Part Two

-Sora Train Station, Sora, Japan, several days later...-

A fourteen-year old girl stepped off a train and onto the platform. She looked around the platform, watching the townspeople with almond-shaped brown eyes, moving along, going about their business. She was an exotic mixture of European and Japanese ancestry, with medium-length auburn hair tied into a ponytail. She was dressed in a spagetti-strap halter top which was partially concealed by the denim jacket she wore, blue jeans and a pair of tennis shoes. Slung over her shoulder was a knapsack and in her other hand, was a huge sportsbag.

Balancing her belongings, the girl made her way through the station, until she reached the entrance. A parked taxi was parked nearby, the driver inside reading a newspaper. The girl picked up her bags and strolled over to the taxi.

"Excuse me," she said in perfect Japanese.

The driver looked up. "Where to?" he asked.

The Eurasian girl opened the door, tossed her bags inside and got in the cab, slamming the door behind her. "Shotokan School of Karate, please," she said.

The driver nodded and pulled off. As the cab made its way down the road, the girl looked out the window, a melachony look on her face. the cab driver noticed this. "You okay? Something wrong?"

The girl shook her head. "I'm fine. Just a little tired."

The driver shook his head and continued driving.

***

-Shotokan School/Hoshi Residence-

Inside the dojo, Ryu--dressed in a grey-blue karate gi (his white one was destroyed in the Millenium Contest)-- watched as his first pupil, now a grown woman in her mid-twenties, go through her meditation kata. Standing beside him was Chun Li, who decided to take the day off from her restaurant to meditate and train. Hanzo and Mei were somewhere in Sora and out of their parents' hair for the time being.

Sakura Kasugano, wearing a light red karate gi, finished her kata just as Ryu approached. "You're improving, Sakura, but you're too tense. The point of a meditation kata is to release tension, to become one with yourself."

Sakura nodded. "Sorry."

"No need to apologize," Ryu replied. "Watch me."

Before he could start his own kata, a voice interupped him. "Hello! Is anyone here?"

The three martial artists turned to the door. "Who's that?" Sakura asked.

Ryu shrugged his shoulders. "Don't know," he replied. "Let's see who it is."

***

The girl watched in anticipation as the tall Japanese man in the karate gi stepped out of the dojo, followed by a younger Japanese woman and an older Chinese woman. The girl studied the man closely as he approached. The other two woman fell back.

'So this is him, Mom,' she thought. 'This is my father. I have his eyes, maybe the smile.'

"Can I help you?" Ryu asked.

Steeling her nerves, the girl replied, "Are you Ryu Hoshi?"

Ryu nodded. "Yes I am. Who are you?" For some reason, the girl reminded him of someone a long time ago.

The girl swallowed. "My...my name is Maiya. I came here to look for my father."

Chun Li immediately remembered her encounter with Rose and that she had told her: '...a secret not even Ryu knows of, will come to him in the following days...'

"Okay, Maiya," Ryu replied. "I really don't know how I can be of help."

Maiya bit her lip. "You're my father," she replied softly. "I came to Japan to look for you. My mother's name was Juli."

Ryu immediately went white as a sheet, as did Sakura's. He got over his intial shock (and the extreme urge to pass out) and straightened. "I...I think we should...talk inside."

***

Seated at a table while Sakura poured some tea into cups, Ryu looked at the girl that claimed to be his daughter. The lukewarm tea helped calm his frazzled nerves as he got his bearings back together.

"Mom used to talk about you, like you were some sort of saint," Maiya said. "She would tell me about the fighter that had destroyed Bison, and who had given her a second chance in life."

"Where is Juli?" Chun Li asked.

Maiya's face went dark. "She died three weeks ago. Car accident. I was staying with Aunt Juni in Hawaii when I received word. Her last request was that if she had died, that I should go to Japan and find you." She dug in her pocket and pulled out a envelope. She handed it to Ryu. "Mom wanted you to have this."

Ryu opened the envelope and pulled out a folded sheet of paper. It was a letter, addressed to him.

Ryu,

If you're reading this letter, then the worse has happened. That night in

Hong Kong...was the closest thing I'll ever get to becoming a woman. Out

of everyone I had met, you saw that I had a chance in life, and I thank you.

I am sorry, however for not telling you about Maiya. I was still on the run

from Shadowlaw and I didn't want you involved in my life. I know it sounds

selfish, but I was doing what was the best thing at the time.

I was hiding in Lisbon when Maiya was born. I continued to move from place

to place until I received word that you had killed Bison and the Shadowlaw

was destroyed. When the idea of telling you about your daughter came to

mind...I panicked. I didn't know how you would react, so I raised Maiya on

my own. I used some of the combat data from our two matches and taught her

the basics of Shotokan Karate, as well as my own style of fighting.

From a distance, I've watched you...from the Third Street Fighter Tournament

to the Millenium Contest in Osaka. Everytime I see you, it makes me glad that

you are doing well, but I could never find the courage to face you and tell

you about Maiya, our daughter. Please honor my final request and look after

Maiya. She is better off with you instead of one of her other eleven aunts.

She should have everything that she needs for you to take responsiblity: birth

certificate, dental records, school transcripts, everything. Once more, I am

sorry for not telling you about Maiya, and I hope you can forgive me.

Juli

Ryu read the letter again before putting it down. Sighing, he turned to Sakura. "Show Maiya to her room." He turned to Chun Li. "Come with me."

***

While Ryu was talking to Chun Li, Sakura lead Maiya to her new room. Maiya sighed. "He hates me, doesn't he?"

Sakura shook her head. "Ryu doesn't hate you. He was caught off-guard and needs time to adjust to the fact that he has a second daughter. Believe me when I say that he seldom hates anyone, even if they deserve it."

"What's you relationship to him?"

Sakura leaned up against the dresser. "He's my sensei. He took me in after my family died and trained me in Shotokan. He's like a father to me."

"What's Ryu like?" Maiya asked as she starts to unpack her belongings.

"He can be rough at times, but kind, considerate, that sort of thing," the female Shotokan fighter replied. "So where were you and Juli before you came here?"

"Before Mom settled down, we were all over the place," Maiya replied. "China, Korea, Brazil, several other places. Mom always had to stay ahead of Shadowlaw."

She pulled out a framed picture from her bag and placed it on the nightstand. It was a picture of Maiya and Juli, both smiling. Maiya looked younger, but Juli had matured into a woman. Sakura looked at the photo. "That's your mom?" she asked.

Maiya nodded. "Yeah. That's her."

"She's very pretty," Sakura commented.

"Thank you." Maiya paused for a moment. "Sometimes, I would come home, and see her staring out the window looking sad. Everytime I ask her what was wrong, she would say that it was noting. Now I see why she was so sad."

"You don't blame Ryu for any of this, do you?"

Maiya shook her head. "Of course not. I really can't hate my own father, even if I did met him today."

Sakura smiled. She liked this kid right off the bat.

***

In the front yard of the dojo, Ryu was in serious thought. Chun Li watched him, concerned. "You really didn't know, did you?" she asked.

Ryu shook his head. "No. I didn't. Why did Juli keep this from me for almost fifteen years?" He sat down on the porch.

Chun Li sat down beside him. "She had her reasons." She smiled. "You know...I always did wanted another daughter."

Ryu smiled. "Looks like you got your wish."

***

Later on that day, Hanzou and Mei had returned from the village. Ryu had introduced them to Maiya and they took her in. She was their older half-sister, after all.

Later on that night, while everyone else was asleep, Ryu was in the study going over several books on Ansatsuken, the killing arts that Shotokan Karate was based on. For the past ten years, he had researched the Ansatsuken style, and had derived a style of fighitng that combined various elements from both styles. Rather than kill the opponent in one blow, Ryu's style would incapacitate them instead.

He stopped studying for a moment and rubbed his eyes. He looked at the digital clock on the desk. It was 2:15 in the morning.

As he resumed his studies, there was a knock on the door. Ryu looked up. "Yes?"

The door opened and Maiya poked her head inside. "Am I disturbing you?"

Ryu shook his head. "No, not at all. Come in."

Maia walked inside the study. She looked around at the countless numbers of books that were piled on the shelves. "Wow. How many books you got?"

"Close to nine hundred," Ryu replied. "Some of them are extremely rare, and they have been in my--well, our family for many years."

Maiya scanned the bookshelves. "This place is nice," she said.

"I grew up here," Ryu explained. "This cottage and dojo once belonged to my grandfather. He taught me Shotokan Karate. When he died, ownership was passed on to me. So what do you want to talk about?"

Maiya turned from the bookshelves and took a seat in front of the desk. "I thought that since I can't sleep, being in a new place and all, I thought that I would like to get to know my father better."

Ryu smiled. He would like that. For the next two hours, father and daughter talked and bonded. Ryu had found out that Maiya herself was a trained martial artist like her mother, having learned basic karate from one of her aunts and Juli style of fighting. Like Chun Li was also a sword enthusiast. Ryu offered to teach her Shotokan Karate, something that Maiya readily accepted.

By the time Maiya had retired for the night, she felt a peace with herslef. A gaping part of her life has been filled. But she still missed her mother. She looked at the picture on her nightstand. Looking at her mother's face brought her some comfort, but she was still gone.

'Mom,' she thought. 'I miss you.'