It took a couple of hours to whittle the combatants down from over a hundred to eight finalists: Son Tenshinhan, Yamcha, Krillin, and Chi-Chi of the Turtle School, the purple-haired grappler Ranfan, the dragon-beast Giran, the stony Namu, and the enigmatic Jackie Chun. After a few minutes' rest, the finalists were brought together to draw their numbers.
"Son Tenshinhan," a blond man in a dark suit and equally dark sunglasses announced as he stood by the box with the numbered balls inside. "Please step forward." Tenshinhan walked up with a smile and held out his hand for the stranger to shake.
"Hi," he greeted, "What's your name?"
The other man looked at him awkwardly before taking his hand. "Uh… Ken…" he said slowly as they shook hands.
"It's nice to meet you!" Ten replied genuinely as Krillin pressed his face into his palm.
"You too… Take a number, please?" Ken gestured to the box and Ten let go of his hand to reach into the box. He grabbed a ball and drew it out, holding it up with a grin.
"Four!" he declared enthusiastically. "My lucky number!"
"That's nice," Ken told him dryly, "Please hold onto your ball and step back into line, please." As Ten did so, Ken wrote his name on the large whiteboard next to the Four bracket. "Jackie Chun," Ken then announced, "Please come up and take your number." Jackie stepped forward quietly and calmly and pushed up his sleeve to reach into the box, drawing his number out.
"Eight," he told Ken before walking back into line. 'Save the best for last, eh?' He thought to himself with an amused chuckle.
"Giran!" Ken declared. The dragon-man stomped forward and the floor shook under his feet as he walked up to the box. He looked awkwardly from the small box to his giant hand and reached in carefully with two fingers, pulling out a ball with his claws.
"Three," he announced as he flashed Tenshinhan a wicked, tooth-filled grin. Ten obliviously and innocently smiled back at him. After him, Yamcha drew number five, Ranfan number six, Chi-Chi number one, and Namu number two (making Chi-Chi a little nervous).
"Which means that Krillin is number seven," Ken declared, "And will be facing Jackie Chun in the final first-round matchup." Krillin eyed Jackie Chun and tried to puff himself up. One steely look from Jackie put an end to that, however.
'Poor boy,' Jackie thought to himself. 'Talk about a lousy luck of the draw. Ah, well. Hopefully he'll have better luck next time.'
"Alright," Ken told them, "Everyone get in a single-file line in the order of the number that you drew and I'll make the official announcements." Giran tried to swipe Tenshinhan's feet out from under him with his tail but Ten idly leaped over it without a word and gave him a smile. No harm done, right? It was probably an accident. Still, Giran looked shocked.
OoOoOoO
When the finalists and Ken stepped out into the arena, the fighters were shocked by the sheer mass of people cheering when they came out. Tenshinhan had never seen so many people in one place! It was crazy! Chi-Chi and Krillin were similarly overwhelmed. Namu didn't let the spectators phase him. They didn't matter. They were a distraction. He had a goal. He had a purpose.
Yamcha, for his part, grinned and puffed out his chest. 'Oh yeah,' he thought to himself as he waved to the crowd, 'I could get used to this.'
"Let's go, Yamcha!" Bulma and Puar cheered. "Come on, Ten!" They whistled and clapped eagerly for their friends as they sat in the front row with Gohan and Gyuu Maou, much to the disappointment of whoever got stuck sitting behind the Ox King.
"Come on, grandson!" Gohan added to the cheers, cupping his hands around his mouth. "Show 'em what you got!"
"That's my girl!" Gyuu Maou cheered enthusiastically, waving his arms to get Chi-Chi's attention. "Hey, sweetie! Daddy believes in you!" Chi-Chi buried her blushing face in her hands and tried to hide, somewhere between grateful for her father's attention and embarrassed by his overzealous appreciation.
Once again, Krillin reflected on the fact that he didn't have anyone to cheer for him and huffed a little. He'd show them who they should have been cheering for when he won the whole thing.
"Lllladies aaaand gentlemen!" Ken greeted the screaming masses enthusiastically, "Welcome to the 21st Tenkaichi Budoukai!" The crowd roared in response, wild and eager to see some action. "It will be," he shouted as he gestured wildly with plenty of exuberance, "Son Tenshinhan," he waved enthusiastically to the cheering crowd, "versus Giran!" The dragon-man roared and spread his wings, though that didn't seem to do anything to dissuade his smile. "Namu," he barely moved his head in a nod, "versus Chi-Chi!" she waved to the crowd and blew her father a kiss, though she felt a little unnerved by just how steely her opponent was. "Ranfan," Ranfan winked and blew the crowd a kiss, "Versus Yamcha!" He flexed and posed and grinned like an idiot as Bulma rolled her eyes with a grin. "And Krillin," he grinned and waved but not nearly as energetically as Tenshinhan or Chi-Chi, "versus Jackie Chun!" he nodded silently with just barely more movement than Namu. For some reason, the sight of Jackie Chun made Gyuu and Gohan exchanged amused looks before they chuckled to themselves. Bulma and Puar gave the older pair a confused look, but there was no way they could tell them why this "Jackie Chun" character reminded them so much of a certain "Bruce Lao" that had been in the Budoukai they'd entered as boys.
Chi-Chi, Krillin, Yamcha, Bulma, and Ten couldn't get a handle on Jackie Chun or his ki. It was almost as if he was hiding his power. 'Still, I've been training hard,' Krillin thought to himself with a confident smirk. 'I can handle myself against this weird old man.' If Jackie Chun were bothering to read Krillin's thoughts, or for that matter wanted to drop the masquerade, he would have cuffed Krillin behind the ear.
"Now, before we start," Ken said, "I'd like Son Tenshinhan, Chi-Chi, and Krillin to step forward, please." The trio did so, although they each shared slightly confused glances as they did. "Now, I couldn't help but notice that all three of you are wearing the same style of gi, not to mention that character on the front and back. I'm guessing you're all trained by the same person." The trio nodded in agreement. "Tell us, then, who is your teacher?"
"The Turtle Hermit, Muten Roshi!" they declared proudly in unison with large grins. This drew a collective gasp of surprise from the audience along with some murmurs of interest. Even Ken was stunned. However, of the other entrants, only Ranfan had much of a reaction.
"Th-the Invincible Old Master is your teacher?!" Ken exclaimed. "Absolutely incredible! There hasn't been a Turtle School student in the Budoukai in decades! Who knew he was taking on new students?" Jackie Chun did his best to look impassive, but it was hard to hold in a cocky grin that his name was held in such reverence. "Who even knew he was still alive?!" Jackie Chun had to once again do his best to look impassive, but now that was due to the impulse to kick Ken right in the ass. Or his old students, from the way Gohan and Gyuu Maou were snickering. "So would you say the three of you have gotten close during your training?" Krillin was about to ask Ken what kind of question was that when Chi-Chi butted in, wrapping her arms around Tenshinhan's forearm.
"Oh, yes!" she assured Ken with an eager smile. "Son Tenshinhan and I have grown quite close over the last year and a half." Ten's face reddened as several members of the audience "Awww"'d. Bulma rolled her eyes and Yamcha reached forward to poke Ten teasingly in the ribs, only heightening his embarrassment.
Seeing a need to jump in and preserve Tenshinhan's dignity, Krillin spoke up. "Yeah," he agreed, "Ten's like a big brother to me!" This, again, drew a reaction from the crowd and Ten looked down at his friend in surprise. Krillin had never actually said that out loud, as evidenced by his slightly-red face and the way he looked away in embarrassment.. But, hey, anything to spare Ten some embarrassment. Ten smiled warmly down at him and ran a hand over his smooth head appreciatively, making Krillin smile back at him.
"I'd say we've all grown to be good friends during our time training with Master Roshi," Ten added, finally able to put in his two cents. "That's what I think is the best thing about Martial Arts, really!" he beamed as his statement drew polite applause from a slightly-impatient audience. Chi-Chi, meanwhile, huffed indignantly. That was not what she'd meant at all! And now Krillin had twisted the meaning around and taken the focus off of her and Ten!
"Well then," Ken said with a laugh to try and get control of the situation again as he read the room, "Let's hope that whatever else happens, this tournament won't impact your friendships! Now then," he continued, "All other contestants come with me!" he declared as he started marching out of the ring. "Namu vs. Chi-Chi is about to begin!" Tenshinhan and Krillin gave Chi-Chi an encouraging thumbs up as they followed the others out of the ring, leaving her alone with her stone-faced adversary. She swallowed and felt a shiver run through her before she bowed to him, as was customary before the start of a match. Namu's expression almost changed as he bowed to her in response. "Fighters ready?" Ken asked as Chi-Chi and Namu got into their fighting stances. Chi-Chi placed her hands out in front, one above the other, while she stood with her legs bent, one in front of the other. Namu pivoted his body to one side with his forearm raised across his chest and his fist opened, the blade of his hand facing her, while the other arm ran parallel to his waist, hand balled in a tight fist. "Begin!"
Chi-Chi charged forward, feeling that all of the attention was on her now and wanting to make a good showing of herself with Daddy and Tenshinhan watching. Oh, and Master Roshi, too. With a battle cry, she leaped into the air and launched herself across the ring with a flying kick, aiming for Namu's center mass. But with only a colorful blur to show that he had moved at all, Namu was suddenly standing directly to Chi-Chi's left. She gawked in surprise before she managed to ground herself, skidding on the tile floor and spinning to a stop, facing Namu again and with her back to the audience, but her heels nearly touching the edge of the ring.
'I've got to be more careful!' she chided herself. 'I can't ring myself out!' She got back into her guard and took a quick breath to calm herself before moving on the offensive again, this time winding up for a roundhouse kick.
"You won't beat me," Namu told her firmly, suddenly standing beside her before she'd even finished drawing back her foot for the kick. She barely had time to register the first rushing toward her head and raised her fists up to block it, a jolt of pain rushing up her arms from the impact as she was knocked back, feet skidding into the stone again to keep from being launched away.
Tenshinhan watched from the fighter's area with a concerned frown on his face and turned to say something to Krillin, noticing that his friend was wearing the same expression. "You saw that, too, huh?" he asked. Krillin, standing on a chair to see over the wall, nodded. Namu was fast. Chi-Chi looked like she was moving underwater by comparison. "I've got a bad feeling about this," he muttered.
For a moment, it looked like Chi-Chi did, as well. A cold panic fluttered through her stomach as she realized that she'd never been in a proper fight before. 'He's so fast! I wish I still had my focusing crystal,' she thought to herself. 'Then maybe I could hit him with a ki blast!' But weapons weren't allowed in the Budoukai, so she hadn't been allowed to bring it and cover up her shortcomings. She swallowed her nerves down and balled up her fists. She couldn't get scared already! What was the point of training for the last year and a half? She came at Namu again, attacking him with a flurry of punches aimed at his midsection, but Namu deflected them all without giving any ground. Chi-Chi let out a frustrated cry and jumped high up into the air, well over Namu's head, and pivoted her body to hit him with a rolling savate kick to the back on her way down. But, again, Namu moved effortlessly to the side, without even turning his head to follow her movements.
"You are not strong enough," he said matter-of-factly with his back still turned to her, "And you lack true conviction. Yet still, I might have let you beat me, because I sense your spirit." That made Chi-Chi angrier than anything else, the idea that he'd let her win out of pity. "But not today." Chi-Chi's eyes burned furiously as Namu turned to face her and she prepared an attack… but the cold, steely look in her eyes froze her completely and chilled her to her core. "Today, I cannot fail." In a flash, he dropped to one knee and suddenly there was a fist in Chi-Chi's stomach, lifting her off her feet and driving the wind out of her. He caught her as she crumpled and lay her gently down on the tile floor.
"Chi-Chi!" Tenshinhan and Krillin cried in shared worry, while Jackie Chun swallowed his own reaction.
"You may begin counting now," Namu told Ken as he turned his head to look at him, still kneeling beside Chi-Chi. He didn't want to hurt the child any more than was necessary, after all.
"O-oh, right!" Ken stammered out. He'd been so stunned by the brief display of speed from both competitors, and of force from Namu, that for a second he'd forgotten his job. "One! Two! Three! Four! Five! Six!"
Gohan looked at Gyuu and saw his friend's face had turned a dark shade of red, so he reached up and put a hand gently on one of his massive forearms. "Easy, big fella," he told the other man gently. "She'll be alright." Even so, Gyuu Maou started to move, his eyes locked onto Namu as he started climbing over the audience barrier.
"I'm okay!" Chi-Chi cried suddenly, though her face was still against the ground. Even Namu looked startled by her sudden consciousness. Her fingers scrabbled on the stone dragging herself up to her hands and knees, then to her feet. "I'm okay," she insisted as she brought her hands up and got into her stance again. "I can keep going." Namu got to his feet as well, giving Chi-Chi a nod of respect.
Everything hurt. That one punch had done more than knock the wind out of Chi-Chi; she felt like her whole body was on fire. Every breath was shallow and it burned as it filled her lungs. But she couldn't get counted out. She had to keep trying. She'd show him he had conviction!
"Come on, Chi-Chi!" Ten shouted enthusiastically. "Keep fighting! Show him what you're made of!" His voice made Chi-Chi's heart swell as she was filled with a burst of confidence and leaped into the air again, firing off a barrage of kicks at Namu's head. The speed of her attack actually caught him off-guard, forcing Namu to give ground as he blocked and deflected her attacks. Before he knew it, he was only in the ring by the ball of one foot.
"Yeah, Chi-Chi, get him! You're almost there!" Krillin cheered with his hands cupped around his mouth.
"That's my girl!" Gyuu added, so proud he thought he might burst. Chi-Chi landed and sprang up again, this time launching her body at an angle with her fingertips pointed out straight to strike Namu under the chin.
But then, a thought flashed through Namu's mind. An image. A village, starving, sun-baked earth parched and cracked where once there had been a riverhead. Young and old, everyone, desperate, clinging to life. 'No,' he thought resolutely. He pivoted his body, still in the ring only by one foot. Chi-Chi shot past him and he drove her down with a chop across the back, smashing her into the grass so hard she bounced.
"Ring out!" Ken declared. "After a stunning second wind by Chi-Chi, Namu is the winner!" The crowd murmured for a moment, and then they began to boo Namu. After all, as far as they could tell, he'd just beaten up a little girl. If he was at all upset by their vitriol toward them, he didn't show it, as he bowed to Chi-Chi before he walked quickly, almost mechanically, toward the fighters' area. Tenshinhan crossed him and for a moment, their eyes locked. Ten, to his own surprise, couldn't find it in himself to be angry at the man. There was no malice in his soul.
Jackie Chun, though, couldn't help but fine the man more than a little discomforting. 'Just what,' the old master wondered, 'Makes this man so focused? When I do it, it's an act but this guy's almost made of ice!' With the slightest mental manipulation, he was able to gaze into the younger man's mind. Telepathy was one of the minor perks that came with exceptionally advanced ki sensing. It required you to be entirely stationary and focusing your energies towards the act, meaning that you were completely defenseless, so it was less than useless in combat. As Jackie peered into Namu's thoughts and sifted through his memories he saw… A homeland crippled by drought. A people in desperate need of help. A solemn vow. 'I will win the prize money and buy water from the city! I swear it!' Jackie swallowed with his eyes wide in surprise. 'If he manages to beat Tenshinhan and get to the finals, I might just forfeit...' Jackie thought– although he honestly didn't find it all that likely. 'Maybe I can still do something for him, though.'
Meanwhile, Chi-Chi was just starting to regain her senses. Which meant realizing that she was laying face-down in the grass and the realization that she'd been eliminated. Her body trembled as she tried not to let out tears of frustration, her hands balling into fists that ripped up the grass before slamming back down into it. She was shocked by how much it hurt to be eliminated so early, not just physically but emotionally, but she'd really tried hard! She'd done her best and kept fighting even when it hurt!
'I couldn't even hit him!' she thought miserably. 'I never had a chance!' She should never have been in a position for Master Roshi to enter the tournament. She shouldn't have been training, just taking care of the Kame House, cooking and cleaning for Krillin and Tenshin–
"Hey," Tenshinhan said softly as he scooped Chi-Chi gently up in his arms. "It's okay." She blinked up at him in surprise, a few stray tears rolling down her cheeks before she wiped them away, her face reddening with embarrassment at him seeing her like this. "You did great!" he told her encouragingly as he started carrying her back to the fighters' area. "I was really surprised when you got back up after that first hit, especially since you started with less training than me and Krillin. I know you can get even stronger!"
That was when Chi-Chi was fairly certain that she was still unconscious and was, in fact, dreaming. Tenshinhan was holding her in his strong arms, cradling her against her chest, smiling at her and giving her words of encouragement. It was only when they got back to the fighters' area that she realized that this couldn't be a dream since, well, Krillin was there.
"Hey, do your legs work?" he teased her with an annoyed smirk, his arms crossed over his chest. "Because Ten needs to get back in the ring to fight next." Chi-Chi's face burned red and she hopped down from Tenshinhan's arms.
"Go get him, Tenshinhan!" she told him with a dreamy smile, her hands clasped together and raised to her cheek. Ten's face reddened slightly and he cleared his throat before giving them a wordless thumbs up before going back to the ring. Giran stomped toward the ring, pushing his way through all of the other competitors, nearly knocking Krillin and Chi-Chi off their feet.
"The next match will now begin," Ken announced, "Tenshinhan vs. Giran!" Giran cracked his knuckles and showed his fangs with a snarl as Ten did a last few quick stretches, holding one arm across his chest and then the other. "Fighters ready?" he asked. Ten smiled pleasantly up at Giran and bowed respectfully at him. Giran responded with a roar and charged across the ring, swinging his massive tail at the young triclops' head. "H-hey! I didn't say begin!" Ten jumped back to avoid the dragon monster's attack and got quickly into his fighting stance. "Begin!" A flustered Ken declared.
Ten sprinted toward Giran and ducked under a swipe from his razor-sharp claws, countering with a straight jab to his pronounced gut. Giran staggered back before he let out another snarl, attacking with a few more slashes of his claws. Ten zipped between the attacks but that was just a feint for Giran's tail to sweep Tenshinhan's feet out from under him. Ten recovered by flipping through the air with a few handsprings, putting distance between them. As soon as Tenshinhan touched down, though, Giran was barreling toward him with his head down like a battering ram. Ten put his arms out and caught Giran rather effortlessly, tossing him over his head and out into the crowd. Instead of going out of bounds, though, Giran's rather diminutive wings spread and he started flapping them to keep himself aloft.
"Wow!" he exclaimed in astonishment as he looked up at Giran. "I didn't think those worked!"
"What're you tryin' to say, boy?" Giran asked irritably, already baring his teeth.
"Well, it's just that your wings are so small and you're so…" before Ten could try and put things delicately, Giran picked up on what he was trying not to say and divebombed toward him with a roar, his mouth open wide and his fangs showing. Tenshinhan yelped and zipped off to one side, grabbing Giran's tail as he flew by him and spun Giran around and around before slamming him to the ground. With a snarl, the dragonman whipped his tail and launched Tenshinhan off, forcing the other to launch a kiai at the air so he wouldn't get knocked out of bounds. By this time, Giran had gotten back to his feet, swiping with his claws and snarling with his fangs exposed just as Ten came to the ground. One strike actually caught Tenshinhan on the shoulder, making Chi-Chi shriek at the thin trickle of blood running down Tenshinhan's arm as he hissed in pain, while the others showed worry as well. "Hey, watch it!" Ten exclaimed. "What do you think you're doing?" Fighting for their lives was one thing, but this was just a tournament! It was supposed to be about displaying skill and technique, there was no reason to try and injure one another!
"I'm just usin' all the tools I was given," Giran explained with a laugh. "Like this!" Then he opened his mouth and a purple light shone from inside. At that close of a distance, and still pretty surprised, Tenshinhan didn't have a chance to react before Giran fired a beam out of his mouth that hit Ten squarely in the chest. But instead of being injured by a ki blast or by fire, Ten discovered that he was wrapped in a weird… purple gum?!
"Now wait just a second!" Ken exclaimed as Ten looked down at himself in confusion. "The Budoukai rules specifically forbid the use of any weapons, hidden or otherwise!" Giran headbutted the confused Tenshinhan and just laughed.
"This ain't a weapon!" Giran boasted while beating a fist against his rather rotund stomach. "My body produces this naturally, just like the rest of my species!"
"Monster!" Namu snapped in disgust, showing emotion for the first time and catching everyone off-guard. "I recognize that gum! It is the same that made the dam holding back the water from my village! You were the ones that have condemned my people to death!" Namu jabbed a finger at the dragon hatefully, his whole body trembling with rage and his eyes burning with fire.
At that harsh accusation, Giran just shrugged. "Yeah," he admitted cavalierly. "That sounds like somethin' me and my brothers'd do. What're you gonna do about it, boy?" He laughed as Namu tried to lunge at him and the security held him back while the crowd booed him vociferously.
That was enough for Tenshinhan. With a cry of anger, he jumped into the air and hammered him with bicicycle kicks to the face before effortlessly breaking free from the gum that was restraining him. With a vicious uppercut, he knocked Giran unconscious and he crashed to the grass like a sack of wet laundry.
"Ringout! Son Tenshinhan wins! He will face Namu in the second round!" Ken declared, gesturing to Ten as the crowd cheered wildly. He looked over at Namu, who nodded in approval, his rage sated for the moment. Now he could clear his mind again and focus on winning the tournament to save his people.
OoOoOoO
Yamcha hopped on the balls of his feet as he got into a fighting stance with a grin, beckoning with two fingers extended. In contrast to his orange and green gi, Ranfan was dressed in a white-and-blue wrestling singlet with grappling gloves and wrestling shoes and her purple hair was in several rows of tight braids. She dropped into a low stance with her arms stretched out.
"This could be quite the match, ladies and gentlemen!" Ken declared dramatically. "From the looks of things, it seems to be a case of grappler versus striker! Fighters ready? Begin!"
Yamcha dashed toward Ranfan and she lunged forward as low as she could to the ground, causing Yamcha to go flying over her. She spun around on her heels and lunged for a takedown, hoping to grapple him from behind but was surprised to discover that Yamcha was facing her again already. 'Whoa,' she thought, 'He's fast!' He threw a quick snapping jab at Ranfan and she brought her forearms up quickly to block the blow, grunting from the pain that shot through her body. She jumped up as quickly as she could and wrapped her legs around Yamcha's arm and rolled forward, trying to catch him in an armbar. To her shock, though, Yamcha managed to stay on his feet, flailing his arms to retain his balance.
"Whoa!" he exclaimed in shock. "Nice try, there!" He started swinging around to try and get Ranfan off of his arm, even as she pulled with all her might, outright trying to rip his arm right out of the socket. Yamcha let out a grunt and tossed her over his head, sending Ranfan tumbling through the air. "Here I come! Wolf Fang Fist!" he shouted as he charged at Ranfan, peppering her with strikes as she tried to block and deflect the onslaught. But when Yamcha went for the big double-palm strike, Ranfan managed to grab his wrists, the speed of his movements burning her palms. She gritted her teeth from the pain and yanked him down as she lifted up her knee, smashing him under the chin with it. While Yamcha was stunned, she pulled him into a double underhook and turned him over, dropping him rather viciously on his head and neck to horrified gasps from the audience.
"What an incredible maneuver!" Ken exclaimed as Ranfan got up quickly to her feet, her knees stinging from the impact. "Yamcha looks down and out, folks! It might be time to administer the count. One! Two! Three!"
As he continued counting, Ranfan reflected somewhat sadly on the turn of events. She hadn't wanted to use the Tiger Driver. Master Tsurata had taught her that that it was one of a series of incredibly dangerous holds only meant for the most extreme situations. 'But what else could I do?' she thought to herself. 'I had to win. He was stronger and faster than me. It was my only opening to- '
"Five! Si–" Then Yamcha kipped up to his feet, his eyes wide as he held the back of his neck. "Yamcha's up!"
"What?!" Ranfan exclaimed in shock.
"What?!" Son Gohan and Gyuu Mao echoed in amazement.
"Go, Yamcha!" Bulma and Puar cheered.
"Alright!" Ten added eagerly, emphatically pumping his fist. Even Jackie Chun raised his eyebrows, clearly impressed.
'Boy's stronger than I reckoned,' he was forced to admit. 'He might give me some trouble in the next round after all!'
"Man, that really got the kink out of my neck!" Yamcha exclaimed as he rubbed the back of his neck, then turned his head from one side to the other to crack it. It was a good thing he did so many of those neck bridges under higher gravity. "That move was sick! Where do you train, anyway?"
But Ranfan didn't respond because her mind was racing. If forbidden techniques couldn't slow this guy down, what other options did she have? It was one thing to do… that in the preliminaries where no one was watching, but she'd really wanted to use the Budoukai as a way to get more attention for her dojo. There'd be no way to do that if she had to… debase herself in front of hundreds of people! But she didn't come all this way to lose, either. Maybe this guy was just a freak and everyone else in the tournament would be something more normal that she could defeat with proper fighting techniques. But to even get close to the next round…
She shook her hair from side to side, undoing the braids and causing it to explode into its natural state with curls falling down her back and around her shoulders. Then she gripped the material of the singlet around her waist and hiked it up, drawing attention to areas… below the belt, the material being pulled taught outlining them. Then, with a moment's reluctance, she pulled down the straps of her singlet, leaving her completely naked from the waist-up. Tenshinhan's face turned red as he shut his eyes and slapped his hands over Krillin and Chi-Chi's eyes as well. Namu stood in horror for a moment before shutting his eyes tightly. Gohan and Gyuu's faces burned red while Jackie Chun did everything in his power to keep blood from shooting out his nose. Which involved keeping his hands behind his back and shooting it out through the pores in his fingertips, soaking the bushes behind him with blood.
"...The hell are you doing?!" Yamcha asked. That reaction, or lack of reaction, caught Ranfan by surprise. This left her wide-open to a roundhouse kick that sent her flying out of the ring to hit the grass.
"Uh… I… uh…" It took a second for Ken to collect himself before he cleared his throat. "Ringout! Yamcha wins!" Yamcha pumped his fists up with a slightly-confused smile, though that smile faltered when the crowd booed him for kicking a woman in the face. "Buncha weirdos," he muttered before going to help Ranfan up. She touched the bruise on her cheek as she fixed her singlet, still feeling a little ridiculous at having to resort to that. "You okay?" he asked.
"Yeah," she muttered, "I'm fine." Then she crouched down and pulled some things out of her shoe. "Here," she told him, handing the two objects. They looked like business cards. "My dojo," she explained, "And… something else you might be interested in." She might be jumping to conclusions, but if she had an opportunity to help someone else the way she'd been helped.
"Way of the King's Road," Yamcha muttered as they both walked out of the ring, reading the first card before he turned it over and looked at the second. "Internal Harmony… discovering your true self?" The hell did that mean? He… did have some confusing feelings. It might help? He'd worry about that later. He needed to pay attention to the next match.
OoOoOoO
Krillin glared at Jackie Chun as he got into a fighting stance. He tried to focus on the old man's ki and get a gauge of his strength but it was almost as if he was hiding it. Krillin didn't even know you could do that. But it didn't matter. He could win! He could beat this old man, and that Yamcha guy, and face Tenshinhan in the finals!
Jackie could almost see the thoughts dancing in the boy's head and the flights of fancy he was already entertaining. "You might wanna keep your mind in the present, my boy," Jackie told him calmly. "A lack of focus in the jungle can get even the mightiest lions killed. Never mind the cubs." Krillin felt a surge of indignant anger at being called a cub and ran in for the attack. 'Rookie mistake,' Jackie thought disapprovingly as he sidestepped Krillin's charge. But as he turned around with either a counterattack or a further lecture in mind– he wasn't really sure which one yet– Krillin pushed off the ring with his hands and threw back a kick that caught Jackie squarely in the jaw and make him stagger back. Jackie took a moment to touch a finger to his lip, surprised at the boy's strength. In the last few months of their training, Roshi'd left the children more or less autonomous to spar with one another and develop on their own, so he hadn't quite been expecting this. As if that wasn't enough of a surprise, Krillin was actually fast enough to take advantage of Jackie's lapse in focus and continued the attack with a series of jabs and hooks to the torso, before finishing with a sharp elbow jab under the jaw that sent him reeling back.
"When a lion gets too old, even a cub can bring him down," Krillin retorted with a bit of a smirk, bursting with confidence at taking advantage in the opening salvo.
"Stay focused, Krillin!" Ten called encouragingly to his friend. He didn't want Krillin getting ahead of himself so early in the tournament.
"You can do it!" Chi-Chi shouted eagerly. Even if she was out of the tournament, she could still encourage and offer support to her friends.
With a slightly rueful chuckle, Jackie wagged a finger at Krillin. "Caught me sleeping there, sonny," he admitted before he hardened his gaze. "Won't happen again." He let out a cry of his own and went on the attack, shocking Krillin with his strength and speed as he pushed him back with an onslaught of attacks.
'Not good,' Krillin thought to himself in a panic. 'I need to get some distance!' He stuck his left arm out at his side– though this opened him to a blow to the ribs from Jackie– and fired a kiai to shoot him off to the side. He couldn't jump backward since he didn't know how much space he had and he didn't want to ring out. In the second it took Jackie to turn and face him again, Krillin managed to fire a ki blast at him that the old master deflected off into the sky. This at least gave Krillin an opening, though, and he came at Jackie with a sweeping kick that he leaped over and did a backflip to get away from, firing his own ki blast that Krillin jumped out of the way to dodge, right into a knee to the face as Jackie came back down.
"What incredible skill and power on display from both fighters!" Ken narrated enthusiastically. "It's hard to keep up! And this is only the first round!"
For his part, Yamcha was focused and quiet as Krillin and Jackie continued to trade blows. He was going to be fighting one of these guys in the next round and he'd never seen either of them fight. He'd never even heard of Jackie Chun and he considered himself something of an expert… or, as Bulma put it, a fight nerd.
Son Gohan and Gyuu were also watching with rapt attention. Aside from the brief spar with Tenshinhan and the Kamehameha that destroyed Fry Pan mountain respectively, they hadn't seen their master in action in decades. He was clearly still in good form.
Krillin crossed his arms in an "X" and dove at Jackie, sliding across the ring almost like a penguin to take out his legs again. But Jackie saw it coming and leaped high into the air, leaving Krillin to skid along until he could see the grass rushing up at the ring's edge. 'No, no, no, no! Not already!' Krillin threw his hands out and fired another kiai, launching himself backward and upward to where Jackie was already waiting for him, diving out of the sky with both fists. But Krillin sensed Jackie's ki approaching him in a moment of clarity and flipped up to meet him, cupping his hands at his side. 'Now or never!' He thought as he tried to focus and gather his ki like Tenshinhan had taught him. "Kamehameh–" but before he could finish, Jackie was already there, having put on an extra burst of speed to drive his fists into Krillin's stomach and send them both crashing to the ground, with the old man springing to his feet first.
"You reacted too slowly," Jackie told Krillin as the other was slow to pick himself up off the ground. "With a technique like the Kamehameha, especially as inexperienced as you are, you need to make sure the target is stationary, not rushing toward you."
Krillin scoffed and wiped blood from his mouth as he got back into his guard. "How do you know so much about the Kamehameha?" he asked hotly, not welcome to being talked down to by a stranger. "Let's see you do it!"
Jackie hummed thoughtfully and wondered if he should answer the young man's challenge. It would give up the game if he did and raise too many red flags. This disguise wasn't nearly as good as Bruce Lao, after all. "Never said I could," he lied. "Just said I've seen it better. In fact," he added as he put his fists at his sides and left himself wide open for an attack, "I'd bet if I gave you that exact opening I told you about, you still couldn't do it!" It might seem overly harsh, but he could see that Krillin was still too brash and needed a proper lesson in humility to be able to grow more.
"Fine!" Krillin snapped as he stomped his foot angrily. "I'll show you what I can do!" He pivoted to his side and put his hands together, focusing his ki and directing it toward his hands. "K-kaaa… meee… haaa… me…"
"Come on, Krillin," Tenshinhan muttered under his breath, "Focus!"
"HAAAA!" Krillin cried as he thrust his hands forward, firing a beam of… yellow ki from his hands. But Jackie Chun still wasn't moving, the beam was going right for him… and then through him. Tenshinhan dashed in front of the beam and kicked it up into the sky to protect the audience while Krillin was still stuck with his arms out, wondering what had happened to Jackie Chun.
"The Afterimage technique!" Gyuu whispered to Gohan, who nodded sagely.
"Like I said," the old man told him from behind, "You still have a lot to learn." Krillin spun and threw an elbow at Jackie, but that attack went right through him again.
"Krillin!" Chi-Chi cried. "On your left!" Krillin pivoted and saw a chop coming down toward his head. He brought his forearms up to block it, feeling pain shoot through his body from the impact and feeling the tiles cracking under him. Summoning all his remaining strength, he pushed Jackie off of him and went to go on the offensive again. But just as Krillin was making his move, Jackie was behind him again. Each time Krillin tried to retaliate, Jackie was already gone. Krillin kept attacking, kept swinging desperately, and soon enough Jackie wasn't even using the technique offensively and was just making a point to exhaust him.
"I… I…" Krillin swallowed thickly, sweating profusely as he put his hands up weakly, struggling to stay in his fighting stance. He couldn't breathe. He couldn't keep up. Jackie Chun didn't even seem to have broken a sweat, he wasn't even breathing heavily! Krillin… didn't have a chance. He knew when he was beaten. "...I give up," he admitted, collapsing to his knees.
"Krillin surrenders! Jackie Chun is the winner! He will face Yamcha in the second round!" Krillin looked down dejectedly as the crowd cheered Jackie Chun. All his work in the last year and a half and he was eliminated in the first round of the finals. He felt so… helpless! What was the point, if some random guy no one had ever heard of completely outclassed him?!
"I look forward to facing you again at the next tournament," Jackie told him encouragingly as he put a hand on Krillin's shoulder. Krillin huffed and pulled his shoulder away and, for a moment, Jackie was worried if he'd gone too far. He'd only meant to teach the boy some humility, not crush his spirit. He was tempted to tell him the truth before Tenshinhan approached.
"Krillin," he said as he crouched down to be on the younger boy's level, "I know it doesn't feel like it, but you did great! I was having trouble keeping up with his movements but you were able to follow it and keep fighting. You've come so far in just over a year! I know you can keep getting stronger if you keep trying!"
Krillin smiled at that and nodded, letting Tenshinhan help him to his feet. Jackie had already left by that point, happy to leave the pep talk to his star pupil, with Krillin following behind soon after as Namu made his way into the ring. Yamcha squinted at Jackie suspiciously as a thought began to form in his mind.
"I thank you for giving that beast a lesson in humility," Namu told Tenshinhan pleasantly, "But you still stand between me and saving my people."
"I don't really have any need for money," Ten replied. "If I win, I promise to give you the prize money."
"Thank you again, but I cannot accept charity. I must do this on my own."
"Well, then," Ten said as he got into his fighting stance, "Good luck!"
"The same to you," Namu replied as he got into his own stance.
"Fighters ready?" Ken asked. "BEGIN!"