4. Sparring
"Oh, man. What happened to me? I. feel as if. I got hit by a truck."
The voice was coming from Darrell, who found himself in a beige bedroom, filled with all sorts of stuff that he had never seen in a normal American bedroom. He was lying in bed, one arm on his forehead. Darrell opened and shut his eyelids over and over again to make sure he was able to see okay, then he turned his head to his right to an alarm clock, which read 1:00.
{Geez! I'm a wreck! This is only my first day back and I'm lying on a bed like I was hospitalized. What happened to me?}
He kept asking himself that question in his head, expecting an answer. Eventually, he answered out loud, "I have no idea."
Straining, Darrell forced himself to sit up in the bed. As he did this, his neck responded in intense pain that caused him to yell out a bit and lay back down. He sighed.
{Judging by how badly my neck hurts. and the fact that I can't remember a thing that happened in the last. (he glanced back at the clock) uh. 3 hours or so. I'd say that I got my ass handed to me. badly.}
Just then, he heard the creaking of a door opening. Since he still didn't know where he was, he closed his eyes just enough so that he could appear as if he was asleep, but could see for himself. He heard the soft sound of socks shuffling across the carpet. Taking it as an instinct, he deducted that he couldn't be in an enemy's space. or something like that. It wasn't until he heard the character's voice that he knew roughly where he was at.
"Humph! He is still knocked out. That guy must have really socked him good to be out for 3 and a half hours."
{Sakura.}
Darrell opened his eyes and moved a bit to signal that he was awake. Sakura saw this and replied, with a bit of sarcasm, "Well, I guess you can't be a fighter without knowing how to take a hit." She smiled.
Silence came into the room. Darrell searched his already shell-shocked memory.
{I know that I heard that somewhere before. oh!}
That was his catchphrase. Darrell responded with a, "Well, I'm right, aren't I? But."
What seemed like within an instant, Darrell's memory came flooding back into his head. He closed his eyes and said, ". that guy really beamed me, didn't he?" His voice was stern when the "that guy" came out, but at the end, it turned into a softer tone.
Sakura laughed for what was the first time in a while. "I couldn't get a good view of you and him because my face was literally in the ground, but when I looked up and saw that guy withstand your attack, then slam you over the head, I could tell that you wasn't getting back up. I mean, you were totally dazed!" She laughed even more. "The only reason I'm laughing now is because looking back at it. well, I really can't say why I'm laughing at it."
Without even knowing it, Darrell started laughing himself. It wasn't a loud laugh, but a chuckle. "Hey, what happened to the others?"
Sakura stopped laughing a bit to tell him. "Batsu and Kyosuke had to literally drag you, Hinata, and Kei back here to my house. Hinata and Kei didn't have it as hard as you did, though. They left. I cannot even begin to tell you how pissed Batsu was and how many people were looking at us. My mother was one of them."
"Oh. well, I got to try to get up, but before I do, I need to ask you something."
Sakura didn't respond. After a bit of silence, the boy continued. "I'm no medic, but I can estimate that my neck will be back to normal by tomorrow morning. In the meantime, you don't mind if I stayed here for a while and we do some training together, do you? I guess that I could use a couple of punches to the head."
Darrell struggled to sit up again, this time ignoring his neck pain. He swung his body to the side of Sakura's bed to try to get up, but lost his balance, and before anyone knew it, he was on the bedroom floor with Sakura's confronter all over him. Sakura just stared at him for about 5 seconds, within that time Darrell mumbled, "Just go ahead. You know you want to."
Sakura wasted no time at laughing her head off at his expense before answering Darrell's request with, "Sure, I'll train with you. I guess that the first thing that we'll work on will have to be your stability! But as far as staying here."
----- -----
". and he was beaten by this girl, sir. We couldn't find any data on the other two Japanese boys since they were not present at the time, but we do have info on these three fighters here."
"I see. All three of these have extraordinary strength in their auras. The African-American is quite unique. Although he wasn't a match for him, he demonstrated a mass of his blue aura into a blaze of attacks. If he gets any stronger, he might just poise a threat to the operation, not to mention the girls. Take a good look at these three. They are all gifted in martial arts, this one in Shotokan Karate, this one in another form of Karate, and the last one with a much looser version of Shotokan. And provided that they become stronger within these few weeks, we might just have to take the risk of letting them be so that we can take them for ourselves at their peak."
"Yes, sir. but what about the two others?"
"Sooner or later, we will get the data we need from them. or themselves in person. Whichever one comes first."
"So, sir, what do we do in the meantime?"
"We prepare ourselves. I seriously doubt that we'll be able to pull a stunt like that again. We got lucky since this girl mentioned that nothing good has happened in a while. They'll most likely be on guard now. but don't worry about this end of the operation. I want you to scout these three to see their progress and their moves in their arsenal. The more we know, the better."
----- -----
Daybreak arrived and the morning, Japanese sun met Sakura's face and shone onto it. She had been awake for quite sometime now, pondering about the day before. All the events just seemed to be just revolving around Sho and his gang. but that man that she didn't set a glimpse of couldn't have been in Sho's arsenal before. If so, why didn't Sho sic him on her the first time she and Darrell first combated him? And why did Sakura get the feeling that the man didn't have any sense of chi in his body?
Suddenly, it all hit her.
{Because he couldn't have been human to not admit any chi during the confrontation,} she thought. {If that is so, I doubt Sho could have just stumbled onto him and asked "Hey, want to join our gang?" There is something more to this.}
Sakura's thoughts became interrupted as the door to her backward swung open. Standing in the doorway was Darrell, rotating his head on his newly healed neck.
"Ahh," he exhaled, and then started adjusting his blue handguards, which were already on his hands. "That feels so much better!" He looked in the direction of Sakura, who was standing in the middle of the yard, letting the sun glow on her.
Sakura just stared at Darrell. {He has a major habit of adjusting his gloves all the time,} she thought. "Morning." Sakura greeted Darrell to the backyard.
"Well good morning to you, too. All right, Sakura, I need to get to the nitty-gritty. I have a feeling that something wasn't right about that bastard that knocked me out yesterday."
Sakura gave a look of surprise as Darrell's comment. "It looks like you've noticed that just now, huh?"
Darrell seemed to ignore the comment as he had his hands behind his head, stretching his body, but his next comment deflated any chance of him slacking.
"The guy had no aura," he said coldly. His eyes were totally serious. "Now I'm NOT a genius of knowing about that, but he just had a cold, somewhat metallically feeling where the chi was supposed to be at. Do you have any idea what that means?"
Sakura knew deep down what Darrell was talking about, but decided to not mention it. Darrell continued with, "There is something suspicious about this whole mess. This couldn't have just been a misunderstanding. I feel like-" He cut himself off, shaking his head in the process. "I'm sorry. I'm getting besides the point here. I'm supposed to be training now."
A smile crossed both Sakura and Darrell's faces.
{Finally!} Sakura thought happily. {That was getting a little. well.}
Darrell got into a defensive stance. "Okay, Sakura. Let's get started. First, I want to test my defense. I just stood there like some scared woman in a horror movie when I got beamed. I need for you to attack me for a while as I try to block and evade, OK?"
Sakura nodded. "Just don't expect me to go easy on you!" Then she dropped into her trademark stance. For a while, no one moved. They stood in the middle of Sakura's yard, staring each other down. After what seemed like 10 seconds, Sakura made the first move.
She shot herself forward towards the waiting fighter and delivered a roundhouse kick which was easily blocked. She then followed with high punch, also blocked. Sakura decided to turn her tactics a bit by going low with a sweep kick. Darrell saw her duck and implying that she'll sweep, jumped straight up for a bit. Sakura responded by coming out of her crouch with an uppercut, hitting Darrell's leg out from under him for his landing. Darrell used his arms to keep from landing face first and flipped backwards while Sakura followed in pursuit.
Sakura didn't give Darrell much time to react as she aimed a kick to Darrell's stomach, but he managed to parry it just in time and ditch behind her. Sakura spun around with a high kick that Darrell ducked in the neck of time then he rolled backwards. Sakura followed him with her favorite special move.
"Shouoken!" She rushed forward faster than Darrell could recover from his roll and hit him several times before the uppercut sent Darrell into the air. Darrell could have save himself like he did before, but he let himself drop to the ground. After a brief pause, he rolled to Sakura's side, waiting for her to attack. He didn't have to wait long as Sakura sprang into the air with a few spinning kicks.
"Shunpukyaku!" she called the name of her attack and even though she delivered her attack, Darrell blocked. After a while, both took a short breather.
"Okay. that. was. good." Sakura managed to breathe out. She used her hand to wipe the small sweat off of her forehead.
"Yeah.but it is time that I took it a step forward." He dropped into his fighting stance. "Now, are you ready to spar, Sakura?"
She nodded and got herself ready. "Sure! Now the real training starts!" she exclaimed. Once again, the two stood each other down, but this time Darrell gave the first attack. He hopped forward into the air towards Sakura. She was expecting a jump kick and responded with a high block. Unfortunately, that wasn't the case. Darrell bent down while landing and swept Sakura off her feet. She got up quickly and responded with a shorter version of her Shouoken. Darrell ditched and punched Sakura hard in the side of the head.
A little dazed, Sakura managed to see Darrell motion for his next attack. He pulled his hands to his side and a blue ball of energy formed.
"Hadouken!" Darrell thrusted his arms forward and fired his energy at Sakura. She quickly shook of the dizziness and fired her own Hadouken to cancel it out. A small explosion of energy came about. Sakura looked into it the see if Darrell was there or not. Her worries were answered as Darrell came rushing though the smoke, his right hand on fire. Sakura knew what this was.
"Shakunetsuken!" Darrell roared loudly as he fired blow after blow of flaming energy onto Sakura, who managed to block all of them. It was a straining effort.
{Darrell's Shakunetsuken is hotter than it looks,} she thought while warding him off. {He spars just with as much intensity as a real fight. I'd better do the same.}
Sakura found in an opening in Darrell's attacks and hit him out of it with a fierce punch to his face. Instantly, Darrell lost his momentum and the flame on his fist extinguished.
"Damn!' he cursed. He held his cheek, just like he did in the park yesterday caused by Sakura's Midare Zakura. He shook his head and then looked at Sakura.
"No one ever did that before." he said, astonished. Then he said his favorite quote about Sakura. "I said it before and I'll say it again. no one throws a punch like Sakura Kasugano." Then he reiterated the words, "No one."
This made Sakura blush a bit. "Thanks. It is one of my talents. Now, let's finish."
----- -----
After another 10 minutes of sparring, the two warriors came into the house to eat breakfast. Once again, Sakura's family was sound asleep, so they tried to not make any commotion. As Darrell washed his face and hands in the bathroom, Sakura started cooking in the kitchen eggs and some American pancakes that Darrell had brought with him. She had to go out on a limb, since the directions, not surprisingly, were in English.
{NO problem,} she thought. She started preparing the food. "I think I did something like this at school. He'll sure be surprised."
After a long while, the sound of running water from the bathroom ceased and Darrell came out, wiping his now bare hands with a towel.
"All right," he said to himself. "That brought back the spark in me. I bet if I fought that android again, he won't even touch me! Hey. wait a minute." His nose caught onto a sweet smelling aroma; something that screamed, "Hello. My name is 'food' and you can eat me now."
Sakura had just finished her work in the kitchen when Darrell appeared in the walkway. "Guess what? I smell food!" he said sing-songingly.
Sakura turned to him with a grin. "Well, we worked up a sweat. and burned up some energy. I might as well cook a little something for us." She held up the box of pancake mix. "I found this in the bag that you carried."
Darrell raised an eyebrow. "How. or where did you find that? I was sorta looking for that bag after I put it down."
"That has nothing to do with it," she answered, the grin widening. "Just try this out. I added a little something special in the mix. You haven't tasted anything like it!"
Darrell sat down simultaneously with his friend and looked at the plate in front of him. "I don't see anything different." he murmured, his voice barely audible. He took a bit of the pancake and started chewing.
One chew. two chews. BAM! Darrell was hit with a sensation of flavor that he had never tasted before. He swallowed, and then looked up at Sakura, who was still concentrating eating. "Whoa! I don't believe this! Sakura. what in the world did you put in this?"
Sakura smiled once again. "I can't tell you that. That is a family secret."
"Maybe I should fly here every day for breakfast. Sakura, you make IHOP look like an amateur shop. Whatever you did, I absolutely love it!"
Sakura absorbed Darrell's compliments. It really put a spark into her flame, so to speak. The two resumed eating, but shortly afterwards, Sakura stopped. "Hey, Darrell."
"Yes?"
"I just had this feeling. that we're being watched."
"Huh? Are you sure?"
Sakura paused. The malice that she felt earlier vanished. "Oh, never mind. I'm worrying too much."
----- -----
Just outside the Kasugano residence, a figure stood holding some sort of device in his hand. His eyes focused on the two teenagers in the house's kitchen. "Hmmm. that little match they had with each other was an excellent source of data. Now, for the other girl."
----- -----
Hinata Wakaba was, just like her two friends, was spending the new morning training in her backyard.
{Man, I can't believe that I got walloped like that. Looks like I still have work to do.}
She was standing in front of a large punching bag that her uncle had given her a few years ago when she started leaning martial arts. Hinata struck the bag with rapid punches and kicks. She then backed up from the bag and gathered some of her energy. A small green aura surrounded her body and she shot her open hand forward. "Kikou Shoueti!" A large energy flower appeared in her palm, hitting the bag multiple times before she stopped, since it started to rip.
She stepped away from the bag. It wouldn't have been the first time she busted open a training bag. She had to purposely hold back. then she had a thought.
{In a real fight, I can't hold back. I could be seriously hurt.}
After a pause, Hinata had another thought.
{Maybe Sakura could help.}
----- -----
"So, you want to spar too?" Sakura asked her long time friend. "That's no problem. Darrell and I were just doing that."
Sakura and Darrell reentered her backyard to find Hinata waiting at the gate. Hinata let them know how she felt concerning yesterday. Being knocked silly in one swipe was pretty depressing, but Darrell explained the assumption of the strange man being a cybernetic being. It could be possible.
"So basically, I got tired of my self training and decided to let loose here." Hinata explained, her eyes screamed anxiety.
Sakura nodded. She had that experience of having to hold back her talents. Hell, she went once went a full month without doing a single training exercise. but she really didn't want to go into that.
"Darrell, you don't mind if we do a little sparring, do you?" Sakura asked.
Darrell was actually eager to see this. "No problem! I might just be able to learn some techniques. You know, I have only been into the martial arts for a short time."
Both Sakura and Hinata looked puzzled. At first, everyone thought that Darrell had been through a load of training, maybe about 7 of his 16 years on Earth. And looking at his advanced attacks, he could have fooled anyone of being an adopted son of Ken Masters, even though they weren't in traditional Shotokan style. In truth, Darrell had only been training for about 3 years, and informally at that. It was mostly self-taught. Not even he knows why his style is mistaken for the normal Shotokan, especially since he have very little traces of Tae Kwon Do in his style. The only real links are his ability to throw a Hadouken (he doesn't say how he learned it), and a Shinku Hadouken (which Sakura herself taught him) which he had upgraded to the powerful Shakunetsu Shinku Hadouken somehow.
He had used the Rekka Kakkura yesterday, and last year, he showed a move called the Furi-sutairu Tatsumaki Senpu Kyaku. It looked like a much weaker version of Ryu's normal Hurricane Kick, but when you get hit by it. well, the two starting roundhouse kicks look like Chun-Li's old Senretsukyaku then he goes into a long Hurricane Kick. Him actually looking for new ideas would be pretty good considering the way he modifies them.
"Okay, you two," Darrell said, his arms were crossed. "We're not getting any younger."
Hinata smiled at Sakura for a while before entering her fighting stance. "All right, Sakura. Playtime has ended! Are you ready?"
Sakura answered by getting into her stance. "Here we go again!" Unlike the Sakura/Darrell bout, these two wasted no time and instantly started their battle. Hinata opened up with a special move.
"Enbukyaku!" She hit an unsuspecting Sakura with a rising knee then delivered three swift burning kicks. Of course, Sakura was set aflame momentarily before dropping to the ground. Sakura took a while to recover, but when she did she got ready again. "You got a free hit, Hinata, but this time. I'm serious!"
Sakura got close to Hinata, then the two exchanged blows and blocks. Darrell was looking on as he was barely able to keep up with the pace of the two. He managed to see Sakura dodge a few of Hinata's jabs, then return with a small Shunpukyaku. Hinata was knocked away, but saved herself from falling. Darrell sensed a large burst of power coming from Hinata. It felt very familiar, but he decided to not interfere with the girls' sparring. The idea of a fight was to predict your opponent's movements by yourself. That is only one of the thrills of a street fight. or any fight for that matter.
{She's using the Hisshou Rengakiken,} he said to himself and sure enough that's what Hinata used.
Hinata rushed forward and started to deliver the first of many punches, but Sakura already saw the dash and before Hinata could punch Sakura ducked down.
"Haru Ichiban!" Sakura swept at Hinata's legs with low spinning kicks, all of them totally connecting and knocking Hinata out of her move before Sakura kicked her away with a powerful roundhouse kick. Hinata hit the ground hard, but got up as quickly as possible while Sakura closed in. Sakura swept at Hinata again, but was quickly hit out of the kick when Hinata raised her foot high into the air and slammed it on the top of Sakura's head.
Darrell winced at the impact as a hard 'CRACK!' noise arouse.
{That HAD to hurt.}
Sakura's face was literally planted into the grass and stayed like that for quite some time. Hinata let out a gasp and bent down to see about her friend. "Sakura! Are you okay!? I'm sorry! I didn't know I kicked you so hard!"
Sakura twitched a bit then did something unsuspected; she sprung up to her feet so fast that Hinata couldn't even get her guard up in time.
"Midare Zakura!" Sakura yelled out as she rushed at a surprised Hinata and began to unleash her assault, but.
"Oh, no you don't, Sakura. Hisshou!" Hinata didn't waste as much time as the previous time and started her barrage faster. Unfortunately.
POW!
The sound of Sakura's red handguards and Hinata's orange handguards hitting their mark could be heard throughout the yard. Both girls' punches landed straight in the other's cheeks. They stayed that way for a moment, staring at each other with intensity before Hinata backed away. Since Sakura was putting her weight into the punch, she stumbled forward, right into Hinata's lunging punch to the face.
Sakura let out a yelp and fell backwards, holding her face with one of her hands, leaving herself open to a double armed cyclone uppercut from her friend.
"Moutei!" she yelled out while landing her Shouyouken, hitting Sakura into the air. Hinata dashed under her to follow up with an attack, but Sakura flipped in mid-air and blocked while descending. Sakura landed and ducked Hinata's next kick and performed a small uppercut that hit the chest. Hinata didn't get fazed that much as she immediately kicked her sparring partner away.
Sakura recovered then starting charging her next attack. Hinata stood her ground and got into a defensive stance.
"All right. Hadouken!" She let her blue energy blast go right towards Hinata, who, for some reason, dropped her stance.
{I have an idea.}
{What is she doing?} Sakura asked herself. {Doesn't she know that she'll get hit?}
Hinata stepped forward to Sakura's blast, her body wrapped in a green aura and her hand open behind her.
{This is new.} Darrell acknowledged.
"Kikou Shoueti!" Hinata shot her hand forward and emitted a flower like energy explosion from her hand. It collided with the Hadouken and immediately canceled out.
{Man!} Darrell thought again. {These girls have been sparring longer than I did with Sakura. I don't need to work on my moves that much. I need to build my stamina. Even if I get hit. I'll be able to take whatever my opponent throws at me.}
------ -----
"Sakura!"
"Yes, mom?"
"Do you have any idea where your friend is? He isn't in his bedroom."
"He isn't?"
"No. what could he be doing at 10:00 P.M.? It is literally pitch black."
Sakura sat up in her bed. "Wait a minute, mom. I think I. hear him. He's. outside?"
Sakura jumped out of her bed and moved towards her window. As she looked outside to the ground below, she couldn't help but look surprised. There was the American, rushing across the now dark blue grass, using the Shakunetsuken to punch furiously into the air. He let out yell after yell as he performed a backhand, and then went into a straight punch with the other fist, then a short, spinning hop kick, followed by a flaming uppercut. He continued to throw random attacks, pushing his body to the limit as Sakura watched.
{Is he. training now? He's trying harder than he did before!}
Darrell finished his self sparring and stood up straight, staring into the air.
{That. was good. ugh, ahh!}
His legs gave out from under him and his body fell to its hands and knees. Darrell found himself facing the grass, breathing hard.
{How long was that.? 10. 15 minutes.? It's getting better. Better rest now.} He picked himself up and headed into Sakura's house.
End of Chapter 4
"Oh, man. What happened to me? I. feel as if. I got hit by a truck."
The voice was coming from Darrell, who found himself in a beige bedroom, filled with all sorts of stuff that he had never seen in a normal American bedroom. He was lying in bed, one arm on his forehead. Darrell opened and shut his eyelids over and over again to make sure he was able to see okay, then he turned his head to his right to an alarm clock, which read 1:00.
{Geez! I'm a wreck! This is only my first day back and I'm lying on a bed like I was hospitalized. What happened to me?}
He kept asking himself that question in his head, expecting an answer. Eventually, he answered out loud, "I have no idea."
Straining, Darrell forced himself to sit up in the bed. As he did this, his neck responded in intense pain that caused him to yell out a bit and lay back down. He sighed.
{Judging by how badly my neck hurts. and the fact that I can't remember a thing that happened in the last. (he glanced back at the clock) uh. 3 hours or so. I'd say that I got my ass handed to me. badly.}
Just then, he heard the creaking of a door opening. Since he still didn't know where he was, he closed his eyes just enough so that he could appear as if he was asleep, but could see for himself. He heard the soft sound of socks shuffling across the carpet. Taking it as an instinct, he deducted that he couldn't be in an enemy's space. or something like that. It wasn't until he heard the character's voice that he knew roughly where he was at.
"Humph! He is still knocked out. That guy must have really socked him good to be out for 3 and a half hours."
{Sakura.}
Darrell opened his eyes and moved a bit to signal that he was awake. Sakura saw this and replied, with a bit of sarcasm, "Well, I guess you can't be a fighter without knowing how to take a hit." She smiled.
Silence came into the room. Darrell searched his already shell-shocked memory.
{I know that I heard that somewhere before. oh!}
That was his catchphrase. Darrell responded with a, "Well, I'm right, aren't I? But."
What seemed like within an instant, Darrell's memory came flooding back into his head. He closed his eyes and said, ". that guy really beamed me, didn't he?" His voice was stern when the "that guy" came out, but at the end, it turned into a softer tone.
Sakura laughed for what was the first time in a while. "I couldn't get a good view of you and him because my face was literally in the ground, but when I looked up and saw that guy withstand your attack, then slam you over the head, I could tell that you wasn't getting back up. I mean, you were totally dazed!" She laughed even more. "The only reason I'm laughing now is because looking back at it. well, I really can't say why I'm laughing at it."
Without even knowing it, Darrell started laughing himself. It wasn't a loud laugh, but a chuckle. "Hey, what happened to the others?"
Sakura stopped laughing a bit to tell him. "Batsu and Kyosuke had to literally drag you, Hinata, and Kei back here to my house. Hinata and Kei didn't have it as hard as you did, though. They left. I cannot even begin to tell you how pissed Batsu was and how many people were looking at us. My mother was one of them."
"Oh. well, I got to try to get up, but before I do, I need to ask you something."
Sakura didn't respond. After a bit of silence, the boy continued. "I'm no medic, but I can estimate that my neck will be back to normal by tomorrow morning. In the meantime, you don't mind if I stayed here for a while and we do some training together, do you? I guess that I could use a couple of punches to the head."
Darrell struggled to sit up again, this time ignoring his neck pain. He swung his body to the side of Sakura's bed to try to get up, but lost his balance, and before anyone knew it, he was on the bedroom floor with Sakura's confronter all over him. Sakura just stared at him for about 5 seconds, within that time Darrell mumbled, "Just go ahead. You know you want to."
Sakura wasted no time at laughing her head off at his expense before answering Darrell's request with, "Sure, I'll train with you. I guess that the first thing that we'll work on will have to be your stability! But as far as staying here."
----- -----
". and he was beaten by this girl, sir. We couldn't find any data on the other two Japanese boys since they were not present at the time, but we do have info on these three fighters here."
"I see. All three of these have extraordinary strength in their auras. The African-American is quite unique. Although he wasn't a match for him, he demonstrated a mass of his blue aura into a blaze of attacks. If he gets any stronger, he might just poise a threat to the operation, not to mention the girls. Take a good look at these three. They are all gifted in martial arts, this one in Shotokan Karate, this one in another form of Karate, and the last one with a much looser version of Shotokan. And provided that they become stronger within these few weeks, we might just have to take the risk of letting them be so that we can take them for ourselves at their peak."
"Yes, sir. but what about the two others?"
"Sooner or later, we will get the data we need from them. or themselves in person. Whichever one comes first."
"So, sir, what do we do in the meantime?"
"We prepare ourselves. I seriously doubt that we'll be able to pull a stunt like that again. We got lucky since this girl mentioned that nothing good has happened in a while. They'll most likely be on guard now. but don't worry about this end of the operation. I want you to scout these three to see their progress and their moves in their arsenal. The more we know, the better."
----- -----
Daybreak arrived and the morning, Japanese sun met Sakura's face and shone onto it. She had been awake for quite sometime now, pondering about the day before. All the events just seemed to be just revolving around Sho and his gang. but that man that she didn't set a glimpse of couldn't have been in Sho's arsenal before. If so, why didn't Sho sic him on her the first time she and Darrell first combated him? And why did Sakura get the feeling that the man didn't have any sense of chi in his body?
Suddenly, it all hit her.
{Because he couldn't have been human to not admit any chi during the confrontation,} she thought. {If that is so, I doubt Sho could have just stumbled onto him and asked "Hey, want to join our gang?" There is something more to this.}
Sakura's thoughts became interrupted as the door to her backward swung open. Standing in the doorway was Darrell, rotating his head on his newly healed neck.
"Ahh," he exhaled, and then started adjusting his blue handguards, which were already on his hands. "That feels so much better!" He looked in the direction of Sakura, who was standing in the middle of the yard, letting the sun glow on her.
Sakura just stared at Darrell. {He has a major habit of adjusting his gloves all the time,} she thought. "Morning." Sakura greeted Darrell to the backyard.
"Well good morning to you, too. All right, Sakura, I need to get to the nitty-gritty. I have a feeling that something wasn't right about that bastard that knocked me out yesterday."
Sakura gave a look of surprise as Darrell's comment. "It looks like you've noticed that just now, huh?"
Darrell seemed to ignore the comment as he had his hands behind his head, stretching his body, but his next comment deflated any chance of him slacking.
"The guy had no aura," he said coldly. His eyes were totally serious. "Now I'm NOT a genius of knowing about that, but he just had a cold, somewhat metallically feeling where the chi was supposed to be at. Do you have any idea what that means?"
Sakura knew deep down what Darrell was talking about, but decided to not mention it. Darrell continued with, "There is something suspicious about this whole mess. This couldn't have just been a misunderstanding. I feel like-" He cut himself off, shaking his head in the process. "I'm sorry. I'm getting besides the point here. I'm supposed to be training now."
A smile crossed both Sakura and Darrell's faces.
{Finally!} Sakura thought happily. {That was getting a little. well.}
Darrell got into a defensive stance. "Okay, Sakura. Let's get started. First, I want to test my defense. I just stood there like some scared woman in a horror movie when I got beamed. I need for you to attack me for a while as I try to block and evade, OK?"
Sakura nodded. "Just don't expect me to go easy on you!" Then she dropped into her trademark stance. For a while, no one moved. They stood in the middle of Sakura's yard, staring each other down. After what seemed like 10 seconds, Sakura made the first move.
She shot herself forward towards the waiting fighter and delivered a roundhouse kick which was easily blocked. She then followed with high punch, also blocked. Sakura decided to turn her tactics a bit by going low with a sweep kick. Darrell saw her duck and implying that she'll sweep, jumped straight up for a bit. Sakura responded by coming out of her crouch with an uppercut, hitting Darrell's leg out from under him for his landing. Darrell used his arms to keep from landing face first and flipped backwards while Sakura followed in pursuit.
Sakura didn't give Darrell much time to react as she aimed a kick to Darrell's stomach, but he managed to parry it just in time and ditch behind her. Sakura spun around with a high kick that Darrell ducked in the neck of time then he rolled backwards. Sakura followed him with her favorite special move.
"Shouoken!" She rushed forward faster than Darrell could recover from his roll and hit him several times before the uppercut sent Darrell into the air. Darrell could have save himself like he did before, but he let himself drop to the ground. After a brief pause, he rolled to Sakura's side, waiting for her to attack. He didn't have to wait long as Sakura sprang into the air with a few spinning kicks.
"Shunpukyaku!" she called the name of her attack and even though she delivered her attack, Darrell blocked. After a while, both took a short breather.
"Okay. that. was. good." Sakura managed to breathe out. She used her hand to wipe the small sweat off of her forehead.
"Yeah.but it is time that I took it a step forward." He dropped into his fighting stance. "Now, are you ready to spar, Sakura?"
She nodded and got herself ready. "Sure! Now the real training starts!" she exclaimed. Once again, the two stood each other down, but this time Darrell gave the first attack. He hopped forward into the air towards Sakura. She was expecting a jump kick and responded with a high block. Unfortunately, that wasn't the case. Darrell bent down while landing and swept Sakura off her feet. She got up quickly and responded with a shorter version of her Shouoken. Darrell ditched and punched Sakura hard in the side of the head.
A little dazed, Sakura managed to see Darrell motion for his next attack. He pulled his hands to his side and a blue ball of energy formed.
"Hadouken!" Darrell thrusted his arms forward and fired his energy at Sakura. She quickly shook of the dizziness and fired her own Hadouken to cancel it out. A small explosion of energy came about. Sakura looked into it the see if Darrell was there or not. Her worries were answered as Darrell came rushing though the smoke, his right hand on fire. Sakura knew what this was.
"Shakunetsuken!" Darrell roared loudly as he fired blow after blow of flaming energy onto Sakura, who managed to block all of them. It was a straining effort.
{Darrell's Shakunetsuken is hotter than it looks,} she thought while warding him off. {He spars just with as much intensity as a real fight. I'd better do the same.}
Sakura found in an opening in Darrell's attacks and hit him out of it with a fierce punch to his face. Instantly, Darrell lost his momentum and the flame on his fist extinguished.
"Damn!' he cursed. He held his cheek, just like he did in the park yesterday caused by Sakura's Midare Zakura. He shook his head and then looked at Sakura.
"No one ever did that before." he said, astonished. Then he said his favorite quote about Sakura. "I said it before and I'll say it again. no one throws a punch like Sakura Kasugano." Then he reiterated the words, "No one."
This made Sakura blush a bit. "Thanks. It is one of my talents. Now, let's finish."
----- -----
After another 10 minutes of sparring, the two warriors came into the house to eat breakfast. Once again, Sakura's family was sound asleep, so they tried to not make any commotion. As Darrell washed his face and hands in the bathroom, Sakura started cooking in the kitchen eggs and some American pancakes that Darrell had brought with him. She had to go out on a limb, since the directions, not surprisingly, were in English.
{NO problem,} she thought. She started preparing the food. "I think I did something like this at school. He'll sure be surprised."
After a long while, the sound of running water from the bathroom ceased and Darrell came out, wiping his now bare hands with a towel.
"All right," he said to himself. "That brought back the spark in me. I bet if I fought that android again, he won't even touch me! Hey. wait a minute." His nose caught onto a sweet smelling aroma; something that screamed, "Hello. My name is 'food' and you can eat me now."
Sakura had just finished her work in the kitchen when Darrell appeared in the walkway. "Guess what? I smell food!" he said sing-songingly.
Sakura turned to him with a grin. "Well, we worked up a sweat. and burned up some energy. I might as well cook a little something for us." She held up the box of pancake mix. "I found this in the bag that you carried."
Darrell raised an eyebrow. "How. or where did you find that? I was sorta looking for that bag after I put it down."
"That has nothing to do with it," she answered, the grin widening. "Just try this out. I added a little something special in the mix. You haven't tasted anything like it!"
Darrell sat down simultaneously with his friend and looked at the plate in front of him. "I don't see anything different." he murmured, his voice barely audible. He took a bit of the pancake and started chewing.
One chew. two chews. BAM! Darrell was hit with a sensation of flavor that he had never tasted before. He swallowed, and then looked up at Sakura, who was still concentrating eating. "Whoa! I don't believe this! Sakura. what in the world did you put in this?"
Sakura smiled once again. "I can't tell you that. That is a family secret."
"Maybe I should fly here every day for breakfast. Sakura, you make IHOP look like an amateur shop. Whatever you did, I absolutely love it!"
Sakura absorbed Darrell's compliments. It really put a spark into her flame, so to speak. The two resumed eating, but shortly afterwards, Sakura stopped. "Hey, Darrell."
"Yes?"
"I just had this feeling. that we're being watched."
"Huh? Are you sure?"
Sakura paused. The malice that she felt earlier vanished. "Oh, never mind. I'm worrying too much."
----- -----
Just outside the Kasugano residence, a figure stood holding some sort of device in his hand. His eyes focused on the two teenagers in the house's kitchen. "Hmmm. that little match they had with each other was an excellent source of data. Now, for the other girl."
----- -----
Hinata Wakaba was, just like her two friends, was spending the new morning training in her backyard.
{Man, I can't believe that I got walloped like that. Looks like I still have work to do.}
She was standing in front of a large punching bag that her uncle had given her a few years ago when she started leaning martial arts. Hinata struck the bag with rapid punches and kicks. She then backed up from the bag and gathered some of her energy. A small green aura surrounded her body and she shot her open hand forward. "Kikou Shoueti!" A large energy flower appeared in her palm, hitting the bag multiple times before she stopped, since it started to rip.
She stepped away from the bag. It wouldn't have been the first time she busted open a training bag. She had to purposely hold back. then she had a thought.
{In a real fight, I can't hold back. I could be seriously hurt.}
After a pause, Hinata had another thought.
{Maybe Sakura could help.}
----- -----
"So, you want to spar too?" Sakura asked her long time friend. "That's no problem. Darrell and I were just doing that."
Sakura and Darrell reentered her backyard to find Hinata waiting at the gate. Hinata let them know how she felt concerning yesterday. Being knocked silly in one swipe was pretty depressing, but Darrell explained the assumption of the strange man being a cybernetic being. It could be possible.
"So basically, I got tired of my self training and decided to let loose here." Hinata explained, her eyes screamed anxiety.
Sakura nodded. She had that experience of having to hold back her talents. Hell, she went once went a full month without doing a single training exercise. but she really didn't want to go into that.
"Darrell, you don't mind if we do a little sparring, do you?" Sakura asked.
Darrell was actually eager to see this. "No problem! I might just be able to learn some techniques. You know, I have only been into the martial arts for a short time."
Both Sakura and Hinata looked puzzled. At first, everyone thought that Darrell had been through a load of training, maybe about 7 of his 16 years on Earth. And looking at his advanced attacks, he could have fooled anyone of being an adopted son of Ken Masters, even though they weren't in traditional Shotokan style. In truth, Darrell had only been training for about 3 years, and informally at that. It was mostly self-taught. Not even he knows why his style is mistaken for the normal Shotokan, especially since he have very little traces of Tae Kwon Do in his style. The only real links are his ability to throw a Hadouken (he doesn't say how he learned it), and a Shinku Hadouken (which Sakura herself taught him) which he had upgraded to the powerful Shakunetsu Shinku Hadouken somehow.
He had used the Rekka Kakkura yesterday, and last year, he showed a move called the Furi-sutairu Tatsumaki Senpu Kyaku. It looked like a much weaker version of Ryu's normal Hurricane Kick, but when you get hit by it. well, the two starting roundhouse kicks look like Chun-Li's old Senretsukyaku then he goes into a long Hurricane Kick. Him actually looking for new ideas would be pretty good considering the way he modifies them.
"Okay, you two," Darrell said, his arms were crossed. "We're not getting any younger."
Hinata smiled at Sakura for a while before entering her fighting stance. "All right, Sakura. Playtime has ended! Are you ready?"
Sakura answered by getting into her stance. "Here we go again!" Unlike the Sakura/Darrell bout, these two wasted no time and instantly started their battle. Hinata opened up with a special move.
"Enbukyaku!" She hit an unsuspecting Sakura with a rising knee then delivered three swift burning kicks. Of course, Sakura was set aflame momentarily before dropping to the ground. Sakura took a while to recover, but when she did she got ready again. "You got a free hit, Hinata, but this time. I'm serious!"
Sakura got close to Hinata, then the two exchanged blows and blocks. Darrell was looking on as he was barely able to keep up with the pace of the two. He managed to see Sakura dodge a few of Hinata's jabs, then return with a small Shunpukyaku. Hinata was knocked away, but saved herself from falling. Darrell sensed a large burst of power coming from Hinata. It felt very familiar, but he decided to not interfere with the girls' sparring. The idea of a fight was to predict your opponent's movements by yourself. That is only one of the thrills of a street fight. or any fight for that matter.
{She's using the Hisshou Rengakiken,} he said to himself and sure enough that's what Hinata used.
Hinata rushed forward and started to deliver the first of many punches, but Sakura already saw the dash and before Hinata could punch Sakura ducked down.
"Haru Ichiban!" Sakura swept at Hinata's legs with low spinning kicks, all of them totally connecting and knocking Hinata out of her move before Sakura kicked her away with a powerful roundhouse kick. Hinata hit the ground hard, but got up as quickly as possible while Sakura closed in. Sakura swept at Hinata again, but was quickly hit out of the kick when Hinata raised her foot high into the air and slammed it on the top of Sakura's head.
Darrell winced at the impact as a hard 'CRACK!' noise arouse.
{That HAD to hurt.}
Sakura's face was literally planted into the grass and stayed like that for quite some time. Hinata let out a gasp and bent down to see about her friend. "Sakura! Are you okay!? I'm sorry! I didn't know I kicked you so hard!"
Sakura twitched a bit then did something unsuspected; she sprung up to her feet so fast that Hinata couldn't even get her guard up in time.
"Midare Zakura!" Sakura yelled out as she rushed at a surprised Hinata and began to unleash her assault, but.
"Oh, no you don't, Sakura. Hisshou!" Hinata didn't waste as much time as the previous time and started her barrage faster. Unfortunately.
POW!
The sound of Sakura's red handguards and Hinata's orange handguards hitting their mark could be heard throughout the yard. Both girls' punches landed straight in the other's cheeks. They stayed that way for a moment, staring at each other with intensity before Hinata backed away. Since Sakura was putting her weight into the punch, she stumbled forward, right into Hinata's lunging punch to the face.
Sakura let out a yelp and fell backwards, holding her face with one of her hands, leaving herself open to a double armed cyclone uppercut from her friend.
"Moutei!" she yelled out while landing her Shouyouken, hitting Sakura into the air. Hinata dashed under her to follow up with an attack, but Sakura flipped in mid-air and blocked while descending. Sakura landed and ducked Hinata's next kick and performed a small uppercut that hit the chest. Hinata didn't get fazed that much as she immediately kicked her sparring partner away.
Sakura recovered then starting charging her next attack. Hinata stood her ground and got into a defensive stance.
"All right. Hadouken!" She let her blue energy blast go right towards Hinata, who, for some reason, dropped her stance.
{I have an idea.}
{What is she doing?} Sakura asked herself. {Doesn't she know that she'll get hit?}
Hinata stepped forward to Sakura's blast, her body wrapped in a green aura and her hand open behind her.
{This is new.} Darrell acknowledged.
"Kikou Shoueti!" Hinata shot her hand forward and emitted a flower like energy explosion from her hand. It collided with the Hadouken and immediately canceled out.
{Man!} Darrell thought again. {These girls have been sparring longer than I did with Sakura. I don't need to work on my moves that much. I need to build my stamina. Even if I get hit. I'll be able to take whatever my opponent throws at me.}
------ -----
"Sakura!"
"Yes, mom?"
"Do you have any idea where your friend is? He isn't in his bedroom."
"He isn't?"
"No. what could he be doing at 10:00 P.M.? It is literally pitch black."
Sakura sat up in her bed. "Wait a minute, mom. I think I. hear him. He's. outside?"
Sakura jumped out of her bed and moved towards her window. As she looked outside to the ground below, she couldn't help but look surprised. There was the American, rushing across the now dark blue grass, using the Shakunetsuken to punch furiously into the air. He let out yell after yell as he performed a backhand, and then went into a straight punch with the other fist, then a short, spinning hop kick, followed by a flaming uppercut. He continued to throw random attacks, pushing his body to the limit as Sakura watched.
{Is he. training now? He's trying harder than he did before!}
Darrell finished his self sparring and stood up straight, staring into the air.
{That. was good. ugh, ahh!}
His legs gave out from under him and his body fell to its hands and knees. Darrell found himself facing the grass, breathing hard.
{How long was that.? 10. 15 minutes.? It's getting better. Better rest now.} He picked himself up and headed into Sakura's house.
End of Chapter 4