In any combat sport, or even in actual self-defense, there are two types of fighters.

The first types are those who attempt to strike first. They are the aggressors in the cage or ring; the initiators of a street fight. They attempt to impose their will on the opponent using superior force or speed, and begin the attack with a mindset of violence. They will attempt to win with overwhelming blows at a high rate of fire, or try and take the foe to the ground or to a nearby wall and rain punches or knees. Sometimes they'll even go for vital targets if they want the victory bad enough; if they're so consumed with being the strongest that they'll severely injure or kill any in their way.

The second types are those who wait for a proper opportunity to attack. They have a calm mindset, devoid of all processes of logic or thought, their subconscious minds and their bodies remembering every attack that they have in their arsenal. They are the ones with superior timing, along with their speed and strength and sheer size; the ones who can take punishment time and time again, over and over, possessing the capability to stand there and take a beating while the opponent wears themselves out.

This is, in my opinion, the final goal of any martial artist. They do not think; they react. They block, evade, or just plain strike before the opponent is finished with their own attack. This is not so much a defensive mindset, but a peaceful one, one free of the trappings of negative emotions like fear or anger or ego.

I would like to think that I'm the second type, but I have yet to find out for sure.

-Excerpt from the diary of Sakura Kasugano

Kanto the Slayer presents

A Street Fighter Fanfiction

Beyond Alpha

It had been three days since the sparring session, and things had already gotten interesting. Well, if you wanted to call pain interesting. But hey, it was worth it to learn a martial art, right? Right!?

Sakura was being beat on with a five foot long wooden rod with a diameter roughly that of a twelve gauge shotgun shell. Her stomach, chest, back and shoulders were all being slammed into with as much force as Ryu could muster, and it did not feel anywhere near pretty. But Sakura gritted her teeth and attempted to hold her stance, breathing out in controlled, slow exhales as she was battered. In between rounds of getting knocked around, Sakura took a breath and attempted to silence her thoughts.

Her mind attempted to make all sorts of reasons why she should not be doing this as her nerves sent it one message of pain after another. But as always, reason went entirely out the window when it came to her decision to have Ryu train her in the first place; she couldn't rely on it now. 'Shut up, stupid brain, or I'll ask Ryu to give you a smack too.'

Then she thought about that, and decided that it would not be a good idea for her to get a concussion. So she breathed in, took a controlled exhale, and felt her insides bounce around as she was smacked again and again, four times in total.

"Good, that was excellent. Keep your stance… ready!"

Breathe in. Focus; clear the mind. Breathe out.

She had to keep this pattern going for just a while longer. But how long would it take for her to have that iron body? One year, two at best? And she would have to find a way to do it herself instead of getting beat on all the time. But for the moment, she had someone guiding her, and that was good enough.

'I will become strong.'

It was the message that echoed through her head, or rather the one that she attempted to make echo through her head, as she was pounded on again and again. Karin stood by, watching all this, with a grimace on her face. She almost wanted to yell at Ryu, to stop what he was doing, but she too knew what was going on.

'If she can take this, she will be entirely undaunted by any attack thrown at her. They'll break like waves hitting a cliff side.'

It worried her, to be honest. Sakura was getting even stronger, right before her eyes, and she had no way of duplicating it. Perhaps there was something she could ask Ryu for, but anything but the stick, much less his punches.

Then again, she had been training for as long as her rival. For longer, in fact; since she was a little child. Hard training was a part of her life, and she took it in an almost nonchalant fashion. It was why she didn't just jump in and try to restrain Sakura's teacher. He trained her his way, and no one else could tell him different.

'Just wish he could train me…'

That thought didn't surprise her anymore. If his martial art weren't so secluded and didn't have such a shadowy past, he could be a licensed instructor, passing it off as simply a unique form of Kyokushin. Only advanced students, those who he thought worthy enough, would learn the secrets of using ki to their advantage.

But if the style spread too thin, it would be watered down, the essence removed from the original style. Personally, she hated it when that happened. It just became another method of fighting; one could not call it an art anymore because one could not make it their own.

'At the very least, I want to toughen up like Sakura is right now.' That's what she decided; she would obtain that iron body. She wanted the ability for one to take pain with the fortitude of a steel wall, and keep on coming. But how could she do that without such… extreme methods? She knew what Ryu was doing was meant to fortify Sakura's body as quickly as possible (given the circumstances), but she herself didn't want to be smacked around any time soon.

To Karin's relief, Ryu called time. "Good, you held your stance nicely this time around. Are you all right?"

Breathing heavily, Sakura nodded. "I'll be fine. Don't pull any punches on my account!"

Karin smiled and said, "Pardon my asking, but… do you think that I could get any sort of training in this as well? You know, without being beat on?"

Ryu shrugged and said, "Fine by me. Hang on…" With that, he headed towards a far corner of the room and withdrew two bags. Both made of canvas, they were also filled with beans. "I'm going to assume that you've never done this before. See these bags? They're filled with beans. What you do is simple enough… this long bag here is used for hitting the legs, arms, back, shoulders, anything that needs to be toughened. You have to use the proper amount of force as well; don't just touch your body with the bag, but don't swing hard enough to injure yourself. "

Karin nodded and took that bag, feeling the weight of it in her hands. 'Doesn't seem like much, but it's worth a try.'

Ryu presented the other bag, wider and thicker. "This one's for practicing your strikes on. It's just like hitting a rock or anything else; you have to keep on hitting at it until your hands become resistant to pain. That's all there is to it."

Karin nodded. "So is there any real estimate of how many times I have to do this?"

Ryu smiled and said, "Karin, the only way you'll know how you're doing is by actually trying to hit something, or asking someone to attack you. If it hurts, you're not ready."

Karin grimaced. "I see…"

He placed a hand on her shoulder and said, "Well there is good news. Depending on how much time each day you're willing to put into it, it doesn't have to take years. In fact, this can happen in as little as six months; a year tops. It all depends on how much you put into it."

Karin nodded and smiled. "So what happens when these beans break?"

Ryu casually answered her. "You find something harder. Try gravel or some river stones for the second stage. Once you can hit yourself with that without being hurt, no matter what happens, you go for the difficult part. Just fill it up with steel ball bearings and hit yourself with that. Just remember, don't use too much force."

Karin couldn't help but wonder what would happen if she did use a bit too much at the wrong time. She imagined a broken bone, or at least a nasty bruise, and couldn't hide her shudder. "I'll keep that in mind. Just hit until I can feel it, not until it hurts."

Ryu nodded and said, "Got it. You're a quick study, so I expect you to advance just as fast as Sakura does."

She smiled and said, "Thank you, sensei."

Ryu smirked and said, "Please don't call me that. I'm no one's sensei; I'm just passing on what I know to those who want to learn."

Karin shrugged and said, "Whatever you say, but I don't think Sakura would want to hear that." She got down on one knee and began hitting the shin with the bag. "She thinks of you as more than just a man, Ryu. You're her idol, her legend that she wants to live up to. I suggest you get used to her calling you master, if not me."

Ryu was silent for a moment. He had never really thought about the effect he had on others that he fought with or that watched him fight. He simply looked for the next challenge, the next worthy opponent. He was looking for the greatest battle of all time, where all of his powers would have to be brought to bear. And then, win or lose, he would be satisfied with himself.

But until now, he hadn't factored anyone else into the equation. How many people had he changed with his fists? What lives were affected by his coming into contact with them? He began thinking back on all the fights he had, and the myriad of personalities he had encountered. To think that he had changed lives simply by going into battle with all those people…

He smiled. No, winning certainly wasn't everything, and this was another form of proof.

"I'll try my best," he said as he walked towards Sakura again. "Train hard, Kanzuki-san."

As she had a good look at his back, she swore that she could see the sunlight that filtered into the room shining off of him as if he had an aura around him. Was it just an optical illusion, or did he really have so much power?

'A man like that… he can do anything he wants, regardless of how much money he has.'

Karin found herself seriously wondering what it would be like to travel with Ryu for the first time since she had come here.

The tranquil forests surrounding Suzaku Castle were silent, save for the occasional rustle of a bird's wings as they flew from one perch to another. It was in a clearing in these woods that Sakura had her next training session. She and Ryu sat in lotus posture, one in front of the other, and had their eyes closed in meditation. Today, she wore her white karategi, complete with a white belt and her white headband, tied neatly around her forehead. In all aspects, she looked like she could be related to Ryu, but his headband was red.

By now, Sakura could sense even the birds in the trees, and could pick them out one after another, knowing their exact location within a range of fifteen meters around her person. She was beginning to refine her senses, even without the instruction of Ryu behind her. It were as if once she learned the basics of the Hadou no Chikara, she opened herself up to another world altogether.

She could sense him as well, and the same energy coursing through him. No more, no less, just enough. She thought he had more of it; more power, more energy, more of something that she couldn't put her finger on, but now that she really sensed it, it was a surprise.

'He doesn't have any more or less. He just has a greater degree of control over it.'

Of course, she could also sense when he was coming out of his meditative state, and almost wanted to open her eyes at the same time he did his. But she refrained, simply bathing in the river of ki for a while longer. "All right, up we get," he said as he clapped his hands sharply.

Sakura opened her eyes, stretched out, and began standing. "So then, are we gonna punch trees again?"

Ryu chuckled and said, "I think we're past that point. You've proven that your hands can take a beating already. What we're going to do is not hit these, but climb them."

Sakura raised an eyebrow and said, "And what good is that gonna do, besides gradually increase stamina?"

Ryu smiled and responded, "Watch this."

And he lowered his legs briefly, breathing in as he did so. Sakura could suddenly sense his energy flowing towards the legs, and immediately realized what he was about to do. Before she could say anything though, he leapt upwards for a good fifteen feet, the leaves on the ground being pushed back by a small pressure wave.

Ryu grabbed onto the thick branch that was just above him, swung over, and sat on it. He looked down from where he sat and said, "See? We're gonna climb trees."

Sakura grinned and said softly, "Awesome. He's just too awesome."

Moments later, Ryu disengaged from the branch, turned a flip in the air, and landed right back on the ground again, entirely unharmed. He dusted off his pants and said, "I trust I don't have to tell you how you're going to be using your ki today. But this isn't going to be as easy as a Hadouken."

Sakura nodded and said, "I know that for sure. It's gonna take a lot more than just firing off a shockwave, right?"

Ryu nodded. "Ki can dramatically increase the power of anything you do – running, jumping, taking a hit, throwing a punch, anything at all. But in order to use it in such a fashion, it's going to take a lot more focus. The Hadouken was a simple application… this time we're going to do something a bit harder."

Sakura could already guess. "You're gonna teach me the Shoryuken, aren't you?"

Ryu grinned. "Bingo. And this is the first step."

Sakura nodded and set her face in a determined expression. "I'm ready! Let's do this!"

He raised an eyebrow at her passion to learn the next move, but thought nothing of it. It was better this way; the more drive she had, the faster she would learn, and that was what counted in the end. Ryu began by lowering his legs. "Okay, see this here? When you're like this, you focus your energy towards your legs. The trick is to use all of your energy in all those pressure points in order to execute the jump."

Sakura raised an eyebrow and said, "Last I checked, there were a whole lot of those."

Ryu nodded as he stood up. "That's why this one is going to be harder than you think. You still up for it?"

Sakura smiled. "Well, I can't back down now. Besides, I've been doing it wrong for a while now. I want to do it right."

He smiled and said, "That's what I like to hear. Okay, first things first… I just want you to focus on bringing the energy towards your legs. Don't do anything near jumping yet, just focus on bringing that energy to bear and moving it."

Sakura nodded and took a deep breath, closing her eyes and exhaling slowly. She could feel the ki flowing through her various pathways, small rivers leading into a larger ocean. She would have to direct that flow towards another area, and there would have to be a whole lot of it down there for this to work.

Not once had a thought entered her mind as she began using her considerable willpower to increase the flow of energy without batting an eyelash. Her face was entirely calm, and yet sweat began to break on her forehead. It was nowhere as easy as the first time, because she had to bring that flow to bear in a higher concentration than just a single shot.

But slowly, ever so slowly, she did it. The ki moved towards her legs, and she could feel them growing stronger as she did so. Ryu nodded. "Good… keep going until all the points are hit. Keep breathing."

She continued her breathing, keeping her mind devoid of thought. Steeped in the void, she had control of the flow within her, and gradually, she felt every point in her legs, from the hips to the thighs, and down through the soles of the feet, activate.

The whole thing took about five minutes.

Sakura sighed and said, "I did it. Damn, that was harder than I figured it'd be."

Ryu chuckled and said, "See what I mean? Now let it go."

She released the flow, and felt it empty out into the ground. Her legs felt… well, not tired, but empty, as if they missed the streams of ki flowing through them. "All right, so what now?" she asked as she began hopping a few times to try and remove the uneasiness in her legs.

Her teacher said, "Now we make it faster. Remember, when you get into that low position, you want to bring all that energy to focus at that very moment. It's the only way this is going to work. This isn't like the Hadouken when you can channel it any time you want; this is a single, instantaneous leap into the air. You're going to have to move that ki fast."

Sakura nodded and said, "Well let's get a move on."

For the next few hours, Sakura and Ryu practiced the movement of ki towards the legs, not even bothering to jump into the air yet. And as they did so, he taught her what else she could do with it.

Once Sakura had all that energy in her legs, she found that she could run faster. Oh, much faster. She already knew the proper form for a good running stride, but this was beyond belief… usually, her top speed was a good clip of twenty-two miles an hour. It wasn't all that bad, but it could be better.

Imagine that speed doubled.

Sakura grinned wildly as she hit a far greater clip of forty-five miles an hour. The trees whizzed by as she attempted to keep up with Ryu, and she was still able to weave between them as if she were moving at a slower pace. Indeed, she managed to catch up with him as they raced each other back to the waterfall, and even ran beside him for a few brief moments in time before she saw a tree up ahead.

Sakura smirked as she barreled towards it. For a moment, Ryu was worried she was going to ram straight into it… that was, until she began running upwards, her feet moving with such speed that she was able to maintain traction on the trunk. Up she went, just before she found a big enough branch to place herself onto. One that was several meters upwards.

She stopped on the branch and peered around the forest from her newfound perch, that same grin on her face. "This is unreal," she shouted down to Ryu. "I can't wait to learn the rest of it!"

He looked upwards and laughed. "Well you won't learn anything sitting around! Come on; let's head back to the lake. I want to show you something."

She nodded and immediately leapt downwards from the branch, turning a neat, single flip through the air. Before she hit the ground, Sakura focused her energies, brought them into her legs, and landed… without a scratch or a wince of pain. And then, the running began again. Within a few minutes instead of a few hours, they were at their destination, slowly coming to a halt as they reached the shore.

"Okay, stay right there," Ryu said as they stopped moving. "Sit down if you want and take a rest."

Sakura nodded and sat on a nearby rock, looking towards the majestic waterfall as it brought thousands of pounds worth of water down into the lake. Anything underneath that had to be able to take some serious punishment, or risk being crushed like a soda can from the sheer force.

But she thought nothing of it, because she didn't think she'd be standing underneath them any time soon.

What she did not expect was to see Ryu moving towards those falls, aiming to stand right underneath them. She didn't think for a second that he would be defeated by some measly water though, so she paid that no mind either. Soon however, she would have a reason to pay close attention.

As expected, Ryu stood underneath the waterfall, all those pounds of force bearing down on his shoulders and head. And yet he remained unfazed, his brown eyes closed and his body at ease. Sakura smiled as she saw him standing there as if he were just taking a shower.

Then, his eyes snapped open and he crouched low in that familiar stance. Sakura's eyes widened. "Wait, is he… There's no way."

He was. "Shoryuken!" he shouted as he launched himself upwards, his right fist ramming into the water that came crashing down towards it. But something amazing happened that Sakura had never seen before. The waterfall, in all its majestic, powerful glory, could not stand up to the might of the attack. It had no choice but to move out of his way, and the result was that Ryu's Shoryuken quite literally split the waterfall in two.

Sakura was speechless. Her mind was a different story.

'He's strong. Stronger than anyone I've ever known or fought. If he can do all this, why can't I?'

Indeed, why couldn't she? It was possible for him, so why not her? Her mind reeled with the possibilities, and the grin spread on her features again.

Visions ran through her head of her winning a fight with just a single Shoryuken or a dazzling Hadouken. She had long since known by now that the moves, in Gouken's toned-town form of the style they were using, could not kill. But this proved that they were potent enough to cause some serious pain with just one strike.

'I can do this. If he can… then I can too.'

Ryu landed as the water fell around him like drops of rain, and waded back towards the other side, his face still entirely calm. "That," he said when he arrived, "Is what happens when you train hard."

Sakura nodded and said, "Then let's do just that, the harder the better. I wanna go as far with this as I can, sensei."

Ryu smiled. Sensei began to have a nice ring to it, at least when she said it. He didn't think that anyone else could call him that without it feeling awkward. But with such a student as this one, he figured it would be all right to be called a master. "All right then, let's go get toweled off and get right back into it. If you want me to push you past your limits, you just got your wish."

Before the end of that day, she had never felt sorer in her life. But Sakura found herself wanting to be hurt, hit on, and absolutely ravaged. She didn't tell Karin what she had seen or done earlier that day; Sakura did not want any further animosity between the two of them besides their rivalry. They were good friends already, and that was enough.

She had a pleasant surprise before she had to make dinner, and it came in the form of a new mail in her inbox.

"Sweet, it's Kei!"

Sakura,

I am SO sorry I haven't been able to write you! Things have been absolutely crazy these past few weeks, but I finally have some free time. First of all, I want to say how proud I am of you, regardless of what else happens. You're living your dream, and however you wanna go about it, we're behind you one hundred percent over here.

I've been reading your mails, don't worry about that. To be honest, they're all pretty interesting. The pictures are a huge bonus; Mel looks so cute! I just want to hug him forever, y'know? And that picture of Ryu was amazing. You can't just get someone to pose like that, and I don't think he's the kind of guy that would anyway. You're really good with a camera; maybe you could do something with that talent of yours.

Akio is fine; he and I have started seeing each other a lot more lately. He keeps on encouraging me to write back, but… well with all the studying, I don't have much time to make any responses. That's a total bummer, right? But it's toned down now, so I have a few days of rest.

Seiji and Daisuke took me to another cage fight recently. I've been paying much more attention to them these days, thanks to you and Karin. I have to admit, it is pretty exciting once you know how things work!

Thanks to my incredible powers of research, I memorized the rules in and out, learned what techniques were most used, learned how one actually delivered that knockout punch, and I started to realize that everyone around me in that building knew the same things I did.

When I saw that subtle positioning that led to the arm bar or that triangle choke, I cheered as loud as anyone else. They all knew that the person was going for it by certain cues, and I understood why they were so excited. If one could make the other surrender instead of knocking them to the ground, it displayed a higher level of skill than just a takedown and a beat down. Though I have to admit, watching those are fun too.

Send me more pictures! I doubt that Karin is really that camera-shy, and I want to see how she's progressing. I certainly hope you're doing as well as I think you are, because the guys at the arena are beginning to miss you quite a bit.

Here's hoping to see you shine again,

Kei Chitose

Round 11: Go Hard or Go Home

Yeah, baby. Here comes another one, fresh from the oven of my mind. It's hot, it's yummy, and it's ready for your tummy. Or your eyes; I don't want anyone devouring their computers. But seriously, thanks for turning in. I really appreciate it. Now then, I'm going to sleep. And then tomorrow, I will be (hopefully) putting up the first chapter of Chronicles of Vana'diel in… hell, ages.

Stay tuned for more combat on the horizon. It'll be well worth watching!

Ain't there somebody who can stop this fighting machine?