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The story is now a year old. Fourteen more to go!
The Next Dimension Over
Chapter Seventy-nine
The next fight was apparently Goku against some other person she didn't recognize. He was tall and scrawny, but more importantly he was cocky. He hadn't even gone to watch any of the previous fights, and showed no concern for the outcome of them, no matter how brutal.
If he had been paying attention, he likely wouldn't have been so carefree. As it was...he didn't take the tournament seriously enough to be a threat to Goku. She had no doubt that Goku would be able to deal with him, especially with the motivation he currently had to advance through the tournament.
"You're distracted."
She blinked, and looked over her shoulder. Surprisingly, instead of finding some part of the room to best glower at Tien threateningly, Yamcha stood only a few steps from her. Which didn't really make any sense. It wasn't like they had some sort of grand rivalry that would excuse her keeping his attention even over the revenge he currently wanted out of the other participant in the tournament.
"What?"
"You fought terribly out there."
She squinted at him. "If you're trying to turn something around on me, I did win that fight."
"Barely." He huffed and frowned at her, crossing his arms. "The next person you fight is that Tienshinhan guy."
Was that what his concern was about? She knew he wanted a match up with the man - he'd made that extremely clear - but it was a waste of his time and effort to be concerned about it. She'd deal with Tien first. "I'm not throwing the fight so you can live out a revenge fantasy."
"You're gonna have to hope he throws it if you don't snap out of it."
"...What?" She hadn't even done badly last time, and he really needed to worry more about Goku's blatant seething. And it seemed pretty unlikely he wanted her to win the fight, under the circumstances.
"Look...it's obvious if you let your guard down he'll do just as bad or worse to you as he did to Krillin. He's a monster, and after you took out one of his associates, you're not gonna be on his 'good' list."
She...
She shook her head. Distracted? She wasn't distracted, she was..motivated. Focused.
On things that weren't her last fight. Being here wasn't even her idea in the first place, but...what happened to Krillin took up most of her thoughts during the last round. Maybe she would have done better, reacted better, and struggled less if she had been better focused on the fight instead.
It probably wasn't an issue when it came to fighting Tien, though. After all, with him it was personal.
She crossed her arms and sighed. Even so...an emotional fight wouldn't be the best answer. Not in a tournament setting, at least. If she got distracted, she could end up knocked out of the ring, and then there'd be nothing more she could do. And then it would be up to Goku. Or Yamcha might try something foolish.
Besides paying him back for what he did, she had to ensure she protected the others. A level head would be the only way to do that.
She'd always been the worst at controlling her emotions, though. She pressed her lips together in frustration
"You've got a lot of concern for someone you don't know that well."
Really?
She glared over at him, then. "He could have been killed. Am I supposed to only care about the well-being of people who are my friends? It's against the rules to kill in the middle of a match."
"Well, you're about to risk yours being concerned about it." He frowned down at her, determined and unyielding despite her glare. "If you're gonna do that for someone you don't even know...at least make sure you have a chance at surviving that attempt."
"You don't have to worry about that." A gentle, youthful voice cut through her thoughts and anything else Yamcha might have tried to say on the matter. "He's not so unskilled that he'll kill you on accident."
The smallest companion of Tien stood a short distance from them, smiling up at her without any warmth. His skin lacked any kind of color, save for the red stained into his cheeks, looking all the more vibrant for being against the ceramic white of his flesh.
He gave a light giggle. "But this is a dangerous tournament, you know. If you're afraid of a lasting injury, maybe you should just drop out now."
Yamcha gave an angry growl. "If you're his messenger boy you tell him that."
"Oh, it doesn't really matter what you want to say to him anyway." The boy - whose name she'd forgotten - stuck out his tongue at Yamcha. "You won't ever be fighting him."
"Yeah? Well that's a little too much confidence to fit in someone so small!"
"Maybe you should have told your friend that."
She grabbed Yamcha's shoulder before he could make a lunge at the smaller boy. Their match would be right after Goku's, anyway. Getting disqualified or carried away so soon before then would be a waste of his years of training. Especially when he really wouldn't be fighting Tien. "Focus."
He glared over at her for a moment longer, and then Goku trotted back into the waiting room. His opponent didn't follow after him. "Your fight is next."
Yamcha grit his teeth a moment, and then sighed, finally relaxing in her grip. "Whatever. The fight won't last long anyway."
"You're right, it won't." The boy turned on his heel and walked away toward the ring. As he did, he called back over his shoulder. "You all might as well give up now anyway. No matter what you do, Tien's the one who's going to be winning the tournament."
(*)
So maybe he was being a bit hypocritical. But it was easier to call out Ino for being distracted than focus on his own. Besides that, she would be fighting Tien first.
Whoever she was, wherever she came from, she definitely wasn't one of Master Roshi's students. The way that Tien took out Krillin...anyone standing in the way between that man and the finals would be in danger. It was almost enough to convince him to pick a fight early just to keep that guy out of the tournament.
But...no. No way.
If he didn't do it on the ring, it wouldn't mean anything.
Before him, though...there were two other opponents. The friend of Tien...and Goku.
He frowned.
"If it makes you feel better, I'll make sure your friend won't get to fight Tien either." On the bizarre boy's face, his smile looked a little bit creepy. Chaotsu, that was his name, wasn't it?
"Yeah...thanks, but I'm gonna take care of that myself."
"Begin!" The voice of the tournament announcer echoed off of the walls of the arena, and the crowd gave such an enthusiastic shout that it nearly drowned out the last of his single word.
The boy didn't even move a muscle.
Chaotsu rocketed toward him anyway.
"Gah-!" He stumbled a step backward. The move hadn't even been overtly hostile, but it just looked so creepy that it unsettled him anyway. How was he moving without using anything to do it?!
Once again, without visibly jumping, the boy just lifted off from the ground. At his face. He narrowly managed to smack a tiny hand out of the way before it connect with him.
Damn it, focus!
Whatever the hell the kid was using as a trick, he couldn't let himself get unsettled and distracted that easily!
He shifted back a step, steadying himself, and caught the next kick, grasping the boy by the ankle. Using the momentum of the attack, he twisted himself around and flung the small figure into the wall dividing the arena from the waiting area.
It was a little bit disappointing Chaotsu didn't just break through the wall and land out of bounds right then. The resounding crash that echoed through the area when he connected with the wall was still satisfying.
...The kid didn't even look mildly inconvenienced when he dropped back to the stone tiles of the ring. "If that's all you've got, it'll be safer for you if you just quit now."
He hissed, gripping his hands into fists. "I didn't ask for your advice."
Once more, the kid shot through the air, propelled like he'd just jumped off of a spring board.
This time, he felt better prepared. He jumped backward, out of the height of the 'jump's arc, and kicked...at air. Chaotsu somehow managed to swerve in air out of the way. Smooth, quick, and way more extreme than should have been possible.
"Wha-?"
He flung himself almost double backward to avoid a mid-air sweeping kick.
And...Chaotsu just...
Hovered there. In air.
What?
At least it didn't hurt as much as he'd half expected it to when the kid landed a cheap shot on him in the middle of his confusion.
(*)
"Amazing!" The man off in the corner near the crowd actually managed to shout loudly enough to be heard even over the crowd's sounds of shock and excitement. "Chaotsu is actually managing to float in air! I've never seen anything like it!"
She had seen people float in the air before, but...she'd never understood the jutsu behind it, even when she'd asked about it. And as far as she understood, it was bloodline related.
Could ki actually be manipulated in a complex enough way to mimic advanced jutsu?
"How...?"
"Surely you have a few secret techniques of your own?"
That voice was...
She turned a cold glare toward the man that stood near her. He towered. He didn't intimidate her in the least. Jiraiya had towered over the Lady Tsunade, and she easily put him in his place whenever necessary. This one wasn't nearly as skilled or experienced as a member of the sannin.
"I wasn't speaking to you."
"Maybe you should be. After all, I'm your next opponent. Which one wins this battle won't matter to you, because you won't be fighting either of them."
"Keep your cockiness to yourself." She crossed her arms and turned her attention back to the ring. Whatever he wanted to say wasn't important. Any chance he had to share his thoughts, he'd thrown away in his battle against Krillin.
The small one (Chaotsu, apparently) hovered higher in the ring now. Fortunately, he spoke loudly enough for his voice to carry even as far as she was.
"I hoped it would be more fun fighting you, but you're boring." His finger pointed down at Yamcha.
For a horrible moment, she thought he might use something like the atomic deconstruction jutsu she'd witnessed in the war.
Bright light shone from his outstretched finger, and he shouted an unfamiliar term. Rather than a cube of something enveloping Yamcha, though, ki shot out in a straight line toward where Yamcha stood. Fortunately, he jumped backward out of the way before it could hit, and the bright energy splashed against the stone, singing it but not destroying it.
Whatever attack it was, clearly the small one didn't intend to kill him with it. For now, at least.
While the first attack took a moment to charge, he followed with a rain of other shots, chasing Yamcha across the ring and back, nearly cornering him out of it once or twice. Any time that Yamcha paused and attempted to jump up toward him, the rain of beams would singe an arm or a leg, causing him to stumble in pain instead.
She grit her teeth. "I thought this was a martial arts tournament."
"Ki is the natural extension of training one's body to perfection." Tien gave a huff of smug amusement. "Or perhaps you should petition to be disqualified for using it to stop yourself from sliding out of the ring?"
She bit her cheek in irritation. Using chakra as a utility was an entirely different matter than finding a way to fly and shoot at their opponent while out of range! "For being perfect, his physical skills are pathetic. The first time he ends up in a position where he can't run away, he'll be crushed by a civilian."
Tien grunted in irritation. Perhaps 'civilian' wasn't the correct term, but...it seemed it communicated what she wanted anyway. A moment later, he raised his voice "Chaotsu-"
Yamcha landed a few feet from where they stood, at the wall where he'd knocked Chaotsu into earlier. He ducked down briefly, snatching up a chunk of stone which had broken free from the impact, and flung it behind him toward his enemy with visible might.
The stone spun like a disc through the air toward the small figure at an impressive speed, and for a moment the action left the other stunned, frozen in surprise rather than reacting immediately.
Before it could reach him, he shot another beam into it. Stone and debris exploded outward in every direction, even raining sharp pebbles into the observation area. Some of the rocks struck him as well, causing a brief flinch of discomfort.
Yamcha sprung from his place into the air, hands clasped at his side.
"Ka..."
She recognized the gesture. And the word that he shouted.
"Oh!" Goku gave an excited shout, for the moment too distracted with Yamcha's match to be glaring at Tien. "He finally learned the Kamehameha!"
Light enveloped both of his hands as the dust began to clear, and he shot his arms forward with a final "Ha!"
"Chaotsu!" Tien shouted a word of warning toward his companion, but it did nothing to break him out of his surprise, at least not in time. The brilliant beam of light enveloped the small figure and erupted in a flare of energy so bright that much of the crowd lifted their hands and looked away to shield their eyes.
As the light faded, the small figure plummeted into the crowd at high speed. The crowd screamed as he crashed into the ground, and Yamcha landed back on his feet with surprising grace.
Tien gave an irritated growl. "I've told him to pay attention." He sighed after a moment, and then turned to walk back into the waiting area. "Maybe I should have picked that one."