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Taiyo High School...
Near the end of Ms.Kasugano's History Class...
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"...What is the lesson that these events teach us?" the teacher, an elegant young woman with a muscular body, asked her class, finishing her lecture on World War 2. "Anyone?"
The students looked nervously at one another, each one unwilling to admit that they hadn't payed attention to a single word Ms.Kasugano had said.
The bespectacled teacher frowned, and sighed. She was getting tired of her students basically ignoring her, but the only other way she knew to catch their attention would most likely send them running in fear. She looked around her class, deciding to pick on someone. Her eyes settled on a young woman near the back, who wore a black jacket over her uniform which she kept tightly pulled around herself, and a pair of dark sunglasses that hid her eyes completely. She was staring out the window, seemingly lost in her thoughts.
Well, thought Ms.Kasugano, time to get her unlost. "Elena? Would you mind telling us what the lesson that these events teach us is?"
The tall, long-legged, ebony-skinned young girl yipped, startled by the question. She stared up at the teacher for a moment and blinked...
"Um... What events again?"
Ms.Kasugano sighed. They told me in college that there'd be moments like this...
Fortunetly, the bell rang just then, saving Elena from embarrasment.
Ms.Kasugano sighed, and gave her assignments to the class as they filed out. Elena came out last, and as she did, Ms.Kasugano grabbed her by the shoulder.
"Elena, what's the matter with you? You've changed so drastically since you came back from Summer Break."
Elena just glared at Ms.Kasugano. "What's it to you? You don't care. No one cares..."
Ms.Kasugano shook her head. "That's not true. Your friend, Narumi, has been asking me to talk to you for a while, I just haven't had the time to do so until now." It was a lie, but she hoped it would help.
Elena, for her part, was getting mad. Why wouldn't this nosy teacher leave her alone? It wasn't anyone's business what her own stupidity resulted in. "Then you go tell Narumi to mind her own damn business."
Elena couldn't help but smirk at the startled expression on the History teacher's face, as she made a mental note to 'talk' with Narumi about things that don't concern her. But that look was quickly replaced by a stern one.
"I was asking you as a friend, Elena. But now I'm ordering you, teacher to student. What happened to you over the summer? Does it have something to do with the third World Warrior tournament? I know you participated in it..."
Elena just looked away. She didn't want to think about what happened, didn't want to think about the pain, that man's horrific grin...
Ms.Kasugano shook her head. "Something bad happened, didn't it?"
Elena just shook her head. "I mean it, Kasugano. I don't wanna talk about it."
Ms.Kasugano smirked, folding her arms. "Tough. Because I'm not leaving until you do."
Elena glared at her through her sunglasses, but sighed weakly. "Fine. But you'll understand if I ask you not to tell anyone about what you see. I got enough flak from my parents."
She slowly removed her sunglasses, revealing the empty socket where her right eye used to be. She then removed her jacket and uniform shirt, showing the jagged scar that tore across her body.
Ms.Kasugano gasped, suddenly remembering an encounter years ago, a massive tiger of a man, an eyepatch over one eye, and a similar scar on his chest...
"My God..." she managed.
Elena just sighed. She had gotten used to people having that kind of reaction. "A couple days before the World Warrior tournament ended, I encountered a man in a black karate outfit named Akuma. I hadn't gotten to fight Ryu, but since Akuma moved in sort of the same way he did, I assumed they fought the same style. He went to challenge the head of the tournament, Gill, but he left after they talked in private, looking scared. I decided to track him down, see if I could make friends with him and challenge him to a friendly match."
Ms.Kasugano paled. "D-Did you say, Akuma?"
Elena sneered, putting her uniform shirt back on. "Look, do you want to hear this story or not?"
The teacher shook her head. "Sorry, please continue."
Elena sighed, trying to remember where she left off. "Anyway, it was pretty easy to find him, actually. He was staying in one of the fighter rooms at a hotel that Gill provided for all the World Warrior participants. Don't know why, guess he was waiting for something. So, a month after the fights ended, I managed to get a hold of him and made my challenge."
Tears started to well up in Elena's remaining eye as she remembered what happened next.
"He then mocked me, mocked the fact that I liked to make friends with people. He said that I wasn't worthy to be called a warrior and then he... he..." Elena gulped, and shook her head, "Well, you know what happened to me. When I was in the hospital, some guy offered to take me to Akuma whenever I felt I was ready to fight him again, but other than that, I just stayed there, letting the doctors tell me that I'd be a one-eyed freak for the rest of my life. After I healed what I could, I went back to my life, training just to keep in shape."
She put her jacket and sunglasses back on. "Are you satisfied? Can I go now?"
Ms.Kasugano shook her head. "That still doesn't explain why you've changed so much. You used to be happy all of the time..."
Elena snarled. She had taken more than enough from this nosy bimbo. "Why? Why do you THINK!? Thanks to the way my 'loving father' raised me, I was trained as a fighter. Raised to BE a fighter! Because of that, I thought the fight would be a way to make new and unique friends, just so long as I was nice and polite and cheerful. But I'm NOTHING!! I'm no fighter! Akuma was right. I don't deserve the title."
She turned away, tears streaming down her face under her sunglasses. "I just..." She sighed, turning back to Ms.Kasugano. "Every day, some of the people who know about my injuries track me down and start taunting me, calling me cyclops and other things like that, only worse. That's why I put on the jacket and glasses, so no one else would know. You know what my fondest wish is, when they start in on me?"
Ms.Kasugano shook her head.
Elena grinned weakly. "That Akuma had just killed me, instead of just telling me some nonsense and vanishing." She looked away again, towards a window.
Ms.Kasugano frowned deeply, her mind racing. Akuma! Why in blazes did he accept her challenge? Why did he let her LIVE afterwards?
She had seen him only once, during the first fiasco with M.Bison, when he was slaughtering Shadowloo soldiers with relative ease, but she had sensed him all day, sensed the horrifying power he posessed. After it was over, she had asked Ryu about him, and was horrified when he told her how Akuma operated.
But this was different somehow...
She looked at Elena directly and blinked. The girl was staring out the window, her fists tightly clenched and shaking.
Concerned, Ms.Kasugano asked, "Are you okay?"
"I hate him," Elena said, not turning around. "I hate him so strongly it scares me." She looked down at her hands, unclenching them into claws. "I just want to understand, why did he do this to me? Why did he do this when all I wanted..."
"What did he say to you?" Ms.Kasugano asked suddenly.
Elena just stared at her, confused. "What?"
"What. Did. Akuma. Say. To. You. Before. He. Vanished?"
Elena frowned, trying to remember. "He... he said something about embracing my hatred. The Murderous Intent, or whatever. He said that I'd only be ready to face him when I was ready to kill."
Ms.Kasugano sighed. An idea was forming in her mind, but she had no idea how it would turn out. If nothing else, it might restore the girl's will to live.
"Elena, I need to tell you something. When I was your age, I saw Akuma fighting."
WHAT?! Elena's eye widened in shock. How could a little mouse like her EVER have met Akuma?!?
Ms.Kasugano continued. "When I was your age, Ryu was my idol. I even managed to copy his moves just by watching them a few times. Anyway, Ryu and I, along with several other fighters, including Akuma, became involved with an incident involving a major terrorist named M.Bison."
Elena nodded, "Yeah. He hosted the second World Warrior tournament, the one that Chinese woman won. He vanished shortly afterwards."
"She was there, too. Akuma, from what I can tell, joined up with us all for simple amusement. He slaughtered a few troops, and when none of the involved fighters seemed to be interested in fighting him, he disappeared. I don't know what he did the next few years, but I do know that he is the reason M.Bison disappeared after Bison's World Warrior tournament."
Elena frowned. "Okay. But what does this have to do with me?"
"Ryu, Akuma, and I use the same fighting style. I haven't been training as much as I should since that time, but I am still strong enough to give some of the best in the world a run for their money. If you'll let me, I'll train you, help you get stronger."
Elena lowered her sunglasses, giving her an appraising look.
"You aren't just saying this, Ms.Kasugano? You're not just telling me this because it's something I want to hear?"
Ms.Kasugano shook her head. "No. And please, call me Sakura."
Elena's heart started to beat faster as she considered the idea. "And you could help me, help me get stronger?"
"I think so, yes."
"Strong enough to fight and defeat Akuma?"
Sakura chuckled weakly. "I don't know about that, but you will definetly get stronger."
Elena grinned savagely. Sakura winced at the sight of it.
"That'll do. For now," Elena said.
Sakura nodded. "I'll contact you when I'm ready to begin your training. All right?"
Elena nodded, and started to walk away. Sakura held out a hand, stopping her.
"Wait. You mentioned that someone offered to bring you to Akuma once you were ready to face him. Do you know who it was?"
Elena paused one second too long to make her response believable. "Nope. Sorry. When he visited me, I was under heavy pain medication."
Sakura frowned, sensing the lie. Something else to worry about, she thought. Aloud, she said. "All right, Elena. That will be all. See you soon."
Elena nodded, and walked out of the room, a smile on her face for the first time in months.
A chance to get stronger... A chance to actually be worthy of being called a fighter... It's almost too good to be true... But some hope's better than nothing...
Her grin widened as she thought of Akuma, her face becoming a deathmask. The hate rose up in her again, a blazing inferno in her heart.
Akuma. You told me to be ready to kill. Soon, hopefully, I will be...