"It's safe to say that this match has opened up, ladies and gentlemen, and, so far, contestant Son Goku seems to be having an advantage. Contestant Tenshinhan isn't used to fighting from the position of an underdog, let's see how he will adapt to this new assignment of roles! This is so exciting that I can barely breathe!" the announcer yelled out into his microphone while striking some poses himself. Granted, his made him look exactly how he was – twitching and working through the tension that speaking from the very bottom of his lungs caused.

"Prepare yourself, Son Goku!" Tenshinhan tightened his stance, telegraphing his next attack.

"Come!" Goku followed the example of his opponent with a smirk enriching his face. He saw it as incredibly cocky to flaunt oneself in such a way and declare one's next attack when one was being pushed and one's opponent demanded more than one was capable of giving.

Tenshinhan's image flickered and disappeared from view, only the adept martial artists could have been capable of following him. Some more talented observers might have been able to pick up small signs of Tenshinhan's movements without being able to perceive his actual position or where he was going. There were possibly five or six people in the vicinity capable of tracking Tenshinhan at that moment.

"Soccer Kick!" Tenshinhan yelled out while charging at Goku after a few deceptive feints. Dashing across every corner of the ring once or twice and then taking it to the enemy with all the built-up momentum. Chayote noted how Tenshinhan's position was surprisingly upright. Normally a martial artist would have bent their body forward at least a bit when rushing at such a speed to gain some aerodynamic features.

"Block!" Tenshinhan declared while throwing his left leg out with a knee strike while his body prepared to guard, leaning back as if his arms and the entire upper body weren't allowed to as much as touch Goku.

The Saiyan raised his arms up, putting up a competent block but Tenshinhan packed a decent wallop, pushing Goku on his back foot and breaking his block, despite scoring no decisive hits on the young Saiyan.

"Raise!" Tenshinhan chanted while delivering an unorthodox kick from the standing position the moment his feet touched the ground. Goku yelled out in pain as the kick nicked him in the chin and sent him flying upward. Tenshinhan vaulted backward, flipping at superhuman speeds. His body raised sufficient gust to bend punier trees in the distance and even the audience had to clutch to something and dig their feet into the ground to stay rooted.

The three-eyed combatant raised up his hands and took aim at the plummeting Saiyan. Tenshinhan then fired himself off in a mad dash. One that appeared to be more suited for a jog or a sports run rather than a head-on attack of one's opponent in any martial arts engagement.

"Pass!" Tenshinhan concluded his technique, throwing a stiff kick that he meant to send Goku flying far outside the ring and into the small town built on Papaya. Goku managed to regain his composure and roll himself up into a cannonball, rolling in mid-air before using all the pent up rotary momentum to deliver a butterfly-style hand block which he swiped from Chayote's arsenal, crossing his arms while opening his palms just like she did to great effect.

As expected of a defensive fighting style devised by two World Martial Arts Tournament champions and a Saiyan prodigy who bested both of them and took the fruit of their training, Goku's padded block absorbed the strength of Tenshinhan's kick, letting Goku land firmly both feet onto the ring tiles with hands pulsing red. The aching must have been something if Goku started blowing at them as hard as he did.

"Don't let your guard down!" Tenshinhan scolded his opponent as his image faded in hi-speed movement and appeared right behind Goku, delivering a stiff elbow strike to the back of Goku's neck.

"Oh!" the announcer chanted, "This is a highly lethal maneuver, employed by many of the world's deadliest assassins and a fundamental part of any assassination-style martial art! Who knew contestant Tenshinhan adapted moves like that!?"

"Stop joking around, as if I'd use a deadly hit like that if I wasn't absolutely sure this kid could take it…" Tenshinhan scowled at the implication before gifting the announcer with a cold shower using nothing but his sharp three-eyed glare. "You can begin the count though…"

"Ah, yes… One, two!" the announcer began raising fingers over his head.

"Hmph… I'm impressed Kakarot isn't up by now." Chayote noted.

"I thought you'd be disappointed?" Krillin looked at the female Saiyan.

"Maybe if I was talking about Kakarot I would be, so far, Tenshinhan has done wonders compensating the massive difference in power and speed with sheer discipline and one-of-a-kind talent." Chayote frowned at the pint-sized baldy after he didn't get her point.

"I see training with my sister has turned you into quite the martial arts connoisseur yourself… Impressive, I will need to ask Baba how she did it." Muten Roshi looked at Chayote before nodding in agreement with her assessment. "Indeed, Goku might not have faced an opponent whose talent in martial arts matches if not surpasses his own."

"Two… Three!" the announcer kept on counting while Goku didn't as much as twitch, continuing to lay in the embarrassing sprawl as if he was but a squashed insect on a windshield.

"Stronger or weaker, Goku would be lucky to shrug off a hit like that without lasting consequences." Muten Roshi admitted, examining Tenshinhan who made sure to use a couple of seconds in the moment of levity to catch his own breath and recover from the cold shower in the early stages of the match.

"Four!" the announcer raised a hand with four fingers but Goku was back on his feet by then, looking at his fingers with a curious glare as he flexed them and then proceeded to do some warm-up stretches.

"What sort of technique was that? All my limbs feel weird…" Goku mumbled in a whiny tone.

"I'm not sure if I should laugh or be petrified…" Tenshinhan smiled and returned to a fighting stance, taking his own advice from before he sent Goku into the knockdown. "For someone to survive a full-power strike straight to the Heaven's Pillar of the neck. I'd question your humanity if I didn't know for a fact you're not human."

"Heh, that's right, serves you right, having to deal with Goku's Saiyan toughness!" Yamcha cheered on Goku, deserving a wayward stare from Chayote from the side.

"You think Kakarot's display has anything to do with his Saiyan anatomy? I am a Saiyan just like him, even more, I'm a low-class warrior just like him and yet he has a remarkable knack for mastering the art of combat that I simply don't, despite having every bit of his passion. To wipe it all under the table of Goku just being a Saiyan is to dismiss his talent and hard work as a martial artist."

"Ah… Well… I suppose so…" Yamcha scratched the back of his head, being reminded that while the strength of Goku's Ki had a thing or two to do with his Saiyan heritage, his skill in martial arts completely ignored Goku's genetic origins.

"Soccer Kick, huh?" Goku smirked, pressing his arms to his sides and clenching his fists, preparing for an attack. Tenshinhan couldn't help but grit his teeth at the lack of notable damage that his technique had caused as even though he did succeed at kicking Goku around some, there didn't appear to be a notable mark of the boy's body nor did his attack do anything to damage his burning passion for combat. "Time I showed you my own technique then!"

"That would be a welcome change of pace, imitating the techniques of others will bring you little success," Tenshinhan smirked, finding an opportunity to jab at his opponent verbally.

"Eight-Hundred Arms Fist!" Goku declared while throwing his hands out to the sides. Goku charged onward as if attacking Tenshinhan normally but then his arms blurred and disappeared from the sides of his body, all the way up to his shoulders. Only a blinding visage of detached fists floating all around in the air and storming Tenshinhan's defensive ramparts flashed.

Tenshinhan let out a mad battle-cry and breathed in, his arms moved slowly in a circle while his muscles hardened. It was more than just an augmentation of his body using his Ki. There seemed to be a whole protective bubble of the energy forming around Tenshinhan's body, like a transparent aura, just strong enough to brush off Goku's strikes completely. Knowing he stood no chance defending against Goku's attacks, Tenshinhan chose to stand and take it, using his Ki to protect him instead.

"H-He's just standing in place!?" Yamcha couldn't believe it. "I… I thought Goku was supposed to be stronger than Tenshinhan!"

"He would be if he didn't fool around!" Chayote grit her teeth in frustration. "I bet he came up with that "technique" just now, on the fly…"

"That is most likely to be the case, this is hopeless, Goku's having too much fun so he will try every silly idea that reaches his mind." Muten Roshi smiled with kindness to his stare unfit for a teacher who just saw his pupil goofing around.

"Still, what's that technique Tenshinhan's using?" Krillin smacked the side of his head, looking baffled.

"It is Kiai." Muten Roshi answered.

"Kiai?" the trio consisting of Yamcha, Krillin and Chayote looked at the ancient martial arts master.

"Yes, it is as simple as that, a fundamental exercise of martial arts which most fighters dismiss and meaningless taken and polished to perfection. Gods could level mountains with a shout alone, a man after their likeness, such as Tenshinhan has little trouble using a battle-cry to withstand a lackluster technique of his opponent." Muten Roshi explained. "This time Tenshinhan does seem to be using a more potent version than the one used against Yamcha, he must hold Goku, even when he's fooling around, at much higher regard…"

"Go figure!" Yamcha clenched his fist with an irked expression.

A smirk covered Tenshinhan's face, with slow, methodical twitches, his arms rose up and then bent all the way to where his fingers could point to the third eye on his forehead.

"Solar Fist!" Tenshinhan chanted out while a powerful flash of light hit Goku from a spitting distance. Knowing full-well what was waiting for her, Chayote covered her eyes the moment she saw Tenshinhan move in for the Solar Fist stance yet somehow her eyes still watered and itched. With a painful grunt, Chayote moved her arms away after a couple of blinks, anxious to see the result of Tenshinhan's counter-attack.

Unbelievable!

It was Tenshinhan who laid knocked out on the ring, slumped over as if he was hit so hard in the abdomen he just shut down on the spot. Both of his human eyes were whited out and his third eye had its pupil rolled upward, very nearly to complete obscurity.

"Oh my!" the announcer yelled out. "Contestant Tenshinhan used his blinding Solar Fist technique that only does not affect me, since I have been blessed by the excellent style choice of sunglasses, however, despite executing the move perfectly, it was contestant Tenshinhan himself that paid the price for it!"

The announcer stumbled his way onto the ring, awkwardly got back on his feet and ran up to Son Goku, putting a microphone in Goku's face.

"Could you please comment on how you beat contestant Tenshinhan, contestant Son Goku!?" the announcer yelled out in complete excitement, despite standing just a couple of feet from the young and rather confused Saiyan boy.

"Well, I tried overwhelming him with my Eight-Hundred Arms Technique that I just thought up after remembering this Chappa guy using it on me during the preliminaries. It didn't work though 'cause while I moved my arms fast enough for it to look like I was punching eight-hundred times, I guess my strength plummeted, huh?" Goku rubbed the back of his head and turned for the spectators' area where Chayote and Muten Roshi nodded. Muten Roshi was still scratching his eyes as after Jackie Chun's elimination he left his sunglasses somewhere and watched the rest of the tournament without them.

"Y-Yes, very impressive but… Could you please explain why the Solar Fist had no effect on you?" the announcer wondered, specifying his question and then moving the microphone all the way back in Goku's face.

"Oh… I noticed how it didn't work on Tenshinhan when he used it throughout the tournament so I thought that it won't work on the user themselves. When Tenshinhan tried using the Solar Fist, I just used it first, blinding him but saving myself…" Goku laughed out while he leaned back on his crossed hands behind his head.

"Will there be no end to him stealing techniques from other people?" Chayote grumbled with a clenched fist, wishing she stood right by that goofball so she could pound him in that insanely talented head of his.

"Well… I guess if Goku can execute someone else's technique like that, he has the right to reap the rewards of that…" Yamcha sighed, finally recovering from the effects of Goku's Solar Fist.

"Y-You are… Strong…" weak grumbles came from Tenshinhan's side while the downed martial artist writhed on the ground and began gathering strength to stand back up. "Insanely so… However, you're still green… So very green… You fool… You should have… Asked the announcer to count…"

"Oh yeah…" Goku laughed out. "Guess you lucked out, huh?"

"That's… No laughing matter… One of these days this careless nature… Might get you killed." Tenshinhan managed to pick himself back to where he kneeled on one knee and breathed heavily. The black bags around his eyes returned while the three-eyed warrior gathered his strength.

"Oh well, it's not like I want to end this too soon anyway, I want to see all of the techniques you know!" Goku pumped his fists by his side, looking more excited than Chayote had ever seen him. Much to her own bitterness, she had to admit, despite being far weaker than either her or Goku, Tenshinhan deserved to be here in the finals. Not only that, he provided more fun to Goku than she ever could have.

With Chayote and Goku clashing against one another it was always Chayote who was learning from Goku's superior experience and training that he's actually completed with most of his masters instead of running off chasing stuff he's seen in water pots. Tenshinhan was always the teacher in any encounter, he likely even showed Muten Roshi a few things in their clash, despite being the less experienced one in their match.

"Most fighters are strugglers." Tenshinhan picked himself up and straightened his back, standing on his own at last. "They struggle against every technique they encounter. The truly talented get to showcase their talent. A technique will only work against them once in their entire life unless it is used in creative new ways. You, Son Goku, you are beyond even talented. You take every technique into your arsenal though not because you wish to be the strongest. Because you can't help it. Because techniques and every manner of fighting there is excites you to the marrow of your bones. You truly are one of a kind…"

"Not every kind of fighting…" Goku smirked while taking his fighting stance. "I hate fighting dirty."

"I do not. Perhaps that is where I might find an advantage against you but… I just don't feel like fighting that way. Your stupidity is infectious, it seems." Tenshinhan smiled and took his pose.

The two fighters took off at the same time, unleashing a downpour of strikes at each other at the same time. Fading in and out, afterimages manifested and disappeared by hundreds, Tenshinhan stepped in from the right side, making it difficult for Goku to attack and defend from him using all of his body and in that way, he appeared to hold his own in a simple hand-to-hand exchange such as was booming in the ring. Tiles cracked and fired as if launched by a geyser that burst from below but it was all just resonating shockwaves of the mad exchange of strikes between the two.

Soon the ring could no longer contain them, the two took it to the skies but even up there Tenshinhan found a way to hold his own, using his flight technique to maneuver around whereas Goku was predictable in the moves he could execute after a high vault to the sky he used to launch himself off the ground. Despite all of that, Goku still didn't skip one strike, nor did Tenshinhan. And still, during the few moments that the two stopped fighting and showed themselves off to the audience, the two appeared to be donning bruises by the hundreds due to the damage they took while defending themselves from the relentless flurries of punches and kicks.

Both fighters took a dive back and then leaped at one another from the opposing ends of the ring, clashing midway and taking the moment to smirk at one another in excitement while their elbows slammed against one another. While Goku packed more force in his hit, Tenshinhan's body was honed to perfection and even if he did take more damage by this meaningless collision in the center, he didn't show that. The two bucks then separated and took it to the other opposing ends of the ring and collided again with their knees.

This time, however, Tenshinhan seemed a bit too slow on the draw. The combined damage he took must have worn him out as Goku managed to hook his neck with his tail and swing around, delivering a spinning kick to Tenshinhan's back from behind. Despite the impressive move and perseverance, Tenshinhan's body blurred and faded away, the expression of pain frozen in his mind.

The three-eyed combatant delivered a cross from right behind Goku, having caught his opponent completely open, at the moment where he could exploit his mistake. Goku's body blurred and faded away just like Tenshinhan's did. The three-eyed martial artist widened his eyes in shock and raced to look behind him where Goku was already in the middle of kicking him in the center of the spine. All he kicked was thin air as Tenshinhan's afterimage faded away. The two went on for a while, trading strikes and kicks that only ended up disrupting a mirage left in the air that emanated the endless heat of the action transpiring in the ring.

Tenshinhan flipped over his back instead of attacking Goku and continuing the ceaseless chain of afterimage attacks. With a cross chop, he finally cracked at something solid, forcing Goku to cry out in pain and collapse on both his knees. It was then that the worn and hazy Tenshinhan took it to the skies, desperate in his race to land from as high above as he could pull it off with a double foot stomp aimed right at the back of kneeling Son Goku.

The Turtle insignia on Goku's gi drew closer and closer while Tenshinhan was seeing nothing but red. The battle had entranced him and rightfully so. At last, Chayote noticed the same drive for fighting that all Saiyan felt in the eyes of a human who was put on the same level as them. With a sense of anticipation Chayote awaited to see if Tenshinhan would succeed stomping Goku into the ground or if Goku would recover in time.

She even caught herself short of breath herself a few times, despite not being the one out there throwing fists.

Author Note: In case you haven't noticed, Goku VS Tenshinhan in the 22nd Budokai Tenkaichi is one of my favorite Dragon Ball fights of all time. As the first thing of Dragon Ball I've ever seen in goddamn German, having not the faintest idea what was going on, I fell in love with Dragon Ball watching it and began that incredible trip that will last for the rest of my life.

It is for that reason that I chose to just say "f**k it" and go about writing it as long and overindulgent as I want it to be and I'm not even sorry!