Chapter 1

In the city of Genoa, Italy, the scenery settles on a busy street filled with shops and people hustling to their next destination. A particular shop that seems to be filled with mystery and the unknown stood in the center of the complex daring anyone to enter. Welcome to Tarot Fortune, Rose's own fortune telling shop to tell the customer their own near future destiny; of course for a fair price of 15 euros.

Normally, Rose told the fortune to her fellow countrymen and tourists about their near future fates. She told them about love, lose or warned them from making a crucial mistake. No matter the fortune, Rose was always certain to tell her customers the truth.

Business was steady and stable which was more than enough to keep Rose afloat. However, it was when the World Warriors started to frequently visit Rose's shop that she began to become more popular. The once peaceful fortune telling shop in the center of the complex was about to get a whole lot more interesting.

\~/\~/

Rose stepped out of her shop dressed in her normal attire of her red evening gown with gold buttons, her violet leotard and leggings and familiar golden scarf. Hanging the "Open" sign on her door, she smiled at the city's bustling scenery as it was an hour before noon and most of the citizens were already hurrying back and forth to their next location. Stepping back into the shop, Rose grabbed her warm tea off the counter and sat at the only round wooden table in the shop and waited for her first customer of the day.

The shop itself acted both a workplace and a home for the tarot card fortune teller which gave a homely feeling to both her customers and herself. She had several books lying around, a kitchen to the left of her and an analog clock hung on the wall over the door telling her that it was now 11:00.

"Today shall be a good day, that I can tell," Rose stated as she sipped on her tea.

Moments after her confident statement, Rose heard the door open and greeted her customer. It wasn't until she recognized the person that she dropped her tea cup out of pure shock. Standing in the doorway was a tall muscular man wearing a white mask displaying his hazel eyes with chocolate brown hair in a braid, a snake tattoo coiled around his upper body, purple and gold matador pants and a red sash tied onto his waist. There was no mistaking it: Shadaloo's own Spanish Assassin was in Rose's fortune telling shop.

Her first action of dealing with such an encounter was to panic. Her mind rushed in a frenzy to figure out why such a dangerous criminal would arrive at her home/shop when she never publicly displayed her address. The only action she thought best to deal with such a surprising encounter was to fight and ask questions later.

"I don't know how you found this place but I assure you that you will not defeat me so easily, " Rose threaten as she told and got into her fighting stance.

Vega on the other hand dismissed her stance with a wave and merely sat down at the table leaving the fortune teller puzzled. In another baffling action, Vega took off his mask to leave his lean, handsome face which left Rose ultimately flustered from his gorgeousness.

"Sit down you foolish wench." Casually runs his hands through his hair to emphasize the insult, I guess. "If I had wanted you dead I would have killed you ages ago. All I need is my fortunate so do not waste my time."

Rose was completely baffled to say the least. One of Shadaloo's top enforcers came all the way to Italy just to have his fortune read? Rose should have tried her best to turn him away yet she was rather interested on what was troubling the Spanish ninja. Proceeding with extreme caution, Rose sat across from Vega.

"Ok, er Vega? May I call you Vega?"

"Of course, I see no point in telling you my beautiful name to such a base woman."

Rose's eye twitch in a flash of anger; the insults were unnecessary and would take some getting use too.

"Right. Well what troubles you, Vega?"

Vega pursed his lips in a thoughtful manner and propped his head onto his head. "Well after going to the beautiful city of Venice to kill an Italian ambassador not to long ago, I came under heavy fire and barely made it out alive."

"You… you killed one of our ambassadors?"

"Well that's what I do you fool. Anyway he was trying to steal from Shadaloo so Bison sent me but none of that is important." Lifting his head to use his hand, he picked up his infamous white mask and showed it to Rose. "Do you see the damage to my mask?"

At first Rose saw nothing until she saw a medium sized horizontal groove cross under the eye sockets. Obviously it was either a bullet or knife marking that damaged the mask.

"Yes what of it?"

"Well as I already told you I was under heavy fire when I went to assassinate the bastard and a stray bullet marked my mask as I was fleeing. It wasn't until later when I made it back to my hotel that I had my epiphany."

Rose secretly hoped that it was to stop killing and to stop admit murders to random strangers.

"I have damaged many masks before but, what if I had actually damaged my face? Like permanently damaged my divine face? That is when I needed to know something completely dire from someone of your profession." For the first time of the session, Vega looked Rose in the eye in a completely serious way that came of as sexy worrisome. "Will I ever damage my face permanently?"

Rose blinked once and breathed a sigh of relief. She had no idea why, but she had felt that Vega wanted to know when he would acquire ultimate power or something equally dangerous. Thankfully it was nothing but an attempt to protect his vainness.

Considering that she had a request to fulfill, Rose levitated her nearby deck of cards off the counter and into her hands (a little trick she did to let the customer know that she was the real deal). The ritual began with her levitating all of the cards into a circle over her head as she led her arms up and began chanting in Latin. The cards themselves spun faster and Rose chanted equally faster until she finished the chant stopping the cards to return them to its original stacked deck. She immediately picked up the first tarot card and frown. Vega was definitely not going to enjoy this fortune.

"Well Mr. Vega-"

"Vega."

Rose coughed and figured that it was best to just get this over with as quickly as possible. "Well, Vega, you will damage your face in the near future. I am sorry if this affects you greatly."

A moment passed until Vega spoke again. "How soon?"

This was the part where Rose demonstrated her firm side to customers. Shadaloo assassin or not, business was business.

"I'm sorry Vega but that will be an extra 15 euros for another fortune."

Immediately after stating her business policy, Vega dropped a brief case onto the table and opened it to reveal rows of euros.

"How soon?"

Rose was once again confused by Vega's action as she clearly stated that it was only 15 euros for another fortune. She was going to tell him again until she remembered that she really wanted that cherry wine set three blocks away…

Rose picked up the second card of the deck and told Vega his fortune.

"Three years from now. The card doesn't say exactly how you are injured but it will be exactly three years until then."

Vega looked down and frowned as he stood up from the table. "Damn. Then I must make strong preparations in order to prevent such an occurrence."

"I would advise from preventing your fate, Vega. Stronger repercussions will occur if you try to prevent your already known fate. It is best to hope that your injury will not be completely serious and just a small facial scar."

Vega took a moment to consider the gypsy's word and shrugged. "Time will tell I suppose." He picked up his mask and placed it on his face as he headed for the door. "I suppose I should thank you gypsy, your words have put me at ease for the time being."

"You're welcome?" As Vega opened the door, Rose remembered a crucial point in this entire encounter. "Wait! How did you know where to find me?"

"Oh that's easy: I saw you leave a wine shop with a bag of beard and a bottle of Cheri 74' on the night I was escaping from ambassador's mansion and decided to follow you. Considering that you read fortunes for a living, I decided it was best to get mine read as soon as you opened shop."

Rose was left silent at Vega's testimonial. Clearly his skills as a ninja were top notch to the full degree.

"By the way, you should cut down on the garlic beard my dear. It all goes to your already colossal thighs." Rose couldn't see it but she knew for a fact that he was smirking under that mask of his.

As soon as the Spaniard left her shop, Rose tried her best to channel her anger into something to avoid taking the insult personally. As she clenched her fist and glowed her fist its light blue aura, Rose murmured to herself,

"I should have been the one to damage his dumb handsome face."

\~/\~/

Fortunately for Rose, her next client was a friendlier, more familiar face she recognized from the tournament. World renown business man and All-American champion Ken Masters appeared at Rose's shop in a pink polo, crème colored khaki pants and brown shoes. Again, Rose found herself curious as to why such a character was in her shop at 2:41 pm.

"Hey!" Ken greeted the violet haired gypsy.

"Hello Mr. Masters, Ryu has told me a great deal about you."

"Please call me Ken," he stated with a smile before he continued. "Ya know Ryu told me about you as well, told me that you could predict the future with tarot cards. Is that true?"

"Why yes it is Ken. For a standard fee of 15 euros I will tell any fortune you desire: truthfully of course."

"That's great!" Beaming a charming smile, the American pulled out the 15 euros that was needed for the ritual and set it on the table.

Rose took the pay and placed it in a money box under the table and began her business.

"What is your need to look into the future today, Ken?"

"Well it's about my newborn Mel Masters. Actually would you like to see him?" Ken asked excitedly.

"Of course! I just love to see children when their so young."

Ken grabbed his wallet from his pocket and produced a picture of a small baby wrapped in a bundle sleeping soundly in a hospital bed. Rose held her hand to her cheek and awed at the baby in the picture.

"He's so cute!"

"Yeah that seems to be the general opinion of my boy, hehe." Ken put the picture away and put his wallet back into his pocket. "Anyway I came here today just to make sure his future was stable. I didn't want him to encounter a horrible fortune or anything so yeah: can you help me out?"

"What a noble father. Alright that seems simple enough; please wait a moment so that I may be able to tell you're fortune."

Rose repeats the process from earlier with the whole card spinning and such cause the author doesn't feel like writing that out again. Once the cards settled back onto the table she picked up the first card of the deck and frowned. Hard.

"Uh-oh that doesn't look good." Ken said worriedly.

"Ummm, well not particularly bad per say. It's not deathly bad or horribly bad but its rather… surprising."

"Oh, well what's the fortune?"

"…" This was a rather difficult thing to discuss with the client sitting across from her table; especially when it came to his son nonetheless. It was best to soften the news to the American to the best of her abilities.

"Mr.-, Ken, how do you feel about people dating the same sex?"

Ken arched a confused eyebrow but answered the question regardless of its obscurity. "It's no problem with me. People are people after all."

"That's good to hear Ken because you're son… is going to go through a bit of a… well homosexual phase at some point in his life…"

The air went dead silent as Ken lost all muscle to his jaw as his mouth dropped open.

"A… homosexual phase?"

"Yes."

"Like as in gay?"

"Yes."

Ken frowned and looked completely baffled at the gypsy across from him. When the thought of his son going through a gay phase finally hit home in his brain, Ken raised his hands to clench his blond hair and screamed at the ceiling thoroughly scaring Rose.

"No! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO!" Like a feral animal, Ken pointed at Rose and began barking orders at the scared Italian. "Check it again!"

"What? No! Ken there's no-"

"That's Mr. Masters to you!"

Rose defensively held her hands up in case the American champion was feeling upper cutting happy. "Mr. Masters there is no need for me to redo the process again. Once I have completed the ritual it is only coherent to your fate and no one else's. This is your son's fortune, Mr. Masters."

"Awwww no! How!? Why me!?" Ken sat down and grimaced at the gypsy. "How long will this, 'phase', be?"

"Well that's actually another fortunate entirely so an extra 15 euros is req-"

Ken cut her off by slamming a black suitcase on the table and ushered her to continue with a single determined look. Rose was going to question the whereabouts of the suitcase, but who was going to question a case full of money?

Rose drew the next card in her deck and looked slightly relieved. "Well it seems you're son's phase will last for 3 years when he has hit the peak of his adolescent age."

"So it'll start when Mel's 16?"

Ken seemed to ponder something before asking his next question. "Will it be one single partner or multiple?"

Rose was about to repeat her policy then remembered the briefcase on the table. She drew a third card and paused at the result of the card.

"… Multiple."

With hearing the final verdict, Ken slumped back in his chair in total shock. This was the fate of Mel Masters? Mr. Masters steadied his weak body on the wooden table and rose from his seat. He calmly turned around and opened the door.

"If that's Mel's fate, then I'll still support him no matter what."

With that final statement, ken Masters closed the door and out into the Italian afternoon a confused and altered man. Despite his peculiar fortune, Ken remained a good father in Rose's eyes.

\~/\~/

The clock displayed 5:13 pm as the shop's closing hours were closely approaching soon. Rose had had quite enough of the surprises for today with both Vega and Ken Masters that she was thankful for the two other normal clients that came to her shop earlier. However, her most bizarre client and fortune of the day walked in at 5:15 pm with 45 minutes till closing time.

His appearance was something that the average person was not use to seeing sat all. His biggest main feature was his vibrant green skin and equally long, bright orange hair while wearing his tattered brown shorts. If she remembered correctly, Blanka fought like a wild animal but acted like a nice young man to those he didn't view as a threat. Rose was not upset in his appearance in the slightest yet she was rather curious on what brought him here to her shop today.

"Hello Ms. Fortune Telling Lady!" Blanka greeted with great enthusiasm.

"Oh it's just Rose my dear friend." How adorable. "Please have a seat." As instructed, Blanka hopped onto the chair and stayed in that position with his knees close to his chest. "Alright then, heh, what can I do for you today Blanka?"

"Well Ms. Rose, my mama's birthday is in a few days and I wanted to give her the best birthday present ever! Use my prize money from the recent tournament I fought in, I thought that I could see into the future to see what my mama wanted."

Rose couldn't help but to feel delighted to hear Blanka's words as she smiled while putting a hand to her cheek. "How considerate of you Blanka: alright I'll help you with your problem. I just need 15 euros from you to begin."

Blanka let out an animalistic cheer and placed his hands into his pocket to pull out the money. He set the euros down and also a banana which he immediately picked back up. Embarrassed at his mistake, Blanka chuckled and scratched the back of his head making Rose laugh once more. With the payment achieved, Rose took the money and began the ritual once more. Afterwards she took the first card from the deck, look at it and had a look of sheer mortification etched on her face.

Blanka curiously asked Rose, "Is everything alright?"

"I... I don't know how to put this but um… wow." This was one uncomfortable subject to talk about. Rose was not all too sure if Blanka could handle the truth about his mother's wishes. Regardless she had to tell the truth meaning that the best option was to take it slow with the green jungle man.

"Ok Blanka do you know what the birds and the bees are correct?"

"Yes I do! Mama said when a man and a woman-"

"Ok that's great! Then let me just say this: when a woman and an object are…" Love certainly wasn't the word for such activities. Rose choose to rephrase her sentence with, "When a woman doesn't necessarily want the love of a man she relies on an object for her… needs."

"Object?"

"Yes a…" Rose was completely red at this point. "A… a sex toy."

A moment of silence fell onto the two as Rose surely thought that Blanka was going to freak out just like Ken had done earlier that day. Surprisingly though, Blanka continued without missing a beat in his questions.

"Ok what kind of toy?"

"…" Rose looked back at the card in her hand and went a higher shade of red. "Well, um, it's the kind of toy shaped after a male's gentiles."

"Genna what?"

"A man's…" rose pressed her fingers to her temples and begged to know why she had to be the one to tell the innocent Blanka. Rose was able to force out the reply by saying, "A man's penis."

Blanka thought for a moment for he snapped his fingers. "Oh! So mama wants that sort of thing." Blanka got off the chair and walked towards the door. "If that's what mama wants then I'll get it for her no matter what. First I gotta find a store that sells a toy penis first then I'll buy her the best one there! Thank you Rose, bye!"

After Blanka left, rose sat there puzzled at the events of that day. In a spilt second, Rose opened a cabinet behind her that held her Cheri '74, opened the bottle with her soul power and drank straight from the bottle. After taking a breath, Rose wiped her mouth with her arm and slumped on the table.

"What a horrible day. This was the worse day by far."

Of course, Rose had no idea that this was only the beginning of her misfortunes.

Author's Note - Thanks for reading. This is my little break from my Tekken fic and my attempt at Street Fighter comedy. I'll try to update frequently but no promises of course. If you guys want you can suggest the next character to have their fortune read :D.