The World Martial Arts Tournament took a short break so that some basic patching could have been done to the ring before the final match of the semi-finals could begin. The monks were busy tearing the ground dirt into the holes and applying the tiles where the ring got busted. It would not be a perfect or full repair but it should serve fine in containing the following match for as long as any ring could hold it.
Finally, after waiting around for this long, Chayote could feel things getting interesting. Not just interesting, scary enough to send pleasant tingles down her spine. Goku had turned into a monster just before parting for the three years training. After having his strength restored by the Divine Dragon of the Dragon Balls, Goku could have possibly matched if not outmatched Chayote already back then, he spent three whole years training with his grandpa who, supposedly, was a great martial artist on his own. He must have been to restrain a Saiyan child and condition him as he did with Goku.
Truth be told, Chayote wasn't sure she could beat Goku at all and that was what made her excited. Ever since stepping out in front of that Saibaman she has been protected by the power governing the Universe, sent to a planet of weaklings to play around until she has served her use. Placed inside a hermetic bubble where she couldn't be hurt, no matter how hard she bashed her head against the wall and yet… Here he was, someone who could not only have hurt her but beat her.
Defeat wasn't terrifying whatsoever, if she was beaten badly enough, maybe she'd skyrocket in power just like Goku did, then they could finally do some fine training with one another and drive each other to brinks of power where Lord Frieza would have no other choice but take them in. Chayote punched her fists against one another and stretched out some. She's trained hard and listened to everything Baba and Devil Man told her about martial arts and mysticism, the latter was more Upa's department, true, but she'd taken everything within the reach of her hand just because that was the only way for her to match Goku right now…
"Umm…" Bulma's voice distracted Chayote. "You're all alone here?"
"Me being with the other fighters makes things uncomfortable. They want to cheer Kakarot on but they can't, because I'm there too. I don't want to get in the way of that so I've decided to prepare for the fight alone." Chayote replied.
"Well, I'm glad you did because sneaking into that place would have been way too difficult. I had planned to tell you this after the tournament but Oolong told me he saw you leave outside the contestants' area so I thought I'd surprise you before your match…" Bulma kept on beating around the bush. She didn't need to be concrete, Chayote had a feeling that she knew what the inventor was about to say.
"You've finished my spaceship?" she muttered. While it was not a rhetorical question, it may as well have been.
"Yeah. It took a while and Roshi wasn't happy I took time building your ship before restoring him to his size but… It was actually way more fun that way." Bulma smiled. "It has basically everything in your blueprints. You can go visit your home whenever you want to now."
Chayote wondered if Bulma knew that Chayote wouldn't just be "visiting" her home. Her plans initially encompassed going back to Planet Vegeta for good, taking Goku with her and training on their way home too. Becoming strong enough for Lord Frieza to take them in. Maybe beating the shit out of Mr. Popo was there as well but it got lost in the shuffle along the way...
"What's wrong? You don't seem excited, isn't that what you kept bugging me about for all those years?" Bulma tapped her foot.
"Thanks." Chayote jumped up and bowed her head like she'd seen Earthlings do when they were grateful. "I'd like to check it out after the tournament if it's okay with you."
"Wow, I didn't think that old geezer's sister, of all people, would be teaching you manners…" Bulma smiled and patted Chayote on the shoulder. "Just so you know, we're not just cheering on Goku. We're cheering on you two having a good time out there. Fighting's down here not like what you're used to. It's not all winners and losers. I didn't think I got it for the longest time but I think I do now, after seeing what fighting means to Yamcha – practicing martial arts makes everyone fighting into a winner. I still can't believe it when I'm saying it but… It seems to be the case."
"Thanks, Bulma, for everything. It looks like I wasn't the only one who got tamed a little bit." Chayote smirked before passing Bulma and beginning her walk to the spectators' area. She could feel the martial artists gathering near the ring, which made her believe that the match would not take too long to start.
"Heh… Wait… What is that supposed to mean!?" Bulma shook her fist out over her head and charged after Chayote before a pair of monks noticed her being loud and stopped her from entering the spectators' area. As mighty and stiff Bulma's punches were, it seemed that the monks were used to sterner stuff.
"So, do you think you can beat Chayote?" Krillin looked at Goku who was warming up, tightening his belt and stretching out.
"Who knows… That's what makes it really excitin', you know?" Goku smirked.
"You're really something, you know that, Goku? Chayote's been this immovable monster for the longest time, scaring the shit out of all of us, doing whatever she wanted and here you are about to go take her on without a hint of fear." Yamcha gave Goku an encouraging thumb up. "Guess that's Saiyan blood for you…"
"Yeah, I guess so… It's strange though, I've never really thought about any of that stuff. I've always just felt like I'm still the same old me, you know?" Goku jumped about on his feet before throwing a few punches out in the air and stepping out into the light and trading some glares with Tenshinhan who was waiting for the winner at the finals.
"Yeah, you may be Kakarot to Chayote but… You'll always be just Goku to us!" Krillin laughed out and pat Goku on the back. The two walked out until the edge of the ring together but then Krillin just let Goku walk the rest of the way on his own. Chayote stepped out not too long after from behind the pair of Yamcha and Krillin and followed Goku to the center of the ring where the announcer was hyping the audience up already.
"What we have here now is the end of the semi-finals of the 22nd World Martial Arts Tournament! For the next match, we have the repeat of the last tournament's finals – Contestant Chayote VS Contestant Son Goku!" the announcer pointed at the two contestants who have already made it to the stage and traded glances with one another. "The pair has done remarkable work to get this far and did not appear to struggle whatsoever, defining each other as true prodigies of martial arts and making all of us into believers of the wonders that the next generation can achieve!"
The audience rustled and waved their hands in agreement.
"Now, may the contestants take it to their respective ends of the ring and begin the match once the gong tolls!" the announcer raised his hand up, as instructed, Chayote and Goku took it to the western and eastern parts of the ring respectively and took their fighting stances. Goku appears to have abandoned his reckless but effective stance of both hands down, legs spread out and body completely open and adopted a modified version of his old stance. Likely after being scolded by his grandpa for one reason or another. Chayote extended her hands out and spread her legs in a shoulder-wide position, it was a stance that she herself made after studying under Devil Man and hearing a thing or two from Baba too.
Goku couldn't shake off his smirk. He read her at that moment, he truly was reading her like a book, Chayote could feel it. The fateful toll reverberated through her ears and down her body in resonances that rippled through her very soul and boiled her blood from within. Goku dashed right at her from the get-go, without taking any further time to size her up or make a battle plan. Who could have blamed him? He was hungry for this and so was Chayote.
Chayote's palms crossed together like the wings of a butterfly, blocking Goku's jumping kick. She felt pressure around her wrists, he was transitioning into a swing with his tail. The grip that his monkey limb had developed made Chayote drop all illusions that it had served as any kind of weak spot to Goku as well. His tail was hard enough to shave iron with each ruffled hair of its fur, such a limb could not have possibly been a weakness.
Goku spun around and clocked Chayote in the face with a straight punch. Chayote's head snapped back, slamming against Goku's and throwing the Saiyan boy back with a painful grunt. Goku flipped over his back and landed onto the ring with both his feet and charged at Chayote again with a flurry of his best blows. Chayote evaded them, blocking the problematic ones with her newly developed defensive stance before letting her "butterfly wings" flap over Goku's wrist and pull him in for an elbow smash right into his face, a counter she concluded with a middle kick which, due to Goku's size, hit him right in the head and sent the young man vaulting back to catch his breath and get himself together.
The audience roared. They could barely make anything of it out, to them it was just blurs and flashes followed by stills, frozen in time, of an injured combatant reeling back in pain before returning to the flashing and blitzing about. Goku and Chayote completely disappeared to their level of vision but when they returned, the passion and intrigue they fostered made the clash all the more glorious.
"Heh, simply amazin', you've picked up a thing or two in skill." Goku commended Chayote's improved martial arts.
"Your strength is incredible too, I actually felt that punch loosening my jaw up." Chayote gave him the image of smirking back in spades. She was right to study with Devil Man, she'd have been completely outplayed here fighting like she used to, getting hit to determine the enemy's strength, then adapting her own level of effort. She'd have flown right out of the ring with planning like that in just this one exchange. Goku was a serious opponent now, a real threat to her hyped up and much-awaited match against Tenshinhan.
"So then you won't complain if we get right down to it? It doesn't seem this ring could hold that much of us playing around…" Chayote wondered.
"Sure, just be warned, I've noticed your weakness so tread carefully." Goku nodded with a slight movement of his head. It wasn't quite his style to brag so Chayote felt a bit curious about what it was exactly that he had seen in her moves to be qualified as a weakness.
Chayote's image blurred and faded away. The image of all that transpired inside the ring and around it appeared to have been frozen in time, for the spectators it was so merely because they failed to believe that one could just disappear like that, to Goku it was because only his eyes were moving around, following Chayote's movements which they could keep up with while his body stood ready to respond to any incoming threats.
He knew his martial arts – respond too early or to a feint and it meant opening up for a hit, that would have meant eating a full onslaught of strikes which dropped one's stamina and power level a great deal. Son Goku likely didn't think in power level numbers as Chayote tended to, he thought in Ki signatures but the essence of it was pretty much the same.
Chayote came in from Goku's right, the side of the ring with the barrier walls donned with demon faces. Goku jumped aside to avoid the flying kick and tilted his own leg to throw Chayote off balance for a knee to her back. A trick that would have sent Chayote flying only served to disrupt and dissolve her Afterimage, forcing Goku's eyes to widen in surprise. Before he could return to following the entire ring instead of focusing just on Chayote's image, his leg tripped up from the sweep of Chayote's rush-in attack and he himself floated in mid-air without balance and totally weightless.
The female Saiyan vaulted backward, her feet smacked Goku's weightless body into the air while her body disappeared again in a mad dash to the skies. The image of Chayote's body elongated like spaghetti before just blinking out and in a moment's notice, she was right above Son Goku with a technique she used against Krillin during their match.
"Pinto Spear!" Chayote yelled out while diving with a shoulder slam right into Goku's dazed and flying body. Goku cried out in pain as his body bent out in an awkward angle, his hair went all over the place, confused about which of the opposite forces affecting them they should listen to while his eyes blanked out. The shoulder charge which hit the ground faster than a speeding comet and blasted rubble all over the place and sent ripples across the ring that left little to nothing of the recent repairs that the monks have made gained a fiery and glowing beam in appearance as the air around the diving pair bent in the shape of a searing pillar with a little bit of Chayote's leaking Ki aura to enhance the flashy visuals.
"T-Those flames…" Krillin's lip quivered in shock. "Were those back when she hit me with it too?"
"No, I don't believe they were. This Chayote is far different, her passion for this match is far more combustible than ever before. She looked ready to spear Goku right through the planet itself…" Muten Roshi stared frozen in intimidation of the powerful exchange of blows transpiring in front of him as well.
"So she really did hold back when fighting me…" Krillin's eyes shrunk in disappointment in both his friend's promise as well as his own abilities.
"No, I don't believe she did. I think it far more likely that she had improved the technique after using it on you once. This was not her own natural flight that elevated her this time, Chayote figured it was too slow, it gave you time to respond and channel your Kamehameha, which meant that Goku almost certainly would be able to respond as well. Chayote used the strength of her lower body to leap up past Goku and then used her flight only as a ceiling of sorts to repurpose her jumping direction downward off of the air itself." Roshi shook his head.
"To think that it takes us years to figure out ways in which to improve our techniques… Chayote does it in each battle…" Yamcha stared at his own fist with frustration.
"That is a trait both of these two share…" Muten Roshi smiled. He needed no further affirmation that the future of martial arts was safe after facing Tenshinhan but even if he had, he'd have seen everything he had needed to see right now.
Chayote floated out of the hole and landed to the side of the hole she had just created. The announcer rushed up to the hole and fixed his shades. He looked up to Chayote as if wondering if she wanted him to check if Goku went out of bounds with binoculars or something or at the very least to start the count but Chayote shook her head. She knew that Goku was made of sterner stuff, smashing into him didn't feel anything like smashing into Krillin.
Krillin was tough, surprisingly so, tougher even than Devil Man but… Goku… He felt like something different entirely. A force, a bar of iron. Chayote rubbed her shoulder with a light motion just to alleviate some of the numbness. It hurt for him, Chayote was sure of it but Goku didn't go anywhere near getting himself eliminated. Even if he would have fallen out of bounds with this slam, Chayote would want it the least for this match to end this way. No. The hole was best left dark and open until Goku surprised her.
Chayote didn't need to wait too long for the surprise as a ray of light burst out from the crater. In the beginning, Chayote thought it was the light of Goku's Kamehameha coming at her but it was nothing this predictable. It was Tenshinhan's Solar Fist technique! Pain and her own tears that the irritation summoned forced the Saiyan's eyes shut as she stumbled back, writhing in pain. An ache that was nothing like the smack of Goku's headbutt emerging from below that sent Chayote down on her back.
"Down! Contestant Chayote is down!" the announcer declared and raised his hand up for a count but Chayote broke it before he could count one in.
The first sight to greet Chayote's recovering eyesight was Goku cracking his neck about with a pained expression. His headbutt didn't come easy with Chayote's affinity to defend herself by keeping her Ki up at all times. Devil Man taught her better than to let her guard down while her opponent was out of her sight. Plus, Krillin had already surprised her with a move like that once, she would not get caught this way twice in the same damned tournament.
"Yeesh! Hitting your head was like ramming a mountain!" Goku shrieked out. "Not to mention that your stance doesn't impede you on the attack at all like I thought it would..."
"You're flattering me, I nearly dislocated my own shoulder too…" Chayote admitted with a slight smirk.
Their match had only just begun and here she was having a time of her life. It might have been, for all she knew, after this match, this tournament, she'd be off Earth, whether Son Goku comes with her or not. She'd be off to meet her fate in the stars, she'd prove herself to Lord Frieza and instructor Yuca yet.