Dragonball Manga - Volume 1

The legendary story starts with a strange, young boy walking through a forest. He winds up outside a small country cottage, and stands by a huge, rounded block of wood. Throwing the wood in the air, the boy jumps up, and kicks it into pieces with incredible power. He then takes the firewood inside, and prays to a small, shiny yellow ball with stars on it, calling it 'Grandpa'. Deciding that it was time to eat, the strange boy goes out to get some food. The strange thing about this boy isn't his odd behavior, or his abnormal strength, but his brown fury tail protruding from his rectum. 

Elsewhere in the same approximate region, a young girl gets out of a car with a strange device in hand, and begins contemplating that something is near here. She can't seem to visibly see it, so gives up and goes in the car to try and look in another near-by place.

The young boy searches around, and hears the roaring of a bear, a sound that would scare any ordinary person, but of course, this is no ordinary person - This is Son Goku, the strongest child on Earth. He remembers about the lake, and decides that he wants to have some fish to eat, sliding down to the bank, and stripping off. He then dips his tail in the water, and attracts the bait, tricking a huge fish into thinking he is a monkey. Just as the fish is about to bite his tail, Goku quickly swivels round, and kicks the poor aqua animal across the face knocking him onto dry land. Next time we see the powerful kid, he is fully clothed and carrying his huge meal back home. 

As Goku walks back, the girl we saw previously zooms forward in her car, and skims against the already dead fish. Having never seen any type of vehicle, or any other person for that matter, Goku assumes that she is a monster after his food, and picks up the car with amazing strength, then throws it through the air, with it landing on its side. No movement comes for a few seconds, until the girl pokes her head out armed with a gun. Goku think that she is some kind of witch, or a demon, and when she shoots him, he merely becomes angry, not particularly hurt. In disbelief at the boys strength, the girl gives herself up, desperately trying to convince the boy that she is a girl, a human being. Goku remembers that Grandpa said to be nice to girls, so he lets his attack stance down, then takes her to his house to get her something to eat, after she has explained that her vehicle was a car, not a monster.

They arrive, and Goku still has the fish with him. He then enters and tells the little ball that there is a girl in their humble abode. She sees it and immediately grabs it, excitedly saying that her detector was spot on in finding the Dragonball. Goku doesn't have a clue what she's talking about, and snatches the ball back, saying that not even girls are allowed it because it was Grandpa's last possession before he died. 

The girl then explains the significance of these Dragonballs, telling Goku that they can grant wishes if you collect all seven, and intriguing him. He still doesn't want to hand his ball over though, and the girl thinks she knows what the little child wants. She pulls up her skirt, and says he can have a quick feel, but Goku responds with "Why would I want to touch your dirty butt?" sending her into a state of rage. She then comes up with a cunning ploy, and tells Goku that he can come with her, which would be helpful, and putting up the argument that his Grandpa said to be nice to girls, so he should really do it.

In the end, Goku reluctantly agrees to the girls little proposition, and the two of them begin their quest, with Goku's only task to protect the vulnerable, weak little girl. The girl shows Goku their source of detecting the balls - the Dragon radar, made by her personally, an ingenious device. She asks the boy his name, and he tells it her, and she says her name is Bulma. This sends Goku into a great deal of hysterics, as he knows that Bulma means bloomers, a pair of pants. He laughs about this for a long time, annoying Bulma massively. She manages to just ignore him in the end though, and takes out a small capsule from her pocket, then throws it onto the floor. There is a brief cloud of smoke, then a motorbike is produced. This convinces Goku that Bulma is a witch, and he is very curious about it, and worried about getting on. In the end he does so, and is amazed that it can move even faster than he could run.

They speed on, and Bulma goes over a few humps in the road, making the bike shoot into the air, and tricking Goku into thinking that they were momentarily flying. They stop, and Bulma goes off for a while, with Goku quickly figuring out why. He keeps asking why she has to walk miles away just to pee, when she could do it right next to the bike, not knowing any of the civilized rules that everyone else does, and used to exposing himself like the naive boy that he is. When he hears some screaming, he's worried that her 'weenie' has been bitten by a snake. Off he goes to investigate it, and he sees that she is in the clutches of a vicious flying dinosaur, a pterodactyl-like creature. It convinces Goku that it's a friend of hers, and asks Goku to let him tie him up, with the kid obliging gullibly. When Bulma screams for help, he unties the rope, and is rather annoyed that she now wants to be rescued from this guy who said he was her friend. 

Goku stands firmly on the ground, trying to work out how to reach her, before the thought that he can use the bike to fly hits him. They went over some bumps in the road earlier as you may recall, and Goku thought they were flying, so he assumes he can do it if he's on the super-speed vehicle. He starts it up, and goes at incredible speed to go zipping up a bump, and goes soaring into the air, becoming parallel with the dinosaur and Bulma. Realizing the the altitude is decreasing, Goku jumps off and pulls out a pole, which he uses to hit the dinosaur on the head, making him drop Bulma. She descends to the ground, screaming as she falls.

Goku hastily throws his pole and he drops to the ground, and quickly moves to his feet with a perfect landing. He looks up towards Bulma, and she is pinned to a cliff by Goku's sturdy pole, and wetting her pants. Goku's proud of his accurate aim, and is very happy by the days events. Bulma however, is a little less than happy, but rather incredible mad, and in a suicidal mood.

Onto Chapter 2 >>