Ch. 158: Vacation
"So, what are you two planning to get up to today?" Chichi asked Gohan and I at the dinner table one morning. Ever since I founded Legacy, she'd been a lot laxer about the whole 'Studying is important' thing. Instead of being insanely pushy and focused on us being able to make money and support ourselves 'unlike our father,' now that we had a way to make money with our strength, being strong was suddenly an acceptable future path. In fact, we got more complaints from our mom that Goku wasn't home to bring back Legacy money than we did about the fact that I hadn't touched a textbook in months.
Gohan still studied quite a bit when he wasn't doing Legacy projects. Apparently, despite everything, he still wanted to be a scholar when he grew up, rather than a Legacy, but he was still doing enough training to bring home a steady income that nobody but Chichi cared about. (Even though Legacy was making stupid amounts of money, I always diverted all Legacy funds back into the company, and I didn't have any time to do Legacy jobs, so the only Legacy money our family saw was what Gohan brought home.)
But today, apparently he wasn't planning on studying or doing projects for Legacy. "Videl wanted to learn a couple of techniques from me... Solar Flare, Kamehameha, the afterimage technique, and the multi-form technique. I was gonna go over to the Satan Mansion for a while and see what I can show her." He explained, causing me to cough out the pancake that I'd shoved halfway down my throat.
"Ack! Ack!" After my coughing fit died down, I couldn't help but flash my brother a smirk. "Someone's getting really close to Videl..." I just had to say it.
"And what are you planning on doing, Hanna?" Chichi asked me, changing the subject before I could tease Gohan anymore.
"Not having as much fun as Gohan will be having with Videl. I've got two classes to teach, and I've got several dozen prospective Legacies to read reports about." I said. Even now, we were searching out prospective Legacies and sending reports to the main Legacy office (me) in order to ensure that we only brought in new Legacies with exemplary personalities, since we were teaching them how to control ki and become inordinately strong compared to the average person on the street.
"No, you don't. And by the way, Gohan, you're not going to Videl's today, either." Chichi told me with a smirk, taking my empty plate from the table.
"Why are you acting so smug, mom?" I asked her.
"And why can't I go to Videl's?" Gohan added.
"You two are taking a day off today. We're going to Master Roshi's and we're going to go swimming as a family." Chichi told us.
"Mom, I really do have a lot of work to do..." I tried to explain. I couldn't just skip my classes, and I still hadn't heard anything about the party that was supposed to be the prelude to Garlic Jr's return... Honestly, I knew nothing about Garlic Jr's return, and it was beginning to get to me as time passed. I did know that Krillin and Marron had begun dating, but that was the extent of it, since I couldn't access a Dead Zone dimension I'd never perceived before. As for the Makyo Star, I suspected that it was inside of a separate dimension similar to the Dead Zone, because I couldn't find it either.
I obviously wasn't worried about being personally affected by the black water mist that he'd release. My divine energy made it impossible for outside forces like that to affect me if I didn't want it to. But a lot of the other Z-fighters would be affected by it, and that was a far worse problem in this version of the world than it was in the canon, when it'd just been Yamcha, Roshi, and my mom.
This time around, Pigero, Nappa, Raditz, Krillin, Tien... each one of them could likely survive for several blows against a full-powered Frieza nowadays, with the Kaio-ken. Basically, in the worst case scenario, it'd be Rise and the Namekians against the newer Legacies while Piccolo and I fought all of the really powerful Z-fighters off by ourselves. If Gohan were a part of that, then I'd probably end up having to go Super Saiyan just to survive, and it'd still be close.
"Don't worry, Hanna. It was actually Chelsea who suggested that we need to relax. She promised that she'll take care of all of your work for you. Apparently, you've been working really hard lately, and we're getting scared that you're pushing yourself too hard. You both have, and you deserve a break." Chichi explained.
"Chelsea!" I couldn't help but mutter to myself. It all made sense now. That girl honestly was way too caring when it came to me. It was likely that she'd seen all of the work I was swamping myself with, decided that I was too stressed, and was now going to force me to take a break, even if I attempted to go back to Legacy. That meant that there was no point in trying.
"What about Videl?" Gohan asked.
"Call Mr. Satan and invite her." Chichi offered, "The others were already planning a party today, anyway." She dropped the bomb casually.
"Wait, what!? Since when? Why am I just hearing about this now?!" I could barely keep myself from shouting.
Clearly my voice hadn't been even enough, because Chichi looked at me like I'd grown three extra heads while she answered. "Yeah, Chelsea told me about it. Apparently, Krillin mentioned that he was bringing his girlfriend to it yesterday, so she called around. They didn't invite you because of how busy you've been lately."
"I think Krillin tried to invite me yesterday, but he saw me and Videl hanging out and just kind of wandered off." Gohan added. In that moment, I honestly wanted to tear my hair out and eat it.