Akutenshi Nakare Kyo

Evil Angels Don't Cry

By Toku Tenshi

Disclaimer: I don't own DBZ, unfortunately. I have this one poster with burdock and goku though – it used to be my brothers, but now it is a firm piece of my anime poster wall.

Chapter 17: Hiasobi - Playing With Fire -

(A/N: this title can also mean 'playing with love'. Just a something I thought I'd throw out there)

"Ba-ba-ba!" An officer said as he turned to Gohan and Erasa ducking under the yellow tape. "Behind the tape, kiddies, this isn't a tourist spot ya know."

"We know that!" Erasa snapped back before shaking her head slightly and calming down. "We're looking for someone. She went missing yesterday and so…"

"Well," the officer began, grabbing his chin and tilting back his head as he thought. "The victims have already gone to the hospital for smoke inhalation and burns. I think that if your friend was one of them, they should have been well enough by now to contact you."

"What about… casualties?" Gohan reluctantly asked, searching the area for body bags.

"None so far, thank goodness." The officer reached out and rapped his fist against a burnt pile of wood. "They're still digging through the rubble and remaining parts of the building though, so nothing is certain just yet."

The teens nodded thanks to the man and ducked back under the tape. They walked along the yellow barrier, seeking out someone else to talk to. They found one remaining fire truck amongst the arson team's vehicles and hurried over to it, easily finding two firemen double checking their equipment inside the truck and on the side. "Long night, eh, rookie?" The older fireman asked the other as he rechecked the fasteners on the large hose.

"It was…" The rookie relented, stifling a yawn. "We didn't lose anybody, so that's good. I really hope those guys can find enough clues to nail the jerk that started this fire."

The older fireman nodded. "Yeah, it was most defiantly arson."

"Excuse me," Gohan called out, drawing the men's attention. "You two were here last night?"

"Yeah, that's right." The older man said as the teens hurried over to them. "Why do you ask?"

"We're looking for a friend of ours." Erasa explained. "She most likely would have tried to help save people from the fire."

"I don't remember seeing anyone…"

"Ah! Miss Satan, right?" The rookie cut in, tossing out a hand to the side and nodding slightly as he remembered.

"Yes! Was she here?" Erasa asked, knitting her hands together anxiously.

"I'll say!" The rookie cried excitedly. "She pulled me out when a beam fell down on me – that girl is strong! – after she helped me, she rushed right back inside. I guess something happened inside though…" his face fell and he looked down, causing the color to drain from the teens as worry took them over. "See, just when the fire was almost out, I saw Miss Satan being carried out by another civilian. She was all dirty and she looked pretty out of it, but other than that okay."

"So she went to the hospital with the others?" Gohan asked, the color slowly returning to his face.

"I guess so," the rookie shrugged a shoulder, not knowing for certain.

"Thank you. Come on, Gohan." Erasa bowed slightly and hurried to the street, fumbling with a capsule in her pocket. She managed to pull out the correct one and activate it. The smoke cleared and Erasa hoped over the door of her car, starting the engine. Gohan quickly climbed in the passenger side, slightly wondering why they didn't take her car to the site of the fire, as they drove off to the hospital.

"Idiot," the older fireman sighed.

"Huh?" The rookie said.

"You need to think more before you speak. The way you told them about that girl… didn't you see how much you scared them with that pause?"

The rookie blushed in embarrassment and climbed into the fire truck. "Sorry."

88888888888888888888888888888888888888888888

"Miss Videl Satan?" The nurse at reception asked, looking up from the computer she was typing on. She paused as she recognized Gohan before quickly turning back to the computer and searched the arrivals from last night's fire. She looked back up and shook her head with a sigh. "She isn't here." Nurse Cake leaned back in her chair and rubbed a temple. "This must be so frustrating for you; knowing that your girlfriend is hurt but not knowing where she is…"

"It is frustrating, but she's not my girlfriend." The nurse looked up at Gohan as he continued. "She hates me."

Nurse Cake starred at the boy standing in front of the desk. This was not how he acted before when Videl came in last time. Yes, to some degree she could tell that he had blamed himself for Piza's attack on Videl, but the level of self-loathing this time was much more intense. The nurse had always been good at reading people, that's how she knew Gohan was a worried friend and not a reporter when she snuck him a visiting pass last time, so it really disturbed her how much Gohan was blaming himself.

The young woman bolted up from her chair and slammed her hands on the counter, making the teens before her jump. "What's wrong with you, huh? You didn't start that fire, you didn't force her inside, and you definitely didn't hurt her while she was in there – so stop blaming yourself. You aren't helping any by standing around and being so self-destructive. Miss Videl is out there somewhere with injuries and something tells me she isn't with someone she knows. Maybe, instead of beating yourself up about something you had no control over, you should think of anyone who would want to take her. She's put a lot of people behind bars over the years, so I'm sure she has a lot of enemies."

Erasa starred at the nurse as she lectured Gohan, her mind racing over the possibilities. The nurse was right, Videl had made some pretty fierce enemies and it surprised her that she had only thought of Anchovi Piza as a culprit. How many gangs and crime syndicates had Videl broken up by arresting members and leaders alike? Who, of the area's underground, wouldn't want to get Videl while she was weakened?

"Gohan, she's right." Erasa tugged at the boy's sleeve and turned around. "We need to go back to the police station." Gohan followed the girl, glancing at the nurse as the sliding doors closed behind him.

Nurse Cake crossed her arms and plopped back down into her chair with a frustrated sigh. "You aren't a super hero or anything, so quit beating yourself up that you couldn't save the day…" Turning back and forth in her chair, Nurse Cake looked disheartened at the computer screen and clipboards. "Not everyone can be saved…"

888888888888888888888888888888

Videl stirred and raised a hand to her head, pressing against the pounding headache and willing it to go away. Videl raised a brow as her other hand came with the first. She cracked opened her eyes and willed them to adjust to the darkness. When they finally did, Videl studied the metal cuffs around her wrists. "What the heck?" She sat up and noted a similar pair of restraints on her ankles. She let out a frustrated huff and looked around the dark space. Tall towers of black surrounded her and seemingly reached the high ceiling. She listened closely for any clue of where she might be, but could hear nothing in the darkness. Trickles of sweat ran down the girl's back as she examined the area. "Man, it's so stuffy in here…" She lifted her hands and wiped at her forehead.

Obviously, she didn't decide to come here on her own. "Someone must be trying to ransom me or something like that." Glancing at the cuffs on her wrists, Videl smirked. "Amateurs." She pressed her wrists close together, and then snapped them apart quickly. Instead of the metal breaking apart at the seams like they had done the numerous times Videl had been cuffed in the past, they stayed intact. More importantly than that, the force that Videl had exerted to break the cuffs caused the metal rings to dig into her skin. Videl bite her lips to muffle the cry of pain which still managed to echo in the foreign room. Taking deep breaths to deal with the pain, Videl brought her hands together again and raised them to eye level. Upon closer examination, Videl could clearly see that these were not normal hand cuffs, but made from a thicker, stronger metal. The inside rings of the cuffs had been sharpened considerably and were now stained with Videl's blood.

"Alright, maybe not amateurs." Videl relented as she tried to wrap her bleeding wrists in her shirt. The girl silently thanked Kami that her wrists were facing outwards when she pulled. If they had been turned the other way then she would have sliced her veins open and probably bleed out with in a few minuets. Videl did not want to die in such a stupid way.

So, there was Videl, defender of Satan City, sitting in an unknown dark room, hand (and foot) cuffed, and bleeding into her shirt. It wasn't the best way to wake up. The girl slid her legs up and leaned against them, adding much needed pressure to her wrists, as she thought out what she was going to do. The last thing she remembered was helping out at the fire on Kino. She was able to get several people out of the building – oven hauled a dazed fireman and all his heavy equipment outside – despite her injured arm and leg. Just as she was proving both Gohan and Saiyaman wrong, something stuck the back of her head. She figured it was a piece of ceiling or something and fought to stay conscious; passing out while standing in the midst of a burning building was never a good idea. She felt herself get picked up and rushed outside. She figured it was just a fireman. Looking back on it, it was apparent that she had been wrong.

Cursing under her breath, the girl berated herself for being so trusting. Since when had she, Miss twenty-questions, allowed anyone to just help her. She knew that everyone had an ulterior motive for everything they did. Even if it had been another fireman, he probably would have boasted about saving the daughter of Satan City's savior and used it to get on TV or some reward from her father. People were always just thinking of themselves. So why? Videl had spent years learning how to read people by seeing how they reacted to questions and situations so she would never be caught off guard or… in a situation like this. When had she let go of that need to rely on no one but herself in a pinch? When did it become okay for someone she didn't know to even touch her, let alone carry her?

Her eyes widened slightly before she grit her teeth and lowered her head against her knees. "Dang it. Dang it dang it dang it… Gohan." It was his fault. Gohan had disabled the defenses she had spent so long in building to protect herself. In a matter of months, Videl was back to square one. She was vulnerable around him and it made her uneasy. Knowing that she couldn't block Gohan out and keep him away, like she did with everyone save her father and Erasa, made Videl uncomfortable. She would often snap at him or say something she didn't mean just so he would leave her alone and go away so Videl could act normally again.

When Gohan was near, she felt so awkward. The only way Videl could think to describe it was being sick; her stomach twisted in knots, her heart beat erratically, her face felt hot while chills ran over her body. Thinking straight around Gohan was almost always out of the question and on days when Erasa was absent from school and she could clearly see Gohan only a seat away, her school work proved this point. Was she allergic to him or something? Can someone even be allergic to another person? He did live out near the mountains, so maybe there was a plant or something there that was always on him and she reacted to that.

Despite all of the confusing reactions she had around Gohan, there was one that she didn't want to admit: she felt safe with him. She didn't know how or why, but underneath the chaos her mind and body ran through, there was a peaceful aura that radiated from her peer. She sometimes had a similar feeling around her father or Erasa, but it never hit her as strongly as when she was near Gohan. She felt safe, and that was probably what unnerved her the most.

Shaking the thoughts away, Videl focused on the task at hand: getting out. It was about 8:30pm when she arrived at the fire. "If I don't hurry out of here then Dad's gonna go on a rampage of worry. Erasa too, I bet, and Go-" She stopped, remembering the way she had left him at school. "If I make him worry, then I'm just proving his point, huh?" Videl gave a soft chuckle. "He wouldn't worry anyways, it's only been a few hours and by now… I'm sure Gohan hates me…"

888888888888888888888888888888

"So, she finally woke up?" One man said as he peered into the monitor. Cameras were great, he had always believed so, and the night-vision scene playing before him only added to his appreciation of the device. "How much did you give her anyways?"

"I thought it was only enough for a few hours…" Another man sighed, rubbing his neck and shrugging. "I've never used the stuff before. I didn't mean to knock her out for three days."

Well, what's done is done." The first man sighed and straightened. "She probably needs some water by now, ya know, rule of three and all."

"The what?"

The first man turned to the other and counted off on his fingers. "Three minuets without air, three days without water, three weeks without food. Heard about it n TV."

"What'll happen without that stuff for the threes?"

"Death." The first simply replied, shrugging a shoulder. The other man panicked a bit and hurried out of the room, grabbing a few bottles of water from the fridge and hurrying to their captive. The first man watched him run, following him as he moved from one monitor's view to another. "We'll get back at you for what you've done to our gang. It took a lot of work to build ourselves back to this point, but we're ready to make you pay, defender of Satan City…"

End chap 17

SA: Man, sorry for the wait. I had the chapter planned out but I've just been so busy with getting ready for Otakon (less than a month away). Well, I hope this chapter is good enough for you guys, I tried my very best here, working non-stop since I got up today. I haven't eaten anything yet… unless you count soda, but you drink that… Anyways, please review the chapter!