Before we get to this chapter, I just want to preface by announcing my condolences to the close family and friends of Akira Toriyama, as well as my own sorrows about his passing. His death was on March 1st, 2024, and announced publicly on March 7th, 2024 after a very private funeral. He was, and is, my favorite mangaka of all time, and Dragon Ball in its entirety, games, manga, movies, anime, changed my life I think for the better, and I believe definitely for all of you, else we wouldn't be here, partaking in fan projects where we explored his amazing and marvelous world. I want to thank each and every one of you who've still decided to read this story, and I hope you continue to enjoy yourselves, and I look forward to work Toyotaro and Toei hopefully put forth continuing the last bits of Toriyama's creative will and artistic genius. Thank you!
Shen was wreathed in ki, emanating from him in white, jet-like flames. These flames changed to a deep purple as a mark appeared on his forehead, the kanji for 'power'. Chiaotzu's power level rocketed upwards as well as he activated the pump-up technique, though much like Launch, he seemed not to have physically changed his body at all despite the increase in power.
"...It looks like Launch isn't the only one with perfect ki control." Jazz smiled.
"Huh?" Hercule asked, "What does that mean?"
"You can think of ki control as a measure of someone's efficiency when using ki. Every living creature has ki, even plants, and microorganisms. Body size, genetics, spiritual control, and physical strength will affect the amount of ki different people have. Ki control is how efficient someone is with the ki they have. Tell me, which one is stronger?"
Hercule looked at the battle. Chiaotzu flew back in odd, jerking movements, levitating through the air while making minimal movements. Despite the blue-skinned Crane Master's superior strength and speed, Shen was unable to strike down Chiaotzu, who continued to land blow after blow. To Shen's credit, Chiaotzu's blows seemed to do little, if any, damage to the Jiangshi.
"I don't think Chiaotzu's go-" Hercule was unable to finish his statement as a flash of light blinded nearly everyone watching the fight. Shen was launched into the air, his limbs twisted in odd angles and his nose bloody and crumpled. Chiatzu allowed the faintest of grins to touch his face as he waited for his former teacher to hit the floor.
"A…AMAZING! Chiatzu pulled no stops and came out on TOP! Can we get a repeat to see how that happened?"
One of the large TVs on display began to show a replay of the fight in slow motion. It showed Shen's greater speed, but Chiaotzu moved both to attack and dodge slightly before Shen could even aim his attacks, eventually, Shen overcorrected himself with a wild haymaker and for a few seconds, Chiaotzu's fist gleamed as a square-shaped ki blast extended from his fist into Shen's gut.
Tien raised an eyebrow at Chiaotzu. "Did you use a tri-beam?"
Chiaotzu smirked, "Kind of, I copied it after you, but it's a lot less strong, I shape the ki with my psychic powers then I push it out with my punch. But…" Chiaotzu frowned, "I don't like that she keeps using Master Shen, even if he hates us now." Chiaotzu glared at Mei Lin, who winked back. After a few moments, Shen rose from the ground like a puppet on strings, he glared at Chiaotzu for a few seconds before looking down at his broken body. The crowd gasped as Shen's bones began to creak and skin began to knit back together.
"It will take more than that to beat me, brat!" He got up to charge forward, only to collapse to the ground, limbs shaking uncontrollably. "What… what did you do to me?"
"Exactly what I told Mr. Tien, master," Chiaotzu said master, dripping with sarcasm. "I condense my ki with psychic energy, then I slam it against you, you were hit by my ki and my psychic energy. I already know what your kind can seemingly heal from. And I already know, my psychic powers don't work on someone who's leagues and bounds stronger than me until they aren't stronger than me."
"What does that mean?" Hercule asked in confusion.
"It means Shen has exhausted his ki reserves to the level that he's lost the effective combat power required to resist Chiaotzu's psychic pressure," Roshi stated.
Chiaotzu looked at Shen for a few seconds, then bowed as he lifted the man from the floor and dropped him out of bounds.
"CHIAOTZU IS THE WINNER!"
As the crowd cheered, Jazz strained to hear the quiet words Chiaotzu spoke out.
"Thank you for the years together, master, even though I knew you only accepted and trained me because of Mr. Tien, I appreciated and cared for you and would have strived to be one of the most powerful assassins in the world. You threw us away after a single failure, master, and that's why you lost. I don't believe you learn from your mistakes, I don't think you'll ever learn from your mistakes. Did you know master? I know math now, I can add, subtract, multiply, and divide, I know my times table up to 100, I know history, literature, and sciences, I can appreciate a poem, and the more I learned, the better my psychic powers became. You never taught me how to read, I was weaker as a person, as a warrior, as whatever assassin you envisioned me to be, because you thought bothering to teach me how to read was a waste of time, because you didn't ever care about me." Chiaotzu turned around, "Tien has said his goodbyes, and I say mine, too, if we never see each other again, it will be too soon." He turned to walk away, ignoring Shen's screams in anger and provocative shouts and insults.
"Nice job! Short stuff!" Hercule cheered in excitement, high-fiving Chiaotzu as he came back to the fighter's stand.
"Well fought." Yamcha smiled.
"Really good job," Tien said, "I'm proud of you Chiaotzu."
The little man rubbed his head in embarrassment, "thanks, everyone!"
Yamcha sighed, "Well, I better do my best not to embarrass myself, you two Hercule." As the others looked up at the projection, two pairs of names appeared, denoting the next fighters.
Yamcha vs. Tsukutsun Tsun
PaoPao vs. Chopsticks
"Good luck PaoPao." Jazz began.
"Thank you, but I won't need luck. Rather, I'd forewarn Yamcha against his opponent."
Jazz frowned, "Tsun? Do you mean the older brother of that psychic girl? He doesn't really feel all that special."
"Younger brother, actually. Also, maybe not to you, but I have an informant in Penguin Village, well, I've had several informants, I have to change them out quickly for mental health reasons."
"Not surprising," Jazz was aware of the zany nature of Dr. Slump and its weird connection to the world of Dragon Ball, both through the original and eventually Super.
"Tsun undergoes a very unique transformation when he becomes angry, and even before that he is a relatively decent martial artist."
"I'll take your word for it." Jazz turned to look at Yamcha and Tsun.
"So… you're the double-ganger who's been going around getting all famous… I'm so jealous." Tsun began with a frown.
"Do you mean a doppelganger?" Yamcha queried, "Also, I'm not that famous, my other friends did a lot more than I did."
"Don't lie! You weirdo!" Tsun retorted hotly. "You and your flamboyant hair, and rough clothing, you dishonor martial artists with your rough style!"
"Rough… style?" Yamcha narrowed his eyes, "are you mocking my wolf-fang fist?"
"Pfft. I won't just mock your wolf fang fist, I'll trounce it! You're wolf-fang fist is nothing compared to my Tiger Claw Kick!"
"...That was terrible." Jazz muttered, "That's like… the silliest knock-off name I've ever heard."
"Well, why don't we just test out our skills then?" Yamcha disappeared from where he stood and kicked Tsun in the back, launching him towards the end of the arena. To his credit, Tsun slammed his fist into the tile, catching on the stone and stopping him from falling out of the arena.
"What?! You cheat how-" Before Tsun could continue, Yamcha was upon him, striking with deft kicks, punches, palm thrusts, and elbow strikes.
"Man… Yamcha's going all out this time," Krillin muttered. "I mean, wow…"
Roshi nodded, "he's always been a skilled warrior, though he has a bad habit of training by himself, I was beginning to worry that he'd lack motivation without a good training partner or teacher, but it seems I was worried for nothing."
"Oh please…" Bulma announced loudly, "My parents are one of the richest people in the world, we can afford state-of-the-art training gear for Yamcha, and if it's not gear or weights he needs, we can fly him anywhere he needs to get his training done."
"It's not about fancy machinery girl, it's about dedication to the martial way!" Roshi retorted, annoyed, "I'm surprised you didn't ruin his efforts with your modern wackiness.
"Wackiness? As if my special weight watch is worse than your silly little turtle backpacks."
Jazz perked up, "Weight watch?"
"Yeah, it's a device I invented, it releases a field of energy designed to restrict your movements, almost like you're trying to move in mud, it has different levels, but also has settings that affect how heavy you feel you are, and even effects how strong gravity is on you. What's best is my Yamcha doesn't have to worry about crippling back pain, scoliosis, or other health complications like stunted growth due to those turtle shell backpacks."
"Did you say stunted growth?" Krillin asked suddenly.
"How dare you mock my ways!" Roshi yelled over Krillin, "Girl, you should learn about humility and respect, and don't mock something that works."
"Just cause something works doesn't mean you can't improve it!" Bulma shouted back.
"Wait, master roshi, stunted growth?" Krillin asked in a defeated tone.
Before their bickering could continue, the fighters snapped towards the arena as they felt a massive power begin to spike up.
"That's… 1, 10, 100 million… wait… no…no way!" Jazz shouted in surprise and shock as he looked on at the fight between Yamcha and Tsun. He wracked his brain for any explanation that could reveal how in the hell any human would have a powerlevel like that.
"Hmph, amazing, isn't he?" Tsururin sneered at Jazz's shocked expression. "My brother's already a great martial artist, but when he gets mad… not even Arale can beat him."
"Yamcha, get out of there!" Bulma shouted, she couldn't feel the aura, but the pressure exerted from Tsukutsun's body, coupled with his literal muscle-growth brought about by his rage, mixed with the expressions of the other tournament fighters showed just how scary this person actually was. She'd seen Yamcha at his lowest and had always seen him get back up, again and again, but it killed her inside to see him get hurt.
"Who the hell is this guy?" Agent Orange muttered under his breath, "We have no data on either of those siblings, could they be androids designed by Senbei Noromaki? We do have some surveillance on him due to the strange phenomena associated with his model: Arale… I need to inform the Dr…"
As the others continued to shout their fears and warnings to Yamcha, he himself remained calm, placid even. "You might be stronger, but strength isn't enough for a fight." The ground cracked as Tsukutsun charged forward, but before the powerful martial artist's muscles twitched, Yamcha had already taken to the skies. Tsukutsun, to his credit, swiveled and leaped into the air after Yamcha, only to sail past the scar-faced fighter and past the clouds. Yamcha, for his part, remained in the air, a light smirk on his face as he waited, and waited, and waited some more. Seconds turned into minutes until one member of the crowd looked up, screaming.
"Something's coming down!"
Everyone looked up to see Tsukutsun, aura radiating with rage as he hurtled down like a meteor towards the earth. Yamcha prepared a powerful ki blast, launching it up into the air and detonating it before it could impact Tsukutsun, who could do nothing to dodge the attack. Tsukutsun, for his part, was undamaged by the attack, but the velocity of his fall was slowed somewhat, though not enough to prevent him from crashing through the tile floor into the dirt.
"Announcer, the rules again, specifically about being out of bounds?" Yamcha asked, smiling triumphantly.
"Oh, yes…" The announcer adjusted his sunglasses. "If the fighter touches the ground with any part of his body other than hair, it is considered out of bounds, even if the portion of ground used to be where the arena tiles were. This means… YAMCHA IS THE WINNER!"
Yamcha bowed deeply to the crowd and backflipped back onto the fighter's stand.
Jazz sighed in relief, happy for Yamcha's victory. Yamcha often got the short end of the stick in these tournaments, he was a talented fighter but he was the litmus test to declare someone strong or weak. In the original, he was defeated by Jackie Chun, Fortune Teller Baba's Mummy, Tien, and a normal human possessed by Kami. Every time that happened it was depicted as more comedic than suspenseful and used to portray just how serious and dangerous the opponent would be, only for Goku to often rise to the occasion as the opponent's equal. He was a little scared that fate was trying to course correct and threw Tsukutsun as an impossible hurdle, but Yamcha took advantage of his opponent's anger quickly and efficiently.
"I'm surprised you realized he couldn't fly." Jazz said, patting Yamcha on the shoulder.
Yamcha embraced Bulma, who had jumped into his arms and winked. "One can get a feel about a warrior based on how they conduct themselves. There's always a tell when someone can use the airdance, or is used to flying."
"Really? What is it?" Jazz asked.
"They're more likely to look above them when someone disappears from view."
"So when you appeared behind him to knock him off the arena…"
"Hey, I was going for a quick knockout. I took him seriously, but… yeah, I had a feeling he couldn't fly."
Jazz turned to Tsukutsun, who had his head down while being screamed at by his older, but smaller sister. "He does look a lot like you."
"I noticed, but I don't think there's a family relation, my dad didn't use martial arts like he did." Yamcha scratched his chin. "Anyways, good job, PaoPao."
PaoPao, who was sitting and sipping some water handed over by one of the tournament attendants smiled. "There was no question about my victory. That chopsticks fellow was skilled, for a normal person. But it's expected for a member of Satan Dojo."
Hercule rubbed his nose in pride. "I mean, not to brag, but I am a pretty big deal."
"Well, good luck, Mr. Big Deal, you're coming out next." Yamcha smacked Hercule on the back.
At the same time, Piccolo began to step out into the arena.
"I… I'm not fighting him… am I?" Hercule gulped.
"No, not yet, you'll be fighting that guy." Krillin pointed out a tall, muscular young man with brown hair. "His name is Agent Argent. Also, what happened to that bravado you threw his way before?"
"Oh? That punk looks easy, his energy feels so low." Hercule grinned, ignoring Krillin's accusation.
"Don't underestimate any opponent." Tien warned, "You don't know what you might be up against. Even if the rest of us left the tournament last time, he was still declared champion."
"Yeah, yeah." Hercule waved his hand dismissively.
The next series of fights went about the way most would expect.
While tough, Agent Argent, who Jazz could swear reminded him of someone he saw in the Dragon Ball before, could not stand up to Hercule's raw power, with the latter not even having to use pump up. Of the fighters, Hercule had the highest base power, due to hyper-focusing on building up his strength and endurance, and the nightmare of training Jazz put both of them through. His performance earned high praise from the rest of the Z fighters, but surprisingly also from Piccolo. Who smiled sinisterly.
"What a human." He chuckled, "If he put half the pompous nature into serious training, he'd have been a real threat to me, at the least however, I can tell he's naturally very powerful and talented, humans like that gave my father trouble."
"You're being awful talkative all of a sudden." Mei Lin slinked over to Piccolo's side. Ignoring the green-skinned man's death glare, she continued, "I do wonder, however, why have you ignored the attempts at communication Dr. Gero established? When working together with him, your father almost took the whole world, and he didn't even need to use the dragon balls to do it. We could be useful together."
"My ambitions and path to world domination are different from my father's. He saw fit to design me more like a warrior, as such, I lack the capability to produce eggs, and I have no desire to use the resources of the same humans I plan to subjugate, as I will not play favorites when it comes time to unleash my dark impulse upon the earth."
"Play favorites, huh." Mei Lin began, "I see, that's why you gaze at that young boy with the black hair so fondly." She smiled as she felt Piccolo's killing intent. "Did I touch a nerve?"
"Don't insult the great demon king with accusations of sentiment, he is a useful tool, nothing more. I can make use of his devotion, and he fights like a demonic warrior, proud, viscous, honorably."
"What use is honor if you don't win?" Mei Lin's expression darkened, "I lost my prestige, my power, my place because I fought with honor. I was born better, trained better, and gained better resources, yet I was done it by a witch's trickery. All my so-called 'honor' went down the drain when I lost everything." She turned to Piccolo, spite in her voice, "the good Dr. saw fit to leave you alone, as your power projection is 2.5 times greater than expected. But it's clear you are ultimately worthless as you are at the moment, the bald cyclops can defeat you because you fail to even master that bizarre and stupid merging technique. Gero has analyzed it to the best of his abilities, and there's much he can offer you, but if you insist on continuing this path the way you're going, the Demon King will fade into obscurity."
"Are you threatening me?"
"I'm warning you." Mei Lin said ominously. "You don't understand, just what I know and understand, what the doctor has been enlightened on, and it could all be yours if you simply extend a hand."
Piccolo was silent for a few seconds, expression indecipherable. He turned to look at Goku, his expression darkening, then looked at Jazz, a brief flash of hatred coming across his face. As he looked at the Z fighters, different feelings coursed through his veins, indifference, derision, loathing, anger, annoyance, until he passed his eyes over Lapis and Lazuli. As he stared at the determined blue eyes of Lapis, who was standing victorious over his challenge after scaring them off with a combination of the solar flair then a very low-powered mafuba, a smirk came across his face.
"No."
Mei Lin's light smile twisted into a frown. "I will not make this offer again. You were warned."
…
Afterword:
Jasper(Jazz) Duncan
Age: 21 and 11 months
Hair color: Red
Skin color: white
Race: "Human"
Height: 6 feet 0.5 inches | 184.15 centimeters
Weight: 195 lbs | 88.4505 kilograms, currently weighs 1200 lbs | 544.3108 kilograms
Skills: Advanced Staff Technique, Advanced Kinjutsu (sword technique), Advanced Hand-to-Hand technique, Advanced Ki techniques, Mastered Magic Materialization
Capable of creating: Conventional Weapons, Food, and various tools (limited by his knowledge of the materials, craftsmanship, and scientific knowledge)
Weapons that can be created: Long Ruyi Jingu Bang, Long Bansho Fan, Ryu Kusanagi, Wyvern's Wind-And-Fire Wheels, Dragon's Flame-Tipped Spear, Fafnir's Gungnir, Leviathan's Trident, Jorgumandur's Svalinn, Hydra's Ancilla
Powers: Elemental Magic Materialization, Capable of summoning and freely manipulating fire, water, wind, earth, lightning, ice, smoke, and steam, capable of manipulating and stirring the growth of plant and animal life. Mastered Telekinesis.
Mastery of General Magic Concepts and abilities. mastered understanding of intermediate-level magical techniques, and an advanced understanding of advanced magical techniques.
Shapeshifting: Mastered Skill level (indefinite)
Transformation Power Techniques
Noble Werewolf: True Awakening: 6.25x power
Ultimate Full Power: 6.4x
Talisman Magic: Body Enhancement: 5x Power, drains magical energy over time, lasts 30 minutes at full, before then draining ki,
1.5x level: can be used for 12 hours straight
2x level: can be used for 4 hours straight
3x: can be used for 2 hours
4x: Can be used for 1 hour
Emissive Techniques: Kamehameha, Don Don Pa, Solar Flare, Tri-Beam, Thunder Shock Surprise, Barrage Ki attack, Magic Fire Kamehameha, Thunderfire Kamehameha. Ki-Flame Sword, Marshmallow Meteor, Sovereign Rain
Body Techniques: Four Witches Technique, 12 Eyes Technique, Fusion Dance, Wolf Fang Fist, Mafuba
Blessing from a "Friend": Enhanced strength, speed, stamina, durability, and senses, capable of surviving a 2 fold fusion without extreme backlash.
Powerlevel: 4260 (suppressed)
Power of Noble Werewolf: 26,625
Power of Ultimate Full Power: 27,264
Power of Talisman: 21,300
Noble + Full Power: 170,400
Noble +Full Power + Talisman: 852,000
Fusion Dance (10x)
Double Fusion Dance (100x)
…
Thanks for continuing this fanfiction journey with me. Despite all the delays and requests. And thank you everyone who's still loyal to this story. RIP Toriyama.