At one time, Hao was probably the toughest foe I had ever faced. However, one day I learned that there was someone stronger than him, much stronger. It still makes me shudder to think about him.

Returning from getting the day's groceries, I had been listening to music. Albeit the load I was carrying was heavier than usual, the music was good enough to ease it. Bob can do wonders for anyone. Oddly enough, the music ended when I got inside, just in time to talk to Anna.

I greeted her with a smiling, "Hi there."

She smiled back and said, "Well hello to you too. How'd your day go?"

"It was different than most."

"Tell me about it."

"I've been missing the old group more than usual. It's been too long since I've seen them."

"Yup, and don't forget that you'll have a chance to talk with them when they get here tonight."

"Wait a second. That's tonight?"

"You got it."

And with that, the door was practically knocked down by the group of my friends. The first one through the door was the ever-dense Horohoro. The blue-haired Ainu said to me, "If you break up with her can I have Anna?"

Immediately he was met with the legendary left, and was subsequently knocked out. Anna yelled at him, "Don't you ever say things like that. Yoh is my husband you baka." I almost forgot that it had been almost a year since Anna and I were married, or as I like to call it, the best year to that point.

The others stepped over him except for one purple-haired Chinese shaman known as Tao Ren, who never seemed to get along with Horohoro, who decided to step on his back. The two of them then got into a huge fight.

After that, the gathering went as usual as it gets with my friends until something completely unexpected happened. At the height of this celebration, a disheveled and pathetic-looking form entered my home. Only after he fell down did I recognize him as my twin brother Hao. In his weakened and unconscious form Ren fired up the suggestion for us to attack him, but I was the only one who stopped him.

I said to them, "Why should we do this to him? True, he was a cruel and sadistic person, but he sure as hell couldn't still be in this bad of shape from his fight with me a few years back. Someone must have attacked and seriously injured him. He probably came here for some assistance, and if we are to call ourselves 'good guys' then we should help him out."

A series of nodding heads and intent stares followed my little speech, and oddly enough, as soon as I was done speaking Hao regained consciousness. After he woke up, we were asking right and left about what happened.

Hao seemed pretty confused by all of this, but he managed to at least say, "You want to know what happened to me? He's the most powerful shaman that I've ever seen. Before he blasted me out here, he said to me, 'I will be the end of you.' If it weren't for the Spirit of Fire, I might not be warning you about him."

Anna spoke up, "Tell us about him. Who is he?"

Hao resumed, "No one sees his face; it's hidden behind a mask in the shape of a giant 'X'. He stands somewhere between my brother and Pompadour. Be warned, he is very sneaky; I didn't see his knockout punch coming."

It was about time that I spoke up, "So then I guess we'll have to go and take this guy down ourselves."

My astounded brother replied, "Did you hear what I said?"

I told him, "Yeah, he blasted you clear over here."

"I WASN'T IN JAPAN!"

"Well, we'll still have to go after him. All we need to do is work together, and we can beat this, this; Hao, what did you say his name was?"

"He called him self Steel Akuma"

"Right, so let's go after this Steel guy."

It was then that Ryu asked, "Master Yoh, where do we go to find this Steel?"

"Um, yeah… do you know where he is, Hao?"

After everyone recovered from my lack of intelligence, Hao told me, "I last saw him around Patch Village."

'In Patch Village, why would he be in Patch Village?' I wondered.

Quickly, we returned to Patch Village, or at least what was Patch Village.