AN: I can always count on anon-chan. If nothing else, I will always have an analysis of every chapter by my most loyal anon.

I have actually been SUPER SLAMMED by RL since I started this chapter. An actual double cardiac bypass has been involved in the reasons why I haven't updated. It's been crazy.

People in the dragonball fandom worry a lot about zenkai boosts but they're seriously not very big or important. Goku literally spends his whole trip to Namek just inducing those boosts over and over and Frieza still ends up handing his buttery butt to back him before he goes Super Saiyan and actually gets his boost. Transformations and training have always been much more important than the boosts, because the latter are usually "get out of a lost battle free" cards that get surpassed by the next training montage.

So, no worries.

The Next Dimension Over

Chapter Seventy-five

One advantage to having a shadow clone running around while she did other things was that she didn't need to be the one to bustle Goku off and get him dressed in something proper before the tournament. Though it might have been a welcome escape from the suspicious looks from those around her. She'd just about forgotten how often they wore those expressions after three years around isolated villagers and travelers.

"You're pretty good at disappearing." Yamcha frowned at her from alongside Krillin, who had wandered closer while clearly pretending not to. "After the tournament no one ever could find you for interviews."

She expected Goku and perhaps Krillin to be hung up on her return- enough that she agreed to do this stupid thing again - but Yamcha? Just what made him so suspicious about her? Was he such a sore loser? "It's not disappearing. I come from a small place."

"Really?" He arched an eyebrow, curious. "Where?"

Really, though.

"Does it matter? Unless you were planning to follow me home?"

He blinked and shook his head, face turning a darker shade. "Wh-no, that wasn't what I-" He sputtered incoherently a few moments, and she took the opportunity to walk away from him. Now that she knew him just a bit better...at least she knew of one weakness to use against him. Even if she had no idea what he was actually after. It was unlikely in the extreme that he could know or suspect the truth - especially with both of her present at once - but...whatever it was he seemed to be trying to pry into, she didn't have time for that.

Helping Goku and Krillin was of far greater importance.

A voice cut through the crowd as she walked. "So you came after all?"

For a moment, she wasn't really certain if the one who spoke was addressing her - she certainly didn't recognize the voice, and in the form she held no one ought to know her very well anyway. Still, when she did turn to look, four sets of eyes stared directly at her. Disturbing...she actually did recognize the men who stood watching her. At least two of them, anyway. It had only been a brief encounter, but it was impressive. And Goku had never let go of it, so...that also helped. The man in the forest who had fought the giant boar.

He'd mentioned that he would be coming to the tournament...but...

Just why would he recognize her looking like this?

The man with the braid gave a cool smile, perhaps sensing her nervous confusion, and took a step toward her. "After forfeiting the previous time and vanishing, there were those who doubted you might ever return at all."

Ah...yes.

Of course.

She gave a small roll of her shoulders. "I don't care about the prize. All I want is a challenge."

The man's smile grew to a grin. "I as well seek the challenge." Hadn't he mentioned something about making money? "Should we meet, our battle will be quite entertaining."

She huffed, and glanced away from him toward the preliminaries hall. "Make it past the preliminaries first. Then we'll see who gets matched up. Right?"

His expression sharpened. She didn't really care. The only reason she'd returned as Ino was for Goku and Krillin. Other people who wanted to challenge her were mostly just distractions. With that in mind, she offered the man a pleasant smile and walked away toward the hall.

If they made it through the preliminaries, then she supposed they might be people that the others would need to fight through. If Goku didn't throw away her training, it shouldn't be any trouble for him at all this time.

(*)

The last tournament, Goku's growth had been pretty amazing after training under the Turtle Hermit. It felt pretty good to be the one who'd trained under the hermit this time. Getting through his preliminary rounds didn't even require any effort on his part at all. If he couldn't see how good Goku had gotten in the three years they'd been apart, he might have worried a little that the tournament might actually not pose a challenge at all.

As it was...Krillin, Goku, and Ino. He couldn't delude himself into thinking that they wouldn't push him to his limit.

But then, he was looking forward to it.

He leaned against the nearby wall as he watched the strange woman fight. 'Fight' seemed a little generous for the ways her rounds had gone. Though he'd missed it, he'd heard her first opponent forfeit upon realizing who he was fighting. The others had nearly been as quick.

This one made a good effort, at least. The Kaiseroinne (a term he'd only learned was the 'proper' one while living with Bulma) standing against her seemed unaffected by her previous victories - in the preliminaries or the other tournament. He towered a good two feet over her, but seemed lean and agile enough not to topple over in a moment like some of Goku's opponents had been.

It didn't really help him. He jumped forward, halving his height and making an attempt to pounce her the moment the fight began. She dropped to one knee and punched upward just as he flew overhead. The impact sent her opponent flying, of course, but he actually managed to twist and contort his body in such a way that he landed on the edge of the ring, sinking claws into the fabric of the ring rather than skid further.

It was a strangely disturbing sight, given the size of the one in question. She seemed entirely unfazed, though, simply straightening and looking over her shoulder at the tiger man.

...Actually, it was a little annoying now.

"She's not even trying." At some point, Krillin must have wandered over toward him. Goku must have finished his last battle if Krillin had decided to join him. After all, aside from a vendetta or two, he was pretty sure he was the only one who knew enough about how damn confusing she was to be overly interested in her battles.

Krillin gave an irritated huff. "What's the point of being here if you're not even going to try?"

"What's the point of competing if you're just going to concede the final match?" That was the least annoying thing about her performance, disappearance, and then reappearance. Nothing about her made sense, and he couldn't even find enough about her to figure out an answer that did make sense.

Krillin made an aggravated sound, as if he'd been following Yamcha's train of thought (somehow). "I hope I get to fight her in the first round and deal with her immediately!"

"Don't you mean 'Goku fights her in the first round'?" He glanced down at his shorter friend, unable to dismiss the small amusement that arose from the outburst. "I'm pretty sure Goku would be disappointed if he didn't get the chance to have a rematch after all this time."

"Rematch?! He didn't even get a match! I'm the one with a score to settle!"

"Settling what score?" Goku wandered over from whatever platform he must have been fighting at, expression curious. A moment later, the Kaiseroinne slammed into the wall just over the nearby leader board.

Huh. The guy must have had some pretty good moves to have lasted that long.

"Oh!" Goku grinned, and clenched his hands in excitement. "She just won her fight, too? Then she'll get to be in the tournament too!"

"Well, it's not like that's a surprise." Krillin grumbled and crossed his arms, frowning between Ino and Goku. "She did make it through last time, too."

"And that's it for the preliminaries!" Off to the side, the announcer shouted excitedly across the hall. In the enclosed space, he didn't seem to bother with a microphone, simply shouting loud enough to be heard over the din instead. "Winners, please follow me to the tournament hall, and we'll assign you your positions! Those who were defeated, please enjoy the tournament with your complementary tickets!"

"So...I guess this is when the tournament really begins, huh?' Krillin rubbed at the back of his head, glancing around the room as the din of people filtered out of the building and slowly left the qualifiers behind.

Four of those were...himself, Goku, Krillin, and Ino.

Who were the others?

(*)

It seemed a little ridiculous, on reflection, that the runner-up of the previous tournament need to qualify to enter the next one, but...it did give her something to do which wasn't hover nearby familiar faces. Honestly, it would be a little more difficult to play a stranger when she knew the faces she faced off against so well this time. Even if 'Ino' knew them as well...

The last time hadn't exactly gone well.

The preliminaries flew by even more quickly than they had last time. In the absence of the Red Ribbon Army, it seemed no one had rushed in to fill the gap between themselves and what the tournament had to offer as 'the strongest men in the world'. Reprising her role as Ino was probably a kindness to Goku not just to give him a second chance, but because he needed all the challengers he could find this time.

Next time, there might not even be a need for a tournament at all, if the population of this world didn't get inspired and start catching up.

Before long, those who failed to make it into the publicized side of the tournament left to find seats or tend their wounds, and those who remained were led away to the victor's waiting area, where they could look out and see the crowds between rounds.

Goku, Krillin, Yamcha. Those were obvious participants to make it so far. Besides them...the man who fought the boar and the other two who arrived with him. Finally, a confident looking man stood off to the side, arms crossed, mouth quirked up into a smirk. He'd been flashy in the fights she'd glimpsed of him during the preliminaries, but effective.

It seemed only human-shaped contestants made it into the tournament finals this time. The one man had three eyes, much like Kaguya, but...he appeared to be human otherwise. Another seemed even smaller than Krillin and Goku. It seemed unlikely that he would be younger than the two boys who participated. Which meant...it must have been another species she'd simply never seen in her travels with Goku.

Worrying. Without even knowing the species of the opponent, there was no way to know if she'd taught Goku enough to prepare him for the small one's techniques, if the two of them were matched up.

"Please step forward and take a number."

She glanced up at the organizer, letting her trail of thoughts drop for now. She'd done as well as she could in the time she had to help teach Goku, and the other two would have spent their time training under the old man for the past three years as well. They'd do fine, probably.

Though...she did wonder about the three that she and Goku met previously. Everything about them was a little...off.

She reached into the tournament box and retrieved one of the numbered spheres.

"Four."

The man who'd addressed her earlier, who'd faced off against the boar the year before, gave a small smirk and wandered over to her once she walked away from the line. "So, it seems we will be matched in the first battle."

"Will we?" She hadn't been paying attention. The results would be posted up on the wall when it was all done, after all. Keeping up with the pairings before then wasn't really necessary.

Well, at least she didn't start off facing Goku, Krillin, or Yamcha. It would have been a bit of a disappointment to fight them immediately.

She'd have to knock one out at the first round.

"...So I look forward to our battle." There was a certain aggressiveness in his tone that may have been due to her lack of any attempt to look interested in conversation with him.

Which probably wasn't the best thing to do, really. Something about him made her feel uneasy. The easiest way to get answers about a person was often just speaking to that person. She'd just been a bit...distracted. Last time, her focus had been on desperately finding any way to get home. Teaching Goku and Krillin was distant behind anything that could lead her back. Now...

She tucked short blond hair behind her ear and offered the man in front of her a polite smile. "With such a confident opponent, I'm sure the battle will be interesting."

"Confident...and curious. You are quite the mystery, after all." He offered a smile back to her that felt just about as sincere as her own. "And what better way is there to get to know another warrior than through battle?"

Naruto said something like that before. There was an archaic shinobi belief he'd drawn it from, but she'd never been able to make it work. She could punish with her hands, she could heal with them, and she could certainly deliver a message of anger and revenge. But...communicating her thoughts or understanding with her opponent...she'd never managed it.

No matter how much she'd wanted to, she wasn't the type of person who could reach someone just with her fists. It wasn't like that would change now.

She gave a small shrug, dispelling the thoughts. "You'd be better asking."

His smile faded, but the voice of the tournament announcer cut through their conversation before he could say anything else. "The match ups have been decided! Let the finals of the twenty-second World Martial Arts Tournament get underway!"

Four...she wouldn't fight the one in front of her until the second round.

She stepped around the man and made her way up to where the others were shuffling around while the man stepped out to make announcements to the crowd.

"Who was it fighting in the first round?"

Yamcha, who had been lingering nearest to the wall that displayed the participants turned to her, arms crossed. "Number one is...uh...that guy." He pointed over her shoulder.

One of the men that she'd met in the forest. The one with three eyes.

"The other..." Yamcha gestured over to where Goku chattered excitedly with Krillin, waving his hands wildly. "is Krillin."