Slowly opening his eyes, Ryu awoke from his slumber as a ray of sunshine brushed against his eyelids. Once he regained a sense of where he was, the wandering warrior rolled over and looked at the electronic clock on the dresser. 8:23 AM, Ryu muttered as he pushed himself off the bed only to fall on the floor to begin his morning exercises. Looks like I'm getting closer to usual wake-up time. For the past few days I've been sleeping past 9:00, and by that time the day has long since started.
Rolling over onto his back and beginning his set of stomach crunches, Ryu slowly went over the events of the previous day. After coming back from Ken's hotel and convincing him to provide the money for Moshe's wife (to Ryu's good fortune, Ken didn't need much coaxing as he was happy to do it), Ryu went grocery shopping with the list Chun-Li gave him acting as his guide. For someone in such amazing physical condition, Ryu noticed that she enjoyed a lot of sweets, as he found himself purchasing candies and cakes in addition to the usual assortment of fruits, vegetables, and dairy products that would be more suitable for martial artists of their caliber and conditioning.
When he returned from grocery shopping, he noticed that Chun-Li had another visitor from Japan: Ryu's old admirer Sakura Kasugano. Being that Ryu hadn't seen Sakura for several months, the two of them quickly went inside the school and caught up on what they had been up to since they last spoke. Ryu was already aware that Sakura had become a gym teacher, as the last time they met he had accidentally caught her in the middle of teaching her class, but he wasn't aware of Sakura's recent accolade as "Gym Teacher of the Year." Needless to say, Ryu was quite proud of Sakura's quick strides in her field.
For years she wanted me to become her sensei…and already she's earned renown as a better teacher than I could ever be, Ryu thought as he completed his fiftieth stomach crunch, immediately rolling over onto his belly before planting his hands on the ground and beginning the next part of his early routine: fifty push-ups. Just like Ken, Sakura has found her strength outside of the world of fighting, and she's thriving because of it.
The main reason Ryu didn't offer to formally teach Sakura all those years ago was because he didn't feel like he was worthy of being a teacher, especially with the Satsui no Hadou looming around him, threatening to consume him at a moment's notice. While his ability to contain the Satsui no Hadou had risen exponentially since then to a point where he no longer pays heed to its temptation, Ryu still didn't feel like he was worthy of being a sensei. There was still so much that he had to learn: if he was going to be a teacher, he would need confidence in his own knowledge before anything else.
After telling Sakura about his recent worries about where his journey to enlightenment was leading him, the young woman had a strikingly similar answer to what Ken had told him days before. "I think what you need to do is to stop and smell the roses. Take a moment to look back at what you used to be and then look forward on what you could be," she said before almost reciting Ken's advice word for word. "If you stay here at this school, I think you might figure out what your next step in life is going to be."
Two of my best friends I've made in life have told me the same thing: stay here in Hong Kong and the answer will be made clear, Ryu thought as he completed his push-ups, only to roll over onto his back once again to do more stomach crunches. There's obviously something that they're seeing that I'm oblivious to right now. Damn it all…I wish I had their insight so I could know what they were talking about!
Hearing the sound of footsteps in the hallway behind the door, Ryu paused from his exercise and listened to them intently. One thing that Ryu was sure of was that Ken and Sakura were referring to Chun-Li. While it was true that Ryu greatly admired Chun-Li for her sincerity and belief in justice, it was only recently that he was beginning to see Chun-Li as a woman, graceful and beautiful like a phoenix. While Ryu did not feel himself worthy to be a teacher, Chun-Li was a very good one with a plethora of students and the admiration of all of them at her disposal.
Pushing himself off the ground, Ryu decided that he'd complete the next set of his push-ups later: Chun-Li was obviously awake, so it was time for him to get his day started correctly with a hearty breakfast and conversation with his host. Sakura also told me that, when she first met Chun-Li, she mistook her for my girlfriend...and Chun-Li got embarrassed when she said that, Ryu thought as he reached out for the doorknob. Maybe there's more to our long-time friendship than I originally thought…I wonder if Chun-Li thinks of me as anything more than a friend, as well.
Just as Ryu was about to wrap his hand on the doorknob, a loud knocking on the door echoed throughout his room. "Ryu?" the familiar voice of Chun-Li called behind the door, "Are you awake? I need to talk to you right now."
She sounds worried about something, Ryu mumbled as he opened the door. Upon seeing Chun-Li already dressed in her blue qipao, along with a very concerned look on her face, the wandering warrior's concerns were justified. "Good morning, Chun-Li," Ryu greeted his host as he noticed her eyes wavering. "Is something wrong? You seem a little bit…rattled."
"We need to get going to the hospital," Chun-Li replied, her voice quick with anxiety. "It involves Master Gen."
"Master Gen?" Ryu repeated as he remembered who Chun-Li was talking about: the elderly assassin that at one point could claim that he was not only Akuma's greatest rival, but also the only one who survived the Shun Goku Satsu. "What's wrong with Master Gen?"
"He was just admitted to the emergency room early this morning," Chun-Li answered with the same fervor before biting her lip worriedly. With her eyes shifting downward, the Chinese martial artist continued. "The leukemia that he's been fighting for years took a massive turn for the worse: the doctors don't expect him to last the rest of the week and they said I should come over as soon as possible."
Going to the hospital to visit someone was nothing new to Chun-Li.
As a former police officer, she had lost count of how many times she went to see a comrade that had been shot, or stabbed, or poisoned, or beaten to a pulp. Over the years, she had come to associate the disinfectant aroma of the hospital with sadness and pain: while her comrades might put on a smile to make her feel better, they couldn't mask their suffering from her. Losing a fight is never a good experience, and the "life or death" stipulation that the police lived by made losing the fight a very dangerous option.
When Chun-Li and Ryu arrived at the hospital Master Gen was admitted in, they learned that the old assassin had already left the emergency room. In most cases, that was a sign that Gen had recovered from whatever has stricken him and was recuperating in a less-intensive area, but the seriousness of the doctor's voice indicated a more grim situation. Instead, Gen had been moved to hospice: the place where patients were moved when they weren't expected to live.
Chun-Li's relationship with Gen was, to say the least, very complicated. Gen was an old friend of Chun-Li's father, and the two would often laugh and drink with one another when Chun-Li was still a child. There was a time early on when Gen would assist Chun-Li's father with her training, but the friendly ties ended very shortly after her father disappeared. Chun-Li learned of Gen's occupation as an assassin and his remorseless nature, and her respect for the elderly martial artist dropped like a rock as a result. They hadn't spoken to each other in a long time.
Despite how bad their relationship had been over the past few years, when Chun-Li entered hospice to see the old man, with blood staining his white beard and purple cheongsam, she could help but gasp in horror at what had become of him. Even when I first learned that Gen had become sick, I never once pitied him, she thought as she and Ryu approached the old man, who seemed to be staring off into the distance with his ghostly eyes. He even told me that his leukemia was really the ghosts of everyone he'd killed trying to get revenge on him so that they could rest in peace.
So why…why do I feel so mortified to see him like this on his deathbed?
"Gen," Chun-Li called out to the gaunt figure lying in bed, his eyes still staring off into the ceiling like he was already dead. When Gen didn't immediately answer, Chun-Li lifted her hand and placed it on Gen's shoulder. "Gen, I need to you wake up! Ryu and I came to-"
"RYU," Gen suddenly sprang to life, shooting upward into a sitting position and turning his head towards the two warriors. With his ghostly eyes suddenly sparkling with violent intent, a wily smirk came over the old man's face. "Finally, this damn hospital brought me something I can use: a true warrior worthy of defeat at my hands!"
"How can you think about fighting at a time like this," Ryu interjected, apparently more than a little bit peeved at Gen's sudden eagerness for a fight, much less his arrogance of thinking he could win in his condition. "Chun-Li and I came here to see that you were alright: the least you can do is say thank you. You should be grateful that people would visit you at all, with how much suffering you've caused."
"HAH…idealistic to the last, eh Ryu?" Gen let out a single loud laugh as his smirk wided into a twisted grin. "Well, step right up and I'll be more than happy to rip those ideals out of your chest and crush it in between my fingers!" Dramatically pointing his index finger at the two warriors, Gen continued his rambling. "I challenge the both of you to a fight to the death! I might not look like much right now, but my killing techniques are still peerless under the heavens! If I fight both of you at once, then maybe things will be interesting enough that I can finally have the death match that I've craved for so-HHCK!"
As Gen suddenly started coughing up blood with loud hacks, Chun-Li slowly covered her mouth as she fought back tears. The time that had passed has weathered the old master in a way that wasn't limited to his physical condition. I didn't think it was possible, but he's gone senile, Chun-Li thought as she turned her head to see Gen's electronic pulse going crazy. Thank goodness my father isn't alive to see him like this: he would have been absolutely horrified at what Gen has become.
Ryu, brave soul that he was, reached out and clasped Gen's withered hand, too concerned for the old man's health that he was willing to ignore the fact that Gen just told him that he would have liked to fight him in a death match. "You need to calm down right now, Master Gen," Ryu said sternly as Gen finally regained control of his coughing and began taking deep gasps of air. "You're in no shape to fight anyone right now…"
"Yes…that's an unfortunate truth," Gen hissed as he regained enough air to continue speaking. "Sadly, I wasted my chance of a true death match last night."
"What happened last night?" Ryu asked after letting out a sigh of relief that Gen's murderous frenzy had subsided.
"While I was returning home from a contract kill, I spotted that idiot of a fighter Dan Hibiki sweeping up the back of the porch of his moronic school. He recognized me and challenged me to a match," Gen explained as he quickly yanked his hand way from Ryu. "His boasting had been annoying me for some time and I decided that putting him in a coma for a few months would at least give me a bit of reprieve…but then my damn leukemia took hold and I became helpless to his ridiculous attacks!"
"You shouldn't be so upset," Ryu replied as he folded his arms. "Dan is a martial artist like any one of us: if you let your guard down even for a second, no matter who your opponent is, you're going to regret it…"
"If not for this damn illness, I'm certain I could have killed him easily and added him to the legion of screaming ghosts that follow me around," Gen grumbled as he stroked his beard. Looking at the blood that was now on his hand, his ghostly eyes narrowed in fury. "As if losing to that fool wasn't bad enough, he further added insult to injury by refusing my request to deliver the finishing blow! He told me that it's against his code of honor to fight the sick and elderly…BAH!" Gen once again made a loud outburst as he smashed his fist against the metal siding of his bed. "If he were a true martial artist, he would have been merciful and put me out of my wretched misery! Now I'm here in this disgusting hospital waiting for death like a coward instead of embracing it like a-"
"SHUT UP, GEN," Chun-Li shouted as loud as she could, drawing attention to herself from the other patients and doctors in the room. Once it was clear that she had Gen's attention, Chun-Li continued with her voice cracking with anger. "You talk about how we're weaklings for not embracing death, but at least Dan knows the importance of life! As far as I'm concerned, Dan humiliating you is just an example of karma, and I'm glad that it's finally catching up with you…"
An uncomfortable silence came across the three as Ryu shifted his eyes from Gen to Chun-Li. If it wasn't already obvious that there was some bad blood between Gen and Chun-Li that shouldn't exist between master and pupil, then it was certainly obvious now. "…Master Gen," Ryu broke the silence and leaned in so that Gen could hear him without Chun-Li hearing. "I've been meaning to ask you something: is it true that you survived Akuma's Shun Goku Satsu technique?"
"Of course it is, whelp," Gen growled, though he was also careful to make sure Chun-Li didn't hear him. "Do you think this old man would make up something like that? The Shun Goku Satsu is the type of attack that every martial artist would love to add to their arsenal: surviving such a barrage is the mark of someone who is truly worthy of calling themselves a follower of the fist."
"I need to know what you did to survive the attack," Ryu replied, his voice filled with fatalistic seriousness. "Someday soon, I will have to face Akuma and avenge my master's murder. In order to do that, I need to figure out a way to break through the Shun Goku Satsu. You're the only person I know who was able to walk away from the attack…so I am begging you to tell me."
"Heheheh…what's wrong, Ryu?" Gen chuckled as he spoke loud enough for Chun-Li to hear. Turning his head to her, the old man sat back up. "Everyone dies someday: the question is when, why, and how painfully. Sure, we may try to run from it, saying that we'd be leaving behind our friends and loved ones, but the fact of the matter is that death is an inevitable outcome. If you don't want your time to come before you're ready, then you must clear your soul of doubt and embrace what's important to you."
"And what about my father, Gen?" Chun-Li said with her voice low with contempt. "Did he die because he didn't prepare himself for Shadaloo's trickery? You were the one who first told me that Father was taken by Shadaloo, which meant that you were at the scene when it happened…and yet you didn't save him! He was willing to look the other way from your assassinations because of the friendship you shared, and you left him to the wolves to save your own-"
"I would have done anything to save your father, Chun-Li," Gen interjected, his voice ripe with frustration. "In my profession, it's remarkably common for comrades to betray you: it matters little what side on the law you're on. But your father...he was willing to put that aside because he believed that I was a good man inside." The old man turned his head to look at his reflection through a small hand mirror sitting in a tray next to his bed. "What a fool he was. I am as wretched as they come: I couldn't even save my only friend from evil…"
As Gen continued to stare into the mirror, Chun-Li clenched her fists and did her best to prevent herself from losing her composure. No matter what her own feelings about this man were, Gen was a close friend of her late father. She owed it to him to be more sympathic towards the old man in what was obviously the final days of a long and arduous life. "…Gen," Chun-Li cleared away the malice in her voice and tried to sound more comforting: whatever sort of monster he was, Gen was now a dying old man and of no threat to anyone. "Is there anything we can do to make your moments…less painful?"
"Come closer, child," Gen replied as he turned away from the mirror and back towards the woman that had once been his best friend's daughter. "There is something that I would like to tell you that I do not wish for your friend to hear." Once Chun-Li complied with his request and leaned in next to him, Gen's voice became a hushed whisper. "I have not seen you in quite some time, child: how is your school doing?"
How does Gen know about the school? I've never spoken to him about it, Chun-Li thought, taken aback by the sudden gentleness in Gen's voice. Maybe Yun and Yang mentioned it to him: they did work at Gen's old restaurant. "My school is doing very well, Gen," Chun-Li answered honestly, the lingering traces of malice in her voice disappearing. "All of my students are making great progress and enjoy my company. I have no doubt that it'll continue to do well if I put my mind to it."
"Good, good," Gen nodded his head, seemingly less like a murderous wretch and more like a feeble old man. "Your father would be so proud of you if he were alive: you've accomplished so much and yet there are still so many years left of your life that you can accomplish even more." Slowly bobbing his head towards Ryu, Gen waited until Chun-Li turned to where he was motioning to before whispering in her ear. "Do not make the same mistakes I did, traveling the journey of martial arts alone: treasure your friends, and protect them. Don't let what I allowed to happen to your father…happen to…"
Letting out a weak and pathetic sigh, Gen's head flopped down onto the pillow of his bed and the chilling beep of the ECG indicated that the old master had flatlined. Though it took a moment for it to sink in, Chun-Li realized that Gen had just given her his final words, stepping back as nurses and doctors rushed to his bed and huddled around him like vultures over carrion. "We need you leave now," one of the doctors shoved Chun-Li and Ryu away from the scene and motioned for two of the guards to escort them away. "We'll do everything we can to help him…but for now, you have to get out of here."
There was a very uncomfortable silence between Ryu and Chun-Li as they were taken to the lobby of the hospital. Watching a person breathe their last, whether it was of natural causes or outside forces, was always a surreal experience that left witnesses breathless for a moment. However, Ryu couldn't help but notice Chun-Li's trembling as they left hospice and were taken to the exit. She's always so strong and steady, like a tree, Ryu thought as he musted up the courage to say something. I've never seen her so rattled…
"What did he say to you?" Ryu finally asked.
"…he told me that my father would be proud of what I've accomplished…and that I should protect my friends in a way that he couldn't," Chun-Li answered, her voice cracking and her composure crumbling away like a sandcastle against a wave. "It was the first time in a very long time I have ever heard Gen say something that nice to me..."
"I'm sorry that he's in such bad shape," Ryu replied solemnly.
"Don't be," she whispered while she clenched her fists. "Gen and I trained together when I was still a kid, but when I learned about what kind of a man he really was, we never really got along after that. I've lost count of how many times I told him to stop killing people, and despite my warnings he'd kill and kill. Even after I convinced him to open up a restaurant to step away from the killing, he'd take on contracts and shed more blood. For the longest time I thought he was taking advantage of my father's friendship, because he knew that I could never arrest him with that hanging over our heads."
"It sounds like your relationship is very strained," the wandering warrior observed as he noticed Chun-Li's trembling was getting worse.
"But…despite all of that," Chun-Li's voiced started to crack up as tears welled up into her eyes. "Seeing him like that on his deathbed, crazed and defiant…it…it hurts so much and I don't know why…"
Unable to contain herself any longer, tears began streaming down Chun-Li's cheeks as she quietly sobbed. Ryu didn't say anything: how could he say anything? It was made plainly obvious from their visit that Chun-Li and Gen had issues that they never resolved, but no matter how bad their relationship soured, she obviously still cared enough about him to shed tears for him. "I…I'm sorry, Ryu," she managed to spit out as the tears continued to fall. "I just told you how much I hate him, and yet here I am crying in the same way that I lost my-"
Deciding that he had heard enough, Ryu did what he thought was best to comfort Chun-Li: he wrapped his arms around her and pressed her head against his muscular chest. "…you don't have to say anything, Chun-Li," Ryu whispered as gently as he could, momentarily silencing her sobbing. "When I found my Master Gouken's corpse in the dojo, I cried, as well. It's never easy to lose someone that you've called Master…and I can't imagine what you must be feeling, to have actually heard your master's final words and watched him die."
Noticing that Chun-Li was not saying anything, Ryu lowered his eyes to see Chun-Li looking up at him, a little startled at his sudden act of caring. "Ryu…"
"You don't have to say anything, Chun-Li," Ryu repeated as he tightened his embrace. "Just let it all out…and know that I'm here for you, to help you get through this." With those words, the wandering warrior allowed Chun-Li to continue crying into his shirt, doing his best to comfort her in her time of need. With my Master Gouken, he was murdered: one day I can avenge his death by facing Akuma, he thought as he slowly rubbed Chun-Li's back. With Master Gen, it's something that's out of our control…and somehow, that makes it all the more painful. The only thing we can do…is have friends be there for us in our time of need.
