Mirai no Senshi
by ICYSHADOWNINJA@AOL.COM
Mirai no Senshi
Chapter 14:
"Tenkaichi Budoukai: First Round: Jinzouningen Juuhachi Gou vs. Jinzouningen Juuhachi Gou?!?!"



"Do you really think you can beat me, Kamesennin?"

"No, but these folks are here for a fight, remember."

"What’s your point?"

"We should at least give them a good show."

Juunana took a step forward. "What do you mean, old man?"

"I used to be considered the greatest fighter in the world, if the fight is short, people will be dissappointed."

"I’ve never cared about the opinions of other people."

"I was well aware of that, but make an exception for your sister’s sake! She’s watching, you know."

"Yes, I’m well aware of that."

"Think, Juunana! If you just _win_ instantly, people will think you’re a cruel person for beating up an old man. If it at least looks like I might have a chance of winning, people won’t hate you so badly for beating me."

Jinzouningen Juunana Gou walked slowly up to Kamesennin Mutenroshi. "I already told you," He said, grabbing Roshi by the arm, "That I don’t care what other people think."

That said, Juunana tossed Roshi out of the ring.

"Kamesennin Mutenroshi is out of the ring! Jinzouningen Juunana Gou is the winner!"

The crowd made sure it’s disapproval was well known with jeers, catcalls, and a large amount of ‘boo’ing. Jinzouningen Juunana Gou turned to face the largest sections, and flipped them all off before leaving the ring as well.

***

"Guys! Have you heard the news yet?"

Kuriren came to a sudden stop, his breathing labored and ragged.

Tenshinhan looked up. "What is it, Kuriren? What’s wrong?"

"Have you heard who’s going to be in the next fight?"

Tenshinhan blinked, Chaiotzu nodded. "Hai! Juuhachi Gou is."

Kuriren nodded. "Do you know who her opponant is going to be?"

"Juunana, I’d presume. He’s in the Budokai too, though Son Gohan managed to convince him to come is beyond my abilitys to understand." Piccolo said. He wasn’t even looking at Kuriren, or any of the others.

"She’s fighting herself!"

"NANDA?"

"What I mean is, well, she’s not really fighting herself, but she’s fighting another her!"

This time Piccolo did turn to look at Kuriren. "Nani? Explain!"

"The official fight list says ‘Jinzouningen Juuhachi Gou versus Jinzouningen Juuhachi Gou’. Our Juuhachi is fighting another Juuhachi!"

"Stop joking around, Kuriren! That isn’t funny!" Tenshinhan said, glaring at Kuriren.

"I’m _not_ joking, guys! I wish I was, but this is the truth! Juuhachi, my Juuhachi, is fighting a different Juuhachi from somewhere else!"

Piccolo’s eyes narrowed. She must have come with Trunks! I’d almost forgotten Karugo told me he was going to be here!

Tenshin’s eyes narrowed as well. "How, Kuriren? Dr. Gero’s lab was destroyed, and we know Juuhachi is mostly human anyway, so it would be hard for anyone to copy her design, not to mention the fact that you destroyed the plans for creating her! How can there be another Juuhachi?"

Chaiotzu shook his head. "This could be a problem, guys."

Tenshinhan nodded. "Hai."

***

"This is definitely going to be an interesting fight, Hal."

"Sure is! Two beautiful warrior women with the same name, they could be twins for all we know!"

"Could be. Look at them, they’re identical to each other, so they’re either twins or this is some billion-in-one chance."

"I agree wholeheartedly."

"This is going to be an even tougher fight to judge than the fight with the two big ugly green guys was!"

"Probably. Let’s just see if they can fight, though."

***

Juuhachi brushed a stray lock of hair from her face. The only difference she could see between herself and her opponant was the other woman had shorter hair. "This is impossable."

The other Juuhachi smiled. "How so?"

"You’re me! We can’t be the same person, there’s no possable way this... this is impossable! You can’t be the same person as me!"

Juuhachi nodded. "You’re right, I’m not the same person as you. For one thing, I didn’t marry the short, whiney, bald guy."

"Leave my Kuriren out of this!"

"Sure. You’re right though, I’m not you. I’m an example of what you would have been had you not fallen in love with him."

"Nani?"

Juuhachi nodded. "I’m not supposed to tell you this, but I see no harm to it. You remember, about six years ago when Trunks showed up from the future?"

"Vegeta’s brat? What about..." Juuhachi’s eyes went wide. "Iie! You... You..."

"I’m his version of you."

"He said he killed you."

"He did. I was... rebuilt..."

"And you killed him."

Juuhachi looked up in suprise. "Iie! He’s here with me! You just can’t tell anyone that he’s here until the next fight."

"Who do you think is going to win, Dan?"

"Jinzouningen Juuhachi Gou is, of course!"

"That’s... not what I ment!"

Mirai no Juuhachi closed a hand into a fist, and gritted her teeth. "I hate those guys."

"Fight begin!"

Grinning, the pair jumped into a nearly identical series of attacks.

***

Chaiotzu and Tenshinhan watched the fight with a sense of dread.

"Kuriren _was_ telling the truth."

Tenshinhan nodded. "This is very strange. These two fight like they’re the same person."

"Maybe they are."

"It’s a possability, impossable though it may seem."

Kuriren looked up at Tenshinhan. "Can you tell which one is my Juuhachi?"

"Loose track, Kuriren?"

"Hai."

Tenshinhan nodded. "So did I. I don’t know which one to root for, and doubtless, we won’t know which one is which."

Chaiotzu blinked twice, watching the fight. A look of understanding crossed his face. "Tenshin!"

"What is it, Chaiotzu?"

"I just thought of something... and it’s not something I like! Not at all!"

***

An’ya stared down at the fight. Her interest was not a passing one, she was trying to judge Juuhachi Gou’s performance, well both of their performances, the way Trunks would see them.

I’m stronger than both of them are, I already know that much, but their skills make mine look insignifigant! Our Juuhachi has more experience, and is a the more skilled fighter of the two, but this Juuhachi of the past seems to have a much greater power! I wonder how such a thing could be possable.

She watched Mirai no Juuhachi block a particularly difficult looking attack with ease, and she couldn’t help but feel a sense of dread. She could beat me! Her skills more than make up for a lack of power... I’ve got a long way to go if I’m ever going to match her. Power is nothing without experience, this makes that fact very clear. Shimatta... this is... not good! Not good at all!

***

"Ten, what if..." Chaiotzu paused, and then blurted out the rest of what he was going to say in a single breath.

"...WhatifthisJuuhachiGouisreallyfromanalternatefutureinwhicheveryonewaskilled,includingTrunks,andeverybodyelseandJuunanaisthestrongpersonwe’vebeentoldaboutandhe’sheretodestroyusallandthere’snothingwecandoaboutitbecausethey’vegotSonGohanhypnotizedorsomethinglikethat!"

Piccolo snorted, and turned away. Kuriren blinked.

"Uhh, Chaiotzu, could you say that again, but _slower_ this time?"

Chaiotzu sighed. "What if this Juuhachi Gou is really from an alternate future in which everyone was killed, including Trunks, and everybody else, and Juunana is the ‘strong person’ we’ve been told about and he’s here to destroy us all, and there’s nothing we can do about it because they’ve got Son Gohan hypnotized or something like that."

Piccolo sighed. "Nothing like that is going on."

"How do you know? All those aliens, the Yardrattosei-Jin, that black-skinned girl, the Namekusei-jin, they could all be androids from an alternate universe!"

"They’re not. Didn’t you notice, they all had Ki’s?"

"So did Cell!"

"Yes, but Cell was grown. You can’t grow a Namekusei-jin in a test-tube and have him come out looking like a normal Namekusei-jin. Just shut up and wait. We’ll know, either way, in very little time."

"That’s assuming this fight ends some time in this _century_."

***

"An amazing fight so far!"

"Certainly the antithema to the previous fight."

"I’m forced to agree with you about that. Juuhachi, well, both of them, are strong and skilled warriors! I haven’t seen their like other than Vegeta’s rather short fight with Yamucha yesterday."

Juuhachi growled. "Even with compliments those two are starting to piss me off!"

"Me too."

Caught in a headlock by Mirai no Juuhachi, Juuhachi repedly slammed her elbow into her opponant’s side until Mirai no Juuhachi released her. The two stood opposite each other, battered, even bleeding in some places.

"You’re good."

"You too."

"I should have beaten you by now."

"I was going to say that."

"I know."

"Shut up and fight!"

"What’s the next move going to be? This is one exciting fight!"

"It’s amazing how well these two are doing!"

Mirai no Juuhachi frowned. "That’s _IT_!"

Juuhachi looked up at her in suprise. "Nani?"

Mirai no Juuhachi launched herself into the air, and straight towards the announcer’s box.

"She... She’s FLYING!"

"She’s coming straight _for_ us!"

Juuhachi vaporized the glass panel with a low powered Energy blast.

"You two idiots listen to me, and listen good! Your announcing is ruining these fights, so either be quieter about it, or SHUT THE HELL UP! You’ve gotten on my nerves, and if you don’t be _QUIET_ I’m going to beat you to within an inch of your miserable LIVES! GOT IT!"

"Ye... YES MA’AM!"

The referee looked down at his rulebook. "Jinzouningen Juuhachi Gou is out of the ring! Jinzouningen Juuhachi Gou wins the match!"

Mirai no Juuhachi looked down at him, and the edge of the ring, which she had passed by more than three meters. "Oops."

***

Up in the audience Trunks was shaking his head. "Baka, Baka, Baka... when is she going to learn to control her temper? You can’t reason with bakayaru like those guys, it’s impossable. It was a stupid mistake leaving the ring like that."

"Could she have won the match?" An’ya asked.

"Maybe. It’s very hard to tell, Jinzounengen don’t have Ki, so they’re very difficult to predict."

"Hai, that’s true."

"It’s just too bad Juuhachi lost because of her _temper_, though this may turn out better than I expected because of that loss."

"Why is that?"

"It’ll force her to think about her actions _before_ she flies off into a rage. It’s a rare event, I know, but when she does she looses all of her senses, and starts making stupid mistakes. It’s her only flaw."

"How do you know when she’s enraged?"

"Usually, she gets a lot quieter."

"She’s _already_ the quietest person I know other than Gyou!"

Trunks gave An’ya an appraising look. "Exactly."

An’ya blinked. Well, at least it shows she’s not perfect... but if Trunks can be so harsh about her mistakes, how does Trunks see my flaws?

End of Chapter 14:

The chapter title translates to Strongest Under the Heavens Tournament: First Round: Robot Number Eighteen vs. Robot Number Eighteen?!?!
One more chapter, and the Tenkaichi Budoukai’s first rounds will be over, and the ‘strong warrior’ will be revealed to the Z Senshi (not like _we_ don’t know who it is, but hey, just pretend like you’re suprised, ‘kay?)

I’ll see you in Chapter 15.

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