A/N: Sorry it's been awhile, but I have this chapter finally up. I know people were excited to see what Ryu was talking about, so I hope you enjoy. This chapter may be a little more informative, and I hopefully got none of the info wrong...but then it is a fictional story I suppose...=p Anywho, I hope you enjoy!
Love And Karate
Chapter Three: Decode
The truth is hiding in your eyes, and it's hanging on your tongue...
The two made their way out of the town as they headed towards the forest ahead in silence. It wasn't awkward silence, it was somewhat peaceful. Hitomi watched Ryu's face, wanting to say something. But she noticed he was lost in thought, because his green eyes looked distance; but she also didn't want to ruin the calm silence that clouded them. She liked it a lot. The only silence she had encountered was painfully or lonely. So she liked this a lot, that she had someone to actually be walking with, some company.
Ryu lead her deeper into the forest, and Hitomi become a little nervous…and a little scared. She looked around her, the area dark from the trees that blocked off the sun, only a few rays of sun coming from open entrances. The forest made no sound, but only the animals quietly running around and the leaves on the trees shaking as the cold wind blew. Hitomi decided to finally speak.
"Where are you taking me?" she asked Ryu. He stayed quiet as they continued walking.
Okay then, she thought to herself. A little um...rude aren't we? Then, Hitomi noticed an opening of the bushes and two tree trunks at each side, making a clear path as sunlight blinded her. Ryu moved a few of the branches away as he walked past the opening and into the sunlight. Hitomi quickly followed him through too.
She noticed then, there was pieces of wood, inside a circled made by little pebbles. There were two rocks, one on an opposite side, which surrounded the wood. Hitomi looked around and saw all the huge boulders that were surrounding the area, and a stream that was following a little far ways in front of her. She took a deep breath, feeling the sun of her skin. She smelled salmon, pine, dirt. She liked the smell a lot. Grass was growing in little places that pebbles of dirt weren't, which made some dust come off from the ground as they walked.
"I wanted to talk to you about something Hitomi." Ryu finally spoke for the first time, since before they left town. "To be clearer about things, I wanted to speak about Hayate and his past." He walked off and jumped on top of two huge boulders that were in front of him, sitting on them. She noticed he grabbed a fishing rod, and threw the hook into the river that was below. Hitomi followed him up, sitting beside him as he fished. He removed his mask from his mouth and assumed his hand on the rod again.
She watched his face as he concentrated on the water. "Hayate," Ryu said as he watched the water, his eyes becoming distance then. "He was born to Shiden and Ayame. They were the leaders of the Mugen Tenshin clan, so of course; soon he would have to be the next leader of the clan when he was older." Ryu pulled at his fishing rod and reeled it in quickly, a fish at the end of the hook. Hitomi watched as he placed it down next to him, and she assumed it was dead. "But Hayate knew little about his family and what happened to his mother."
"What happened to his mom?" Hitomi asked him, watching his face. It was carefully composure, trying not to show any emotion, as he pretended to concentrate on the water.
"His mother…" he paused before speaking again. "His mother was raped by Raidou." He held up his hand, sensing that Hitomi was going to ask another question. "He was only seven, so he wouldn't have known. But Ayane, a good friend of his was his and Kasumi's half sister. She was known as the 'cursed child' in the village, but her and Kasumi were good friends." He smiled at this memory. "But learning that Ayame was her mother, jealous overcame her soul. Kasumi was treated so much better than her. She then hated Kasumi and still does until this very day."
"Yah, but what does that have to do with-"but Ryu stopped her again with his hand. He then pulled at the rod and captured another fish, placing it in the space between the two.
"Hayate?" he said, finishing Hitomi's sentence. "Well you see, when Hayate grew up to be older after years passed, Raidou came back to the village. He wanted to steal the Torn Sky Blast ninpõ attack for his own selfish reasons for power. So he attacked some to the villagers, not leaving until he got what we wanted. Ayane tried to protect Hayate, but was unsuccessful. So it was up to Hayate to stop Raidou. Raidou mocked him, making Hayate angry, and he ended up using the Torn Sky Blast attack on Raidou, stealing it from Hayate. Hayate ended up slamming against a tree when their attacks collided. He broke his spine and we discovered he was in a comma.
"His sister that I mentioned earlier, Kasumi," A small smile played at the corner of his lips again, before it fell. "She looked after him. She was sad to see her dear brother hurt, since she loved him so much. They had a pretty good relationship as brother and sister. So an idea came into her mind to avenge Hayate by killing Raidou. Well, she didn't know Raidou hurt him until later. So she entered the first DOA tournament to discover the truth."
Hitomi was very interested in hearing about this. Ryu reeled in another fish and placed it in the pile. She stayed quiet as he continued. "So Kasumi ran away, becoming a runaway shinobi. The clan didn't tolerate this from any clan member, especially her. Since her brother's accident, she was supposed to take the role as the next clan leader. So they sent Ayane out as an assassin to kill her. Of course, I did as her brother use to tell me and tried to protect her so many times, but she would never listen to me. She always said it was her destiny and she had to do it. She would tell me not to get in the way.
"So, while all this was happening, somehow Hayate was captured by DOATEC, being researched for Project Epsilon."
"What is DOATEC? What's Project Epsilon?" Hitomi asked in confusion.
Ryu stayed quiet for awhile, watching the water. "DOATEC, the Dead or Alive Tournament Executive Committee. It is a weapon's research and development center. Also known to preside over the DOA tournaments. Project Epsilon was performed on Hayate, since he was one of the most powerful ninjas in the world. The purpose was to make him have superhuman abilities, physically." Hitomi's throat burned as Ryu reeled in another fish, turning to face her for the first time before turning his attention back to the water. "They tried to get into his nervous system to succeed this, but nothing was working. So someone ended up releasing him and it was unknown what happened until Hayate told me about you.
"He told me that you found him in the forest here and took him in. He told me your family was grateful. But-"
"But he suffered from amnesia. He couldn't remember his past." Hitomi said as she looked at the water below. "We called him Ein. Father teached him karate and he mastered it. He could even beat me." Hitomi smiled before it quickly fell. "He wanted to leave when he heard about the DOA tournament. He wanted to find out about his past. He told me that one day he would take me with him and we could fight together…" A single tear left Hitomi's eye, but she wiped it away. "Anyway, he ended up leaving. For the third DOA tournament, I decided since my karate improved to go and find…Ein." She only knew him as Ein then.
"When I found him, I asked him to come back to the dojo, but he refused. He told me later on after we fought and I lost who he was. He told me he had a duty to the clan." Ryu listened with interest while he reeled in another fish. But Hitomi had nothing more to say. So she stayed quiet, twirling a strand of hair around her finger.
Ryu got up and grabbed the fish, jumping down onto the dirt, making dust form around him. Hitomi jumped down too, and by the time she went over to where Ryu was, she noticed he had started a little camp fire where the wood was. She sat on one of the smaller boulders. Ryu sat across from her on his own.
"Did you know that Kasumi was part of Project Epsilon?" he asked Hitomi as he grabbed a stick that was beside the boulder he was sitting on, where also a hat sat besides him.
"No…how come she was involved?" she asked him as he placed the stick through the fish.
"Well," he said as he placed it over the growing fire. "Since she was Hayate's sister and their first try of Project Epsilon failed, they tried Kasumi. She ended up being released, but they did make some clones of her. Kasumi told me during the DOA2 tournament that someone that looked exactly like her showed up when she discovered the lab and went inside. She told me everywhere; in these big tubes were millions of clones of her. She ended up fighting someone that was just like her. I sneaked into DOATEC and I learned that they named it Kasumi X. But since then, we haven't seen the clone."
Ryu moved the fish away from the fire and examined it. "Kasumi sounds very interesting. Noble even if you ask me. I don't see her as a traitor or runaway. I think she just wanted to figure out what really happened to Hayate. She was concern for him. I mean, it is her brother." Ryu nodded and offered Hitomi the fish that he placed on the stick moments ago.
"Thank you." She said as she took the stick from his hands, looking at the cooked salmon.
"I agree with that. I even made a promise to Hayate that she wouldn't get hurt. That she wouldn't die and I would never let her go. She just won't listen to me." Hitomi felt a little sympathy for Ryu. He seemed very caring and wise for a ninja. As if he read her thoughts, Ryu added: "We aren't as vile as we seem to be. Hayate may be a little on the strict side, but we are honestly kind souls. Well…most of us." Ryu started cooking another fish for himself. Thoughts of Ayane came back to Hitomi. She didn't understand the jealous that much. It was still her sister, why be jealous? She understood that Ayane was anger because she was treated worst than Kasumi, but why hate Kasumi so much? It wasn't her fault Ayame got raped.
"Hey, why does Ayane hate Kasumi so much? I mean, they're sisters. I understand she was treated differently than Kasumi, but why hate her? It isn't her fault?" Hitomi took a bite of her salmon and watched Ryu's face, which was still calm and settled.
"Ayane...I still wonder about her. She's let jealous engulf her, making hatred out of it towards Kasumi and her mother. Kasumi was treated like royalty, while she wasn't. While Ayane was embarrassed and an outcast, her mother sat there and watched. Ayane hates her mother for that." Ryu looked up at Hitomi. "I don't think it's good to have negative feelings. It leads to anger, a bad soul. If you don't a have a good soul, you will not have a good life. Simple as that." He looked up at the sun, and then looked back at Hitomi. She liked that he was very wise and calm. He didn't see the bad side of things. He looked towards the good side.
"Wow." Was all Hitomi said as she took another bite of her salmon. "I feel sorry for Ayane. No one ever loved her really." Ryu nodded as he took a bite of his own. They ate in silence as Hitomi took it all in. How come Ryu knew so much about all of this? Why was he telling her these things? What did she have to do with all of this? Hitomi still wonder as she finished her salmon. She noticed her grocery basket, which was back at the entrance, only a few feet away. "I think I have to go." She finally said as she got up.
Ryu looked alert then, as he stared off at the trees. "Wait, don't move." He said as he kept watched the trees. Hitomi quickly sat back down and Ryu keeping staring out at the trees, before looking at the fire again.
What was wrong? Hitomi thought to herself. Then she heard a rush of air and Ryu got up quickly. An arrow was racing towards him, and he grabbed his hat, throwing it towards the arrow. The arrow just ran through it, but it slowed down as he caught it in his hand. Hitomi gasped at how fast everything just came and went. She noticed that there was a paper tied onto the arrow. Ryu un knotted it and opened it up, reading it. His eyes narrowed as he continued reading. She never saw him upset before. He stopped reading the paper and slowly released it as it fell into the flames in front of him. Hitomi widen her eyes and stared at him.
"What did it say?" she asked him questioningly. He smiled at her kindly, but it didn't touch his eyes. Something in the note upset him very much, she could tell.
"Nothing at all. Now, you should get going." Ryu said to Hitomi's disappointment. She walked over to where her basket laid and picked it up from the ground. "But," he added quickly before she left. "If you ever need advice, I will be in the curio shop not too far from town." Hitomi turned around with a mask of confusion on her face. "If you don't know where that is, I want you to come here and travel past the river and threw those trees. Our clan is there. I want you to ask for Ayane. She shall escort you there." Maybe I won't be asking for advice after all, Hitomi thought to herself. She was afraid to meet Ayane, but at the same time, she felt a little sympathy for her.
Hitomi nodded to Ryu. "Thank you for everything." She said with a small smile. Ryu nodded back and he looked towards the fire again, his eyes distant. Hitomi decided it was her cue to go as she turned around and headed into the trees.
So...all those people who weren't DOA game players and didn't understand the story, that should help you a little. Lol. Anyway, I hope you liked that one. It took a lot of research and writing too! xD Kinda like a filler, or just something to refresh your memory. So, I really hope you enjoyed. I like Ryu a lot, and it is fun to write about him! ^_^ Oh, and yes I stole some of the end scene with the whole hat thing from the end clip of Hayabusa's story from DOA3. Mwhaahaaa! Yes, I'm evil! xD I do not own any of the characters though, so don't sue! Lol
So any comments? Suggestions? SUGGESTIONS! xD
I really would like some of your ideas. =) We have some creative people on here. =) And of course, you'll be credited. =D And, please tell any of your DOA loving friends to read and review. That would make me SOOO happy! ^_^ So, thanks and love you guys!
