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Tien suddenly stopped mid-air and turned around. Gine's heart sank momentarily. He too could fly.
Kakarot's head perked up from his observation spot on the participants, catching Gine's eye. She saw him watching Tien and his fingers snapped as if to say Ah-ha! Gine wondered what that was about.
When Tien landed he went after Chun again, they meet and flew up, exchanging evenly matched blows in swift and fluid moves. Tien put in extra care to block his broken rib, making him attack less. Jackie Chun looked like he wasn't putting any effort into his moves, Gine could sense that his breathing was calm and still.
Then Chun makes a charge, and suddenly splits into eight different apperations of himself around Tien, all spinning around and striking him as if separately.
"The mirror-image technique." Gohan called it. But Gine could see, that it was just Chun moving too fast for regular eyes to follow him to appear as if there were more than one of him. But her Saiyan eyes could see how fast he was moving.
Apparently, Tien could too since he chose one of the mirror images as the real Chun to kick, and it was indeed the real Chun as Tien's kick sent him flying into the wall.
The fight got more serious, trading equally vicious blows and punches that left both of them bruised and clutching themselves in pain. Gine noticed Chun hadn't gone for Tien's rib yet. At least that's what she would've done.
If Tien's pain tolerance was as high as Jackie Chun was strong, who would win was anyone's guess.
Tien launched into the air towards the sun, and tried to attack with it blinding Chun, but to no avail. Chun held his own until pushed to the edge of the ring, just barely holding on but gets in.
They get into a bodylock, clutching each other to crush or push away. The tension in the air was thick and leaving everyone on edge.
Chun crushed Tien's ribs in his grip, he cried and spat out some blood. It was enough to make Tien blinded by pain to let his guard down, and Chun headbutts him. The force of it sent Tien falling back and Chun easily stepped back into the center of the ring.
A huge breath of relief, Tien clutching his bloodied noise and rib, furious.
"You're very gifted, Tien." Chun said, panting. "But you squander your talent with rotten ethics."
Tien growled at him. "I'm only here to win, what else could I be?" Chun was confused, and watched unawares as Tien held both his opened hands in front of his face.
"SOLAR FLARE!"
The entire world went white. Gine shut her eyes too slowly as her retina and the retinas of everyone in the arena who wasn't wearing shades burned. Everyone cried out in shock and pain as they all clutched their eyes as if they were trying to claw them out, even seeing the light through their closed eyelids and adding to the spots in their vision.
Chun was no exception and was entirely incapacitated by the flash of blinding light. Unable to defend himself from the pain of blindness and letting his guard down, Tien rushed behind Chun and struck the back of his neck. Gine instinctively went for the shades in her pocket but still had to reluctantly open her eyes as her vision recovered. Through the spots and blurriness, she saw Chun on the ground and unconscious. Tien looked all too pleased with himself.
"One!...Two!...Three!..."
She couldn't believe it. The great Jackie Chun done in just like that? By that crony of Shen?!
"Come on! Get up, Jackie!" Bulma and the others cheered, but to no avail.
"Four!...Five!...Six!..."
That was a dirty trick, and even the announcer said as much even if there was no rule against it. But Gine had to admit that it's a very effective distraction.
Seven!...Eight!...Nine!..."
Just before reaching ten, Chun suddenly leapt back up to his feet. Tien's smug look was gone.
"How did you recover from that?!" Tien demanded.
Chun looked at him sternly. "I can't help you with that. That answer is beyond someone who follows a path of evil."
Tien looked even more enraged at that, but Chun's tone softened.
"Listen to me, Tien. Give up Master Shen. He's not the best teacher for you, or for anyone for that matter." Chun pleaded.
Tien responded by charging, "HYAAAAA!" The fight continued and Tien doubled down on his attacks. Chun blocked everything Tien sent his way, but Gine could see he wasn't taking the initiative on his own either, merely defending. What was he up to?
Tien threw another hard punch that Chun blocked a millisecond slower than he did a moment before. That caused him to lower his guard just enough for Tien to finally hit him across the face with another punch. Tien looked fired up from just that one blow, but Gine thought Chun's slow defense looked deliberate.
Chun taunted him. "You're getting weaker for losing focus, and for following Shen. You needn't have to put all your energy into just winning a silly competition."
Tien growled at him. "Are you kidding?! It's the ONLY thing that matters!" He yelled, then froze for a moment. Chun froze for a moment too, and Gine looked towards Crane at his spot. He looked to be gloating conspiratorially.
Chun suddenly wheeled around towards some human females in the audience, his seriousness replaced with the trademark perverted lust of Master Roshi. Then suddenly looked back at Tien, ashamed. What was that about?
Tien looked surprised, then laughed. "I get it now, so you actually are Master Roshi in disguise!"
Well, there goes that. Gine thought.
Chun/Roshi looked like he had been caught but reinserted himself into the character of Chun as if nothing happened.
"My words are still no less true." Was all he said.
Tien looked at him menacingly. "Well then, let me show you how true mine still are." Tien cupped his by his side.
"kaaaaa...meeeee...haaaaa...meeeee..." He chanted.
Does EVERYBODY know that move?! Gine exclaimed mentally.
Tien suddenly angled his body away from Chun and towards the spectators.
Chun shouted, "WAIT, NO, NOT AT THEM!"
"HAAAAAAAA!" Tien fired the wave. Gine's mind was in shock that Tien was doing this, and instinctively she was already in the air to head towards the blast to deflect it from the innocent bystanders in-
Chun phased in front of the wave and caught in his hands, and with great difficulty deflected it upwards toward the sky. The beam disappeared from view rapidly and everyone in the audience was agape in awe that just happened, and that a contestant tried to murder them.
Seeing the situation handled, Gine lowered herself back to her spot before anyone looked at her questioningly. Gohan nodded in understanding.
Chun breathed heavily from the exertion of deflecting the wave.
"You could learn other moves instead of copying others." He said, his voice back it's softer tone. "Tien, you have so much potential, you just need to see the error of your ways if you learn a little humility."
Chun turned his back to Tien and walked to the edge of the ring. Then, he simply stepped off the arena.
Everyone gasped. Gine felt her mouth go agape. Did he just give up?!
The announcer was just as baffled, but didn't miss a beat. "By accident or design, Chun is out of the ring folks. That means Tien Shinhan is the winner and now the new defending champion!"
Everyone was silent for a moment, then cheered loudly. Tien just stood there flabbergasted for a long while, unsure of how to feel. Then he got angry, as if he just been handed the title of world champion.
But why?! Gine asked internally and aloud as much as Tien demanded of Chun, who was simply walking towards the arena entrance without looking back.
"Why won't he fight?!" Gine asked aloud again. Thinking of everything that had occurred with Tien the night before. Weren't they all in on trying to defeat Crane and his school?
"Beats me!" Oolong said.
"He may have his reasons." Gohan said, "But knowing him, I'm sure his are good if he is trying to reach someone."
Gine wondered what in the gods names could that be. She knew Roshi was wise, but she was at a loss for what that could be. But whatever it was, it had better be damned good.
"The sixth match is about to begin. Both opponents are students of the turtle hermit school, Krillin and Kakarot. It's always thrilling to see teammates duke it out in the ring, and will get to see which one will go on to take on Tien Shinhan!"
Gine's attention went back to the ring following that announcement. Now her son was fighting again! This time against his own friend.
"So, who do we root for?" Oolong thought aloud for all of them.
"I ju
st realized." Bulma said softly, "This is the first time they fought each other."
"Really?" Gine asked incredulously.
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Want to read more?
The next 10+ chapters are already available on my Patreon!
By joining, you'll get:
📖 Early access to future chapters
🗳️ Polls to shape the story
🎁 Exclusive content for Patrons
🔥 Bonus scenes & content you won't find anywhere else
👀 Don't fall behind—others are already ahead!
👉 patreon.com/FanfictionTakashi
(If link doesn't show, just search on Google: FanfictionTakashi Patreon)