The match began as Yamiru and Son Goku stepped onto the arena at a steady pace, stopping at a distance with the blonde, mustached referee standing between them.
"Go for it, Yamiru!" Tights shouted from below.
"Go for it, Goku!"
Tights glanced sideways. The one cheering for Goku was her younger sister, Bulma.
"What? Did you think they wouldn't cheer?" Her sister-in-law gestured toward Gine, Bardock, Raditz, and Master Roshi. "It'd be too sad if no one cheered for Goku."
Tights thought to herself—whether cheered on or not, Son Goku was still stronger than Yamiru.
"Go, Goku!"
Behind the Martial Arts Pavilion, Chi-Chi, who had already calmed down, called out loudly.
Krillin rubbed his bald head, unsure who to cheer for. He wasn't particularly close to either of them. The one he was closest to was standing right next to him—Tien Shinhan had already regained consciousness and was quietly watching the finals from behind the Pavilion.
His battle with Yamiru had made him realize the vast chasm in their martial arts philosophies. It was like standing on opposite sides of a deep abyss—Yamiru could even afford to close his eyes and still remain composed.
Tien Shinhan had already made up his mind—once the tournament was over, he would go and investigate this so-called Korin Tower.
No more distractions—the mustached referee announced the start of the championship match!
Heh—Son Goku assumed his stance.
Thump—Yamiru stepped forward.
Their gazes met, and after exchanging a knowing smile, both figures vanished at high speed right before everyone's eyes.
Again!
The mustached referee, sweating, pulled out a handkerchief from who knows where and quickly slipped off the arena—better to get out of the way. If these two fighters accidentally hit him in the middle of their battle, who knows what would happen?
Sure enough, the air filled with the sounds of fists and kicks clashing.
Sometimes, blood splattered through the air, tracing jagged lines in the empty space.
"These two brats…"
Behind his sunglasses, Master Roshi had already closed his eyes. Even with his level of skill, his bare eyes couldn't keep up with Yamiru and Son Goku's speed—he had to rely on his mind's eye and track them through their ki. At this moment, he especially missed the days when he was still the undisputed Martial Arts God…
Raditz, though not trained in ki control, had sharp eyes due to his high battle power. He could clearly see their movements.
It was like in the manga—Freeza knew nothing about ki, yet he still fought effortlessly against Goku using tenfold Kaio-Ken. Vegeta, not particularly skilled in ki manipulation, was still able to barely follow Perfect Form Freeza's movements after being healed by Dende. Majin Buu, too—he had some understanding of ki, but he was still clueless enough to think that releasing steam could block Vegito's vision. And yet, even without deep knowledge of ki, he could fight toe-to-toe with the Z Fighters as long as their strength was comparable.
As Korin once said, ki mastery was both useful and useless—it depended on how one looked at it.
Perhaps that was why martial artists like Master Roshi and Grandpa Gohan never emphasized teaching it directly.
At the end of the day, if your opponent could see through your movements, you just had to fight head-on!
And that was exactly what Son Goku did.
During Yamiru's match with Tien Shinhan, Goku had studied them closely. With his natural talent in combat and martial arts, he immediately devised the optimal strategy—never give Yamiru any room to breathe.
From the very start, Son Goku forced Yamiru into his pace.
Thud!
Yamiru took a punch to the chest, spitting a bit of blood. He flipped backward and momentarily retreated.
Son Goku's raw power was undeniably superior to his own.
He didn't need some special ability to see it—he could feel it with his senses.
In just a few years, this Saiyan boy who had once followed behind him had grown far beyond his understanding, with a speed and resilience Yamiru simply couldn't match.
By Yamiru's estimate, Son Goku's current strength was at least on par with his power level at the 23rd World Martial Arts Tournament after training under Kami.
Tien Shinhan, on the other hand, was steady and reliable. Back in the manga's 22nd tournament, he had a power level of 180, roughly equal to Goku's at the time. But now, three years before that—during the 21st tournament—Tien's strength was likely a notch lower, around 130 or 140.
Yamiru himself was stronger than the current Tien Shinhan but weaker than his 22nd tournament counterpart. He estimated his power level to be around 160 or 170.
Yamiru's body had already reached physical maturity, while Son Goku, strictly speaking, hadn't even fully developed yet! Just looking at his height made that obvious—almost fifteen years old, but he looked more like a ten-year-old. Even three years later, at the 22nd World Martial Arts Tournament, when he was close to eighteen, his height had barely changed. Only after that did he experience a rapid growth spurt, alongside an exponential increase in strength.
Even now, in terms of raw stats, Yamiru lagged far behind Son Goku.
Yet, this little rascal Goku had a habit of holding back whenever he had an advantage. Or rather, as long as his opponent wasn't so weak that he couldn't learn anything from them (looking at you, King Chappa), Goku would never go all out from the start. Instead, he'd fight in a way that others might see as playing around, but to him, it was a method of learning—engaging in a heated battle for a while before taking things seriously.
Of course, this didn't apply when facing deadly enemies.
Against Demon King Piccolo, Vegeta, and Freeza, Goku had immediately buffed himself up and gone all out.
He only played around a little with Cell, but even then, at the start of the Cell Games, his power compared to Perfect Cell was about a 40-60 split—not enough to kill Cell, but also not an easy loss. If the fight dragged on, his pure Saiyan trait of getting stronger the longer he fought might have even turned the tide. On top of that, his son, Gohan, had already proven—through their training in the Hyperbolic Time Chamber and Korin's evaluation—that he was significantly stronger than himself. That meant Gohan could at least fight Cell on equal footing. With their stock of Senzu Beans, if things really got desperate, a father-son team-up would have left Cell with no chance of winning.
In reality, when Goku and Gohan stepped out of the Hyperbolic Time Chamber, Cell was no longer a world-ending threat. Otherwise, would Goku have spent his last few days leisurely fishing and picnicking with his family? Before he even went fishing, he had teleported to check on Cell's strength firsthand.
At the end of the day, Goku was still a father. Even if he wanted to retire and pass the protagonist mantle to his son, he wouldn't recklessly throw Gohan into a deadly battle. He had personally gauged Cell's strength, sought confirmation from Korin, and concluded that Cell couldn't possibly kill Gohan. Only then did he relax and go fishing.
And, as events unfolded, everything went according to Goku's predictions—except for underestimating his son's soft-heartedness and, well… sacrificing himself in the process. If anyone was reckless, it was Gohan. That kid was truly reckless—so much so that his dad ended up dead…
Ahem. Back on track.
The point is, slapping labels like idiot, kind-hearted, naïve, or righteous onto Goku is meaningless. His talent in combat and martial arts is beyond astonishing. His intelligence and adaptability in battle far exceed that of ordinary people. By the time he reached adulthood, after countless battles, he had become a true martial arts sage—long past the phase of fighting just for the sake of proving his strength.
If you look at it from a more cunning perspective, his tendency to gradually increase his power during fights—stringing his opponents along, making them believe they still had a chance, forcing them to push themselves further—wasn't just a method of learning; it was a way to extract every last bit of value from them.
By the time a fight ended, Goku had already analyzed and absorbed all of his opponent's strengths.
Yamiru spat out a mouthful of blood, rubbed his numb face, and smiled. "You're trying to learn my techniques through this fight, aren't you? It won't be that easy."
Goku, far less battered thanks to his power advantage, simply chuckled. He knew there was no fooling the big brother figure who had watched him grow up.
"If you want to learn, I'll teach you."
As he spoke, Yamiru's eyes gleamed with golden light. Without a trace of excess movement, he dashed toward Goku.
The two clashed again.
They were incredibly familiar with each other's fighting styles and techniques. The only challenge for Goku was adapting to Yamiru's heightened martial arts realm, while for Yamiru, it was dealing with Goku's sheer, overwhelming battle power.
On the surface, they seemed evenly matched. But in reality, the same level of force affected them differently—Yamiru felt the pain far more than Goku did, and his stamina drained much faster.
Finding an opening, Yamiru leaped into the air, using his Flight Technique to hover. At some point, he had already charged up a Kamehameha, which he now fired straight down at Goku in the arena below.
Since he wouldn't die anyway, he might as well go all out!
Yamiru didn't hold back in the slightest.
The blue energy beam of the Kamehameha blazed through the air. Goku stared directly at the incoming wave, and a smirk tugged at the corner of his lips.
BOOM!
The arena was blasted apart, leaving a massive crater.
The spectators were completely stunned. Not everyone had watched the previous two tournaments, so seeing a Kamehameha of this scale shattered their understanding of reality.
"Who am I? Where am I? Did I just get isekai'd into a Hollywood blockbuster?"
Smoke and dust swirled in the air. There was no sign of Goku in the crater, nor anywhere else on the stage.
"Where's Goku?" Krillin peeked out from behind the Martial Arts Temple's gate.
Tien scanned the area with his three eyes, then suddenly snapped his gaze upward.
Yamiru, his whole body aching, wiped away sweat and sighed. "You're seriously a cheat code, you little monster…"
Behind him, high in the air, Goku wobbled slightly as he floated, adjusting to his balance with a mix of excitement and awkwardness.
Clearly, Goku had just instantly learned how to fly.
The same way he had instantly learned the Kamehameha back then.