~1-11-00~
The Fifth
Fiancé
Chapter 10 - "The
Tournament, Part 2"
The first battle of round two was Goku versus Ubuu. They were almost even, neither gained the upper hand for a while until Goku went Super Saiyan Level 3.
Ubuu had kept up with Goku even at the first two levels but three was out of his league. He was knocked outside the ring within three minutes of the transformation.
"Good match sensei," Ubuu said as Goku helped him to his feet.
"Yeah! It was great!"
"I guess Son-san trained him well," Ranma commented.
Pan glanced at him. "Hai."
"Next up is Son Gohan versus Vegeta!"
Pan's attention went straight to her father and the man she called her 'uncle'. "This is gonna be *great*!"
Goten and Trunks nodded in agreement. "Really great!"
Gohan shook his head. "I don't know.... Vegeta *can* beat me."
There was silence.
"Tell me you're joking," Pan demanded.
Gohan shrugged and then smiled. "It's true. I don't mind. I entered for fun anyway and because you wanted me to."
"This is the last call for Son Gohan and Vegeta!"
Gohan smiled again. "Wish me luck guys!"
Pan gave him a brief hug and pushed him towards the ring. "Kick Veggie's butt Tousan!"
The battle was indeed as great as Pan thought it would be. Ignoring the small fact that Vegeta could go to Level 3 and Gohan couldn't and you would have the perfect match. Kicks, punches, and even elbows were traded off at lightning speed, even faster than when Gohan had fought Junana-gou. This went on for almost an hour until the audience became restless.
"Someone lose now!" A man shouted. "We can't even see you guys!"
Gohan knew that if he let Vegeta continue to take the initiative, the fight would go on for centuries. Gohan stopped Vegeta and held up his hands.
"I give up."
Pan's jaw almost hit the ground. "He WHAT?!"
Goku just shook his head. "It was the right thing to do. If they went on, the announcer would probably disqualify both of them."
As they returned to the ground, Gohan gave a promise.
"We'll continue this later."
"Your call."
"Who's next?" Gohan questioned, ignoring his daughter's look. She silently fumed for a moment until she spun and stomped to the ring. Her father sighed. "I guess she is."
"Son Pan versus Ryouga Hibiki!"
"I feel like killing something," Pan snarled at the boy. "How would you like it? Fast or slow?"
Ryouga just smirked. "Killing is against the rules."
"How did you know that I didn't mean later?"
The smirk turned deadly as Ryouga got into a defensive position. "I won't hit you because you're a girl."
"But that won't stop me!" She began to throw a series of punches and kicks, all ones that the boy blocked easily.
"Your rage is making you sloppy."
She growled and charged up a ki blast. "What do you know?!"
Ranma shook his head at the sight. "I wonder what he said to her..."
"He won't attack because she's female and he insulted her." Piccolo responded almost instantly.
Ranma looked at him. "How do you know?"
"My ears are here for a reason." Then to Gohan: "What do you feed that girl?!"
Gohan laughed. "The stubbornness is from Videl but I have no idea where she got the violent tendencies."
Then the answer was unisoned. "ChiChi." Even Genma, Ukyou, and Akane agreed.
They all saw Ryouga say something else and Pan proceed to beat the crap out of him. Every punch or kick he took made them all flinch.
The whole group turned to Piccolo. "What'd he say?!"
Piccolo scowled but he still told them. "He said: 'Is that the best you've got? Ranma could do better than you!'"
Gohan whistled. "That boy asked for that one." Then he saw that even though Ryouga was down for the count, Pan was still beating him. "Excuse me..." Gohan went down there and had to grab her to calm her down. After she had cleared the vicinity, Ryouga was rushed to the medical station.
"She really beat him good!" Ukyou commented.
Pan breathed heavily trying to get her senses back. She blinked then at everyone staring at her, from a pretty large distance.
"It's okay," She said. "I won't bite."
Ranma gazed at her. "I would rather not take the chance."
"You don't have to be afraid of me ya know!"
"The next match is," The announcer shouted, "is Ranma Saotome versus Akane Tendo!"
Akane smiled wickedly as this. "This is great..."
"Wonderful!" He said sarcastically. "I have to fight a tomboy! But even you are a girl. I won't hurt you."
He walked arrogantly to the ring and waited. Akane whispered something to Ukyou and the other girl nodded. It wasn't that fair but it would be funny.
Akane stretched in the ring and prepared to fight the other while Ukyou slipped away to the side of the ring where Akane stood.
"Are you going to fight sometime today?" He asked. "I'm waiting!"
"Sure," She smirked. "Right now..."
Then a splash of water came from seemingly nowhere as Akane transformed into the tiger.
"Oh kami!" Ranma shouted. "NEKO!"
The announcer blinked and whispered to someone beside him. "You going to allow that? Why?"
"Because it looks interesting!" Mr. Satan replied. "That's why."
"Ladies and gentleman!" He said to them as Ukyou returned to the group. "We're going to allow the girl cat to remain in the competition! Proceed with the match!"
Ranma ran around and around the ring, screaming his head off, trying not to get to close. "Get the neko away from me!"
Pan glanced at her friend. "Ucchan? Did you splash Akane."
The brown-haired girl nodded. "Hai. Something wrong?"
Pan sighed happily. "Iie. Not at all."
After about five minutes of this Ranma suddenly stiffened.
"The Neko Ken is taking hold," Genma muttered but Pan heard him.
"It is? I want to see!"
Ranma crouched there on his legs, his hands curled up to him, with the dumbest expression on his face.
He hissed suddenly, back arched, and lunged at the Akane tiger. He held his arms out in front of him like claws and he and the large cat began to slash each other.
"MWROW!"
"This is just too weird..." Goten trailed off. "Too weird."
Ranma was smaller and thus able to dodge all of the tigers attacks. Then he jumped to the edge of the ring and waited patiently for the other. Akane leapt at him expectedly even as he jumped over her head and back into the center of the ring. Akane, however, wasn't quite so lucky. She lost her balance and her forepaws touched the ground.
"She's gonna lose!" Ukyou gasped. "We didn't think that Neko Ken thing was for real!"
"Neither did I," Pan mentioned.
"And the winner is Ranma Saotome!"
The boy just sat there in the ring, licking himself.
"This is bad, *really* bad..." Genma trailed off but Gohan elbowed him to keep going. "Well, there is an old lady who cured Ranma of his cat-like behavior when it happened while he was younger..."
"Great!" Ukyou said. "Let's go get her!"
"There's a small problem..."
"And that would be?" Gohan asked.
"She's dead."
"Oh wonderful! Ran-chan is a *cat*!" Akane rubbed up against her and she nodded. "C'mon, we need to get you some hot water and some clothes."
Pan got an idea and stepped out into the area and kneeled down. "Here kitty, kitty, kitty. Come to Pan-chan."
Ranma mewled enthusiastically and jumped right into her arms. Pan easily carried him back to the others.
"What do we do?" She asked feeling a little sorry that Akane had tricked him like that. She absently petted his head and listened to him purr.
"*We* don't do anything." Genma responded. "He came to *you*, remember?"
Pan looked at everyone helplessly. "I don't know what to do!"
Bra tried to pet Ranma to but he hissed and she jerked his hand away. "Even neko he doesn't like me."
Trunks shook his head. "Whatever you do Pan, you're gonna have to do it quick. Since he won, he'll have to fight again soon."
"I'll try..." She trailed off as she began to talk and coax Ranma from his current state.
Ukyou was up next and was the fight Juuhachi-gou. It was over quickly since Ukyou can't fly or do ki attacks or do well at hand-to-hand. Juu-chan even gave her a hug for effort when it was all over. Goten and Trunks were next, those two like to take a while fighting so it bought her some time.
Then she got an idea. "Sorry Ranma, but I have to do this." Pan made Bra go get a glass of water and she dumped it's entire contents on his head. The shock of the transformation snapped him out of it.
"What's goin' on?" She asked, clearly disoriented. "Why am I all wet? Why are ya holdin' me?"
She dropped her onto the ground. "You went neko on me Ranma."
She groaned as she got up. "I did? What happened?"
"Akane turned into a tiger in the ring and you freaked out..."
"Oh man. I *did* win didn't I?"
Pan nodded. "Hai."
"I knew it! I am the best! Even as a neko I still kick butt!"
She hit her. "Baka."
"Who's up?"
"It's Goten versus Trunks." The looked her over. "Don't you want to change back at all?"
"Oh yeah! That's a good idea..." She looked confused so Pan pointed him in the direction of the bathroom.
"There you go."
In the ring, Trunks used every single trick in the book. He dodged and lured Goten to the area outside of the ring and nothing worked. They were both in Level 2 and neither was gaining the upper hand.
"Just give up Goten!" Trunks told him. "Eventually, you're gonna lose!"
"Your ki may be slightly higher than mine, but it won't make a difference!"
The crowd was getting angry again. It was hour seven since the tournament had begun and there were about three more matches to go.
"End this now! End this now!" A chant begin by a couple of people soon was taken up by the entire crowd.
"END THIS NOW! END THIS NOW!"
Goten was slightly distracted by all of the noise and that proved to be his undoing. Trunks phased out of sight and knocked him out of the sky.
"I'll get you back for this Trunks!"
"Yeah! I won!" Trunks cheered loudly. "Who's the man now?"
"Kakarott, I knew your brat had no chance of beating mine."
"Vegeta, our family will get it's chance to beat yours now."
"Why?"
"I fight you next."
"This is the fight you've been waiting for folks!" The announcer screamed. "The two toughest fighters in the whole competition versus each other in an all-out match! Son Goku versus Vegeta!"
"This is it! The best fight of them all!" Pan jumped up and down in her glee.
"Why are you so excited?" Bra asked in a bored voice. "It's nothing special. They *always* fight!"
"Those are just spars B-chan, this is different."
"How so? Goku-san will just end up winning again."
"You just don't understand the ways of warriors Bra," Trunks explained to her. "Sometimes, I wonder if Kaasan had cheated on Tousan. You don't act like a saiyan at all."
"Except her appetite," Goten snickered.
Bra frowned. "That wasn't at all funny."
Round 3 began with the Goku/Vegeta fight. This one was sort of destined to take all day. But Goku laid down some ground rules at the beginning.
"We have to get this over with quick, no playin' around Veggie. We can do something longer later."
Vegeta shrugged. "Fine with me. Super Saiyan now then?"
"Hai!"
They both turned it up at the same exact instant. The wind picked up and blew harshly around the whole arena and small stones lifted from the ground but as quick as it had began it was over.
But neither stopped there. Goku was the first one to begin but Vegeta had caught up with him soon. Eventually it all stopped at Level 3 and they launched into an all-out attack.
For ten tense minutes they attacked each other, the crowd screaming encouragement (mostly at Goku) and even betting on who would be the winner.
The crowd was yet again getting bored. Around the beginning is when they stopped being able to see the fight and the random flashes at the impact points in the air weren't doing enough. Gohan saw this and made a quick decision. It would make Vegeta mad but oh well.
"TOUSAN! DINNER!"
Goku stopped in mid-attack and knocked Vegeta to the ground outside of the area. His eyes lit up with the proposed meal. "Food?! WOW!" He quickly powered down and practically flew to his son.
Vegeta got up extremely pissed. He hated when that happened. As he rejoined the others he was like a thunder storm. He anger crackled around each other them but it was really centered on Goku and his oldest son.
"And the winner is.... Son Goku!"
"You *lied*?" Goku whined when he discovered the truth.
"Gomen nasai Tousan but the crowd was hating you almost as much as Trunks and Goten."
"I'm thinking Son-san would drop anything and everything for a meal," Akane said dryly.
Pan smirked. "What was your first guess?"
"Pan-chan," Trunks called after looking at the board. "You're up!"
She smiled. "All right! Who do I fight?"
"Ranma."
This stopped her cold. "Excuse me?"
"You heard 'im Mini-me. You're gonna fight me." Ranma smirked. "Unless you're chicken? Don't worry about it too much. I always have that sort of affect on people."
"I am *not* afraid of you bakayaro." Pan hissed. Then she shrugged. "I just don't wanna see you get hurt."
"..... Son Pan versus Ranma Saotome!"
"Oh yeah? Well don't worry because *you'll* be the one in pain."
They both made their way to the ring, both extremely focused on one goal: Winning at any cost.
The lunged at each other then, their hands each grasping the others that put them in a deathlock neither one would give up. If there was only one thing that Pan learned it was that for some reason, Ranma was as strong as she. Surprising.
'I wonder if he's faster than me too?' Pan knew there was only one way to find out. Abandoning her struggle over power, she jumped to the side and attempted to get Ranma in his back. Ranma spun at the same instant to and her punch just met with his arm as he blocked it almost effortlessly.
"Why are you so good?" She asked, thoroughly frustrated. Almost all of her kicks and punches were being blocked but the good thing was, she was blocking his as well. "No one who isn't a saiyan should be able to stand a chance against me!"
"If you were a Super Saiyan, I would lose." Ranma laughed. "Good thing you aren't!"
"RANMA!" Her anger getting the best of her, she leapt at him but a well-timed kick sent her flying away.
"Ryouga was right. When you're angry, you get sloppy. I guess I should make you mad more often."
Pan brought her arms to the side and began to charge up a ki attack. "Kame..."
Ranma smirked. "That won't work. Moko..."
"Hame...."
"Taka...."
"Ha!"
"Bisha!"
The two beams shot out from both Ranma and Pan's hand. Ranma's beam was surprisingly strong and almost overpowered hers immediately.
"I didn't know Ranma could do ki attacks!" Akane said shocked.
"There's a lot of things you don't know about Ranma." Genma mentioned.
Each struggled with their power for a long while. Then Pan put more power into hers and overtook Ranma's Moko Takabisha[1]."
He got hit and went down but only briefly.
"That should- Huh?"
Ranma's face, that had lots of burns had miraculously healed like they were never there.
"I heal fast. So many people beat me, I'm used to it."
"You are unreal!"
"Shall we continue?"
"Sure."
The kicks and punches began again as they both took to the air.
"This is interesting," Gohan said. "Pan isn't winning instantly. I think we've finally found her a boyfriend who isn't afraid of her and can actually match her in a battle!"
"Those kind of mates are rare these days," Vegeta commented.
"Excuse me Son-san."
'"Hai Ukyou?"
"Ran-chan is mine and I'm sure Pan would say the same."
"Okay... sure."
The fight went on and on until Ranma got an idea. He suddenly grabbed Pan's arms and pinned them to the side then he kissed her right on the lips. Pan froze, shocked beyond belief, but the crowd went wild at that.
Then, with a slight nudge, he sent the still stunned girl to the ground declaring him the winner.
Ranma landed and went to help Pan up. She grabbed his hand and pulled him down to her level.
"If you do that again, I will break every bone in your body. Do you got that?"
Ranma gulped. "Uh hai."
"Good." She pushed him away and stood. "I advise you to stay clear of me for a long while."
"That was one of the most entertaining matches I've seen today!" The announcer shouted. "Ranma Saotome is the winner!"
"Someone's going to die soon," Bra mentioned.
"You're probably right." Trunks agreed. "Just imagine what she did to Ryouga and he just insulted her. Ranma put the moves on her!"
"They aren't going to be even able to identify the body later on," Akane said solemnly.
"Thanks a lot. I feel so much better now." Ranma said sarcastically as he joined them. "Actually she let me off with a warning."
Everyone was shocked.
"You're kidding!" Gohan said. "I know my daughter, she wouldn't just do that!"
Ranma blushed slightly. "Okay, so it was more of a death threat."
"Thought so."
"But she can't kill me before I fight again! I'm almost the winner!"
"He's right," Goku said. "He only had to fight one more time before Satan-san."
"He *did* make it to the semi-finals just I like I said." Pan sighed. "I just wish I'd beaten him."
"Up next is Trunks Briefs versus Juuhachi-gou!"
"Beat that android." Vegeta commanded as if it would make a difference.
Marron hugged her mother before she went out into the ring. "I don't think you can win but try your best."
"Such nice encouragement!" Juuhachi-gou said sarcastically. "Anyway, Satan-san paid me to not make it to the finals. Can you believe that?"
Krillin and Marron both nodded. "Hai."
"He knew that since Goku was family, he wouldn't have to pay him off. I doubt this Ranma character could be bribed though."
"I think this is the best tournament yet. Well, since the Majin Buu one and the next one after that." Goku told everyone.
Then Trunks and Juuhachi-gou were called to the ring.
It was over quickly. They fought at maximum power (Trunks didn't go SSJ) for about ten minutes. After that, when Trunks was in Super Saiyan and Juu-chan was knocked down again, she stayed there.
"The winner is Trunks Briefs!"
Mr. Satan was getting worried. He didn't know who was going to win and he had an image to protect after all. If Goku won it would be no problem, if Trunks won he couldn't pay him off because he had more money than Satan did. He had no idea about that dark-haired boy who was afraid of cats but he had the strange feeling that money wouldn't be enough.
"Son Goku has to win!" Satan said firmly. "He just has to!"
Goku was faced with a tough decision. He *really* wanted to go and get something to eat but because there was an uneven number of people left, there would have to be a special match. So Goku did the one thing he could.
He told the announcer that he would drop out.
"That stomach of yours always comes first doesn't it?" Vegeta asked.
He shrugged. "I also didn't think it would be fair to Ranma and Trunks if I stayed in."
Ranma exhaled in a sigh of relief. He would not die that day. Maybe tomorrow, but definitely not today.
"Now it's Trunks Briefs versus Ranma Saotome in one of the last fights of the tournament!" It was 5 o'clock in the evening.
The crowd's reaction at this was nothing short of joyful.
"That's it then boy," Genma sighed. "You're not going to win all of that money."
"Why are you saying that Pop? I can beat that Purple-haired Ladies Man!"
"Uh no, you can't." Bra corrected him.
"Yes I can!" He shouted into her face.
"No you can't!"
"HAI!"
"IIE!"
"HAI!"
"SHUT UP!" Everyone screamed at them except Goku and Gohan.
"Go Ranma. Just fight before I get a headache." Pan shooed him away.
"You're *friend*," He shot Bra a glare. "Is the one who started all of this."
"GO!" She shouted, her aura flashing.
"Yes ma'am."
The fight began without a hitch though it was clear who had the upper hand. Trunks did. Then something caught both of their attention.
"What a haul! What a haul!"
"What the heck is that?!" Ranma asked. Then something floated to him on a breeze. "Pink panties?"
One of those said garments landed on a certain someone's head, blinding him. Ranma wasted no time.
He pushed Trunks as hard as he could. The older boy stumbled a bit, fell backwards, and landed outside of the ring. Unfortunately for him it was at the exact same time that the owners of those panties came stomping through.
"Get that pervert!" One shouted, she had blond hair in pig-tails that almost reached the ground. There were two other girls with her. Another was really tall with brown hair with a dark green hair tie and the third girl also had long blond hair with a red bow. They ran right over Trunks, not seeing him in the anger. Following Happosai who was hopping on things on his way to join that haul with the rest of his stash they exited the area leaving a startled Ranma and bruised Trunks in their wake.
The announcer sweatdropped. "The winner is, uh, Ranma."
The Saotome boy ran to the hurt demi-saiyan. "Trunks? Are you okay man?"
"Did you get the number of that truck?" He asked dazedly. Ranma helped him to his feet, after he removed the frilly lace underwear and tossed them to the side.
Pan ran and hugged Trunks. "Are you okay? I can't believe that pervert hurt you!"
"Hey!" Ranma protested.
"I wasn't talking about you, baka. I meant Happosai!"
Bra casually glanced at the slightly blushing pig-tailed boy. "You can only wonder why he thought you were talking about him."
"Oh will you be quiet."
"You know? I wonder what happened to Ryouga?" Akane asked suddenly. "I haven't seen him since Pan tried to kill him."
***
Ryouga leaned heavily on a large tree branch he was using as a cane. He came up to a house. "Can you tell me how to get to Satan City?"
The woman gaped. "You again?!"
Back to the tournament...
***
"Go beat Satan-san boy!" Genma urged. "I don't even want you to accept his money if he offers it!"
"Unless it's more than he would of gotten if he won, right Saotome?" Soun asked.
"Hai! Uh, no! Not at all!"
Ranma shook his head. "It won't take too long."
"Remember don't hurt him," Goku said. "He is sort of old..."
"No problem Goku." Ranma made his way to the ring.
"And now the final match of all! Satan-san versus Ranma Saotome!"
They met in the center of the ring, and Satan moved into his tricks immediately.
"Son, I'll give you a million yen if you lose this on purpose." Ranma laughed.
"They told me about you, Goten and Pan. They said you would try to do this." He crouched low. "No deal. My honor is at stake here."
"But, but, but," He stuttered.
"But nothin'!" Ranma jumped into the air and executed a flying kick right in the center of Satan's chest. The other went flying all the way to the other side of the arena and hit the wall. He slid down it slowly and sat there, dazed.
"And so it happened again," Goku sighed. "He's the fourth person who's done that to him."
"Oh!" Ucchan gasped. "Is he hurt?"
"No," Pan answered. "He's just fine. But now we have to deal with Ranma's newly inflated ego."
"And the winner of the 32nd Annual Tenkaichi Budoukai is Ranma Saotome!"
The boy in question grinned triumphantly. "I *am* the best!"
"Oh boy," They all muttered.
After it was all over and the whole entire group met up outside, they were discussing the good moments of the day long tournament when they were interrupted by a short girl with bright red hair who pushed her way through as if she was running for her life.
"Gomen! Excuse me! Comin' through!" She darted in-between people and disappeared.
Another girl appeared then. She was short as well but her hair was a deep purple. "Pardon me but did you see a red-haired girl just now?"
Pan pointed her in the right direction.
"Arigatou!" She bowed briefly and took off in hot pursuit. "Shayla-oneesama! WAIT FOR ME!"
Everyone sweatdropped. "I don't think I even want to know..."
End notes: So how did ya like it? Did you get all of the guest appearances? I know the first one was easy, it was Duo Maxwell and Wufei Chang from Gundam Wing! The second one was slightly harder but not that much. It was Usagi (Serena), Minako (Mina), and Makoto (Lita) from Sailor Moon. The last one was probably the toughest. The red-haired girl was Shayla-Shayla and the purple haired one was Alielle and they're both from El Hazard.
I know some of those fights Ranma won were pretty stupid. I have a reason for that. I wondered what it would be like if someone *other* than Mr. Satan won for a change. And Ranma came to mind. Were these two. chapters funny at all?
Footnotes: [1] I know Ranma has a ki attack in a movie but I didn't remember what he called it. I hope I got the right attack.
PS: I love comments.