Dragon Ball: Paradise Lost

A Drastic Shift In Tone

"T-Ten-san, there he is!" Chiaotzu pointed at a blank point in the sky. His glee soon turned to fright when he noticed the important detail that the image of his friend was growing at a rapid pace and closing in on the ground quick.

"He's falling!" Yamcha stated the obvious.

"That's why we couldn't see him before – he must have gone down quite some distance by now..." Krillin wiped the sweat off his face as he glared at the sky, following Tenshinhan's downwards plummet with fear for the well-being of his own friend.

"Goku..." Muten Roshi grumbled, staring at the grisly remains of the climax of the battle between the two martial artists.

"As powerful as that Kikoho was, there is no way it would have killed Kakarot, especially not when he weakened it with his own Kamehameha but... Punching the blast was a dumbass move only he would think up of." Chayote said, selling herself on that without much trouble. These Earthlings simply had no idea how powerful Goku was at this point, to them he'd have been on a whole different world. If he felt like toying with the Kikoho, it was because he thought he could take it.

"Oh! After the final clash, contestant Son Goku is nowhere to be seen and contestant Tenshinhan is plummeting to the ground! I have it under good authority that amongst the spectators there are those that can fly, perhaps they should catch contestant Tenshinhan before..." the announcer turned to the spectators.

"No!" Chiaotzu objected. "The fight isn't over yet! If we assist Ten-san – he'll lose!"

"If he hits the ground at his current state, he'll die." Yamcha declared with bitterness in his voice. He was not overly fond of feeling worried about Tenshinhan's life.

"Ten-san contacted me through telepathy, he told me he's taking the opportunity to rest. He'll wake up from meditation and break his fall in time, I know he will!" Chiaotzu objected.

Krillin and Yamcha looked to Muten Roshi and Chayote. Muten Roshi stroke his beard, sweating in worry nobody thrice over a hundred years should be dealing with. The old man nodded, while Chayote didn't intercept any similar conversations, as a far superior telepath amongst the two, Roshi has, apparently, and Chayote trusted his call.

True to Chiaotzu's declaration, Tenshinhan bent his body, flexing every muscle in his body in perfect tonus so hard that his skin turned crimson for a second before transitioning to purple and pale. After a few breaths, the three-eyed combatant had returned to his normal skin color and regained full-awareness of his surroundings, looking down at the crater below that still fired off jolts of white energy lightning due to how much residual energy from the blast was still present down there.

"Goku..." a heavy sigh deflated Tenshinhan's chest.

"Shall... Shall I begin the count then?" the announcer's lower lip shook in waves, knowing full-well which outcome of this apocalyptic blast was the most likely.

"There is no use, anything my Kikoho touches, it destroys. Goku was mighty, his punch may have halted the blast for a time but... He's likely resting at the very bottom of that crater." Tenshinhan breathed out again and again.

"W-Well... Just for the sake of formality then... One! Two!" the ever-charismatic announcer began counting. "Three! Four! Five!"

"This... This is just... It's too cruel!" Krillin shook his head, Chayote noticed a couple of crystal glimmers in them, the Earthling was hiding his weakness which was the right call. He was anything but weak by the standards of this sub-par planet so appearing weak was the wrong look for him.

"Yeah... It's like he's counting down to Goku's death, or something..." Yamcha clenched a fist to his chest, outraged by his own helplessness in this situation.