Son Gohan was Saiyaman.

Videl was the type of person who trusted her gut, and for the past week it might as well have been lurching out of her body to explain why it was so obvious that a new guy and two superheroes don't debut on the same day by coincidence.

She'd watched his movements carefully for the past few days. Aside from not knowing a thing about her father and his conquest against Cell - which Videl figured was because he was a typical secluded country bumpkin - she had seen him take a baseball to the face without flinching and jump what must have been twenty metres to make a catch. He also had roughly the same build and height as Saiyaman from what she could tell, though the fluttering red cape and ridiculous orange helmet made it difficult to know for sure.

From her few encounters with the 'superhero', Saiyaman seemed like a pretty dorky guy. Gohan seemed like a pretty nerdy guy. There was only so much Videl, as an aspiring detective, was willing to brush off as mere happenstance.

She had presented her theory to Erasa, hoping that the blonde would live up to her reputation as a gossip queen and provide some information which would help to validate it. Unfortunately, she had merely rolled her eyes and asked if their dreamy history teacher bored her that much while he was droning on about some revolution that happened three hundred years ago. Honestly, Videl hadn't known what she was expecting. Erasa would probably think it was a good thing some crime-fighting vigilante wannabe was ten lockers away.

With Erasa ruled out, she had been left with one of two options: to consult her only other real friend, Sharpner, or to get the new boy to spill the beans. And in the end, she'd realised that hadn't even really been a choice in the first place.

He must have caught on because he'd been ducking and dodging her all day. In Chemistry, she had partnered up with him and he had spilled his beaker all over his pants purposely to avoid her. Since he was the genius new kid who could do no wrong, the teacher hadn't thought twice of letting him run off to the bathroom even though she had spent the entire semester giving her grief about having to take off to help the chief in the middle of class.

It meant he was nervous, that he was on edge. And that had to mean there was something there for him to feel nervous about. Videl was all for 'innocent until proven guilty' but as far as she was concerned, at the moment there was a smoking gun being held firmly by Son Gohan's right hand.

It was no matter, though. He could run and hide all he wanted. She would still catch him in the act: after all, what kind of detective would she make if she couldn't catch an amateur right in front of her? She knew the route that he took home. She'd followed him just the other day but he had managed to shake her off unexpectedly. Not this time though. He was a new kid so that meant he probably only knew the one way to get home.

So like last time, she waited for him with her arms crossed under her chest on the school roof. She waited for him to hesitate suddenly, to pause as he all but sensed her presence and turn around. She gave him enough time to get halfway down the stairs and remember the route to the other take off spot he liked to use. And then she pursued him, swift but cautious as she leaped down the staircase, all the while keeping far enough away that she wouldn't give anything away but staying close enough to make sure there wasn't a snowball's chance in hell she would lose him again.

It was foolproof, really. There was no possible way Saiyaman wouldn't spend his evening handcuffed, being driven to headquarters in the back of the chief's van as he stared longingly at the floor in regret.

Or at least there hadn't been until a particularly thuggish member of the Red Shark Gang rocked up with two buddies and told Gohan to put his hands in the air and lose the bag as well as any other valuables he had on him. She couldn't tell why they wanted his hands up - there wasn't a gun in sight between the three of them - but she had long ago realised to not give gang members too much credit. For a "geek", to quote Sharpner, Gohan was remarkably cool under pressure. His body didn't tremble and he didn't seem overly eager to comply with the thugs' demands.

"Are you deaf you stupid kid?" asked the de-facto head honcho. "Lose the bag, your wallet and that fancy little watch you're wearing or we're gonna have problems."

Videl took the time out to note that Gohan wore a strange, antique-looking watch. She hadn't noticed that before and that was cause for a little concern given that if she had stalked him any more during the past few days, he would have had cause to take out a restraining order on her. Shrugging to herself, she forced back her almost palpable desire to intervene as she made sure she had a front row seat to the confrontation; old habits died hard. However, having undeniable proof that the new guy was indeed Saiyaman was far more important.

Gohan seemed uncomfortable. Well, uncomfortable in a different way to the type of uncomfortable someone normally felt when they were getting jumped by a bunch of low-life criminals. Videl wasn't entirely sure how she was able to make that distinction in the first place but there was no mistaking it. He refused to meet the would-be robbers' eyes, outright ignoring them as he stared at the ground. If Videl didn't know better, she would have said that he was weighing up the pros and cons of a fairly large dilemma. His posture didn't change but after a few moments, he looked up to meet the leader's eye, his previous crisis seemingly resolved.

"I-I can't do that," said Gohan as his voice faltered. It was obviously an effect that he had added to his voice on purpose; a real falter under the circumstances wouldn't be so exaggerated and clear… but there was no way he could see her from her position hidden across the street, so why was he deliberately acting weak? "You see the watch is very important to me and my mother spent last season's harvest on my laptop, so she would kill me if I lost it."

"Is this some kind of a joke to you? I'll kill you if you don't lose it," exclaimed the ringleader. He brandished a fist threateningly. "I'm not lookin' for much trouble brat but I'll put you in hospital if I need to."

"I guess we have a conflict of interests then," Gohan said meekly. He explained further, as though he were helping Erasa with a physics problem, upon seeing the perplexed look upon the ringleader's face. "You want to take my possessions from me. I don't want to give them up."

"I don't speak nerd-talk so I'm just gonna take that as you tellin' me to come at ya," said the ringleader. "Hold him still. Let's see if we can't make our friend here change his mind." His two cronies grabbed an arm each and pulled, leaving Gohan wide open.

Videl smirked. This was it. The idiot would come charging at Gohan who would swing his foot up and somersault off the leader's head, before smacking the two cronies heads against each other and completing his flip. It was simple really, Videl had executed the very move hundreds of times before, and though it wasn't exactly something to be proud of, Saiyaman probably possessed more upper body strength than her so it would be child's play for the plains-clothes superhero.

The leader brushed his knuckles with his opposing fingers as he took a step forward. "Don't say I didn't warn ya," he said as he stripped his leather Red Shark Gang jacket off and swung it over his left shoulder. "I wouldn't wanna get blood all over it."

Videl's eyelids narrowed into slits as she clenched her fists, watching nervously as the gangster's fist got ever closer to Gohan's face. And it was only in that moment that she began to realise how stupid her whole plan was. What if Gohan wasn't Saiyaman?

She didn't have time to dwell on that thought and how she wasn't the type of person to put innocents at risk because Gohan's faced rocked backwards as the leader made clean contact with his jaw. It was more than enough to send the poor boy sprawling to the ground. He might have screamed but Videl couldn't tell because her chest was thumping so quick that it drowned out all the sound in the world.

Forcing herself to calm down and take a few deep breaths, Videl's pandemonium quickly turned to simple confusion. The gangster was hissing in pain as he clutched the hand that he had punched Gohan with. Before she had the time to figure out just why he was doing that, she was forced into action as he started stomping on Gohan's chest.

She crossed the street and knocked the two cronies to the ground in a heartbeat. As for the leader, he was left so open as he nursed his injured hand and stomped on her new classmate that knocking him out with a swift punch to the head was easy. She returned to the two grunts, smashing their heads together and granting them passage to join their leader in unconsciousness, before circling back to attend to Gohan.

He was clearly hurt but it didn't seem as though too much damage had been done. There was blood, of course, but at this stage in her crimefighting career, Videl had long since become desensitised towards the red liquid. His eyes were still open, he was breathing and he was rubbing his bleeding jaw gingerly. After making sure that that was the full extent of his injuries, Videl helped him to his feet. Thankfully, she had experience with lifting objects much heavier than she was, because she didn't think she would have been able to pull him up if she weren't a martial artist.

"I'm sorry I wasn't able to get here any quicker," Videl said guiltily. She made sure not to say anything that would give away that she could have intervened the whole time but on the inside she was fuming. What kind of an idiot was she? She'd just let a completely innocent classmate get hurt on purpose!

"Oh there was nothing you could have done," said Gohan sheepishly as he continued to rub his jaw. "That guy sure packed a mean punch though."

Inwardly, Videl was tempted to point out that the thug reacted as though he had broken his hand by striking Gohan's jaw. "I'll bet," she ultimately decided on saying. "You've probably not been in too many fights before so that must have been much more painful than you'd expect. I'm glad you're not hurt too bad though; I'm no doctor but I'd wager that since you're able to talk nothing is broken."

"Heh you're right about that, although I once had to wrestle with a bear cub after it stole one of my history books," explained Gohan with a chuckle. "Thanks for your help though, Videl. I better head home so I can put some ice on my jaw… my mum might just finish the job if I come back late in this state."

'He sure has a lot of excuses to get home,' Videl thought before shaking her head and placing her hands on her hips. "No way, mister. I've called in for backup to take these guys to the station and you're coming with me to get yourself checked out. We'll need to complete a victim report too."

"Oh right," he laughed stupidly as he hung both arms behind his neck as though he hadn't just experienced an injury that'd have any normal person crying. "He did also stomp on my chest a few times," Gohan pointed out.

Videl winced shamefully. If only she had reacted sooner, or just been less suspicious, this never would've happened to Gohan.

"Yeah, I saw that right as I arrived on the scene," she told him, still a little appalled with herself. If the damage had been any more serious, she would only have her ego to blame. This Saiyaman character was suspicious but putting innocent people in harm's way just because she felt she worked better alone was terrible in hindsight. "Let me just wait for backup to get here so they can cuff these guys and arrest them. In the meantime, why don't you recline the seat back in my jetcopter and lie down? I know it's not fantastic but it's probably better than lying on the sidewalk like you've just been shot."

She twinged a little bit, realising that things could have been a whole lot worse if the thugs were armed.

"Actually, that'd be great," said Gohan. "As much as I don't want to get blood all over your seat, I could really use a bit of rest while we're waiting."

"Whatever," shrugged Videl as she tossed her jetcopter's capsule on the floor. "If you fall asleep, I'll wake you up when we get to the station." A yellow jetcopter with 'Satan' inscribed on its side emerged from the smoke.

Still nursing the side of his face, Gohan climbed into the passenger seat of the jetcopter and lounged against the back of the seat. The blood that had settled about his jaw looked to be drying. He'd purposely relaxed his side against the cushion of her seat, propping himself into a position that looked a little unnatural. She figured it was so that he didn't strain his injured chest any further; from the looks of it, it would be purple in colour for the next few days.

She was so absorbed in her thoughts that she missed when he began to doze off. Protocol dictated that officers were meant to keep people who had suffered injuries conscious where possible but Videl's mind was elsewhere at the moment. She was well into her thoughts, wondering how she could possibly make it up to Gohan, when her fellow officers arrived on the scene. Before she knew it, she was being ushered off to fly back to the station.

…

Videl gently shook Gohan awake.

"Are you going to be able to get up yourself or am I going to have to carry you?" she asked after a moment. Carrying anyone of his body stature would be an uphill battle. "I promise you won't have to walk too much."

"I should be fine," he said as he stirred from his slumber. They had reached the station without further incident so all that was left was for Videl to get Gohan checked out and for her to 'officially' ask him a few questions.

"For what it's worth, you've got guts," said Videl as she guided him out of her jetcopter. "Sharpner might give you a hard time at school but I have a feeling he'd be balling his eyes out if he had to take such a beating."

"I'm fine, really," replied Gohan as he rubbed the back of his head with a grin. "I grew up in the mountains so I had my fair share of scrapes and bruises as a kid. You city folk are too sheltered."

As Videl contemplated the irony of his statement, she grabbed his arm and draped it over her far shoulder. She imagined that the pair of them looked rather comical as she helped him walk into the station given that he was a good twenty centimetres taller than her but appearances had always been the last of Videl's concerns.

"Chief, I've got a victim in here for a statement. He's a little banged up so could we get him patched up before we start with the questions?" asked Videl once she had stepped into the station.

"Oh that's too bad; the fellas just went out on break. I guess I can try and do a job myself since it was going to be my field of expertise once upon a time," said the whiskered police chief before taking a moment to polish the rims of his glasses with his handkerchief. "Go on ahead, I'll be right with the two of ya."

"Are you sure you're okay with not going to a hospital first, Gohan?" asked Videl. "Filing a report's important and everything but it can wait. I'd much rather get you checked out by a real doctor than just shrug it off - sometimes you don't feel the true extent of your injuries after an altercation like that until a few hours later."

"Actually, I think that since I dosed off the adrenaline isn't masking much pain anymore," said Gohan. "I can't move my jaw all that freely and my chest's a little sore but I'm alright otherwise."

"Alright then. Follow me, I suppose," said Videl as she led him to the first-aid room.

The police chief joined them after a minute or two of waiting. He proceeded to inspect Gohan's jaw and chest before asking the adolescent a few questions. Finally, he gave the high schoolers his diagnosis.

"Seems like you've lucked out, young man," said the chief. "No permanent damage. I'll help you clean some of the blood off and give you some ice for that jaw. I'd advise that you refrain from undertaking strenuous activities for the next few days because I can assure you that your chest is going to be quite sore in the morning."

Videl sighed in relief. "I'll grab the wet wipes," she said before proceeding to reach into a cupboard and pull out a mini-pack of medical wipes. She handed a wipe to the chief who used it to remove the dried blood which had caked itself over Gohan's jaw.

"Uhh thank you," Gohan stated. "I'm sorry to bother you like this."

"Please, this beats looking over complaints about parking tickets any day," said the chief before he grabbed an ice pack from a nearby mini-freezer. "Stick this where it hurts and hold it there. It should help with the pain and the swelling but only if you get to it before it starts to balloon up."

"Right," agreed Gohan, seemingly over eager to take on the chief's advice. "I'll have to fly home in my jet-copter but I should be able to sandwich it in between my neck and my jawline as I fly."

"Well, we can't let you go and pilot an aircraft in good faith like that," said Videl. "Where abouts do you live again? I can drop you home after we get some information out of ya and fill out the rest of the report later?"

"I'll leave you two youngsters to sort that out amongst yourselves. Damn ticket disputes aren't going to resolve themselves," said the chief with a shake of his head. "You'll be able to take care of things from here right, Videl?"

"You can count on me, chief," Videl affirmed with a nod. "I'd end up making a pretty bad police officer if I can't file a report on an incident I was a witness to."

"Alright, best of luck to the both of you," the chief replied before giving the two a wry grin. "Now don't be getting up to anything naughty back here. Every young cop thinks this room is the perfect spot to impress because it seems so innocuous and out of the way but you can hear the moaning down the entire hallway."

With that, the aging veteran left, leaving a blushing Videl and a completely oblivious Gohan in his stead.

"What did he mean by that?" asked Gohan to no-one in particular.

"Never mind," said Videl as she ran a gloved hand along her forehead and up through her hair. "So what were you… uh doing before those thugs appeared in front of you?" After his pitiful display against the members of the Red Shark Gang, Videl knew there was no conceivable way that Gohan could possibly be Saiyaman, but that still didn't explain why it felt that Gohan had been trying to avoid her for the past few days.

"I was just trying to make my way home. I would have taken off from the roof at school but… I noticed that my jet-copter was low on fuel so I was just making my way over to get it filled up." The boy finished with an unconvincing laugh.

"And then those gang members told you to hand all your valuables over?" asked Videl to which she received a nod. "Alright, now describe what happened next for me?"

"I refused," said Gohan. "I kinda regret it in hindsight but I didn't want to just hand over my belongings like that, especially since I know how hard mum worked to buy them in the first place."

Videl grinned a little. "Well hey, you might be a little beat up but you managed to hold onto them in the end didn't you?"

"I guess so." He rubbed the back of his head with a smile before wincing again.

"Now tell me exactly how you got those injuries, if you remember," said Videl. "The more detail you can give us, the better chance we have of finding another charge to nab them with."

"I remember the guy in charge socking me pretty bad in the jaw but not much else after that," said Gohan. "It was all a blur really. They must have stomped on my chest because that hurts but I was on the ground before I could blink. And then you came flying in to save the day."

Videl nodded. "It's not as much as I'd hoped for - no offence to you and all that - but it'll do. Thanks for coming back with me and sitting through all these questions; I know it's probably the last thing you want to do with half your body aching like no tomorrow."

"I should be thanking you really," said Gohan. "I'd have been toast if you hadn't shown up. Somehow I don't think those thugs would have been stopped there."

Videl cleared her throat. "About that… I think I have an idea that will help you out going forward."

"I'm all ears," said Gohan before rubbing the back of his head again. "Anything that stops me from getting into trouble with criminals is welcome."

"I'm going to train you, teach you some basic self defense," said Videl. "I can't in good conscience let a friend commute such long distances without even knowing how to throw a punch."

"W-What?" Gohan asked before he could regain his composure. "Oh you've got it all wrong. I normally don't run into any trouble when I'm flying back home, honestly. Since I'm all safe up in my jet-copter, I don't have to worry about criminals getting to me."

"Carrying a jet-copter on your person is reason enough to make you a target for most petty thieves," explained Videl. "I won't always be lurking around by chance to come and save you. And besides, it'll help the next time you have to wrestle a bear cub."

"I see you're not planning on taking no for an answer," said Gohan.

"Not a chance."

"Well, then, I suppose it couldn't hurt," said Gohan with a nervous smile. "Are you sure it's a good idea to put more strain on my body with the injuries I've already sustained, though?"

"Well obviously I'm not suggesting that we get started this very moment," said Videl matter-of-factly. "We can start with some theory first - something that a brainy guy like you will appreciate, I'm sure - and then transition into the lighter stuff. There's more to fighting than simply clobbering your opponent."

Gohan sighed, undoubtedly realising that there was no way he would be allowed to squirm out of this. "Sounds great."

"Now that we're all done here at the station, why don't you give me an address so that I can key that into the navigation system on my jet-copter?" asked Videl before placing a hand on his shoulder. "Look, you don't need to feel worried. I'm just going to teach you how to handle yourself, not prepare you for the next World Martial Arts Tournament."

"Uhh it's less of an address and more of a general direction," said Gohan as he sagged his shoulders.

…

Gohan let out a sigh of relief while he waved goodbye to his new friend as she took off in her jet copter. By some small miracle, she'd decided that since the return flight to Satan City would take the better part of three hours, she couldn't come inside.

He waltzed through the front door and straight into the kitchen, having worked up an appetite over the course of the day. Chichi was busy cooking and Goten had already started digging into his dinner.

"There you are!" she exclaimed upon seeing him. "You had me worried si- what happened to your face?"

"I kinda had to punch myself in the face quicker than the human eye can see a few times to avoid revealing my powers to a classmate," said Gohan as he rubbed his bruised jaw for good measure.

It had just been one of those days.

…

This chapter was brought to you by Kakarot Son and Darkvoid116. Also many thanks go out to CloakSky for drawing the beautiful cover image and coming up with the initial prompt for the story.

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