Super Dragon Ball: Redux Kaizen

Arc 1: C8

(Continuing From Where the Last Chapter Left Off, Satan City. . .)

"Okay, the pounding in my head seemed to have died down. Still. . .,"

Shikuro slowed his breathing as he stared face-to-face with the Goku copy, who also seemed to be regaining his composure. It only had approximately five or so minutes of excruciating headaches. Still, for them, it felt like two hours of non-stop pain. Now that it had settled down, nothing was standing in their way. Shikuro, feeling the tension of the situation begin to rise, slowly took a stance and watched carefully. All of his training this month would be put to the test. Seizing the moment before action, he breathed and tried to rationalize what had happened so far, "The problem in front of me is still a thing. From what I can tell, it hasn't said a word this time. Could this Goku imposter be of someone else's creation? If that's the case, then. . .?"

At the near end of that thought, Goku displayed no emotion, yet Shikuro could tell it was ready to charge directly at him. At that moment, his muscles tensed, his latent instinctual intuition for battle firing impulses on his reactive nerves to be alert. His eyes narrowed. After taking time to think more about the situation, if the latter was true, then he had only come to one conclusion, "If there is one, there has to be more. . ."

*WHOOSH!*

From a full view of the landscape beyond to only seeing the pale skin of a folded knuckle, Shikuro quickly realized that the imposter's fist was already inches away from his face. In a blink of an eye, he reared his head to the right so much that his body leaned slightly in the same direction, the clear punch missing its target just before impact. Obsidian eyes locked onto impassive red, their strands of hair flowing with the wind caused by the sudden shift in movement. Regardless, now seeing an opening, Shikuro went straight in for a rib check, his fist curving into a sharp hook. However, just like him, the clone performed his own maneuver to dodge a blow, its body twirling around the surface of his fist, much to his surprise, and using the momentum to hurl a kick at Shikuro's face. Eyes wide, the young Saiyan halted his fist and, with inhuman reflexes, used the same arm he threw his punch with to block the kick.

On impact, he felt himself rattled to the bone as he flew across the azure. He groaned only to see the imposter stretch his hand out in a gesture that practically screamed his intentions. The Copy-Goku didn't waste time sending an energy wave at Shikuro, the light and size of the beam equaling in size and luminous as if it were from the world's brightest flashlight. Most would have been intimidated by the sight of such an attack, but Shikuro wasn't one to be easily moved. One thing he learned was that size was never the deciding factor: it was the constitution of Ki in the attack and from what he felt. . .

He could handle it.

Taking in a breath as he drifted slowly to a stop, the young Saiyan tensed his body just before the attack was about to connect before flinging his high in the same motion as an Axe Kick, the front of his foot bending the ray of light aimed at him and redirecting it to the sky in one action. The energy wave plummeted into the clouds before exploding into a thunderous flash that reflected the phenomenon of lightning. Tiny sparks began to decide as they were remnants of the prior attack, the specks twinkling between the clone and the Saiyan as they glared at each other. Through the brightened visor that he was wearing, Shikuro narrowed his eyes, "This will do. Judging from that attack, this imposter is not as strong as the original. Even though we both may be under the effects of whatever caused that headache, the output of that blast doesn't measure up to Goku's, even if he was holding back. If that's the case. . ."

Before he finished that thought, the Saiyan took a quick stance and lunged forward so fast that the thirty-meter distance between them was made irrelevant instantly. Despite this, the clone did not react to the speed feat before suddenly getting struck with a swift kick across the left temple. The clone's eyes flickered with images of Shikuro's focus eyes through the visor.