The Southtown Sports Gymnasium is crowded. Almost the entire city is there, including the most powerful criminal in the whole city : Geese Howard, who is sitting on a private area surrounded by bodyguards. At the ringside, Joe's closest friends, Terry and Andy Bogard, along with Andy's girl, Mai Shiranui, are cheering up for him. In the audience, sitting in the front row, the Sakazaki family, as well as Robert Garcia and King, are cheering as well, holding little "Joe" flags. Lilly Kane, who had sneaked into the gymnasium without being noticed by her brother, Billy Kane, Geese Howard's right arm and bodyguard, held a big "Go Joe!" sign with lots of tiny red hearts drawn. The fight was just about to begin, and a man in the center of the ring took a microphone to announce the fighters. "Ladies and gentleman from Southtown, let's get ready to rumble!", he yelled into the microphone, and the whole arena erupted in cheers. "And now, please welcome the world Muay Thai champion... wearing the red trunks, Joe Higashi!". Every single Joe fan was there that night, supporting him. They were very excited when Joe came to the ring wearing a golden robe and the championship belt around his waist. "And now," continued the announcer, "wearing black trunks, the Japanese Panther, Kai Harada!". A few people got up and cheered as Kai came down from his locker room. Even Joe was impressed by him: He was almost 2,00 m tall and had a very built body. Sporting a black robe that covered his head, which was covered by long and thick black hair, he entered the ring. "Look at him," Joe thought, "He's just a kid. This'll be easier than i thought." Kai was young, indeed: he was 23 years old. But he had much more battle experience than Joe thought, which would be proven when the fight began. Both the contenders assumed their fighting stances as the bell rang and round 1 began. Joe grinned arrogantly at Kai, who remained serious. Joe threw several punches at Kai, who dodged all of them and gave Joe a stiff kick to the chest, throwing him back a bit. That did nothing to Joe's confidence, who attacked him with a couple of hurricanes. To Joe's amazement, Kai just extended out one of his arms and blocked them. "What a lousy champion!", Kai said. "Dash Crippler!", he shouted as he rushed towards Joe, launching a very powerful punch to his abdomen. "Combat Upper!", he once again shouted as he performed a similar motion to Yashiro and Robert's upper attacks, striking at Joe's face. Kai then jumped up and stomped Joe's abdomen, making him spit blood into the air. All the people were shocked at that violent strike. But Joe wasn't ready to give up: He got up and did his Tiger Kick, catching his opponent by surprise. All Kai did was let out an evil laughter as he shouted "Total Annihilation!" and unleashed several fury attacks at Joe, ending the combo with a deadly punch to the chin, throwing Joe unconscious onto the ropes. Kai laughed at Joe, who was lying on a small puddle of his own blood. The audience was shocked and disgusted by the man who had just humiliated and destroyed their idol. Terry, Andy, Mai and Blue Mary, who had arrived soon ago, invaded the ring. The paramedics came to take Joe. Terry and Andy glared at Kai, who simply gave them an evil grin and left the ring with the championship belt. Andy wanted to get revenge for his best friend right there, but Terry stopped him. "We gotta get to the hospital now", said Terry as he pulled his brother from the ring. The people hooted and threw things at Kai as he entered the locker room. Lilly Kane cried, and Mai was trying to calm her down. They left to the hospital and the gymnasium was soon empty. Surely no one would forget the horrible spectacle they had seen that evening.

Ok! So that was the second chapter. Thanks for reading, and if you've liked it so far, i'll make sure the next chapter gets ready in no time. (