At the Hibiki Dojo, Dan and Chao were both collapsed on the floor, which was full of holes caused by their training, doing their best to catch keep breath. "Chao, you've done well. I've never seen such fast progress. To think, in only three months you've already come this far,"

Chao, now wearing a lime-green gi, struggled to lift his head from the floor, "It's all thanks your teaching Master Hibiki," he strained a smile.

Dan rocked himself into a sitting position. In the short time he'd been teaching Chao, the boy's skill had improved to be able to hold his own in battle against his master for one hour. Dan himself hadn't realized how much of a workout training someone else would be. His own abilities were improving too. Time that he had been spending bored or asleep was now filled with rigorous training and teaching Chao the 'finer points' of Saikyo-Ryu, such as proper taunting. "Eat a lot tonight and go to sleep early. Tomorrow, we're going on a trip to test your progress."

Chao tilted his head, "Where are we going?"

Dan smiled brightly, "America!"

The next day, Dan spent the last of his money on two coach tickets to Miami, Florida.

Upon arrival, Chao was nearly jumping out of his skin with excitement, before his journey to find Master Hibiki, he had never even left his town, and now he was all the way across the world. "So, who's this friend of yours we're going to meet with Master?"

"Haha! Well I don't know if I'd call him a friend. We had the same master and he's more like a rival martial artist."

'Wow,' Chao gulped, 'Someone strong enough to be Master's rival," he had to admit he felt a little intimidated, imagining a shadowed figure (resembling Akuma)

The pair arrived at a fifteen foot fence, "Uh, Master. Shouldn't there be a gate here?"

"Uh, yes, well...It's a...test! Yeah that's it, it's a test on getting through hostile areas without getting caught," Dan lied.

Chao was skeptical but trusted his master, following him over the fence. Not ten seconds after reaching the top they were swarmed with armed guards. The master and student ran as fast as they could, narrowly avoiding the hail of gunfire through dumb-luck.

After two hours straight of running the guards had fallen over from exhaustion, and Dan and Chao came upon a small dojo in a clearing. Inside, they could hear the sounds of someone sparring.

"Ken!" Dan yelled.

Ken Masters and Sean Matsuda poked their heads out of the doorway. "Dan? What are you doing here?" Ken asked.

Dan smirked and crossed his arms, "Well, my apprentice and I wanted to stop bye and..."

Ken sweat-dropped "No, I mean how'd you get past the guards?"

Dan rubbed his finger under his nose and smiled, "You call those wimps guards? Me and Chao here took care of them without lifting a finger," which wasn't totally lying.

Ken blinked, "Chao? Wait, did you call him your apprentice?"

"That's right, he's my student in the art of Saikyo-Ryu!"

Chao bowed to the man with dyed blond hair.

Ken laughed, he had to admit, he kinda felt sorry for the kid, being Dan's student. "So, what did you come here for?"

"Oh yeah!" Dan said, having completely forgotten, "I was wondering if it would be okay for Sean and Chao to spar."

Ken and Chao looked surprised and Sean looked downright insulted. "Why?" Ken asked.

"Because, I want to see how well Chao stacks up to someone his age."

Ken put his hand to his chin and closed his eyes, thinking.

"Master, don't tell me you're actually considering this!" Sean yelled.

It was no secret that Sean practically hated Dan, due to being compared to him constantly for using similar styles and neither being as strong as Ken or Ryu.

Ken looked at Sean, a little annoyed by his student's outburst. "You know what? Sure!" he grinned.

"WHAT?" Sean was nearly knocked on his ass with surprise. "You expect me to fight him?" he pointed at Chao, "The apprentice to that LOSER Hibiki!"

Chao's eye twitched.

"I could take on a hundred, no, a THOUSAND Hibikis at once no problem! He's a joke!" he pleaded with his master, who stood idly bye.

Without warning, Sean felt himself pulled backwards violently. "W-whoa! What the..." he turned and saw Chao dragging him to the sparring arena by his gi's collar.

Chao let go and walked to the other side of the arena and prepared his stance "Nobody insults Master Hibiki and gets away with it."

"You really wanna fight me? Alright, I'll beat you in three seconds flat!" Sean grinned cockily.

"Chao!" Dan called from the sidelines, "Remember ALL your lessons and show that little punk the power of Saikyo-ryu!"

Chao nodded and smiled, leaving his stance, "After this, maybe I'll make you MY student. Master would be a better teacher but I don't think you're worth his time," he mocked in an irritating voice.

This made Sean's face boiling red and caused him to to charge with his improved four strike Tornado Kick.

Chao flipped over Sean, punching the top of his head, and landed.

Sean jumped the moment he landed and attempted a Ryubi Kyaku heel drop, only for his opponent to sidestep it and perform a Kouryuken uppercut, landing a solid blow to his chin and knocking him into the air. Sean landed on his hands and flipped away from Chao.

Chao jumped through the air, doing a flying kick.

Sean jumped and connected all four hits of his Tornado Kick to Chao's face, throwing him.

But Chao managed to get to his feet. "Is that all you've got?" he wiped some blood from his nose, "I got more painful cramps when I was learning to write autographs."

Sean went nuts and charged him again, unleashing an eight hit combo, three of which hit.

Chao countered with a Dan-ku-kyaku, flooring Sean. But while on the floor, he did a fast roll to Chao's feet and used his Dragon Smash Shoryuken, sending Chao falling through the air and was readying to perform the move's second strike when Chao grabbed his arm and used him as a landing cushion. "Hey, you're pretty soft, you'd make a better mattress than a fighter," Chao laughed.

'No way! I won't let him make a fool of me!' he screamed in his head. Sean threw Chao off his back, who quickly moved to the other side of the arena to regroup. He spread his legs far apart, moved his hands to his right side, and charged his ki.

Ken sweat-dropped, "Hey Sean! Not inside, you'll destroy the dojo!" he sighed but then saw Dan was actually afraid. "Dan, what's up?"

"I haven't taught Chao to manipulate ki!" he panicked.

Ken's face became distressed, that meant he couldn't reduced the ki's destructive power on impact, "Sean wait! STOP!"

"Hadou-Burst!" Sean cried, sending the ball of energy at Chao, who tried to block with his forearms.

Chao ended up being blasted off his feet, back into the wall outside of the ring, and dropping to the floor unconscious. The two men rushed over to the younger man, and saw his arms had nasty burns, nothing serious but they'd probably scar.

Ken pulled out his cell-phone and hit speed-dial. "Hello? It's Ken, we need a med-team in the dojo, and bring the burn medicine.