The General

Chapter 10 - The First Round: Part One

A/N: PLEASE READ! I am writing a Naruto fic that should be uploaded around the same time as this chapter. If you like my writing, please do me a favour and go to my profile and read the other fic that should be going up shortly. This story will not be going on hiatus and will be my first priority.

I really, really need a beta for my story. If anyone can be bothered to share their skills with me, please leave a review (with some form of way for me to contact you, or leave your account open to Pms), anonymous or otherwise, or just send me a PM. Preferably a PM.

The first fight will be taken care of in this chapter. The rest will be done next chapter. I want to write out all of the fights, rather than skip some of them.

I don't have any feedback to go on just yet, so I will presume everything is AOK.

Remember me saying I wanted to write in other POVs, not just Gohan's? Seems like I deviated and am now writing exclusively in Videl's POV. I am going to change it around again, stop writing in her POV at all times. Poor Gohan feels neglected and demands more attention.

Apologies for the chapter being kind of later than planned, Death Note has taken me again. I am re watching the series for the ... third time? The first time I watched it, I watched the entire series on the spot, without having a break of any sorts. Thats around ... 13 hours worth of Youtube videos without moving from the spot.

On with the story!

As soon as she pulled out the ball and looked at the number, her face morphed into one of shock and horror. A thousand thoughts raced through her head as she looked at the dreaded number. She had always wanted to fight that person, but never did she think she would face him so soon.

The crowd fell silent as she held up the offending ball, a few gasps ensuing from here and there.

Her number? 2. Her opponent: Hercule Satan, her own father.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

Hercule posed in front of the mirror for himself, flashing his large, bulky muscles. He liked posing for himself (and the general public) and now spent the majority of his time doing so, either in front of the mirror or a live audience, rather than carry on with his training. He was too 'strong' to train, while actually only being too arrogant.

A poor butler approached him to give him the news of the fighting brackets for the first round, though he was having a lot of trouble getting close to the flamboyant World Champion, who flew around the room at breakneck speeds, for humans. The afro-clad man, wearing his weird, brown Gi gave the butler dressed in a tuxedo no chance to get close to him, as he pranced around the room.

Giving up on getting physically close enough to the man to tell him the match-ups, the butler decided to use his initiative and shouted at the prancing buffoon to get his attention. He shouted once, twice, thrice, his voice getting louder with every shout to catch some fragment of attention.

No response.

This man was ticking the butler off. Sure, he was the strongest man in the world (debatable) and probably the richest, but nothing gave him the right to ignore a man trying to offer him a service. This was the job he was paid to do, and do the job he would.

Whirling out the long walking stick he seldom used, the tuxedo-clad man swung as hard as his weedy arms would allow, catching the muscular idiot on the head. On his precious afro, to be more precise.

Noticing the older man at last, Hercule turned around with fury evident in his eyes. Nobody touched his afro, nobody. Fuming wasn't a word that would describe his desposition at that time, he was that furious.

"WHAT!" Only one word came out of his mouth, carrying the full weight of his deep, authoritive voice.

"Sir, sorry to interrupt your … erm … practice. I was just here to inform you of the tournament brackets and who is going to fight who." The older man did well to hide it, but the fact of the matter was that he was scared. He might have been brave enough to hit the other man earlier, but he knew full well that Hercule could snap him like a twig in his sleep.

"I don't care about who is fighting who, just tell me who I am beating and when I am beating him." He said the word 'him' with full confidence, eliminating the chance of a female opponent in his mind.

"Well sir, you are fighting in the first match. Your opponent is Ms Videl, sir."

At first, Hercule only nodded approvingly, as if it was the exact name he was expecting and hoping for. A few seconds passed, the words finally sunk in. Ms Videl. Videl Satan. His daughter.

"Wait, I'm fighting VIDEL?"

"Yes, sir. That was what was decided by drawing the lots."

"B-b-bu" Hercule only managed to stutter. He had full confidence in both his own ability and that of Videl, but that didn't mean he was going to beat up his daughter in public on the day of her first tournament.

The butler was intelligent enough to leave the room before the World Champion had a chance to explode and he was the victim of a tragic accident. He sighed heavily on his way out; this was going to be a very long tournament.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

Gohan was trying not to laugh, as he and his best friend walked together backstage.

"I knew you were good at it, but I never knew you would have rigged the lots to make it look that natural." Gohan whispered, opening his mouth as little as possible in an attempt to trap the laughter that threatened to escape his lips.

"Hey, I am Earth's Kami, what do you expect from me?" Dende replied, an odd twinkle in his eyes. Joking lightheartedly, playing pranks, brewing mischief; they felt like their six year old selves again.

"This should be interesting, I haven't fought without Ki in ages. Wait, I don't think I ever fought without Ki. It should be fun, testing out my swordsmanship." Gohan was being a lot more talkative than his normal silent self, due to being around his childhood friend again.

He was chatting merrily with Dende, while walking through the winding corridors to get back to the arena. He had gone to the kitchen to get some snacks, while Dende had gotten a drink of water.

They arrived at ringside promptly and Gohan took his seat next to his fellow participants. The fighters were given front row seats to sit on until their fight, so they had the best view of the fights, allowing them to analyse the battles closely.

Gohan took his seat between Videl and Krillen. He had slipped into his battle mode, so he was neither talking nor looking at anyone, only focusing on the coming battle. He settled into his chair, made himself comfortable and waited for the fight to begin.

The Announcer came on stage just then, holding his mic at a weird angle. Holding the object close to his lips, he began to speak into it.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, the moment you have all been waiting for: The beginning of the Zodiac Games [1]."

"Introducing the fighter in the Blue corner: it's her first time competing in a public tournament and we all have high hopes for her. As the only offspring of the current Champion, we expect that she will be the one to carry on her [2] father's legacy."

"Please welcome, our very own Videl Satan."

At the sound of her name, Videl got up off her seat and made her way towards the stage. Turning towards Gohan for one last time, she shouted: "Wish me luck," before making her way onto the stage.

"Now, the fighter in the Red corner: this man needs no introduction. Please welcome Hercule Satan!"

There was no mentioning of the relationship between the two fighters, they were introduced as two normal fighters. Fighters that would be beating each other to bloody pulps within the next few minutes.

As soon as the Announcer stopped talking, a loud whoosh invaded everyone's senses. Hercule Satan was in the house and he was making his presence known. The same as always, he loved the attention, the glory. He practically bathed in it as he danced his way over to the ring.

Walking in, he made no signs of acknowledgement of his daughter. She was his opponent and he had to beat her. Simple as that.

"You both know the rules: no hitting below the belt, no biting and no eye gouging. Everything else, including weapons, are allowed."

"Fight!"

With that last command, the Announcer got off the stage, letting the participants battle it out.

As the gong sounded, Hercule charged with his bulky frame, all evidence of martial arts training wiped from his stance. He was there to brawl, nothing else.

A look of shock passed Videl's features for a few moments. Her father had never charged her that aggressively in training, never. There was something about his expression, that pained yet fierce expression, that bothered her.

Remembering her training, Videl sidestepped, stuck her leg out and grabbed Hercule by the collar of his Gi. As soon as he passed her by, she pushed her leg up and pulled on his collar, using his weight and momentum to bring him to the floor, his face scraping and mashing against the hard surface.

Hercule didn't understand what happened; one moment, he was charging at his daughter and the next, he was on the floor and in a world of pain.

"Wow, folks. It seems our Champion's famous Bullrush has been countered. Could it be? Could his daughter really best him?" The Announcer's voice rang out, louder than the chirping birds, louder than the cheering crowd.

Hercule tried to overpower his daughter's grip, but to no avail. Her hand still firmly gripping her father's collar, Videl sat on his back and prepared to punch him. Hercule saw the perfect opportunity to use his strength.

Pushing up from the floor, Hercule stood up with his daughter on his back. He made it look easy and it was, Videl hardly weighed more than a sack of flour. All he had to do now was to break her death grip on his Gi and he would be free to do whatever he needed to do next.

Videl was panicking. Her plan was to get Hercule on the floor and do a mount & pound. Her plan had gone horrible wrong when her opponent had stood up. Currently, she was sticking to her father's back like a little girl and she was completely out of options to attack.

Sensing his daughter's lack of response, he started to swing back and forth in an attempt to shake her off. He knew it was inefficient and, sometimes, ineffective but it usually got the job done. Despite his attempts, Videl stuck to him like glue.

She didn't know what to do next, but she was going to hang on. If she wasn't going to attack, then at least she would stop her opponent from doing so as well. Due to him shaking about, her legs were now flailing about his waist and her left arm was securely wrapped around his neck. Securely enough to keep her from flying off, but not tight enough to choke him.

Feeling the arm around his neck, Hercule immediately thought she was going to suffocate him. Doing the only thing he could think of to counter a chokehold, he stuck his hand between his neck and her arm and tried to pry her arm off him. She was surprisingly strong for her size and her arm did not come off.

Videl was stuck and she had no plan of action. She was currently dangling from Hercule's neck by her arm, but that served to do nothing but stop him from attacking. Wrapping him in a stranglehold would achieve nothing, as his neck was too thick for her to actually put in an effective stranglehold. She contemplated her next moves constantly, as she hung on for dear life.

Hercule was doing his best to fling his daughter off his neck, but he wasn't making much progress. The more he tried to shake her off, the more she clung on. He tried everything; shaking, jumping, stomping, but none of it worked. He resorted to just smashing his hand against his back and hoping for the best.

Videl felt a dull pain shoot through her back as Hercule's fist connected softly with her back. Videl immediately let go of her father's neck, but not due to the pain. She was used to far more pain than that. The thing that caused her to let go was the fact that Videl had figured out a plan and she planned to execute it as soon as possible.

Hercule was relieved to feel the weight lift from his shoulders (literally). He slowly turned around, only to see a small fist coming at his face at breakneck speed. Too fast for him to dodge, he decided to take the hit.

A crunching noise was heard in the arena, followed by a booming voice.

"OOOH! That hit seems to have hit our champion cleanly in the face, taking out his nose. He might have defeated the monster Cell, but it seems like his fourteen year old daughter is giving him a run for his money!" The Announcer … announced.

Gohan scoffed at hearing the Announcer say that Hercule defeated Cell. It was one of those things he really hated letting Hercule getting away with, taking his credit for beating Cell, letting him soil his father's name rather than revering him for readily throwing away his life in order to protect his planet. Alas, he had to leave the fool alone to protect his family and his secrets, secrets that were far too dark and bloodstained for normal humans to hear of.

Videl had put her father on the defensive and she was going to take full advantage of that fact. Following up her earlier punch, she let loose a vicious assault, all thoughts for form and discipline thrown away. What was that saying again? Like teacher like student? Like father like daughter, that's what it was.

Hercule could only hang limply, taking the punishment his daughter was dishing out. He hadn't trained in years and it was showing in his lack of skills. He never had much skills to start with, but losing whatever skill that he had had put him on par with a brute with little strength.

She could feel it now, she could feel victory in her grasp. Her hands were aching, her feet screaming in agony. Videl may have been the one doing the hitting, but even the hitter got hurt. It's a pity people never realise this before going into a fight and Videl was only finding out now that she was fighting without gloves. Punching someone actually hurts your hands.

Fighting through the pain, she kept punching, kept on kicking. She could taste the victory on her tongue, feel it in her hands.

Hercule was in a hopeless state now. He had taken too much of a beating to do anything, whatever strenght he had to begin with had left him. What he had left now was only a pure obsession for victory, for the fame and wealth that it brought him.

The unusually quiet Announcer made himself known again. "My, my. It seems like our champion's in real trouble. Could it be? Could he really have been surpassed by his daughter? I wouldn't be surprised folks."

Gohan outright laughed at this. Honestly, hadn't they figured it out yet? His daughter, Videl Satan, has far superior strength to him, Hercule Satan. Judging by the difference in strength, I would say she has been stronger for a few years. The only reason she probably never beat her father up was either because she looked up to him or she feared him. Or a mix of both, Gohan thought.

A few people that were near Gohan and weren't familiar with just how strong the boy was looked at him like he was crazy. What is the boy laughing at? And why is someone like him sitting in a competitor's seat?

Somehow, Hercule had finally broken out of his pain induced stupor. Tentetively at first, he tried to fight back, throwing a few weak punches at Videl. After gaining a bit of confidence, he tried to ignore his mounting injuries and rushing at her with his fist cocked back.

Videl, seeing her father's rage, stepped back, less out of fear and more out of caution. She knew (or THOUGHT) that Hercule was strong, that a barrage of punches and kicks wouldn't be enough to take him out. She was ready for his charge, she knew how fast her father's fists travel, she was ready for him. She would counter attack.

He had made his peace with himself over hitting his daughter. He had never done it in his life, he had never intended to. This, however, was no time to feel parental remorse. He had to fight, she was his opponent, he had to defeat her and he had to hit her to do so. Pulling his fist back further, he prepared to destroy his own daughter with his own hands. With a loud grunt, he let his punch fly.

She saw the change in her father's … no opponent's eyes. She saw the grim determination to hit her, to smash her to bits. The fist flew towards her, faster than any fist she had ever seen travel but, to her, it looked like it was barely moving.

Her concentration level heightened to her very peak, she willed herself to punch as hard as she could, drawing all the power she could from the very core of her being. Moving her head to the side so she woudn't be hit, she took a step forward, pushing all her weight onto her front foot. She watched her opponent's fist fly fast her head, only grazing the skin of her right cheek.

Gohan's eyes widened in shock. He felt a rapid spike in Videl's ki and he didn't miss the glow of white hot ki coating her arm as she thrust it forward to meet with her father's face. The girl had actually done it, she had managed to somehow unlock her ki on her own. A quick sideways glance told him he wasn't the only shocked one.

Hercule saw it coming, he saw it coming a mile away. That punch had such a huge windup, he would normally dodge it with his eyes closed. Normally. As it stood now, the momentum from his earlier punch carried him forward and into her speeding fist.

Videl felt a terrible pain shoot up her arm as soon as her hand made contact with her opponent's face and a three second wait told her exactly why.

Hercule flew away from his offspring, his face leading his entire body into the wall outside the ring. With a horrifying crunch, his face drilled a hole through the wall, followed closely by his tired body.

"...The... THERE YOU HAVE IT FOLKS! Videl Satan has defeated her father in the first battle of the Zodiac Games! WHAT A SHOCKER!"

A/N: If anyone was wondering, I got the idea for Videl's counter punch from Miyata Ichiro, a character from Hajime no Ippo.

If I screwed anything up near the middle-end of the chapter, then I apologise. I'm Muslim and I'm fasting right now, and constantly going without food and drink for 18 hours in this heat and humidity (however insignificant it may be compared to my native country), day in and day out, while having a messed up sleeping schedule does not help my brain to think.

I don't normally say anything about this, but I wanted to see if this made any difference:

The review system has been updated to make it easier to review. If you enjoyed this chapter, please leave a review at the bottom of the page. It's kind of sad to see so many people put it on their favourites list (I don't mind that, mind you) and not reviewing even though they have an account. If you like the fic enough to put it on your favourites, then what's wrong with leaving a simple review saying: "Good job, I like your fic."? It doesn't have to be one of those massive ones with massive amounts of helpful criticism, though that helps immensely.

Anonymous reviews are welcome and most reviews are replied to. Please review, it motivates me to write. Thanks xD

Right, this was meant to go up on the 18th of freaking June, but due to the fact that I am writing for a project in school and some screw ups with my sleeping times, this is coming out later than planned.

WAY later than planned, I kinda got lazy. Sorry guys :(

WOOT! Finally got myself a new word processor. Not as good as MS Word, but it does the job.

[1]: I don't remember whether I gave the tournament a different name earlier, but if I did, please do drop me a PM reminding me of the previous name. I have quite the horrible memory T_T

[2]: Due to some people expressing their confusion, I will drop the usage of Japanese to a bare minimum. They will still pop up here and there, but they won't be everywhere. I might go back and change it all back to English, now that I think about it.

Somehow, the fight didn't turn out as epic as I had hoped. I get the feeling that the Sharpner bashing near the beginning of the fic was a battle scene than this, but oh well. Proves Sharpner is more worthy of bashing than Hercule, and a hell of a lot more fun to actually bash.

Managed a little over 3000 words for this chapter, not including the notes. Nice, plump chapter for you guys to enjoy after my lengthy leave. I need to start updating more often.

I know I promised a lot more to get done this chapter, but I decided I want to devote an entire chapter to Hercule vs Videl after all. The next chapters will move the story forward a bit more. A lot more.

Wow, massive author rant, much? Maybe I should change it from Author's Note to Author's Massive Ass Rant.