Dragonball Z Manga - Volume 1

The first ever volume of the DBZ manga starts off 5 years after the events of Dragonball, and shows a farmer hard at work raking hay. Before he can finish the job off, he hears a sound coming from somewhere above him, and curiously looks around for it. He soon sees what he is searching for, and makes the assumption that it's either a UFO or a meteor due to the incredible speed that it was moving at. It crashes down to the ground not too far from him, and he is anxious to find out who or what it is, so jumps into his jeep and rapidly drives off to the crash site.

He arrives at the crater created from the crash, and arms himself with a shotgun just in case there are hostiles inside it. He is amazed by what he sees - a small pod steaming from the speed that it went at, the origin of the huge crater. From out of the small pod, a large, muscular, humanoid figure is revealed as he hastily gets out, then looks around. Noticing the farmer, he is very aggravating, saying that he is annoyed that "Kakarotto" didn't finish off all the Earthlings like he should have. The man has long black hair which comes down to the back of his knees, as well as heavy body armour, and a peculiar feature only seen on Goku before - a fury tail. He also wears a device across his eye which seems to give some sort of reading as he approaches the farmer. After blinking a few times, the small eyepiece stops changing and the man laughs mocking the power level of only 5. 

Advancing on the farmer, the apparently alien life form intimidates him greatly, forcing the poor man to shoot at him. With ludicrous speed the alien catches the bullet in his hand, and smirks at the futile defenses of these Earthlings. He then flicks the bullet back at the farmer, and it moves at an incredible speed, ripping right through the terrified old man. The alien is frustrated at how weak his opposition was, and checks the scouting device on his eye for stronger warriors.

Something catches the alien's interest as he announces that there is "A life form of great power", then once again saying "Kakarotto?!" as if asking whether it is the one he seeks. Immediately he flies off to investigate this power. 

The scene shifts to Piccolo a green Namek who is standing with his arms folded, casually looking over to his left, before he senses a massive power coming his way. At first he assumes that it's Goku, but when he sees the alien that recently landed he realizes otherwise. It quickly closes in, then comes to a halt, setting down right in front of Piccolo. He looks curiously then states that the Namek isn't Kakarotto, and is rather annoyed by it. Piccolo asks him if he has any business with him to which the alien replies "no", but Piccolo then threatens to kill the man with a tail if he has a problem.

The alien presses a button on the scouter that he wears over his eye, and it records a power level of 322 for Piccolo, which is surprisingly high for an inhabitant of this planet, but as the alien states, he is still relatively weak when compared with his awesome power. Piccolo questions the alien, asking him if he knows who he's dealing, but the alien replies that he doesn't care in a confident manner. This enrages and intimidates Piccolo, as he can't believe that anyone could think themselves that powerful. 

Seeing that he may have to resort to a cheap shot to put this being in its place, Piccolo lets rip with a huge blast from out of one of his hands, an attack which is known for being one of the more powerful in his repertoire. It hits full on, but as the smoke clears the alien is standing unharmed, laughing and still mocking the Namek. Piccolo can't believe that this...creature survived such a blast. The alien decides that it is now his turn to show what real power is.

Before he can though, his scouter detects that an even stronger power is located over off fairly close. The alien is impressed at the power of this being for such a world, and knows that it must be one other than Kakarotto. He ignores Piccolo, and flies off, leaving the Namek to fall to his knees in disappointment, in disbelief at how scared he was by the beings power. The alien angrily curses this Kakarotto for losing his Saiyan pride as he rapidly approaches him.

Elsewhere, at the Kame house, Bulma has just arrived, and both Roshi and Krillen are overjoyed to see her. She is now grown up, and hasn't seen the two men in a long time. Baring a gift of teacakes she greets Roshi, but he insists that she didn't have to bring them, saying  "I'd have been perfectly happy just to fondle your bre..." before getting cut off by Bulma smacking him over the head. He denies her having any sense of humor, and she comments on how his perverted ways haven't changed.

Krillen asks Bulma where Yamcha is, and she just throws a fit, signifying that they have both broken up yet again. Lunch is also revealed to be missing, after going after Tien 5 years ago.

From outside the house comes the main attraction of the party - Goku with a small child on his nimbus! He lands, and greets everyone. Meanwhile the aliens scouter has revealed Kakarotto has just stopped, and he laughs to himself knowing that he will soon confront the 'Saiyan'.

Everyone says hello to Goku, and notice the kid that he has with him. He announces that the kid is his son, Gohan. Everyone shows a great deal of shock by this, as they never pictures Goku with a son. They then notice that Gohan has a tail, and emit a lot of concern about it which Goku doesn't understand. Krillen quickly changes the subject by asking if the kid is as strong as his father, to which Goku replies that he knows he has some potential power, but Chi-Chi just won't let him realize it, making him study all day instead.

Everyone's attention then turns to the Dragonball on Gohan's hat, and Goku says that he has one at home too. Bulma gives off a smile and remembers the old days when they all used to hunt for the 'balls together.

Before everyone can take a trip down memory lane though, Goku points out that a huge power is approaching, and is seemingly scared by it, saying it's way more powerful than anything he's ever sensed before. He doesn't know who or what it is until the incredibly strong force lands, revealed to be none other than the alien seen earlier. Of course, no one knows who he is, so they just stare him down for a while.

The alien is the first to speak, and addresses Goku as "Kakarotto", saying that he recognizes him on account of him looking exactly like his father. Goku doesn't have a clue what he's on about, until the alien says that Goku must have been majorly distracted on this world, as his mission was to destroy all the species on it. Krillen is getting annoyed by this intruder coming onto their land and bad mouthing Goku, so he calls him a drunk and tells him to go away. Goku tries to prevent Krillen from going any closer, but it's too late. The alien smacks the midget through the wall of the house with his tail, stunning everyone at both his power, and the fact that he has a tail like Gohan has, and Goku used to have. Everyone stares in disbelief as the alien stands tall.

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