Mr. Hercule Satan, the world renowned champ, slayer of Cell AND the evil Boo, sat at his dinner table along with the good Boo eating his dinner.
His trusty dog and companion, Bee, was lying down under the table, laser focused on obtaining any of his dropped crumbs
Buu had long since finished his plates, falling asleep on the chair in an uncomfortable looking position.
While Hercule admired Buu's ability to seemingly eat everything and sleep anywhere, it was always such a large amount of work to keep him satisfied with how consistently gluttonous he was.
Considering how the pink warrior had saved his life, and how well they had become friends, it was all worth it though.
Just as he was about to get up and get the extra large wagon to attempt to put him on his sofa, a familiar friend appeared suddenly in his kitchen, making him jump from his seat.
"Yo Hercule! What's up?"
He breathed a sigh of relief once he got his barring standing back up and greeting his friend.
"Goku! What's goin on?!" He welcomed jovially,
"Not much." Goku said, casually sitting down. "Just coming by to check in on you guys. I really appreciate all the help."
"Anytime pal!" Hercule laughed heartily. "I'd offer you food but all my chefs are kind of exhausted after serving up Buu's meal!"
"I can imagine!" Goku chuckled. "Don't worry about that though. I actually just wanted to come check if the tournament stage was reserved and changed the way I asked."
"Oh yeah, that." Hercule remembered. "Yeah, um, The guys are working real hard on it. I also reserved it for this date here. See?"
Mr. Satan pulled out a small booklet that contained a calendar from his pocket, showing that it had indeed been occupied on the date Goku specified.
"Alright, good." He nodded approvingly. "How's it coming along?"
"They're making pretty steady progress! Thankfully the modifications you presented weren't too demanding. They should be able to finish in about one more week."
"Awesome!" Goku cheered. "I've already invited most of our friends over to the tournament." He pulled a folded piece of paper from the sash. "Here's the list you wanted me to get."
Hercule inspected the list to see the fighters, as well as the audience.
Participants
Me (Goku)
Piccolo
Gohan
Videl
Krillin
#18
Vegeta
Goten
Trunks
Tien
Gon
Killua
Alluka
Audience
Chi-Chi
Bulma
Ox King
Marron
Roshi
Turtle
Chiaotzu
World Tournament mic guy
Hercule
Buu
"That looks like everyone alright..." Hercule muttered, squinting at the sloppy handwriting. "Wait, what about the guy with the scar? Yamcha, I think his name was… Isn't he your friend too?"
"Yamcha said he didn't really feel like coming." Goku said, frowning. "He's been pretty out of it lately."
Truthfully, Yamcha had long since given up on martial arts, having seen that he couldn't keep up with prodigies like Krillin and Tien.
He was even more disheartened once he learned of the sheer overwhelming power of the Sayains.
Goku honestly felt quite bad for his friend. He did not want to even begin to imagine his own love for battle being the very thing that makes him miserable. Or rather, being unable to reachi the heights he wanted to. Having those aspirations dangling in front of him, almost mockingly, knowing he would never reach them.
He could tell that Krillin and Tien had also slightly lost their fighting spirit. Not enough to stop them from training but still.
"As for Oolong and Launch, they were both too busy with their jobs in the city. I couldn't convince them."
"Right, umm." Hercule scratched his beard. "Oolong was that pig, right?"
"Yu huh." Goku nodded.
"And… Actually who's Launch? I don't remember meeting her."
"Oh yeah!' Goku's eyes lit up, remembering that the two had never met. "She used to live with me, Krillin and Roshi at Kame house when I was a kid."
"Oh" Hercule looked at him curiously. " Was she, uh, a fellow student? A house maid?"
"She wasn't interested in martial arts." Goku shook his head. "She mostly just cooked and cleaned."
It was a shame that she wouldn't be able to come. Goku remembered being quite fond of her. He sort of missed all of the hugs she would give him every chance she got. And especially all the food she made him.
Honestly it was as good as Chi-Chi's.
Well at least he didn't have to deal with her blonde form…
"Are you gonna participate, Hercule?" Goku asked, a teasing smiler on his face. "Buu seems a little too lazy to fight nowadays. I think you'd be a good replacement!"
Hercule laughed, slapping Goku on the back. "Are you crazy?! I'd be knocked out of the ring faster than when I lost to Cell!"
"Just kidding." Goku chuckled, remembering the way the bug-like android had swatted away Hercule like a fly.
"Well that's about all I needed." Goku said, ready to leave. As his mody straightened, he remembered the sleeping Buu and turned to Hercule.
"Before I go, Want me to help get him on the couch?"
Hercule bashfully nodded, Goku grinning as he placed Buu on his back in a piggyback position.
"Thanks Goku." Hercule thanked him sincerely. " I would have to get the wagon if it wasn't for you."
"Anytime, dude." Goku said, humbly, carrying the sleeping Buu to the nearest couch.
As Goku left for the other room, Hercule got up from his chair, calling out to him as he remembered something important.
"Goku! You do know the Tournament announcer's name is actually-"
In the usual desert area, we find Videl and Gon, standing side by side in a battle stance.
"Okay good!" Gon said,seeing Videl emitting ki from her body in a similar fashion to how he would use ren. "Now, I want you to focus a lot of that Ki into one of your hands."
Videl did as Gon instructed her, and began to force her ki into her right hand, which she held out in front of her.
"Don't try to force it." Gon said, seeing her struggle. "Think of your ki as a river flowing to your right hand! You got this!"
Videl projected that image in her mind. 'Alright. That's a good way of putting it. Remember how it feels when it goes down your legs when you fly.'
The ki slowly made its way down her arm into her hand until most of the energy completely encased it.
"Alright!" Gon encouraged her. "Now, I want you to try and maintain it like that for at least 10 minutes on each hand."
Videl nodded, making Gon start a countdown on a timer Gohan gave to him for exercises like this.
"Hey, Gon..." Videl spoke while maintaining her Ki, "When'd you learn this trick? It seems pretty handy. No pun intended."
"Oh, my teacher helped me with it." He said, chuckling at Video's joke.
"What was your teacher's name?" She asked.
She wondered if it was a martial artist she had heard about. She'd read about many, but she never heard of any of them besides her and Gohan's friends having advanced control over ki.
Or maybe they did and they just kept it hidden or something.
"Her name is Biscuit Krueger." Gon informed her. "But she prefers being called Bisky."
Videl did a quick mental scan, only to not recognize anyone by that name. "Never heard of her."
"She keeps to herself." Gon nodded nervously. Not his best lie but best keep it short so that it wouldn't show. "She's also a stone hunter."
"A stone hunter?" Videl tilted her head, before shaking herself, regaining her focus. "I'll ask later! Let me know when my time's up for this arm."
"Right." He nodded. It was good that he had this moment to himself as well. After all he too, had something rather important to think about…
'Darn! What on earth am I gonna do to improve my Ja-Janken?! As it is now, it is SO not good enough for the fight!'
Gon, while doing everything he could to think about his conditional nen project, was completely stumped.
'I wish Killua was here! Or my old man! Or Kurapika! They'd definitely have an idea for me!' He internally sighed before mentally slapped himself.
'No. Come on! You can think of something. Just… focus.'
Coming up with a way to spice up his technique couldn't be THAT hard, could it?! Maybe if he just…
Yes, just think about the inspiration for the move. The game.
Okay. Rock breaks scissors, Scissors cuts paper, Paper covers rock. Easy peasy. There's an idea there somewhere.
…Any second, it would come to him.
…
Aaaaaaaaaany second.
10 Minutes later...
The timer rang loudly from Gon's hand, announcing the end of her short exercise. Videl put her hand down, confident in her performance. She turned to the young boy with a smirk.
"Alright time fo- ummm… Gon?"
She looked at him in confusion as she saw him lying on the floor with smoke coming out of him like a damaged car about to catch fire.
"You okay..?" She asked, a bit amused by his overheating.
"Ugh…" He groaned sheepishly. "I'm trying to find a way to make my Ja-janken better."
"Better how?" She crossed her arms in deliberation. What was there to improve though? The basic idea for the technique was pretty simple, which allowed him to perform it rather well.
"Just…" Gon scratched his chin thoughtfully before snapping to attention. "Oh right! We gotta finish your exercise!"
He stood back up, getting his watch ready before holding out in front of him.
"Alright, are you ready?"
Videl nodded. They could talk about it later, she supposed. She let her aura course over to her other hand. "After we're done we can try talking about it if you want." She offered with a smile.
"Nah! Don't worry about it! Today's about helping you." Gon rejected politely. He didn't want to trouble her during HER training session after all.
"Okay, start!" He said, making her shrug and focus on the exercise.
The exercise was relatively simple, as she had already received ki training from Gohan and the others. It also helped that she had already done the exercise so that she already knew what to do.
Gon took a deep breath and began to think again.
'Okay, so I'm gonna need some help with the conditions. That's fine. Killua can help me with that during our training week.' He thought, nodding to himself. 'I should think of something a little more vague, like Killua told me to do before we took the test for Greed Island.'
Gon went through the rules of the game one more time.
'Rock breaks scissors.
Scissors cut paper.
Paper covers rock.'
His eyebrows narrowed at the last one.
'Paper covers rock. It wraps around it. Wraps around it.' Gon began nodding to himself excitedly. 'Yeah! Something like that. Maybe my Paper could find a way to wrap around my opponents!'
He let a victorious grin escape his lips, proud of himself. 'Alright. One down, two more to go! What can we do about rock and scissors..?'
As Gon continued to think deeply about his next two variants, He failed to notice Videl giving him the occasional glance as she maintained her aura.
'He looks so deep in thought…' She noted, seeing his eyes furrowed. 'I wonder if he's found a way to power up one of his Jajanken moves?'
She could understand training someone while at the same time thinking about your own training. She had done it countless times when in her dojo training her students. It didn't help that she was leagues above all of them.
She found herself smiling at his deep look of concentration, admiring his dedication to fighting, which was just as, if not more passionate than hers. Heck maybe as passionate as someone like Goku or Vegeta.
She certainly wished that some of her students had the same drive as him.
A few minutes later the timer ran.
"Alright! Guess we're done with that." Videl announced, hearing the timer. "How'd I do, Teach?"
"Good! You're ready for the next step." Gon grinned, standing in a battle stance next to her.
He let his aura spark around his body, before having it move to his right hand, which was clenched into a fist.
"Okay, so, the next step is to just raise your middle and index finger and try to extend your aura from there."
Videl did as Gon instructed, Again, focusing her Ki all the way into her hand and two fingers.
"Alright. Now, to make your aura go past your fingers, try to imagine your fingers being longer."
Well, that was something she never thought anyone would say to her...
'Okay. Longer fingers.' Videl said, closing her eyes and focusing intently on her aura.
The image of her fingers being longer, while funny, did sort of help her feel what it should be like.
She felt her aura fluctuate, beginning the process of moving upward.
Seconds turned into two minutes, but not much progress was made.
She couldn't imagine having longer fingers all that well as, one she didn't have that kind imagination, and two, did not have the ability to do that like Buu.
Eventually, she let her Ki go in frustration.
"Not too much luck huh?" Gon frowned.
"Unfortunately..." Videl sighed, staring at her hand. "I don't really have that great an imagination. Makes it a bit harder for stuff like this…"
"Aura control usually is." Gon smiles sympathetically.
The two stood there, stumped on what to do. Gon himself wondered what he could say, never really having taught before.
Videl suddenly perked up , before repeating the process and trying to extend her aura.
"Oh? Did you get an idea?" Gon asked.
"Yeah! Just give me a second.."
At a sluggish, but progressive pace, the Ki from her fingers extended just a little bit more than before.
After a minute, she had managed to extend to just about 7 centimetres from her body.
"Yeah! Just like that." Gon congratulated her. "What did you think about that helped you?"
"I thought about my nails growing longer." She smirked.
Having longer nails was something she was actually familiar with, due to growing them out and painting them when she was younger.
She never thought that would actually be useful later in life though. Well, other than painting the nails of any children her or Gohan could have...
"Oh! Yeah that makes sense." Gon said, before holding his stopwatch up once again. "Now I want you to hold it up for another 10 minutes on each hand okay?"
"Got it." She smiled confidently. "Whenever you're ready."
"Okay..." Gon punched in the numbers and then hit the start button. "Go!"
The exercise began and Videl had to concentrate a fair bit more to keep the Ki on her fingers stable, the energy wavering only a few times.
"You're doing great! Keep it up!" Gon encouraged, earning an endearing smile from Videl.
Eventually time ran out, and Videl sighed in relief at not having dropped the shape of her aura.
"Other Hand now?" Videl asked, making Gon nod.
"Yeah. One more to go!"
The watch was reset and Videl recreated the outstretched aura again, this time with a little less difficulty.
"Begin!"
As Videl waited for the timer to run out while doing her best to maintain the shape of her ki, she secretly wondered what else this 'Bisky' had taught Gon…
She also shuddered at the type of hellish training this woman likely put him through to make him and his friend get this powerful.
Even a harder time imagining how powerful she herself could be.
According to Goku, Killua had told him that she chose to conceal her power. Which wasn't anything abnormal. Some people simply choose to hide their strength while using it for their own benefit. Much like how she and her friends fly to wherever they need to go instead of wasting money on vehicles..
When the exercise ended she turned to Gon as a question popped into her head.
"Besides Bisky and... Wing?" She paused, waiting to see if she got the name right. Seeing his nod, she continued.
"Did you have any other teachers besides those two?"
"Yeah! Me and Killua also trained under this guy named Kite. He was my dad's student."
"Really?" Videl perked up. "So aside from being a hunter, he's also a fighter?"
"And a game developer! But other than hunting, he mainly focuses on archeology." Gon grinned proudly.
Videl felt her eyes widen. So not only was his dad a supposedly accomplished hunter, game developer, but also stronger than Gon?!
"How have I never heard of this guy?!" Videl exclaimed. "I get that there are martial artists that don't look for fame and keep their identities secret, but your dad sounds like he should have at least appeared in a celebrity magazine with how accomplished he is."
She pulled on his cheek, teasingly. "You sure you aren't just making this up to make him sound cooler?"
"No, I swear!" Gon laughed, pulling against her grip. "He's really shy and stubborn though, so he usually uses his money to cover up who he is."
Videl, a bit dumbfounded, merely nodded. She supposed that there were some people who wanted to do really amazing things and avoid being well known.
Although he must be pretty fricken rich to be able to pay the right people to keep quiet about you...
"Does he have some kind of social anxiety or something?" Videl asked, tilting her head.
"Oh it's not that bad!" Gon shook his head in amusement. "Like I said he's just really shy and doesn't really do well with crowds. Especially when they're invading his personal space."
"One of the downsides of being well known I'm afraid." Videl nodded, familiar with the sentiment.
It wasn't rare for paparazzi groups to get a little too interested in you and ask a lot of personal questions that, Videl quite frankly believed, they had no right asking.
She was a bit flattered at first but then it just got annoying.
Especially when she was in her teens.
"So is your dad as strong as Bisky or Wing?"
Gon's grin widened. "Stronger."
"Damn." She whistled. "Has he trained with you before?"
Gon nodded enthusiastically. "Yes, but only after a lot of begging." He recounted fondly. "I actually got him to agree to travel with me for a bit but only after he was done with something."
"Aww. Well good for you Sweetie." She ruffled his hair. "How does your dad feel about it? Is he excited?"
"He tries to hide it but yeah." Gon nodded. "I know that we haven't known each other for very long, and I was honestly only interested in seeing if I could find him but even so…" Gon paused, his smile widening.
"I'm really happy that my dad wants to spend time with me." He looked down, rubbing neck, blushing in slight embarrassment.
"How could he not?" Videl chuckled, hugging him. "He has such a wonderful son after all."
"Thanks…" Gon grinned appreciatively, eagerly hugging her back. "Honestly though, I don't really think I'm that great."
"What makes you say that?" Videl frowned.
"Well…" He rubbed his neck. "I mean, I basically did the same thing my dad did. I left my aunt and great grandma all alone back on the island."
"You got their permission to go didn't you?" Videl inquired.
Gon nodded, his smile fading a bit. "Yeah but, well I already told you my Aunt Mito REALLY didn't want me to leave. She even lied about my dad just to keep me there." Despite what he was saying, his face was strangely neutral, Videl observed.
"Even knowing that, I still decided to leave."
"Does that bother you?" Videl asked.
Guilt would seem like the appropriate thing to feel, but Gon sounded less like he was admitting to doing something wrong and more like he was just objectively stating what happened.
"Not really." He responded. " I am who I am, I guess. What's the point in feeling guilty over a behaviour you have if you're not gonna change it?" Gon let a small smile on his face, facing upward.
"Although when I said it like that, Ging sort of looked surprised for a second. I guess the way I phrased it made him realise just how similar we are."
Videl thought that was an interesting way of looking at it. Having different views on things wasn't wrong, it's just part of individualism. It's what it means to have free will.
What did slightly bother her was that Gon not only knew that what he did was selfish, but embraced it. He didn't seem even a little bit guilty over that.
Then again, it was admiral that he at least acknowledged his selfishness, rather than ignore it and move on like most humans did.
Something even she was guilty of.
"Hey, can we play rock paper scissors?" Gon asked, suddenly.
Videl, not expecting the sudden change in topic, took a moment before answering. "Ummm… Sure. Why not?"
He grinned and then moved into position.
"Okay, here goes! Show me rock!"
Videl followed along, an amused smile adorning her face.
"ROCK, PAPER, SCISSORS." They both shouted out. They raised their hands in the air and…
"SHOOT!"
They tied, both of them went with paper.
They went again, and this time, Gon beat her with rock.
Even still, his face scrunched up. "Best out of three, ok?"
"Alright." Videl shrugged, not minding
They went again, tying two times before she beat Gon with her paper. Afterwards, Gon did something she wasn't expecting. He gingerly took her hand and had her wrap her hand on his fist, quietly muttering, 'Paper covers rock…'
"What are you doing?" She asked, entertained with his antics.
"I came up with the idea that maybe I can use my paper to trap enemies and keep them from moving. Maybe have my aura wrap around them or something."
"Oh…" Videl's eyes widened at the idea. "Ooooohhh. Because paper covers rock. That's really creative. But, how are you gonna get your ki to wrap around people in time for your big fight? That's probably gonna be a really hard technique to develop, you know." She pointed out.
"That's what I'm having trouble figuring out." He admitted bashfully. "Killua said he'd help me out with more of the details during our week of training. I was just trying to figure out the concept for the new idea."
"Ah. Gotcha."
As much as it frustrated Gon, he really couldn't come up with any conditions to back up his idea.
He sighed. Well, it doesn't matter. He would just have to wait for his week of training with Killua and Alluka.
Hopefully they were having better luck...
Killua adjusted himself into a more comfortable position as he sat on the tree branch, his hair flowing softly with the wind.
After his training session with Goku, Killua had taken it upon himself to keep refining his new idea for his technique.
He had brought a small notebook, courtesy of Chi-Chi, in order to keep track of his progress, having already written down the original ideas of what he had told Gon.
Now he was simply running a mental simulation, trying to see just how the fight might play out.
First, no doubt, Goku would probably test how capable they with just their ren. Physical strength, hand to hand combat, reflexes, etc.
Second, he would start forcing them to use Ki attacks, similarly to the level as they had during their first fight. Forcing Killua to use his zap attacks and Gon to probably test his Ja-janken.
Thirdly, he would fight using different levels of his power. Eventually, he would reach the strength he used during their first fight with the two of them but wouldn't stop there. He would, however, probably remain at that level for a while just to see how much they had improved.
As the fight progressed, he would gradually increase the difficulty of the fight to push them to their limits. It would likely be during this time that he would expect them to use all of their higher level strategies and aura techniques. They would definitely need to resort to Ko and Ken at this stage.
It would be during this time that Killua would allow Gon to fight Goku alone for a bit, giving him time to fly into the air and use his electric aura to act as a rod for the lightning bolts in the sky.
As soon as the transformation would activate, he and Gon would have to be quick and trick Goku in a way that would allow one of them to land a hit.
Killua had run into a problem concerning this technique. In order for the full effects of it to work, he had needed to add one more condition for it to finally be fully functional...
The technique would no longer add any bonus to his phsycal attacks. At best, he would have the strength of when he were to use ten. Maybe ren if he pushed himself.
The incredible amount of anguish he would experience during this mode would likely cause him to take a couple of seconds to adjust.
Gon's distraction would be pivotal during this moment, allowing Killua to gain his bearings before charging in.
It was a simple, effective plan. One that would be easy enough for both boys to remember their roles and allow Gon the satisfaction of possibly landing a hit.
It wasn't guaranteed though. Absolutely EVERYTHING had to go right for there to even be a smidge of a chance.
Now all he had to do was tell Goku about his solo fight with Alluka, as well as help Gon with his conditions.
Speaking of which…
Killua stopped his writing for a moment looking up in deep contemplation.
While his concern for his little sister had been eased with the idea of his friend, his train began to steer toward the young girl's counterpart.
What on earth had happened to make Nanika not show herself?
Their aura hadn't been affected in any way after the trip here, so could it be that the environment was, perhaps, not good for the entity?
Was it possible that her essence didn't match up with this place? Were they nervous? If so they surely would have told Alluka, who in turn would have told them.
When he asked her, She had simply frowned sadly, shrugging saying she didn't know.
What could have happened to Nanika? Had Alluka not told him she could still sense their pretense, he would have begun fearing the worst.
Still, The fact that Alluka can't even talk to them, despite being aware of their presence, definitely said that there was something wrong.
Especially since their aura had been perfectly alright and unaffected in any way.
As far as he knew, they were trapped here forever. If this world did indeed have something to do with Nanika's absence then...
It's possible that they would have to face the grim reality of never seeing Nanika again.
The thought of that had made Killua begin to almost hyperventilate during the night. He had to leave his bed inorder to get soe fresh air just to calm himself down, as well as to not awaken Alluka.
But there had to be a way. There just had to.
For now though, as much as it frustrated him, He couldn't really do anything about it. All he and Gon could accomplish is attempt to comfort Alluka through this trying time.
Speaking of Alluka, Killua had been very concerned for her as of late.
It wasn't like her to hold something in. She was normally very vocal with whatever problems she had, even if they weren't that big.
To be fair, this problem was probably much more unique to her.
Not only would she be trying to contact Nanika, but also because it was really hard for her to adjust to being in her head by herself.
It must be a very lonely and hard experience for her.
sighing, Killua forced himself to get back on topic. He could think about what to do about comforting Alluka with Gon.
For now, he needed to get his head in the game.
Alluka, other than a bit of training with aura, doesn't really need to worry much about her sparring match. Goku would likely just test her abilities to see how far she's come in her training, much like them.
Unlike them, He'd probably wouldn't do anything past basic hand to hand combat. This will just be a trial for Alluka to test herself and her newly found power of nen.
Putting down his pencil, he nodded to himself in satisfaction after seeing his plan.
The only thing left was to see how it turned out.
The week of training awaited them and knowing Gon, there was going to be some difficulty in thinking something up for him to place conditions on. Hopefully he had at least thought of the basic idea of what he wanted...
Alluka skidded back, her feet kicking up dust as she was thrown back. She winced at the stinging sensation in her arm, shaking it lightly.
"You handled that one much better than the others." Goten complimented, wining up for another punch. "Alright. A few more times and then we'll spar a little."
"Right." Alluka nodded, her eyes on fire with eagerness.
She ran back to him, raising her guard and positioning herself. Goten nodded, falling into position and rearing his fist back before letting loose.
This exercise repeated for three more times before finally they were finished.
"A bit sloppy on that last one, Alluka." Goten pointed.
"Sorry…" She said, having almost tripped from the bad posture. "I kind of just wanted to get that last one over with. I'm really excited to spar with you!" She admitted.
"Me too." Gotten grinned. "Just remember to get it right next time, okay?"
"Alright." She said, getting impatient. "So are we gonna do this or what?"
"Yeah, okay." He said getting into a fighting pose.
Alluka mirrored his action and prepared herself.
"I'll throw a few punches at you every now and then, so try to focus on offence and defense, okay?"
"Yeah I got it." Alluka smirked, excited. "Are you ready Goten?"
"Yeah!" Goten responds. "Bring it on!"
Alluka jumped into the air, attempting a side kick, to which Goten easily moved out of the way.
She followed with a right hook and a jab with her left. Goten sucked under the first and caught the second.
He tugged on her arm and delivered a soft punch to Alluka's stomach making her gasp for air. Recovering quickly, she attempted to uppercut Goten, who only stepped back to evade her, tilting his head so that her fist would only barely graze him.
she leaped backwards and regained her footing, clutching her stomach for only a moment before charging back in.
"Don't let your guard down okay?" He reminded her, while dodging her attacks. "And don't leave your fist in the air. Return it as soon as you throw it."
"Right!"
She continued her assault, careful not to let her grab her this time.
'Mom definitely taught her style to her. I've seen a few of these moves when we sparred. Alluka's are still a bit sloppy.' He thought to himself, blocking a kick to his hip.
'She took my punch earlier really well! Recovered quickly too. I wonder how strong she's gonna get..." He wondered.
He knew he had held back, but still, he had easily knocked out some of the other kids at the tournament with way less force than that.
' Alright' Goten thought to himself, rearing his fist back. 'Her offence isn't too bad. But what about her defense?'
Goten faked a punch, making Alluka flinch and put her guard up just before it could reach her. Using this opportunity, Goten jumped over Alluka and landed directly behind her.
He performed a sweep kick, making her trip and he put his hands under her back and head to slow her descent to the ground.
He stood above her and grinned. "Hey! What are you doing down there? I thought you said you wanted to fight, not nap!" He teased, making her puff her cheeks.
She stood back up quickly and performed a spin kick, making Goten leap away into the upper branches.
"Catch me if you can!"
Taking his advice, she leaped after him,momentarily forgetting her fear of heights in middle of an adrenaline, beginning a game of cat and mouse.
Landing on a branch, Goten ducked as Alluka came at him jabbing through the air.
She quickly spun just enough to land on the bark of the tree.
Goten blocked her two jabs before performing a roundhouse kick to which Alluka narrowly avoided, his leg only touching her hair.
He kept his leg in the air, until she noticed only a second later and brought it down at a slow enough pace for her to jump back.
She leaped forward and made him block a punch before countering with his own.
Seeing this Alluka side stepped off the branch and let herself fall.
Goten gasped in shock and attempted to grab her, only to barely miss.
Alluka grabbed the branch with her hands and bounced herself back up into the air.
Goten watched with wide eyes as he realized her plan.
She performed an axe kick midair, making Goten jump to another tree as her foot shattered the branch.
"That was really creative! Good work Alluka." He complimented her, giving her a thumbs up.
Her smile brightened, "Gon said I should use my surroundings to help out! Did I catch you by surprise?"
"Yeah! I really wasn't expecting that." He laughed.
She leaped towards the same branch he was on, only for him to jump down to the ground, bouncing on the lower parts of the tree until he reached the bottom. "I kinda forgot how strong you are, so That's why I tried to catch you before you fell." Goten yelled up at her.
Alluka's eyes widened at that.
'Oh...' She said, sweating slightly. 'That is pretty tall...'
'Yeah. Actually, I could survive a fall from this high.' She peered down nervously. Goten looked up at her expectantly. 'couldn't I?'
Alluka sweat dropped, her thoughts interrupted suddenly.
"Jump down."
Alluka jumped at the suddenness of which she heard Nanika's voice. She hadn't expected her partner to come out now.
'Have you forgotten that we are in a world with much less gravity? You will be fine. Besides, you jumped all the way up here. It shouldn't be that hard.'
'I know... ' Alluka responds to them, trying to delay the inevitable. 'Just... I've never been fond of heights. And I was too caught up in the fight to notice...'
She felt a slight twinge of anger coming from Nanika. Her eyes widened worryingly.
'Fine. Give me control. I want to test something out anyway.'
'Nanika, wait I-'
'Now.'
Frightened by the anger of her best friend, she quickly surrendered control.
Nanika, with no hesitation, jumped down straight toward Goten.
Raising 'their' fist they prepared to punch the ground that Goten stood on, since predictably, he would dodge.
And dodge he did.
'Their' fist punctured the ground, causing a small explosion of dust to fly near the immediate area.
Taking a moment to stare at the impact, they saw that they had created a small crater only about several inches deep. It was a bit wider than they were expecting too. Nanika, for a moment, looked pleased with itself, before snapping back to attention as Goten quickly caught their line of sight. They managed to duck under one of his punches.
Jumping away several feet, they handed control back over to Alluka.
'Keep fighting.'
'Nanika, I'm-' she tried to apologize, only to be interrupted again.
'We will talk about this later. FOCUS.'
Alluka, taking their command seriously, just barely managed to block the kick coming to her side, the blow sending her skidding off to the side.
'Ok. Yeah. Focus.' She thought, trying her best not to cry.
Alluka dashed toward him in an attempt to throw a punch, which Goten easily spinned around and punched her in the back, sending her crashing to the floor.
'Like I deserve.' SHe thought miserably.
She had really done it now. She had promised she wouldn't doubt Nanika anymore, after they forgave her several times.
It's not wonder they got angry...
She sat up, wiping at her eyes.
"Oh! Are you okay?" Goten asked, concerned. "Did I hit you too hard?"
Alluka looked up at him, putting on a smile. "Oh no! I just got some dirt in my eyes." She replied honestly, before getting on her feet again. She sucked it up and continued, not wanting to make Nanika angry again for cutting the lesson short. "Let's continue!"
Goten , hesitantly, nodded, charging back in.
Alluka did her best to keep her mind on the battle, trying to dissuade herself from thinking about Nanika.
It was the first true time she had ever seen her companion angry.
She deserved it though. She probably hurt Nanika a lot by having herself keep doubting instead of just listening to them like she was SUPPOSED to.
She was such an idiot.
She would force herself to be a better friend to Nanika.
She would beg for forgiveness and never doubt Nanika again.
Never ever.
Hey, everybody!
I hope you enjoyed this newest chapter.
The big fight with Goku should be just two or three more chapters away. Stay hyped everyone! We're almost there...
For said chapters, Ima focus on the joint training with Gon, Killua, and Alluka. That way I can show the conditions for Gon's new abilities as well as Alluka finally beginning her journey with nen.
(Although, to her disappointment, she won't be able to fly right away.)
I always had a headcanon that Launch, during her stay at Kame House, saw Goku and Krillin as her sort of pseudo sons, or at the very least, younger siblings?
I dunno, the way she interacted with them always just seemed rather maternal to me. It was cute. What do you guys think?
Anyway, that's all folks! As always, don't be afraid to leave your thoughts in the comment section. I look forward to seeing you in the next chapter of...
Dragon Hunter ZX!