The preliminary rounds of the World Martial Arts Tournament were a chaotic meat grinder of dreams.
Hundreds of aspiring fighters crammed into the indoor dojo.
In Block 4, the referee blew his whistle.
"Next match! Number 94, Chi-Chi, versus Number 28, Hercule!"
Chi-Chi stepped onto the tatami mat, her expression still frosty from her earlier encounter with the pint-sized Goku.
She crossed her arms over her chest, her posture perfectly straight, radiating an aura of untouchable dignity.
Opposite her stood a young man with a prominent cleft chin and a massive, bushy afro.
He wore a gi that was slightly too tight, emphasizing his muscles. He didn't just walk onto the mat; he somersaulted, landed in a pose, and pointed a thumb at himself.
"Yeah! Check it out!" The young man shouted, flashing a blindingly white smile at the small crowd of other fighters watching.
"Feast your eyes on the physique of the future! I am Hercule! Remember that name, because I am going to be the Savior of the Earth!"
He dropped into a series of unnecessary flexes, bicep curl, lat spread, double front bicep, grunting loudly with each pose.
"Hmph! Ha! HOO!"
Chi-Chi just stood there, staring through him as if he were a particularly boring stain on the wall.
Her silence was heavy, drowning out his bravado like a wet blanket.
Hercule held his final pose for a few awkward seconds, waiting for the applause or the swooning.
When he got neither, his smile faltered. He straightened up, blinking at the stony-faced woman in front of him.
"Hey... what gives?" Hercule asked, looking genuinely confused. He ran a hand through his afro.
"You're standing in front of the future Champ! The Savior! Why aren't you excited? Usually, girls are screaming by now."
Chi-Chi raised a single, perfectly manicured eyebrow. She looked at the flexing man with the same interest one might show a particularly dull rock.
"I'm sorry, who are you again?"
Hercule nearly tripped over his own feet.
He stumbled, breaking his pose, but quickly recovered by spinning into a pointing stance that was meant to look cool but just looked desperate.
"I—I just told you! I'm Hercule! The future champ!" Hercule stammered, his face flushing slightly.
He cleared his throat, regaining his bravado.
"Okay, fine. Maybe I'm not known right this second. But very soon, the entire world will know my name and tremble! You should feel honored, lady. You get to be the very first stepping stone on my path to glory. You can tell your grandkids you fought the great Hercule before he was famous!"
He got into a low crouch, shuffling his feet and throwing a few sharp jabs at the air.
Woosh!
Woosh!
"Now, don't worry. I'm a gentleman. I'll go easy on you so you don't get hurt too b—"
"Are you done talking?" Chi-Chi interrupted, uncrossing her arms. She didn't take a stance. She simply looked at the referee.
"Start the match. I have a headache."
"Begin!" The referee shouted.
Hercule wasted no time.
"Haaaaa!"
He charged, throwing a flurry of rapid-fire punches.
Left!
Right!
Hook!
Uppercut!
To the audience, it looked aggressive. To Chi-Chi, it was pathetic.
She didn't even raise her hands to block. She simply swayed her upper body, letting his fists sail past her face by mere millimeters.
Whoosh.
Whoosh.
Whoosh.
She dodged with frightening ease.
But Hercule wasn't intimidated. In his mind, she was just retreating because she was scared of his "overwhelming" power.
"Ha! You can't dodge forever!"
He planted his foot, spun his body around with maximum theatrical flair, and unleashed his ultimate technique.
"DYNAMITE KICK!"
His leg whipped around, aiming a high-speed kick directly at Chi-Chi's neck.
The Dynamite Kick connected—or at least, it tried to.
Chi-Chi stood perfectly still, her left arm raised effortlessly. stopped the entire momentum of Hercule's ultimate technique with the tip of her index finger pressed against his shin.
Time seemed to freeze.
Hercule hung suspended in mid-air, his leg fully extended, his face contorted in a mask of horror. His eyes bugged out of his head, and a massive bead of sweat formed instantly on his forehead.
Im... impossible!
Hercule screamed internally.
My leg... it feels like I kicked an iron bar!
Chi-Chi tilted her head slightly, looking at his suspended leg with genuine confusion.
"I don't get it, why call that a Dynamite Kick? It was just a normal kick.
With a flick of her wrist, she pushed his leg away.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa!"
Hercule stumbled backward, flailing his arms to regain his balance before hopping several feet away to put distance between them.
He pointed a finger at her, his face pale.
"D-don't give me that!" Hercule stammered, his voice cracking.
"That wasn't a normal kick! You... you must have used some kind of trick to stop it! Did you have a magnet in your finger?! Or maybe a hidden metal plate?!"
He wiped the sweat from his brow, laughing nervously to the confused crowd.
"Yeah, that's it! It's a trick! A parlor trick! There's no way a girl could stop the great Hercule's power with one finger!"
Hercule grit his teeth, his ego bruised but unbroken.
"Fine! If you're going to use cheap tricks, then I won't hold back anymore!" Hercule bellowed, crouching low.
"Prepare yourself for a move so fast, so devastating, that your eyes won't even be able to track it!"
He somersaulted forward, gathering speed like a tumbleweed made of bad decisions.
As he neared her, he uncoiled, thrusting his fist forward with all his might.
"HERCULE PUNCH!"
He launched himself at her like a human cannonball, putting every ounce of his body weight behind the strike.
Chi-Chi watched him come with a look of utter boredom. She simply waited until he was inches away from her face.
Then, with the casual grace of someone stepping out of the way of a slow-moving bicycle, she took one small step to the right.
"HUH?!"
Hercule's fist hit nothing but empty air.
Because he had committed 100% of his momentum to the attack, he couldn't stop. He sailed right past her, his eyes wide with panic as he realized the floor was no longer beneath him.
"Waaaaiiit—!"
He flew off the edge of the tatami, his arms flailing helplessly, and crashed face-first into the concrete floor below the stage.
SMACK!
The referee blew his whistle.
"Ring out! The winner is Chi-Chi!"
Hercule groaned, lifting his head from the floor, his afro slightly deflated.
"I... I slipped! The floor was slippery! That doesn't count!"
Chi-Chi didn't even look back at him. She walked off the stage, muttering under her breath.
"What a waste of time."
"Man, that Hercule guy was weak," Yamcha laughed as they watched the defeated champ limp away.
"I almost feel sorry for him. He had all that confidence and absolutely zero skill to back it up."
"Yeah, well, tournaments are always full of guys like that, big talkers who think they're the strongest just because they beat up a few thugs in their hometown. They usually weed themselves out pretty fast."
The preliminaries continued at a breakneck pace. As expected, the Turtle School disciples breezed through their blocks.
Before long, the dust settled. The eight finalists had been decided.
The group reconvened in the waiting area..
"I expected nothing less from you three. Making it to the finals was a given." Chi-Chi said, leaning against a wall with her arms crossed.
"Yeah, but it was kind of boring," Yamcha sighed, looking at her.
"It's a shame, really. I was hoping to see what kind of training you did. But since you got paired up with that Hercule, you didn't even have to lift a finger. We still have no idea how strong you actually are."
Chi-Chi pushed herself off the wall, a small, confident smirk playing on her lips.
"Don't worry, you will have the opportunity to see it soon enough. There are plenty of rounds left."
"You celebrate mediocrity as if it were an achievement. How pathetic."
The cold voice cut through their conversation like a knife. The group turned to see Tien standing in the doorway, his three eyes narrowing in disdain.
"What did you say?" Yamcha snapped, stepping forward.
"Who's that guy? Why does he have three eyes?" Goku asked, blinking innocently.
"That is Tien Shinhan. Master Shen's disciple. The one from the Crane School." Chi-Chi answered, her voice dropping an octave.
Tien ignored Goku and focused his gaze on the group as a whole.
"You should count your blessings. You were lucky enough to avoid being matched against me or Chiaotzu in the preliminaries. If you had faced us, your tournament would be over already."
He smirked, a cruel expression that didn't reach his eyes.
"But enjoy your luck while it lasts. I will crush every single one of you in the finals. The Turtle School will be humiliated before the world."
The tension in the room spiked. Yamcha and Krillin glared at him, ready to fight right there, but Chi-Chi stepped between them.
She looked Tien up and down, unimpressed.
"You certainly have a high opinion of yourself, but I have a question. If you are really such a big deal, where were you three years ago?"
Tien frowned slightly.
"What?"
"Why didn't you show your face at the last tournament? Were you hiding? or were you just not good enough to enter back then?"
Tien let out a short laugh, closing his three eyes for a moment before snapping them open, his gaze piercing through Chi-Chi.
"Hmph. You truly are ignorant, we of the Crane School are not sportsmen like you turtle hermit weaklings. We are assassins. We are trained in the art of killing, not in scoring points in a game."
He stepped closer, his aura flaring slightly, cold and oppressive.
"We are here for one reason only: to erase the stain of your school's reputation and prove that the Crane style is the only true martial art."
"Tien. The lottery is starting."
The pale, doll-like boy, Chiaotzu, Tugged on Tien's sash. Tien scoffed, turning his back on the group.
"Pray you don't get matched with me in the first round, I might not be able to hold back."
The group moved to the lottery box.
One by one, the eight finalists drew their numbers.
Match 1: Yamcha vs. Tien Shinhan
Match 2: Chi-Chi vs. Jackie Chun
Match 3: Krillin vs. Chiaotzu
Match 4: Son Goku vs. Pamput
Yamcha stared at the board, a wide, confident grin spreading across his face. He punched his palm, his eyes burning with determination.
"Perfect, I got exactly who I wanted. Hey, Three-Eyes! You better get a good look at the hospital directions, because that's where I'm sending you!"
Tien merely glanced at the board and smirked.
"So, the trash wants to be taken out first. Fine by me."
Meanwhile, Master Roshi (disguised as Jackie Chun) looked nervously at the board.
Oh boy. I have to fight Chi-Chi in the first round? This is going to be trouble...
Chi-Chi, however, looked at the name "Jackie Chun" with narrowed eyes.
She remembered him from the last tournament—the mysterious old man who had beaten Goku.
"Jackie Chun... The former champion. This will be an excellent test."