"KAMEHAMEHA!"

Ryuko no longer feared the beam attack, and charged straight into it. From within, a mighty swing of her Scissor Blade parted the current of ki, knocking the Sayian back. She flew through where the blast had been, and treated him to an uppercut that could crush mountains. It only bruised the man, but that in and of itself was a monumental achievement. That smudge of reddish blue on his glowing skin meant that she was winning. He halted himself, his ki-enabled flight immeasurably precise, and returned with a punch of his own, which blasted across her cheek with the power of several megatons of dynamite, creating a shockwave of compressed air that dispersed the clouds around them in a four-kilometer radius. He was dismayed when Ryuko forced his fist back, slowly turning her head into the punch to give him a death glare. She snapped away, returning to pummel him with uncountable strikes. He responded with his own barrage, landing just as many hits as she did- though they did not seem to be quite as effective. Ryuko jolted backwards, extended her Scissor Blade's length, and raked him across his chest, producing a sizable wound. The Saiyan showed few signs of slowing, however. He dove back in, racing around the sword's reach to kick Ryuko in the back. The girl produced a radiant, iridescent trail as she flew towards the ground like a comet, but was in far more control than she let herself appear. Just before hitting the ground, she came to a sudden halt, turning back up to face her distant opponent.

"Let's try something new, Senketsu."

All right.

The fanglike splinters of energy surrounding her waist swung down, spiraling to lock into one another as the formed a gigantic launch vehicle. The multitude of thrusters ignited with a deafening roar, as she was propelled upwards at fifty times the speed of sound. She sighted the rapidly-approaching Saiyan, and brought her Scissor Blade to bear as she hit him- he was suspended on a never-ending stream of slashes as they continued to rise through the air. Through the red blur that was her weapon, Ryuko could see Goku's face. He was no longer smiling.

She channeled more power into her thrusters, and the two flew higher. Clouds were left far below them as they approached a new battleground- the moon. Ryuko felt gravity begin to shift upwards, and finished her attack by driving a high heel into Goku's bloodied chest. The Saiyan careened upward- or downward into the surface of the moon, and Ryuko followed, landing on the edge of his impact crater.

"Second time today," she muttered. The dust disturbed from its millennia-long slumber hung thick in the air, incapable of settling like the heavier dust on earth. Oddly, it seemed to have a tinge of luminescence about it.

He's still alive, Ryuko.

"Of course he is. I'm not falling for that again."

Just as Ryuko expected, Goku blasted forth from the crater, flinging the thick dust aside as he collided with the girl. Their brawl skipped from crater to crater, neither combatant slowing down. Goku knew his injuries would get the better of him soon, but was not about to concede. His ki had retained a sizable supply of oxygen for him to consume, but he would run out eventually. He had to stop her here.

"Take this!" he screamed, flinging a storm of ki blasts from his palms. Ryuko had not anticipated such a sudden change in strategy, and could not avoid the first few. She was thrown backwards as the entire lunar sky was filled with the yellow bolts, surrounding her. Now, there was no escape.

"Get ready for the real deal! KAMEHAMEHA!"

The Super Saiyan 3 unleashed his strongest beam yet, swallowing the girl in blue light. As soon as he was sure she was inside the beam, he channeled ki from his reserves into the attack- this was his last chance. If the battled dragged on any further, he wouldn't be able to sustain his Super Saiyan form.

"HYEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH! GYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"

His screams focused his power into the Kamehameha, fuelling the massive beam as it stretched off of the moon and diffused along the arena's atmosphere. As he followed the path with his eyes, he noticed that he could clearly make out the grey flecks of the buildings below.

We are really close, aren't we?

The beam flickered and faded away, and Goku found what he had hoped to- the girl had been reduced to a sliver of pale flesh and brightly-colored garment, which slowly floated back to the dust-covered ground. There wasn't even so much as an arm left- just a paper-thin shaving.

"That's it," he sighed. "I won."

With the little power he had left, he walked over to her remains and shoveled a little dust on top of them. It would be rude to not give such a worthy opponent a proper burial.

"Goodbye, Scissor Girl. You were just as strong as they said you were."

He powered down to his Super Saiyan state, which he surmised would be enough to return to the arena safely, and turned to leave. A hand on his shoulder stopped his body, and nearly stopped his heart.

"You bet I was," said Ryuko. He spun to receive another punch in the face, which caused him to float backwards onto the ground. The thin shaving was still present, but only as part of the rest of her body, which was sewing its gaps shut. She raised her Scissor Blade above her head, and prepared to drive it through him.

"Wait, wait!" he cried. Ryuko considered her position of power, and allowed him to speak, staying her blade for just a while longer. "If you defeat me, when I come back, I'll just be stronger! You'll just have to deal with me again!"

Ryuko scratched her glowing head. "Could you say that again?"

"Um… I get stronger every time I'm defeated?"

Ryuko shoved her Scissor Blade down, and the Saiyan closed his eyes. Fortunately for him, the weapon had not gone through his chest, as he figured it would have, but instead had been planted into the surface of the moon. She leaned up against it, and placed a hand over her face, laughing.

"Oh, jeez, are you serious?!" she guffawed. "Tell me you're not serious!"

"I… am serious," whimpered Goku.

"Ha! Oh, man, that's funny. 'Cause I'm that same way. I just keep getting stronger if I get beaten."

Goku realized the comedy, and joined in laughing. "Oh, I get it! So if we kept this up, neither one of us could ever win! We'd be dead even! So fighting you was completely useless, because one of us would never win!"

"Well, I dunno, I think I was about to win there, but yeah, in the long run, we'd never get anywhere," sighed Ryuko. "What a crazy web we weave."

"You said it. Listen, I have to apologize. I was really a jerk back there. I got so caught up in trying to be the strongest that I let my pride come first, and that's not okay. You've helped me learn a lesson: to not be Vegeta."

"Aw, thanks, I guess," Ryuko replied. "We should probably head back. The moon sucks."

"Yeah," said Goku with one of his last few gulps of air. "It does."