The audience went crazy over Videl's victory, but strangely enough Videl didn't seem to cheer along with them. She slowly started to walk out of the ring, and she met Gohan just outside of the ring.
'Hey Videl, you fought really well, congratulations!' Gohan said.
'Thanks Great Saiyaman, you're up next right?' Videl said.
'That's right.' Gohan replied. Videl looked sad, Gohan didn't understand why. Should he offer her help? Before Gohan reached a decision, Mr. Satan quickly left the ring, while Gohan's opponent Namu appeared. Namu had a dark skin-tone and wore colourful robes, although not as vibrantly coloured as Gohan's Saiyaman outfit. The loud referee quickly announced their entry.
'In the second fight of the first round, we have Namu fighting the Great Saiyaman! So let us welcome them to the ring!'
Gohan and Namu both walked into the ring together.
'This is the first Tournament entry for the Great Saiyaman, however he is already well known in Satan City where he has done various deeds of heroism together with Videl! His opponent Namu has appeared 24 years ago in the Tournament and he proved himself a capable fighter back then. We will see how much Namu has improved over the years, or maybe whether age has caught up with him!'
Gohan and Namu took their positions and bowed to each other.
'And begin!'
Namu lunged in for a karate chop. He was quite fast, certainly faster than Mr. Satan, but Gohan blocked Namu's attack. But Namu wasn't done yet, he proceeded with several attacks in quick succession, and Gohan blocked each one.
'Not too bad, but let's see how you handle this.' Namu said, and he jumped up high.
'Oh, and Namu takes the fight to the skies with a massive jump.' The referee exclaimed. 'It looks like he jumped about 40 metres into the sky, what an amazing jump!'
Gohan was impressed by Namu's jump, it didn't feel like he used any ki at all for it. Namu came back down with an aerial kicking attack. Gohan saw it coming and quickly jumped out of the way, but Namu managed to steer his fall with his ki and hit Gohan in the chest anyway. Gohan had not expected Namu to use ki and was knocked back. Namu landed after the kick and immediately attacked afterwards, going with a powerful second kick to Gohan's chest.
But Gohan was prepared for Namu's second attack and blocked it with his hand. Gohan went in for an attack of his own, grabbing Namu's foot with both hands and trying to throw him out of the ring. But Namu managed to grab Gohan's foot while being swung around, causing Gohan to lose balance and fall over. Both fighters quickly stood back up.
'What a fight ladies and gentlemen, Namu managed to counter the Great Saiyaman's throw by grabbing his opponent's foot, right after the Great Saiyaman managed to stay standing against Namu's aerial attack from over ten stories high!' The announcer exclaimed.
Gohan had to agree, Namu was strong. Gohan would have to put in more effort if he wanted to win this. Losing in the first round would disappoint everyone. Gohan started to move quickly, trying to disorient Namu, and went in for a grabbing attack from the back. But Namu jumped up right before Gohan managed to grab him. He sensed my approach! Gohan jumped up after him and grabbed Namu in the air, holding him in a lock. They started to descend and landed, while Gohan still had Namu in his lock.
'I'm sorry, but you can't win this, you'd better give up.' Gohan said.
'I can't give up. You are even stronger than the little boy I fought all those years ago, but I have to win this.' Namu replied.
'And it looks like the Great Saiyaman has Namu bound, how will Namu respond?'
Gohan bound him harder, trying to make his opponent surrender. Namu struggled to free himself but simply did not have the power to do so, even with his ki, Gohan was simply too strong for him.
'Come on Namu, I don't want to hurt you.' Gohan said. 'You won't escape from this, please surrender the fight.'
'I can't give up, my people depend on me.' Namu gasped.
'What do you mean?' Gohan asked.
'My village,' Namu gasped, 'they need the prize money… to clean the toxic area.'
Gohan was shocked, he didn't expect people to use the prize money for such noble causes, and in his shock Namu managed to break free.
'A toxic area?' Gohan asked. 'What do you mean?'
'Wow, it looks like Namu managed to break free from the Great Saiyaman's hold!' The announcer exclaimed.
'The fields that we grow our food on, they have been polluted, intoxicating our crops.' Namu said.
Gohan was torn, what should he do? Throw the fight for Namu? But there was no way Namu would win the Tournament, his dad and Vegeta would never throw their fights and they were way stronger than Namu. Throwing the fight wouldn't help Namu. Maybe Bulma could help Namu's village though, maybe they had some cleansing method at Capsule Corp. Namu started to attack again. Gohan blocked his attacks with ease, and managed to grab Namu in a lock again.
'It's no use Namu, you're not strong enough.' Gohan said. 'But maybe I can help you some other way after the Tournament.'
'If I surrender, you will help my village?' Namu gasped.
'You have my word.' Gohan said.
'Okay.' Namu said, and he raised his voice. 'I surrender.'
'That's it folks, Namu has surrendered!' The referee exclaimed. 'After a fierce fight with the Great Saiyaman, Namu has thrown in the towel. The winner is the Great Saiyaman! Please, a big round of applause for these two fighters!'
The audience cheered and applauded for Namu and Gohan, and they left the ring together.
'And now for our third battle, please welcome our next two fighters. Tenshinhan and Jules!'
Gohan saw Tenshinhan walk to the ring, he gave a quick nod to Gohan and continued. Tenshinhan was a tall fighter, completely bald, and strong muscles. He had a third eye on his forehead that he used to improve his vision, but the origin of this eye was unknown to Gohan. Tenshinhan was a fighter Gohan did not know very well, but Gohan had fought alongside him in the past a few times. Goku knew him better, having fought with him in previous Tournaments. His opponent Jules was a fighter Gohan did not know at all, he looked like a man of average height with long blonde hair. Namu started talking to Gohan.
'I want to thank you Great Saiyaman, if you can help my village we would be eternally grateful to you.'
Gohan still had more fights to do at the Tournament, and Goten was also still missing, judging from the fact that Gohan didn't see his father anywhere. He did want to help Namu, but now was not the best time.
'Sure, but let's discuss this after the Tournament, I still have more fights to do later on.' Gohan said.
'Tenshinhan is a fighter who was trained in the past by the Crane Hermit Tsuru-Sen'nin, but left that school after differences in opinion with the Crane Hermit.' The referee started talking. 'In his previous Tournament entries Tenshinhan proved to be an extremely potent fighter with an aggressive fighting style, a huge amount of techniques up his sleeve, and unbelievable strength and skill. Tenshinhan is also a previous World Champion himself. Underestimating Tenshinhan is something no fighter should ever consider doing. His opponent Jules has appeared in the previous Tournament where he lost in the final match to Mr. Satan, and he is particularly well liked by the ladies.'
Tenshinhan and Jules both took their positions, bowed, and raised their guard.
'Alright then, the third match in the first round here at the World Martial Arts Tournament, it is Tenshinhan versus Jules. Let the match begin!'
The match was over before it began. Tenshinhan quickly moved behind Jules and hit him with a karate chop to the neck, before Jules even had a clue what had happened. Jules went down.
'Wow, it looks like Jules is down after that very fast attack by Tenshinhan! One! Two! Three! Four! Five! Six! Seven! Eight! Nine! Ten! Fighter Jules loses by knockout. It looks like Tenshinhan is still as fearsome and powerful as ever. The winner is Tenshinhan!'
Gohan was impressed by Tenshinhan's power. He clearly had been training for the last seven years. Gohan hadn't trained much for a long time, apart from some training sessions with Goten. But Gohan wouldn't have to fight Tenshinhan until the third round if both of them continued winning. He shouldn't be worrying already.
'It looks like Jules still isn't capable of getting up. I think we'll need a stretcher here?!'
A stretcher quickly showed up and they carried Jules away, while Tenshinhan walked out of the ring again. He quickly nodded to Gohan and stayed outside the ring to watch the next match. Gohan actually wanted to talk to him, but they had all decided this morning after the qualifying round that it might not be smart to talk to everyone while Gohan was in his Saiyaman outfit, it'd be counterproductive to keep his identity secret. The only one who Gohan could really talk to as the Great Saiyaman was Videl, people would simply assume they knew each other from crime-fighting, but Gohan didn't see her anywhere. Did Videl even watch his fight? What was it with this Tournament that everyone started to get missing? First Goten and Trunks, and now Videl too?
'It is time for our fourth match in the first round ladies and gentlemen.' The announcer exclaimed. 'Can Kibito and Krillin come to the ring please?!'
Kibito and Krillin entered the ring. Kibito was a fighter Gohan did not know, he was very tall, Gohan estimated him well over 2 metres, and had pointy ears. His hair was long and white, and he wore robes made of a material Gohan had never seen before. Krillin looked completely different from Kibito, with his short stature of slightly over 150 cm, his bald head, and his orange fighting gi from the Turtle Hermit School. Gohan knew Krillin well, they had fought together several times in the past, and saved each other's life on more than one occasion. The announcer started introducing the fighters.
'Kibito is a newcomer to the Tournament, and he refused any interviews, so we know very little about this fighter. His opponent Krillin on the other hand is quite the accomplished fighter, having already participated in three previous Tournaments in which he showed to be a strong fighter with tremendous progress despite his small size. Krillin was trained for years by Kame-Sen'nin, the Turtle Hermit School, and still wears the gi from that school today. Underestimating Krillin is a mistake nobody should be making.'
'Without further ado; Kibito versus Krillin - let the match begin!'
Krillin gained speed and moved around the ring quickly, hoping to disorient Kibito. Krillin went in for an attack from the side, but Kibito jumped backwards and dodged it. Krillin quickly went on the pursuit and increased his speed further. Kibito certainly was much stronger than Jules was, Krillin was much faster than the speed Tenshinhan showed earlier. Kibito was forced to block several attacks and jumped to the sky. Krillin didn't want to lose momentum and flew after Kibito. He managed to grab Kibito's foot and immediately flew downwards, trying to throw Kibito out of the ring. Kibito wasn't having any of that and he threw a ki blast at Krillin, who barely managed to dodge it. Kibito's ki blast hit the ring hard, causing a big explosion. The two fighters landed opposite to each other in the ring. The referee took the brief pause in the action as an opportunity to talk about the fight.
'Kibito managed to counter Krillin's toss with his energy attack, but Krillin managed to dodge that attack! What a fight! This fight is still anyone's guess!'
Krillin tried a different approach. He concentrated his ki and fired upwards into the sky, where he collected it above the ring.
'Krillin appears to be trying a new technique. I haven't seen this technique before, what could he be planning?!'
Krillin concentrated more ki into his big ball above the ring and started attacking with it. He rapidly launched ki blasts from the big ball, aiming at Kibito. Gohan was impressed, being able to control all that ki and separating it like that wasn't easy. Meanwhile, Kibito moved quickly around the ring trying to dodge Krillin's attack. He certainly was fast, but Krillin managed to keep up. Kibito tried to approach Krillin, hoping that Krillin would not fire at himself, but Krillin had been anticipating that. Krillin left an after-image at his original location, and let all the remaining ki rain down on Kibito. The after-image technique, or Zanzouken, Gohan knew, was a technique that you could use to create a virtual image of yourself using your ki to linger behind a place where you were before. In the heat of battle, opponents would mistakenly think your image was you. It was exactly like Krillin to combine it like that, Krillin was never a fighter to rely on brute strength or pure speed alone. But Krillin wasn't done yet, he knew that his energy attack alone wouldn't be enough to knock Kibito out for ten seconds, so he quickly approached for a quick kick while Kibito was still dazed from the energy attack. Krillin managed to kick Kibito out of the ring into the boarding.
'Wow, what an amazing combination by Krillin!' The referee exclaimed. 'Kibito is out of the ring! The winner is Krillin! His powerful energy attack combined with the after-image technique caught Kibito off-guard, and as a result Kibito got the direct hit from that energy attack and sent out of the ring! Like I said ladies and gentlemen, Krillin is absolutely not a fighter to underestimate.'
