The vanilla white car was speeding slightly above the speed limit through the highway. Driving it was Chun-li, clad in a white loose t-shirt too big for her size, inside her denim jacket, matched with charcoal black jeans. The morning sun was opposite of her face, but her eyes were protected by a pair of oval sunglasses, tied on both ends of its frame with a rubber band. Those eyes were stoicly focused on the road, and both her hands and feet skillfully controlled the manual transmission, clutch, brake and accelerator, as she took over one car after another.
Sitting beside her was Ryu, in his blue washed off jeans with a white t-shirt and a windbreaker jacket. He was only looking outside through the side window, on the trees grown on the side of the road. More than half an hour later, more buildings can be seen, and their sizes bigger as the car approached the city. Gradually, more cars can be seen on the road, and Chun-li slowed down until they came to a stop due to traffic jam ahead.
Earlier that morning, several hours before the sun was even up, Ryu was awaken by the noise of someone talking outside his bedroom. It was not clear enough for him to tell straight away, but then he looked to the side of his bed and see nothing else under his blanket but the robe he gave Chun-li. Lazily, he dragged his two feet off the bed and sat to the site, facing the windows. He could see Chun-li's silhouette from between the cracks.
The conversation must have started long before he woke up, because Chun-li came back in only 20 seconds later. Cold wind passed through her long, freefalling hair as she shut the door, but her naked body was unaffected. When it was fully closed, her hand rested on the handle for a good while, as she stood silently. Ryu's blank stare was then to the floor.
"...My vacation's been cut short." Chun-li spoke first. "Our informants have obtained some details on Juri's recent movements, so I need to get back to HQ soon."
"Is that so..."
He wanted to ask a lot more, but he knew his place. He recognized that they both live in different worlds with different responsibilities and views. The only thing they had in common was the loneliness they experience as a result of it; Chun-li is a police officer whose job is to preserve peace and order, while he used to be a street fighter who devoted his entire life to improve himself in his art, leaving both of them too little time and opportunity for such thing as a relationship. Granted, he was about to put all that behind, but Chun-li does not seem keen on the idea of quitting what she does.
"I need to take you in too, for some Q&A with the boys there. I don't want them to, but I want to stay free from conflict-of-interest issues."
She turned and walked towards him, unmoved. Gently, she wrapped her arms around him, and pushed him down, lying him on the bed. Ryu was a bit startled, but then, she looked at him right in his eyes. Her own pooled with tears.
"Take me...!"
He wished he could ask how she changes her personality so fast, because in the car, she was back to her usual self. Almost every aspect of frankness disappeared from his perception, and her eyes turned sharp, examining, and oftentimes intimidating. Much of the time he spent in the car, he could not decide whether she was really sincere in the two days that she spent at the temple alone with him, or if showing him her frail side would make it easier for her to make him comply in anything she asked. He couldn't snuff the possibility away as far-fetched either; Thousands of lives could be riding on how successful her investigations are. He could not afford to feel used; Bison easily possessed him once, and he could not control Satsui no Hadou despite being a power he was born with. He used to think that he should train himself into controlling it and save her and everyone some trouble, but repeated attempts over that power has proved him in his own eyes to be a weak man. For him, a weak man has no right to feel used.
Yet he asked to be able to see Gunma before the questioning session. He took more than a day spending it with Chun-li, subconsciously trying to run away from the problems he was about to face but in the end, he felt he was still responsible for the old monk. Chun-li agreed to his request, and dropped him at the entrance to the hospital.
"I have things I must attend to, so I'll be on my way first. I'll pick you up again by 11 o'clock here. Just don't wander off." No goodbyes or even so much as a handgesture; just a short order, straight to the point. When the car disappeared from his view at the faraway junction, he decided to go into the hospital. Stepping past the automatically opened door, he could pick out some peculiar figures in between the people he passed through. To the regular civilian, they would not seem all that different, but Ryu could tell from their gestures that they were agents in plain clothes. He could see at least one of them sitting or standing at all the critical locations; the seemingly middle aged man at the waiting hall, the clerk at the admission counter, some nurses by the door to the emergency unit, and the cleaning guy by the elevator. Even the staff at the inquiry station looked at him funny while he asked for direction to the ward where Gunma was. Perhaps Chun-li, or her superiors, agreed to let him visit the old man because they had him under watch anyway - he figured.
He stood still in front of the door into Gunma's room for a while. It was a first class ward room, perhaps courtesy of Ken, or whoever ordered the men in suits inside that room to watch over him, as he could see through the small glass on the door. It was not until one of them opened the door and identified him when he finally went in, but he was still unsure when he saw Gunma, lying in coma on the hospital bed, with a gas mask covering his nose and mouth. After one of the two men in suits talked something over the radio, nothing else was to be heard but the sound of the ECG machine, displaying Gunma's heart beat. Ryu only sat on the chair beside him, unable to think.
He did not know how long he had been there until then, but Ryu snapped back when he heard some commotion outside. He walked towards the door, and opened it halfway to see one of the suits listening to a girl talking opposite of him. She was wearing a white one piece with patches of flower patterns all over it, carrying a plastic bags full of fruits. He recognized the face and the short hair, but he had to look longer because he used to see the girl with a white headband to imitate him.
"Demo watashi ha Ken Masters kara tanomaretandesu yo."
"Warui ga, koko ha kinshi da. Kaettekure."
Ryu came out, and the girl recognized him right away.
"Ne, Ryu-san?"
"...Kanojyo nara daijyoubu. Ken mo kanojyo no koto shinjiru kara yurushitekure."
The man had his doubts, but if it was Ryu who approved her, he felt she was legit. Before he let the girl go in, he asked her full name as part of his protocol.
"Kimi no onamae ha?"
"Kasugano desu. Kasugano Sakura."
Ryu went back to his seat while Sakura ogled at Gunma for a while. Once the man in suit went back in, he took the bag of fruits from Sakura for some inspection, but he did not return it to her.
"He clearly has no use for these fruits now, but we'll keep this for him until he wakes up."
"Thank you."
Sakura slowly sat down on a chair on the opposite site of the bed. She realized that what she was about to ask was probably not something appropriate for the time, but her curiosity could not resist.
"Ken-san told me that you're gonna stop fighting."
"... Pretty much."
"I see..." Sakura could not dare look at his face. "I'm just... surprised... BUT I'm not blaming you or anything. I guess sometimes you just gotta... put down and look elsewhere huh?"
The girl irritated him a little, but he understood that she was only trying to facilitate a conversation.
"Ken-san, he..." It was a long pause, but her speech was no longer stuttered after it. "He was here all day. He sounded really sleepy when he called me."
"...I guess I should've come here earlier."
"I'm sure he won't mind. He told me that someone attacked you, and you needed to calm yourself down." Sakura stared at Gunma's face, but her heart was with Ryu. "He told me to look out for you while he's gone."
"Gone...?"
"He had to go back to the States. Eliza-san had a small complication, and had to be admitted to the hospital."
"I see." His guilt over Ken thickened. He started to feel like he was cowering behind his friends, but was also too helpless to change the situation. Sakura stole a glance at his face and could see it in his eyes too. She then thought of changing the conversation.
"Ryu-san, let's take turns and take care of him together! He only has us to take care of him right now, and he's depending on us, right?"
He was going to plunge himself deeper into self-pity, but Sakura's words and mood soothed his mind a bit. If there was anything concrete he can do to make a change, nursing Gunma back to health would be something to start with. Sakura's smile grew wider when she saw Ryu's own.
"Well, then I better get done with Chun-li quickly so I can go take my savings and find a hotel to stay."
"You had to go somewhere?"
"Yeah. Some business at Interpol. She was supposed to pick me up at 11."
"Really...?" She looked at her wristwatch and raised an eyebrow. "Then you better go now. You have five minutes left!"
Sakura waved her hands timidly while Ryu opened the door. Before he took off, he paused by the doorframe.
"...Thanks, Sakura."
"It's alright, Ryu-san!"
Downstairs at the entrance, Ryu could see Chun-li leaning against her car door, looking at her watch by the roadside.
"You're done?"
"...Not really. Once I'm done with the questioning, I intend to get back here. The old man needs someone to look for."
"Let's hurry up then."
Ryu was walking to the other side of the seat and Chun-li was already halfway through opening the door when they both noticed a figure in the crowd. A lot of people were walking on that side of the road and more were walking in and out of the hospital, but that figure was too striking to ignore; a tall tanned woman in black suit and pants, with shirt unbuttoned in the middle. Her distinctive feature was her flaming red long hair, braided and tied from top to bottom. She smiled at the both of them as she took off her lime-green shaded glasses.
The woman walked nonchalantly closer and closer to them, with her arms wrapped below her breasts, emphasizing their size. When she reached within 10 steps of them, Chun-li was going to draw her M1911 handgun concealed by her jacket, but the woman put her own threat first.
"So many people within my reach right now. You want to risk having any of them hurt?"
"Chun-li..."
Her hand was already on the gun's grip, but with Ryu looking at her, she let loose of it.
"I know..." She clinched her fists. Meanwhile, Viper's eyes were on Ryu, and it did not escape Chun-li's notice.
"I thought you don't always carry firearms, Chun-li? Why the change of mind?"
"When criminals started wearing high-heels that can make them fly, I'd rather not take chances."
"Smart move." She smirked at Chun-li's response. "OK, I'll cut this short. Give us Ryu or else."
"You know you gotta give a better reasoning than that, Viper."
"Oh? How about that 'else' involving the woman who almost killed you, Chun-li?"
Ryu's heart skipped a beat. A deep sense of anxiety began to take over his mind as he saw it; a faint sparkle of bright pink-purple light on one of the buildings inside the hospital compound. He could see it coming from outside the windows of one of the rooms, and judging from the floor position and where it was located, it was obvious that it came from inside Gunma's room.
He knew then that Juri is back, and both Gunma's and Sakura's life might be in danger.
