Hotaru confidently stood in the middle of the ring as she faced her last and final opponent. She couldn't wait to see if she would win or loose the fight, though, she was still very tired from her last fights. She hoped that she would even be capable of doing the job right, but, her friends and father had confidence in her, and she would as well.
Once she heard the bell ring to begin the fight, she crouched into her fighting position. Hopefully for the last time. She wouldn't even have to use strategy to beat Mr. Satan. It was a one punch and he's out sort of thing with him. He wouldn't be too hard to beat.
She looked into the face of her opponent, a blonde girl not even a year older than her. 'That's a girl from my school, I think.' She grinned as she stepped forward.
The girl followed Hotaru's movements and took a step forward, as well. She had been watching Hotaru throughout the whole tournament and had noticed that Hotaru would be a hard enemy to beat. Though, she had also learned to not rush into things. That Hotaru seemed to wait for others' movements before she would do anything. "Your move."
Hotaru blinked in surprise. 'Looks like she's not going to rush things.' "We're not playing chess. You don't have to wait for me to move."
The girl frowned at Hotaru's cheeky statement. "Oh, you want to mess with me now, do you? I have to admit something, I'm not your average fighter." With that, the girl pushed herself forward to Hotaru at full speed.
Hotaru wasn't in the least bit phased by the girl's speed. She had seen more, but, she didn't want the girl to know her full potential. So, she just stood there but ready to do anything if needed.
Right before the girl rammed into Hotaru, she jumped to the side and kicked at Hotaru. Hotaru quickly performed a back flip to avoid being hit, only to be met with a pounding fist in her face as she was standing up. "Heh!"
Hotaru didn't take too much of a hit from that for the girl didn't really hit hard enough for her to be phased by it. She hastily recovered from the punch to retaliate with one of her own to the girl's chest, causing her to fly backwards. Hotaru gasped when she realized that she had hit her too hard, thus, the girl was about to fly over the edge. "I'm not going to win because she fell out of the ring!" She burst out towards her opponent at full speed and caught her by the leg just before she flew over the side. "Gotcha!"
The blonde looked up to Hotaru with hateful eyes. "Don't think that because you kept me from falling that I'm going to let you win!" She jumped to her feet and kicked Hotaru in the stomach and punched her back with a double fist when she bent over with pain.
Hotaru brought her eyes to look upon her opponent and smiled. 'Now this is what I call a fight.' "I don't want you to let me win." With that, she dropped herself to the ground, letting herself to appear to be in pain, but there was no real truth to that.
"Oh come on. I didn't hit you THAT hard."
"I know." Hotaru reached out and grabbed her opponent's legs. With one quick tug, the girl fell flat on her back with a loud smack that was echoed throughout the whole arena. Hotaru promptly scrambled to her feet and stood over the blonde.
The girl angrily stood to her feet and stared directly into Hotaru's eyes. "Enough of this child's play." She threw a punch at Hotaru, which was easily blocked. She threw her other fist at Hotaru, which was caught in her other hand. "You're good…but not good enough." She lifted her leg and kicked Hotaru in her leg, causing her legs to give way and let her fall to the ground. "You need to get some more training." She pulled her fists out of Hotaru's hands and pulled back for another assault.
Hotaru rolled to the side when she saw a fist coming right at her. She looked over just in time to see it smash into the concrete, making some of it crumble. 'That would have hurt.' She pushed herself off the ground to once again find herself facing her opponent. Without saying a single word, she jumped at her and began throwing a series of punches and kicks. Most of them didn't make it for she was having to dodge and block attacks coming from her opponent.
~*~*~
From the fighter's building, the Professor actually found himself enjoying the fight that was taking place. Though, he still didn't like watching his daughter get beaten up. But, he did enjoy watching her beat up the other kid, not that he would encourage it outside of the tournaments. "Girls, tell me, do you always get this rough when you're training with her?"
"Of course." Makoto replied.
"Always." Ami turned to the professor. "We find that it's the only way to train effectively, but, we only do it if we know that we are up to it."
Usagi turned to her friend. "And don't forget it's just plain fun. But of course, we didn't start doing this with her until we knew that she was ready for it." She turned back to the fight just in time to see Hotaru deliver a s punch right to her opponent's face. "Now that's what I'm talking about!"
~*~*~
Hotaru jumped back as she saw her opponent fall back to the ground. 'cool.'
The girl quickly bounced back to her feet, only slower than usual. She was beginning to wear out from Hotaru's continues rough attacks. She smirked as she rubbed some blood away from her lip. "Not bad." She jumped out at Hotaru.
Hotaru mimicked her competitor's movements and met her halfway. Both girls locked hands in the middle of the ring and glared into each other's eyes. Both pushed against each other with their greatest strength. Hotaru was lucky that she had been training with her gravity or else she wouldn't have been able to hold up any longer against the girl.
She could sense that the girl was nearly out of energy. It wouldn't be too long before she was done for. Hotaru pushed against the girl's force as hard as she could. The other girl did the same. It wasn't long before both fighter's were crying out with pain for their arms ached with great pain.
The girl was the first to give into as she dropped to her knees. She was ashamed of herself. Ashamed to have been the first brought to her knees when she knew that she was the better fighter. Hotaru pulled away. She didn't want to win by way of making her challenger give up, either.
Her foe didn't exactly take too kindly to Hotaru's sympathy, though. Letting her obvious frustration show, the girl lifted her fist to once again swipe at Hotaru.
Hotaru jumped back and stopped the girl's fist from hitting her by grabbing it. Without hesitation, she began to twist it around her competitor's back, causing her to cry out in even more pain. Hotaru pulled her up to her knees and continued to hold her hand behind her back.
At that point, the girl had had enough. With her free hand, she punched backwards. Hotaru let go of the girl's hand and barely missed being hit as she jumped over her and kicked her back down to her back.
The girl was dizzy and out of energy at that point. She frowned as she jumped up for one last attack. She looked at Hotaru with hate and disgust. "So the rumors about you are true. You're just a monster. I knew you were that kid from school."
"Huh?"
The girl didn't respond. Instead, she just ran for Hotaru with her hands out and ready to grab anything that came in her way. Within seconds of a collision, Hotaru ducked. The girl couldn't exactly stop at the point she was at, either. She ran into Hotaru, but neither of them fell. The girl found herself being slowly raised to the ground. She looked down and saw that she was on Hotaru's back, who seemed to be flipping her over. 'Oh crap…'
Hotaru stood straight once again. She felt her competitor slip off her back and heard her smack, hard, against he ground with a loud thump. She turned herself around, ready for any other attack that she could have needed to dodge. But, to her surprise, the girl was still lying on the ground, barely able to keep her eyes open. "Hello…? Are you ok?" She bent over to look into her eyes.
The announcer slowly walked back to the platform where the last fight of the intermediate division had taken place. "Ladies and Gentlemen," He walked to Hotaru and grabbed her hand. "The intermediate division winner…Tomoe Hotaru!"
A million thoughts were running through the head of Hotaru at that moment. She couldn't believe that she had just won the whole tournament of her division. She had never expected to, at all. Now that it happened, she couldn't have been happier.
She looked around the stands at the people who were going wild at her victory. They were cheering for her, the winner. Once the initial shock had worn off, though she was still shocked, she smiled and jumped for joy as her whole body was rushing with adrenalin. "WOW! I WON?!"
The announcer looked down to Hotaru, who still wasn't quite able to grasp the facts. "Yes, Hotaru. You have won. Your name will go up in the hall of fame, or hall of winners as it's called. You will have the first name up there for the intermediate winners. After the next division, we will be holding our fights between each division winner and Mr. Satan. I know you all will be looking forward to it."
Hotaru couldn't bring herself to calm down as she looked over to the fighters' building at her father, who was smiling back at her. Without thinking, she began to walk to him, but, was stopped by the groaning of her opponent. She sympathetically looked down at her and smiled. "Good fight." She extended her hand to the girl.
She gladly excepted Hotaru's kindness and allowed herself to be helped up. "Thanks. You're not as bad as everyone says you are."
~*~*~
~~Meanwhile~~
Goten searched the premises for his brother. He wouldn't just let him get away with telling Mamoru secrets about their sister. That was just not something that family members were supposed to do to each other. "Gohan where are you!?" He furiously looked around the area. "I know you're here somewhere! I can sense you!"
"Calm down, Goten. I'm right here." Gohan emerged from a room that was used for nursing fighters who had been badly injured. Currently, no one had been using it and Gohan needed a good out of the way place to do some thinking.
Goten irately turned to his brother with a scowl on his face. "Calm down? How the HELL am I supposed to calm down when you're acting so STUPID?!"
Gohan didn't frown nor did he become angry with the tone of voice that his younger brother was using with him. He deserved it, but he wouldn't let him think that he could be walked all over. "Don't go there, Goten. I already said that this was none of your business."
Goten shoved himself in his brother's face as he impossibly scowled harder at him. "This IS my business. It was bad enough when Mr. Satan asked dad if he would force Usagi to throw the fight, but now THIS?! Do mom and dad know what you did?"
Gohan shamefully shook his head. "I did what I had to do. If I didn't take action, no one else would have. Do you seriously think that mom and dad would have really hurt Usagi so much as to force her to throw the fight? I don't think so. That's why I did it. If dad told Usagi that she could beat Mr. Satan, than she wouldn't listen to me telling her not to. I just wanted to make sure that Mr. Satan wasn't embarrassed in the worst way. Videl doesn't want to see her father suffer. I don't want to see Videl suffer. It's better this way."
Goten shook his head in disgust as he looked upon his brother, who he thought to be out of his mind. "You would just rather see your little sister suffer, wouldn't you?" He couldn't even look at his brother anymore. He didn't think that he would ever see him the same. Goten turned around, not wanting to hear anymore excuses.
Gohan frowned as he watched his little brother walk away. "Don't do this, Goten. You know it's the right thing to do. Mr. Satan wont be embarrassed because of this. His family name wont be brought to shame."
Goten stopped to leave his brother with one last thought. "It's NOT the right thing to do. You're letting him get away with the lie of a century. You're hurting your sister, in the long run. You only care about VIDEL! That's all you EVER cared about. Ever since you met her you let her control you. I'm ashamed of you, brother." Not wanting to share anymore words with the man, he continued to walk away towards the stands, where he would have a few words with his parents. If he couldn't convince Gohan, he hoped that he could at least get his parents to see things straight.
Gohan let up on his frown as he thought about what had just been said to him. Some of it, most of it, was very true. He did let Videl get away with telling him what to do, a lot. But this time it wasn't only Videl's idea. It was both of theirs. Mr. Satan may have been a big lying buffoon, yes, but he also had feelings. But so did Gohan. And at that moment, his feelings were being trampled upon. Not only by himself, but by his brother, who spoke the truth.
~*~*~
~~Back at the fighting Arena~~
Hotaru ran into her group of friends with a bigger smile than anyone had ever seen her with, which at that point was almost impossible. "I did it! I did it! I did it!" She hopped around the room with excessive joy. She was too happy to even know what to do with herself.
Professor Tomoe laughed as he scooped his daughter into his arms. "We're all proud of you, firefly. You did well out there. Now you can rest a while until your fight with Mr. Satan."
Makoto couldn't help but burst into laughter when she heard that. "What fight? One little finger punch from Hotaru and Satan is going to be out for the count. He wont even have enough sense left to think of something to cover it up with."
Usagi giggled. "Yeah, he's going to have permanent birds flying around his head for a while." Usagi imagined what it was going to be like seeing Mr. Satan totally knocked out by real fighters. She could just imagine the audience going nuts finding out about his true secret. "You know, this is great. My brother will finally get recognized for the true hero that he is. After all these years. I don't know why he never told anyone about it before. There were so many times when he could have, too." She turned to Hotaru, who was, again, on the ground standing by her father. "This is great! I knew you'd win."
Hotaru rubbed some blood away from a cut on her forehead as she smiled. "Thanks! If you hadn't believed in me so much, I probably would have given up. But next year, I'm going into the advanced division. I just KNOW that I'll be ready."
Ami handed Hotaru a wet tell to wipe herself with. "Of course you're going to be ready. You were THIS good with just two weeks of training. That gravity was a big help with your progress. It made you so much stronger, it's amazing."
Professor Tomoe smiled as he bent down to his daughter's level. "You have done well. And to reward you, I'm taking you all out for ice cream tomorrow."
Hotaru smiled as she threw her arms around her father's neck. "YAY! ICE CREAM!"
~*~*~
Between divisions, there was a twenty minute wait to give the spectators a chance to get up and move around for a while. Goten took this opportunity to go and speak with his parents. He spotted his father with Mrs. Mizuno in the front, where they had sat throughout the whole intermediate division fights. He figured that Videl and his mother had gone to either find Gohan, or they had gone for food. He took a deep breath as he began to walk down the stairs. He hoped that he would be able to convince his father to do the right thing. Though Gohan believed that they were leaning towards letting her fight Mr. Satan, Goten believed that they were leaning more towards the side of making her throw the fight, if she even got to that point now that Mamoru knew valuable information about Usagi's fighting style.
Goten sat next to his father, who were talking to Mrs. Mizuno about fighting. "dad…"
"Excuse me a moment." He turned over to his son, who sat in the chair next to him. "Yes?" He could see the concern in his eyes. "What's wrong?"
Goten sighed. "It's about Gohan and this whole wanting Usagi to throw the fight thing. Dad, listen to me, please don't make Usagi throw the fight with Mr. Satan. Do you know how upset she would be if you did that?"
Mrs. Mizuno could see that this was obviously a family thing, so she got up and left the two men alone to quarrel. Goku looked back down to the platform, where Mr. Satan had begun talking to the crowd. "Do you think that I haven't thought of that? Believe me, that's the last thing in the world that I want to do to her. That's why I'm not going to make her do it until I'm presented with a good enough reason to do so. Your mother and I have already decided on that."
'So Gohan was right. They DON'T want to force her to not do it.' "But dad, Gohan has already tried to go over your head with this one."
Goku lifted his brow in interest as he turned back to his son. "What?"
"I saw him myself. He was talking to Mamoru, Michiru, Haruka, and those boys from America that Yamcha is training. I'm pretty sure he told them some of Usagi's weak points because he wont tell me what he was talking to them about. He just keeps telling me that it's none of my business."
Goku could feel himself getting angry as he began to stand up. "Well it is MY business. I already told him that it wasn't his decision to make. Satan may be taking the credit for what he did, but that's in the past. That doesn't give him the authority to do something like that."
Not wanting any further confrontation with his older brother, Goten grabbed his father by the wrist. "Don't talk to him, dad. I've already taken care of it. I've already told Usagi that someone told Mamoru and the others her moves. Don't worry about it. I just wanted you to know."
Goku let out a quiet protective as he stiffly sat back down. "Fine. I wont talk to him, nor will I tell Usagi that Gohan was the one to sell her out."
"Thanks, dad. So does this mean that you aren't going to make her throw the fight?"
Goku unconsciously shot an annoyed glare over to his son. "As of now, no. But, if I see that there is reason to, then I will make her do it."
"Reason? Gohan thinks that there is plenty of reason to do this. He said that Satan would suffer and then Videl would suffer."
"I know that. But right now, I'm trying to weigh the good vs. the bad on this. So far, the good of Usagi beating Mr. Satan far outweighs the bad of her doing it."
Goten smiled as he slowly stood to his feet. "Great. Don't tell mom or Videl either."
"Sure. Whatever." Goku wasn't really paying attention to his son at that point. He was more lost a bundle of his own thoughts.
~*~*~
From outside the fighters' building, Michiru peered in upon Usagi and her friends. She knew that if her friends knew of what she was about to do, she would be rejected from the group and made fun of for insubordination, which was highly intolerable. But, she had also grown a few morals with her age and knew that it was wrong to take advantage of family feuds like Mamoru was going to willingly do. "Usagi!" She talk at an interval that only Usagi could hear so she wouldn't cause all of the others to become interested in what she wanted.
Usagi turned to look at the door, which led outside, only to see nothing. 'Must be my imagination.' She shrugged as she turned back to her friends, who were watching, as well as laughing at Mr. Satan, who try to show people how to do some really screwed up fighting moves. "Man, he needs to go back to school. You actually learned from him before we met you, Makoto?"
"Sadly, yes. But those horrifying days are over."
Michiru poked her head inside the building again. "Usagi! Come here!"
Usagi frowned that time as she turned around. To her surprise, there was actually someone there. And to an even greater surprise, it was Michiru. She turned to look back at her friends, who more too occupied with what Satan was doing to even know if she was gone or not. With a bigger frown, Usagi turned back around and began walking towards Michiru to see what she could have possibly wanted.
Once she saw that Usagi was coming, Michiru led her out and away from the fighters' building. She could sense Usagi's anger rising when she had said nothing for a long period of time. "Don't worry, Monk…Usagi. There is a point to this."
Usagi stopped in her place as she crossed her arms. "This is far enough! I swear, the first thing you say mean to me…" She cut herself short as the realization of what she had just called her sunk into her head. "You just called me Usagi."
Michiru turned around. "Yes. That's because I'm being serious. Let's put aside our differences for just this ONE time. This changes nothing. I still despise you."
Usagi looked around the area in which she was in. 'Hmm…there's no one around. None of her friends are here either.' "Fine. What do you want?"
"I think you should know this. Now, I know it's not exactly my place to say, but, your brother Gohan told us a way to beat you today. He said that he didn't want you to win the tournament."
Usagi turned her frown into a hateful scowl. "You idiot! Do you ACTUALLY think that I'm going to believe that GARBAGE!? I know that you're jealous of me and my brothers but you don't have to try to rip us apart like that. Gohan would NEVER do anything like that to me, EVER."
Michiru looked down to the ground. She had suspected that Usagi would react that way. "Look, I know what I heard. I was standing right there when he told us."
Usagi was ready to beat Michiru into the ground. She couldn't believe that she would try to be so low as to tell lies about her brother. "It's not true, Michiru, and you know it as well as I do. You can just take your lies and go back to your stupid friends." With that she turned around and angrily stormed away to rejoin her friends. She knew that she didn't even have to go and ask Gohan for reassurance for she knew that he would never do a thing like that to her, or so she thought.
Michiru frowned at the child's ungratefulness. Here she was, trying to let her know the truth, and Usagi wasn't accepting it. But, she could hardly blame her. After all, she had been making fun of her ever since they first met. "You'll be sorry when you find out the truth, again. And just so you know, our temporary treaty is off. We're enemies again."
Usagi stopped long enough to get the last word in. "We were always enemies."
~*~*~
A half hour had passed since the advanced division participants had started. Ami and Minako had already each had their first battle, though they were easily won since their level of fighting far exceeded anything that anyone could have even tried to match. They were in it to fight each other as well as Mamoru, Haruka, and Michiru. They wished that they could have fought with the new comers, but they had needed parental consent to join and their parents were in America.
Now, it was Usagi's first fight. She was happy to hear that she was going to be fighting with Michiru. Now she would be able to get back at her for trying to pull her and Gohan apart. She wouldn't even hold back in this fight. There was no reason to.
Usagi cocked her head from side to side to prepare herself for the one sided battle as her father walked into the room from behind her. "Hey daddy." She grinned as she watched the announcer step up onto the ring.
"Usagi, don't do it."
Usagi dropped her cool composure as she turned around to see the face of her father glaring down at her as if she had done something wrong. "Do what?"
"You know what I mean. I can sense that you're going to be extra tough on Michiru. Didn't I tell you that you need to learn to control your power level when you're excited? You're power level is rising as the fight grows nearer."
"What am I not supposed to do? If this is about being rough on Michiru…"
Goku cut his daughter off. "That's exactly what it's about. What have I always taught you about fighting?"
Usagi sighed. She could feel a parental lecture coming on. "To always be fair and don't loose your temper not matter what."
Goku nodded. "That's right. Now, if you go out there with a power level like that, you're not being fair to Michiru or yourself. You're also loosing your temper because you are letting your history with her get in the way of a fair fight."
"I know but, earlier, she said that Gohan told them what my weaknesses were. She lied just to make me hate Gohan."
'What is that girl doing telling her that?' Goku squirmed in his place as he looked down into the innocent eyes of his daughter. He knew that what Michiru told her was the truth, but he couldn't bring himself down far enough to rat on Gohan. "Just ignore it. Now, go out there and have some fun beating Michiru, the right way."
Usagi nodded with a smile. "Sure thing." She turned around and walked to the door, where she could see the announcer, who had just called out Michiru's name. 'I'll have to watch my back now that she knows my moves and weaknesses. I wonder who really did tell them. When I find out who did it, I'm gonna give them a nice talking to.'
~*~*~
"Ladies and Gentlemen, Please welcome Son Usagi to the show as well!" The crowd clapped and cheered as Usagi began to walk out to the ring to face Michiru.
(K! I'm done for now. So what did you think? Gotta run. Ja )
Once she heard the bell ring to begin the fight, she crouched into her fighting position. Hopefully for the last time. She wouldn't even have to use strategy to beat Mr. Satan. It was a one punch and he's out sort of thing with him. He wouldn't be too hard to beat.
She looked into the face of her opponent, a blonde girl not even a year older than her. 'That's a girl from my school, I think.' She grinned as she stepped forward.
The girl followed Hotaru's movements and took a step forward, as well. She had been watching Hotaru throughout the whole tournament and had noticed that Hotaru would be a hard enemy to beat. Though, she had also learned to not rush into things. That Hotaru seemed to wait for others' movements before she would do anything. "Your move."
Hotaru blinked in surprise. 'Looks like she's not going to rush things.' "We're not playing chess. You don't have to wait for me to move."
The girl frowned at Hotaru's cheeky statement. "Oh, you want to mess with me now, do you? I have to admit something, I'm not your average fighter." With that, the girl pushed herself forward to Hotaru at full speed.
Hotaru wasn't in the least bit phased by the girl's speed. She had seen more, but, she didn't want the girl to know her full potential. So, she just stood there but ready to do anything if needed.
Right before the girl rammed into Hotaru, she jumped to the side and kicked at Hotaru. Hotaru quickly performed a back flip to avoid being hit, only to be met with a pounding fist in her face as she was standing up. "Heh!"
Hotaru didn't take too much of a hit from that for the girl didn't really hit hard enough for her to be phased by it. She hastily recovered from the punch to retaliate with one of her own to the girl's chest, causing her to fly backwards. Hotaru gasped when she realized that she had hit her too hard, thus, the girl was about to fly over the edge. "I'm not going to win because she fell out of the ring!" She burst out towards her opponent at full speed and caught her by the leg just before she flew over the side. "Gotcha!"
The blonde looked up to Hotaru with hateful eyes. "Don't think that because you kept me from falling that I'm going to let you win!" She jumped to her feet and kicked Hotaru in the stomach and punched her back with a double fist when she bent over with pain.
Hotaru brought her eyes to look upon her opponent and smiled. 'Now this is what I call a fight.' "I don't want you to let me win." With that, she dropped herself to the ground, letting herself to appear to be in pain, but there was no real truth to that.
"Oh come on. I didn't hit you THAT hard."
"I know." Hotaru reached out and grabbed her opponent's legs. With one quick tug, the girl fell flat on her back with a loud smack that was echoed throughout the whole arena. Hotaru promptly scrambled to her feet and stood over the blonde.
The girl angrily stood to her feet and stared directly into Hotaru's eyes. "Enough of this child's play." She threw a punch at Hotaru, which was easily blocked. She threw her other fist at Hotaru, which was caught in her other hand. "You're good…but not good enough." She lifted her leg and kicked Hotaru in her leg, causing her legs to give way and let her fall to the ground. "You need to get some more training." She pulled her fists out of Hotaru's hands and pulled back for another assault.
Hotaru rolled to the side when she saw a fist coming right at her. She looked over just in time to see it smash into the concrete, making some of it crumble. 'That would have hurt.' She pushed herself off the ground to once again find herself facing her opponent. Without saying a single word, she jumped at her and began throwing a series of punches and kicks. Most of them didn't make it for she was having to dodge and block attacks coming from her opponent.
~*~*~
From the fighter's building, the Professor actually found himself enjoying the fight that was taking place. Though, he still didn't like watching his daughter get beaten up. But, he did enjoy watching her beat up the other kid, not that he would encourage it outside of the tournaments. "Girls, tell me, do you always get this rough when you're training with her?"
"Of course." Makoto replied.
"Always." Ami turned to the professor. "We find that it's the only way to train effectively, but, we only do it if we know that we are up to it."
Usagi turned to her friend. "And don't forget it's just plain fun. But of course, we didn't start doing this with her until we knew that she was ready for it." She turned back to the fight just in time to see Hotaru deliver a s punch right to her opponent's face. "Now that's what I'm talking about!"
~*~*~
Hotaru jumped back as she saw her opponent fall back to the ground. 'cool.'
The girl quickly bounced back to her feet, only slower than usual. She was beginning to wear out from Hotaru's continues rough attacks. She smirked as she rubbed some blood away from her lip. "Not bad." She jumped out at Hotaru.
Hotaru mimicked her competitor's movements and met her halfway. Both girls locked hands in the middle of the ring and glared into each other's eyes. Both pushed against each other with their greatest strength. Hotaru was lucky that she had been training with her gravity or else she wouldn't have been able to hold up any longer against the girl.
She could sense that the girl was nearly out of energy. It wouldn't be too long before she was done for. Hotaru pushed against the girl's force as hard as she could. The other girl did the same. It wasn't long before both fighter's were crying out with pain for their arms ached with great pain.
The girl was the first to give into as she dropped to her knees. She was ashamed of herself. Ashamed to have been the first brought to her knees when she knew that she was the better fighter. Hotaru pulled away. She didn't want to win by way of making her challenger give up, either.
Her foe didn't exactly take too kindly to Hotaru's sympathy, though. Letting her obvious frustration show, the girl lifted her fist to once again swipe at Hotaru.
Hotaru jumped back and stopped the girl's fist from hitting her by grabbing it. Without hesitation, she began to twist it around her competitor's back, causing her to cry out in even more pain. Hotaru pulled her up to her knees and continued to hold her hand behind her back.
At that point, the girl had had enough. With her free hand, she punched backwards. Hotaru let go of the girl's hand and barely missed being hit as she jumped over her and kicked her back down to her back.
The girl was dizzy and out of energy at that point. She frowned as she jumped up for one last attack. She looked at Hotaru with hate and disgust. "So the rumors about you are true. You're just a monster. I knew you were that kid from school."
"Huh?"
The girl didn't respond. Instead, she just ran for Hotaru with her hands out and ready to grab anything that came in her way. Within seconds of a collision, Hotaru ducked. The girl couldn't exactly stop at the point she was at, either. She ran into Hotaru, but neither of them fell. The girl found herself being slowly raised to the ground. She looked down and saw that she was on Hotaru's back, who seemed to be flipping her over. 'Oh crap…'
Hotaru stood straight once again. She felt her competitor slip off her back and heard her smack, hard, against he ground with a loud thump. She turned herself around, ready for any other attack that she could have needed to dodge. But, to her surprise, the girl was still lying on the ground, barely able to keep her eyes open. "Hello…? Are you ok?" She bent over to look into her eyes.
The announcer slowly walked back to the platform where the last fight of the intermediate division had taken place. "Ladies and Gentlemen," He walked to Hotaru and grabbed her hand. "The intermediate division winner…Tomoe Hotaru!"
A million thoughts were running through the head of Hotaru at that moment. She couldn't believe that she had just won the whole tournament of her division. She had never expected to, at all. Now that it happened, she couldn't have been happier.
She looked around the stands at the people who were going wild at her victory. They were cheering for her, the winner. Once the initial shock had worn off, though she was still shocked, she smiled and jumped for joy as her whole body was rushing with adrenalin. "WOW! I WON?!"
The announcer looked down to Hotaru, who still wasn't quite able to grasp the facts. "Yes, Hotaru. You have won. Your name will go up in the hall of fame, or hall of winners as it's called. You will have the first name up there for the intermediate winners. After the next division, we will be holding our fights between each division winner and Mr. Satan. I know you all will be looking forward to it."
Hotaru couldn't bring herself to calm down as she looked over to the fighters' building at her father, who was smiling back at her. Without thinking, she began to walk to him, but, was stopped by the groaning of her opponent. She sympathetically looked down at her and smiled. "Good fight." She extended her hand to the girl.
She gladly excepted Hotaru's kindness and allowed herself to be helped up. "Thanks. You're not as bad as everyone says you are."
~*~*~
~~Meanwhile~~
Goten searched the premises for his brother. He wouldn't just let him get away with telling Mamoru secrets about their sister. That was just not something that family members were supposed to do to each other. "Gohan where are you!?" He furiously looked around the area. "I know you're here somewhere! I can sense you!"
"Calm down, Goten. I'm right here." Gohan emerged from a room that was used for nursing fighters who had been badly injured. Currently, no one had been using it and Gohan needed a good out of the way place to do some thinking.
Goten irately turned to his brother with a scowl on his face. "Calm down? How the HELL am I supposed to calm down when you're acting so STUPID?!"
Gohan didn't frown nor did he become angry with the tone of voice that his younger brother was using with him. He deserved it, but he wouldn't let him think that he could be walked all over. "Don't go there, Goten. I already said that this was none of your business."
Goten shoved himself in his brother's face as he impossibly scowled harder at him. "This IS my business. It was bad enough when Mr. Satan asked dad if he would force Usagi to throw the fight, but now THIS?! Do mom and dad know what you did?"
Gohan shamefully shook his head. "I did what I had to do. If I didn't take action, no one else would have. Do you seriously think that mom and dad would have really hurt Usagi so much as to force her to throw the fight? I don't think so. That's why I did it. If dad told Usagi that she could beat Mr. Satan, than she wouldn't listen to me telling her not to. I just wanted to make sure that Mr. Satan wasn't embarrassed in the worst way. Videl doesn't want to see her father suffer. I don't want to see Videl suffer. It's better this way."
Goten shook his head in disgust as he looked upon his brother, who he thought to be out of his mind. "You would just rather see your little sister suffer, wouldn't you?" He couldn't even look at his brother anymore. He didn't think that he would ever see him the same. Goten turned around, not wanting to hear anymore excuses.
Gohan frowned as he watched his little brother walk away. "Don't do this, Goten. You know it's the right thing to do. Mr. Satan wont be embarrassed because of this. His family name wont be brought to shame."
Goten stopped to leave his brother with one last thought. "It's NOT the right thing to do. You're letting him get away with the lie of a century. You're hurting your sister, in the long run. You only care about VIDEL! That's all you EVER cared about. Ever since you met her you let her control you. I'm ashamed of you, brother." Not wanting to share anymore words with the man, he continued to walk away towards the stands, where he would have a few words with his parents. If he couldn't convince Gohan, he hoped that he could at least get his parents to see things straight.
Gohan let up on his frown as he thought about what had just been said to him. Some of it, most of it, was very true. He did let Videl get away with telling him what to do, a lot. But this time it wasn't only Videl's idea. It was both of theirs. Mr. Satan may have been a big lying buffoon, yes, but he also had feelings. But so did Gohan. And at that moment, his feelings were being trampled upon. Not only by himself, but by his brother, who spoke the truth.
~*~*~
~~Back at the fighting Arena~~
Hotaru ran into her group of friends with a bigger smile than anyone had ever seen her with, which at that point was almost impossible. "I did it! I did it! I did it!" She hopped around the room with excessive joy. She was too happy to even know what to do with herself.
Professor Tomoe laughed as he scooped his daughter into his arms. "We're all proud of you, firefly. You did well out there. Now you can rest a while until your fight with Mr. Satan."
Makoto couldn't help but burst into laughter when she heard that. "What fight? One little finger punch from Hotaru and Satan is going to be out for the count. He wont even have enough sense left to think of something to cover it up with."
Usagi giggled. "Yeah, he's going to have permanent birds flying around his head for a while." Usagi imagined what it was going to be like seeing Mr. Satan totally knocked out by real fighters. She could just imagine the audience going nuts finding out about his true secret. "You know, this is great. My brother will finally get recognized for the true hero that he is. After all these years. I don't know why he never told anyone about it before. There were so many times when he could have, too." She turned to Hotaru, who was, again, on the ground standing by her father. "This is great! I knew you'd win."
Hotaru rubbed some blood away from a cut on her forehead as she smiled. "Thanks! If you hadn't believed in me so much, I probably would have given up. But next year, I'm going into the advanced division. I just KNOW that I'll be ready."
Ami handed Hotaru a wet tell to wipe herself with. "Of course you're going to be ready. You were THIS good with just two weeks of training. That gravity was a big help with your progress. It made you so much stronger, it's amazing."
Professor Tomoe smiled as he bent down to his daughter's level. "You have done well. And to reward you, I'm taking you all out for ice cream tomorrow."
Hotaru smiled as she threw her arms around her father's neck. "YAY! ICE CREAM!"
~*~*~
Between divisions, there was a twenty minute wait to give the spectators a chance to get up and move around for a while. Goten took this opportunity to go and speak with his parents. He spotted his father with Mrs. Mizuno in the front, where they had sat throughout the whole intermediate division fights. He figured that Videl and his mother had gone to either find Gohan, or they had gone for food. He took a deep breath as he began to walk down the stairs. He hoped that he would be able to convince his father to do the right thing. Though Gohan believed that they were leaning towards letting her fight Mr. Satan, Goten believed that they were leaning more towards the side of making her throw the fight, if she even got to that point now that Mamoru knew valuable information about Usagi's fighting style.
Goten sat next to his father, who were talking to Mrs. Mizuno about fighting. "dad…"
"Excuse me a moment." He turned over to his son, who sat in the chair next to him. "Yes?" He could see the concern in his eyes. "What's wrong?"
Goten sighed. "It's about Gohan and this whole wanting Usagi to throw the fight thing. Dad, listen to me, please don't make Usagi throw the fight with Mr. Satan. Do you know how upset she would be if you did that?"
Mrs. Mizuno could see that this was obviously a family thing, so she got up and left the two men alone to quarrel. Goku looked back down to the platform, where Mr. Satan had begun talking to the crowd. "Do you think that I haven't thought of that? Believe me, that's the last thing in the world that I want to do to her. That's why I'm not going to make her do it until I'm presented with a good enough reason to do so. Your mother and I have already decided on that."
'So Gohan was right. They DON'T want to force her to not do it.' "But dad, Gohan has already tried to go over your head with this one."
Goku lifted his brow in interest as he turned back to his son. "What?"
"I saw him myself. He was talking to Mamoru, Michiru, Haruka, and those boys from America that Yamcha is training. I'm pretty sure he told them some of Usagi's weak points because he wont tell me what he was talking to them about. He just keeps telling me that it's none of my business."
Goku could feel himself getting angry as he began to stand up. "Well it is MY business. I already told him that it wasn't his decision to make. Satan may be taking the credit for what he did, but that's in the past. That doesn't give him the authority to do something like that."
Not wanting any further confrontation with his older brother, Goten grabbed his father by the wrist. "Don't talk to him, dad. I've already taken care of it. I've already told Usagi that someone told Mamoru and the others her moves. Don't worry about it. I just wanted you to know."
Goku let out a quiet protective as he stiffly sat back down. "Fine. I wont talk to him, nor will I tell Usagi that Gohan was the one to sell her out."
"Thanks, dad. So does this mean that you aren't going to make her throw the fight?"
Goku unconsciously shot an annoyed glare over to his son. "As of now, no. But, if I see that there is reason to, then I will make her do it."
"Reason? Gohan thinks that there is plenty of reason to do this. He said that Satan would suffer and then Videl would suffer."
"I know that. But right now, I'm trying to weigh the good vs. the bad on this. So far, the good of Usagi beating Mr. Satan far outweighs the bad of her doing it."
Goten smiled as he slowly stood to his feet. "Great. Don't tell mom or Videl either."
"Sure. Whatever." Goku wasn't really paying attention to his son at that point. He was more lost a bundle of his own thoughts.
~*~*~
From outside the fighters' building, Michiru peered in upon Usagi and her friends. She knew that if her friends knew of what she was about to do, she would be rejected from the group and made fun of for insubordination, which was highly intolerable. But, she had also grown a few morals with her age and knew that it was wrong to take advantage of family feuds like Mamoru was going to willingly do. "Usagi!" She talk at an interval that only Usagi could hear so she wouldn't cause all of the others to become interested in what she wanted.
Usagi turned to look at the door, which led outside, only to see nothing. 'Must be my imagination.' She shrugged as she turned back to her friends, who were watching, as well as laughing at Mr. Satan, who try to show people how to do some really screwed up fighting moves. "Man, he needs to go back to school. You actually learned from him before we met you, Makoto?"
"Sadly, yes. But those horrifying days are over."
Michiru poked her head inside the building again. "Usagi! Come here!"
Usagi frowned that time as she turned around. To her surprise, there was actually someone there. And to an even greater surprise, it was Michiru. She turned to look back at her friends, who more too occupied with what Satan was doing to even know if she was gone or not. With a bigger frown, Usagi turned back around and began walking towards Michiru to see what she could have possibly wanted.
Once she saw that Usagi was coming, Michiru led her out and away from the fighters' building. She could sense Usagi's anger rising when she had said nothing for a long period of time. "Don't worry, Monk…Usagi. There is a point to this."
Usagi stopped in her place as she crossed her arms. "This is far enough! I swear, the first thing you say mean to me…" She cut herself short as the realization of what she had just called her sunk into her head. "You just called me Usagi."
Michiru turned around. "Yes. That's because I'm being serious. Let's put aside our differences for just this ONE time. This changes nothing. I still despise you."
Usagi looked around the area in which she was in. 'Hmm…there's no one around. None of her friends are here either.' "Fine. What do you want?"
"I think you should know this. Now, I know it's not exactly my place to say, but, your brother Gohan told us a way to beat you today. He said that he didn't want you to win the tournament."
Usagi turned her frown into a hateful scowl. "You idiot! Do you ACTUALLY think that I'm going to believe that GARBAGE!? I know that you're jealous of me and my brothers but you don't have to try to rip us apart like that. Gohan would NEVER do anything like that to me, EVER."
Michiru looked down to the ground. She had suspected that Usagi would react that way. "Look, I know what I heard. I was standing right there when he told us."
Usagi was ready to beat Michiru into the ground. She couldn't believe that she would try to be so low as to tell lies about her brother. "It's not true, Michiru, and you know it as well as I do. You can just take your lies and go back to your stupid friends." With that she turned around and angrily stormed away to rejoin her friends. She knew that she didn't even have to go and ask Gohan for reassurance for she knew that he would never do a thing like that to her, or so she thought.
Michiru frowned at the child's ungratefulness. Here she was, trying to let her know the truth, and Usagi wasn't accepting it. But, she could hardly blame her. After all, she had been making fun of her ever since they first met. "You'll be sorry when you find out the truth, again. And just so you know, our temporary treaty is off. We're enemies again."
Usagi stopped long enough to get the last word in. "We were always enemies."
~*~*~
A half hour had passed since the advanced division participants had started. Ami and Minako had already each had their first battle, though they were easily won since their level of fighting far exceeded anything that anyone could have even tried to match. They were in it to fight each other as well as Mamoru, Haruka, and Michiru. They wished that they could have fought with the new comers, but they had needed parental consent to join and their parents were in America.
Now, it was Usagi's first fight. She was happy to hear that she was going to be fighting with Michiru. Now she would be able to get back at her for trying to pull her and Gohan apart. She wouldn't even hold back in this fight. There was no reason to.
Usagi cocked her head from side to side to prepare herself for the one sided battle as her father walked into the room from behind her. "Hey daddy." She grinned as she watched the announcer step up onto the ring.
"Usagi, don't do it."
Usagi dropped her cool composure as she turned around to see the face of her father glaring down at her as if she had done something wrong. "Do what?"
"You know what I mean. I can sense that you're going to be extra tough on Michiru. Didn't I tell you that you need to learn to control your power level when you're excited? You're power level is rising as the fight grows nearer."
"What am I not supposed to do? If this is about being rough on Michiru…"
Goku cut his daughter off. "That's exactly what it's about. What have I always taught you about fighting?"
Usagi sighed. She could feel a parental lecture coming on. "To always be fair and don't loose your temper not matter what."
Goku nodded. "That's right. Now, if you go out there with a power level like that, you're not being fair to Michiru or yourself. You're also loosing your temper because you are letting your history with her get in the way of a fair fight."
"I know but, earlier, she said that Gohan told them what my weaknesses were. She lied just to make me hate Gohan."
'What is that girl doing telling her that?' Goku squirmed in his place as he looked down into the innocent eyes of his daughter. He knew that what Michiru told her was the truth, but he couldn't bring himself down far enough to rat on Gohan. "Just ignore it. Now, go out there and have some fun beating Michiru, the right way."
Usagi nodded with a smile. "Sure thing." She turned around and walked to the door, where she could see the announcer, who had just called out Michiru's name. 'I'll have to watch my back now that she knows my moves and weaknesses. I wonder who really did tell them. When I find out who did it, I'm gonna give them a nice talking to.'
~*~*~
"Ladies and Gentlemen, Please welcome Son Usagi to the show as well!" The crowd clapped and cheered as Usagi began to walk out to the ring to face Michiru.
(K! I'm done for now. So what did you think? Gotta run. Ja )