Chapter 4:
In the morning Chun Li woke up to feel Ryu's warm body next to her. She laid there for a minute and recalled the previous night's brush with love:
As Ryu held himself on top of Chun Li, he said, "I want to take away all your fear and doubt." He lowered himself to kiss her. "I promise, I'll never forget again."
Their encounter left her feeling happy, she felt whole again. She then got out of bed and went to the restroom to freshen up, then went into the kitchen to make herself a cup of tea before making breakfast. She felt a new energy she hadn't felt in a long time. She felt like singing. Over the past few years, Chun Li had learned to play the piano and dabble in operatic singing to help ease her loneliness or anger in her life. She even added a music room to her apartment with a piano, recording equipment, and microphones for singing. Music was her escape and enjoyment and she felt like playing before Ryu woke up. After a few drinks of tea, she sat her cup on a table by her piano and she sat down and opened the lid to the keys. Again, she recalled last night's encounter:
"Nobody knows my heart like you do," she said to Ryu. He looked back at her with a beautiful pure love and adoration. As he entered her body, they felt a connection, their life force was powerful together and it was at its mightiest.
Chun Li thought of a song she liked to play and sing to. She closed her eyes for a second and took a deep breath in, she put her fingers on the keys and began to sing, "In the moonlight I felt your heart quiver like a bow's string pulse. In the moon's pale light, you looked at me. Nobody knows your heart. When the sun is gone, I see you beautiful and haunting and cold. Like the blade of a knife, so sharp, so sweet, nobody knows your heart…"
Ryu awoke from his deep sleep. It was the most peaceful and restful sleep he had had in a very long time. He felt Chun Li not in the bed with him, so he sat up and got out of the bed. He heard a faint sound of music coming through the walls of the apartment and he followed it to the music room. The door was slightly ajar and he heard Chun Li playing and singing. He listened to her sing, "All of your sorrow, grief, and pain locked away in the forest of the night. Your secret heart belongs to the world…of the things that sigh in the dark, of the things that cry in the dark." Her voice was beautiful, she was like a Greek siren, luring him in, he didn't want to look away. He was captivated by her musical intelligence. As Chun Li finished her song, she heard the door creak open, she turned her head to see Ryu.
"Good morning," she said.
"Please, don't let me interrupt you! That was the most beautiful sound I've ever heard."
"Oh, stop!" she replied shyly. "I'm actually still learning to play, I just so happen to know that one particularly well." She got up from the piano and walked over to Ryu. "I still haven't wrapped my mind around this whole thing."
"What do you mean?" he asked
"A few days ago, I wouldn't have even imagined you here, our experience last night, or the things we've been remembering…but, somehow, I always knew I loved you."
Ryu smiled and hugged Chun Li. "I think the best part of still not being to remember everything in our past is that we can fall in love all over again." He looked down at her and kissed her. Chun Li was putty in Ryu's embrace. "I just remembered something."
"Another recovered memory?" she asked.
"I remember looking up at you while you were singing…it was around Christmas. I think it was about the time when Ken opened his hotel."
"I remember! I didn't want to sing a Christmas song, so I sang something else."
"You were captivating back then too."
Chun Li and Ryu continued to bond over their memories and spent the rest of the morning together reacquainting themselves
Meanwhile…
Ken was in his office in the Master's hotel. A maid brought him some coffee and served him. "That'll do, you may go now," he told the maid. She left out the door. Ken drank his coffee and began overlooking hotel operations. He heard footsteps come back into the room. "Did you forget something…" Ken looked up and saw no one in the room with him. That's odd. I know I heard someone walk in here. He shook his head and continued working. A chill went through his body and down his spine, he stood up from his chair. "Whose there?"
"Would you like more coffee, Mr. Masters?" a disembodied voice said.
Ken looked around the room, "Show yourself!"
"Very well," Rose appeared. "You ruined my element of surprise."
Ken looked to see her floating in the middle of the room, "You're that tarot card reader, Rose. Ryu has spoken about you before."
"That's right. Rose is my name and tarot cards are my game." She bowed.
"What business do you have here? Are you looking for Ryu?" Ken asked.
"I have come to you because I have had a vision. My cards have told me of a doomsday. A powerful man will bring death and destruction to the world." Rose began to explain.
"Why are you telling me this? Does this have something to do with Ryu?"
"It has everything to do with him. You can help do your part to keep the impending doom from happening."
"Wait, are you saying Ryu is going to bring on this day of doom?"
"No, you fool! M. Bison! He will bring upon the earth an evil like no one has ever seen and no one will be able to stop him…except Ryu. He must stop him!"
Ken was skeptical to believe Rose, but he heard many stories claiming her to be a generally good person, and Ryu liked her. "So, let's get this straight, how is Ryu supposed to defeat Bison when in the past, it took two of us to bring him down…and we barely survived."
"He will have to invoke the evil power of the dark hadou, but he must be strong enough to control it. But, something stands in his way…Chun Li," Rose explained.
"Chun Li?" Ken exclaimed, "what does she have to do with it?"
"Every moment he wastes with her is a moment he can be training to control his inner demon. That is why I made him and Chun Li forget about their love."
"You? You were the one messing with everyone's minds! You made us forget our true pasts!" Ken rushed to attack Rose but she dodged his attack.
"Calm yourself, Mr. Masters! Yes, it was me that casted the forgetfulness spell but think about why I had to do it."
Ken tried attacking her again and made a commotion. He knocked over a table with some flowers.
"M. Bison is going to destroy the world. I am trying to help everyone. Do you not care about your fellow man?" Rose was angered.
Ken lowered his fists. "And what will you have us do? How do you propose I help?"
"Ryu needs to continue his training. He needs to leave here and go seek out Dhalsim in India. I believe you've met the yoga master before."
"Yes, he's the one who showed Ryu how to control his power over the hadou."
"Then you know how important it is for Ryu to leave here. I will grant you all your memories back but I need you to do something for me. Give this potion to Ryu and Chun Li, make them forget again." Rose handed two vial of potion to Ken.
"They just found each other again. How can I do that to them? They're my best friends. I won't do it!"
Angered, Rose said, "Then the world will fall to chaos and destruction! You have doomed us all. Don't be weak, you fool! I'll have to do it again myself."
"No, that won't be necessary. I'll do it. Just give me time." Ken looked at the vials in his hand, he felt sick to his stomach.
"You have 24 hours, Mr. Masters." Rose then disappeared in a flash of light.
All of Ken's memories came back, he remembered everything prior to the Lab Corp raid. He was left with his thoughts. How can I betray my best friends? But if what Rose says is true, he'll need to leave and train to control the dark hadou. Chun Li will be heartbroken. I have to do this. They have to forget again, but I'll help them remember one day! He then called Chun Li's cell phone and asked them to meet for dinner that night.
At 8 o'clock, the three fighters met at Ken's hotel restaurant.
"I always loved coming here," Chun Li said, "the gigantic aquarium gives it such an exotic touch, Ken!
"It was actually Eliza's idea. She loves the Caribbean." Ken explained. He was nervous. He knew he had to slip the potions into their drinks. "How's everything going today? Did you have any more memories come back?
"Yes, a few. All good memories, some of them I want to kick your sorry butt for!" Ryu teased Ken.
"Hey! What did I do?"
Chun Li giggled, "Oh, he's just angry because he remembered what happened at the nightclub in Hong Kong the first time you guys came back to visit!"
"Oh," Ken chuckled, "Great times, guys! Still have that birthmark on your…" Ken teased but Ryu stopped him, serious yet playful. It was all in fun. "Did you two have a good time last night? I noticed you didn't come back, eh?"
"We talked some things out," Ryu said.
"We totally boned," Chun Li laughed and put her arms around Ryu. Ken could see the love between them growing stronger. He liked to see them so cheerful, he didn't want to take away their happiness. It pained him inside, but he knew what he must do.
"Of course, why wouldn't you?" Ken smiled. "Say, shall we order some drinks?"
"I'll have some wine. Ryu, will you have some too?" Chun Li asked. Ryu very rarely drank but he couldn't say no to Chun her when she looked so happy.
"Bring on the bottle!" Ryu said cheerfully.
"Alright!" Ken called over his person waiter and ordered the wine.
"So, Ken. Have you any idea on where we should start looking for answers about why our memories were taken?" Chun Li asked. "I think it might be Bison. He might be trying to use his psycho power on us again, but looked for another way to slowly get at us."
"Or it couldn't have been Bison at all. Chun Li, you could have made so many enemies working at Interpol," Ryu chimed in, "but then again. This was something powerful enough to make a lot of people forget."
"And Cammy was the only one impervious to the spell. She was under Bison's power at the time, so she wasn't affected. That has to be our first clue!" Chun Li said.
Ken didn't want them to talk much more about the source of power that made them forget, "Um, here's the wine!" Ken wondered how he was going to get the vial of potion into their glasses. He got an idea. "Wait a minute, I have a better and older bottle I brought from Japan. Give me a minute". Ken left to the kitchen area. While Ken was gone, Chun Li and Ryu continued the conversation.
"Does Ken seem a little off to you?" Chun Li asked.
"Yes, he seems agitated about something. Maybe the wine will help calm his nerves," Ryu replied.
"So, if Cammy was under psycho power, what other power out there can be so strong?" she asked.
"Well, there's the power of hadou but it's an inner power one yields from the life force of everything around, so it couldn't be that."
"And I don't think it's the power Dhalsim yields. His is more for control of the physical body and not the mind."
"Come to think of it, in my travels, I came across an interesting fighter named Menat while traveling through Egypt. She was an amateur, but she said she was an apprentice to Rose, the Italian fighter and tarot card reader," Ryu recalled.
"Rose, did you say? Do you know Rose?" Chun Li wondered.
"Yes, I met her while training in Italy. She helped me with control of the dark hadou. She wielded a power called Soul Power. It's the complete antithesis of Bison's."
Ken came back to the table with the wine, "Hey, hope I wasn't gone too long. Anything interesting I missed?"
"We were just discussing who would have the power and what kind to be able to alter memories. Then I remembered, Rose." Ryu said.
"Rose? Did you see her or something?" Ken asked frantically.
Ryu noticed Ken acting even stranger than before, "I haven't seen her in a while, what's gotten into you?"
"Are you ok, Ken?" Chun Li asked.
"Yes, I am fine. Just a stressful day at work." Ken tried to convince them. A waiter approached the table with appetizers. "Let's dig in. I'm famished."
"Continue Ryu," Chun Li asked him.
"Anyway, I was saying how Rose wields a soul power, perhaps if we looked into this soul power, we'd find that it too has a mind control."
"Let's discuss this later, our food is here now. Let's just enjoy and eat some good food.
"Sounds good to me, Ken. Great idea!" Chun Li said. "Come on Ryu, let's get sloshed!" Chun Li grabbed her glass of wine and handed Ryu his.
"If tonight wasn't so special, I'd normally would reject alcohol, but I'll drink to recovering our memories and being in good company." Ryu leaned in and kissed Chun Li. "There's nowhere in the world I'd rather be than right here and now at this table with the love of my life and my best friend."
Ken felt even worse about the potion in their wine glasses. Seeing Ryu and Chun Li so happy together made it extremely difficult. Before they could drink from their glasses, Ken tried thinking of a way to delay them drinking. "Um, let's make a toast!" He held up his glass and Chun Li and Ryu followed suit. "To Chun Li and Ryu, may you two always find a way back to each other."
They both thought it was an odd toast, "back to each other" they thought.
"Bottoms up!" Chun Li said. Before Ryu or Chun Li could take a sip, Ken knocked both of their glasses to the floor.
"Ken! What's the matter with you? What's going on?" Ryu demanded to know, "You've been acting strange since we got here."
"I'm sorry, you two. I couldn't do it!" Ken put his hands on his head.
"Couldn't do what?" Chun Li asked.
"Your wine is tainted. It has a potion in it. I can't let you take it."
"What is the meaning of this? Are you trying to poison us?" Ryu asked.
"No, I swear, but give me a chance to explain." He said.
Ken told Chun Li and Ryu the details of the visit with Rose. He carefully went over all the details Rose warned him about. "So you see, Bison is going to destroy the world if Ryu doesn't stop him."
"So that's why the memory loss was so wide-spread!" Ryu commented.
"But what if Ryu can't control the dark hadou? What if you become like Akuma?" Chun Li turned to Ryu. "I can't lose you again. I just got you back in my life."
"I told you, Chun Li," he grabbed her face, "I will never forget about us again. I made a promise to you and I'm going to keep it." He kissed her softly.
"So, what's our plan then?" Ken asked.
"I'll think of something. We can beat him. There's got to be a way." Ryu said. The three fighters sat there brainstorming the rest of the night.
To be continued…