Two sets of feet clacked onto the MatterWave arena. Gohan and Piccolo stepped away from each other, circling their opponents as they took their sides of the arena. Piccolo reached for the turban and weighted cape he wore, casting these additions to his attire aside. The loss of the turban revealed the "Majin" emblem on full display adorning his forehead. They hit the tiles with a THUD!, revealing their weighted nature, though this was commonly known to Gohan.
"To think, the last time we had a serious fight, it was part of Babidi's machinations," commented Piccolo. "I have to say, it wasn't what I could have hoped for back then. You still needed far too much prodding; you were still a kid."
"This time will be different, Piccolo," replied Gohan, grinning. He removed his glasses, and cast them aside. He wouldn't need them in a battle, and they would only hold him back. "It's been ten years, after all. I'm going to bring everything to bear against you now. Try not to fall behind, because I won't let up. Let's have a real battle this time!"
"We've got quite a match here, folks! shouted the announcer to the crowd at large. "These two competitors are Tenkaichi Budōkai veterans! Son Gohan competed in our previous tournament, and while his match was interrupted, I feel like I should tell you all that he's the son of Son Goku, a former Champion of the Tenkaichi Budōkai! We can expect only great things from Gohan!" The announcer shifted his focus to Piccolo. "The man Piccolo has competed in the Tenkaichi Budōkai twice before, under the alias "Majunior", and is a powerful fighter! I still remember his battle with Son Goku, and it gave me chills!"
There was an intake of breath.
"LET'S GO AHEAD!"
A flash. An explosion. Gohan and Piccolo crossed the arena in moments, neither one of them hesitating to strike the other. Gohan made first contact, slamming his elbow and knee forward in a double blow. Piccolo parried, blocking the elbow strike with his forearm, and deflecting Gohan's knee blow with his own leg. With an available arm, Gohan thrust his fist forward, and Piccolo, anticipating his student's moves, countered by striking fist-to-fist. Piccolo rammed his head forward, forehead crashing into Gohan's. The force sent the halfling flying backwards across the arena.
Gohan was able to catch himself, however, palms pressed into the tile as he backflipped onto his feet. Feeling for ki, he could detect a foreign presence behind him, and rushed his elbow back. Piccolo, who had been about to land a strike with his clawed hand, felt elbow collide with chin. Bouncing backwards, the Nameccian didn't take the time to rub his jaw; he thrust his right arm forward, extending the limb in attempt to grab Gohan. Gohan's eyes widened, flashing as he side-stepped the limb, before grabbing it with both arms. With all his might, he pulled, drawing Piccolo in like a fish on the line; swinging mightily, Gohan lobbed Piccolo high into the sky.
Using his ki, Piccolo stopped himself, but was met with an invisible collision; at the moment of launch, Gohan had fired a kiai towards Piccolo The invisible bundle of ki slammed into the Nameccian fully, forcing his torso backwards. The half-Saiyan launched from the arena, cracking and shattering the MatterWave tiles beneath his feet with the pressure of his ki. He pursued Piccolo into the air, but when he closed in, the Nameccian surprised him. Turning to face him with a grin, there was a blinding flash of light, and Piccolo let loose a powerful kikōha. The blast struck home, but Gohan managed to shake it off. The two fighters descended to the ground, landing at opposite ends of the arena.
"M-My gods!" exclaimed the announcer. "I don't...I don't have words for this! In only a few short seconds, Piccolo and Gohan have given us the most battle we've seen in the Tenkaichi Budōkai thus far! I couldn't follow a second of it — but that's why we have the monitors! Ladies and gentlemen, turn your attention to the monitors please and we will play back every second of their glorious exchange!"
"They're not even trying," said Erasa, smiling. Then she sighed, remembering that her husband had thrown his glasses away before the battle had begun. "Those aren't getting out of the arena intact. The optometrist won't be happy about this."
"I'd thought Qirka and Carmina had been impressive," said Goten, surprised. "But Gohan and Piccolo are something entirely different."
"It's the difference between a master and a novice," said Tenshinhan helpfully. "Qirka and Carmina put on a good show, but you could tell by watching that those two had never been in a battle before. Gohan and Piccolo have lived their lives in battle, and are masters of the craft; this will only set the tone for battles to come."
Yamcha laughed. "It reminds me of the old days, honestly. Back when that old Jackie Chun competed in the tournament; he handled himself so much differently than Goku and Kuririn."
High in the stands, Pen sat on her grandmother's lap, watching her father fight Piccolo was a fire in her eyes. Even from her seat, the little girl tried to imitate the punches and kicks that her father and honorary Uncle were performing. "Go, Papa! Go, Uncle Piccolo! Fight, fight, fight!"
Chi-Chi couldn't help but laugh. "Sweetie, shouldn't you be rooting for Daddy?"
"Nuh-uh," replied Pen stubbornly. "Uncle Piccolo is super strong too! I want to see Papa and Uncle Piccolo have a super fight!"
Chi-Chi smiled weakly. "You're reminding me more of your Grandpa.."
Gohan and Piccolo paid no mind to the goings on down in the waiting room, nor the commentary of the announcer. The two had adopted separate stances, staring each other down, and Gohan was the one who spoke again. "What do you think? Good enough for the warm-up?" His earrings jangled in the air, shining against the light.
"I was thinking the same thing," replied Piccolo, grinning. "Now the real fighting starts."
Gohan placed both arms in front of his face, as if he was bracing himself. His face suddenly turned serious, and his combed-over hair began to rise. With a shout, he spread his arms wide, standing to full height. His hair stood erect, his eyes flashed emerald, and his body was immersed in a brilliant golden ki. The force of his ki cracked the tiles, and sent a powerful gust of wind in every direction. Anyone within the arena who could sense ki felt Gohan's now, and realised that it eclipsed everyone currently present. The half-Saiyan stood without guard, the golden aura licking his body like flames, and his hair, while raised, remained stark black.
"You're not taking me seriously, if you think only a portion of Super Saiyan power will take me out," Piccolo replied. Standing upright, fists clenched at his sides, the Nameccian let out a battle cry. Without the same fanfare of Gohan's power-up, Piccolo's ki erupted from his body in an explosion of white fire. Wind gushed from Piccolo's body, the air currents matching Gohan's, whipping around the entire arena. The Nameccian's ki was almost as intense as Gohan's, and the two fighters were ablaze in the arena.
"This is INTENSE, folks," the announcer bellowed. "Gohan and Piccolo are immersed in a blazing ki! I haven't seen anything this intense since those old videos of the Cell Games! What could possibly happen next?!"
"We're about to see some high-level fighting," Videl said, looking at the fight from the hovering monitors.
Neither fighter needed a cue. Gohan was the first to attack, launching himself forward. He dashed across the arena, MatterWave tiles cracking beneath his body. Turning his body, his left leg slammed down onto Piccolo. His former teacher parried with his arm, but Gohan wasted no time in using his own free hand to throw a punch. Spreading a four fingered hand wide, Piccolo blocked the blow, and retaliated with a punch of his own. Gohan ducked downward, parrying an incoming blow to his left-side. He and Piccolo began to exchange a quick flurry of attacks; to some people, all that could been seen was golden and white, dancing and flickering across the arena. The half-Saiyan backflipped away from what would have otherwise been a solid punch, and braced himself.
Piccolo propelled himself forward, slamming his body into Gohan's blocked formation. Gohan leaned back, placing two palms to the ground and kicking Piccolo into the air. Gohan followed suit, raising both arms above his head. A bright yellow light began to form, crackling with ki. He thrust his arms forward mid-flight, bellowing the attack name. "Masenkō!" The sphere of golden light exploded into a beam that shot towards Piccolo. With the bat of a hand, however, the Nameccian swatted Gohan's attack away; it collided with the barrier, rocketing into it with immense force. The barrier, however, held true.
The Masenkō itself was just a distraction to cover Gohan's movements. He appeared behind Piccolo, striking Piccolo in the back. The Nameccian retaliated, slugging Gohan in the face. The blow separated them long enough for Piccolo to gain the advantage, landing a solid sledgehammer on the partially-transformed Saiyan. Gohan was sent rushing to the tiles, forcing himself to land on his hands and feet. Piccolo descended as Gohan stood tall, and the pace resumed. Piccolo rushed in, extending a limb towards Gohan, but the latter deftly avoided it. Gohan punched forward, only to have it blocked by Piccolo's palm, and the two crashed arms in the center of the arena. The tiles exploded beneath them, sending MatterWaves into the air that dissolved into nothingness.
Piccolo flipped away from Gohan, gaining a bit of distance only to rush in again. Gohan responded in kind, and the two clashed blows once again. Gohan and Piccolo achieved lift-off, rising into the sky, but never ceasing their attacks. Piccolo avoided a strike to the face, and with a grin, took the initiative with a powerful kick to Gohan's stomach. A powerful elbow strike was the follow-up, forcing Gohan to stagger back.
"I don't believe it, everyone!" was the clamor from the announcer. "Looking at the video feed, these two fighters seem to be even! Neither one of them is giving an inch; for every blow one receives, the other delivers back with twice the power! Has a match this intense ever been waged in the Tenkaichi Budōkai?!"
Trunks, Goten, and Videl were watching Piccolo fight with wide-eyed amazement. Even in their training sessions, he'd never been this fierce; the idea that he could have been holding back against them was something they hadn't considered until they saw proof of it with their own eyes. Piccolo and Gohan were evenly matched; as the two exchanged blows in the arena, one could only marvel at it all. The teacher and his former student, bearing everything against each other in this battle.
"Sensei..." Videl muttered.
"I almost regret saying he was too hard on us," said Trunks. "I'd rather have our regular training sessions than whatever he's dishing out at Gohan."
"Ka...Me..." Gohan cupped his hands at his sides, and a sphere of blue ki began to swirl within his palms. The sphere shone brightly, light bleeding through Gohan's palms and bathing him and the surrounding area in blue. His ki was rising steadily.
"T-This is it!" The announcer became utterly excited at the sight of Gohan's technique. "Ladies and gentlemen, this is the legendary Kamehameha! The technique pioneered by the great Muten Rōshi nearly a century ago!"
"Ha...Me...!" The ki sphere stabilised, with Gohan finalising the power output as the blue glow outshone even the brightest light source.
Piccolo watched Gohan's Kamehameha form with some trepidation. He could feel the man's ki rising, ever stronger. To anyone watching, Gohan was emanating blue ki.
"…HA!" Gohan thrust his hands forward, and the sphere exploded into a beam; the Super Kamehameha. It blew apart the surface tiles of the MatterWave arena, shaving off the first quarter of the arena. Piccolo braced himself, the blast colliding with him in a torrent of force. He was enveloped in blue ki, and the blast only continued to fly, crashing into the barrier that Bulma kept around the arena.
The half-Saiyan felt it collide, and smirked, knowing the blast hit its mark. A surprise soon shook Gohan from his reverie; his Kikōha was ruptured, splitting apart and disrupting. Within the blast, Piccolo erected a barrier that surrounded him, light green with white accents. Gohan recognised it as a recent skill Goten and Trunks complained about — Piccolo's Mashōheki.
"And Piccolo is completely unscathed!" bellowed the announcer into his microphone. "I wouldn't believe it if I hadn't seen it myself!"
"That barrier is certainly…new," said Gohan dryly.
"I'll commend you for making me resort to it," replied Piccolo. "Don't assume that I've been sitting around while you've led your career, Gohan. Never cease improving; that's the warrior's way."
Gohan chuckled, closing his eyes for a moment as they spoke amiably. "I haven't remained stagnant either. It's been difficult, but I've achieved a balance in my life between martial arts, family, and my job. And I've only become stronger because of it."
"I know how hard you've been working," Piccolo replied. "You've become a fine man in many respects, Gohan, and I'm proud in the way only a father could be."
"Then I'll give you a match to brag about," replied Gohan. He took a stance, placing his left arm in front of his body, clenching his fist. His right arm was held aloft at an angle. His boots slid across the destroyed tiles. His earrings jangled, and his green eyes flashed.
Piccolo raised his right arm to his side, fingers clawed, and his left arm to the fore, fingers clenched the same way. Nameccian cloth shoes touched tile, and both of their aura rose like feeding blazes. "It's time for round two, Gohan!"
"The two fighters are taking their fighting stances," declared the announcer, shades glinting. "Despite all of that, they're raring to go again!"
Piccolo raised both arms to his sides, and his palms were ablaze with ki. With rapid movements, Piccolo lobbed a mass of ki spheres towards Gohan. The half-Saiyan bent low to the ground, weaving and ducking past the gatling gun-style of kikōha. His white boots clacked onto the ground as he avoided each and every blast, but the attacks pushed him to the edge.
Shit, Gohan thought to himself, running along the rim of the arena; kikōha crashed behind him like meteors as he moved, exploding the MatterWave ground into nothingness. The partially-transformed half-Saiyan slide along the ruptured tile remains, raising on arm to bat away the onslaught of kikōha that Piccolo had sent his way. Yellow spheres of ki bounced off of Gohan's hand, colliding wih the barrier and exploding. His palms blazing to life, Gohan sent a larger kikōha towards Piccolo's blasts; the attacks collided, creating a sphere of ki that dug yet further into the arena, shaving off more room to fight.
Under the cover of the explosion, Piccolo got the jump on Gohan; he appeared behind the half-Saiyan, landing a powerful kick to Gohan's face. The half-Saiyan was rocked, bombing through the already ruined MatterWave arena. He was buried within rubble, leaving a crater within the fighting stage. The stage was steadily taking further damage, and had long since lost any semblance of being smooth and tiled. The flooring was shattered, some of it had risen up to resemble jagged stalagmite. The wreckage that Gohan was buried in only added to the disarray of the fighting stage.
Piccolo pointed a clawed green finger towards where Gohan had collapsed, and drew a thin line in the air.
"Makōu!"
The line he drew crackled with electricity, before exploding with a roar like thunder. There was a flash, as the line released a massive surge of energy towards the debris under which Gohan had been buried. The light ruptured into a rain of needles — finely tuned constructs of ki with immense cutting capacity. These needles cut into the rubbish, piercing through them with ease.
"Fighting fans, contestant Piccolo has buried contestant Son Gohan beneath chunks of debris, but continued his attack!" shouted the announcer. "As Gohan has not moved, I'm left to believe that he is unconscious. I will begin the ten count! One...!"
"Don't bother with a count!" shouted Piccolo into the sky. The announcer flinched, recalling the last time Piccolo had given him a warning like this. It was against protocol, but he didn't feel like dealing with an angry former Daimaō, and stopped counting. A few more seconds ticked on, and there was a flash of light from within the litter of MatterWave tiles. They exploded in all directions, dissolving into nothingness. Gohan rose to stand. He had shallow cuts across his body, and his clothing was tattered, but intact.
"Contestant Son Gohan is up again!"
Gohan clenched both fists at his sides, the last of the debris dissolving from his body. He flexed his fingers, looking own at his body. The golden aura still surrounded him, but he was beginning to realise that he was being foolhardy. He exhaled slowly. "You were right, Piccolo. I wasn't taking you seriously enough, if I thought only a portion of my power could handle you. But I'll bring out everything now: the complete Super Saiyan form!"
The Nameccian grinned. "That's it. Show me your power, Gohan!"
A guttural yell escaped Gohan's throat. Centering the ki in his back, his aura flared to life, the flame no longer gently flickering, but now blazing. Beneath his feet, the MatterWave tiles ruptured and cracked still further. His clothes blew in the wind of his own ki, his earrings clinking with the updraft. His eyes, already emerald, flashed. His hair, the black tresses that stood high, shifted, becoming a vibrant white-gold. His muscle-mass bulged slightly. The transformation finalised, Gohan bringing his ki under control; he hadn't forgotten the mastered form that he'd learned under training with his father, and brought this skill to the forefront.
Piccolo watched in amazement, the wind from Gohan's transformation pushing him back. Down below, the prospective competitors who could sense ki felt the gravity of Gohan's energy high in the sky, and were stunned. Erasa wore a confident smile; the power of her beloved husband was of no surprise to her, but she was perhaps the only one. Goten and Trunks gawked with amazement, and a muttered statement escaped Trunks' throat.
"That ki...Gohan...his power is peerless!"
Even Videl had to admit her appreciation for his strength. As someone who had worked from the ground up for ten years, she could sense that she still hadn't closed the gap between herself and Gohan. Not with that "Super Saiyan" thing still existing.
"It's like looking at his father," said Tenshinhan, reminiscing.
"You do get that feeling," added Yamcha.
Rayo, Qumohi, Mifune, and Kisua all had varying looks across their faces. Rayo was excited, but the other three were wary. They weren't aware that Earth had someone hiding this sort of power.
Standing on his MatterWave platform, and announcer twirled his microphone between his hands, dramatically pointing down to Gohan. "Ladies and gentlemen, this isn't something you see everyday! Contesant Son Gohan has just underwent a transformation and is enveloped in a blinding golden ki! According to my information, this is called "Super Saiyan"! Well, it certainly looks super!"
"You really have become stronger, haven't you?" inquired Piccolo, a bead of sweat dripping down his scalp. "I don't think I've ever felt a ki quite like this. I can feel it in the air. It's electrifying."
Gohan beamed, enjoying the praise from his old teacher. He didn't adopt a stance, merely letting his ki flow throughout his body. He felt like he was in absolute control. "Let's continue this, Piccolo!"
A/N: And here we are! The beginning to Gohan vs Piccolo! We had this fight before, but Piccolo wasn't in his right mind, and Gohan wasn't 100% willing to go all in during that fight. This is the first battle that the two have shared ever since Gohan has grown up, long after Piccolo stopped treating him as his student. I had a lot of fun with this fight; I wanted to use this to illustrate just how different two novices fight when compared to two masters. Gohan has been practising martial arts since he was four, whether or not he cared, and Piccolo since he was born. This is a battle between two people who have lived their lives fighting to various degrees, and know how to handle themselves far better than a fledgling Majin and a nascent Android made by Bulma. And I tried to show it through their moves; quick, responsive, little wasted movement in every action. Piccolo's barrier is modeled after the one Future Gohan uses in games; I called it the Mashōheki (魔牆壁, Evil Barrier). This is going to be the first two-parter of the tournament; no points for guessing the second. I wanted to get one last update out before I really lose myself to Dragon Ball FighterZ. Thanks to Demod20 for proofreading, and I'll see you all soon!