Chapter 25: Clash of the Shiranui Masters
On the fourth floor there was nothing, and that should be the last one, probably he was waiting on the rooftop, the sky was turning dark on that moment, like it would start to rain on any moment, once she arrived, decided to hide for some seconds, probably a trap was waiting there…
-What are you doing Shiranui? I'm waiting for you with my arms crossed
Surprised of what Ryoma said, Mai advanced and, even if it was pretty dark, she noticed some statues surrounding the big place, in front of her he was, Ryoma Suzuki
-So, isn't this a really poetic scenario for our final fight?
-I suppose- Mai said on that moment -Why did you want me to come alone?
-Because I know what is going to happen- he looked at her for just some seconds -The tradition says it, for a Shiranui to be declared as a master, he or she needs to beat another master, and you Mai, you're using the Shiranui masters suit, like me, but of course with different colors.
-Yeah, I'm not going to ask why, or even why are you doing all of this, I already figured it out, you're really selfish.
-On your side of the story, on mine, I'm doing what I believe it was right, for my father, for me, but he never understood, no one understood.
-What, the fact that my clan saved your father's life, to adopt him as a child? That, ironically, makes both of us family, even if we are not blood related.
-Yeah, I guess- then he turned on Mai's direction -But what is totally true is the fact that one of us will die here, cutting the bond between my father and the Shiranui for good.
-Why don't you stop here? Even if I know that what I'm going to say is in vain, if you stop all of this, no one must be hurt…
-Aside of me?
-Yeah, your soldiers and henchmen are not as evil as you, I suppose.
-You're right, some are loyal to me, some are loyal to the money I'm able to give to them, look, more than 3000 people are working thanks to me.
Something that give an angry expression to Mai's face -By terrorizing this city.
-Well, not all things can have pink color- Ryoma shoot a little fire ball to one of the statues, once done, all the statues were turned on by flames, Mai noticed that those were lifting the roof and all the silver statues, coming from different types of cultures, had also a little platform on their right hands -Isn't it beautiful?
-Kind of, adequate.
-Here's the thing, I don't want you to be my wife anymore, you already made a lot for me to change my opinion about you, so this is going to be a deathmatch- Ryoma's face turned into a really serious one -If you win, congratulations, you're the heroine that you always wanted to be, the city is saved and everyone will be cheering you.
-But if you win… you will not only kill me, but all my friends.
-And you will have no chance to see them agonizing in pain, before I would regret this decision, but after my little encounter with Kana, that won't happen anymore.
Once he mentioned, Mai was totally pissed off -You have no regret on trying to kill an defense-less old lady, you almost killed your own father, hurt my beloved Andy and destroyed my dojo, on top of terrorizing Kyoto for so much time, my ascension can go to a second plane, my objective is to stop you!
And she went on guard
-Even being that angry, you still respected the tradition, fine then, lets use the Shiranui style to bring destruction to ourselves!
Not waiting too much time, Ryoma went to attack Mai, but again using his speed, wanted to surprise her with a fast punch to her guts…
Just for her to spin and block the attack with her arms
-Not this time…
-This is going to be fun.
Punch blocked coming from Mai to Ryoma and then backwards, faster and even more, then Ryoma launched a kick that Mai avoided, then, from her sleeves, she took her 3 metalic fans
-Kacho sen hi!
Ryoma avoided the attack pretty easily -Is that what you got? - But then he was surprised by how Mai was pulling 3 blue energy lines -What?
Surprised by it, he barely avoided 2 of the Kacho Sen but the third one impacted him on the head, Mai kicked him on the same zone again and prepared her metallic sphere attack
-Ryu Enbu!
-Futile!
Ryoma kicked the ball upside and counterattacked launching a fire ball directly to Mai's chest, the attack was effective but not so much, as he launched himself to the attack, Mai spinned her body to give him an elbow strike to the face, then another kick this time to the stomach and prepared another attack, taking her Kacho Sen back using her power
-Take this- and while one of the fans impacted on his right shoulder, Ryoma protected himself using an electric aura -Electric powers?
-Well, that escalated quickly- and he extended his right arm -Koramu!
The kunoichi avoided the electric spheres, because of that she was easy target for Ryoma upcoming kick, sending her to one of the statues, no time to rest as again had to avoid his punches, one of them clashed against the statue, breaking a little part of it
-Not bad, at least you started better than Andy Bogard.
Hearing his name pissed her a lot -Don't mention his name again!
And she charged, Ryoma avoided the attack smiling, but was surprised, a hit landed on his face, forcing him to sit on the floor
-Did you think that I would charge like that? - On one of her hands, Mai was holding a little blue rope but it rapidly disappeared -You're not the only one with powers aside of pyrokinesis.
Kip Up and Ryoma recovered -I see… that just makes everything more amusing.
This time he was aware of what can come, as he avoided the energy rope attack and punched Mai on the guts, this time she resisted firmly and took Ryoma for his arms, both trying to overcome the other by pure strength
-Who knew that a beauty like you can hold this strength? - Even saying that, Ryoma started to overcome her -But even that's not enough…
And he used that position to start electrocuting Mai, but again she resisted the attack, clinching her teeth, prepared her own attack
-Fukuaku Ougi!
The explosion caught Ryoma and send him to the floor and some meters in front of his opponent, the fact that the fight was balanced up to this point, made him a little angry
-Come on, I'm not going to fall like that.
Ryoma recovered as fast as he could to protect himself from a flying kick and sent Mai some steps back, then both clashed punches again…
…
-I'm going to beat you!
Guldo caught Terry from his arm and sent him against his team partners, the majority of the soldiers were down, but at least 15 were still fighting
-Damn you, I won't let anyone to ruin what we have made on this city!
Even on the floor, Terry said something to Andy and Joe
-Joe, Andy, time to go all out, Joe help us getting rid of those soldiers, Andy and me will try to beat the big guy with our best attacks.
-Understood- both said
But even recovering, the soldiers went to beat them up, Joe as fast as he could launched a little tornado against them
-Now!
Andy and Terry went for Guldo while Joe launched a huge tornado against the soldiers, the big brother surrounded Guldo so the big soldier tried to punch Andy, but failing as he disappeared for a second
-What the…?
-Zoku Zanei Ken!
-Buster Wolf!
One attack from the front and another to his back, the remaining soldiers that were not caught by the tornado attack, suffered from the upcoming explosion, that even broke some windows, Joe protected himself so he couldn't receive much damage
Would that be enough to defeat him? Andy and Terry wanted to believe that as both were looking at Guldo, falling to the floor
-Hopefully that was enough for him- Terry said
-Now is time to help the girls- continued Andy
But as soon as the three were going upstairs, Guldo intercepted them from behind, sending the four to a window
-Oh no!
Joe protected his team using his aerokinesis, but the three were still hurt after falling to the ground, on the other hand, Guldo received the full impact, going unconscious
-Are you ok? - Terry asked to his partners and both nodded -Well, he showed a lot of loyalty with that.
Joe looked to the window from which they fell down -Dammit, we're back to the yard.
And as they were hearing the battle, they were on a kind of a safe zone -Change of plans then, we have to help the resistance to cope against the enemy soldiers.
-Let's hope for the ladies to win this fight.
The Fatal Fury team ran away from that place, but surprisingly, Guldo was looking all of that
-Wait… until I stand up…
…
On the third floor, Mary and King were trying to avoid the explosive attacks that Laura was launching to them, those were fast and the strength of those were enough to destroy some walls, so trying to cover was pretty useless
On a moment, King and Mary had to hide for some seconds
-Look, you're faster than me Mary, if you can distract her, I can try to land an attack.
-You will need a good range for that, do you have a strategy? - King moved her fingers, a cold smoke appeared on them -Your training?
-I can try something, but I need some seconds.
-Fine.
Using all her speed, Mary went to charge against Laura, who pointed her with her fingers like a gun
-Useless.
Mary avoided the explosive attack and went for a flying kick, but Laura covered from it and caught the police from the throat
-What you were trying?
-This.
Mary jumped from her position and went to Laura's back, catching her from behind
-King, now!
-Zero Phoenix!
With a double kick, King launched 2 powerful ice attacks on Laura's direction, Mary kicked her to avoid the upcoming attack so, when it landed, only Ryoma's henchwomen was affected, even covered on some ice
After witnessing it, Mary was surprised -Whoa, that was insane
-It's my best ice attack, unfortunately I haven't finished my training with Kula Diamond…
But Laura was angry, pissed of totally -You think that this is going to beat me?… Fools!
Using her explosive powers, Laura managed to escape from the ice prison, even if that affected her a little more, made King and Mary to realize that the fight wouldn't be easy
-You two… I'm not going to fall like that- and she put her hands on a cannon position -Blast!
The big explosive sphere almost landed on the blonde warriors but, even if avoiding it, the explosion that also destroyed a good portion of the battle stage, affected both
-Aaaaaaahhhhhhh!
….
Elbow strikes, punches covered and even crossed hits to the other ones face, the battle between Mai and Ryoma continued like that, it was not clear who had the upper hand on that moment, and when they separated for some distance, they clashed again, trying to burn the other using their fire and then, closing distance to test their strength again, but on that moment Ryoma landed a headbutt and then a kick
-Koramu!
The thunder ball landed on Mai chest
-Aaaahhhhh!
And he spinned his own body to give more strength to his kick, sending Mai to a statue, wanting to punch her on the face, the kunoichi avoided it to land an uppercut, a punch on the guts and then used her Nature Manipulation to land another rope attack to his face, another and another
-Time to try something- Her rope then was covered on fire -Take this!
Ryoma covered from that attack using his arm, but started to affect him, Mai used her strength to pull him to her position, so she could punch him with her Nature manipulation
-Boxing Day!
-Ikazuchi Ken!
Not fulfilled totally, as he also used his thunder punch to trade attacks again, as she had to free him, both were starting to show signs of the punishment, with Ryoma having lots of marks on his face while Mai was starting to bleed from her mouth
-Very well Mai, I'm surprised of how powerful you are, even on the adversity, you managed to continue fighting me back.
-You talk like you're winning Ryoma, the battle is really long as you may notice.
-Yeah, I know… Try to follow me.
He kind of disappeared from her sight, using her speed, so Mai had to do the same using her Jet technique, if someone was on the scenario, maybe the only thing that the person could watch would be two groups of lines appearing and disappearing at any moment and on any part of the field, clashing at some points and making appear fire and thunder blasts
But something was wrong, on a moment when the two were going to clash again, Ryoma avoided Mai attack and landed a heavy punch to her face, then another one, stopping the frenetic speed as the two were fighting, and finally a punch on the guts, making the kunoichi to spit some blood to the floor
-Chou Shin, Ikazuchi Ken!
An explosive thunder directly to her body, sending her to another statue, and then Ryoma followed the attack at full speed, covering his body on fire
-Take this, Chou Shinobi Bachi!
It was a demolishing attack, part of the statue was destroyed with that and for Ryoma, it had to be the attack that finished the fight
-Very well, I don't think that anyone can survive anything like that, my Chou Shin Ikazuchi Ken has the same power as a condensed thunder, and with the Chou Shinobi Bachi and that attack…
Feeling victorious, he turned his back on her and retired from that place… can he? Because then he heard something moving from behind
-What the hell?
He got it wrong, she survived it, being on a really bad state, but there she was, getting on guard and smiling, even if part of her gi was destroyed, exposing her injuries on the stomach and blood on her mouth
-You… will need more than that… to kill me…
Immediately Mai removed her jacket for some seconds and with her free hand, ripped of her gi, exposing her black sports bra, then she put her jacket on once more
-Surprised?
Ryoma couldn't believe his eyes -A lot, the last person that received my Chou Shin Ikazuchi Ken went to the hospital immediately- And then he smiled -That's what I wanted, you're doing fine Mai, hopefully that attack didn't kill you battling spirit.
Even on a worse state than her opponent, Mai launched herself to the attack, Ryoma was waiting, waiting for this fight to be the best one he would ever have