Chapter 5: Competitive Debut
Noca stepped up beside Chow, avoiding looking up at the tall stranger, and he kept his eyes forward. Chow slowly turned to look down at Noca, and the teen could see it out of the corner of his eye but ignored it.
"If our last two fighters of the day could please make their way out!" The announcer called.
Noca took his first steps out of the doorway, with Chow still by his side, almost helping Noca feel calm and composed, but upon seeing the crowd, hearing the crowd, he couldn't ignore the nerves that continued to grow. It was a different experience when you saw it first-hand. It was all far too much.
"Don't let it get to you," A friendly voice said from beside Noca. The young Saiyan looked to his masked opponent, confused. "Just ignore the crowd and picture your opponent, and only your opponent." Chow continued, somehow managing to give Noca another lesson.
"Uh, thank you?" Noca mentioned, with a questioning tone. As he walked up the path and stepped onto the stage, taking a position on one side, opposite his opponent. He had seen the other fighters do the same thing, so he assumed that was normal.
"Are we all ready for our final match of the day?" The announcer shouted out, continuing to get the crowd riled up throughout the whole day. They continued to cheer and yell in unison, showing how excited they were.
"In this fight we have Chow coming up against Noca. Chow is… well, Chow… uh Chow is… Chow didn't give us any information," He explained, looking through his document and hoping to find some sort of information about this mysterious masked fighter. "As for Noca, he is a relative of the Brief family, which includes two previous competitors today, Trunks and Vegeta. And he is also living with the family of former champion Son Goku, which is also the family of our current champ. So many familial connections in this tournament."
"What do you have to say about this, Champ?" The announcer asked Mr. Satan.
"I have only met this boy a few times, but I have heard that his training has been progressing well, so I look forward to seeing what he does today," Mr. Satan explained, offering up his two cents. Noca could feel some more nerves growing inside. It felt like he was drawing within himself, and he couldn't focus on the fight, only the crowd and the huge pressure.
The bell sounded, signalling for the fight to begin, and Noca very quickly dropped into a stance, with his feed wide apart, his body low, and his arms were kept close to his body. He was ready to start, but from the looks of things, Chow wasn't ready. He hadn't moved into his stance and remained standing straight with his arms folded.
"Why don't you make the first move?" Chow suggested, his voice calm, friendly, and Noca felt awkward, but he tried his best to drown out all of the crowd noise and focus ahead on the fight.
He took a brief moment, seemed to tense up and then decided to charge for his opponent. He ran forward and aimed a fist for Chow's face. He wasn't at all sure of what to expect from Chow though, so he was incredibly surprised when the masked fighter stuck up his hand and simply caught Noca's fist without breaking a sweat.
"Hmm, that was a fairly sloppy move, you need to be a little more imaginative, especially with your first move," Chow said, holding a tone that expressed he knew what he was talking about. Noca's brow furrowed, and he looked up at Chow's masked face, trying to get a read on him, but it was impossible.
Noca just started to try and think of a way to shake things up and show just what he could do. A small smirk crept across his face, the young Saiyan thought he had it all figured out.
"Like this?" Noca muttered, instantly phasing out of view, leaving Chow there alone in silence. The young Saiyan didn't waste any time and reappeared behind Chow, ready to kick him in the side of his face from the left, but Chow raised his arm, blocking the kick with complete ease.
Noca was confused. The man showed no signs of buckling under the strength of his opponent and the teen just didn't understand how the stranger wasn't fazed by it. Noca disappeared again, but he didn't move in for an attack right away, opting to use his speed and movement to try and confuse his opponent.
Chow remained still, showing no signs of movement. Noca had moved up into the sky and intended to shoot down towards his opponent but to put lots of energy into his speed with the hopes of catching Chow off-guard. He appeared in front of Chow and aimed a punch right for the centre of his masked face, but the stranger simply stuck his arm up again, blocked the punch, and used his free hand to punch Noca in the gut.
The teen lost his control momentarily, stalling, and giving Chow a chance to gain the upper hand in the fight. He grabbed on to Noca's arm and flew up into the air about ten metres and turned, throwing the boy back towards the stage. Noca managed to twist and reposition so he could land on his feet and immediately pounced up off of the stage, soaring back towards Chow.
As he reached the masked fighter, he threw a punch which Chow just dodged by moving his head a couple of inches to the side ever so slightly. He also reacted very quickly to throw his own punch back at the teen, but Noca moved quick enough to dodge back, avoiding the attempt, but then he moved back in, with another punch.
The punch proved to be very useless as Chow phased out of view, leaving Noca alone in the air, startled. He had moved away so quickly and was proving to be a tougher opponent than Noca had first anticipated. Chow quickly reappeared and kicked Noca back down to the ring again, and the boy landed with a mighty crash that shook the ground a little.
He made sure to get back up to his feet immediately and he was once again flying back towards his opponent, but that time instead of going in for a simple attack he phased behind Chow and crashed a knee into his back. After that he phased back in front of Chow and managed to punch him in the stomach. Noca tried his best to keep the move going and phased out of view again, but Chow moved so swiftly so that he easily stuck out an arm and caught Noca's.
Chow began to swing Noca around in a circle, eventually letting go but he wouldn't let the teen sail through the air for that long as he immediately flew over with an intense pace and hammered his fists down on Noca, throwing him towards the ground again. Chow continued to follow on, charging right down towards the teen and threw a barrage of punches into the young Saiyan's gut as they got closer to the ground. Noca had no way to move out of the attack.
His punches were so fast that only the fighters with Ki knowledge and control could see what was happening. Noca was feeling a lot of pain and severely needed to find a way to break out of the attack. He managed to make a slight movement and lifted his hands up to try and block the punches. Chow realised what was happening and saw that Noca was still slowly growing into the fight. The older fighter knew he would need to try something different.
Chow began to ease up with his attack and started to pull away, allowing Noca the chance to move and regain his position, but once again he wasn't given the time to do anything. The stranger had only pulled out of the attack so he could power up and fly in for yet another attack. Chow bolted in with both of his fists aimed forward and knocked Noca back again. The young Saiyan was starting to get frustrated at his inability to maintain an attack.
Chow, who we all know is Goku in disguise, wasn't typically the kind of person to fight this way, especially against a youngster, but that was the point. Not only did it hide from his friends and family who he truly was, but it allowed him the chance to train Noca. The teen clearly didn't notice this, believing that this was just his opponent fighting him, but Noca hadn't even come close to a ring out, or even feeling like he couldn't find a way out of the fight. Perhaps a part of him was still underestimating the opponent.
Noca did manage to get his arms up in front of him to block another attempted attack from the disguised Saiyan, but despite the block, Chow just crashed into Noca and managed to knock him back down towards the ground again. He followed up and drilled his foot into Noca's gut, speeding up the process and knocking him soaring down towards the stage again.
Chow continued his movement as the two of them flew down and both crashed into the stage together, creating a small crater right in the middle. Lots of dust was kicked up around them, clouding the stage and making it impossible to see who would still be standing.
The dust slowly dissipated, and it was seen that Noca was laying on his back at the bottom of the small crater, and Chow was standing beside his body. It didn't look like Noca was going to move and the announcer had already jumped up, microphone in hand, ready to begin his count. He didn't even get the chance to breathe before Noca leapt back to his feet and smashed a strong punch right into Chow's chin, and then he followed up with a kick into the older man's gut.
There was a strong impact from Noca, he managed to put quite a bit of power in the punch, and it was enough to knock Chow back a few feet. The older fighter struck the edge of the crater and stumbled back a bit, falling down to one knee. It was the stroke of luck that Noca believed he needed to try and get a foothold in the fight.
He was feeling frustrated, and he wanted to move quickly, so he jumped towards Chow and kicked him up in the face, managing to lift him off the ground. Noca then very quickly spun around and struck with another kick into Chow's torso. It was strong enough to knock the fighter towards the edge of the stage, but as he passed the boundary, Chow managed to begin hovering above the grass.
Noca landed back on the stage, glaring towards his opponent. He was starting to feel like he needed to put a lot more into his efforts and show that he was capable of challenging. The young Saiyan wasn't going to sit around and waste too much time, so he charged right for Chow at a tremendous pace, but the attempt was easily avoided when Chow moved to the side slightly, giving himself another opening. Chow sent his knee crashing into Noca's gut, halting his attempt, but the young Saiyan quickly darted back to create some more space and give him the chance to plan the next attack.
Noca darted back, landed on the stage and very quickly pounced towards Chow, aiming a punch right for his masked face, but Chow easily caught Noca's arm and spun the teen around so he could get him in a lock to stop him from moving away again. His arm was trapped in an awkward position so Noca knew he couldn't try and force himself out of that situation.
"You need to focus on your emotions," Chow said, subtly, quietly, so only Noca could hear him. The teen was confused but still trapped in the lock without the strength to break out. "You're letting it all get the better of you," Chow continued. Noca started to realise exactly what Chow was doing.
"Stop trying to train me!" Noca yelled in frustration, and he quickly lifted his leg up and kicked back, but missed his target, causing Chow to just tighten his grip on Noca's arm. The teen began to realise that maybe he needed to start listening.
"Try and break out of this lock," Chow instructed.
"And how should I do that?" Noca asked, clearly frustrated, but Chow just chuckled quietly to himself.
"You told me not to train you."
Noca groaned at that response but knew he really needed to figure it out himself. He wasn't going to get out by just making a stupid movement and he didn't need to have some sort of special technique, so what was it? If it was just any ordinary fighter who had him in the lock Noca would probably have the strength to easily overpower them and free himself, but this stranger was really quite strong. Noca was beginning to get even more frustrated but knew he had to calm himself.
He closed his eyes and started to search deep within for his power. He knew he would need to find more strength to break out and he knew that once he found that strength, he would allow himself a better chance throughout the rest of the fight. He dove deep within and managed to pull something out and it was enough for him to put out a little more power and cause some resistance for Chow. However, it wasn't enough for him to break out.
Noca decided he needed to go one extra step further, doing something that was probably already foreseen by his opponent, but it wouldn't hurt to attempt it either way. He pulled out just a little bit more energy, powered out his aura, causing it all to flare up around him and shine quite brightly. The fact that Chow had a close hold on Noca meant he was very easily blinded, causing him to loosen his grip. The teen Saiyan managed to slip away from Chow and turned around to face his opponent.
Chow tried to rub his eyes but with the mask in his way it made for a useless attempt, but his vision still managed to recover quickly, but he was only greeted by a fist flying towards his masked face. The punch connected and Chow was knocked back slightly, allowing Noca another advantage because he was unable to recover quickly enough.
Noca very quickly flew around in a circle, ending up behind Chow and kicked the masked opponent in the ribs before grabbing onto his arm and slamming him down onto the stage. The teen then very quickly flew back into the air a little bit and dopped down rapidly, elbow first.
He was fortunate enough to connect with Chow's gut and he could hear the pain in the older fighter's voice. The teen couldn't help but smirk to himself as he flew back up into the air again and threw a powerful Ki blast back down towards the stage. The Ki barrelled through the air and crashed down on top of Chow, exploding all around him. Noca descended down onto the other side of the stage, still wearing a smirk on his face.
The young Saiyan was really starting to believe that he was doing really well in the fight. He truly thought that he was stepping up and making a strong effort towards improving his fighting skills. That was until the smoke cleared and Chow was standing there, dusting himself off.
"Wow, you moved really fast, and those attacks were quite strong, you've got a lot of potential," Chow said, finishing off with a friendly chuckle. Noca cursed as he noticed that Chow looked like he hadn't even taken any damage. Chow walked around the small crater towards Noca, who didn't bother to put up a guard. He just stood there watching him walk.
The taller, older, more experienced fighter stopped in front of Noca and looked down at him. Neither of them said anything and they just watched each other.
"And the fight seems to have taken a small intermission here. Both fighters are clearly a little bit tired from their unstoppable momentum, but it feels like we're coming towards a climax," The announcer called out, informing the crowd of what was happening.
The others in the waiting area knew better than to listen to what the announcer was saying.
"They're not tired…" Pan said, understanding the situation completely. "This just feels like a calm before the storm… but surely Noca can win it easily, right?"
"I don't think so," Gohan muttered, his arms folded against his chest. "His energy feels awfully familiar."
"Noca said that earlier," Pan said, turning to her father, a concerned look on her face. Gohan saw the concern on his daughter's face and offered her a reassuring smile and nod. Pan smiled weakly and turned to face the fight again. Both fighters were still standing still and looking at one another.
"We should probably carry on, the audience will get restless," Chow said, putting his hands on his hips and cocking his head to the side a little bit. Noca scoffed and nodded. He quickly jumped back to the other side of the arena, creating the distance between them. They both dropped into their stances and then swiftly flew right towards each other, crashing against one another and exchanging in lots of punches and kicks.
Although almost all of the attacks were either blocked, knocked away, or avoided by the fighters. Noca was starting to realise that their energies felt on an even level, it was almost confusing for Noca because he had been certain that Chow was the weaker fighter going into the fight, and then he had clearly shown he was unaffected by any of Noca's attacks earlier on. Now that they were feeling even it definitely added to the confusion, and Noca was questioning what else the strange fighter had hidden away.
Noca was beginning to get a little uncomfortable and his worries about the situation were growing, and he was losing a little bit of control. He was truly starting to feel like they were very rapidly working their way towards the end. Noca was concerned that he couldn't do it, he was scared that Chow was going to pull out one move and knock Noca off of the stage and that would be it.
The teen Saiyan really needed to escape the clash and rethink his strategy towards the rest of the fight. He needed to work out a counter.
Noca powered up his Ki, breaking the clash with a brief flash of energy, and he darted back away from Chow, but his masked opponent just about managed to swing out an arm that clipped Noca's shoulder, knocking off his control a little bit. The young Saiyan spun away for a moment but managed to throw a hand forward and launch a Ki blast right into Chow's chest.
The masked man simply crossed his arms in front of him and deflected the blast right back towards Noca. The teen Saiyan was hardly given any time to react to his own incoming attack and allowed it to hit him squarely in the face, knocking him back.
It was in that moment that Noca began to realise that he really wasn't using enough power in his attacks. He only realised that when the attack struck him, and he barely felt the power in the attack. It had only managed to knock his concentration and he instantly flew through the smoke to try and counterattack Chow, but once he was through the smoke, he saw that Chow had vanished.
The announcer was trying to describe what had happened, but was at a loss for words, and even the audience were confused. They were looking around in every direction hoping to catch some sign of the missing fighter. All they could see was Noca hovering about twenty-five metres above the stage, but he wasn't looking around in confusion, he was trying to keep his senses fixated on finding his opponent.
Before he even had a chance to find Chow or make a move, Noca was suddenly knocked back down to the stage by a mysterious attack, but when he looked back up, he saw that there was no one there. Again, there was another sudden attack from behind and Noca was knocked up towards the sky.
Noca finally started to realise what was happening. Chow was moving at a tremendous speed and Noca knew he needed to try and focus his senses more and really pinpoint the positions that Chow was occupying. He tried to focus on the last spot that Chow had been in, hoping that there was some sort of energy left behind.
The young Saiyan closed his eyes and tried to visualise the entire arena, and he could sense that back down on the ground there appeared to be a small collection of white energy and there also seemed to be a trail of energy leading to another spot in the sky. That must have been where he was previously, but Noca looked back down to the ground again and noticed there was a second trail that led from the ground position, and it seemed to end up close to him.
Noca had no time to react again as he was struck once more and was flung across the sky. The only good thing to come out of that attack was that Noca had some sort of upper hand as he finally realised, he could track Chow's energy and locations. Noca closed his eyes again and followed the newest trail and that one was still moving. Noca began focussing on increasing his own energy and waited for his opportune moment.
Chow was moving in an arch, and he was headed right back towards Noca, and the young Saiyan could sense it, and almost see it, so he was ready to react. He could almost picture his opponent clearly and realised the fighter was swinging a fist right towards the teen's face. Noca turned around swiftly and threw a Ki blast right towards Chow's face. The blast exploded and Chow was knocked out of control and rolled back through the sky, gaining distance so he could recuperate.
When he finally stabilised and settled himself, Chow had a smile on his face, and Noca could see it.
Wait…
Noca could see it? Noca could see that Chow's mask had been damaged but Chow himself didn't notice. Noca didn't want to reveal it to him straight away, maybe being able to use it to his advantage, although he couldn't think of anything himself. He thought maybe he could wait until Chow realised the mistake himself.
The weird thing about seeing Chow's face was that Noca was sure there was something familiar about it. Something about that smile seemed already ingrained in Noca's memory. He had seen it before, but he wasn't sure where. There were also some bits of spiky black hair poking out of the mask.
"I'm enjoying this," Chow said, still smiling. Noca scoffed.
"Is that why you're smiling?" Noca asked, thinking that might help Chow realise what had changed.
"Yeah, it is. You're quite strong, and you're learning as you go," Chow continued, his smile growing wider. He hadn't noticed.
"You haven't realised yet…" Noca mentioned.
"Realised what?" Chow questioned, beginning to feel like he had missed something about Noca. He was examining the boy but couldn't see what Noca was referring to. Noca smirked and looked down to the stage, descending slowly. Chow followed, curious about what the boy was talking about.
"Hey, Chow's mask is ripped, can you see who it is?" Goten yelled to his friends and family.
"Oh yeah, of course we can see his face through the tiny little hole on one side of his mask from really far away," Pan replied, sarcastically.
"No need to be rude," Goten replied, acting like he was upset.
"I recognise him," Gohan said, folding his arms in front of him.
"What? How can you tell from down here?" Pan asked.
"Just focus your sight," Gohan said, not taking his eyes off of the man.
Pan looked over to the man as he set his feet down on the stage, standing opposite Noca. She still couldn't tell, but the familiarity she had felt from the man beforehand was only growing.
Everyone was beginning to feel rather intrigued by the mystery surrounding the stranger. Vegeta had come forward, trying to figure it out himself, but acting as if he wasn't too interested. Gohan was already pretty aware of who it may be, but he thought he finally realised who it was, but he opted not to say anything so he could avoid getting everyone excited and avoid distracting Noca.
"I don't think you've realised the mistake you made by wearing a mask made from such weak material," Noca said, finally helping Chow realise his mistake.
"My mask? What about it?" Chow questioned, still completely oblivious. He lifted a hand to his face and felt skin. He froze for a moment. "Oh no! You can see my face!" He exclaimed.
He was trying to cover his face by pulling the remains of the mask down but that only tore it further and all of his hair started to poke out of the whole. Everyone in the waiting area was focussing on the man now and all of them were shocked.
"I know that voice!" Vegeta yelled, stepping forward some more.
"I think we all do," Gohan replied, turning and smirking at the prince.
"Is that…" Goten started, stepping forward, Pan beside him.
"Grandpa?" Pan finished.
"Wait, Goku?" Trunks questioned.
"Damn you, Kakarot!" Vegeta exclaimed.
Everyone had a different reaction upon the realisation that the man standing out there on that stage with Noca wasn't Chow, it was in fact the man that they all knew and loved. It was Goku.
Pan had no idea how she should react. It was such an odd moment and feeling. She and Noca had mentioned to one another how Goku was probably likely to show up at the tournament with Uub. Goku's student also seemed pretty shocked about seeing his mentor standing on the stage, facing off against, and training, another young fighter.
Back to Pan though, and she didn't know if she should be happy about seeing her grandfather again after such a long time, or if she should be more concerned about Noca's chances in the fight. What did it say about her that she seemed to be torn between those two feelings?
"Hello, Goku," Noca greeted, holding a calm, composed, and confident tone.
"You know me?" Goku questioned, pointing to himself, continuing to retain some of that obliviousness.
"Of course I do. I live with your son and his family, I've seen plenty of photos of you," Noca said, dropping into a friendlier tone, helping the situation feel easier for them all. Goku chuckled.
"I guess that's a good point," Goku said, looking around for a moment and then towards the waiting area. "I'm gonna have a lot of explaining to do when this is over."
"Speaking of which, let's get back to our fight," Noca said, dropping into his stance and taking on a serious demeanour. Goku smirked.
"Right, but I'm going to take it up a notch," Goku said, agreeing with Noca. He removed the torn mask completely and that managed to illicit a reaction from a lot of people in the crowd who either knew Goku in a personal way or were aware of him through his tournament history. Almost everyone in the waiting area was standing at attention, watching what was happening. Aside from Piccolo, who already knew Goku was doing this, and Wun, who just didn't care.
The announcer jumped up with his microphone in-hand, ready to let everyone know what had happened.
"And it seems that the mysterious masked Chow was actually former World Champion Son Goku in disguise! What a surprising and exciting turn of events. Goku is one of the best fighters to have ever graced the World Tournament Stage, you can't help but fear for Noca," The announcer said, his excitement levels hitting a new limit. Mr Satan had stepped up to say something also.
"It's been a long time since I saw my old buddy Goku, now I cannot wait to see what he does in this tournament, but I think Noca might just surprise us," The champ continued.
The audience cheered from excitement. Noca nodded to Goku indicating that he was ready to keep going. The older Saiyan smiled and then began powering up, his aura started to flare all around him. He was getting very close to going Super Saiyan and Noca could feel the significant rise in power, and he was beginning to get worried, but Goku stopped, just refraining from turning Super Saiyan.
"Ok," Goku muttered, moving into his stance and narrowing his eyes towards the teenager in front of him. "Let's go."
