Author's Note: First of all I want to apologize for taking so long on this one. There have been some changes at work and it's just sucking the life out of me. That coupled with the fact that I'm running low on steam for this story. I have other story ideas that I very much want to get started on so I think I'll post just a couple more chapters after this and then take a hiatus on it. Without further ado enjoy the latest chapter.

Chapter 12: Finals Part 2, A Bag of Tricks

"Contestants please continue!" the MC yelled.

Ranko raised her hands in the snake style and charged at Goku. Once within reach she began striking with her hands in a spear hand at a blinding speed which Goku could barely dodge. He was forced to dodge because the blows were so swift and accurate, the force behind each blow would leave an angry red mark on his forearms or she would slip past his defense and strike him in the face or torso.

After a few moments Goku saw that one of her hands was moving slower than the other and was easier to predict. As she lashed out with that hand he made a motion to catch it, but her hand stopped short. Before Goku could discern why she stopped he quickly found out the answer in the form of a mighty kick to the face that sent him tumbling backwards. She had intentionally left a weakness in her assault to bait him into an opening, and he fell for it. Goku, however, recovered quickly and using the momentum from tumbling back, he went into a roll to gain distance and leapt from the ground and landed in a fighting stance.

"Nice recovery, now try this!" Ranko shouted. Her hands suddenly seemed to multiply and as they moved at incredible speed. It seemed that from her torso was not arms, but a mass of wriggling serpents.

"Oh no!" Krillin yelled from the sideline. "She combined Snake Style Kung Fu with the Amaguriken!"

"Snake style is hard to predict on its own!" Yamcha said tensely, "But combining it with the high speed Amaguriken seems unstoppable!"

Ranko charged with arms writhing and lashing but just as she was within reach Goku seemed to vanish. Ranko abruptly stopped and her many arms returned to just two and she turned and looked into the air. Goku had quickly leapt into the air to avoid her assault. Ranko didn't allow him any time to relax though. She leapt up behind Goku and delivered a strong kick to his back sending him higher into the air and far out of the ring. Ranko landed deftly and twirled her long pig tail as she often did when she was pleased with herself…or just bored.

"Unbelievable!" the MC shouted. "After a fierce onslaught from Miss Akane, young Goku was forced to leap into the air to avoid her attacks! This seemed to leave him open as Akane then knocked him far out of the ring! Once Goku lands it's all over!"

"Foolish boy!" Roshi said. "If I've told him once I've told him a thousand times, never let your guard down! Danger is the nosy next door neighbor of security, if he'd just remembered that he wouldn't have lost so quickly.

Meanwhile, Goku was soaring through the air and had adopted a cross legged position with his finger and thumb cupped under his chin as he thought, "How am I going to get out of this?", just as gravity began to take its effect.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, we may very well be looking at our newest champion!" the MC continued. "Throughout this tournament Miss Akane has demonstrated an amazing mastery of both skill and physical prowess! It may only be natural that she's the winner!"

Ranko ceased playing with her pigtail and flipped it over her shoulder and looked immensely pleased with herself. She thought of stealing the microphone from the MC again and doing another number to which Roshi was vehemently against. As she was arguing with Roshi a voice in the audience suddenly shouted, "Look up there!"

Everyone whirled their heads upwards and it didn't take long to see what they were looking for. About 30 feet in the air and slowly hovering towards the arena was Goku. To Ranko and Roshi's utter disbelief, Goku was using his tail as a propeller to float back into the ring! He landed dead center of the ring and said with a smile, "Did ya miss me?"

"Unbelievable!" the MC shouted. "Young Goku is using his tail like a helicopter and floated back into the ring! Is there any end to this boy's resourcefulness?"

"W-w-why you!" Ranko spluttered. "You were out!"

Goku responded by pulling his eyelid and sticking out his tongue.

"You're pretty cocky considering you almost lost! If not for your tail, you'd be singing a different tune right now!"

Goku grinned. "Not really, I could have used a Kamehameha like you did, but I thought it'd be good to conserve my energy for later."

"Don't be arrogant!" Ranko shouted. "There's no way you could perform a Kamehameha with both enough power to propel you and keep a stable shape to steer yourself! Even if you have the strength to produce the basic shape, you don't have the skill!"

Goku frowned and took a stance with his hands cupped in front of him. "I can do it!" He brought his cupped hands to his side. "Want me to show you!"

"Such arrogance!" Roshi fumed. "The folly of youth truly knows no bounds! Well let's call his bluff!"

Ranko frowned. She didn't like this idea but took the stance for the Kamehameha all the same. "This is your last chance to surrender. Testing your Kamehameha against a master at your age is foolish, not to mention suicidal!"

Goku said nothing but glared as he kept his stance.

"Fine then!" Ranko said disappointed. "Try not to die! Ka…Me…Ha…Me…"

At the same time Goku also began to chant, "Ka…Me…Ha…Me…"

"HAAAAA!" both warriors shouted at the same time.

Both Ranko and Goku thrust their hands forward, and a swift beam of white light left their palms and collided with each other in the center of the ring. As the two beams collided, the energy seemed to gather into a giant orb of light. Both Ranko and Goku pushed harder, releasing more energy in an attempt to push the other's beam back. The light grew so intense that the only people who could look at it were those wearing sunglasses like the MC. Not even the wielders of the attack could look directly. After a few more seconds, the energy gathered seemed to reach critical mass and exploded outwards in a sound louder than thunder and brighter than lighting. The force sent both fighters to the edge of the ring. The light and the sound died down and left a complete silence.

"Well I never…" Ranko muttered as she struggled to get up.

"See! I can do it!" Goku said laughing as he propped himself up.

"Astounding! In less than a year, he's learned what it took me 50 years to master." Roshi said in awe.

"This is no time to be impressed!" she snapped back at him. But in truth she was likewise very impressed, and a little bit frightened at his progress. This wasn't natural even if he had performed a rudimentary wave on Fire Mountain before all those months ago, he's simply growing too fast. Even with the benefit of both Gohan and Roshi's training, there are limits to natural talent.

Within the eerie silence the crowd slowly started to cheer and clap, building up to a wild frenzy and begging for more action.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, remember this day! It's rare that you'll ever see two masters of the Kamehameha wave in the same ring, even here in the final match of the World Martial Arts Tournament!" the MC roared into his mic.

Goku stood up and waved at the wildly cheering crowd. Ranko allowed him about 30 seconds of adulation before interrupting.

"I'll admit that your ability in the Kamehameha Wave is impressive. But don't think you've won yet!" And with that her form seemed to shimmer and became translucent.

"This again?" Goku said disappointed. "Can't you do something else?" he closed his eyes and focused. After a moment he opened his eyes and delivered a punch to a spot on his left, his fist went right through another shimmering image of Ranko which was pulling a face at him.

"Goku watch out!" Krillin yelled.

It was too late. From behind him Ranko delivered a hard kick to the back sending him flying into the brick wall yet again, burying him under another pile of rubble. Ranko then turned around and pointed at the MC.

"Don't you have a job to do? Hurry up and count!"

The MC stuttered for a second but was spared looking foolish. Before even one count Goku burst from the rubble again and shook the dust and debris from his hair.

"Jeez, how many times do you need to be put down before you stay asleep?" Ranko said agitated.

"Sorry, but I'm not sleepy right now!" Goku responded in a serious tone, to which Ranko just stared at him dead pan.

"I wonder if these constant collisions into the brick wall is making his head soft?" Roshi wondered.

"Oh please" she thought back. "His skull could crack a diamond."

"Amazing! After a double after image, Akane sent Goku flying into the wall yet again! And once again he's gotten to his feet as if nothing happened!" the MC yelled excitedly to a cheering crowd.

Goku stretched for a moment and then slapped both cheeks to focus and smiled. "Okay! Here I come!" he said, and his form became translucent.

"Copycat!" Ranko shouted. She sighed and casually looked behind her and sure enough there was a translucent image of Goku sticking his tongue out at her. "A double after image, just as I thought. Now, where are you…" she said to herself closing her eyes. After a few seconds she suddenly opened them and yelled "Gotcha!" as she delivered a punch to a spot on her left. To her surprise, her hand went right through another translucent image that suddenly split into several other copies that danced around him.

"A triple? And when did he master the Splitting Cat Hairs?" she said confusedly.

The copies danced around Ranko, making faces, taunting with "Nyah nyah!" and even sticking his butt forward and smacking it.

"Why you cheeky little-! Where are you?!" Ranko yelled angrily.

"Up here!" Goku called.

Ranko looked up to see Goku plummeting down at her. Before she could react Goku locked both hands together and clocked her hard on the top of her head, causing her to stagger back in pain with lights dancing in front of her eyes.

"Haha! How do you like that?" Goku said proudly.

Ranko struggled to her feet with her eyes watering. "New rule! No hitting teacher on the head!"

Goku stopped smiling and looked at her confused. "But you didn't train me, Master Roshi did! And miss Ranko of course."

Ranko silently cursed herself. Goku had taken her off guard and landed a heavy, and painful blow which caused her to slip in her acting. She was supposed to be the mysterious Miss Akane right now, not Ranko.

"Of course not!" she said laughing nervously. "I have students myself; I was just a little disoriented, haha!"

Goku just looked at her curiously. "It's strange though, there are a lot of similarities between you and miss Ranko. You carry yourselves the same, you do that hair twirl thing when you're bored, and the way you fussed over Krillin's injuries also brought her to mind. And most of all you look like her, even if you do look older."

Ranko began to visibly sweat. She looked around and saw Krillin and Yamcha by the ruined wall, staring at her with wonder.

"And one more thing!" Goku said while sniffing the air. "You didn't put any perfume on today. You smell exactly like her!"

Ranko and Roshi both let out a long winded spew of curses in their shared head.

"What's the matter with you? How could you forget the perfume?!" Roshi scolded her. "Goku has the nose of a bloodhound, throwing off his scent was essential!"

"Don't you scold me!" she mentally hissed back. "I just forgot, that's all!" And that much was certainly true, after they transformed and she was uninhibited, she cared only for sating her bloodlust and any effort into shielding her true identity became trivial. "Don't worry love, we have a contingency after all."

Looking Goku in the eyes she ruffled through her sleeve. "I guess the jig is up, but you're not entirely right. Ranko and I do indeed have much in common and that's because…" She pulled out a scroll from her sleeve and unfurled it, facing the contents outwards so Goku could see it. On the scroll was a diagram of what looked like a family tree.

"She and I are actually cousins!" she exclaimed.

"But Ranko said that she was the master's only living relative." Goku said skeptically. Krillin nodded in affirmation on the sidelines.

"Ah, yes" she said, "But look here, Ranko connects to the old man by blood, but Ranko herself has other relatives. And the martial arts runs deep in the Saotome clan."

"Saotome? Is that your family's name?" Goku asked.

"Indeed!" she said. "And the style we use is not the "Eternal Turtle Style". Our family uses "Anything Goes Martial Arts".

"Well…your attacks are different than Master Roshi's style." Goku said slowly. "But I still think it's weird you smell like miss Ranko."

Ranko frowned and stuffed the scroll back in her sleeve before answering, "It's rude to comment on how a lady smells!" And with that comment she delivered a kick which Goku deftly dodged, ending the debate.

Goku had leapt back and taken a fighting stance, but when he looked at his opponent he noticed she was acting strangely. Ranko was now swaying where she stood, giggling and hiccupping.

"Umm, are you okay?" he asked tentatively.

"Oh! I'm just *hic* fine!" she said swaying nearer. "Gosh it's so, *giggle* warm!" she said as she undid the top few buttons revealing a fair amount of cleavage causing the crowd to cheer.

"Wow! It looks like Akane has been hitting the happy juice, if you know what I mean!" the MC roared in the mic. "Let's see how this plays out!"

"Well you don't see that every day!" Oolong said. From the sidelines Krillin was blushing like a tomato and frowning, remembering this tactic from his fight. Yamcha's eyes were glued as well, and he was blushing slightly.

"Yamcha, you close your eyes right now or so help me- Ugh!" Bulma shouted, as she whacked Oolong over the head in frustration, causing everyone nearby to burst with laughter. Ranko herself let out a crazy cackle and made a show of fanning herself and letting her coat slide down one shoulder, all the while slowly staggering closer to Goku, who now looked unsure what to do.

When she was about 5 feet from him she swayed so heavily it seemed she might fall on top of him. Goku abandoned his stance to try and catch her, but right before she would lose balance she suddenly corrected herself and brought her fist down, whacking Goku hard over the head. As Goku tried to recover, Ranko spun like a top still giggling, face blushing, and with that momentum seemed to accidentally kick him hard in the stomach, bringing him to his knees.

"What's she doing?" Krillin said baffled.

Yamcha, no longer distracted having been shouted at by Bulma, seemed to recognize what was happening. "Don't be fooled Goku!" he called. "She's using the Drunken Boxing technique! She's only pretending to be tipsy!"

"Tipsy?" Goku gasped. "Yeah, I think I recognize it now! Drunken Boxing was my grandpa's specialty! But I never learned how to stop it!"

"Hey! Give those back!" the MC exclaimed. In her drunken act she waltzed over to the MC and stole his sunglasses and had put them on upside down.

Goku steadied himself and charged with a flying kick. Ranko leaned back Matrix style with a "Whoopsie!" causing the sunglasses to fall off her head. And as Goku flew over her, she kicked upwards sending him flying into the sky for a few moments. The kick had stunned Goku causing him to be unable to control his fall and he landed hard.

"It seems Miss Akane's bizarre behavior has Goku stymied!" the MC called out while adjusting his reclaimed sunglasses.

Ranko continued to dance around laughing, hiccupping, and blowing kisses to boys in the audience, but her eyes were quite lucid. Goku staggered to his feet and attacked with a punch. Ranko dodged it by what appeared to be just falling over, but she landed safely and kicked from the ground sending Goku flying back. Over and over again Goku attacked and was seemingly countered by a movement that seemed like falling over or by some crazy dance. This continued for several minutes until Goku was on all fours on the arena floor heaving and holding his sides.

"Looks like we got him this time" Roshi said. "It's difficult to counter drunken boxing if you've never been drunk before." Roshi chuckled.

Goku pulled himself to his feet and ran away to the edge of the ring and started shaking with his back facing Ranko. This move perturbed Ranko enough for her to break character as she approached him.

"Hey now, it's nothing to cry about." She said slowly.

Suddenly Goku wheeled around with a big grin on his face and was scratching himself and making sounds like "Ooh ooh!" "Ahh agh!". He then got on all fours and circled Ranko still chittering and grinning like a maniac.

"What is this?!" Ranko shouted, completely abandoning her previous façade and dressing herself.

"Crazy Monkey Attack!" Goku chittered, and he leapt at her.

Ranko tried to counter him with a punch which he dodged by leaping directly above her and landing behind her. As he landed he laid flat and grabbed her ankle with his tail and uprooted her causing her to fall face first on the arena floor. As she turned over groaning Goku leapt on top of her with an "Kikii!" noise and vigorously scratched and smacked her face before leaping off of her. She pulled herself up looking scratched and disheveled.

"Ugh, you little beast!" she shouted in frustration, "You've ruined my perfect complexion! And I thought we said no hitting on the head!"

Goku was in full monkey mode, hopping up and down on all fours, scratching himself and laughing himself silly. Ranko had enough and flew at him and came with a roundhouse kick. He dodged upwards again and did a handstand on top her head. Glaring upwards she did a very flexible high kick which was easily dodged by leaping off of her. She charged again with the Snake Amaguriken, but she had lost her cool now, and Goku could easily read her movements. He dodged each blow deftly and laughing still. To her further annoyance he then used the Splitting Cat Hairs technique and now she was surrounded by a miniature army of screeching, grinning, scratching Goku's. Regaining her composure a little, she focused her senses and sniffed out the real Goku in an instant and struck at him. The copies all vanished at once, but he had dodged again and this time in midair slapped her in the face with his tail. She fell on her butt and spat a few tail hairs out of her mouth.

"Way to go, kid! Show that stripper what for!" Bulma shouted.

"What an animal!" Oolong laughed. Which was ironic as he was a talking pig.

"He's going to win!" Krillin said excitedly.

"Oh my!" the MC rang out. "Goku's new bizarre behavior has stymied miss Akane, and she can't seem to do anything! Will we soon have the youngest champion ever?!"

Ranko frowned and then abandoning her stance she then started making eerie motions with her hands and her voice became slow and husky. "Nonsense…in fact…I've…already…won."

"What's this?" the MC said. "Miss Akane has just claimed victory! What new technique will she show us?!"

Goku seemed drawn to her blue eyes that were now practically glowing with a dazzling light. Her hands were swaying and grasping the air in front of her in Goku's direction. His eyes followed her hand movements mechanically and was suddenly enraptured by her voice which chanted slowly.

"Good..boy…so…sleepy...rest…now…child."

Her every word rang and echoed in Goku's head like soft bells, and suddenly he could see only her as the rest of the world seemed to be drowned out. Goku's eyes started to droop, his body swayed and a moment later, collapsed face first onto the arena floor and started snoring with gusto.

Ranko straightened up and chuckled lightly to herself.

"Sleepy Boy technique" Roshi chuckled. "A little underhanded but effective."

"Hey, wait a minute!" the MC said. "That was hypnotism! You're supposed to use marital arts!"

"Oh please!" she said. "The sleepy boy is an old classic!"

"But what about the fans?" he argued. "This is pretty anti-climactic."

"Oh, who cares about that!" she huffed. "It's his own fault for falling for such a simple trick! Now start counting or I'll sleepy boy you!"

Panicking, the MC ran over to Goku and began the countdown. "1…2…3…4…"

"Oh no! He's out like a light!" Yamcha said.

"Goku, wake up! You can sleep when we get home!" Krillin yelled.

"Yell as much as you like." Ranko muttered. "This move is much more powerful when I'm the user so he won't wake up or budge until I tell him too."

"Finally over." Roshi thought as Ranko twirled her hair as usual. "It took more effort than I would have liked, but now that he's tasted defeat, he'll keep training to become better and stronger."

"5…6…7…8"

Bulma and co. were looking helplessly from the audience when suddenly inspiration struck Bulma.

"Hey Goku! Wake up or you'll miss your dinner!" she shouted.

"Huh?" Goku sat up straight with alarming speed, his eyes half opened and mouth drooling.

"WHAT?!" Ranko and Roshi both exclaimed.

"Dinner? I want dinner!" Goku said in a panic and started running around the arena sniffing wildly while the crowd laughed. "Dinner? Yoohoo! Where is it?"

"That's impossible!" Ranko shouted. "I had you so far under my control I could have made your heart stop if I had a mind too! How on earth did you wake up?!"

Goku didn't seem to hear a word she said. "Hey, where's this dinner I keep hearing about?" he asked her excitedly.

"QUIT GOOFING OFF!" she snapped at him as the crowd laughed harder.

"Goku! Beat this stripper and I'll get you as big a dinner as you want!" Bulma called laughing.

"Okay! That sounds great!" he said excitedly and took his stance again.

As Ranko retook her stance the sun was setting early, turning the sky a glowing red. The moon was also showing itself early in fullness. The timing made her uneasy as this fight was taking much too long.

"Well now what?" she thought. "Every time we think of something he comes up with some crazy counter."

She wasn't given long to think as Goku came with another attack.

"Janken Fist!" he shouted. "Rock!" he delivered a punch which she stopped with an open palm.

"Scissors!" He tried to poke her eyes, but his hand was knocked away by her fist.

"Paper!" He struck with an open palm but was caught by both her hands in a crossing motion and was thrown back.

"Whoa!" he said amazed. "How did you stop my Janken fist?"

"Ha! I'm an old pro at the Janken style!" she bragged.

"Wow, it seems like you know everything my grandpa knew." He said amazed.

"Well, the Janken belongs to the Anything Goes School in the latter years (on the Tendo side) and was adopted by Roshi into the Turtle School and passed on to your grandfather. But it belonged to the Founding School of Anything Goes first."

Upon hearing this Goku was reminded that many styles borrow from each other and developed their own versions of different techniques. But he wasn't dissuaded, in fact it gave him an idea, but before she could act on it, she charged with her own spin.

"Rock!" Instead of a direct punch, she came downwards with a hammer fist technique that Goku couldn't intercept but had to dodge.

"Scissors!" With both arms stretched out to either side, palms up, she brought both hands in a chopping motion to either side of his neck. Goku just managed to stop this by bringing both fists (rock) up to either side, intercepting the chopping hands.

Unperturbed, she continued. "Paper!" She crouched low and brought her hand up in a palm strike into his chin, uppercutting him into the air. He was stunned and landed hard on the ground.

She stood up and twirled her hair in satisfaction. "How do you like the Saotome school's spin on the Janken fist?

"Oh my! Who knew a game of Rock, Scissors, Paper could be so brutal!" the MC exclaimed to the crowds appreciation.

"Ouch, did you see that?" Yamcha said.

"I swear I could feel that!" Krillin answered.

Meanwhile, Goku struggled to his feet, he hadn't been knocked out and he recovered quickly. When he was fully back on his feet, he was smiling.

"Okay, let's try it again, my turn!" he said.

"Fine, if you like losing!" she sneered.

"Paper!" he shouted and came in close. She moved to intercept with a cross (scissor) guard, but instead of a palm strike she received a punch (rock) to the face. Blood spurted from her nose, and she hit the arena floor.

"A devastating blow from Goku!" the MC called. "Miss Akane is knocked flat! I'll begin the countdown! 1…2…3…4…5…6…7!"

He didn't get any farther, at 7 she sat up suddenly and heaved herself up unsteadily. She was on both feet but swaying badly.

"Wow! She's back on her feet! But it looks like that punch took a lot out of her!" the MC commented.

"That little beast!" she muttered holding her nose.

"What a rotten trick! Calling paper but striking with rock!" Roshi added angrily.

"That's my special fake out spin on the Janken!" Goku said cheerfully.

"Ugh cheeky little-" she snarled and took a stance. Goku also took his and stared her down.

"Goku, stay strong, you're so close!" Yamcha called.

"You're gonna win!" Krillin piled on.

"I think it's time we used THE technique." Roshi said with great regret. His regret was nothing compared to Ranko's shock.

"Why would you even say that!" she thought back aghast. Not even her sadistic phantom state would have thought to use it.

"Well, he's shown incredible resilience, maybe it won't kill him."

"But-"

"Think of why we're here!" he interrupted. "We need to not only beat him but create a wall between him and top of the mountain. So long as he thinks there's someone out there whose strength is insurmountable he will keep his nose to grindstone. At this point, the only technique that can give that impression without killing him outright is THE technique."

Ranko bit her lip in frustration but couldn't come up with a counter argument. She relaxed her stance and stood up straight.

"Goku, I'm afraid this fight has come to an end" she said sadly.

"It has?" Goku said confused.

"I really don't like using this technique" she said as she began to slowly roll up her sleeves. "It's an emergency attack for when nothing else works. We- that is to say I, have only used it once in my life against an opponent, that was your grandfather."

"Huh!? So you do know my grandpa!"

She brought her hands together as if in prayer and shouted, "Try not to die!"

End of chapter 12