Goku's Arc

Chapter 2 of 2

Goku pushed through the arena gates by mid-morning. The stands rose in tiers above him, banners hanging from every tower. Fighters filled the practice floors. Some shadowboxed. Some stretched. Some hit pads until the leather split. He stood at the edge of the main hall and tried to pick a match. Every fighter looked strong. None of them made his chest tighten. He needed the pressure, the sense that a mistake could cost him. Without it, a match was just exercise, and exercise had already failed him. He signed up for the first open bout and drew a heavy-armed brawler. Goku dropped him in one exchange. The next fighter used a spinning kick style. Goku caught the leg and put him down. A third came at him with iron gauntlets and lasted twelve seconds. Goku walked back to the bench sweating from the walk, not the fights. He had picked wrong three times. The roster listed forty more names. At this pace he would burn a week and learn nothing. He sat on the bench and stared at his hands. Picking blind was the problem. He needed a filter. He walked to the training annex and found a rack of old dumbbells against the wall, iron ends scuffed from decades of use. He lifted the heaviest pair and set them in the center of the floor. Then he called out to the room. Anyone who could clean this weight over their head got a match with him. No fighter under that bar was worth his time. Most of the room laughed and turned away. A few tried and failed. Then one man stepped forward. He wore a white uniform stained with old blood, a dark red belt knotted at his waist, and wrapped fists. He lifted the iron clean overhead, held it, and set it down without a sound. He looked at Goku and waited. Goku felt it then, faint but real, the pressure in his chest. Not full weight. But the first honest signal since he walked in. They took the center ring. The man moved fast and hit harder than anyone Goku had faced that morning. Goku won, but he took a rib shot that cracked something and a knee that buckled his stance twice. He stood over the fallen fighter, breathing hard, and understood the answer. The filter worked. Strong fighters existed here, but they were buried under the weak ones, and he needed a harder gate to find them. As the medics carried his opponent out, a staff member handed Goku a glowing blue orb and told him it was his entry token for the sealed bracket upstairs, where the arena kept the fighters no one on the main floor could touch.