"Well, I guess I'm up!" Yamcha punched into his own palm with excitement. "See you in the semi-finals, Goku!"
"Heh, can't wait to see how much stronger you've gotten!" Goku raised a fist for a bump.
"Good luck, Yamcha." Chayote nodded.
"Th-Thanks!" Yamcha bowed his head.
"Was he blushing just now?" Krillin pointed at the overly excited, poor dolt who ran off to show off to the crowd and prepare for his match.
"Yeah, Yamcha's afraid of girls." Goku threw it out like it meant nothing at all.
"Well… He's a goner…" Chayote sighed.
"On our left, we have Yamcha!" the announcer turned to Yamcha, providing a relatively tame introduction. "Contestant Yamcha has been a lifelong fan of the World Martial Arts Tournament and has dreamed of one day winning it! Will we see a dream come true today!?"
"Go, Yamcha!" Bulma yelled from the first row. The floating cat and anthropomorphic pig by her side leaned out of the way of the inventor's passionate cheers.
"On our right, Ranfan!" the announcer turned with a gesture at a young woman already standing in a suggestive pose. "A lovely female Contestant who is not afraid to use her advantages in battle and dazzled her opposition before unleashing her ferocious skill!"
"Be gentle with me," Ranfan winked Yamcha's direction, making the poor dolt get flustered almost instantly.
Chayote chuckled observing Bulma's reaction. It appeared that this blue-haired brainiac was quite clingy to her mate as she began squeezing the head of her pig companion and punching it with a frightening level of ruthlessness. Just a simple blush on Yamcha's cheeks and a bit of a dazed look, slightly waving stance already made the inventor jealous. Their relationship must have been quite fickle if it required such close safeguarding.
"Begin!" the announcer ruled before the monk tolled the bell.
"Eek, you look like such a strong man!" Ranfan turned her knees to the side, bending out her body to display her bottom side in a rounder lighting.
"Well… I…" Yamcha's expression turned from flustered to goofy and drooling. The dolt could not see Ranfan's flying kick to his cheek if the temptress announced it with a drum squad and a building-sized poster.
"R-Ringout…" the announcer raised his right hand in the air. "Contestant Yamcha has been eliminated! Unbelievable!"
"Well… That did not last long…" Krillin squinted at poor Yamcha who was truly blessed with the luck of faltering consciousness. Had he fully realized the situation he was in and the cringe that it invited on the faces of the observers, he'd have died from embarrassment.
"Yamcha, you idiot! Just wait 'till I get my hands on you!" Bulma's voice from the first row overpowered the crowd.
"Huh… How did you know that ridiculous, wide-open stance would work?" Goku turned to Chayote. The Saiyan had to admit that her own cheeks simmered with a little, warm red too. Somehow she managed to feel embarrassed by someone else's failure.
"Would you please meet me in the yard?" a familiar voice rang in Chayote's head. The Saiyan turned to leave and excused herself, without bothering to answer Goku's childish question first.
"You're leaving? But I'm up next… You sure you want to miss my fight? I'm planning to have some fun!" Goku began stretching out and warming up.
"Go break a leg." Chayote dismissed him with a gesture of her hand but then halted. Did she really want to meet the old man now? She wanted to see Goku's fight to determine if he truly was a Saiyan, or not. Just seeing him fight once would have been enough for that. Then again, asking that old man that directly would have worked just as well. Surely he would have known if Goku was in any way unusual for what was common for Earthlings, both Krillin and Yamcha have already admitted that much.
"What? You're not Jackie Chun…" Chayote raised an eyebrow, recalling the old man being the one that she saw Goku and Krillin hang out with by the entrance. She saw him around the crowd, at times standing behind Bulma and her pets, at times looking all beaten up and pummeled, exiled to the farther reaches of the bystander area.
"True. But also false. The man you know as Jackie Chun was also the man you were looking for – Muten Roshi." The bald, old man replied, this time communicating using his voice and not the weird mental communication he was doing before.
"How did you know I was looking for you?" Chayote wondered.
"I know a lot about you. Not all, mind you, but a lot. I know you're looking for Son Goku as well. I have been unable to read your mind in its entirety though. I assume this must be because you are stronger than me." Jackie Chun, or rather Muten Roshi, pondered. When he was not staring at ladies, like he was earlier by the entrance, this man looked like a formidable wise man.
"Can you read it now?" Chayote closed her eyes, relaxing her mind. It would have helped to show Muten Roshi everything she knew so that she did not need to waste time here talking and having him doubt everything she said.
"No luck, sorry… It appears you are not yet in control of your own mind." Muten Roshi sighed after a moment of silence and seriousness.
"Oh well, it was worth a shot. I'm looking for you because Korin advised me to continue my training by training with you. He said you were his most talented pupil and that you've carried his teachings your own direction, one that was handy for any martial artist to learn." Chayote admitted.
"Well… To such a lovely young lady, how can I say no?!" Muten Roshi crept up to Chayote, his hands extended forward in a suggestive twitch, similar to a massage but he was not reaching for her shoulders or her neck. The sticking out tongue and the drooling were also not the most trustworthy details in the world.
Chayote stomped at the face of the old man out of instinct. Without thinking. Had she her better judgment, she'd have likely not cared too much about whatever this weirdo was up to, if only it was not due to Korin's training, now she may have killed the man who was supposed to pick up Chayote's training!
"You sure hit stronger than Bulma…" Muten Roshi whined with a red blunt force trauma gleaming all over his bald head. His glasses busted and blood changing snot on the old timer's nose. "I need to be more careful if I don't wanna get killed!"
"That's odd…" Chayote observed her trembling hand. "I was sure that a blow like that would kill just about anyone in this planet."
"Planet?" Muten Roshi exclaimed in surprise, standing on his feet all of a sudden, his glasses fixed as if this universe operated under some cartoon logic. Chayote could not understand if this was some martial arts technique or just an uncanny ability of the Earthlings. Perhaps it was this same unexplored law of the universe that made humanoid Earthlings out of Earth's fauna?
"That's right. I am a Saiyan from Planet Vegeta. So, I think, is the one you call Son Goku, although, I don't think that's his real name. It is just not a Saiyan name…" Chayote was glad to have finally met someone to take her story with some modicum of seriousness. "I'm not sure what he's doing here, if I had to guess, he was a low-class warrior sent here to exterminate your kind but… This far from the reaches of the Frieza Army… Even that's very unlikely. It would be decades until Frieza Army begins colonizing this section as I've not even heard of this planet before."
"And what are you doing here exactly?" Muten Roshi asked the right question. "One Saiyan on Earth, that's a miracle, let's assume, two? That's a tendency…"
"No. My presence here is the miracle. I died on Planet Vegeta but, as it happened, Heaven was destroyed so I had nowhere to go. This blue, pompous guy sent me here to boost some universe rating or something. He said this planet is too remote from the reaches of Frieza Army so I should be able to stay out of trouble." Chayote shrugged.
"You did not answer my question. What do you intend on doing here? You said Son Goku was supposed to exterminate all humans. Is that what you're planning as well?" Muten Roshi asked with a grim look on his face. Something troubled this man, he was remembering something perhaps as Chayote could almost feel the painful experiences that the man was reliving while staring at a blank, shadowy corner.
"I did. Initially. A lot of things happened since then, I've promised Upa that I'd only kill all the bad people before proceeding to the good ones. Then I've come to learn martial arts and I just want to learn some more of that. I think it's a remarkable cultural achievement, one worth preserving so I think I'll postpone destroying this planet until I've learned most of it." Chayote shrugged. "And now I met Son Goku… At this rate, I'll never fulfill my task. Although, if Bulma builds me a spacecraft I can use to return to Frieza Army space, maybe I won't need to."
"Hmmm…" Muten Roshi pondered while scratching his beard. He then smiled. Something about Chayote's story appeared to reassure him that this girl in front of him would not pose a threat to Earth after all. "I think I may have the answer for the question troubling you. Son Goku was brought up here on Earth by a man named Son Gohan – he was my pupil once. Son Gohan has mentioned to me about a peculiar, violent boy he had found in the mountains."
"Son Gohan? He must be the one who dismissed the boy's real name and gave him this ridiculous Earthling name…" Chayote said.
"What Son Gohan also had told me about once is that in his defiance, the boy had once fallen down a mountain and hit his head on a rock. He nearly died but after recovering from his injury he had become tamer, much more like a lovable grandson than Son Gohan had thought of Son Goku." Muten Roshi explained.
Chayote could not close her gaping mouth. A lot of things began making a lot more sense now. If Son Goku truly did hit his head on a rock as a toddler, he'd have received some brain injury and with the primitive Earthling medicine, he'd have been unable of healing himself right. He'd have grown up an imbecile. That was why he was the odd way he was now, that was why he could not recall a bit about his Saiyan upbringing but tales his fake grandfather had spun to him to explain his alien physiology.
"So why did you call me down here?" Chayote shrugged.
"Oh, I've noticed your inhuman power back in the qualifiers. Contestant Jackie Chun was me, you see… After seeing how brutally you've dispatched of Bacterian, I began wondering if you were a threat to Earth. I see now that I may have jumped the gun assuming that." Muten Roshi nodded his head at Chayote.
"That reminds me, what was the deal with the dress-up gig? Were you trying to scope me out, hoping I would not notice, or something?" Chayote scratched her head.
"Oh, no, no… Like a lot of human youths, you're far too selfish, assuming everything's about you." Muten Roshi extended his walking stick and lightly tapped it at the top of Chayote's head. The only reason why Chayote did not smack the old man about for this was because she was not sure if he was petting her or hitting her, given how the hit felt more like an irritation than genuine hurt. "I entered the tournament as Jackie Chun to teach my dear students a lesson. Can you tell what it is?"
"I'm missing a fight standing here, you know…" Chayote pressed her knuckles against her hips.
"My, my, how impatient. Training you will be such a pain… Forgetting about the fact that I'll be training someone who might kill me with a serious blow." Muten Roshi sighed. "I wanted to show my pupils that there would always be someone stronger. I did not want them to just win their first tournament and get arrogant all of a sudden. The journey of a martial artist is that of constant improvement. It is a journey, one without a definitive goal in mind and one that's always cut short in the end because the path leads to nothing but it is built out of the satisfaction of one's own life."
"You preach better than you teach. Why did you give up on teaching them that? Sounds like a useful lesson." The Saiyan bit the old man in the rear with a cheeky look.
"Hmph… So dense… There is no need for me to compete when you are there to do that work for me. All I am asking for is to do as you would have normally done – participate in the tournament and fight to your heart's extent. You will fulfill my mission that way too. There is no conceivable way for my students as they are now to defeat you, if I fought you, even I would have most likely failed. Given your power, there is not a being in this planet that can stop you, however, you are far too green and that is why someone like Bacterian, a raggedy martial artist with an uncanny ability made you uncomfortable." Roshi postured.
Chayote looked away. The images of Yamcha's humiliating defeat flashed through her mind. She sort of understood Roshi's point. Bacterian nearly skipped past the insurmountable difference in power by just being profoundly smelly. Ranfan defeated Yamcha, who seemed to be a far faster and stronger combatant just because she exploited a glaring weakness in the poor dolt's defenses. Krillin and Nam were almost equals in skill and power, the tip to Nam's favor was hardly definitive, however, Krillin lost because he did not believe in his own abilities enough, not because he was just weaker.
This single day on Earth taught Chayote more about fighting as an art form more than her entire lifetime training on Planet Vegeta did. And these people were pathetic weaklings to any even low-class Saiyan warrior. Son Goku just fell out of the sky and became the dominant figure around which every puny Earthling centered. And yet he was not the strongest on the planet, nowhere nearly so, even if he was, that may not have mattered as much as Chayote would have believed prior to landing on Earth.
"The audience is getting rowdy." Muten Roshi noted the obvious. "We best return to our places. I'll be expecting to see you on my island after this tournament. Master Korin may have taught you the necessary scraps but he left gaping holes in your skillset that require filling."
Chayote nodded and sighed. With her hands stuffed deep into the pockets of her tracksuit, the Saiyan returned to the waiting room. Goku was overjoyed but had nobody to share his glee with. He leaped at his fellow Saiyan with the first sight of her staring at him through the doorway. Like a stray wildcat, he wrapped his hands around Chayote's face and began rubbing his body against it. It seemed weird but, in a strange turn of events, Chayote did not mind ergo she did not resist.
"I won, I won, I won!" Goku yelled.
"Was the guy even strong? He looked tough but he also looked like a dinosaur, dinosaurs aren't fighters, they're breakfast, lunch, and dinner." Chayote asked.
"Hmmm... Lunch... Oh, right... He wasn't that tough but his gum technique was crazy strong! Caught me unprepared, nearly got me disqualified too when I used Kinto!" Goku kept on recounting after a brief distraction.
"Wait… Kinto?" Chayote raised her eyebrow. "So you've met Korin?"
"Who? I meant Kinto… You know… Kinto!" Goku called out and in an all too familiar shriek, a yellow cloud parked itself neatly right beside the two Saiyans.
"Kinto!" Chayote called out, her Dark Kinto landed on the opposite side of the golden one.
"Hmmm?" Goku leaned in to examine the cloud. "Wow, this thing's so weird… Where'd you get it? Why is it black?"
"As I've said before, Korin is the only one to be able to carve the great Kinto cloud. When he called down one during my training, I was unable to ride it so he said we had to wait for the cloud to get stormy and black. Then we took this Dark Kinto, I was able to ride this one." Chayote explained.
"Huh? Old timer gave me mine as a gift for helping Blockhead return to Muten Roshi." Goku smiled.
Everything seemed to make this goofball laugh, then again, he did hit his head pretty hard as a kid. Knowing that part of his background made Chayote a bit more tolerant towards the kid.
"Congratulations, Goku." Yamcha smiled, extending his hand for a shake. His head had a bandage wrapped around it and had a suspicious, red-glowing bump at the side of his head and a couple of his teeth were missing. Chayote wondered if those injuries were because of Ranfan's kick but it did not look that bad from where she was standing. Then again, Yamcha, while cute, was quite puny.
"I can't believe you're the only one of us to have won a fight…" Krillin complained before getting more cheerful and congratulating his friend again.
"What are you talking about? Chayote won her fight quite easily too…" Goku lowered his eyebrows to sharpen the angles of his eyes a bit on the front.
"Oh… Sorry, sorry, forgot to count Chayote in…" Krillin laughed out.
"Hmph…" Chayote closed her eyes and raised her chin. "Just for the record, Son Goku, I am not one of your pawns here to spout exposition about your opponents like Yamcha or take a beating for you, like Krillin. I fully intend to lead your little parade and the reason why I am not challenging you right now is because it is apparent that we will meet in the finals. That is when I will challenge you for leadership."
Yamcha and Krillin laughed out. They seemed to take everything Chayote said as a joke. Goku smiled but the only thought that amused the young boy was the fact he may have ended up facing Chayote at some point down the line. Goku extended his fist, asking Chayote for a bump which he received.
First, find out what that Nam-guy's problem was and calm him down, then – Son Goku.