Author's Note: Well, this is it, folks, the final chapter. All good things must come to an end, and that's goes for this 'fic, too.
I'd just like to thank all the people who read, reviewed and supported me through the last two months, particularly mae-E and Cris. I really appreciated your encouragement and support.
Sailor Moon and Street Fighters rule! (Okay, kinda cheesy, but I just couldn't resist saying that.)
ALL PATHS CROSSING
A Sailor Moon/Street Fighter Crossover Fanfiction
By Kasumi Todoh
Chapter 10
All Paths Crossed
Almost instinctively, everyone dove out of the way, as the ground beneath them suddenly exploded in a shower of dirt and smoke. A huge ball of lava left a large, smouldering crater, in the exact spot where they had all been gathered only seconds before. Everyone immediately looked up at the sky, to where the giant Magma Bolt appeared to have come from.
They couldn't believe what they saw.
"No way!" cried Sailor Moon. "It can't be!"
But it was. Highlighted against the huge purple cloud, which was continuing to grow, Kakkazan hovered in the air and laughed.
"You humans are even more pathetic than I thought. Did you honestly think you could destroy me simply by driving me out of Kaori's body? On the contrary, since you've freed me from the confines of that weakened human shell, I have once again regained my full strength and power! Now I shall have the pleasure of personally finishing you off!"
"Sakura!" shouted Ryu. "Take Kaori and get out of here!"
"But . . . " Sakura protested.
Then Kakkazan came diving toward them, and Sakura knew that she had no choice. She had to get her friend to safety. It was too dangerous for her to stay here. She grabbed Kaori under the arms and started pulling her away from the site.
Sailor Venus quickly fired her Crescent Beam, but Kakkazan used another Magma Bolt, which devoured the Beam and continued on to strike Venus in the chest. Ken's Hadoken met with the same result, and one hard kick in the stomach from Kakkazan sent him sailing to the ground as well. Chun Li's Heel Kick proved in effective, as did Sailor Jupiter's Supreme Thunder and Ryu's Tatsumakisempukyaku. Then, while they were still wide open from their own attacks, Kakkazan knocked down Chun Li, Jupiter, and Ryu, all in a matter of seconds, with a series of furious punches and kicks.
Once this was done, she turned, shouted, "Heat Wave!" and blasted the three remaining Senshi with her hot wind attack. They tried to withstand it, but the force of the heat and wind was too strong. All three went tumbling to the ground.
Kakkazan laughed again as she looked over the Senshi and the Street Fighters, who were now all sprawled across the ground. "Is that the best you can do? Well, what did I tell you? No one has ever been able to defeat me."
Sakura dragged Kaori to the edge of the construction site, and then ran back to help her friends.
"C'mon guys," Ryu said, getting up. "We have to get it together and work as a team, like we did yesterday."
"Right," Sailor Mercury replied. "Remember Rei's vision. Teamwork is the key."
"I think I've just figured something else out, too," Sailor Mars added. "In my vision, the part about how 'all paths will cross'? It means that, normally, Senshi's path and Street Fighters' path both go in separate directions. But now they've crossed, and the paths have met at this very spot. It's our destiny, to team up and work together!"
"Vision? Crossing paths? What are you talking about?" Chun Li asked.
"It's a long story," Sailor Moon answered. "But at least now we know what we have to do."
"Work together!" everyone chorused.
"Enough of this!" Kakkazan shouted. "Together or separately, I will still destroy you all!"
"Shabon Spray!" Mercury shouted, using her bubble attack and surrounding everything in a dense white fog.
"Time to fight fire with fire," Mars said. "Fire Soul!"
Because of the thick fog, Kakkazan couldn't see the fire coming until it was too late to try and absorb it. Mars's fire hit Kakkazan right in the face, temporarily blinding her. Before she could recover, she was hit from behind by Chun Li's Lightning Kick. Ryu and Ken combined their Hadokens, while Jupiter threw in her Thunder for added effect, and launched a huge, electrically-charged fireball straight at the still-staggering Kakkazan.
The powerful attack hit the evil creature hard. She fell to the ground and lay still.
"Is that it?" Venus asked, as the group cautiously approached the woman. But just as they got close, Mars saw Kakkazan's arm move.
"Watch out!" she screamed.
Mars's warning came too late. The orange-skinned woman suddenly leaped to her feet and shouted, "Sulphuric Eruption!"
Instantly, there was a low rumbling sound, and the ground began to buckle and heave. Then the group found themselves being blasted by several geysers of hot steam that shot out of the ground beneath them, knocking everyone off their feet.
"I must say, I'm almost impressed," Kakkazan told the fallen group. "That's the closest anyone's ever come to defeating me. Close, but not close enough."
However, she was clearly breathing a lot harder than before. That last move had taken more out of her than she was trying to show.
"Do not worry," she said, almost slowly, "Your deaths will be quick and painless. I guarantee it."
She rose into the air and began summoning all her remaining energy into one final attack, but suddenly she was knocked back to the ground by an aerial Tatsumakisempukyaku in the back. The surprise assailant then landed on her feet next to the fallen Kakkazan.
"Sakura!" Sailor Moon shouted.
"Just waiting for the right moment to jump in," Sakura replied with a smile.
"And not a moment too soon," Ken said as he and the others stood up again.
As Kakkazan struggled to get up, Sailor Moon glanced anxiously up at the sky. The large cloud now stretched almost as far as the eye could see. The lightning storm had to be only minutes away.
"We have to finish this now!" she shouted.
"No problem," Chun Li answered. She looked at Sailor Venus and nodded, and together they threw a combination Kikoken/Crescent Beam at Kakkazan, knocking her over again.
Then Ryu channelled most of his ki into one large fireball, his Shinku-Hadoken, to which Mars added her own fire to make it even bigger. Kakkazan saw this attack coming and tried to dodge it, but she wasn't fast enough. The giant fireball still managed to singe her arm, dress, neck, and hair, as she tried to roll out of the way.
Kakkazan tried once more to get back on her feet, only to find herself face-to-face with Sakura.
"Payback time," Sakura said, in a low voice, and began summoning her ki into her own special attack. Finally, she shouted, "Midare Sakura!" and whacked Kakkazan several times with her Super Sho-o-ken.
"That'll teach you to mess with me and my friends."
It was at this point, that Sailor Moon whipped out her Moon Sceptre. It was time to finish the job.
"Moon . . . Sceptre . . . Elimination!"
Kakkazan was too weak and beaten up to try and dodge the Sceptre's light. In that moment, she realized that she had made one fatal mistake in her well-thought-out plans. Kakkazan had researched all the physical abilities of the humans on this planet, and honed her own powers to be strong enough to overcome any punch, kick, or attack that came her way. But at the same time, she had underestimated these humans' mental and spiritual abilities, and in particular, their ties of friendship. That was where their true power lay, and it was stronger than any physical attack that she could ever hope to stand against. Once this realization became clear to her, Kakkazan let out one final scream of anguish, but also one of resignation and defeat.
Then she was gone, dissolved into a large pile of dust that slowly disappeared.
The sky cleared almost instantly, as the large cloud vanished as quickly it had appeared.
Blinking the sudden sunlight, Sailor Moon said, "We did it. We finally did it."
"Yeah, and just in time, too," Mars added.
"Now we've seen what teamwork can really do," Chun Li replied.
"You're right," Sakura agreed. "But I never doubted it for a second. I knew that only when we all worked together, did Kakkazan not stand a chance."
"Oh, really?" Ryu looked at his young protege. "Is that why you snuck over here alone, without telling anyone, and nearly got yourself killed?"
"Yeah, well," Sakura suddenly decided to study her sneakers. "I guess I have been acting a little bit like a jerk these past couple of days. I'm sorry."
"It's okay," Sailor Moon replied. "We don't blame you, Sakura. You were in a tight spot. You were just trying to protect Kaori."
"Thanks a lot." The mention of Kaori's name caused Sakura to glance her friend, who was still lying near the edge of the pit.
"Oh, I almost forgot," she said, suddenly. "Now, I don't want to sound rude or unappreciative, but I think you guys might have a lot less explaining to do if you weren't around when Kaori wakes up."
And so, when Kaori regained consciousness about half an hour later, she was alone, except for Sakura, who was standing over her.
"What happened?" she asked, as Sakura helped her to her feet. "Where am I? How did I get here?"
"You just had a bad dream, Kaori," her friend reassured her, "and it's all over now."
A few hours later, Sakura told the others that Kaori was just fine, except for the fact that she had no memory of anything that happened while Kakkazan was in her body.
The next day, as Rei put it, it was time for the paths to uncross and go their separate directions again. So everyone gathered at the temple to say goodbye.
"Look," Usagi began, "not a lot of people know we're the Sailor Senshi, and we'd kinda like to keep it that way . . . "
"Hey, don't worry," Sakura replied. "Your secret's safe with me. It's the least I can do, since you guys did save my life an' all."
"That goes double for me," Ken added. "Besides, where I come from, I don't think anyone would believe that sort of thing anyway, even if I did tell them. Which I'm not planning to."
"Same here," Chun Li agreed. "Only in my case, I'd also probably spend the rest of my days in a psychiatric facility if I told that to anyone, which is something that I'm not keen on doing."
"I, too, promise not to reveal your identities to anyone," Ryu said, "and I don't break promises to friends."
"So, do you think we'll ever see each other again?" Minako and Makoto asked Ryu and Ken.
"Probably not," Ryu replied. "If what Rei says is true, then I doubt that we're destined to ever fight together again."
"However," Ken added, noticing the disappointed looks on the two girls' faces, "I think I know just the thing that we can give you to remember us by."
With that, he leaned over and gave Minako a quick kiss on the cheek. Ryu did the same with Makoto. For a few seconds, both girls just stood there, in a state of total shock.
Then they both fainted.
"So what are you going to do now?" Rei asked, as she, Ami and Usagi, along with Luna and Artemis, stood talking to Chun Li and Sakura.
"Well, I've got to get back to my assignment at Interpol," Chun Li replied. "I can't believe I'm saying this, but, after the last two days, I think I'll be glad to have nothing but paperwork to do for the next week or so."
"And I've got to get back to my schoolwork," Sakura added. "Kaori and I have some serious midterms coming up."
At the mention of school, Ami groaned. "I've been so caught up in this mission that I've let myself fall behind. Now I'm only two chapters ahead of everyone else. I'll have to work really hard to make up for that."
"Don't you have midterms coming up too, Usagi?" Rei asked.
"Yeah, but I've still got a whole week to study for them," Usagi replied, with a dismissive wave of her hand.
Just then, Ryu and Ken came over and joined them.
"Well, we really should get going," Ryu said. "Ken and I were hoping to get in a couple more sparring sessions before supper."
Minako and Makoto quickly came to their senses, and the five Senshi all bowed to the Street Fighters.
"Thanks for all your help," Usagi said. "We really couldn't have done it without you."
"Yes, your help was a great asset in our fight against Kakkazan," Ami agreed.
"No problem," Sakura replied. "I kinda enjoyed it, actually."
The other Street Fighters nodded in agreement.
"It's great to see that the earth is in such good hands," Ryu said to them. "I'm glad we had the chance to fight alongside you girls. Be sure to take care of yourselves, now."
As the Street Fighters turned and started walking away, Rei called out to them, "You
know, you don't have to leave quite yet. You're welcome to stay a while longer."
"What!" cried Usagi. "I thought you said they were a bunch of – "
She was cut off as Rei clamped her hand over Usagi's mouth and laughed nervously.
"Hey, I'm allowed change my mind, aren't I?"
"Weeeelllll . . . "
"Give me a break, Usagi!"
Within seconds, both girls were quarrelling again.
Ryu sighed. "They never quit, do they?"
"Nope, never," Ami answered, shaking her head.
Everyone else began quietly walking away, leaving the two alone to their bickering.
Suddenly, Rei looked up. "Uh, where'd everybody go?"
"Hey, you guys!" shouted Usagi. "Wait for us!"
She and Rei started running after them.