Author's Note: Well, we're almost there, folks. Only one more chapter after this. (Kinda hard to believe, I know. Ah, where has the time gone? )

I was also just kidding about ignoring the previous chapter.

ALL PATHS CROSSING

A Sailor Moon/Street Fighter Crossover Fanfiction

By Kasumi Todoh

Chapter 9

The Coming of the Storm

The next afternoon, Kaori left school as soon as classes were finished, and started walking quietly toward a high-rise condominium construction site near the edge of the city. She kept her gaze facing forward the whole time, and she never looked back.

And because she never looked back, she was completely unaware that Sakura was following her. Sakura was determined to find out what Kaori was up to, and then confront her and get the truth for herself.

Kaori finally reached the edge of the site, which was empty by this time. All the workers had already gone home for the day. She jumped down and stood in the middle of the giant hole that had been carved out of the ground for the building's foundation. It was time to put the master plan into action.

She raised her arms, and a white light shot out from them, into the sky. A strange pinkish-purple cloud appeared in the sky, and began to grow larger. Soon it was the size of the entire construction site, and still the cloud continued to expand outwards.

"Once this cloud has covered all of Tokyo," Kakkazan said to herself, "I will start sending out my special bolts of heat lightning, which will suck all the energy from every living thing they touch. Then, my cloud will continued to grow until it covers the entire world, and my heat lightning will drain the energy out of all life on Earth!"

"Kaori, stop!"

Kakkazan turned around. There, standing a few feet away, in her fighting position, was Sakura.

"I won't let you do this," Sakura said. "Even if I have to stop you myself, I can't let you rob the earth of its energy."

Kaori just laughed. "And here I thought I'd taken care of you already. You're pretty persistent, I'll give you that."

Then her voice changed to Kakkazan's. "You're also a fool if you think you can stop me. You really should've minded your own business, human."

With that, Kaori's pupils vanished, her eyes glowed red, and she transformed into Kakkazan.

Sakura gasped. Ami had been right all along!

Kakkazan quickly summoned three Fire Bugs and ordered them to attack Sakura. However, the Fire Bugs didn't last very long with the young Street Fighter. She simply burned through all three of them with her Hadoken.

"Very impressive," Kakkazan replied. "I suppose that if you want something done right, you have to do it yourself." She turned and beckoned to Sakura. "Now, let's see how well you do against me!"

Obligingly, Sakura launched another Hadoken, but Kakkazan dodged it and shouted, "Magma Bolt!"

A ball of molten lava appeared in her hand, which she quickly threw at Sakura. The teenage Street Fighter barely managed to get out of the way in time, as a sizzling hole appeared in the ground where she'd been standing.

Kakkazan then rose into the air and came diving down at her, too fast for Sakura to dodge. She was struck hard in the face and knocked to the ground. Before she could get up again, Kakkazan picked her up and threw her over her shoulder. Sakura landed on her stomach, knocking the wind out of her.

She finally managed to stand up, and quickly did a Sho-o-ken, but Kakkazan dodged it again. Once more the evil creature flew straight up and, this time, vanished into thin air. She reappeared behind Sakura, who was just starting to turn around, and lashed out with a blindingly swift kick.

As Sakura took another hit, this time in the back, she began to think that this wasn't such a great idea after all.

Meanwhile, everyone else was gathered in front of Usagi's house, and they were starting to worry. No one had heard from Sakura all day. Chun Li had even stopped by her school, only to be told by some of her classmates that she'd left already, and so had Kaori. Now, Sakura was more than an hour late, but there was still no sign of her.

"Maybe some of Usagi's late habits have started to rub off on her," Rei suggested, but for once, no one was in the mood for her jokes.

"I know I gave her the right address," Usagi said. "Do you think something's happened to her? Maybe we should go look for her."

"Hey, Sakura's a tough kid," Ryu replied. "She can take care of herself."

"I don't mean to interrupt," Chun Li said suddenly, "but I think there's something that you guys should take a look at."

The others turned in the direction that she was looking. In the distance, they could see a large pinkish-purple cloud rising into the air, and getting larger.

"Is it just me, or is anyone else getting bad vibes from that cloud?" Rei muttered.

"There does seem to be a high concentration of evil energy coming from it," Ami agreed.

"Looks like it's headed in this direction," Ken said.

"Looks like it's headed in all directions," Makoto added.

"It appears to be coming from that construction site," Usagi said. "We'd better check it out. Hopefully, Sakura's seen it too, which means she could be over there already. C'mon!"

When they all reached the edge of the site, they could see that this was indeed the source of the strange cloud. They could also see Kakkazan standing in the center of the foundation pit.

Minako was the first to notice that someone else was also in the pit, taking quite a beating. "Hey, who's that down there?"

Usagi squinted at the second figure and gasped.

"Sakura!"

Kakkazan grabbed the badly beaten Sakura by the sash of her school fuku, and lifted her right off the ground. "Perhaps this will teach you to stay out of affairs that are not yours!" she shouted, as she prepared to strike the final blow.

"Hey, windbag! Up here!"

Kakkazan looked up. There, standing on the edge of the pit, were all five Sailor Senshi.

"Friendships are supposed to be about caring for each other, and looking after one another," Sailor Moon preached. "But you're trying to ruin the friendship between Sakura and Kaori. We will not allow this to continue. I'm Sailor Moon and we're the Sailor Senshi!"

Kakkazan was distracted by Sailor Moon's speech, so she didn't notice the Street Fighters until it was too late. Ken struck her from behind with a surprise Tatsumakisempukyaku, and she went down, still holding on to Sakura. But in one fluid motion, Kakkazan stood up and tossed Sakura aside like a rag doll.

The Sailor Senshi jumped down into the pit. While the Street Fighters and the other Senshi kept Kakkazan occupied, Sailor Moon ran over to Sakura.

"Are you okay?" she asked.

"I'll live," Sakura answered. "Just give me a minute to grab a second wind."

They both looked up to see Ken fire his own Hadoken at Kakkazan. But the evil deity simply stood there, spread her arms wide, and absorbed the fireball into her body, leaving her none the worse for wear. The exact same thing happened when Chun Li tried her Kikoken attack.

"Is that the best you can do?" she taunted them.

Sailor Mars decided to try one of her binding scrolls. She waited until Kakkazan's back was turned, then whipped out a small piece of paper with some Japanese writing on it, and shouted, "I call upon the power of Mars . . . Fireball . . . Charge!"

Then she flung the scroll at Kakkazan.

It almost worked, but just before the scroll touched her, Kakkazan turned and smacked it away. As soon as she touched it, the little piece of paper burst into flames and was burnt to a crisp.

"Oh no!" cried Mars. "My scroll didn't work!"

While Ryu and Sailor Mercury decided to hold back, out of concern for Kaori's safety, Venus and Jupiter attempted a one-two combo of their attacks. But Kakkazan dodged first the Crescent Beam and then the Supreme Thunder with such speed and swiftness, that her body became just a blur. When she finally stopped in front of them again, she still didn't have a scratch on her.

"Boy," Venus exclaimed. "Kakkazan is way harder than any other enemy that we've fought as the Sailor Senshi."

"That's not the half of it," Sakura replied as she stood up. "She's the one who created that huge cloud up there. Once it covers all of Tokyo, it'll start a lightning storm that will suck the energy out of everyone in the city, us included!"

"Not if we can help it," Jupiter said.

Kakkazan just laughed. "Do you really think you can defeat me with these silly tricks? Allow me to give you a taste of what you're really up against!"

She then summoned forth a whole bunch of her Fire Bugs, about fifty or so, and told them to attack.

Now, these were just normal Fire Bugs, like the one they'd fought at the mall, but the problem was that there so many of them. Even though the Street Fighters and the Sailor Senshi fought their hardest, with each one using every attack they knew, they were still desperately outnumbered. In fact, for every Fire Bug they knocked down, six more seemed to its place.

Sakura hit one Fire Bug with her Tatsumakisempkyaku, only to be struck hard from behind by another one, knocking her to the ground again. "Kaori!" she cried as she struggled to get up. "I know you're still in there, and I know you can hear me. Please Kaori, we need you to help us!"

Just when it seemed that her shouting hadn't had any effect, everyone heard a small plaintive voice, coming from Kakkazan herself. For the first time, she seemed to hesitate.

"S-Sakura?"

Then, an amazing thing happened. Suddenly, the Fire Bugs wavered and, one by one, they disappeared.

Kakkazan grabbed her head, and staggered back a few paces. "I know what you're trying to do, and forget it! It won't work!" she screamed, although now she seemed to be talking more to herself than to anyone else.

The Senshi gasped when they realized what was going on. Kaori was fighting for control! They could hardly believe it. After nearly a week of being held prisoner in her own body, Kaori was fighting back!

Sakura saw it, too. "Kaori! Someone, please help her!"

Mars saw her chance. Pulling out another scroll, she shouted, "Mars Fireball Charge!" and jumped into the air. She landed right in front of Kakkazan and planted the scroll on her forehead. This time, the scroll stuck, and Kakkazan was shocked and horrified to find herself unable to move.

"That oughta hold you for a while!" Mars said, triumphantly.

"Sailor Moon! Do it now!" Ryu shouted.

"You got it!" Sailor Moon replied. But instead of pulling out her sceptre, she grabbed the brooch off her sailor costume, and opened it.

"Moon . . . " she began, and then, almost as an afterthought, added, "Crystal . . . Healing Activation!"

Kakkazan started to glow. The other Senshi looked at Sailor Moon.

"Moon Crystal Healing Activation?"

"Hey, it's working, isn't it?" Sailor Moon replied, and they could see that it was.

"No!" shrieked Kakkazan. "I will never surrender this body!"

But the others could see her leaving Kaori's body and rising up into the air.

Finally, she stopped glowing, and Kaori reappeared, standing where Kakkazan had been. Then, with a loud groan, she collapsed to her knees, and fell to the ground, unconscious. Mars's scroll came off her forehead and floated to the ground.

Sakura ran over to her. After checking to make sure that it really was her, she looked at Sailor Moon and cheered, "All right! You did it!"

"Hey, wait a second," Chun Li said, looking up. "That strange cloud is still – "

That's when Mars screamed, "Look out!"