Black
Original Concept by: JacobKingston10
Written by: LastationLover5000
At full-speed, Trunks was rushing over the surface of the planet. He'd departed from the Western Capital only moments ago, when news over the car radio had told him that Black had been spotted over the Southern Capital. He couldn't let another tragedy like the destruction of the Eastern Capital happen again — so here he was, racing against time to save people who might already be dead. It was like dealing with the Androids all over again.
Closing in on the Southern Capital, Trunks could feel multiple ki signatures dropping. This caught his attention immediately.
When he attacked the Eastern Capital, he blew the city up instantly, the half-Saiyan thought to himself. What's he playing at now?! Trunks approached the city at a rapid pace, and vibrant explosions caught him sapphire-eyes. He could see the city, and it was peppered with detonations from various points. Black himself was positions above the city, raining ki spheres with dark cores down onto the city.
"Black!" Trunks roared, putting all his speed into his next move, rushing towards the dark-clothed man's location and slamming his fist forward. The Son-Gokū-Look-Alike had time to only glance towards Trunks, before a powerful fist collided with his face. Black felt his body rock, and he was forced backwards by the strength behind the blow. Trunks came to a halt, glaring at Black with obvious hatred.
"Hm?" Black looked at him with amusement. "So it's you again, Trunks. And what was that you called me?"
"I refuse to call you "Gokū"," spat Trunks, gritting his teeth. "You're the furthest thing removed from that man, Black!"
Black snickered at first, and then a laugh escaped his throat, his face breaking into a grin. "Black! Splendid, Trunks, absolutely splendid! A fitting moniker for someone such as myself, who has absorbed the very essence of the sin of humanity into his being, and has taken upon the burden of those far higher than you can even dream!" His laughter diminishing into chuckles once more, his grin widened. "You never cease to amuse me, Trunks."
"I'm not here for your amusement, Black!" snarled the half-Saiyan, gripping the hilt of his blade, a brilliant white flame igniting around his body. "I'm here to violently kill you!"
Black barked with laughter, before spreading his arms wide in welcoming. "Then come kill me, last of the Saiyans!"
Clenching his sword, ki built up in the centre of Trunks' back, and his lavender tresses rose, glimmering a vibrant gold. His eyes flashed from their sapphire hue to the emerald of the Super Saiyan. Without finesse, only rage, the half-Saiyan rushed Black, unsheathing his blade. Mightily, he swung the sword down, but Black easily side-stepped it. With a thrust, he performed a quick palm strike, and hit Trunks square in the back.
The half-Saiyan was sent careening down by the sheer force the blow. The citizens were scattering, and try as he might, Trunks couldn't steady himself. He collided with the ground, a crater exploding on his impact. Forcing himself up from the rubble, Trunks pushed asphalt aside, coughing through the dust. "What are you all doing?!" He shouted to a crowd of onlookers who hadn't bothered to run. "Get out of here!"
"T-Trunks, what's going on?!" One of them shouted.
"Don't ask questions! Run! Now!" As Trunks was shouting, he sensed a disturbance. Looking upwards, he saw that Black had released a veritable rain of kikōha towards him. Greenish-yellow spheres of ki with pitch black cores rained down. Gripping his sword, the Saiyan leapt into the air, and sliced as many of the kikōha apart as he could — it wasn't perfect, however, and several exploded behind him. The result was a cacophony of screams as citizens were incinerated by ki, and the city was further torn apart by explosions.
"Black!" Trunks roared. "What's your game?! You're toying with these people! I know you could have ended this before I even got here! Stop messing around and fight me seriously, I'm your opponent!"
"Please," replied Black smoothly. "If this were a game, I'd be having fun. This is simply your punishment, Trunks. You said you were going to protect them, weren't you? These Humans? I haven't had resistance of your sort in quite some time; so I think we'll take our time." With a swipe of his hand, he released several dozen more spheres. Far more than Trunks could feasibly counter.
"Damn it!" Trunks raised his hands over his head, forming a sphere of ki. It was yellow and crackling, with a white hot center. "MASENKŌ!" Thrusting his palms forward, the sphere exploded into a kikōha beam that ripped through as many of the spheres as Trunks' might could muster. Explosions lit the sky, creating powerful gale-force winds sent rubble careening. The spheres that Trunks missed, however, collided into the city below, causing only further chaos.
"For someone who wants to protect these unworthy creatures, you're certainly doing a splendid job of failure," continued Black. "I know how you fought to save the Earth from the Androids, Trunks! I was there! You came back to save my life, didn't you? That Son Gokū the world needed! You told me everything!" He gestured to the destroyed and smoking city, where bodies lied either dismembered or charred. "You were supposed to be their saviour, Trunks! And you're letting them down again!"
Trunks jerked involuntarily, unable to deny that Black was correct, at least in that last statement. However, the fact that he displayed knowledge he could only have if he was Gokū left Trunks feeling uneasy — even sick from the idea. Gokū was this world's undisputed hero; the one who had protected Earth since he was a child. When he had died, Gohan had taken his place, and staked his life on protecting their precious planet.
"And...now...I'm the one following in their footsteps! To insult Gokū's memory is to insult Gohan's memory!" His aura flared, a golden flame that shot into the air, sending waves of ki forth, displacing solid rubble as well as bodies. "I'm the one who has inherited their will! And I will follow through until the end; those who don't respect the peace we've fought so hard to preserve...will be cut down by me!"
He hurled himself through the air, and his aura began to dissipate, condensing entirely around his sword. The silver blade glowed with the blinding power of a Super Saiyan, and Trunks steadied his grip. Closing in on Black, he swung his sword in a powerful arc. The blade rung through the air, strengthened as it was by Trunks' ki.
"Oho!" Black seemed genuinely impressed, and for a moment, an expression eerily reminiscent of Gokū crossed his face; the approval of this show of strength, and at the fact that he might now be facing someone worth his time. Before the blade could make contact, however, Black side-stepped with the arc of the swing, and for a moment, Trunks almost thought it had made contact, but the lack of feeling told him better. Trunks simply swung the blade again, and Black flattened his palm, slamming it into the flat side of the blade; the strike completely diverted Trunks' force, throwing him off balance, and he stumbled through the air.
Black grabbed him by the jacket, throwing him back towards the Earth. Before Trunks could crash, Black moved forward at blinding speed, appearing where Trunks was going to be. With a forward thrust, he spun his arm, releasing a spiraling punch that rocked Trunks' body with immense force. The ground exploded beneath them, and Trunks' flight changed directions at the half-Saiyan rocketed away from Black like a cannon ball.
"Had you not made such a simple mistake, I would have lauded you as a genius for a move like that," said Black, hearing the satisfying sound of Trunks' collision. He walked forward, speaking as he moved. He knew Trunks wouldn't stay down for long. And their fun was only just beginning. "Condensing such a powerful ki into that sword would certainly have made it a force to be reckoned with, but you let anger guide your strokes." He snickered, and continued. "An ugly method, and merely another fault of you humans. You fancy yourself the hero, don't you? A sword dulled by that kind of anger won't ever reach me, Trunks."
The remains of an apartment complex had collapsed when Trunks had been flung into it, and it had taken the half-Saiyan longer to regain his composure than normal. Rubble was pushed aside, crumbling when it hit the ground. The half-Saiyan's face was set, his teeth grit. The sword he clutched was still brimming with aura. "You said anger was unbecoming of a hero. That's right... I don't care about being a hero. I'll adopt even the mantle of a villain if it means killing you!"
He rocketed forward, the ground exploding as he charged down a smiling Black. The sword was pointed forward, and the half-Saiyan aimed to gore the duplicate Gokū on the edge.
With surprising speed, Black swung his leg towards the blade; the white boot collided with the flat side, and it was wrenched from Trunks' grip. The weapon was sent flying, and it landed with a clatter some ways away from Trunks. The Super Saiyan was stunned, but staring blankly would cost him dearly. Spinning on his heel, Black slammed his other leg into Trunks' side. The half-Saiyan spit up blood, and staggered back. Black simply closed in, placing a palm to the ground; with this balance, he thrust a foot forward, kicking Trunks in the chin and launching the half-Saiyan into the air.
Floating high above the now ruined Eastern Capital, Trunks' blonde tresses had reverted to their normal lavender hue. He was in pain, and exhausted, but not unconscious yet. And he could feel a presence behind him, floating just beneath his body, like the shadow of a floating leaf.
"I told you, Trunks; that dulled blade would never reach me."
Swinging his right leg towards the floating Saiyan, Black landed a crushing kick, causing Trunks to gasp in pain. Trunks was forced beneath Black from the force of the blow, and Black proceeded to spin, landing another solid kick on Trunks. The blows were repeated, each strike becoming stronger and more crushing, as the duo descended towards the Earth for one of several times. Black swung his leg down a final time, his heel colliding with Trunks' chest and slamming him directly into the asphalt.
Trunks' back hit hard, and he coughed up blood. Black took his foot off his body, standing over Trunks with a sadistic smile. "I suppose the fun is over, Trunks," he raised an arm towards Trunks' fallen form, forming a dark-cored ki sphere. "You weren't even a good warm-up in the end. And I told you — the next time we met, I would kill you." The sphere began to increase in size, flickering with strength.
"Farewell, Trunks."
Trunks' eyes suddenly shot open, and the half-Saiyan sat, bolt upright, his index and middle fingers of both hands pointed towards his forward. Slamming his eyes shut, he shouted, "TAIYŌKEN!" There was a blinding flash of vivid brilliant light, illuminating the entire area for a mile straight. Black caught the blast full on, his vision going white, completely blocking out Trunks. He shot off the kikōha regardless, and heard an explosion, but couldn't know if he hit anything.
After several minutes, Black's vision began to return, and the world became blurry in his sight. Rubbing his eyes, Gokū Black wore an expression of utter irritation. "The Taiyōken. Of course...Tenshinhan's technique." Black scanned the area, taking in more and more once his vision had fully returned. He couldn't see Trunks. There was no hint of the half-Saiyan anywhere. With a casual glance to the left, he saw that Trunks' sword was still laying on the floor.
"He was in a such a hurry, he left his sword," Black muttered to himself. Rising into the air, he looked over the remains of the city, raising a hand above his head and forming a vibrant yellow sphere. Releasing the blast below him, it exploded, igniting the city and razing the rest of it to the ground. How much longer will you continue to run, Trunks? How much longer will you evade justice?
A/N: So, another chapter of the future is Black is up! This one was a fun one to write; I very much enjoy Trunks vs. Black, and this fight was a fun one to write. Explaining the origins behind Black's name, the fact that he accepts it, and Trunks' own failings trying to handle the situation made this a very fun chapter indeed. I hope you all enjoy this, and I assure you, Chapter Black will be coming to the Erased Chroniclessoon! And yes, Black did pull off a Barrage of Lions. I'm a Naruto nerd. Bite me.