Sins of the Father

Chapter 33: All in Good Fun

A/N: This is an atypical and egregiously long chapter. Enjoy!


The quarterfinalists gradually assembled in a small room adjacent to the main ring. Apart from Majunior and Hero- the former was motionless underneath his ruffled purple gi while the latter was luxuriating in his button-down white shirt- everyone was clustered together. Chi-Chi, clad in her multi-colored ceramic plates, was tightening the straps of her armor. Launch and Tien were habitually making and breaking eye contact.

Krillin looked around the chamber confused. 'What's going on? Where's the set-up from last time?'

'There were allegations of cheating for the seed selection at the last tournament,' a man shaking a small box said, 'so I'll be picking the balls and handing them to you.'

'Why aren't we doing this in front of the crowd?' Launch asked, gesturing in the direction of the ring.

'Same reason; to prevent cheating.'

To the side, Tien muttered to himself, 'Chiaotzu isn't even here… waste of time.'

The man with the box finished shaking it around and pressed it against his chest. 'Alright. If everyone could form a neat line, we can get this underway…'

Yamcha stepped up first, excitement plain on his face. 'What'd I get?' he asked as a ball was pulled out.

The man held up a ball so that only he could see it. '8.' Casually, he handed the ball to an assistant next to him. 'Next.'

Tien walked forward. When the man pulled out Tien's ball, Tien tilted forward to get a glimpse inside the drawing box. The drawer, however, bent backward and held it just out of sight. '3,' he said curtly, giving Tien a dirty look. 'Are you done?'

Glaring at him, Tien nodded. When he finished moving to the side, Yamcha leaned in. 'Hey,' he whispered, 'what was that all about?'

'It's the principle,' Tien said, crossing his arms. 'They shouldn't treat us like cheaters the one time we aren't cheating.'

'What?'

'Nevermind.'

The drawing proceeded without incident, with the drawer telling each competitor what ball they had drawn one at a time. Launch went next and drew "7"- she shot a manic grin at Yamcha once this was told to her. Krillin and Rayne drew each other with "2" and "1" respectively.

As Majunior stepped up, Tien's anger was boiling over. This is ridiculous. If they're going to treat us like cheaters, then we might as well cheat… He admittedly hadn't had nearly as much practice and talent as Chiaotzu had in these matters, but he was sure he could cause a little mischief. Psychically focusing on the box, he shot an impulse of energy towards one of the balls in it- weirdly enough, he felt some sort of grip come loose just as the man thrust his hand into the box. A moment later, he pulled out a ball with the number "5". Majunior grunted and returned to his corner.

Chi-Chi walked up next. Again, Tien wasn't sure what happened, but just like last time, he focused his minuscule psychic power and seemed to knock a grip from one of the balls. Is someone else doing this, too?

The man promptly drew a ball with the number "6". Chi-Chi gave a faint nod, still preoccupied with fidgeting with her armor.

Hero was the last to go; he drew a "4". When he was informed of this number, Hero seemed to freeze for a moment before smiling placidly at the drawer and thanking him. Strangely, Tien thought he saw the man scold at him for the briefest second- but it had happened so quickly that he could have imagined it.

The drawer gave the box to his assistant. 'And that's that. You're in the announcer's hands from this point on.'

'Excuse me,' Krillin asked right before everyone was shooed off to the ring, 'is this the same guy who announced for the last two tournaments?'

The man nodded. 'Same guy. Nice guy, too.'

'What's his name?'

The drawer paused, thinking. 'Dunno,' he replied after a moment. 'Never thought to ask.' He started to wave them away. 'Put on a good show!'

0o0o0

The announcer was weaving literal magic with his voice, rolling and roiling the crowd into a speculative frenzy. Just when he felt he was running out of material, he heard the sound of footsteps from behind him. He looked over his shoulder and saw the eight quarter-finalists had finally been delivered to him. A tournament worker quickly passed a clipboard with the seedings and names to him. Showtime, baby.

He walked out to the center of the ring, directing the competitors to form a line behind him. 'Ladies and Gentlemen, the dye has been cast! Before you now are the eight quarter-finalists for the 23rd World Tournament!' He held the mic towards the crowd, catching bits of the astonishing amount of noise that filled the stadium. Tugging at the edges of his newly-grown mustache, he went on. 'The matches are as follows! Krillin, a semi-finalist from the last tournament and a quarter-finalist from the one before that, will face off against Rayne, a quarter-finalist from the last tournament and a semi-finalist from the one before that! We've got a little symmetry going on here!'

The crowd cheered loudly for Krillin- it seemed he was becoming a crowd favorite. Rayne waved her hardest to get the crowd on her side.

'After that,' the announcer went on, 'we'll see last tournament's WINNER-' the crowd roared, '-TIEN, face a newcomer in the form of Hero! We'll see if Tien can make a successful title defense!'

Tien, as expected of him, acknowledged the crowd. He was never going to feel comfortable in front of such a large crowd- but he could tolerate the experience.

'The third match will see Majunior, another newcomer, face Chi-Chi, a quarter-finalist from two tournaments ago! Who knows what techniques she's developed since then to dazzle us with!'

Majunior seemed either indifferent or contemptuous of the crowd's attention. Chi-Chi felt out-of-place for an entirely different reason. She had never realized how much less accomplished she was at the World Tournament compared to her friends until the announcer blurted it out to the entire world. As it was, she felt her cheeks redden.

'And finally,' the announcer said, 'the last match of the quarterfinals will pit Yamcha, a finalist from two tournaments ago and a quarter-finalist from the last tournament, against Launch, also a quarter-finalist from the last tournament! That's sure to be a tough-fought win for whoever prevails!'

Launch and Yamcha equally soaked in the attention of the crowd. They both seemed in their element on stage.

'Everyone, prepare yourselves- the quarterfinals are about to begin! Don't move an inch!' The crowd pulsed with enthusiasm. Frenzied spectators were already doing the wave across the stands.

Satisfied, the announcer turned towards everyone on the ring. 'We're going to start as soon as possible. If everyone other than Krillin and Rayne could head over to the competitors' area, we can get this show on the road!'

Majunior and Hero quickly exited the ring. Just as Tien, Chi-Chi, Yamcha, and Launch finished speaking words of encouragement to Krillin and Rayne, the announcer came up to them. He turned his microphone off. 'Hey, I just want to make sure- none of you are going to do something crazy this year, right? Because the last tournament got pretty crazy.' He scratched the area of his neck trapped underneath his red tie and dress shirt collar. 'If anything ridiculous on that scale happens again, they might shutter this tournament for a few years…'

Timidly, Krillin exchanged glances among everyone. 'We'll... try our best,' he said, trying to put the man's nerves at ease.

The announcer frowned. 'Oh... ' He went white as a ghost and walked out again towards the center of the ring. 'That's not a good answer... not at all…'

0o0o0

Chiaotzu flagged down Yajirobe, who was cluelessly walking around with metal box balanced on his head. When he sighted where Chiaotzu and Bulma were sitting, Yajirobe quickly joined them, happy to plant his butt down and plop the box into his lap. 'Jeez, that guy was difficult!' Yajirobe complained as he produced a hot dog from seemingly nowhere. 'You'd think,' he said between noisy chewing, 'that'd be their one job requirement- not be difficult.'

'Yajirobe,' Chiaotzu said, staring at the hot dog disappearing before his eyes, 'where'd you get that from?'

The samurai finished inhaling the hot dog and promptly reached his other hand into the metal box, emerging with another hot dog a second later. 'Here,' he mouthed through a hot dog bun, pointing to the box in his lap.

Curious, Chiaotzu looked over the box and flipped over the lid on top. He saw dozens of hot dogs being boiled in hot water, complemented by hot dog buns and condiments. It was then that Chiaotzu recognized what Yajirobe had. 'This is… a vender's box.'

'Yeah-huh,' Yajirobe replied, swallowing another hot dog.

'Did you steal this?' Chiaotzu asked.

'Nuh-uh.'

'Did you borrow this?'

'Yeah-huh.' Yajirobe dexterously assembled a full hot dog with a bun and ketchup with one hand and offered it to Chiaotzu. 'Want one?'

'I'm good.'

0o0o0

'I'm sorry it had to go down this way,' Krillin said while stretching. 'You had a good chance to go far in the tournament.'

'That's a little cocky for you to say, don't you think?' Rayne shot back while doing some stretching of her own.

'Not cocky. Just… aware.' He gave her a wink- she scolded back.

'Are you going to take this fight seriously?' Rayne asked, cracking her knuckles. 'Or should I assume you're going to be like this for the entire match?'

'Ah, c'mon! I'm just joking around. This'll be a fun fight-' Krillin paused. '-that I'll win.'

Growling, Rayne lowered herself to the ground, one bent leg extended towards Krillin. 'What happened to the old Krillin? You know, the one who treated every fight like it was life-and-death?'

Krillin lowered into a guard of his own- it wasn't recognizable to Rayne. 'To be fair,' he answered, 'most of those fights were life-and-death. And that Krillin's still around. He's just buried under a lot of level-headedness.'

'Level-headedness?' Rayne balked. 'You really think you're being level-headed right now?'

He dug his heel into the ring and shrugged.

The next moment, just as the announcer opened his mouth to proclaim the start of the match, Rayne and Krillin burst into action. After exchanging a quick series of blows that tested each other's defense, Rayne twisted around a punch and lashed her leg out, knocking against Krillin's forearm block. She lurched forward, trying to smash Krillin into the ground with a double-handed fist but her attack passed through the air. 'Huh?' she drew back, 'where'd he go-'

Two hands pressed to her back. 'Surprise!' Krillin exclaimed, as two blasts of ki shot out of his palms and smashed into Rayne. She was blasted away head-over-heels and crashed ungracefully to the ground a few feet away.

The announcer ran over on the grass to Rayne's side. 'Krillin lands the first blow!' he declared, striking an action pose in his black suit and red tie. 'Is this a sign of things to come? Or is Rayne about to get serious?'

Groaning, Rayne climbed to her feet, rubbing the spots on her back where the blasts had made contact. The fabric crumpled and came away with the slightest touch. 'You're a little piece of shit, you know that?' She yelled across the ring at Krillin. 'Why'd you have to go after my back?'

Krillin pouted. 'Sorry,' he said, sounding sincere for the first time in the fight.

'Yeah, you'd better be sorr- AAARRRHHH!' Suddenly, Rayne clutched her back and began tipping backward to the tiles.

'Rayne?' Krillin took a few steps forward, concern rising to his face-

And he was kicked to his right, stars streaking across vision. Acting on instinct, he stabilized and landed on the ring on all fours and quickly glanced to where he had last seen Rayne- but the image of the tipping figure was now fading into nothing. He hopped forward a foot, narrowly avoiding a foot smashing into the tiles behind him.

'Alright,' Krillin said as he turned towards his assailant, 'that was a cheap shot.'

Rayne was smirking at him with her arms crossed. 'And blasting me across the ring by my back wasn't?'

'Point taken.' Krillin faced Rayne head-on. 'Round two?'

'Round two.'

They closed with each other again, the force behind their strikes and their urgency of movement intensifying from their first bout. Increasingly, however, Rayne found she couldn't get through Krillin's defenses. The bald human was expertly guiding away her punches and sliding away from her kicks. Frustrated, she pivoted on one foot, trying to make it look like she was bringing back her other foot when she was actually snapping it forward, but Krillin snagged the leg with both hands; Through her snarling she tried to wrench her leg free, but no matter how hard she tugged, it wouldn't come loose.

'What have you been doing since the last tournament?' Rayne asked, her voice a mix of surprise and indignation.

'Training with God,' Krillin responded as if he was reciting a common fact. No sooner had the words left his mouth did he wrench Rayne's leg towards him and up- she felt herself be pulled on a string into the sky above Krillin. Flailing, she used her other blue-jean leg to kick Krillin's legs out from under him, sending them crashing down to the ring. Rayne landed painfully on her head. Dazed but defiant, she aimed a point-blank horizontal blast at Krillin mere inches above the ground, but when she lifted her head to spot him, she discovered he had vanished again. 'Damn it,' she muttered, rushing to get off the ground and launch her prepared blue ki blast from her palm, 'such a pain-'

A small, almost miniature yellow ball of ki injected itself into her own blast, causing it to briefly warble like a pool of water that had been disturbed. Uh oh.

The blast in Rayne's palm detonated right in her face. Whiplashed and temporarily blinded, she felt her body snap back-and-forth through the air before crumpling to the ground.

Oooohh… my head… She struggled to open her eyes, trying to shake off the visual and auditory noise the attack had caused. Under assault from all her senses, she forced herself to stand. Drowsily, she looked across the ring at Krillin, who seemed somewhat shocked. Beyond him, Rayne saw the announcer seemed to be saying something into his microphone. At first, she couldn't hear or understand a word of this, but gradually, her mind began to piece things back together.

'...and she's up in the nick of time! A few more seconds and Rayne would have been sent home, folks!'

Ignoring her nausea, she planted her feet into the ground and glared at Krillin. Summoning the best steady voice she could muster in her current state, she said, 'Do you know what the difference between us two is right now?'

Before Krillin could respond, Rayne went on, clearly intending the previous question as rhetorical. 'I'm treating this match like it's life-and-death! And I'm not going to lose to a punk who's playing around!' She put one leg after another forward, slowly accelerating into a run. Leaning her body closer to the ground, she held her arms out like the contact pads of a bumper car. Her mind wasn't quite working at full strategic capacity- a single thought circled her mind like a vulture. I'm going to tackle that damn bastard out of bounds!

Right before she reached him, as if on cue, he disappeared, leaving behind a faint outline. Hah! Rayne's outline also began to shimmer and fade, reappearing several feet to the left. Krillin noticed too late that Rayne had similarly employed an afterimage and correctly predicted where he would go; he was caught unaware and off-balance as Rayne closed far too fast to be dodged. With a great lurch, he brought his arms into a cross in front of him-

And Rayne felt herself phase right through him, tripping over her feet and hurtling to the grass just beyond his outline. A second afterimage? Damn him… She fell out-of-bounds face first, dirt smearing across her face.

'Out-of-bounds!' The announcer immediately crooned. 'Krillin is the winner!'

Coughing out the dirt in her mouth, Rayne rolled over to her backside. Krillin, from an even farther away position on the ring than she had thought, was jogging over to her. When he reached her, she accepted his hand gratefully.

'That was a smart move,' Krillin said as he helped her to her feet, 'predicting where I would go with the afterimage.'

'Yeah…' She took a moment to get her bearings. 'But I don't understand- how'd you do a second afterimage? Your first was still fading away when I passed through the second one.'

'Oh, that?' Krillin smiled sheepishly, scratching his head. 'Would you believe that wasn't an afterimage? Haha...'

'Wait… are you saying that was just you… moving?'

Krillin's mouth curled and he cocked his head to the side. 'Yeah…'

'But… how?' she choked out, utterly lost. 'How are you that fast?'

'Honestly, you improved a lot too,' Krillin tried to console her. 'I was just lucky to train with one of the best teachers on the planet. How'd you spend the past three years?'

Everything clicked into place. Rayne abruptly turned her face to the side, avoiding Krillin's gaze. 'Damn Yajirobe,' she cursed under her breath.

'What?' Krillin asked.

'Nothing…' She shook her head clear and met Krillin's gaze. 'Just do me a favor, Krillin.'

'Yeah?'

'Don't go down in the semifinals.' She winced, as if imagining something unpleasant. 'I would prefer to not lose to someone who flames out in the next round.'

Krillin smiled and nodded.

0o0o0

People in the crowd stood to stretch their legs while the ring was quickly swept by the tournament officials. The announcer wasted no time once this quick task was done- he burst onto the ring as Tien and Hero followed him out. 'I hope everyone enjoyed our quick break, because we're moving right along with the quarterfinals! Next up, we have Tien,' he swung his arm towards the Crane fighter, who dutifully waved towards the crowd, 'and Hero!' Hero was decisively less animate, choosing instead to explicitly eye Tien. Both fighters moved to their sides of the ring.

Tien tentatively bent into a guard, trying to gauge his opponent. This is the guy Chiaotzu lost to… so he's obviously not as much of a pushover as he appears. Still, he doesn't look like a martial artist. Tien began to pick up on a sense of… wrongness emanating from the man. Something's not quite right here…

Before he could think any further, however, the blare of speakers droned out his thoughts. 'Begin!' the announcer's voice electronically blasted across the ring.

In the time it took for Tien to blink Hero was upon him, his white shirt blurring into a long white trail across the ring. Tien found himself immediately on the defensive, hard-pressed to even see most of the strikes coming his way. He was blocking on instinct alone while his mind and senses rushed to catch-up. Eventually, however, a blow snuck through his guard- Hero distracted Tien by shifting to the right and placing his hands onto the tiles. Hero then put his entire weight onto his hands and spun a leg out in a counter-clockwise arc towards Tien. It crashed against Tien's left arm, knocking him to the ground and jarring his movement. Tien bounced once before he saw Hero appear above him, aiming a menacing hand snapping with energy down at him. The man's mouth moved in tight, constricted ways, as if trying to say something, but no sound came from his mouth. A white glow filled Tien's vision.

The next moment, blinding light enveloped the spot where Tien had been.

From a corner of the ring, the announcer's muffled voice rang out, 'Incredible!'

'Woah…' Rayne muttered, shielding her eyes from the light of the explosion. She was settling into her seat within the stands. 'Do you think Tien got hit?' She asked Chiaotzu, who was seated in the row in front of her.

'Hard to say.' The pale fighter squinted, trying to see through the smoke enveloping the ring. 'He wasn't really prepared for such a quick opening- it's clear that Hero isn't playing around.'

To the right of Chiaotzu, Yajirobe was shaking the device Chiaotzu had handed off to him. 'Damn thing… what's with all the flaring lights right now?'

Just beyond Yajirobe, Bulma was snoring away.

0o0o0

Positioned in the center of the smoke cloud, Hero cautiously watched his surroundings for any sign of movement. When a fist did shoot out towards him, he was ready- he blocked the strike but was unprepared for another strike hammering into his side. He lashed out in retaliation- but the assailant was gone, disappearing once more into the cloud. He swung to palm another strike, but a second chop slipped underneath his guard, rebounding painfully against his ribcage.

Enough of this. Hero bent his knees and crossed his arms, and with a great hmmoooom, an invisible wave of ki shot out from him, blowing the smoke up and away from the ring. Tien was unveiled just behind him, his arms crossed.

'There's something off about you,' Tien addressed Hero, who turned around to face him. 'And it gave me such a jarring feeling that at the start of this match you nearly beat me while I was trying to figure out what it was.'

Something resembling a frown crossed Hero's face. 'You know, then?' he asked, his voice delivered in slow, detached tones.

'Nope. I intend on beating you before I can figure it out!' Tien rushed forward, his plain white shirt rippling across his body. When they met, dull droooms began to rumble across the ring, the sheer force of their concussive blasts shaking the stands slightly. Hero was very quickly forced backward by Tien's increased intensity, but he never looked substantially concerned or worried. Both fighters still seemed to be a few rungs below their top level.

Abruptly, Hero hopped backward, avoiding a punch aimed at his head. Tien rapidly released his fist and extended a finger. 'Dodon Ray!' he yelled, as a yellow beam shot out and raced past Hero's head.

'Dodon Ray! Dodon Ray! Dodon Ray!' A storm of thin beams erupted from Tien's finger, nearly grazing but never hitting Hero's dodging form.

Tien frowned- and his outline faded. As Hero was swerving rightward to avoid one last Dodon Ray, Tien appeared behind him, slamming a double-fist into Hero's back and knocking the fighter to the ground.

The ring cratered ever-so-slightly- zig-zagging cracks spread out from the single attack, forming a web around Hero's unmoving prone body. Tien paused over him, then took a wide step past him. 'Hey!' he called to the announcer, 'Start the-'

A burning sensation erupted within Tien's body. Half-controlled, he staggered to one knee, releasing the pressure of a massive blast crashing against his back and letting it spiral harmlessly into the air. On the ground nearby, Hero had rolled over, holding one hand with the other with thin lines of energy misting off of it. As Tien panted from the sudden pain, Hero climbed to his feet. His mouth made the same odd movements as they did before, but this time he managed to speak. 'You must stop this…'

More stunned than hurt, Tien had to take a few more deep breaths before regaining his strength to stand. Hero had already re-raised his guard by the time he had done so. 'You're… no...?' Tien replied softly. 'You're- hmm…' The odd sensation had returned to Tien; there was definitely something off with his opponent. It's… his ki, isn't it? It's almost like it's another person's…

After the three-eyed fighter took a few more calming breaths, Hero jumped off his feet, aiming a heavy punch at Tien. Blocking this and twisting, Tien brought his left arm from around him and threw it out horizontally across his waist. Hero surprised him, however, by jumping into the air and landing behind Tien. Too slow to react, Tien was pounded by blow after blow to his backside, smashing him forward towards the end of the ring. Unable to turn and regain his guard, Tien decided to make a stand and planted both his feet into the ground before him. Pushing off with his legs, he launched himself backward like a rocket, ramming his head into Hero's gut. Hero skidded back from the impact, his arms shooting to his midsection in pain. For his effort, Tien was immediately dazed, the impact so forceful that his entire vision was subsumed by bright, painful white. In sensory agony, he lamely fell to the ground on his back. After a moment, he rolled over and held himself up by his knees and hands. Arrgh!...

Hero took a moment to compose himself before straightening once more, his eyes boring into Tien. In his strange, calm walk, he began to stride over.

Totally disoriented, Tien struggled to even move; with herculean effort, he dragged his head off his chest.

Two figures were approaching him.

Tien blinked. What? His eyes were just starting to refocus, but Tien had clearly seen an outline of… what could only be described as ki arranged as a person hover over Hero like a specter. Another moment passed and his third eye closed. The ki specter disappeared.

A crazy idea sprung into Tien's head. No… He picked himself off the ground. This has no right to work…

Hero was a handful of feet away from him. Then again, why not?

When Hero stepped within two feet of Tien, the Crane fighter burst into action; he shot a point-blank, hastily formed Dodon Ray at Hero. Momentarily distracted by deflecting the weak attack, Hero couldn't prevent Tien from escaping into the sky.

'Uh oh!' the announcer exclaimed. 'Tien's gone airborne! Has he decided to get serious?' Even though he was wearing sunglasses, the announcer had to prop one hand like a vizor against his head to partially block the bright sun.

Everyone watching was doing the same. 'What the hell is he doing?' Yamcha wondered out-loud.

'Beats me,' Launch squinted towards the sky, trying to keep Tien in focus. 'It's something he never showed me, at least.' She sneered. 'Figures.'

Chi-Chi yawned. 'He's drawing this out, don't you think?'

'I don't think he's holding anything back,' Yamcha commented. 'I think Hero is actually that strong.'

'Jeez…'

Krillin opened his mouth to say something, then closed it. No, I don't even know if he's going to use that move. He held one hand close to his face. Though… just in case…

Tien came to a stop in the air and thrust out his arms and legs and called forth a bright, translucent white aura. 'YOU CAN'T LEAVE THE RING,' he yelled down to Hero, loud enough to be heard by everyone in the arena, 'SO YOU'LL HAVE NO CHOICE TO TAKE THIS HEAD-ON!' Tensing his arms, he brought his hands out in front of him, forming a triangle with his hands. His aura intensified, reaching heights twice as high above him than before.

Hero, expecting a massive attack, inched over to the center of the ring and tensed, crouching low to the ground.

0o0o0

'Chiaotzu,' Rayne squeaked, 'Tien isn't about to blow up the ring, right?' When the pale fighter didn't respond, she glanced over at him- his eyes were glued to the sky. 'Chiaotzu?...'

While sucking on a hot dog, the device in Yajirobe's lap began to vibrate violently. Lines swirled across the screen in a veritable storm. 'What?' he put down the hot dog in his other hand and picked up the device. 'Huh?'

Apart from everyone else in the competitor's area, Majunior- who had watched the entire match in apathetic silence- raised an eyebrow in interest.

0o0o0

They all bought it… With his third eye, Tien glanced between everyone down below. Lucky me. Let's do this.

Tien's aura loomed larger, fully enveloping and obscuring Tien from sight. The mass of aura abruptly sprung to the right, however, parking directly in front of the sun. "Solar Flare!" was the last thing everyone heard before being blinded by an overwhelming blast of light- everyone save Krillin and Chiaotzu, that is, who covered their eyes in the nick of time.

Tien made no effort to stop himself from being blinded- he had actually held open two of his eyes.

Still hurts… Carefully descending from the sky, Tien did his best to remember how high he had flown. Utterly blinded by his own attack, he measured the speed by which he fell by the feeling of air rushing over his body. Even though he had made sure to shut his third-eye, that part wasn't any good for normal sight. Once I get on the ground, though, maybe...

When Tien landed back on the ring, He saw that Hero was bent over, momentarily blinded by the attack. And there it is…

Channeling his third eye, Tien could clearly see the ki specter hovering over Hero, perching like a bird on a branch. The specter was similarly blinded like its host, hunched over in agony.

Thrusting ki into his hands, Tien stepped forward over Hero and pierced the specter. It gasped- as if shocked by what Tien had done- and tried to dematerialize by receding fully into Hero. Tien's ki grip prevented the specter from doing this, however, and held the specter in place. Grimacing, and pouring one last rush of ki into his hands, Tien took a step backward. 'LEAAAAVEEE!' He yelled, as his hands began pulling the specter fully from Hero's body. The specter sought to resist, quivering like a genie being sucked into its bottle, but Tien's strength was too great- after a few tense seconds, Tien ripped the specter fully out of Hero's body, flinging it into the sky.

Tien panted, twisting his head towards where the specter had shot to. He watched the specter freeze, and in the space of seconds, disperse as a construct. Parts of it broke off into loose fragments of ki that dissolved into the air like a solid disappearing into a liquid. A few moments later, nothing remained of whatever thing had inhabited Hero.

0o0o0

'Aaaah!' Kami stumbled backward as lightning crackled and shot out of the focus in front of him. After a moment, the modest slab of slate before him cracked and shattered into a thousand pieces.

Nearby, Mr. Popo dropped his watering can and ran to their master's side. 'Kami!' they cried, helping the Guardian to his feet, 'what happened? Was it your evil half?'

Kami gripped his staff with two hands for support. 'No,' he replied unevenly, still recovering from the shock of immediately returning to his body, 'it wasn't. It was some damn fool… he might have doomed them all…'

'What are you saying, Kami?' Mr. Popo asked with trepidation in his voice.

'They're on their own. It's up to Krillin and his friends, now. To fix my mistakes.'

Unsure of what else to do, Mr. Popo left their master's side and quickly began sweeping up the fragments of the slab.

0o0o0

Hero lost his balance and fell backward, landing on his butt. In front of him, Tien eyed the man expectantly. '... huh?' Dimly, Hero looked around his surroundings. 'How'd I get out here on the ring?'

'You're in the quarterfinals of the 23rd World Tournament,' Tien informed him. 'We're in a match right now.' Around them, Tien began to notice everyone's sight returning as evidenced by groggy moans and squinting looks.

Hero jumped up. 'The quarterfinals? Are you serious!?' He pumped his arms up and down in growing panic. 'I need to find my son!' Without another word, Hero ran past Tien, sprinting onto the grass and climbing over the wall that separated the ring from the stands. Amused, Tien let a small smile cross his face as the man was swallowed by the confused crowd.

'I… that's a ring-out by forfeit,' the announcer said lamely. He seemed to be massaging his temples as if he had a headache. 'Tien moves on… I think,' he groaned.

Tien swung to the crowd, fully prepared to accept their cheers in a workmanlike fashion- but everyone was in various stages of discomfort, either testing their vision still or distracted by their temporary visual pain. Yeah. Tien half-frowned. Forgot about that.

0o0o0

While Chi-Chi, Launch, and Yamcha were all expressing their discomfort, Krillin had attentively watched the end of the match. He wasn't quite what had happened- all he saw was Tien grapple with himself for a few moments- but as soon as Tien succeeded in whatever he was doing, Hero's entire posture had changed. The cool, collected stance was replaced by a father's nervous and anxious pacing. Tien had clearly done something to Hero, but as to what exactly, Krillin had no idea.

There was, admittedly, something vaguely familiar to Krillin about Hero up until that point. Questions for Tien later.

He had, at one point, also glanced at Majunior in the corner; despite his discomfort from Tien's attack, Krillin very clearly saw him visibly flinch when Tien succeeded in whatever he was doing. Perhaps he was also recognizing something? Or maybe he's connected to Hero somehow? More questions…

Tien walked over to him as Krillin was thinking this. The others, having regained enough of their senses back, joined them. 'Tien, what the hell was that about?' Chi-Chi asked, irate.

'Yeah, you couldn't have warned us?' Launch chimed in, 'Temporary blindness is not pleasant!'

Tien maintained eye contact with them. 'I promise it was necessary. I couldn't tell you guys and not tip off that guy about what I was about to do. If it's worth anything,' he pointed to his two primary eyes, 'I blinded myself, too.' As he said this, his eyelids squirmed from residual discomfort.

'You know you blinded everyone in the stands too, right?' Yamcha asked.

'Yes, I know. But the Solar Flare ended up working, so… the ends justify the means?' he shrugged.

'No,' Chi-Chi mocked, 'they don't. And "Solar Flare"? Really?'

'Back up for a moment,' Krillin spoke, 'you said that it worked? What'd it do, exactly?'

Tien nodded. 'It blinded Hero, but more importantly, it blinded my regular eyes. I could only see with my third eye.'

Launch verbalized wordlessly as if she was realizing something. 'So it was something spiritual, then?' She said after a moment.

'There was a… thing hanging around Hero,' Tien explained, 'almost like a ghost. It was controlling him, judging from how he changed once I pulled it out of him.'

'What, like he was possessed?' Yamcha tried to clarify. 'That seems a little far-fetched…'

To Krillin, their voices slowly began to fade away. Some sort of spiritual possession? To do that… and considering how familiar Hero was to me previously once he had changed… was that Kami? His eyes nervously darted across the ring, recalling and picturing every move Hero had made. The way he stood… Another thought rose in his mind. He glanced over at Majunior, who had resumed his earlier motionless indifference. And if that was Kami, and Majunior looks like him, and recognized him in some way…

He had no idea what to make of this. Was this the threat Kami hinted at? Him?

Launch's voice sliced through his thoughts. 'So you decided to help this guy, actively do something, huh?' She seethed at Tien. 'What makes him so special?'

'Oh boy,' Yamcha whispered out of the corner of his mouth, Unsubtly, he broke off from the group and walked away.

After a few moments of consideration, Krillin and Chi-Chi promptly followed

Launch continued glaring at Tien. 'Well?'

Tien's eyes lingered on her for a moment; then he glanced to the side and sighed. 'I'm going to talk for… thirty seconds. Just give me thirty seconds to talk, and once I'm done, you can be as angry as you like with me. Fair?'

She crossed her arms. 'Fine. Go ahead.'

'I'm sorry, first off. I didn't know how much… the thing we talked about would affect you. I genuinely thought it would be the best thing for you if you went off on your own- because I knew doing that would have been the best thing for me. I spent a lot of time alone growing up, and I had to handle a lot of my problems by myself, so I thought the same for you. I-' Tien paused. 'That's thirty seconds, right?'

Launch was leaning forward, her face rigid with concentration. 'You get another thirty seconds. Go.'

'... I'm not sure I have anything else to say. I guess… I messed up, and I'm sorry.'

'That it?' Launch asked, arching one eyebrow.

'Yea.'

Launch frowned at him, then shrugged. 'Okay. I guess that's understandable. Consider it forgiven.'

'...what?' Tien blinked rapidly with confusion. 'You're okay with it, just like that?'

Smiling, Launch pointed to one of her blue streaks of hair. 'I'm tuning into my more easygoing side right now- because I'm not crazy anymore, remember?'

'Yeah… I remember.'

'Good.' She nodded, satisfied. 'Good talk.'

'Ah… okay.'

0o0o0

While rubbing the side of his head, the announcer shakily brought up his microphone.'Ladies and Gentlemen… I know I speak for everyone when I say that we are terribly sorry for… whatever just occurred.' Undetectable by anyone in the stands, he shot an angry glance towards the competitors' area. 'I'm sure nothing like this will happen again. Understand?'

Various sounds of confusion rose out of the crowd. '...yeah?' One intrepid spectator yelled out in response.

In an instant, the announcer brushed away his serious tone. 'But on to the next match!' As the crowd roared again to life, he swept his arm towards the two persons walking out onto the stage. 'Chi-Chi and Majunior will compete in our third quarterfinal for a spot in the semifinals! Give them a warm welcome, everyone!'

As Chi-Chi dutifully greeted the crowd, she saw Majunior was as unmoving and uninterested as he had been during the preliminaries. He even had his eyes closed. Is he… sleeping? Gradually she drew back her waving hand. I know he smacked around Yajirobe like it was nothing… but is that really a good reference? For all I know, Yajirobe is a wimp…

'Begin!'

Chi-Chi nearly staggered backward as she wrenched her body to the side, barely avoiding a clawed hand rushing past her head. Majunior growled and swung that arm's elbow down and again Chi-Chi barely moved out of the way in time. 'Woah!' She rolled to the side and acting on instinct she crossed her arms in front of her as she stood. A resounding fist slammed against her arms, pushing her a few inches back and echoing across the ring. Through the gaps in her guard, for the first time she saw emotion on Majunior's face; pure, focused rage. She was forced backward by a heavy series of blows before Majunior delivered a crushing downward swing onto her shoulder, colliding with her left arm's hasty block and crashing her into the tiles. Dazed, she half-expected an imminent blow that would knock her out cold, but as soon as her sight returned to her, she noticed that Majunior had withdrawn backward. Rage was still present on his face, but it was now carefully layered beneath a forced composure.

'Go ahead,' he said once Chi-Chi had stood, 'attack me with your strongest attack.'

'What?' Chi-Chi replied while rubbing her hurt forearms. 'You're-'

'Your strongest attack.' He glared daggers at her. 'I won't ask again.'

Half-terrified, half-grateful for Majunior's dangerous terseness, she managed, '-Okay.' She brought her arms to her sides, more on auto-pilot than anything else. This… this might actually be King Piccolo. I think… I think he fought for real for a few moments there, or somewhere close to it… and I was utterly overwhelmed. Is this what Krillin and Tien felt three years ago? Dread conveyed blow-by-blow?

'Fine,' she spoke again, regaining her verbal composure, 'straight to it, then.' Squashing the fear she felt, Chi-Chi arched her body and bent it at an angle towards Majunior. 'You should know a bit about my background before I start,' she said in a low voice as heat lines began to rise off the tiles around her. 'I was born…' she bent closer to the ground, ready to pounce, 'in FIRE MOUNTAIN!'

Chi-Chi sprung straight up into the air; flames that burst from every crevice of her armor stretched towards the sky and mimicked her every movement like pseudo-shadows. A ring of flame began to encircle Chi-Chi, pulsating with the intensity of a firestorm. At the center of it all, Chi-Chi stood defiantly, most of her features obscured by fire except for the bright, varied appearance of her armor. The entire construct had the appearance of a flame-red rock encapsulating a multi-colored crystal.

0o0o0

Close enough to feel the heat of the flames, Launch whistled. 'That's some serious firepower..'

After a moment of concentrated attention on the ring, Yamcha glanced at Launch, half-smiling. 'I see what you did there.'

'Good, right?'

0o0o0

'Woah…' Suno hopped up on a concrete divider high up in the stands to get a better view of the inferno consuming the ring. 'Get him, Chi-Chi…'

0o0o0

Majunior squinted towards the flames, his face ranging between slight indifference and slight annoyance. Like an actual firestorm, fire began to creep outwards across the ring, burning and feeding off the tiles like they were wood. Growling, Majunior lifted up one arm and ran the other over it, as if applying some sort of film. Then, with a simple motion, he swung the arm down and the encroaching flames were split down the middle across the length of the ring. After a brief moment, the fire to the right of the dividing line began to sputter and die. She's on the left, then-

A fist flashed past Majunior's head, slow enough for Majunior to sense it's approach and dodge backward. Just as he did this, however, a section of the firestorm lurched at him from behind, forcing him to stop and quickly hop back the way he came. Distracted by the wall of fire singing the back of his clothes, he crashed into a waiting knee, driving deep into his gut. He snarled and swiped one clawed hand in front of him, but for his effort, it raked through fire that superficially burned the surface of his skin.

As he drew back his stinging hand, a voice began to warble out of the flames. 'It was pretty dumb of you to give me enough time to do this,' it said, mocking, 'otherwise, I would never have had the chance to use this in the tournament. So thanks!' Majunior spun, thinking he'd pinpointed the voice- but he was greeted by another shooting pillar of flame, slamming into his chest and throwing him backward. As he protectively rolled with the force of the blow and extinguished his clothes, he performed a similar move to earlier and cut the firestorm in half, causing the flames to die-off on his side of the ring. Silently, he rose, his eyes searching through the flames.

0o0o0

'You sense it too, right Chiaotzu?' Rayne asked, not taking her eyes off the match. 'With her ki?'

He nodded, his eyes closed to focus on sensing her energy.. 'Yes… she's impossible to pinpoint in the firestorm because the fire is her ki. It's like hiding in a crowd comprised of your clones. It all just feels the same.' He opened his eyes. 'If she's done enough training with this, and minimizes the amount of ki she's using… this is a very tough technique to beat.'

Rayne looked at him. 'You see any flaws?'

'No- but I wonder whether Majunior does…'

0o0o0

Majunior continued his game of deterrence, using his ki to divide and dissipate the encroaching firestorm. Slowly, however, the flames continued to close on him, giving him less and less room to move with on the ring. His purple and white fabric flapped in the wind swirling to and fro across the ring.

The flames tottered towards him, ever so slowly.

Lowering himself to the ground, Majunior spread his arms out wide, clenching his hands towards the sky. With a heavy, careful movement, he rotated in a circle on his hips, moving his arms slowly through the air. Gradually, his speed increased; soon enough, his arms were zooming in the air around him. The flames pressed ever closer to him.

Suddenly, a tendril of flame lashed out of the inferno, aiming straight for Majunior's head- but the tendril hit an invisible wall not a few inches from his face, breaking and dissipating against it.

Majunior smiled. 'Haaah!' he emoted, as the flames all around him shuddered and shrunk back like they were struck. The flames seemed to react, rising twice as high as before, but with another pulse from Majunior, they were beaten back down, shredded by an invisible wind. Slowly, he began to advance towards the firestorm, pushing his way into the center of the ring protected by an invisible dome. With visible effort, he intensified his arm movements, seemingly weaving the area around him free of fire. The storm all around him raged, but with increasing regularity, it pulsed down and away, as if being pushed back by a counter-force.

For the briefest moment, Majunior saw a ridged helmet peak out beyond the top of the flames. 'HAAAH!' With both arms, he thrust them forward towards that spot, releasing a circular, green wave of energy. Instead of detonating on or fighting against the flames, however, the blast simply stripped the inferno from that area. Chi-Chi was revealed, a dumb expression splashed across her face. 'Ho-'

The next thing she knew, she flew across the ring and landed out-of-bounds. Whiplashed, she groggily looked towards the ring. Majunior was staring at her emotionlessly, unclenching his right hand.

'Chi-Chi is out-of-bounds! Majunior is on to the semifinals!'

Utterly exhausted, Chi-Chi spent a few moments stretching her limbs on the grass, checking everything was still attached. The next time she looked away from her body, she was surprised to see Majunior standing over her. 'You weren't a priority,' he said cryptically, before turning with a twirl of his cape. 'Consider yourself lucky.'

Too tired to even begin to unpackage that comment, Chi-Chi let her eyes wander towards the sky above and passed out.

0o0o0

Krillin briefly met Majunior's eyes, but the green-skinned person quickly looked away. 'He blasted away Chi-Chi's fire- her ki. Totally and utterly. The amount of ki needed...' He swung his head towards the others. 'That's- are you guys listening to me?'

Yamcha and Launch were eyeing each other, each motioning for the other to start walking out onto the main stage. 'Sorry Krillin,' Yamcha responded, 'we're kind of busy here.'

'Yea, buzz off,' Launch added.

Tien came up behind Krillin. 'Are you genuinely worried about the amount of ki Majunior just used?' He asked, ignoring Yamcha and Launch.

Krillin avoided Tien's eyes and said nothing.

'Be as mysterious as you want,' Tien went on, 'but it wasn't that shocking. We knew there'd be some strong people here. Judging from that one display, I don't think he's unbeatable.'

'I guess you'll have to find out,' Krillin said absentmindedly, like his mouth was on autopilot.

'I'll find out?' Tien tried to clarify. 'Do you mean in the final? Did you forget we're fighting before then, Krillin? You could end up judging Majunior yourself.'

'Oh!' Krillin snapped out of his haze and rubbed the back of his neck from embarrassment. 'I kinda… zoned out there for a moment… sorry. I got caught up in some thinking.'

'What's on your mind?' Tien inquired, curious.

Krillin gazed over again at Majunior. He had returned to his corner in the competitors' area, hidden mostly by his clothes. 'We might be dealing with a more familiar enemy than we think.'

0o0o0

The next time Chi-Chi came to, she found herself looking at the ring as if she was a spectator. But that can't be right. I'm still fighting-

A pair of fingers snapped in front of her face. 'Chi-Chi!' Rayne gently shook her by her shoulder. 'You awake?'

Chi-Chi shook her head, then looked around at the people around her. Rayne was waving a hand in front of her face from her right. Chiaotzu was facing her from the next row; next to him, that guy Yajirobe seemed to be snacking down on something, and to the right of him… 'Bulma?' She pointed one weak finger towards the turquoise-haired woman sitting down and sleeping on her legs. 'Is that Bulma?'

'She's taking a nap,' Chiaotzu explained. 'Let her sleep.'

'Okay...' How is she sleeping right now? Chi-Chi straightened in her chair, feeling every sore muscle knot beneath her skin. 'How come I'm in the stands and not getting medical treatment?' Chi-Chi asked.

'Oh, don't be a wuss. You're fine!' Rayne good-naturedly patted Chi-Chi on the back, which nearly slapped Chi-Chi onto her legs like Bulma. 'You're not injured- you're just exhausted.'

'Yea,' Chi-Chi sighed, leaning back again, 'you might have a point there. I'm just… gonna… znoooorrrrr...' Rayne had to catch Chi-Chi and gently position her against the bottom of the stand behind her.

'Two snoring people,' Chiaotzu commented. 'What luck.'

0o0o0

Having watched her teacher be unceremoniously defeated, and lacking anything better to do, Suno was creeping around the area around the back of the stands. It seemed that a lot of people here were taking smoke breaks or doing some on-the-side gambling over the winners and losers of the match. In particular, there was a nasty smell surrounding some of the smokers. She was fascinated by what she was seeing- nothing like this ever happened in Jingle Village.

While she was passing by a grouping of men rolling dice on the dirt, her eyes were drawn to a heated argument farther ahead. One heavily muscled man was poking another in the chest accusingly, anger flashing across his face. They looked buff enough to have been competitors. Maybe they're blaming each other for losing? Suno thought reflexively, not really concerned with the accuracy of her judgment.

Suddenly, one of the men was grabbed by two similarity muscled guys from behind. As he struggled to break out of their grip, the person he was talking puffed on a cigar and… seemed to disappear briefly for a moment. When the smoke from the cigar fully faded, a woman in biker gang-esque clothing appeared in his place, smiling wickedly.

What? Suno looked towards the man being detained. He struggled fiercely- and caught Suno's eye. Suno then realized that all four of them were looking at her. The woman sneered at Suno and with a single hand gesture sent one of the thugs after her. He cracked his knuckles as he approached, smiling with wicked delight. 'You stumbled into something you shouldn't have seen, little-'

The man said no more as Suno's foot crashed against the bottom of his jaw, snapping the man's head back and crunching his teeth together. He flopped to the ground on his back, blood streaming from his mouth and his eyes rolling over.

Appalled, Suno took a step back from the man. Oh Kami! I didn't mean to do that! She crouched to the man's side and placed one finger to his neck- he heart was still beating. Relieved, Suno wiped some sweat from her forehead and looked towards the other three.

The woman was running away. The other thug had already done so.

The man who had been detained began to charge after her, but then seemed to realize something. He crossed his arms, a smug expression covering his face.

A moment later, out of seemingly nowhere, another man appeared and tackled the woman to the ground. Brushing his hands clean as if to signal victory, the original man beckoned Suno to follow him.

Hesitantly, she did so.

'Now,' the original man said as he strode up to the pinned woman, 'what do we have here?'

'You're scum!' the woman screamed, her eyes darting between her taunter and her captor, 'you're both scum!'

'We know,' he replied. A poof of smoke similar before to when the woman appeared manifested again around the man- a moment later, a floating cat was smirking down at the woman. 'Never thought you'd see me again, huh?'

The woman's mouth twisted, equal parts anger and disbelief. 'You should have stayed out of this!' She spat. 'Now there's going to be a target on your back, every hour of the day! I'll make sure of it!'

'You think I'm not used to that?' the floating cat shook her head, smiling. 'A lot has changed.'

She then turned to Suno. 'Hey… I saw you with Chi-Chi earlier. You know her, right?'

Suno snapped to attention at the mention of her teacher. 'Yes! I'm her student.'

'Should have known,' Puar said warmly. 'You're on your way to becoming a fine martial artist.'

'Do you know Chi-Chi?' Suno asked, a bit confused.

'We're old friends.' Puar seemed to remember where she was, looking back at the woman squirming below her. 'Can you do me a favor, Suno? Can you say hi from me to her? And everyone else?'

'Of course.'

'Good. Thank you.' Puar swung back to the woman. 'You're coming with us, now. Oolong, is the chopper nearby?'

'Oolong?" the woman laughed, her hair shaking loose and covering her face, 'you mean this, is Oo-'

Suno delivered a light kick to the woman's head. She was knocked out in an instant.

'Thanks,' Puar said again to Suno.'Oolong, can you carry her?'

The man had already begun lifting the woman.

'Alright,' she said, 'let's go.' They began to walk away towards the spectator entrance and exit to the tournament, but right before they passed out of sight Puar turned one last time to Suno and waved. 'Thank you again!'

Suno waved back. They vanished around a corner.

Huh. Well, that was fun. I should probably find everyone else now, though… She turned back towards the stands and paused. Where am I, though?

0o0o0

Once the announcer had checked that the ring was safe to walk on after a literal firestorm had consumed it, he mustered all his earlier bravado and swung to face the crowd. 'Everyone! Prepare yourself for the fourth and final match of the quarterfinals!' Behind him, Yamcha and Launch were walking onto the ring side-by-side, butting their shoulders against each other while walking on the narrow pathway. 'It's going to be quite a match!'

0o0o0

As Chiaotzu was watching Yamcha and Launch walk to their respective sides of the ring, his eyes caught a wooden stick poking out above the crowd to his left. The stick jostled and shook its way closer to where he and everyone else was sitting. What the…

A white-furred cat stepped into their aisle, wiggling towards Chiaotzu. 'Heyo!' Korin said enthusiastically.

'... Korin? What are you doing here?'

'Supporting my pupil, what else?'

'Ah.' Chiaotzu got Yajirobe to scoot over and so Korin could sit to Chiaotzu's left. 'That makes sense. Excited to see Krillin put your moves to the test in a tournament for the first time?' Chiaotzu asked.

Korin's gaze swept towards the two quarterfinalists moving onto the ring.'Not quite who I'm referring to…'

'Huh?'

Behind them, and lacking anyone competent to ask, Rayne kept her confusion to herself. Is that a talking cat?

0o0o0

Yamcha and Launch eyed each other from across the ring. Both of them had been felled at this stage of the tournament last time- neither of them intended for that to happen again.

'I'm curious to see what you've learned in three years,' Yamcha asked across the ring, stretching his arms in a circle one at a time. 'Other than changing your hair, of course.'

Launch smirked. 'You're pretty unperceptive. Or have you already noticed that I haven't sneezed once?'

Something flickered across Yamcha's face. 'Wait. Are you saying-'

'Whatever your worst fear is,' she cut him off, her smirk broadening, 'it's probably true.'

Yamcha laughed. 'Then this should be a good fight, after all.'

The announcer gave each of them a nod before throttling the microphone to his face. 'Begin!'

Yamcha moved first, charging across the ring and aiming an elbow at Launch's midsection. She dodged nimbly, shifting to the right and blocking a follow-up kick from Yamcha with her forearm. A flurry of strikes crashed and broke against each other, canceled out by a nearly identical move from their opponent. At one point, Yamcha yelled and shimmered, appearing behind Launch and swinging a heavy claw through an afterimage of her own. His hand flashed and dug into the tile. Groaning, he tried to pull his arm from the ground as Launch appeared before him. 'So you know that move now? Good.' He freed his hand, creating a popping noise and loosening a tile. 'Makes the fight fairer.'

She answered him with a mischievous smile; then, her entire body faded in such a way that her smile was the last thing visible.

In response, Yamcha's outline also blurred and vanished. A split-second later, they crashed together in the middle of the ring, fist to fist. They struggled against each other briefly, before Launch ducked low and kicked Yamcha in the shins, knocking him off balance. Before Launch could land a follow-up strike, however, Yamcha caught himself and somersaulted backward out of danger. 'Stop running!' Launch yelled as she chased after him.

'I'm impressed,' Tien said, catching Krillin's attention. 'They're both improved massively.' He flattened his mouth. 'Between you and me, either one of them would give me some trouble.'

Krillin turned his head and stared at Tien. 'But you'd still beat them, right?' he asked.

Tien kneaded his face into an agreeing expression. 'Oh, yeah. That goes without saying.'

Grinning, Krillin nodded.'Good.'

Out on the ring, Yamcha spun away from a drilling punch from Launch, stopping his movement to fire a near point-blank blast of ki at her. She halted her charge mid-movement and brought up her arms, catching the attack square on her block. With a great roar, she flung her arms outwards, scattering the blast into a thousand tiny granules of light.

Yamcha frowned, drooping a little. 'You're no joke, jeez…'

Launch dug her back heel into the tile. 'Jokers don't aim to win!' Abruptly, she then threw out a blast of her own, sparkling yellow in the day's light. Yamcha easily stopped the blast with two outstretched hands. 'C'mon!' He taunted. 'Throw more at m-'

The pressure on him doubled, then tripled, as he found his feet sliding back and his hands starting to burn. Craning his neck out, he noticed a distinct blue sheen running halfway through the attack. Different colors! Which means!... differing ki!? Beyond the blast, he saw Launch feeding two separate blasts, a yellow one from her left hand and a blue one from her right, merging together and hammering down on Yamcha. This should be impossible for a single person to do! Two qualitatively different ki attacks!?

Ah damn. Yamcha pooled ki into his hands and feet, anchoring him to the ground and protectively shielding his burning palms. I should have listened earlier, about her not sneezing-

The attack quadrupled in strength, wrenching Yamcha off his feet. 'DAAAMN!...' he roared as the blast drowned out all other sounds.

0o0o0

'I taught her that, you know,' Korin whispered to a gaping Chiaotzu as the ground beneath them began to shake.

0o0o0

A massive conflux of energy crested past where Yamcha was and rode across the grass beyond, searing every blade instantly and detonating against the wall surrounding the ring. Some spectators were knocked out of their seats as a shockwave rumbled across the arena and the section of the wall where the blast hat hit collapsed to the ground.

Alone in the ring, Launch panted, scanning for where Yamcha had gone. The smoke had yet to clear from where the wall had collapsed. 'Announcer man!' she snapped, swinging her head like a marionette, 'Start the count!'

'I…' he verbalized, 'I'm not really sure where he is and if he's down…'

'Do it!' She urged him, 'just start the count!'

Intimidated, the announcer gulped, then raised the microphone to his mouth. 'One… two…'

Launch looked around the ring, searching for any sign of Yamcha. No scraps of clothing, no sound, no nothing… even if he isn't in the rubble, he's definitely out-of-bounds.

'Three… four...'

The smoke cloud dissipated enough to reveal the remains of the wall and its contents- nothing. Where the hell is he?

'Five… six…'

She began looking in every possible direction, even going so far as to scan through the crowd. I swear, if he's going to win on some stupid technicality like "the stands don't count as out-of-bounds", I'm going to kill someone!

'Seven… eight!...'

Krillin and Tien were both gazing up towards the sky. 'Wow...' Tien uttered.

'Nin- woah!'

A tunnel of wind blasted down vertically onto the center of the ring, nearly knocking Launch to the ground. Struggling against the wind, she forced herself to stand up fully again and gazed upwards.

She gasped. A massive, wolf-shaped paw was reaching down towards the ring, five claws pointing out threateningly. Gritting her teeth, Launch shot up a ki blast to delay the paw, but the ki construct simply batted away the attack. As they approached, the claws narrowed and merged into one single fang, speeding down towards Launch like a meteor. Nowhere to run- the attack was going to cover the entire ring- she feebly ducked underneath her arms and cradled her head with her body.

The moment the fang made contact with the ground, the paw broke apart in a blinding flash of light and a wave of energy descended on the ring and detonated. The announcer was nearly knocked off his feet as a percussive sympathy went off, intermittent brams and doomphs that lasted for well over a minute. As the storm of sound and light finally began to die off, Yamcha floated gracefully down to the ring, touching his feet back to the ring somewhat unsteadily.

In the center of the ring, Launch was splayed out on her back, unconscious. Respecting the ten-second count, Yamcha held back just long enough to ensure his victory before rushing over to Launch and slapping her awake.

Her eyes glazed over, she came to. 'I can't believe you…' she murmured. '...How did you learn to fly?'

'If you call ascending one foot at a time flying,' Yamcha said self-deprecating, 'then it was through trial-and-error.'

She groaned, turning her head on its side. 'Why didn't I look up…' she muttered to herself. Yamcha patiently waited for a moment, and eventually, Launch gave him the indication for him to help her up.

'So correct me if I'm wrong,' Yamcha said as he clasped his hand to Launch's, pulling her to her feet, 'but when your two selves merged, you gained a power boost, right? That's why you improved so much since the last time?'

'Yup.'

'And that was why you could do the two separate ki attacks, right?'

'Well,' she scratched the back of her head, 'I don't think that's unique to me. I just think I have more familiarity with doing something like that with my ki because… of my background,' she gestured vaguely, 'or whatever.'

'Mmm.'

Launch let Yamcha help her walk out onto the out-of-bounds grass, and without Yamcha's assistance, she began to climb over the outer wall into the spectator area. As she was about to jump down from the top of the wall to the other side, she turned back towards him. 'One more thing, Yamcha; we weren't that far apart in strength, right?'

'I only won because I got the drop on you,' Yamcha reassured her. 'Otherwise... we would have bled ourselves dry.' He said ominously.

Weirdly enough, Launch smiled at that. 'Good to know. Thank you.' She saluted him, then swung her legs over the wall and joined the crowd.

0o0o0

Victorious, Yamcha rejoined Tien and Krillin in the competitor's area, beaming like the sun itself. 'And then there were four!' He said as she clapped a hand on each one of their shoulders. 'Looks like this is my year!'

Tien smirked at him, and gestured to the fourth semifinalist eyeing them from the other side of the area. 'Did you forget about who you're fighting in the semifinals? The guy who may or may not be King Piccolo?'

Yamcha didn't frown, but he didn't exactly smile either. Instead, he performed what could best be described as a nervous laugh. 'How could I forget?'


A/N: Conceivably, this is the last tournament quarterfinal I will ever write... so this will probably be the longest chapter ever written for this story. Holy cow, was it a struggle. Hope it was fun to read though!

Reviews:

LWexe: Yay!

Legendary-AI: How do you think the description for this fic could be improved/ more informative? I'm open to any suggestions.

Guest: Kind words! Thank you!

juste leave me alone: Hey, don't shortchange the other gods at work! The characterization gods would like to object!

More serious, there are a couple reasons for Bulma's device coming about that'll become clear going forward. I think… three reasons. I think?