Mirai no Senshi
by ICYSHADOWNINJA@AOL.COM
Chapter 11:
"Tenkaichi Budoukai: First Round: Chaiotzu vs. Gai Setsuna!"

"Didn’t go as you expected, ay Gyou?"

Gyokusai looked up at his teacher. "No."

"Do you understand why?"

Gyou nodded slowly. "I was overconfident, and I didn’t use the skills I do have to the best of my ability... and I was fighting Son Gohan."

"Who you’re fighting has nothing to do with it, Gyou. Son Gohan is strong, but he’s still relatively inexperienced in tactics. You could have beaten him, though it probably would have been an ‘out of ring’ victory."

Gyou looked down at his feet. "My... my own pride betrayed me... I was so confident I could win... He wasn’t even fighting at full power until I asked him to, Trunks, and then I ignored my own senses when I realized how much stronger he was than I!"

"Are you going to continue your training when we return to the future?"

"Would you continue to train an arrogant chikushoume like me?"

"Hai. You’ve got a lot of potential, Eimin Gyokusai. Wether or not you reach that potential depends on how much you _want_ to reach it, and how much you’re willing to sacrifice along the way."

"I... I don’t know what I wan’t anymore, Trunks. After my power increased after the fight with Bojyakku, I guess I just let it go to my head... I don’t know if I’m worthy to train under you."

"Think about it, Gyou. Take as long as you need, I won’t force a decision on you, but I’d feel much better knowing you would be around to protect the earth if and when I die."

"That’s still a long ways off, Trunks."

"Hai, it is, but the more people I train, the more people I’ll have to help me."

"I... I’ll think about it."

"Take as much time as you need."

Gyou looked up. "Trunks..."

"Hai?"

"Thank you."

Trunks smiled. "We’d better hurry, we’re going to miss Setsuna’s match with Chaiotzu."

"Does he have a chance?"

"Hai. I haven’t seen Chaiotzu fight all that often, but then, neither does Setsuna... I’d say they’re pretty even. It’s going to be difficult to predict how the fight’s going to go."

"Lets go then."

***

"This has been quite the Tenkaichi Budoukai so far, hasn’t it Hal?"

"I agree completely, Dan! Nothing but Upsets, first Vegeta’s stunning victory over croud favorite Yamucha, and then Son Gohan’s victory over Eimin Gyokusai!"

"Yes indeed! The third match of the day will be between another virtual unknown and another crowd favorite."

"Chou Tzu versus the newcomer Setsuna! This should proove to be an interesting match!"

"Sure enough, but there’s been some speculation that Chou Tzu may not even be human."

"Well, that’s no shocker. Small, white floating guy with rosy red cheeks? I mean, come on! Either he’s got a damned screwed up fashion sense, or he’s a communist mime from another planet."

"Yes, but what of Setsuna?"

"Dunno, either he’s an alien, or he’s an accident victim."

"I agree, he’s got a face only a mother could love."

"A mother Iguana, maybe."

Setsuna’s eyes narrowed in anger. He was getting sick of the endless extrapalations of ‘Dan’ and ‘Hal’. He’d learned, from one of the disqualified fighters, that ‘Dan’ and ‘Hal’ were temporary replacements for the usual Tenkaichi Budokai announcer, who was sick with a bad case of the flu.

Setsuna couldn’t help but grin at his opponant.

"Good luck, Chaiotzu!"

Chaiotzu blinked. "Hey, you got my name right!" The look on Chaiotzu’s face turned quite serious "But that would imply that you’ve heard of me before these two announcer idiots butchered my name."

"They’re getting on your nerves too I see?"

"Hai."

Setsuna shrugged. "Americans, go figure."

"They probably work for FANimation... that company has warped some of my favorite Anime!"

Setsuna shrugged. "Blame DIK."

Chaiotzu opened his mouth to respond, but was cut off by the referee.

"Fight Begin!"

Not wasting time, Setsuna and Chaiotzu charged, testing each other’s strength, and stretching out tense muscles. Trading punches, kicks, and blocks, Setsuna and Chaiotzu started at an easy pace. After about three minutes, the two combatants seperated, neither of them having gained any advantage over the other.

"An amazing show of fighting skills, ladies and gentlemen! I can tell you now this is going to be an interesting fight!"

"You said it, Dan!"

"You’re pretty good." Chaiotzu said, breathing a little harder than usual.

"Stick around, you’ll get to see the guy who trained me fight tomorrow. Don’t know how he managed to come up last, but he’s fighting with that Tenshin guy."

Chaiotzu smiled. "Whoever he is, Tenshinhan will pound him into the ground!"

"You wish!" Setsuna smiled, and thrust a hand forward. "Sougikiha!"

Chaiotzu was knocked off balance by the unexpected psychic-ki attack, he stumbled back a step as Setsuna dissappeared in a flash, and hit him in the butt with a kick that sent Chaiotzu sprawling on the hard stone floor of the ring. Chaiotzu stood quickly, an advantage of being short, and dropped into a defensive stance.

"An amazing show of speed on Setsuna’s part!"

"Makes you wonder what’s going through Chou Tzu’s head right now!"

"How’d you do that? I couldn’t trace your energy when you moved!"

"Shunkanidou."

"You mean like Son Gokou’s teleportation move?"

"Who’d he learn it from?"

Chaiotzu blinked, and wracked his memory. "He said he learned it on Yardratto-sei."

Setsuna smiled. "Makes sense. I’m a Yardrattosei-jin, after all."

Chaiotzu nearly fell over. "You’re a Yardrattosei-jin?"

"Hai. We’d better get back to fighting though, before the crowd turns ugly."

"What are Chou Tzu and Setsuna doing down there?"

"I wonder if one of them has decided to yield..."

"Doesn’t look like it... See! I was right! There they go again folks!"

"A flurry of punches and kicks from Chou Tzu!"

"Look closely, Setsuna is blocking them all!"

"Ouch! That’s gotta hurt! Ladies and Gentlemen, it doesn’t look like Setsuna’s going to be standing any time soon!"

"Wait! He’s back up, and on the offensive!"

***

Trunks scowled at the announcer’s box. "Someone should really shut those guys up. They’re ruining the match. Sumimasen, guys, they’re really getting on my nerves."

An’ya shrugged. "We can relate. You didn’t know the announcers would be so annoying when you signed us up for this."

"I was expecting the regular guy! He’s not this bad, really! Actually, he’s pretty good at covering things when unexpected stuff happens."

"Trunks! We believe you already! Just watch the fight, Okay?"

"Sumimasen."

***

Setsuna flew right through a small Ki blast a second after Chaiotzu fired it, recognising it for the feint it was. Chaiotzu dropped to the ground and rolled to get out of the way of Setsuna’s attack, kicking the alien hard in the side.

Chikushoume! Chaiotzu thought, This fight isn’t going well at all! Setsuna seems to know everything I’m going to do before I do it! Damned Espers! Normally, I’ve got the advantage of being smaller than my opponant, but this guy’s just as short as I am! At least we both have the same disadvantage of being unused to fighting someone the same size as we are.

Upping his Ki once again, Chaiotzu barely managed to block a series of punches from the much faster, but weaker Setsuna.

Chikushoume! I’m stronger than he is, but he’s giving me a run for my money, because he’s just so damned fast!

Chaiotzu didn’t have enough time to protest further, as he was hit from behind in a suprise attack by Setsuna. The crowd roared their approval. For once, though, Chaiotzu almost celebrated. The crowd was drowning out those damned announcers!

Damn! He’s too fast! Tenshinhan would even have trouble with this guy!

Chaiotzu narrowed his eyes, he’d only have one chance to pull this off. Looking up at his opponant, Chaiotzu increased his Ki to it’s full strenth, and launched himself at Setsuna, aiming a kick right for the alien’s face. Setsuna cursed as he was hit, flying backwards towards the edge of the ring.

"A powerful hit by the mighty little Chou Tzu!"

"Way to go Chaiotzu!"

Chaiotzu smiled, and flashed a peace-sign at Tenshinhan. In his distraction, however, he failed to notice Setsuna’s quick recovery from the attack.

Tenshin’s "Look out Chaiotzu!" warning a bit too late, Chaiotzu barely had enough time to start turning around before he got blindsided by Setsuna.

"Sumimasen, but you should be keeping your attention on the fight."

Chaiotzu glared daggers at Setsuna.

***

Juuhachi smiled. "The little guy’s doing well."

Karugo smiled too. "Hai. He’s really holding his own."

Trunks smiled. "Just pray that he wins. Chaiotzu may not seem like much, but against someone bigger than he is, he’s a very dangerous opponant. The only reason he hasn’t used his Super Psycho attack yet is that Setsuna and he are the same size."

An’ya glanced at Trunks. "What’s size got to do with the effectiveness of an attack?"

"You don’t know the Super Psycho. Chaiotzu latches onto your back, in a position that’s _very_ hard to get enough leverage to pull him off, and he zaps you continuously with electric-like energy. Very painful, very damaging, and he stays there until you pass out."

An’ya blinked. "That doesn’t sound fun."

"It’s not. The only attack I know of that can remove him easily is the Mystic Arm, and the only person here capable of performing that particular technique is Karugo."

"Why’s that?"

Trunks shrugged. "It’s hard to explain. Maybe you’ll see the Mystic Arm during Karugo’s fight with Piccolo."

An’ya shrugged. "Whatever."

***

Setsuna, once again, had the advantage. It was all Chaiotzu could do to keep from being thrown from the ring.

This is _not_ my idea of fun! Son Gohan, how the hell did you convince me to come down here? I’m burning up too much of my Ki trying to block Setsuna’s attacks! I can’t keep up this pace, there’s no way! Chikushoume! Shimatta! He’s already stronger than I am, his Ki is more powerful than mine is now! Damn him, and his speed!

‘Blocking’ one of Setsuna’s punches with his face (ouch), Chaiotzu took a half step backwards. Shaking his head, trying to recover from the hit, Chaiotzu straightened out. "Shimatta... I can’t win this fight."

Setsuna looked at him blankly. "Huh?"

Chaiotzu shook his head again. "I yield! you win! You’re better than me."

Setsuna almost fell over. "Really?"

Chaiotzu looked at the referee. "I conciede defeat!"

The referee looked at Chaiotzu with the same clueless expression on his face that Setsuna had used before. He recovered quickly enough, though. "Chaiotzu conciedes defeat! Setsuna is the winner!"

The crowd roared, cheering on both Setsuna and Chaiotzu.

Chaiotzu smiled back. Maybe loosing wasn’t as bad as Vegeta seemed to think it was.

***

"I don’t get it, Trunks." Setsuna said, "Chaiotzu gave up, but he didn’t seem to feel that bad about loosing."

"That’s because he doesn’t. The Tenkaichi Budoukai is a test of skill, Setsuna. I was pretty certain that this was the way things were going to turn out at the beginning of the fight."

"I didn’t have any advantages over him, though. We were evenly matched."

"No, you weren’t. You remember how I’ve had you train to build up your speed at the cost of having a lower actual physical attack strength?"

"Hai! Of course!"

"You really had Chaiotzu on the ropes for the last couple of minutes of the fight. He couldn’t block every punch. I’m really impressed with your skills, Setsuna."

If Setsuna had been human, he would have been blushing a bright red at the compliment. "Uhh... Thanks."

"I’m serious, Setsuna. You’ve really improved... I really don’t know if there’s anything more I can teach you."

"Well, if you can, or can’t, it doesn’t matter." Setsuna smiled. "Too many interesting things happen around you for me to leave, Trunks. Besides, you guys are great friends, and your mom’s a great cook."

Trunks smiled, and put a hand up to his eyes.

"Something wrong?"

"Just have something in my eye, is all, Setsuna."

End of Chapter 11:

The chapter title translates to Strongest Under the Heavens Tournament: First Round: Chaiotzu vs. Gai Setsuna
Esper is Japanise slang for psychic

I’ll see you in Chapter 12.

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