It was as if he had solved multiple versions of the same problem from the same teacher. Yamiru could already predict the teacher's method of questioning even with his eyes closed.
"The distance... he's about to make his move." Yamiru stayed still, silently thinking. Sure enough, as the Sumo guy approached and yelled, his two massive paws came crashing down, bringing a gust of wind.
It was exactly that kind of attack. Yamiru was calm like never before.
With unparalleled concentration, the Sumo guy's dual-palmed attack seemed to slow down in Yamiru's eyes.
Yamiru ducked, and with his short stature, he almost seemed to vanish from the Sumo guy's view.
"Did he slip behind me again?!" The Sumo guy guy didn't want to be tossed out of the ring like his last opponent, the pig-headed guy, so he quickly adjusted his body weight, trying to stop himself mid-charge. As soon as the he stopped, Yamiru "slipped behind him," and the he immediately turned around.
The timing of his sudden stop, the instinctual counterattack... Yamiru's mind was as clear as a mirror. Every one of the Sumo guy's reactions was exactly what he had predicted.
"What, he's not there?!" He turned around but didn't see Yamiru, thinking the boy had run off again.
But Yamiru was silently standing beside his leg, in a blind spot where both vision and thought couldn't reach. He mimicked a powerful shoulder strike, hitting the Sumo guy's knee from behind.
"Boom!" His knee buckled, and he collapsed to the ground, gasping in pain and shock. What did this boy think he could...
Yamiru stood behind the kneeling Sumo guy, pinched his nose, focused all his strength on one leg, and side-kicked his massive backside. To his surprise, the guy—who weighed several hundred pounds—was sent flying off the ring.
"Ah-da\~" Yamiru silently cheered in his mind.
Why didn't he shout out loud? Honestly, it just felt a little too embarrassing to do so… it felt too unrestrained.
"Still, that kick didn't feel like I unleashed my full power," Yamiru thought as he hopped off the ring and naturally began to reflect on his strengths and weaknesses. "Sure enough, techniques like that require more practice. I wonder what that old man is thinking. If he really doesn't want to teach me, maybe I should just stay at the Martial Arts Temple and become a janitor or something..."
In the next round, if Yamiru won, he would secure a spot in the top eight.
Of course, Yamiru wanted to make it to the top eight, but when he stepped onto the stage again and saw his next opponent, he knew his chances were slim.
"If you've made it this far on your own, I'll admit you have some serious talent."
Across from him stood the black man who had previously praised Yamiru. It was none other than King Chappa—Yamiru had already learned his name and immediately connected it to the character in the manga who was defeated by Son Goku twice. Yamiru simply nodded when he heard the compliment, saying, "Thanks for the praise."
For some reason, Yamiru didn't feel proud at all. If it had been Master Roshi giving the compliment, that would've been different… Yamiru thought to himself. Unfortunately, that old turtle had flat-out rejected him. "Maybe after this match, I should go to the little bookstore on the corner and buy some H magazines to help distract myself? But I don't have any money..."
King Chappa noticed that the kid on the other side seemed to be daydreaming! He was slightly irritated. "I, the reigning champion of the World Martial Arts Tournament for several years, am praising you in person, and you're not even grateful enough to bow down in respect? This could have become a great story." He thought.
"However, your good luck ends here..." King Chappa slowly took his stance.
"Yeah, my lucky streak ends here too
" Yamiru thought, completely agreeing with King Chappa's words.
If the second and third rounds hadn't been against such clumsy opponents, with his questionable stamina and complete lack of combat skills, he probably would have been eliminated by now\...
"Let me use my Golden Eyes!" Yamiru began to mimic King Chappa's movements, adopting the same stance as his opponent.
After the monk announced the start, Yamiru suddenly asked, "Can I use the Eight-Arm Fist?"
"If I'm going to lose anyway, losing to his signature move would at least give me some face." Yamiru thought.
"Heh..." King Chappa smiled, interpreting Yamiru's words as follows: "I've heard of your famous Eight-Arm Fist, and if it really is as powerful as the legends say, I'll kneel down and bow to you on the spot, and even ask to become your disciple!"
"As you wish!" King Chappa charged forward, his fists flying wildly. His technique resembled the afterimage punch, with his two fists leaving highly defined shadows in the air, making it appear as though he had eight hands growing from his body.
"Wow!"
"It's the Eight-Arm Fist!"
"I thought that was just an exaggeration!"
A murmur spread through the crowd below the stage, all of them stunned by King Chappa's legendary move.
Yamiru was also stunned.
He clearly saw King Chappa wildly swinging his fists, but the afterimages of those punches, in Yamiru's eyes, appeared overly simplistic. Compared to King Chappa's real punches, the differences were glaring! As Yamiru continued to observe, the afterimages in the air seemed to fade, and eventually, all he could see were King Chappa's real punches moving in rapid succession.
"Seeing through the illusion... Is it because of my eyes?" Yamiru thought to himself, feeling a strange sense of satisfaction from the name he had given his golden eyes.
He happily got knocked out of the ring.
Although he lost as expected, he couldn't help but feel an odd sense of joy.
"The Golden Veil—so cool..."
---
Yamiru's match was over.
After King Chappa secured his spot in the top eight, he came down from the stage and found Yamiru in the crowd, smiling as he asked, "So, how was my Eight-Arm Fist?"
He would never directly ask Yamiru to become his disciple.
It wasn't that he wanted this kid to be his disciple, but rather that Yamiru should be begging him to take him on as one. That's how it should go, right?
"You don't have eight hands at all..." Yamiru thought to himself, but said aloud, "It's amazing as always..." After thinking for a while, he couldn't come up with a more flattering comment, so he ended up saying, "Anyway, it's really impressive. I don't feel bad about losing."
He scratched his head. "How is it that I can't even say a proper compliment?" He then thought, "If it were Goku, he'd probably just bluntly say 'Your Eight-Arm Fist is pretty average,'" huh? That thought made him feel a lot better. It seemed like real experts weren't very good at speaking—Goku was like that, Naruto too. Yamiru thought to himself as he waved goodbye to King Chappa.
"This..." King Chappa was taken aback. He had been expecting this kid to kneel before him, but now he was just walking away?
"Since I'm this strong, don't you want to become as strong as me?" King Chappa couldn't understand Yamiru's thought process. "Was it because I, King Chappa, wasn't friendly enough, or is this kid's self-esteem too high?"
Yamiru couldn't care less about that, though. He was thinking about whether that old man was still around. Now that the match was over, what was he going to do with him? It was time to get some answers.
---
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