Disclaimer: I sure as heck don't own Street Fighter, or the characters within it. Please don't sue.
The chase had been going on for a good fifteen minutes straight. The two beings were sifting through forest as though the various trees, rock formations, and other fallen debris were not an obstacle in their path. One was clearly faster than the other, but in random spurts of speed, the figure behind would be less than a few feet behind, only for the leading person to gain another advantage and be away from arms length once again.
Sakura's breathing was hoarse and erratic. She never ran so much in her short life, even though she had been in her high school track team for a brief time. She prided herself to be one of the quickest people she knew, and amongst the fastest Street Fighters in the circuit. But, to see her target a good couple yards ahead, moving through the atmosphere with a grace she could never hope to achieve, she felt at a loss. She couldn't give up though.
She had to catch up to Ryu. Even if it killed her.
"Ryu-san! Chotto matte, kudasai! (Ryu, please wait!)"
She barely spat those words out between her short breaths as she ducked and spun around to narrowly miss the hanging limb of an old oak tree. She noticed Ryu's form still advancing forward, and she could not tell if he had heard her and ignored her plea, or maybe her words did not reach him.
Her thinly soled Converses were not the best footwear to have on when running on unturned earth and leaves, and she found herself sliding a bit every so often, but it didn't slow her down as much as it should have.
She shivered as she felt Ryu's chi take a turn for the worst. It felt like she was nearing an inferno, and she had to blink several times to keep her eyes from drying out from the intense heat. When she reopened her eyes a fraction of a second later, she held in a gasp at the sight before her.
Ryu's back had an kanji emblazed in the coal black gi he wore, and it pulsated an unnatural burgundy. His form was shrouded in a shadowy blaze of what Sakura had come to call Satsui no Hadou. His chi signature had done a complete 360, and gave the automatic feeling of being burned alive. Ryu did not even turn his head as this took place, merely continuing to evade Sakura.
His speed had suddenly increased tenfold, and he seemed to be almost gliding on one foot, the other lifted off the floor and bent at the knee. Sakura recognized the motion as Ashura Warping, and as soon as he began to enlarge the distance between the two of them by moving on ahead, she cursed loudly.
She kept moving, realizing that her words were not reaching him in the state that he was in. She was seething with anger and despair inside. Why was he making this so difficult! She just wanted to help him, or at least speak to him. He had pushed away all of his friends away when he embraced the dark energies within him. He thought it was in everyone's best interest if he left them. Sakura wanted to shake him out of this train of thought and bring him back to the reality that no one was at ease with Ryu destroying himself and his future with every fight he engaged in when he was in this state.
'There's no way you can catch up to him now. Not like this. You have to reach him, at all costs. You know what that means,' a small voice echoed in Sakura's head. Sakura completely stopped as she absorbed the words spoken to her by a mysterious force. It was right. She was going to lose him again. That realization hit even harder than any punch she had ever received as she saw Ryu's form almost disappear from her line of vision. She knew that there was only one way to catch up to him. Only one way to get his attention.
A lone tear fell from her eye and was taken in by the soil on the ground below. She had shed so many tears for Ryu in these past months. She missed him, and felt other feelings for him that she never had a chance to establish what they were. She was going to bring him back so that she could. She was going to bring him back so that everything would be alright again.
'Whatever it takes, Sakura.' The voice was now a booming echo of her own speaking voice. It was reminding her that she had no choice at this moment. Sakura stood there silently, slowly shutting herself down like a distressed computer. She lowered her arms to her sides and bowed her head down. If you listened closely, you would have heard a small, agonizing whisper.
"Please don't go."
As the words left her mouth, her form began to vibrate amongst the dried leaves and trees around her. Her skin began to take a dark tannish hue, and it encompassed her alabaster skin like a fast forming rash.
In the timespan of a couple of seconds, Ryu felt a change in the normal chi signature that he sensed trailing behind him. It was big enough of a change to have him slow down and come to a complete stop to turn around. He could have sworn on Buddha that he felt energy akin to his own just wash over Sakura's calm waves of Hadou like a tidalwave. When he turned around, he saw no Sakura. The small recesses of his conscience set an alarm of worry as his blood red eyes scanned the area. Where was she? What happened? Was she attacked when he wasn't looking? By who?
His questions were answered when he looked up suddenly, stunned that he had not realized that there was a being falling from the sky, torpedoing down through the tree branches towards him at a speed he could not evade this late in the attack. He rose his hands in a defensive stance, and braced his entire body just in time for the incoming force to drive him into the ground, causing a rippling shockwave of energy as the two collided at the fists. The impact caused a depression in the ground that resembled a mini Grand Canyon, and trees collapsed as their roots, which were nestled deep underground, were unearthed and unsheltered. The soil from the ground flew into the air and shrouded the two fighters in a cloud of dirt, only to fall to the ground again a second later.
Ryu's pupil-less eyes widened as he met face-to-face with the opposing force that attacked him. He took in Sakura's appearance in split seconds from her now coal black and white schoolgirl uniform, the black sash was tied tightly on her forehead and the tails that billowed behind her from her movement. Her skin was a deeper hue than his own, now resembling the pigment of a chocolate color, with red undertones. Her eyes were pupil-less as well, and were black as oil, wide yet without expression, and glossy as polished glass. He inwardly shuddered as she stared into her eyes for the first time, only to see no shadow of her former, bubbly self.
She derailed his train of thought abruptly as she shifted her weight to her legs, that had fallen to the ground with a soft thud, only to contort her body swiftly moments after and spin in a hurricane kick that she had directed to his torso. She was about a foot or two off the ground from the chi she gathered to perform the move, and had Ryu not blocked, he would have been in the air as well. Instead, he was merely pushed backward, his feet skidding into the tossed soil below. Ryu lowered his blocking arms to his waist and easily blocked the intended hit, but he could feel a strong force in the attack that he had never imagined Sakura could muster. The series of kicks were not even her normal sloppy attempt of recreating the hurricane kick that he and Ken used. They were full, unabashed force in the form of a hurricane kick he had only seen performed this way by Akuma.
Ryu repelled Sakura as soon as her move finished, distancing himself from her briefly. As he did so, he took note that the swirling flames that encompassed him seemed as though they licked at her form viciously, battling the black chi that was already enveloping her. This was not the ideal situation for him. He did not want to fight Sakura, though the Satsui no Hadou was reacting to her strangely, almost as if it was welcoming the challenge. Ryu's conscience, while it was still barely intact, pressed him to flee to avoid attacking Sakura. He couldn't harm her.
"Don't you dare leave me again."
Ryu stared down at the girl before him with unblinking eyes as the words left her lips. They were spoken in a guttural voice that could not have come from the sweet young woman he came to know. He was still having trouble grasping the fact that the person before him was Sakura in the first place. Since when had she embraced the dark powers? Why would she, after she saw what he turned out like? Even after his warnings?
"Look what you did, Ryu-sama. You made me turn into…this! I had to see what the big deal was about. I had to see why you had to be such a wuss and run out on all of us when you transformed. This is my second time, you know," Sakura spoke in a voice unlike her own, but the tone was condescending and nonchalant. Her eyes were locked with his own, and still, no emotion was emitted from them. No pain. No suffering. No anguish. No rage.
Ryu could not explain why the absence of any emotion coming from her unnerved him so much, but he wished more than anything in the world for her to revert back to her former self.
"…Sakura. Why? Why did you-"
He was interrupted by the girl clicking her tongue in distaste, but her face still remained void of emotion.
"Why? Are you serious? Why not?"
She scoffed quietly. Her demeanor was so brazen, and as she spoke, she decided to continue her assault, as she suddenly erupted towards him, swinging her fists with a vigor and precision that she never possessed until now. Ryu dodged and blocked the hits, but he could feel the power from each blow, whether they connected or not. Sakura slipped behind the young man with agility and clutched him in her arms from behind in an awkward headlock. Although she was shorter than Ryu, and used all her weight to hold him from behind., letting her legs dangle above the ground, she began to pull backwards on his skull repeatedly.
She continued to speak in an energetic tone, as though she was gossiping, as she held the struggling man in her grip.
"Everyone else seems to be doing it. I'd be a fool to miss out on the fun. I can perform ten times better than I could before. I feel power coursing through my veins. So what if I go a little crazy and black out between fights? I win, and that's the most important thing, right?"
She put emphasis on the last word as she took her free arm and drove her elbow into his skull in a smashing hit that sent him to his knees. She let go of his form, but had to jump and cartwheel away from him as she recovered quick enough to attempt a low sweeping kick to her ankles. She evaded it with ease and stared at his rising form from a distance. Ryu was regaining his senses and losing the stars that were in his line of vision from the elbow. He shook off the discomfort and returned to a defensive stance, but spoke in a controlled voice.
"No, Sakura. You must not let it consume you. There is no true benefit from utilizing the Satsui no Hadou. You can win from your own strength, without the need to use-"
His words were once again interrupted as Sakura moved forward again, and had teleported up into the atmosphere for an aerial strike. She launched two apple red Hadouken blasts, one from each hand, towards Ryu's stationary form. He made movement to merely step away from them both, but in the moment that he moved, he lost visual of Sakura for a second, only to be pushed forwards by a teleported Sakura into the still incoming blasts. Ryu opted to then block them, which he had little difficulty doing. He righted himself so he was facing the girl again, as to not be surprised once more. When she landed from her leap, she was a good half of a yard away from him. She chose not to attack yet, only to assault him verbally.
"Oh, Ryu-sama. You are such a hypocrite. You should practice what you preach, ne? Oh, I did it for one other reason. You want to know why?" She said in a taunting voice, her stance still in offensive. Ryu's senses were heightened in this state, but he could not help but feel weak at this moment as he fought his pupil. He never meant for this to happen. If he had been a better role model, then she would not have to suffer.
"Tell me, Sakura." Ryu's voice was hoarse and dry as he watched her form intensely.
Sakura paused, not expecting any of her words to reach him. She narrowed her eyes as she looked back to him, matching the intensity of his gaze with one of her own. She spoke a voice that was her own, though it came out in a whisper that she knew would reach his ears.
"…I did it so I wouldn't be left behind again." Ryu blinked, not quite sure what was meant by her words. Sakura decided at that moment to keep the momentum of the fight going, so she struck her fist to his chest, and pushed herself forward, closing the gap. Ryu returned to the defensive, parry or dodging the incoming hits as quick as she was delivering them. As she continued to combine her punches to assault Ryu, she spoke in a fevered pattern, and her face contorted into what Ryu could only describe as pain.
"You left us behind! No note. No warning. Nothing! Whatever quest you were on, I could have helped! What was I supposed to do? When everyone got wind that you were behind the murder of Vega and Balrog, they went into a frenzy. I was the only one who didn't want to imprison you. Even Ken agreed that you needed to be stopped."
Sakura's eyes flashed with an indescribable emotion that Ryu could not place. Suddenly, she clenched her small fists even tighter and erupted with six behemoth punches that he could not parry. Each connection rocked his stiff body backwards, and he was surprised to see that he was still on his feet from the assault. Sakura was panting as though she ran a marathon, and her head was bowed down, and her facial features were shadowed.
"I may have been the only one foolish enough to still believe in you, Satsui no Hadou or not. While they're coming after you to lock you up, I'm chasing your ass for my own reasons. You probably have a good reason for doing what you did with Vega and Balrog, and quite frankly, don't ask, don't tell. I just have one question for you…"
Sakura wrenched her head up in what looked like a painful manner, but the expression on her face displayed emotional pain and anguish that she had kept inside for far too long. Ryu unconsciously took a step back for reasons he knew not. Just seeing her like this made him feel as though the breath was forcefully taken from him. The young woman's aura had almost diminished during her speech, as though she had not fight left in her. Her question was spoken loud enough for his ears only, and with enough emotion to drown an empath.
"Why didn't you take me with you?"
