Chapter 2: Reborn in DBZ as a human
Raiden panicked as he looked at the ball of destruction in his hand, he had moments if not seconds until it exploded, leaving destruction in its wake.
He would've flown up taking the ball of ki with him, but he didn't have enough ki for even that, having drained it all during his practice.
Having no other option Raiden did the first thing that came to his head, he chucked the ball of ki as high as he could, putting all his strength into the throw.
The glowing ball of ki flew into the air leaving a trail of blinding light. It reached the apex of its flight and combusted with a blast of white light that shattered glass for miles around the explosion with the shock wave.
Raiden who had been floating in mid-air flew back with the force of the blast and hit the ground with a small thud. His vision started to darken as he heard footsteps come running towards him.
"You little bastard what are you doing? Are you trying to kill us all!" said the enraged voice of king Chappa.
"New Years came early.." Raiden managed to croak before finally passing out from exhaustion.
After the little incident where he almost blew up all of south capitol, Raiden decided to take it easy with his practice.
He drastically lowered the amount of ki he was experimenting with, so if he did lose control he wouldn't be able to cause harm to anyone.
And his training paid off. By the day Raiden left for papaya island with Chappa and Yajirobe he had a small glowing white ball rotating behind his back.
After two months of practice, he could finally keep a decent amount of ki stable outside his body and under his control. The amount was about a fifth of what he could with his body and even if that didn't sound like much, it meant he had pretty much increased his strength by 20 percent.
The idea to keep it as a ball floating behind him was from Naruto, when he finally awakens six paths mode, Raiden thought it looked really cool.
But there were still complications. Keeping the ki stable and condensed around him required him to focus on it at all times. Even though the ki wouldn't explode like last time, because of the greatly reduced amount. It would still start to leak into the surroundings and slowly lose its luster if he didn't hold it up.
While he had pretty much mastered using the ki during daily life, even during his spars with Yajirobe and Chappa. Where the ki floated around him and could fire surprise blasts at them as a sneak attack. It was still a headache to keep it stable as he slept. He would go to bed with a ball of glowing white light and when he woke there would do nothing there.
He was forced to meditate every morning to draw out ki and prepare it for the rest of the day, but even the time it took to do that decreased significantly when he realized he didn't have to use only one arm to draw it out.
When Raiden used ki blasts he mainly used his arms as the outlet for it so naturally, he had also used his arms to prepare the ki for his ki balls. But then after a few weeks, he realized how stupid he was. Hadn't he shot a ki blast from his mouth during his spar against Yajirobe?
After that, he started using his whole body to outlet ki for the ki balls which made the process much after than before, shortening the time from hours to minutes.
Now ready with his new technique Raiden was almost sure he would win the tournament.
On the day the tournament started Raiden arrived at Papaya island dressed in his normal training gi, but over it, he was wearing a crimson red robe that went down the length of his back. He wasn't walking by slowly gliding a few inches above the surface of the ground so that his robe flowed behind him. With the glowing white sphere behind him, it gave him a truly majestic appearance.
Which was then promptly ruined by his short stature and babyface.
Chappa led them to the table where you have to sign up for the tournament since he had been here before.
"We want to sign up for the tournament," said Chappa to the monk that was taking care of the process.
The monk looked up from the stack of papers in front of him and took out a pen, "Names please." He asked.
"King Chappa"
"Yajirobe"
"The Sage Raiden"
Yajirobe and Chappa both looked at Raiden with a confused look on their faces and Raiden couldn't help but laugh.
"What. It sounds cool. Like I'm a magician." Raiden defended himself.
Raiden heard Chappa mutter something about brats as they made their way into the tournament building to get assigned a block in the preliminaries.
Raiden walked into the building the preliminaries were taking place and gathered around a stage that had the head monk waiting on top. After waiting about 30 minutes around the ring for the rest of the fighters to show up during the allotted time, the head monk finally started speaking.
"We will now begin the 20th world martial arts tournament which takes place every five years to determine the strongest martial artists in the world. Thank you everyone for traveling here from all across the globe..."
Raiden glanced around at the other competitors and there were indeed people from all across the world. Beastmen and humans of all different shapes, sizes, and colors stood in the crowd. It was quite a sight to see.
"This year a total of 125 fights have traveled here to take part in the competition. Unfortunately, only 8 of you can take part in the finals, so it will certainly be a trying preliminary stage."
Raiden heard a small murmur go through the crowd at the mention of the number of competitors. Maybe this was more than the last time?
"Now please allow me to explain the rules," the monk continued. " The fights shall be 1 on 1. If a fighter faints, falls out of the ring, or give up, they lose the fight. Also, the preliminary fights will only be 1 minute long, if it lasts any longer a judge will decide who won."
The monk's voice suddenly changed and took a very serious tone as he gazed into the crowd, " The most important rule is you must not kill your opponent. To prevent this we have forbidden the use of any weapons. If you do use a weapon or kill, you will immediately be disqualified and be kicked out. Now please go forward and draw your number." He said gesturing to a younger monk who was standing by the stage with a box in his hands.
Raiden, Chappa, Yajirobe got in line to pick their numbers and walked back to watch the other fights take place as he waited to be called for theirs.
"So what numbers did you guys get? I got 110." Asked Raiden.
"I got 17," said responded Chappa.
"49," Yajirobe said with a grunt.
"At least we won't have to fight each other in the preliminary rounds, wouldn't want to get you guys out too early," said Raiden with a smirk.
Yajirobe and Chappa just glared and him. There wasn't really anything they could say back, Raiden was indeed stronger than both of them now. Especially with his new technique.
After a few minutes of waiting Chappa and Yajirobe were both called to fight at pretty similar times because they were both early on in their blocks. Both of them finished the fight pretty quickly. Yajirobe with a favorite punch to the gut and Chappa with a chop to the back of the next.
When Raiden's number was called he floated up to the stage and shouts of surprise went through the building when they finally noticed he hadn't been walking.
Raiden levitated on the stage and looked at the opponent he was supposed to fight hoping for a challenge.
His opponent was a fair-skinned young man of rather large stature. He was at least 6 foot 2 inches, (190cm) and wore a pair of black pants with black boxing gloves in his hands. He was bare-chested and was hopping up and down to warm up.
Raiden didn't really want to waste his time and seeing as the ki of the man in front of him was almost nonexistent, he decided to make it quick.
As soon as the judge counted down and started the fight, Raiden ball of ki shot a ki blast at the man. It was way too fast for him to dodge and hit him straight in the chest causing him to fly backward out of the ring.
Of course, Raiden didn't want to hurt weakling so he had just put enough force to push him out of the ring, not hurt him.
Just as Raiden was about to glide out of the ring he heard his opponent start yelling.
"Cmon judge he clearly used a weapon, look at that thing. It's like a gun, but instead of bullets, it shoots light or something instead. You've got to disqualify him." The man shouted catching the attention of the other fighters.
More and more people started speaking up saying they should disqualify him if he was using a weapon and finally the judge hesitated and turned towards Raiden.
Before he could speak Raiden interrupted him, " Wait I can prove that it's not a weapon he a part of me." The judge looked at him with doubt in his eyes. "Here just look at my hands for a moment," Raiden added.
Everyone's focus shifted to his hands as they began to glow and another small white ball of light appeared out of it, although much smaller and dimmer than the one already floating around Raiden. Raiden dispelled it quickly, it took much more focus to handle two orbs of ki than one orb, but his point was made. The magical ball of light had indeed come out of his body, it wasn't any sort of weapon.
"That's impossible," muttered Raidens opponent.
"Well I am called the sage," said Raiden with a laugh as he finally descended from the stage, the rest of the competitors still looking at him in disbelief.
The rest of the preliminaries went by in a flash, with Gaiden and his friends taking care of the competition rather easily. Raiden with his now signature ki blast, which he made sure to tone down not to seriously injure anyone.
After a few hours of waiting and fighting through the last eight for the finals were finally left over.
Raiden glanced at the other competitors as they all walked behind the iconic and rather young-looking announcer to draw lots for the finals. 2 of them were of course Chappa and Yajirobe, but the others looked interesting as well.
He was surprised to see wolf-man was one of the contestants and was actually in his human form this time. Or was it man-wolf? Raiden couldn't help but giggle as he remembered the ridiculous way master Roshi turned the beast back into a human, using Krillin's bald head as the moon.
The other competitors tho were new to Raiden. He didn't know any of their names but each had a rather distinct appearance.
One of them looked to be a middle-aged man that had 6 dots on his head similar to Krillin's and was wearing the robes of the Orin temple where Krillin was from. Another a giant of a man wearing only a traditional Japanese sumo outfit. If Raiden was walking on the floor he might have even felt tremors from the man walking.
The last two were a pair of young ladies who looked to be sisters from their similar appearance. Raiden remembered Ran-fan for a moment and couldn't help but blush thinking if the sister tried that same tactic. He quickly shook his head to clear it from such thoughts. The women were wearing traditional martial arts gi's anyway, no way they would try such... "interesting" tactics.
The announcer took us into the building and to an area where the was a bracket chart set up on the wall. There were 8 empty spots in the chart and there was a box with was Raiden assumed was numbers in it.
Just as he predicted the announcer said, "Alright folks please step forwards one at a time and pick a number for your fight in the finals.
The fights ended up being:
Fight 1: The Sage Raiden vs Chappa
Fight 2: Man-Wolf vs Yani
Fight 3: Yani vs Yajirobe
Fight 4: Nagri Vs Tora
Raiden couldn't help but cringe as he looked at his name on the chart. It was just supposed to be a bit of fun, if they kept calling him that even when he fought other people who knew how to use ki it would be embarrassing.
Deciding to ignore his name Raiden looked at the chart to see who was fighting who. Raiden drew number 1 so he was first to fight against Chappa who drew number 2. Then was Man-wolf against one of the sisters, Yani. After that was Yajirobe vs another one of the sisters Yami. Finally, the last fight was the monk from the Orin temple, Tora against the sumo wrestler Nagri.
Looking at the matchups Raiden was pretty sure the finals would end up being him vs Yajirobe, but still he wouldn't get overconfident. He had beaten Chappa every time since returning from training, but he didn't want to slip up and lose this time.
"Alright, those are the matchup's just remember no attacking the vitals or poking eyes. The tournament should begin soon if any doesn't have any questions." The announcer finished.
"Wait what about food. Don't tell me you want me to fight on an empty stomach after all those preliminary fights," Yajirobe asked angrily.
"Uhh well the fighters don't usually want to eat right before the fighting starts, but I'm sure the monks can cook something up for you," said the announcer wearily.
Yajirobe followed one of the monks into the kitchen and Raiden went after him. He too was rather hungry after the preliminaries and just wanted a light snack. Not the giant feast Raiden suspected Yajirobe was about to have.
Raiden waited for his name to be called he munched on a few fruits sitting next to Yajirobe.
"Ladies and Gentlemen welcome to the 20th world martial arts tournament. The first match will be Raiden the Sage ve King Chappa. But before the match here are a few words from the head priest," Raiden heard the announcer... well announced as he glided outside behind the stage.
An old-looking dog-man came onto the stage wearing the robes of a priest.
'This must be the head priest, I wonder what he had to say' Raiden wondered.
The priest walked slowly out onto the stage and took the microphone. He looked at the crowd and said, "BARK."
Raiden almost stumbled on thin air and he was making his way onto the stage. He had expected the priest to be able to talk like all the other beastmen he had seen so far, apparently not.
As Raiden and king Chappa made their way up onto the stage the crowd quieted down in anticipation of the upcoming fight.
They both got into the battle stances and waited for the announcer to start the tournament.
The announcer quickly explained the rules and taking a deep breath he yelled, " Let battle number 1 begin!"
Raiden had descended down to the ring to face of Chappa. No more just blasting everyone out of the ring with a ki blast. He had come to the tournament to get experience and train and that's what he planned on doing.
Unfortunately, everyone in the preliminaries was too weak for him to even waste his time actually fighting them. He 'had' been partly trained by King Chappa a legend in his own right and wouldn't deign to actually get serious with the other competitors, maybe save for Yajirobe who was maybe even stronger than Chappa himself.
Not that he knew for sure. While he had been working on his new technique for the past two months Chappa and Yajirobe had been doing training of their own and he didn't know how far either of them had progressed.
Chappa wanted to win the entire tournament itself to prove that he WAS still the best fighter on the planet. As for Yajirobe... Raiden had a feeling that the prize money and the cost of food in the capital had a lot to do with his motivation.
He threw off his cape on the floor by the stage and into his battle stance that was similar but also different from Chappa's stance. As soon as the announcer started the fight Raiden braced himself as King Chappa flashed across the king towards him.
He knew that Chappa would attack first because the core of his martial arts was based on striking and precise blows. Rather than get into a full-blown battle of aggression with him Raiden decided to go on the defensive and get a feel for Chappa's attacks. After all, he wasn't using any of his ki outside his body or any ki blasts so if Chappa had increased his ki control during the last two months they should be evenly matched.
Chappa charged forward and struck out at Raiden with a series of punches and chops that Raiden evaded and blocked with relative ease. The two fighters got into a sort of flow where they flashed around the ring always with Chappa chasing and Raiden defending.
To the crowd, even though they couldn't really see much due to the speeds Raiden and Chappa were fighting at, still thought that Chappa was pushing Raiden back.
"Folks King Chappa seems to have Raiden on the backfoot! It looks like he is being chased around the ring by Chappa at blinding speeds, surely it won't be long till we have a victor to this bout!" Shouted the announcer as he officiated the match.
Even though Chappa and Raiden were still feeling out the other opponent and warming up it was Chappa who decided to change up the face. He feinted a punch to the head with his right arm and when Raiden raised his arm to guard he delivered a bone-crushing kick to Raidens side that came almost twice as fast as they had been moving.
Raiden seeing the kicking coming at the last second managed to move his ki to his side and ribs at the last second, but still took the brunt of the force and flew into the wall connected to the ring. The wall crumbled and the ruble fell around him and the whole stands fell silent for a second before erupting into a large cheer.
"Well, folks looks like that's it. 1. 2. 3. 4.," the announcer said as he starting counting the seconds Raiden was down for.
Even though the whole crowd and the referee were sure the fight was finished there was one person that was still waiting patiently. King Chappa was in his fighting stance and was staring at the pile of rubble the way a hawk stares at its prey.
Just when the count down reached seven the rubble started moving. A hand shot through the rocks and with it followed Raiden's body. Raiden was leaking blood from the corner of his mouth and one of his hands was holding his side in pain.
The crowd watched as Chappa didn't wait for Raiden to recover before covering the distance between his and Raiden in a second and striking out with a chop aimed at Raiden's neck.
Raiden still dazed from Chappa's earlier attack did the thing that was most natural to him. He left up off the stage and flew into the air.
The crowd watched as Raiden flew up into the air and waited for him to drop down, but to their confusion, Raiden somehow stayed floating in the air.
"Using air dance already? I thought you were better than that Raiden," Chappa said with a smirk as he also started to slowly float off the stage to stand on eye level with Raiden.
"Yeah well I guess I underestimated you," said Raiden using the sleeve of his gi to wipe off the blood running down the side of his face. " That kick really hurt," he added with a grimace.
"O yeah? Well, you haven't seen anything yet." Said Chappa as both he and Raiden got back into their fighting stance in mid-air.
The crowd watched in awe as both of the warriors' ki spiked and they were covered in a glowing light of some sort.
"Folks somehow Raiden had managed to get up after receiving that knockout kick and now both he and King Chappa seem to have risen to the air to continue their bout! What else can we expect from their great fighters! Find out on the next episode of.. " The announcer shouted giddy with excitement.
Raiden spit out the remaining blood he had in his mouth before he eyed up Chappa once again. The ki he was outputting was almost double of what it had been the last time they spared two months ago. He must have been hiding it while they warmed up to catch him by surprise.
'And it worked' he thought feeling the pain from Chappa's kick on his side.
Raiden powered up reaching Chappa's output, his aura flaring around him in a white glow. He could go even further maybe even double what he was outputting but he still wanted a good fight so he kept his level roughly even to Chappa.
Then without warning both the fighters moved. They went through an intricate dance of punches, kicks, chops, and blocks all while flashing through the air. The only one being able to follow their movement being Yajirobe as the rest of the crowd just watched in awe.
As they went they fought, Raiden using a more evasive and defensive style, and Chappa using a pure attacking style, Raiden broke the deadlock they were in.
Knowing Chappa didn't expect him to switch up in the middle of the fight he did exactly that. Instead of blocking or ducking over one of Chappa's punches, he deflected it his shoulder minimizing the damage.
Using the split second he had gained he stepped into Chappa's guard and channeled ki into his leg at fast as he could. He kicked Chappa in his side before he could lower his arm back down to guard and watched as he doubled over in pain from his kick.
Wasting no time to let Chappa recover from the blow he quickly spun in mid-air with a flash and once again kicked Chappa, this time on the temple, while he was still dazed from the earlier kick.
However this time Chappa didn't make any noise, instead, he fell forward onto the ring floor with a dull thud.
The audience stared in shock as the fight ended in a seemingly simple but effective change of pace. They hadn't been able to clearly see what exactly Raiden did but there was a moment where the rhythm the fighters had was broken and the next moment king Chappa had hit the floor.
The crowd quickly came to life and cheered as the announcer started his count.
Raiden waited quietly to make sure Chappa didn't get up but it was unlikely. The ref finished his ten count and Raiden floated down from the ring trying to hide the grimace that was forming on his face due to the hit on his side, which he suspected was now an ugly shade of blue and purple.
As Raiden floated down from the ring heading backstage to inspect his wound he noticed that the other competitors were staring at him in awe, save for Yajirobe who still had his usual scowl on his face.
'I guess the final will just be me and Yajirobe then if they're so surprised from the fight' He thought as walked back into the tournament building.
After Raiden went back inside and made sure no one was near him he finally collapsed on the floor like his body had been urging him to do ever since the fight ended.
He groaned as he lifted his gi and undershirt to see how bad the damage was. Raiden was not surprised as he was greeted by an ugly black and blue wound that covered most of his side.
It had been so unexpected. The pain. Sure he had had plenty of spars and fights with Yajirobe and Chappa in the prior months, but this was... different.
Chappa hadn't held back, not that Raiden expected him to, but still, it was unnerving to see how just one kick almost caused him to lose the whole fight. It had looked so simple in the manga and anime he watched.
The main character would get hit, cut, beaten bloody. But they always stood back up. Like it was nothing. They never hesitated and never gave up and Raiden had thought maybe just maybe he would be like that too.
Raiden took a deep breath as he focused a portion of his ki towards the wound. He didn't have any healing power like other people in the dbz universe but he could protect himself. The ki he put around the wound would hopefully shield it from further attacks. Especially because he had a funny feeling that if he did end up fighting Yajirobe in the finals, he would no doubt target that exact spot.
Having taken care of his injury and having gathered himself Raiden made his way back outside to watch the fight that was currently going on.
Yajirobe noticed him come back out and raised an eyebrow questioningly.
Raiden just gave a small shrug and said, "Had to use the bathroom."
Yajirobe nodded no doubt still suspicious of what he'd been up to but still turned his head back to the ring, continuing to watch the fight that was currently going on.
Raiden watched with the rest of the competitors as the second fight of the finals came to an end. It had been Man-Wolf fighting Yani, they had both put up a good fight.
Man-Wolf attacked with a ruthless and beastly style, not so different from Chappas. Yani was on the defensive the whole fight as she tried to dodge Man-wolfs brutal attacks but to no avail. She did manage to draw it out desperately dodging and defending, but her opponent didn't give her a chance to counterattack.
Eventually, as Yani's stamina wore down Man-wolf caught her with a kick to the back of her knee that made her lose her balance and collapse. He then punched out stopping his fight mere inches from her face to which she signed in resignation and forfeited the match.
"Good fight," Yani said to Man-wolf, to which he just grunted and gave a small nod of his head.
The next fight was Yajirobe against Yani's sister, Yami. But this fight didn't last anywhere near as long as the last. Yajirobe showing no remorse for the other sex flashed forward as soon as the fight started as gave Yami his signature punch to the gut, which caused her to double over in pain on the floor of the ring.
The red quickly called the fight and to Raiden's surprise, Yajirobe helped his opponent to her feet. Raiden didn't expect such kindness in the finals, especially not from the unruly chubby samurai.
The last fight of the quarter-finals was the monk Tora from the Orin temple against the giant sumo wrestler Nagri.
The fight started with Nagri taking a traditional sumo stance with both his fists on the floor in front of him as he prepared himself and Tora taking a rather traditional battle stance with his hands in front of his and one foot in front of the other.
Though his fight caused Raiden to be surprised for a second time that day. Right as the referee started the fight Nagri flashed forward across the ring, at a speed Raiden thought was impossible for a man his size, and got into Tora's guard. Then with what looked like to be a very heavy slap to the chest of his opponent Nagri sent his flying out of the ring and crashing into one of the walls surrounding it.
Raiden quickly tried to sense if Nagri was using any ki, but found no ki fluctuation from the large fighter. He had done that with just pure speed and strength.
Raiden suddenly found himself wondering who would win the fight between the two large fighters in the semi-final. Especially since Yajirobe was using just his fists to fight, not the sword he was so used to.
Though for his own fight he was much less excited. He had watched Man-Wolf's fight, and while he was a good maybe even great fighter, that was using Earth's standards. He was already looking forward to his fight in the finals against one of the heavy hitters in the other semifinal fight.
Just like Raiden predicted Man-Wolf was nothing special, especially when he had just fought against Chappa. But still, he decided that he would fight. This time without using his ki, since he wanted to get a gauge on how much his pure fighting skills had improved throughout his training.
Without using his ki Raiden was no different physically than a normal athlete, albeit one trained for fighting. He managed to hold his own against Man-wolf for a little bit using his superior fighting style but still, he wasn't really his match. Man-wolf was stronger, faster, and had better reach.
Eventually, Raiden was forced to use his ki, but he made sure he used just enough to get his power level to around the same level as Man-Wolf. After that, the table of the fight quickly turned.
Man-wolf who seemed to be dominating until then was slowly and surely pushed back. This fight though was different than the others. For the other fights, there was usually one aggressor and the other fighter defended and bided their time waiting for a moment to counterattack.
But that wasn't the case for Raiden's fight against Man-wolf. Both fighters were duking it out only defending or evading a strike when it was a fight-ending blow. Finally after a few minutes of watching the slugfest with both fighters being bruised and battered the fight abruptly ended.
Raiden managed to feint a kick to Man-Wolf side caused the man to lower his arm to block. At breakneck speed, Raiden used the airwalk technique to rise about a foot in the air, making up the height difference between him and Man-wolf. This let him go over his opponent's guard and deliver a blow to the side of the head that sent him skidding across the ring.
The crowd broke into cheers and the ref finished his 10 counts making sure Man-wolf didn't make a miracle recovery. Raiden walked floated off the ring sending ki to his new wounds as a few monks made their way to the ring holding a stretcher in their hands. He doubted his half-beast opponent would wake up anytime soon so it was probably the right call.
Raiden walked over to where Yajirobe and Nagri had been watching his fight and gave them an eery smile that caused them to shiver involuntarily and said, "Good luck you two. I'm really looking forward to the finals."
Raiden watched as the two fighters made their way up to the ring. Personally, he wanted Yajirobe to win, he knew how hard he had worked over the last few months, and fighting him in the finals would also be a good challenge. He even remembered Yajirobe bragging about how he beat Chappa in most of their recent spars. But regardless of how much he wanted Yajirobe to win he still hoped Nagri gave him a good fight.
From his last two fights, he had sustained numerous injuries, especially the big one on his side because of the kick from Chappa. If Yajirobe managed to breeze through his fight with Nagri then he likely would have a very tough fight against him in the final, especially if Yajirobe used his brain for once and decided to draw out the fight.
Raiden watched as both fighters got into their stances. Nagri in his traditional sumo stance and Yajirobe with one leg in front of the other with both his hands by his waist as if holding onto something that wasn't there.
His katana. Raiden hadn't really noticed before because of his fights but now that he saw Yajirobe's stance he finally noticed that his signature weapon wasn't there anymore.
Of course, there were no weapons allowed in the world martial arts tournament. It looked like Yajirobe was just automatically got into the stance of preparing to draw his katana out of habit.
"Alright, ladies and gentlemen we are about to start the second match of the semifinals of the WMA tournament! After that thriller between Raiden and Man-wolf, this match is sure to be just as exciting!" The referee quickly went through the rules as he had done for the previous fights and then yelled, "Let the battle begin!"
Like the last fight, Nagri started with a rush towards Yajirobe attempting to close enough to finish the fight quickly. But Yajirobe had seen Nagri's last fight and knew what was coming. Right as the fight started he sidestepped out of Nargi's path and waited for the large man to stop so he could land a blow to his side.
But Nagri stopped his charge when he was next to Yajirobe and with unbelievable flexibility used the momentum from his rush to spin on his heel throwing a kick at Yajirobe's hip. Yajirobe quickly raised his leg to block the kick but was still blasted away by the sheer force.
Using a backflip to mitigate the force of the kick Yajirobe landed on the other side of the ring, just to see Nagri once again in his sumo stance ready to charge. And charge he did. Yajirobe not ready for another attack so fast after landing managed to get his arms up in a cross block in front of his chest just before Nagri struck.
If he had been hit from any other angle Yajirobe would have surely been blasted out of the ring, but luck was on his side. He flew with astonishing force into the wall was connected to the ring and both he and the wall collapsed onto the ring in a pile of rubble, eerily similar to what happened to Raiden in his fight.
"Call the fight ref, no one's ever stood back up after being hit head-on by my charge," Nagri said in a surprisingly soft voice for a man of his size.
"Well, folks Nagri had declared that Yajirobe won't stand up again! Is it truly had no one really ever gotten up from Nagri's charge? 1 2 3 4 5 6 7," the ref started counting and when he reached 7 the pile of rubble began to move.
Yajirobe slowly got to his feet as moved the rubble around him. "Wow I've been hit that hard before, what are you made of. Stone?" He said as he got back into his battle stance. Then with a grin he said, " Looks like your charge isn't a one-hit knockout like you thought."
Nagri let a small frown show on his usually stoic face as he sent a small glare towards the ref, no doubt blaming him for not started the count fast enough.
This time Yajirobe made the first move before Nagri could charge him again. He flashed towards Nagri in a zig-zag pattern which caused the sumo wrestler to frown. Yajirobe had noticed that before he attacked Nagri would always take his sumo stance and after that do a brutal frontal attack.
This time he didn't give him the chance he continued his zig-zag pattern and threw a punch at Nagri from his side. Nagri deflected it with a slap of his hands and countered with another slap to Yajirobe's chest.
Yajirobe then leaned back showing his own flexibility and dodged the palm. Before Nagri could draw his arm back Yajirobe grabbed his wrist and pulled Nagri close to him, getting into his guard.
Then probably inspired by his signature gut-punch Yajirobe plunged his knee into Nagri's rather large stomach and watched as the Large man lost his focus for a moment. Not letting the chance go to waste Yajirobe kicked Nagri on the side of his arm not knocking him out, but it had enough force to send the large man flying out of the ring.
"And the winner is Yajirobe due to a ring out!!! We now have both our finalists determined! Folks, please wait for a small break before the finals start to let the fighters rest." Yelled the announcer.
Raiden couldn't help but smile as he watched Yajirobe eventually beat Nagri. At first, he had been worried that his friend would get overwhelmed by the sheer force of his opponent but he had persisted.
Yajirobe took Nagri's charges and eventually found the pattern that Raiden also noticed. The charge. Nagri always got back into his stance before he attacked. Whether it was a habit from sumo matches or just part of his technique, it was a weakness. One that Yajirobe exploited to eventually get the win.
Raiden felt someone step up next to him and saw that it was Chappa. He had probably come back to watch the battles after getting treated for his injuries.
"I hope you're ready to fight a hard battle. Yajirobe hasn't been slacking off, he's probably even stronger than me," admitted the martial arts master.
"That just makes it more interesting," replied Raiden with a slight smile on his face at the prospect of getting an even more exciting fight in the finals.
"Alright let's go you little squirt," yelled Yajirobe as he jumped down from the ring. "We gotta get in a decent meal before the final."
Raiden frowned at being called short but he was 10, what could he do? "Fine fine let's go. But I'm not eating anything, I just want a drink. Not everyone can gorge themselves before a big battle. You wanna come too Chappa?" he asked.
Chappa nodded as he followed behind Raiden and Yajirobe as they made their way to the kitchen area of the tournament.
* * *
BURRP. "Ah, that was satisfying. No way no beat me now brat, especially now that I'm well-fed," said Yajirobe as the group walked out of the kitchen back towards the ring.
"Shut up you fat oaf, it's not like you've beaten me before. Anyway hurry up we have to get to the ring before the hour ends." retorted Raiden.
Raiden quickly flew off towards the ring to make it in time as Yajirobe ran behind him. He still hadn't figured out how to fly and with his bad ki control he probably never would. Chappa merely walked back at a leisurely pace, a slight smile on his lips due to the antics of his two friends.
Raiden and Yajirobe quickly made their way up to the ring as the announcer looked a bit miffed that they were late for the most important fight of the tournament.
"Ladies and Gentlemen with our contestants FINALLY here we can now start the final of the 20th world martial arts tournament! On the ring, you can the Raiden the Sage and Yajirobe who both fought intense battles to make their way to the final. I'm sure you all know the rules by now but unfortunately, I do have to repeat them. If you can't get up after a 10 count or a ring out you lose the fight. Also, no hitting at the private parts and no weapons are allowed," said the announcer with practiced ease. " Well now that we got that over with FIGHTERS GET READY! LET THE FINALS BEGIN."
Raiden and Yajirobe were already in their signature fighting stances. Yajirobe about to draw the ghost of his missing katana and Raiden in his modified multi-fist stance. (That's Chappa's fighting style if anyone forgot) But this time Raiden also a small orb of ki floating above his head, almost like a halo.
During his meal with Chappa and Yajirobe, he thought it might be a good idea to have it ready for the fight, in case he needed it as a trump card.
Right as the referee started the fight Yajirobe charged forward trying to get off his go-to gut punch.
Raiden knowing what Yajirobe would try and do quickly ducked below the punch using his short stature to his advantage and tried to sweep Yajirobe off his feet with a kick to the back of the knee.
Yajirobe noticed what he was trying to do and quickly jumped back to avoid Raiden's kick. After evading the kick since Raiden was still getting up off the ground from his sweep Yajirobe jumped into the air in front of Raiden and did an Ax kick downwards that would no doubt knock him out. Maybe even break a few bones if it handed.
Raiden quickly rolled out of the way to avoid being crushed by Yajirobe and fired a quick ki blast at the man using his palm. Yajirobe who wasn't expecting Raiden to use ki attacks managed to get his arms in front of his to block.
Yajirobe skid back a few feet from the force of the blow but was grinning at Raiden as if to show the attack did nothing.
Raiden frowned when he saw the ki attack not work and the reason was even more concerning. Yajirobe had used ki to reinforce his arms which helped negate the majority of Raiden blast. He no doubt got the idea by seeing Raiden do it during their spars a few months ago.
But what was worrying was that if Yajirobe learned how to manipulate ki, even just in his body, it made the fight much more challenging for Raiden. There was no way he could hold back now. Yajirobe was already built like a tank and with him boosting his physique his normal attacks wouldn't do any damage.
Raiden gave Yajirobe a small smile and started flaring his ki powering up and couldn't help but get excited when Yajirobe did the same. It meant that the fight was going to be a lot more interesting than he initially thought.
Raiden quickly burst forward to not let Yajirobe initiate the offense.
Instead of running towards Yajirobe he was now using the airwalk technique to fly towards him with a burst of speed. It also helped mitigate the difference of reach between him and his opponent.
He quickly threw a kick towards Yairobe's head that Yajirobe quickly ducked.
Yajirobe tried to spin and sweep Raiden's legs but realized too late that he was no longer on the ground causing him to miss.
Raiden didn't waste the opportunity throwing an ax kick at Yajirobe who was still on the floor.
Yajirobe barely managed to get one arm up to block the kick, but the resulting force caused cracks to start forming beneath his feet on the ring.
After blocking the kick Yajirobe knew he was in a dangerous position so he quickly got to his feet and jumped backward to create some distance between him and Raiden.
Getting back on his feet he smirked at Raiden and said," You're going to need to do better than that if you want to beat me. I guess the other fights took too much out of you"
"Yea? Are you sure about that? Look carefully I think you may be forgetting something important," Raiden replied.
Yajirobe raised an eyebrow and inspected the ring again. Missing something? What could he possibly be missing? His sword sure but he already knew that. It's not like they were allowed weapons anyway. Yajirobe's eyes went wide when he realized; while he wasn't allowed to have weapons Raiden was. His ball of ki and it was nowhere to be found.
Before Yajirobe had a chance to react a big flash of ki went off behind him where Raiden's ki ball was.
It had charged up and shot as powerful a ki blast as Yajirobe's exposed back causing him to fly across the ring, with him barely stopping his momentum with a skid at the edge of the ring, now with a large burn like a wound on his back.
Yajirobe slowly stood back up wincing in pain, "Ahh you little bastard. That hurts." He growled.
Raiden, of course, knew better than to let him recover from the attack so he went right back on the offensive throwing a flurry of punches and kicks at Yajirobe who desperately blocked trying to get back into the fight.
Still, Raiden was surprised the ki blast didn't finish to fight. Maybe Yajirobe managed to use ki to block some of the blast?
Seeing Yajirobe struggle to block his attacks Raiden decided to use one of his favorite moves to catch him off guard. He threw a low kick to Yajirobe's right leg which diverted his attention for a split second, which he used to start charging his ki. As Yajirobe moved to block his kick Raiden opened his mouth wide open and fired a ki blast right at Yajirobe's face.
Because Raiden only used a split second to charge the blast he knew it wouldn't actually do much damage to his large opponent. But that wasn't what he was hoping for, what he was aiming for was actually Yajirobe's Vision. Inspired by the solar flare, which was mainly used to run away, Raiden used to blast to temporarily blind Yajirobe so he could finish the fight.
And his tactic worked. Yajirobe still dazed from the shot rubbed his eyes in pain as Raiden closed in, making almost no noise since he was still using the airwalk, he hit Yajirobe right in the Temple with a spinning kick. Knowing how tanky the large man was, Raiden didn't stop his assault. He continued by grabbing Yajirobe while he was still stunned and threw him as hard as he could out of the ring.
Yajirobe landed with a dull thud while the crowd cheered for the young victor of the tournament. Raiden took a few seconds to soak in the applause and cheers, this was it, what he had been training for years for. But he quickly snapped out of it and jumped down from the ring as he heard the announcer declare him the winner by knockout.
He went over to where Yajirobe was laying down rubbing his eyes with his chubby hands. He seemed to have recovered his vision at least by the way he was glaring at Raiden.
"At least I know the kick to the head didn't change your attitude," Raiden said with a laugh as he extended a hand to help Yajirobe up to his feet.
"Don't get too happy you brat. Just remember you still have to treat me to a meal," Yajirobe replied with a growl.
'NOOO, all the money that I earned from the tournament will go to feeding this fatass' Raiden thought as his face went pale at the prospect of treating Yajirobe to a meal.
Raiden went backstage to where he got congratulated by the monks and collected his winning. He tried to seem excited but it was hard knowing your winnings were about to get eaten away.
After he left the tournament building he saw Yajirobe and Chappa waiting for him outside. Of course, Chappa would want to get in on a full meal. Putting his head down in resignation he told them to lead the way to where they wanted to eat.
After spending almost 225,000 Zeni on a 5-star restaurant that Yajirobe chose beforehand Raiden was finally able to free his wallet.
Thankfully Yajirobe had picked a restaurant where you could buy an all you can eat option. So using 75,000 Zeni on each of them Raiden got to watch as Yajirobe went to work and the restaurant workers got more and more panicked.
Because they were in a high-class establishment they couldn't simply tell Yajirobe to stop eating, it would hurt their reputation. So instead after about an hour and a half of nonstop devouring through their menu, a waiter approached and said they would be closing early due to a "lack of supplies."
Raiden had almost hurt himself laughing at the depressed face Yajirobe had made when they told him the news, even Chappa had chuckled.
After they were done eating they prepared to leave Papaya island by ferry because South city was fairly close to the island. The journey took a few hours and after getting back onto the southern continent they still had to make their way to South Capitol. They would have just flown there, but since Yajirobe didn't know how they decided to go by car.
By the time they reached Chappa's compound in South Capitol, it was already the evening and all three fighters were exhausted from the long day of fighting, traveling, and eating.
Raiden bid his two friends goodnight and went to the room he had in the compound and fell into a peaceful sleep with a slight smile on his face, no doubt dreaming of his triumph at the tournament.
Raiden woke up naturally as small rays of sunlight made their way through the curtains of his room at the compound. Getting out of bed easily he felt refreshed from the night of rest.
He brushed his teeth quickly in the bathroom and checked to make sure the various bruises and injuries he had were healing correctly. He took a quick shower and changed out of the clothes that he had been wearing since yesterday, put on another pair of his training gi, and stepped out to the training ground the do his routine.
Even though Raiden had been heavily focused on his ki training for the last few months, he had never neglected his body workouts. He had even gone to the city library to check up on books for diet and nutrition. He had been shorter than all his friends in his last life and now that he had a second chance he wouldn't waste it.
After finishing his workout, which included a run and some bodyweight exercises he went to see what Yajirobe and Chappa were doing.
Chappa was practicing his multi-fist inside the dojo with some of his students while Yajirobe unsurprisingly was still asleep.
'Well he did have two hard fights yesterday, so I'll let him off for today' thought Raiden.
Raiden walked inside Chappa's dojo and Chappa stopped his workout when he saw Raiden coming.
"So it's time. How long have you been away from home?" He asked when he saw Raiden walk into the dojo.
"I don't really remember, I think around a year. Maybe my parents will be surprised by how much I look the same, the way I look didn't really change." He replied with a smile.
"So this is goodbye?"
"Yea, for a while at least. I shook Yajirobe awake to tell him I was leaving, but he fell right back asleep."
"Just don't slack off with your training, I wouldn't want to beat you too badly the next time we spar." Said Chappa.
"You wish," said Raiden as he walked away. He gave a small wave to Chappa's students, some of which he had spared with, as he floated off the ground.
He took to the air and with one last look down at South Capitol he shot off towards Sasebo city at lightning speed.
It took Raiden the rest of the day to travel to Sasebo city because he had to cross the ocean in between the continent and his tiny home of Amenbo Island. When he got to Sasebo city he decided to spend the night at a hotel since he was a bit tired from the journey, he could start flying towards his home early the next morning.
After a good night's rest, he woke up with the sun the next morning and decided to no eat breakfast at the hotel. If he flew fast enough he could probably make it back home back in time to eat with his family.
It took a few hours of flying but finally, Raiden saw his house surrounded by farmlands in the distance. The sight made him realize had he had been feeling a bit homesick during his training from how much he looked forward to seeing his family again.
He descended down from the air onto the yarn in front of the house, making sure not to make too much noise. He walked up to the door not knowing why he actually was feeling a bit nervous about being back home.
Slowly he walked up to the door to see that it was open and turned the knob. He opened the door and walked into the house.
"Mom? Dad? Alice? I'm Home" He called out.
Raiden quickly looked around the house and saw that it was empty. He was about to turn around to go check the farm when he felt a pair of arms envelop him from behind.
"I missed you squirt," he heard a voice whisper behind him.
A huge smile breaking out on his face he turned around and hugged his sister back.
"I missed you too Alice," he muttered softly.
"At least you haven't changed much," Alice said with a laugh as they broke off the hug.
"Hey I'm still growing I've got time," replied Raiden while Alice ruffled his hair.
"So where are mom and dad?" he questioned.
"I think they're out on the farm, I only came back home because I forgot my lunch," she said gesturing to a cute pink lunchbox on the kitchen table.
"Came back?" Raiden muttered when he noticed what his sister was wearing. A blue skirt with a matching blue uniform. It was a school day. Of course, how could he forget, just because he didn't have to go didn't mean it was the same for everyone.
"Well I gotta run, we catch up after I get back home," said Alice as she ran and grabbed her lunch box. She gave a quick kiss on the cheek while Raiden tried to swat her away saying he was way too old for it.
After waving Alice goodbye Raiden walked towards the farm to see his parents. He could have just flown but he was enjoying taking in the familiar scenery of his home.
He walked across the property and was reminded just how large it was, it took him 10 minutes just to get across the fields when he finally saw his parents.
They were facing the fields and talking about something in hushed voices, but Raiden didn't care about that. He broke into a run when he saw his parents and when they turned around to see what was coming towards them, he jumped up and overwhelmed his mom in a hug.
Marie was of course startled when she saw a blur flying towards her but when she realized it was her baby she quickly hugged him back, tears threatening to breakout.
After a while, they broke off the hug and Raidens dad also leaned over to give him a quick hug.
"Someone was homesick," His dad couldn't help but tease Raiden. While Raiden felt his face go red at his father's words.
A quick slap to the shoulder shut from his mother was enough to silence his father while Marie fussed over her child.
Raiden began telling them everything thing he had been through. All of his training and his fighting in and eventually winning in the world martial arts tournament. Of course, he left out some minor details. He wasn't sure how his mother would feel if she found out he was just dropped off in the woods to fend for himself for several months. Especially with no survival skills whatsoever.
Also, he managed to say Chappa was the one who taught him how to use his ki and advance it. It was easier just to pin it on the martial arts master than say how he actually learned and taught it to Chappa and Yajirobe.
Raiden found out that his parents were talking about the upcoming harvest and finally realized the weather was starting to get colder and the days shorter. He had been focused on martial arts in the past year that he had started to become oblivious to the events around him.
After a huge breakfast with his parents where he found out that life for them had been much the same in his absence. It had just been another year of work on the farm and daily life in the quiet town. There weren't really any big changes.
He also made sure to give the money he made from the tournament. He really had no idea how to manage money and was sure they would do a better job hopefully growing it than him.
Also, Marie was quick to make sure that Raiden hadn't fallen behind in his studies. She quickly prepared another test for him that was made for his age group, while he grumbled about how great a homecoming it was. Which his mother ignored.
Finally, after he finished his work -which he aced much to the dismay of his mother, who still wanted him to go to school- did the family relax. They spent the rest of the day, along with Alice who had come home from school, in front of the tv watching a movie together under a warm blanket.
They sat in comfortable silence finally together as a family after a long year when his father had voiced the question his mother and sister had been holding back from asking.
"How long are you going to stay?" He asked, his voice carrying a hint of nervousness in it.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone