Interpol Building, Downtown Tokyo
The current thought that was going through Ryu Hoshi's mind was, 'The things I do for this woman.'
Right now, he was attending a party with his Chinese fianceé at her job. The party was to celebrate the retirement of a senior Interpol official, and Chun Li didn't want to go alone. First she asked, pleaded, then threatened Ryu with having him sleep on the couch should he not accompany her to the retirement party.
Right now, he was standing near the buffet table, a plate of food in his hand as Chun Li was busy chatting with several of her coworkers. She was obviously having a good time while he would much rather train or learn more about his dark side. The Ansatsuken expert was dressed down in a dress shirt, slacks and shoes, rather than his usual karate gi and red hachimaki. Chun Li was dressed in her Interpol uniform, a light blue blouse with a yellow necktie, short skirt and knee length boots. Her hair was tied into a simply ponytail the aforementioned hachimaki used to tie her hair back.
It has been over a year since the World Warrior Tournament and since that time, Ryu and Chun Li had tiptoed around dating before they decided to make it official. Before that, Chun Li had moved to Japan and transfered to Interpol's Tokyo offices, mainly at Gen's request following an attack by Vega. Fortunately for Chun Li, Ryu showed up and saved her from being sliced to ribbons by the vengeful Spanish Ninja. Since arriving in Japan, things had taken off from there.
As Ryu finshed off his food, he saw Chun Li walking over to him. "I see that you're occupied with the buffet table," she said as she poked his ribs.
Ryu shrugged his shoulders. "Might as well, since you literally threatened me to come here."
The Chinese fighter smiled. "I was bluffing. I really wasn't going to make you sleep on the couch. Who else is gonna keep me warm at night?" Off Ryu's look she said, "I'm an Interpol agent, not a saint."
"You're hopeless," Ryu said.
She leaned in and gave him a light kiss on the lips. "I'll make it up to you after this assignment."
Following her transfer to Japan, Chun Li has been assigned to weed out the remaining Shadowlaw informants and members. The first few weeks had generated many arrests as she and several loyal agents took down the remanants of Shadowlaw. Now the investigation had all but ground to a halt, forcing Chun Li to call in Delta Red lieutenants Cammy White and Lita Luwanda for assistance. The two British MI-6 agents were to arrive in a couple of hours.
"I hope so, for you sake, Inspector," Ryu replied mildly. "I'm not as forgiving as you think I am."
Chun Li rolled her eyes. "Yeah, right."
Later on, as the party winded down, Ryu and Chun Li decided to leave and head back home. They exited the Interpol Building and walk down the street, chatting with each other, where Chun Li's car was parked several yards from the Interpol offices since the parking garage was full. Aside from several other people, the streets were deserted.
They approached her car, which was a used Honda Civic. Then when they were at least eight feet from the car...
KA-BOOM!
...the car erupted in a violent explosion, the deadly force knocking both Ryu and Chun Li back several feet. Chun Li landed on the hood of a parked car while Ryu was sprawled across the sidewalk. The car, propelled into the air by the explosion, landed onto another car, causing that one as well to erupt in flames.
Chun Li came to first. Her head was pounding and her ears were ringing from the force of the explosion and she felt something warm coming from the side of her face. She placed her hand on the side of her head and saw a streak of crimson across her fingertips.
Then she immediately thought of Ryu.
"Ryu?" she called out as she stumbled off the hood. "Ryu!"
"Over here," a male voice replied.
Ryu managed to assume a sitting position. Blood was seeping through a cut from his arm. Other than that he was okay, as was Chun Li. "What the hell happened?" he asked.
Chun Li managed to walk over to him before collapsing, her legs weakened from the effects of the blast. "Someone tried to kill us," she whispered.
As police and Interpol agents rushed to the scene, two men watched from inside an unmarked sedan. Apparently, they were the ones who had planted the car bomb, but had failed to eliminate the two fighters.
"You should have waited until they were both in the car," Cracker Jack said to his partner.
The unstable Doctrine Dark ignored his partner. Both men were former members of the Shadowlaw crime syndicate, not to mention that both men were watching in the shadows as Ryu fought Bison and won.
"They won't fall for the same trick twice," Dark said through his mask. "We'll have to try something a little more...subtle."
"Like what?" Jack replied. "We don't have their home address, so they're safe for the moment. But in due time, they will pay. Once when Ryu Hoshi and Chun Li Xiang are out of the way, then Masters, Guile and their loved ones will be next.