▸ Column · Contemporary martial-arts training circuit, Dragon Ball Z era — dojo culture, regional qualifying tournaments, fighters as the letter-writer's social world.
GOKU replies.
The letter
For seven months I've been the person Daisuke trains with when the session runs long, the person he called over when his family came through for the regional qualifier, the person standing next to him at his teammate's celebration banquet. But when his sister asked about me, he said "just someone from the dojo." Every time I try to talk about what this actually is, he says titles make him anxious and we end up eating dumplings and moving on. I'm thirty-four and I don't have another seven months to spend being someone's unnamed training partner. Is an ultimatum the right call — or does the fact that I'm even thinking about one already say everything?
Goku replies
Okay, full disclosure — labels are genuinely not my strong suit. When Chi-Chi asked me to marry her, I thought "marriage" might be a type of food. She will confirm this. So take everything I say here with that in mind.
But here's what I do know something about: not fighting. You've had this exact same match seven times, and both of you step back when the bell rings. He says titles make him anxious, you eat dumplings, and another month stacks up without anybody throwing a real punch. That's not a relationship with a tricky label — that's two people circling each other and never committing.
Thing is, though — he IS in the fight. He called you when his family came to town. He had you next to him at that banquet. The guys I've actually given up on never do any of that stuff. So I don't think he's done, pal. I think he's scared. And scared is fine — scared usually means something real is there.
So not an ultimatum. Those are just threats with a timer on them. Go at it plain: here's where I am, here's what I need to know, I'm not trying to corner you, I just need you to actually be in or out. That's a fair shot, not a trap. Give it once.
If he still flinches after that, you'll know. And you'll be okay either way.
Eat something first, though. Seriously.
— Goku
Frieza weighs in
How charmingly typical of him — give the man a fair shot, talk plain, leave the door open. That is, word for word, what he told me on the floor of Namek right before he let me go. You can imagine how that particular act of sportsmanship served him.
But his reading of your situation is the wrong one, you poor thing. This man introduced you as "just someone from the dojo" — in front of his family, without a flinch. He told you precisely where you sit in his hierarchy. You simply found the drawer and the dinner table too persuasive to hear him clearly. An ultimatum is begging with a deadline. The moment you announce one, you've confirmed everything he apparently already suspected about which of you holds the leverage. Don't.
— Frieza
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