CHAPTER FOUR

THE CUP OF LIFE.. ALAY ALAY ALAY..
The line of hopeful contestants spiraled out of the back entrance to the pavilion. Akane bit her fingernails as she watched them come and go. She had made the preliminary rounds. SHE had! Akane Tendo, who only months ago couldn't even gather the power of her own energy was now actually participating in the Tenkaichi Boudokai! She hopped up and down suddenly like a little girl.
"What's wrong with you?" Ranma-Chan raised her eyebrow at Akane.
"I'm so excited!!" Akane could not be angered. She was too happy.
Ranma stared at her. She glowed with excitement and pride. Ranma had never seen her quite like that before.
Ryoga scanned the crowd. "Where are our Sensei?"
"I dunno, they said they had to register as trainers." Ranma helped him look. Suddenly she spied Akago. "There," she pointed.
Akago was accompanied by a boy wearing his samurai helmet and pieces of his armor that fit. He waddled along beside him with some difficulty.
"Oh my god, is that Gosan?"
"Hey guys," the sibs said in unison.
"Why are you wearing that ridiculous outfit?" Akane was fearless in her zeal.
"'Cause there are people in the audience we don't want to recognize him."
"Oh," she replied, satisfied.
Akago was glad the subject was dropped. "Did you guys get your numbers?"
"42," nodded Ryoga.
"21!" smirked Akane.
"...Sixty nine," grumbled Ranma. Everyone but Ranma and Gosan chuckled.

Atsuko sat down between her mother-in-law and her husband. They weren't the best seats, but one could see just fine from where they were, especially if their vision had been trained. She stared at the square fighting surface she and her family had once fought each other on a year before Akago was born. She became lost in her memories.
"It's too bad the kids are still out on their mission," commented Gohan. "they could probably still find someone who'd be a match for them here."
"I don't know about that Gohan," Goku sipped an over-sized soda. "They've gotten to the point where they can hardly hold back anymore. That's why I sent them out into the world. They need to see how everyone else fights."
"What makes you think they're fighting?" Grama Chi-Chi looked cross. "They're probably goofing off! I knew Gosan looked al little too pleased when he found out you were forbidding them from taking books with them!"
"Mom," Goten laughed a little at her unyielding attitude, "they're Saiyans. They can't help it! Isn't that right, Nyoku?" the little girl nodded squeezed her large, yellow, stuffed animal bashfully.
Trunks laughed a little. He had only seen the crazy Saiyan family in action a few times and was a little upset that they weren't participating today. Yamcha passed his son a bag of peanuts. Bulma sniffed hers apprehensively.
Atsuko was brought out of her trance and sighed. Gohan wrapped his arm around her shoulders. "I think it's finally starting."

A fanfare played and the MC came out into the middle of the ring. He began to announce the eight contestants.
"All of our finalists will now draw numbers to see who will fight who!!"
"Jack Frost, number 5! Ghost, number 2! Ranma Saotome, number 7! Tha Crusha, number 4!"
No one knew who they were fighting yet; the tension built in both the audience and the competitors.
"Kuso Tare.." a ripple of laughter rolled through the crowd, "number 1! Akane Tendo.."
Soun stood up and cheered ridiculously loudly. Genma and Kasumi attempted to sedate him. He bumped into the guy next to him, spilling his over-sized soda a little.
"Oh! I'm terribly sorry, sir. I'm just so excited for my daughter!"
"Hey, It's ok, I understand!" Goku waved his apology off.
"..number 6! Lady Maki.."
'Please don't make me fight Ryoga yet!'
'Please don't make me fight Ranma yet!'
"..number 3!"
"Whew!!"
"..and finally Ryoga Hibiki, the last remaining slot, number 8! Everyone please get ready for our first round in this, the 32nd Tenkai.... Ichi... Bou.. Do.. Kai!!!

Team Tendo sat on a bench and watched the first fight. Akago and Gosan studied the moves of the contestants carefully with stoic faces. Ranma, Akane and Ryoga stared, amazed and anxious at the fight. Tare leapt a hundred feet into the air to avoid a simple punch from Frost. Frost looked up, smiled and faded. Tare fell straight down where he expected his opponent to be, only to find him a little to the left.
One pushed the other close to the edge of the ring a couple times before they resorted to interesting techniques. Tare faked Frost out, whirled around to his back and reached down his pants. He pulled up the man's underwear as he leapt up again, shouting what sounded like 'Melvin!'. This disabled Frost momentarily and he almost got pushed out. He countered with the first power attack of the day. He held up his hand and shot an icy beam at Tare's legs. He jumped, but not fast enough. One of his legs was encased in ice. He hollered at the cold and was distracted long enough for Frost to form a base-ball bat out of ice and base-hit him out of the ring.
"Match one goes to Jack Frost!"
"Ryoga. If you have to fight him, don't use your ShiShi Hokudan against him," Akago warned.
"Why not, Sensei?"
"Because it's not warm enough to stop him."
Gosan stood and clapped his hands together. "Ok, Akane, You're up!"
"I'm scared," she admitted.
"Aw come on, This is fun! There's nothing to be afraid of!"
"My family is in the audience! They'll see me lose!"
"They'll what!?" Gosan did not understand how she could possibly feel this way, but he struggled, just for her. "Hey, first of all, look where you are. You're at the Tenkaichi Boudokai! No, you're IN the Tenkaichi Boudokai! You, Akane Tendo, are actually gonna fight a match in front of thousands of people who will be cheering you on and you're gonna give it all you got. It's the least you can do. Do you actually think that anyone's gonna call you a loser after this no matter what happens out there?"
"No.."
"Ok then." he smiled in full confidence of her abilities. "Go get em!"
She smiled gratefully at him and turned to go out. Akago put his hand on her shoulder.
"Akane, this guy calls himself Ghost; what does that tell you?"
"He's gonna use illusory tricks on me."
"So what do you do?"
"Keep more than my eyes open."
"Right."
She looked to the over-crowded stands, searching for her family.
"Akane," Ranma stuck her hand out. "Good luck."
She smiled, shook it and stepped into the ring.

Ghost seemed to hover onto the fighting surface. He took off his long flowing cloak and revealed his pale, thin form. He smiled thinly at Akane as he bowed. She shuddered a bit at his appearance, but steeled herself for the fight. She perked up her ears and spread her fingers to feel for his Ki signature.
"Got it," she whispered and the fight began.
It started out fairly simply, blow for blow she matched this wraith-like creature. He was fast. She had to be faster. His leg swung up to connect with her head, but was blocked by her own leg. He seemed surprised. He smiled sickly and disappeared. Akane gasped and took a hit to the back of the head.
"Feel him out, Akane!" Akago shouted.
She cursed herself and closed her eyes. He was like a cold patch in a swimming pool. From the left! She threw out her fist deftly and felt it connect. She opened her eyes and looked for Ghost. She didn't see him at first and almost panicked, but the cheers from the crowed made her look down. He was in a pile at her feet. The referees came onto the ring and declared Ghost KO'd.
"Match two goes to Akane Tendo!"

"Yeah Akane!!!" the Tendo household shouted.
"Did you see that!?! She wasn't even looking!! Thank God for those boys!!" Soun bawled like a baby.

Ranma-chan made a slow sweep of the crowd. There were so many people! Her heart pounded. The only thing that dampened this day was that she had to appear in front of them as a girl. At least she was a good-looking girl! She made her way to the ring.
Lady Maki was tall and slender and dressed in a black and red, skin-tight cat-suit. She hissed at the girl as she bowed slightly. Ranma twitched slightly. 'No, don't think about it. She's a human being!' She sighed and concentrated. Maki lashed out at her with her long arms. Ranma bounced out of the way again and again.
"You can't run forever, girl!"
Ranma jumped over her head, satisfied with her estimation of her abilities. "You're right!" She planted her foot in the middle of Maki's back. She sprawled, tucked and rolled, springing back up and charged. Ranma jumped back three times. Maki's fingernails slashed Ranma's costume.
"Hey!" she growled "that was my favorite shirt!" and double-roundhoused her face. Ranma punched away one clawed hand and kicked another as Maki lashed out again. She uppercut the woman and sent her skittering to the edge of the ring. As she tried to catch her balance, Ranma threw herself at her and used her chest as a spring board. Maki hit the ground as Ranma back-flipped away from her. She landed like a gymnast in the middle of the ring. She struck a pose and smiled slyly as red roses fell all around her.
"Thank you, thank you." Ranma blew kisses as Ryoga and Akane dragged her off the playing surface.
"Match three goes to Ranma Saooootomeeeee!"

Ryoga removed his weighted wrist-bands and shoes. Akago took them from him and smiled. "Don't forget, you kill him, you get disqualified."
"Hai, Sensei." Ryoga smiled back, his confidence at an all time high. He stepped up to the ring. His opponent, Tha Crusha, was a seven foot black man with no neck and fists the size of his head. Ryoga whistled in calm wonder at the man's size.
"You're a big fella, ain't cha?"
Crusha simply growled.
"Ok," he bowed and attacked. Crusha was not as slow as he looked and Ryoga bounced off his block. He blurred as he threw punches at the giant, but those that did land didn't seem to do any good.
"Shimata! How do I get to this guy?!" he hissed as he backed off to asses the situation. Crusha used this opportunity to charge Ryoga. He bowed down and used his body as a battering ram. Ryoga threw his arms out in front of himself and caught his head in his hands. The mammoth of a man forced Ryoga back to the edge of the ring. He ground to a halt and stopped growling.
"Huh?" Tha Crusha tried to look up at boy, but found he couldn't move his head. The crowd was hushed. Ryoga could hear his own grunting reverberate through the arena and it energized him. He pushed his left foot forward to the shock of his opponent who struggled to press closer to the edge. Ryoga kept his position and when Crusha ran out of steam he forced his right foot forward. The crowd went wild. Step by step, with Tha Crusha's head in his grip, Ryoga pushed the seven-hundred kilo man to the other side of the ring. As he neared the lip, he panted. Tha Crusha smiled and started pushing him back.
"Ryoga!" Akago shouted. "Think of him as a big rock!!"
"Abigrock," he hissed, "right!" and drew one of his arms back. "Haaaa!!!" Ryoga's fist slammed into the top of Crusha's head with an unhealthy snapping sound. Both combatants stopped. The crowd gasped. Crusha stood up straight, smiled weekly, shook Ryoga's hand and fell over backwards.
He sighed as the crowd erupted again.
"And the winner of match four, Ryoga Hibiki!!"
"I knew you could do it," Akago whispered.

Goku got passed a new soda, three times the size of the last one. He smacked his lips. After putting three vendors into early retirement, the Saiyan was thirsty. Ryoga bowed to the crowd and the crowd went nuts. Soun went especially nuts. His elbow went nuts in Goku's personal space, upsetting the delicate balance in the natural order of soda, and the enormous cup of ice-cold pop became airborne. Soun was pushed closer to Goku as the cup landed on Genma. Goku and those nearest to him stared, perplexed at the panda.
"Oops," he blushed. "Sorry mister!"
The panda grumbled something and stood up. Goku stood, not sure if the panda meant to challenge him. He help up a sign which read 'excuse me'. Soun smiled weakly at him and shrugged his shoulders. "Happens all the time."
Goku shrugged back and turned his attention to his hyper-ventilating wife.

"Ladies and gentlemen, we will enjoy a recess as the combatants prepare for the second level of matches!"

Gosan took off his helmet and wiped his brow. Akago slammed it back down on his head. "If you're gonna do that, you may want to go into the locker room. Remember who's watching our every move?"
"Ha ha ha.. I was just going!" he ran into the men's locker room. As he ducked around the corner near the sinks he almost ran into a six-foot panda. "Sorry, mister!" he cried out in the same voice as his grandfather, but stopped dead in his tracks. "Puh puh puh puh..." he stuttered, "Panda!!"
Genma swatted at him and ran into the showers.
"Wait mister! You gotta help me!"

Akago's ears perked up as he heard his brother cry out and he ran to see what the matter was. "Gosan!?" he cried and ran into the showers. Gosan was staring, slack jawed as the Panda mutated into a man.
"No way!!" This whole time!! Mr. Saotome!?!"
Ryoga and Ranma walked down the hallway between the men's and women's rooms and on the word 'Saotome' burst in on the increasingly crazy scene.
"That means.." Gosan swung, grabbed Ranma-Chan and turned on the hot water. Ryoga backed up, slowly so as to avoid unnecessary attention. Ranma turned back into a boy under the water before their eyes.
"Please!" Akago begged. "Is there anything that could possibly cure this?!"
"No." Ryoga admitted.
"I don't get it, why do you care?" Ranma stood under the water.
Akago approached the faucet and turned it on himself. The other men stared, their mouths fell open as he became a she.
"Go-Chan!" Ryoga cried.
"That's me.." she blushed and shrugged her shoulders. Ranma and Genma began to smile wildly.
"Do you know what this means!?!" they shouted.
"If you're really a girl, and we're really men.." Genma grabbed her by the arms and explained.
"..then we can jump in your spring and be cured!" Ryoga began to cry with joy.
"..and vice versa!!" Akago saw the point. "But, Ryoga? You too!?"
He tripped while standing still.
"Aw hell, Ryoga, it doesn't matter anymore! Come on out, P-Chan!" Ranma threw a bucket of cold water on him.
"What? It's you.." she wagged her tail and blushed more, "the ungrateful little ham-hock!" She picked him up and pet him. She whispered to him, "I guess we both had our little secrets, huh?"
"Uh, Akago..Chan?" Ranma listened to the announcer call the contestants back to the ring.
"Either Go-Chan or Akago.." Gosan helped out.
"Whatever," he took Ryoga from her and smiled. "Sensei, I think we have a martial arts contest to win."