Chapter 3: The Tournament's Challenger

The cheering crowd fell silent, the only sound ringing out was the thud of a body onto the cemented tile square ring that spanned nearly four hundred feet in its dimensions. The short black haired woman fiddled with the top of her robes before glancing over to the side of the ring, offering a happy smile with her left hand reflecting the thumbs up coming from her brother on the side line.

Whis hummed to himself lightly, standing side by side with a cross armed Vegetto who stared on.

"See? I told you she was good."

Vegetto's expression remained stern.

"She's still a rookie."

Whis raised an eyebrow, glancing towards the fusion.

"Oh?"

Vegetto nodded his head.

"Her technique is sloppy, she diverts her attention to areas in the battle that have little effect on the outcome. The efficiency in her strikes is downright detrimental to her power, but she gets by because no one is strong enough to push her."

Whis kept his smile, staring forward at Trunks moving up to the side of the woman.

"Let's hope she finds a strong teacher then, shall we?"

Vegetto chuckled, uncrossing his arms and stepping forward.

"She'll learn today."

Trunks held a warm smile across his face as he stepped up to Kassava, turning to face towards the warriors gathered around each side of the ring.

"Well fought Kassava, that was a fantastic matchup! It looks like you're ready to take your first steps in becoming a Time Patroller, champion of the Toki Toki Martial Arts Tournament!"

A roar of hands clapping together in respect erupted from the ring side, prompting Kassava to bend forward slightly. Her eyes turned to her left, caught off guard by the approaching Vegetto that held clenched fists to his sides.

"Hold on a moment, Trunks."

Trunks blinked, turning to face towards Vegetto.

"Sure, what's going on?"

Vegetto trained his narrowed eyes on Kassava, moving within ten feet of the woman. She blinked hard as well, instinctively taking a step back.

"I'd like to test her skills personally. There's something that I need to show to both of you."

Trunks blinked again in response, but hesitantly stepped back towards the edge of the ring.

"Alright, let's see it then..."

Kassava watched Trunks slowly hop out of the ring onto the grass in the crowd of anxious onlookers, shifting her glance towards her brother who only shrugged his shoulders. Her eyes turned back up to the stern fusion a few feet away, loudly gulping with small beads of sweat slowly descending from the sides of her head.

Vegetto placed his right foot forward, his arm muscles visible tensing despite being kept at his sides. His expression remained unchanged, his lips moving alone.

"Dodge."

Kassava raised an eyebrow.

"Dodge wh-"

Her head suddenly whipped back, her vision darkening with only the pain coming from her entire back indicating that she had been knocked to the ground. A sharp, twinging pain stung at her nostrils, her eyes watering as she rubbed her nose with both hands.

"You know, yelling 'dodge' before your attack is more distracting than helpful!"

Vegetto lowered his right arm, his eyes still narrowed in a glare.

"The battlefield is filled with many distractions, where only a small handful of them prove to be valuable. If the word 'dodge' is all it takes for me to get you to focus your attention where I want it to, then you'll lose against any opponent that knows how to attack your mind."

Kassava grunted, hopping up to her feet and erupting forward into a dash. Her right arm shot forward into a fist, snugly landing in the white gloved hand of the fusion. She straightened her back slightly, giving her the angle to launch her right foot forward only for it to land in Vegetto's second hand.

She grunted, trying to pull her arm back in the tight grip keeping her locked in place. Vegetto's arms remained tense, no signs of struggle visible in his voice or expression.

"What are you doing? Why spend your time trying to get out of my grip when you can roll into a roundhouse kick with your left leg?"

Kassava paused, twitching a bit at one final attempt to break out of the fusion's grasp. She then roared, twisting her hips to launch her left leg into the side of Vegetto's neck. The fusion barely moved, shrugging his shoulder lightly to bounce Kassava's shin back with the same momentum and releasing his grip on her.

Kassava stumbled onto the ground from the change in movement, falling onto her backside with a loud thud. She grimaced in pain, slowly picking herself up with her fists clenched together as Vegetto stared on.

"I'll admit, there were two reasons why I held you in that position for so long. The first was to teach you more about your flaws, and the second was to find out the truth about your past."

Kassava blinked once.

"My what?"

Vegetto broke out into a small smirk.

"Your past. One of my...friends...learned a valuable technique in telepathy a long time ago. I read your mind as I held you, and discovered some interesting things to say the least."

Kassava's eyes widened to the brim, keeling forward onto the strong arm lodged in her stomach. She grasped onto the tense muscles in the fusion's arm to avoid immediately collapsing to the ground, barely deciphering the dual voice continuing.

"You've only been a martial artist for seven months, thanks to your parent's deaths at the hands of a remaining detachment of Frieza's Trade Organization. A noble sacrifice to save your planet from their rule, but one that still pains you to this day."

The woman's wide eyes quickly narrowed, pushing down at the arm and curling her right arm to strike at Vegetto's chin with her elbow. She gasped, stumbling down towards the ground from Vegetto lazily slapping her blow away.

"You went to your brother, asking for his teachings and quickly became a prodigy. But they were confused: they mistook your ability to endure pain and large stamina as superior technique and mastery. Believing your fighting skill was superior when in reality, you just had the means to survive through more mistakes than anyone you've ever faced."

Kassava huffed, clutching her stomach for a brief moment and cringed heavily in pain. Her gaze trained on Vegetto, who stepped within a meter of the woman.

"Strange, isn't it? Up until now, you could power through any hit or blow you received. But after just two punches and a small deflection of your arm, you can't even get up."

She audibly hacked, the sheer pressure constricting her throat nearly unbearable while she felt her body slowly rise off the ground against her will. Her hands widely dug onto the white gloved wrist, desperately digging into the material with no success.

"You're so tired, you didn't even realize how quickly I locked you into a chokehold with one arm. Every mistake you make has a consequence, and against an opponent that is beyond your strength, you can't afford to pay for those consequences."

Kassava launched her legs into the side of the fusion's head, each blow failing to even phase Vegetto. His grip remained strong, his arm beginning to shake slightly.

"You'd better think of something quickly, Kassava. Thirty more seconds, and you're going to pass out from the lack of oxygen. My grip will continue, and in another thirty, you'll be dead."

The woman's eyes twitched, her grip loosening slightly on the fusion's wrist and her body slowly starting to go limp. Vegetto's eyes narrowed slightly at the sight, jolting his arm a bit to force a muffled groan from Kassava.

"Typical, you're no warrior. You're just a scared little girl, crying for mommy and daddy."

Vegetto chuckled darkly.

"At least they put up a better fight than you did before getting themselves killed."

Kassava's eyes immediately shot open, the bright glow in her pupils radiating off the fusion's white glove. The veins in the side of her neck bulged outward against the fusion's palm, Vegetto's eyes widening slightly at the golden aura shooting up from underneath Kassava's feet. Her spikey black her banded together in sharp bundles, rapidly shifting into a golden blonde to match the violent aura surging around the woman.

She let out a thunderous roar, launching her right leg forward into Vegetto's chest with a loud thud. The fusion grunted slightly, releasing his grip around her throat and blasting backwards on the tile cement twenty meters back.

A small smirk formed on Vegetto's face, lifting his head up at the sight of the golden fighter charging towards him. Fists flew at his face, Vegetto lazily side stepping left and right to dodge the flurry erupting from Kassava's assault. She snarled in frustration, throwing up her left leg in another kick to land back into the fusion's right gloved hand.

At nearly untraceable speed, her right hand shot forward as well only to land back into Vegetto's other hand. She trembled, roaring and violently shaking to get out of Vegetto's grip who only chuckled in response.

"Like I told you before. You're going to need to do more than just power your way through your mistakes if you want to beat me."

Kassava's turquoise pupils shifted down, whirling her hips to the side in again to launch her left leg forward. Only this time, a strong knee covered in black gi buried into her stomach before her foot could make contact. She cried out in pain, blasting backwards and crashing through the tile into the gasping crowd. She closed her eyes in her grimace, plowing through bodies of other warriors before slamming hard into the grassy knoll on the other side of the Time Vault.

The loud flare of the aura was the only sound near Kassava, who struggled to push herself off the ground. Her arms wobbled inside the golden glow illuminating the ground beneath her, lifting her head up to stare back at the crossed arm Vegetto towering over her. She panted heavily, her eyelids beginning to droop down in her exhaustion.

"Why...why are you doing this to me..."

Kassava blinked, her confusion clear in her expression at the warm smile on Vegetto's face.

"Because the last thing I discovered was that you weren't related to your brother or any of you family in blood. You were adopted, as a lone survivor of a crashed space ship in the middle of no where..."

She continued to pant, watching Vegetto kneel down to eye level.

"You're one of the last remaining survivors of the Saiyan race. And if you didn't have the push, you wouldn't have become a Super Saiyan."

Kassava remained still, her eyebrow raising slightly.

"Super...Saiyan?"

Vegetto nodded.

"Yeah, the power you're using now. It can only be unlocked in intense situations of dire need, so I had to push you to awaken it. That's it for today, we're going to spend tomorrow working on mastering it. But for now, just relax and get some rest. You've earned it."

Kassava groaned, collapsing onto the ground with a loud thud as the golden aura suddenly dissipated away. Her eyelids closed shortly after, her breathing slowing dramatically as she lay still on the ground.

Vegetto kept his smirk, staring down at the sleeping Kassava as Trunks moved up to the fusion's side with wide eyes.

"What...the...how did you know?!"

Vegetto chuckled.

"Call it a hunch. She may not have been too skilled in fighting, but she looked like a natural when she fought the other contestants. So I sparred with her, to get close enough to read her mind and find out for myself."

Whis kept his own smile, joining the two hovering over the unconscious woman.

"You know, you could give me credit for making it obvious."

Vegetto kept his smirk, his eyes turning towards Whis while keeping his head forward.

"It did help, yes. But I thought you were just trying to play match maker when we were talking, not hint that she was a full-blooded Saiyan."

Trunks' mouth continued to hang open, glancing between Whis and Vegetto.

"Well then, you've found your next teammate. What now?"

Vegetto leaned forward, scooping the unconscious Kassava up into his right arm and slinging her lightly over his shoulder.

"I'll get her set up in the new house here, you two see to the other warriors."