Disclaimer: I don't own DragonBallZ.
My truly appreciative thanks to everyone who has read my story, and even more to those who have reviewed! You're all awesome! Thank you to Erica, Spring Rain of Harusame, Katana Midori-Fading Shadow, animeprincess1452, and Trugeta!
To Erica: I saw your review in chapter three, so I wanted to thank you for it now! Yes, Trunks is in this story, if you look at chapter four. He's also in this chapter. Hope you like it!
To Spring Rain of Harusame: Thank you for your compliment! It makes me happy to have those! I will try to update as often as I possibly can. Thanks for the motivation!
To Katana Midori-Fading Shadow: Thanks so much! You really do make me feel good about my hard work with your compliments, so thank you once again!
To animeprincess1452: Thank you again! Yes, they're entering, and I'm glad you still like the idea! I'm also changing who fights whom for the preliminaries and finals, so that they'll (hopefully) be more interesting.
To Trugeta: Thank you! Yes, the reaction of the Z-gang to the two women will be different in here. We have yet to see it, though!
Well, on with the chapter!
About an hour later into the early morning, some of the group(s) finally met up. Goten turned to see Trunks and Demi not that far from where he stood. He headed over in their direction to greet them genially, giving them a small wave.
"Hey, what's up?" Trunks grinned. Demi remained silent, glaring at Goten in her usual manner.
"Not much. So, are you both competing in the tournament?" Goten was sure that Trunks, at least, was going to enlist for the fights. Demi, however...she was a bit more unpredictable as far as figuring out what she wanted to do went.
"Yeah," Trunks replied. "Which reminds me, which one of us won last time?"
"I couldn't tell you. I was out for about a day last time we fought, remember?"
Demi smirked to herself. 'This explains a lot.'
Not long into their small conversation, Goku and Chi-Chi caught up to their youngest son, and greeted their friends politely...well, Goku was less refined and more outgoing.
"Say, Trunks," Goku said after greeting him, "are your parents here?"
"Maybe. I haven't seen them, but I haven't really checked for their Ki in a while, either."
Demi suddenly scowled up at her husband. "Are we going to get going, or what?" she interrupted.
"Uh, we'd better go sign up now. Demi and I, I mean" Trunks told them. "It was good to see you guys again. See you at the stadium, I guess."
Goten glanced back at his parents, then caught up with his friend. "I'm just going to go with you."
The three young adults went to search for the stadium entrance, and soon enough they found it. People were already piling in to take their seats for the event, heading through the gigantic metal entryway in large crowds. They couldn't see inside too well, though. They'd have to wait for the starting rounds to see the inside of the stadium.
They headed over to a small side entrance near the main opening where a man dressed in uniform met them at a small stand. "Welcome," he said. "If you're looking for seats to watch the fights, please talk to the man over there."
They each glanced back to yet another man in uniform, who was moving the people along by waving his hand. "We're not," Goten told him. "We want to enter the tournament to fight."
The man smiled. "Well, you have excellent timing. It's about two hours or more until the preliminary rounds begin, so you'll have plenty of time to prepare. Please just sign here." He pointed to the large book on the stand, and Goten took up a pen and scribbled his name down.
Trunks and Demi did the same.
"We are holding the preliminary rounds today, tomorrow, and the day after."
"You've got to be kidding," Trunks remarked. That seemed like quite a long time to have the preliminary rounds.
"I was surprised, myself. The number of people we have competing even now has absolutely overwhelmed us. None of us, including the sponsor, were truly prepared to get such a high number of competitors. We notified our sponsor, and were told to protract them for however long is necessary. Thus, we've extended it for three days. And, if people continue to enter, we may have to extend it for even longer."
"Wow," Trunks murmured.
"So the competition is pretty fierce this year, huh?" Demi said. "It'll be good for you boys to practice up some in the preliminaries."
"What about you?" Goten asked her.
She smirked at him as if saying, 'I don't need to practice.'
"You may enter our anteroom, now, if you wish. Many of the other contestants have already gone inside to prepare themselves for the beginning matches."
"That might be a good idea," Goten nodded.
The anteroom was quite unlike anything they'd seen before. Clearly the sponsor had spared no expense in building the stadium. Inside there were about five large practice areas (which were similar to mini-arenas, complete with boundary poles and durable tile), which a few humans had already taken advantage of as they sparred and warmed up. To the other end of the room, away from the practice rings were hundreds of luxurious chairs (almost all of them were occupied, though.) And yet beyond them were double-doors that led to a cafeteria...no, a restaurant!...where the scent of cooking food couldn't fail to tempt the half-Saiyans.
"Wow, look at this place," Goten said.
"Pretty impressive, huh, Demi?"
She nodded quietly to Trunks as she continued to take in her surroundings.
"Wait until the others get a load of this place," Trunks grinned, while searching for three empty seats that might be next to one another.
. . . . . .
Bra had finally found her friend Pan after searching almost everywhere for her. The two women greeted one another warmly as they embraced.
"Man, it's been forever," Pan said, and stood back to look at her good friend. "Hey, not bad," she grinned, commenting on her outfit.
Gohan and Videl were a bit surprised to see that Bra had abandoned her usual 'feminine-and-in-style' look for an easy training outfit, a pair of black pants and a loose, light gray sleeveless shirt.
"Thanks," Bra replied, but she noticed that Gohan himself had deserted his usual formal attire for black training gi. "Have you guys seen my family anywhere around here? I called my mom some time ago and told her about the event."
"We haven't seen them," Gohan said. "But they're probably here, if I know your father and Chain."
"Probably," she agreed. "So, you are going to fight this year, right, Gohan?"
"Yeah," he nodded. "It's been a long time. I'm ready for some action again. What about you, Bra? I've heard rumors that you've been working real hard lately."
She smiled modestly. "I've been trying. I did manage to make it to Super Saiyan since last time we met."
"Cool. Same here," Pan told her.
"I would say I'm ready for some action, myself, yeah. By the way, did you guys sign up, yet?"
"Not yet." Pan glanced at her watch. "We might as well, though. It's getting near afternoon. What do you guys think?" She glanced toward her parents for their approval.
"Sure."
"Good," Bra replied. "Maybe we can get there before my idiot brother does." The four of them proceeded on down the path toward the large stadium, where they were just about to have a closer look at what was going on...
There you have it! I hope this chapter was enjoyable. Review, please!