Cultural Note- If you noticed, Karen kept calling Woody her "Shishou". In Japan, "Shishou" is basically a term used for Martial Arts Masters, and is usually considered a higher title/honorific than "Sensei".

Chapter 1: The World Warrior

Somewhere in Bangkok, Thailand, a battle of epic proportions was about to begin.

The crowd roared with the commencement of the final battle in the 1st Ever "World Warrior" Tournament. Bets were placed and fans drooled as the two contenders stared down each other without a flinch.

On one side of the ring was a tall, muscular man with black flat-top hair and rough black beady eyes. In a majestic display of his sinewy body, he wore only his traditional Muay Thai blue shorts with gold lining, bandage wrapping around his arms, and a single black eye patch.

On the other side was medium-length young man with messy black hair and eager blue eyes. He wore a traditional white karate gi with a black belt and a white bandanna. Although he does not appear as intimidating as his foe, he showed just as much tenacity… possibly even more so.

The smaller fighter chuckled around. "You see, I already kicked a whole lotta ass traveling around the world for this tournament. All I have to do is kick yours, and the Championship is mine!" he grinned.

"We shall soon see if you are ready…" the taller man taunted back.

Lurking within the crowd was a badly beaten man with spiky brown hair and angry brown eyes. He wore a blue headband and a pair of shorts similar to the taller fighter in the ring.

"Damn that Mitchel and his crazy blue fireballs! Nobody told me he could pull of magic tricks like those with his Ansatsuken technique! How could I have allowed myself to be humiliated like that?!" he ranted in his own mind while glaring daggers at the man in white.

Are his blood boiled for an extended time, he fixed his gaze over to the taller man... and smirked viciously.

"But no matter… that bastard will think his Blue Fireballs will own all, but he will be in for one hell of a surprise once my Master gets through with him! This match will be the end of you, Dragon of Japan!!!"

Afterwards, the vengeful young man let out a maniacal laugh… which caught the attention of the surrounding crowd to his disinterest.

Suddenly, the shorter fighter pointed out a finger at his hulking opponent.

"I didn't make it this far just to loose out on the prize! You're going down, Saget!" the fighter proclaimed.

His opponent glared at him dubiously, then started to scratch his head.

"Saget? I don't know where you got that name, but I'm Bob. Just… Bob. No other name." Bob clarified.

The fighter in white glared right back at him.

"Uh… really? Well, then… um, sorry about that! It's just, there's this comedian that has a name like yours, and I keep getting you two confused, so---"

A bell rang throughout the arena, interrupting the conversation and sending the two combatants into their fighting stances.

An authorative voice suddenly called out to initiate the battle.

"Final Battle: Challenger Mitchel Blaze VS Champion Bob….FIGHT!!!!"

Both the fighter in white and Bob grinned as they looked forward to beating each other to a bloody pulp.

The karate fighter brought his hands to his side, while Bob thrust his arms back.

"Alright… you're in for it now." The challenger named Mitchel grinned.

His hands quickly accumulated a ball of blue chi ready to be fired.

"Take this… HADOUKEN!!!"

Mitchel then thrust out his hands together, sending his violent surge of chi in the form of a blue fireball straight at Bob, however, the Muay Thai man was just prepared for the attack.

"TIGER!"

Bob also thrusted out his hands, which send a shockwave of bright chi right into the blue flame. Both projectiles immediately canceled each other out.

Mitchel was taken aback as Bob smirked triumphantly.

"Wh-what?! No way! I thought I was the only one who held a legitimate projectile technique in the tournament! Especially not from him, when his wimpy disciple couldn't even pull that off!" Mitchel thought to himself in a panic.

"No… calm yourself. You still have plenty of tricks up your sleeve. You haven't even used THAT punch yet… guess this tough guy will be the perfect test, then." He grinned.

Bob soon followed up with yet another Tiger Wave that went much lower than the first one. Mitchel was forced to leap over it, but Bob quickly sent a high-rising Tiger Wave afterwards. Mitchel was soon reduced to a game of jumping and ducking, but he managed to maneuver himself closer with each leap. However, Bob caught onto the pattern as well. He sent one last Tiger Wave close to the ground, forcing Mitchel to leap forward once more.

"Hmph… fool." Bob uttered quickly as he raised his knee for a vicious aerial assault.

"TIGER CRUSH!!!"

"Oh, crap!" Mitchel thought to himself as the giant man thrust his rising knee forward to catch him in the air.

Reacting quickly, Mitchel stook out one leg and tried to spin his body around in mid-air.

"TATSUMAKI SENPYUKYAKU!!!"

Mitchel's rapid rotation managed to slow his descent just in time to avoid the Tiger Crush attack, as well as slap his foot across the muscular man's face a few times.

Bob growled as he took unexpected damage. In retaliation, he grabbed the comparatively tiny man's body and chucked him across the ring like a sack of potatoes.

"You're gonna pay for that, little man!" Bob growled as he prepared to lunge his knee forward once more.

Mitchel managed to recover mid-air and land foot-first onto the ring, but Bob's Tiger Crush came in with no warning. The fighter in white brought his hands to his side again to quickly charge his trusted attack.

"HADOUKEN!!!"

The blue flame was sent right into Bob's knee, sending him back in pain.

The large man landed hard on his feet and slid back on the impact, leaving him wide open for a split-second offense.

Mitchel charged in swiftly to get in close-range and sent three furious punches and a hard knee into Bob's gut. He then knelt down and brought his right fist low to the ground.

"Congratulations… you'll be the first to experience Ansatsuken at its finest." Mitchel thought to himself with a grin.

He quickly raised his knees and brought his fist up with great force.

"SHORYUKEN!!!!"

Miraculously, his attack propelled himself and his opponent right into the air with his fist tearing right into his chest. The tremendous strength of this mystical punch created a huge gash where it hit. Afterwards, the healthy Mitchel stuck his landing while Bob crashed into the ground with a thud.

In the end, it was clear that the once-mighty Bob was unable to continue the fight.

The triumphant Mitchel gazed solemnly at his felled opponent with his arms folded in patience.

After the formality of the ten count, the announcer prepared to declare the victor…

"And the Champion of the World Warrior Tournament… is Mitchel Blaze!!!"

The crowd roared once more with the advent of the new Champion. Mitchel responded by raising a proud fist in the air.

"ALRIGHT!!!" he cried aloud.

Meanwhile, Bob managed to carry his weakened body on his knees.

"Congratulations… you are now the strongest fighter in the world." Bob proclaimed before passing out again.

Mitchel gave his fallen foe a peculiar gaze.

"Um… uh, thanks?" he relied reluctantly.

The bewildered young man wasn't exactly sure why his opponent recovered just to give him those words of congrats, but he shrugged it off nonetheless.

Later on, in the midsts of the award ceremony, Mitchel finally received his title in the form of a large golden trophy with a globe and a fast etched meticulously in the center. The victorious warrior raised it high in the sky while a recovered Bob and the spiky-haired fellow from earlier glared at him from each side.

"That man… Mitchel… I wasn't expecting him to best me like he did, but there's no doubt he is a worthy rival. When I'm prepared… we must fight again. Perhaps it's time I developed a cool rising punch technique of my own… except I shall add "Tiger" in front of the name like all of my other attacks! That's it! I shall call it the "Tiger Uppercut!"" he thought to himself, unaware of the numerous squealing fangirls attracted to his newly-gained scar.

However, his brash, spiky-haired disciple wasn't quite as forgiving.

"But… but how? I can't believe it! After everything he showed me… after the incredible streak he held while I trained at his gym. My Master… actually lost to that punk kid! That's it! It's official! My Master sucks! He's not even worth carrying the name of "Muay Thai" if he got the crap beaten out of him like that! I'm going to defect and kick Mitchel's ass once I get in a little training myself! Yeah, that's what I'll do! Then I'll show everyone who the strongest warrior in the world is! Nuts to my sucky Master!" The spiky-haired fighter calculated while conveniently forgetting his own loss at Mitchel's hands.

Sometime after the victory ceremony, after Mitchel pigged out on Pad Thai Chicken, the Champion received an envelope from one of the Tournament Employees.

"Thanks, uh… but who is this from?" Mitchel inquired.

"I believe it's from a Ms. Karen Masters. I was told it's urgent." The employee replied.

"Karen? My old training partner?" Mitchel exclaimed. "Hey, I haven't seen her in a long !"

Without a moment's hesitation, the Champion ripped through the top of the envelope and snatched the folded letter inside. He then shook it open to read the contents.

"Yo, Mitch! Get your butt over to Japan in a hurry! I've got some bad news concerning Shishou. Karen." Mitchel read aloud.

"Well, that was to the point." He said to himself. "Alright, after I enjoy another round of Pad Thai and have a good night's rest, it's off to Japan, I guess. I can't wait to see my old friend's face and show her this shiny new title I won!"

And with that, Mitchel enjoyed the rest of his day in leisure before preparing himself for the long flight back…