Hwoarang rolled his neck around and shook his shoulders before sizing up his opponent. His name was Lei, a bumbling fool of a cop who enjoyed chasing down Fury when he could. Surprisingly, Lei had actually gotten rather far into the tournament, and held a rather annoying little smirk for his challenger at the moment. "You can take him." Said Miharu, whom he had befriended earlier in the tournament. She had been beaten quickly, mostly because she had merely entered it on recommendation from her friend, Ling Xaiyou. It was clear that Ling, who had advised Miharu to stay away from Hwoarang, being Jin's rival, possessed a greater amount of experience. "He's goes to the ground a lot." She advised. Miharu had taken quite an interest in the fighting skills of the players now that she really had nothing better to do.
Hwoarang dismissed her concern with a wave of his hand. "I've taken out my fair share of cops." He grinned.
"Well, be careful." She said. "He did beat me." She added with a pout.
"Yeah, I'll get him back for you." He shoved her by the shoulder with a chuckle and perked upon hearing his name called over the speaker.
"Hwoarang and Lei Wulong, please make your way to the arena." Called the announcer.
"That's my cue." Hwoarang said, scurrying to the arena floor.
Lei nodded to Hwoarang with an obvious mock respect. He held no appreciation for him, knowing of his criminal record. Lei secretly hoped the little street thief would falter and give him a reason to bring him in. Hwoarang returned a nod with a large smile and promptly extended his middle finger. Rather than a smirk, Lei's mouth lay agape, but he quickly shut it and scowled.
"Round one…" the announcer informed. An excited hush seized the crowd as their eyes latched onto the two fighters in the ring. "Fight!"
Lei backed up, taunting Hwoarang by beckoning him. Hwoarang shrugged and charged, bringing his foot towards Lei's face. Lei, however, anticipated Hwoarang's eagerness and dropped to the ground with intent to trip him, But against both of their better wishes, Hwoarang shifted awkwardly in surprise and tried to reel back. Lei reached out and tripped the redhead, just as he had planned, but Hwoarang fell forward instead, and on top of Lei with a yelp of confused shock. This sent the crowd into the delirious fit of laughter, ridiculing both fighters. Lei struggled and pushed Hwoarang off of him, who rolled back to his feet in an instant and leapt away. Lei stood up and yelled a string of nonsense. "No more fooling around!" he said, hunching over and baring his fists. "Let's go!"
Hwoarang watched as Lei ran to tackle him in a blind fit of anger. He quickly hopped up onto one foot and lifted the other in a flamingo position, and when Lei arrived, he received two kicks to the face, back and forth in a furious flutter of Hwoarang's leg. He clutched his face and fell back, setting free a trickle of blood from his nose when he took them away. He wiped it away gruffly and charged forward again. This time, Hwoarang jumped forward twice and threw one foot through Lei's stomach, sending himself directly behind Lei. Before Lei could turn, Hwoarang grabbed his braid and wrapped it around his fist, provoking another laugh from the audience. He pulled Wulong's head back and straightened one leg in front of him, foot on his back. In this position, he pulled Lei into a particularly nasty jackknife and spilled him on the ground behind him. Lei let out a dazed groan and tried to get to his feet, but he did not get up in time and his Korean adversary brought his foot up and sliced his heel into the face below him. Lei flailed for a moment and lay still.
"Hwoarang wins!" the announcer cried. The crowd cheered as Hwoarang threw up one fist in victory and waved to them enthusiastically.
"Bout two in five minutes." There was a static muffle and the speaker shut off.
Hwoarang went back to the sidelines, strutting proudly. "Piece of cake."
Miharu clapped excitedly. "Wow! He didn't stand a chance!"
"Good match, Hwoarang." Said a voice from behind. Julia approached the two from behind. "Miharu, you're still here." She smiled.
"Yep! Maybe I didn't win, but I've got that fighting spirit." She flashed a thumbs up.
"Hey, Julia." Hwoarang said, still feeling bad that he had beaten her the day before. Beating people senseless was loads of fun, but when they were as grudgeless and her, it was a little disappointing. "How's the arm?"
"It's okay." She said, pointing to her bandaged arm. "Just bruised it."
Miharu reached up and yanked on one of the spikes of his short red hair. "Ow, hey!" he rubbed his head.
"Enough socializing, already!" she snapped. "You're supposed to be concentrating on your opponent!"
He stuck his tongue out at her and looked over at Lei. The bridge of his nose was turning purple, as well as his right cheek as he shot a menacing glare towards Hwoarang and shook his fist. The three laughed and imitated Lei, which made him all the more enraged.
"Come on, Hwoarang, get out there and show him what for!" Miharu encouraged, shoving him back out into the ring. He waved to Julia and Miharu and turned back to Lei with both fists raised. Lei walked back in with an ugly snarl.
"Round two…" the announcer began. Once more, the crowd's chatter disappeared. "Fight!"
Hwoarang started circling Lei quickly, determined to win this round faster than the last. He knew himself to be infamous for his speed. Lei had a new tactic, however. "Come on, street punk!" he insulted. "Let's hurry this up and I'll dish out the charges."
Hwoarang rolled his eyes and stopped circling. If he didn't make the first move, they would probably be standing there for hours, so he ran towards Lei and ducked down. But Lei dodged, kicking Hwoarang in the back as he passed. He barely caught his balance before Lei kicked him again and sent him down. Lei was about to make another move, but Hwoarang flipped onto his back and kicked upwards into Lei's stomach. Lei painfully fell over as Hwoarang stood. Before Hwoarang was up, Lei snatched his ankle and brought him back down, crawling on top of him. Lei pinned his arms down with his knees and raised a fist to pummel the struggling Hwoarang. He looked up with a growl and snorted. "Get offa me! I don't swing that way!"
"Than try this swing!" Lei hurled his fist to Hwoarang's face, but he managed to wriggle an arm free and catch the punch. As he pushed back, he also freed his other arm and knocked Lei in the jaw with it, frantically throwing himself to his feet and jumping back.
Lei stood and stared Hwoarang down for a moment before backing off also and beckoning him again. Once more Hwoarang was stuck in a circle of stalking that could take forever if he didn't do something, and he wanted to win fast. He charged Lei again, seeing it as an option. Lei smirked; all he would have to do is dodge the blow and hit his enemy while he was recovering. But Hwoarang had quite obviously learned that Lei was expecting him to charge full force, and so the very second before he would've hit him, he stopped dead in the middle of his run, pulled his fist back, and punched Lei right in the nose, knocking him out cold.
"Hwoarang is the winner!" the announcer shouted.
"Yeah!" cried Miharu, running up and meeting Hwoarang with a high-five. "You outsmarted him!"
"'Course I did." He said proudly.
"Congratulations!" said Julia with a small, almost undetectable hint of unhappiness in her voice.
Hwoarang grumbled to himself and scratched his head. "Yeah, well…Look, I feel pretty bad about beating you. I know you were…looking for your mom."
Julia looked up, shocked. "How did you know?"
"Word gets around." He shrugged. "Um…look, I was thinking that if I win the tournament, I'll do whatever I can to help you find her." He didn't like the way niceness tasted on his tongue.
"Really?" her face lit up like a child. "And you'll help me restore my homeland?"
Hwoarang swallowed. "Hey, let's not go crazy here."
"Thank you. I'm sure you'll win!" she clapped her hands together.
"It's just too bad Kazama wasn't here." He clenched his fist. "Now there was a real fight."
"A little too real." Miharu said. "Ling said that he won the third tournament."
"Yeah. That's why I was hoping he was here…guess he chickened out, though." He folded his arms.
"Well, I wouldn't be so worried about Jin if I were you." Julia said, turning Hwoarang towards two other fighters a distance off. They were Yoshimitsu and Bryan, standing off to the side, seemingly oblivious to each other.
"Huh, don't look so tough." Hwoarang said haughtily.
"They battle next. You'll have to fight whoever wins." Miharu informed.
"I hope Yoshimitsu wins…" Julia said. "He beat me in the last tournament, and was surprisingly quite the gentleman."
Hwoarang raised an eyebrow, finding it hard to believe that this armored, clawed skeleton could be a 'gentleman'.
"Bryan's a killer." Julia continued. "Those that he beat still have the scars. He came down on Eddy really hard in King of the Iron Fist 3. I guess that's why he didn't come back this time."
"What are you talking about, he's over there." Said Miharu, pointing with a thumb over her shoulder to Christie, who was waving to the cameras.
They all stared for a moment before turning back. "So anyway, you don't want to fight Bryan Fury." Julia said, glancing over at the man in question.
"He looks a little nuts, huh?" Hwoarang stared at Bryan wonderously, studying him and looking for a weakness.
Bryan leaned against the wall, watching the crowd talk excitedly of the fights to come. A hardly visible smirk touched his face for a moment as he saw Lei gingerly touching his bloody and battered face with a washcloth. Looking for the winner, he spotted Hwoarang a few yards away. Once he met eyes with Bryan, he just stared like a deer caught in headlights. Bryan shook his head and looked over towards the green mist in the crowd, narrowing his eyes at Yoshimitsu and clenching his fist. He would win, and prove to himself and everyone that he was worthy of life.