on one of the mountains. And she wasn't sure if Sharpner's scooter simply malfunctioned from the resulting blast or if those in the copters shot at him as well. In any case, she couldn't let them head to the town of Paozu. Their trajectory all but announced this was their intention.

"Nimbus!" she called out, recalling Gohan's instructions the previous week. She needed to ride up to the copters to confront their attackers. "Nimbus!"

Videl waited for a second or two, but the golden puff of cloud didn't come. Perhaps someone else was using it. She groaned.

"Sharpner, hang on." She released the useless parachute from Sharpner's body, then lifted the scooter up until they were close enough to the others. "You take over, okay? Take my parachute, in case something else happens to you."

"How about you?" he said as his hands gripped the handles.

Videl clicked her tongue. "I'm taking a different ride home." With that, she pounced up to the next scooter above them, which was Lin's. The girl cried out, but Videl didn't stay long. As soon as her feet had found purchase on the platform, she jumped again. This time, her hands clasped around the handles of Miki's scooter. Steban was close by, so she pushed herself against the front of the scooter and jumped over to Steban's, who yelled in surprise. A moment later, Videl reached Yanni, who was the closest to the copters above.

"Girl, you're crazy!" Yanni yelled as Videl leapt, arms outstretched towards the lower rail of the nearest copter. Her fingers clasped around it, and she smiled. All right, now she was in her element. How many times had she hovered on her own copter like this when she had fought in Orange City?

Videl pulled herself up the side of the copter until she faced the door. The pilot was a young man, probably a couple of years younger than her. His eyes bugged when he saw her face leaning against the glass window.

She gave a friendly wave, then punched through the glass. The boy yelled, then batted away at her hand. With his focus away from the controls, the copter danced in the air. Still, Videl's fingers latched on the lock inside the door and pulled it aside. The door swung open, and the boy nearly fell out. Videl caught him, and tossed him to the lower railing.

"That's why you should wear a seatbelt!" she yelled before plunging inside the copter.

Only to be shot at. In some ways, she'd been expecting it. Nobody rode solo in a copter while making an attack. She dodged the bullet in time, and it ricocheted off the metallic wall of the vehicle. The man who had fired it looked at her like she was insane — as if she was the one who randomly showed up and started blowing things up on this very fine morning. His hands shook as he aimed again, but Videl's leg struck out and knocked the gun from his grip.

She lunged at him, delivering a hefty punch to his face. His arms slackened and he slumped in his seat, knocked out.

"Well, at least you're wearing your seatbelt," she observed.

Videl turned back to the controls, and took over the navigation stick. She increased altitude until she could see the second copter out of the other window. Aligning herself with it, she punched in commands in the console to maintain altitude for one minute, and then to switch to auto-pilot for a landing afterwards.

Then she hopped over the unconscious man, opened the door on that side, and leapt for the second copter. Gunshots punctured the window, and the glass shattered, scattering broken shards in the wind. Well, that just made her job easier. Videl grabbed the wrist of the man holding the gun and slammed it against the side of the copter. He yelled in pain, and the gun dropped from his grip. She didn't bother opening the door, but summersaulted into the window, and the force of her legs took out the pilot and landed a blow on the passenger beside him.

The second rider seemed to have prepared for her strike. He was a young man who seemed oddly familiar, and he caught her boot in his hands. His fingers enveloped her ankle, and he slammed her against the dashboard. Levers shifted and buttons clicked against her weight, and the next thing Videl knew, the copter tilted to its side, dropping both her and the young man down to the door with the broken window. She hit the unconscious pilot, who spilled out of the opening.

"No!" she yelled, reaching for him, but the other assailant had already recovered and pulled her up. He swung a punch against her jaw, but he must have not been thinking too clearly, because she was still wearing a helmet and it dampened his force. She knocked him aside, hitting him in the gut, and he sprawled against the dashboard. The copter angled a little less dramatically.

He glared at her from beneath the shock of dark bangs across his forehead. And from that look, suddenly Videl remembered where she'd seen him before. Not him, exactly, but a picture of him. It was from that book she'd read about Scar Town in the Ox Palace's library.

"Endy Vora Jr.?" she gasped.

His eyes narrowed even more with suspicion. "How do you know that?" He lunged for her again.

"Wait, stop!" Videl demanded. Gohan had said that gangs from Scar Town sometimes came and terrorized Mount Paozu to catch their attention and remind them that the town was still suffering from Frypan's fire. But there hadn't been a fire in Frypan for a week.

Unless a new fire spirit had fallen since Videl had checked the camera's footage the night before.

Vora didn't stop. He aimed a strike for her belly, but it was all strength and little technique, and Videl had not problem parrying it to the side. His other blows were the same. It was obvious he'd learned to fight in the streets and did so out of the hopes of outlasting or outrunning his opponents. He lacked the finesse of someone who understood martial arts.

"Listen! I don't know what you think you're doing, but this is a terrible idea!" Videl tried again. Normally she wouldn't try to talk sense into someone she's fighting, not when they hadn't shown any inclination to converse. She usually left that for after the fight. But they were up in the air, in an uncontrolled copter, and she needed him to calm the heck down, because whatever he was planning, it would sure make it more difficult for Gohan to help his town.

Vora backed away, eyes wide. For a moment Videl thought she'd gotten through to him, but she realized he was staring not at her, but through the windshield.

Videl dared to shift her attention for a second, and she shot a look behind her. One of the tall skinny mountains of Paozu was fast approaching the copter. She reached for the navigation stick, but her hand couldn't find it. She glanced around, and her heart sunk to her toes when she saw that it had been whacked out during the fight, and now lay on the copter floor.

Vora opened a hatch at the top of the copter and pulled out a small bag. He looped its straps around his shoulders, and jumped out of the opposite door. A moment later a parachute poofed out of the bag, and Vora flew away from sight.

Videl turned to the dashboard, but none of the buttons were lit anymore. Some of the levers were shifting up and down, up and down, and there were dials that were spinning out of control. All the while, the copter sped towards the ragged face of the mountain.

Damn it all, had it really been a good idea to give Sharpner her parachute? She mustn't have been thinking straight. No matter. She still stood a better chance of withstanding emergencies than he did. He deserved that parachute more.

As for her, she was going to have to do this just on faith alone.

Videl copied Vora and jumped out of the copter. Wind slashed at her as gravity grasped her with its hungry force. Her throat strained as she yelled, "Nimbus!"

The copter exploded in a shower of metal and rocks above her. The tops of the trees below grew in size. She spun in the air, head flipping over her toes. Flaming debris rained around her. "Nimbus!"

The cloud did not come.

One last thing to try. She pulled the scythe from her belt and opened it. The bar extended and the blade shot out. With a desperate energy, she struck the mountain face beside her. The blade bit into the rock. Her body jerked as she slowed considerably, and she tightened her grip on the bar as the scythe sliced a vertical scar down the mountain. Dust and pebbles rolled down and Videl choked back a cough.

A creak told her that her scythe wouldn't survive long, and the next moment, the blade snapped, and Videl plunged down again. Thankfully she wasn't too high up this time. Trees now clung to this part of the mountain, and she was able to grab at branches and roots. But her momentum was too fast, and her grasp kept slipping.

Still, when she hit the ground, it was no longer the violent splatter she expected it to be. She rolled to a stop, a few meters from the foot of the mountain. Videl gulped in air, forcing breath into her lungs. Her heart beat like a hummingbird in her chest. She was alive. Bruised and battered, but alive.

She let out a little chuckle and opened her eyes, which she hadn't realized she'd shut.

The momentary respite she felt vanished instantly at the scene above her. A large debris from the wreckage of the copter twisted in the air and slammed against the side of the mountain. Giant boulders spilled from the damaged area, and both metal and rock descended towards Videl.

She had no energy to move. Pain thundered through her body at the impact, then she knew no more.

Notes:

I'm hoping that the exploration I'm doing in the DBZ world sort of makes sense. I know it's probably not the best idea to try and find a structure to the magic system of DBZ, because it's one of those that hardly has any rules to it. So I'm just going to try the best I can and hopefully the conclusions that Videl and Gohan make about how to solve this problem will feel satisfying!

2025/03/26 EDIT: Hey folks, a reviewer reminded me that in chapter 2, I had included a parachute with the gatherers' outfits! I completely forgot, so I edited this chapter to reflect that. Thank you, Pungis!

Chapter 5: An Olive Branch

Notes:

Thank you so much for the comments last chapter!!

Misty grey fuzziness lingered at the edges of Videl's awareness, an awareness that came and went like clouds in the sky. One moment she tasted dust and mud on her tongue, then nothing. The next moment, an odd mix of the scents of grass and metal wafted under her nose. The nothing. Tiny prickly pebbles crusted the lids of her eyes, but somehow her hands wouldn't move when she tried to rub them away. Then nothing.

Voices. Harried and far, but getting closer.

"… must be under all that rubble…"

"… at least in one piece?"

"…her legs are pancakes…"

Pancakes. Videl would love a serving of pancakes right about now. Five layers stacked upon each other and drizzled with melted butter and thick, sticky syrup.

Then nothing.

Videl was flying. At least, it felt like flying. She couldn't be too sure, because she couldn't really feel much of her body, but there was wind flowing past her face and streaming through her hair. The coolness of it stung the fresh cuts and bruises on her skin. She felt like she was going really fast. Or maybe it was the wind that was blowing really strong. Maybe she was being sucked up into the sky, into heaven. Was she even allowed to go to heaven?

Nothing again, for a really long time.

Gentle sunlight streamed through waves of white muslin curtains. A pot with a single sunflower sat on the sill, soaking up the warmth. Gone was the scent of freshly churned earth and rusted metal and the deep musk of the forest. Instead, the smell of laundered sheets and antiseptic lingered in the air. A thick cotton blanket draped over Videl's body, preventing her from seeing the full extent of her injuries.

Her legs are pancakes.

"My legs are pancakes!" she yelled, bolting upright and tossing the blanket away.

But the legs that peeked out from beneath the infirmary gown were whole and well and unmarred by any wounds or cuts, except the scars she'd gotten long ago. Tentatively, her fingers applied pressure on her muscles, delivering a poke here and a poke there; and with enormous relief, she found that she hadn't lost any sensory on either limb.

Then Videl noticed her hands. Like her legs, they were devoid of new abrasions, even bruises or scrapes. Which didn't make sense, because she punched through the window of the first copter. She'd been wearing her usual fingerless gloves, of course, but she was positive she'd earned at least a few cuts on her fingers.

Videl patted her tummy, her chest, her cheeks and her head. She felt fine. She was fine, for some unfathomable reason.

Had she dreamt up that fight? It had seemed so real. But the last thing she remembered wasn't getting into bed, but getting buried by rocks and debris. And why was she in this bed and not her usual room?

"Hey, Videl. You doing okay?"

She found the Ox Prince sitting on an upholstered chair in the corner of the room. Several thick textbooks lay on his lap, the topmost one open on a page with large diagrams of caterpillars. Gohan's gaze was hesitant, his posture cautious and concerned as if she were a wild animal that would either spook and bolt or tear his throat open.

"Yes, Ox Prince," she answered. Even her voice sounded clear. It didn't have the distinct gruffness of someone who'd been asleep for a long time, recuperating. "I'm fine. Surprisingly. What happened? Last thing I remembered… I fell."

Gohan nodded. "Steban told me everything." He put away the books on a side table, then stood up and moved his chair closer to the bedside. "Your team encountered two copters on your way home from work. They blasted away some stalks and shot Sharpner's scooter. But you ended up saving him, and in a flurry of jumps between scooters, you managed to reach one of the copters. Steban led the others away at that point, and they didn't know what happened afterwards, but from the way the area looked when I arrived, I assume you disabled one of the copters and destroyed the second one. Does that sound about right?"

"I didn't destroy the second one," Videl said. "The navigation stick broke and we couldn't veer away from an approaching mountain, so Vora and I jumped."

Gohan's expression grew serious. "Vora? That wouldn't be Endy Vora Jr. from Scar Town, would it? Leader of one of the biggest gangs?"

"Yes, that was him, but listen." Videl shook her head, trying to organize her thoughts. So many pressing things kept vying for attention. "He and I jumped from the copter before it crashed. I fell from hundreds of meters high up. I kept calling Nimbus the way you told me last week, but it didn't come. My scythe was able to slow my descent a bit, but debris from the copter and some rocks fell on me."

"I'm sorry about that. Goten took Nimbus to West City for a playdate with his friend, Trunks, over there. They were probably using it when you called."

Videl gritted her teeth. Was Gohan deliberately dodging the elephant in the room or was he actually this dense? "What I mean is, how am I alive? How am I even this healthy? I don't feel any pain at all!"

"Ah!" Gohan rummaged through his pocket and took out an innocuous green bean. "I fed you this bean. It has incredible healing abilities. Not gonna lie, when Yamcha and I found you out there in the forest, you really weren't looking too good. But the senzu bean saved you."

"Senzu bean." Videl breathed out the words and slumped back against the pillows. She squeezed her eyes shut. Pancakes and beans and flying clouds and burning spirits. Maybe she was still dreaming. Maybe the real Videl was in a coma. Or maybe she never actually got this job, and all of this was a figment of her imagination borne from the exhaustion of living as an outcast. She was so starved of entertainment, of whimsy, her body had shut down and her mind had drifted off into an alternate dimension.

How many times in the past week had she had this type of thought? Questioned her reality? Almost as soon as she'd gotten her footing, something always struck it from beneath her. When would she stop getting blindsided?

Videl sighed and opened her eyes again. She stretched out a hand. "Can I see that?"

"Uh, sure." Gohan dropped the bean into her palm.

"You don't seem amazed by this." She squinted at the bean, but from the outside it truly looked nothing out of the ordinary. "Do you know how many medical specialists would be screaming around like headless chooks if they knew something like this existed?"

A faint flush dusted Gohan's cheeks. "Don't get me wrong, I am awed by it. It's just that I've seen it in action a few times before. And while I realize it can be extremely helpful, unfortunately senzu beans are not something we can produce at scale. I'm lucky my friend has some ready for you."

"Friend? You're friends with a drug dealer?"

"What? No! I'm talking about a cat."

If one's soul really was capable of leaving one's body while still alive, the numbing sensation Videl just felt probably indicated that her soul had just been ejected out of her.

"Videl, I just want to thank you," Gohan said, and the deep sincerity in his voice brought her senses back to her. It felt like the only real thing she could get a grip on at the moment. "You saved Sharpner and the rest of the Stalk Gathering team. Steban said that those copters looked like they were heading here, so you probably even saved our village as well. You could have just landed like Steban told you to, but you didn't."

He added, almost shyly. "The way your team rambled on about how you maneuvered your way to those copters, I almost didn't believe them. I mean, I knew from your interview that you had pretty good fighting skills, but that's a different beast than aerial parkour. You knew you were in danger of falling at any time, but you still did something. It seems like you still have quite a bit of heroism left in you."

Videl stared at her hands, wondering if what he said was true. It was heartwarming to receive a bit of praise for a change, but the last time she'd really tried to be a hero, she ended up hurting people who were important to her. In her blind pursuit of truth and justice, she'd forgotten compassion. The lines between right and wrong had blurred so bad, she didn't want to think about it anymore.

"And thanks for landing one of the copters too," Gohan continued. "When I found it, there were no passengers inside anymore, and they didn't seem to have taken much with them. I found notes in the glove compartment. Aerial maps of Mount Paozu and lists of establishments here. There were dates too, and what looked to be past plans of attacks. I cross-referenced them and found out they were the same dates and times when Paozu village got raided or harassed previously."

"They're the same group who attacked you before."

Gohan nodded. "It would seem so. And because you said you saw Endy Vora Jr., now we know it's his gang that's responsible."

"You're going to punish them, then?"

Gohan ran a hand over his face. "I know it's what they deserve. Word of the attack got out fast, and many villagers are furious. I can't do nothing, otherwise it will look like I don't care, but I don't know what's an effective way to hit Vora."

"Did the fire in Mount Frypan return?" Videl asked. "I don't understand why they came looking for a fight, otherwise."

"I haven't had a chance to check. It's only been two hours since Steban and the rest of your team reported the incident to me."

"Just two hours?" The senzu bean really must be a miraculous cure.

"Yes. Actually, I'm scheduled to chat with Grandpa in a little bit. See what our next course of action should be."

Videl nodded at the textbooks Gohan had set aside. "Those don't look like prep for a political chat." From this angle, the spines of the books were easily visible. Introduction to Ant Mounds, The Metamorphoses of Caterpillars, Explore the World Beneath Your Soil.

Gohan glanced behind him, then smiled a little. "No, you wouldn't think so, but they actually help me clear my head a little. Gain some perspective. Sometimes it's important to remember that there's more to the world than just squabbling beings on power trips."

"Fair enough."

"Well, if you're feeling better, you don't have to stay in bed. I just wanted to make sure you're doing all right." He stood from the chair, but Videl suddenly remembered something.

"Ox Prince, you said you and your friend, Yamcha, found me in the forest," she began, not quite sure how to phrase her question. "Uh, how did you two get me back home? Did we take Yamcha's skycycle?"

"Oh." Gohan blinked. "No, um, we took a copter back."

"A copter… really?" Had the wind on her face and hair something she'd just imagined in her delirium?

"Of course. A skycycle would have been dangerous for you in your prior state."

That made sense. If her injuries had been severe, how would they have positioned her body on a skycycle? Videl shook her head. Something felt off, but this seemed like it should be the least of her concerns. She was back in the palace now, she'd undergone a miraculous recovery, and Gohan would be taking care of Endy Vora. She ought to relax.

"Right. Sorry, I'm just a bit confused." She sighed. "I'll go and check the camera I installed over Mount Frypan in the meantime."

"Make sure to get some food in you, first," Gohan suggested as he neared the door. "And I know you're feeling much better, but it wouldn't hurt if you took the day off. I already spoke with Steban and he'll even give you the day after tomorrow off too if you'd like."

With a wave, Gohan bid her farewell and exited the room. Videl spent the next few moments slumped in bed, going over her conversation with the prince, allowing everything to sink in. When she felt a little steadier, she swung her legs over the side of the bed.

That's when she realized she was still clutching the senzu bean in her hand. She observed it again, but no matter which angle she looked at it, there seemed to be nothing special about it. Whatever magical properties it held, it couldn't be found on the surface level. Gohan had said it took a lot of effort to obtain a senzu bean, but she hoped he wouldn't mind too much if this one got wasted. She had some experiments to conduct.

-o-

Videl scanned her memory of the palace map, trying to figure out where the infirmary was situated. She had taken a turn down two hallways, and if she didn't know any better, she was positively lost. She'd tried to backtrack to the room where she'd woken up, but she somehow couldn't find it. The other hallways didn't look familiar, and none of the doors that lined them opened up when she twisted the knobs. It was a stroke of luck that a cleaning servant passed by, and Videl asked for directions.

It turned out they were on the third floor of the palace, one she hadn't looked over very well on the map, because she hadn't believed she would need to visit it so soon. Videl took the stairs down, and was relieved to find the familiar crossing of hallways that led to the servants' dormitories. She turned right, and almost smacked into Sharpner's chest.

"Aah!" She hopped back quickly as Sharpner flung his arms out.

"Videl! You're all right!"

She blinked up at him, and her jaw almost dropped at his tearful stare. She took another step back, afraid that he might hug her or something. She might have saved him, but they were not on hugging terms yet. Not by a long shot.

He moved his arms awkwardly, before finally setting his hands on her shoulders. "Thank goodness, we thought you might have died!"

"Yeah, well, so did I."

"Huh?"

Videl's fist tightened around the senzu bean. There had been no clothes set out for her in the infirmary, so she'd had to make do walking around in the papery white gown. It had no pockets, nowhere for her to hide the bean. If it was as special as Gohan said, it would be wise for her not to let the secret slip so easily to others.

"I mean, it was a close call," she replied. "But as you can see, I'm quite all right."

Sharpner sighed. "Videl, look, I'm so sorry for being a jerk to you." This time, Videl's jaw really did drop. "The way I treated you this past week has been awful. I didn't deserve getting saved, but you saved me anyway."

It took a few moments for Videl to digest what he'd said. In the last couple of years, very few people had ever apologized to her, even when she ended up doing them a good deed. "You were a jerk, that's true," she said. "But it didn't mean you had to die. That's a bit much, isn't it? Trust me, if there was someone else more capable of saving you, I would let them have the honour."

"Well, I'm really grateful you still found it in you to make the effort. I know I didn't make it easy." He released her shoulders and leaned against the wall, crossing his arms. "It's not an excuse, but I guess I was just upset about how Hercule's lie ruined so many people's lives. You probably don't know what happened, you were probably so busy just handling the changes to your own life, but… everyone in Orange City suffered because of him.

"Did you know I had multiple offers from colleges with sports scholarship? I may look like a dunce, but I had potential. But all of a sudden, none of those schools wanted me anymore, because I wrote about how I looked up to your dad in my college essays. And Erasa? She got kicked out of her modelling agency, all because she lived in a city that was gullible enough to have changed its name to Satan City for a few years. Without her job, she couldn't go to school either. She was going to major in math. You know she's secretly a genius, right?

"And just… there are so many experiences just like ours, Videl. I know you and your dad were exiled to a fishing village, but if you haven't stepped foot in Orange City recently, it's like a ghost town."

Videl bit the inside of her cheek. She had heard of what happened to Orange City. The investments that had poured into that city when her father had claimed he'd killed Cell were siphoned off just as quickly when he'd been exposed as a fraud. Tourism was the first one to go — Orange city couldn't possibly be the home of the World Saviour when no World Saviour actually lived there. Then the politicians all got terminated from their posts. How could they have allowed a scammer like Hercule Satan run unchecked all these years? Then the business hubs and the tech hubs disappeared. And with so many citizens migrating away, even small shops started to suffer.

"But it wasn't like it was your fault," Sharpner continued. "And I shouldn't have treated you like it was. You weren't the one who made up that lie. You probably didn't even know, did you?"

Videl shook her head. "No, I found out the truth just a little bit before everybody else."

Sharpner blew out a breath. "Well, I'm glad to know that you didn't discover it through the media, at least. Did you have a chance to talk to your father before things went downhill?"

"He denied it." Videl snorted.

"I'm sorry." Sharpner's eyes reflected the type of pity Videl hated. What kind of father would lie to his own daughter for years? What kind of father, given the opportunity to finally be honest, would throw that chance away? It was the kind of father that cared more about fame and fortune than he did about family. And Videl hated that pity, because it made her resentment seem justified and vindicated.

"Don't be," she said. "I'm sorry about what happened to you too. I didn't think things would end up that badly for everyone else."

Familiar voices echoed down the hallway. Videl was about to squirm her way out of the conversation to finally get to her room, but Sharpner craned his neck and shouted, "You guys, we're down here! Videl's all right!"

Steps thundered on the floor and two blinks later, the rest of the Stalk Gathering team rounded the corner to the hallway.

"Videl!" a chorus of shouts emerged from them. Their faces varied from shocked joy to doubtful concern.

"Whoa, you do look okay," Yanni remarked, eyes wide with surprise. "I thought you'd be at least a little beat up."

"Did you really take down those copters with your bare hands?" Lin asked, adjusting her glasses as she scanned Videl from head to toe.

"Give her room, folks," Steban commanded, and almost as one, they all took a step back and gave Videl some space. "Now I'm glad to see you're feeling fine. I was worried that you wouldn't find a safe way to get back down on land. You managed to take over one of the copters, I assume?"

"Uh, not quite." Videl scratched her cheek. "I used the scythe to slow my fall down a mountain. I kinda broke it…"

Steban let out a hearty laugh. "Figures. You don't do things conventionally, do you? Not to worry, I'll get you another scythe."

"Thank you," she said.

"Videl, just to clear up the air, I want you to know I've always been cool with you," Yanni said, leaning closer to her like she was sharing a secret. Try as she might, Videl couldn't detect any deception in her eyes, and she was quite good at picking that up. "I was only worried about Sharpner here, you know. When he recognized you, he seemed so distressed."

"We just wanted to support him," Miki added. "He really wanted to make a fresh start here, away from Orange City."

"It's all right, I get it." Videl shrugged. "I'm new and you rallied around him. It's to be expected. I suppose it's an admirable display of solidarity." If she had been in their shoes, she wouldn't put it past herself to do something similar. Choose between a stranger with a shady reputation or a comrade that braved the skies with her everyday? It was hardly a competition.

"And that changes now." Sharpner gave her a brilliant smile, one that Videl had no doubt had wooed many girls in the past, including Erasa. "No more being awful to you. From here on out, I'm your man, Videl. And we're your team!"

"That's right!" the others echoed with eager, hopeful smiles.

They wanted her forgiveness, she could tell. They wanted her to say they were on a clean slate. If she were still the old Videl, she might have made them work a little harder for it, but now she was tired and she hated silly games, and it felt good to have people around whom she didn't always need to have her guard up.

So she said, "Thanks. I'm glad to hear it."

-o-

There was a surprise waiting for Videl when she entered her room. On the lone table sat a bento box that was still warm. A folded note was tucked beneath.

Thanks for protecting our stalks. – Son Chichi

Despite herself, Videl couldn't suppress her smile. A tough mother bear this woman had portrayed herself to be on their first meeting, but it appeared as if she too had a softer side. The bento box consisted of sticky rice, fermented vegetables, and julienned Paozu Stalks stir fried with tofu in garlic sauce. That Videl got this delicacy for free was a testament to the princess' gratitude.

She changed into more comfortable clothes and hid the senzu bean in a capsule. Then she tucked into her meal with hearty eagerness. The Paozu stalk had a surprisingly tender texture, almost like meat that had been simmered for hours in a stew. Its flavour was more akin to mushroom though. She wondered what the Ox Princess' process of preparing it was. It didn't surprise her that people from cities all over the world came here to try it.

Videl ate at her desk, basking in the afternoon sun, a little awed by how a single act of heroism could change so many people's minds about her. She was still the same Videl as yesterday, as last week. The same daughter of the same man who'd lied to the world. The only difference was that she'd taken advantage of an opportunity to prove she was more than that, and people ended up benefitting from her actions.

It could have gone a different way. She could have made a mistake. People could have gotten hurt. And everyone would double down on their belief that she and her ilk were a lost cause, better off sequestered away from the rest of the world, no matter how good her intentions were.

Playing hero was a risk now, because depending on the outcome, you could very well end up being the villain.

In a way, she felt much safer operating in the shadow of someone like Gohan. What they were doing with Mount Frypan and Scar Town was noble, but she would never have initiated something like that on her own nowadays. Let him make the decisions, make the calls. She'll do what she could to help, if it meant securing stability for Paozu, and hence, stability for herself.

With that thought, Videl booted up her laptop and connected to the camera she had set up near Frypan. Just like her instinct had told her that morning, there was now once again a fire blazing in the old town. It wasn't as big as the one she and Gohan had put out last week; only one section of the town was aflame. Still, this meant that a fire spirit had fallen, and Videl could check out how that had happened.

She scanned through the recorded footage from last night. Before she'd gone to bed the previous night, Frypan had still been dark and cold. So the fire spirit must have fallen some time while they were all asleep.

It happened at 2:43 am.

A bluish ripple appeared in the sky, almost like a very thin aurora. The ripple expanded and from its heart, a brilliant orange orb pushed through. Videl zoomed in, and the orb materialized into the dough-like figure that she and Gohan had seen last week. It tumbled in the air, almost like it was sinking slowly through water, but then it gained speed. Faster and faster it shot through the sky, aiming for a bullet's eye right into the town of Frypan. The houses obstructed where it landed, but she knew the moment it hit, because her screen whited out for a few seconds. When colour came back, flames licked an entire sector.

She sat back on her chair, head tilted against the headrest. In her mind she replayed over and over what had happened. A ripple appeared in the sky. The spirit came out of it. A ripple. A spirit.

She straightened again, then rewound the footage to 2:43 am. The distance from the ground to the ripple couldn't be more than fifty kilometers. It was well within the Earth's stratosphere. There was no other activity happening in the sky when the ripple appeared, no other disturbances above that. It meant that the fire spirits weren't coming from outside the Earth. They weren't talking about a strange alien invasion here.

That ruled out outer space phenomena. There were still thousands of other potential explanations, ones she could barely fathom, but at least she was getting somewhere.

Videl opened up a dozen tabs on her browser, and began searching fervently. Thermal disturbances in the stratosphere, blue light in the sky, falling fire balls, intra-atmospheric energy. She tried all the keywords she could think of that might bring up anything that could resemble a fire spirit. She spent the next hour poring over the results, with not much success. The scientific community didn't seem to have magical experiences all that much, it seemed.

Just then, she stumbled upon a page that recounted the very first fire spirit of Mount Frypan. It was a scanned version of a very old newspaper, and at first, Videl didn't believe she would learn anything from it that she didn't already know. She was about to press back to the results, when something caught her eye.

"A villager of the kingdom had witnessed the destruction of the mountain," the article read. "Mr. Corncob now stands before his ruined house, sobbing. 'Of course we wanted the fire gone. But we didn't think our homes would be destroyed by that energy blast.'"

Energy blast? Videl recalled how strong the Bansho Fan was last week, but she would hardly call it an energy blast. And though the wind had been strong, it didn't obliterate the already tattered buildings and fragile structures around them.

The article went on, "The blast Mr. Corncob refers to was a sudden burst of concentrated energy that came from the outskirts of the kingdom. Multiple witnesses testified to seeing it happen, but nobody knows where it came from. It lasted for a few seconds, and after it ebbed away, the entire town, along with the formidable mountain of Frypan itself, sat on the ground in shambles."

Could the Bansho Fan have produced that much power? Her research had told her than there were three modes to the fan. The first wave produced wind. The second wave produced wind and rain. The third produced a storm. Nothing indicated concentrated energy. Could her research have been wrong?

Or was there another way to put out the fire?

Videl rubbed her eyes. Didn't Gohan say that they had always used the Bansho Fan to put out the fires of Frypan? He'd mentioned it, didn't he? He'd told her that he'd tried many different ways to extinguish the fire, but the Bansho Fan was the only thing that seemed to work. And when they'd visited Frypan last week, all he'd said was that the mountain got destroyed when his father and friends extinguished the first fire. He'd never mentioned how. He'd left it up to her to make her own conclusions, and she didn't notice the discrepancy until now.

Videl stood up and exited her room. She needed to set this straight with Gohan. His grandfather would have known about that energy blast. If they really had tried many ways to put out the fire, Gohan would at least have been aware of that one. Why would he keep it from her?

She made her way to the royal wing and knocked on Gohan's door. If he wasn't back yet from his talk with his grandfather, she would just sit here and wait for him. This wasn't the news she'd thought she'd bring to his door, but she couldn't concentrate on the fire spirits' origins until she'd ironed out this puzzle. If Gohan hadn't been upfront with her about something so important, what else could she be missing that could help her with this project?

To her surprise, the door opened and Gohan stared back at her. He was in pristine dark blue satin pants with an elaborate silver embroidery. And that was all he was in. A boot was tucked in his arm, in the process of being polished.

"Sorry, um, I'll come back in a bit." Videl turned around, but Gohan stopped her.

"It's okay, you can come in. I'll put something on."

Videl slipped into his room, keeping her eyes averted as the prince went to the area of his room with his bed and wardrobe.

"Are you doing all right? What brings you here?" he asked.

Videl blew out a slow breath. Would he lie to her if she just asked outright? Instead, she angled for an indirect approach. "I was just curious, when did your family get a hold of the Bansho Fan?"

"Ah, that would be just before my parents' wedding. Mount Frypan went up in flames again, and they went to this really grand adventure just to retrieve the Bansho Fan."

Gohan appeared in her line of sight once again, this time clad in a tunic the same blue shade as his pants, with a pair of boots fully laced up on his feet and an ox fur and a horned helmet clutched in his hands. She faced him, crossing her arms.

"But the first time Mount Frypan burned, your parents were young kids, weren't they? They didn't possess the Bansho Fan then."

Gohan's brows raised in a sudden understanding of where she was taking the conversation. He pinched the bridge of his nose. "Ah, yes. Back then, they managed to put out the flames some other way."

"An energy blast?" she suggested.

His gaze snapped to hers. "How did you know?"

"I just read an article about it. An old one that interviewed some witnesses." She shook her head. "An energy blast? Why didn't you tell me before? Why did you make me think the Bansho Fan is the only way we can put the fire out?"

Gohan cringed. "Because it's not an option for me. That first blast destroyed the mountain, Videl. It destroyed the whole town."

"What even was that energy blast? With the right controls in place, this could still be an avenue to explore—"

"No, it can't." And he looked pained as he continued, "Because I've made it myself a few times, and it wasn't any more effective than the Bansho, yet it still ended up wrecking big parts of the town."

Videl balked. "You. You made an energy blast. That destroyed the town."

The prince rubbed his face, clearly hesitant. Videl waited, the silence marked by passing heartbeats. She found herself hoping he'd clarify that it was just some piece of technology, one too advanced to finetune for the moment. Instead, he raised his palm. At first, Videl thought that the pinprick of light that began to grow above it was just a trick of the afternoon sun, but then it grew into a small ball, golden in colour, searing in its brightness.

"What is that?" she breathed. She took a step back.

"This is chi, Videl. Energy. Every living thing has it." It grew bigger, as big as a golf ball, then as a baseball. "There are ways to control chi. An energy blast is a chi that's been shot forth with a lot of force."

Then it snuffed out, and this time it was Gohan who crossed his arms. "Energy itself is not dangerous. Like I said, everyone has it. You have it. But some of the techniques used in martial arts to wield chi can be downright devastating, and I'd really like to avoid having them associated with me. Remember in court last week when I got upset with Mr. Torr? Do you remember feeling a bit spooked?"

Videl nodded, and as if her memory conjured the feeling right back to life, goosebumps grew along her arms and at the back of her neck. A sinking sense of doom filled her chest.

"This, too, is a way to control chi." And it stopped almost as soon as it began. "And I'm ashamed I had to resort to it. It's not the kind of prince I'm trying to be. I want to be respected, not feared. Do you understand?"

He looked at her then with a piercing stare, as if he was scrying her very soul. And she knew almost immediately that although she'd come here to test the prince, it was her that was now being tested. Gohan had revealed a secret about himself, and he wanted to see if she'd react in a way that would either confirm or dismiss his worries.

"I'm about to head to Scar Town now," he added in a low voice, almost a whisper. "I was getting ready when you knocked. Grandpa and I see no other way to dissuade any more of their reckless attempts other than to flex a bit, show them we're not doormats they can walk all over."

Videl frowned. "By flex, you don't mean with that chi stuff you were talking about, right?"

Gohan smiled and finally broke eye contact with her. Without a doubt, Videl realized she'd failed his test.

"You wouldn't have asked me that if you hadn't known about energy blasts, would you?"

"Ox Prince, I—"

"No, it's okay. I'm partly to blame. I didn't handle this correctly with you." He placed the horned helmet on this head, looking at a mirror across the room. "I've thrown a lot of stuff at you this past week, and I overwhelmed you. I'm sorry about that, Videl."

Videl ran a hand through her hair, trying to collect her thoughts. The wildest thing about all this was that even though Gohan was more of a mystery now than ever, she still understood where he was coming from. Having people assume the worst about you based on one aspect of your life? She of all people knew what that felt like. And she'd just done the same to him.

"Ox Prince, I want to help you," she stated with all the conviction she had. "Please believe that. But in order for me to help, I need to know the full context of what I'm getting into. I know you have secrets to keep, that's your prerogative as a royal. But when it comes to this project, I need all the facts."

Gohan gave her a slow nod. "That's a fair ask. Meet me here tomorrow morning at breakfast. I promise I'll answer all your questions about Frypan."

Chapter 6: A Lesson in Power

Notes:

A/N: Hey everyone! Thanks for the reviews last chapter. Sorry if this is a little late. I've been distracted by Arcane season 2, lol.

There wasn't much Videl could do for the rest of the day other than rest in her room, which was fine since she wasn't in the mood to do much of anything. Her brain felt clogged with too much information. She still hadn't fully absorbed the confrontation with the Scar Town thugs that morning, and everything else she'd learned since then threatened to pulverize her mind into mush.

Erasa and Maisy dropped by for an afternoon snack and tea, and that was about as much socialization as Videl could handle. They'd been worried about her after hearing stories from the other stalk gatherers about the attack. But seeing her healthy and unharmed put them at ease.

When they left, it was still a few hours before dinner would be served at the cafeteria. Videl lounged in bed, thinking about Gohan, about Scar Town, about Endy Vora. Had the gang leader made it back home already? He'd jumped from the copter with only a parachute. He wouldn't have been able to go back to Scar Town so quickly on foot. Unless he'd hitched a ride in the badlands or had been in possession of capsulized vehicles.

Videl wished she had followed Gohan to Scar Town, but that would be overstepping her role. She was just a stalk gatherer. Even with the fire spirit research, she was just a helper. She wasn't some official emissary or ambassador the Ox Prince could take to negotiate with other politicians. In any case, it would be a terrible idea. If she had gone with him and people had recognized her, Gohan's reputation would be severely diminished. Nobody would take him seriously.

She snatched her laptop from her desk and searched up Scar Town. Not many people paid attention to the small, impoverished settlement, but these days, anything interesting had a high chance of ending up as a scoop on someone's blog or a clip on someone's video channel. And a young, handsome prince of a recovering kingdom delivering a warning to its troublemaking neighbour was nothing if not interesting.

Her hunch was right.

The first result that showed up on the page was a 40-second clip of Gohan entering the gang-infested town. It was captured by a bystander amidst a crowd of onlookers who paused everything they were doing to gaze at the prince. And he did look quite princely, even in the shadows of the walls of the canyon that boxed in the town, shading it in colours of evening instead of afternoon. The horns on his helmet and the sash of ox fur declared exactly who he was, and though Videl knew that he had some trepidations going into Scar Town, none of that showed in his expression now. His shoulders were relaxed, his chin up, and the slightest smile played on his lips.

Another clip showed Gohan much farther into the town than the previous one, and a few tough-looking men tried to block his path. But he shoved them away without much effort, even though they ended up skidding several feet from where he stood. The others glowered at him, but didn't have the courage to go near.

"Is Vora in there?" Gohan's voice said as he walked off-screen, and the video ended as if the person recording hastily hid their phone.

Back on the results page, Videl clicked on the next relevant video she saw. This one was longer, four minutes, and it was shot inside a shabby room with mold-stained walls, cracked ceiling, and a concrete floor riddled with dust bunnies. It contrasted sharply with the occupants of the room, who were clean-shaven, well-dressed men and women sitting on plastic chairs by the walls. The camera panned to a tidy wooden desk with a golden serpent paperweight. Endy Vora Jr. sat behind it, his feet up on the table, crossed at the ankles. Videl was surprised to see he made it back so fast.

Gohan stood over him, arms crossed but with the same soft smile on his lips. They were conversing in polite tones, despite the heavy words they were exchanging.

"I don't do well being threatened, Ox," Endy Vora Jr. said. "I think it's a bit cheeky for you to come strolling into my house, yapping about how you're gonna do this and that the next time we attack Paozu, when we never did."

"My servant saw you this morning during the attack." Gohan lifted a shoulder in a shrug.

"Then she must be mistaken. Injured people do tend to hallucinate sometimes."

Gohan picked up the gold paperweight, pretending to inspect it. "And how did you know it was a 'she'? And that she got injured?"

Ooh, caught in a lie. Good job, Gohan. That was the kind of verbal slip that Videl used to trick her opponents into all the time when she was a crime fighter. He was handling this much better than she thought he would.

"Look, Vora, I'm not here to waste both of our time. We're trying to deal with Frypan's fire as best as we can, and harassing my kingdom is just distracting us from doing exactly that. So you have a choice. Allow us to concentrate on putting out the fire or stall us indefinitely with your attacks." Gohan placed the paperweight back down.

"Your best? You call that your best?" Vora chuckled. "Ox, it's been two years. I say, you're dragging your feet. You don't really care. Not when you're miles away in a different mountain breathing clean air and eating good food. Well, the rest of us don't have the same luxury of just getting up and leaving. Look, if you're as serious as you say, then give me a guarantee. I want the fires of Frypan smothered for good in four weeks."

"I don't really believe you're in a position to give me a deadline here."

The gang-leader laughed. "Do they really call you an ox? I don't see an ox, just a serpent. You're trying to slither out of making a promise. So I'm right, aren't I? You're never going to take this seriously."

"Stop attacking Paozu," Gohan said sternly. "I'm serious about that. Next time, you won't even get within five kilometers of our mountain."

The video stopped abruptly. Videl refreshed the search page, but although there were a few more hits than before, they were all just regurgitating the same clips. As the afternoon gave way to evening, she dozed a bit on the bed, occasionally checking for newer content. She found a short blog post written by Ed Torr, and despite herself, she clicked on it.

Things Heat Up at the Base of Frypan was the headline. It referenced the three short videos that Videl had already watched, but Torr had inevitably added his own spin to them. "Is the Ox Kingdom planning to wage a war against this quaint little town hiding in a fissure in the rocks? There is no doubt it will win, but it won't gain much. In this writer's opinion, they're far better off nourishing the restaurant business."

War. They were far from that, weren't they? It was just like Ed Torr to play up the conflict. Even the comments section was lacklustre. Only one person had something to say, and it summed up pretty much everything she thought about Ed Torr. "Some lame fearmongering you got here"," it read, with a yawning emoji.

-o-

The next day dawned grey and overcast with the promise of a cool drizzle. The hallway lanterns leading to the Ox Prince's room remained lit against the gloom. Videl wondered briefly if she should be a little more circumspect in her visit, but she hoped her newfound social credit would at least prevent any more malicious gossip from spreading. From what Erasa had told her, nobody actually believed she was cavorting with the prince; he was way too straitlaced to cavort with anybody, apparently. People were just senselessly repeating that rumour out of entertainment.

And if she were to help Gohan settle things once and for all with Frypan, maybe she would no longer be at the mercy of whatever hearsay was making its rounds in the palace watercooler.

The prince's door was ajar when she arrived. Still, she knocked at its gilded edge.

Gohan peered at her from behind it and grinned. "Great, you're here! We can start."

She stepped in his room and found the glass table laden with breakfast items: poached eggs drizzled in yellow sauce, slices of ham and bacon, fillets of grilled salmon, steamed vegetables, fried potatoes, bowls of fluffy rice. A matching set of tea kettle and cups sat on a tray, a wisp of steam coming from the mouth of the kettle.

"Please, help yourself." Gohan handed her a plate, then began piling some food on his own.

Videl settled down on one of the surrounding chairs, and she took a bit of the eggs and the vegetables. She had half a mind to ask how his meeting went with Vora yesterday, wanting to hear his version of the events she'd seen from the video clips, but she didn't want to distract from the main purpose of this meeting. She would have to ask him later.

"So, chi." He devoured an entire chunk of salmon before continuing, "Like I mentioned yesterday, it is energy that resides in all living things, and it's possible to harness it and control it. There are many things that it can help you do if you know how to wield it correctly. Energy blasts are just a subset of controlled manipulation of chi, and there are many different types of energy blasts. Following so far?"

Videl nodded. "But what I don't get is if everyone has this chi, why aren't more people blasting away at each other?"

"It takes great skill to manipulate chi. And most people don't know about it, don't know that it can even be controlled." He poured some tea into a cup. "And maybe that's not such a bad thing. Like you said, if people were more aware, there would be a great deal more destruction. However, there are other things controlling chi can let you do: for example, spreading an aura of a certain emotion, like I did at court, sensing other people who are using a large amount of chi, boosting your own strength and stamina, moving at inhuman speeds, flying—"

"Flying?"

"Yup, flying."

"I don't believe you." People, flying? If any human had figured out a way to fly, they would have immediately milked all the money from others who would have wanted to learn. It was every child's dream to fly. Roaming the skies, untethered from the earth, was one of the most common fantasies out there for those who weren't afraid of heights. Why hadn't this secret been unearthed long ago?

Gohan placed his teacup and plate down, and stood up. He stepped away from the couches, and like one of those magician assistants in a traveling town fair, his body lifted several inches from the floor. Videl dropped her chopsticks, and they rolled over the edge of the glass table and fell to the floor. She didn't pick them up. She stared and stared and stared, thinking she was going to catch a subtle glimpse of a thread-thin harness somewhere, but she didn't, and that wouldn't make sense anyway; a thread-thin harness wouldn't be able to hold up the prince's weight.

The Ox Prince landed back on the floor. "Flying," he stated one more time as if to underscore his point.

Videl pinched the bridge of her nose. Then her temples, and then her entire forehead. "Why even hire stalk gatherers, then?" she asked, her voice taut with frustration. "If you can control chi so well that you can fly, and quite possibly, have boosted strength, why hire people who can easily die from a fall to harvest the stalks on the mountain tops?"

"Back when support dried up from Grandpa and mother discovered that she can make food out of the stalks, that was how we'd done things. I gathered them myself. But when she started to make a business out of it, and the Ox Kingdom started to flourish again, it was just better optics to hire other people."

Videl sighed. Of course, once the restaurant got popular, people would be curious about the process of harvesting the stalk. Telling everyone that her teenage son flew up to the mountains and gathered the giant stalks by himself wasn't exactly the kind of sophisticated image the princess would want to show.

"And then Grandpa started taking me under his wing, and mother thought I was better off concentrating on princely duties."

"You know how helpful it would have been yesterday if I'd known how to fly?" Videl said. Yes, she had managed to land almost safely, but she'd been so depleted of strength, she'd been unable to dodge the falling debris. If she'd known how to fly, she could have landed far away from the wreckage. "In fact, do you know how much the world can use all these things I learned the past week? Things like the senzu bean? Nimbus?"

Gohan sat down and steepled his fingers. A shadow of a line formed between his brows. "You see them as helpful, because that's the kind of person you are, Videl. You see people who struggle and want to rectify their situation. But from my experience, there are many others who would do the exact opposite."

Experience? He talked as if he were some jaded warrior fighting against an ancient evil, like in those doorstopper tomes she used to read. But as far as she knew, he was the same age as her, and he'd lived all his life in this relatively peaceful mountain.

"I'm sorry about the accident yesterday, truly I am. And if you want to, I can teach you how to fly."

Videl's eyes widened. "You can do that?"

"As long as we keep things on the down low, okay? I'm revealing all of these things to you, because after yesterday I do believe that you're better off not being ignorant about them. However, they're still secrets. And my family and I have good reason not to broadcast everything we know to the entire world."

Secrets. Videl had such a complicated relationship with those, as both a keeper and a revealer. It was astounding just how much the Ox Prince was trusting her with all these information, especially after knowing her for only a week. Was he more desperate to fix Frypan's fires than she'd initially thought? But then again, he was probably more than aware of how much she depended on him for her job. There was no way she would risk earning his ire if it meant losing her source of income. And that was true enough. Videl would keep his secrets, because she had no choice. And Gohan knew that.

"And you're still willing to teach me how to fly?" she asked.

"With your martial arts experience, I'm sure you're already using chi in ways you don't even know. In that way, teaching you how to hone that skill wouldn't be too difficult. We can meet on days when I'm not so busy. I know a room or two in the palace grounds that should keep us away from prying eyes."

"So if these secrets are so well guarded, how did you learn about them? The chi? The energy blasts? The senzu bean and Nimbus?" she asked.

"Mostly through my father." A fond smile appeared on Gohan's face. "He kept eclectic company when he was alive. And speaking of my father, there is another thing that I tried to put out Frypan's fire. It's a dead end as far as solutions go, but I did promise to tell you all about my previous efforts."

Gohan strolled over to a side table and picked up the red hat with an orange ball that Videl had seen the first time she'd been invited to his room. Even before Gohan sat back down in front of her, she braced herself for some momentous revelation. There was no way a hat with a ball could be used to put out a magical fire without being somewhat extraordinary themselves.

Turned out the hat wasn't important. Gohan detached the ball from it and threw it back on the sofa. But the ball, he handed over to her. It was cool to the touch and heavier than she'd expected. Floating inside were four red stars.

"That's a dragon ball," Gohan said. "The four-starred dragon ball once belonged to Grandpa Gohan, who gave it to my Dad, who then gave it to me. There are seven in total, and if you collect all of them, a dragon will grant you a wish."

Well. There it was. The genie that Videl had been waiting for, the one that would complete this fairy tale-esque world. She bit her lip, forcing herself to get over the disbelief; at this point, she should already be an expert at that anyway.

"And I'm guessing you tried to wish for Frypan's fire to go away?" Obviously, it didn't work.

"Yes, and I wished for the fire spirits to stop falling. The dragon said he does not have purview over their realm."

"Realm?" Videl's mind flashed to the footage she'd recorded of a fire spirit falling from the sky. A ripple had opened up before the fire spirit squeezed through. Did that mean the fire spirits were falling from another dimension of sorts?

She related her thoughts to Gohan, describing the footage she'd seen the previous day. "Do you believe that there's some kind of parallel world inhabited by these spirits?"

A look of deep thought settled over the prince's face. "I don't know if 'parallel world' is the phrase I'd use for it. It's not like an alternate version of reality or anything. If I have to guess, they're still of this world, just in a different plane."

"A hidden world, then." Like with fairies. Might as well add those to the mix too.

"In any case, the dragon not only can't do anything to impact the fire spirits' realm, but because their source of power comes from there, he also can't put out the fire," Gohan explained. "So we've pretty much hit a wall with that option."

"I see." Videl finally picked up the chopsticks she'd dropped, set it aside, then took a piece of bread and munched on it for a bit. "Still, knowing that the fire spirits are from a different realm definitely helps. It would narrow down my research. I wasn't sure if I needed to consider them as some kind of aliens at first, but the footage ruled that out. And they're not simply a natural or scientific phenomenon, because the dragon's refusal to grant your wish implies that these spirits have some kind of sentience or agency that he can't override."

"Do you think they're falling on purpose?"

Videl shrugged. "I don't know yet. My hunch is that they may have agency, but not much intelligence. Otherwise, they would have spread out well beyond Frypan by now. But it seems like once they've fallen, they just stay in the same place."

The two of them ate in contemplative silence for the next few minutes. When Videl had her fill, she placed her plate down, and finally broached the other topic she was curious about.

"How was your meeting with Vora yesterday?" she said, then added to show she already had some context, "I saw a few video clips."

Gohan's shoulders drooped. "Not as well as I hoped. I just can't figure out that guy. He's not acting rationally."

Videl snorted. "If you wait until bad guys act rationally, you'll be waiting forever."

"Thing is… I don't really view him as a bad guy. At least, I don't think he's evil. His methods are questionable, but his motivation is rooted in helping his town. That's why I just don't understand why he won't cooperate with me. I'm trying to save his town!"

"He doesn't believe that, then. He doesn't trust that you'll save it."

Gohan rubbed a hand over his face. "He wants a guarantee, which I can't give. Either that, or monetary compensation for the damages Scar Town is incurring from the fumes of the fire. My Grandpa already gave them large donations of food, water, medicine, and other necessities, but Vora is insistent he wants money this time. He says he knows better what needs they have, so he should be able to control what they buy."

Videl crossed her arms. "He's not wrong, but you also have to keep in mind that Scar Town is ruled by gangs, and Vora himself is a gang leader."

"Exactly. How do I know that money isn't just going to his gang? And if other gangs catch on, they'll realize that all they have to do is harass the Ox Kingdom and they can weasel money out of me to keep them at bay. I will basically be rewarding them for attacking us and potentially be funding a gang war between them! What a mess."

"Ox Prince," Videl ventured slowly. "Have you ever thought of… dealing with the gangs once and for all? Without them, the Ox Kingdom would be a lot safer while we conduct our research."

"You mean, take out Endy Vora and his followers?"

She shook her head. "If you take out Endy Vora's group, you gotta take out all of them. You see why, don't you? Leaving a power vacuum would mean that the other gang leaders would fight even harder to fill the void that Vora's gang left behind. Scar Town would be worse off, which just might spur even more attacks on the Ox Kingdom."

Gohan's skin paled a shade lighter. "But taking out all the gangs would wipe out the town's entire leadership. Unless we… wait, you're not suggesting we…"

"I think there's a reason the Ox Kingdom is flourishing and Scar Town isn't, don't you?"

"You're talking about conquering Scar Town." The Ox Prince breathed. "You're saying Grandpa and I overthrow their leaders and annex them to the kingdom."

"You don't look terribly excited about it."

"Excited? I think it's a horrible idea!" Gohan's voice rose a notch in outrage.

"Don't you think that the people of Scar Town deserve better? For decades, they've been ruled by warring gangs. There's not enough stability to establish any lasting industries or trade. The biggest dream some kid over there has is joining up with one of the stronger gangs. Wouldn't things get better of your Grandpa takes over?"

"No!" His answer was so vehement, he ended up standing. He paced between the couches, wringing his hands. "I don't think you understand what you're suggesting, Videl. We can't go swooping in and taking over an entire place just because I think we're better than whoever's leading it right now. That reeks of exactly the same logic I've heard growing up from power-hungry monsters who would have destroyed everything I've ever loved!"

Videl hadn't expected the prince to get so metaphorical. What kind of people had threatened the Ox Kingdom in his childhood? She thought that after the Ox King had reformed from being a violent raider, the kingdom had become quite peaceful.

She decided to drop the topic. "It's all right. You shouldn't be listening to me anyway. I'm just a servant and you're the prince."

Gohan blinked, then glanced at her and the breakfast table. He scratched the back of his neck. "Oh gee, I got a bit worked up, didn't I? I'm sorry about that."

"No need to be sorry," she said as he took his seat before her again. "In fact, I'm a little relieved."

"Relieved?"

"You don't know how many people I knew in the past who would have taken a suggestion like that and implemented it right away. They would have been so sure of their methods, their superiority, and thought little of the eventual suffering the residents of Scar Town would face if their entire society was uprooted."

"It's so tricky, isn't it? Because I do agree that the people of Scar Town deserve better. But I also think the change has to come from within. If only I were a smarter prince, maybe I would have figured this out already."

"You'll get there," Videl gave him a smile. "I think being a level-headed prince, at least, is a good start."

-o-

Videl's pencil flew in a flurry as she jotted down everything that Gohan had related to her during breakfast. She sat in the warm, golden light of the pre-noon sun streaming through the tall library windows. She was alone here, but her mind was noisy with thoughts arranging and re-arranging themselves, trying to form a cohesive picture. Books sat open around her, flaunting passages on ancient chi principles, scientific theories of energy, and illustrated fairy tales. Somehow, a line flowed across all of these, connecting them together, and Videl just had to figure out what that was.

Fortune seemed to have struck her in the form of a small, yellowed pocketbook of some travelling scholar who'd passed away thirty years ago. His journal was filled with notes about inexplicable phenomena that he'd encountered in his journey, one of which was a fire spirit.

According to him, there were only two places in the entire world in which people have witnessed a fire spirit fall. To Videl's surprise, Frypan wasn't even the most common one. No, there was a place over the sea just off the coast of the badlands where fire spirits fell at least once every other month, and they had been doing so for centuries. Of course, they never survived the fall into the deep, and hence, never caused any damages.

But when the traveller was still alive, the only instance of a fire spirit falling over Mount Pleasant was fifty years before the journal entry was written.

Videl rummaged through the notes and pages scattered around her. Before she left Gohan's room after breakfast, she had asked for a timeline of all his attempts putting out the fire at Frypan. She had also asked to mark the dates when he'd used energy blasts instead of the Bansho Fan.

It seemed as if Gohan had been keeping track of his activities, because he was able to supply her very quickly with it. He'd handed her a page with dates. The ones marked with asterisks were the ones when he'd blasted the fire away.

With this data in hand, Videl constructed a chart. She dotted all the dates when fire spirits had fallen. Then she delineated the dates when an energy blast had been used over the area, including the one that Gohan's father's friend had performed.

When she finished, the pattern was clear. Before the first energy blast had been used, there was a space of almost a hundred years between fire spirits descending. After that, it was six. Two more times, fire spirits fell in intervals of six years, but Gohan had mentioned that they were put out quickly using the Bansho Fan and didn't cause any commotion. Then two years ago, the Bansho Fan had been moth-eaten, so when another fire spirit had fallen, it had caused a lot of damage before Gohan had flown to Mount Frypan and used an energy blast to put out the fire.

The interval got even smaller thereafter. Three months. Then another energy blast, and now the fire spirits were descending every two weeks or so.

Could it just be a coincidence? That every time a powerful release of chi had cleared the fires, somehow fire spirits started to fall faster? Did it have something to do with the fire spirits' realm? But correlation didn't mean causation, so…

Videl sensed the hand about to clap her shoulder before it landed, and she turned to catch it in her own.

"Merches!" she said, glaring at the smirking young man behind her chair. "What do you think you're doing trying to sneak up on me?"

"Aww, if you wanted to hold hands, you could have just asked," he replied nonchalantly.

"I didn't think you were the type of person to visit a library." Videl was barely managing to veil her contempt. She must have been so deep in her thoughts she didn't realize another person had come inside. Sweeping her hands over the desk, she closed the books and gathered the loose sheets into a tidy pile. It was bad enough that he could easily glimpse at the things she was researching, it was worse the he happened to be Merches. Possibly the one person in the palace that could suck all the hard-won patience Videl had honed over the years.

"I can assure you, I'm quite skilled at reading a book."

"But not reading the room, apparently."

Merches looked around. "Nobody else is here."

"And you didn't think that I might have preferred it that way?" Videl stashed the books and sheets in a tote back, and she slung it over her shoulder.

"I only wanted to say hi."

"Oh sure, that's what you wanted." She moved across the aisles, heading towards the exit. "I bet tomorrow when I wake up, there will be whispers about me again. What would it be this time? That I'm a misanthrope who prefers the company of books to people?"

Merches laughed, following her down the aisle of shelves. "I don't think you need my help for people to think you're a misanthrope. Don't you think you're being a bit unfair to me? Everybody knows you're working closely with the prince on some special task. Even if I hadn't told one of the servants I'd seen you leaving his room one night, rumours would have started anyway."

"Spoken like someone who just doesn't have any accountability." Videl shook her head. "Don't you have things to can? Isn't that why you're even in the palace? Last time I checked, harassing servant girls doesn't make food canning faster."

"No, I'm not here to can the stalks. I'm here as the rep for the canning company." A sliver of amusement slipped into his voice. "And last time I checked, that means I outrank you by about five positions. Perhaps you should rethink your rudeness. I believe you owe me an apology."

Videl stopped in her tracks. Tension shot through her shoulders, down her arms, and in her fists. She turned around slowly, inspecting the young man before her. She'd thought he was just a nuisance, nothing more sinister than Sharpner had been before she'd won him over. A clownish, foppish sort more interested in himself than anybody else to do any real damage.

But now he was really getting on her nerves.

"Cant Merches, here's what you and I are going to do." It was time to nip this little annoyance in the bud. "We're both going to mind our own business. You'll focus on helping the restaurant can its food, you'll stop cornering servants and spreading tasteless rumours, and I will be civil towards you from here on out. Does that sound like a good proposition to you? You are a business man, after all."

Merches crossed his arms. "Are you sure that's the deal you want to go with? Because whether or not I keep my end of it, I'm certain you must be civil towards me, regardless. The moment I find you less entertaining, one word to the Ox Princess about how awful you've been to me, and I'll no longer have to deal with you."

Oh ho ho, so they were playing this game now, huh. Videl chuckled. "Are you threatening me? You need to work on that. I once fought a one-eyed beggar thief with rotten teeth and a cleft tongue who could spit out scarier things."

"You seem so confident in your standing." Merches cocked his head to the side, a fringe of auburn hair falling between his eyes. "What, you took down two copters, and you feel like you're better than the rest of us? As if you're not the daughter of the man who had the gall to fake his own achievements? Tell me you don't really think you're so powerful again."

"Oh, so this is about power for you? Well then, I can also tell the Ox Princess about how awful you've been to me and multiple other girls in the palace, and maybe we'll no longer have to deal with you."

Merches smiled. "But think for a moment, Videl. It will be your word against mine. Those girls aren't going to say anything, because I asked them very nicely not to. So, whose word is the princess going to believe? Yours or mine?"

Videl returned his smile, making it as sickeningly sweet as she could. She patted his shoulder. "I think you're smart enough not to want to find out."

-o-

She wasn't going to do anything about him, Videl decided. She was making headway on her research, feeling like she was finally on the route to a discovery, an insight. Merches was just a mosquito distracting her.

Still, that night Videl found herself walking down the steep steps of the mountain on which the palace perched. In the lower valley, some lights still twinkled among the houses of Paozu village. Sharpner had told her that there was a late-night cyber network cafe operating near the Stalk in the Frypan restaurant. For what she was about to do, Videl didn't dare risk using the network in the palace.

She didn't even know what had actually changed her mind about Merches. There were so many things about their conversation that had continued to spark fury in her veins whenever she recalled them throughout the day. The reminder that her word was tarnished because of her father. The insistence that she was supposed to be powerless. The absolute gall of him threatening the palace girls not to say anything about his behaviour. Did Erasa brush off his antics because she'd already received a threat? Did Sharpner know? How many others had Merches accosted?

Videl told herself this was about getting justice for them. Because they deserved it, and if Gohan's household became a place of fear and intimidation, that would reflect poorly on him as a prince. And if the Ox Kingdom suffered reputational damage, then maybe less people would want to visit the restaurant and they wouldn't need stalk gatherers anymore. Or it would embolden the gangs of Scar Town and they would wreak more havoc.

The Ox Prince needed to maintain harmony in his palace, and she was just going to help him do it. She was already helping him with a diplomatic project, after all. This was simply going to be a little side quest.

Red and orange lanterns hung on the eaves of the roof of the address Sharpner had given her. Cigarette smoke wafted from the flaps that covered the doorway. Giggling girls and boisterous boys could be heard inside. Lin said that gamers often flocked here for a late-night tournament. Just the kind of noisy environment Videl needed.

She pulled her cap's visor a little lower over her forehead. It was 11pm, and she wasn't too worried about being recognized, but even if somebody did, who was going to question why an eighteen-year-old needed to access the cyber networks here? Every teen had their vice.

If Videl was going to help Gohan deal with Merches — and she was very certain that Gohan was the one who needed to be seen taking action, not her — she needed information. She needed some dirt that would tie Gohan's hands so far in his back that he'd have no choice but to fire Merches. Normally Videl would have reached out to the servants who'd been harassed, and in a just and fair world, their reports would have been enough, but Merches was playing a power game, and she needed more leverage.

Let him think she was powerless. That was fine. Her father had also believed for a long time that she was not as strong as he was. That she was just a naïve little girl who looked up to her hero of a dad and wished to be like him. And in some ways, she had been.

Videl entered the cafe. It was dim, but lights flashed from big screens, blinding her with vivid colours. Chirpy tunes and bass-powered beats competed for dominance in the crowded space. She navigated the maze of rooms until she found one that had some empty spots. She chose a computer at the very corner, and plugged in a USB stick to boot it up to a different operating system, one that already had all the programs she would need.

Even when Videl was tight with the police, there were some information she could only find out through the dark web — leaked passwords, personal information, scandals buried by million-sens bribes. And now that she had no official links to the police, this was the only way she could find out anything worth scaring Merches with.

It was a big gamble to do this. And as she fired up the special browser that could tap into websites that would normally be blocked on household computers, a wave of hesitation splashed through her.

The last time Videl had done this, she had also told herself it was for justice, for truth. That it was better to live a humble and honest life, than to live an ostentatious one mired in lies. She'd believed she was doing the world a favour. But in the end, she hadn't been able to predict just how many lives her action would upturn.

Videl's fingers reached for the USB stick. This was crazy. Merches was infuriating, but he shouldn't goad her into making rash decisions. He wasn't totally wrong about everything. He did outrank her, and as a servant, it was her place to keep her head down and just do her job. That's what she'd come to the Ox Palace for, anyway. Wasn't it? Get a job and get paid, that was all.

For a moment that felt like infinity, her fingers hovered over the stick, unable to move. She was done being a hero, wasn't she? Maybe she never had been. There was nothing heroic about ruining your own family. She could just report Merches to Gohan and Chichi, and let them handle it.

But years of brushing shoulders with powerful elites had told Videl that wasn't the most efficient way of dealing with this. Poor Gohan was already contorting himself trying to figure out how to pacify Scar Town without losing face and compromising his morals. There was a lot of pressure on Chichi to nourish the restaurant business as the lifeblood of the kingdom's treasury. Videl didn't know how important the canning venture was, but unless she could offer up compelling evidence for why they didn't need it or an alternative that could replace it, Merches would remain. And once he found out she tattled on him, she had no doubts he'd pounce. Or worse. There was a chance he might mistake the tattler as one of the other servants.

Videl lowered her hand and placed her fingers on the keyboard. Maybe there was no harm in just checking to see what she would find. If she didn't find any dirt, and Merches turned up surprisingly clean — though she didn't believe it — then she'll assess her next best course of action. But for now, she could use more information.

On the browser was a form, prompting her for her credentials. Taking a deep breath, Videl began typing her username: sunsetbeluga36.

Notes:

A/N: I hope that revelation was foreshadowed well and doesn't seem like it came out of the blue! I think I dropped in so many crumbs in chapter 3, some of you were definitely getting suspicious, hehe.

Chapter 7: A Life To Get Used To

Notes:

Hey folks! Sorry it took me over two months to update. Life was pretty hectic around the holidays; also life doesn't know that a new year has begun, and it had the audacity to continue being as relentless with its problems as it was in 2024. The nerve!

That said, no matter how busy I get, I have every intention of finishing this fic, so please bear with me!

Videl found something about Merches, although it wasn't the juicy, scandalous thing she'd been hoping for. Still, it might be enough to rattle the Ox Family's confidence in him. Even if they didn't sever their partnership with the company altogether, perhaps it was enough to get Merches replaced as liaison.

She sat on the information for a few days, planning how she was going to break the news to the Sons. Simply revealing the dirt she had on him without any precursor would only make her look aggressive and predatory. Not a good move, especially when Merches was the closest thing to a predator here.

Every time Videl passed Merches in the hallways or in the courtyards, she refused to make conversation, or even to acknowledge his presence except with the barest of nods and only when others were around. Whenever he caught her alone, she poured all her stealth training to good use to slip away. Let him think that he'd cowed her, that she was simply intent on minding her own business from here on out.

Videl remembered doing the same thing with her father just days before she'd anonymously exposed her findings to the media. She had pretended to give up questioning him, pretended she'd accepted all his denials and believed his lies.

And now the tables have turned between father and daughter.

She'd never admitted that she was sunsetbeluga36 to anyone, not even to him. All Hercule knew was that some sinister hacker had known the truth and that his daughter had somehow caught wind of it before everybody else. He didn't know that they were one and the same.

It was ironic how hard Videl had tried to escape one secret, only to end up burdened by another.

-o-

The elder Ox Prince invited Videl one afternoon to an indoor garden just after he'd held court. It was tucked away in some recess of the palace accessible only through a maze of stairways beginning in the royal wing. A servant led Videl there and deposited her by a cluster of broad-leafed bushes she didn't know the name of, then left without saying another word.

Videl stepped through the tiled paths, eyes raking over her surroundings. The walls of the palace bordered the southern edge of the garden, but the rest of it was encased in glass. Tall, glittering panels of glass towered over her, converging in a floral-patterned ceiling overhead. The garden itself was nothing to sniff at, with its dozens of brightly coloured blooms and neatly-trimmed hedges. But what caught Videl's eyes the most was the view outside of the glass walls. The garden must be situated near the edge of the mountain face, because the scene that greeted her was an expansive view of the foothills and rolling fields beyond.

"Hey, Videl! Glad you could make it!" Gohan strolled towards her. He'd gotten rid of the formal attire he'd been in during the court session earlier, trading it for a blue set of gi, tied at the waist with a red band.

"No problem," Videl replied. "I was just helping Steban sharpen the scythes, but we were almost done anyway. What can I help you with?"

"Actually, I was wondering if you're interested in learning how to fly."

Videl balked. That hadn't been the topic she thought he'd bring up.

"I'm still sorry, you know," he added, losing a bit of his bright energy. "About your accident last week. I don't want you to think we're negligent about the safety and well-being of our employees here. The sky-scooters you all ride are top tier models from Capsule Corp., with an advanced balancing system to prevent falls. The dinosaurs are, unfortunately, a mild hazard that comes with the job, but we never anticipated the sky to be a place of true danger for our gatherers."

Videl had a sense that Gohan's idea of danger — true or otherwise — differed slightly from the norm, but she also knew that her accident had partly been her fault. Steban had ordered all of them to land; only she had chosen to confront their attackers. Even though it might have saved more people and more stalks, her decision had clearly deviated from safety protocols for her role.

"Are you sure you're okay with teaching me to fly? This whole chi business seems to be top secret for your family."

Gohan gave her a confident smile. "You seem trustworthy enough. I don't think you go around revealing other people's secrets carelessly."

Not carelessly, perhaps. More like meticulously planned.

She tried to return his smile, but found her lips stretching into a grimace instead.

"I told you all about chi anyway," Gohan said. "It's really up to you now if you want to apply it. And I believe this skill is better off in your hands than most."

That was true enough. Learning the applications of chi might even give Videl a leg up in her research. She hadn't gotten much further in her brainstorming because of Merches, but she still had a hunch that the fire spirits' recurring descent onto Frypan had something to do with chi.

Besides, she had no bone to pick with Gohan and the Ox Family. They treated her with respect, even when other people seemed to believe she didn't deserve it. And as far as she could see, they abused neither their privileges as royalty nor the secret powers they possessed. Their secrecy wasn't a direct danger to others nor an accessory for exploitation. Videl had no reason to reveal them.

"Yes, I would really like to know," she admitted.

"Great! I chose this meeting spot, because nobody should be able to see us here. Come along."

They walked deeper into the gardens until they reached a large round empty space bordered by benches. Instead of taking a seat on one of them, Gohan lowered himself cross-legged onto the tiled ground. Videl followed suit.

"The first thing you probably need to learn is to just… feel your chi. Know your chi." He positioned his palms facing each other, and from between them a small glowing light emerged, suspended in thin air. It was the same type of light Videl had witnessed in his room when she'd questioned him about the energy blast that had extinguished the first fire of Frypan.

"I have no idea how to produce that at all." She copied the way he held his hands and concentrated on whatever energy she could feel in her body. Her shift that morning with the other stalk gatherers hadn't been any more strenuous than normal, and she'd just finished a filling lunch two hours ago. All in all, she felt energetic enough, but she had no clue how biochemicals in her body could manifest in something outside of herself.

"Don't strain," Gohan stated. Videl didn't even realize she was doing it. "Think of the way your strength flows from the soles of your feet and out of your fist when you deliver a powerful punch. There is chi in that flow. Channel it out your palms. No, no, you have to relax."

Videl appreciated the tips, but relaxing wasn't typically her reaction when she was poised to punch someone. Being calm and being energetic felt so mutually exclusive.

Closing her eyes, she drew a breath, rolled her shoulders back, and concentrated on her pulse, on the steady beating that breathed life into her body. Warmth flowed beneath her skin, a tingling that she had always assumed was just the coursing of blood in her veins. But was it really just that? The more she focused on it, the more it seemed… alive. Like it was its own entity.

Experimentally, Videl tried to grab a hold of it, with some intangible sense she didn't know she had, like moving an invisible limb. She imagined the chi as water, something that she could pump more volume to and divert into paths she wanted it to go. She gathered what she could from her centre, pushed it down her arms, out her palms, and then —

"Hey, there we go!"

Videl's eyes snapped open. Between her hands, a tiny pinprick of light glowed like a dim star. A tiny gasp spilled from her lips as she took in its brightness. She didn't think it would actually work. But it was there. She wasn't hallucinating.

"I knew you'd get it right away," Gohan added. "Being a martial artist probably helped you a lot. You have excellent control over your power already."

She had a sense that he was being way too generous with his compliments, but she was still awed that she managed to do it at all.

Gohan stood up. "Right, now I want you to try and push that same energy out of your body in a way that propels you from the ground."

"From my feet, you mean?" Videl pushed herself to a standing position too, recalling the way Gohan levitated in his room.

"You can start from there, sure. But flying can happen in any position." He scratched his chin. "I think once you give it a try, you'll see what I mean."

Videl wondered how Gohan himself learned how to fly. He seemed to be groping for words, as if nobody else had ever explained it to him. She had met skilled swimmers who had learned to swim by being flung into a lake or a river. Perhaps Gohan underwent a similar lesson.

She shuddered, glancing at the edge of the glass-walled garden.

Videl reined her attention back to her feet again. She summoned the same senses she'd used to feel the energy in her arms, except this time she tuned it to her legs. Grabbing hold of the energy pulsing from within her body, she ushered it down her thighs, over her knees, and out her feet.

It took some strong pushing before Videl overcame her weight, but once she passed the threshold, her heels lifted from the ground, and then her toes. Gentle wind from the pressure she exerted fluttered her hair and the hem of her baggy shirt. Although she'd been expecting this result this time around, it wasn't less of a marvel to witness that she was, in actuality, floating off the ground.

She must have lasted less than a minute, but the next thing she knew, she was on her knees, sapped of energy, panting like she'd run up and down Mount Paozu.

"Easy, there." Gohan placed a hand under her arm and helped her get back up. "But that's an incredible achievement! You've only just tapped into your chi moments ago, and now you were able to use it to fly."

"I wouldn't really call that flying," Videl said, her voice a bit strained. But her legs had stopped shaking, and she found that she could mostly stand on her own. She brushed the strands of her hair back in place.

Then she remembered something as her fingers fell from her head.

"You flew me back, didn't you?" Videl asked. "When you and Yamcha found me after Vora Jr.'s attack. At least one of you did, assuming Yamcha can also control his chi. We never took a copter."

Gohan's eyes widened a bit, then a scattering of pink crept over his cheeks. "Y-yes, you're right. I carried you. Yamcha and I flew home. So you were still conscious, then?"

"A little bit. I caught glimpses every once in a while."

She had been right after all. There had been wind through her hair and on her skin. Getting flown back in a copter hadn't sat well with her, even though it was the explanation that made the most sense back then.

"And that time during court, when you wanted to hire Yamcha and some other man to build the bridge, you mentioned they could do it in two weeks. Is it because their control over their chi gives them superhuman strength and speed?"

"Wow, do you have photographic memory?" The Ox Prince chuckled, almost nervously.

"No, I have normal memory, like everyone else. Odd things tend to stick more in my mind, like two men who can build a bridge in two weeks."

Gohan laughed. "Fair enough. I have to admit that sometimes what I find odd isn't exactly the same as what everyone else does. But you're correct. Krillin and Yamcha have been able to control their chi for decades, and are very adept at using it to their own purpose. You will be able to do it soon too if you practice regularly."

"So this will be a regular meeting?"

"I can't set an exact recurring day and time, but whenever I'm free, I can let you know. And of course, you can also practice on your own."

Gohan dusted himself off even though his gi remained quite spotless. Sensing that their session was nearing its end, Videl made the split-decision to test the waters regarding Merches.

"Ox Prince," she called just as he'd turned down the path towards the entrance of the gardens. He paused and glanced back at her. "Speaking of things that might make my job easier — well, that might make palace work easier in general — have you seen or heard of any disruptive behaviour lately?"

He blinked. "Oh dear, did Goten smear peanut butter all over the furniture again?"

"Huh?" Videl shook her head. "No, no, this isn't about your brother." She approached the prince, recalling how she used to break tough news to others back when she worked as a crime fighter.

"Listen, Ox Prince. Something has been happening among the servants, and I'm not surprised it hasn't reached you, but I think you should know."

"Oh." Gohan's brows drew towards each other.

"Cant Merches has been a nuisance to several female servants. He consistently flirts with them while they're on their shifts, and he threatened to get them dismissed if they dare to complain. He spread malicious rumours about me, and when I acted less than cordial with him, he made the same threats to me."

"Oh gee, that bad, huh?" Gohan sighed. "I've always seen Merches as something of an immature fop, but I didn't think he was making so many people deeply uncomfortable and scared."

"If it was just me, I can let it slide. But I came to you, because you're in charge of the Ox household, and I know you wouldn't want something like this to be happening under your nose."

"No, you're correct about that." Gohan scratched his temple. "Thing is, I wouldn't hesitate to kick him to the curb, but Mom needs him. I can easily relocate him to an inn in the village instead, but that would surely sour our relations with Merches and Co. if they find out that their liaison is being treated like a commoner."

"Can't your Mom partner with some other company?" Videl had been curious about that too when she was searching for something that might taint Cant's name. It would be easier to burn the entire bridge if Son Chichi could easily find a replacement partner altogether.

"Mom is in a unique position," Gohan explained. "Most canning companies want far more bulk than what we can offer so they can mass produce. The other canning companies that support more modest sized ventures don't have the capacity to extend their operations all the way out here in the mountains. Merches and Co. was the Goldilocks for us."

"I see." Videl supposed it would be a bit unfair to scrap the entire company simply because of one man.

"You should bring this up to Mom," the prince suggested. "She hates lechers and would be more than happy to think of ideas for how to… gracefully remove him."

"Thank you, I will. Until then, would you mind keeping things lowkey? I'm afraid that if Merches gets the sense that I've tattled, he might make things worse for the other girls."

"Of course. And really, I should be thanking you." Then a knowing grin spread across his lips.

"What?" she asked.

"Nothing," he shrugged. "It's just sometimes you act like you're not the butt-kicking hero you used to be, and yet this is the second time you're saving people in my court. I'm really glad I hired you, Videl."

-o-

That night after dinner with the other stalk gatherers, Videl settled on the desk in her room and browsed through her notes on chi and fire spirits. There was something about her lesson that afternoon that nagged at her.

The first time Gohan had introduced the concept of chi to her, he'd said it wasn't dangerous. At least, not inherently. When she had released her own ball of chi, she hadn't felt afraid of it. So how was that different from the type of chi that Gohan had produced at court when he'd cowed Ed Torr? How could the quality of chi change from neutral, to sinister, to destructive? What controlled that?

Videl glanced at the capsule that stored the leftover senzu bean she'd received from Gohan the day Scar Town attacked. If the senzu bean followed the same principles of chi, then it meant that chi could be restorative too.

She chewed at her lip, glancing at her notes.

Could it be that fire spirits were falling more frequently now, precisely because energy blasts had been used to extinguish the fires several times before? Her chart showed that the frequency had increased every time that had happened. Perhaps Gohan wasn't just eradicating the flames. Perhaps his energy, being of the destructive form during those times, also eroded the portal.

But what was the portal made of, anyway? If it was something tangible, then why didn't birds and copters hit it?

Videl rubbed her temples. She was trying so hard to find a pattern, but she didn't even know if she was on the right track. She wanted to believe this theory, because if chi could destroy, then it could also restore, and maybe all they needed was some kind of special senzu bean to heal the barrier or shut the portal off for good.

All right, her next step? Learn more about these magical portals. On her next day off, she would fly to Mount Frypan and investigate the location where she'd seen the fire spirit fall.

She tucked away her papers and notebooks inside her desk and collapsed on her bed. She turned off her lamp, and released a small sigh as a cozy darkness blanketed her room. Beneath her covers, Videl felt somewhat grounded, a bit removed from the surrealness of everything that was happening.

The last two weeks had been a whirlwind, and while she still found herself clamouring for stable footing, she had to admit that she was somewhat enjoying herself.

She learned how to fly today.

When in the world had she ever thought that was possible?

She was researching and analyzing and investigating a magical phenomena. She was secretly undermining a lecherous jerk who considered himself above the rules. She was acquaintances with a powerful prince. She was doing so many things she didn't think she'd do again after her father's fall, and other things she hadn't ever considered doing her entire life at all.

Videl smiled, although a part of her felt guilty for being so at ease. Did she really have the right to feel content when her father was exiled to a lonesome hut, spending his days in house arrest? When so many people she didn't even know in Orange City had been affected by the exposure of the scam and may still be struggling even now?

And yet what good would it do anybody if Videl kept herself in poverty out of guilt? She was the only breadwinner in her family now, and the only way she could alleviate some of the suffering she'd caused her father was to make their life a bit more comfortable. It would never be luxurious again, but comfortable was an achievable goal. And she might never be able to personally help out those who had been affected in Orange City, but doing her job well at the Ox Palace could give her the opportunity to help others in some small way.

She was starting to feel as if she was finally in the right place. A place where she could be useful and tolerated, and also flourish in her own way. Imagine what a year here would be like for her. Two years. Five years. It had been so long since she'd imagined a life that far out. For so long, she had only focused on the upcoming day or week. It had been so difficult to predict what kind of job she'd have beyond that.

This was a good life, and maybe exactly the kind of life she could get used to.

-o-

Videl requested an audience with Son Chichi the next day. She didn't know when it would be granted, and was beyond surprised when the princess summoned her in the afternoon, during the lull between the restaurant's lunch and dinner schedule.

She was directed into the innermost section of the kitchen, past rows of steel countertops and stoves, with shelves above them filled with condiments, herbs and spices. The royal cook sat by a table in a tucked away alcove at the very end of the kitchen, browsing through a stack of pages and tapping her chin with a pen. She looked up as Videl approached.

"Oh good, you're here. You said it would be a quick chat in your message?" Chichi said, eyes once again trained on the papers before her. "We ran out of blueflower sauce, so one of the items on the menu need to be replaced tonight. I need to see which of my backup dishes I can make."

"Yes, ma'am," Videl said, then got to the point. "It's about Cant Merches. He's been harassing female servants."

Chichi's brows shot up her forehead. "What, now?"

"Well, I suppose he could be annoying the male servants too, I just haven't heard of it."

Chichi's brows plummeted, and the papers in her hands crinkled. She dropped her pen on the table, only to dig her fingers into her temple in an agitated rub. "Of all the — no, no, this won't do at all. I did not confiscate father's corrupt magazines and ban old man Roshi from the premises just for me to have invited a different pervert right onto my doorstep!"

Videl let out a breath. She had prepared herself for disbelief, or for questioning, or for demands of evidence. That had usually been the case with the police force in Orange City. Not unwarranted, of course — there were protocols to be followed, after all. But if the Ox King himself had been prone to oggling, as insinuated by his daughter, perhaps Son Chichi had enough experiences dealing with men like that to jade her. And perhaps that was one of the reasons she was also so strict with Gohan.

"What happened?" the princess demanded, her list of dishes all but a paper ball now. "He made advances on you?"

"Not on me, but other girls. And he threatened them into not reporting. As for me, he spread those unsavoury rumours you heard about when the Ox Prince first talked to me about Scar Town. I received some threats too about my position as servant, if I didn't stop being so… repellent to him."

Chichi paced across the floor, fingers scratching her chin. She paused for a brief moment by one of the counters, picked up a knife, then continued her pacing.

"It's all right," she said after a while. "I'll just fire him. I don't care. And if Merches and Co. complains, I'll take Nimbus over to their headquarters and burn the building down."

"Burn?" Videl echoed with incredulity. "Hold on, we're burning stuff down now?"

Chichi stood straight, eyes shining bright as she stared at some imagined spectacle far, far away. "That's right! And I'll go over to West City and have Bulma slander them in the tabloids. Perverts and delinquents, the lot of them! Nobody would ever do business with them again!" she ended triumphantly.

"Bulma? You mean Bulma Briefs?" Videl shook her head. "CEO of Capsule Corps? Ma'am, I don't know if a busy business woman like her would indulge your request."

But even as the words were out of Videl's mouth, she remembered the enormous hangar of the palace filled with the latest brands of vehicles stamped with the CC logo. Perhaps the Ox Kingdom was more intimately affiliated with the company than Videl had ever thought.

The Ox Princess wilted. "Oh, you're right." She seated herself on a stool by the counter, knife forgotten in her hand. "I can't always go running to Bulma whenever my business is in trouble. She already helped me so much when I was just starting. And you know what they say. I hear the whispers in the corners of the restaurant. That I'm a Bulma-wannabe. That I'm using the Briefs' template to success. Even now, when the restaurant is doing better than I ever expected, I might never pull my name out of her shadow."

Videl fidgeted with her sleeve, sensing that she was witnessing some deep dark secret that she wasn't meant to see. She would hardly call Chichi a Bulma-wannabe. Their aesthetics were totally different. In fact, until the princess had brought it up, Videl would never have associated her with the Capsule Corps heiress.

"No, I can't burn down the Merches and Co. headquarters!" Chichi wailed. "What am I talking about? If I fire Cant, I'll have to start all over in my search for a canning partnership. Do you know how long it took me to find this one? Two and a half years! Maybe canning isn't the next prospect for the Paozu Stalk, after all. Oh dear, now I have to return to the drawing board and see how else I can expand the business."

"Your Highness, I don't think you have to burn that bridge yet," Videl said, her tone soft and placating. "Let's just take a step back here."

"No? If I dismiss Cant because he's harassing my employees, he'll just deny it. Even if something was caught on a picture or video, he'll say it was just horsing around. That the girl was into it. You're a smart lass, Videl. You know how this goes."

"But what if you dismiss Cant for a different reason?" Videl said. She pulled a slip of printed paper from her pocket, unfolding it. "A reason that's undeniable, and at the same time, would put you in good graces of his parents, the leaders of the company?"

Chichi finally sat up from her slouch. Her eyes, when she looked at Videl, were finally clear and brimming with curiosity. "What do you have there?"

Videl handed her the page, and watched as the princess' eyes squinted, then widened. "A liar? And a cheat?"

"You can say I'm familiar with the type." Videl clicked her tongue. "I don't know why they gravitate towards me like moths to a flame."

The princess shot up from the stool, a burgeoning smile on her face. She placed a hand on Videl's shoulder. "You know, I had my reservations about you. But I'm starting to think you might actually be an asset to this kingdom."

-o-

Cant Merches was supposedly a graduate of the prestigious Corner City University with a degree in business, which he'd earned with high honours. This was rich, considering he'd failed a quarter of his classes, and didn't have the average grade point required to graduate, let alone be magna cum laude.

Among the things that Videl had found in the dark web were a series of emails that Cant had exchanged with the dean of his college. In return for getting the dean's son a position at Merches and Co., the dean made sure Cant's grades were altered. Nobody else knew of their deal, especially not Cant's parents. He'd been very adamant that they didn't find out.

As far as things went in the dark web, this information was vanilla. Traces of grade inflation was something you could find easily even in the regular cyber networks. But Videl supposed that Merches and Co. wasn't a big enough company to engender spicier scandal.

Still, it had the desired effect.

The next day, Videl watched with the other stalk gatherers on the second floor balcony as Cant Merches pulled his suitcases down the main courtyard towards the entrance to the palace grounds. His entourage of servants carried even more suitcases and trolleys packed with boxes and packages.

All of the palace servants who were in the vicinity stopped to stare at him. The Ox Princess and the elder Ox Prince stood at the far end of the courtyard, overseeing Cant's exit and waiting to receive the company's new ambassador. Videl didn't know exactly how the Ox Princess broached the subject to the leaders of Merches and Co., but the deal seemed pretty clear: the Ox Kingdom would keep quiet so long as they got a new liaison.

For his part, Cant didn't so much as look miffed or out of sorts. He made it seem like getting replaced was entirely in accordance with his wishes. His hair was neatly slicked back like always, his suit spotless, his shoes polished to a glean. He even donned a careless smile on his lips, as if he was venturing off to a luxurious vacation.

Cant caught Videl watching and sent her a wink. She wasn't sure whether to interpret that as a sign that he knew she'd been involved in his dismissal, or if he was just trying to get a rise out of her one last time. He wasn't entirely stupid, so perhaps the former.

"Gee, something really urgent must have happened at their company," Sharpner remarked beside her. "They didn't even give us a day's notice that he'd be leaving."

"Doesn't really affect us much, though, does it?" Yanni said. "Restaurant matters rarely impact us beyond orders for stalks."

"I don't know about that," Lin chipped in. "Cant affected everybody who lived here. He acted like he owned the palace half the time. Pissed off dozens of servants."

"Is that why he's leaving? For his insolence?" Sharpner said.

On Videl's left side, Steban cleared his throat. "Now, now, we don't need all this speculation. The boy is leaving, and I'm sure we all feel it's good riddance. Let's leave it at that."

Yanni shrugged, but leaned against the banister as the last of Cant's entourage disappeared beyond the gates. A moment later, a new group of people stepped inside the courtyard. It was spearheaded by a woman with dark brown hair pulled up in a strict ponytail. She wore a sombre-toned coat, knee-high boots, and dark leather gloves. Instead of a whole cast of personal assistants, she was trailed only by three other people.

Rolla Merches, Cant's older sister. Videl had seen pictures of her during her research. The woman was actually the reason Cant had felt compelled to secretly adjust his grades. She'd been a straight-A student, landed two internships even before graduating, and did both of them at the same time as her last semester. The school doors hadn't had a chance to hit her on her way out yet, when she'd arranged a profitable partnership for her family's company by leveraging her connections from one of her internships. Rolla was exactly the type of person that would put Cant to shame with his failing grades and less than stellar business acumen.

With the absence of the flair that her brother often flaunted, Rolla bowed deeply before Chichi and Gohan. The three exchanged pleasantries too soft for Videl to hear. Then the Ox Princess stepped aside as Gohan waved for Rolla and her assistants to follow him down towards the visitors' wing.

The palace servants dispersed, a hum of curious murmurs following them. Videl sighed, wondering if this was the end of her little side quest. She didn't find any dirty trails in Rolla's wake during her research, so it seemed safe to say that the woman wasn't the type to stir up trouble.

Videl caught Lin side-eyeing her as they paced down the corridor to the servants' wing.

"What is it?" she asked.

"You wouldn't have any idea what happened by any chance, would you?" Lin said, leaning towards her so the others didn't hear.

"What makes you think I would?"

"Well, you are a lot closer to the Ox Prince than the average servant," Lin pointed out. "He didn't happen to mention any issues with the canning venture?"

"Nope, he didn't." Which was true. There was nothing wrong with the canning venture itself, and Gohan wasn't the one who had brought up problems with Cant.

"I know Cant was particularly mean-spirited towards you. You must be relieved he's gone."

"Eh," Videl shrugged. "You know I'm used to people talking behind my back." She elbowed Lin slightly. The girl blushed and adjusted her glasses on her nose.

"We really upset you, didn't we?"

"Oh come on, we're cool now." Videl smiled. "I promise, we're cool. And you're right. I am relieved that Cant is gone."

Notes:

I'm thinking of maybe adding a bonus chapter, like an interlude, next. I feel like the plot has been moving at breakneck speed, and I'm not letting the characters breathe a little. Videl is actually very close to solving the mystery with the fire spirits, so we're leading up to the climax now. Also, I went over the outline for the upteenth time, and I just feel like I need more buildup before I get to the bigger plot points. I'm not really sure what to pad the story with though, without it feeling like unnecessary filler. What do you guys think? Beach episode? Lol!

Chapter 8: Interlude

Notes:

We're dropping the plot in this chapter, folks. This installment is just for funsies! Thank you to everyone who said they'll be interested in a filler chapter. I had so much fun coming up with this mini adventure!

Videl trekked down the long, majestic stairs cut out of the mountain face that led from the Ox Palace down to the Paozu village. It had been a week since she had last remitted some money to her father, and with a forecast of clear skies and a mild breeze, it seemed as good a time as any to leave the premises and visit a bank.

She lowered the visor of her cap and stared out at the fields bathing in the warmth of the sun. The crispness of the air had abated somewhat now that the sun was at its zennith, but even so, its freshness remained. Sometimes Videl wondered whether Paozu seemed so magical partly because of its healthy weather.

Focusing once again on the steps ahead of her, Videl continued down the stairs. She rounded a curve in the mountain face and found a man a dozen steps ahead of her. He wore a light jacket and hikers' boots. She paused for a moment, wondering if she should follow at a distance — which would be awkward — or bypass him — which might require an even more uncomfortable interaction.

The man made the decision for her when he happened to turn his head. The x-shaped scar on his face was evident in the light of the sun, and she must have been as easily recognizable despite her cap, since Yamcha waved up at her.

"He-ey, if it isn't the teen hero of Orange City!" he exclaimed. "Going out today?"

Videl hopped down the steps, catching up to him. She didn't mind a chat with Yamcha.

"Just a trip to the bank," she replied. "Sending some money to my father."

"Ah, what a dutiful daughter."

Videl shrugged, hardly able to explain that she was the one who'd put her dad in that situation. If she really wanted Hercule to believe things would be better with the truth revealed, she could hardly abandon him to suffer alone.

"How's your father been, anyway?" Yamcha asked. "Is he doing all right? I imagine life is very different for him now."

"Whoa, I think you might be the first one to genuinely ask," Videl said. "He's fine, considering. Thinner than before, more sombre too. He's trying to build a small garden at the back of our cottage, although he got his work cut out for him. The soil there isn't that great."

"He's under house arrest, isn't that right?"

"Yes, that was the deal that came out of the trial. The judge didn't think he was violent or dangerous enough to keep behind bars. But he does think Dad might grift his way out of his punishment if given a chance, hence the house arrest. He's got an errand boy to buy him groceries and other necessities. His case officer visits him once a month. Other than those two and me, he doesn't see anyone else."

Yamcha whistled. "Get him a pet. Poor guy must be lonely."

"The case officer is thinking it over. For now he's just naming his plants. We got Bob the onion and Randy the potato."

"Can't possibly grift an animal, can he?"

"Not unless I get him a cat like yours."

"Puar? Nah, he's one of a kind." Yamcha chuckled, and the scar on his cheek stretched with his smile. "So you're heading to the Paozu Trust in the village, then?"

"I found the transfer rates to be a bit high there, so I'm actually heading off to Tulip Town. They have an Orange Bank branch at the town square." Videl glanced at her watch. "I can probably just make the 1:45pm bus to Tulip."

"Forget the bus. Come with us," Yamcha offered. "I'm running an errand at Warmwater City, at the Savers Mall there. Biggest mall that's less than an hour flight from here. There's an Orange Bank there too, last time I was there. Which was… just last week!"

"Oh, um, that would be very helpful, actually." Videl smiled. "Thank you."

The two of them descended down to the Mount Paozu Village, where Yamcha had parked a hovercar near the Stalk in the Frypan restaurant. It was a new build of an older SkyRoad model, the navy paint still a bit sparkly. Yamcha opened the passenger side for her, and Videl slipped easily into the seat.

"Lookie, it's Piranha!" a high-pitched voice emerged from the back.

Videl startled and spun around. In the backseat, she found an older boy and a younger boy, who looked like they were about to go on a field trip. It took her more time than she'd care to admit to recognize the Ox Princes. Gone were their regal silken outfits and fancy ox fur sashes. Instead, the two were clad in simple flannel shirts, jeans, and sneakers. Gohan had a baseball cap on his head and a sling bag resting on his lap. Goten had sunshades on, even though the windows of the hovercar were tinted.

Puar was floating in the air upside down between the two.

Yamcha slid into the driver's seat and started the car. "The princes are coming along. They're actually leading my errand today."

"By 'us,' I thought you meant just you and Puar," Videl whispered.

"We're shopping for the Ox household," Yamcha continued to explain. "Gohan has the list, and I'm going to help him find the best deals."

"Oh? Isn't that a bit of a low-ranking job for a prince?" It wasn't lost on Videl that Yamcha had not used a title when he referred to Gohan. He truly must be an intimate family friend.

Gohan answered, "Normally it would be, but I'm also going to source a supplier. It's something I've been putting off for a while, and every time we needed new things, I've had some servants comb through malls and outlets for items on sale. It would be more efficient if we could just directly order from a company who already has an arrangement with us."

"Seems reasonable. A good time to check it off your list too," Videl said. "Maisy said the kitchen seems to have lost several silver cutlery."

Yamcha and Gohan glanced at each other through the rearview mirror. When neither of them followed up with a comment, Videl knew something was wrong.

"What is it?"

Gohan winced and leaned towards them, his seatbelt stretching to accommodate his position. "Shocking as it is to admit, we… were robbed. We highly suspect it was Cant Merches."

"What?"

"Well, it was the room he stayed in that had the most missing items. Shower heads, shampoo bottles, the gold knobs on his dressers, a couple of porcelain vases. Some of the satin pillow cases and shams too, although our laundress is still verifying that they didn't get thrown in with some other batch for washing."

Videl could hardly believe her ears. "The nerve of that man!"

"Perhaps he felt he needed to get the last laugh," Gohan said. He gave her a tired smile, which comforted Videl a bit. He seemed exasperated, but not overly anxious over what had happened. She had to admit, it was very petty, but as far as danger went, it was tame.

"Hey!" Goten interrupted. "Don't forget my slam book!"

"He stole your slam book?" Videl echoed. What would someone like Cant want with a child's list of friends and their interests?

"It's gone missing too!"

"Maybe you just misplaced it?"

Even through the darkened lenses of his sunglasses, Videl saw Goten glare at her. "Why didn't you ask my brother if he misplaced the shower heads?"

Videl raised her hands. "Fair point. Sorry, your Highness."

"Don't be so rude, Goten." Gohan nudged his brother softly in the ribs. "And why would you call Videl a piranha? That's not nice."

She waved his concern away. "Oh no, he meant 'pariah.' It's this whole thing, it's fine."

Gohan's eyes bugged. "Well that's even worse! Goten, come on, Mom raised you better than that. Apologize to Videl."

The younger prince crossed his arms and pouted his lips, but mumbled a small, "I'm sorry."

Videl waved her hands again, "No, no, it's all good. We're cool. Thank you, Sir Mr. Goten."

"Hey, you know what?" With the grace that only young children could muster, Goten bounced back from his sulk and beamed up at her. "You should get ice cream with us at the mall! They have this frozen yogurt place and it's the best and yummiest thing I've tasted my entire life!"

"Oh yes, the Jelly Igloo," Puar said, sommersaulting across the hovercar. "I always go there too whenever we visit Savers Mall!"

Videl chuckled. "All right, Jelly Igloo it is," she said, just as Yamcha swerved effortlessly out of the parking lot and ascended to the sky.

-o-

Savers Mall in Warmwater City was a decent sized shopping district with three floors of stores, a two-level food court, a movie theatre, a small theme park for children, and an adjoining library. Videl split from the others upon entry, heading for the bank, while the others went to a home furniture store.

Within minutes of stepping into the mall, Videl's shoulders went taut and her belly tightened. It took her a good second to realize that she was subconsciously preparing for someone to recognize her and readying to deal with whatever outcome that would lead to. It took her another good second to realize that this feeling had been absent for some time.

Everyone working in the Ox Palace by now knew who Videl was. However each of them individually felt about her, they also knew that she kept to herself and that there wasn't much they could gain by treating her harshly. Cant Merches had been the rare exception to that.

This was the first time in a while that Videl was surrounded by wildcards once again. The mall wasn't entirely crowded, but there were enough people. And Warmwater City was a second-rate metropolitan. She couldn't count on ignorance of worldly matters to be her shield.

Still, it wasn't like Videl had gone soft. She'd been in this situation far longer than she had been safe in the bubble of a prince's favour. She knew how to deal.

When she reached the bank, she chose the queue that led to an old, white-haired bankteller with glasses as thick as the lenses on a microscope. The poor eyesight might help overlook Videl's appearance, and the advanced age might make it more likely she wouldn't know — or care — about the Satan scandal.

Videl's bet paid off. The teller nonchalantly took her card and pulled up her account.

"And what can I do for you today, dearie?" the woman asked.

"Could I make a wire transfer to this account, please?" Videl handed her the document with her father's account number. "500 zennis."

The woman did as requested. Videl thought she was finally out of the woods, when the teller handed back her card and said in a bright voice, "Now, you go have a nice day, Videl Satan."

A dozen heads whipped in her direction. Videl sighed inwardly and tried to remember her go-to strategy. Act natural. People tended to second-guess themselves when nothing out of the ordinary seemed afoot.

"And you go have you yourself a nice day, too." She smiled and walked out of the bank in a steady, even pace, aware of the lingering stares and whispers asking one another if she really were Videl Satan or if they misheard.

Once out of the bank, Videl wondered whether she should head back to the parking lot and wait by Yamcha's hovercar until 3pm, when the others said they'd meet up at Jelly Igloo to get some frozen yogurt. But she shook her discomfort away and decided to roam some of the apparel stores instead. She had more spare money now than she'd had in the last two years. She probably deserved a bit of a treat.

Videl chose stores that weren't too crowded and the ones whose cashiers looked like they were too busy minding their phones to get too chatty with the customers. She bought herself a couple of new blouses and a pair of jeans, nothing too fancy, just something to replace some of her clothes that had holes. Her luck held, even as she stopped by a cafe and got a small cup of matcha latte.

While she sipped on her drink, several mall security guards scurried past her. A scratchy voice came out of the comms held by one of the guards.

"…5 feet, short black hair, pale skin. Man is in his early 40's. Escaped from Warmwater Prison, last seen near Savers Mall parking lot."

Videl's muscles tensed as she readied to catch up to the security guards, but she stopped herself just in time.

This, too, was apparently an old habit that she couldn't shake off that easily. It had been years, and she still felt like she needed to take action every time she heard of an ongoing criminal activity. The surge of adrenaline was almost instinctual.

But it wasn't her business anymore. An escaped convict was intriguing, but there was nothing she could do about it. So Videl eased herself once again into her chair and took a hearty sip of her latte.

When she met up with Yamcha, Puar, and the princes at Jelly Igloo, Videl felt much more relaxed. People were less likely to recognize her if she were in a bigger group, and even if they did, they were even less likely to risk antagonizing her if she had friends.

"You pick a yogurt flavour from these machines and you pull these levers down so you can fill up your cup," Goten explained as he led her around Jelly Igloo as if she hadn't experienced frozen yogurt before. Videl just let him, nodding along to his instructions. "And then you come to this table here for the toppings. There are sprinkles and gummy worms and gummy bears and chocolate chips and boba. You can put as much as you want and then you pay by weight! Gohan, I want a two-pounder!"

"Two pounds of frozen yogurt?" Videl said. "You'll get a toothache!"

Goten blinked up at her. "Mommy said I could, because I've been a good boy!"

A soft tap landed on Videl's shoulder. Yamcha leaned close to her. "These boys can eat a lot. I wouldn't stress too much about it." He sent her a wink, and it dawned on Videl that he wasn't just trying to get her to overlook an unhealthy snack. He was trying to hint at yet another one of those odd, mysterious facts of life one must simply accept within the Ox Kingdom.

Come to think of it, the only time she'd seen Gohan eat was when she'd had breakfast with him that one time. There had been a lot of food then, but she had believed it was a royal's perogative and that the leftovers would have been sent back to the kitchen. Did Gohan manage to eat everything after she'd left?

Videl tried not to comment on Goten's two-pound frozen yogurt, and Gohan's whopping five-pound that he'd had to split across three cups. Meanwhile, she, Yamcha, and Puar cradled their own humble cups as all five of them sat on a table.

As someone who didn't like combining too many flavours, Videl's frozen yogurt was made of a simple chocolate yogurt mixed with frozen bananas and strawberries. A little square of hazelnut wafer topped the whole affair. Her first bite was filled with so much decadence, that she completely understood why Goten loved this dessert place so much. The yogurt had the right balance of sweetness and tartness, the frozen fruits still retained much of their original flavour, and the hazelnut wafer was not one of those cheap stuff from a zenni-store.

After a few minutes, however, Videl forgot to savour her food as she got caught up in the spectacle of the princes devouring theirs. Large scoops of frozen yogurt piled with cookie crumbles and chunks of fruits disappeared into their mouths. They would hardly chew before shovelling another load onto their spoons.

"Maybe you should slow down," Videl suggested warily. "Or you might get brain freeze."

They didn't seem to hear her though. Gohan just smiled at her as he continued to enjoy his frozen yogurt.

She shrugged. At least, nobody was paying attention to her. For the first time in a long time, Videl was quite at ease eating in public. The most notable thing about their group was the princes' excessive servings of frozen yogurt. Other customers who flitted in and out of the store stared only as far as Gohan and Goten's towers of dessert and the way they gobbled down each spoonful. And even when their gazes strayed, it was to wonder at Puar who was floating in the air just beyond Yamcha's shoulder.

Videl was almost sorry when they all finished and began to head back to the parking lot.

"Thanks for letting me come along, Yamcha," she said, stepping closer to him. "I had fun today."

He beamed back at her. "Give me your phone."

She raised a brow, but handed it over anyway. He began typing something in it. "Here, if you ever want to hang out, or even just chat, shoot me a message."

They scrambled back into his hovercar, its trunk now filled with their shopping bags. Videl settled on the passenger seat and watched as the buildings and skyscrapers flitted by, her heart feeling as light as her body had when she'd learned how to float.

The hovercar zoomed past several highway lanes and exited on a ramp that led them to a rarely used road bound for the mountainous heights of Paozu. There wasn't much traffic here; in fact, they were the only car on the road at the moment. Scrappy tenements lined the sides, with old peeling advertisements propped up by rusted towers. The late afternoon sun spilled long shadows across the road. Yamcha opened the radio, and Goten started to sing along to a pop song he clearly didn't know the words to. Videl smiled, basking in the carefree moment —

A screech, a jolt and a thunderous impact later, Videl's view went dark.

-o-

When she next opened her eyes, the sky and road had traded places through the shattered windshield. Her arms hung over her head, and her seatbelt dug painfully into her shoulder. Glass was strewn across the floor — no, the roof — of the hovercar. She was upside down.

Something creaked loudly beside her. Videl blinked, trying to clear the remaining fog in her vision, and she turned her head slowly. The passenger door of the hovercar broke free from its hinges, and two concerned faces peered through the space it once occupied.

"You okay, kiddo?" It was Yamcha. "Some nutjob crashed into us."

Beside him, Gohan leaned into the car and placed a hand behind her neck and the other across her waist. "I got her now, can you cut the belt?"

Yamcha swiped a blade across the seatbelt, and Videl's body slumped into Gohan's waiting arms. The two men helped pull her out of the damaged car, her clothes snagging on sharp glass and debris. Good thing she bought those new outfits.

"Is everyone else okay?" Videl asked as she shakily got to her feet. Her muscles strained and she would clearly develop a colourful bruise in her ribs, but she didn't seem to have any wounds or broken bones.

"Yeah, we're all right. Unfortunately the other vehicle hit your side directly, so you got the brunt of the impact," Gohan said.

But as Videl observed the others, she got the feeling he was trying to spare her from a different explanation altogether. Yamcha and Gohan were both unscathed aside from a light dusting of dirt on their clothes. Across the road, near an intersection, Puar looped agitatedly in the air while Goten sat on top of a stranger, smacking him in the head. Aside from Videl, everyone else seemed fine. They moved like they hadn't been affected at all.

She looked behind her. Yamcha's sleek hovercar lay upturned on the road, smoke twirling up from the engine, with the passenger side bent out of shape. Why was she the only one who seemed to have taken any damage? The magic of mastering chi, perhaps?

"Wait, Prince Goten has mastered chi too?"

But neither Yamcha nor Gohan answered her. They were frowning at the man pinned beneath Goten. Behind them was another vehicle, a large hovervan, with its front crumpled like a pug's snout.

"Execution, execution, execution!" Goten chanted every time his palm landed on the man's forehead.

"Please, I'm sorry, I'm sorry! I didn't mean it, I was trying to get somewhere. Listen — ow — please, listen to me! I don't have a lot of time."

Videl, Yamcha and Gohan approached the others, with Gohan's arm steadying Videl by the waist. As they got closer to the stranger, she realized the man was wearing a black-and-white striped jumpsuit typical of prisoners.

Hold on… he also had pale skin, black hair, and didn't look all that tall. Could he be the escaped convict she'd heard about in the mall?

"You're from Warmwater Prison, aren't you?" she said.

"Ow—yes, I am—but you gotta believe me, I'm not dangerous! Ow!" The man tried to shake Goten off, to no avail.

Yamcha whistled. "Considering the crash you just caused, that's a bit hard to believe."

Gohan left Videl's side and picked Goten off of the prisoner. "Goten, let's calm down for a minute, okay? We want to hear the man speak."

The stranger heaved a huge sigh of relief. He righted his skewed, broken glasses on his face, and slowly, tiredly pulled himself up to a sitting position. "Thank you," he breathed. "Please, I need your help."

"Help?" Gohan echoed. "Sir, I don't know how to explain this to you, but you are a criminal that just committed another crime. The best help we can give you is make sure you don't cause any other trouble while we wait for the police to pick you up."

"No, wait! Please, listen. If you don't, more lives will be in danger!"

Gohan glanced at Videl and Yamcha, then motioned for the man to keep going.

"I didn't get jailed because I did something violent. I'm just an accountant. I used to work for a startup in the city, Bitzone, but when I audited them, something didn't add up. Their accounts held more money than they were raking in — a lot more. I went through the proper channels to report the discrepancy, but instead, I was fired and nothing happened to the company."

"How'd you end up in jail, then?" Videl asked.

"I was getting discredited!" the accountant moaned. "People were saying I was a liar, that I had a bone to pick with Bitzone, or that I just straight up wasn't good at my job. I know I shouldn't have let all of those get to me, but in the end, I posted the results of my audits online."

"Ah." Videl nodded, rubbing her chin. "Release of confidential information. Bad move."

"Yes, they charged me, and of course I was guilty. I could hardly deny it."

"I don't get any of this. Where are the bad guys?" Goten piped up, plantings his fists on his hips. "You said people were in trouble!"

"Yes, yes, I'm coming to that. While I was in jail, I started hearing whispers from the other inmates of a black market situated below Bitzone's office. Illegal substances and such, you know. Dangerous stuff. What I think is happening is that Bitzone is renting out their underground space to this market to rake in extra money.

"I tipped off some of the cops in prison, but they wouldn't believe me. They all think I'm just angry at Bitzone. So I thought… well, I thought I could make a prison break and lead them all to the office's underground. If I turned out to be correct, perhaps I can negotiate for some leniency." The accountant slumped against the broken hovervan. "But as you can see, this goose chase isn't exactly turning out in my favour."

Gohan crossed his arms. "Illegal substances, you say? Those things can really ruin a community. I'd love to help out, but the truth is that me and my brother here are grandsons of the Ox King from Mount Paozu. Any assistance I can give you will look like foreign interference."

The man paled. "I struck royalty? Oh, I'm in deep sh—"

"Hold on, I might have an idea." Videl interrupted.

Gohan spun to her, eyes gleaming. "Really? What is it?"

Videl squinted at the accountant, taking in his form fully. "You're about my height. Same complexion and hair colour too. If I put on that jumpsuit, from afar, I might be able to look like you. Where is this Bitzone's office?"

"It's actually on the north side of the city, about twenty minutes ride from here. I got rerouted badly by the cop chase," the man answered.

She looked around. "Well, that puts a damper in my plan. I don't have any vehicles I can use to lead the police there."

"I got a scrappy old motorbike in a capsule," Yamcha offered. "You can take that."

"Can it outrun a group of cops giving chase, though?"

Yamcha scratched his neck. "That's the million zenni question, isn't it? It will hold up to high speeds, but when it comes to getting away in tight spaces, it's all up to the rider."

"Oh, I know!" Gohan slammed his fist on his other palm. "What if I help hinder the cops? Just enough so they don't catch you and find out you're a decoy, but not so badly they can't follow you either?"

"But I thought you said you can't help. Wouldn't the cops recognize you?" Videl asked.

"I'll wear a disguise, but honestly, I don't think they'd even see me." He stepped close to Videl and leaned down to add quietly. "Remember what I said about chi? I can use my super speed and strength to play with their cars mid-chase. The disguise will help in case there are cameras around."

Videl's instinct was to remind him that an average vehicle weighed thousands of kilograms, but surely he already knew that. Besides, what was a car compared to blasting away a fire raging through an entire town? If Gohan said he could do it, she should believe him.

"All right," Videl nodded. "Seems like this can work. Yamcha, would you be able to stay here and keep an eye on our new friend? Make sure the cops don't find him, or he doesn't get into any more trouble?"

"Sure can do. Goten can fetch us some snacks to keep him busy."

Videl turned to the prisoner. "Sir, I'll need your glasses."

The accountant handed it over reluctantly. Videl popped the cracked lenses from their frame and settled the frame on her face.

"I suppose the jumpsuit too, huh?" The man began loosening the crude buttons down his back. "There's something you should know about the buildings here in Warmwater City, something that few outsiders know. We are prone to flooding, so basements and other underground spaces have tunnels leading to aqueducts all across the city. I think those operating the black market under Bitzone use those tunnels to come and go undetected. If they get a hint that there's a commotion upstairs, they will escape.

"But there's a way to block off the tunnels. Every house or building has a panel to control their own gates. Also, things like earthquakes or fires automatically trigger the sensors and the gates will close on their own. I highly suggest you find something to block the tunnels, otherwise the police might go down there and discover an empty space."

"Thank you," Gohan replied. "Don't worry about that, I'll take care of it."

Ten minutes later, Videl and Gohan crept up to the nearest road where a police cab had parked. Two cops were out on the sidewalk interviewing passersby if they'd seen an escaped prisoner or a stolen hovervan.

"You think this is a good place to start the chase?" Gohan asked. They were in an alleyway, keeping among its shadows.

"As good a place as any," Videl remarked. The accountant's jumpsuit stank of stale sweat and the mustiness of a prison cell. She tried not to breathe in too deeply. "How about you, didn't you say you were going to disguise yourself?"

The prince rummaged around his sling bag and pulled out a familiar watch. It was the same watch they'd used when they'd first visited Mount Frypan, the one that clothed its wearer with a fireproof outfit.

"This should do it!" Gohan strapped it on and pressed the big, white button on the side. His casual attire was replaced by the dark, close-fitting bodysuit and his head covered in the matching helmet. "I don't exactly look like a superhero, but as far as diguises go, this should be sufficient."

"You're not exactly supposed to be seen, remember?"

"Oh, I know. Still, it's fun to think of yourself as a superhero. I've always kind of wanted to play at being one before I became a prince."

That was a strange thing to say. "You've always been a prince, haven't you? You were born a royalty."

Gohan scratched the visor of his helmet. "You're not wrong, but before Mom started making a fortune with the stalks and Grandpa relocated his kingdom to Paozu, I kind of led a different life. Very different."

That massively piqued Videl's curiosity, but she filed it away for later musings. Instead, she pulled from her pocket the capsule that Yamcha had given her. Pressing its top, it released a motorcycle in a thick cloud of smoke. Yamcha had been honest about its condition. It was a twelve-year-old model, a bit rusty in some places.

Videl sat astride it, familiarizing herself with its controls. She'd ridden a motorbike before, though it wasn't her first choice of transportation.

"Good to go?" she asked.

"Ready when you are."

She turned the key and the engine revved up. With a kick against the pavement, Videl sped out of the alleyway and into the street. At first, she worried that she rode too fast for people to notice, but a second later, a holler went up. Not too long after that, the sirens of the police car blasted behind her.

Videl gained speed, weaving through the cars on the street. Here, it wasn't too crowded yet, but the accountant had warned her that as she made her way north of the city, the roads would get a lot busier.

The traffic lights ahead turned red, and she slowed down just enough to wield the motorbike into a right turn, cutting off a bright yellow convertible and becoming the recipient of a rather entertaining insult. But she didn't have time to mind it too much. The new street she found herself in held two more police cabs by chance.

Videl bent low over the motorbike, afraid that a clear view of her face would alert the cops that she wasn't really whom they were looking for. But they geared up their cars and moved to intercept her, one coming from the left, the other from the right. If she sped up a little more, she just might be able to squeeze in the middle.

"Stop!" One of the cops yelled, leaning out of his window and pointing a gun at her. He fired a shot, and Videl flinched.

But she didn't feel any pain.

Instead, a shadowy blur whirled around the two cars, and in a blink of an eye, they had switched spots. Their momentum took them towards the sides of the street, leaving the middle free for Videl to traverse.

Damn, was that Gohan? Was that truly how fast he could move? Although she'd trusted that he could do what he said, seeing it with her own two eyes was surreal.

The adrenaline pushed the thought out of her head. The first cab seemed to be catching up, its siren pulsing in her ears. Videl sped down the street, wind slashing at her hair, honks and curses erupting behind her.

She turned another corner and her heart dropped to her belly when she saw wooden construction posts guarding several meters of fresh cement on the street. The police cab was just right behind her. Glancing to the sides, she tried to estimate her chances of squeezing through the sidewalks, but there were many people walking there, and some stores had displays laid out.

Videl released the accelerator, trying to buy herself some time to strategize. But despite that, the motorbike sped up. The friction of the wheels against the road disappeared from beneath her, almost as if she was speeding through air alone.

No, she really was floating. Hurtling above the wet cement.

The motorbike landed with a thud on the other side, and the only indication she had that Gohan had helped her was a vaguely warm breeze that whooshed over her head.

She allowed herself a second to glance behind. The police car had stopped before the construction posts, blatant confusion descending upon his face.

Videl giggled. She couldn't stop herself. She picked up speed again, riding down the street as the giggle turned into full-out laughter. It was the high. It was the shock. It was the fun. She understood so completely why Gohan wanted to play superhero. This was different from when she had fought crimes in the past. Despite her strength and her martial skills, she had never possessed incredible powers that could boggle the mind. Now Gohan was lending her his, and it felt incredible.

She bit back her next laugh as she rounded a corner and found it packed with families with little children. It was a park. Wide stretches of the ground were covered in grass. Benches lined pebbled paths. Shrubs with bright, colourful flowers surrounded a large fountain that spat fat tongues of water into the air.

"Ugh," Videl groaned. She felt for the motorbike's horn and pressed it. People in front of her clapped their hands over their ears at the ugly sound of the honk, throwing pissed off glares at her. She kept pressing it as she started to ride through the crowd.

"Are you crazy?" one woman yelled at her.

A man bravely put himself in her way, arm stretched out. "Hey jerk, no motorized vehicles in the park — ah!" Suddenly, he was fifteen feet away, teetering at the edge of the fountain.

All along Videl's intended path, people were glitching out of the way like they were video game characters when the network connection was spotty.

"Thanks, Gohan," Videl mumbled under her breath, and wasted no time zipping through the clearing he'd made for her.

Beyond the park, the streets became narrower and more congested. Tall skyscrapers towered over her. Videl sensed that she'd entered the financial and tech hub now, a suspicion confirmed when she saw the large bold letters of banks and social media companies flashing above her head.

But she didn't slow down. She didn't have to. Before her, an opening emerged through the crowded streets, much like what happened in the park. Pedestrians took ten steps back though they were walking forward. Hotdog stands disappeared and materialized two streets away. Cars and buses fitted themselves into packed units likes tetris blocks, leaving enough space for Videl to sqeeze through.

Throughout it all, Videl kept her eyes peeled for Bitzone's building. She had little time to memorize the online map she'd viewed just before she and Gohan had left. Still, she began to recognize some landmarks, and a few well-timed turns brought her face to face with her target.

The Bitzone building was of an older architecture, a simple red-bricked box with stairs leading up to the entrance. Videl halted the motorbike there, capsulized it, and dashed into the narrow alley at its side. Garbage bins leaned neatly against the walls.

She was supposed to meet Gohan here, and he would figure out a way to divert the cops' attention away from the fugitive they were chasing and towards the tech office and what it was apparently hiding. She hoped he would arrive soon, because she was pretty sure that people had noticed her enter the alley and would be curious enough to follow her in, wondering what the commotion was all about.

Videl stood with her back against the wall, trying not to move too much and attract unwanted attention, but her fingers tapped a fidgety rhythm against the bricks.

Then in a space of a blink, Gohan stood in front of her, clad in the dark fireproof jumpsuit. He lifted the visor from his helmet and shot her a brilliant smile.

"All right, you made it in one piece!" he said.

"Thanks to you," she replied.

He rubbed his gloved hands together. "Now, for the important bit. Brace yourself, okay? I'll try not to inflict more damage than necessary." He squatted on the ground and laid his palms flat on the pavement.

At first, nothing seemed to happen. But soon Videl felt the low hum of an earthly vibration. It grew stronger, moving through the soles of her feet until it was rattling her very bones. Her stomach clenched against the wave of dizziness that gripped her head. Cries of alarm shot through the crowd outside.

"Earthquake!"

"It's an earthquake!"

"Get down!"

The prince continued to push energy through the ground. A small crack appeared on the concrete, webbing out in tiny, little steps. Then a long tendril shot forward out of the alley. Energy seemed to concentrate on a spot on the sidewalk as the crack widened, breaking apart huge blocks of cement until the hole was wide enough that a person could fall through.

Gohan lifted his hands from the ground and stood beside Videl. The tremors on the ground continued for a just half a second longer, then stopped.

"That should do it," Gohan whispered. "If that didn't trigger the gates of the tunnels to close, then I don't know what will."

"And the hole over there would be the cops' first priority." Videl hummed in approval. "It would be more important to ensure that everyone there is safe than to chase after a fugitive with no known violent tendencies."

"It would lead them right to the underground area where the black market is supposed to be," Gohan agreed. He pushed the button on his watch, and he was now once again clad in his casual clothes. "I'll go take a look."

"I'll stay here." She waved at her clothes. "For obvious reasons."

It took about fifteen minutes for the building to get evacuated, and only then did the cops and other emergency responders began taking a look at the hole on the sidewalk in front of Bitzone. A tall man not much older than Cant Merches was pacifying the authorities, assuring them that the hole was not something to be fussed about, and that he would personally use some of the company's funds to fix it. A courtesy, he insisted.

Videl was on the verge of coming out of the alley and throwing herself into the hole just so it could get investigated, when one of the fire crew lowered a rope into the hole and started to descend.

"It's just standard procedure," a firewoman with a clipboard explained.

There was a low rumbling among the responders, and Videl exhaled a sigh of relief. They must have found something.

"What do you mean there are people down there?" the clipboard-woman exclaimed. "What? Over a hundred? Officer, we're going to need access to the building at once!"

The tall man who'd offered to fix the hole blubbered. "Whoa, squatters? You're saying there are squatters beneath my office? Oh boy, who knew? The lengths these delinquents would go to!"

Videl shook her head, but she was now placated. The authorities would handle this. That man — perhaps the CEO of Bitzone or some other executive — could feign ignorance all he wanted for now. The truth would come out.

Now, she had a trickier task ahead of her. She couldn't waltzed out of the alley with that large crowd hovering on the sidewalk. There must be some other way she could regroup with the others.

Videl trekked deeper into the alley until she reached the back of the building. A brick wall separated this line of buildings from the next. It must have been an old demarcation zone, back when the neighbourhood was much smaller and younger. The fancier architecture of the next buildings over suggested that this area had been expanded.

She jumped and hooked her fingers over the top of the wall. Finding a foothold among the bricks, Videl hoisted herself over. The wall was about three meters thick. She stood there for a moment, trying to gauge if she wouldn't immediately be seen if she landed on the other side.

A whisper of blood-red ill-intent raised the hairs on the back of her neck. Videl turned around, just as something slammed against her and they both skidded across the top of the wall. Her instinct was to struggle away, but then a section of the wall burst into pieces, the section she had just been standing on, judging by the distance of the explosion.

Videl blinked. The velvety texture of the fireproof suit caressed the skin on her cheek. It was Gohan who'd tackled her out of the way. He crouched up, staring down from the wall, back into the alley that she had left behind.

The tall blustering man from before stood there, poised with a gun-like weapon in his hand, pointed towards the wall.

"What's going on down there?" someone yelled, and several footsteps jogged into the alley.

The man freaked out and dropped the weapon, kicking it behind one of the garbage bins. "N-nothing! I think the earthquake damaged the wall back here, and part of it collapsed!"

Gohan grunted. "Time to make ourslves scarce." He enveloped Videl in his arms, and with a strong, heavy whoosh of air, they found themselves on the other side of the wall. He released his hold on her, and she had to lean against the bricks to gather her breath.

"I assume he thought I was the accountant?" she asked. "Looks like my disguise worked too well."

"Too bad he won't get arrested for attempted murder," Gohan said. He pushed the button on the watch, and he was back in his flannels and jeans.

For one long minute, they stood beside each other, watching the afternoon sun glitter against the glass walls of the buildings ahead of them. The hubbub of the crowd was a little less noisy on this side of the wall. The scent of coffee drifted from some lobby cafe nearby, mingling with the quiet stench of stale puddles and covered trash bins that dotted the back alleys.

Out of nowhere, Gohan chuckled. Videl glanced at him, and the sound of it was so infectious, a strangled laugh bubbled out of her too. In moments they were both racuously laughing, heaving big hearty guffaws, snorting one too many times. But she found it difficult to stop. The same feeling that had overcome her when Gohan had flown her motorbike across fresh cement now possessed her once again. A mix of heady euphoria and crashing cortisol.

"That was fun," Gohan managed to squeeze out. "So much fun."

"It was fun, wasn't it?" she agreed. Videl released one last giggling sigh and stared at the prince.

This was the first time she'd seen him this elated. His cheeks were flushed with excitement, his dark eyes shining with glee. He exuded a playful boyishness that rarely slipped through his regular polite mannerisms. At this moment, in front of her, everything she'd witnessed the past few hours coalesced into something far more than just a prince. The gravity of his power began to dawn on her, yet it was tempered — or perhaps made more alluring — by his compassionate choices and soft humility. He was an unknowable entity in a frustrating and enticing way at the same time, and she just wanted to reach out and —

And what? Hold it? Possess it?

Videl balked.

What was she thinking? Why was she thinking this?

By the gods, she was looking at the menu, wasn't she? Like Erasa had said that first time they went to court together. Videl wasn't making a simple, objective observation about the prince's appearance and character. No, she was outright looking at the stupid menu, even though she couldn't possibly afford to buy!

The thought of it mortified Videl to a wicked degree, her stomach lurched. No, no, this couldn't be happening. There was no way this was happening.

"Videl, are you okay? You suddenly went pale." Gohan leaned closer, and Videl ejected herself away from the wall.

"I'm fine!" she said, holding back a retch. Oh no, what was going on? Was she going to be sick in front of the prince?

Get yourself together, she demanded. She was not going to puke in front of the prince, she was not going to gag, she was not going to think about her earlier thoughts.

"It was just the earthquake," she managed to bite the words out, rubbing her belly. "Or this stinky prison suit. Yeah, that must be it. Oof, I'm so tired. I'm exhausted." So exhausted, her mind wasn't working right.

"Yes, I can only imagine how rough this whole chase must have been for you," the Ox Prince agreed. "Let's go back to Yamcha and Goten, then. And then we can finally go home."

Home. That sounded nice. It sounded safe.

Notes:

Hope you guys enjoyed this chapter! I wanted for Videl to finally meet Piccolo as well, but I couldn't find a way to insert him neatly into the storyline here. Oh well, there would be more opportunities in the future!

Chapter 9: Connecting Dots

Notes:

AN: Hello everyone! Sorry this took a while to write. March was so busy for me. I'm so happy to hear people enjoyed the filler chapter last time. Things are going to get more serious from here on out though!

It was just the adrenaline, Videl decided. Long ago she had read about the effects of this hormone on people who underwent harrowing experiences together. It tricked the mind into thinking there was some special connection there, when in reality, there truly wasn't.

She kept telling herself this all night and all morning long. Now, she sat on the battered steps to some old shop in the ruins of Mount Frypan village, stabbing her chopsticks into the rice bowl she'd brought along for lunch. She had come straight here after gathering stalk, too afraid to run into Erasa and Maisy at lunchtime lest they invited her to watch the prince hold court afterwards with them.

Videl had hoped that a bath and some rest would clear her mind, but all those did was render her memories even more stark, all crisp lines and brilliant tones. It just made them even more mortifying. She couldn't help but squeeze her eyes shut and swear a dozen times in a row whenever her brain brought up even the slightest recollection.

She gazed up, the endless blue sky filling her view as she chewed on what was supposed to be a delicious bowl of spicy beef and steamed rice. Videl had decided that the best use of her time and mental resources was to figure out how the fire spirits were falling. It would remind her of her purpose, of her goal, of her standing. But she couldn't bring her mind to focus. Even this place, strewn with smoky wreckage and debris as it was, could be considered tidier than her head right now.

Romance had always been out of reach for Videl, and someone as pragmatic as her had never wasted her time fancying impossible things. With her father's decree that she could never date anyone who couldn't defeat him in a fight, Videl's younger self had all but accepted that she would grow old to be a spinster. Oh, it had sounded grim, but she hadn't seen it as all that unfortunate. She'd had visions of an older Videl who would be authoritative and respected and skilled and admired. She would be loveless, sure, but treasured by her community.

When her father had turned out to be a fraud, those visions had evaporated. Whatever respect and admiration she might earn in the future would be difficult to come by. As for romance, who would want to sully their good name by associating with her family? Even if someone was strong enough to defeat her father, what would be the point now?

Videl set her chopsticks down and patted her cheeks. Why couldn't she just let this go? Just admit to herself that she had a momentary lapse of judgment, then go back to being immune to thoughts of romance? The more she continued to think about it, the more it would stick in her mind.

But something had changed at Warmwater City. She had always respected Gohan, had always appreciated his fair judgment and merciful approach to ruling. Being levelheaded was such a rare trait these days. Even his awkwardness and oddities didn't diminish his character. But yesterday, she'd seen an even more enticing side of him, one that was confident and strategic, and brilliant with his mysterious skills. He'd been happy. Impressive. She was piecing together an image of him that was undeniably attractive to her.

And she hated — hated — that she now knew what she was attracted to. Because now she would notice it all the time! And she would remember the impossibility of it all. Gohan was a prince, for goodness' sake. He was bound to marry a princess or a rich heiress. Any normal girl in good standing would make a better bride than Videl.

Why did she do this to herself?

Videl stuffed the rest of her rice bowl into her mouth, angry that she couldn't enjoy this lunch, angry that she was allowing herself to be preoccupied by a silly thing like romance. Her life had finally just started looking up. She had it better than she'd ever did in the past two years. She had a stable job that she enjoyed and peers that tolerated her. What was the point in making herself miserable over some idiotic crush? She had a task to do, and wallowing in self-pity wouldn't get it done.

She stored away her lunch box and chopsticks, and drank a mouthful of water. Then she determinedly marched over to the sky-scooter she had ridden straight from the Paozu mountains to Mount Frypan. Videl had received permission from Steban before their shift that morning to use it for research-related travel.

There was another reason why Videl had taken the sky-scooter today instead of a copter. She wanted to study the part of the sky where the last fire spirit had fallen from, the one she'd been able to capture on video. And she wanted to be as exposed to the air as possible when she did that.

Squinting against the bright glare of the sun, Videl could not see any discernable breaks or fissures in the sky now. Distracted as she'd been during her lunch, she'd still been able to observe a flock of seagulls fly over her without any trouble. If there was a portal up there, how did it exist?

Videl pressed the button on the sky-scooter to start the engine, and she slowly rose to the sky. She had reviewed the footage she'd captured, and measured the altitude of the fissure from which the fire spirit had emerged. It was just shy of twelve kilometers above sea level, perfectly within the sky-scooter's range. She periodically glanced at the altimeter on the sky-scooter while scanning the sky around her, trying to find any peculiarities. She didn't know exactly what she was looking for. Maybe a rippling shimmer, but she wasn't sure.

The altimeter on the sky-scooter signalled 11.8 km. Videl paused and looked around. There was nothing but clear air all round her, the remnants of Frypan village beneath, and brown, barren landscape all around. She hadn't felt anything on her way up either. And yet, this was where the ripple had appeared, she was sure of it. Could the altimeter be broken? Videl glanced down, but by her own estimate, she was roughly on the lower stratosphere.

She sighed. She'd been hoping so badly for something to happen, for something to finally explain how these bothersome spirits were piercing through to their world.

Videl tilted the handles of the sky-scooter and whirled in place to double-check her surroundings. She stretched out a hand. Mid-swing, a bone-deep shock zapped through her body and a blue wave flickered in the air. She immediately halted the sky-scooter.

Her heart pounded with apprehension and excitement. Was this it? Did she find the portal?

She reached out again at the spot where she'd felt the tremor. Her fingers caught something thread-thin but taut, invisible until the moment of contact. Then a luminous blue glow extended across the line for a second, then disippated.

A whisper of breath escaped Videl's lips. This was surreal. She tapped it again, and the blue light re-emerged. Whatever 'it' was, it felt like a strong, pressurized wire. It was very strange. She tapped the area below it, but her hand went through empty air. She did the same at the area above, with the same results. Could a portal really be so thin?

Videl braced her hands on the scooter. She had imagined something like a force-field, wide and all-encompassing. That was why it had puzzled her to think that birds and planes could pass through this area without encountering any supernatural phenomena. But if the portal was this small, then the likelihood of something hitting this exact spot was low; air-traffic here was aleady pretty light anyway. And if birds did fly across the portal, it would just tickle them a bit. A plane or a copter might experience a sudden, short-lived turbulence, but that was about it. No wonder nobody had noticed anything.

She scratched her head. The question was, how did fire spirits fall through here? Could it have something to do with exposing the portal to heat?

Only one way to find out. Videl fished out a lighter from her pocket. She wasn't the type to carry one most days, as she wasn't a smoker, but she'd figured she needed to do some experimentation with heat. Her hunch had paid off. She flicked open the lighter and set the flame close to the portal. Blue light rippled across the portal, very similar to what she'd seen from her video recording. The ripple widened outward until it was the size of half her palm.

An impulse stole over Videl. She steadied her sky-scooter, setting it to hover in place. She reached out with her other hand, and her fingers dipped into the ripple. She braced herself, watching with horrified fascination as her fingers disappeared across the portal. The sensation on her fingertips was strange, buzzing with energy. She felt nothing on the other side, though; no texture, no hinderance, just empty space.

Spooked, Videl snatched her hand back. This was a horrible idea. Who knew what she would encounter in a realm populated by fire spirits? It was a miracle her fingers hadn't burned.

But no, they wouldn't have burned. If the portal needed heat to open wide, there likely wasn't any source of heat directly on the other side right now. Otherwise it would be porous. Videl didn't know what kind of world the fire spirits' realm was, but she imagined a bunch of dough-like balls randomly bouncing about, then getting sucked through this portal if they accidentally came near it.

In any case, she wasn't that desperate to find out what the other realm looked like. No need getting herself catapulted in there by accident and getting trapped. All she needed to know was the mechanisms of the portal, and at least now, she had an inkling.

Videl snapped the lighter shut and tucked it back into her pocket. She gripped the handle of the sky-scooter with one hand while she tapped the air with the other along the length of the portal. She wanted to know how long it went on for.

Her fingers struck the same invisible taut thread, and a blue light flashed softly. She maneouvred the sky-scooter along the thread, feeling for its end. To her surprise, it continued for some time. She went on to follow it for at least a kilometer north-west, and only then did it change direction, pointing upwards.

A thought struck her. All this time, she had been envisioning the fissure as a single line. But what if there were more lines about, criss-crossing like a web? Or a crack with tributaries spanning the width and breadth of Mount Frypan?

Videl shook her head. She should be writing all these down. Mapping the line to see where it was exactly, or if there were more. It would be faster if she could just see them, but how would she do that?

She swerved the sky-scooter back towards where she came from, and she landed near her pack. She hopped off and began rummaging in her backpack for her notebook and a pencil.

A round, cold, metallic thing pressed against the nape of her neck. Videl had been in enough fights before to recognize immediately that someone was holding a gun to her head.

"Drop the pack," a voice said behind her, young and male. Videl knew who it was instantly, even before several other people emerged from the dusty ruins of old buildings in front of her. All had guns pointing in her direction. She'd seen them before in a short video clip inside a moldy room, surrounding Gohan as he'd questioned Endy Vora Jr.

Who happened to be behind her.

"Slowly," Vora commanded. "And put your hands up."

Videl sighed and lowered her backpack, then stood up with her hands raised. She wasn't particularly scared; more annoyed to be interrupted at a crucial time in her research. She'd gotten out of a bind tighter than this one plenty of times before.

"Fancy running into you here, Vora," she said, turning to face him slowly.

"Fancy indeed. Scavenging doesn't usually bring us such good fortune, Ms. Satan. Or should I say, sunsetbeluga36?"

Videl froze, her breath stuck in her throat. Then she forced herself to clear her expression and to breathe normally. But the split second of hesitation had been enough confirmation, and she berated herself for comitting such a rookie mistake.

"Ah, so it's true," Vora deduced. He chuckled and lowered his gun. He signalled to the other gang members to put their weapons down too. They didn't need it now. Their weapons were less of a threat to her than whatever knowledge he held, and she'd given all that information away. Videl cursed inwardly.

Vora smiled at her, and she couldn't help thinking that he was so young to be leading a gang, to be antagonizing an entire kingdom. "Walk with me, Beluga. I think you and I should have a chat. Don't worry about your things, my pals will bring them along."

He sidled up next to her, too close for comfort, but Videl could hardly move away. Two men and a woman marched right behind them, and the rest formed a semi-circle at the sides. One member held her backpack, and a different one pulled her sky-scooter along.

"No need to be so tense," Vora said. "I know we didn't exactly get off on the right foot back at the copter. But I didn't know who you were, then. Now that I do, I have to say we actually have a lot in common. Snack?"

He handed her a pack of chocolate wafers. Why was he being so friendly? Videl thought that Scar Town's gangs led with violence first.

"No, thank you. I just ate lunch."

"Suit yourself." He stowed the wafers back in his jacket pocket. "Like you, I'm also fond of sunsets. I do prefer orcas over belugas, but you'll find solidarity with me when it comes to sea creatures. Oh, and I can find my way around the dark net quite decently as well. It's how I source fresh produce for the neighbourhoods under my gang's protection without the other gangs knowing."

Videl contemplated whether it was still worth pretending that she didn't know what he was talking about, that she had no clue who this sunsetbeluga was. But she needed to know his angle, and she wouldn't get that if she feigned ignorance.

"Fresh produce," she remarked. "You must be a member of the EggplantersUnite and DicedAndSliced servers." She combed her memory for anyone who might have hinted at living in a barren crack in the foothills, but she couldn't remember anybody.

"I'm also a member of JusticeForTruth, and I was quite pleased when I saw sunsetbeluga36 emerge from the grave a few nights ago. You know, I admired you back then, how determined you were, how cleverly you struck deals with other users to finally get at that long-buried footage of the Cell Games. And then you disappeared. Only to reappear asking around, strangely enough, about a canning family mogul."

Had Videl been careless during her search for information about Cant Merches? How had Vora linked sunsetbeluga36 to the real her? But if she asked outright, he would only gloat. She'd bide her time. From her experience, when people were proud of accomplishing something, they usually showed off eventually.

"Is that why you're taking me, then?" Videl asked instead. "To show you how to hack a database or make a bribe?"

Vora laughed. "Not at all. I just want to talk about the stalks."

"The Paozu Stalks?"

"That's right."

Blackmail, then. This was going to be blackmail, Videl could feel it.

They arrived at what must have been a town square before flames had eaten away the nearby buildings. Cracked terracotta tiles littered the ground, along with shards of broken glass. Squatting in the middle of the clearing was a fat truck, which Videl suspected was more for storage than for transportation. A big vehicle like that couldn't be driven through the ruins of Frypan. It must have been capsulized to get here.

Her suspicions proved correct when Vora opened the back of the truck and motioned for her to go inside. The interior of the truck looked like someone's electric workshop and chemistry lab merged in a frenzy. A sideboard lined the left wall, and there was not a single empty spot on it left among the jumble of metal panels, wires, boxes of screws and rivets, test vials, bottles of house chemicals, tubes of sealants. There was a burner, a collection of curious-looking spherical shells, and a teetering tower of notebooks and sketchpads.

A small square table with accompanying chairs were situated at the far end of the truck. Videl climbed inside and sat gingerly on one of the seats. It was much farther in than she was comfortable with, as Vora's friends assembled themselves near the doorway. If she needed to escape, it would be a tight attempt, but the wide array of objects inside gave her hope that she could fashion some distraction or another.

Vora took the chair opposite hers, and he grabbed one of the notebooks and placed it on the table between them. To Videl's surprise, she recognized it.

It was Goten's slambook.

The one stolen by Cant Merches supposedly.

"You've seen this before," Vora said, not quite a question. "Of course, since you wrote an entry in it."

"How did you get this?"

"I bought it, fair and square. You seem to have pissed off a fellow resident in the Ox Palace. Merches filched this on his way out the door after the royals gave him the boot. He came to me, probably thinking I'd join his pity-party complaining about the Ox family. I humoured him, and he showed this quaint little notebook to me. Said it contained some info about some of those who live in the palace that I might find interesting."

Vora shuffled the pages of the slambook and stopped at a particular entry, one with Videl's handwriting.

"Videl Satan," Vora stated. "The girl I quarrelled with in the copter. Favourite colour? The orange of sunset. Favourite animal? Anything cute like pandas, elephants, belugas and cats. It's rare to see sunset and belugas mentioned in the same passage of anything, you know. As for the 36, well that's right in your name, isn't it? Three sixes."

She didn't respond. Her username had been created exactly because she loved sunsets and belugas, and yes, her last name was Satan. Videl allowed him to continue, knowing he was getting a kick out of this. But she, too, was finally getting the answer to how he'd figured her out.

"Then there's the fact that sunsetbeluga reappeared right before an emissary to a royal family gets kicked out due to some unfortunate college scam. The only common denominator between Hercule and Cant Merches is their proximity to you." Vora smiled. "I bet you didn't think anybody would figure it out. Merches certainly didn't."

"So what, now?" Videl crossed her arms. "Did you take me all this way to chitchat about this slam book? Exchange favourite colours and animals?"

"I have a proposal." Vora brushed back the hair over his forehead, then clasped his hands on the table.

Videl glanced at the seven other members of his party. They all stood like obedient sentinels by the opening of the truck. Her backpack had been deposited a few feet away from the vehicle, and her sky-scooter was parked just beside it.

She turned back to Vora. "Go on."

"It's clear to me that you don't want anyone to find out that you're sunsetbeluga36. I mean, two years after you've cracked the biggest scam in the world, and look at you. You're a lowly servant who was lucky enough to get a job hacking away at some big mountain seaweed. Not exactly glamorous life, is it?

"What I never understood was why sunsetbeluga36 never came forward to reveal themselves. They could have gotten any job they wanted — police, detective, government official, secret agent, cybernetwork influencer. They would have been the hero who saved the world from being hoodwinked any further by that liar of a man. They would have fame and admiration and respect."

Vora shook his head, his smile getting bigger. "And then I find out it was you all along. Daughter of that very same liar." He laughed. "Now I understand. You didn't come forward, because you know that the only thing the world hates more than a grifter is a traitor."

Videl knew he was trying to bait her into a reaction, but still, she found it difficult not to flinch at that word. Because it was a word that had haunted the back of her mind all these years.

"A traitor to their very own flesh and blood. Your own father doesn't know, does he? That his daughter stole his fame and fortune from right under his nose, all the while pretending to grieve at his side at their personal catastrophe. Did you hug him when he was upset, then laugh behind his back? Is this the real Videl? Was the teenage crimefighter who touted the values of justice and fairness just a PR stunt too?"

"You've made your point," Videl said briskly. "I'm keeping sunsetbeluga36 a secret, yada yada, now where is the part where you make me a deal?"

"All right, fine." Vora shrugged. "Here's what I propose. I keep your little secret away from your Prince and your father, and you, in turn, give me some Paozu Stalk."

Videl's eyes narrowed. "You want the stalks?"

"Just some. Surely you can manage even that much."

"Why?"

"Is it so surprising? The Paozu Stalk is a super-superfood. One serving of it can keep a human in peak condition for a day. For a gang that relies on smuggled fruits and vegetables, some Paozu Stalk would alleviate the growing hunger in our neighbourhoods."

His explanation made perfect sense, but somehow Videl felt he wasn't being honest. There was something else at play here, but she couldn't figure out what.

She shook her head. "That's a nebulous deal, and you know it. What, you expect me to deliver stalks to you in perpetuity so that my secret stays between us forever?" Blackmail without a clear end was the fastest way to get a target on your head. Surely, a gang leader knew that. Someone more selfish and ruthless than Videl would be planning how to shut Vora up permanently by now.

"You don't like it?"

"I never like blackmail, but I expected a better one coming from you. You present me with two options with exactly the same risk. Either way, I risk getting fired."

Vora laughed. "Fair enough, so why don't I make one option riskier. Get me some stalks and I don't tell the whole world that you're a conniving backstabber. You still risk getting fired from your current job, but at least one option leaves you with potentially other avenues of income in the future."

Videl's patience was running thin. Vora was just playing around with her, and she didn't know why.

"I'm getting bored," she said. Exhausted, was more like it. Confused, even. She needed time to dissect Vora's angle, and for that she needed some breathing room. Time to get away.

She mustered up all the bravado she could for the next bit. "The thing about secrets is that they're only a good weapon if you know how to wield them. For example, what do you think your man, Zucki, over there would do if I tell him that his sweetheart is cheating on him with his pal, Jango, standing right across him? It is Jango, right? That wasn't the name on his birth certificate, but it is the name he adopted when your gang took him in at six years old. Partly to mask the fact that his father was from a rival gang who murdered three members of this gang."

Videl took in the widening of their eyes, the flashing gazes they shot one another. She turned back to Vora whose expression had closed off, jaws tight.

"Oh, you didn't think I perused only the JusticeForTruth servers, did you? No, while I was digging up dirt on Merches, I decided to look up a few things about your gang too. What can I say, I had a pretty productive night that time. So," she pushed back her chair and stood up. "We can continue the conversation, but it's going to be a one-sided monologue pretty soon, because it's clear that while you only have one secret on me, I got plenty over you."

She stared down Vora, then did the same with the other seven gang members, who were now eagerly fingering their guns again.

"It's your decision," Videl said. "I can start listing off the numbers of the combination on your treasury safe. Not the one that your official treasurer manages of course, but the second one you keep secret, Vora. It's under the tiles at the foot of your bed, isn't that right?" She didn't actually know the combination to the safe, but she hoped that by dropping hints of everything else she knew, they would take her bluff seriously.

Videl took a step towards the end of the truck. "May I leave, now?" she said in a tone that indicated she didn't actually need their permission. She glanced at Zucki, who had raised his gun, and she unbuckled the sickle from its loop on her side. "Or do you need me to rattle the place about?"

Vora conceded defeat with aplomb. He smiled — rather sarcastically — but waved his hand to the truck's entrance and said, "Don't let me stop you. I apologize if I have given you the wrong impression of your importance. The truth is that you're quite dispensable. To me and to your little prince."

She ignored his taunts; it was a weak power grab from someone who knew he had lost his leverage. Videl squeezed her way out of the truck, her skin crawling as Vora's underlings eyed her with bitter resentment. She stooped to collect her backpack and stepped on the sky-scooter. She stole a final glance at Vora and his men, then kicked the scooter to life. She shot up to the sky, stretching her senses in case they decided to attack her from behind in the air.

But Videl made it out of Frypan safely. They didn't follow her. They didn't try anything foolish.

And that left her wondering what the point of the entire conversation even was.

-o-

Videl's bravado melted even before she arrived at Mount Paozu. By the time she'd returned her sky-scooter in the garage and made it back to her room in the servants' wing, she was positively vibrating with restless apprehension.

She had to tell Gohan. She had just encountered an enemy of the kingdom; there was no way she could afford to keep this a secret.

It meant she would have to tell him about the blackmail, and to tell him about the blackmail, she would have to tell him she was the one who'd outed her father.

Videl threw herself on her bed.

She still remembered what the prince had said about the hacker who'd exposed the truth: cruel. That was what he would think of her now. Cruel and sly, because even Vora hadn't been wrong when he'd labelled her a traitor.

It wasn't like it had escaped Videl that she'd betrayed her own father. It wasn't like she felt proud of what she'd done. Every bit of stress and frustration and indignity she'd suffered the last two years, she'd borne with gritted teeth just so she could make enough money to alleviate her father's current life. Just so she could make up for everything that had happened since she'd sent that anonymous report to the news outlets. She'd made a mistake, driven by the petty angst of a neglected teenager.

Videl squeezed her eyes shut against the streak of dismay that shot through her chest. She was going to get fired, that was almost certain by this point. All leaders had their own secrets to keep. No royalty would allow her to work in the palace knowing she had a habit of exposing secrets in the name of her own self-defined justice and truth. If even flesh and blood and bone could not inspire loyalty in her, neither would financial incentives. Not in this world where filial piety still generally trumped all other duty.

And here she thought she could make a life for herself in the Ox Kingdom. Build something stable. Get her footing back, improve herself. How easily she'd let her guard down. She even had the gall to entertain a crush this morning. That seemed like a lifetime ago. What an utterly foolish thing to have worried about.

She pushed herself off the bed. She had to find Gohan soon. The longer she stalled reporting what had happened, the more suspicious she might look.

Videl exited her room and made her way to the main section of the palace. She wasn't entirely sure where to find Gohan; by this time, court would have finished, and she didn't know if he had any plans afterwards. Fortunately, she came across a servant whom she'd seen cleaning in the royals' wing before, and stopped her.

"Hello, ma'am, do you know if Prince Gohan is in his apartments?" Even to her own ears, her voice sounded strained and a bit shaky.

"He isn't, dear," the older woman answered. "Probably won't be for some time. He and the Ox King went off to the northeast mountains to survey the blueprints for the bridge they're building there."

Right, Videl vaguely remembered some labourers who'd petitioned Gohan to build a bridge somewhere. "Thanks, ma'am."

Antsy and relieved at the same time, Videl headed back to her room. She'd have some extra time to mull over how she was going to break the news to Gohan, but a small part of her had been hoping to get it over with. She knew the outcome anyway; better just rip the band-aid off.

Perhaps Videl didn't need to tell her secret to Gohan. She could just hint that it was an embarrassing mistake from her past. But as soon as she thought of it, she knew it wouldn't do. She had to tell him. Otherwise, it would always be a weakness that others could exploit. She didn't want to be blackmailed into harming the prince or his kingdom.

How hasty she'd been, trying to one-up Cant Merches. She'd been so arrogant, again. She'd allowed her temper and sense of justice to get the better of her. Had it even really been justice she was after? Or had she simply wanted to wrest power back from Merches, because he'd reminded her of how low she'd come?

In the end, Gohan came back past 10:30pm, and Videl was so exhausted by the events of the day and the unceasing rumination in the evening, that she chickened out of seeking him. Excuses flitted through her mind — he must be tired too and deserved rest; he'll be more receptive to bad news after some sleep; things probably weren't as urgent as she felt. Videl thoroughly convinced herself to wait until the next day.

With little sleep and an agitated mind, she clocked in to her shift early the next morning with deep bags beneath her eyes and a distracted energy. She must have been quite a sight, because Yanni sobered from her usual humour and checked in on her.

"Videl, you okay?" the woman whispered, leaning close. "You look a bit off today."

"Um, yeah, just tired." Videl tried to give a nonchalant smile. "I didn't sleep so well last night, that's all."

"I know what that's like. Well, feel free to stop by my room next time you can't sleep. I have some melatonin, an extra weighted blanket, a black-out eye mask, and a white-noise generator. You can borrow them if you need."

"Oh, that's quite kind of you."

Yanni gave her a wink. "It happens once in a blue moon."

After that, Videl resolved to at least put up a semblance of calm.

Throughout the first half of their shift, Videl redirected her agitation into every blow against the tough outer layer of the Paozu stalks. The repetitive motion steadied her nerves a bit, but every time the sun crawled a little higher from between the mountains, she was reminded of the task awaiting her after their shift. Her hands grew clammy, and her sickle almost slipped a few times from her grasp.

Steban called for a break at the usual time. Videl opened her pack and saw the empty tupperware from yesterday's lunch she'd had at Mount Frypan and a pair of dirty, greasy chopsticks. Her water bottle, too, was only a quarter full. She bit back a sigh. She'd forgotten to pack new snacks and refill her bottle.

That was when she noticed something odd in her bag. Beneath all the other stuff she typically brought along, there seemed to be a ball resting right at the bottom. She'd never seen it before. She dug it out, confused by its smooth, hard shell. It was all black with a rubber ridge that ran right across its circumference, as if it could be cracked open there. The outside was covered in some type of fabric that seemed familiar, but she wasn't sure where she'd encountered it before.

"What's that?" Sharpner asked, taking a sip from his own water bottle as he approached Videl. "If you wanna play ball, might want to wait until we're not six kilometers up in the sky?"

"Don't think this is a ball you can play with." Videl tossed the object from one hand to another. There was a heft to it that shifted when she moved it, leading her to believe there was something inside.

Lin came over too, munching on a ham sandwich. "Ooh, a new toy? I love toys."

"I've no clue." Videl passed it to Lin, who took it with one hand.

Suddenly, the ball lurched from her palm. "Whoa!" Lin made to grab it, but Sharpner caught it instead. Still, the ball continued to lurch, making little hopping movements until it slipped from Sharpner's hands and fell with a dull thud on the ground. It rolled for a bit then stopped beside one of the stalks.

"What in the world? It felt like there was a puppy in there!" Sharpner remarked.

Something about that made Videl's tummy sink. That ball was in no way big enough for a puppy, but there was another creature she could think of that tended to hop and sommersault in the air.

And the shell… now that she thought more about it, its fabric seemed very similar to the special nylon of the fireproof outfit Gohan had given her.

The ball split down the ridge, and the two halves fell away from each other. Emerging from its cradle, a luminous humanoid figure half-a-foot high jumped out. Videl's belly sank further still until she felt nauseous. Pieces clicked into place so rapidly in her mind, she thought she would pass out.

She may not have seen this ball before, but the shells — separated as they were now — were recognizable. Yesterday, in the truck in which she conversed with Endy Vora Jr., there had been shells very similar to this one on the cluttered desk.

More importantly, she understood now what the point of the conversation had been. It was never about blackmailing her into doing Vora's bidding. It was never about gathering Paozu Stalks behind the prince's back. It was all just a stupid, terrible distraction.

And Videl, idiot that she was, had fallen for it.

All this time, she thought she'd outsmarted Vora. She'd been so proud of how many secrets she knew about him and his gang, of how effectively she'd scared them all off without even so much as a single punch thrown.

But his plan all along had been to plant a fire spirit inside her bag. He'd taunted her with her hackername just to get her to play along. And it had worked. Damn it, it had worked, because now she had unwittingly taken a destructive spirit right into the heart of the Ox Kingdom's lifeblood.

All this Videl realized in a span of a blink, and she could only watch helplessly as the fire spirit frolicked into the air and plunged into a nest of Paozu stalks.

They burst into flames. Cries erupted from behind and beside her.

"Quick, put it out!" Steban lunged forward, pulling the picnic blanket he brought along for the mid-morning breaks. He swung it upon the stalks, but it blazed away in a matter of seconds.

"No, you have to step back!" Videl cried, tugging him away from the fire. "It's no ordinary fire, you can't put it out that way."

"Lin, do you have an extinguisher?" Yanni yelled, the roaring of the flames now crescendoing around them. The air shimmered with sudden repressive heat. The small landing would no longer be safe for them to stand on in a minute or two.

The girl shook her head. "No, I'm sorry!" Lin shouted back. "I never thought we'd have to use one."

"It probably wouldn't work anyway," Videl said. "That was a fire spirit. The thing that torments Mount Frypan."

"Why did you have one in your bag?" Miki asked, shielding his face from the flames.

Long story. "Look, we don't have much time. Prince Gohan has something to put the flames out, but first, we need to sever these stalks from their bases, otherwise the fire will spread," Videl said. Many of the stalks crawled down the mountain faces and connected with other stalks and plants across the mountain range. If they weren't careful, a chain reaction could start, and all the stalks could go up in flames one after another.

All five of them reached for their sky-scooters, unsheathing their sickles. Videl was just about to pull up into the sky, when a screech echoed all around them. A huge mass of scales and leather swooped up over the edge of the mountain.

"Watch out, it's a dinosaur!" Steban said, though everyone could see it now that it was over their heads. It must have been resting in a nook below and the fire had disturbed it.

Videl waved her sickle at it, trying to force it to go up higher. This close to the mountain, gusts of wind whooshed all around them with every beat of its wide wings. She didn't want any embers floating away —

With a final, tremendous flap of its wings, the dinosaur shot off to the south in panic. A large, crumbling piece of stalk peeled away from the rest, flames still eating away at its skin. The wind carried it away like flotsam in an angry ocean wave. It tore into dozens of pieces, each of which travelled in different directions, and in just a handful of breaths, all the peaks around them blazed like an inferno.

Notes:

AN: You guys, I tried so hard to insert Piccolo into this chapter, but he just wouldn't fit? Every time I tried, it seemed so random, lol. I don't know when he can make an appearance in this fic anymore, to be honest.

Oh, I also updated chapter 4 to address a plot hole pointed out to me by a reviewer. The Stalk gatherers were supposed to have a parachute as part of their outfits, but somehow that disappeared in the plotline. I totally forgot I had written that, haha! I inserted a small scene there to explain how Videl lost her parachute.

Chapter 10: Time Out

Notes:

Hello folks! This chapter leans a bit more introspective than usual, but I hope it helps flesh out Videl's thoughts about everything. It was actually so mentally exhausting to write! Having a character who has a code of ethics but fails to live up to her own code requires so much mental gymnastics, lol!

Videl flew her scooter faster than she'd ever flown it, streaking through the morning sky now tainted by viciously inky smoke. She honed in on the palace in the distance, her grip on the scooter's handles so strong she was half afraid that she'd tear them right off and she'd topple overboard. The other half was afraid for the stalks, for the restaurant, for the kingdom. For the prince. Her heart hammered in her chest so violently, her breaths came in gasps, and she tasted the waxy fumes of the fire spirit's flames in her mouth every time. She choked and coughed, but she didn't slow down. She couldn't afford to slow down.

Forget about getting fired. That seemed like a petty thing to worry about now. Videl just hoped her arrogance wouldn't cause the downfall of yet another community. Would the kingdom survive without the stalks? She tried not to think about the Paozu village, with its houses hollowed out of their residents, shops boarded up, the grand stairs derelict with neglect. She tried not to think about the beautiful palace, its halls and courtyards devoured by vines and moss and weeds, nature snatching back its own. She tried not to think about the Ox people, robbed of yet another home.

Behind her trailed the other stalk gatherers. They landed with successive thuds on the runway spilling out of the palace's hangar. Videl barely slowed, willing the door to lift up fast enough so she wouldn't splat on it. She had to duck her head to slip through, but she made it. The lights overhead flickered open, and Videl threaded her way through the parked vehicles, getting as close to the entrance into the palace before hopping off the scooter.

Once in the hallway, she skidded towards the passageway that led to the stairs. It was just past 7 in the morning, and she hoped Gohan was still in his room having breakfast. Would he have seen the fire from there?

She got her answer just as she turned down an intersection and slammed directly against the prince. It was like crashing against a cement wall. Pain shot through her head and chest, and she lost her footing. She toppled to the ground, winded.

"Oh goodness, Videl! I'm so sorry." Gohan crouched to help her up.

"I'm fine," she lied through her teeth. She could taste blood on her lips. "I suppose they don't call you an Ox prince for nothing."

"Huh? Oh yeah, built like an ox and all that, haha!"

"Listen," Videl gripped his arms. "The stalks are on fire —"

"Yes, I saw. I'm on my way to put it out now."

"Bring the Bansho fan."

Gohan's eyes widened. "You mean, it was caused by a fire spirit? But how?"

"It's a long story." Videl sighed grimly. "Vora—"

"He did this?"

Videl gulped. "No, but he is the one behind this." It was the fastest explanation she could give.

Gohan's lips thinned into a displeased line. He helped her get back on her feet while the other stalk gatherers caught up with them, huddling around.

"All right, I'll take care of this," Gohan said, nodding to all of them. "Thanks for coming back soon and warning us." He flashed Videl a look. "You and I will talk after."

The sound of Gohan's steps echoed through the hall as he jogged out of view. Videl knew Gohan could be very fast, but the flames had a considerable head start, and she loathed to wonder how much of the stalks could be saved. Even Steban, who was as levelheaded as people came, had a deep frown of worry on his face.

"I guess there's not much we can do for now," Yanni whispered, a note of surrender in her voice. "Videl, you said Endy Vora Jr. was behind this?"

Videl nodded. "I came across him yesterday while I was at Frypan. He took my stuff and interrogated me for a bit." She bit her lip. "It didn't cross my mind that his lackeys put something in my bag."

"I didn't even know fire spirits could be transported like that," Sharpner said.

Videl didn't either. None of her research had indicated that fire spirits could even be contained without burning the things they touched. But clearly Vora had figured something out. She remembered the wide array of instruments and gears populating the truck yesterday. How long had they been experimenting with materials? And how did they manage to catch a fire spirit long enough to trap it in one of those spheres?

She squeezed her eyes shut. "You guys, I am so sorry. I don't know what's going to happen."

Sharpner was kind enough to pat her comfortingly on the shoulder, just enough of a gesture to let Videl know he didn't hate her again.

"I'm sure the prince will sort it all out," Steban offered, but the grimness shadowing his eyes suggested he wasn't entirely confident about the result.

"If there are no stalks to gather, would we lose our jobs?" Miki asked.

"We'll likely just get transferred to another role," Lin said, although that was easy for her to say. As a mechanic and paramedic, her skills could be used anywhere, from the kitchens to the garage. And even if she did get laid off from the Ox palace, she could get hired somewhere else very quickly, perhaps within the day.

"Let's all just sit tight for now." Steban ushered them out of the hallway.

The next hour was simultaneously the slowest and fastest Videl had ever experienced. She had retreated to her room, watching as the sky darkened further, not with smoke, but this time with an oncoming storm. And for the better part of the hour, heavy downpour and furious winds slashed her window panes. Gohan must have waved the Bansho Fan three times.

Then someone knocked on her door. It opened a little bit, and Maisy stuck her head in reluctantly.

"Hey, Videl? Prince Gohan wants to see you now," the girl said. No doubt she and the rest of the palace knew what happened by now. It seemed as if the disaster had dampened her usual chipper self too.

Videl got off her bed and followed Maisy out of the servants' wing. Her bones and muscles ached with trepidation, something she never thought could even happen.

"I heard the fire spirit came from your bag?" Maisy asked, confirming Videl's suspicion that the news had spread already. As they emerged into the grand hall, groups of servants and court personnels passed by them. More than a handful did double takes on Videl.

"That's her, right?" she heard someone comment in a low, but hurried, voice. "I thought she was helping the prince. Now she set fire to the stalks?"

"Not sure what happened, exactly. It's just what I heard."

Another speculation came from a different corner of the hall. "You don't think she was working with Vora all along, do you?"

"With her ilk, you can't be certain about anything, apparently."

Videl steeled herself. It wasn't like she was unused to being the centre of horrid whispers. All of this was so familiar, in fact, that she wondered at the stabbing ache at her chest. Why did it hurt so much more this time?

Maybe because none of this was calculated. Unlike her father's downfall, she wasn't the one who had orchestrated this. She'd been set up. Framed to look like the bad guy, when in reality, she did her damnedest best to help. She had tried so, so hard, and still here she was, back in the same place, possibly worse off than before.

"Yes, Maisy," she answered finally. "It came from my bag. But I promise you, I didn't know it was there."

Maisy left her at Gohan's door, scuttering quickly back down the path they'd taken as if afraid that whatever misfortune would fall upon Videl would spread to her if she were too close.

Videl willed herself to take several deep breaths, then knocked.

"Come in!" Gohan called from the other side of the room.

With a cold hand, she twisted the doorknob and stepped inside. Gohan was sitting on the couch in front of the glass table, elbows on his knees, hands clasped beneath his chin. He was chewing on his bottom lip, as if troubled by a thought, but his eyes, when he trained them on her, bore no resentment.

Videl audibly sighed in relief.

Then reeled it back in. There would be plenty of time later for resentment, after he was in possession of the full story.

"The stalks?" she asked, her voice the smallest she'd ever heard it.

Gohan shook his head and opened his hands. "Absolutely wrecked."

Videl winced as she lowered herself on the seat adjacent to his. "I'm so sorry." She covered her face with her hands, hoping that when she opened her eyes she would be in a different reality.

But the prince's bereft voice reached her ears. "The worst part is, the roots of most of the stalk clusters were burned. We can plant more, but the stalks reach maturity only after three years. We don't have enough reserved funds to tide us through until then. However…"

Videl opened her eyes. Gohan stood up from the couch and strode over to the velvet pillow resting on a table. A hat with a ball perched on it. She remembered him calling it a dragon ball before.

"We might be able to make a wish to restore the stalks," he continued. "I don't know for sure, because the dragon hasn't been able to intervene against the fire spirits before. But even if we could use it, we need to be subtle enough so we don't arouse suspicion. That means wishing for the stalks to grow back not faster than a year."

A small spark of hope bloomed in Videl's chest. "That won't be too bad, will it?"

Gohan gave a hesitant shrug, then sat back down on the couch. "Videl, I need to know what happened. How did a fire spirit get there? How did Vora manage to do that?"

She breathed in deeply. This was it, the moment she'd been dreading since the day before. Now that it was here, she found all of her preparation evaporating into thin air, words jumbling over themselves in her mind until she didn't know how to begin.

"Vora came across me yesterday," Videl said after a while. "I was at Frypan investigating the fire spirits' portal. He, uhm, had me cornered with some of his gang members, and they took me to a truck with some kind of workspace inside. They confiscated my bag and scooter. He tried to blackmail me into giving him some stalks, but after some push back, he just let me go. I thought that was strange, and it never occurred to me yesterday that he simply wanted me distracted enough to put something in my bag."

Gohan's brows lowered. "How did he put a fire spirit in your bag? Wouldn't it have burned?"

"It was in a small ball, some strange container of sorts. Its shell was made of a fabric that seems very similar to that fireproof jumpsuit we used when we visited Frypan the first time," Videl answered. "In the workspace in the truck yesterday, I remember seeing pieces that looked a lot like parts of this type of ball. I think they might have been engineering something for a while. But I don't know how they managed to catch a fire spirit."

Gohan pursed his lips, then pulled an object carefully wrapped in a towel onto his lap. "I found this at the most damaged peak." He uncovered it, and revealed two blackened shells with rubber ridges across their circumference.

"Yes, that's it!" Videl confirmed.

The prince poked it about. "Maybe I'll get Bulma to take a look. In any case, you didn't feel anything wrong with your bag when you were coming back from Frypan yesterday? Not even heavier or warmer than usual or anything like that?"

"No, I was rattled! I didn't know what to make of the encounter, and I was waiting for you to return, and I just didn't think there might be anything in my bag—" Videl realized she was being overly defensive. She cleared her throat and relented. "No, I didn't feel anything wrong." Then amended further, "I didn't think I should have felt anything different."

It didn't matter what Vora did, it didn't matter how wily he'd executed his bit, it was still Videl's responsibility to check her belongings. If she'd had encountered an enemy during her time helping out with the police on a case years ago, the first thing she would have done was check if she'd been bugged. The fact that she'd allowed her nerves to drive her into carelessness yesterday was her own failure, and she couldn't blame Vora for that.

"It must have been sheer luck that you were the one they found," the prince remarked.

"Vora admitted the same thing yesterday," Videl mumbled begrudgingly.

"Anyone from the Ox Kingdom would have been a decent enough carrier. We have scouts on Frypan who patrol the area every now and then, and it would have been more likely for Vora to come across them. But they found you instead, which puts me in a tough spot."

She frowned, then it dawned on her. The whispers already brewing in the palace. "Because I'm more likely to look like I turned on you than anyone else working in the palace," she guessed. "And that meant his attack became two-pronged."

The prince agreed, "If it had been anyone else, the entire village would have been sympathetic to this person. It would have been easy enough for me to get everyone to rally behind the victim. But with you…"

"People already think I'm flaky, so your reputation becomes questionable," Videl finished for him. "Because you were the one who hired me in the first place, even though some people believed it wasn't a good idea. Now they feel vindicated. Vora didn't just hit your kingdom's treasury, he also hit your people's trust in you."

It hardly mattered that Videl had saved parts of the kingdom from danger before. People who had doubted her all along would consider those instances as flukes, yet see this latest mistake as proof she couldn't be trusted. And she was dragging Gohan down with her.

Gohan set aside the shells, and he shifted his position so he was looking levelly at Videl. Regret was immediately reflected in his eyes, and she knew that her time was up.

"I'm sorry, Videl, but I…"

"You're firing me," she finished for him. A part of her was somewhat relieved to just get it out in the open, get it all over with.

He sighed, "Let's say I'm putting you on a temporary leave. I don't think it's impossible for me to hire you back."

Even now, when Videl was the one whose mistakes had cost an entire kingdom its fortune, Gohan was treating her with utmost kindness. She almost couldn't bear it.

"It's okay," she told him. "Thank you for giving me a chance. That was the only thing I could have asked for in the first place. And I hope you believe that I am truly sorry for what happened."

"Let me just deal with Vora," Gohan said. "After that, I'll try my best to stand by you."

She nodded, feeling touched yet numb at the same time. "I found out something about the portal yesterday, if you still think it might be relevent."

"I don't think it matters at this point. I can't go down the route of diplomacy anymore, not after that attack." Gohan rubbed the back of his neck. "Maybe afterwards…"

An awkward silence blanketed the room, and Videl thought that was probably her cue to leave. "Should I pack now?"

Gohan took out a capsule from his pocket. "I actually don't think you should linger far longer than you have to in the palace. I've heard the talk, and I'd rather avoid any more incidents. And there's Mom, who's really upset right now. Here, I have a copter with emergency supplies."

This was happening a lot faster than Videl had imagined. She reached out and took the capsule. The prince stood up and headed towards his terrace, opening the glass doors. He must be thinking for her to lift off from there.

"I'll have Maisy collect your things from your room, and someone will drop it off at your address."

This, too, was a kindness. Gohan was sparing her the humiliating trek across the palace with her possessions in tow, clearly dismissed from a position she'd only acquired just a little over two weeks before. The funny thing was that it wasn't even Videl's shortest stint at a job.

The prince looked pained as she approached the terrace. For some reason, she didn't want this to be the last look she'd see on his face. After everything he'd done for her, she didn't want him to remember her with guilt. She didn't want him to think that he was at fault for anything.

"Ox Prince, you're making the right decision," she reassured him. "I messed up, so this is all fair and square, okay?" She stared out at the smoking peaks outside. A watery sun was crawling through the wispy gray clouds in the sky. The rain had stopped, and the cool mountain breeze had returned.

Videl hadn't imagined herself confessing like this, but perhaps this was the best way to reveal the truth to Gohan. She was getting dismissed anyway. And if things didn't work out in the future, this might be her last chance to tell him. "There's something else you should know. About what Vora tried to blackmail me with."

He blinked, brows rising.

"He wanted me to steal some stalks for him. In exchange, he wouldn't tell you, my father, and the world that I was the one who exposed my father's lies. That I was the one who showed the world he didn't kill Cell."

The prince groaned. "Oh, Videl, that's horrible. I can't believe he'd accuse you to be so callous. Especially with your own father. I'll deal with Vora, I promise."

Videl crossed her arms. What would it be like to be Gohan? To always believe the best in people?

"It's the truth," she whispered.

The prince blinked again and was silent for a long time. Then, the strangest thing happened. Fear seeped into his gaze, and he gripped her arms tightly.

"Do you know who really killed Cell, then?"

"What?" Videl instinctively struggled to get free of his hold. His fingers dug deep into her flesh, and she was sure they would leave bruises. "No, I don't. I only saw evidence that my father didn't kill him."

Gohan seemed to realize what he was doing, and he released her abruptly. "Oh. I'm sorry, I just… I thought I might…" He shook his head, as if clearing his thoughts from cobwebs that pulled at them. When he looked back at her, his gaze was confounded. "Why did you do it? You and your father suffered so much. You still suffer. I see it everyday. You must have known it would turn out this badly."

Why? The reason had seemed so clear two years ago, a painful compulsion that pressed at her soul until she'd felt she was suffocating. But now, the reason seemed so muddled amidst all the other unintended consequences of her revelation.

"When I was helping the force in Orange City, people called me an agent of truth and justice," she explained half-heartedly. "So when I found out my father's secret, I thought… would I still be an agent of truth and justice if I lied to everyone?"

It sounded pathetic worded like that. Because in the end, she'd become a hypocrite anyway. She had become someone who hurt people for the sake of her own goals.

"Why are you telling me this now?" Gohan asked.

"I just don't want anyone else to use it against me to get to you. Not that there's much chance of that in the foreseeable future, but still… I'd rather you hear it from me."

"Do you wish you'd done differently?"

"I hate that so many people were affected, but…" No matter which angle Videl looked at it, there seemed no correct way for her to have handled the situation. "I don't know! What would you have done? If you were the one who felt there was something off about my father's stories, could you just ignore it? And if you found out he wasn't the one who killed Cell, wouldn't you say something?"

Gohan didn't even hesitate. "I would lie to the world. I would keep pretending."

The frankness of it made her heart skip a beat, and she was shocked to find herself disappointed. And hurt. That the moral dilemma that had plagued her for years could be so easy for somebody else to solve.

A sad smile appeared at the corner of his lips. "You think I'm a terrible person."

"No! No, I…" She didn't know what to think. "Maybe it's easier for you. But I was benefitting from every lie my father told, and I couldn't bear that."

"Videl, does it bother you that much to lie?"

She took a deep breath and shrugged. "The truth must have some value, doesn't it? The world would be worse off if we can't trust anything."

"I'm sorry if some of the tasks I asked of you required more discreetness than you're comfortable with. You must have lied to your teammates and new friends about some of it, right? If I'd known beforehand how you feel, I wouldn't have recruited you for the project."

He glanced out at the horizon, as if trying to make up his mind about something. "Look, Mount Paozu and the Ox Kingdom are places of deep, powerful secrets. Secrets that are far more astounding than anything I've shared with you so far. And at any time, my family and I have the discretion to keep something from you or to ask you to keep something to yourself. I meant what I said about you still having a place here. But maybe you should also think about whether you want to come back."

-o-

Seaside Cliff was a two-hour copter ride from Mount Paozu. The first time Videl had seen this place, she had immediately approved of its remoteness from the city. The forbidding cliffs that towered over the angry splashes of the sea had reminded her there was far more to the world than fame, fortune, and tabloids. The difficult, but honest work of catching and hauling fish, of eking out a garden from the dry, rocky soil, had inspired hope in Videl that her father would find something meaningful to do with his own two hands.

Now, arriving here after the humble grandeur of the Ox Palace, Videl could only view it with a tinge of embarrassed sadness. From her vantage point up in the copter, the windswept crags seemed cruel, and the crashing of the waves was unsettling. She had once believed a place so different from their previous life would help them start over; but perhaps it only made her father miss it all the more. She suddenly felt so much sorrier for him. She wanted him to believe life was better without the lies, but so far, she wasn't doing a good job proving it. Would it truly have been better to keep the scam going?

Videl steered the controls of the copter, looking for a place where she could land. Her mind was foggy, still numb from her conversation with Gohan.

She had always known that the Ox Family kept a lot of secrets. What kind of royal family wouldn't? That's why her own secret would have threatened her position there. Nobody liked a snitch. But for some reason, she had felt comfortable in the kingdom. Sure, she believed some of their secrets — like the senzu bean — could benefit the world if their existence was more well-known. But she didn't feel the same compulsion to reveal them, didn't feel like it was her duty, something she owed to the world. So what was the difference?

The dissonance made Videl's head ache and her heart throb.

Videl maneuvered the copter to a relatively flat, open space leading up to the hill where her father's cottage sat. She lowered the copter to the ground, then turned off the engine. The briny wind whipped at her hair and clothes as soon as she exited the vehicle. It was cool and damp with the sea mist. She capsulized the copter, then made the lazy trek up to the cottage.

The day Videl began revieiwng the Cell Games in earnest had been the anniversary of her mother's death. And her father hadn't been home. He'd phoned from some casino, with the faint voices of women giggling in the background, told her he was too busy, that there were interviews he couldn't reschedule and an endorsement deal he had to finalize. Even at sixteen, Videl had understood that people grieved differently, but an incessant voice in her head had told her that those were no longer the actions of a man who grieved, but a man who'd forgotten the value of love, surrounded as he was by its cheap imitation: blind adoration.

Meanwhile, years after her mother's passing, Videl had still found it difficult to drag herself out of bed on the death anniversary. She still found that the sun shone a little less bright, that she couldn't listen to the songs her mother had played, she couldn't watch the shows with the actors her mother had liked, she couldn't think of her future without balking at the blank spots where her mother ought to be. She couldn't dream, couldn't remember, couldn't do anything without a pinch in her chest. She had felt like a terrible black hole, all the while her father was making merry, and it had felt so viciously unfair, so unjust.

People had told her to be lenient with her father. He had saved the world, after all, and there were responsibilities that came with that. His family couldn't keep him to themselves anymore. They had to share him with the planet.

And so Videl had started to rewatch the Cell Games, hoping she'd be more compassionate if she could remember her father's bravery. Leniency was the least she owed to someone who'd saved her and the rest of the earth from annihilation.

But the more she'd watched, the more things didn't add up. It didn't help that every time she had tried to get Hercule to tell the story in the past of how he'd won, he'd always given her different versions. For entertainment, she'd always assumed, because she'd been a little kid. But the more she'd thought about it, the more the grip of doubt had tightened on her mind.

Videl had dug and dug and dug, until she'd found out the truth. The bitterness of it had filled her until she had no more room in her body for leniency and patience and grace.

She crested the hill and was welcomed with the view of the rustic cottage and the small garden beside it hemmed in by a crooked wooden fence. Her father crouched on the ground, a spade in his hand, poking at their bed of potatoes. The last couple of years had taken their toll. His muscles had shrunk, deprived of their vanity workout; his skin was wan, thanks to the uninspiring meals they could scrape together here; his eyes had lost their energetic zeal, with not much to life he could look forward to.

Videl bit her lip. Maybe things had never been about the truth for her, not entirely. Maybe she had wanted to hurt her father, and revealing his secret was the most fitting punishment. Maybe in the end, no matter how hard she tried to be moral and ethical, she was just as self-serving as everyone else. She kept secrets when it suited her, helped hide them if it got her paid, but then turned all high-and-mighty when she was the one getting burned.

Hercule noticed her trudging up the hill, and he stood up. A half-smile lit up his face; only half, because he probably suspected what it meant for her to come home unexpectedly.

"Sweetpea, you're home!" he said, just as Videl swung the garden fence open and stepped inside.

"Ah, yes, I'm back."

Her father looked at her empty hands. "For how long?"

"For quite a while, I should think." She shrugged. "They're sending my things home."

Understanding dawned on Hercule's face, and he set aside the spade. "I'm so sorry, sweetpea. It's their loss. Come here."

Videl leaned into her father's open arms, fully knowing she didn't deserve to be comforted by him. He'd reacted similarly every time she'd lost a job before or been turned away from an interview. Her stomach curdled with shame every time, but she couldn't bear to leave him hanging, lest he believed her scorn was for him and not herself. So she wrapped her arms around his midriff and stayed there in self-pity.

"I'm sorry, Dad." Sorry for a lot more than just losing a job.

"Don't you worry your clever, pretty head over it, sweetpea. You dodged a bullet, I am sure of it!" He rubbed her back, then pulled away. "Let's go inside and get some food in you."

Food was a bland, watery fish soup paired with overcooked rice. There was an art to cooking perfectly fluffy rice that she and her father had not mastered yet, and Videl feared would never master. Sitting at the table, munching on food that was such a far cry from the delicacies at Mount Paozu, it was dawning on her how much of a disappointment losing her job at the Ox Palace was compared to the other jobs she'd lost before. It had been the only place where she'd felt she could actually build a life.

Before Videl could even realize what her brain was planning to do, she had turned to her father beside her on the dining table, and her mouth blurted, "It was me."

Hercule blinked. Videl blinked.

"What was you, honey?" her father asked. His own spoon was halfway to his mouth.

Perhaps it was the feeling of having lost everything else. Her father's affection would be a tough thing to lose too, but there seemed no sense in protecting it anymore. She wasn't worth that affection. Besides, two other people knew of her secret, and it hardly seemed fair to leave her father to know it last. Like with Gohan, she would rather have Hercule hear it from her than someone else.

She inhaled deeply. "It was me," she repeated. "I was the one who sent the tabloids proof that you didn't kill Cell."

Her father stared at her for an uncomfortable moment, then said the last thing Videl ever thought he would. "Oh I know, sweetpea."

"What?" Videl exclaimed. "How?"

Hercule shrugged, shoulders drooping. "Well, it was the same proof you confronted me about the week before the media got ahold of it. I mean, at first I thought it was someone else who had given you and the media the proof separately, but then what would be the point? If they wanted something from me, they should have come to me directly. And I realized, they did. You did. And what you wanted was for me to be honest."

Videl couldn't believe her ears. "But… well then, why didn't you say anything? All this time, you knew."

Her father gave a sad laugh. "I thought you were giving me a taste of my own medicine. I hid a secret from you for so many years, and I thought you wanted me to feel what it was like."

"Oh, Dad…" She covered her face with her hands. That hadn't been her intention, but he wasn't being entirely unreasonable for making that conjecture. In a way, she had wanted to punish her father. For prioritizing fame over family, for lying to everyone, for lying to her.

"I'm so sorry," she said. "For everything. I thought—"

"No, sweetpea, I'm the one who should be sorry." Hercule reached out a hand and clasped one of hers. "And I really, really am. I placed you in an impossible situation. Raised you on a scam that gave you the ideals of a hero, and then expected you to turn a blind eye to an injustice inside your own home. You chose your ideals, and I'm proud of that in a way, but I hate how it changed you. Look at you now. You let people belittle you, smack you around. You chase after the lowest hanging fruit, thinking that's all you deserve. The Videl of the past would have more self-respect."

Videl shook her head. "The Videl of the past needed to grow up, and maybe so do I." That was the only thing she could think of saying. The tension had seeped from her, and it left her a little breathless. She never believed anyone would understand why she'd reveal her father's secret, and here was her own father, demonstrating that he understood perfectly. Why were things always so ironic between them?

Videl's meagre things arrived by a small hovercraft that afternoon. It was just her pack and a box of her clothes, including the new ones she'd collected over the two weeks. To her surprise, when she opened the box, on top of her clothes was a small plastic container with a sticky note on the lid.

Hey, Videl. I heard the news from Sharpner. Don't listen to the bullies. Many of us are hoping you'll come back. Keep your chin up! - Erasa

Tears of gratitude stung the edges of Videl's eyes, as she opened the container and found a cupcake inside. This one was chocolate with cookies mixed in the icing. Like the first one Erasa had given Videl, all she wanted to do was encase it in a display box to be looked at and appreciated forever.

Videl ate it in three bites, anyway. It was delicious and she could use a sugar rush.

Later that night, after dinner, she unpacked her belongings and began to put them away neatly in her room. The small TV in the corner buzzed softly with the news as she threw her clothes in the laundry basket. She set aside her wallet and personal documents in a locked drawer. The capsule where she'd stored the senzu bean went on her desk. She wasn't sure where she should put it, but in case she or her father needed a quick path to wellness, at least she knew where it was. She'd wanted to perform an experiment with it at one point, but it was now moot.

Videl was rearranging some boxes in the corner of her closet when she came across the stash of tapes, CDs, and hard drives she'd collected regarding the Cell Games two years ago. She should probably discard those soon. She didn't even know why she hung on to them. All she'd cared about was how her father had — or had not — defeated Cell. The rest of the games was not nearly as important to her as her father's role in it had been.

A memory from that morning zapped to the forefront of her mind, and Videl climbed to her feet and rushed out to the living room. Her father was mending a hole in one of his shirts under the yellow glow of a lamp.

"Dad…"

"What is it, sweetpea?"

"Who killed Cell?"

Hercule lowered the shirt. "Some kid. Blonde hair, blue-green eyes. Hm, he was probably around your age back then. Nobody's found him though. They didn't find any of the other contestants. Why?"

"N-nothing."

Videl turned back to her room. She stopped as she passed by her mirror, glancing at the finger-shaped bruises on her arms. She rubbed them gently, but even then, they stung.

Blonde hair, blue-green eyes. Just like Goten's drawings of himself, his brother, and his father, the ones that Gohan had told her was based off of delinquents in a drama.

Her thoughts suddenly ground to a halt when the newscaster on the TV mentioned the Ox Kingdom. Videl stepped in front of the screen, crossing her arms. A reporter with long brown hair stood at the centre, and behind her was a man so large the camera could only capture him up to his chest. The sash of Ox fur that draped across his wide girth marked him as the Ox King, even before the camera panned up to his face.

"Your Highness, do you have anything to say about the confessions of a gang from Scar Town admitting they are behind the fire that raged in your kingdom this morning?" The reporter stood on tiptoes to put the mic close enough to the Ox King's chin.

"It's a terrible, heartless decision they have made, and they should be ashamed of themselves," the Ox King's voice boomed.

"And what's your response to their allegations that you have ignored the problem of the fire spirits for so long, they were forced to bring it to your turf?"

"We were dealing with the problem as best we could," the Ox King answered. "What they did wasn't bringing it to our attention, for it has always been within our attention. What they did was a declaration of war, and we're responding back!"

The reporter didn't miss a beat. "We've heard reports that the Ox Kingdom does not have a proper army, however. You have scouts and security guards. But Scar Town seems to be gathering all their gangs to stand up against you. Will you be prepared?"

The Ox King laughed. "Hah, I'm surprised they can even agree where to gather! They will not stand a chance between my grandson and me!"

Videl sat on her bed, tuning out the rest of the interview. So this was what Gohan had decided to resort to when he said diplomacy wouldn't work anymore. She wasn't surprised, but she was very sad for him. He'd held out against the violent option for so long. But she understood that he needed to regain the confidence of his people after what she'd done; they were angry and scared, and nothing less than a quick suppression would pacify them.

She pinched the bridge of her nose. Even this, she had brought to him. He was living a prince's worst nightmare because of her.

She wondered how he would do it. She didn't doubt the Ox King's statement that Scar Town would be piece of cake for Gohan. But what was he planning? Would he use those energy blasts they talked about?

Against her better judgment, she found herself reaching for her phone. She had no right to know what Gohan's battle tactics were, but she needed to warn him about what she'd found in Mount Frypan. There was a good chance the two quarrelling groups would come face to face there, as neither would want a battle to occur on their own turfs. And Frypan was halfway between Paozu and Scar Town.

If Videl's theory was correct about the fire spirits' barrier weakening due to energy blasts, Gohan needed to know. Damn, she should have insisted on telling him that morning.

Videl selected the only contact she had that might be able to help her: Yamcha.

Hi Yamcha, it's me, Videl. Do you have some time to talk? she texted. Then she added, just to reassure him she wasn't going to bother him about her job status, It's about Mount Frypan.

He texted five minutes later. Hello, Videl! I'm sorry to hear about what happened to you. I'd love to chat. Want me to drop by?

Videl's heart quickened with hope. Sorry, Yamcha. Dad can't have visitors unless they're vetted by his officer. Let's meet somewhere else.

An address popped in her messages a moment later. Videl tossed a few things into a bag, grabbed the capsulized copter from that morning, and slid out of her room.

"Dad? I have to go out and take care of something."

"Right now?" he asked, putting down the shirt he was still mending. "It's getting dark."

"Yeah, it's better if I do. It's really urgent."

Hercule looked like he wanted to argue, but there was not much he could do if Videl decided to leave. "All right, be safe, honey."

"Thanks, Dad. I will."

-o-

The address Yamcha had given her turned out to be a penthouse at a high-class condomenium whose lobby featured a casino, a five-star restaurant, and a private theatre. It made Videl realize she didn't know what Yamcha did for a living at all. Puar did mention that the man had lost a couple mil in the Hibiscus Casino case, so he was probably doing well for himself.

She knocked on his unit, and he opened it not a breath later.

"Hey, you made it!" he exclaimed and stepped aside to let her in.

Videl entered a spacious apartment with ten-foot walls, floor-to-ceiling windows sparkling with the light of a dozen designer lamps, sleek but cozy furniture, and lots of baseball paraphernalia. They littered the home: baseball trophies squatting on shelves and side tables, framed medals and certificates hanging on the walls, signed baseball gloves waving on stands. The wall behind a shelf of aged spirits near the kitchen was lined with a rack of customized baseball bats. Everywhere she looked, there was the logo of the Taitans.

"Wait, you're a baseball player?" she said, spinning around to him.

Yamcha gave a sheepish grin. "Would you believe I'm the Taitan's star player?"

"I would!" It was her turn to be shy. "I-I'm so sorry, I don't keep up with the sport, so I didn't recognize you."

He laughed. "Don't worry about it."

Videl took off her shoes and placed them on the rack beside the door. It was lined with men's shoes of the same size. Now that she thought about it, his home lacked a quiet feminine touch.

"You live alone?" she said, following him into the living room.

"Not at all, Puar's sleeping." He walked into the kitchen and came back with a tray of glasses. "Got so full of tacos, he couldn't keep his eyes open." Then Yamcha balked, and a blush crept over his cheeks. "Oh, you mean—"

"No, I'm sorry, that was too nosy of me." Videl could feel her own cheeks warming. She sat on the black leather couch and reached for the taller glass filled with iced apple juice. The other one was a tumbler with dark amber liquid, and the rubbery scent coming from it warned her it wasn't for her.

"It's all right." Yamcha took the other glass and sat down too. "The truth is that I was in a long-term relationship for a while, and it didn't work out. So, I'm trying to enjoy the single life for now."

"I'm surprised. You're an athlete and not unfortunate-looking."

Yamcha barked a laugh. "I still have hope, is what you're saying. That's good to hear." He took a sip of his liquor. "You know, while we're on the topic of relationships, my old flame ended up with… with someone who had once tried to kill me, her, and all of our friends. Including Gohan, actually."

Videl choked on the juice. "What?"

"He's reformed, of course. And I still respect her a lot." Yamcha's voice got quiet, and there was a wistful look to his eyes. "But it's an eye-opener to realize that the person you love would rather be with someone like him… than yourself. And that's when you know you've hit rock bottom." He levelled his gaze at her. "So… so, tell me how you're doing."

He was trying to get her to lower her defences. Not that she came here with any; in fact, she'd assumed Yamcha wouldn't be interested in hearing out her side of the story, and that's why she'd come only with Frypan in mind.

Videl related everything that had happened since her meeting with Endy Vora Jr. the previous day. And she told him about how she had exposed her father's secret, too. It was getting easier, having done it twice that day already. "The Ox Prince said he'll try to get me back, but that I should think about whether I even want to."

Yamcha finished the last of his drink while he listened intently. "I've known Goku since he was a little kid himself. And Gohan is as precious to me as if he were my real nephew. So if you think you might get him hurt, I would also advice you not to go back. But," he settled his tumbler on the tray. "I don't get the sense you want to hurt anyone, Videl. So just be real with me and tell me what's really bothering you."

Leaning back against the couch, Videl sighed. "I… I don't know. I'm just annoyed, I guess, that I'm not worth being honest with."

"A reasonable thing to be irritated about. And I can tell you you're definitely worth that much. But Videl, you do realize there's a difference between honesty and privacy, right?"

"Of course!" Some of the past cases she'd work on with the police had involved doxxing, and she knew just how destructive violations of privacy could be.

"What I can promise you is this: Gohan is the kindest, most tender-hearted person I know, and if he's being dishonest about something, it's because he's trying to protect, not deceive."

Videl finished her apple juice, mulling that thought over. She glanced at Yamcha, tracing his cross-shaped scar with her gaze. The bruises on her arms prickled. "Yamcha, were you in the Cell Games?"

He opened his mouth, then shut it. Then said, "I was."

"Was Gohan there too?"

Yamcha gave her a knowing stare. "You're gonna have to ask him that yourself." He shuffled in his seat, and she knew he wasn't going to answer anymore questions about that. "And before that can happen, we gotta take care of Paozu's little gang problem. You said you have information regarding Frypan?"

"I think energy blasts might be making the situation worse with the fire spirits," Videl explained. The notes she'd taken, as well as her laptop, hadn't come home with her clothes. Gohan had probably confiscated those, since they were related to their project. "I was hoping you can warn him not to unleash any of those if he's going to fight with the Scar Town gangs near Frypan. It might weaken the barriers even more."

"I don't think Gohan would use chi blasts, not strong ones anyway," Yamcha said, picking up his phone. "But I'll warn him, nonetheless."

"Thank you."

"But just in case, if the barriers do weaken, is there a way to strengthen them again? To fix them up?"

"I have a theory," Videl said. "But I don't have the skills to test it. I heard you do, though."

"Me?" Confusion registered on Yamcha's face.

"You have very good control of your chi, right?" Videl answered. "Then I'll need your help."

Notes:

I think it's quite obvious at this point that I'm a big Yamcha fan. Like, he's just so uncle-shaped, you know? I actually think I'm being a bit unfair. I took Videl's comment about her father impressing women, and I made him out to be the bad guy for it. But then I ignore all the comments about Yamcha cheating to make him look like a noble bachelor! Gah, but you guys, Yamcha was afraid of women in DB! So I'm squarely in camp it-was-a-misunderstanding!

I'm so curious now, do you guys have a favourite side character in the series that you've clung to and have made up headcanons about? Tell me about them!

Also, I'm weirdly scared of writing the next chapter. I don't actually know if Videl's theory will make any kind of sense until I try writing it out — and you know what they say, a character is only as smart as its author.

Chapter 11: The Eleventh Hour

Notes:

Hey guys, thanks for the warm responses from the last chapter. I really enjoyed hearing about some of your favourite side characters and headcanons. Sorry it took a while for me to update. I finally got my own space after all these years, and there were so many things to take care of, and developing a new routine has left me too tired to write most days. But it's a net positive, so I'm trying not to complain too much!

Based on Videl's research on fire spirits, there was only one other place where they had been known to fall: a location just above the sea off the coast of the badlands. She didn't have her research notes with her, but she did have a search history of the coordinates of that location on her phone.

She and Yamcha rode in one of his copters, wending their way through the starry night sky. The land below them had transformed from a patchwork of skyscrapers and residential buildings to barren, rocky hills punctuated by the occasional ratty vegetation. Then finally the land had surrendered altogether to the dark undulating waves of the sea.

"How would we know if we've reached the other portal?" Yamcha asked, scanning the horizon as he steered the copter towards the coordinates.

"If we hit it, it will glow blue," Videl answered. "Although from what I've seen in Frypan, it's very thin, so it's better if we can get out of the copter and grope around a bit."

"I can fly." Yamcha slowed down as the readings on the screen informed them they were nearing their destination. "Seems a bit too low for the copter, anyway. If we're to believe the coordinates, it's not far from the surface of the water. Here, can you take over?"

Videl slid into the pilot's seat as Yamcha stepped to the door of the copter and lifted it. A fierce gust of wind entered the vehicle and ruffled Videl's hair and clothes. She gripped the cyclic and manoeuvred the copter a little lower towards the sea. A moment later, Yamcha jumped out.

She marvelled at his figure gliding gracefully down to the waves; this was the first time she'd seen with her own eyes what flying actually looked like. Gohan had never really flown in front of her, even during that one time he'd taught her how to control her chi. Flying wasn't at all like the way it was portrayed in the movies, with arms outstretched in stiff lines, the body taut like a pulled string. Yamcha moved with ease, limbs free of tension, as if every particle in the air gave him ample support. It made Videl wish she'd had more time to dedicate to her flying lessons.

Yamcha swam through the air, fingers wiggling around him, until a chance touch lit up a sliver of the space above the waves in a soft blue light.

"That's it!" she called out, though with the whirring of the copter's blades and the crash of the waters, she wasn't sure if he'd heard her.

He stopped nonetheless and tapped the spot a few more times. The glow pulsed. Then he rummaged through his pocket, pulled out a capsule, and produced an inflatable raft.

"You should come down!" he yelled at her, motioning towards the raft.

Videl programmed the copter to hover by itself, then she too jumped from the still open door. She landed on the raft with a bounce, but she quickly regained her balance with a swing of her arms.

"So, what's this experiment you want to try?" Yamcha asked, hovering in the air beside her.

She reached out to the spot where she'd seen the blue glow, and when her fingers connected with it, a distinctive buzz tugged on her skin. The light reemerged in a thin line the length of her arm, as if the very air had been sliced.

"When Gohan taught me about chi, he said that all it is is energy," Videl replied. "Energy that can be used to your own purpose. And I've seen it used for all kinds of things, from flying, to putting out fires, to manipulating the very mood in our environment.

"Here's what I think. What if the fire spirits are falling more frequently at Frypan because of all those times a chi blast had been used to kill the flames? Maybe the barrier to the fire spirits' realm got thinner every time."

Yamcha nodded, seeming to understand where she was going. "And you believe that a different kind of chi would be able to strengthen the barrier again, essentially closing the portal?"

Videl took the capsule of the senzu bean she'd kept all this time from her pack. She released the bean from the capsule and broke off a piece of it. Her heart raced in her chest, nerves tingling the way they did at the beginning of an exam right before she turned over her booklet.

"Yes, that's my theory," she answered. "Something about the senzu bean seems to give energy, enough so that it restores a wounded person back to full health. Maybe it can restore other things too."

She smudged the piece of bean against one corner of the portal. Would it be enough to test her hypothesis?

The blue glow wavered a little, and the corner she'd rubbed against closed in on itself like a wound stitching itself back together.

"Did you see that?" Videl exclaimed, afraid that she'd only been wishing for it so badly that her eyes were tricking her.

"I saw it, I saw it!" Yamcha nodded excitedly. "It's subtle. I think only an inch closed up, but it definitely happened."

Videl released a sigh mixed with relief and elation. It worked! Her theory was correct.

"This is great!" She turned an eager gaze to Yamcha. "Now can you close the rest of it?"

He balked. "You want me to heal this barrier?"

"I don't think the senzu bean has enough energy to do it, if half of it only managed to fix an inch. You can do it, right? Look, I just want to know how much effort it will take. The portal in Frypan is a lot larger than this, so we'll need to be prepared."

Yamcha rubbed his chin. "I know a guy who might be better suited for this. He's like a living senzu bean, able to heal illnesses and wounds with chi released from his hands." For some reason, Yamcha looked up at the sky, as if estimating the distance to somewhere high up and far away.

Then he shook his head. "Perhaps I can give it a go first. I may not need an in depth knowledge of healing for this. There are times when simply transferring chi can be just as useful. Did you know Goku used to request chi from all living things?"

Videl blinked. "What? He can do that?"

"Yeah! It's a technique called the spirit bomb. Even trees and animals and the sun can lend their energy to him. He collects it all into a ball and uses it to damage an enemy."

Well, that was promising. Surely that corroborated Videl's theory that the person handling the chi could change its quality. The chi lent by the living things didn't blow up Goku, and yet Goku could transform that into something harmful.

Yamcha stretched his hands out in front of the portal and closed his eyes. A luminous aura appeared from his palms.

"Careful, okay?" Videl hurried to say. "If your chi turns destructive, it just might make the portal bigger."

He gave her a flat look. "Geez, no pressure then, huh?"

"I thought you were an expert."

Yamcha rolled his shoulders. "I am — in some ways. But I have to say, I've had more practice using chi to destroy things than restore them."

He closed his eyes again and breathed deeply. The white luminescence flared brighter, and Videl started to feel something like a vibration in the air as Yamcha streamed the energy into the barrier. She squinted at the point of contact. With this taking place at night, she hadn't thought to bring sunglasses, but it was now getting a bit hard to see if the portal was indeed closing. So far, nothing seemed to be changing.

Yamcha must have assessed the same thing. He grunted and the energy from his hands blazed as if he was holding two miniature suns. Videl was forced to turn away from the brilliance of it. She braced her feet on the bobbing raft and waited for the light against her eyes to fade. The seconds ticked away into minutes, and the air took on the essence of the height of summer, prickly warm and humid.

Then the light went out. Yamcha's breaths came in ragged rasps. Videl slowly opened her eyes, heart thumping wildly between her ribs. Would the portal still be there? Had Yamcha been able to control his chi properly, or would the portal be even wider now?

Before them was simply the night air and the occassional spray of water from the splashing waves. Did it work?

Videl waved her hand in front of her, just as Yamcha did the same. Their fingers caught at nothing, even though they surely hit the place where the portal had been. Yamcha flapped both of his hands and floated around the area.

"Yep, I think it's gone," he declared.

"Incredible," Videl breathed. "You did it! You actually closed a fire spirits' portal! Haha!" She leapt and pumped a fist in the air, forgetting she was on an inflatable raft. She landed unevenly, and almost toppled over into the sea, had Yamcha's hand not shot to her shoulder to steady her.

"It was harder than I thought it would be," he admitted. "I used up so much power, and just for what? Barely a foot of barrier?"

"The one in Frypan is over a kilometer long. And I think it might actually branch out to many more cracks."

Yamcha's eyes widened and he gave a low whistle. "Well, I suppose that would be a job for Gohan."

"I take it Gohan is much stronger than you, then?"

Yamcha's lips turned into a flat line, as if he realized he'd given away more information than he'd intended. But he eventually nodded. "Much more."

They boarded the copter again, Videl feeling lighter and more hopeful now than she'd had the entire day. Sure she had lost her employment and looked terrible doing so, but at least her research hadn't been for naught.

"You think it would be simple for the Ox Prince to do it?" Videl asked. "We should tell him. I know he said stopping the falling fire spirits is no longer his top priority when it comes to dealing with Scar Town, but if war is on the horizon for them, it would just be one less thing for him to worry over."

"He hasn't responded to the last message I sent him." Yamcha glanced at his phone on one hand, while steering the copter with the other. "Which is unlike him. But perhaps he's busy planning with his grandfather. Let me try Chichi."

He dialed a number on the phone and placed it by his ear. "Hey, Chichi! Is Gohan around? I have something important to tell him. Wait, what? Right now?" Yamcha flashed Videl a panicked look. "Um, that's not good. Can you reach him at all, tell him to look at my last message? Oh dang, he left it in his room! No wonder. Ah, all right, I'll see if I can catch them. Thanks and take care. You too, bye now."

"What happened?" Videl asked, leaning over in her seat.

"Gohan and the Ox King have left to confront the gangs of Scar Town about an hour ago."

"Already?" It had only been only a few hours since she had seen the Ox King give the live interview indicating that the Ox Kingdom was preparing for war. And now it had already started?

"Apparently, one of their scouts noticed that a fleet of hovercrafts have advanced from Scar Town and were already heading towards Paozu."

Videl sat back and crossed her arms. The gangs' choice wasn't totally unreasonable. If they felt that a battle was inevitable, they weren't going to wait in a crevice on the ground where they would be at a tremendous tactical disadvantage. So they'd taken to the sky and started moving north. Gohan and the Ox King probably saw that move as an attempt to attack.

"And you're right about another thing," Yamcha said, his brows lowering. "The two sides seem to be converging on Frypan."

"Oh, damn." Videl cursed, despite knowing it was the most likely meeting point, being the only other high ground between Scar Town and Paozu. "And Gohan missed your first message."

"Indeed."

"Is there a way we can catch up to them?"

"Catch up? No, not if they left Paozu an hour ago. But we can still make it to the premises and hope that they're just having a nice, friendly parley." Yamcha fiddled with the controls of the copter, and they swerved a little more to the south.

The copter cut through the midnight wind, accelerating at a speed that must be verging on the vehicle's limits.

"Back at the condo you said that you didn't think Gohan would use a powerful energy blast against the gangs," Videl said.

"Gohan knows his own strength," Yamcha answered. "And although Vora targeted the kingdom's source of livelihood, he didn't kill anybody. His motivation isn't cold-blooded either. Gohan would have taken this into account."

"You're thinking he would go easy on them."

"To an extent. He would have planned something incapacitating but merciful. But that was back when I thought he'd have time to cool off and plan something."

"I see," Videl crossed her arms. "And now?"

"I think Gohan would just want to end things quickly. And that might make him take shortcuts."

-o-

They were approaching Frypan, though still miles away, when an orange tint began to bleed into the sky. Dawn was still far off, and unless Frypan had suddenly become an active volcano, there was only one other explanation for the fiery hue. Dismay pooled in Videl's stomach.

"Hopefully it's only a single fire spirit," she prayed, bracing herself as Mount Frypan and its village loomed on the horizon.

The skyline was drenched in a brilliant red haze, while streams of ashy smoke slithered up to the clouds. But even the thick fumes gathering in the sky could not hide the jagged lines of blue light dangling above the entire town. Like a giant web suspended in thin air, they made the sky look like a shattered mirror.

"I-is that the portal?" Yamcha asked, voice pitched higher than usual.

"Damn, what in the world happened?" Videl barely heard her voice. As they flew closer to the town, the ferocious roar of the flames penetrated the walls of the copter. A moment later, their ride shook violently, losing altitude in a matter of seconds.

"The controls are getting flaky!" Yamcha said. "I'm gonna have to land. I'll fly us the rest of the way there, but I don't know how close we can get."

Yamcha settled the finnicky copter on a rocky ledge overseeing the village at the outskirts of Frypan. As soon as they hobbled out of the vehicle, sticky heat inundated them, and only a handful of breaths later, Videl's throat already ached with the toxic smoke.

"This is no good," she said. "How are we supposed to find any of them? Are they even here?"

The flames were enormous, licking up the crumbling facades of whatever structures were left in this fire-ravaged town. Even as the fires raged on the ground, Videl noticed several flame-covered balls stream down from the cracks in the sky. Great, more and more fire spirits were falling. If just one could cause so much damage, how much more would a continuous rain of them do?

A shambling figure climbed out of the rubble, shadowed and smokey and so huge that Videl had confused him with a pile of moving boulders at first. But the two spikes at the top of the figure resolved themselves into a horned helmet, and she recognized Gohan's grandfather.

"Ox King!" Yamcha yelled, running towards him. He pulled at the older man's hands, helping him scramble up to the ledge.

The Ox King coughed severely and wiped sweat away from his face. "So I was right. It was a copter I saw landing hereabouts."

"What happened?" Yamcha helped the king take a seat. His skin was ruddy with the heat, blisters already forming at several spots. "How did things get so bad? And where's Gohan?"

"He's up there." The Ox King pointed somewhere at the sky, but with all the smoke and the glaring blaze, Videl couldn't see him. "He's trying to stop the fires, but the fire spirits keep on falling."

"We should leave now!" Videl cried, projecting her voice to be heard above the hungry noise of the fire.

"We can't. The gangs of Scar Town are trapped in the town. We can't leave them there to burn!"

"What?"

The Ox King shook his head. "They came in old, patched-up and sorry-looking hovercrafts. They had guns with aims worse than a ten-year-old's baseball pitch and missiles that would shoot if you so much as sneeze. Gohan thought it would be best to get it all over with. One show of force and they'll be cowed. I didn't disagree."

"He blasted the hovercrafts down?" Videl asked. The portal being in such a terrible state as this, there must have been an enormous release of chi.

"He unleashed a powerful, invisible pulse of energy that destabilized the vehicles. All of them jammed up and the gangs were forced to descend. But not even a minute later, the sky shattered like glass." Ox King pointed at the tattered barrier above. "And fire spirits began falling like comets. I thought I could get the gangs to safety, but the flames are too much."

"Don't worry, Videl found a way to fix this." Yamcha turned to her just as his feet lifted off the ground. "I'll go get Gohan so you two can talk."

She still couldn't see where the prince was and wondered briefly if Yamcha could use chi to sharpen his eyesight or something. But she and the king didn't wait that long before two shadows flitted through the smoky sky and landed on the ledge.

Gohan looked more harried than she'd ever seen him. Despite having come here in one of his expensive, princely outfits, the deep purple silk of his tunic was pockmarked with ember holes. The edges of his spiky hair were frizzled by the heat and there were soot stains all over him. His cheeks were pink as if in a blush, which would have looked cute on him any other time than this.

"You're here," he said in a bit of wonder as he approached her.

"Ox Prince, your chi blasts are weakening the barrier to the fire spirit realm," Videl stated, getting straight to the point to distract herself from more disturbing thoughts — like how cute the prince could look. "A-at least the destructive kinds! The ones you're using to put out the fire."

"Destructive?" he echoed.

"If you want the portal to close, you should infuse it with restorative chi."

"It's true," Yamcha interjected. "We tried it with a different portal. Remember when your father gathered energy for a spirit bomb? It feels like that, like lending someone your strength, but with more force."

"Isn't that a bit contradictory?" Gohan scratched his temple. "I remember those times being quite passive."

"It's a little tricky to balance it, that's true. You gotta drive your energy into it, but that energy has to be tranquil."

"Tranquil?" The prince waved his arms about. "At a time like this?"

"Only you can do it, Gohan!" Yamcha pressed. "I don't have enough power for that." He pointed a finger at the growing fissures in the sky. Small slivers were shooting out from the existing cracks, widening every minute. As if on cue, blue light rumbled along the branches, and another fire spirit shot forth.

"I-I'll try. It might take me a while though, and I don't want to leave the Scar Towners in there, getting crisped alive." He turned to Videl. "It's only when I aim my chi at the sky that the portal gets affected?"

"Yes, that's correct."

Gohan rose a couple of feet from the ground and lifted his hands at a low angle towards the town. "I'll blow out the current fires. One of you get the Bansho fan from the palace, and the others help the gangs escape while the fires are out." A tidal wave of pressure emerged from the prince's hands and surged through Frypan. The flames wavered in the current, and the smoke rushed away with the wind. But soon, most of the fires died away, although a few stragglers lingered in some pockets of the town.

"All right, let's give this a go!" Gohan whirled higher towards the blue-lit splinters marring the night sky.

Among the remaining three, only Yamcha was fast enough to collect the Bansho Fan, and so the Ox King and Videl were left to help out the gangs of Scar Town.

"After all the trouble they caused, we're the ones who have to save them," Videl grumbled under her breath as she fetched materials from Yamcha's copter. She found a blanket tucked in the back seat, which she ripped up into strips and soaked with water from a canteen. She even chanced upon an expensive woolen sweater, and she only hesitated for a second before putting it on. Yamcha probably wouldn't have a hard time replacing it, and it was the most fire-resistant thing around.

"Most of the gangs landed in that area over there," the Ox King explained, pointing at a spot flatter than the surrounding vicinity, devoid of large structures engulfed by embers or smoke. Videl recognized it as the town square, because that was where Vora had taken her the previous day, where he'd tried to blackmail her in their truck.

She tied one of the wet strips of cloth around her nose and mouth like a damp mask. The rest, she clutched in her hands, hoping they wouldn't dry out before she reached the gangs. Then, following the Ox King's lead, she plunged from the rocky ledge and into the crumbled ruins of the town. They pushed through the messy alleyways at a desperate run, knowing it was only a matter of time before another fire spirit came tumbling out of the portal.

The streets opened up into the clearing, and there must have been close to a hundred men and women huddled in the area. Most of them lingered in their opened hovercrafts or crouched alongside them for protection. Some nursed wounds or injuries, possibly sustained when the hovercrafts had malfunctioned and descended. The lower half of all their faces were covered by pulled-up collars or handkerchiefs or, in the case of the lucky ones, gas masks from the hovercrafts' emergency system.

A dozen of the gangsters jumped up on alert upon Videl and the Ox King's entry into the town square. Her eyes immediately drifted to Vora, whose features were easy to pick out from a sea of unfamiliar faces. He was near the front, carrying a gun. He pointed it at them and the others followed suit.

"Don't come closer or we'll shoot!" Vora yelled across the square. "You must think you've got us cornered, don't you?"

"Oh gee!" Videl threw up her hands in the air and stomped her foot. "Fine, you can burn here then!" She twisted around, ready to go back to the outskirts of Frypan.

The Ox King's large hand settled on her shoulder, preventing her from taking another step. "Videl, we got to help them," he told her quietly, but he didn't look happy about it either.

Then he faced the gangsters. "Listen, if some of you would rather take a chance with the fire, feel free to stay. But if you value your life, you can follow me and I'll show you the fastest way out of this rubble. Don't take too long to decide. A fire spirit might come down any moment."

"How do we know it's not a trap?" Vora shot back.

"A trap for what, young man?" the Ox King asked. "We already won this silly little war you prompted. Or do you think you can still win after my grandson disabled your vehicles?"

"H-he was the one who did that?" Vora's expression turned from shock to disgust. "I should have known. You really are a ruthless bunch. You probably planned all of this — to trap us between certain death by fire and whatever trick you're hiding up your sleeve. You're not even honourable enough to fight us in a real battle!"

Videl had had enough. The knowledge that the clock was ticking made the nape of her neck itch with impatience. "Would you stop being an idiot for a minute? All you've ever done is put your own people in peril, and when things don't work out the way you want, you start blaming others. Quit your gangster power plays, and listen to the Ox King. We're leaving with or without you, so make up your mind fast."

"Uh, Vora?" one of the gangsters said, voice quivering while his hand shot up to the sky. "I think we should go with them."

Overhead, a long branch of the portal roiled with blue light, the surrounding clouds boiling with heat. Flashes of orange and red emerged, and out popped three fire spirits in quick succession. They hurtled through the sky, making a bulls-eye for the town.

"L-let's go!" the Ox King declared. He didn't wait for an ascent from the Scar Towners, but instead, rushed to them and picked up several of the injured — two in each arm. He circled back to the alley he'd taken with Videl, and all the rest of them followed behind him in a sprint.

Videl knew the moment one of the fire spirits landed even without seeing it, because the resulting flames lit up the night once again like a sea of torches. Shadows of the looming ruins and scattered debris danced all around them. The bitter, cloying scent of the fire spirits' smoke drenched the air once more. She just remembered then and there that she still held some wet strips of cloth.

"Here, take this!" she told the Scar Towners nearest her. "Give the rest to the others who need them."

The second fire spirit crashed into the pathetic remains of a bricked tower about a dozen feet away from them. Screams erupted at the same time a string of flames did. Glass shattered in an explosion, stones and mortar crashed around them, and metal screeched in painful torsion.

Heat and smoke swelled around them, that Videl barely had time to register the toppling collection of metal scaffolding right in front of her.

"Watch out!" she pushed the Scar Towner ahead — probably stronger than necessary — and caught the brunt of the weight of the frames on her hands and shoulder. Heat seared her skin, and she cursed, but she hung on. If this thing blocked their way, half of them wouldn't be able to escape. The fire had already spread to the two other alleyways diverging from the one they were in.

"Hurry up!" she yelled. Videl gritted her teeth as the rest of the group crouched through the low opening she'd secured with her body. The pain was blinding, eating through her skin down to her flesh and muscles. The woolen sweater began to smoke and sizzle where the metal rods touched them. She reminded herself she still had half a senzu bean left if she really needed a miraculous fix. That thought helped her bear the heated weight far longer than she otherwise would have.

A river of cold, heady wind blew across them, taking away the suffocating smoke and dampening the heat in the air. Videl's eyes shot open, and she caught the flames surrounding her fizzling against the rush of the wind. Had Yamcha managed to get the Bansho fan?

Drops of rain began to pelt down from the sky, and she got her answer. Videl couldn't help smiling with relief, as she extracated herself from the scaffolding. She threw them aside and groaned as the rain stung the bloody blisters that had erupted on her palms.

"Oh boy, you look a little rough." Yamcha flew down to stand beside her, the Bansho fan gripped in his right hand. Further up the alley, the Ox King and the Scar Town gangs continued to make their way towards the town's exit while marvelling at the rain.

"Thanks for coming back so quickly. I thought we would be goners." Videl blew on her injured hands, trying to flex them to see how much of their mobility was affected. She could still curl her fingers, but not make a fist. "Hey, how come the wind wasn't very strong this time around? Last time, the prince warned me I might shoot off into the sky."

"I waved the fan while I was still a long way away," Yamcha explained. "I figured there was a good chance you were all still in here, and I didn't want to waste time picking you all up one by one."

"Good thinking!"

"Seems like this will take a while though, huh?" Yamcha's head was tilted up to the sky. Videl followed his gaze, and realized that the wind and rain had dispersed much of the smoke. Through the screen of falling raindrops, she could see Gohan driving a white surge of energy into a branch of the portal. He was too far away for her to make out his expression, but something about the way he held himself indicated this wasn't exactly a simple task for him either. That, and the fact that after all this time, he'd only managed to narrow about a dozen meters' length of the barrier.

"You sure he can do this?" Videl asked.

"I'm sure of it," Yamcha answered, patting her on the shoulder. "He's likely being very careful to tune the quality of chi."

"Strange that it seems to take so little for the barrier to erode, but so much for it to be renewed."

Yamcha shrugged. "You can say the same about many things. In any case, Gohan's our best hope, so there's not much point in doubting him. You'll see. By the way, I got you these." He produced a couple of capsules from his pocket. Popping the buttons on both at the same time, he released the contents of each.

A familiar sky-scooter appeared in front of Videl. Draped over one of the handles was the watch for the fire-proof suit that Gohan had loaned her before.

"Thought they might help," Yamcha said. "I found the watch on Gohan's desk while I was grabbing the Bansho fan. Then I made a detour to the garage to get you one of the stalk gatherer's scooters. It might help you move around if you need to."

"T-thanks, Yamcha. That's awfully kind of you." Videl reached for the handles of the scooter, ignoring the sharp ache of her palms. She didn't think she would ride one of them again, after having been dismissed from her job as a gatherer. "All right, let's go check on the Ox Prince."

She strapped the watch on her wrist, then took the remaining senzu bean to cure her injuries. Videl hadn't been conscious when she'd first consumed a senzu bean, so she wasn't sure what to expect. The effect was so instantaneous, it was difficult to observe, let alone describe. One moment her hands were in pain, the next, they just felt as they normally did. Flexible and healthy. Exhaustion vanished from her body, pressure from her temples lifted, and it felt like she had woken up after a deep, refreshing sleep.

Smiling, she hopped onto the scooter and followed Yamcha as he soared up to the sky.

They weren't even halfway to where Gohan was floating, when Yamcha stopped abruptly in mid-air. "Hey, what the heck is going on over there?" He pointed back down to the ruins of the town.

At first, Videl wasn't sure what had gotten his attention. The rain streamed steadily and a soft mist drifted along the streets of Frypan. Lone flames pulsed in isolation, braving the steady patter of water. But there, among the shadows was a smattering of movement and a pool of gathering light. It was very faint at first, but soon it grew wider and higher, transforming into a familiar humanoid figure.

"A-are the fire spirits combining?" It didn't make sense. How were they even able to move? The very first night Videl had seen fire spirits, they had died when the prince had waved the Bansho fan. But now, the small spirits, barely luminescent at all, were gathering together, coalescing into a growing creature and gaining their glow back. Together they looked like a giant version of their small selves, five-storeys high, with the same disproportionately large head as before.

"I did not expect there to have been this many already," Yamcha said.

"How are they alive? They should have died from the Bansho rain or the prince's energy blasts."

Yamcha squinted his eyes up to the portal. "Not sure. But maybe they're able to withstand those attacks a bit better because the portal is so much more open."

It was possible, if the fire spirits somehow managed to siphon off energy from their realm through the open barrier. But this made everything even trickier. Videl had expected that they'd need to contend with new fire spirits falling. But now, they also had to worry about those that had already descended and weren't incapacitated by any of their attacks.

The giant amalgamation of fire spirits leapt through the winding streets, crushing any standing structure that stood in its path. Trailing in its wake were crumbled bricks and shattered cement and a new variant of fire: brilliant purple flames with a dizzying shimmer and a sharp, pungent scent that Videl could only guess must be even more toxic than before.

"Look out!"

Blinded by the lustre of the new flames, Videl didn't notice the whirling ball of fire that coursed through the air towards them. Yamcha snatched the handles of the scooter and swerved them both to the left. The ball arced in the air and shot back down to the ground, fighting against the rain to light up the rubble on fire.

"Great, it can shoot fire now?" Videl groaned. "I think I prefer when the spirits were just mindless, barely sentient things."

"They don't even have eyes," Yamcha huffed. "How can it know where we are?"

Videl glanced down at her watch. She had harboured a slim hope that she wouldn't need to use it after all, despite Yamcha's efforts to get it for her. But he'd suspected correctly. She needed to use it. Videl pushed the button, and the thick gray nylon of the fireproof jumpsuit covered her whole body. Her head was encased in the matching helmet.

The giant spirit ambled by and another fiery flare blasted off from its body, cutting a clean, straight path up to Gohan. Videl was about to yell a warning, but the prince seemed to have sensed it coming. His leg deflected it away, while his hands continued to pour chi into the portal. Flames licked up the hem of his pants, and he wagged his leg, but they wouldn't die off. He pulled away from the barrier, and puffed out a small energy blast towards his leg, snuffing out the fire.

"This is no good, it's trying to stop Gohan from healing the barrier," Yamcha said. "But what can we do to distract it?"

"What happens if you blow it off with the Bansho again?"

In answer, Yamcha waved the fan one more time. A clap of thunder echoed overhead, and the sheets of rain thickened and poured faster. Lightning rimmed the darkened clouds. Waves of wind rolled across the town, rocking the flame-eaten buildings and fixtures.

The giant fire spirit stalled in its step, the light of the many small spirits winking against the new onslaught of elements. But it was momentary. They glowed again with the fierceness they did before, and the giant belched out a string of purple flames. The surrounding houses caught fire, and somehow even the Bansho storm couldn't put them back out.

"Doesn't look like the Bansho fan can help us much anymore," Yamcha said. He stretched out his hand, a spark floating in front of his palm. "Let's see if this does anything."

"Be careful, okay?"

"I'm aiming down, so it should be fine." Yamcha released the ball of chi and it hurtled towards the giant spirit. It swatted the ball away with a flimsy arm, and the chi blasted to the sky. It collided with a branch of the portal, not far from the Ox Prince.

"I-I was not expecting that," Yamcha stammered. The edges of the portal fizzled and undulated, stretching wider and cracking into two more branches. An orange orb squeezed through one of the new cracks, followed by a slightly bigger, more reddish orb. And then half-a-dozen others popped out.

"Oh great," Videl muttered.

Gohan craned his neck to look at them. "Aren't you guys supposed to be helping me? This isn't as easy as it sounds, you know."

"Sorry!" Yamcha yelled. "That was my bad."

The new fire spirits were drenched with the Bansho rainstorm before they even fell to the ground. Their glows became muted, and they looked more like rocks by the time they were bouncing on the cobbled stones below. With slow, painful steps, they leapt their way towards the clumped spirits as if some instinct was beckoning them.

"Hold on, I have an idea," Videl said. "Each individual fire spirit can't emit any flames when they're apart from the giant. Not with this storm. What if we try to separate them?"

Yamcha shook his head. "That's what I was trying to do with the chi blast. But I don't want to risk shooting another one."

"No, not blast them away. Scrape them. Like peeling a vegetable. Can you form your chi into something like a sickle?"

"Oh, huh. You might be onto something."

"I can try to distract it, and you can start slicing."

White energy coursed through Yamcha's right hand, slithering up over his fingers and forming a wicked blade made of pure life force. "Worth a try. Mind storing this in a capsule?"

He tossed the Bansho fan to Videl, and she used the capsule for the scooter to keep the Bansho safely hidden away.

She then swooped down near the giant fire spirit, finding herself strangely recalling the techniques that Steban had taught her to deal with overly curious dinosaurs. This fire spirit was no dinosaur, and perhaps that was a good thing. It was a little less intelligent, a little less purposely ruthless.

She swerved around the giant head, close enough to feel the fireproof jumpsuit heat up. It felt like she was circling the sun, even though it was still night and the rain continued to pour. The head had no eyes, but after revolving around it twice, the giant fire spirit began to tilt in her direction, arms floating up to her.

Yamcha came striking down from above, whittling away the back of the head. A bunch of small fire spirits tumbled away, somersaulting in the watery air, their little arms and legs wiggling to find purchase. But the rain soaked them and their light ebbed away, just as he blew them far into the distance with a windy blast.

Videl didn't let the giant fire spirit's attention waver. Dashing to the nearest rooftop, she tore off a piece of lumber and hurled it right into the fire spirit's face — or whatever she considered the front of its enormous ball of a head. The lumber didn't affect it much; it just burst into flames and was sucked into the core of the brilliant light. But at least it kept the creature's focus on her, and away from Yamcha who closed in for another hack at its head.

Over and over again, they worked in tandem to pare away the little fire spirits from their cohesive hold onto one another. Videl tried to take it as an encouraging sign that the gigantic head was losing some of its girth, but she also knew they were going too slow. The moment they let their guard down, the scattered fire spirits would converge once again, and who knew how many more could come out of the portal? Videl was already sweating through the fireproof suit, her sky-scooter was yelling a warning in red that it's about to run out of electric charge, and Yamcha's breathing was getting haggard, his skin taking on a green hue. He was inhaling too much of the poisonous smoke.

A tremendous spark of light flashed above them, and cold dread coursed through Videl's limbs. Only a hundred fire spirits could produce that much light, and she didn't want to think of what would happen if they fell all at once.

But when she turned to the sky, it wasn't more fire spirits she found. The blinding brilliance was coming from Gohan. Rivulets of concentrated energy crackled around him. His hair sparked golden once, then twice, then all traces of black disappeared completely. Muscles swelled beneath and strained against his satin tunic. The tide of energy flowing from his hands burgeoned, its speed tripling until the large gaps in the sky around him all started to mend themselves simultaneously. Their edges crept closer together until that portion of the sky was completely seamless. Still, he kept pushing, and his chi shot outwards through all the tributaries of the portal. It was so bright, it felt like morning, and it stole her breath from her chest.

"Videl!"

She turned to Yamcha's voice, but found instead the fingerless hand of the giant fire spirit inches away from her. She had no time to move, and a searing hot weight slammed into her body and the scooter. Videl lost her grip, and she tumbled through the sky, an excruciating burning sensation eating away at her legs.

Somewhere at the back of her mind, she remembered her own chi. She needed to focus her chi; that's what Gohan had taught her to do if she wanted to fly. But the pain was so intense, and the thoughts in her brain scattered, and all she could see was the impending solidity of the paved, ash-strewn street.

Well, at least she had a helmet on. She'd survived a fall like this before, perhaps she could survive it again.

Videl closed her eyes, waiting for the pain of the impact, but it never came. She jerked to a stop, all weightlessness gone. Hard muscles cradled her shoulders and supported her behind the knees. She opened her eyes, and a vivid blue-green gaze stared back at her. It was the Ox Prince — in his shiny golden form — crouching on the ground, having snatched her from the grasp of gravity.

"We really need to continue your flying lessons, don't we?" He smiled at her, and though the colour of his eyes and hair were different, it was still the same kind soul that faced her. There were so many things she wanted to say, but he was so deeply unfathomable, she could only keep her mouth shut lest she make a fool of herself.

Above and beyond him, the wounds in the sky continued to heal, ribbons of Gohan's chi slithering across the branches of the barrier. They threaded through the gaps, pulling at the seams. Section by section, the portal closed, the intense blue light of the other realm winking away until the night sky was whole and uninterrupted once again.

Videl's eyes adjusted to the new darkness. The only source of illumination now apart from Gohan's subtle sheen was the giant fire spirit, but even that had suddenly become a lot more dull. The rain continued to fall, the wind whipped the drops like hard pellets, and thunder rumbled in the distance. Without the strength of the fire spirits, the Bansho's power reigned supreme here.

Yamcha landed a few feet away from them, coughing. "I-I think it's weakening. It shouldn't take much longer now."

The giant creature straggled along the ruins for a few more minutes, growing slower and more sluggish as each one ticked away. Then finally, the small, individual spirits tumbled down, falling all over each other like gumballs pouring from a shattered coin machine. As the rain washed them away, their remaining light snuffed out completely.

The splash of rain echoed all around them, while the wind whistled through the narrow streets. Then Yamcha gave off an excited whoop and a hearty laugh, until he dissolved into a coughing fit.

"It's been a while since I've dealt with something that intense," he said, after he regained his breath. He turned towards them with a smile, then balked. "Ouch, that looks kinda gross."

Videl pushed the visor of the helmet up and peered at her legs, still wrecked with throbbing pain. The fireproof suit had burned away, tatters of it sticking to her legs, which were red and black beneath patches of crisped, peeling skin. A sickening wave of nausea hit her, and only the thought of the prince holding her stopped her from throwing up. She didn't want to embarrass herself any more than she already had.

"This seems a bit familiar, doesn't it?" Gohan said with a little chuckle. "Yamcha and I helping you after you've fallen and injured your legs?"

Videl gave a tired smile. "I swear, I feel like some god out there is plotting for me to lose my legs."

"Not at all!" Gohan turned serious. "I know the guardian of the Earth, and he's a sweetheart. He wouldn't wish something like that."

"I have so many questions." But Videl was so, so tired, the thought of even asking, of even forming words and phrases into something cohesive was draining the energy out of her.

"Come on, let's return to Grandpa." The prince stood up, taking Videl with him. She winced as her legs were jostled. That was a good sign, hopefully. It meant her pain receptors hadn't burnt off completely. "I hope he and the Scar Towners kept well away from the area."

Right, the Scar Towners. Videl had almost forgotten about them. But she had never come here for their sake anyway. For her, it had always been about Gohan and the fire spirits of Mount Frypan.

Yamcha and Gohan both ascended to the sky, and Videl descended into a deep, unwilling slumber.

Notes:

Oh you guys, this chapter was so difficult to write! Extended action scenes are always a challenge, because you have to keep track of so much logistics. You don't know how many times I forgot that Yamcha was supposed to be holding the Bansho fan, or that Videl was actually in the fireproof suit, or a million other things. In fact, there are probably still some inconsistencies in there that I haven't caught.

But here we are, near the end. I'm pulling the number of chapters back down to 12. I thought that writing an interlude would make this longer, but I think I've pretty much addressed all the plot points I needed. The final chapter will tie up all the loose ends with Scar Town and Videl's status in the kingdom. And yeah, wow, I can't believe I'm going to actually complete a novel-length fanfiction after almost 10 years! But I'll try not to get ahead of myself. I'll see y'all in the final chapter!

Chapter 12: Promotion

Fiery pain followed Videl everywhere, even in the abyss of dreamless sleep. Its constant throbbing kept her mind clawing to the surface of consciousness even as exhaustion dragged her back down. Exhaustion and, very likely, medicine. There was an unnatural abruptness to her lapses of awareness that made her feel like she was being subdued on purpose.

It wasn't just her legs that burned. Her skin crawled with hot pinpricks and her eyes ached with heat. Her throat was parched, and she wanted nothing more than to dive into a cold river and let the waves take her away. That sounded like a good idea. What else did she have to do now, anyway? She could ask for help. Some passerby. Some stranger. The nearest river couldn't be too far.

Videl patted around her. Soft, downy sheets met her palms. Her eyes fluttered open. It was dark. Night time. She had trouble breathing. It must be all these layers upon stupid layers of bedding on top of her. She clawed them away, head spinning, feeling light and heavy at the same time with her movements.

"Go back to sleep," a deep, gruff voice rumbled from the corner of the room.

Videl whipped around to face its source, heart hammering in her chest. She'd expected to be alone. But there, camouflaged in the shadows and cramped among furniture was a seven-foot tall creature sporting a domed turban and a cape attached to excessively wide shoulder pads. His ears were pointy, his eyes shifty, and even the lack of light couldn't hide his unusually green skin ribbed with pink muscles.

"Aaah!" Videl scooted to the side of the bed farther away from the creature. Pain flared below her hips, and she swatted the bulky duvet away. Her legs were wrapped in thick bandages. She knew she'd been injured, but a terrified shock still shot through her at seeing them like that. "Aaah, my legs!"

"Quiet down, will you?" The creature commanded her. "You'll be fine. The senzu bean will be available in a few days."

"S-senzu? How do you know about that? Who are you? Why are you in my room? Wait, where is this? This isn't my room!"

"I said calm down." He tensed for a moment, then rolled his eyes. "Now, see what you've done? I hear the nurse coming."

The door burst open and a portly woman with salt-and-pepper hair and ruddy cheeks ambled towards Videl. "Oh dear, the poppy has worn off, has it?" She reached for Videl's shoulders and tried to lean her back down to bed. "Just take some calming breaths, okay? It's the fever, you were probably just having a bad dream."

"No! There's this guy over here!" Videl pointed to the corner between the closet and the vanity, but it was conspicously empty. "What? He was right there!"

"Oh dear, oh dear. Let's get some meds in you."

Videl clasped the woman's hand. "I'm telling the truth! He was green and pink and very tall, like a… like a giant human slug — wait, a slug!" A vague memory came back to her, from many days ago in the aisles of the library. "I know who he is! He's the piranha. He's always alone and nobody likes him. The prince told me so!"

"Oh dear, oh dear." The woman's hands fluttered about, and there were clinks of porcelain and the crunch of a pestle on mortar. "Here, take a sip of this. It will make you feel better."

Videl accepted the offered cup, if only to soothe her dry, aching throat. The liquid was warm, but not too hot, and the taste both bitter and tart.

The nurse fluffed the pillows and helped Videl lie back down. "Now, now, dear, enough of slugs and piranhas. Just close your eyes and let sleep take you."

She wanted to argue, wanted to ensure the nurse knew she wasn't hallucinating, but another glance at the corner casted doubt over Videl. Was she certain she hadn't hallucinated, after all? But all she had was a fever and barbequed legs. It wasn't like her mind was addled.

Videl blinked her eyes and it was morning, and she knew for sure it was the draught that had been stealing her awareness away. She was immediately irritated, and that sparked the realization that she was feeling somewhat better. Her emotions wouldn't be so clear if she was still as groggy as before.

The room she was in was not her servant dorm nor the infirmary she'd woken up in the first time she'd gotten into an accident. But she was positive that she was in the Ox Palace, because of the room's design and the sweet Paozu air drifting through the window left ajar. The bed had a gauzy canopy in a pristine off-white colour the same shade as the oppressive pile of blankets.

She stirred, anxious to inspect her legs. She caught movement in her periphery, and she snatched one of the pillows up like a shield. How she thought it would protect her from anything other than a pillow-fight — and maybe not even then — she didn't know.

"Relax! It's just me." Yamcha raised both of his hands in a pacifying gesture. He sat on a chair by the bed, looking much haler than she last remembered. His skin was a healthy shade of beige and pink, and there was no longer any rasp to his voice. "How are you feeling, kiddo?"

Videl glanced around, but she didn't see any slug-looking, suspicious being. "Um, this might sound crazy, but I swear I saw a green man last night—"

"Yeah, that was Piccolo."

"And he just disappeared suddenly, and the nurse wouldn't — hold on, you know him? He was real?" Videl rubbed her face. "Piccolo, right. I've heard of that name before. Yeah, I think that's what Goten called him. Mr. Piccolo, the slug man."

Yamcha chuckled at her confusion. "Piccolo can seem scary at first, and there was a time when he wasn't very friendly to anyone. But you don't need to worry about him. He and the Sons are close now, and Gohan actually asked him to look over you these last few days."

"What? Why?"

"He just wants to make sure nobody disturbs you or finds out the extent of your injuries while we were waiting for new senzu beans," Yamcha explained. "Aside from the nurse, of course, but she's been working for the Ox King a long time and can be trusted."

Videl nodded as understanding came in slow trickles to her brain. If people knew just how burnt her legs were, they would wonder at her quick healing — or that she managed to heal at all — after taking a senzu bean. They would inevitably get curious. Gohan was trying to avoid anyone poking unnecessarily into more of his supernatural affairs.

"And this Piccolo guy can appear and disappear at will?"

Yamcha shrugged. "Something like that. Although, really, it's all just smart manipulation of chi."

Chi. It always came back to that, didn't it? "How about you?" she asked. "You seem all better too. No more effects of the poisonous fumes, it seems. Is that because of chi too?"

"Yes, I suppose so. Once you have a good handle on your chi, it also works to preserve you. I didn't even need to take a senzu bean. But here's one for you now." He rummaged through a small cloth sack and handed her a familiar dull green bean.

Videl popped it in her mouth, chewed and swallowed, then excitedly unwound the bandages from her legs. When healthy, unbroken skin and muscled flesh met her gaze, she couldn't help the relieved laugh that spilled from her mouth.

"It's always a pleasant surprise, isn't it?" Yamcha smiled. "But don't go gallivanting out just yet. Gohan will lift the visitor ban after I leave, but he also told everyone you'll need a week's rest, so make sure you look like you're still recuperating."

"Gotcha." Videl plopped happily back down on the bed. "Should I feign a fever? Maybe another hallucination or two? Oh, slugs! Piranhas! They're chasing me!"

Yamcha chortled. "Up to you. In fact, I always enjoy a favour from the kitchens whenever I'm 'bedridden.' They can't resist a sick, but hungry, patient."

"Hah, you're a bad influence on me." Videl sobered just then. "By the way, how's the Ox Prince? Is he doing okay?"

"Busy, but more chipper than I would expect. Like he's optimistic about the future, despite everything. But that's Gohan for you. Anyway, there's a lot for him to take care of just now, so he hasn't had time to visit, but once he does I'm sure he'll have some sweet words for you." He wiggled his eyebrows at her.

The flush that flooded Videl's cheeks made her feel like her fever had returned. "Don't say things like that. He's the prince."

Yamcha snorted and rolled his eyes. "Dorks, the both of you."

She brushed off the comment, suspecting he was trying to take a lighthearted approach, because when it came to Gohan, there were some pretty hefty things to discuss. Golden hair and turquoise eyes flashed briefly in her mind. "I hope he also has some clarifications for me," Videl ventured. It almost felt like a taboo to bring it up. "About what he did to finally get the portal to close."

Sighing, Yamcha scratched his scarred cheek awkwardly. "I know the answers you're looking for, but you're correct that Gohan has to be the one to explain. It's not my story to tell."

And he deflected after that, "Speaking of stories, we've constructed a clean version of the events at Frypan three nights ago in case someone outside of our circle wants to know.

"The good news is that the Scar Town gangsters didn't see Gohan amidst all the smoke and fire, nor through the clouds and rain. They don't know he was trying to fix the barrier with his chi. So we're gonna stick with some semblance of truth and say that you found out the existence of the portal and figured out how to close it."

Videl rose back up from the bed. "But I'm guessing we don't want to reveal the concept of chi. So what did I come up with to close it?"

"We're going to say you found out a certain type of machine can do it."

"A machine? What machine?"

He shrugged. "Doesn't really matter. We'll say it's a special machine. Some experimental gadget from Capsule Corps."

"I… I don't know much about machines. I'm not sure I can pull off an explanation if I were asked." But she supposed she could say she was some under NDA if this hypothetical machine was still a prototype of some kind. There were ways to equivocate with probing questions.

"Just tell them to take it up with the prince if they have any more concerns," Yamcha suggested. "It's a political matter anyway."

"And the rest of it?"

"We'll keep the rest. We tried to put out the flames using the Bansho fan, but the fire spirits merged into something more dangerous. You and I tried to distract it while the prince closed the portal with this imaginary machine, and as soon as he succeeded, the fire spirits lost their power and succumbed to the wind and rain."

"All right, I think I can do that." Besides, she didn't even know how long she'd be around in the palace after her week of 'healing' was up. Outside of the Ox Kingdom, would anyone even know — or care — about what she'd done?

"Oh, Yamcha, I need to call my Dad!" If it had been three nights since she had left to visit Yamcha at his condo, then her father had been waiting for three days for her. He must be worried sick at this point.

"No need, the prince called him immediately after we came back and he took care of you. Apparently he got an earful about being an irresponsible employer," Yamcha chuckled. "And he received some fictional threats of what your father would do to him if he weren't under house arrest."

He bid her farewell shortly after that, and Videl spent the rest of the morning doing simple stretches. She hurried back to the bed when she heard steps outside the room, which turned out to be the nurse carrying a lunch tray.

For her part, the nurse kindly did not mention Videl's feverish outburst the night before about seeing Piccolo. She only commented on her brighter complexion, then left her to dig into the hearty chicken and vegetable soup.

The nurse must have brought news of her fever breaking to the kitchen staff, because in the early afternoon, Videl received visitors.

Erasa and Maisy were hesitant at first, peeking into her bedroom and whispering quietly to themselves. When they saw that she was awake, they streamed in with bubbly energy.

"Oh my gosh, you're doing better!" Erasa clapped her hands as she rushed to the bed. Maisy followed, grinning with barely contained excitement. More excitement than Videl had anticipated from the other palace servants. Were they happy about her recovery or something else?

"How are you?" Maisy chirped. "We heard you were quite hurt! But you look as good as a newborn kitten!"

"There's a lot less pain, that's for sure," Videl said, smoothing the blankets over her legs to make sure they were completely hidden. "Though I still need to rest."

"Yeah, for sure. Take it easy, girl!" Erasa placed her chin on her hands. "So, what happened? The Ox King explained at court that things got really bad over at Frypan, but that you helped save everyone. Tell us about it!"

Videl kept Yamcha's storyline close to the forefront of her mind, but perhaps she could start with something a bit more general first. It was never a good sign to divulge details nobody asked for; it reeked too much of a desperate cover-up. "Well, you probably already knew that I was working on a project with the prince for some time. My task was to find out how to put out the recurring fires at Frypan for good. And I managed to find a solution just in time when the sky broke open and more spirits began falling."

"That's incredible. You must be some kind of genius," Maisy marveled.

"Not at all, I just followed the clues. But thank you," Videl smiled at the girl, a little embarrassed by her quick admiration and touched at the same time. She thought she'd lost the girl's respect after having set the Paozu stalks on fire by accident.

Videl braced herself in case they asked for specifics, but that wasn't where the conversation headed next.

"So… did something happen between you and the prince at Frypan?" Erasa asked, biting her lip in anticipation.

"Huh? What do you mean?"

Erasa and Maisy traded knowing looks, before staring back at her, their eyes curious and hungry.

"Well — I wasn't there myself — but the word is that when the prince came back, he was so protective of you. He had you bundled up in a blanket and everything, and he wouldn't let anyone else take you."

"I heard he would, like, freak out if somebody came near you!" Maisy added.

"He insisted he be the one to put you in the infirmary!" Erasa continued. "And only he and the king's nurse were allowed to go in until today." Squeals of glee erupted from the two girls.

Videl couldn't help the grimace that spread across her face. Gohan had been trying to prevent anyone from knowing how severe her injuries had been, as Yamcha had explained. And Piccolo had certainly been allowed inside her room, so it wasn't like it was just Gohan and the nurse — likely, it had been reserved to those who knew about the senzu bean and had known about what had happened at Frypan.

"No, no! You girls got it all wrong. It's not what it looks like," she protested.

Erasa gave her a coy look. "Oh sure, it always starts out that way, doesn't it?" She dissolved into another giggling fit with Maisy.

Videl scrambled to find an explanation that didn't give away the senzu bean. "Y-you girls are being silly! He probably just thinks the Paozu villagers are still angry with me for burning the stalks, and he didn't want anyone playing a prank or two on me. I'm sure there are some who would have thought I deserved it."

They didn't look convinced, and Videl herself knew it wasn't her best bluff. But she'd been so focused on keeping her answer aligned with the official story, she didn't even realize there was some other angle that people could poke at.

Whether they believed her or just felt sorry at her discomfort, Erasa and Maisy eased their teasings. They gave little news about the state of affairs in the kingdom, as so many things were still up in the air.

"I'm usually good at sniffing out plans and whatnot," Erasa admitted, "But this time there's just this general haze with everybody. I think so many things happened at once, and nobody's really sure what's next."

After they left, Videl tried to continue with her stretches, but she had to dive back beneath the sheets again when the Stalk Gatherers came by. Minus Steban and Miki.

"Don't look too disappointed," Yanni told her, probably sensing her anxiety at not seeing the two. Videl thought that if there was anybody ready to forgive her, it would be Steban, and she was a bit disheartened to see he wasn't among her visitors. "Steban and Miki are working for the princess now. A special project that's a bit hush-hush."

"Oh," Videl said. "I suppose that's a good thing, then?"

"We all got reassigned, thankfully," Lin added. She seemed to have gotten new frames, this one thick black-rimmed acetate. It gave her a more modern, city look. "I'm helping the mechanics maintain the vehicles in the garage. It's nice to still see our sky-scooters everyday, but I do miss our morning shifts."

"I don't," Sharpner butted in. "I'm perfectly satisfied at getting to sleep in. I clock in at noon now, at the new bridge construction site."

Lin shook her head at him. "Yeah, and you're working right when the sun is at its peak. You're a strange guy for liking that."

"I get to have breakfast with Erasa, what's wrong with that?"

Videl turned to Yanni, "And you? Where did you get reassigned?"

"Patrol," the woman said. "Looking for signs of retaliation from Scar Town, or attempts from other idiots who might get the notion that we're easy pickings just because our treasury is vulnerable right now."

"Oh, and have you found anything?"

"Nope. It's as peaceful as a graveyard at the borders. Scar Town wouldn't attack us when we have their gang leaders. They're basically impotent now. The Ox King asked King Furry to appoint an interim leader to oversee Scar Town until they could get back on their feet without turning to violence."

Ah, so they got the king of the Earth himself to intervene. Gohan and the Ox King would actually have been well within their rights if they decided to conquer Scar Town themselves, but Videl knew that Gohan was against that type of move.

"How about you, Videl?" Lin asked. "How come you were at Frypan? Last we heard, the Ox Prince dismissed you."

"Yeah, it all happened so fast," Sharpner added. "We never even got the full story about what happened with you and Vora Jr."

"Oh right," Videl nodded. "I owe you guys an explanation." She gave a short account of her encounter with Vora Jr. at Frypan the day before she had set the stalks on fire. She told them about the blackmail — though she left out what it was about — and how she was so distraught over it, she didn't even check her bag.

"I know I said it before, but I am truly, very sorry. I endangered your lives back there. One wrong move and we could have all burned."

The three of them exchanged looks and sighed.

"Really, Videl," Lin said, shaking her head. "One apology is enough. Now it's getting boring."

Yanni crossed her arms. "I agree with Lin. Self-pity isn't a good look on you."

"B-but it's not self-pity! I really do regret how much danger I put you guys in."

"We're in danger every day we gather stalks," Sharpner pointed out. "A bit of fire — even if it's magical fire — doesn't add all that much more risk."

"Aw, you guys…" Half a month ago, Videl wouldn't think anybody would forgive her just for sneezing in the wrong direction. Now she had three people who were all up and ready to dismiss her apologies over getting them almost killed.

"Were you hired back, then?" Sharpner asked.

"No, I wasn't. I went back to the prince to let him know about some of my findings, but I'm still unemployed. As far as I know, anyway. I haven't had a chance to talk with the prince."

"Well, we're glad we got the chance to see you again," Yanni said. "And we'll tell Steban and Miki to visit you when they find the time."

The three of them filed out of the door, then Sharpner came back not even a minute later just to hand her a slip of folded paper.

"I almost forgot, I saw this ad and thought of you. If you recover your full strength and things don't work out for you here, it might help you get comfortable again."

Videl almost laughed when she saw what the ad was for. She was not deluded enough to do what Sharpner wanted her to. The optics for it would just be terrible.

But perhaps his idea could still be helpful. Not to her, but maybe to the prince.

Gohan finally came for a visit that evening. Videl was already lounging in the bed, reading a book that she had found in one of the shelves, so she didn't have to hurry and lie down when someone opened the door.

Yamcha had been correct about his assessment of Gohan. The subtle dark circles beneath his eyes and his slightly mussed hair spoke of a packed schedule that left little time for rest and refreshment. But he also exuded a serene energy, giving her hope that perhaps he was starting to get the kingdom's affairs back in order.

His eyes flashed to the book she was holding. "Ah, 'The History of the Numeier Equation.' I didn't know you were into mathematics."

"Well, I won't lie and say I understand the equation itself," Videl answered. "But I do find Numeier's attempts at cheating his University's final exams fascinating. You'd think somebody so smart would come up with better ways to cheat, but damn, they caught him every time."

Gohan barked a carefree laugh at that. He sat at the edge of the bed, not in one of the chairs that lined its side which Yamcha and her other visitors had used. To her surprise, Gohan flipped the sheets away, uncovering her legs.

"They look as good as new, don't they?" He ran a hand over her skin, first over the right leg, then the left. Videl's pulse shot to racing, and she tamped down on the instinct to kick his hand away from embarrassment and throw the sheets back over herself. Did he really not know what his gestures entailed?

But no, there was no use in assigning romanticism to the Ox Prince. He seemed too oblivious to it, no matter how his actions appeared to anyone else.

"Ah, y-yeah, the senzu bean does its job every time," she managed to say through her squeezed throat. Her neck felt so hot, she thought a stream of blood might burst right out of her jugular.

Gohan pulled the blankets back over her legs and smoothed them out at the sides. He turned sheepish all of a sudden, eyes downcast, the lightest shade of pink dusting his cheeks. "Sorry I didn't come sooner. The truth is that… I guess I was avoiding you."

"Me?" Videl swallowed, her body finally calming down from his ministrations. There was only one reason he could have been avoiding her. "You don't want to talk about what happened at Frypan. The… glowing form you had. I don't know what it is, what you call it."

"It's not that I don't want to talk about it." He scratched the nape of his neck. "In fact, I do. But it's a really complicated story, and I know not everyone will appreciate it."

"You don't have to explain everything now."

"But I want to."

"Why, what's the rush?"

He cocked his head, a curious half-smile on his lips. "Have you decided to stay, then?"

Oh, he wanted to tell her before she needed to leave, was that it?

But he put up his hands before she could say anything. "Don't tell me yet!" he said, a little too loudly. "I want to know your decision, but only after I've told you everything, okay? It's only fair that you know what you're getting into, and I don't want my past to be some kind of reward to entice you into staying. If you're staying, it should be because you really want to."

Videl pulled her knees up to her chest. "A-are you sure, Ox Prince? What if I decide to leave, even after finding out everything?"

"That's okay, it's your right." His dark eyes trained on hers, soft and accepting. "I trust you'll keep my secret. Besides, you'll always have that option, anyway. I can hardly trap you here," he ended with a gentle chuckle.

"All right. Then tell me."

He took a deep breath, opened his mouth a few times to begin, but ended up closing it again. Videl waited patiently, trying to avoid imagining all sorts of wild things about this young man who was the kindest and most generous person she knew.

"My father," he finally began. "Son Goku, wasn't from here. Earth, I mean. He was from a different planet, called Vegeta. He was an alien."

An alien? Son Goku hadn't looked like an alien. Neither did Gohan. But then again, who was she to judge what aliens looked like? All of her assumptions were based on what the film industry and sci-fi literature came up with, and they were hardly good arbiters for alien physiology.

But okay, she could work with this. Did she not just help defeat hundreds of spirits from a different realm? How much more of a leap was a different planet?

"Right… go on," she said. Gohan's cheeks were a bit puffed with his held breath, but as soon as she asked him to continue, he blew it out in an exhale.

"He didn't know at first. It was only when his brother, my uncle, came to Earth that he found out."

Gohan spun out a harrowing narrative of getting kidnapped by this uncle at four years old, receiving a harsh training under the slug-man Piccolo — who happened to be an alien himself — and encountering two others of the species called Saiyans not long after that.

At the beginning of their conversation, Videl had thought that Gohan would simply tell her about yet another phenomenon like the chi or Nimbus or the senzu bean. That the transformation he'd undertaken at Frypan was just some kind of special trick or technique or concept of a similar scale. But this tale he was telling her challenged and shifted her entire understanding of the universe. It shifted her entire understanding of him.

After the Saiyans, there was planet Namek. After Namek, there was a time-travelling boy, and androids, and then Cell. Then Son Goku's death.

Partway through, the prince had ordered dinner for both of them, and they'd eaten together on the bed while the sun sunk behind the mountain peaks, and cool night air began to drift through the open window. All the while, Gohan shared the entirety of his past with her.

"I-I know it's a lot to take in," he said after he arrived at the point where his grandfather, the Ox King, had moved the Ox Kingdom to Paozu and the family decided Gohan would be the heir to the throne. "You don't need to make up your mind about anything right this moment. And if you have any questions —"

"Why did you let my father take credit for killing Cell?" she couldn't help but blurt out. Gohan had lost so much in that fight. What her father had done in retrospect now seemed so much more severe, so unjust. "You were the true hero. You and your friends sacrificed everything. You deserved for the world to know that."

The prince shrugged helplessly. "I didn't want the recognition. I didn't want to be reminded everyday of what it took to kill Cell. I just wanted to move on with my life, focus on my studies, maybe go to school."

But he didn't get to do those last two either. Instead, he'd become a prince. Videl's heart felt heavy for him. Was there any part about his life he even enjoyed?

"School's not all it's cracked up to be," she said softly, although it was a poor attempt at consolation. "The kids can be mean, and the bathrooms stink."

Gohan chuckled. Then he put on a sweet, cheerful smile. Too cheerful. "Well, what do you think? I hope I didn't scare you off with my story. It's a bit long, isn't it? I hope one day I wouldn't have to write an autobiography. Can you imagine? 'The life of Son Gohan, the Ox Prince.' One thousand five hundred pages long!"

He was trying to be cavalier. Trying to make light of every suffering he'd endured. And strangest of all, he was trying to fish approval from her. Her, of all people! As if the opinions of an earthling — and not even a very upstanding one at that — had any bearing at all to this powerful, incredible being.

She wanted to slap the silly smile off his face. She wanted to kiss it away. She wanted Son Gohan to never have to do anything that would make him uncomfortable or ashamed of himself ever again. That was the least he deserved.

"I'm not scared," she said, then added with a certainty deeper than the roots of the Paozu mountains. "And I want to stay."

He perked up, his brows rising. "You do?"

"If you're okay with that. I tend to bring a lot of trouble, if you haven't noticed." She waved half-heartedly around the room. "I might burn your palace down yet."

He beamed brightly, a genuine smile this time. "Are you sure? You'll have to keep a lot of secrets. I'm already making you lie about chi."

Videl looked at her hands, thinking of all the things she had done in the name of truth. She wished she'd had more time to figure out the complex dynamics between truth and lies and justice and crimes, and where love ended and selfishness began, and who ultimately had the authority to decide all of those. But she also knew that it would take a long, long time to piece the puzzle together, and she couldn't put her life on pause just to settle for an easy answer.

"I still think there's merit in truth," she said. "But I used to think in black and white, and I know it's not that simple anymore. There's nuance in all things, even here." Especially here. After everything she'd just heard, could she really blame the prince for wanting his life to remain private?

"I'm glad." The Ox Prince fiddled with one of the chopsticks on the meal tray. "I would be quite disappointed if you didn't decide to stay."

"What can I say? The pay is good," she teased.

They both laughed at that, and the sound of their laughter banished all remaining tension and awkwardness. Gohan began to stack up their plates and bowls and cups.

"Wait, what will happen to the kingdom?" Videl asked. "Until you can use the dragon balls to wish the stalks back to maturity?"

"Mom's trying out something new."

Oh right, Yanni did mention a special project of sorts.

"There's no guarantee it would work as well as the Paozu stalks, but she hasn't given up. And I won't either."

"Will this help?" Videl pulled the ad that Sharpner had given her from beneath her pillow and handed it over to Gohan.

His eyes widened as he took in the contents of the page. "The World Martial Arts Tournament?"

"It's in two months," Videl said. "First prize is ten million zennis. If you win, that prize money could go towards the treasury."

Gohan didn't look as enthusiastic about it as she thought he would. "I don't know. I exercise every now and then to keep myself in shape, but I haven't done any intense training. None that would make me a successful contender, at least."

"I'm certain you can beat my father with just your pinky, and he was the last champion. Any other competitor will be breadcrumbs to you."

"Yes, but if I'm competing, I'll have to tell my friends. We have to give them a chance too."

"Just think it over," she said. "You have a couple of months to train if you want."

He folded the ad back into quarters and slipped it into his pocket. "Thanks, Videl. Rest well, okay?"

"Good night, Ox Prince."

Gohan was about to rise from the bed, but paused. "Please, call me Gohan."

"You sure? That sounds like insubordination. I'm your servant and you're my prince."

"There's an easy solution to that, isn't there? Don't be my servant." He reached out and clasped her hand. "Be my friend."

He gave her one last smile, then took the dinner tray and went out.

Videl stared at her hand, Gohan's warmth echoing on her skin. She was still mindlessly observing it, when he ducked his head into the room again.

"Hey, come to court tomorrow afternoon."

There was an uncharacteristic twinkle in his eye as he shut the door. Videl wasn't sure what to make of it, but it receded to the back of her mind as she replayed everything he'd told her that evening until she fell asleep.

-o-

Despite the need to look less than fully recovered, the next day Videl was too restless to stay inside her room. All of her previous belongings were still at their cottage in the seaside village, and she had none of her comfortable clothes nor any personal toiletries to freshen up with. A quick trip to the Paozu village was warranted, and she ended up borrowing some clothes from the nurse, who also loaned her a wooden cane just to cement the pretense that she wasn't in tip top shape yet.

After breakfast, Videl descended the grand staircase from the palace, taking care to go as slowly as she could. It irked her a bit, but she didn't want to arouse any suspicion if anyone saw her. In any case, the leisurely pace allowed her to peruse the newspaper she'd grabbed from the foyer.

Ed Torr was back on his bullshit again, it seemed like. Nothing but slanderous takes peppered his opinion piece regarding the battle between the Ox Kingdom and Scar Town. And there was this precious theory that elicited a tired groan from Videl: "A giant doll made of flames and smoke was reported to have been summoned at Frypan. Considering this occurred merely minutes after the fraud's daughter, Videl Satan, arrived at the scene, is it possible she raised this monster from hell herself? True to her surname, at last."

Perhaps it was time Videl took him down a peg. She still didn't know what new position she'd have in the palace, but now that she wasn't struggling to live day to day, she had more bandwidth for this type of thing again.

Videl rolled up the newspaper as she reached the last step of the stairs. The town opened up in front of her, with the Ox Princess' restaurant stealing the spotlight at the head of the main walkway. It was odd to see it devoid of a crowd. The restaurant was always the busiest part of the town. But there were no hovercrafts or jetcopters parked at the lot behind it, no line of eager diners in fancy get-ups, no hubbub on the porches.

It looked lonely, and an impulse stole over Videl. She hopped up to the porches and approached the door. The 'Stalk in the Frypan' emblazoned above elicited a twinge of guilt in her chest. She could see how it had been a tongue-in-cheek pun, but would the restaurant survive until the stalks came back?

Despite the sign saying they were closed, Videl tried to twist the door handle, and to her surprise, it gave under her hand. She had expected it to be locked. Perhaps there was nothing worth stealing anymore here. Or perhaps the town just revered this place too much for anyone to think of committing any crimes against it.

Videl had never actually seen the dining area of the restaurant before. When she'd been granted her second audience with the Ox Princess, a servant had led her through a side entrance directly into the kitchen.

The wooden panels and beams lent the restaurant a cozy air. Tables, ranging from four-seaters to twenty, were arranged around the room, each one holding palm-sized lamps in the shape of different mushrooms. There was a stack of laminated menus on the lectern near the entrance. Framed pictures of the Paozu peaks at different angles and times of the day hung on the walls.

"Didn't you see the sign?" a voice called out from all the way to the back. "We're closed — oh, it's you Videl."

The Ox Princess emerged from a door at the rear of the dining room. She was garbed in a simple blue traditional dress, with a stained apron layered on top.

"Y-your Highness, I'm so sorry!" Videl bowed. "I was just taking a look. I'll leave now!"

"No, it's fine. You can stay," Chichi said. "Actually, mind helping me out back here? It's the least you can do, considering." She gestured to the empty dining tables around them.

Videl's neck heated up. "R-right. I can't tell you how terrible I feel about the stalks. I am really sorry about it."

"Well, you should be." The princess placed her fists on her hips and frowned at Videl like a mother who'd caught her child sneaking in sweets before dinner. "You were negligent. I know it was those delinquents at Scar Town who planted the fire spirit, but you should have been more careful!"

"I know, ma'am." Those were the exact thoughts Videl had told herself, after all. "I won't let anything like that happen ever again."

"Good girl. Now come along."

Videl held her breath as she crossed the length of the dining room, bracing herself for more scolding. That couldn't be the extent of Chichi's anger. If Videl had known that the princess was here, she wouldn't have risked peeking into the restaurant. She hadn't prepared herself to face the woman.

But as they entered the kitchen, Chichi said nothing more on the subject. She told Videl to sit down by a small table, and spent the next few minutes bustling from one steaming pot and pan to another, scooping small portions of different dishes onto little plates.

"Bulma heard that the stalks burned down," the Ox Princess said. "And she said that in times like this, a business has got to 'pivot' and 'diversify.'"

Chichi placed a tray in front of Videl laden with all the dishes she'd prepared. There was a small bowl of dumplings in some kind of creamy soup; a plate of stir-fried vegetables in a dark sauce; baked poultry with crisped up skin; a serving of some grains that looked a lot like rice; and a deep red condiment that seemed like chili at first, except the consistency was more akin to powder.

"Try these and tell me what you think. Most of them are made with ingredients endemic to the Paozu ranges. They likely don't possess the same health benefits as the stalks do, but perhaps at least one will be delicious enough to be the next star in my menu."

"Oh, I see." Videl remembered Yanni's comment about Steban and Miki helping the princess out with something. They were natives of Paozu; they knew their way around the ranges. "Steban and Miki have been scouting edible food for you?"

"Collecting, more like," Chichi corrected. "I can't afford to be too experimental, not like I did with the stalks. All but one of these ingredients are already known to Paozu residents, and some have been used in our cuisine for decades. I know they're safe. I just need to find a way to make them delicious and unique."

Videl took the proferred chopsticks and started with the dumplings in the cream soup. The dumplings were similar to those found in fine-dining affair, but the sauce was unlike anything she had ever tasted before. She'd expected something rich; but this was sweet with a slight tang.

"Moon bean milk," Chichi said. "Moon beans grow near the riverbanks. You can find them in other parts of the world too, but as far as I know, only Paozu residents eat them."

"I like it," Videl replied earnestly. "Would make a good appetizer."

"Try this, next." The princess pointed to the poultry. "It's Paozu quail. I don't know why we call it quail, because the bird is quite large, you see. Here, dip it in this. It's spicy, so don't take too much." She pushed the powdery condiment towards Videl.

Videl picked up a bite-sized chunk of the meat and dabbed a bit of the spice on it. When she took a bite, her entire mouth instantly lit up in a pleasing warmth. The meat itself was juicy and savoury, but the condiment was hard to describe. The longer she chewed, the more intense the spice became until her mouth felt like an oven.

"Oh, you weren't kidding!" She blew out a few breaths. "Man, that's got some kick to it. What is it?"

The princess smiled at her in a strange way; an appeasing way, as if she felt like Videl wouldn't be too happy with her answer. "This is the only special ingredient that isn't from Paozu. It's… well, it's a fire spirit!"

Videl choked on a cough. Chichi sprinted to the counter and poured her a glass of milk. She downed the entire thing in a single gulp.

"Wh-what do you mean, it's a fire spirit?" Videl exclaimed. "Didn't they all get destroyed?"

"Oh yes, most of them did. Disintegrated into dust and got washed away by the Bansho rain. But scouts found some of the dead spirits still intact, the ones that were inside the shelter of broken houses and buildings. Those didn't get washed or blown away."

And the princess decided to cook them and turn them into food. "I thought you didn't want to be experimental."

Chichi gave a painful shrug. "I didn't! Mostly. But I also didn't want to waste the chance. They found only twenty carcasses—"

"Could we please not call them that, your Highness?"

"—And if they turned out to be tasty, they could help reverse my fortune! It's only proper. They're the reason my fortunes turned south in the first place, don't you think?"

"Er… well, I suppose so." It also made a strange kind of business sense. Fire spirits would never be offered anywhere else. If the princess was looking for something unique, she'd found it. The fact that there were less than two dozen fire spirits left also gave the condiment a natural scarcity. People might pay exorbitant prices just to get to try it while it was available.

"And you have to admit, it's quite an experience. Not an unpleasant one, I hope."

"No, not at all," Videl was forced to admit. "It has an umami flavour, and spice afficionados would definitely line up for it."

"That's what I thought. See, I'm glad we can agree on that."

Chichi encouraged Videl to try the others. All of them were incredibly tasty, and thankfully, none featured an ingredient that was as shocking to Videl as the fire spirit.

"There are others I'm working on, and I have several more ideas I still have yet to try. I have to cast my net wide, since I don't know what might be a hit with the diners."

"I remember going to a restaurant with my father back when we were wealthy," Videl said. "We didn't know what we were going to get served going in. The theme of the restaurant is that the chef decides what he's going to cook that day. People make reservations up to a year in advance just for the thrill of getting served something they don't know. Maybe you can try that angle."

"Hmm, a mystery menu, huh?" Chichi grabbed a notepad on one of the counters and scribbled the idea down. "That's not a bad suggestion. I sure only hope I already have the reputation for it. People will only eat food they don't know if they trust that whatever it is, it will be good. Thanks, Videl!"

"Oh, not a problem at all." Videl stood up from the chair and grabbed the cane she'd left by the wall. She noticed a few used tin cans in the recycling bin behind the counter, and a thought occurred to her. "By the way, what happened to the canning venture? Did the Merches pull back?"

Chichi laughed a little. "That dirt you found on Cant Merches must have petrified his parents so much, because they assured me that their offer of partnership will stand until there are stalks available again. Rolla Merches said they were open to canning any kind of dish I want until then."

"I'm glad to hear that." Videl had almost forgotten all about Cant Merches, which was ironic, considering they wouldn't be in this entire situation had he not gotten replaced, stolen Goten's slam book, and gone off to make a deal with Endy Vora Jr.

Videl left the restaurant with a bit more zest to her steps. The dining area didn't look lonely or abandoned anymore. It looked hopeful. Gohan was right. His mother wasn't giving up, and the restaurant would see better days again.

-o-

Court that afternoon took place in the main courtyard. It was packed. All the denizens of the Ox Palace, from the servants to the guards to the officials, gathered on the grassy areas on either side of the cobbled walkway. Some had chosen to tune in from the balconies on the upper floors, leaning over the railings to get a better view.

All four of the Ox royalty stood at the porch of the palace entrance. They were resplendent in their matching outfits of gold satin tunics and obsidian armour. Horned helmets adorned their heads, and weapons were strapped to their torsos: two battle axes for the king, one for the princess, a sword for the elder prince, and a knife for the younger one.

But more remarkable than their appearance was the presence of none other than King Furry himself. The king of the Earth was clad in a purple suit that complemented his blue fur nicely, and he stood with an entourage of half-a-dozen of his own officials on the opposite side of the walkway from Videl. They must have arrived here to discuss Scar Town's fate. Yanni had mentioned something about him appointing a leader for them.

The last time she had seen the king of the Earth was when he'd sentenced her father to house arrest. Despite herself, she angled herself a little more behind Sharpner. She wasn't sure how the king would react seeing her here.

Lined up on the other end of the walkway were the leaders of the gangs of Scar Town. Videl's position near the steps to the porch afforded her a good view of them. Their hands were tied behind their backs, their clothes ashy and torn from the fiasco in Frypan. However, they at least looked like they had received some medical attention, as some sported bandages and splints and walkers. Most held their heads down, except for a few, including Endy Vora Jr.

The Ox King stepped down the porch stairs to the walkway. "Today, we will bestow judgment upon those who wreaked havoc on the Ox Kingdom the past two years. Our peaceful settlement here in Paozu endured threats, harassment and, as of last week, arson of the greatest magnitude. It's time we enact justice for what we suffered."

A solemn silence followed the Ox King's introduction, until he named the first prisoner to receive their sentence. "Endy Vora Jr., come forward."

The Ox King signalled to Gohan, and the prince joined his grandfather down the steps. He unrolled a scroll and announced in a loud voice. "Vora, you confessed to the vandalism of twelve homes in Paozu village, the raiding of eight pantries, two scam calls; one attempt to destroy the Paozu stalks by bombing and the subsequent endangerment of our employees; leading the manufacturing of a carrier for a fire spirit with the purpose of weaponizing it; and the transport of said carrier with a fire spirit to our premises. You also led your gang to the battle at Mount Frypan with the intention of harming me and my grandfather. For all of these crimes, we sentence you to—"

"Execution!" Goten blurted.

The silence that followed was anticipatory; everyone was used to Goten's favourite outburst by now, and knew that the Ox King and the elder Ox Prince patiently overrode it with a lighter punishment. Everyone waited for the true hammer to fall.

And waited.

And waited some more.

Videl tensed. Was this it? Were they truly going to execute someone? That couldn't be right. If they had wanted to kill Vora, they wouldn't have worked so hard to save him from the fires at Frypan.

Erasa, Maisy, and the other stalk gatherers shifted on their feet. Vora, though unflappable and nonchalant at first, now scanned the crowd with anxious eyes. An aura of desperation built around him, as he waited to see if someone would contradict the little prince.

Videl saw Gohan's sigh more than heard it. Then he announced, "For all these crimes, we sentence you to hard labour until the first Paozu Stalk matures again and for three more years thereafter. Under King Furry's supervision, you are tasked to clean up and restore Mount Frypan to a livable state."

The crowd released a collective breath, including Vora. A nervous laugh almost bubbled out of Videl. It seemed the royals had just wanted him to sweat a bit. They almost got her too.

One by one, Gohan and the Ox King read out the crimes of each prisoner and their resulting sentence. Some of the crimes surprised Videl. Not all of the prisoners were gang leaders, after all. There was one young man in there whose sole crime was developing the fire-spirit carrier based on fire-proof materials he'd obtained from the black market. Another one was a middle aged woman who had painstakingly set traps all over Frypan so that the shells of the carrier would clamp down on a passing fire spirit.

Those who had conspired against the Ox Kingdom received hard labour sentences like Vora's. The few who had helped out in some indirect way, received less punishment. But all of them were assigned to clean up Mount Frypan, and Videl wondered if the Ox Kingdom planned to move back there.

She asked Erasa. The girl replied, "There were rumours of it at first, but after a survey, most of the Ox Kingdom's subjects voted to stay here. They've flourished here in the past two years more than they did at Frypan. And I think many of them are really invested in getting the restaurant back up and running."

"So why do the royals want Mount Frypan all fixed up?"

Erasa lowered her voice even more. "I don't know for sure, but I think the Ox King has plans to allow Scar Towners to migrate there eventually. To get them out of the crack in the ground and give them better opportunities."

To stop them from turning to a life of crime and setting their desperate eyes on the Ox Kingdom once again. A subtle, but possibly more effective, solution to breaking the cycle of animosity between the two settlements. Videl wouldn't be surprised if it was Gohan's idea.

After all the sentences were handed down, Videl thought that the Ox King would dismiss the court. But he receded back to the porch, leaving Gohan to face the crowd by himself.

"People of the Ox Kingdom, I understand that this has been a harrowing week for all of you. For all of us. And I want to thank you for your courage and hope in the face of the challenging future ahead. I promise you that we will work hard to bring back prosperity and stability to our humble abode. And I assure you that we are well on our way there.

"The fires at Frypan have ceased forever. No fire spirit will ever fall on your previous homes again. We have salvaged whatever's left of your possessions, and you can now find closure from this turbulent period in your lives. Thank you all for trusting in me and my grandfather. But we couldn't have done this without the assistance of someone who spent long hours researching how to stop the fire spirits from falling. Someone who risked her life foiling some of the plans of the Scar Town gangsters and preventing the problem at Frypan from getting worse. With that, I'd like to invite Videl Satan up here to receive a Green Star Medal."

A scattering of applause emerged from the audience. Videl's face heated up, and her skin crawled as dozens of pairs of eyes trained on her. Even back when her father was in the favourable side of the spotlight, she hadn't enjoyed receiving so much attention.

King Furry walked up to Gohan, carrying an open leather case with a shiny medal resting on a velvet surface. The prince glanced at her, lips stretched in an excited grin, and waved her over. Damn, was this why he'd wanted her to come to court?

"Videl, go on and get up there!" Sharpner hissed at her, poking her in the ribs with his elbow.

"I-I don't know." Some people were clapping, but this crowd was far from the most enthusiastic one she'd seen.

"Oh come now, don't leave the prince hanging." Steban gave her a slight push on the shoulders.

Videl stumbled onto the walkway, suddenly feeling as if she was naked and everyone was judging her bits. But the Ox King gave her an encouraging wink, and Chichi was clapping elegantly, and even Goten was giving off cheerful whoops. King Furry stood by Gohan with a calm demeanour, nothing to indicate that he doubted she was deserving of this reward.

She walked up to them and bowed deep. When she straightened, the prince took the Green Star Medal from its case and pinned it to her shirt. The applause faded away, and Gohan nodded towards the audience. Videl's eyes widened. Did he want her to say something?

He and King Furry stepped away, further confirming her hunch. Her breath quickened as she faced the crowd of palace residents and workers. Some held smiles for her, others were a little more hesitant.

Videl stared at the star now hanging below her left collarbone. She supposed she should at least say thanks. The Green Star Medal was five ranks below the Blue Star Medal, the highest award any Earthling could receive from its king. Getting even the Green Star was considered an honour most people wouldn't easily achieve.

"Um… I…" Videl cleared her throat. She mustered the strength to push aside her embarrassment. Gohan must have gone through a lot of effort to talk King Furry into giving her this medal. She took a deep breath and said, "Thank you. Thanks for giving me a chance." She turned to the Ox royalty. "Especially all of you."

When Videl faced the crowd again, she was a little less afraid. She realized she actually had something to say to them. "I know I didn't make it easy. I wasn't friendly or eager to please when I first came. I just wanted a job. And I know that at times it seemed like I was more trouble than I was worth. Many of you are probably here wondering whether I deserve this. I'm wondering it myself. Even though the prince is correct about my help at Frypan, I did accidentally set fire to the Paozu Stalks after all.

"But I guess… well, maybe people who mean well can sometimes fail too. And all they need is to be given a second chance to redeem themselves." She grasped for a graceful way to end her speech, but her brain ran out of words. She simply bowed and thanked everyone again.

Videl started to return to her previous spot, when Gohan stepped up and placed a hand on her arm, keeping her in place.

"One more thing," he declared, and again, there was that uncharacteristic glint in his eye. "As many of you know, Grandfather and I have been reallocating our previous Stalk Gatherers to positions that better suit them in the absence of stalks to gather. We thought very hard about where to move Videl, but it wasn't easy to find the ideal position for her. In the end, we realized it's because the perfect role for her is one that we've never had before."

The prince turned to Videl, a playful smile tugging at the corners of his lips. He was going to say something wild, she just knew it. He was probably going to make her Royal Babysitter to Goten or something, and she would have to play with dinosaurs and ride Nimbus all day and have tea with Piccolo, and —

"Videl Satan, I hereby promote you to Official Researcher and Coordinator!" A loud applause followed Gohan's proclamation, but Videl's mind was reeling.

"Ox Prince," she mumbled under her breath amidst all the clapping. "What does that mean?"

"It means everything you did with Frypan," Gohan whispered back. "I'm sorry I couldn't find a better title. I was angling for Personal Assistant to the Ox Prince, but Mom thought that might have some usnavoury connotations. Grandpa suggested Head of Investigations to the Supernatural and Mundane Affairs of the Ox Kingdom, but that's quite a mouthful. Don't worry though." He leaned closer to her ear. "The pay still is good."

Over Gohan's shoulder, Videl saw Erasa mouthing 'Oh my God, oh my God' and making suggestive wiggles with her brows and sending her teasing winks. Videl tried to wave her hand to dismiss whatever silly thoughts were running through the girl's head right now, but she couldn't gesture very well with everyone still watching.

To hide the flush in her cheeks, Videl bowed again to the prince, to the royals, and the audience.

-o-

Videl's new room was on the same floor as the royal suites, although situated outside of their wing. It had a waiting area, a bedroom, and a private three-piece bathroom. The walls were covered in patterns of pastel-blue clouds, lending the room a calm atmosphere. The rugs were deep and plush, and the wooden floorboards scrubbed to a shine. It felt strange to be surrounded by opulence again.

In the waiting area, a large sturdy desk took up the spot right in front of the bay windows. There was a pile of books and papers on it already, a set of different coloured pens, and a fancy new laptop with the most advanced specs.

A small envelope caught Videl's eye. She opened it and found a note.

"Come to my game." And behind the note, there was a ticket to the Taitan's baseball game in two weeks. Videl grinned. Gohan had told her that Yamcha had also earned a Green Star Medal from King Furry, but had declined to be awarded in public.

She also found Gohan's weekly schedule on the table, a book detailing the history of the Ox Kingdom, and to Videl's absolute thrill, a thick copy of the Ox Kingdom's laws and bylaws.

The bay windows afforded her a scenic view of the peaks of Paozu. This high up on the mountain, it almost felt like she was floating among them. And maybe with some consistent instruction, one day she would indeed fly among them.

Angling a bit to the left, she could see the Ox Prince's terrace where she had taken a copter last week to go home to her father. She couldn't believe how close their rooms were. She might even catch a glimpse of him preparing in the mornings and winding down in the evenings. Her stomach fluttered at the thought.

She sat down on the high-backed chair by the table. Videl couldn't believe her luck. Not only did she manage to get a position back at the Ox Palace, she also got promoted to one where she would get to investigate, fight, and explore. All the things she enjoyed doing back when she worked with the police, except this time, she was working with the most amazing person she knew.

A knock came on her door.

"Uh, come in," Videl called.

A timid young servant girl opened it and bowed her head slightly. "Miss Satan, the Ox Prince requests your presence. Please follow me."

The servant led her a floor down and around a courtyard. Videl wondered whether Gohan had another surprise for her, and she was starting to feel guilty at all these things he was doing for her sake, but when the servant ushered her into a guest room, she quickly saw that the matter was more serious.

Gohan and King Furry sat across each other, poring over papers and photographs, deep frowns on their faces. When she came in, King Furry stood up.

"Ah, Videl!" He reached out a paw to shake her hand. "Congratulations on the merits of your hard work." There was no hint of irony behind his praise.

"Th-thank you, King Furry. I definitely won't waste this opportunity."

Gohan scooted over the two-seater sofa, and patted the spaced next to him. She gave a meaningful glance at the papers, and the prince said, "The King has brought some disturbing news."

Videl sat down, scanning the documents. There were pictures of dozens of people: men, women, children, animal-type Earthlings. There didn't seem to be anything common between them. There were maps with routes outlined in red and blue, police reports of missing persons, anonymous tips of unusual activities.

"Multiple cases from various cities and towns have been brought to me," King Furry began. "Of people going missing or getting abducted. As I studied these cases, it became clear that we're dealing with a trafficking operation by a mysterious organization."

Videl shuddered. Trafficking was one of the worst crimes, in her opinion. Even when the culprits were caught and justice was served, the victims' experiences during their time in captivity couldn't be erased.

The King continued, "We have sightings of strange cargos and caravans, and we have strong reason to believe that the traffickers are using a route through the Paozu mountains to avoid detection."

Gohan gasped. "That's horrible! They're going through these lands?"

"Paozu is not heavily populated, the residents are both hospitable and don't poke much into your business, and the rocky formations make for great hiding spots," King Furry pointed out. "Now, I'm aware that not all Paozu residents belong to the Ox Kingdom, but there's another reason I came to you."

He gave them a blurry sketch of a shadowed figure with two curved horns coming out of the top of its head. "A victim who managed to escape from one of the caravans described a guide leading the traffickers through the region. He didn't get a better look, but he was sure about the horns."

Videl glanced at Gohan, worried about the implication.

"One of my subjects is involved in this?" there was a tremor to the prince's voice.

"Or, someone who's pretending to be," Videl offered. "How hard is it to get one of those horned helmets?"

"This is exactly my request to you," King Furry said. "Help me find and capture the traffickers that's using your land to conduct their crimes, and I'll make sure you are greatly rewarded for your cooperation. How does that sound?"

Gohan gave a fierce nod. "There's no way Grandpa and I will allow this to continue. We will use everything in our disposal to catch these horrible people and put a stop to their dirty business." He turned to Videl. "I'm sorry, I wish I could give you more time to settle in."

But Videl just shook her head. "Don't mind me. When do we start?"

Notes:

A/N: And that's a wrap, everybody! I love endings that feel like beginnings to new adventure. There's something so comforting about knowing the characters you love are still having fun even when you don't get to see it. And Dragon Ball is actually a really good example of this.

Thank you all so much for reading! It has been really fun getting to write this story the past year. I was unsure about diving back into fandom, so I'm really glad that the DBZ fandom is still an enjoyable place to be with a supportive community. Thanks for joining me on this journey, especially those who tuned in right from the beginning. I'm always excited to read all of your comments, and this project wouldn't have been nearly as exciting without your support!