When a Hero Disappears

Clusivity

Chapter 16: Clusivity

Gohan sat upside down on his couch in front of the TV, with his feet over the back. No one was here to say he couldn't sit like that, one of the perks of living alone. Scattered around him were empty food packages and piles of dirty dishes. The last time he'd eaten that much was when he and his father had their first proper meal since leaving the Hyperbolic Time Chamber years ago. He sighed in satisfaction, but was soon disturbed by someone knocking on his window. He didn't want to get out of his comfortable position and took the risk that it wouldn't be his mother – who would definitely make a scene out of this – and he just yelled for the person to come in.

The door slid open and not much later Videl appeared next to his couch. When he saw the girl, he was a little ashamed of his display and decided to sit up straight after all.

"I came by to check on you because you suddenly left so quickly, but I see you're doing okay," she looked at one of the piles of plates on the side table, "Did you eat all that?" she asked in astonishment.

A nervous chuckle escaped his mouth as he ran a hand through his hair, "Guilty as charged." He then gave her a friendly smile and motioned for her to sit next to him. "Want something to drink?"

"No thank you, I can't stay long as my dad is expecting me at home soon." Her eyes fell on the TV, "What are you watching?"

"I'm waiting for the live broadcast where Yamcha is going to give an interview, and if everything goes according to plan, it's going to be an interesting one." Gohan looked at Videl, who decided to sit down for a moment before leaving. "How was your meet-and-greet?"

"Interesting," she replied, "So, how many famous people do you know?"

"To me they're friends, I don't care much about fame or status," Gohan shrugged, "But seriously, how did it go?"

"It wasn't really necessary to go as far as arranging a meeting, but I'm glad to know who your substitute is." She then chuckled, "You had to see Sharpener, by the way, when he finally met his hero, he almost cried and couldn't get his words out."

Gohan laughed at the thought that his big tough friend would react that way. "Too bad I missed that. And for the record, the meet-and-greet was Yamcha's idea." His attention was again drawn to the TV, where the news broadcast began and the item about tonight's' baseball game was introduced.

"Next to me stands the top player of the evening, Yamcha, welcome," the reporter said, moving her microphone to Yamcha.

"Pleasure to be here, Kate," he smiled at her, "You look lovely this evening."

"Ugh, not this again," Videl exclaimed, a hint of irritation in her voice, "When he was disguised as Saiyaman, he flirted with her too."

"I know," said Gohan nonchalantly, "He told me, but the truth is, he really likes her. And that's why I want to see this broadcast," a childish grin appeared on his face. Videl looked up in surprise and also turned her attention to the broadcast, interested in why Gohan was so eager to see this. For now it seemed like a normal interview.

"Can you tell us what went wrong in the eighth inning? It looked like there was some struggle in the right-back after John Yakyū hit your pitch" the blond reporter asked, pointing the microphone at Yamcha again.

"John is a talented player and he is famous for his batting. It's not surprising that we struggled a bit after that technical hit. The important thing is that we regained our dominance and that we were able to avoid that home run."

"And are you going to celebrate now that the Taitans are most likely to become champions of the 43 chiku league?"

"We still have our match against the Rockets team, our formidable opponent. So it's too early to celebrate in my opinion."