He was here, Piccolo, just like they had predicted. Goku smirked, feeling quite pleased. It would be fun to finally test how far he'd come. Tien was worried but all Goku could think about was the upcoming challenge. His body was tense with anticipation as he mulled over what he might expect to see from his opponent, despite having thought over it a hundred times by this point.

Which is probably why he was so thrown off to feel a delicate tap, tap, against his shoulder and the scent of something smoky and sweet, like wildflowers, itching his nose.

He turned, eyes wide, to see a young woman with long raven hair and large, warm eyes smiling up at him. For a moment the world seemed to freeze and if Goku had been able to take notice of that, he would have wondered if this woman had cast some sort of spell.

"Goku…" The woman hummed, smiling up at him as if he knew her but for the life of him, Goku couldn't place her. He had never seen anyone like her before.

"Who are you?" he asked. And how did she know him?

However, this proved to be the wrong thing to say. The woman flinched as if struck and her pretty smile quickly morphed into one of anger.

"Idiot!" She shouted, her eyes now sparkling with fury, causing Goku's heart to stutter and his feet to stumble as she stormed away. Who in the world was she?

"Goku, who's that?" demanded Yamcha.

"She's hot!" added Krillin.

"I don't know!" Goku whined. His heart was racing as he picked himself up from the floor. "I've never seen her before!"

His friends found this hard to believe but it was the truth! He would definitely remember having met someone like that. She appeared to be nothing like Bulma or Launch…well except for the yelling, but in his experience that was a common trait amongst their gender. Goku shook his head, trying to focus. The preliminaries were about to begin, he couldn't afford to think about strange women he didn't know…no matter how big her eyes were or how pleasant her scent.

It was some time later until Goku saw the mysterious woman again, not until after he and his friends had qualified for the finals. Somehow he was not surprised to see her qualify as well. She moved with grace and precision, smart considering she was at a disadvantage when it came to size and strength, and yet he couldn't help but focus more on her face than her moves. Now that her large dark eyes weren't focused on him she did look sort of familiar…and her scent seemed to prickle at his memory…

Despite knowing he needed to keep his focus on the fight to come, part of him wanted to question the young woman some more instead. Who was she? Why had she been so angry? He had never met a real female martial artist before, the one from the previous tournament didn't count. Her only tactic was distraction by using her body. This woman clearly didn't need to cheat to win. Goku tried to catch her eye but she determinedly ignored him, making him frown. How would he get answers if she wouldn't even look at him?

As if the gods had heard and chose to aid him, he soon found himself paired to face off with the mysterious woman in the second match of the final. Goku smiled at his good fortune, even if she was being sneaky by withholding her name. Now she would have to look at him again! And this time he would get answers. More than anything he wanted to know her name…and maybe if he was really lucky, he could get her to smile again. She seemed nice when she smiled. He wanted to see it again.

"Maybe it's just me," he said, when it was finally their turn, "But you always seem mad."

"There's a lot to be angry about when I look at you," she growled and Goku felt his heart miss a beat. He didn't know what that was about but he was eager for the match to start.

"Are you mistaking me for someone else?" he asked hopefully, maybe there was some other spiky haired boy that had made her so angry.

"You're Goku aren't you?"

Well there went that idea.

The drums quickened and Goku felt his heart keeping pace. Fights always excited him but this was the first time he'd felt so giddy despite his confusion. The announcer had barely started the match when the unknown woman came flying at him. She kicked first and he jumped back only to have to dodge her furious fists as she sliced through the air, the scent of smoke and wildfires hitting him with each strike.

Something about this was familiar. Like he'd been in this situation with her before…

"Hey, have we already met?" he asked, taking a chance to question her. The woman struck with her knee and shouted an affirmative, forcing him to block and jump back a ways to create some distance. "Really? When?"

"Ya forgot! That's why I'm mad!"

And then she was attacking him again but Goku didn't really want to fight her, he just wanted answers! But her scent! Her scent was making it hard to think. He blocked several hits and dodged several others, jumping around the ring with ease, but the woman was persistent and only ever a step behind him, never giving him a chance to breathe. Where had he encountered that scent before?

"Did ya forget what ya promised me?!"

"Promise?"

What promise? He jumped into the sky needing a breath of fresh air, as well as a moment to think, but just like on the ground she was quick to follow. He would have been impressed if he wasn't so focused trying to remember who she was.

"I promised you something?" He dodged several more kicks, which was much harder to do up high, and dropped back down to the ground. "What did I promise ya?"

"Ya promised you'd take me as your bride!"

Goku stared, his eyes wide and his mouth hanging open. Somehow he knew this was important and yet he had no idea what she was talking about!

"Krillin!" He turned, needing answers more than ever. "What does "bride" mean?"

"Idiot! It means you want to marry her!" Krillin cursed.

"To get married is to spend the rest of your life with someone!" Yamcha added, quickly cutting off any follow up question Goku could come up with. "You understand Goku?"

Understand? Now he was even more confused!

"Live together?" he said, startled, turning to face his opponent. "Us? I promised you that?" But he didn't even know who she was!

"But who are you?" he whined, "Give me your name!" Surely she couldn't expect him to live with someone who he didn't even know the name of?

She huffed and adjusted her stance, "If you beat me, I'll tell you."

Finally! Goku beamed, suddenly feeling back on solid ground. This was something he could do. "Ah, perfect! Besides, if we're gonna be spending the rest of our lives together, it might be a good idea if I knew what to call ya!"

"Hey! Ya think you've already won? I'm not as weak as you think!"

No she certainly wasn't but this had gone on for long enough and Goku was ready to know her name.

"Here I go!" He grinned, getting in position. He didn't want to harm her so he would have to settle for just knocking her out of the ring. "Ready?"

He focused his energy and then punched through the air, sending a shockwave in her direction that she clearly didn't expect as she went flying out of the ring and slammed against the audience wall.

Damn! He hadn't meant to make it that strong!

"Hey, you okay? Can ya get up?" he asked worriedly as she cradled her head. Not everyone had a head as strong as he did, what if he really hurt her?

"Amazing," she huffed, looking up with a smile. "You're even stronger than I remembered!"

Goku was so relieved to see that she was okay that it took him a moment to realize she was smiling at him again! He helped her up and then rocked back on his heels suddenly feeling nervous.

"Well, uh, I won. Will ya tell me your name?"

"You're impossible," she sighed, "I'm the Ox King's daughter, Chi-Chi."

"CHI-CHI?!" She was Chi-Chi?! The little girl in the bikini armor that could send him flying into trees with a single strike? That Chi-Chi?

"You're Chi-Chi?" he repeated, staring at her in astonishment, but now that he knew her name he could recognize the little girl he had met years ago with the skilled fighter that stood before him. No wonder her scent had seemed so familiar! He thought back to their interactions together, particularly the one where he sat in a car waiting for the others to wrap up whatever they'd been doing before continuing on their quest.

"I remember!" he gasped. "I did say it! It was back…back when we were children that I told you I wanted a bride."

"I remember, I was there."

"But I…I don't think you understand, I thought a bride was something to eat."

"Something to eat?" Chi-Chi mumbled, her eyes tearing up. "So then the promise you made was a mistake?"

Goku's heart clenched, at the sight of her on the verge of tears. He'd never meant to hurt her! Well, he might not know anything about marriage but a promise was a promise!

"Sometimes my brain doesn't know what my mouth is saying. Good thing my heart does," he said moving towards her, "will you marry me?"

Chi-Chi stared up at him in shock and Goku held his breath as he waited for her answer. He wasn't sure why he should feel nervous, if anything he expected this to make her happy, and yet the smile that she shot back at him didn't fill him with warmth like the first one she had graced him with earlier that morning. It was small and pained, as if given grudgingly.

"It's sweet of you, Goku," Chi-Chi said after a moment, "but I can't marry you. Not when you didn't even know what ya promised." She placed a hand on one of his cheeks and then pressed her lips against the other, freezing him to the spot. "Goodbye, Goku."

The crowd was stunned silent and it was only after another minute had passed that Goku realized she was no longer beside him, she wasn't even in the ring!

"I..." Goku stuttered, looking around confused. She no longer wished to marry him? But what about his promise? Vaguely he was aware of his friends pulling him back towards the waiting area as he tried to understand what had just happened. He needed to find Chi-Chi…but then Piccolo stepped forward for his next match and Goku realized that he would have to find and talk to Chi-Chi later. Right now he needed to make sure Krillin didn't hold back and that he was prepared for his next match.

And yet a small part of him remained conscious of the fact that she wasn't in the waiting area when he got there and he could no longer smell the scent of smoke and wildfires anywhere nearby.