Mirai no Senshi
by ICYSHADOWNINJA@AOL.COM
Mirai no Senshi by Cody Ouellette (CODYWO@AOL.COM) Chapter 12:
"Tenkaichi Budoukai: First Round: Karugo vs. Piccolo!



"Another Namekusei-jin?" Piccolo asked, suprised. "But all of you are back on Neo Nameku-sei!"

Karugo smiled. "I’m not. Don’t worry, though, you’re a lot stronger than I am. I’ll probably loose to you. Still, it is a great honor to meet you, Piccolo."

"Tell me then, before the match starts, what’s your name?"

"Karugo."

"Fukanou! Karugo is just a boy!"

Karugo smiled. "Maybe in this time."

Piccolo’s eyes widened. "Nani!?"

"Do you promise you won’t say anything about what I’m going to tell you until the beginning of the eights fight tomorrow."

Piccolo’s eyes narrowed. "Hai..."

"Trunks is back, and he’s brought friends this time."

Piccolo grinned. "Wonder boy’s back, huh? Does Vegeta know?"

"Nope, and he won’t either, until the start of the eight fight tomorrow. The only person who knows is Son Gohan."

Piccolo’s eyes narrowed again. It had been Son Gohan who’d asked him to participate in the Tenkaichi Budoukai this year. "Hai, makes sense. So Trunks used Son Gohan as kind of a messenger?"

"That’s about the size of it. I look forward to doing battle with you, Piccolo."

"I look forward to see what Trunks is teaching you."

Karugo shook his head. "He hasn’t taught me a whole lot yet, see, I just arrived on Chikyuu-sei... well, the future Chikyuu-sei, a little over a month ago. I’m his newest student, but he’s got confidence in my abilitys."

"Do you as well?"

Karugo’s eyes narrowed to match Piccolo’s. "Hai."

Piccolo smiled again, tossing his cape and turban out of the ring. They hit the ground with enough force to crack the cement. "You remind me of Nail."

Karugo smiled again as well. "He’s my idol."

***

"What do you think of this match, Dan?"

"Dunno, Hal. Two big ugly green guys, they could be brothers for all we know."

"How are we going to tell which one’s which?"

"The big one’s Piccolo, the smaller one is Karugo."

"Which one’s the big one? I don’t see any size difference."

"Uhh... this is going to be a difficult fight to comment on!"

Trunks’s eyes narrowed, unwittingly copying Piccolo’s earlier motion. "Then _don’t_ comment on it at all!"

Some of the audience members around him affermed his sentement.

An’ya smiled at Trunks. "You know, we should all start chanting ‘shut-up’. Maybe those dickheads’ll get a clue."

Trunks shook his head. "Doubt it."

***

"Fight BEGIN!"

Piccolo charged... or he would have, had he not immediately been punched in the face, in the stomach, and slapped accross the cheek by Karugo.

***

"That," Trunks pointed. "Is the Mystic Arm attack."

"Oh. Wish I could do that."

"Me too."

"Make scratching that spot in the middle of my back a lot easier."

"Hai."

Gyou smiled. "That was cool."

***

Piccolo recovered quickly enough, though, and soon he and Karugo were exchanging punches, while trying not to get hit by their respective opponant. Piccolo had a slight edge in speed, but he noticed that Karugo didn’t seem all that worried about the attacks that were getting through.

Who’d’ve thought... Dende might have turned out to be as great a warrior as his brother seems to be.

Piccolo slashed at Karugo’s face with the side of his hand. Karugo ducked his head back, easily avoiding the feint, only to take a knee in the stomach for his troubles.

Piccolo amended his earlier thought. Dende might have turned out to have as much _potential_ as Karugo seems to have.

"One of the green guys just hit the other green guy in the stomach!"

"Whichever one of them was hit, all I can say is this: OUCH!"

"He’s going to be feeling that in the morning!"

"I’m pretty sure he’s fealing it now!"

Karugo staggered away from Piccolo, arms clutching his stomach.

Piccolo straightened out. "You’ve got a lot of potential, Karugo, but you’re poorly trained."

Karugo got his breath back, and straightened out as well. "Of course I’m poorly trained. That’s what comes from being a slave for more than half your life. My former masteres, killed by Trunks, didn’t want me to fight. I don’t know any good energy attacks."

"A pity, as I said, you show promise. Remind me to teech you the Makankousaupou tomorrow, if Trunks agrees to it, of course."

"Sure thing... if I’m still capable of moving, anyways."

Piccolo grinned. "Shut up and fight."

***

"Amazing! The green guy to the left nearly knocked the green guy to the right out of the ring!"

Trunks scowled. "Those guys are _really_ pissing me off."

***

Karugo dodged Piccolo’s next attack, jumping over the older Namekusei-jin’s head. Piccolo had already turned around by the time Karugo had landed, slapping the other Namekusei-jin on the back of the head. "Faster! You’ve got to move..." Piccolo kicked Karugo in the side as he turned around, sending the young warrior skidding accross the ring. Piccolo put particular emphasis on his last word. "...Faster!"

Karugo summersaulted to his feet, twisting around to face Piccolo. Piccolo attacked once again, trying to knock Karugo out of the ring. Karugo punched Piccolo square in the stomach, and knocked him back with a roundhouse kick to the ribs.

Piccolo dropped back into his standard fighting position. "Good. Much better." Now see if you can stop _this_!

***

Son Gohan cheered along with the rest of the crowd. Unlike most of them, though, he knew which fighter he wanted to win.

"GO PICCOLO!" He yelled at the top of his lungs, aware that Yamucha, Tenshinhan, Kuriren, and Chaiotzu were doing the same.

Kuriren looked at Son Gohan and smiled. "Piccolo’s not going to loose this fight!"

Gohan flashed him a thumbs-up. "Still, it is kind of strange to see another Namekusei-jin."

"Was he the strong fighter you wanted us to come here to see?"

Son Gohan shook his head. "Nope."

"Who _is_ he, Son Gohan? Quit with the suspence already!"

"I can’t tell you! I promised not to! You’ll see soon enough, guys."

"Come _on_ Son Gohan! We’re your friends! You can tell us!"

Tenshinhan looked down at Kuriren. "Be patient, Kuriren. You can wait along with the rest of us."

"All I’ll say is this, Tenshinhan, you’re going to be fighting him in the last match."

"Have I got any chance of winning?"

"Yeah." Son Gohan said, adding mentally If Trunks _really_ screws up that is.

***

Karugo barely managed to duck a blow that would have knocked him cold had it connected. Seeing an opprotunity to strike at an overextended foe, Karugo punched out, hitting Piccolo twice in the side, and sweep kicked the older Namekusei-jin’s legs out from under him.

It should have worked. Would have, in fact, if Piccolo had still been standing there. Karugo cursed, and braced himself for the strike he knew was coming from behind. In a brief flash of inspiration, Karugo let his body go limp. He colapsed in a heap on the ground, watching Piccolo’s lightning-quick punches pass over him completely.

Once again relying on the Mystic Arm to provide him with striking power. His punch caught Piccolo square on the underside of his jaw, snapping the suprised warrior’s head back.

Wasting no time, Karugo rolled over, and jumped to his feet.

Piccolo stretched his neck, and worked a kink out of his jaw. "Like I said, Karugo, you show great promise."

***

Trunks smiled faintly, shaking his head. "Piccolo’s grown a lot stronger."

Gyou looked at Trunks, a worried expression on his face. "He’s going to loose, isn’t he."

"Hai."

"Kuso."

"But he’s doing very well, considering his relative lack of skills."

Gyou shook his head. "You knew from the beginning that he was going to loose, didn’t you?"

Trunks nodded sadly. "Hai."

Juuhachi tensed. "So how many of the rest of us are going to loose our first match?"

Trunks shrugged. "I don’t know. It really depends on who you’re going to be fighting. I don’t know much about tomorrow’s line up, except that I’m last."

"How do you know?"

"I requested the last fight... blackmailed Mr. Satan to make sure I got it too." Trunks paused, and shook his head. "Chikushoume... baka! Karugo isn’t going to yield!"

***

Karugo kicked Piccolo in the ribs, knocking the older warrior away once again. Piccolo stood up, not even appearing hurt.

"You’ve improoved quite a bit in this fight alone."

Karugo grinned. "Desperation tends to force one to evolve."

Piccolo nodded. "Sounds like something Nail would say."

"How do you know?"

"He’s a part of me."

Karugo paused for a second, and nodded. "Hai. I remember that."

"Do you yield?"

"No."

Piccolo shook his head. "Even a great warrior knows when to run from a battle he knows he can’t win. I’m sorry Karugo." With that, he kicked the smaller Namekusei-jin in the face.

Karugo’s world exploded into total blackness.

End of Chapter 12:
The chapter title translates to Strongest Under the Heavens Tournament: First Round: Karugo vs. Piccolo

I’ll see you in Chapter 13.

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