"You'll have to excuse us while the World Martial Arts Tournament takes a two-hour break to repair the ring!" the announcer declared and abandoned the remains of the ring promptly so that he was not the one who had the face wrath of the audience that had just gathered to see some matches and had to now sit through another break just so the ring could get patched up.

"It won't be anywhere near enough but… We hope to make it at the very least serviceable by the time you two go at it," the announcer wiped the sweat off his face while he entered the contestant area and addressed Jackie Chun and Tenshinhan.

"Don't be too embarrassed over this, I've waited for hundreds of years for a challenge of my life and I can wait a few more hours." Jackie Chun smiled with a pacifying palm gesture before placing his arms behind his back and strolling off to wait his two hours through.

"Say, say… How long is two hours?" Goku turned to Chayote who had just returned after the fight.

"About as long as it takes for you to finish eating." Chayote replied, fully knowing that Goku would take it the wrong way and not get the hint that he eats too much and too slow.

"Oh… So then we can go eat something!" Goku jumped up and ran to the announcer, hopping on his feet like an impatient monkey while he waggled his tail about and drool ran down his mouth, getting in the way of the boy's articulation. "Hey, can you make us something to eat?"

"Didn't you have something to eat in the hotel you're staying in?" the announcer wiped his sweaty temple with a hanky before turning to a pair of anthropomorphic dog monks and issuing them a request to make some food. Given how the monks knew who they were dealing with, they found them some more monks and scurried off to make something edible happen.

"Yeah! Are you gonna eat too?" Goku turned to Chayote who just shrugged.

"Sure, I could eat."

"What about you, Krillin?" Goku leaned over to greet his friend who had just made his broken path into the contestants' area.

"I… I think I might need some medical help… How can you even think of eating right now?" Krillin looked up to Chayote, wondering if any of his efforts even left a dent on the Saiyan.

"It's because you gave me your best shot that I need to replenish my strength…" Chayote smiled and gave Krillin a thumb-up. She had picked up during her time on Earth that sometimes Earthlings lied to make those they cared about feel better. She had known this for pretty much years at this point but she never really cared enough to use that experience up until now.

"Yamcha… Can you show me where you got checked up?" Krillin looked up. Yamcha tapped his foot on the wooden floor impatiently. The poor dolt squirmed and sweated like he wasn't too comfortable in his own skin. "Don't tell me you've got a thing going on with Bulma?" Krillin realized.

"Well… We've been away from each other for three whole years so…" Yamcha tried to salvage some of his reputation still but Chayote put her hands up to her face.

"Dark Kinto!" she called out, waiting for the black cloud to blitz up in front of her and wait around like it's always used to. "Sit down." She ordered Krillin.

"Wha… Wait… Are you sure?" Krillin took a few steps back, stumbling on his right leg when his knee gave way to pain and wear.

"I can't use the damned thing anyway and all the whining you're doing is pretty damned pathetic. If we are to be seen around one another, you better not embarrass me like you're doing now." Chayote crossed her arms over her chest and smirked while she acted all smug and mighty.

Krillin blinked a few times before reaching out for the cloud and climbing over. The pint-sized fighter grabbed hold on the cloud like it was soft and cushiony cotton and pulled himself up on the cloud. With his arms and legs spread out on top, Krillin examined the ground underneath his feet that was just half his size away from him.

It only took the baldy one command for the cloud to blast off to the Papaya Island mainland and the small but sophisticated towns located there. Goku turned to Chayote with glittering eyes and a smiling jaw that just didn't seem to be ready to shut anytime soon.

"Hey, Korin pulled Kinto from a whole cluster of clouds. You might not be able to use the Dark Kinto anymore but maybe the regular Kinto will work?" Goku wondered.

"Forget it, I've learned to levitate. It's not as fast yet but I'll get there." Chayote shrugged while she looked at a black shimmer in the sky where her companion that seemed to be with her for most of her stay on Earth was now serving someone who could have used it.

"Hmm… That Jackie Chun guy…" Tenshinhan mumbled to himself. He tried to focus and close his eyes, meditate for a moment but his eyes kept opening up and catching up to the old man who tried to buy young woman ice cream in the market but kept having it splattered all over his clothes or the ground due to poor gifting manners that involved far too much groping for any chance of success.

"Is something wrong, Ten-san?" Chiaotzu looked up at Tenshinhan with a deadpan glare.

"He's not like the other fighters. He doesn't brag and he doesn't seem to be taking fighting all that seriously. Almost like he had absolutely nothing riding on this at all!" Tenshinhan clenched his fist, tensing up his well-honed body as a vein shot out by his temple. "I'm not sure if I should be intimidated by a man who's this confident of his abilities or destroy him with all my power for the mockery he's committing to martial arts…"

"Hmmm…" Chiaotzu hummed out, turning to the unfortunate old man while he tended to his pummeled face by pulling out a bag of ice from a nearby ice cream vendor and placing it all over the sores on his face.

"You!" Tenshinhan extended his arm out to stop the announcer as he was passing by. "What is known about this Jackie Chun guy? He's participated in the past, hasn't he?"

"Ummm… Well… I don't remember him too well per se…" the announcer shuffled through the pile of papers he carried around, containing the names of the competitors, their history in the World Martial Arts Tournament and accomplishments. "I'm more familiar with Chun-san because of the company he hangs around with. Frankly, I'm not even sure how they know each other, they just seem to have befriended each other… All monsters by their own right."

"I've seen him handle that Man-Wolf with incredible skill. He didn't have a chance to show it all because of how pathetic his opponent was but it was clear he still had ample of it to spare. Surely he must have climbed quite high last time?" Tenshinhan wondered.

"Oh… Well… It says here he didn't make it to the finals. He has been eliminated in the preliminaries." The announcer pointed at Jackie Chun's sheet.

"What!?" Tenshinhan grabbed the sheet out of the announcer's grasp and ran his three-eyes through the sheet a multitude of times. "This… This is impossible, I've faced that Nam guy from the finals of the 21st tournament during the preliminaries and he was an utter disgrace! How could this old geezer have…"

"Maybe he faced someone really tough?" Chiaotzu wondered.

"Who knows… He is an unorthodox opponent to be sure. With the rest, I know what I'll be facing but with this joker…" Tenshinhan squeezed the sheet of paper in his hand before throwing it away, making the announcer quite frustrated since he will have to both put all of his papers down to pick Jackie's up and also unfold it to make it look somewhat presentable now that Tenshinhan had messed it up.

"And so we're back, ladies and gentlemen in the audience, after our brief break. Back and ready to resume the spectacular climb up to the heavens of martial arts competition as we intend to find out the true, one and only strongest guy or gal in the heavens!" the announcer yelled out like a rock musician, hyping the frustrated audience back up. All the waiting for what they came here to see had scratched its mark into the spectators but it wasn't like the island lacked anything to kill time doing.

"Whoo! I'm stuffed!" Goku shrieked out in pure glee as he smacked his bloated belly, still decorated with spice and grease of chicken he had just finished on his cheeks and over his mouth. "Now just to see some good fighting!" he turned serious and excited in a snap.

"Good fighting? You've never seen the old man fight, did you? I was the one who forced him to give up last time, he just kind of hung around, did you forget?" Chayote teased Goku, she might have known about Jackie Chun's secret identity but given how he wanted it to remain hidden and he's taught Chayote something valuable every time he spoke up, she continued honoring his wish.

"Nah, he's really good, I can tell!" Goku smirked.

"He has to be, if he's to take on Tenshinhan…" Chayote agreed. She couldn't help but share Goku's excitement. After all, ever since Mr. Popo kicked her down the Korin Tower, all she's heard were praises of Muten Roshi's unparalleled skill and power. He may not have been the absolute strongest Earthling as there were too many rogue elements involved in that title, but he was the default face on the cover of the book that investigated the case.

And here Muten Roshi, someone Chayote has heard legends and descriptions singing his praise about but has never seen fighting, would face the greatest prodigy of martial arts on the entire Earth, if Baba's words meant to keep Chayote on Earth were to be believed. It was true that Tenshinhan had taken the power scale of an Earthling far beyond where Chayote would have imagined it, still, he was facing off against a living legend…

Too early, too difficult to tell for certain!

"On the western side of the ring we have Tenshinhan, the self-hardened martial arts prodigy who has surpassed the teachings of his martial arts school and his master, a legend in his own right, the Tsuru Sen'nin! On the eastern side, we have Jackie Chun! A total mystery with an enigmatic vibe to him and the speech of a wiseman. A man who has plenty to share on every martial arts related topic! Can you share some of your wisdom before the battle, Jackie-san!?" the announcer moved his microphone closer to Jackie who just nabbed it away from the stunned tournament official.

"Helloo!" Jackie sung out into the microphone. "I may look like I'm very popular and am teaching one billion students but I am, in fact, single, this is for all the Pichi-Pichi Gals out there in the audience, not for head in the clouds naïve fools thinking they can take on martial arts!"

"Ummm… Well… Okay…" the announcer scratched his cheek while wrestling the microphone off of Jackie Chun who had begun to put on quite the show for the audience, involving some deep-steps dancing and a musical number. "In that case, you two can begin!"

The toll of the gong announced the end to Jackie's unsanctioned buffoonery and the beginning of the match. Tenshinhan took his fighting stance immediately, the same one he used against Yamcha and the one that Chayote had ripped off as an attempt to piss him off. Maybe just a little bit because of the disrespect he showed to the Kamehameha as well. A move she had so much trouble picking up…

"I could hardly stomach watching you act that way." Tenshinhan admitted with a bitter face. "A respectable martial artist with no sense of pride, what a joke! You kept on asking to be knocked out."

"Oh? Then why didn't you attack?" Jackie wondered, still standing tall with both his hands behind him.

"Because the battle hadn't started then. Why would I attempt to gain an unfair advantage like that when I can beat you just fine fair and square." Tenshinhan seemed almost offended by the old man bringing up such a suggestion.

"Indeed you are no longer the student of Tsuru Sen'nin or Taopaipai." Jackie Chun nodded and closed his eyes before opening them full of fighting tension and wisdom, one he projected during the battles he spectated. It might have taken a while but Jackie Chun finally got into fighting mood. "Come then, as a member of the older generation, I take it up to myself to whip you back onto the path of truth you've strayed from!"

"Truth!?" Tenshinhan took off with a rush at the old man. He threw a pair of strikes, all of which Jackie Chun promptly blocked while the two exchanged quick jabs and kicks. Tenshinhan had an impressive range advantage over the much shorter old man, meaning he could spare extending his arms and feet fully whereas Jackie Chun could have only responded with elbow or knee strikes as his only method for attack and defense.

"That's right! You are lying to yourself, which is why you cannot achieve your full potential still! You may hate Goku and Chayote but you have a lot in common with them." Jackie declared before receiving a handful of lightning fast jabs that threw him off balance. Attempting to reason with the opponent who was already in full rushdown mode may not have been something to be attributed to his boundless wisdom.

Jackie's eyes whited out momentarily after each strike, his body molded and twisted, cracked and churned in response to every strike. Tenshinhan truly was a monster to be able to apply this much pressure onto a genius of martial arts who has transcended his own humanity, such as Muten Roshi was.

Tenshinhan let out a battle cry while splitting Tenshinhan's afterimage in two with a high-kick. The three eyes of the martial artist raced across the ring, struggling to keep up with the flashy and skilled movements of his opponent. Tenshinhan threw a wild elbow strike behind him, striking in an angle he wasn't even looking at directly but pinpointing Jackie Chun's location perfectly, despite his speedy movements and constant use of the Afterimage.

Jackie grunted in pain while he stopped his opponent's elbow and entrapped it, pushing it upward to cause Tenshinhan immediate tension and pain. By anticipating the fact that he'd be at all times perceived by Tenshinhan's uncanny third eye ability, even during Afterimage, Jackie managed to read his opponent's moves just like he described Goku to be able to do subconsciously during Goku's match.

"I see…" Goku mumbled to himself.

"He's teaching you two how to fight him." Krillin nodded.

"He's hardly teaching me anything if I don't understand what the heck you two are talking about…" Chayote raised an eyebrow at the two know-it-alls.

"He used Afterimage and it didn't work. He's telling us not to use it." Goku explained. "Tenshinhan's weird, it's like he can track everything you do, no matter how fast you do it or how much you try to trick him."

"Yeah well… He's winning at the moment, he's got his opponent's elbow on lock so it worked for him." Chayote crossed her arms.

"It only worked because he knew it wouldn't work, so he prepared for the fact it won't work." Krillin may have believed he explained it perfectly clear but, given the content of what he had just said, Chayote wondered if he knew how meaningless the words he said seemed.

"You seem to believe that training by your lonesome, acquiring strength alone is the path to strength but that's what keeps you from becoming truly powerful! Walking the path of a martial artist together with someone, looking up to someone, that is the way to improvement! It is because you lack that that you will never match up to Goku or Chayote." Jackie explained with a strict stare of a punishing father as he continued to aggravate the elbow hold he had Tenshinhan in.

"Even more…" Jackie spread his feet out while he locked them over Tenshinhan's calves and sent the pain-ridden opponent down on the ring while he transitioned into a far more painful, ground-based submission hold. "Not only you are wrong about your philosophy, but you've also managed to get it right by becoming this strong and then lie to yourself about how you've become this strong!"

Jackie's hold began to falter. Tenshinhan had gotten a second wind and managed to recoup his worn out by pain mind while putting his remarkable physical strength to work at last. With each passing moment Jackie's grip began to slip, Jackie's shaking body began to give space to Tenshinhan's brutish attempts to force himself out of the hold. It was only a matter of time before Jackie couldn't deny the fact that his younger opponent was also his far superior physically and he disengaged the hold before Tenshinhan could break it and exploit the opening he had created.

This entire time she spent on Earth Chayote kept on seeing the same scenario unfurling. A superior power being overwhelmed and outplayed by greater skill. This was one of few times where the mad power of the opponent managed to outdo a slight difference in skill. Was there even a difference in pure martial arts skill? Tenshinhan was a prodigy and while Jackie was outplaying him for now, both fighters still held a decent amount of power and moves on the reserve and just about anything might have happened as this fight developed.

The two combatants breathed intensely, hunched over and clutching their sores, preparing to go one at another, solve their differences both physical and philosophical in this clash. It was self-evident that no man's body would break before their beliefs would broke first.