Finals

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: Yami 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 their 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!"