Author's Note: First I want to say I was devastated by the news of the passing of Akira Toriyama, may he rest in peace. Second, this chapter was a doozy to write! Three original characters with completely original fight scenes. It was necessary as I didn't want to just straight up rip off the fighters from Dragonall, I want this to be a true crossover after all. Plus, some fighters like Bactierian are just stupid. Funny, but stupid. All in all I had a lot of fun writing this and I look forward to Round 1 of the Quarter Finals!

Chapter 6: The Preliminaries

Early around 6 the next morning at the hotel Roshi woke up first and got dressed. They weren't due at the colosseum until 9 but he suspected traffic would be chaos as it was such a huge event, so he shook the boys awake. The boys got dressed in the same suits that Launch had given them and Roshi was wearing the same black suit minus the turtle shell, he was also carrying a large briefcase, the boys however didn't ask what was in it. He then ushered the boys downstairs for a quick breakfast and while Goku was having third helpings of everything, Roshi arranged with the hotel staff to call a cab. They managed to get Goku away from the buffet just as the cab arrived and they were on their way to the tournament colosseum.

Roshi's concern was well warranted as it was already crowded when they arrived. Fortunately there were designated areas only for contestants, allowing them to navigate towards the check in desk. As they got closer they heard someone with a megaphone speaking.

"If you are a contestant please step this way! After you have checked in at the desk, please gather in the building directly behind me!"

Roshi escorted the boys forward where they met Yamcha, Bulma, Oolong, and Puar all waiting.

"Hey Goku! Krillin! You're here!" Bulma said greeting them. "Yamcha is already checked in, but we waited for you."

"Thanks, it's great to see you guys!" Goku said.

After they checked in Roshi pulled the boys aside and whipped open the briefcase.

"Here, boys. You can't fight in those suits obviously, so I had Launch make these special." He reached in and pulled out a couple of red Gi's with black belts and two pairs of slipper shoes, and blue wristbands. On the front of the shirts above the heart was the symbol, 亀 (meaning Kamesennin) and the same symbol took up the whole back. The boys quickly changed and came back to show off their new threads.

"Looking good you two" Yamcha said. "Now that we're dressed and signed in, let's head into the building."

As they headed into the building the announcer stopped the rest of the group at the door and began to speak into the megaphone again.

"Please people, no pushing it makes me nervous! Our apologies but I am afraid we cannot allow anyone who is not a contestant into the building where the preliminary is being held. It would be a major fire hazard and-"

He was suddenly cut off as Bulma interrupted at the top of her lungs. "What do you mean we're not allowed inside!? How are we supposed to see our friends and boyfriends compete, huh?!" Bulma shouted at the announcer.

"Just close your eyes and pretend you're there!" the announcer retorted into the megaphone.

Fuming in the face, Bulma retreated back to join Puar and Oolong who were looking into the crowd with confused looks on their faces.

"What's wrong you two? And where did Roshi go?" Bulma asked.

"That's just what we were thinking" said Oolong. "He was just here a second ago and now we can't seem to find him."

"I bet he ran off to flirt with girls!" Puar said in an annoyed voice.

But Roshi was not too far away, as they wished the boys good luck he had slipped away behind the building where no one was looking. Hidden in the shadows, he opened up his briefcase and opened up a hidden compartment. He took out the familiar incense, lit it, and meditated briefly. Immediately his body began to change. Scarlet hair erupted from his head as the beard vanished, his skin became youthful and cream colored and his bones changed shape. But something was different about this transformation, the scarlet hair was streaked with a single line of silver, and the blue eyes no longer sparkled with youthful energy, and there were very faint laugh lines and only the slightest crow's feet around the eyes that were unnoticeable by that inexplicable deep eye shadow that appeared whenever the transformation took place.

"What's this, my love?" Ranko said indignantly. "This is a partial transformation! I have never been older than 25!"

"A necessary precaution" he answered. "Even though your hair was dyed and wore contacts when you were with the boys, your face and voice are still known to them. Don't worry, it shouldn't hinder your physical ability at all. I'd say you're about 35 right now."

Ranko had begun changing as he said this. She had stripped off the suit and fedora and placed it in the suitcase. She then pulled out a vacuum sealed package.

"I'm not worried about that, my love. I'm worried this old thing won't fit if I'm too old!" she pouted.

In the bag was a red sleeveless kung fu uniform jacket, blue uniform pants, and a pair of black wrist guards. But her worries were proven false as everything fit perfectly to her surprise. She pulled out a compact mirror and observed her face. She despaired over the silver streak and faint laugh lines and frowned at her eyes upon noticing the less than youthful luster. She closed the mirror and observed her arms and felt her chest and sighed in relief that there was no sign of wrinkles and only slight sagging.

"Well, it could be worse" she said in a resigned voice. "Now, I wonder if they have arrived yet."

She made her way into the building and entered the main room. The room was a large empty space with four large arena platforms spread throughout the room. The room was packed with fighters, but she quickly found the boys as they stood out being very small and wearing bright red Gi's, but they weren't who she was looking for. Scanning the room she saw not too far away three fighters staring right at her. One was a muscular middle aged man with salt and pepper hair, wearing a simple white Gi with a black belt, on his head was a ragged headband with a tiger print. Next to him was a young Chinese girl maybe in her early 20's with long lavender colored hair in long twin tails held with hairpins with a small round bell on each and wearing a lilac colored Wushu dress. And lastly, what looked like a 7 ft tall minotaur with wings and an eel-like tail. Ranko approached them.

"Hello you three, I am Ranko. I trust you know who I am."

The man answered first. "I am Touya Hibiki. You are Master Roshi's associate, correct? It is an honor to meet you." He bowed respectfully.

Ranko nodded back. She liked Touya, he was a descendant of Ryoga and like his ancestor was very honest and passionate. Roshi had kept in contact with the Hibiki family just like the others and they knew him well, although they never knew about his curse form. She then turned to the girl.

"Ni-Hao" said the Chinese girl. "I am Aloe, great, great granddaughter, and heir of the matriarch of the Chinese Amazon village." She then looked Ranko up and down and pulled out a letter from her shirt. "For you, from the matriarch, Shampoo."

Ranko winced slightly as she took the letter and felt Roshi squirm guiltily inside her head, she didn't need to read it to know that it contained a scolding because Roshi was terrible at writing back to her. This was partially due to guilt, after all he had chosen Akane over her and broke her heart. Even though she married twice over the years and both husbands had passed on long ago, her letters made it clear that she still harbored some feelings for him. And what was more, he felt the same way about her, but kept that feeling locked up because he felt like it would be a betrayal to his late wife whom he had chosen over Shampoo. Ranko thought the old man was being foolish because both of them had drank the life elixir and there was no point in being alone for centuries if he didn't have to be. Akane would understand, but he just wouldn't listen.

"Thank you, I'll read this later" she said. As she stowed the letter in her own shirt. Finally she turned to the monstrous figure. "Momo-taro, how good to see you again."

The beast nodded but did not respond. This creature was actually a normal man who fell into one of the Jusenkyo cursed springs which caused him to turn into this chimera like creature. Roshi had once fought with his ancestor who had the exact same curse. The difference between Momo and his ancestor was his ancestor was a selfish and cruel man, his descendant however is much gentler and owed Roshi a life debt. It was amazing to Roshi how few people looked at Momo twice, the world sure had changed a lot in the 320 years of his life. There were anthropomorphic creatures all over the world now, many competitors in fact were beast people.

Ranko cleared her throat and addressed all three of them; "Now, I trust you all know why I called you three here?"

Touya was first to answer. "You want us to be obstacles for Roshi's students, correct?" He looked over at the two young boys in bright red Gi's talking with Yamcha. "Although…" he said turning his head back, "I'm not sure why he wants to inhibit his students' progress."

Ranko shook her head. "You don't understand. Right now their only wish is to one day be good enough to play in the big leagues, but these boys are already strong enough to beat almost everyone here even though many are far more skilled. Roshi's intensive physical training has seen to that, they will overpower their betters with overwhelming speed and power. That's why the four of us are here! To beat the pants off of them! If we succeed, they'll continue to train harder, master new techniques, and achieve higher heights than perhaps I ever-, I mean, Roshi ever dreamed."

"I see…" said Touya as Aloe nodded sagely. Momo the chimera simply grunted and asked; "Are all of us needed? Are such small children truly so strong?"

Ranko smirked, "Watch them in the preliminary battles, you'll see."

She then walked away towards the boys where she could keep an eye on them. Suddenly they all heard the hiss of a microphone, and the crowd went silent. The source of the sound became apparent as everyone's eyes found a monk with rather large mustache in the center of one of the arenas. The old gentleman cleared his throat and began his announcement.

"Testing, is thing on? Ok, good. First I'd like to say welcome participants to the 21st world martial arts tournament! If any of you combatants are of the counting nature, you have perhaps realized that we have gathered here today a record turnout of 137 fighters from all over the world, representing nationalities and species of all kinds."

"137!" Krillin cried. "And most of them have kneecaps taller than me!"

The old monk cleared his throat again. "Of course as you all know, only eight fighters will compete in the tournament finals, so only the top two fighters from each block will advance. In order to thin the numbers the preliminary rounds will function as such; you will each draw lots which will divide you into one of four blocks. You will then fight in a series of three minute matches, the winner is decided when your opponent gives up, falls out of the ring, knocked unconscious, or time runs out, in which case the victor will be decided by points. Killing your opponent however is strictly forbidden, doing so will result in instant disqualification and a ban from the next tournament. Weapons and tools are forbidden, claws may be used only if they are natural, other than that, anything goes! Without further ado, let's get started! And let's try to keep whining to a minimum."

The contestants lined up in front of a table with a large box with numbered lots in it. Once everyone had drawn a number they observed the large white board with the bracket graph drawn on it and moved to the appropriate arena to begin the elimination rounds.

"I got 93" said Krillin. "What did you get Goku?"

"Um, a 7 and then a 0" Goku said slowly.

"That puts you both in block 3" said Yamcha coming up behind them.

"What!? I don't want to fight Goku!" Krillin said despairingly.

Goku observed the board again. "But we're on different sides of the graph so we won't fight each other." Krillin gave a sigh of relief. "What number did you draw Yamcha?" Goku asked.

"I drew number 35, that's block 2." Yamcha said.

"Is that good?" Goku asked.

"It's great since I didn't want to fight you just yet. In the finals the ring is much bigger and there is no time limit to stop us! I want you to give me everything you've got, Goku!" Yamcha said.

"Yeah! I can't wait!" Goku said excitedly.

Ranko, who was listening close by observed the board and saw that she was also in block 2, but on the opposite side of the graph. Pity, she wanted to test the potential of Ukyo's descendant, but with any luck he would make it through the preliminary, he seemed confident at any rate. She looked around and saw that the other three had gone to the other two blocks. Touya and Aloe seemed to be in block 1, and Momo seemed to be in block 4. It seemed that her first fight wouldn't be for a bit, so she stuck around to watch Goku's first fight.

Goku stepped into the ring with a huge man, who seemed to take offense at how small his opponent was.

"What's this?" he said furiously. "I've fallen on my rump and squashed bugs bigger than you!"

"Is that so!" said Goku angrily and took a fighting position.

"Begin!" the referee shouted.

The large man charged forward with his hands out to grasp Goku. But Goku charged forward at such speed that the man lost sight of him as Goku skidded to a halt behind him. The man stopped and looked back and forth confused. "Oh no, I really crushed him!"

"No you didn't, I'm right here!" Goku said as he poked the man in the back of the leg. The larger fighter suddenly seemed unable to stand and fell forward, he stumbled and couldn't stop himself and fell out of the ring.

"Ring out! Number 70 advances!" The referee called.

The observers were stunned into silence while Ranko smiled.

"That went about as expected. Goku's speed has increased greatly" Roshi said to her.

"Indeed!" she thought back. She wanted to run up and hug him like an overbearing mother but that would be a dead giveaway to her identity. "And what's more, it seems that he is beginning to realize that himself, and the consequences of letting his strength carry him away." She thought as she watched Goku exit ring staring intently at his finger the whole time with a look of concern.

"Wow Goku, pretty lucky that the big oaf lost his balance huh?" Krillin said excitedly.

"It wasn't luck" Goku said still staring at his finger. After another moment he put his finger down and looked at Krillin seriously. "Krillin, I don't think we should use our full strength, it could be bad." Krillin stared at him puzzled but nodded in agreement. Suddenly they heard a jeering voice call out to them.

"Well, well, look who it is, it's Krillin."

The boys turned around and saw two men with shaved heads wearing the same temple tunic that Krillin wore when he first appeared on Roshi's island. One was tall and the other one short, but still a head taller than either of the boys.

"Well, I'll be damned, it is Krillin!" said the taller one. "What on earth are you doing here? We haven't seen you since you ran crying from the Oran Temple."

Krillin just stared at the floor, he seemed frozen and pale.

"You wouldn't be thinking about entering the tournament would you?" said the shorter one. "Didn't we teach you that runts are always runts?" They both laughed.

"Oh look, he's number 93. That makes ME your opponent!" jeered the taller one. Krillin looked as though he was going to throw up. "Try not to run away before our match!" he slapped Krillin over the head and the two monks walked off laughing.

"Whoa horsey, easy girl! This is his fight; you won't be doing him any favors if you help him now." Roshi said urgently as he felt a sea of rage build in Ranko's head.

"That MOTHER%$ER!" she said quite loudly, which attracted the stares of a few competitors nearby, but the boys didn't seem to hear, they had begun talking.

"Krillin! Why did you let them talk to you like that?" Goku said angrily.

"Because Goku…those guys have known me longer than anyone and they're right." He looked even paler and didn't take his eyes from the floor. "I should just give up now…"

"No way! You're going to give him ALL you've got!" Goku said determinedly.

Krillin looked up. "I thought you just said it would be bad to use our full strength?"

"We'll put that on hold for now, he needs to be taught a lesson!"

Just as he finished saying it, the referee called Krillin and tall monk's numbers. Krillin stumbled to the ring and climbed up, still looking nauseous. The tall monk climbed up with a cruel look on his face.

"Kick his ass!" Ranko shouted while she placed her right hand on her left bicep while her left hand was flipping the bird.

Both fighters approached the center and took a fighting stance. After observing that both participants were ready the referee held up his hand and brought it down.

"Begin!"

The taller monk immediately charged forward fist raised and threw a punch right at Krillin's face. But Krillin wasn't there, he had jumped over the monk in a blink of an eye and landed deftly behind him. The monk barely had time to turn around before Krillin executed a flying kick straight to the monk's stomach which sent him flying out of the ring, over the other fighters heads, past the other arenas and finally leaving a huge hole in the wall where he continued to keep flying so fast and far that he zoomed straight past Bulma, Oolong, and Puar, causing them to drop their ice cream.

The competitors who were watching stared in horror, mouths agape, all except Goku and Ranko, who were cheering. Krillin himself first looked shocked at his own strength, but then he too started cheering, elated at the feeling of victory and closure over conquering his old tormentor. Ranko nodded with satisfaction and returned to block 2 where her fight was about to begin.

The preliminary rounds continued in this fashion until at last there were only two fights left in each block, the winners of these fights would move on to the finals in the main arena. Block 1 was having it's bout first and all the competitors who had lost earlier had gathered around to watch. Touya was standing in the ring waiting for his opponent when everyone suddenly gagged in disgust and dispersed. His opponent stepped into the ring and boy was he SMELLY!

"What the heck is that smell?!" Goku said gagging and clutching his nose. "I think I'm gonna pass out!"

A tall, burly, and absolutely filthy man stepped into the ring. He had a grimy beard, rotten yellow teeth, and was wearing wrestlers boots and a soiled pair of black wrestlers shorts.

"I've heard of this fighter!" Yamcha gasped through his mouth. "He's Bactierian! He's got Herculean strength, and they say he's never bathed once since the day he was born! His opponents have to fight him one handed because their other hand is used to hold their nose. He takes advantage of this to win fights."

Ranko, who was standing just a little bit behind them had one hand pinching her nose and the other hand waving in front of her face. "Ugh, PLEASE Touya, beat him for us!"

Bactierian was now only feet away from Touya in the ring, yet he wasn't covering his face, he only wrinkled his nose slightly but was otherwise unperturbed by the foul odor. The referee was holding a handkerchief over his nose and said with a muffled voice,

"Begin! Uck!"

Bactierian laughed and stuck one of his hands down his briefs and rolled it around. Just watching him do that made some people throw up in their mouths. When he removed his finger he pointed it at Touya and ran forward. Touya seemed to cringe harder but didn't cover his face. As his finger came closer Touya knocked Bactiereian's wrist away with his left hand and struck him hard in the stomach with his right hand, sending him tumbling backwards.

Bactierian quickly stood up still grinning and took a deep breath and then exhaled breath that smelled like low tide at the pier mixed with raw sewage. Touya seemed fed up with foul odors though and struck the ground with his index finger. The floor exploded into bits where his finger touched, causing an updraft of wind and dust which dispersed the smelly breath away from the ring…into the crowd. The smell made the viewers reel and one or two actually fainted.

"Dat moove!" Krillin said through his hands. "Id was da move Lanko daught to us!"

Goku didn't understand what he said, nor did he attempt to answer. He was holding both hands to his face as hard as he could. All Ranko could say was "Uck! Bleck! Oh God, it's so bad!" and her face turned green.

Bactierian was shocked by this clever counter and hadn't quite recovered his wits in time for Touya's next move. Touya charged him, seemingly unbothered by the smell and unleashed a barrage of punches into Bactierian, working upwards from his stomach to his chest and then his face. He then stepped back for a brief second to gather strength for the finisher to his combo, a massive uppercut that knocked out three of his rotten yellow teeth. The big stinker fell to the ground out cold.

"The winner is number 7!" the referee called. "Victory by knockout!, number 7 advances to the finals!"

The crowd cheered as many staff members surged forward wearing gas masks placed Bactierian on a stretcher and began deep cleaning the arena and spraying air freshener while also quickly and expertly replacing the broken floor tile. In just five minutes their work was done.

While they were cleaning Ranko approached Touya. "And just how were you able to withstand that disgusting odor?"

Touya grinned slightly. "For a man, his odor was pretty foul. But compared to the pigs back home, it wasn't quite unbearable."

"That's right!" Roshi exclaimed. "His ancestor Ryoga settled down with Akari Unryu! Her family owned a dojo that raised sumo wrestling pigs! Over the years they also raised pigs for meat and organic fertilizer. I guess spending your whole life around livestock gives you some resistance to other foul smells."

"Charming" Ranko said rolling her eyes.

The referee was then calling the next combatants to the stage and up walked two women. Both had lavender colored hair and were about the same height, but that's where the similarities ended. Aloe of course, had her hair in twin tails and looked a dignified warrior. The other had her hair in a perm like some fashion model, she wore a blue tank top, baggy pants, and red converse sneakers, hardly appropriate attire for fighting. This other girl, whose name was Ranfan looked a bit uneasy facing Aloe, who on the other hand gave Ranfan a fierce look.

"Begin!" shouted the referee.

Ranfan quickly charged Aloe and tried a powerful right kick to the head, which Aloe casually blocked with one hand. Ranfan quickly backed away and leapt into the air bringing both hands closed together down over Aloe's head, which again was blocked almost casually. Ranfan backed away yet again looking worried.

"What's wrong?" Aloe asked a bit scathingly. "Is that all the skill you have? I watched you in your other bouts. You used your looks to flirt and shed crocodile tears with other fighters to make them lower their guard. I am from the Amazon tribe! You will not be able to play the helpless maiden with me!"

"Screw you!" Ranfan shouted and charged once more with a literal fiery left hook. Aloe stopped the blow cold with her right hand, but the blow seemed to singe Aloe's hand and she winced slightly.

"It seems you are not completely worthless." Aloe said still wincing slightly. "You would after all need some skill to overcome the men you deceived as well as the more stoic types who would see through your pitiful deception. A pity you focus your energies on such shallow tactics."

Before Ranfan could respond to this barb, Aloe leapt into the air unleashing a swift spinning kick which although Ranfan put up her guard, still knocked her down and out of the ring.

"Ring out! Victory goes to number 26!" called the Referee. "Number 26 advances to the finals, and that concludes the matches of Block 1!"

Aloe approached the edge of the ring and looked down on Ranfan. "You aren't without skill. If you would seek true strength, you may come to the Amazon village in China."

Ranfan just blushed angrily, turned, and stomped away.

Ranko approached Aloe as she stepped down from the stage. "Well done. People like that give female fighters a bad name. Although I must say you were very sporting to offer her training at the village, are you sure you are not overstepping your bounds inviting her?"

Aloe sniffed. "I am heiress to the Matriarch of the village. My judgement is sound, and the Matriarch trusts me. But isn't your fight starting soon?"

"Oh crap!" Ranko said and dashed away to Block 2 where she stepped into the arena just in time. Her final opponent for the preliminary was an extremely large man who could probably fit Ranko's whole body in one fist. This did not intimidate her though, within seconds of the referee signaling the beginning of the match she had sent the behemoth flying out of the ring and crashing into the wall.

"R-ring out! V-victory to number 65" stammered the referee. "65 advances to the finals!" Amid the cheering he continued, "Now if I can get numbers 35 and 40 into the ring for the final match of Block 2!"

Yamcha and a wolf beast man stepped into the ring and faced each other. Yamcha adopted a fighting stance and a determined glare.

"It's time for my Wolf Fang Fist!" he said confidently.

The wolf man snorted in derision. "You humans come up with the wildest names to make your attacks sound tough." He crouched in a battle stance with claws extended and his eyes seemed to glow. "I'll show you how the real wolf attacks!"

"Begin!" the referee shouted.

Yamcha and the Wolfman charged at the same time and swiped each other. Yamcha narrowly avoided his claw, and the Wolfman just as finely dodged the other's fist. They abruptly turned and faced each other. Yamcha charged, this time his eyes seemed to glow almost red, and the image of a wolf seemed superimposed over him like some holographic image, he also seemed faster than before. Wolfman charged on all fours like a real wolf, zigzagging before leaping into the air claws outstretched. Yamcha leapt in the air to meet him and clashed mid-air.

Both fighters landed at the same time at opposite ends of the ring. Yamcha fell to one knee, it seemed like Wolfman had won. But after a moment, Wolfman collapsed on his back, out cold. Yamcha stood up and gave a dazzling smile.

"Knockout!" cried the referee. "Number 35 advances to the finals!"

"Well well, so that was the famous Wolf Fang Fist. A bit wild and unrefined don't you think, love? And what was with that illusionary wolf? I could even hear a faint howl and footfall of a wolfs paws…" Ranko whispered.

"More than likely it's something created through focused chi, causing a sudden surge of strength and speed. Roshi explained. The image of the wolf however, I'm unsure. It may be a manifestation of his battle aura; it can sometimes take the shape of a beast. That implies that he has a great deal of untapped potential."

Before Ranko could respond the referee from block 3 announced the start of the final rounds. These fights weren't much to write home about. In the first one Goku overwhelmed his opponent with superior speed quite literally threw his opponent from the ring. In Krillin's match against a bear beastman, he dodged the first blow and dashed behind him. As the beast man turned, Krillin leapt in the air and delivered a kick square to the center of his opponents forehead. It wasn't a knockout, but his opponent surrendered.

"It's as we thought" Roshi said. "Both of their opponents were far more skilled, but they couldn't cope with the boy's superior physical abilities. Goku's opponent could clearly read his movements but couldn't react in time. And Krillin's opponent was overwhelmed by sheer force. Imagine if we hadn't entered to block their way."

Ranko cracked her neck. "It's like running before learning to crawl, isn't it? But like you said, we expected it."

Another referees voice brought her back to the room. "The final rounds of Block 4 are about to begin! Fighters 103 and 117 to the ring please!"

This fight was also short. It was between a tiger beast man and young man of Indian decent, perhaps 26 at most. He had dark bronze skin and wore orange robes with a fuchsia sash and a turban. He wore no shoes, and his forehead was adorned with a single red dot. The beast man attempted to slash at him, but the young man easily dodged, and when his opponent was unbalanced he struck with a kick, sending his opponent from the ring.

"Ring out! Number 103 advances to the finals!" the referee shouted.

"Skillful." Ranko said simply. Roshi did not contradict her.

"Okay, now if we can get numbers 120 and 136 into the ring, we can begin the final round of the preliminary!" the referee shouted.

Many gasps were heard around the room as two monstrous figures entered the ring. One was of course Momo-taro, the large ox-goose-eel hybrid chimera. The other was beast man of the dinosaur class. He had the head and wings of a pterodactyl with yellow eyes and horned nose, burly humanoid arms, lizard feet, and a powerful tail. His head, wings, tail, and back were bluish colored but the underside of his wings, belly and legs were a pale green color. He was shorter than Momo-taro, but he didn't have to crane his neck to look up.

"Well aren't you a big bastard!" the beast man said. "The name is Giran, Monster Beast Giran some call me."

"I am Momo-taro" the chimera responded.

"A cute name that belies your appearance." Giran snickered. "This tournament only has room for one monster, and I'm taking that prize money!" Momo-taro merely grunted.

"B-begin!" shouted the terrified referee.

The two beasts roared and charged one another, grasping each other's arms and began to grapple. Soon it devolved into a thrashing, swiping, pounding, wrestling match but they were nearly even in physical strength. They soon broke away from each other and simultaneously leapt into the air and spread their wings. Hovering over the arena, they flew towards one another. Giran was swifter in the air and brought up his powerful tail and slammed it into Momo's head, sending him spiraling back to the ring.

Momo-taro managed to regain control at the last second and land on his cloven feet. He looked up and saw Giran just feet above him and lashed out again with his powerful tail. This time Momo caught it and pulled hard, slamming Giran into the ground. Momo did not relinquish his grip on Giran's tail and prepared to throw the beast. But Giran managed to turn his head and spat out some strange material at Momo, which wrapped itself around him, binding his arms to his sides.

"What is this?!" Momo said angrily.

Giran stood up and laughed. "That my friend is the Merry-Go-Round gum, a specialty of my species that restrains our prey. The more you struggle, the tighter it squeezes. And before you accuse me of cheating you should know that it's an organic material made in my stomach, so it doesn't violate the rules as an outside tool."

Giran leisurely approached his victim laughing. He flew into the air and dived at his opponent, meaning to collide hard and send him from the ring. Momo, however, suddenly grinned although it was hard to tell with ox head. The bonds that tied his arms suddenly loosened and fell to the floor. Shocked, Giran tried to stop and change course, but he was coming with to much speed. Momo lifted both arms, locked his hands together, and slammed his fists like a sledgehammer into Giran's oncoming face. Giran hit floor hard and did not move.

The referee approached Giran and examined him. "That's a knockout! Number 136 advances to the finals! And that completes our roster for the finals! Thank you everyone for coming, and we hope to see you at the next tournament!"

The crowd of defeated competitors cheered and clapped. Momo-taro blushed slightly, even with an ox head it was obvious he was pleased. Aloe, Touya, Goku, Krillin, Yamcha, and even Ranko were applauding.

"It was a shame they met in the preliminary" Ranko said, still clapping. "Such a grand spectacle deserved the glory of the grand arena."

"There wasn't any real martial arts after the initial grappling, but it was a crowd pleaser no mistake." Roshi said.

The crowd was certainly pleased, in fact two competitors nearby were discussing how Momo broke free of the Merry-Go-Round gum.

"It was that tail!" said one fighter. "I saw it! It doesn't just look like an eel; it is an eel! The eel's teeth broke through the bindings!"

Ranko could not hide her amazement. "Indeed there is more to martial arts than fancy tricks and punching and kicking. Both warriors took full advantage of their biology to win."

"Indeed" Roshi agreed and continued, "The finalists ended up just as we predicted, the only wild card is the young man in the robes."

"Yes, he's strong and disciplined, physically and mentally" Ranko considered. "He has certainly earned his place in the finals."

The old monk that spoke at the beginning was speaking into the microphone again. "Congratulations to our eight finalists. The finals won't start immediately, but later today. We will reconvene 3:00 P.M. in the main hall of the adjacent building, thank you."

Goku and Krillin were nearby having watched the fight.

"That was fun!" Goku exclaimed.

"Yeah, let's go find Master Roshi and tell him all about it!" Krillin said.

Ranko flinched. "Uh-oh, I better vanish and change back!"

End of Chapter 6