Chapter Twenty-nine
Old Friends and New Enemies! The Tournament Begins!
The three Turtle School students fidgeted eagerly in their chairs as the airplane took them towards the island of the Tenkaichi Budoukai with Roshi and Bulma. Yamcha, Krillin, and Roshi were in suits while Launch was in a red sparkling dress with pink frills at the hems and Bulma was in an orange hoodie and white shorts. Puar was sitting in Bulma's lap.
"Man," Yamcha muttered as he looked out the window, "I can't believe it's been in three years already!" He turned back to Krillin and grinned. "Shame you wasted all that time when I'm gonna win," he told the younger man in a teasing manner. Krillin grinned and elbowed Yamcha playfully in the ribs.
"Don't be too sure," Krillin retorted. "While you were messing around in that fancy gravity room, I perfected my techniques! Who says I won't win?"
'I don't know about that,' Roshi thought to himself. 'Who knows? Ol' Jackie Chun might become a two-time winner.' Not that this was a thought he could share with his fellow passengers. That would arouse too much suspicion and he'd cut it close enough as it was at the last tournament.
"Aren't you two forgetting someone?" Blonde Launch asked in a tone that was one part irritation and two parts playful. "I know you two are having your little pissin' contest but don't think that I can't beat ya at it." Bulma just rolled her eyes.
"I think you're all forgetting someone," she reminded them. They all blinked and she sighed, "Son Goku? She's gonna be there too!" The three muttered "Oh yeah"s and "Hmm"s and leaned back in their chairs.
"I bet I've caught up to her by now," Yamcha declared after a silence. "Just watch me!" Krillin shoved him again.
"I think you mean me!" Krillin replied. Roshi chuckled and settled back in his chair as he put his hat onto his face.
"There they go again," he said in a tone of fatherly amusement, voice muffled under his hat.
"I hope we get there soon," Launch grumbled as her nails dug into the armrests of her chair. "Bein' in a plane like this always makes me wanna hijack it!" Everyone laughed… until they realized Launch wasn't.
One awkward silence and a plane ride later and the group was on Papaya Island, home of this year's Tenkaichi Budoukai. Things moved quickly enough and Launch, Krillin, and Yamcha signed up for the tournament before they joined Bulma and Puar in looking for Goku.
"She's gotta be here somewhere, right?" Bulma asked as she put a hand over her eyes to block out the sun.
"Yeah," Krillin agreed, "I mean, Roshi taught her how long a year is. So it's not like she could forget!" Roshi approached the signup table while they had their backs to it.
"Pardon me," he whispered to the man. "Could you sign me up under the name 'Jackie Chun'?" The man gasped and prepared to shout something before Roshi clapped a hand over his mouth and glared at the man through his sunglasses. "Just write it down, sonny." The man nodded nervously and scribbled it down.
"Hey, guys!" a familiar voice called from above. The group looked up to see a yellow cloud zooming down towards them before coming to a gentle stop a few inches off the ground. Suno hopped off the Nimbus and held her arms out as if to say "Ta-dah!" "It's great to see you all again!" she said excitedly.
"You too, Suno!" Bulma said as the redhead exchanged hugs with everyone. Krillin shook her hand. "Wow, you got tall!" she added. Suno was now a little shorter than Bulma when she'd been about Goku's height before.
"If you're entering this year," Yamcha teased, "I hope you brought a change of clothes!" He was definitely right on that account. Suno was wearing a purple baseball cap and a pink shirt tucked into white pants. Not exactly traditional martial arts attire.
"Nah," Suno assured them with a dismissive wave, "I'm just here to watch you guys!" She looked around the crowd and looked behind them. "Is Goku not here yet?" she asked.
"Nope," Launch told her flatly. "We were just lookin' for her."
"Well, well, well," an unfamiliar voice called in a mocking tone. "If it isn't my lecherous old schoolmate." The group turned to see three people advancing: a tall young man who looked to be about Yamcha's age… who had three eyes; a boy who looked even smaller than Krillin… and had white skin, red dots on his cheeks, and was floating two feet off the ground; and an old man who looked about Roshi's age with a pointed face, dark sunglasses, a thin mustache, and gray hair that had been combed into wings. They were all wearing green longcoats with the character for "Crane" on the breast with purple pants and black hats. The younger men had red balls on the top of their hats while the master's black hat was in the shape of a crane.
"Shen," Roshi said icily as he gripped his staff in one fist. "How good to see you again." Shen sneered at Roshi and the Turtle School students.
"I see you've come here to make a mockery of the martial arts again," he said with mock geniality. "Well, I'm sorry to disappoint you but my Crane School students will obliterate the competition. If Turtle students are making it to the finals then the Tenkaichi Budoukai has surely fallen into disarray. I suppose it's the responsibility of true martial artists to fix it." Now it was Roshi's turn to sneer.
"You mean true killers," he snapped back. "That's what the Crane School does! Ya pump out nothing but a bunch of minimum-skill assassins. My four Turtle students are worth fifty of your cranes!" The others backed away slowly from Roshi. They had never seen the old man so angry before.
"Ha," the triclops let out a bark of cruel laughter. "Are you as senile as your style is weak, old man? You only have three students!" he turned to Launch and glared at her with all three eyes. "You must be Son Goku. You're quite different from how my master described you."
"Heh," Launch snickered, "Sorry. She's not here yet. But when she does, I bet she'll kick your ass." The triclops' whole body tensed with rage and the veins in his neck stood out.
"Calm down, Tenshinhan," Shen said before the three turned towards the signing table. "You will have your chance soon enough."
"Jeez," Suno muttered as they walked away, "Goku's really good at making enemies."
"Who the heck is that guy, Roshi?" Bulma asked. "It seemed like you knew him." Roshi nodded sourly.
"I did," he said. "He and I were students under Master Mutaito together, a long time ago," he sighed sadly. "He was once my closest friend. That was a long time ago, too."
"I never heard about a Mutaito," Yamcha said curiously. "What happened to him? And what happened to the two of you?" Roshi only sighed again.
"That is a story that I hope you all never need to hear," he told them in a voice tinged with sadness. He cleared his throat after a moment and rapped his cane sharply on the ground. "C'mon! Let's see if we can find Goku!" He walked off and the others followed.
"Well that's not suspicious at all," Bulma muttered sardonically as she trailed behind.
OoOoOoO
The day dwindled down and there was no sign of Goku. Suno and Roshi couldn't sense her ki nor could the others find her with their eyes. As the sun began to sink down and turn the sky a rosy pink, Yamcha turned to Puar.
"Hey," he whispered, "How much do you think you could look like Goku?" Puar's eyes widened as he brought his forepaws up to his mouth.
"Yamcha!" he gasped. "I can't impersonate Goku! That'd be like forgery! It'd be illegal!"
"We know she's gonna show up," Yamcha insisted. "We just need you to buy her some time!" Before Puar could be pressured one way or the other, Suno called out.
"Hey," she shouted, "I sense something!" Roshi nodded as the others turned to look where Suno was pointing. Krillin grumbled to himself as they squinted. His ki sensing still wasn't perfected yet. He could barely sense the people around him in anything more than a vague haze of energy.
"I don't see anythi–" Launch muttered before her eyes opened wide, "There!" Charging towards them was an orange-and-black blur that screamed down the street like a comet.
"Hey everyone!" the comet called in Goku's voice. It jumped over a double decker bus to land right in front of the group and it was clear why she'd been so black-and-orange. Instead of her Turtle School gi, Goku was wearing a makeshift gi of tiger skin with her power pole strapped to her back and her tail swishing behind her. "How've you all been?"
"We'll talk in a moment," Roshi said hurriedly. "Go and sign up, it's about to close!" Goku rushed past them to the table and they all stared at her.
"Goku… has a tail," Suno muttered. Not only that but she could sense that Goku's power had grown even more in the last three years. She honestly wasn't all that surprised.
"Yeah," Krillin said with a nervous chuckle, "You missed out on the weird stuff." Yamcha groaned wordlessly and pulled at his face. How many stupid times was he going to have to cut that stupid thing off?!
"All done!" Goku announced as she ran back from the table. "Wow, Bulma! You got taller! You too, Suno!" Bulma grinned and tousled Goku's hair.
"You've grown too, Goku!" she said. Which was true; Goku had grown a little. It just wasn't as noticeable a change as Suno.
"Why didn't you, Krillin?" Goku asked as she turned to her friend. He grumbled and ground his teeth as his face turned red.
"Hey Goku," Suno asked, "How come you didn't call for Nimbus to get here faster?" Goku shrugged.
"Master Roshi told me not to use it," she reminded them. "So I had to swim from an island on the other side of the world." They stared at Goku with mouths agape when Ken's voice suddenly crackled over the loudspeaker.
"Llllladies and gentlemen!" he called out. "The 22nd Tenkaichi Budoukai is about to begin! All fighters, please enter the elimination hall!" Roshi took a capsule from his breast pocket and handed it to Goku.
"I figured you'd be needing a new uniform," he said in an almost teasing tone. Goku nodded appreciatively before she, Yamcha, Krillin and Launch walked off to join the other fighters.
"Good luck, you guys!" Bulma called as she and the others waved. She turned to say something to Roshi but he was gone. "Huh," she muttered. "Something fishy's going on with him."
OoOoOoO
"Hey," Goku called, "Jackie Chun!" She pushed her way through the crowd and ran to the mysterious bearded old master. She stopped and bowed before she spoke again. "This year I'm going to beat you!" she told him with youthful exuberance and not an ounce of malice. Jackie chuckled.
"I'd certainly like to see you give it your best shot," he told her.
"Son Goku!" a voice called. Yamcha, Launch, and Krillin groaned as Tenshinhan made the crowd part with a glare and his strange pale friend floated above their heads. "You're the one who defeated Tao Pai Pai?" he asked incredulously as he looked down at Goku in disbelief. Goku nodded up at him.
"Yup!" she replied. "He was a big jerk. Why?" Tenshinhan clenched his teeth and breathed sharply through his nose before he reached down and yanked Goku off her feet by the front of her shirt to look at her on eye level.
"We will face each other in the finals," he told her. "Of that I am certain. Only you can come close to matching my power. And when we do?" He brought Goku even closer and his voice dropped to a hate-filled whisper. "I will kill you." Then he let Goku go and stormed away.
"What the heck is his problem?" Goku wondered aloud. Yamcha, Launch, and Krillin shrugged.
"We were hopin' you could tell us," Launch explained. "He really doesn't like you."
"I've never met him," Goku explained. Why would someone she'd never met not like her? The four looked up to see the pale boy still floating there. Staring at them. Unblinking.
"Baldy!" the pale boy said as he pointed at Krillin. Krillin fumed.
"Who the heck are you calling baldy?!" Krillin asked incredulously. "Have you looked in a mirror?" The pale boy pulled off his hat to reveal one solitary hair sticking up straight like an antenna. "Oh, how the heck does that count?!" Krillin screamed as his face turned beat red.
"Chaozu!" Tenshinhan called over the crowd. The boy, Chaozu apparently, blew Krillin a raspberry and floated away.
"Fighters!" Ken called dramatically. "Please draw your numbers and move into the appropriate blocks! There are one hundred eighty-two of you here today but only eight of you can advance to the finals!"
OoOoOoO
Krillin looked up at the mammoth of a man in front of him who grinned down at him with teeth the size of tombstones. Despite the fact that he only came up to the man's knee and that his opponent was seven Krillins wide, he was undeterred.
"Ach," the massive man laughed, "Away wit' ye, wee la–" he made a move to dismissively brush Krillin's face with his hand and Krillin's arm shot out and gripped the monstrous finger in his hand. He grabbed with his other hand and swung around and around before launching the man clear off of their platform. Other fighters scrambled to avoid being crushed under his weight and the giant groaned when he hit the ground. Krillin dusted off his hands and hopped off the platform. This was the easy part, after all.
OoOoOoO
Yamcha tugged at his blue gloves as he looked across the platform at his opponent. There wasn't really a functional purpose for the gloves, Bulma just thought they would be a nice and fashionable touch.
"So," the Wolfman growled as he pointed an accusatory claw at Yamcha, "You're the one who was going around using the Wolf Fang Fist!" The Wolfman was wearing an orange gi with a white belt and had blue fur. "Look at you! You aren't a wolf! You don't even have a beard!" He scoffed. "I've never felt so appropriated!" He bared his fangs as he charged at Yamcha. "I'll show you a real Wolf Fist!" He hit Yamcha right on the cheek… and Yamcha didn't budge.
"All right," Yamcha told him, "That's your free one." Then he slammed a palm up under the Wolfman's jaw and watched him crumple to the ground. "Happy? I didn't use my fist."
OoOoOoO
It had been a tough road to recovery for Hercule but with hard work he'd gotten through physical therapy and was back and better than ever in just three years! He'd even managed to get out of the first elimination round this time. Now all that stood in the way was this blonde chick in the orange uniform. Hercule charged toward her and let fly with his Ultra Dynamic Mess 'Em Up Punch. She brought up a forearm to block it but Hercule backed away before she could do anything and followed up with a salvo of body blows that she barely managed to dodge. She was obviously so stunned by his machismo and martial arts expertise that she couldn't come up with a counterattack!
Launch was quickly bored with this fight. This jerkoff was a complete amateur and he made too much noise for how much he sucked. She twisted around and drove her heel into the side of his head and smirked as she watched him fall over like a redwood tree.
OoOoOoO
Pamput pasted his opponent with a series of artful blows to the body and face before finishing them off by leaping into the air and wrapping his legs around their neck in a headscissors and tossing them out of the ring. He did a backflip and posed before he exited and Bulma sighed dreamily as she, Suno, and Puar looked peered sneakily through a window.
"God," she murmured while biting her thumbnail and counting his abs in her head, "If I wasn't a faithful woman…" Suno rolled her eyes.
"I mean, sure he's pretty, I guess," she allowed, "But he's… I dunno, a decent fighter." After a pause, she added, "And he can't act!"
"You take that back!" Bulma snapped.
OoOoOoO
Chaozu's opponent charged at him and screamed like a banshee… until she came to a screeching halt an inch away from contact and eliminated herself by hopping out of the ring. She was clutching her stomach as she ran to find the nearest restroom. Chaozu hadn't so much as blinked.
OoOoOoO
Jackie drove a Crane strike into his opponent's chest and watched the Mooseman go flying out of the ring to smash against a wall.
"There's something about this Jackie Chun guy…" Bulma muttered. Suno stared at her dubiously.
"Are you joking?" she asked in exasperation.
OoOoOoO
Tenshinhan's opponent made a big show of swaying around his arms and his torso as he moved into a fighting stance and brushed his fingers across his golden braid tiara and his luxuriant curly mustache. His baggy white pantaloons made a "floof" as he bent his knees before he burst into a charge while Tenshinhan sneered with his arms folded over his chest. He leaped into the air to deliver a chop… and collapsed to the ground in a heap without Tenshinhan ever lifting a finger.
"I saw that," Yamcha muttered as the rest of the competitors murmured disbelief. "Three punches and a kick." The medics came to attend to the other fighter as he suddenly started to sputter and hack up blood.
"That," Jackie Chun added, "Is a collapsed lung and some broken ribs. This Tenshinhan is dangerous." 'Just as I had sensed when I first felt his ki. How'd you luck your way into this one, Shen?'
OoOoOoO
Goku hopped eagerly into the ring as she waited for her opponent. A dark–skinned man with a medium-sized afro and goatee stepped into the ring to face her with a stern expression on his narrow face. He wore a yellow chiton with yellow pants with a blue belt and he was barefoot. Goku was beginning to think that maybe barefoot was the way to go.
"Come then, child," Chappa said in a deep baritone voice as he took his battle stance. "I will make your pain brief." Jackie Chun stroked his beard and watched the fight with vested interest.
'This will be quite a test for Goku,' he thought. 'Chappa is a former Budoukai Champion in his own right; he won the tournament without a single foe laying a hand on him! I figure he'd even give me trouble!' He watched as Goku moved into her fighting stance. She pivoted her body to the side and brought one arm to cover her stomach and one fist up to her chin as she hopped on the balls of her feet. Roshi had never seen that particular stance before. 'Let's see what you learned then, Goku.'
King Chappa threw a kick at Goku but she leaped over it and threw out a straight jab. Chappa blocked it with his forearm and shoved Goku away. No sooner did she land then she came back again and threw out a hard kick from her side that the King was barely able to roll away from and he let out a gasp of pain as it grazed his shoulder. He hopped away from Goku and stared with wide eyes when he realized that she'd hit him.
"Enough of this!" King Chappa declared in a fluster. He planted his feet and spread his arms out wide. "Hasshuken!" he declared. Chappa started moving his fists in an intricate pattern that grew faster and faster until it appeared that he had eight arms instead of two. He rushed Goku… and she reached out her hands and grabbed his wrists.
"Found 'em!" she declared playfully before twisting and sending Chappa flying across the ring with a Judo throw. "That was fun," she told him. "We should play that game again sometime!"