Sins of the Father

Chapter 34: All Eyes on Me

'Is… Bulma okay?' Launch was sitting behind the Capsule Corp heiress, her finger hovering within poking range. 'She looks… dead.'

'I asked the same question,' Rayne said, 'err- kind of.'

Launch shrugged, leaning away from Bulma. 'So we're the ungraceful quarterfinal losers eh?' She turned to her left; in between herself and Rayne, Chi-Chi was, like Bulma, snoring away. 'This sucks.'

'I don't know, it depends on how you look at it,' Rayne replied, casting her eyes towards the ring. 'If those idiots beat themselves within an inch of their lives and another after-tournament crisis happens, we'll have to save them. It's good to have that responsibility, right? Keeping yourself fresh for anything unexpected.'

'I guess,' Launch sourly agreed as she sank in her seat. 'Korin, I put on a good show, right?' she called out.

'Of course!' he replied positively, just out-of-sight.

In the row in front of Rayne, Chi-Chi, and Launch, and next to Bulma, Yajirobe frantically swung the device in his hands back and forth, up and down. 'Damn thing!... I got it to work before but now it's busted!' He tried to give the device back to Chiaotzu, who shrank away.

'Don't give it to me!' he protested. 'I don't know what I'm doing with that thing either.'

'Fine!' Yajirobe twisted to his other side. 'Then I'll just ask Bulma-'

'-Yajirobe, don't!-'

Yajirobe grabbed Bulma by the arm and started shaking her vigorously. 'Bulma! Bulmaaa!'

Chiaotzu gave a long, exasperated sigh.

Bulma's eyelids fluttered, then sleepily opened, as she slowly became aware of Yajirobe shaking her. '... What…' She turned to him, rubbing her eyes. '... What is it?...'

He presented the device. 'This thing is busted. It's not showing light on the screen anymore!'

When she saw the device, her expression instantly tightened, a frown pulling down on her face. 'Yea… that…' Bulma sighed, sinking her head into her hands. 'I don't know why I made that. It's not exact- it can't measure ki levels on a scale. It just… pickups on them and represents them by the intensity of light on its display. Just like how the dragon radar works. That detects whatever waves the dragonballs emit.'

Chiaotzu furrowed his eyebrows. 'I don't understand- if you think the device is intentionally flawed, then why did you make it?'

'I don't know… I think I just wanted to keep up with you guys, feel like I'm a part,' she gestured to the ring, 'of this world, you know?'

'You mean… with martial arts, and training, and all that?' Chi-Chi speculated.

'Yeah, that I've always loved science: inventing, prototyping, engineering, theorizing… but when Yamcha left Capsule Corp a few years back, I felt like he was going down a road I couldn't follow- tuning his skills by throwing himself into a bunch of crazy and challenging training routines, I guess. It's the same with everyone. Go off to a remote corner of the world and train your hardest. Some of us can hang with that, do that… but some of us can't.' She sunk lower into her hands. 'I just wanted to feel involved… It was a stupid thing to stay up a week straight making...'

'Ahh, jeez,' Chiaotzu murmured, 'Bulma…' Chi-Chi, Launch, and Rayne, who were all sitting behind her, all patted her on the back. Chiaotzu leaned towards her, catching her eyes. 'You're always going to be involved- it's who you are. You're Bulma Briefs!'

'Yea,' Rayne added, 'I know I speak for all of us when I say Capsule Corp is always going to feel like a second home to us.' Chiaotzu, Launch, and Chi-Chi nodded in agreement. While none of them had actually been inside Bulma's home, they trusted Rayne's word for the sake of making Bulma feel better. 'You've already helped us and kept with us in a ton of ways… if it weren't for you, we wouldn't have found the dragonballs, much less,' she made eye contact with Chi-Chi, 'know about them. So if it weren't for you, probably none of us would be here now. We only know each other because of you, Bulma.'

Bulma twisted around in her seat, her eyes darting between every supportive face. 'I guess,' she gave a slight smile, 'you all have a point.' She rested her head in her hands. 'Hmm… I should think of more group events…'

Suddenly, Bulma froze. 'What round is it?'

0o0o0

'Laaaaadies and Gentleeeeemen!' The announcer, in true announcer fashion, bent himself into an incredible shape with his enthusiasm. 'We're moving right on to the semifinals! First up- a rematch of last year's first semi-final; Tien vs. Krillin!'

Waving to the crowd, both fighters walked out and began to move to their respective positions on the ring. The announcer continued to whip the crowd into a frenzy. 'This has the makings of the match of the tournament, folks! And I'm not just saying that because this match last time ended up being very consequential in determining the winner, haha…' The announcer laughed nervously. 'No- what this match will showcase is two competitors, at the top of their games, giving all that they've got for us. Two fighters in their primes going at each other!' The crowd roared with approval. 'What's more exciting than that!?'

'So you're ready to throw down?' Krillin joked while bending his arms back, mimicking the enthusiasm of the announcer. 'I've got some new moves to try out…'

Tien pivoted on his pelvis, then settled into his trademark Crane defense. 'I've been waiting three years for this moment.'

No sooner had the word "BEGIN!" echo across the arena did the ring erupt into chaos. Krillin and Tien both blurred, their outlines zooming and jumping around. They would collide and become present for a few moments at a time whenever they landed hits on each other, but then they would again fade and dash away. Like phantoms, they moved around the ring at an impossible speed, so fast that any normal spectator couldn't keep track of them. The announcer shakily brought up the microphone to his mouth. 'I… something I can't see is surely happening!'

In the stands, even some of the trained fighters were having a hard time tracking Tien and Krillin. 'Are you kidding?...' Rayne muttered as she yanked her head to the left and right as when was needed of her. 'This is insane!'

'Is this... their warm-up?' Chi-Chi asked incredulously. 'How?'

'Eh,' Launch verbalized, decidedly unimpressed, 'it's not that spectacular.' Her eyes seemed to be tracking the action a little bit better than Rayne and Chi-Chi.

Chiaotzu- even though he was having a similar amount of trouble keeping up with the action that Rayne and Chi-Chi had- seemed more familiar with the experience. 'Tien's been driving himself like a madman to improve… this is pretty much what I expected.'

'Looks like Krillin was doing the same,' Chi-Chi commented.

Suddenly, Tien and Krillin met in the middle of the ring with a resounding booom, their legs pressed against one another. In the midst of their struggle, Tien smirked. 'Got you.'

Krillin's eyes contracted. 'What?'

A rush of wind swept towards the former monk's back and a pair of arms grappled Krillin from behind, lifting him off the ground and bending his arms backward. Trapped, Krillin began to receive a succession of blows hammering into his gut while the second Tien held him steady.

'Holy cow!' The announcer exclaimed, clearly excited that he was able to see what was going on again, 'Now there's three of them!'

His feet dangling in the air, there wasn't much Krillin could do to break the grip on him. So if you can't lose 'em… use 'em! Shifting his weight, he lurched forwards, dragging the second Tien lower to the ground. The original Tien couldn't pull his punch in time before smacking a heavy blow into his clone's head, dazing the copy and forcing him to release Krillin. Acting quickly, Krillin landed and jumped into the air, whipping Tien in the jaw with the tip of his foot and front-flipping to land behind the Crane fighter. Then, with as much energy as he could quickly summon, Krillin turned and launched a wide wave of ki at the two Tiens. The blast struck and threw them both to the ground, forcing the two of them to merge back into the same body.

Krillin allowed himself a few brief moments of satisfaction before spinning around and knocking away a jab that had been gunning for his neck. 'I'm glad we got that technique out of the way,' Krillin teased, struggling forearm-to-forearm with Tien. 'It's such a pain to deal with.'

An evil smile spread across Tien's face. 'Oh, I'm not quite done with it. There are a few techniques I've learned to use in conjunction with it…'

A few tense moments of staring, and they both resumed their high-speed game of cat-and-mouse.

0o0o0

'When did Krillin get so acrobatic?' Rayne wondered out loud as her eyes frantically flicked from side to side. 'He… he was… huh. I don't actually know... Was he an acrobat before joining up with us?'

'No, he was a monk,' Bulma answered. Opposed to everyone else around her, her eyes were glued to her device. Streaks of light were dancing in a strange pattern-like movement on the screen. For some reason or another, mild dissatisfaction dominated her face. 'The "Obin" temple, if I remember correctly'

'A monk?' Chi-Chi frowned, thinking. 'I guess that would explain his shaved head.'

'And the dots on his forehead,' Chiaotzu reminded everyone dryly. 'Seriously, did none of you make the connection when you saw those incense burns?'

Chi-Chi and Rayne let their silence speak for themselves.

'Launch,' Yajirobe asked after several seconds of this, 'do you, uh… have any more of those beans? The super special lima beans?'

'If you mean the senzu beans,' Launch responded, somewhat annoyed, 'then yes. But you're not allowed to have any.'

'What? Why not?'

'Because they're only to be used in an emergency,' Launch explained. 'They have incredible healing properties.'

'Oh, please.' Yajirobe began to stand up, 'just one more-'

'NO!' Launch snapped her head to Yajirobe and shot him a glare that could kill lesser beings. 'YOU GET NONE!'

More annoyed than scared, Yajirobe sat back down, grumbling to himself.

Chi-Chi's mouth squirmed for a moment, unsure how to proceed. 'I feel like you just overreacted,' she said eventually.

Launch glared at her, then Yajirobe. 'I've already had to explain how valuable the beans are to his cretin three times already. My patience is wearing thin.'

Surprised, Chi-Chi blinked. 'What? When?'

'After I gave him the bean the first time,' Launch sighed.

'But you were only together for like… a minute total after that.

'I know.'

'I concur with Launch,' Rayne jumped in, 'Yajirobe is an idiot.'

If he had heard or cared for what was just said about him, Yajirobe didn't react in the slightest.

0o0o0

Tien halted in the center of the ring and shot a thin golden beam from one finger at Krillin, then another, until a storm of blasts were heading in Krillin's direction. The Turtle fighter's form shifted and blurred as he moved forward, dodging the blasts like some sort of ephemeral ghost. As soon as Krillin come close enough, Tien ceased his ki barrage and ran forward, holding behind him a heavy punch. Somewhat unprepared for this, Krillin had to duck underneath the last golden beam and slide forward, bracing his arms in an X. Like a hammer hitting an anvil, Tien's blow rang across the ring, loud enough to wake anyone who had been sleeping up until this point. Seemingly unfazed, Krillin jumped off his feet at the earliest moment and whirled away from Tien's follow-up kick.

0o0o0

'Crazy…' Chi-Chi mumbled to herself. Her hands were clamped down on the seat beneath her. How are they this fast?

'I know, huh?' someone responded to her right. Chi-Chi glanced over; she then did a double-take. 'Suno? How'd you sneak up on me?'

Suno looked at Chi-Chi like she had just asked an incredibly dumb question. 'You- all of you- are completely captivated by this match right now. You wouldn't notice if an army had crept up on you.' Suno turned her attention to the ring. 'Speaking of the match… are those your friends out there?'

'Sure is,' Chi-Chi replied, nodding. 'The tall one is Tien. The shorter one is Krillin.'

They watched in silence for a moment. Krillin and Tien broke out of their super-fast movement briefly to engage in a quick series of blows. Krillin pushed Tien backward with a rapid sequence of jabs and chops, forcing the Crane fighter on the defensive. Just as Krillin looked to be gaining the upper hand, his overhead double-fist passed harmlessly through Tien's body. A second later, Tien appeared behind Krillin and dive kicked him in the back down to the ground. Krillin vaulted and righted himself, then launched himself once more at Tien.

As their guards crashed against, Tien said through gritted teeth, 'Is this where we start getting serious?'

Krillin gave him a sly glance in response. 'I'm still warming up.'

'Hmm?' Tien grunted, tightening his face.

The next second, they were speeding across the ring again, locked in tight, close-quarter combat. There was a tangible difference in their exchange from earlier, however; Krillin's style had become much more complex. In addition to the heavy, damage-absorbing defense that was standard of the Turtle School, Krillin was also mixing in a more flowing style of offense that capitalized on successive and constant pressure. He landed four clean hits to Tien's block- and suddenly, the Crane fighter found Krillin in the air above him. The Turtle student flipped and planted two feet into the small of Tien's back. Tien toppled forward like a domino and narrowly rolled away from a knee Krillin planted into the tiles.

Krillin gave him a smile and faded away, using the afterimage again. Attentively, Tien twisted around, scanning the ring for where he had gone. Before he had even turned a half-circle, however, Krillin charged at him from across the ring like a train, rushing right up to him and landing an explosive uppercut to Tien's head, stunning the Crane fighter and sending him sailing through the air. Not wasting a single movement, Krillin immediately jumped up after Tien and gripped him at his sides like a plank of wood. With a heave, Krillin pulled and threw Tien's body back down onto the tiles, creating a short, shallow trough in the ring. No sooner had Krillin touched back down on the ground, a spurt of ki blew him off his feet and onto his back.

Scratching the back of his head in confusion, the announcer passively watched Tien and Krillin scramble to their feet.

0o0o0

'They're not very showy, are they?' Launch said, suppressing an urge to yawn. 'I mean, yeah, they're fast, but do they know how to put on a good show?'

As if answering her question, Krillin lost his footing on a block and flopped to the ground, landing on his side. Only a quick roll saved him from being punted by Tien like a football.

'We're… past the warm-up stage, right?' Chi-Chi asked hesitantly.

'Sure are,' Korin mused. 'I bet even King Piccolo 2 in the corner is wishing for this match to end. If he had a set of dragonballs…'

'Haha,' Launch faux-laughed, 'very funny, Korin.'

Korin didn't look away from the ring. 'I'm not kidding. That's definitely him, or someone closely related to him.' He cocked his head to one side. 'Maybe a niece/nephew?'

'I thought we agreed that this guy couldn't possibly be King Piccolo,' Chi-Chi said, somewhat irritated.

'I didn't agree to anything,' Korin replied. 'Trust my eight-hundred-year-old cat brain; that guy is familiar…

'That's weird, because I don't remember you fighting King Piccolo in West City,' Launch said pointedly to Korin. 'How would you know if that guy looks familiar?'

Korin snorted. 'Did you catch what I just said? Eight-hundred-year-old cat brain? It's true, I didn't see him three years ago… but I certainly saw him three hundred years before that.'

Everyone clammed up. 'You're… over three hundred years old?' Launch asked, voicing the question on everyone's mind. 'How?'

'I may or may not be immortal.' Korin frowned in thought. 'Doesn't matter,' he continued after a moment. 'Fact is, I got up close and personal with the first King Piccolo in his first prime; you don't really forget something like that.'

'Something like what?' Rayne probed, curious.

'Standing toe-to-toe with the Demon King and trying to stop him yourself.' Korin's eyes glossed over, seemingly lost in a memory. 'Good times…' he said wistfully.

Leaning forward, Yajirobe glanced over at Korin and asked, 'How old did you say you were?'

0o0o0

Shaking off the last blow, Tien pulled himself up from one knee. He wiped away some blood trickling out of a gash on his jawline. Krillin, looking a little worse for wear, kept his eyes trained on Tien.

'Yea,' Tien said, his tone decidedly irked, 'I'm done with this.' Without any warning, Tien began flying up into the sky.

'...And there he goes!' The announcer proclaimed, adjusting his sunglasses as he tilted his head up.

On the ring, Krillin briefly debated whether to respond appropriately- but I think the fewer techniques I use now, the better…

Once he reached about fifty feet above the ring, Tien halted and froze statue-esque for a few moments. His body shimmered side-to-side, like a moving projection, until it separated totally into three separate Tiens. The Tiens quickly positioned themselves to form an airborne circle above Krillin.

0o0o0

'Why isn't Krillin doing anything?' Rayne demanded, 'Tien's getting all this time to prepare!'

'It's not like Krillin can really do anything,' Chiaotzu commented while stretching. I'm not sure if he can fly, and it's not like he can move out of bounds.'

'And it's hard to hit a moving target in the sky with a ki blast,' Chi-Chi said. 'The best he can do is to wait for Tien to try something and counter-attack him. Or them, in this case…'

0o0o0

'Remember what I said earlier?' One of the Tiens shouted down to Krillin, 'about using this move with something else?' Ominously, the three Tiens in unison formed a triangle with their hands, aiming at an angle towards a spot over Krillin's head. 'I call this!' another said, 'the Tri-Ray!' Another finished.

There was a pause as each Tien pulsed with light; then, a yellow triangular beam shot out from every pair of hands, screeching down towards a center-point in the sky. When these beams met, however, instead of detonating they merged together and shot down to the ring as one collective blast.

The attack bore down- before anyone could see what Krillin would do, the light from the blast obscured him.

'Woah!' The announcer nearly got swept off his feet by the wind rolling off the ring, as the blast phoomed and brcckkked into the earth. 'I… woah!'

Energy bled into the air, throwing up smoke and particles in a vertical plume. Silently, the three Tiens came back together as one. His shoulders drooping, he lowered himself closer to the ground to get a better view of how successful his attack had been.

A few seconds passed. The smoke cleared up some, but there was no sign of Krillin. Oh, don't tell me… Filled with expectant dread, Tien lifted his head towards the sky.

Not a moment later, Krillin fell from the sky, landing square in the center of the ring. The bottom half of his gi was singed, like he had run through fire, but even stranger, he was missing the top half of his gi and his boots. If this was news to Krillin, he didn't show it; he was already positioning himself to continue the fight.

Tien glared down at Krillin before he strangled out through his disbelief, '...what?'

'I jumped,' Krillin replied quickly, 'now let's get on with the match!'

Confusion dominated Tien's face. He… jumped? What!? Then, Tien noticed two things at once. He realized that he was tired- the energy attack he had used had consumed a lot of his energy- and that Krillin was catching his breath ever-so-slightly. A memory flashed through his head.

'This would have been a good match,' Tien said after a moment, hovering down to be closer to Krillin.

'Yea, it would-' Krillin halted mid-sentence. 'Wait, what?'

'Besides,' Tien added, 'I need to hold up my end of the deal.' Without any fanfare, Tien lowered himself to the grass, touching out-of-bounds.

'Ri- ring out!' The announcer forced out through his bewilderment. 'Tien is out-of-bounds! Krillin moves onto the finals!'

The crowd might as well not have existed to Krillin in that movement. He immediately ran over to Tien. 'What was that?' He questioned. 'Our match-'

'Was over. If we kept fighting, it would have gone on until one of us couldn't stand. I got a good look at how much you've improved- and I'm sure you got a good look at me. I'm satisfied in that regard. But I had to resign to fulfill my end of the deal from the last tournament.'

Their last match- and Tien's pre-match offer- zipped through Krillin's mind. 'But- but this is a different tournament. And I never agreed to let you resign for me!'

Tien shrugged. 'Doesn't matter. You didn't take the deal last time, so I made you take it this time. You know what this means, right?'

Completely lost, Krillin shook his head. 'No, I don't.'

Tien drew closer. 'It means,' he said to Krillin in a hush-hush tone, 'I trust you to win. To beat that guy in the final- distant relative of King Piccolo or not.'

Bemused, Krillin arched one eyebrow at Tien. 'You don't think it'll be Yamcha?'

Taking one look at the competitors' area, Tien gave Krillin a small, taciturn smile. He began turning to head towards where everyone was sitting in the stands, but he abruptly stopped himself halfway through. 'I would like to know how you got out of that last attack, though,' he asked.

Krillin glanced over at his discarded shirt; it was laying in a heap near Tien on the grass. 'Go pick up my shirt,' he said, smiling.

'What?'

'Just do it on your way out. Trust me.'

Tien gave Krillin a strange look, but in the end he relented and walked over to the garment. When he bent to pick it up, he nearly yanked himself to the ground when the thing didn't initially budge. Growling, and with both hands, he gathered up the item in his arms, cradling it and moving it slightly to get a feel of its weight. He gave it back to Krillin and said through clenched teeth, 'This- this weighs-'

Krillin shushed him, bringing a finger up this to his own mouth. 'Not. A word.'

'Uhgh,' Tien said, disgusted with himself. 'If I knew you were holding this much back, I would have stayed in the match longer.'

Krillin looked at him. 'Were you-'

Tien smiled, mimicking what Krillin had done earlier. 'Not. A word.'

0o0o0

Despite his outward appearance of disinterest, Majunior hadn't missed a single word of Tien and Krillin's conversation. He narrowed his eyes at Krillin as the Turtle student walked off the ring.

0o0o0

Everyone was staring at Tien as he noiselessly took a seat among them. After a few tense seconds of silence, Launch opened her mouth. 'Tien-'

'I was repaying a debt,' he said, 'a debt I now regret paying…'

0o0o0

There was a brief one-minute break for the tournament officials to inspect the ring for any damage- miraculously, there was none- before Yamcha and Majunior were led onto the ring by the announcer. Before Yamcha went up, he exchanged a curt nod with the returning Krillin.

This is it. Summoning all the outward braggadocio he could, Yamcha played into the crowd's energy, waving and encouraging them to get louder. If I learned one thing from all those posers in the quarterfinals, Yamcha thought while beaming at the stands, it's that they would have been a lot more annoying to fight if they had a crowd behind them. With one final gesture, he turned his attention to Majunior. The green-skinned humanoid looked wholly unconcerned with his lack of support from the crowd.

'All ready?' the announcer swung his head to both of them. After they both assented, the announcer turned back to the crowd, hyping into his mic as he walked off the ring. 'Ladies and Gentlemen! This, here and now, is the penultimate match of the tournament!' He paused to let the crowd explode into cheers.

As this was happening, Yamcha stepped closer to Majunior. 'I think I met your dad before,' Yamcha jeered.

Arms crossed, Majunior briefly glanced at the scarred fighter before looking away.

'Hmph.' Yamcha drew back to his side. Worth a shot.

The crowd quieted some. The announcer brought the mic back to his mouth. 'I give to you, the wonderful crowd gathered here, the second semi-final of the 23rd World Martial Arts Tournament! The announcer stepped out onto the grass and spun on his heels. 'Yamcha and Majunior,' he swung his arm to each as he said their name, 'begin!'

In an instant, Yamcha and Majunior met in the middle of the ring, their forearms crashing together and producing a phoom that swept across the arena. From the very first strike, they were fighting at a higher level seen throughout the entire match between Chi-Chi and Piccolo.

0o0o0

Sulking in the stands, Chi-Chi stewed to herself. 'Should have trained more…' she muttered.

'Chi-Chi, can you give us any inside info on this guy?' Rayne asked from her left side. 'Something you learned during your match with him?'

'No… not really.' Nothing I understood, anyway. Rayne's question got her thinking. What did Majunior mean when he said: "not a priority"? I guess, at the very least, he knew me well enough to sort me in importance… compared to others? She felt a headache coming on. Great.

0o0o0

Yamcha palmed a fist from Majunior and jumped high into the air, his black hair fluttering around his face. When he landed behind Majunior, he lashed out a low kick, but with a ruffling of his gi Majunior snapped around and blocked the kick with his own. Their legs struggled briefly with each other before Yamcha broke if off with a spin move that sent out a wayward blue ball of ki towards his opponent. Majunior batted the attack into the air, grimacing. The blue ball zoomed into the sky and quickly dispersed.

Stopping his circular movement, Yamcha briefly tracked his blast fly away harmlessly. 'You know, I- Eeee!' He was cut off as an elbow flashed across his face, nearly hitting him if it weren't for his quick reflexes. Majunior threw himself on the offensive, unleashing a barrage of elbows, chops, and punches, all aimed at breaking open Yamcha's guard. While his feet were scraping back across the ring, Yamcha scanned the ground with his eyes.

There. With a quick flip of his foot, Yamcha uprooted a tile from the ring's surface, revealing the packed dirt underneath. Focused on his offensive, Majunior misstepped into the small gap, momentarily losing his balance. Seizing the initiative, Yamcha ducked underneath an errant swing from Majunior and propelled himself forward, ramming his shoulder into Majunior's gut. Reeling, Majunior was defenseless as Yamcha released a savage series of blows, startling with their speed and weight. He finished by crashing two fists up into Majunior's jaw, knocking him off his feet and laying him up on the ring by his back. As quick as he was able to, Yamcha held up one triumphant fist for the crowd, intensifying their cheers. I think I hear my own name out there…

0o0o0

'What is he doing?' Tien asked irritably. 'He should be focusing on the fight.'

Suno looked around at the people in the stands around them. 'No, look…'

It became apparent that where they were sitting- where the actual friends of Yamcha were- was the quietest in its chants for the scarred fighter. All around them, people were jumping up and down and hollering with excitement. There were already banners being flown around with Yamcha's name on it.

Launch was the first to see this. 'That was quick,' she said drily.

'So he has a bunch of cheering fans,' Tien grumbled. 'How does that help him win the fight?'

'Maybe he's trying to get under Majunior's skin?' Chiaotzu suggested. 'Rattle him and gain an advantage?'

'He doesn't seem like the type to be rattled easily,' Chi-Chi offered. 'From what I saw, at least. I guess we'll see…'

0o0o0

Majunior silently picked himself off the ground, a sneer stuck to his face. 'You're an annoyance,' he said succinctly, making it clear how little he thought of the human fighter.

'Oh? So it talks?'

Grimacing, Majunior grabbed the white cowl around his neck and began to loosen it, but half-way through pulling it off, he had an apparent change of heart and let the garment fall back on his shoulders. 'No,' he stated, 'not yet. Not for the likes of you. Hrrrm…' Bending himself closer to the ground, Majunior positioned his arms away from his body like the legs of a spider and bent his hands into fierce claws. A flicker of wind began to rush over the arena, briefly rustling through the out-of-bounds grass. Yamcha watched as Piccolo summoned a white-yellow aura, coiling and shimmering with unrequited power.

0o0o0

'Huh…' Bulma placed the device next to her feet. So much light was spilling across the screen to the point of being indecipherable. 'It's getting a little hot.'

A few seconds later, the device exploded. The sound it made and Bulma's yelp snapped everyone's attention from the fight.

She quickly grabbed as many pieces of it that were left and held it up pitifully. '...what?...'

0o0o0

Yamcha squinted through the haze of light emanating from Majunior. Yea…. that's not good.

With one last yell, Majunior finished calling forth his ki. His aura faded back into nothingness- but anyone who could sense him knew better. Yamcha planted one foot behind him, a frown of concern spreading across his face.

In an instant, they were off, crashing against each other and going blow-for-blow in the center of the ring. Piccolo swept his leg underneath Yamcha, trying to topple the scarred fighter, but Yamcha preemptively jumped into the air, using his little knowledge of flight to push himself further into the sky. Finally, a breath- Crap!

Like a rocket, Majunior chased after Yamcha into the sky. Yamcha only had a moment to bring his arms up in a block before Piccolo's head smashed against it, shooting him further into the air. All at once Majunior was on him, ramming and kneeing the human fighter higher and higher off the ground. Snarling, Yamcha burned through more of his ki to fly a bit faster, narrowly dodging a kick from Majunior, and drew his arms back to his side. 'Kamehameha!' He yelled as a thick, loping blue beam collided downwards against Majunior. After being pushed down for a few moments, Majunior succeeded in throwing off the blast, dispersing it harmlessly in a shower of fragmented ki around him.

Yamcha thought to himself as clearly as he could, permitting the circumstances. Okay. We're really high in the sky. I really can't go up any further. I have to come down- a diabolical idea crossed Yamcha's mind. Why not bring a friend?

Majunior rushed up again at Yamcha, swiping a hand through the human fighter's afterimage. Right above the afterimage, Yamcha came crashing down with a kick, impacting the center of Majunior's body. With Yamcha's momentum, the two of them began to plummet down to the ground.

A massive exchange of punches and kicks flew between them, many of them finding their targets due to the difficulty in defending while falling through the air. Yamcha seemed to be getting the worst of it- at one point, after a dazing blow to the head, Piccolo flipped in mid-air and planted both feet into Yamcha's midsection, accelerating his descent.

The ring was rapidly approaching now. Seizing the opportunity, Majunior accelerated himself to land one more clean blow on Yamcha before he cratered into the ground. Just as he reached the falling form of the human fighter, however, Yamcha faded away. A second later, two arms grabbed Majunior's shoulders from behind, restraining him. 'Going down!'

Stacked on Majunior's back, Yamcha crashed into the ground with Majunior held as his landing pad. Whole tiles flew off into the sky as an impossibly huge cloud of dust obscured the entire arena. Spectators coughed and sputtered, loudest among them being the announcer, who had failed to shut off his microphone before breaking into a coughing fit.

By the time everyone had finished choking on dust, the air had cleared enough to make the ring visible once more. Surprisingly, neither fighter was standing- two motionless outlines could be seen in the impact crater.

0o0o0

'Did- did he do it?' Chi-Chi asked uncertainly. 'And knock himself out at the same time?'

'No-' Tien's face was crossed with concentration. 'It's faint, but you can still feel their kis… this fight isn't over yet.'

0o0o0

The announcer slowly crept forward, watching for any sign of movement. He stopped encroaching, however, when one body in the crater started to stir. Haggardly, Yamcha began to stand. His gi was scuffed and torn in some places, but amazingly, he looked largely unharmed. Stumbling like he was remembering how to use his arms and legs, he staggered over towards the announcer. 'Well?' he croaked. 'Get counting.'

Nodding, the announcer raised his mic. 'Majunior has ten seconds to rise! Nine! Eight!...'

Halfway through the word "seven", Majunior weakly pushed himself off the ground, his entire face screwed in concentration. Moving from a kneel to one knee to standing, Majunior kept himself composed the entire time. Startlingly, he looked to be in a similar shape to Yamcha; there were no clear injuries from the fall despite being on the worse end of it.

Once Yamcha saw Majunior walk out of the crater, he steeled himself, letting out a long sigh. Tensing, he raised his guard. I'm not giving up. Not yet!...

Majunior's eyes were fixed on him, gleaming with sinister intent. His hands clenched and unclenched repeatedly.

The announcer backed away from the ring like a frightened rabbit- the next moment, Yamcha and Majunior charged towards each other, each holding back a cocked fist. With a mighty booom, they impacted fist-to-fist, each fighter briefly battling to push their opponent back.

Majunior ran out of patience first. Quickly raising his other hand, he point-blank hit Yamcha with a yellow ki blast, knocking the scarred fighter off balance and causing his fist to slide to the left. Majunior surged forward with his original hand and delivered a crushing strike to Yamcha's chest, stunning the human fighter. Yamcha's body became a punching bag as Majunior rammed blow after blow into him, eliciting a groan of pain from Yamcha for every hit. Feebly, Yamcha hopped back and tried to raise his arms to block the next hit, but with lightning-quick speed Piccolo circled around and kneed Yamcha in the back, topping the scarred fighter to the ground. This time, Yamcha didn't bounce back up.

Yep… I'm almost ready to give up. His legs shaking, Yamcha used his hands to rise to a squat. With even more effort, he stood.

Majunior had briefly moved away from the ring, seemingly interested by something in the crowd. His head was locked in place, throwing out his gaze like a lighthouse.

Yamcha wasn't going to question a gift like this; with all the focus he could muster, he slowly dragged his ki to the surface, forming a gentle white-blue aura around him. This seemed to catch his opponent's attention- Majunior swung back towards Yamcha, his eyes betraying no amount of emotion.

I'm only going to have one shot at this… He pawed at the ground with his back foot, making faint scuff marks on the tiles. All-or-nothing…

Unintimidated by Yamcha's charge-up, Majunior began to advance. When Majunior was halfway across the ring, he was beset.

With a loud yell, Yamcha had crashed against Majunior's hasty block with astounding speed, his aura dancing and curling off madly from his body. Strike after strike speeded in Majunior's direction, and slowly, an expression of exertion began to appear on his normally stoic face. Yamcha was relentless; his aura seemed to travel with his moves, almost forming a field around him that would batter against Majunior's body whenever Yamcha's physical strike was blocked.

A punch screamed towards Majunior's head. Cursing, Majunior wrenched his head down and backward as the fist passed a few inches away from his face. When the fist spent its forward momentum, however, Yamcha swung it downwards, slamming directly into Maunior's face. Staggering back, another fist rammed into Majunior, impacting into his gut like a cinder block. The intensity of Yamcha's offense jumped. With his first real opening in the current bout, Yamcha began to whisper under his breath, 'Wolf…'

The aura surrounding Yamcha coalesced, like a cloud condensing into a quickening rainstorm. More and more strikes pushed past Majunior's defenses. 'Fang!...' Yamcha said, just loud enough to be heard by the nearby announcer.

Thickened into a single thread, the aura suddenly expanded, forming a massive, streaking stack of thick blue lines in the air that surrounded Yamcha. Majunior was being battered now; any pretense of a defense was gone.

'FIST!' He yelled for all the crowd to hear as he brought his arms into an "X" and lashed out. His arms clawed and palmed from every angle imaginable, turning Majunior's purple gi into scraps and ribbons that flew out to either side of him. Yamcha's aura flew with his strikes, similarly slashing across Majunior like spectral swords. With a final motion, Yamcha brought his clawed hands above his head and raked Majunior diagonally in-sync with the last of the blue lines hovering around him. The force behind this was maneuver was so great- a deafening brrrzh rang out- that both Majunior and Yamcha fell to the ground away from each other, both catching themselves on one knee.

With bated breath, everyone waited for one of them to stand.

It took some time, but eventually, Majunior pushed himself off the ground. The front to his gi was almost non-existent, his green skin was patterned with thin trickles of purple blood, but his posture told a different story. His back was straight, unbent. For all the awe and terror Yamcha's attack invoked, Majunior was largely unharmed.

Yamcha, looking up and to his right, saw as much. With one weary wave of his hand, he signaled his intent to the rest of the world.

'Forfeit!' The announcer exhaled, clearly in as much suspense as the crowd had been in. 'Yamcha has forfeit! Thus; Majunior advances to the final!'

Still caught up in process of recovering from that tense moment, the crowd offered a half-hearted series of cheers.

For a moment, Majunior glowered down at Yamcha, his fingers working and weaving across his body to repair his gi. Once his clothes were in perfect condition again, he spoke. 'I don't know who you are,' Majunior growled, 'but-' his tone grew less hostile, '- considering that, you fought well for a human.' With a twirl of his cape, he strode off the ring.

Yamcha's eyes tracked the receding green-skinned fighter, his own glare gradually weakening with time. Very… odd.

0o0o0

'So… that wasn't just me, right?' Chiaotzu asked, looking around at everyone else. 'Majunior looked right at us, yeah?'

'Yep.'

'Uh huh.'

'Looks like it.'

'Maybe.'

'I'm not convinced.'

'Who?'

Everyone turned their heads to Yajirobe; the samurai had a confused expression on his face. 'Who are we talking about?'

0o0o0

As Majunior was walking back towards his side of the competitors' area- which at this point solely consisted of himself and his quarterfinal opponent- Krillin stepped into his path, a dark look tugging on his face. 'I'm surprised I didn't notice it earlier,' he breathed, his gaze never wavering from Majunior's. 'But when you looked towards the crowd, you gave yourself away…'

Nostrils flaring, Majunior glared at Krillin with as much scorn as he could muster. 'You were foolish to come here.' He pushed himself past; his cape flapped against Krillin's side. 'Every single one of you. Now, you'll have no chance to hide.'

For a moment, Krillin found himself staring at Majunior's back, his willingness to speak deserting him. But a burning question raged in his mind. 'We buried you...' Krillin muttered, 'in the dirt in West City… you can't-'

A soft, dark chuckle escaped from Majunior's mouth. Startled, Krillin turned towards the green-skinned humanoid. He had his head half-turned in Krillin's direction. 'Don't confuse me with my father,' he said almost advisory, 'or you'll make the same mistakes.' With that, Majunior walked off.

Dully, the announcer's voice floated into Krillin's consciousness, subsuming into the mental chaos he was experiencing. Five Minutes. I have five minutes...

Reviews:

LWexe: It was fun to write! And I always found it weird that the announcer didn't have a name.

OneofTen: Your uncertainty just became a lot less uncertain. But I'm glad people came away from my story feeling that. Different characters are going to have different moments to shine throughout the entire story. No one person is going to dominate the entire way through.

Hey, you never know, right! I probably should have been more specific as to it being the last quarterfinal chapter "of DB". I'm not ruling out coming back to a tournament setting for a future chapter- but dang, they're always a ton of work.

Legendary-AI: I took your recommendation and removed the previous title from the description. The fic name change was long enough ago now to be removed.

Right now I'm 50/50 as to whether post any power levels for this arc. I have vague numbers but nothing I'm really thought out. To be honest, I'm very excited to get to the point in the story where I can either a) introduce power levels organically through scouter readings or b) have some sort of strength tier system to place characters on. Dunno. We'll see.