Quick note: I apologize in advance for Vegeta's use of the F-word in this chapter. Only happens twice, but I wanted to warn you first.



Blending In
19





The cheering crowd drowned out the sound of a body landing just outside the ring. Tonkeshin heard Clover's sniffles come towards him. He caught the fox boy's shoulder before he could pass.
"Hey, don't feel so bad about losing. Piccolo is a tough guy, you just drew a bad number."
"B-but I froze," Clover's childlike voice shivered. It was hard to hear him over the Announcer proclaiming Piccolo as the winner.
"We all lose to a nasty opponent some time in our lives. I have and I know how humiliating and painful it is. But just standing up and trying is a brave thing to do. . .most people tend to run away from Piccolo." Tonk smiled reassuringly and let go of Clover's shoulder. "Train hard and next time I'm sure you'll do better."
Clover stood there until he stopped crying. "Thank you." Then Tonk heard him shuffle on into the hall.
Two people snickered. Somebody mumbled the word 'crybaby'.
Tonk felt a presence block the arena sounds coming in through the door. He turned towards it.
"Hey, Piccolo."
"I went easy on the kid." Piccolo's soft rasp reverberated in the stone room. "He's more scared than hurt."
Tonkeshin nodded. "I think - "
Footsteps scrambled out of the restroom. Whoever it was, they were female and in a panic. "Brutus collapsed in the bathroom! He puked up blood and fell over! Get some help!"
"Starburst, you found him, go stay. I'll get a doctor."
Two sets of feet thundered out of the small room. Tonk hugged the wall to avoid the stampede.
Piccolo exhaled through his nose. His tone sounded unimpressed, "Vegeta did kick him pretty hard in the stomach. I wouldn't be surprised if that human has severe internal injuries. Their weak bodies can't handle such hard blows."
"Too bad restraint isn't a word in the Saiyajin dictionary." Tonk glared in Piccolo's general direction. "The only thing they're good for is to destroy things."
"I'm not going to defend the Saiyajin race, Tonkeshin, but not all of them are monsters."
"Well I'm sorry I haven't seen the good side of the race. All I know is they were a menace to the universe and - "
Tonk suddenly found himself seized by the throat and slammed hard against the stone wall behind him. The two gloved hands held him there like a vice.
"You green freak," Vegeta's hot breath and spit showered Tonk's face. "My people were warriors, we had pride. I'm the only one left that remembers my world's honor! We rid the universe of weaklings so the strong could survive - "
"Honor?" Tonkeshin spat back. He lowered his eyes towards where he hoped Vegeta's were and narrowed them. His smooth baritone voice lowered an octave and gained a raspy edge, "There's no honor in obliterating other people's homes. And if the Saiyajin race was so strong, why did Freeza destroy your planet?"
"Fuck you, Namek! Fuck you!" Vegeta slammed him against the wall a second time, making stone and brick crack audibly. His voice trembled in rage, "You don't know anything!"
The iron hands let go. Tonk slipped to the floor and rubbed his throat, his head throbbing from the double blows against the wall. He heard Vegeta snort derisively and storm from the small waiting area.
"Idiot," muttered another competitor. Somebody else laughed.
Tonk slowly climbed back to his feet, his face burning. That stunt further drove a stake into his beliefs about the Saiyajin race - and Vegeta. They were monsters. All of them.
"Your cane," said Piccolo.
"Thanks." Tonk took it and faced the door. His bruised pride smarted worse than the back of his head. He forced his voice back up to its normal range. "That proves it. Vegeta is a total bastard."
"I'm not going to defend him or you."
Tonkeshin managed a smile even though he didn't really feel like smiling, "You don't have to. I can take care of myself."
"And if you're not careful, Vegeta will kill you. He doesn't take kindly to having his race insulted. He has his own honor code that nobody other than Goku understands."
Goku.
Tonk remembered him from the stories Dende told him. But wasn't he a Saiyajin too? A Saiyajin that cared?
"Piccolo, tell me everything you know about this Goku person."
Piccolo turned away with a swish of his cape, "It's a long story, Tonkeshin, one best told on another day." Amusement colored his tone, "Sometimes you remind me of him, you two have about the same type of personality. Always happy about something."
Again, Tonk felt his face get warm. "Honestly? I smile most of the time to look less threatening to the humans I work around. It just became a habit. Maybe you should try it sometime, it'd lift your mood up about ten miles."
"Feh. I smile when I have a reason to, which isn't often."
The crowd cheered as someone went down in the ring. A winner was proclaimed. Then footsteps raced out onto the stone walkway and voices mumbled in the distance.
Feedback shrieked from the speakers. Tonk grabbed his ears, wincing, and he heard Piccolo snarl.
"Ladies and gentlemen," the Announcer began grimly, "I regret to inform you that Brutus has died due to internal injuries. Because his death is a direct result of Vegeta, I'm afraid Vegeta is disqualified from the Tournament. My condolences to the family of the deceased."
"WHAT?!" Vegeta's guttural outcry was audible from one end of the arena to the other. "Oh this is pathetic, he wasn't even in the ring when he died!"
"Sir," An official with a nasal voice cut in, "he died as a result of your blow to the stomach. I'm sorry, it's the rules. If you try to interfere with any future matches today I'll have security escort you out."
"Don't bother. This Tournament is worthless without Kakarott."
A swish as Vegeta flew away. Startled gasps followed his ascent and Tonk could feel the Saiyajin's ki moving away.
"I take it 'Kakarott' is Goku's Saiyajin name?"
"Yes." Piccolo answered, then turned away to signal he wanted to be left alone.

Another match ended. Tonk realized he'd lost track of the fights until he heard Trunks say something about how funny Oruko's face looked when Starburst kicked him in the jewels.
"I thought my turn would never come," Pan sidled up to stand next to Tonkeshin. She didn't sound the least bit nervous!
Tonk ruffled the little girl's hair and smiled, "Go easy on the poor guy. I don't think he knows what he's up against."
Pan giggled, "I'll be really careful."
Heavy footsteps crashed past them. A large sound-shadow took up residence by the door leading out. Must've been Tyrano, he sure smelled like a lizard.
"I have to fight a kid, this's lame!" The giant lizard had a hilariously high voice.
Pan bounded over to the other side of the door. Tonk heard her slip out. Tyrano's presence moved away as well. Sound flooded the small room again.
As soon as the match began, Tonk heard two slapping noises, Pan's "hi-yah!" and a thud.
"It's a knock-out! Pan is the winner!" cried the Announcer.
The next match went pretty much the same. Trunks knocked his opponent out in one blow.
Everybody in the room went quiet. Another figure stepped in.
"That's Mr. Satan." Piccolo whispered in Tonk's ear. "Don't take anything he says seriously."
Tonk took a deep breath and sighed, "I'll try not to. He just better not insult me."
Piccolo didn't get a chance to reply. Mr. Satan was already standing right in front of them. Tonk could easily smell the overly-applied cologne wafting of the man's skin.
"So you're the blind guy I saw on the news," Mr. Satan said a little too loudly. He had a rough, boisterous-sounding voice.
"Yeah. . ." The cologne overdose was making Tonk's eyes water. He blinked a few times to distribute the moisture more evenly.
"Heh, heh, you fight pretty good for someone that can't see. I haven an opening in one of my training courses if you want to get even better."
"Uh, no thanks," Tonkeshin kept a straight face and grasped his cane tighter. He felt like everybody was staring at him. "I have other commitments to keep."
"Hmmmm. Well, keep your fights nice and clean. We don't want anybody else ending up like poor Brutus." Mr. Satan paused as the Announcer called out his and Buu's names. "That's my cue!"
And he was gone before Tonk could get a final word in, leaving behind a cloud of Passion For Men scent in his wake. Tonk wrinkled his nose. He moved to the door in time to be bombarded by the screaming crowd and a pyrotechnic display of some sort. If this Buu person was in the ring, he certainly didn't hear him step in over all the noise.
Piccolo joined Tonk by the door. "This won't be anything special. Mr. Satan puts on a show, but it's nothing spectacular."
Tonk turned his face and eyes towards the voice. "Heh, so what does this Buu guy look like?"
"He makes your fat human friend look small, let me put it that way. He resembles a balloon in some ways, I guess, with a giant antenna on top of his head. Not someone you can really describe."
"Interesting."
The match began. Like Piccolo said, they put on a show that made the crowd roar.

Tonk straightened from the drinking fountain, wiped his mouth and stepped aside to let Piccolo take a drink.
"How much time?"
Piccolo turned, "Five minutes at most."
"Okay, be right back." He dodged into the restroom for some much needed relief. If this was the restroom Brutus died in, there wasn't a trace of blood or other body fluids. It smelled as fresh as a citrus field.
The nerves were coming back worse than before. His antennae wouldn't stop twitching. He splashed some cold water on his face after he washed his hands.
Somebody forgot a container of petroleum jelly. Tonk smiled when his fingertips encountered the container's familiar shape and promptly re-greased himself.
Piccolo slipped in to relieve himself as well. He'd been sweating a lot in the stuffy waiting area. The dusty scent was as strong as Mr. Satan's cologne, but not nearly as offensive.
Tonk politely kept his back turned and finished rubbing the petroleum jelly over his chest. He flexed each pectoral individually, smiling. "Nervous at all?"
"Not really." The urinal flushed, but Piccolo didn't bother to wash his hands. "And you shouldn't be either. The people came here to see you fight. They aren't waiting for you to make a mistake."
Tonkeshin jerked his head around to face the other Namek. How did he know that?
"You know, sometimes I swear you're - "
No time to finish, their names were being called.
"It's time." The door squeaked on its old hinges when Piccolo yanked it open. He held it to let Tonk pass. It slammed shut hard behind them.
Together they emerged into the sun's heat. Cheers and shouts greeted them.
Tonk focused solely on swinging his cane and walking to the ring. Tap left while the right foot steps. Swing and tap right while the left foot steps. Just like Lians taught him. As long as he paid attention to just that he didn't feel quite as nervous.
Fifty footfalls later his cane hit the first step. He flipped his cane into the pencil grip, dragged it forward to locate the next step and entered the ring.
Piccolo waited about six feet in front of him. He chuckled softly under his breath. Tonk heard a soft ker-plunk, then a swish and a louder thud. Piccolo sighed as if in relief and cracked a few joints.
"WOW! Ma Jr. is taking off his cape and turban. You know what that means, folks! We're in for an intense show!"
"Heh." Piccolo's smirk broadcasted itself through his voice.
Tonk prepared himself with a few quick stretches. Excitement drove the nervousness right out of his system. He was about to face a worthy opponent.
Drums began a slow, ponderous beat. Tonk assumed his usual fighting pose - legs bent and arms at ready. He felt Piccolo do the same.
Thumpa. . .thumpa. . .thumpa. . .thumpa, thumpa, thumpa. . .
The drums pounded faster. Each beat vibrated through Tonkeshin's sternum until he felt it all through his body. It helped him clear his mind and focus only on his environment and Piccolo.
Thumpa, thumpa, thumpa, thumpa-thumpa-thumpa. . .
Time held its breath in anticipation. Each drumbeat reverberated into eternity. Tonkeshin felt his heartbeat increase in the same increments as the drums.
Thumpa-thumpa-thumpathumpathumpathumpathumpathumpa. . .
CRASH!
"BEGIN!"

Author's note: Ooh, cliffhanger!

Sheepish smile Sorry for the long wait. I had writer's block and was caught up in a lot of RP. It's my own fault for being lazy, I'll try not to let it happen again. I hope you enjoyed this chapter. smile

I can't believe it, Tonkeshin versus Piccolo. . .this will be a match to remember.