All in the Technique
By Moonraker One
2. Late Dragonball
Chapter One – First Public Appearance
The theme of the Tenka'ichi Budokai was always one of excitement, and now that it was back again after three years, everyone was eagerly anticipating a glorious return of the one who had won the tournament the past years; Jackie Chun, a.k.a. Kame-sen'nin in disguise. Everyone, that is, except for a certain someone. He was someone who had quite a problem with the turtle master.
In any case, he was not here simply to get revenge on his old adversary; he was here for the tournament, for he wanted, after all these years, to have a student to show off at the Budokai. The last time he had a student, there was no Budokai, so now he figured it was high time. After all, he figured his student, Maron, had had just enough training to more than be a contender at this tournament. The greeting of adversaries, however, was not fun.
"KAME-SEN'NIN!" Hebi-sen'nin yelled, walking up to the contender's area. "What are you doing here?!"
Kame-sen'nin, complete with his own pupil, approached his old foe. "Ah, Hebi-sen'nin," he said. "Are you still angry at me for defeating you? Are you here to be defeated again?"
Hebi-sen'nin couldn't help but give a smirk. "Kame-sen'nin," he replied, "you beat me because I had not mastered the Snake Style completely yet. The next DAY after losing to you, I mastered the ultimate power of the snake style. Now, I would easily defeat you."
"Well," he replied, "I'm not going to be in the tournament, so I guess you won't get your revenge."
WE'LL see about that, Kame-sen'nin, he thought.
After signing up both him and Maron, Hebi-sen'nin escorted his student back into the qualifying area. This tournament brought all sorts of warriors from all corners of the planet, and all of them had the same prize in their sights. One thing that confused Hebi-sen'nin slightly was the presence of one of Tsuru-sen'nin's pupils in one of the other units. This was the student of a martial arts master who was infamous throughout the world of martial arts masters for teaching techniques that normally should not be taught, and for using less-than-creditable methods of training. It would seem that even the less-than-honorable were allowed to have pupils. In any case, Maron would have to watch out for whatever this student had in store for her.
Maron saw that here in the qualifying area, one person was standing at the edge of the ring that warriors qualified in; this was the boy that defeated the entire Red Ribbon Army. No one understood exactly how he defeated an entire army with just a stick as his weapon of choice, but she knew that this boy was powerful. It may have seemed weird, but this wasn't the last time she'd seen a boy that was younger than her and just as strong as many of the martial arts masters that taught pupils. The last time was the little brother of the duo that destroyed her village. He was only seven then, and now, he was certainly at least eleven. She would have given almost anything to be able to fight him here, at the tournament where lots of people would be able to see his defeat.
"Hello," Maron said, walking up to the defeater of the RR army. "My name is Maron, and I'm going to be fighting you later on in the tournament."
The boy reached up and shook her hand. When he did, she noticed that his handshake was quite strong. "Hiya!" he replied. "My name is Son Goku! It was nice to meet you!"
Maron smiled at his childlike cheerfulness. He looked as though he was close to thirteen, and just a little bit shorter than her. She, who was sixteen and half a foot taller than him, was impressed by the outward cheeriness of Goku. She hoped that he would provide quite an opponent to challenge. The first of the qualifying rounds that she was interested in, was when Goku's training partner went up against a rather large foe. She looked at Goku, curious.
"That bald kid is your training partner, isn't he?" She asked, wondering herself exactly how she knew that as a fact. Suddenly, a thought hit her; was she reading his mind?
"Wow, you're smart!" He replied. "That's Kuririn, my friend and training partner."
She nodded her head in agreement; she thought that was the way it was. She was confused herself as to whether or not she really was reading his mind, when she noticed that she was able to hear his thoughts. He was analyzing his partner's fighting style and technique; this kid was incredible. She noticed that there wasn't a move that Kuririn was using that, by the time it was done, Goku hadn't analyzed and figured out its counterpart at least three different ways.
The fight was over almost as quickly as it began, meaning that it was Goku's turn to prove himself in combat. He calmly stepped into the square ring, and bowed to his opponent in respect for the battle code. Once the bell had rung, he flew forward faster than just about everyone could see, and slammed his elbow into his opponent. If that wasn't incredible enough, he did it with such control that he only sent his foe a foot out of the ring. Maron knew from that point on that Goku was going to be the most powerful antagonist that she'd ever fought up to that point. She looked forward to it.
Finally, it was her turn. She was pitted against some guy who had a diagonal scar on his left cheek, and one over his eye. She picked up that his name was Yamucha, but that was inconsequential.
"ROGA FU-FU KEN!" He screamed, and she knew that he was headed for his Fist of the Wolf Fang Gale. Instinctively, she bent herself over backwards so that his attack sailed directly above her. When he was caught off guard by this, she did an upward kick that sent him up towards and through the roof of the building. She then calmly stood up and walked towards the edge of the ring as he hit the ground unconscious.
"I look forward to our fight, Son Goku," she said smugly.
Goku shot her a confused glance as she walked away from the ring. How the heck did she defeat Yamucha? He thought. I thought that she was weak!
Obviously he did not know exactly who she was. She was Maron, a blue-haired girl that was quite powerful because she had trained under Hebi-sen'nin, who probably was the single greatest teacher of martial arts that ever lived. This meant that if you were going to fight her, you'd better be one of two things. You'd either have to be quite a powerful warrior, or someone who was incredibly lucky. It just happened that Goku managed to fit into both of these large categories.
It was quite a few people that had their dreams end when they lost the qualifying round at the Tenka'ichi Budokai, but by the time that the rounds had ended, Goku, Kuririn, Maron, Panpoot, Tenshinhan, Jackie Chun, Chaozu, and the Masked One had all qualified for the main aspects of the tournament. Now, it was the time of the decider: who would face who? Everyone wondered who they'd be fighting in this latest installment of the Tenkai. The Masked One was to draw first.
He arrogantly walked up and drew a one. This meant that he was to fight in the opening round of the Tenkai. The next was Panpoot, who walked up and drew a four. Kuririn, the short bald one, drew a two. The first match was decided: Kuririn vs. Masked One. Goku, friend of Kuririn and training partner, drew a three, pitting him against Panpoot. Two out of four matches were decided upon already. Tenshinhan, the ever-arrogant one who had three eyes, pulled out a five. He was followed by Jackie Chun, who bared an uncanny resemblance to Kame-sen'nin, was to fight him because he drew a six. By process of elimination, this left Maron with Chaozu for the beginning of the Tenkai. Everyone was on edge, and for good reason. This was, after all, the most prestigious tournament ever to be held. Everyone knew that if they were to win, they'd have to pull out every ounce of skill they had.