On Kami's lookout.
"Kami! Did you see that?!" Mr. Popo was agitated, it was not often that the black djinn would become agitated, the last time it had happened was when the Demon King had broken free and went on a rampage.
"...Yes…" Kami couldn't help but wipe the nervous sweat that dropped from his forehead. He looked at the Budokai Tenkaichi, oftentimes, he would look down upon this tournament to view the many brave and skilled denizens of the planet he was the guardian of, both to entertain himself and to ascertain a suitable replacement as Guardian of Earth. However, the feelings of mirth and enjoyment he was feeling were dashed away as he glanced at the resting fighter.
"That boy… Jazz, that final form he took, it looked like you Kami."
"Yes… it's actually surprising." Kami nodded, "It felt like I was looking at a mirror of my past self when I saw that form the boy took, and that display…" Kami glanced at his hand, then looked forward, on reflex, his outstretched hand grabbed a far-off object as his arm stretched like an uncoiled spring. "That technique… perhaps that boy's true identity is of one of my people?"
"But Kami…" Popo reproached, "that makes no sense, the first form we see him in is that of a human, he trains as a human, eats as a human, and sleeps like a human, unlike you, or… him, he requires both food and water to sustain himself, and he transformed, he used the powers of the monster kin trained in that Transformation School."
"Yes… you're right…" Kami nodded, "then… perhaps, when he disappeared for that week." Kami thought to several months ago before Jazz entered the Southern Transformation School, he had failed to achieve a wish through the dragon, and instead, angrily wished to be transported somewhere else.
"What was that word he said again?!" Popo asked.
"I… I do not recall, but for some reason, just thinking of the memory hits me with a thrill of remembrance…" Kami shook his head.
"I see…" Popo nodded, "perhaps we should ask him. But how?"
The old Guardian smiled, though he knew not of his truth, he was still wise. "He seeks greater strength, correct? If so, eventually, his steps may lead him back to Korin." He closed his eyes, "be that as it may, I sense less evil and conflict within him, so regardless of his knowledge, I have little fear in his intentions." He opened his eyes, turning his attention to the fight currently happening now…
...
Goku began the offensive, first was a straight punch, followed by a sweeping kick then a rolling axe-kick. Krillin blocked the punch with an entwined open palm, short-hopped over the sweeping kick, and tumbled behind Goku just as the axe-kick hit the ground. Just as Goku turned, a ki blast knocked him 2 feet back as Krillin fired a pre-emotive Kamehameha.
"THIS IS AMAZING FOLKS! IT LOOKS LIKE THESE TWO AREN'T WILLING TO BUDGE EVEN AN INCH!"
Krillin fired another blast of ki, then angled his finger like a gun and fired out ki bullets similarly to Jazz's. Instead of dodging them or using ki to deflect them, Goku knocked them away with open-palmed slaps. The bursts of ki crashed into the walls of buildings, unleashing greater destructive force than Jazz's.
Goku pressed forward. "Two can play at that game!" He cupped his arms.
Krillin charged forward and began a flurry of punches and kicks, Goku bobbed, weaved, and blocked with his legs and tail, all the while cupping his hands. "Ka…me…"
Krillin began to back up, but Goku remained in front of the shaven fighter. Growling, he began firing more ki blasts at Goku, who backflipped away from the first blast and began to run at the flanks, avoiding Krillin's barrage. After a few short seconds, Krillin, slightly winded, calmed down and analyzed Goku, who charged towards him again. "Ha…me…HA!" Goku fired his blast, but Krillin had prepared, firing a Kamehameha into the ground to propel him into the air.
Goku charged at his rival, preparing to activate his Janken Rock Paper Scissors technique. Krillin reacted by taking in a deep ki empowered breath and blowing hard enough to change the trajectory of his fall. Goku missed him by inches. Without skipping a beat, Krillin cupped his hand and launched out a burst of ki, the momentum causing his body to spin in place, he stretched out his leg, kicking Goku in the back and hurtling him out of bounds.
"AMAZING! AFTER A SHORT EXCHANGE IN THE SKY IT LOOKS LIKE THIS IS IT FOR OUR TAILED FIGHTER!"
Goku began to twirl his tail rapidly like a helicopter, catching himself and flying back to the arena.
"What the?!" Krillin shouted, shocked, "I've never seen you do that!"
"Hehe!" Goku chuckled, "I've been training my tail's muscles too, y'know…"
The two fighter's got into their stances again, but this time, the conditions were wildly different.
"Hmmm…" Jackie Chun muttered in interest, "Krillin made a fatal error."
"What did he do?" Chi-Chi asked the sagely man.
"I believe he thought he could overwhelm Goku with that flurry of attacks, once he had Goku in the air, his attack to knock him out of the arena was ingenious, but unfortunately he couldn't predict Goku's unorthodox save, he used too much ki in order to get that maneuver ready." He looked at Goku, "as opposed, it looks like Goku was conserving his energy from the beginning, he allowed Krillin to approach him and fought mostly defensively, now that Krillin is tired, Goku will have the advantage."
As if proving his point, Goku began to attack doggedly, he tumbled into a donkey kick, followed up with an uppercut, then landed and sprung forth a standing butterfly kick. Krillin had attempted to leap back from what he assumed was a tackle, the donkey kick threw him off guard and the uppercut knocked back his hastily put-up defenses. Krillin barely rolled out of the butterfly kick just in time to get body-slammed by Goku.
Jazz blinked in surprise, Goku had slapped the tile floor with his tail, using it as leverage to angle himself towards Krillin. 'Even if he jumps, as long as his tail is still on the ground he can redirect his landing as quickly as possible.' Jazz thought of the various possibilities and how best to face that tactic if they fought, then turned to analyze Krillin, despite the human's disadvantage, he was still putting up a good fight, Jazz didn't want to outright dismiss him.
"Jazz…" he was interrupted by PaoPao, "I apologize, but I must leave."
"Huh? But we were going to talk."
She smiled wryly as she took out a vibrating phone, "it's a message from the Department of Defense, the King of the World wants to speak to me."
Jazz took out his phone, Bulma had given him a replacement that he kept in safe places, namely, where he wasn't fighting. "Call me if you can, I'll try reaching out, okay?"
PaoPao nodded, "I will, and… sorry, I shouldn't have blown up at you like that…"
"We can talk later, it's sort of awkward right now I guess…" Jazz chuckled good-naturedly.
"Yes, you are right." PaoPao smiled.
As she turned to leave, Jazz's eyes continued to linger on her until he heard the shocked gasp from the announcer.
"IT LOOKS LIKE IT'S KRILLIN'S turn to hold GOKU ON THE ROPES!"
He turned to see that Krillin held Goku by the tail now. Jazz missed quite a lot it seemed.
…
'Come on Krillin, think, how do I beat Goku?' Krillin tightened his stance as he continued to block and deflect Goku's blows, the tiny warrior's fists felt like sledgehammers as they pounded on his body, yet he could not stop the battle due to pain, he was KameSennin's first pupil and held a responsibility to his master to keep face in this arena. At the least, he could tell Goku was going all out, when the boy was enjoying himself, his sardonic grin shifted and his appearance became wide-eyed and fierce, signifying that he threw away all useless emotion and simply concentrated on the fight before him. This was the first time Krillin lasted this long, especially with such a handicap.
Goku continued to press his advantage however, and at times would throw his tail into the mix, the strikes of his tail as powerful as his fists. Krillin groaned in irritation, then he had an epiphany, while they had helped Goku train the Oozaru, they learned that squeezing his tail left him weak, he was a little more resistant now, but he never did train a full immunity, partially to help keep him from being unstoppable if he went berserk as an Oozaru.
Goku came down with a vicious axe kick, instead of dodging, Krillin chose to leap up to block it with his shoulder, feeling his body tense and collapse, the monk grit his teeth and withstood the attack.
'Now!'
…
As Goku prepared to leap off, a paralyzing pain assailed his senses. He collapsed to the floor, turning to see that Krillin had grabbed his tail and was repeatedly flipping him back and forth on the ground.
"D-darn… m-my tail…" Goku groaned in pain.
"Hehe! I guess you didn't fully master everything yet Goku!" Krillin continued to slam Goku back and forth repeatedly at faster and faster velocities.
"I! I gotta break out of this somehow!" Goku struggled to move, but he felt so weak.
It happened as Krillin leaped into the air, dragging the boy up with him, the monk raised the monkey boy up again, preparing to land and mix the speed of the fall with his arm swing crashing down. Goku looked straight up at the sky, and at the full moon that boldly displayed itself on the midday morning. In the breath of a single heartbeat, the entire mood of the arena changed.
Jazz felt it first as Goku's ki spiked up, followed by PaoPao, who was sensitive to magic. Master Roshi, who was adept in reading the mood and impressions of the people around him immediately tensed up, and Chi-Chi, who had stared at Goku with worried eyes, began to notice his change in demeanor.
Krillin was, unfortunately, the last to notice the change, only feeling shocked as Goku bent his tail, avoiding the full damage of the slam, and launched Krillin away with an insanely powerful body slam.
Krillin launched a ki blast in order to kill his momentum, barely stopping himself from falling out of bounds.
"M-MARVELOUS! JUST LIKE THAT, THE TIDE OF BATTLE HAS TURNED AGAIN!"
Krillin shook his head in exhaustion, "geez Goku… you're full of surprises. "G-Goku?!" He stuttered.
Goku was on his knees, clutching his head, and wheezing. "G-gah!" He groaned and grunted in pain, his body pulsing as if he were turning into an Oozaru, yet his size hadn't increased. "K-Krillin…" He groaned… "r-run…"
Jazz turned to PaoPao, who cocked her head. "What should I do?"
"Can you cast that barrier again?"
PaoPao nodded, but made a pained face, "I'm tired, so it won't be very large, otherwise it will break like paper mache."
"What if you make it small and only one-sided?"
"I can probably manage a relatively strong version."
Jazz nodded, "that will work. Please cast Jiang Shi puppetry on me and…"
PaoPao's eyes widened as she heard Jazz's words.
On the arena, Krillin looked at Goku with concern, "Goku?! Buddy! What's wrong?!"
Goku could only scream as a yellow-green aura surrounded his body. His eyes stared up in space, flickering from their normal black to deep gold. He felt his power increasing by an extreme amount, so much that it felt like he was splitting in half. He tried to contain it within himself, but it only served to cause more pain to wrack his body. Just as he felt himself begin to crack, he saw Jazz. The boy was in his max power mode and wore a Talisman on his head, at the same time, however, wings and rockets seemed to come off him, perhaps the result of an odd-looking transformation. Before Goku could say anything, the human boy grabbed him and rocketed and flapped as high up in the air as possible. They reached the clouds in seconds, and then Goku felt a barrier appear in between him and Jazz, and flames erupt from Jazz towards him. The flames didn't burn however, instead, they seemed to take away some of his pain, but only some. Despite that, he still felt his body breaking down. Unable to hold on any longer, he released the pent-up energy, which left his body as if it was the only thing that mattered in the world to do.
…
Goku seemed to disappear in an instant, causing the crowd to murmur in confusion, then the sky lit up. First came a blinding light, as if a second sun touched the Earth, then came the thunderous roar of a massive explosion. Despite its sound and apparent force, no shockwave touched the ground. Instead, the explosion seemed to stretch across the sky, like the outspread wings of an eagle. Eventually, after 8 more seconds, a figure began to fall from the sky. At first, people thought it was a person, but as it got closer, they realized it was gaining size at too fast a pace. Before their eyes, a giant monkey crashed into the arena, causing the viewers to scream and panic.
"Goku?!" Krillin shouted in shock.
"COULD THIS BE THE TRANSFORMATION OF THE TAILED FIGHTER? SON GOKU?!"
The oozaru looked around, disorientated, then looked down at the tiny human.
Krillin gulped in fear, trembling as he waited for his friend to say anything, Goku had supposedly taken full control of this form, but it had never been this painful to transform before.
"Krillin…" The oozaru spoke, "sorry, I needed to burp!" The entire crowd generated a collective thud as they flipped 180 in their backs simultaneously. Krillin, who had followed suit, found his back on the ground, outside the ring.
"IN A SURPRISING TURN OF EVENTS! GOKU HAS DEMONSTRATED AN AMAZING POWER! SO GREAT IN FACT IT SHOCKED EVEN KRILLIN OUT OF THE RING!"
The crowd began to clap and cheer awkwardly.
High above and sailing down gently, Jazz winced as his body slowly regenerated. Even with the barrier and all the ki he poured into the defense, he nearly died blocking that attack, if not for his regeneration, he'd be a falling quadriplegic. As his arms and legs regenerated, he observed the reddened skin, his ki had fallen quite severely from that escapade.
"Something happened to Goku…" He muttered, "there was an energy that interfered with his transformation… but I couldn't tell, it happened so fast." Even as he looked down, Goku was covering his eyes, and before his very eyes, the giant monkey became a boy in less than a minute.
"AND WITH THAT! THE FIGHTERS FOR THE SEMI-FINALS HAVE BEEN DECIDED! WE WILL NOW TAKE A 30 MINUTE BREAK TO REPAIR THE ARENA!"
Jazz sighed, at least he had time to rest.
…
"Wow, Goku!" Krillin shouted, amazed, "that was amazing! Did you overcome the tail?"
Goku shook his head, "it was really weird, all of a sudden, my head felt really hazy. And I heard a voice telling me, 'accept my power…' I really didn't like it, so I tried resisting, then everything just went boom! And I turned into an Oozaru."
"That's… worrying…" Krillin watched as his friend piled on pounds of food. "Well, either way, you were winning that fight Goku."
"No Krillin, you might have won! You're really strong!" Goku beamed, "I wanna have a rematch soon, okay?"
Krillin smiled, "definitely!"
Jazz was also eating relatively ravenously, his mind reeled from what PaoPao told him as she hurriedly left.
"I'm sorry Jazz," she said, "I was happy to help with Goku, but now time's even more pressed for me. The Red Ribbon Army is gathering a band of mercenaries and an elite squad, they've invaded my clan's territory, the World King has gathered a tactical force to counter them, but I need to also go and represent my people." Before she left, she pointed at Goku, "Jazz… I felt the same power I felt from the Sleeping Princess gem that we exorcised from Launch, but I don't feel that energy anymore. It's still worrisome, especially since it is the full moon, and that is the trigger for Goku's transformation."
Jazz groaned in irritation, was that damn crystal just going to butt its head in every aspect of his friends' lives? First in general, then Launch, now Goku? Looking at the sky, and at the full moon, he felt his heart race as the beginnings of the transformation took hold, but he held off, calming himself down and thinking. He remembered where the island appeared, its coordinates never changed, and despite the fact it was daytime, the moon was out. Perhaps he could find the island. Since PaoPao said the crystal had something to do with what happened to Goku, he needed to find out. After the thirty minutes, it would be Roshi vs. Yamcha, then another 30 minutes, which meant he had at least an hour to find out what was going on and return.
He took out a capsule case, inside was a senzu bean. "Thank you for your kindness, Korin." Jazz sent a well-wishes prayer to the cat sage. He chewed on and swallowed the bean, then activated Pump Up, transforming into a Jet, he channeled ki into his body and rocketed from the arena. In less than a minute, he reached over Mach 40, at his speed, he'd reach the island in just under 20 minutes, this would leave at most 20 minutes to find out any information, and another 20 to return back to the fight.
"God… let this freaking rock just get destroyed already." Jazz groaned in frustration.
…
Yamcha paced up and down, body tense. "Come on man, you've got to relax." Master Roshi had attempted to trick the bandit into thinking he wasn't Jackie Chun in disguise, but he had seen Nam take off the fake costume Roshi had given him. He didn't feel the need to confront the sage about his disguise, a wise man like him likely had numerous important and mysterious reasons to not reveal his identity.
But now, he was going to fight the fabled legend. He couldn't help but shudder in nervousness, especially after witnessing the fight between Goku and Krillin just now, both children had moved with grace, speed, and strength beyond his own. It shocked him to no end on just how skilled of a sensei Muten Roshi truly was. Smiling wryly, he tried to focus on the mentality he entered the tournament with. His goal was to test his progression, he wanted to be strong enough to protect Bulma, and to stay in the front lines if evil like Lucifer ever came again. As he began to calm himself down again, he smiled. Turning to one of the promoters, he asked, "Hey, can I have a light snack?"
…
Jazz came upon the island quickly, and without skipping a beat he transformed into an eider duck, sailing unto the flooded island.
Devil's Hand had lost its splendor after the abuse they gave the monstrous Lucifer, then it was destroyed even more after their second time on the island. Jazz sighed as he landed on the ground, wet and loose from the waters. Immediately he felt ki permeating the island, the same vile ki of the Sleeping Princess crystal, though, it felt a little different. He made his way towards the source of the energy. Eventually, he made his way towards the flooded cavern. In an explosion of dust, Jazz revealed himself as a mermaid. Though, the fish part in question was the short-fin mako shark, the fastest shark in the world, capable of traveling a cool 45 mph. He grinned toothily as he dived into the water, his eyes adjusted to the murky gloom. As he followed the cavern, he eventually came across his target.
There, in the distance, he saw the crystal. As opposed to it's first two iterations, which were pure white gemstones, this tiny iteration, a fraction of what it used to be, was blood red. It was almost beautiful floating in the water, its light reflecting along the cavern. Jazz shook his head, as pretty as it might have been, it was dangerous and maybe hurting Goku, he would have to destroy it if that was the case. As he began to swim towards the crystal, he noticed with wide eyes that it attempted to dart away from him. Utilizing his ki, Jazz caught up within a few quick pumps. Upon catching the crystal the first thing he noticed was that he could finally pick up on the emotion he was feeling. The emotion was emanating from the crystal, and now that he had physical contact, it was directly palpable. The emotion was fear.
…
...
Jasper(Jazz) Duncan
Age: 15 (and 11 months), physical appearance: 15-16
Hair color: Red
Skin color: white
Race: Quarter Caucasian(White American of English-Irish descent), Quarter Asian (Korean), Quarter Black(African-American), Quarter Hispanic (Cuban)
Height: 5ft 9inches | 175 centimeters (69 inches, nice)
Weight: 155 lbs | 70 kilograms (the namekians granted him a pair of 10, 15, and 20 kilogram wrist and ankle weights. (3 sets of weighted clothing in total, 4 parts each, 22 pounds, 33 pounds, and 44 pounds respectively, currently using 15 kg (33 lbs) weights.
Skills: Decent Sports Talent for Age, Semi-Above Average Intellect for age, intermediate martial arts skills, average ki control, good pain tolerance, trap building, intermediate weapons mastery, basic boxing, basic MMA, street fighting skills
Powers: Magic Materialization (Fire) (Proficient Understanding), Magic Materialization (Water) (Basic Understanding)
General magic: Basic Understanding
Max Power/ Pump Up (1.5x (mastered), 2x (capable),
Shapeshifting, Mastered Skill level (indefinite)
Noble Werewolf (On the Cusp of Awakening)
Powerlevel: 80, will raise to 120 temporarily when using Pump Up/Max Power 1.5, or 160 when using Pump Up/Max Power 2x
…
…
Afterword:
Why won't this freaking thing die!
I'm sure some of you are thinking that, you know what, me too, but also, story, all things may have a reason. Next chapter will be relatively interesting I hope, with a fight between this stronger Yamcha and Master Roshi. Everyone's been training due to Jazz's shenanigans.
Stay tuned!
Also, thanks so much for all the reviews and favorites and follows! You guys helped get me back into writing this thing! I hope to take it to the finish line!