The air had changed.
The sun shined the same, the wind still whispered through the trees, and the crowd still murmured with excitement—but something was undeniably different the moment the two youngest fighters stepped into the ring.
The announcer adjusted his glasses and held the mic tight, almost too tightly.
"Aaaaand now! The match we've all been waiting for—our youngest competitors in the tournament history! On one side, the boy from the wild mountains, the monkey-tailed prodigy… Goku! And on the other side, the mysterious, wide-eyed wonder… Mori, adopted son of the Brief family!"
He raised his hand.
"Ready...?! Begin!"
Silence.
No movement.
No cheers.
No impact.
Just silence.
Goku and Mori stood across from each other, motionless.
No words. No gestures.
Not even a blink.
Goku's smile had faded into a calm, unreadable expression. His tail lazily swayed behind him, like it too was trying to assess the boy standing across from its owner.
Mori stood perfectly still, posture loose but alert. His eyes—those strange, glowing blue-white eyes—were locked on Goku's, studying him like a mirror trying to understand its reflection.
To the crowd, it was a moment of awkward tension—two kids too nervous to throw the first punch.
But to Jackie Chun, it was something else entirely.
Sitting just beyond the ring, arms crossed beneath his long sleeves, the old man narrowed his gaze.
He could see it.
Aura.
Goku radiated a steady stream of calm blue energy, soft and smooth like rippling water. It shimmered gently around him, as if the very world accepted his presence.
But when Jackie looked at Mori, he saw…
Nothing. At first.
Just a faint flicker of wind around his hair.
Then his eyes adjusted.
And what he saw turned his lips into a grim line.
Mori's aura shimmered erratically—colors bleeding into each other like an oil slick across water. Purple, blue, black, green, pink… constantly shifting. But it wasn't just the colors. It was the way it moved—wild, untamed.
It pulsed, thrashed, and clawed outward like a beast shackled in a human body.
Not angry.
Just… hungry.
Jackie narrowed his eyes, posture subtly shifting. This fight could spiral.
I should be ready.
Back in the ring, Goku's head tilted.
Still silent.
Still unreadable.
But then…
A leaf, small and golden-brown, floated lazily from a tree beyond the stadium walls. It drifted down between the two boys, twisting in the wind like a coin falling through water.
And the moment it touched the ring floor—
Goku moved.
A blur.
The wind snapped.
He was in front of Mori.
Then—
Behind him.
A sharp kick struck Mori's back, launching him forward in an arc across the arena.
The crowd gasped.
But before they could even fully react, Mori twisted in the air, planting one hand against the ring floor with an elegant spin and flipping back to his feet in a single smooth motion.
His eyes flicked around.
Where—?
Then he stopped looking.
He just knew.
Goku had shifted behind him again, and Mori didn't need to see him to react.
He raised his leg and kicked backward—hard.
The impact rang out like a whip crack.
Thud!
Goku grunted, sliding back several feet, his sandals scraping across the ring floor as he planted himself low, arms crossed in front of his chest where he'd blocked the strike.
Mori turned around slowly, lips parted in a half-exhale.
Goku smiled again.
Mori didn't.
But his eyes shimmered, and the two stared at each other once more.
And this time, it wasn't calm.
Something in Mori stirred—deep inside him.
In his genes.
Like a match had been struck.
A thread of ki coiled and snapped inside him, reacting to the challenge, to the thrill, to the acknowledgement of another warrior's presence. He didn't know why he felt this way—he didn't know what was happening to him.
But it felt…
Good.
Something in him laughed without sound. A roar in his blood. A hum in his bones.
And without meaning to—without caring how he looked—
Mori grinned.
Big. Wild.
A crooked, chaotic, battle-ready smile that cracked across his face like a child seeing his first snowfall.
Goku grinned back.
He didn't need words either.
The wind picked up again, circling the two of them, carrying their excitement, their energy, their curiosity into the air. The crowd watched, unsure what they were seeing.
But Jackie Chun knew.
He whispered under his breath.
"…This isn't just a match between kids."
He stood slowly.
"This is something bigger."