The second match of the semi-finals was about to begin. On one side stood the ever-serious Nam, who clasped his hands together and stared at them intensely, thinking of the family back in the village. He was halfway done with his goal. On the other side stood Ichigo, who stretched his legs with an intent to warm up for a bit before the match started. He was confident in his strength and that he would win this match. But the biggest concern for both sides was the final match.

The announcer kept going on about who could win the second match, and after the last match, the crowd was pumped to see the next fight. To Ichigo, it felt awkward having people watch him, especially when the fights on their own didn't involve life and death scenarios, or saving the universe. Oh, and he had to give that interview as well.

"And now…!" Ichigo heard the Announcer keep talking, and in the tone, he spoke it usually meant that he was about to start the match. Ichigo stopped his exercise, and Nam struck with a fighting stance. "May the second match of the semi-finals begin!"

Both contestants stood still, thinking of what move they should start off with. The crowd began to cheer. 'I can't waste too much energy against this guy. Need to save all I can against Chappa.' Ichigo thought to himself. He then thought of an idea, thinking back on what the old master used in the last matchup. 'Say… that could work. I'll use something that he'll never see coming, and when he's caught by surprise, I'll finish this off in one blow.'

Before their very eyes, a distorted image of Ichigo was seen in the match, and the original was nowhere left to be seen. This completely caught Nam by surprise. 'How did — where did he go?!' Nam thought to himself. Thinking quickly on his feet, he used his other senses to locate where the boy was at. He could hear footsteps coming by, but it was too fast for the audience to see and hear. Widening his eyes, Nam jumped in the air to avoid a leaping kick that came at him from behind, dodging it successfully.

Ichigo was surprised that it didn't work. He landed on the floor, turning around to see Nam coming at him with a flying kick, to which Ichigo reacted in time by performing a backflip without the use of his hands. Both fighters settled in their fighting stance. "Ah, fuck…" Ichigo swore under his breath. 'I guess he isn't gonna go down that easily. I could have sworn I copied that move well.' he thought.

The other fighters outside the ring were left dumbfounded, especially the likes of Roshi, who left his mouth hanging open. "No way… he just did the same thing you did!" Yamcha exclaimed as he stood by Jackie Chun.

'I don't believe it… he did it again!' Roshi thought, thinking back to when Ichigo copied the Kamehameha. 'First he copied my Kamehameha, and now my Afterimage technique?! That boy absorbs whatever he sees like a sponge! Just what is he?!' The level of development he was showing was nothing like he saw in the training fields. Sure, moving that large boulder was one thing, but that could be dismissed as having 8 months of time, maybe because of that fox woman. But this? This was ridiculous. "It's also impressive that Nam was able to respond so well like that…" the old man commented.

Nam came to the offensive by launching a barrage of kicks at the child, who responded by raising his arm to block every single blow that came at him. Yeah, this wasn't gonna be as easy as the last match. Having enough of playing defense, Ichigo fought back by sending a barrage of hooks coming Nam's way. But the older man responded by using his left arm as a shield to block the coming blows. Grabbing Ichigo's right wrist, Nam countered by sending a diagonal downward kick to Ichigo's head, landing a hard blow in doing so. The boy grunted heavily from the pain as he backed away.

He was glad for having such pain tolerance, at least that remained with him, otherwise, that blow would have got him good. Ichigo went with a counter-attack of his own by doing a sweep kick on Nam's feet, and whilst the man was in mid-air Ichigo launched a Kiai attack, sending him flying against a wall. Nam recovered his balance quickly, performing a backflip bedrest and landing against the wall on his feet. Using the momentum, Nam leaped straight towards Ichigo and horizontally gave a chop to the neck. "Ugh!" Ichigo grunted as he got taken by surprise and fell down on his back.

Nam then charged straight at Ichigo while he was down on the ground. "This match is over! You're going out of bounds!" he exclaimed, thinking that the child wouldn't have the time to get out of this with the position he was in. To his surprise, Ichigo twisted his body as he leaped to his right, before landing a kick on Nam's hip to send him flying back. But the blow merely had Nam stumble several steps back.

"Incredible!" The announcer exclaimed, pumping out as much energy as he could in his voice. "So far neither side seems to have an advantage over the other!"

'Maybe I shouldn't have started off with that technique so soon…' Ichigo thought to himself as he made his Turtle Hermit fighting style. 'He's good, no doubt about that. So what do I do? I don't wanna risk using the Kamehameha and accidentally hitting the crowd. He's already seen my Kiai attack, so I gotta be more careful in using it.' He looked into his memories to see if there were any other techniques he could use. Immediately there was something that came to mind. 'Let's go with that one.'

Ichigo came charging straight forward at his opponent, hurling his fist back as he covered his fist with his other hand. He then leaped in the air, making a flip before he began to attack. 'Rock!' Ichigo thought before he threw his punch at Nam's face, only for the monk to grab it with his other hand. He felt that Nam isn't letting it go, and expected a counterattack to head for him. Not wanting to let that happen, Ichigo used his other hand to grab Nam's wrist and spun his body to launch a horizontal kick. This failed as Nam ducked his head to avoid the blow.

Before Ichigo could use another move while being hung in mid-air, he gasped as he felt a sharp sense of pain overcome him. Nam launched a blow that came at the leg he tried to kick him with. All of a sudden he couldn't feel anything with it anymore. "What…" He tried to grasp what happened, but that was a mistake on his end, as it gave Nam the time needed to elbow his other leg. "Gaaagh!" He felt another sharp pain coming at him before his other leg went numb. The force of the blow caused him to propel backwards, rolling onto the floor until he lay on his back with his arms spread out. He tried to get back, but his legs weren't responding at all. 'I can't… move my legs!' he thought to himself as he grit his teeth.

"There is no need to worry." Ichigo clocked his head to look at the monk, who held his hands together in a form of prayer. "I merely struck the pressure points in your legs. You won't be able to move for quite some time." Nam told the paralyzed boy. 'So what can I do now? I should throw him out of the ring, but he can still use his arms. In that case…' Nam then jumped as high as he possibly could in the air, far exceeding the entirety of the tournament arena in itself.

"Incredible!" The announcer commented loudly through his mic, as he and the rest of the audience stared in awe at the incredible leap the contestant made. "It's as if he hovers the very air itself! And now—"

"Ah crap, he might just be done for!" Yamcha exclaimed from the sidelines, looking at the position that Ichigo was stuck in.

"Not completely…" Roshi replied as he looked at the paralyzed boy. "There might still be a way for him to get out of this."

"Huh?" Yamcha tried to look to see what can be done to get out of this. "Oh, duh! He can move out of the way if he uses his arms!"

"Not quite." Roshi shook his head, disapproving of the former bandit's answer. "If he did that, then he would run the risk of exposing his spine to be at risk. And even if he got out, that'd leave him at a disadvantage to fight without his legs."

"Prepare for my Tenku Jiken!" Nam yelled whilst diving in mid-air at ultra-high speeds, crossing his arms together in an X pattern. 'Forgive me, young one. But I must win this match for the sake of all the villagers. Once you get hit by this technique, you'll be left unconscious for 10 days. You will not die.'

'Well fuck, what can do I here?' The orange haired lad thought to himself as he ran possibilities in his mind. 'Can't use the Kamehameha, that'll take too long, and I'll get hit before I finish. If I use a Ki blast, there's no guarantee he'll get knocked out of the ring. Afterimage can only work for so long. He already saw my Kiai so that would have less effect than my—' Ichigo widened his eyes, seeing that Nam was already more than halfway done reaching him. '—Guess that's the only option I have. Hit him with everything I have!'

Ichigo raised his arms and quickly brought them back down to perform a simultaneous Kiai wave, which in turn boosted Ichigo in the air. Everybody else was shocked by this maneuver, as the audience watched Ichigo burst high into the air. Even Nam was baffled by this stunt. "You fool! You're only making things worse!" Nam exclaimed.

Ichigo didn't listen to him, as he boosted himself further by firing his Kiai onto the arena to propel himself. Seeing that he didn't wanna get too close, he settled that this was enough as he charged straight forward. 'This is risky, but it's my only shot in getting out of this!' he thought to himself, but he widened his eyes when he felt his legs moving. 'My legs! I can feel them again!'

The two of them charged toward one another, with Nam believing that the boy was being completely foolish. But to his and everyone's surprise, Ichigo spun his body and launched a horizontal kick, making contact with Nam's ultimate move. Both attacks collided with each other, delivering devastating force. Ichigo flinched when feeling his leg go somewhat numb from the force of impact, but nowhere enough to paralyze him. He used Nam's surprise to his advantage by spinning his body once more and performing another spin kick, this time making a direct blow to Nam's head. "Hraaaaah!" Ichigo shouted a battle cry as he spun again, repeating the same blow as before.

Nam was sent flying down, having completely lost his momentum in the air. It took over 5 seconds to hit the ground, but this time he crashed outside the tournament arena, making him lose the match by default.

"That was quite an impressive comeback." Chappa commented from the sidelines, giving off a smirk as he had his arms folded. "I didn't think he would make it out of that."

"Believe me, this kid is just full of surprises." Roshi grumbled. 'Who woulda thought. That Nam boy is quite impressive, and Ichigo beat him in such a short time. It might be possible for him to beat Chappa in a match if he keeps copying techniques. I really have missed quite a lot since I retired.'

"That was simply incredible! Incredible I tell you!" The announcer exclaimed as he pumped his fist in the air. "Young Karna has done it once again!"

"I don't believe it, he's actually made it into the finals!" Bulma commented, being thrown in a shock. "And this is his first time entering this tournament no less!"

"Hah!" Launch threw a laugh as she folded her arms. "Go figure that training with that senile geezer can make you that strong!"

"Lady, I don't know if you noticed this or not…" Oolong gave the blonde haired girl a blank look. "But I doubt whatever training he got doesn't compare to the kid being a freak of nature. Believe me, we've seen him pulling off crazy shit."

"Since we were interrupted the last time, would this young contestant care to give an interview? This is the first time that a child has ever made it as far as going to the finals in the World Martial Arts Tournament! I'm sure the audience would like to know how someone as young as became so good at fighting!" The blond announcer got to the ring and walked over to Ichigo, putting the mic in front of him so that his voice could be heard for others. "Speaking of which, how old are you?"

Ichigo wasn't sure how to respond. Telling the whole world about yourself wasn't something he was used to. No-one got to find out anything about him, aside from a few close people, due to all the fighting being spiritual. "Oh, uh…" He didn't wanna reveal too much. He'd prefer he gave as little information as positive. The age question didn't seem so bad as of now. "I'm 12 years old." he replied through the mic.

"12?!" One of the crowd members gasped in shock from this. "They really let a squirt like that compete?! Hell, if I didn't know any better, he looks like 9 at most!"

"He's really 12?" Bulma questioned this. "That's weird, he looks shorter than he should be if that's the case…"

"And just what kind of uniform are you wearing exactly?" The announcer looked at the orange gi that Ichigo wore. "I don't think I've ever seen a Gi like that before. Which dojo did you go to?"

"Uh…" Ichigo wasn't sure how to respond to this. Should he really say that he trained under Roshi? Well, technically he trained with Ahri to complete the Waterfall test. What was Roshi's status at the moment? Would it be fine telling this? Well, it's not like he could lie, he was horrible at that. "It wasn't really a dojo. I was trained by... Master Roshi."

That did it. The only reaction that could be described from Ichigo's view was them losing their shit. It was a huge deal, at this early point in time at least. "M-M-MASTER ROSHI?!" The announcer stuttered while at the same time raising his tone. "THE Master Roshi?!"

"The Turtle Hermit?!"

"No way! How the hell did a brat like that trained by Master Roshi?!"

"T-That actually might explain why he and other brat are so freakin' powerful!"

It went on and on. Ichigo didn't think he would get such a strong reaction like this. Guess the old man really was something else. "H-Hold on a minute…! When you say Master, do you actually mean the one known as the God of Martial Arts?!"

'Ok, what the shit?!' Bulma kept tilting her head left and right to hear the hype that surrounded Roshi. It was ludicrous to think that the old man was so well known. 'I REALLY must have been living under a rock if I never heard his name before!'

"Well, do you know anyone else that goes by the name of Roshi?" Ichigo shrugged his shoulders. "Although, he wasn't the only one that helped. There was a… friend involved as well." He wasn't sure what to call her in this exactly.

"It's simply incredible! Do you know how many would die to be an apprentice of someone like Master Roshi?! My boy, you and your bald friend might have found a once in a lifetime opportunity that could never happen again!" The announcer commented. "It's also amazing that the Turtle Hermit is alive after all this time!"

Somehow, Ichigo could feel Roshi's pride shatter to pieces. Then again, if he remembered correctly, wasn't the geezer like centuries old? 300 or something? It wasn't a surprise that people would think he's been dead for a long time. "Yeah, who would have thought…" Ichigo said.

"Thank you for this, young boy! Your interview is very much appreciated! As of now, we'll be taking a 10 minute break before the final match for the tournament begins!" The announcer exclaimed, giving Ichigo a small break before his final match could begin.

Ichigo waited in the hallways where the rest of the fighters were. It's already been minutes since his little interview, and it wasn't as bad as he thought it would have been. "Hey, how do you feel about the last match? You're going up against Chappa…" Krillin remarked as he walked next to Ichigo.

The orange haired lad looked at the former monk. "What's there to say? All I know is that I gotta be careful or else I'll lose." Ichigo replied nonchalantly, looking at the palm of his hand before clenching it. Chappa wasn't gonna be an easy opponent, that much was for sure.

"Well, best of luck to you out there." Yamcha said, as he stood next to Ichigo's other side. "It's amazing you made it to the finals like this. Even if you lose, you're gonna get tons of money regardless."

'Wait, I forgot. How exactly does money in this world go by?' Ichigo thought to himself. How much did zeni cost compared to the real world? At least in terms of Rei in his home country. Maybe it would work something like that, after all, he didn't see Toriyama being the type to use money from other countries than his own. 'Hang on, speaking of the matchup…' He began to leave the hall. "I'll be back in a few minutes." he told them.

"Where is he going at this time? The match is about to start in 5 minutes." Krillin remarked, being confused as to why Ichigo would go somewhere at a time like this.

"Probably a bathroom break?" Yamcha said.

Ichigo walked over to where he could sense Nam's Ki, and before long he found him walking away from the backyard of the tournament, with a small bag placed in his hand and put it over his shoulder. "You're leaving already?" he asked.

Nam turned around to look at the small boy. "I have lost to you, and as a result, I must leave."

"Do you really have to? Why the big rush all of a sudden?" Ichigo asked as he put his fists on his hips.

Nam sighed. "Because my village is in great need of money. Where I'm from, all the water is gone, and we can't grow crops anymore. The reason why I entered this tournament was to get the zeni worth of buying all the water and food. Now that I lost, I'm afraid I cannot stick around to watch your match, as much as I wish to. However, I wish you luck regardless." he told the boy before he began to leave.

"Wait!" Ichigo made an attempt to stop Nam. "If it's as bad as you say it is, then I think I might be able to help with your problem."

"What?!" Nam quickly turned around to look at the boy in surprise. "Are you serious?! Can you actually do that?!"

"Well, not me specifically. But I have a friend of mine that can give you all the water that's needed, along with the food." Ichigo replied. "Just tell me where you live and I should be able to help. "

"Oh, thank you!" Nam bowed his head in gratitude. It was strange to immediately accept help from somebody that you barely know, but he was desperate. "But wait… why would you do this for me?"

"It's… hard to explain…" Ichigo moved his right hand in a circular pattern. "The best I can explain is that… it's just in my nature to help people." Suddenly, he could hear the announcer's voice, calling for the match to start. Nam told him of his address, as his village didn't exactly have a name, and it was difficult to say which direction to point from. "Alright, I'll make sure to remember!" he told Nam before he started to go back to the tournament. 'Let's see how this goes…'

"Ladies and gentlemen! The moment of decision has nearly arrived! This is the final round of the World Martial Arts Tournament!" The announcer pumped his fist in the air, just to get a bigger rise out of the audience. "And so, will the last match between contestant Chappa and contestant Karna please come out?!"

The two contestants did as told, stepping into the ring as they faced each other on opposite sides. "So, old man… who do you think is winning the match?" Yamcha asked the Turtle Hermit.

"In all honesty? I think that Chappa might win this. However, at this point it's not hard to believe that Ichigo can win as well." Roshi answered.

"Really?" Krillin was curious to know how that could happen. "How so?"

"Just watch."

The announcer began the match, and with that said, Chappa made his first move by charging at Ichigo, coming at him at the same level he did against Krillin. Ichigo only responded by leaping away from Chappa's blow, twisting his body in mid air before landing on the floor. Chappa turned around before making a flip, spinning his body at impossible angles as he launched a kick at Ichigo, who proceeded to backflip with the use of his hands.

Ichigo began to go on the offensive as he leaped straight towards Chappa, launching a kick of his own. He spun his body to kick the side of Chappa's head, only for the grown man to back out of the way. Ichigo got to land right in front of the man, as Chappa swung his right foot to kick Ichigo in the gut, making a successful blow given the distance between them, sending Ichigo flying away. But the boy's resilience persisted, as while Ichigo held his gut he twisted his body in mid air to propel his balance so that he wouldn't be out of the ring. 'I thought it would be some quick thinking, or maybe luck at worst, but the boy really does keep improving.' Chappa thought to himself. 'And yet… something is amiss.'

"He hasn't gotten out of the ring…!" Krillin murmured, being surprised at how Ichigo was doing far better than he did.

'I hope that this doesn't affect him too much…' Roshi thought as he saw the look Krillin gave, as though he were envious, yet saddened at the same time. 'Having someone better than you can give the motivation to make oneself become better, but it can also make them feel inferior, especially when you've been training with that person for months. I hope this doesn't bother Krillin much, otherwise, this could cause him a serious detriment in his training…' The old master looked back at the match, seeing the two contestants fighting it out. "Chappa is only sizing him up as of now, just to see for himself what Ichigo is capable of."

"He is?" Yamcha wondered as he folded his arms, looking at the matchup with keen interest. "Why do that? Why not just end the matchup right here and now?"

"Because not everyone is serious enough to just end the match as quickly as possible. Besides, this is a tournament, not a deathmatch." Roshi answered. "Some just want to play around."

Chappa swung his arm like a weapon in it of itself, targeting Ichigo, keeping him on his toes as he did all he could in order not to get hit. When Chappa swung his arm hard enough to damage the floor arena in a downward diagonal fashion, Ichigo made a flip in the air as he launched his fist at Chappa's face, to which the older man brought his hand to block the incoming blow, but that turned out to be a faint as Ichigo grabbed Chappa's right arm, twisting it just enough for Ichigo to flip Chappa over, catching the man by surprise as he crashed onto the floor, and afterward, Ichigo squeezed the life out of his arm as he wrapped both his legs and arms as hard as he could. "Gaaah…!" Chappa yelped as he felt pain overcome him. Compared to Giran, Chappa was a lightweight.

"Incredible! Thanks to his small size, young Karna here is able to pin down King Chappa and squeeze his arm! That has got to hurt!" The announcer exclaimed, and behind him, the crowd was cheering. They were loving this match. This had to be counted. "1! 2! 3!"

"Come on! You can win this!" Launch cheered within the crowd. "Beat that guy!"

This hurt, some might say it was excruciating. But he'd be damned if he went down this easily, by a child no less. 'Come on…' Veins began to throb from Chappa's bicep, summoning more of his strength to get out of this situation. The boy fought as though he's already been through many battles, he knew his way around things. "Nnnngh!" Chappa grit his teeth as he began to lift his arm. Ignoring the boy widening his eyes, Chappa brought his arm back down and smacked it against the floor, making Ichigo gasp as he felt the sudden impact on his body. Chappa raised his arm once more and made Ichigo crash against the floor, making him gasp in the air from the pain.

'His strength just increased!' Ichigo thought, feeling his grip beginning to loosen up. Knowing that he would lose this battle if he kept going like this, Ichigo let go of Chappa's arm and leaped away from him, now standing in-between Chappa and the other fighters.

'Oh boy, it seems that Chappa has begun taking this seriously.' Roshi thought to himself as he watched the match. 'Good luck getting out of this one.'

Chappa took a breath and began to get up, rubbing his right arm as he looked at the red marking Ichigo caused. "That's a strong grip you have." Chappa complimented. "And the way you fight, you're definitely no amateur, you know your way around fighting."

"I have some experience." Ichigo answered. But that was mainly with swords, the only times he's ever been involved in hand to hand to fights was during street fights and some sessions against Tatsuki, which was meaningless compared to this.

"That's good, but I'm afraid it all ends here." Chappa began to walk towards Ichigo. "You've had a good run, you may just be the first person at such a young age to ever make it this far, on their first try no less. You fight as though you were born for it."

"Don't flatter me like that. I don't like it when I get praises like those." Ichigo said.

"Very well then. But just so you know… because of this, I don't need to hold back on you!" Before Ichigo could grasp, Chappa twisted his body as he put his hands on the floor before kicking Ichigo hard enough to send him through the other wall next to where the other fighters were, making the wall crash down on him.

'Oh, man! His speed has increased as well!' Ichigo thought as he was buried in the rumble. 'He's taking this seriously, I'm not sure if I can win with just hand to hand…' using his own strength, Ichigo got out by jumping through. Immediately he saw Chappa coming straight at him, fist raised as he swung a jab, to which Ichigo dodged out of the way. 'But it's not so one sided that I don't stand a chance, I can still react to him.' Chappa spun a kick at Ichigo's back, hitting the boy in the process before he recovered by putting his hands on the floor, making a flip before landing on his feet. 'I just have to play my cards right. Think I got an idea…'

Chappa ran straight at him, and this time Ichigo did the same thing. The lad leaped towards his older opponent, to which Chappa responded by striking Ichigo's head with an elbow, this time however his blow went through him before the body disappeared. Chappa was caught by surprise by this. 'This little trick again?' He looked around to see where Ichigo was at. 'Nice try, but I'm not falling for this the second time.' Chappa turned around to see that another distorted image of Ichigo stood right behind him. "Please, you couldn't have possibly made it this obvious!" Using his 5 senses and raw experience, Chappa pinpointed where Ichigo would strike next as he threw a backhand at Ichigo who came at him at his other side, only for it to turn out it was another image. "What?!" Chappa was shocked by this.

The man gasped as he felt something, or rather someone hit the back of his head, knocking him back in doing so. "You're right, I couldn't have fooled you with cheap tricks like that, so I had to improvise a bit!" Ichigo exclaimed from behind.

Roshi was baffled by the display before him. 'He didn't just fool him once, but twice! Even after Chappa saw me using this!' The boy's progress was nothing short of astounding in this world. 'Just what is he?!'

'How did he get in the air without me noticing him?!' Chappa thought as he rubbed the back of his head from the blow Ichigo gave him. 'This boy is just full of surprises!'

'Ok, so now what?' Ichigo wasn't sure what his next move should be, and Chappa already got ahead on the offensive as he threw a quick double ax handle, only for him to block it by putting both his arms above his head. Chappa threw a palm strike, to which Ichigo pressed his wrist right next to Chappa's to make the strike miss.

His small size is what gave him an advantage at the moment. He couldn't use the Kamehameha, as he wasn't able to use it instantaneously, not yet at least. Ichigo punched Chappa on his hip, and Chappa automatically responded by kicking him in his left hip faster than he could. Ichigo proceeded to throw a counter by making a front flip and got behind his opponent before throwing triple kicks whilst spinning his body, and yet Chappa blocked all of those with his arms. He made a spin kick as he hit the child in the cheek, throwing him away as he rolled on the floor.

Ichigo laid on his back as he was left vulnerable for a brief instant. Chappa didn't waste time by exploiting this weakness as he leaped in the air and put his foot down to stomp on the boy. The orange haired lad saw the foot and responded by rolling out of the way, making Chappa cause cracks on the floor as he stomped the floor arena. Ichigo had his hands on the floor as he bent his back before launching himself forward to elbow Chappa's gut. But the older man anticipated a move like this, and so Chappa's side stepped out of the way, making Ichigo miss in the process.

'I'm not gonna head anywhere like this…' Ichigo turned around before he stepped his foot on the floor, and used it to propel himself as he lunged forward. 'As it stands, he's more skilled than I am in fighting. But I can still keep up…'

The audience watched in awe as Ichigo and Chappa continued to show off their martial arts skills, as the two kept moving all over the ring, their images shaped as blurs as they were too fast for the normal eye too see. All they could hear were just the hits.

Though it couldn't be seen well, Roshi gained a small frown as he saw the two combatants going at it, but his focus was on Ichigo. He felt proud that his student had come this far in such a short amount of time, but he felt something… off about him. "Alright! Ichigo might just win this thing after all!" Yamcha exclaimed with a grin.

"I wouldn't be so sure of saying that…" Roshi said, making Krillin and Yamcha look at him in confusion. "With the way the boy is fighting, I doubt he's ever going to win like that."

"What do you mean by that?" Krillin wanted to know as well.

"It's hard to explain this, but… to be as blunt as possible, your little friend really isn't fighting like he means it." Roshi answered.

This… understandably made the two of them have more questions on their mind. "What are you talking about? Ichigo's matching King Chappa here blow for blow! He even said he's taking this seriously!" Yamcha rebutted.

"You really need to pay more attention to what's happening around you." Roshi openly rolled his eyes over this. "It's true that the lad is holding his own really well, but if you look closer then you would see Chappa has the edge here. As for your little friend, I said that it would be hard to explain what's happening. Simply put, his heart just simply isn't in this. And if he's gonna keep fighting like that, then I don't see Ichigo winning this." And the worst part was he couldn't understand why Ichigo was being like this. Chappa had to have noticed this by now.

In the midst of the crowd, closer to the first row of the seat, Ahri stood by as she watched Ichigo and Chappa going at it, keeping track of their moves. She frowned as she saw the performance Ichigo was undergoing. 'Ichigo… you told me you were looking for something when you cleared the waterfall, and you sure as hell were determined. But it's clear that you still have issues…' she thought to herself, thinking back to what happened mere days before the tournament. 'Otherwise you would have won this by now.'

The waves of the waterfall exploded upwards, moving the exact opposite of how it was supposed to when a tremendous force had it move like that, shooting like a volcano when going through the eruption. Ahri stood there with her arms folded, having a pleased grin on her face as she watched Ichigo coming back down on the ground by backflipping till he landed in front of her.

"You actually did it!" Ahri exclaimed in pride for what Ichigo had accomplished.

"Y-Yeah…" Ichigo visibly flinched as he struggled to move his arms, taking a look at them as they kept shaking. The muscles in his arms were at their limit, feeling as though they were strained.

"How did you just do that though?" Ahri lowered herself to Ichigo's height as she put her hands on her knees. "That technique you just used. How did you do that?"

"I'm not… fully sure." Ichigo answered. "Doing the same thing over and over wasn't getting me anywhere. When I took a good look at the water, I managed to figure out what to do." Ahri gave an expression of confusion about what he meant by that. "And what I mean is… I just let my whole body flow like water. From the way the old man explained how this waterfall works, I'm not sure if using brute strength was ever a solution to begin with. I'm able to copy other techniques and moves by taking a look at it, so I had an idea in reversing the laws of the waterfall."

"Uh… ok?" Ahri clocked her head at the odd explanation Ichigo gave, but she accepted it regardless. "That's one way of going about it I guess. So by having your body flow like water, that's where that technique came from? Who did you get it from?"

"No-one. It's just something that came to me. Like instinct." Ichigo answered. While he was telling most of the truth, he left out the fact that he realized he didn't have any long ranged attacks besides his Power Pole, but that wasn't good enough. Now that he couldn't use his Getsuga nor his Ceros anymore, he needed something to fire, besides his Ki blast.

Ahri deadpanned at how dumb the response sounded, her right eyebrow twitching before looking back at Ichigo's arms. "Still… It looks like there's a problem in using that move. It seems to affect your arms. How do you feel?"

"My arms feel sore, honestly." Ichigo replied. "It's like if you had no training and were forced to farm all day. I don't think they can take it anymore."

Ahri grew concerned when the boy said that. "I'll heal you." she said, as she placed her hands onto Ichigo's arms and began to heal him. "Congrats on being able to clear through the waterfall, but do be careful in using that technique. Speaking of which… has your mind cleared up? Even with that move, you couldn't have done anything without your mind being calm."

"Not really…" Ichigo made a small frown as he felt Ahri beginning to heal his wounds, however this would take a while. "It's not as simple as that. But... I did have one thing in my mind." he looked into her eyes, and in doing so gave a look of determination. "I'm going to find those who I've been separated from, and nothing will stop me from doing that."

Ichigo put his forearm in front to block out the fist that was headed straight for his head. He grit his teeth as he struggled not to get pushed back by Chappa's strength. His knees buckled under the weight, as he already knew Chappa was stronger than him. Chappa gave a stern look as his muscles bulged from putting more force in his blows, but his struggle with Ichigo wasn't what bothered him. It was something that Roshi knew he would find out. "Are you taking me for a fool?!" Chappa exclaimed as he performed a roundhouse kick with his right leg and kicked Ichigo on the side of his head.

Ichigo got launched back from the blow, grunting in pain in doing so before putting his hand on the ground to slow himself down. "What are you talking about…?" Ichigo rubbed his cheek with his other hand.

"You think I wouldn't notice? It's clear that you're a strong lad for your age, and yet your punches feel shallow! There's no heart in them!" Chappa swayed his arm. "I don't know why that's the case, but clearly you insult me by not bringing out your best." he took a deep breath, not to calm himself but to prepare his technique. "If that's how you act when your skills are put to the test, then you've been only wasting my time."

Ichigo saw Chappa coming towards him, readying to use the same move that gave him victory against Master Roshi. 'Can't use this while running just yet…' he thought to himself as he stood by. He moved his hands while concentrating on gathering energy in his body. The concept was similar to Kamehameha, what separated them was that while he could gather energy much faster, gathering too much too quickly causes serious damage to his body, fatal injuries at worst. He put a rather strange pose, as he slightly lowered his body to the left whilst raising his left arm and positioning his right fist next to his hip.

Chappa was mere seconds away from catching up to Ichigo, and saw what he was doing. 'What is he up to?' he thought to himself.

"Come on, kid! This is no time to make a pose!" Oolong exclaimed within the crowd.

'He's up to something.' Roshi thought.

'What the hell?!' Ahri was left dumbstruck, having already recognized the pose and what Ichigo was planning on doing. 'Is he out of his mind?! We haven't even put this thing on a test drive! And he's planning on using that?! Here?!' She became concerned for the child's well-being.

Ichigo already finished the technique, and was ready to fire it. 'Now!' He grinded his shoe against the concrete floor, and punched his fist through the air before unleashing dozens upon dozens of blue ki blasts like a shower of meteors.

Chappa made a small gasp when from his view Ichigo fired multiple beams of small condensed energy blasts through his fist. 'What are those blasts?!' his momentary shock instantly switched to focus on dismantling the blue energy beams. Chappa gave all his attention to deflecting the beams as fast as possible. In less than a second, he kept deflecting an endless amount of ''meteors" while making absolutely sure no-one was hit. Chappa then felt the wind knocked out of him when he felt his legs take the hit, and as such the rest of his body was forced to endure the countless beams hitting him until he got launched back from the assault. "Gagh!" Chappa yelped as his body was sent flying backward until his head collided against the wall outside the arena before he fell down to the ground.

Silence emitted within both the crowd and the rest of the fighters. Roshi left his mouth agape over the fact that Ichigo remained victorious over a swift move like that. Yamcha, Krillin, and Nam were left with similar reactions. On the field, Ichigo got to his knees, gritting his teeth as he tried to cover the pain he felt as his right arm bled profusely, with the drops hitting the floor.

"What an unexpected, yet incredible way to finish off this match!" The announcer spoke, giving life back to the stunned atmosphere. "The winner of the 21st World Martial Arts Tournament is none other than Son Karna!"

The crowd cheered wildly, their loud voices of praise may as well have overtaken the entire arena. Ichigo could somewhat hear Launch congratulating him, the same with Bulma and the others. Taking a few more breaths, Ichigo began to stand up and wave his left arm to the others with a small smile. When he turned to look at the last side of the crowd, he saw Ahri standing among the crowd with her arms folded. Something told him she didn't like that he used that technique. He was definitely talking about this later.

"So the kid really won, huh?" A man spoke as he sat on a chair with a friend sitting next to him, both holding bottles of beer. ''Guess you owe me."

"Well that's just great. I put my bet on King Chappa. So much for being untouchable." the other man mumbled as he dug through his pocket to give the money.

'Good job, kid.' Yoruichi thought to herself, with a small frown at the sight of blood on his arms. 'Though I don't get it… is it Ichigo or Karna? Well, whatever it is, he seems to give me clues about my memories.' She got up from her seat, paid for the money for the bill she was going to receive as she had no other reason to stay here anymore. Her next spot was to find the boy.

"Here's the 500,000 Zeni award." The announcer said, giving Ichigo the letter where inside it was all the money given to him.

"Thanks." Ichigo took it with his left arm before he walked over to the fallen Chappa, who got up shortly after his surprise attack. "You okay?"

"I'll be fine." the older man grumbled as he cracked his neck. "Congratulations on your victory, young one. Though next time… if we face up again, I pray that you won't fight as shallowly as you did today." he told him before he got on the ring and walked away whilst waving towards the crowd, who also gave him a fair share of praise for his efforts.

Ichigo hadn't said anything as he looked at Chappa's back before looking back down on the floor. 'If only it were that simple.' he thought.

"Now that the tournament is over, it's time for you lovely folks to be on your way until the next World Martial Arts Tournament!" The announcer bid the audience farewell. This tournament turned out to be far more interesting than he originally thought it would be. He hoped that those boys will return again, especially young Karna, after what he did today that boy's name will spread around like wildfire.

"Where is that old man?!" Bulma huffed as she and the rest of the gang had gathered together, standing outside the tournament as they waited for Master Roshi's arrival, as most haven't seen him whatsoever since they showed up.

"We only saw him once, after that it's like he was never there to begin with…" Yamcha mumbled as he folded his arms, looking around to see where the Turtle Hermit could have gone off to. But it made him grow suspicious if perhaps Master Roshi and Jackie Chun shared a connection together.

"I'm sure he'll show up…" Ichigo answered with confidence, as he wasn't worried about Roshi getting late with his sensory abilities. He then turned his head around to take a look at who was coming. "Speak of the devil…"

"Yoo-hoo!" Roshi waved his hand towards the group, making his presence known to the others.

"About time you showed up!" Launch huffed, as she wasn't happy that it took the old man this long to show up. "Where the hell have you been?!"

"Cut me some slack, I had to watch all the way at the back when I went to the restroom." Roshi tapped his fedora, making sure that it stays on so that no-one would see the red bruise from him ripping off the superglue wig he put up. "Doesn't help how rowdy the crowd is, couldn't even push my way through to reach any of you."

"Wait, were you still able to see the matches clearly…?" Krillin asked in a hopeful tone, as the only thing that crossed his mind was if his current master saw his and Ichigo's matches, and his thoughts on them.

"Don't worry, I saw the entire thing from start to finish. Krillin, you did great in making it through the preliminaries. Even though you lost in the first match, it's difficult for people who trained their whole life to make it past preliminaries, so the fact you made it through on your first try is impressive in itself." Roshi commented on Krillin's performance, making the boy smile with the compliments given to him. The old master then turned his gaze towards Ichigo. "You did far better than I originally thought you'd do. I never imagined you would have won this tournament, and on your first try no less. However…" Roshi gave a rather stern gaze, more towards Ichigo's right arm that had been bandaged after the finale. "I don't like the recklessness you displayed on that last match of yours. You sacrificed your arm to give you victory over your opponent."

"Yeah…" Ichigo looked at his injured arm. This thing would take a while to recover. "I didn't really have any other choice.

"You'd have been better off losing than going around and doing something dangerous like that when it's clear you haven't mastered it. If you were put in a life and death situation like that against an opponent much stronger than King Chappa, that would hinder you greatly. Martial arts are not for destroying your body, but to improve yourself." Roshi made sure to drill this in, he wouldn't tolerate something like this happening when that technique bears great risks.

"Right... I'll keep that in mind." That was all that Ichigo replied as he nodded his head. This was far from the first time he's done stuff like this recklessly, but right now he needed to be more careful. He was too weak, and he doubted he could heal as quickly as he used to. He would get stronger from this, that's for sure, but no-one here knew that as of yet.

"Now then…!" Roshi dropped his stern expression. ''We're going to celebrate your incredible success by eating at a restaurant! The money is on me!"

"Uhhhh…" Once the mention of food came by, Ichigo suddenly remembered just how hungry he was when he heard his stomach growl, and so did everyone else. He had to step in before Roshi decided to make the biggest mistake of his life. "I don't think that's going to be necessary. It might be better if I use the money I got for the tournament—"

"Nonsense!" Roshi brushed this aside. "You earned that money all on your own, keep it to yourself. After all, I'm an adult here."

"Are you sure?" Ichigo continued to press. "I seriously recommend you reconsider this. You don't know how hungry I am right now."

"So does that include all of us? Cause we wanna join as well!" Bulma exclaimed, and the others agreed with her.

"But of course!" Roshi answered, seeing no problems with this.

"Well if that's gonna include everybody…" Ichigo murmured before he turned around. "Hey! You wanna join as well?! I know you're still here!"

The others besides Roshi looked at him with confusion drawn on their faces. "Who are you talking to?" Yamcha asked as he and the others looked at who Ichigo was calling.

Almost immediately after, as though not to embarrass the boy, Ahri popped out from her hiding spot, making her appearance well known to the others as she folded her arms. "I was gonna talk with you about that move you pulled off, but I guess the old man beat me to it." the fox tailed girl sighed as she walked towards Ichigo and the group.

"Who is that…?" Yamcha questioned, doing everything he could not to be visibly taken aback by the dazzling beauty. Yet somehow as though it were sensed, Bulma glanced at Yamcha's expression with a small glare.

"Dunno…" Oolong answered as he stared at Ahri's chest, earning him a delightful grin. "But I ain't complai — yoooow!" The pig yelped in pain as he felt Ichigo's thumb and index finger pressing against his neck.

"Don't even think about it." Ichigo replied bluntly as he gave Oolong a glare.

"Who exactly are you…?" Bulma asked as Ahri was mere meters away from them.

"Just one of the people who helped your little friend with his training." Ahri replied with a smile as she clocked her head towards Ichigo.

"Really?" Bulma turned her head over her shoulder to see who she was referring to. Once she understood, she turned to look at the kitsune again. "Well nice to meet you!"

"Listen, not to sound rude or anything, but can we just go and eat?" Ichigo urged them to just go already. He was not in the mood to hear everyone and Ahri greeting each other. "Oh and Bulma, once we're done, I wanna ask if you can do me a favor."

…

This was madness.

It was incomprehensible. It was as though the black hole of creation itself was sucking out all the vacuum in space, devouring everything in sight. Its hunger was boundless, there was simply no end to it. Once it began, it would never stop until it was satisfied. Many individuals have pulled along in terms of being completely caught off guard and baffled by the sight before them…

Which was pretty much what could be described as Ichigo eating like a man who hasn't had food in weeks, with simply nothing holding him back to eat anything. This was the curse of a Saiyan's hunger.

Everybody else in the restaurant was baffled by the number of calories that were being devoured by one child. On the table that Ichigo sat at, there were over 30 bowls that were cupped together. The others practically stopped eating altogether, watching him as he devoured his dishes.

Eventually, even Ichigo's abnormal appetite had to be filled up at some point, and who knows just how long it's been since then. Now the bowls have increased to about 50 or so. "No… freakin'... way." Bulma spoke first as Ichigo covered his mouth with his hand, burping quite loudly as he did so. "He had to have eaten about 100,000 calories worth of all that."

About half a minute the burping ceased, making Ichigo give a loud sigh. Roshi was quietly looking over his wallet, digging through to see how much he needed to pay… only to realize there was no way he could. "That's about it for me." Ichigo commented.

"Good for you." Ahri replied sarcastically. "I lost my appetite halfway."

"Could we get a bill?" Roshi looked over to a waiter, as he refused to order any more food for tonight.

"Just a moment." The waiter replied to his guest as he walked quickly over to the counter, as this was now something he got used to with the constant back and forth he had to pick up on from the amount of food he had to deliver.

The restaurant was going to get filthy rich from this, that much was for sure, and it would make all the employees, especially the owner, quite happy… if the food wasn't almost empty that is. This was something that was going to get remembered for a long time.

"Your bill, sir…" The waiter came back with a ludicrously long stretched out paper, giving the old martial art master a look of pity before turning to walk away.

Roshi took it before skimming through, skipping all the orders of food to see the amount of cash he had to pay through this. His eyes bulged out, shattering his sunglasses as he saw the price. "470,000 zeni…" he murmured to himself, and since the restaurant got quiet, all the others could hear it as well.

"So, still willing to pay with your cash?" Ichigo rhetorically asked, as he held his letter, which inside it were the zeni that the announcer gave him.

"I'm gonna need some of that…" Some would include a lot. Way beyond Roshi's pay grade. Ichigo slid the letter onto the table before the old master grabbed it, opening the letter as he walked over to the waiter.

"You are a monster…" Oolong commented as he shot a glare next to Ichigo. "How do you have a stomach like that?!" Right now the gang walked outside the restaurant, and the day turned to night with the amount of time they spent inside.

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you." Ichigo replied as he put his hands on the back of his head.

"Ok, so ignoring the fact that the kid's stomach is a black hole…" Ahri spoke, putting her hands on her hips. "What are the rest of you doing?"

"Uh… well nothing at all really." Yamcha shrugged his shoulders. "I was just thinking of going back home to West City."

"I'm gonna continue to stay with Master Roshi and train some more." Krillin said, thinking that he didn't really have anywhere else to go to. The Oorin Temple was out of the question, and as for any relatives, there weren't any that he was aware of.

"Eh?" Roshi questioned this. "Now why would you wanna do that? Didn't I already tell you that there's nothing else for me to teach you? It would be better off if you were to train on your own."

"No way! You saw how I performed out there! I'm still inexperienced!" Krillin refuted, persisting to stay with the old man.

Roshi sighed, seeing where this was gonna go. "Very well then... I'll see if I can come up with something to help you with." he then turned his head towards Ichigo. "What about you? Are you willing to stay with this old coot?"

"Not exactly… there's something I gotta do first." Ichigo turned his head to look at Bulma. "Remember when I asked that favor? There was a guy in the tournament named Nam. Turns out he has major issues back in his village. You think you can give some food and water to help his people?"

"Uh, sure thing?" Bulma didn't expect something like this, but nonetheless nodded her head anyways. "Where does he live exactly? And how many do we need?"

"I only got his address which is SAM 275508 S, it's a desert village from what I understood. And as for the food and water… uh… get enough for them to last for about a year?" Ichigo said.

"Sure, that shouldn't be much of a problem. Anything else that's needed?" Bulma asked.

"Yeah, could you give me about several hundred thousand ye — zeni?" Ichigo quickly corrected himself as he put his hand out.

"Eh…?" Bulma slumped her shoulders as she gave the kid an odd look, along with the others. "What do you even need that for?"

"I took into consideration what the old man said about training on my own. And also because I wanna look for the Dragon Balls." Ichigo replied.

"What?!" Everybody else, except Krillin and Roshi were both surprised and confused by this exclamation. "Are you out of your mind?! Don't you remember the last time what happened when you tried to collect those?! If you wanna include us, then forget it!" Oolong exclaimed as he glared at the carrot top.

"I wasn't gonna include any of you." Ichigo said, as at that moment he called out to his magic carpet, and it didn't take long before it started to show up. "And for your question, Bulma, it's because I kinda need stuff to buy."

"Can someone explain what's going on here…?" Krillin was confused, having no idea as to what the gang was talking about. "Just what the heck are these Dragon things they're going on about?"

"They're called Dragon Balls." Puar answered the young monk's question. "And there's about 7 of them. Once you get them all together, a dragon will appear and it will grant you any wish you ask for."

The moment the flying cat said granting wishes, Krillin lost all train of thought. There were too many things he wanted to be granted. "No way!" Krillin then hurryingly walked towards Ichigo. "Hey! Can you take me with you?!"

"Forget it." Ichigo replied bluntly as he got on the carpet. "This isn't gonna be like last time where we'll be in a group. This time it's personal."

"Personal…?" Ahri questioned this. "What's so personal about this?"

"There's… something I wanna check out. I'm sorry, but I really can't go into much detail." Ichigo answered.

Bulma sighed as she dug through her pocket, picking up a surprising amount of zeni that she had with her. "Well I won't bother asking what it is. But here, that's about 300,000 zeni." She gave the money to the boy, who took it with his hand. "This is the money I got after selling most of Pilaf's stuff."

"It is?" Ichigo was surprised to hear about this. ''Wow, you sure got tons in here…"

"But I don't get it, the Dragon Balls won't be active again till another 4 months. Why go now?" Bulma asked.

"Like I said, there's something I gotta check out. And it's very important to me. Old man, is my large capsule in there?" Ichigo asked as he pointed to the briefcase that Roshi held with his hand.

"Sure thing." Frankly, he had no idea what Karna's intentions nor goals were, and why he was so set on finding these Dragon Balls by himself. But hey, if your student was going to train on his own, then give them some stuff to survive on their own in the world. Roshi put his briefcase down, unlocking it before grabbing Ichigo's capsule and throwing it to the boy. "I wish you luck on your journey."

"Thanks, and I'll see you guys eventually." Ichigo bid them all goodbye before soaring through the sky.

"Good luck!" Was what everybody on the ground said, waving their hands towards the boy on his next journey.

And there we have it, the 11th chapter of the Flames of the Rising Sun Storm is complete. Sorry it took this long, but hopefully after I finish high school soon I should update more frequently. So let's go over with the stuff that happened…

Changed a little bit of the Nam fight since the original fight was fine for the most part… up until they go on about Nam's Tenku Jiken technique when Goku used this new move he came up with from literally out of nowhere, since gag stuff in Early Dragon Ball. Goku kept spinning his body so much that when he couldn't anymore, he fell on the ground and was dizzy as fuck. Nam went on to use his special move because of that, and didn't bother throwing him out of the ring cause he was afraid of Goku's tail that was used earlier. Since Ichigo is clearly not the type to pull something like that, Nam couldn't use his Tenku Jinken and would make it extremely easy to attack or evade. One part that struck was when he said he was aiming for Goku's pressure point on his neck when he tried using this the second time. So the idea came to hit Ichigo's pressure point in his legs, and thought that would make sense for it to work.

So the Ichigo vs Chappa fight… so originally we were gonna have Chappa win the match, cause before getting into the Nam fight we thought that Chappa would have just bodied Ichigo to the point that Chappa would have one shotted when he got serious. But apparently, when I read and watched the Nam fight, turns out Roshi considered it extremely impressive for Nam to be beaten, and that he would have had a very hard time with Goku. So that in itself told me that Ichigo would have to be relative to Chappa, and I already showed Chappa being comparable to Roshi.

And then we have it where Ichigo wins the fight, since the way the tournament arcs work in Dragon Ball is having Goku lose in the finals, cause Toriyama does this twist that he tends to do the opposite what people tell or expect him to do, at least back then. And then we have the new Meteor Fist technique, which was taken from the Saint Seiya series, which as said before is supposed to be the substitute for Ichigo's Getsuga.

And with that said, we wrap up the conclusion of the 21st WMAT arc. Up next is the Red Ribbon Army Saga