Krillin was running towards the Kame House, wanting to get Master Roshi to see the progress that he made for the past 7 months. He could barely wait, as he would finally start learning fighting techniques instead of the strenuous physical training that he and Ichigo endured.
"Master Roshi!" Krillin exclaimed with an eager smile as he opened the front door of the Kame House, seeing both Roshi and Blue Launch sitting idly by on the floor as they ate a bowl of ice cream on their own. "You have to come and see this!"
"Hm? What is it?" Roshi looked upwards to see one of his pupils. Damn it all, did he have to get interrupted every time when he was alone with the innocent Launch? However, he was curious to know about what got Krillin so eager.
Krillin didn't say anything, but instead he grabbed Roshi by his hand and ran back to where he was previously training at. "H-Hey! Slow down a bit, would ya?!" Roshi exclaimed as he got dragged to run along with the boy.
"Take a look at this!" Krillin arrived with Roshi at the same field where the lake resided at, and Ichigo was seen leaning behind a tree with his arms folded. In front of Roshi and Krillin stood a massive boulder, the same one that Roshi told them to push once they achieved enough physical training to be able to do so, the same one where Ichigo wasn't sure he would have been able to push months ago.
"It's a boulder…?" Roshi scratched his bald head, not seeing what was so worth getting excited over a big rock. "What about it?"
"You said if we moved this, you'd teach us how to fight!" Krillin remarked before he got in the position to move the rock. "You remember?"
Behind the sunglasses, Roshi began to widen his eyes as he realized what Krillin meant now. "Wait… you can't actually mean—"
He got cut off as Krillin began to push the enormous boulder at full strength, gritting his teeth in doing so. "HHGGH!" Krillin grunted loudly, as his feet were scraping against the ground from behind. Before long, Krillin began to push the boulder, and the boulder scraped the ground itself. Krillin could only move it for about a few meters before he reached his limit.
Roshi just stood dumbfounded by this as his mouth was hung open. If he hadn't seen this with his own eyes then he never would have believed that a boy his age was able to push a boulder as large as that. It made him wonder, if this was what Krillin was capable of, then how much could Karna push?
"Well, I guess I'll have to show what I'm made of as well." Ichigo remarked before he walked over to the boulder as well. When he got over, his position stood where his back was from the lake. He patted the boulder a few times to get a feel out of it, and he raised his eyebrows in surprise from how light it felt to him. He put his left hand in his pocket and put his right hand to the boulder. Ichigo then casually pushed the boulder, and the enormous rock was pushed to large lengths, far exceeding anything Krillin has shown. The boulder was pushed back so far that it crashed through several trees before it stopped moving any further.
Both Roshi and Krillin hit their jaws on the ground once seeing the display of the outrageous physical strength Ichigo demonstrated. "Whoops…" Ichigo blinked a few times before looking at his hand. "Didn't think I'd push it that far."
"H-Hold on a minute…" Krillin weakly muttered as he pointed his finger at Ichigo. "Where in the world did you even get that amount of strength from?!"
"Dunno." Ichigo shrugged his shoulders. "I guess it's with all that extra training at the waterfall I've been getting?"
"Uh... I guess so…" Krillin dumbly nodded his head, trying to process what occurred until he remembered what Roshi promised them. He turned over to look at the old master with a gleeful smile plastered on the boy's face. "So then, are you gonna teach us any fighting techniques now?!"
"Okay… well uh…" Roshi brought a towel to wipe off some of the sweat on his face. 'I was only joking about moving that boulder. Karna I can somewhat understand being able to do that, but I didn't think Krillin would be able to move it as well, even if a little bit. I should have pointed to a mountain…' the old master thought to himself before he looked over at Ichigo. 'I guess he must have met up with that Kitsune woman to help his training further. And speaking of training, maybe I should do some of my own, at least to increase my physical strength.' he then looked back to the 2 boys, knowing that he couldn't really hide this any longer. "Well… to be perfectly honest with you… I don't really have much else to teach you anymore."
"Huh?!" Krillin was shocked to hear this while Ichigo merely raised his eyebrows in confusion. "But what do you mean?!"
Before Roshi could get to give out his explanation, Ichigo cut in. "Hang on a minute. Why is it that you can't really teach us some fighting skills? What's even the point of doing all this stuff if we can't further learn how to fight?" Ichigo questioned with a tone of annoyance as he folded his arms.
"Because it doesn't work like that." Roshi shook his head in responde. "You see, most of the basics of the Turtle Hermit school of martial arts are incorporated within the training that you two have been doing for the past 7 months. You may not have noticed it, but by repeating these exercises over and over again… your eyes, fists, legs, your entire bodies and even your minds have been sharpened and forged like steel swords. That is the whole purpose behind martial arts. One does not strive for victory over an opponent. One strives to avoid defeat by one's own self."
"So then… there aren't any sort of special moves to learn?" Krillin asked in confusion. "Or any way to win the tournament?"
"Did you not listen to a word I just said? You told me yourselves that you had previous experience in learning how to fight, all these basic exercises you learned of the Turtle Hermit style are meant to combine with what you've learned thus far." Roshi answered. "This tournament you're about to head to is just another part of your training. It's an introduction to test out your abilities and further your own training. So for this final month you have, you will continue the same thing you've always been doing. This time however…" The old man took off the heavy shell from his back and put it on the ground, making a heavy "thud" from the impact. "Krillin, you're going to be wearing a heavier Turtle Shell like Karna is, it weighs about twice as much as the one you're wearing, which would weigh about 40 kilograms."
Krillin fell down on the ground, groaning from the thought of having to wear an even heavier Turtle Shell than the one he already wore. This was already difficult enough as it was. Roshi put the shell back on him. "Oh, and Karna…" he looked back at the redheaded boy. "Do make sure not to go overboard. It's a good thing that a foxy woman is keeping you in check."
Ichigo seemed surprised that Roshi knew about Ahri, as he unfolded his arms and gave a nod. "Uh... I'll try, I guess?"
Before anyone knew it, another month had passed by, and the time for the World Martial Arts Tournament approached near for it to start. As Ichigo and Krillin were training hard for the upcoming tournament, so too were other fighters around the world, which also included one of the allies that Ichigo met up with, that being Yamcha.
As of now, it was the middle of the night in a deep forest as Yamcha's shadowy figure was seen running before he leaped towards a tree branch and grabbed it with his hands before he hopped to another tree. He kept leaping from one tree to another, gaining momentum and increasing speed as he kept doing this until he jumped high into the air. The young man got back to the ground and rolled over before getting back up and twisted his body to perform several martial art moves.
Yamcha then performed a stance that seemed to be similar to his Wolf Fang Fist before he charged onwards to an enormous boulder that was at least twice his size. He cupped both of his hands before thrusting them simultaneously against the boulder, and in doing so it caused the boulder to be split in half.
The clouds in the sky began to clear up, and in doing so the light of the moon shone down on the forest, fully revealing Yamcha's form as he made a sigh. "It's been a whole month now…" he commented. His appearance had somewhat changed. His hair grew longer now, as there were multiple bangs of his hair covering his eyes, and his facial features changed as he began to grow a beard. His outfit also changed, wearing a purple gi just so he wouldn't have his previous outfit get dirtied up.
The former bandit looked over at the half moon. "I've definitely gotten stronger, that's for sure. Although... I should probably come back to West City tomorrow and see Bulma again. Now with the amount of strength I built up for the past month, it should be more than enough for me to enter the World Martial Arts Tournament." he stretched his back before looking back at the dark forest he trained himself in. "I dunno how good the chances are, but hopefully Ichigo joins in as well." Yamcha then picked up a scent from his nose. He raised his arm upward to smell his armpit, and he immediately backed away when doing so. "Ugh! Before that, I should get back to take a shower first…"
Time continued to fly by further until there was only 1 day left for the grand tournament to begin. As of now Roshi was dressed in an entirely different outfit, wearing a black tuxedo and a fedora to dress himself in a proper manner in heading into one of the most famous tournaments, and there was a car next to him that he threw as a capsule to use as their vehicle to get to an airport. Blonde Launch wanted to come as well, as she turned the Kame House back into its capsule. Ichigo and Krillin still remained in the same uniforms they usually stayed in.
"Alright, boys, did you pack everything ready? It's time to head out to the Southern Metropolis." Roshi asked as he looked at the luggages they held. Both of them merely nodded their heads. The old man looked over at Launch. "And what about you?"
"Well of course I did. I wouldn't check twice in for this." Launch answered as she patted her own luggage.
"Alright, then we're almost done." Roshi looked back at his students. "In that case, both of you can take off those shells."
"Oh, that's a relief!" Krillin exclaimed with a grin as he and Ichigo took off the shells from their backs. "I was worried if we would embarrass ourselves wearing these!" The moment he took the shell off him, the monk immediately noticed a drastic change in his weight. "What the—" he began to spin his arms in circles, moving so fast that they looked like blurs.
"Well that's good to hear." Ichigo put the shell on the ground. "We would look ridiculous with these anyways." he said. However, truth be told, he had long since gotten used to the weight of the turtle shell. It's weight now felt about as heavy as a school bag to him.
"Try to see how high you can jump." Roshi told them.
Ichigo and Krillin looked at each other before they went ahead to do as told. They jumped as high as they could in the air, and Krillin was merely shocked at how high he was, as he was easily over 20 meters. Ichigo had managed to jump far higher than what the bold monk was able to. However it hadn't taken long before gravity took its toll and both of them came back down, with Krillin being the first and it took Ichigo a few seconds longer to come back down.
"WOW!" Krillin was simply astounded by the progress he made. Maybe wearing that silly turtle shell and doing all that rigorous work paid off after all.
"Oh hey, I almost forgot! You two might wanna come over here!" Launch called out to the two boys, and they got right in front of her in the blink of an eye. "This is something that my other half made, since you guys are going to your first big tournament and everything." she opened up a box she carried with herself, revealing a suit for each.
"Wow, you made these?!" Krillin was both surprised and impressed that Launch managed to sew clothes like these just before the tournament.
"Well I guess so…" Launch scratched the back of her head, making a small blush from the compliment given, even if it technically wasn't to her. "After all, it would be better to dress nice before you start fighting."
"Well... I guess we could at least dress up properly." Ichigo shrugged his shoulders as he picked up the suit, and the hat that came along with it.
Ichigo and Krillin went ahead to dress up inside the house. Minutes passed by before they came out, wearing their blue suits along with their own fedoras. Launch snickered when she saw what they looked like. "You guys actually look cute in those outfits." she said.
Ichigo grunted as he folded his arms, looking away with an embarrassed blush. He heard Krillin snickering right next to him as well. It felt a bit embarrassing wearing something like this with a child body whilst maintaining the mentality of a teenager. Despite the embarrassment, he only felt somewhat irritated. Maybe those sessions with Ahri really did help him to calm down.
"Let's get going!" Roshi exclaimed as he got to take Ichigo and Krillin's luggages before he put them inside the back of the car before closing it tightly. "Last thing we need is to be late at the tournament! Launch, make sure you turn the house back into a capsule first!"
"Sure thing!" Launch went to do as told as she got behind the house and pressed the button where it poofed back into a capsule.
With that said and done, the 4 of them set off to go to the airport where they could fly over to Papaya Island to sign up for the World Martial Arts Tournament.
The 4 of them managed to get to the airport and travelled onto a plane to get to Southern Metropolis. It took them an entire night to get to the said Metropolis. After they arrived, they headed to drive for the sign-up by calling a Taxi to drive them over.
As of now the group was seen outside, and they could see a large number of people in front of them as well. Not only that but it was rather crowded.
"So are all these people gonna be participating in the tournament? There sure seems to be a lot of them…" Ichigo commented, as he and the others were walking over to a front desk to sign up.
"Well they wouldn't be here otherwise." Roshi replied before he got to the front desk. "Excuse me, this is the desk to sign up for the tournament, isn't it?" he asked the man who was sitting at a chair in front of the desk, who waited to see who else would come in and sign up for the tournament.
The man nodded his head. "It is." he confirmed. "I just need your name." the man pointed his pen to the sheet of paper beneath him.
Roshi shook his head negatively. "No, it's not for me. It's for those two." he pointed to Ichigo and Krillin.
However the man misunderstood his words. "Oh, do you mean to have a spectator seat for them?"
"No!" Roshi exclaimed. "I'm saying those two are entering the tournament!"
"Eh?!" The man seemed to be bewildered by this. "You mean those kids?!"
"Well of course!" Roshi replied.
"Why? Is there any problem with that?" Launch approached the man on the desk, giving a glare as she put her hands on the desk. "We came all this way here just to have these two sign up, are you meaning to tell me they can't?!" she gave a glare, as her irritation came from the exhaustion she felt from travelling on the plane for an entire night.
"N-No!" The man put his hands in defense. "I just wasn't expecting children to actually sign up in a tournament like this!"
Ichigo had his hands on his pockets as he kept turning his head to look at the crowd of people. With the vast amount of people that were in here, it made Krillin shake up as his confidence began to falter.
"Hey, Ichigo!"
Ichigo looked over to see who was calling his name. When he managed to spot someone he was familiar with, he was a bit surprised to see it was Yamcha, who was walking towards him. "Hey, long time no see!"
"Oh, hey…" Ichigo blinked his eyes. "I almost didn't recognize ya with that haircut you got for a second."
Yamcha scratched his hair, as now it wasn't anywhere as long as before. It was relatively short, with the bangs only reaching his eyebrows. "Yeah... Bulma did say she would have liked it more if I cut my hair to be short, and said it was a bit outdated in Metropolis."
"Hmmm…" Ichigo folded his arms as he examined Yamcha's hair. "I wouldn't really be so sure of that. You looked better with longer hair."
"Really? Ya think so?"
"Uh…" Krillin looked between the two of them in confusion. The way they were talking to one another was as if they knew each other. "Who's the tall guy here?" he looked over at Ichigo.
"Oh, right… I never really told you anything about what happened before I came in training with the old man. This is… someone I met months ago, way before I met you." Ichigo answered Krillin. "It's a bit of a long story, but let's just say he and other people I know got around to hunt something, in a sense." The boy then widened his eyes as he looked back at Yamcha. "Hey, hold on, are you here for the tournament?"
"You bet I am!" Yamcha exclaimed. "I take it you're here for the tournament too? If so, I'm really glad. I was hoping you'd be here as well."
"Yeah, you pretty much got that one down…" Ichigo looked over at the crowd. "So I guess the others are here with you?" he asked as he could sense their presence.
Roshi was walking over to inform Ichigo and Krillin that they were signed up for the tournament as he held the paper in his hand, with Launch walking beside him. He soon stopped his tracks when he saw a few familiar companions in months, most notably being Yamcha, Oolong, Puar, and finally Bulma.
"Ichigo!" Bulma exclaimed in joy as she saw her friend again, having been 8 months since the last time she saw him. "I'm surprised you're actually getting in the tournament!"
"Hey…" Ichigo made a small smile as he made a wave. "Good to see all of you again."
"Well hello there!" Roshi then got in between Ichigo and Bulma, making the girl nearly jump off whilst Puar backed away. "Been a while since we met!"
"Oh no, it's you…" Bulma murmured under her breath, still remembering what happened when she flashed her panties to him. Thankfully the last time they met at Fire Mountain nothing had happened of the sort.
"Good to see you again, Bulma!" Roshi put his hands between his hands, making a "Puff-Puff" motion. "Say, you remember the last time we met each other? You were wearing a bunny suit! Remember?! Hehehe!" the old man made an eager grin as his red began to flush red. "And remember the time when you flashed your pa—"
"Shut up you dirty old man!" Launch hit Roshi's head, making the perverted master fall down and hit the ground, with his eyes rolling in circles. "You're not gonna be saying any of that stuff while I'm around!"
"Oh for fuck's sake…" Ichigo pinched his nose, feeling a bit embarrassed by Roshi's behavior.
"Well I see the old coot here has been doing well…" Oolong commented sarcastically.
"Uh…" Yamcha blinked, as he tried to get ahold of what happened. "Anyway… so you wanna hang out while we can tonight?" he asked Ichigo, who looked to be a little confused by what he meant. "After all the tournament is gonna be starting tomorrow."
"Tomorrow?" Ichigo furrowed his eyebrows over this. "I thought it was starting really soon?"
"Not exactly. Tonight is where everyone is gonna get signed up, it's just to get others ready for the matchups that are gonna happen tomorrow, early in the morning to be more specific." Bulma explained.
"Ya don't say…" Ichigo folded his arms. "Well I guess I'll have to wait a bit longer."
Unknown to Ichigo and the others, there was another figure watching over them, that being Ahri who had been hiding in a corner in one of the buildings from outside, as she leaned her back against the wall, folding her arms as she looked over at Ichigo. 'Well, time to see how my little student will handle himself in this tournament. After all, I didn't spend time stabilizing his condition for nothing.' the foxy woman thought to herself.
As nice as it had been for Ichigo to reunite with his companions, all of them needed to get a shuteye to become prepared for the World Martial Arts Tournament and save their strength. Before anyone knew it, morning came by within a snap of a finger, and others could have sworn that the crowd from last night had gotten bigger than before.
"Well, this is about as far as I can go with you. From now on you'll be going out there alone and doing your best." Roshi told his students, who merely nodded their heads, though Krillin was more nervous about it. "And it would be better to fight in those uniforms than those uncomfortable suits."
Ichigo looked at the Turtle School Gi that he and Krillin wore, something that Roshi gave them before they came out of the hotel room they stayed in for the night. The Gi consisted of a red/orange tank top with matching baggy pants, blue wristbands, blue toe shoes with white socks, and a black obi tied in a knot over the waist. On the back of the tank top, there was a large Turtle School kanji, and on the front-left side was a smaller version of the kanji. It felt somewhat amusing, as he remembered this was an outfit that Goku mostly wore in Dragon Ball as a kid.
"I'm surprised we're wearing real fighting outfits…" Krillin tugged the bright Gi with his hands. "I just hope I'm worthy of wearing it."
"Now then, the first qualifying rounds will be the elimination rounds. Only top 8 fighters will get to fight in front of the audience if you manage to push your way through. If you do, I'll be watching out on the front so I won't be having any complaints." Roshi informed them.
"We'll do our best!" Krillin exclaimed.
So with that said and done, Ichigo and Krillin entered inside the elimination round hall, and they could see it was packed full of fighters. Ichigo whistled as he placed both his hands behind his head, whilst Krillin began to show clearer signs of nervousness, and slight fear as well. However, as this was an area that was only permitted by fighters, and as such the audience were not allowed to enter inside.
'I-I didn't think there would be so many fighters in here…' Krillin thought to himself as he nervously looked around the large room he and the others were in. 'I'm starting to think I was in way over my head with this.' He didn't think there would be so many people. Not just that but most other fighters looked much older and taller than him, not only that but they were physically much more imposing, some even downright intimidating.
It was then that an announcer caught everyone's attention, as he was seen standing on one of the arena rings with a microphone placed in front of him. "For 5 years, contestants, you have trained and waited for this opportunity to compete for the World Martial Arts Tournament, as you have journeyed here from all corners of the Earth. This year we have a total of 137 fighters from around the world. However, only 8 of you will be allowed to compete in the final rounds. This year we will be honored with a very fierce competition." the announcer informed everybody present in the room.
"137 fighters?!" Krillin gasped in shock, stumbling a step backwards.
"Now listen well, I am only going to say this once, I will now explain the competition's rules. All contestants will fight atop of these mats, and the battles will be one-on-one." The announcer waved his hand to show the 4 battle arenas that were placed in the room, including the one he was standing on. "Should you fall off, or lose consciousness, or plead 'I give', or cry, you lose. However, killing your opponent is strictly forbidden! Using weaponry is not allowed unless it's a natural part of your body! Each preliminary match will last one minute, and if the match has not been settled by that time, victory will be decided by the judges! And due to the great number of contestants, the preliminary rounds have been divided into 4 blocks. The 2 ultimate victors from each block will be named entrants in the finals. So one by one, draw a slip of paper, compare the number on it to the chart, and proceed to your block."
All the contestants in the room went ahead to draw their numbers from a box, gathering in a line to do it. In no time at all Ichigo and Krillin drew their papers in the box to pick their number before they gathered to look at the board that had numbers signed to each and every participant on who would fight against who.
"I got 93. What did you get?" Krillin asked Ichigo.
"Looks like I got 70." Ichigo replied back as he looked over at the number that was written on his paper.
"Is that so? Looks like both of you get to end up on Block 3." Yamcha remarked, making his presence known to both of the boys, as he now wore a red headband.
"What?!" Krillin began to panic. Just his luck, he would have to end up fighting against Karna, and he would lose for sure. "I don't wanna fight against Karna!"
Ichigo looked at the bold monk questioningly. "The hell are you talking about? We won't even get to fight on the same grounds." he pointed his finger at the direction of the board. "Just look, I'm placed over here—" he pointed to the mini section of the tournament from where he ended at. "—And you're placed all the way back here. We're basically on opposite ends." Ichigo pointed to where Krillin's number was at, and it was placed much farther than his own, somewhere in another mini tournament ground where they wouldn't get to fight each other at all.
"Oh, well who woulda thought…" Krillin murmured to himself. Frankly he was just relieved he didn't have to fight off Karna right off the bat.
"So what number are you on?" Ichigo asked as he looked towards Yamcha's direction.
"I'm number 35 so I'm put at Block 2." Yamcha answered. "And just my luck so I don't have to fight you in the same area."
"Why? Afraid you'll get your butt kicked?" Ichigo somewhat joked about this.
Yamcha made a small chuckle. "Nah, it would be just too early." Ichigo looked at him in slight confusion. "I wanna fight you in the real tournament, not this preliminary knockoff where there's small rings and a lousy time limit. I've been training my ass off just to make it here, and to be perfectly frank with you I'm glad you even came here. So you better make it through this."
Ichigo blinked his eyes a couple of times, having not expected an answer like that over a stupid comeback he made. "Uh… sure thing. Just… make it through this as well."
"You bet I will!" Yamcha exclaimed, and with that said he left the two boys by themselves.
"What the hell... I don't understand how this guy can be so confident…" Krillin commented as beads of sweat came down on his head. "Here we are, surrounded by 130 whatever fighters with many pounds of muscle, and we're two kids who don't even know anything about real fighting…"
Ichigo looked at Krillin oddly. He was acting weird right now. "Are you… feeling alright? I don't exactly mean to insult you, but… you're being weird right now." Krillin hadn't said anything, almost as though he was letting Ichigo come to whatever suspicion he had over him, and didn't even try hiding it. "I thought you wanted to be in this tournament so badly? Now you're acting as though you don't stand any chance of winning."
"I just said why…" Krillin hung his head low, his being having been filled with lack of esteem and doubts.
"Difference being is that we were trained by Roshi of all people. Come on, we didn't train all those 8 months for nothing, you said it yourself how badly you wanted to be in this tournament. So what's going on now?"
"Are you kidding me?! All we were taught is just to do chores! How can that help us in fighting right now?!"
Ichigo was starting to become annoyed by this. "Listen to me, I don't know what got you to act like this all of a sudden, but if you don't get to—"
"Ok! We will now get Block 3 matches going!" A referee announced, as the match was just about to begin with. "69 and 70, up on the mat!"
"We're not finished with this." Ichigo began to walk to the arena he was supposed to be at, keeping his eyes on Krillin till he left far enough to let his eyesight go.
Some of the other fighters stayed in just to watch the first matchup in Block 3, but when they saw a child coming into the ring, they almost couldn't believe what they were seeing.
"Wait, a little kid is actually qualifying?!"
"Hoho man, whoever 69 is, he sure as hell must be lucky right now!"
They were laughing. They didn't try to hide that whatsoever, and it gravely annoyed him. They were mocking him, that much was certain. Ichigo glared at them just to shut them up, but his glare wasn't as intimidating as it was in his older body.
'Oh? Guess Ichigo is fighting right off the bat. Better stick in and watch before my match starts. I wanna see how much he has improved since the last time we met.' Yamcha thought to himself as he walked over to where other contestants were at in Block 3.
"Guess it's Ichigo's turn now." Bulma commented, as she was watching the matches go on, getting a peek through a window while she was being lifted by Oolong, as the window in front of her was too tall for the young girl to watch.
As with Oolong, there was a great amount of annoyance filled within him, being stuck as to let this girl step on his shoulders whilst he had to make sure to hold her ankles so she didn't fall off. He hated it. Instead of doing something he actually wanted, he was pulled through doing this instead. However, he tried to take advantage of this, as he tried to look up to see Bulma's panties, but his position made it somewhat difficult to do this.
Bulma felt Oolong budging from his spot, which was something that she didn't like. "Hey, Oolong! What part of don't move did you not understand?!"
"That's easier for you to say!" Oolong replied back with a snark evident on his throat.
"Come on already!" Launch exclaimed as she stood on a pair of laters, thanks to Puar's shapeshifting powers. "I wanna see how this turns out!"
"What is this?!" Now Ichigo's opponent has been revealed as he stepped into the small ring, looking down on Ichigo's small frame. The man himself looked to be overly bulky, being just a mass of muscles as if he's only been training for physical mass to simply overpower his opponents with brute strength alone, and his size was portrayed to be 10 times of Ichigo's. "I will not gain joy in crushing such a small ant, you know?!"
Ichigo took a breath to calm himself before setting up a fighting pose. "Oh really? You wanna — what the…?" Ichigo furrowed his eyebrows in confusion as he stared at the enormous behemoth, and slowly just dropped his stance completely. He scratched his head in small confusion as he watched how the man prepared himself.
"You have one minute!" the referee announced from the sideline. "And you may begin!"
"Hah! I won't even need one second to crush this ant!" the giant began to rush over to Ichigo, just so he could push him off the ring.
But it wasn't as simple as the giant thought it would have been, even though in his mind he was dealing with a child. From his point of view, Ichigo seemingly just disappeared into thin air, and most of the crowd thought of it to be the case at that same moment. However it only turned out that Ichigo merely jumped high enough in the air, making most people lose sight of him in the process. Ichigo sighed as he made a flip in mid air, and dived atop the mat before he put one hand on the mat, showing himself to have landed behind the giant, who remained oblivious to his presence, before he twisted his body to perform a sweep kick against one of the giant's legs.
The massive behemoth felt something hit his ankle, and due to the overly grown muscle mass his body gained, he was completely knocked off balance as he struggled not to stumble himself, and clearly showed he lacked any sort of speed and mobility to assert himself. Ichigo spinned his body to get back up, and he simply walked over to the giant's other leg and poked him just once, which was enough to push him out of the ring, giving him the win he needed to progress further.
"Unbelievable!" Yamcha exclaimed in shock over what he had just seen. At the last moment he could only see Ichigo just tapping the big oaf with a fucking finger of all things. 'I fought this guy before I left the Metropolis to train in the forest. He didn't really pose much of a threat aside from brute strength, but I managed to beat him without much problem. Except I never did it with a finger of all things…'
The other contestants that watched the match were in total shock over what they witnessed.
"H-Hey… what just happened?" one of the contestants spoke up, as the event that just transpired was still trying to process in his brain.
"Uh…" a dark skinned man right next to him tried to come up with something that would have to be believable. "I-I guess the big guy just lost his balance and fell over by himself."
"I don't think that's it…" another person right next to both of them replied back. "The kid managed to knock him off balance when he did that sweep kick, though as for how he fell over… I guess he must have used his size against him, so he has some skill after all."
"V-Victory to number 70!" The referee gave the victory to Ichigo, who was now walking off the ring.
'They had to have seen what actually happened, but probably refuse to believe it. Ichigo knocked this guy off just by touching him with a finger.' Yamcha thought to himself as he watched Ichigo leave the ring. 'He said he was gonna train with Master Roshi... I wonder if that tap was some kind of a technique? Just how much did that crazy old man teach him?'
"Wow! I guess luck must have been on your side this time!" Krillin exclaimed with a grin as Ichigo walked over to him.
Ichigo looked at Krillin with a confused look, feeling somewhat insulted by the luck remark. "What luck are you talking about? The big oaf never stood a chance to begin with, the guy was focusing on raw physical prowess just to pump up his muscles, didn't even train in other departments like agility and mobility like we did, and it backfired on him." he folded his arms. "Probably didn't even have a strict training regiment either. Oh and another thing, do make sure to hold back your strength unless it's someone strong, otherwise you might do something you shouldn't…"
"Huh?" Krillin was left confused. "What the hell are ya talking about?"
"Well, well, well! If it isn't Krillin!" Ichigo and Krillin looked over to see who called out for the monk, and when Krillin saw who it was, he began to pale from the fear he felt. It turned out to be a couple of students from the Oorin Temple, the ones who Krillin recognized that bullied him constantly before he left the temple for good. "It really is you! Our punching bag!"
"It's been quite a while since the last time we saw you!" the other student of the Oorin Temple exclaimed, flashing a smug grin. "And if I remember correctly, it was when you ran away from the temple bawling your eyes out like a baby!"
"E-Elders…" Krillin could barely so much as mutter a word, as he refused to even look at them, staring down at the ground, thinking that it was a mistake to enter this tournament. Now Ichigo could clearly see what was bothering Krillin so much to begin with.
"Speaking of which, what are ya doing here anyways?" one of the taller of the two patted Krillin's bald head in a mocking manner. "You're not actually competing in the World Martial Arts Tournament, are you?"
"W-Well, I thought I could participate cause uh…" Krillin tried to finish off a coherent sentence, but his confidence was crumbling even further now.
"What a joke!" Both of the Oorin students chuckled in amusement from the answer. "Didn't I tell you that you never had any potential?" the taller one patted Krillin's head again. "Not only that but you're making all of these real fighters waste their time on — aaaaaagh!" one of them yelped in pain as Ichigo got in between them and gripped his wrist tightly.
"Alright, that's enough…" Ichigo gave both of the Oorin Temple monks a glare. "I had all I could take with your shit. If you're going to come here and just be assholes to my friend, I suggest you shut your mouths. So then, you're going to tell me what numbers you have, and that goes for both of you."
"Wh — Who the hell are you?!" The tall monk tried to get his hand away, but Ichigo's grip proved to be far stronger. In a short amount of time, the monk fell onto his knees.
"Answer the question." Ichigo began to tighten up more pressure. "I don't have all day." he let his hand go off the wrist, giving it as a warning.
The tall monk rubbed his wrist in pain, giving the orange haired boy a glare of his own. "I'm number 94…"
"Really now?" Ichigo grew a smirk, whilst Krillin hung his mouth open, learning that his opponent would be one of his bullies right off the bat. "That's perfect, Krillin here is gonna be the one you'll face off against." he then gave both of them a glare before they could speak another word. "And don't even think about treating him as a laughing stock, because whatever training you guys had, is nothing in comparison to what Krillin and I had."
"You little brat…" the other monk clenched his fists, looking as though he was just about ready to start a fight. "You're gonna regret this real soon." he said, before he and his companion left Ichigo and Krillin by themselves.
"W-What did you even do that for?!" Krillin exclaimed in fear. "I'm just gonna be making a fool out of myself!"
"Ok, I'm only going to say this once, because I am not in the mood to repeat this again, you're underestimating your own strength. And I can tell you this, you're stronger than most people in this room, especially those two losers." Ichigo put his hands on Krillin's shoulders. "Trust me, they're weaker than they look. By the time you get in the ring with that skinny guy, everything is gonna become more clear to you."
"Next up are 93 and 94!" the referee announced again, which made Krillin gulp again. "Climb aboard, please!"
"Well… here goes nothing…" Krillin began to climb onto the ring, and just in front of him was one of his bullies, preparing himself with a fighting stance.
"Well, well, this is just like old times!" the skinny monk exclaimed in a mocking manner, attempting to provoke more fear into Krillin. "Although this time I'm surprised you aren't running away! Seems like you're less of a coward now at least! But it won't make any difference against fighting the best student in Oorin Temple!"
"You may begin!" The referee exclaimed.
The elder monk threw a punch first at his former colleague, who acted out of anxiety and leaped in the air to avoid the blow handed to him, to which the monk became confused, looking as though Krillin just disappeared. Krillin landed behind the monk with a couple of meters of distance between, before he leaped straight at one of his bullies. The Oorin Temple student barely had enough time to turn around before he felt Krillin kicking him right in the gut. "GUGH!" The monk grunted out in great pain before he was sent flying out of the ring and crashed against the wall, causing a hole to be formed before he fell down on the ground, knocked completely unconscious.
Practically everyone in the entire room bulged their eyes out from the sheer disbelief of witnessing such a powerful feat from a child of all things, and it was understandable to say that they were gobsmacked.
"N-Number 93 takes the victory! "
"See? What did I tell ya?" Ichigo saw Krillin hopping out of the ring, as his partner in training stared at his own hands in surprise. "Those idiots weren't as strong as you thought. That old man's training helped out after all."
"I-I guess you're right…" Krillin mumbled. "I must have overreacted… though I hope I didn't really hurt him too badly so I don't get disqualified."
"Hm… question, how much training do you guys do in the Oorin Temple or whatever?" Ichigo asked. "As in, how hard did you train before moving in with Roshi?"
"Well uh… we were training about enough to have our bodies withstand getting thrown through walls—"
"Then he should be fine. I can still sense his energy so you didn't damage him too badly, besides he got what he deserved." Ichigo replied before he started walking away from the ring. "Let's just continue with this tournament…"
And so Ichigo, Krillin, and Yamcha rose up higher within the elimination rounds, until each of them finally reached a bout that would be the deciding factor whether or not they would qualify for the actual tournament.
"Whoever wins this round will be the first to advance to the tournament! Contestants number 35 and 40, please step into the ring!" A different referee announced as both Yamcha and a WolfMan stepped onto the mat.
"Alright, time to show off how much I improved so I could get to the actual tournament!" Yamcha exclaimed as he took on his fighting stance, preparing his signature move right off the bat. "With the help of my Wolf Fang Fist!"
"Heh." the WolfMan chuckled in amusement from the name. "That's a rather silly name to come up with. How about I show what it's like for a real wolf to attack, and not something that's a cheap imitation!"
"And you may begin!" The referee announced for the match to begin.
The WolfMan charged straight away at Yamcha before swiping his claws down below to strike Yamcha, who leaped out of the way and landed a couple of meters behind his opponent. The WolfMan quickly turned around to lunge at the young man, to which Yamcha leaped higher in the air to strike a roundhouse kick faster before the WolfMan could swing his claws again, which succeeded as the WolfMan got knocked out of the ring.
"Number 35 takes victory! He can now compete within the Championship rounds!" The referee exclaimed.
"Good job." Ichigo commented as he put both of his hands at the back of his head, as Yamcha walked towards him. "You made it past the Preliminary rounds now."
"Thanks." Yamcha replied. "I hope that you make it past this as well."
"Up next: the match that will decide the first of two Block 3 entrants to the World Martial Arts Tournament! Fighters number 70 and 83, please come into the ring!" The referee of Block 3 stated.
"Guess I'm up next." Ichigo said, as he and the last opponent he would face up against climbed onto the ring.
The opponent prepared himself in a fighting stance, waiting for the judge to give the signal to start. 'There is no way a lad like this would be able to break through my Lion Fang Fu.' he thought to himself, but he became surprised when he saw Ichigo not even bothering to make a stance for himself at all, he was just standing still, as if waiting for him to make a first move. 'What is he doing…? He's leaving himself full of holes, and he's not making any stance at all. He dares to make a mockery out of me?!'
"You may begin!"
The fighter charged first at Ichigo as he came in to strike the boy first, but Ichigo simply jumped in the air, moving fast enough that he became a blur to most people. "What?!" The fighter was taken out by surprise.
"Over here, dumbass!" Ichigo announced himself on purpose, and the fighter looked over his head to see the boy was far above him before he came down with a kick. The fighter backflipped out of the way in time before Ichigo stomped onto the mat. Ichigo then leaped straight at his opponent, to which he tried to perform a spin kick against Ichigo in mid air. However, Ichigo faked his kick and grabbed the man's leg before flipping himself from behind and performed a sweep kick, making the fighter fall down.
"W-Wait, what do you think you're—" The man couldn't finish his sentence as Ichigo grabbed his legs with his hands and proceeded to throw him out of the ring. He fell down on the ground, and was left baffled by what just happened.
"Out of bounds! Number 70 is the winner! He is now qualified to enter the Championship rounds!" The referee exclaimed.
"Alright, great job!" Krillin congratulated his partner, who hopped out of the ring to meet him and Yamcha. "You made it to the actual tournament!"
"I guess so." Ichigo shrugged his shoulders. "You're the only one left now." his eyes kept looking over to the room he was in. 'I guess the old man must be finished with his matchups by now. I'm a bit surprised he didn't get any attention shown to him at all, I guess he's trying not to show off so that he doesn't stand out.' he thought to himself.
"Next match! Contestants number 93 and 97, please enter the ring!" The judge called out for the final fighters of Block 3 to settle the match of who would enter the World Martial Arts Tournament.
Krillin climbed over the ring to meet his last challenger, and he saw that it was a large anthropomorphic bear who wore a karate gi that managed to fit his large size.
"Begin!"
The best struck first at Krillin as he threw his fist to strike the young boy, but he missed as Krillin jumped backwards to avoid the blow. The bear went ahead to repeat the same thing, but he missed again as he only hit the ring, with Krillin using his agility to get behind the bear as he leaped out of the way. The bear turned around, only to see Krillin coming at him with a kick before he struck him right between his eyes, which made the karate bear fall down flat onto the mat.
"I…" the bear groaned from the pain he felt. "I give up…"
"Number 97 has forfeited! That means the victory goes to number 93!" The judge stated. "He is now qualified to participate in the Championship rounds of the World Martial Arts Tournament!"
"Yes! I did it!" Krillin jumped in joy from the news. He couldn't believe it, he was actually getting to participate in the actual tournament. What once seemed like a fantasy to him was now becoming a reality.
"Geez…" Yamcha started to scratch the back of his head. 'I know that Ichigo is already way out of my league, he's already one thing, but now I'm not so sure if I could even take on the bald kid.' The teen sighed as turned around and rested his elbows on the ring. 'Getting second place now is really iffy.'
"It looks like all 3 of them have advanced!" Bulma exclaimed, as she, Oolong, and Puar were now seen, watching the Preliminary rounds go down through the hole that was made when Krillin kicked his bully through. "This is great!"
"I'll have to agree on that. The three of them have performed quite well." Roshi spoke from behind, which took Bulma, Oolong, Launch, and Puar by complete surprise as they turned around.
"What the hell?! Where have you been, old man?!" Launch demanded to know.
"Ah, you know, I've been around some places here and there." Roshi answered her. "But I see that your friend—" he looked over at Bulma, Oolong, and Puar. "—And my students passed. That's great to hear."
Well finally managed to get this one published, sorry it took this long, it's a bit hard to come up with some stuff without tending to fuck anything up with the story, not to mention some other interference from my life kept happening as well. On the bright I got my summer vacation, so hopefully I can pump out chapters faster by now.
Now let's get onto explaining some stuff for the changes that occurred to this. So first off being on the stuff with what Yamcha and what he had been doing, so in the Anime version of the events he was apparently developing a new technique that was called the Blinding Wolf Fang Fist, which frankly doesn't even look all that different. And in the Anime exclusive where he fought the WolfMan it's not even known what it did except performing some one shot against fodder. When I looked into the DB site for this stuff, apparently this is literally the only time he actually does this, and never again. Like… What the hell was the whole point of training your ass off for a whole month to make a new move to only use it once throughout the entire series?
And just to make things a bit more clear, when I added in the word Metropolis for the cities in Dragon Ball, this is not actually to possibly for the DC version of Metropolis, and doing a Google search Metropolis is just more so referred as a large city, that's about it, which was something that was also added in the Viz translation of the DB Manga. Also Launch is getting to tag along in the tournament as well, because quite frankly, it makes no sense whatsoever for her to stay behind. I know that the excuse that she stayed behind to take care of the Kame House… except earlier on we saw that when Goku, Krillin, Roshi, and Launch headed off to another island, the Kame House could turn back into a Capsule… So what was even the whole point of Launch staying behind if the house could just be turned off at any time. And Ahri is tagging in on this as well, which you already saw.
But yeah, now we're finally getting to the 21st Tournament of the DB series, and to the actual matchups of the WMAT as well. I'll see you guys next time till then.