~Chapter 9: The 23rd Tenka'ichi Budôkai~
I was really, really excited after I left the wizard's. The whole world was so much cooler. The sudden change in height was disorienting, and I tripped a lot and ran into stuff for a few days, but I was happy anyway. It was awesome for me, finally being able to do things like see over counters and reach things on shelves. The first thing I did was run out and get some new clothes, because the old ones didn't really fit anymore. I got a rugged outfit for the trip to the Budôkai arena, including an all-weather jacket. I also had a Kame School uniform made just like my old one. I tried it on at the tailor's, and I was just tickled. They probably thought that I was on something.
The exhiliration wore off after a bit - hey, it didn't take me long to figure out that I was still pretty short - but I was still pretty pumped. I went back to the village (Ah, hello, Kuririn - say, didn't you used to be shorter? Must be my imagination) and hung out until a week before the tournament. Something interesting happened one night during that time - I went outside and there was something bright in the sky - it was the moon. The moon had just suddenly returned. It was all over the news the next day, and they had all kinds of crazy theories as to why it had returned. Oddly, the moon's return didn't seem to have any catastrophic consequences. After I left there, I headed for Karin Tower. It took me an hour and a half to climb it that time. Karin-sama and Yajirobe were pretty surprised to see me. I took some senzu and hinted to Yajirobe that he might want to enter the Tenka'ichi Budôkai, and then I leapt off of the side of the tower for effect. That was pretty dumb - I was barely able to slow myself down enough to avoid being seriously hurt. I'm sure it managed to convince them that I'd gone insane, though.
I got to the island where the Budôkai is held a couple of days before the actual tournament. (No, I didn't actually swim there, I took a plane.) The city there was already bursting with excitement about the Budôkai tournament, which makes sense - I think that the tournament is probably the only exciting thing that happens around there. There was some kind of festival going on related to the tournament. The hotel that I stayed in provided information booklets about the tournament, and I even saw vendors selling trading cards of the finalists from recent tournaments. Tenshinhan's was the most popular - I guess blowing up the ring gets you a kind of infamy. On the actual day of the tournament, I was one of the first to sign up, and I hung around the arena waiting for people that I knew to show up. When I caught sight of a tall guy with unkempt hair leaning under his umbrella, I recognized him immediately as Yamucha.
"Hey, Yamucha! You're here!" I said, and he turned to me and smiled.
"Kuririn! It's been a long time!" he said, but I sort of went pale. Yamucha had an enormous scar, obviously made by some kind of blade, running across most of his face and through his right eye. It was deep and still kind of red. There was another scar on his opposing cheek that formed a cross. It made him look kind of scary, and it jarred me for a second. I asked him what happened to his face, but he only sighed and grumbled that he didn't want to talk about it. Trying to change the subject, he said that I was taller.
"Yup," I said, rubbing the back of my neck, "I guess I'm just a late bloomer." Hey, if he wasn't going to share his embarrassing story, I sure wasn't going to share mine. I grinned at him and suggested that that was one less excuse he had when I kicked his butt later on.
"Hmph," he said, "You're still a runt." I couldn't help but smile. We were jabbing at each other, but Yamucha and I were really ecstatic to see each other. There aren't many people that I can relate to in the same way as Yamucha. We ran into Tenshinhan and Chaozu shortly after that. No surprises there - they looked just the same as before. It had been raining, but it stopped then, and we could clearly make out a group of familiar people nearby - Muten Roshi, Bulma, Lunch, Pu'ar, and Oolong. There was also some guy with them who was a bit taller than Bulma, but not as tall as Yamucha. I had no idea who he was. The four of us went up to greet them, expecting some kind of greeting in return, but they just kind of stared at us as if in shock. I couldn't figure it out until I got a closer look at the tall guy with the spiky hair.
Goku.
"Kuririn!" he said happily. "We're all here!"
I'd had it completely planned out, what I'd say to Goku. I'd give him a warm greeting, and a humble thanks for what he'd done for me. When I actually saw him, though, it was too much for me. It just made me too emotional. I threw my arms around him and started crying. I think I may have mumbled something about wanting to thank him, but it was all pretty unintelligible. I'd just held it in for too long, and it all came out. Goku usually would've recoiled, he's not a touchy person, but he let me hug him for a minute because he could tell how upset I was.
After Goku finally managed to pull me off and calm me down, we had a better greeting with the others. Pu'ar gave Yamucha a hug. Well, really, she clung to his arm, but that seems like a better way to describe it. It took him a minute, but Muten Roshi did notice that I'd gotten taller. Bulma was kind of staring at Goku, which was a bit creepy. We didn't have time to say much, though, because they announced for all entrants to gather. Goku, Yamucha and I clustered together like the last time, but that time we didn't chatter so much. I asked Goku how it was training with Kami-sama, and he chuckled to himself and said that it was "deadly". I really had no idea what that meant.
Even though Muten Roshi didn't provide us with uniforms that tournament because he said that we'd become independent fighters, all three of us wore the Kame School uniform. Yamucha'd had one made like me, and I guess that Kami-sama must have created one for Goku with his godly powers. After we'd changed, we noticed something odd about Goku - odd for Goku, normal for anyone else - he didn't have a tail. Goku said that Kami-sama had removed it, something about wanting the moon back. Well, that explained a lot. Goku still didn't know about his turning into a giant ape, so we just said, "heh heh, that is weird," and changed the subject.
Right after that, weird things started happening. Goku got all serious suddenly, and we found him staring at another one of the fighters. It was a really weird-looking guy. His head and shoulders were all wrapped in cloth, and his skin was a rather vivid shade of green. He and Goku stared at each other for a bit, but they didn't say anything. After a moment, the guy turned and walked off. Tenshinhan was quivering and turning several shades of green and purple. Something serious was happening, but Yamucha, Chaozu and I were oblivious. I should've been able to figure it out from that, but I didn't. I didn't think too much of it, and I was more shocked when another one of the entrants, a pretty girl, walked up to Goku and said hello as if they'd known each other for a long time. When the hell did Goku have the time to meet a girl? Even more confusing was that Goku had no idea who she was, and he said so. That really set her off. She called him a bastard and stormed off. Goku just turned to us with a look of helpless confusion. I have to tell you that I was furious. My long-dormant ambition of finding a girlfriend was reawakened, and it hurt. Here Goku, who'd probably just recently even come to the realization of what a girl WAS, had a hot chick coming out of nowhere and acting like he's her sweetheart. Arrgh. Some people have all the luck, I thought.
The qualifiers started soon after that. Once again, we didn't face each other. Surprise, surprise. Those tournaments were SO rigged. Goku went up first. I was eager to see how he fought after being personally trained by Kami-sama, and I wasn't disappointed. He fought the same guy that he'd fought first the last time, but that time he didn't even have to try. Goku was different from before - he was utterly calm. He didn't waste any movement on his opponent. He just went behind him so quickly that even those of us who were trained could barely see him, and took him out with a light tap. He didn't use any of his strength. I smiled. Goku was so cool. Yamucha, Tenshinhan and I all easily won our first matches, although we didn't win quite as easily as Goku. I expected the qualifiers to go just like every other time - no contest for us. I already had the finalists pegged as including the five of us and possibly that intense green guy. I was wrong. Chaozu was beaten within an inch of his life in his first match by a bizarre-looking man. Tenshinhan and Goku recognized him as Taopaipai, the assassin. I'd never seen Taopaipai, but I knew that Goku had supposedly killed him during his clashes with the Red Ribbon Army. Taopaipai was an arrogant bastard, and this is one instance where my disclaimer from two chapters previous doesn't apply. He told us that he'd spent all of his money to become a cyborg so that he could become stronger and kill Goku, and Tenshinhan for defecting from the Crane Master, who was Taopaipai's older brother. That idiot actually volunteered to become a cyborg - it makes me furious. You have no idea what that means to me. I've dealt firsthand with the pain and detachment caused by that terrible process. Do you know what they DO to someone to make them a cyborg? It's horrible - I don't want to describe it. You can look it up.
Anyway, the rest of the qualifiers went mostly as usual - the strange guy that Goku and Tenshinhan had eyeballed was a monster, though. His opponents were barely left alive, and I think that he only did that because you get disqualified if your opponent is killed. We all qualified, and so did Taopaipai and the mysterious green man. The last match of the qualifiers was pretty odd-looking. One of the competitors was a middle-aged man with glasses who looked just silly, and the other was a fat guy in a ridiculous costume and mask. The fat guy actually looked pretty good, but the other guy was ridiculous. He ran at him howling and flailing, and he got lucky and tripped into his opponent, knocking him out. At least, that's what it looked like at the time. We'd learn otherwise soon enough.
The finalists were Goku, Yamucha, Tenshinhan, the cyborg Taopaipai, the middle aged-guy, "Shen", the intense green-skinned stranger, who entered as "Demon Junior", and the girl that had approached Goku, who'd entered anonymously, perhaps in the hope that Goku would recognize her before the tournament was over. We drew lots to determine matchups, and the announcer dude was there again. I walked up to him and said hi. I guess I really should've thought before doing that.
The poor guy screamed and broke down into tears. I'd forgotten that he'd had to watch as I was slain - that had probably haunted him all that time. It must have been like seeing a ghost. I told him that I'd been resurrected, and he took that about as well as anyone can be expected to take a revelation like that. His professionalism took over, though, and he managed to regain his composure for the tournament. I didn't envy him. He'd end up seeing much worse before the tournament was over.
The first match of the finals was Tenshinhan versus Taopaipai. I don't think a more tense matchup could ever have been chosen. Taopaipai was bent on killing Tenshinhan, first of all. There was also the matter of Taopaipai being the brother of Tenshinhan's ex-master, the Crane Master. As if that weren't enough, Tenshinhan had used to idolize Taopaipai and wanted to follow in his footsteps as the world's greatest assassin. I can't imagine what must have been going through his mind. We got a little visit from the Crane Master himself before the match. He was as rude and arrogant as ever. He told us that Taopaipai had become an "invincible cyborg" and would kill us all. We really should've wondered at that point where in the world the Crane Master and Taopaipai had a connection to someone with robotic technology, but we didn't. That's another missed opportunity that might've led us to Dr. Gero. I can't believe that he was allowed to go on with his evil work for so long without interference. We were blind. Anyway, I was kind of worried about Taopaipai, but Goku said not to be. He said that Tenshinhan was much stronger. Actually, I think he used the words "power level", which is just bizarre - we wouldn't learn about that concept for another 5 years.
The match finally started. Taopaipai had an insane grin on his face, and Tenshinhan looked really intense, although it didn't appear to be from lack of confidence. Goku was right, it wasn't much of a match. Taopaipai rushed at Tenshinhan and he dealt with it easily, sending the cyborg to the ground with a chop. Tenshinhan left an after image and moved an amazing distance to come up behind Taopaipai, and he just stood there. I think that he was telling him to forfeit because he didn't want to hurt him. Taopaipai got mad and struck at him furiously, but Tenshinhan had absolutely no problem evading his blows. Then things got really nasty. Taopaipai took his hand off and a blade emerged that he cut Tenshinhan with. The announcer/referee declared him disqualified for use of a weapon, but he didn't seem to care. That got us all pretty pissed off. To those of us with a respect for martial arts, such callous disregard for the rules was infuriating. Tenshinhan took it the worst of all. He had once deeply respected Taopaipai, I could tell, and to have him revealed to be nothing but a shameless coward must have been a terrible blow to him. Taopaipai took off his other hand to reveal a cannon-like apparatus and said that he was going to use something called the Super Dodonpa. Tenshinhan just stood there and fumed. The Super Dodonpa was nothing to sneeze at. It was much larger and more powerful than the original Dodonpa. The whole stadium shook slightly with the force of the blast. Tenshinhan, however, stood fast, and as it came up to him, he simply blew it away. The attack just seemed to disappate around him. I'm still not sure exactly how he did that - all I saw him do was a simple Kiai. He then rushed forward and took Taopaipai out with one punch. The Crane Master went and got him and flew off. I've not seen either of them since. I imagine that Tenshinhan dealt with them on his own time, or they were killed on one of the occasions where all evil people were purged from Earth. Tenshinhan walked from the arena with a purposeful stride and his face frozen into a nonchalant glare. Goku congratulated him on the fight. "Thanks." was all that he said. I imagine that there were deeper things going on then than I could possibly realize.
The next match was just a tad less intense. Goku had to fight the girl that had approached him earlier. She was really pissed off at him still, and she attacked him like a creature possesed. She was pretty strong, but she wasn't really in the winning class of fighters - had any of us encountered her in the qualifiers, we would surely have defeated her. The match went on for a while, though, because all that Goku really did was dodge and block. He didn't attack her because they were talking and I guess he wanted to find out just what she was so upset about. Gradually, he managed to get out of her that he'd promised her something a long time ago. When they took a break, she said, loud enough for everyone to hear,
"Idiot! You promised me that you'd take me as your wife!"
Now she was going to marry him? It was too much. Of course, what really got me was that Goku reacted by asking me what a 'wife' was. Arrgh. We had to explain to him that it meant spending the rest of your life with them. That alarmed Goku. I think that he was just afraid that he'd have to live with someone whose name he didn't even know, because he calmed down after she said that she'd tell him her name if he beat her in the match. Of course, that was nothing for Goku. He knocked her out of the ring immediately. I don't think that he even really hit her - he just moved at her, and the wind created swept her out. Isn't that insane? Trust me, it'll get much, much worse before I'm done.
After being defeated, the woman finally revealed herself to be Chichi. That was a shocking revelation to Goku, Yamucha, and everyone Muten Roshi was sitting with in the audience, but I was out of the loop for that one. "Chichi" rang absolutely no bells with me, I was still just confused and pissed off that Goku was being pursued by a young maiden, and not me. Ahh, I had a lot to learn. They walked off the platform with Chichi holding onto Goku, and Goku desperately trying to get Chichi to stop holding him. Oi.
After that was my match with "Demon Junior". Things got pretty intense from there, so I'm going to take a break for now and go visit my family. They might have forgotten what I look like by now.
--END OF CHAPTER NINE--