Homeward Bound

Chapter 4: Knowledge is Power

The gentle evening wind brought strong smells of salt water and fish to the delicate nose of Son Goku. He followed Vegeta blindly, not knowing where the other man was taking him. For some unexplainable reason he trusted him, more than he had ever trusted anyone before. So when Vegeta stopped suddenly and flattened himself against the side of the building he was quick to follow suit.

Loud voices were coming closer and closer to their location, chatting about the latest shipments that had come into or departed from the Tokyo docks. There were the normal things like seafood, electronics, and steel, as well as the secret imports and exports of narcotics, slaves, and precious metals and stones. The docks never quieted or shut down for the day, and the city officials were willing to overlook the illegal deals as long as they got a small percentage of the profits. Everyone benefited from this system, except the slaves of course. Most died within a year after being acquired by their new masters, but those that did survive the oftentimes cruel treatment chose to take their own lives as a better alternative to slavery. A very small percentage of them got to see their families and homelands again.

Goku could count at least three different voices in the group and hoped that none of them decided to come their way. Although their was no doubt that he could handle himself in a fight, having the power didn't mean that he liked to use it. Goku preferred to try and talk things out before resorting to violence and he had made sure that Gohan knew to do the same. Why use barbaric force when civilized discussion would work just as well?

"If they come past us take them all out," Vegeta said almost without sound. "We can't risk any getting away."

Discussion was obviously a foreign concept to the P. I.

The voices came closer and closer, a woman's higher pitch now mingling with the lower pitches of the men. At the corner of the wall where the walkway they were on joined with the one that led down to the boats, the group decided to pause and lean against the stone of the building.

"Where's the new stuff from the boss? He didn't send anyone down yet this week."

"He's not going to, D.S. You know when he took that bus yesterday? He's keeping those kids."

A snort. "Why would he keep those whiny brats? I thought Cy had more sense than that."

"He's gonna train 'em and expand his empire, dumbass. We're going to own this planet one day."

The woman spoke. "I agree with D.S., Cyrus is losing his mind. Does he know how long it'll take to train those children in our ways?"

"Stop callin' me D.S.! My name is Yukio!"

A different voice spoke, one they hadn't heard before. "What's the matter, Drunken Samurai? Don't like your nickname?"

"Of course I don't like it. Would you like it if someone called *you* that?"

"He's not the one who drank two entire bottles of sake and tried to storm that convenience store because they wouldn't give you any for free," the woman laughed. "You should have seen yourself attack the doors with that broom."

"Forget about that already! Let's talk shipments."

"That's fine with me," the third man answered. "I'm heading over to Kaohsiung two days from now to pick up a load of slaves. After that I'm heading off to Qingdao and should be back in port by next Wednesday. Where will you three be?"

"Ah, I've got to fly down to Melbourne. An Aussie is taking me to court."

Yukio laughed. "What did you do *this* time Kaoru? Offend him with your ugliness?"

"Very funny D.S., but it has to do with some property I own down there. Apparently I'm not taking care of it like I should be. It'll probably only take a week and then I'll be back. Are we still going over to headquarters Friday?"

"Cy is changin' his master plan so every one of us in the area has to be there. You better be back in time for the meetin' if you want to live."

"I will, no problem. Zeshin's the one going out on the water." They talked for a few moments more before going back the way they had come.

"Your son's fine for the moment, and we have until next week to get him out."

"Get *them* out," Goku corrected. "I'm not going to leave those other children in there knowing that there's a chance I could get them all back home with their parents."

Vegeta rolled his eyes. "Survival is the most important thing in life, Son. You don't take unnecessary risks."

"I can't just ignore the fact that he has those kids, Vegeta. I'm sorry that you don't understand but-"

"I understand more than you think I do," Vegeta interrupted him. "I understand that our job is to get your son out of Cyrus' hideout. I understand that you're willing to put yourself at risk to rescue a group of brats that you don't even know. I also understand that you don't care that your death would make a lot of people miserable, including me." He abruptly turned away and almost ran down the pavement. "C'mon, we've got places to go."

***

Cyrus didn't move from his seat by the fire even when Gohan went over to stand next to him with a curious look on his face. He had heard tons of horrible things from the television about the man, from kidnapping to rape, but not one report described how he looked. Gohan often imagined some huge, six-foot-seven bald man with insanity clear in his eyes but that was far off Cyrus' actual appearance.

He was tall, yes, but not as tall as six-seven with dark brown hair that hung far down his back in a single braid and a goatee and mustache that made him look like a Musketeer. His arms were well-developed with muscle and probably so were other parts of his body. Gohan gazed down at him and jumped slightly when light gray eyes met his own dark ones.

"Are you the new servant boy?" he asked, his voice empty of any kind of emotion. He moved forward slightly and Gohan could see by the movement of the muscles in his upper arms that he was about to rise. "There are things that I want you to do."

Gohan frantically tried to think of a way to postpone, possibly forgo, anything that Cyrus could think of for he and Colby to do. He smiled as brightly as he could and held out his hand. "My name's Son Gohan. Pleased to meet you."

The man looked a little lost on what to say but finally settled on a simple handshake and a nod. "About the service-"

"I could tell you a story!"

Cyrus blinked. "What?"

Gohan nodded and motioned for him to sit in the chair. "I read a lot of books, you see, and I know stories from all over the world. I know one that's pretty true. You should be interested in hearing about it."

The man let himself be coaxed into sitting down and a startled expression came over his face as Gohan paced back and forth, trying to piece his story together. Colby moved as far from Cyrus as he could and prayed to Kami that Gohan could distract him.

"You can read?" Cyrus asked with an expression of disbelief.

Gohan nodded. "My kaasan's a teacher so she made sure that I could read from preschool." He spotted a bookcase to one side of the room filled with older looking books. "Do you read often?"

His eyes looked over to where the boy was looking and he shrugged. "Those over there my men found. I keep them because they look important. Can't read a word of 'em." He looked embarrassed at revealing that fact though he had never felt that way before. There was something about Son Gohan that set him on edge.

Gohan wandered over to the bookcase and began to browse the titles. "I've never seen this book before." He pulled out a smallish leather-bound volume and returned to his place next to Cyrus. It's about what I was going to tell you but I sure didn't know *this* existed."

"What's it about?"

He opened it and quickly read over a page with a faint smile. "The dragonballs." He didn't see the man move until he was standing up before him.

"What do you know about the dragonballs?" Cyrus asked with narrow eyes and a weapon-filled hand. Gohan remained calm and motioned to the book with his free hand.

"Only what I've read. A lot of books point to various locations where they've been sighted but not a one can really tell you how to find them since they seem to move around a lot." He looked at him. "You want them." No question just a stated fact.

"I have been looking for 'em for months!" Cyrus dropped back down into his chair. "I don't trust those idiots I have working for me but I couldn't read any of these books to save my life." He sighed and glanced at Gohan. "My life *does* depend of finding these things, you know. So does a lot of other peoples' lives."

"I can help you," Gohan told him as he placed the book down onto the single table. "Teaching you how to read would be an easy thing to do."

"You would do that?" A single nod. "I abducted you and still you offer to teach me!"

Gohan smiled at him. "Everyone deserves a chance to learn, Cyrus, even you. But--" He let his eyes flicker over to where Colby sat in a far-off corner. "--you have to leave my friend alone in exchange."

Cyrus looked at Colby and was surprised to see that he was glaring at him. "Didn't you like it?" he asked in a genuinely confused voice. "I thought that you did..."

"How could you think that?!" he asked him angrily. "What's wrong with you?"

Gohan frowned and shushed his new friend for a moment. He was only keeping a lid on his own rage because something wasn't making sense. "Cyrus, what made you think that he liked what you did to him?"

"There's this stuff I use," Cyrus went over to open a drawer in his bedside table. "You mix it up and stick this needle here into a vein."

"So you drugged him and expected that to make it okay." Gohan shook his head slowly. "That doesn't make it okay, Cyrus. Rape is rape. Besides, he's too young to even know what sex really is."

Colby rolled his eyes. "Have you conveniently forgotten that you're *younger* than I am?"

"Kaasan always said that kids knew too much of the wrong things these days. I never understood what she meant until now." He turned back towards the man. "You can't do that to anyone anymore unless they ask you to and they're over eighteen."

He nodded and then started as if he was just realizing what he was doing. "I'm listenin' to a kid. There is somethin' seriously wrong with this."

"Have you ever gone to school before?"

"Naw, I never had to. My pops had me help out with the family business as soon as I was old enough to count money."

Gohan smiled at him. "We have, Cyrus. You can learn stuff from me and Colby."

"I'm not teaching him anything," Colby immediately said. "He won't let us go even if we help him."

Cyrus looked at the two of them, a thoughtful expression on his face. "If you two teach me how to read and help me find the dragonballs then I might be persuaded to let you go back to your families."

Gohan immediately nodded and went to look on the shelf for an easier book. After finding it the three of them took seats on the floor, a boy on each side of Cyrus, and began to slowly go through the sounds. Doing this brought pleasant memories to Gohan, a time before the divorce when his father had been teaching him how to read and write.

The late afternoon sun cast long shadows against the walls as Gohan waited patiently for his father. He had been playing all day outside with his friend Videl, and now that the sun was going to sleep he got to spend time with his father. He knew that his tousan worked in a big building full of sick children and made them feel all better again. He wasn't home much, but Gohan thought that the sick kids should get him more. His father came into the comfortable living room where he was and placed a pad onto the table.

"I'm going to teach you all about our language so that you can go to school ahead of all the other children."

He nodded. "Smart."

"Exactly." He pulled a crayon from his shirt pocket. "Your mother wants you to never have to want for anything, but I think she pushes you too hard. Kids need to have fun, it's what they do best."

"Kaasan makes me study every day, tousan." He pouted. "I wanna play with Videl."

He sighed and took a brief look over his shoulder to the kitchen where ChiChi was currently cooking dinner. "I know, son, and soon as I get my hours changed I'll be at home so you can go play."

Gohan sensed his father's unhappy mood and smiled at him. "You're fun, tousan. Teach me."

"When you put all of these parts together you get a picture and that picture stands for a word." He wrote down the numbers from one to ten in both hiragana and kanji, making sure that Gohan was paying attention. "Some words have a another word that means the exact opposite. Good is the opposite of bad."

Gohan nodded intently. "Op'site."

"You can spell numbers with words, Gohan, and kanji. Ichi is just one line while ni is two lines of different sizes." He handed him the red crayon he had been using to write with. "Now you write down the three ways to spell one, Gohan."

"Number one," he carefully wrote it out, "word ichi, kanji ichi."

Goku grinned and gave his son a hug. "Very good! You're a smart little boy." Gohan looked up at him and just smiled.

***

The darkness pressed in on all sides as they walked down the cracked sidewalk, progressing deeper into a part of town that Goku knew that he really shouldn't be traveling through at night. Vegeta walked beside him, casting confidence as the sun casts light. The shadows froze in every pitch-black alley he strode past, fading back into the background to choose another target. The abandoned storefronts passed by, all in states of disrepair, until Vegeta stopped in front of one plain gray door in a building that wasn't quite as dilapidated as the others. He turned to look at his companion, a serious expression on his face.

"Don't speak in this place, Son. You don't know what it's about."

Goku looked at him, curiosity plain on his face. "I would if you told me." Vegeta's face adopted an expression of annoyance but he paused briefly to explain what was going on within.

"You know that Cyrus deals in slavery and murder, right? Well there are other things he dabbles in, Son."

"Drugs?"

"Well, yes but that's not what I'm talking about." He turned back and beat a patterned tattoo on the door. It opened a crack and after a whispered conversation between whoever it was inside the building and Vegeta the two of them were allowed to cross over the threshold.

Loud, pulsating music hit them as soon as they stepped into the building though you couldn't hear it outside. Vegeta didn't even bat an eyelash at the transition or even pay attention to the various scantily clad people wandering around the area. Goku's eyes widened at what some of the people were wearing and was just about to ask a question when Vegeta looked over his shoulder and glared him into being quiet. It was as if he known that his mouth was opening.

The bouncer that was guarding the door motioned to another large, bald guy and the second man led them up a set of metal stairs in the corner and down a deserted back hallway. Here the lights were dimmer and the music wasn't quite as loud. The bald bouncer knocked on another unmarked door and waited a moment for the person within to answer. He opened the door wide, then, and allowed them to go in.

The man behind the desk was dark-haired and equally dark-eyed with the lean-muscled body of a swimmer. He was dressed in an extremely neat black Italian suit and red silk tie that he periodically checked for lint. A smile crossed his face as Vegeta entered and his hands came together to form a point over the black lacquer of his desktop.

"What do I owe the honor of a meeting with the prince?" His smile twisted until it was a near smirk. "I'm sure you haven't come to.... sample my wares."

Vegeta took a seat in the closest leather chair, careful to retain eye contact with the other man. Goku followed his lead by taking a seat beside him and after the initial once-over, the well-dressed man ignored him completely. "I have business with your boss, Guido. Where is he?"

He looked at him silently for a moment before starting to laugh. "Do you actually think I'll tell you anything?"

"It's not what I think," he leaned forward in his chair, "it's what I know. Once you're gently persuaded to tell me everything'll go smoothly." At the word "gently" Guido's eyes hardened.

"If you hurt me you'll never get out of this place alive."

Vegeta game him his best uncaring smile. "So be it. My life would be complete just by ripping you into a million tiny pieces." Goku's eyes widened but he forced himself not to say a word. The P. I. might be ready to die but he sure as hell wasn't. Guido's hands began to tremble slightly and though his facial expression didn't change the fear was evident in his eyes. He believed Vegeta would murder him and Goku believed he would too, if given half the chance.

"The boss is hiding out in his main place in the Kuro Forest, a few miles outside of Satan City. There's a tree there that you need a code to get into the elevator that'll take you below."

"I don't need a code," Vegeta said as he mentally filed away all of the information. "Locks don't stop me."

"Not even electronic locks?"

"*Especially* not electronic locks." He stood and nodded to his companion. "Come on, we're going."

On their way out the door Guido called out a warning. "The base is heavily guarded with dangerous men, little prince. It would be shameful to be cut down as soon as you enter."

He turned to look at him, a predatory look on his face. "Maybe, but you know what Guido? I'm more dangerous than they can possibly imagine." Shutting the door behind him he joined Goku in the hall.

"What *is* this place, Vegeta? Do they really sell drugs in here?"

Shaking his head at Goku's naïveté, he gestured at all the near-naked people. "This is a bordello, Son, a house of prostitution."

Goku's eyes widened as he looked at the people and gasped as the realization at last sank in. For a brief moment, he wondered why someone would choose prostitution as a career, but all rational thought left his mind as their way was barred by two *very* large men. While he curbed his panic, Vegeta remained as calm and collected as ever.

"Are you two just going to stand there like bloated lawn ornaments or are you going to get out of our way?"

The bouncer on the right spoke. "We have orders not to let you leave alive."

He just grinned, eager for a battle. Goku exhaled and readied both his mind and his body for the oncoming fight. "Do you have orders to die too?" Without giving them a chance to answer he ran at the one who had answered his question and smashed his fist into his jaw. Goku, who just wanted to get things over with and get some rest before his shift at the hospital, took the muscle man on the left out with a well-placed kick to his kneecap. Vegeta didn't stop even when both were down, he quickly dispatched them with smooth slashes to their throats. He saw the shocked look on Goku's face and answered with a simple, "You have to kill them before they kill you."

They separated on the sidewalk, Goku to his home and Vegeta to wherever he went when not on the clock. The larger man paused mid-step and turned around to face the P. I.

"Did that man in there call you a prince?"

Vegeta sighed. "It's a long story. You sure you wanna hear it?"

"Of course I do. Are you sure you want to tell me?"

"There's a coffee shop that's open late a couple of blocks down. We can talk there."