Chapter 9

It is now the final rounds of the Bodoukai. The preliminaries were pretty much uneventful. In her first fight Supper faced a giant bear of a guy. To everybody's surprise she was able to beat him, and from then on won her other matches thanks to her incredible speed, and also due to the fact that she was often underestimated. Tea won his first fight by default when the punk he was fighting forgot the rules and brandished a knife . However the rest of his fights went on smoothly and he too managed to get a place in the finals. Videl's first fight was against a dirty pervert who was more interested in grabbing selected parts of her body than fighting, which proved to be a very unwise thing to do. She promptly kicked his sorry ass into a group of old ladies in the front row, who then proceeded to beat the living daylights out of him with their handbags. Her other fights were a breeze.

So Videl was also one of the final contestants, and so were the twins, she noted. For someone who never had any training before they sure were good. Or maybe it was just that the standards of the Bodoukai had slipped. After all, her previous fights had gone surprisingly easy. Not much of a challenge at all. And, she reminded herself, those two were a tough pair. They may have no formal training, and it showed in their fights which she had seen, but they learn fast. Which was how they had managed to survive living on the streets all these years. Maybe dragging them into the Bodoukai wasn't such a great idea after all. This was supposed to her punishment for them, since prisons can't seem to hold these two. And now thanks to her they have discovered their fighting talent, and they seem to be enjoying themselves too. It just wasn't fair. And it didn't make her feel any better that the person she was hoping to see didn't seem to be there.

Out of the five other contestants who made it to the finals, (apart from Videl, Tea and Supper) only two seemed to pose a real challenge. One of them was a tall muscular man with long black hair combed all the way back and tied neatly in a ponytail (sort of like Steven Segal, not that Videl would know Steven Segal is. Just making it easier for the reader to picture him. Ah well, back to the story.) He had a scar across his left eye, well what used to be his left eye. It was now covered by an eye patch. He was staring intently at the other contestant.

And no wonder. The man was obviously a cyborg. His face and his body were partly mechanical. He too had long black hair, but unlike the other man, he had his in a plait. "I wonder what happened to him, " Videl thought. He was probably one of No.17 and No.18's luckier victims who had access to technology to replace his lost limbs. He wore a traditional Chinese dress with the words KILL YOU embroidered at the back. That caught her attention. Suddenly the man seemed evil. He stood apart from the other contestants, and even without real eyes, he seemed to be watching them disdainfully like they were all insignificant insects, there for him to kill when he feels like it. Videl understood now why the other man was staring, he wasn't being rude or anything; there is definitely something suspicious about this man.

She turned her attention to the other man. He could have been Son Gohan, except that he was too old. And she couldn't imagine Gohan in a Red Indian outfit. A gi seemed more like his style.

"Hey Officer Videl!" She turned around to see Tea and Supper grinning at her. "Thanks for making us enter. We just might win the 5000 zenis." Tea was grinning even wider now. She could just see the zeni signs in his eyes.

"Don't get too cocky, brat." She warned them. "You'll have to go through me first if you want the prize money."

"Attention all finalists! Please assemble at the voting room to vote for your turns." The announcer's voice suddenly rang out on the nearby speaker.

Tea smirked and Supper waved at her as they turned to leave for the voting room. Damn those two, she grumbled to herself. They were getting a bit too friendly for a criminal-police officer relationship. She'll have a thing or two to teach them about respect later.

All the finalists were now assembled. The announcer began calling out names. "First of all, Upa please take your number." The one-eyed man took his number, it was no.4. Next it was Videl, and she got no.8. Then it was Tea's turn, and he got no.7. Looks like he would be fighting Videl, who was now looking at him and smiling wickedly. He smirked back, but inwardly he gulped. He'd been lucky so far, but now his opponent was Officer Videl and he knows she's good. She was able to catch them a few times in the past after all...

The rest of the contestants took their numbers. Upa's frown deepened when the cyborg's name was called out, TaoPaiPai. He watched him even more intently. Last of all, Supper was called. She didn't need to pick any numbers to know that she will be fighting the strange man, TaoPaiPai. Tea was worried for his sister.

"Be careful Supper. The man looks dangerous." He warned her.

"Yeah." Supper agreed, all three eyes on her would-be opponent. "I think you're right. I will be careful. You be careful too. Officer Videl is really good, you know."

"I know." The twins grinned at each other.

The results of the draw is as follows:

                        
                ________________|________________
                |                                |
          ______|______                    ______|______
          |            |                   |            |
       ___|___      ___|___             ___|___      ___|___
       |      |     |      |            |      |     |      |
     Arbi    Tra    Ry    Upa          Tao   Supper Tea    Videl
      1       2     3      4          PaiPai   6     7      8
                                        5

The final round begins.

Chapter 10
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