checks chapter number: nice
Hey so, sorry for the sudden hiatus, I had a deadline that took up my time and the holidays was distracting
FlameSparks7: eh, not suer on that one. Goku learned by copying Master Roshi, but Krillin learned after one of the time skips so I don't think it was specifically copying Goku
thewittywhy: I mean, 150 million would still be pretty special technically. I'd say that's higher than any of the human character at this point
and yeah, Gine's been fun to come up with, moreso to draw, but I can't really share much of that lol
Qinlongfei: I think the canon of how they took Gohan's character is pretty consistent with who he's been throughout the show, he's a nerd first and fighter second. That's how it's always been, and he no longer needed to fight in the aftermath of Z like he did throughout his childhood, so it makes sense that he'd step away from it
That, would be really funny. I have no idea how I'd ever implement it tho
JCINNABAR: many thanks many thanks
Zeromaru38: The Buu Saga...is gonna exist, in some capacity. That's as far as I'll go in talking about it
OnTheTidesOfEvermore: ...yeah...
TheWaterKid: I've kinda marked Goku's early bulletproof-ness being more of a sayain thing than purely off of power level. After all, Mr Satan is speculated to be around 80 and he definitely wasn't bulletproof in the Buu Saga. That was in fact a plot point. I mean, that'd require Toriyama be consistent in his lore, but still
guest: many thanks, and as for what's to come, we shall see
I sat back and tuned out the standard small talk, and Vegeta's complaining, until the topic of Super Sayain came up.
"Now Vegeta, you and Goku probably shouldn't turn into Super Sayains at the tournament. People might recognize you from the Cell Games, and then they might find where we live and there'll be cameras and reporters, ugh- no thanks. That goes for you kids too," she glanced back at the three in the back.
Vegeta snarked about killing any reporters but agreed after being chastised by Bulma, and the kids had no issues.
Vegeta's, the only word I could really use was mellowed out, since the Cell Games. He and Goku had their little rivalry, but he didn't threaten to kill him as much anymore. And he pays attention to Trunks enough that I haven't really said anything about it. I expected I'd have to, especially since Future Trunks didn't die and spark the realization that he cares about his son actually, but I suspected it was Because he didn't want Goku or Nappa to be noticeably better fathers than he was.
"Hey wait a second!" I looked up as Trunks exclaimed, "Gohan's going as that superhero right? But being a Super Sayain is part of Gohan's disguise, so wouldn't that mean that Gohan has an unfair advantage?"
…
You know I almost thought I'd get away with getting to the tournament before anyone realized that.
"Well- well that's- well I didn't expect Gohan to want to join a tournament after how the last two went. It's just how it is I guess," Bulma said.
"I'm pretty sure the last two tournaments are the only times Gohan's really enjoyed fighting…" Krillin commented.
"That's Ridiculous! There is no way I'd allow such a-" Vegeta was cut off by Raditz.
"Oh please. It's better odds than if you could use Super Sayain but then the brat pulled out The Ultimate. You already agreed just move on."
Vegeta glared at Raditz, and Zangya hooked her arms over Raditz's shoulders, gazing over at Vegeta, borderline challenging him.
"What? Being protected by your mate now?" Vegeta snipped.
"Yeah. It's great actually."
It's funny because I'm pretty sure Vegeta would win an actual fight between them, seven years ago let alone now, but for whatever reason he just, hasn't engaged. At least with avoiding actual fights with me over the last seven years, he has the excuse of, The Ultimate would absolutely demolish him. No idea why fighting Zan is an issue though.
Also, funny just how much Raditz, doesn't really care anymore. He's definitely acclimated over the years. He isn't even really cautious around Piccolo anymore, even if he never goes out of his way to interact with him. Even more notable is that he doesn't seem to care how others see him as much, especially Vegeta.
It's nice.
"So, Gohan's going use Super Sayain then? Gosh, I almost hope I don't get matched with you then, I might not be able to stick to not using it myself," Goku grinned.
Bulma announced us getting closer and I backed away to the door.
"Welp, I'd better be off before we get there, it'd be pretty odd if you were seen flying me there after all," I flipped back to the outfit and sparked my hair blonde.
"See ya!" I opened the door and allowed the wind to guide me away from the plane before zipping over to the island, quickly outpacing the ship.
…
Announcer Guy -
Another year another Tournament! Even though the Tenkaichi Budokai isn't held every year but that's beside the point-
The energy in the air filled him with excitement every time he got here. His eyes wandered over the hopeful contestants and he couldn't help but feels nostalgic over tournaments of the past. They were all great, of course! He loved his job. But, those tournaments, the 21st, 22nd, and 23rd. Those were something special.
Ah, but those were filled with once-in-a-lifetime prodigies, in which case he must have lived half a dozen at least.
But! This was no place to reminisce. Couldn't let himself be biased or distracted after all.
Most of the contestants were what were to be expected to show up. Some he recognized from prior tournaments. All promising fighters with hopes of victory. Honestly, he was glad, in the lead up he was almost concerned fewer people would show, not believing they could beat Mr. Satan, but if anything there might be more than the last showing and signups weren't even halfway up!
They might have to streamline the preliminaries a bit…
His heart jumped when he saw that rumored unnamed superhero fly in. Now, he was aware that, perhaps, it was possible that it was, somehow, faked. At least that's what he told himself to keep from becoming too excited before any fighting's even begun.
But a contestant that can fly! Man that brings him back!
Ok, reel it back in.
He still should consider it somewhat possible it could be faked, and if they're caught doing so, it would count for disqualification.
But at the same time, they couldn't do costume searches, not with so many contestants and not without breaching privacy. So it'd have to be suspected first. And there was plenty of precedent for plausible deniability.
Mr. Satan, ever the showman, made his appearance, his less amused daughter stepping out beside him. What the man lacked in some of the flashier abilities of the past, he made up for in sheer stage presence.
Now, of course, he didn't really believe that Mr. Satan defeated Cell. He didn't think the man could have held a candle to the 21st years contestants, let alone the following two. And that Cell monster was even more destructive than the King Piccolo look-alike from the 23rd.
But, once again, once-in-a-lifetime prodigies, and the man was a truly impressive martial artist of his own. He did win the 24th Tenkaichi Budokai on his own merits.
He collected the signup sheets as he absently scanned through them for familiar names. There were more familiar ones than unfamiliar, but there were a few promising newbies out there.
For example, the daughter of Mr. Satan. Not new per se, she did participate in the Jr's league last tournament, but this is her first time in the tournament proper, and he'd be shocked if she didn't get in the final sixteen by what he's seen.
Huh. That Superhero seems to have signed under Anonymous. A smile turned at his lips out of nostalgia. It wasn't every day you got a proposal out of these tournaments.
He blinked when he got to the final page.
He closed the clipboard and opened it again.
The all too familiar names remained the same.
Quickly he lowered the board and searched the entrance.
And sure enough among a small group of a few new faces, were three very familiar ones.
The new faces included a rather beautiful woman with chin-length blonde hair, a young man with a matching length of dark hair, and a, rather angry looking fellow who kinda looked like he was trying to look like he wasn't part of the group.
The familiar ones, were a man with wild hair and orange Gi, a shorter man, though with new hair, and a much taller man with green skin and pointed ears.
He rushed over to greet them.
"Do my eyes deceive me? Son Goku returning to the Tenkaichi Budokai?"
The man glanced over and smiled, "oh hey! Yeah, I guess we missed the last one huh?" The former champion laughed.
And his smile was infectious, as he couldn't help but smile too, though that was likely the bubbling excitement as well.
"Hey, just try not to blow up the ring this time," he winked, and the King Piccolo look alike responded.
"We make no promises," MaJunior smirked. He was fairly certain that wasn't the green man's real name, but hey, people used aliases all the time in these tournaments.
"Now that's what I like to hear!" Oh this was going to be great! A real return to order this tournament!
He turned his attention to the final familiar face, "and Krillin! Wow, I almost didn't recognize you!"
The shorter man chuckled and ran a hand through his now present hair, "yeah well, technically I'm retired. They all talked me into joining so, here I am. Well, my wife did at least."
Krillin glanced over to the woman in their group, the blonde who seemed indifferent to the conversation.
"Oh wow, a wife. Congratulations!"
"Yeah, a kid too, but she's with her Uncle right now, probably in the stands."
He nodded. Even after all these years, it was surreal to see the shorter man standing there after he'd seen him killed after the 22cd. But we'll, ghosts probably can't grow hair or have kids so, he's not sure what must have happened but he was certain the man was alive and well now.
"Say, between you and me. Mr. Satan didn't really defeat Cell, did he? It was really one of you, huh?"
Son Goku blinked, "well, yeah it wasn't him. It wasn't me either if that's what you're asking, it was-"
"Goku." MaJunior interrupted with a surprisingly stern voice considering the nature of the man in the 23rd.
"Oh, it is, not nice to talk about people without their permission," Son Goku glanced up as if to check with the taller man that his response was appropriate.
He blinked behind his sunglasses. That was an, interesting interaction. And completely contradictory to how he remembers them.
"Favorite person would be mildly inconvenienced. Activate overprotective mode," Krillin snickered.
And he nodded, putting together a few pieces. But wow! Even Krillin seemed completely at ease around, even making fun of MaJunior. Oh the stories they could probably tell.
Ah, but he probably shouldn't focus on these guys too much, lest he be called biased when they inevitably win.
Well, that wasn't a guarantee, he was not going to be biased here. He would as always be a completely fair and honest Announcer-
Oh but this was so exciting!
This was going to be a great tournament!
…
Being on the Tournament's Island was, interesting. It really did feel like I was walking through an event, with a bit of a fair's aesthetic in its snacks and toys for sale from the vendors.
I'd already greeted Piccolo and signed in so I was just kinda, loitering around now.
I felt a bit conspicuous walking around in costume, but a lot of people had costumes here so, it's fine I guess.
I'd met up with Videl, figuring it'd be less conspicuous hanging out with her than anyone from the main cast since we were both prevalent in Satan City.
We wandered up as the preliminaries and the kids were rounded up elsewhere. It was just a strength-testing punching machine.
I couldn't help but grin as I watched Mr. Satan's antics for the camera. Videl sighed beside me.
Suddenly I sensed a spike in a familiar Ki and the cameras shattered.
"Spoilsport" I pouted through telepathy.
"The ring is for fighting, not posing. And you had better not let that man win if you find yourself in the ring with him"
"Oh Piccolo…you know I absolutely will."
"I will disown you."
"T'aw. You think it'd be that easy to get rid of me."
I could practically feel Piccolo scowling as I cut off the connection. Just in time for Mr. Satan to get a score of 137 on the machine. He cheered as he retreated to the main building.
It'd be really funny if I'd be able to match that.
Yeah, that would be really funny. I wish I had the practice to know the sensitivity of the thing.
"C'mon," I said, grabbing Videl's arm, "we definitely want to get there before Vegeta."
That was one of my more prominent memories of this arc, after all, it was probably the funniest thing Vegeta did that didn't involve him getting beat up.
I guided us to the front of the crowd.
Videl ended up going first and though I warned her to take it easy she still looked surprised when she got over 150 points without her full strength.
I tried matching the Ki I sensed from her and lowering it a bit. I tsked in slight annoyance when I still got 163 with it.
But having passed Mr. Satan, we were both all but guaranteed entree.
More people went through with less impressive numbers, no one passing triple digits.
And then 18 stepped up.
And hit a 774 while obviously barely touching it.
The proctors reset the calibers and had her hit again. This time she put more effort into holding back and got a, slightly more reasonable 203. Still much to the shock of everyone else of course.
Then, one by one, everyone else in the group went, all getting scores in the high hundreds to low 200s, all barely touching the machine.
Including Seventeen, I couldn't help but notice. He wasn't in Bulma's ship so I thought he'd skipped out but guess I was wrong on that.
Neat, that should be fun. It honestly probably won't have much effect on the plot though, since I doubt he'd go out of his way to help.
And then Vegeta stepped up.
And then Vegeta completely punched the matching into the wall on the opposite side of the court.
It's a good thing no one was standing behind it.
"Yeah, that's what I figured," I sighed, and Videl glanced up in shock.
"Your not- no of course you're not surprised this is probably normal to you, isn't it?"
"Well, I mean, Vegeta," I just kinda, indicated towards him as if that was a real response.
The group headed back towards the entrance so I ducked out of there before they could initiate conversation. There's not much point in the Superhero identity thing if it could be easily tracked to people I know.
I was about to head to the spectator stands to watch the kid's fights when I saw him walking in the same direction.
It was like seeing a celebrity for the first time and I was torn between moving along and saying hi.
Videl paused when she noticed I was lagging.
"What are you looking at?" She asked as if it wasn't obvious. As if she couldn't see the man walking towards the stage.
I decided that if I was gonna say hi I'd have to now, or else I'd lose the chance, at least until the tournament started properly.
So I gathered the courage to finally walk up to him before he could enter the gates.
It was then that I realized I didn't actually know his name to call him by.
Well, too late to back out now.
"Uh- hi!" I greeted, catching the blond man's attention, "I just wanted to say it's nice to meet you."
"Oh? Me?" The Tournament Announcer asked, "why thank you, I take it you've watched the previous tournaments then? Though people are usually more captivated by the fighters, they're the reason these wonderful tournaments are held after all!"
"Ah, but where would they be without such a passionate Announcer giving it life!"
"Oh you're too kind. You're competing in this Tournament too, aren't you? And you made it through?"
I nodded, "ah yeah, I mean, I'm not too interested in winning, why I could never beat the great Mr. Satan after all," Videl scoffed beside me, "but yeah, I figured it'd be fun."
"Well then," the man smiled, "I'll be wishing you the best of luck. Though I can't be playing favorites now."
"Oh, no of course. I just, wanted to meet the man on the mic, y'know?"
"Of course, of course, good luck now," he pat me on the shoulder before retreating back into the building, assumably to prepare for the kid's tournament.
"What was that?" Videl asked once he was gone, "I mean, he's just the Announcer Guy."
I played it up as if I took personal offense, "just the Announcer Guy? Just the Announcer Guy? Why- of all the ridiculous-" realizing I didn't have much space to go with this joke I turned and headed to the stands instead, shaking my head in disbelief.
…
Videl-
Gohan was weird.
She already knew that of course. But man. Gohan was weird.
She didn't seem to care in school, and didn't put any effort into maintaining a healthy diet.
Gohan seemed- really low effort for someone who was supposedly the strongest on the planet. Sometimes? Gohan also said that her dad was stronger than she was "at base" whatever that means.
Maybe it was the black hair vs blonde hair thing? She still never really got a proper explanation on that either.
And while she gave a really good initial explanation in all this, Ki stuff, she didn't seem to know how to actively teach it, other than- just keep trying.
It was better though once Videl actually managed to use Ki, Gohan could give more active instructions after that, but it was still pretty clear that she didn't really know how to teach. But, she's who Videl had access to so she was going to gather as much from that as she could.
She'd met Son Goku a couple times in passing, but she was more cautious of his teaching skills than of Gohan's. Maybe once she got stronger, but that guy seemed- she knows he apparently killed King Piccolo (who Gohan was apparently friends with the child of. Because Gohan was weird) but the guy seemed to have no idea why he'd be notable for that.
Well, there's gotta be other people who can teach this stuff too, but she had no idea where to start looking for that. Probably in that group of people with Son Goku who all hit around 200. But, knowing they were infinitely stronger than she was, was a bit intimidating, not that she'd ever admit that.
Maybe once she got stronger, though she didn't want to approach the wrong one and it turn out bad.
She didn't even know why she was speculating about this. Gohan was a, fine teacher. She was able to learn from her at least. And she's put a lot of time into teaching her, and was getting better at it as they went along, so this speculation was more for, hypotheticals than anything else.
Of course, Gohan saying she didn't have much intention to win the tournament was concerning in of itself. If she threw the match for her dad Videl might just find a new teacher out of spite.
And now there was this, celebrity crush? Or something for the Announcer Guy?
Man, Gohan was weird.
I love how Announcer Guy's official name is just, Announcer Guy. Peak character lore.
Yeah he is my second favorite announcer in any show, after Koto from Yu Yu Haksusho
Also, I like having different characters refer to things differently. SIGohan internalized the lore from the dub, so it the World Tournament for her, most others call it the Budokai, and the Announcer Guy refers to it by the full title because he is just that dedicated