Gokan looked around the training room; men and women of all shapes and sizes were preparing, some looking focused, some looking nervous, some looking terrified, some even looking queasy. As his eyes scanned the fighters, he caught a glimpse of Tien Shinhan's student, Beat; he stood in a corner, solitary, his eyes closed and his arms crossed. Gokan could almost feel the confidence radiating off the teenaged fighter. Gokan continued to scan the group, noting that there were no Majin fighters, and only one Namekian, stood near the entrance to the stage. The Namekian appeared to be young as well, and wore a grey gi with a purple belt.
As he finished surveying all the fighters, he approached the board where the brackets were; the "preliminaries" (which was only punching a bag to determine the strength of the competitors, and the ten strongest from that we inserted into the tournament) had already been held the week previously, in a private room, one by one in order to keep the brackets a surprise. Gokan would be in the second match-up; Beat would be in the fifth. If he was being honest with himself, Gokan knew it would probably be himself and Beat in the finals, although the Namekian very well could take them both down for all Gokan knew.
A man and a woman came to the training room to collect the first two contestants, Elira and Din. They were both intensely focused looking men; they walked out to the stage, and it was then that Gokan fully registered the roar of the crowd. He'd heard it before, but it really dawned on him what was about to happen. He was going to fight in the most prestigious martial arts tournament in the world!
/
Krillin and Pan were at the topmost row; there were no seats, so they merely stood and watched the first fight. The two men were talented martial artists, but in a tournament featuring people well trained in advanced martial arts and ki control, it seemed a bit pointless for them to fight. Pan was chatting amiably with a young couple standing next to them. Krillin was distracted by Tien's approaching ki.
"Trunks couldn't come?" Krillin asked before Tien could even greet him.
"No, he had urgent work to attend to, the poor old man. He's watching a broadcast of the tournament."
"And the boy's parents?"
"You know how they feel about this martial arts stuff. They'd rather he didn't do it, so why would they come to a tournament?"
/
Gokan sat on a bench, stretching in preparation for his next fight, against a short, stocky fellow named Oagie. The diminutive fighter had a horrible stench, and Gokan wasn't particularly looking forward to touching the man in any way, but inevitably, he was called out to the ring. Standing on his side of the tiled square, he looked around the audience, his eyes falling on Pan, who was waving furiously, and Krillin, standing next to Tien Shinhan, oddly enough. Gokan smiled widely and waved back to Pan.
"Hey kid! Eyes on me!" Oagie yelled. Gokan looked back at him, and then realized he was in a fight.
"Oh yeah! I'm sorry! Let's do this!" Gokan replied cheerily, assuming his fighting position. Oagie let out a roar, and took a running start at Gokan. Instantly, Gokan realized what mistake Oagie was going to make, so he waited until the last possible second- until Oagie was right in front of him- to leap up in the air, flipping over and landing on his feet. As he expected, Oagie couldn't stop in time, running right off the edge of the ring and landing hard on the grass.
"Son Gokan wins!" the announcer yelled to the crowd, who were slightly shocked and the very short match. Gokan waved to Pan once again, and noted Krillin had a proud smile on his face.
As he walked down the hallway leading to the training room, he passed by the Namekian, who retained eye contact the whole time, until they passed by each other.
