The Dragon in the Spring by jinthesensei
(Disclaimer-I don't own these characters. Capcom does.)
2 months after the World Warrior tournament
"Ryu, you sure it's time for you to leave?" said the blonde warrior as he stood in the doorway with his wife Eliza.
"I've imposed for too long now, it's already been two months since the tournament. It's time for me to be leaving. Besides...Ken, you know why I have to leave. I have to find her," said Ryu.
"I thought you only promised her that you would avenge her father?" Ken said while scratching his head.
"Idiot, you know what happened between me and her." Ryu tightened his signature headband that was a symbol of their friendship.
"Yeah, yeah, yeah...I remember. I was in the room right next to you remember. Oh Eliza baby, you should have heard these two! I have never heard screa-" Ken was given a swift punch to the gut by Ryu followed by a slap in the face by Eliza.
"Ryu, you go get her." Eliza said. Ryu gave her a kiss on the cheek and patted his best friend on the back. With a final wave, he entered the cab that took him to the airport.
Two months ago, Ryu competed in the second World Warrior tournament. Opponent after opponent, Ryu fought hard making his way through fighters all over the world including the original champion Sagat and even his best friend Ken. He met many fighters along the way, but none like Chun Li, the only female participant in the tournament. Ryu held much respect for her after she defeated Vega, the clawed Spanish ninja, but to advance to fight Sagat, she had to defeat Ryu. He remembered their fight distinctly.
Two months ago at the World Warrior tournament
She had been cold with him before the fight, seeing him only as another obstacle to get to Bison. With fierce kicks that could crack ribs with relative ease, she fought hard against Ryu. He did not see it honorable to strike a woman, so he evaded and defended against her attacks until she tired herself out. He could see the fire in her eyes. She had to win.
"Chun Li, why do you fight? Why are you here?" he asked her.
"Just shut up Ryu! You could never understand!" she barked at him before she attempted another attack that Ryu easily blocked.
"Just try me. With all this anger and hate clouding your vision, you won't be able to hit me." He threw a punch, but stopped right before it her face. She stared at his fist for a moment. The fight was well under way and she could not land one kick on him, but he gave little effort with that punch that would have connected with her face. She could not lose.
"HYAKURETSUKYASU!" Ryu jumped back as Chun Li's kicks came in a barrage. Ryu could not block every kick. They came too fast, too strong, but he held his ground. When Chun Li finally stopped, she saw her opponent still standing there. Ryu wiped some blood from his lips and smirked. Chun Li's spirit was broken. She put her heart and soul into that attack, and all it did was draw some blood from his lips. She fell to her knees in tears.
"Ryu. I need to win. Bison...he killed my father. You don't understand. You can't understand." She was the strongest woman in the world, but he had brought her to her knees in tears.
"You're wrong. I lost both of my parents and my master to a demon. I understand more than you know. Akuma is here. I can feel it. I will fight Bison for you. I will fight Bison in your honor." When she looked up, Ryu was kneeling in front of her, staring into her eyes. With that intense look, it was like he was telling her something that couldn't be put into words. Their souls communicated, and she knew what she had to do. She kissed him on the cheek, and left the ring.
Ryu defeated Sagat who was fueled by anger and hate just like she was. In the previous tournament, Ryu had left a deep scar in Sagat's chest after Ryu let his desire to win take over. Ryu had trained in harder so that he wouldn't lose control again, and while Sagat fought with rage, Ryu was able to focus and easily defeat him.
Ryu was awarded a night's rest before the final battle. Ryu could not sleep that night. He could only think of Akuma and his promise to Chun Li. Ryu had been nothing but a warrior most of his life. He would venture out into the town only to grab groceries for his master, but Ryu had nothing but the fight. When he stared into Chun Li's eyes, he thought he was communicating a promise to her, but she gave him a feeling in his heart that he didn't understand.
As he tossed and turned in his bed, he heard a knock on his door. He opened it and much to his disbelief Chun Li was standing in front of him.
"Um, hi...I couldn't sleep and I know you need to get some rest, but I just felt the need to see you before the fight." Ryu expected the strongest woman in the world to be proud and aggressive, but she could barely look at him in eyes. Ryu didn't know how to react. Ken made jokes about situations like these before. He would always tell Ryu that if a woman came to his door at the middle of the night, it meant that she wanted to "bone". Ryu didn't really understand what that meant, but if it meant what he thought it meant, and if it meant Chun Li wanted to make love, then he didn't know what the next move was or what he wanted. He decided to act on instinct.
He reached out for her and brought her close to him in an embrace. That's when he noticed she was sobbing. She threw her arms around his neck and cried into his shoulder. Ryu was, no doubt, an amazing fighter but when it came to matters of the heart, he had no idea what to do. He didn't know how to show affection, so he just held her.
"I hate you so much, but you're the only person I can really consider close to me now Ryu. You said you understood how I felt. I lost my father and all I wanted to do was get Bison. I trained and trained. I joined Interpol and worked my ass off to get this assignment. And I was so close...so close."
Ryu brought her inside and shut the door. Chun Li let go of him and sat on his bed then proceeded to cry into her hands. Ryu knelt in front of her like he did at tournament. He reached for her hands and held them in his.
"Tomorrow, I will fight Bison and avenge your father. I...don't know what else to say but that."
"Ryu, you don't even know me. What if I came here to fight you? To kill you?"
"You didn't. I know enough about you to know that you have a strong soul and a reason for fighting. I know you have passion. And when I looked into your eyes, I saw something beautiful. You don't have the eyes of a killer."
Chun Li stopped her crying and finally returned Ryu's gaze. She locked away her heart when her father was killed. But something in Ryu's eyes told her that if she were ever going to be happy again, it would be Ryu that would bring happiness to her. Neither of them had much experience in love or even intimacy for that matter. Neither of them were affectionate, but if it there were a time for them to let go, it would be that night.
Chun Li pulled his hands towards her and his whole body followed. Her arms naturally found their way around his neck, and she pulled him in for their first kiss. Ryu let his instincts take over as he grabbed her by the waist and pushed her down towards the bed.
The next morning Ryu had planned to meditate before the fight, but he awoke with Chun Li in his arms. Her body seemed to be made to match his perfectly. In his arms, he held the world's strongest woman. Whatever they shared last night was special, but today he had to perform. He had to face Bison, and still be on his guard for Akuma. He planted a kiss on her cheek as he got up and ordered room service for them. She woke up shortly after him and as they waited for room service, they got ready for the big day starting with a shower.
At the fight
Chun Li along with the other contestants watched from the stands as Ryu and Bison fought. Ryu was having difficulty against Bison's psycho power. No one had ever seen Bison fight before, and Ryu had no idea how to defend against him. Bison chuckled as he disapppeared behind Ryu and slammed his fist into the back of his head. Ryu felt the same power that he felt when he fought Sagat except this time it was stronger. If Ryu didn't channel it into something, he felt like he would explode. Time slowed down as Ryu focused on Bison's energy. When Bison teleported again, Ryu caught him with his most powerful attack.
"SHINKUUUU HADOKENNNN!"
Bison's uniform was blasted to shreds. He had the look of a maniac in his eyes. He started laughing hysterically and pulled out a shattered remote from his pocket.
"HAHA RYU! YOU MADE A FATAL MISTAKE! SOON THE VOLCANO WILL ERUPT AND THIS ISLAND WILL BE COVERED IN LAVA AND ASH!"
Bison ran an illegal crime syndicate called Shadowloo. Though Interpol has never been able to get hard evidence, Shadowloo is known to be the center of all crime operations including weapons and narcotics smuggling. There was rumor, however, that Shadowloo had been experimenting on human test subjects to create assassins. Bison rigged each of his bases to have a self destruct feature in case Interpol ever got too close to finding the truth. On this island, he had devised a switch that would trigger the eruption of the dormant volcano.
Soon, Ryu and the rest of the crowd felt the island tremble as the earthquakes began. Bison laughed manically as he prepared to attack Ryu again with his psycho crusher attack. In a flash, Bison was launched away as if a speeding train hit him. Something sparked within Ryu. The feeling he felt before he let out his last attack on Bison was boiling underneath his skin again. Ryu could barely think. When he looked up, Akuma was standing in front of him. Ryu lost control and attacked Akuma with all he had. Akuma was faster and stronger and could easily read Ryu's moves. Each special technique Ryu had learned, Akuma had mastered. With little effort, Akuma brought Ryu to his knees.
"SHUN GOKU SATSU!" Akuma seemed to glide towards Ryu and before Ryu knew it, Akuma was hitting all of his vital points in his body. As Akuma prepared to land the last hit that would connect all the Satsui No Hado energy and ultimately destroy Ryu, a familiar energy stopped him.
Ryu was barely conscious, but what he did see was the ghost of his late master standing in front of Akuma. Before he knew it, the witch doctor Dhalsim was behind him and teleported them off the island. Ryu looked as helicopters flew away from the island that was beginning to be covered in lava. He prayed that Chun Li and Ken made it off the island in one of those helicopters. At the point of exhaustion, the last thing he saw before passing out was the face of Dhalsim and Ken.
Back to the present
Ryu landed in China finally. He hadn't seen Chun Li since the tournament, and he didn't know how to find her. He spent two months with Ken in America to rest. After his fight with Akuma, Ryu knew he needed to train and the best person to help him was the person who trained with him throughout his whole childhood, Ken Masters. Ken Masters was the son of a wealthy man who had many connections throughout the world, and Ken's father helped Ryu track Chun Li down.
Ryu eventually found his way and ended up outside of Chun Li's apartment. He didn't know what he was feelings, but he was sure that it was the butterflies that Eliza had said Ken gave her when Ken proposed. Ryu knocked on her door, and waited for an answer. As he heard the locks turn, the butterflies almost forced Ryu to break the door down. It seemed forever for the door to open, but when it did, there she was. Chun Li was in an oversized t-shirt with her hair down and after she wiped her eyes to see who was bothering her, her jaw dropped.
"RYU! OH MY GOD YOU'RE ALIVE!" Chun Li threw her arms around him and nearly tackled him to the floor. Before Ryu knew it she was smothering him in kisses and dragging him into her apartment. Before they went too far, he slowed them down long enough for her to catch her breath and calm down.
"Ryu, I thought you died on the island! I tried to run down to the arena from the stands to stop Akuma from killng you but Guile stopped me and dragged me onto one of the helicopters. Ken was nowhere to be seen when all the rescue choppers landed so we assumed he died too. OH MY GOD I THOUGHT I LOST YOU!" Chun Li slapped Ryu across the face then tackled him in another barrage of kisses. Before either of them knew it, her oversized t-shirt was torn to shreds, and soon they were lost in each other's arms and in her bed sheets.
Morning after
Ryu was satified that Chun Li was safe. The image of his master and Akuma standing on the island still burned in his head. He didn't know what to think. Gouken managed to stop Akuma's ultimate technique, but did Gouken defeat Akuma? For all Ryu knew, Akuma could still be out there. But he now had something worth fighting for, someone to protect. He had no more need to travel the world. There were plenty of places for him to train in China. If Akuma was still out there, he'd be ready, but Ryu was not going to search for him. He lost Chun Li once, he wasn't going to leave her again.
A real quick fanfic. I haven't done one of these in years, and this one can definitely be fixed, edited, built on...all that jazz, but I'm tired.