Dragon Ball NG (Next Generation)
By: Dragonball Fang Fist
Chapter 8: Luck of the Draw
"Draw numbers?" one of the big guys standing nearest to the announcer questioned.
"Well, you see this year's tournament has a total of 141 fighters entering. We've divided you as evenly as possible into four blocks. The top four from each block will advance to fight in the main arena in front of the audience starting tomorrow," the announcer explained. One at a time, the fighters were called up and each pulled a small piece of paper out of the box with a number written on it between 1 and 141. Soon one of the Krillins was called up. He drew a number and left without showing anyone. Gohan assumed they'd just be called up by number and have to show the paper before they got to fight. Not long after Krillin, Kramer was called up and right after him Kaizen. It seemed as though they were calling the fighters in order of registration. A few unknown random fighters later, it was the Krillin and Trunks that Gohan had seen first and had believed to be the real ones until all the confusion had begun. The announcer as well as everyone else around became confused and began to stare that the four look-alikes. As expected not long afterwards, Gohan's name was called.
Gohan took a deep breath and approached the box. As he reached in and felt a bunch of papers, he shuffled around a bit before deciding and grabbing one. He removed the paper from the box and walked back to where Yamcha and Goten were standing. Yamcha's name was called and they crossed paths. Yamcha drew his number, followed by Goten. Garon and Garbang were two of the last to be called up and intimidated everyone they passed by. The three turtle students looked at their numbers and were relieved to see that none of them were too close together. Gohan had drawn 27, Yamcha 126, and Goten 53. The first three blocks contained 35 fighters each and the last one had 36. This put Gohan in block 1, Goten in block 2, and Yamcha in block 4. Not only would the boys not have to face each other they were in different blocks altogether.
As the fights began, a referee was assigned to each block and each one got onto one of the stages and began to announce numbers for fighters to step up. These preliminary fights would have a time limit of one minute and victory could be achieved by surrender, knockout, or ring-out. Killing your opponent though would lead to disqualification. Garon got to fight in one of the first matches, and his opponent surrendered just looking at the giant Netvor. Both Krillins, Kaizen, Kramer, and one of the Trunks also easily dispatched their opponents.
"Will number 126 and 127 please step up to the ring?" The referee in block four announced and Yamcha nodded and climbed on to the ring. The man who stepped in across from him was a couple inches shorter than Yamcha, not too much younger than Master Han, and had an extremely focused look on his face. Yamcha didn't realize that this man was probably a skilled veteran of the martial arts. Instead, he was cocky due to the fact that every other fighter he'd seen fight he considered to be on par with the three turtle students had easily won their matches. Yamcha decided he'd eliminate the man quickly with one kick to send him out of the ring. He then remembered he should hold back on the kick so as to not hurt the man. He launched his kick as soon as the referee allowed them to begin. To his surprise, the man smoothly sidestepped his kick and grabbed his leg. Then he swung Yamcha around and attempted to throw him out of the ring.
"Aaaeeeyyyy!" screamed Yamcha as he'd been completely taken by surprise. However, he managed to regain his balance in mid-air and do a handspring to stop himself from flying through the air. He then hopped back on his feet. After sneaking a look behind him, he realized he had been a few inches from elimination. He wiped a few drops of sweat from his forehead and vowed to never have that kind of cocky attitude again. "So you're not a joke like a lot of the others here? I wasn't expecting that, and I apologize, but I'm no longer going to underestimate you." Without waiting for a response, Yamcha launched another kicked at the man, who once again moved out of the way, but Yamcha was ready this time and used one of his hands and the ground to propel him away from the man's counterattack, a punch aimed at his ribs and swung his other foot at the man's head as he was propelled back and created some separation between the two. The man once again demonstrated his skill in ducking the kick. It was his turn to attack Yamcha now. The man ran with both of his fists next to his hips, ready to punch.
He started with a left hook, which Yamcha managed to block by grabbing the man's fist. The man then tried a knee strike to Yamcha's abdomen which Yamcha blocked with his own knee. Yamcha's opponent then aimed a chop right at his neck. Yamcha moved his head back and then put the man's arm which he was still holding in the path of his own chop. The man managed to stop himself before he smashed his own arm, but this created an opening for Yamcha who connected with a kick straight to the man's jaw. The man flew back a few feet and landed on the floor. He was down, but not out. He began to slowly get back to his feet. "For someone so young, your skill is considerable," the man complimented Yamcha.
"Thanks, I was trained by the turtle hermit. I wasn't expecting to run into a skilled warrior so early in the preliminaries." Yamcha replied in kind, introducing himself at the same time.
"I am Pirock, pleasure to meet you. Let us make the rest of this fight memorable, one that the world will remember." As Pirock introduced himself the two warriors walked the center of the ring and shook hands out of mutual respect that they had attained for each other in their fight so far. The two then once again went into their places and got into position for another round of fighting.
"Your time is up!" The referee suddenly declared, stunning both fighters who'd forgotten in their excitement that this was the preliminaries and there was a one minute time frame for them to fight. They both shot puzzled looks at the referee who merely declared "number 126 is the winner!" However, Yamcha didn't seem too pleased at how the fight had ended.
"I can't accept that, that wasn't even a complete fight, it's not fair," Yamcha began to complain.
"Relax, you won and rightfully so, you managed to avoid taking any kind of a serious hit while that kick did quite a bit of damage to me. You're stronger than I am. Also, don't expect me to go down so easy next year." Pirock said. With that, the two fighters shook hands again and stepped off.
"That was dangerously close, huh Yamcha?" Gohan questioned as Yamcha stepped off the ring.
"Tell me about it. I hope we don't run into anyone else that skilled anytime soon." Goten said. Goten was right in his hope. Neither Gohan, Goten, nor Yamcha ran into another fighter quite as skilled as Pirock on their way to the finals.
"Well that's all for the preliminaries. For those of you who advanced, please follow me. As for those of you who were eliminated you're free to stay and watch the rest of the tournament, as long as you pay for a ticket. It will be half off though, as some sort of compensation prize. Anyway, if you're one of the sixteen finalists, follow me." With that, the announcer began to lead the way into another room which was directly behind the main arena.
Upon arrival into this new room, the three boys took a look around to scout out the competition. Apart from the three of them, thirteen other fighters stood spread out across the room in their different groups. They observed one pair of Trunks and Krillin, Kramer and Kaizen, the other Trunks and other Krillin, Garon and Garbang, and five fighters who stood on their own. The first was a brown skinned boy, who was probably a few years younger than Yamcha and Gohan. The only hair on his head was a single ponytail that hung from the top of his head all the way until the bottom of his shoulder blades. The second was a man who was sitting in a corner on his own, in a meditating stance, eyes closed in focus. This man was quite old, and had the appearance of a veteran similar to that of Pirock. Leaning against the wall nearest the entrance was an extremely pale fighter. He had his fangs sticking out and was wearing a red cape. "Hey look, it's a vampire or something," Goten whispered as he pointed at the strange contestant. When the vampire looking creature opened its eyes and shot an ugly look at the trio, they quickly looked away. Another fighter stood closest to the announcer, looking intently at him, seeming overexcited. He looked a mix of anxious and happy. He was a medium five foot eight inches and had a nice patch of curly black hair which wasn't overly long. He looked quite skinny and his face seemed more like that of a little child than a fighter skilled enough to make it to the finals of the World Martial Arts Tournament. Despite this, the man seemed to be in his mid-20s…just not a little right in the head. The last fighter was the only female present. She was a couple of inches taller than Krillin and had some sort of a strange mask on so as to conceal her facial features. She wore a purple overall with no sleeves. The mask on her face was all gold. It covered her entire face, save two eyeholes, two holes for her nostrils, and of course she could open her mouth. Gohan caught her staring at him and his group but she turned away as soon as he looked at her. He found it strange, but shook it off as nothing to worry about.
"Now that we are all gathered, I have looked up all your names from the registration."
"What? How'd you do that?" Yamcha asked in response to the announcer's announcement.
"uhh…a picture was taken of each fighter as they registered. You and your two friends were too busy chatting at the time to notice. Let's just say they didn't turn out so great." The announcer answered and decided to move on before the boys asked to see their pictures. "Now with that out of the way, when I call your name, simply come up and draw a number. Based on the number you draw between one and sixteen, I will add you to the bracket here on this wall." He indicated towards a wall with a giant whiteboard on it which contained a pre-drawn bracket of four rounds. The fighters all tensed up and gave their full attention to the announcer. The monk who accompanied him was carrying another box. This time, it was a much smaller box as it contained far fewer pieces of paper.
"Very well…let's get started then…Goten come get your number." Goten was a bit surprised that he'd been called up first but stepped up to the monk and drew out a slip of paper regardless. "Your number is 5." The announcer scribbled Goten's name onto the bracket under the spot labeled 5. One of the Krillins was next and the announcer had to point to which one he meant. This Krillin drew number 10. Next up was the Trunks who were standing with the Krillin who drew 10. Trunks drew 13. Garon was next and he drew 11. The name "Ryemin" was called next. This was the fighter whose facial expression was that of a child excited for his first ever birthday party. Ryemin jumped for joy as his name was called and hurriedly drew his number which turned out to be 3. The announcer called "Landar" next. This was the man who'd previously been seen levitating. He calmly walked up to the box and pulled out the number 8. Kaizen was called up next and he drew 6. It was the other Krillin's turn and he picked up number 9. The Indian kid with the ponytail was called up and he drew 12. Next up was Kramer who pulled out the number 4. The announcer then finally called Gohan's name. Gohan reached into the box and pulled out the number 15. Garbang was called up immediately after Gohan and got the number 1. The female fighter who apparently wished to be called "Heavenly mother" was called up and she drew 16. Then the vampire creature was called up and he drew number 7. Yamcha was then called up, and he drew the number 2. The last remaining fighter was one of the Trunks and his number was assigned 14 by default. Gohan, Goten, Trunks, Krillin, Yamcha, Trunks, and Krillin all gasped as they took a look at the bracket.
1. Garbang VS2. Yamcha
3. Ryemin VS 4. Kramer
5. Goten VS 6. Kaizen
7. Dracen VS 8. Landar
9. Krillin VS 10. Krillin
11. Garon VS 12. Marlin
13. Trunks VS 14. Trunks
15. Gohan VS 16. Heavenly Mother
"Master Han was right guys, it looks like things are going to play themselves out in this tournament." Gohan stated as he stared at the brackets. The pairs of Trunks and Krillins merely stared at each other with fire in all four pairs of eyes, each one desperate to prove themselves the real one.
"This is going to be one wild ride!" Goten exclaimed sounding more excited than worried.
"Good luck fighters, first match begins bright and early tomorrow morning, so get plenty of rest. You're free until then, but you are not allowed to see or go into the main arena. We are to leave through the back where came from." The announcer bid the sixteen finalists adieu.
The preliminary round is over, the numbers have been drawn. It is time for the finals, the real tournament to begin. Will Yamcha finally be able to get past the first round and break the 'curse' on his ancestor against the fierce Netvor Garbang? Who will prove to be the real Trunks and Krillin? What about the unknown fighters? What sort of ability to they possess? The moment you've all been waiting for, the real tournament begins, next time on Dragonball NG!
Power levels: Only power level I'll concede is Pirock's. Feel free to use it to speculate Yamcha's and everyone else's, but they'll all be revealed soon enough.
Pirock: 68
