Outside the Arena, Son Goku sat up from the crater and patted the dust off his body.
He looked up at Yamcha on the Arena and was silent for a second.
Then he grinned and smiled.
“I lost.”
He stood up and stretched, “What a pity, but Yamcha, you have changed so much.”
“These three years, I have practiced to the best of my ability on Kamis Lookout, and I didn’t expect to be caught up by you.”
Yamcha stood at the edge of the Arena and looked down at Son Goku.
“I also took advantage of the tournament rules. After the World Martial Arts Tournament ends, let’s fight another match.”
Son Goku’s eyes lit up.
“It’s a deal!”
The Tournament Announcer finally found his voice and roared with his last bit of strength.
“In the third match of the quarterfinals, contestant Yamcha wins!”
After the Tournament Announcer shouted “Wins”, the whole place exploded.
The audience in the back rows stood on tiptoe and squeezed forward, wanting to see the figure standing in the pile of rubble on the Arena clearly.
“Who is he? Yamcha?”
“That perennial quarterfinalist?”
“That quarterfinalist fought Son Goku like this? You call this the quarterfinals?”
“Buying a ticket today was really worth it…”
The Tournament Announcer pinched his thigh to confirm he wasn’t dreaming before bringing the microphone to his mouth.
“Dear audience… The match just now was the fiercest battle of this World Martial Arts Tournament so far, without exception.”
“Contestant Yamcha single-handedly ended Contestant Son Goku’s path to advancement. I dare say that if this match were played in the finals, it would definitely not disappoint any audience member.”
Master Roshi sat in the audience seats, his sunglasses reflecting colors.
Bulma didn’t speak.
She stood there, looking at that figure on the Arena.
“Hmph.”
She crossed her arms and turned her head away, “That’s more like it, otherwise how could it live up to this Young Miss’s painstaking efforts for many days.”
Although Bulma was a fangirl, Yamcha’s performance recently had been quite good, so she didn’t have romantic fantasies about Goku like in the original work.
Puar floated by her ear, tears covering his entire face: “Young Master is so amazing… Young Master is so amazing…”
“Stop crying, this cat of yours has so much water hanging on its face, anyone who didn’t know would think there was a flood.”
Puar sniffled and cried even louder.
…
Below the Arena, Son Goku stood on the steps outside the field.
A staff member handed over a towel from the side, which he took and randomly wiped across his face. This story is hosted at g.com.
The injuries were not very heavy, at least much lighter than fighting Demon King Piccolo in the original work, but his head was still replaying that Qi bomb that drilled out from underground.
A very pretty tactic.
Yamcha deliberately buried that Qi bomb under the Arena floor, holding back without releasing it until the moment he retreated to the edge.
Son Goku licked the blood from the corner of his mouth, then grinned.
That move, he really hadn’t anticipated it.
As he was thinking, a voice came from behind.
“You… are you okay?”
Son Goku turned his head.
A ponytailed girl stood at the edge of the steps, clutching a spare towel in her hand, her cheeks flushed red, her eyes drifting to the side, just refusing to look directly at him.
Yamcha stood at the edge of the Arena, looking down at this side with a condescending view, then moved his gaze away.
He recognized this girl.
Arena number five of the preliminaries, the one who kicked the opponent away with Turtle School leg techniques.
So, this is the future wife who will toil for Son Goku’s family all her life, the daughter of the Ox-King, Chi-Chi?
Son Goku tilted his head to look at that girl, thinking for a few seconds.
“Hey, I remember you… You are the girl I promised to marry when I was little!”
The whole audience, including the Tournament Announcer, collectively froze.
Master Roshi put down his umbrella, turned his face to the side and glanced at this side.
“Hmm?”
Krillin pressed his hand to his forehead.
Tien Shinhan closed his third eye, silence indicating he didn’t know this person.
Chi-Chi’s face went from red to bright red, and then to a dark red almost smoking, practically like a bubbling teapot.
“You, you still remember!”
Son Goku looked innocent: “Of course, Grandpa taught me that a man’s words must always count.”
Master Roshi lowered his head and rubbed his chin, feeling a bit gratified yet a bit speechless in his heart.
This kid, his way of dating is just like fighting, straight to the point.
In the audience seats.
Bulma’s expression grew unsettled.
She looked toward the steps, where Son Goku was standing with an innocent face in front of that ponytailed girl, with a towel draped around his neck.
“Wait a minute.” The source of this chapter is g.com.
“When did Goku have an engagement?”
She abruptly turned to Master Roshi: “Old lecher, do you know about this?”
Master Roshi pushed up his sunglasses and coughed: “Probably back when Goku was little and followed you guys to Fire Mountain.”
“Fire Mountain?” Bulma blinked twice and searched through her memory for a long time.
How old was Goku back then?
Could he know what “to marry” meant?
Bulma looked toward the steps at Son Goku, who was smiling brightly, and the corner of her mouth twitched.
In her impression, Son Goku had always been that innocent boy who couldn’t tell male from female, his understanding of the opposite sex staying at the stage of “patting a belly to determine gender”.
As a result, this guy, without anyone knowing, quietly got himself engaged?
“Oh my god.” Bulma covered her forehead, “This kid has really grown up.”
Oolong shrank to the side and muttered: “Isn’t that Ox-King’s daughter? I remember she chased Goku running around for several circles, and Goku even asked her if she was male or female…”
Above the Arena.
Yamcha withdrew his gaze, the corners of his mouth twitching slightly.
Of course he knew the story of Goku and Chi-Chi in the original work, but what surprised him was that Son Goku in this spacetime actually actively remembered the engagement.
In the original work, Goku was chased by Chi-Chi at the World Martial Arts Tournament and couldn’t remember what he had promised no matter what, and it was only because Chi-Chi cried and shouted that he reluctantly fulfilled the promise.
But the Son Goku in front of him recognized Chi-Chi at the very first reaction, and said “a man’s words must always count”.
Yamcha thought of an interesting saying.
In “dragon ball Heroes”, Time Patroller Trunks once mentioned that Son Goku in every spacetime must have experienced the process of falling off a cliff and injuring his brain when he was little.
It’s just that the degree of injury was different, so the personality trends also had subtle differences.
Son Goku in some spacetimes tended to be battle maniacs, with nothing in their brains except fighting.
Some Son Goku eventually grew into true martial arts Grandmasters.
It seems that Son Goku in this spacetime didn’t injure his brain as severely.
Innocent remains innocent, pure remains pure, but beneath the purity, he has just a little bit more than the hyper-spacetime Son Goku…
This is a good thing.
Yamcha jumped down from the edge of the Arena and walked toward Son Goku and Chi-Chi.
Chi-Chi noticed him and shrank half a step behind Son Goku.
“Rest assured, I’m not a bad person,” Yamcha smiled and looked at Goku, “Congratulations to you, Goku, for having such a pretty wife.”
Son Goku blinked: “Congratulations for what?”
“Uh, you said it yourself, you’re going to marry that girl.”
Son Goku scratched his head: “I see, isn’t this a matter of course?”
Chi-Chi’s face flushed another shade of red.