Dragonball: Rebirth

Chapter 1: The World Tournament Begins

Our story begins in Senyo City, the largest and most populated city in the world. In this city you could find whatever you're looking for, for the right price anyway. Today people from all over the world are gathering here, for today is the beginning of the Tenkaichi Budokai, or World Tournament. Fighters from around the globe will participate in an attempt to win the grand prize: 100 million Zeni. But that is not the only draw of the tournament. Many have come to test their skills against the best of the best, while others have come for darker purposes.

"Not what I expected." The young man stood there with his arms folded, surveying the area. The atmosphere was more like a carnival or fair rather than the greatest martial arts tournament in the world. Vendors selling popcorn, cotton candy, T-shirts. Photo booths set up for children to take pictures with some of the more well-known fighters. "Not what I expected at all." He repeated to himself, frowning. He reached down and grabbed the satchel at his side, slung it over his shoulder, and then headed toward the registration building.

Inside there seemed to be a bit of commotion. There was a man at the counter arguing with the receptionist. Apparently she was trying to check his weapon, and he was having none of it.

"Listen to me lady, this sword does not leave my side."

"I'm sorry Mr. Madrox, but if that's the way you feel, you won't be able to participate today. There are no weapons allowed in the competition."

"Grr.....I know that. I'm not planning onusing it. I just don't want to leave it with you people."

Were those....fangs? The young man thought to himself. When the man, "Madrox", growled, he could have sworn he had seen fangs. Weird. Although odd, he didn't care much if the guy had fangs or not. What he did care about however was that the line was being held up, and that was cutting into his time.

"Hey buddy, you wanna hurry this up? I don't have time for you and your separation anxiety." He walked to the front of the line, coming up behind Madrox.

"Who the hell....?" Madrox turned, an angry look on his face. From this close, he could tell those definitely were fangs he had seen in Madrox's mouth. "Why don't you mind your own business, little man?" Madrox said, as he looked down at the him. Madrox, while the larger of the two, wasn't all that tall. He was about 5 foot 10 inches, with long, spiky black hair, and a slim yet defined build. His facial features were sharp, and he had long, almost pointy, ears.

The young man was a few inches shorter, with short semi-spiky black hair. He looked to be about 16 or 17 by his facial features, and his body was mostly hidden under the dark cloak he was wearing.

"This is my business. You're holding me up." Then, with a smirk he added. "Although, if you plan on giving anyone here a challenge, you're probably going to need the sword."

Madrox took a step toward him. "You little shit! I should-"

The receptionist stood up. "Gentlemen please! If either of you start a fight in here, neither of you will be entering the tournament! Now Mr. Madrox, please check your weapon if you're going to enter the competition, and if not, please be on your way." Madrox turned back to the receptionist.

"Fine." He removed the sword and sheathe from his side, and placed it on the counter. Then he turned back. "Pray that I don't see you in that ring, boy." And with that he walked off. The receptionist turned to the young man.

"Thanks for the help." she said, smiling at him. He frowned.

"Whatever. Can I sign up now?" The smile faded.

"Sure...What's your name please?"

"Enzan Kiru."

Little shit! Who does he think he is talking to me like that? I can't wait to get him in the ring, and then I-.

"Jamie!"

"Huh?" Jamie stopped, and turned his head. A young man in a grey gi was waving him over. Jamie smiled. "Ah. Tetsuo." He made his way through the crowd over to Tetsuo. "What's up? Any luck yet?" Tetsuo shook his head, remaining silent. Jamie frowned.

"Well, they should be around here somewhere. From what we gathered, some of their operatives should be entering this tournament. Clye and Kugo should be here somewhere too." Testuo nodded, narrowing his eyes. Jamie couldn't blame him for being angry with them. He was pretty pissed himself, after the incident in that mountain lab. He shook the memory away, turning back to Tetsuo.

"Anyway, I'm not in the mood for another monologue with you, so let's see what we can find." Jamie said, looking around. Tetsuo raised a brow at him.

"Sorry. This little jerk at the registration got on my nerves. And I had to check my sword at the counter. I'm itching for a fight now, and unfortunately we still have time before this thing gets under way. Let's go find Sierra." Tetsuo patted his shoulder, and then nodded.

They made their way over to where the preliminaries would be taking place. Between the spectators and participants, the place was packed. There were well over 1000 people who would be participating. Of course, only 16 would make it to the final cut, but that required a day or two of preliminary matches. Normally, as in previous tournaments, the final competitors would be determined by a strength test machine, the highest 16 making it. However, the Shuisha Corporation was running things this year, and they wanted to make sure the very best of the best would be in it. Everyone would get a chance to fight to prove themselves, to make sure only the best fighters made it to the end. Sure it would take longer, but it would be worth it for the fans.

When they arrived, Jamie took a look around, checking out the potential competition. They were a few decent looking fighters, some maybe a little impressive, by human standards anyway. And I'm hardly human. He thought to himself, smiling. Tetsuo looked over at him, and shook his head. Jamie looked over to him, and then sighed.

"Yeah, I know. I'm not underestimating them. I just don't think there's too much competition here to worry about." Jamie scratched his head. "You know, for a guy who barely says anything, you communicate pretty well." Tetsuo shrugged, and then looked past Jamie, over his shoulder. Jamie turned to see what he was looking at.

There was a group of guys standing in a semi-circle, around a single girl. "She's at it again." Jamie said, chuckling. He began to make his way over there. As Jamie and Tetsuo approached, they noticed a few of the guys were flexing, and striking poses, apparently trying to impress the girl.

"-bench press 400 pounds!" One of the guys said, flexing his massive arms. Another guy stepped in front of him.

"That's nothing. I can bench 500 pounds, easily!" The girl giggled, covering her mouth with one hand.

"Wow... you guys are soooo strong, hehe."

"Alright guys, go take a shower break to wash off all that testosterone." Jamie said, stepping past them. Then he turned and added, "Drop the soap, have a ball, whatever floats your boat." The men's' expressions turned to that of anger, and they began advancing on Jamie. Before they could reach him, however, the girl stepped between them, putting her hands up.

"Now now, settle down boys. Save it for the matches." She smiled, and then turned back to Jamie. "If you'll excuse me guys, I need to have a chat with my friend here." A few of them men growled, cursing Jamie under their breaths, but turned to walk away. Jamie laughed, turning to her.

"No luck getting laid again eh, Sierra?" She narrowed her eyes, and he could see she clearly wasn't in the joking mood.

"So uh, find anything out?" He said, clearing his throat. She shook her head.

"Bunch of muscle bound idiots. None of them could be who we're looking for. Too stupid." Jamie laughed.

"Yeah, heh, I noticed. Anyway, Tetsuo and I haven't been able to find anything either." Sierra looked around, and then turned back to Jamie.

"Speaking of which....where is Testuo?" Jamie blinked, and then looked to his side.

"The hell..? He was here a second ago when I came over." Looking over his shoulder, Jamie frowned. "Looks like we got a little bit of trouble." Behind the two of them, the group of guys that had been talking to Sierra were standing around Tetsuo. One of them was in his face, pointing at him.

"Listen punk, you damn well better apologize for bumping into me, or we're gonna have a problem here." Tetsuo blinked, looking up at the man in front of him. Tetsuo wasn't a big guy by any means. He stood about 5' 9", and although fairly built, probably weighed only about 180 pounds. The guy standing in front of him however, towered over him at around 6' 7", and weighed at least 320 pounds.

"Hey runt, I'm talking to you!" The man pointed a finger right at Tetsuo's nose, who continued to simply stand there. "Oh, I get it, I scared you speechless didn't I, runt?" the large man said, chuckling. Tetsuo turned, and started to walk away. "Hey! Don't walk away from me when I'm talking to you!" The guy reached out after Tetsuo, grabbing his shoulder. Tetsuo narrowed his eyes.

"Don't." was all he said. The big guy laughed.

"Or what? Hahaha." He tightened his grip on Tetsuo's shoulder.

Tetsuo stepped forward suddenly, turning his body at the same time. This pulled the guy, who was still holding his shoulder, closer to him. He shot his elbow out into the guy's abdomen, who slowly released his shoulder, taking a step back.

"Ga....gah.....gah...". The guy dropped to one knee, grabbing his stomach. "Yo..you sonofa....." The other guys standing around, realizing what happened, lunged toward Tetsuo. He narrowed his eyes, and then leaped at one of the guys. He threw a right hook, catching the first guy across the jaw, sending him reeling backward. Next he shot out a kick, catching the guy behind him in the throat. Then he ducked low under a punch, and came up with an uppercut, knocking another guy backward off his feet. The last guy threw a couple of punches at him, which he easily evaded. The last punch he caught, much to the bigger guys' surprise. Squeezing tightly, he pulled the guy in, right into an elbow to the nose. Bloodied, the guy fell backward, his eyes rolling up into his head. Tetsuo lowered his hands, and then sighed, shaking his head.

A bit of a crowd had gathered around, realizing a fight was probably about to take place. Jamie growled, annoyed. He starting pushing through people, trying to get to Tetsuo before anything could happen. Unfortunately, before he could make it, one of the guys made the mistake of grabbing Tetsuo.

Shit, I almost feel bad for this guy, thought Jamie, as Tetsuo nailed him hard in the stomach. By the time Jamie got up to the front of the crowd, 5 guys were sprawled out on the ground. Testuo stood in the middle of them, shaking his head. Jamie walked up to him, looking down at the beaten men.

"Idiots. Serves you all right for screwing with him." He turned to Tetsuo. "Come on, let's get out of here before anybody else gets any bright ideas." Tetsuo nodded, and the two of them walked over to where Sierra was standing. She gave a little golf clap.

"Nicely done. At least you got a little bit of a warm up, Tetsuo." She said, chuckling. He smiled back at her, nodding.

"Yeah yeah yeah. Enough fun and games. As much as they deserved it, Tetsuo caused a little bit of a spectacle. He may have gotten himself noticed by someone we didn't want knowing we were here." Jamie said, glancing around. Several of the participants, along with quite a few people, were looking over at the three of them.

"Relax Jamie," Sierra said, smiling. "Maybe it'll make it easier for us to find them." Jamie frowned."For some reason, I doubt that...". The three of them walked off to check out the rest of the tournament grounds.

After registering, Enzan had decided to find something to eat, with little luck. Everywhere there were booths selling candy, pretzels and other junk food, but what he wanted was a real meal. Finally, much to his relief, he found a cafeteria, and they were serving a buffet for all the participants in the tournament. He helped himself to a couple of platefuls of food, satisfying his hunger. Now, he decided, it was time to check out the competition. Normally it would have taken him a long time to check out all the participants, due to the large amount of people gathered, but Enzan had developed a certain skill that would make it much faster.

Through the course of his training, he had learned that everyone had inside them a certain amount of life energy, or Ki. An average person usually didn't generate that much, but a martial artist, who harnessed that life energy to fight, generated a whole lot more. Basically, the more powerful you were the more energy you'd be using. He had found out that if he concentrated he could actually sense this energy emanating from a person's body. Not only did this give him a decent idea of how strong his opponent was, it also enabled him to fight them better. Rather than look for attacks coming at him, he would feel them, enabling him to react quicker. He was also able to suppress his own energy so as to not give away his own strength. Through practice all this had become fairly easy for him to do.

He walked past a group of rather large guys, glancing at them as he passed by. They were talking about weight lifting, comparing what they could bench and curl, along with the size of their biceps and pecs. He chuckled as he moved on, shaking his head. Not one of them possessed any sort of impressive energy.

Idiots. They think building their muscles makes them stronger. Enzan knew better. No matter how big your muscles were, you're still limited by the human body, as far as how strong and fast you can become. Martial artists, however, didn't focus on their physical strength. By strengthening their bodies through rigorous training, they are able to generate and harness more life energy. By focusing that energy into their bodies, they are able to surpass those human limits of speed and strength. Some could even generate enough energy to where they were able to release it in a destructive force. Enzan was aware of all this, and so every time he saw fighters who relied on their physical strength, he had to smile.

Oh well, he thought, makes this that much easier for me. He wandered around some more, and although he sensed a few people with a good amount of Ki, he found nothing comparable to his own. Don't tell me I'm going to breeze through this thing. I'm here to test myself, not waste my time. If these are the best fighters the world has to offer, I should leave now.

After a short while, he found himself at the area where the preliminary matches would be held. There were 10 rings side by side, in two rows of 5, along with a judge's booth at each ringside. Casually looking through the crowd here, Enzan still sensed nothing of interest. He was about to continue on, when a young woman caught his eye. She stood about 5' 6", with long white hair, and a very curvaceous body, wearing tight clothing which emphasized this. Despite her beauty, it wasn't her looks that caught his attention, but rather her Ki. It wasn't the amount of energy she possessed either, but the type of Ki he was sensing. It was strange, different than anything he had ever sensed before. Her energy felt off, as though she was not quite human. This troubled him, as he had no idea what that could mean. Adding to his surprise, he noticed the man he had argued with earlier, Madrox, approaching the girl. He fixed his eyes on Madrox, focusing on his energy.

Why didn't I notice this before? Madrox was emanating the same type of energy he felt from the girl, although a bit more powerful. Enzan cursed himself. I was too busy being arrogant to pay attention, that's why. He noticed following a few steps behind Madrox was another man, dressed in a grey gi. He stopped abruptly, as Madrox continued on. Enzan focused on this other guy, and again got the same thing. Damnit, what's going on here? This last guy seemed even stronger than the other two. Enzan was debating what to do, when he noticed the guy had turned his head toward him.

Is he...looking at me? Enzan couldn't be sure, but it looked like the guy was staring straight at him. Can he sense Ki as well..? This guy was so fixated on him that he didn't notice one of the big guys came walking toward him. The big guy apparently wasn't paying attention either, and ran right into him. Oddly enough, instead of the smaller guy moving, the big one took a step back.

"Hey, what the hell is wrong with you eh!?" Enzan heard the big guy say. "You walked right into me!" The guy turned his head, looking up at the big guy. "Why don't you watch where you're going?" The smaller guy stood there, not saying anything. "Listen punk, you damn well better apologize for bumping into me, or we're gonna have a problem here." Enzan smiled.

This should be interesting, he thought, folding his arms. The big guy grabbed the smaller one by the shoulder. The small one moved quickly, and nailed him hard in the stomach. Ah, he's fast too. Enzan thought, watching closely. The other guys jumped in, but were easily taken care of with a few quick moves. Enzan noted all the guy's moves were very quick, but deliberate. He was well trained and disciplined. Enzan also noticed his Ki didn't rise at all while he fought, which meant he was doing all this with little effort. After they were all taken care of, Enzan saw Madrox coming up to the guy. Madrox said something, and then turned to walk off. The guy glanced over at Enzan once more, than turned and followed. They went back to where the girl was standing, exchanged a few words, and then the three of them walked off together. Enzan smirked.

Maybe there's reason to stay around here after all.