[ S t r e e t F i g h t e r A l p h a (2) ( P a r t 2 ) ]
[???]
"W-…Where am I?"
It was a very little boy who found himself in the middle of nowhere. He looked around and saw walls made of hot red rocks. The ground was very crooked, its levels rising and falling in certain places. The ceiling had a number of stalactites, some even reaching down two feet from the ground. The boy surfed around the area he was in. Was he in the wrong place?
The boy walked until he found a rising set of platform of solid-rectangular rocks. Having nowhere else to go, he began to climb these rocks, one by one, until he reached the top-most rock. Before climbing up the rock, he hanged onto it to see ahead. To his amazement, he saw an enormous, open area. But there was no ground in front of the boy. The ground must be a bit lower than where his level is. He tried to now climb up the rock he was hanging on, but realized his foot was stuck behind.
Struggling to get the foot free, he pulled so hard that the foot did come out of grasp, but the force led the boy to fall off the cliff. He quickly grabbed on to a rock, hanging there, and looked below. It was a long way down… about a mile. The boy let out a piercing scream, asking for help.
And suddenly, he felt something above him. He looked up, and to his surprise saw someone standing there. It was a huge man, with blazing red hair and a body that seemed burnt out. The man looked down at him. He looked so frightening that the boy didn't know if he should ask for help or not. But the help came to him itself. The man reached out his enormous hand to him.
Not knowing what to do, the boy took the hand anyway. The man wrapped his hand with a firm grasp, and pulled him up easily, setting him back on top of the cliff. The boy stared up at the tremendous man. He was so tall and massive, double of a normal, strong man. What would such a man be doing in this place?
"Where'd you come from, kid?" the man asked.
"Uh…," the boy thought. "I—I built a raft and decided to come here…"
"Built a raft," the man repeated, "such a kid would be able to do such a thing? Why this island?"
"I don't know..," the boy answered, lowering his head. "The boys at school were picking on me. I wanted to be somewhere alone for a while, and I thought this island would be better. But this is a dungeon…"
"Hmm…," the man thought. "You're weak for running from your fears."
"Huh?"
"That's right…..you must perfect your fighting strength, and finish them off."
"Finish them off?!" the boy said loudly. "I..can't do that!"
"That's what makes you weak," the man declared. "Those boys will pick on you all your life. You can't take that from them. Will you ruin your life by letting them?"
"No…," the boy whispered.
"You made a right choice of coming to a place where no one will care to look for you," the man spoke on. "But what will be your next step? Will you sit here and cry, then go back to your life? Or will you perhaps… create a killing power…"
"Killing power?" The boy blinked.
"Yes, perfect your strength…your speed…energy….stamina…..all those tools for murder."
The boy thought for a minute. This strange man who lives inside a deserted island is suggesting him to become a murderer. Is he crazy? Or a psycho? Should he listen to him?
"I…need time to think…"
"It's for you to decide, I can only encourage you," the man said in a low tune. "Whatever fate has planned for you, is what you will do…"
The boy blinked, and came up with a weird question.
"Do warriors believe in fate?"
"…"
"That question….," the man said, thinking it out in his head very strongly. "…I can't answer it. I don't want you to go the wrong path. It's really your own decision to believe in fate or not. But when the time comes, perhaps we will meet again, and I might be able to answer that question of yours."
The boy nodded, and dropped the subject. They both were quite for a moment, still thinking about the same question. But neither of them wanted to talk. But why would warriors fight if fate has decided their loss? … Or is it because they don't know what fate has decided for them…? Is it fate doing every other good and bad thing? Is it fate that makes a man turn good, or another man turn evil… a man poor, and another man rich?
"You're an interesting kid," the man finally broke the silence. "What's your name?"
"My name…," the boy said. "My name is Mu."
The man's faced turned bright red. He was caught by surprise.
"Mu?" the man said. His eyes opened wide. His fist clenched so hard that noises of cracking could be heard.
"A-are you okay?" Mu asked, frightened. The man loosened his hand, and lowered his head, hiding his face with his hair.
"That name reminds me of someone," he said.
"Who?"
"Someone close to me, that's all you need to know," the man said firmly.
Mu moved his eyes to the man's back. "Ten?"
"…."
"Why do you have that mark on your back?" Mu asked.
"…that's nothing for your concern."
Mu lowered his face, then looked up and smiled. "By the way, what's your name?"
"My name?" the man said. "It's been a while since someone asked for my name…"
"So you're not going to tell?" the boy asked.
"…Gouki….."
Gouki… Gouki…… Gouki……
Gouki… Gouki…
Gouki… Gouki—Gouki—Gouki—Gouki—Gouki…
Gouki....
Blank… Sky… why do those two words match together?
Gouki…Gouki… Gouki…!!
…?
GOUKI!!!!!!!
[Gokuento, Japan]
Gouki shook his head, and looked around. Relieved, he realized he was in his island. He was sitting down against a down, dreaming of… a boy who's life he had saved a long time ago, by giving him a hand while he was hanging from a cliff. His memory remained blank about the boy. They only had a few minutes of talk… but the talk that they had…Gouki would not forget. The meaning of every second was so powerful… But what woke him up from the dream?
"Gouki!! Gouki!!"
My name is being called… someone else is on the island…
"Where are you, Gouki! Stop hiding!"
Before getting up to find this person who was calling him, Gouki wondered about one more thing..
Pathetic father… tried to make us feel proud of being poor.
Those two words, Blank and Sky… they were the title of a poem that their father used to describe them both. Although Gouki was the loner, his father had given him the title of Sky… and his brother, Gouken, the title of Blank. Why he did that, they both had no idea.
Gouki stood up, but he didn't need to go find the person anymore. It seemed they had already found him. Observing more closely, Gouki recognized them as Ryu, but didn't need to care any longer to observe Adon. He knew that this Ryu was the one looking for him.
"There you are, Gouki!" Ryu shouted. "I am here, now…"
"Yes, indeed you are," Gouki responded, observing Ryu even more. "You are Gouken's apprentice, am I right?"
"Halfway," Adon replied unwontedly, "but you forgot the other half. He's also the one that's going to kick your ass."
Gouki ignored Adon, and kept his eyes on Ryu. The boy looks rather weak… he must be, the same as that red-clothed fire-fist I met earlier. He was only wearing regular karate clothes, mostly ripped, and smudgy. He was wearing a white bandana, tied around his head. He was wearing red gloves that covered most of his wrists, so that his fists can be controlled easier.
"Go on, Ryu," Adon whispered to him, "go get him."
"Ryu, eh?" Gouki repeated. "So that's your name. Who's your partner with those red clothes?"
"Ken?" Ryu said shockingly, "You met Ken?!"
"Ken…," Gouki repeated once again. "…interesting man. Perhaps even more interesting than you. He has a gift in fighting."
"Gift or not, I will defeat you here," Ryu declared, tightening his bandana, and fixing his gloves, "Prepare, Gouki."
Ryu performed a stance, keeping his left arm out for defense, right arm behind it for attack. Gouki nodded, and didn't care to make one of his own.
"Is that what you call fighting skill?" Gouki said. "Such a predictable stance."
"Don't talk," Ryu said calmly. "Fight."
"That spirit," Gouki said. "So much like your partner. Are you two brothers? His anger was too direct. Anger can rip through emotions, but it can't jump you up to a higher fighting skill."
Gouki waited, but didn't get a response from Ryu, who was completely focused on his stance, waiting for Gouki to attack. Shrugging slightly, Gouki stepped forward.
"We shall have it your way, then," he said. "Let us fight."
Adon stepped back, and jumped on top of a rock to watch out for the battle. He was going to observe the battle between Ryu and Gouki, to see how powerful Gouki really is. His size was nearly double the size of Ryu.
"Hadouken!" Ryu fired an energy ball at Gouki, whom easily captured the energy in his hand, and backfired. Ryu quickly vaulted in the air to dodge the energy wiping through the ground below him. As the energy cleared, Ryu landed back on his feet.
"This grows boring too soon," Gouki sighed. "Perhaps I should warm you up."
Gouki slid over to Ryu, making a rather slow punch. Ryu evaded the fist in a more quick-reacting manner. By this, Gouki noticed, that Ryu was much weaker than he had suspected. He was holding back his power, and yet Ryu was still meeting a challenge.
Gouki jabbed in more held-back fists, and Ryu, being too busy dodging, ducking, sliding, and evading, couldn't counter. Finally, Ryu flipped out of the spot. He collected, once again, another ball of energy between his hands. He sprinted past Gouki, swung around, and shot the fireball at Gouki. But Gouki was too agile to fall for it, and easily side-stepped to see the fireball crash in a distant wall.
"More warming up, perhaps?" Gouki demanded.
Gouki formed his own fireball stance, and collected what seemed like a tremendous amount of energy in his palms. He leaped high in the air, and thrust the energy towards the surface.
Knowing that it will be an enormous blast, Ryu vaulted and grabbed onto a rock-pillar, climbing on top of it. Adon found himself a nature-made cliff and sat on top of it. The fireball vividly collided into the ground, and Gouki found himself a pillar to save himself as well. Ryu observed the horrible scene: the fierce energy cracked all of the surface. Lava floated out of the cracks, covering all of the now red surface. Ryu looked around. The only safe places left were the pillars that were above the ground. If someone fell down there, they would melt to death.
There were several pillars around the area. Noting this, Ryu figured out what Gouki was trying to do. They were going to fight until someone fell down there… in the scorching flood of lava.
"Seem hard enough?" Gouki shouted to Ryu from a distant pillar.
Along with this hard task of staying on the pillars, there was that shaking. It seemed that the whole island was trembling from the energy that Gouki fired to cause lava to emerge.
"You are simple-minded, Gouki," Ryu declared. "This makes your chances of living smaller as well."
"Fool," Gouki said, "My chances are much higher than yours!"
"You can't bet on that…"
Ryu hopped through the pillars towards Gouki. Reaching the nearest pillar, he jumped straight at him, but without an open leg. Gouki didn't bother to attack him, trying to figure out what he was trying to do. Ryu flipped through Gouki and braked, reversing his leg and kicking in. But Gouki dodged easily, and now began to take advantage of a short-distance battle.
Gouki once again began to do random, simple and slow moves, although for Ryu they were still fast. First he flung his fist at him to make him switch pillars. Then he jumped over to Ryu's pillar, and punched so hard that the pillar exploded into countless rock pieces, while Ryu jumped off to another one, missing closely. Landing over at another pillar, Gouki fired a small piece of energy at Ryu. Ryu was fast enough to actually counter the fireball with his own. The two fireballs both collided between the fighters, and caused another explosion, which fired directly at both of them, causing them to jump off their current pillars while they exploded.
Gouki now began to rapidly fade from one pillar to another, in an attempt to confuse Ryu. The helpless Ryu couldn't do anything until he finally spotted the giant Gouki on his own pillar. Thinking fast, Ryu pulled off a whirlwind kick, which Gouki quickly evaded by fading to a neighbor pillar.
The rumbling of the island intensified. The pillars slowly began to sink in the steaming lava. Ryu and Gouki, however, couldn't care because of the battle.
Ryu charged more energy, and this time shot at the ceiling above Gouki. Ryu charged another fireball, as the breaking rocks and stalactites from the ceiling tumbled upon Gouki's pillar. Ryu thrust the second fireball, and Gouki quickly slashed away the rocks and defended much weakly against it. The fireball damaged his arm.
"Hm…"
He actually managed to hit.
Not being able to think further, Gouki faded to another pillar to dodge another fireball, which hit and blew up his former pillar. But Ryu kept on collecting quick energy and firing it at Gouki as fast as possible. Gouki evaded and finally reached Ryu's pillar.
"Shoryuken!"
The uppercut, although not as strong enough to hurt Gouki, actually connected to him and left him to purposely act out the rest of the scene to fly high and kick off the ceiling above, landing on another pillar.
By now, most of the pillars had been exploded, and the island quaked more than ever.
Come on, Ryu… Finish up the battle, quick..., Adon thought, gritting his teeth as he watched the remaining pillars slowly sinking.
Ryu and Gouki crashed into each other, both rocketing at each other with ferocious whirlwind kicks. As they both collided, an actual whirlwind formed and caught both of them, causing the lava to splatter the surrounding area, as the whirlwind carried them higher, slowly.
And slowly, the whirlwind became taller and taller, carrying them both higher and higher. Gouki managed to control the wind and break free. Alarmed by Gouki's strength, Ryu competed and broke his way out of the now giant whirlwind with another whirlwind kick. Both of them now had to save themselves from falling into the lava, far below. They were both falling at a fleeting speed. They both kicked the surrounding wall of the area, keeping away from the cyclone that was still in the middle of them, and battled in mid-air, kicking and punching at each other, then kicking at the opposite wall, and kicking off to hit each other again.
Thinking up a plan, Ryu attempted to kick Gouki back inside the cyclone so that he could have more time to attack in a more focused skill. But Gouki was double his size, and the idea seemed idiotic. But they were both reaching the area of the pillars again, and Ryu now had to think up a way to land on a pillar, safe. Too busy thinking out a way, Ryu couldn't block the robust kick from Gouki that hit him and sent him flying. Gouki, being powerful, landed supremely onto a pillar, making it break down with the impact, and kicked off to land softly on another one.
The giant whirlwind finally slowed down, but Ryu was still in the danger of falling towards the ground. There was no possible way for him to save himself now. He was off-guard in the air, helplessly falling into his own fate. But suddenly he felt being grasped by two hands. He was taken to a pillar and put down. He looked back, and saw Adon, who had just saved his life.
"Dude, be careful!" Adon said loudly.
But it was too late to talk. Most of the pillars had already sunk inside the lava. Only three pillars remained. Ryu and Adon were standing on one of them, and Gouki on another. The third pillar was empty. Ryu, however, was on his knees and too worked out to do anything. That last whirlwind had squeezed out all his energy.
"The game has reached its end," Gouki declared.
The three pillars remaining, however, were also going down. The island quaked loudly.
"Ryu, this island isn't going to live long enough," Adon shouted, fighting the voice of the rumbling and exploding with his own to make Ryu hear him. "We've got about a minute to get the hell out of here!"
"Your decision has led you here," Gouki alerted them, "Now it's my decision to let you go."
Suddenly, although Ryu was weak as ever, something inside him rose rapidly. Was it the spirit?
Gouki suddenly began to steam. His body unleashed dark, evil energy. The energy rose up in the air like smoke. A dark aura surrounded him.
"Ryu, he's gonna pull off something really powerful, let's go!" Adon shouted.
But Ryu was not ready to lose. He stood up, and formed a fireball stance. Feeling more enthusiastic than ever, the energy flowed out of his palms like the unstoppable wind. The blue energy formed a sphere.
"Ryu, we don't have time!!" Adon said, worrying about the fact that the pillars they were standing on were going to sink in the lava in a matter of seconds.
"Give it all, Ryu, battle my Raging Demon with a pathetic fireball," Gouki demanded, his dark aura compelling quickly.
But Gouki observed something far beyond his expectance. The energy between Ryu's hands, forming into a fireball, began to show a hint of red. It was also being charged longer than Ryu had ever charged a fireball before. What was this sudden potential? How did it raise so quickly?
And then, Ryu's fireball evolved to a burning, energy-packed, flaming fireball. Ryu seemed more courageous than he had been before.
Maybe… this boy is not as wasted as I graded him to be…
Ryu hurled the fireball. The ominous energy hammered into Gouki. He could feel the flame running through his veins, his blood. Yes… this was the power he longed for, for so long. This boy… he's far more interesting than that last one with the flaming fists. Although apprentices of an idiot, they have a special power of their own… but this one is far individual in power, from the other one.
Suddenly, Ryu looked around. The pillar he was standing on, was only inches above the lava. He looked around. Adon was still by his side.
"Come on, Ryu, over there!" Adon pointed to the exit. It seemed like they were destined to have a remaining pillar this close to the place from where they entered. They both leaped off their pillars and onto the surface of a non-lava ground. Ryu looked back, and didn't see Gouki anywhere. Where had he gone? All three of the pillars had now sunk into the lava.
The island quaked forcefully. Ryu and Adon ran for the boat from where they came. Adon jumped into the boat. "Come on, Ryu!"
Before getting in the boat, Ryu suddenly began to feel something… someone saying something inside his mind. You have the Satso no Hadou… You are like a younger version of me… can you really battle someone who is going through the same fate that you will, Ryu? … Will you?
Ryu paused, his eyes wide open, dumbstruck.
"Come on, RYU!!!!" Adon shouted.
…
……..
As the boat jetted away, the island of Gokuento exploded. The powerful waves ripped through the ocean like a zig-zag, the island being the center.
"We made it," Adon beamed. Then added, "…perhaps I'm not ready for Gouki. I probably never will. What you've gone through… that was a hell battle. I'm definitely not the person… nope… My likes are not for Gouki."
[Dirt Path, Japan]
The path where so far no traffic had gone through was unusually quiet, but just the way Ryu liked it for his training. Then again, who would walk in such a lonesome path except a wounded man who had gone through a terribly confusing and painful battle and conflict?
Ryu, hardly being able to carry his bag, began to realize he was bleeding in random spots too. The giant cyclone back there had really ripped his skin badly. He had nothing in his bag, no curing item. There were no spare clothes in there either, because at the time his clothes were teared and ripped from the battle. Since Adon had left back for Thailand, Ryu couldn't do much by himself right now.
He caught sight of a nice, graceful spot of clean soil. It looked heavenly. Thinking about the fact that he was weak as ever, Ryu began to withdraw all his food from the bag and rested at the spot, following with a short nap.
But the short nap turned out to be a long one. Ryu woke up seeing a hint of sun coming from the far horizon. It was sunrise, and a very beautiful one. Sunrise was easily the best time to train, even more than sunset. But still feeling tired, Ryu didn't feel like training. He had finished up all his food last night too. And he didn't feel like sleeping either. He didn't want to rot in this dirt path from the deadly rays of sunlight either, so he stretched and yawned and forced himself up, carrying on his journey, with his bag behind his back.
"Ryu?"
Ryu halted, and quickly turned back to find a very muscular, cool-looking man wearing red martial arts clothes, long, blondish hair, with a red ribbon tied to the near end to keep it from separating. Ken Masters grinned at him, and dashed over to him, grabbing him by the neck and tapping his fist to his head teasingly. Ryu grabbed Ken and threw him a distance away.
"Hey!" Ryu grinned for the first time after months. "Ken! Long time no see…"
"Are you crazy?!" Ken laughed. "We haven't met until our last training… when was that…"
"Uhh," Ryu thought. "About six years?"
"Exactly, and guess how long that is?" Ken said furiously.
"Um…six years?"
Ken gritted his teeth, annoyed. "You're still the same old Ryu. Thought you would have changed to a more mature, powerful man."
"Well you're not the same at all," Ryu scratched his head, "What's with that hair? You're crazy! That's so not Japanese... That's not American either, in fact."
"Uh-huh," Ken nodded sarcastically. "Listen, Ryu, did you hear—"
"Yeah, I know… Gouki," Ryu said quickly.
Ken nodded. "I sorta edged him away from master's place after he murdered…. I don't think he's dead, though."
"He didn't die," Ryu responded. "I challenged him later."
"You made it out alive," Ken said, blinking. "Well…anyway… you ought to be careful, Ryu. That man's not normal. In fact, he's not a human being… that attack… it…"
"It was Ansatsuken, the same style that we use for fighting," Ryu said, "…but we never witnessed it."
"Ryu, he's still not normal," Ken advised, "he claims to be an Ansatsuken fighter… but that guy's something else. In fact I don't even see how he let himself get hit with my Shoryuu Reppa."
"Shoryuu Reppa?" Ryu blinked.
"Uhh," Ken turned red, "... we all have to make moves of our own, ya know."
Ryu laughed. "If that's a move, you definitely haven't changed since our training!"
"You!" Ken said furiously, jumping on top of Ryu, wrestling with him. "We better settle a match then, huh, Ryu?"
"Arr, no," Ryu said dizzily after being punched a few times from Ken. "That battle with him really worked me out."
"Awwww, are you tired, perhaps?" Ken whined teasingly.
"Shut up, Ken," Ryu said. "I'm serious!"
"Really?" Ken said, acting confused.
"Grrr… fine then. But if I lose, don't get overconfident."
Ryu stood up, watching the now huge smile on Ken's face. Ken already seemed overconfident, but didn't seem to notice that Ryu was actually tired, instead thinking he was only acting like it.
Ken rushed over to Ryu, grabbed him, and threw him aside. Ryu flipped over and blocked a fist coming at him, countering with a rather weak uppercut. Ken easily recovered in the air, and pummeled a hard foot into Ryu's face, causing him to collide back. Ken scratched his head.
"Um…was that it?"
Ryu sat up, and Ken realized blood coming out of his forehead, soaking the white bandana, and also from his nose and mouth.
"Dude, you're totally screwed," Ken said, alarmed.
"Say that again?" Ryu said sarcastically.
Ken rushed over to his old partner in training and helped him up. "You should've told me not to go that hard on you, not on the condition you're in."
Ken grabbed a towel from out of nowhere and handed it to Ryu, who wiped his face from blood with it. "Thanks, Ken."
"No problem."
Ryu took off his bandana. "Bleh…fresh from the river of blood," he said, disgusted by the blood dripping down from the now red bandana.
"Heh, that's a river all right," Ken confirmed, looking at Ryu, whose eyes were barely visible because of the hair covering it. Ken paused, thought for a minute, and sighed, untying the red ribbon that was holding his hair, and held it out to Ryu.
"What the hell do you think you're doing?" Ryu said loudly. "That's your ribbon!"
"Use it as your bandana, buddy," Ken said, grinning.
Ryu hesitated, but took the offer anyway, tying his newer bandana around his forehead tightly. "Hm…this one is pretty good, honestly."
"Probably is," Ken said conceitedly, "At least red gives you another color instead of wearing white all the time."
"Well you're always wearing red," Ryu replied.
"Only during training," Ken said quickly. "Oh, and you need another suit, buddy. You're out of date."
"Not everyone has dollars raining on top of their roof, Ken," Ryu said, pointing to his only possession: the bag he always carried around.
"Yeah, yeah, sure," Ken said. "Well, anyway… take care of yourself, Ryu. I heard many people are after you… didn't know why until I read you were in the Street Fighter tournament."
"Okay," Ryu nodded understandingly, "We'll meet another day and perhaps fight then."
"Until then," Ken acted out a good-bye solute.
[Tokyo, Japan]
Two days later, Ryu finally made it back to loud voices, screaming kids, and the smell of awkwardness in the air. The red bandana on his forehead had somewhat contributed to Ryu's spirit of fighting. Perhaps it was the friendship that Ryu and Ken had shared greatly. Although it was a rivalry friendship, they were still friends…weren't they?
And because of this feeling of pride, Ryu didn't feel stupid walking in the streets of Tokyo, where lonesome could never be found. The people still looked at him with a peculiar look. But then again, how would a man with ripped clothes, a bag behind his bag, looking like a tourist, seem like when walking openly, in an open city?
Ryu didn't know where to go next. His muscles were still pretty much aching. The wounds that were bleeding had stopped, but if they had been poked even a bit, they would bleed.
Walking through a very narrow street, Ryu spotted some boys and girls playing soccer in a school's courtyard. Ryu read the title in huge letters, written above the school's entrance, which said, "Minami High School". Sighing while looking at all the kids play, Ryu wished he was there at that time. Perhaps then, he could have made friends. But he always grew up on the street, until he was adopted by Gouken and hired in the Ansatsuken field of fighting, instead of an institute. Now, fate's decision made it so that Ryu could live for only fighting, and nothing else. Fate had.
Ryu felt a soft, but rather quick, poke on the back of his neck. He swung around forcefully and connected his eye to the person who had poked him.
"Huh?"
It was a schoolgirl, who had just collapsed on the ground due to Ryu's sudden reaction to her poking. Ryu blinked.
"Um, you okay?" Ryu asked in a confused tune.
"Yep," the girl responded cheerfully, jumping up quickly and standing on her feet. "Hello, Ryu! My name is Sakura!"
Ryu blinked once again at the girl's odd introduction.
"H-hello…Sakura."
Sakura quickly observed the Ryu standing in front of him. Ryu gritted his teeth. Maybe Ken was right about my damn clothes, so many people staring at me.
"I take it, you need new clothes!" Sakura smiled.
"Nope," Ryu said, walking away.
"H-hey! Where do you think you're going?"
Sakura followed him. Ryu walked quickly. She followed even faster. Ryu jumped over a six-foot tall brick wall. She did the same, although much more easily than Ryu had expected. He began to run, as fast as he could, to get rid of the weird girl. But she ran, at about the same speed as him. Ryu stopped, and turned around.
"Errr, what's your problem?!" He asked, annoyed.
"I don't have problems, you do!" Sakura claimed, grinning oddly. "You're the one running away. I want a nice battle with you."
"Heck no," Ryu declared. "I won't fight a kid… and besides, you're a girl."
"Ooo, underestimating the power of pink, are ya!" Sakura punched him.
@_@
"Well guess what! I'm not pink, I'm blue! Get it on, boy!"
Ryu turned red. All the people had their eyes fixed upon the two of them. Sakura seemed rather confident. She probably knew these people anyway, since they were part of the neighborhood.
"I didn't mean it that way, kid," Ryu said, acting normally, "go away."
Before Sakura could respond, Ryu thought he was wasting his time. He needed to get out of here! Oooooo from now on, I'd go anywhere but Tokyo.
Ryu, becoming rather serious now, dashed across the streets, even through traffic roads, but Sakura somehow managed to do the same, although much slower. Ryu finally found a dead end, sneaked in, and watched the girl pass by after a minute.
"Lost her," Ryu gulped.
He looked behind himself, and noticed that this was not a dead end. It almost seemed like it, until Ryu noticed that there was a fence blocking the way to deserted woods, with a sign on top of it saying "Do not cross", and a man standing beyond the fence, gaping deeply into his eyes.
[Forbidden Woods, Tokyo, Japan]
It was Sagat. Not having time to observe him any longer, Ryu was grabbed by the shirt, and thrown inside the forbidden woods. Ryu looked around, not being able to tell why the woods were forbidden. But right now he had something else to be worried about.
"Ryu!" Sagat screeched. "Forgot me already?"
"Sagat…," Ryu said slowly.
"Alias 'your killer'," Sagat formed a powerful fist. "Prepare, Ryu. You humiliated me in front of my people back in the tournament. The country became disappointed in me. Adon stole the title from me. But now, all that shame… all of it… it's going to evaporate at your death from my fist."
Ryu thought out what Sagat had said, and stood up, throwing his bag a distance away.
"Sagat…"
"Don't talk to me!" Sagat shouted. "Let's finish the battle. Here, no one will be able to listen. You should be happy, Ryu, that you're not being humiliated in front of your people like I was. You're fighting me alone, but only because this is the end of your life."
Ryu quickly transformed his emotion to anger. He glared at Sagat.
"So, you came here to fight me for a certain revenge?" He hissed. "You came to Japan, to beat the crap out of me, to satisfy yourself? Will this satisfy your people back in Thailand?"
"…No," Sagat said. "But it will give me the thirst that I have longed for."
"Thirst, huh," Ryu said, still angry. "Sagat…you're pathetic! Back then, I thought precisely of you, but you have washed away that opinion from my mind. I thought you were strong, very strong. At that time I understood why the people of Thailand… supported you. They liked you."
"They liked me only until I lost!" Sagat argued.
"But you still didn't lose your title!" Ryu replied.
"Enough!!!" Sagat screamed, rushing towards Ryu, with a firm fist. He punched Ryu rigorously in the ribs, causing him to fly back and knock into a tree. Sagat repeated a cycle of kicking Ryu around the woods before he could get back up. Then he finally booted Ryu as hard as he could for one last time, giving his legs a rest and switching to his fists.
Sagat first used the fists to form large energy arrow-like shapes, to a fireball, and hurling it at Ryu. Ryu kicked off a tree and narrowly dodged the fireball. But there were more fireballs being fired from Sagat. Ryu skipped and bounced around the area, dodging each fireball as fast as he could. The fireballs were pretty fast themselves. And then, Ryu noticed, that this was another tactic that Sagat had used back in the tournament.
Taking note of that, Ryu slowly approached Sagat while hopping around to avoid the fireballs, but Sagat proved to be cleverer than before, now halting to collect much more energy than he normally did. He was going to create a humongous, unavoidable fireball. Ryu rushed forward to stop the attack, but Sagat already unleashed the energy at him. Ryu swiftly formed a highly defensive stance, keeping the whole attack power of the fireball from hurting him. The fireball slowly faded into the air.
"Hm…," Sagat wondered thoughtfully. "Still the smartass tactic boy like before, Ryu?"
Ryu didn't respond. He didn't care to point out to Sagat that he was being much weaker than before. Back then, Sagat never talked in the middle of a battle. Wasn't that Sagat's motto? 'It's the fight, that matters'…?
Sagat darted towards Ryu, and pummeled him, first on the chest, then across the face, and then straight into the forehead. Ryu shrilled loudly, falling back and crashing into a tree, making it fall. But, as he sat there, profoundly damaged, he realized how Sagat only grew in strength, but not in skill.
Sagat approached Ryu, and Ryu raised his head to look up boldly at the tall man looked down at him.
"See this, Ryu?" Sagat pointed to a very cruel mark made across his chest. "This is your dirt on my significance."
Ryu thought about the scar. The memory inside his head of it was blurry, but he knew that Ryu was responsible for it.
"Sagat, you are fighting off plain anger," Ryu said thoughtfully, "…it's like you're possessed with it! You fight thinking that no one can defeat you. Such conceit can someday kill you, Sagat… without your old, intelligent self; you won't be able to defend yourself against that man who might someday take advantage of your enraged strength."
Sagat paused. Ryu knew that he was considering what he had just said. But the anger once again took over Sagat.
"Shut up!" He smacked Ryu once again. "So you're saying, that some wimp like you can actually kill me, the lord of fighting?"
"If I wanted, I could have been that man responsible of your murder, because your only weakness is easily noticeable… anger, that is."
Sagat screamed loudly, grabbing his head. He screeched louder than ever, his voice echoing all through the woods. It seemed that Sagat was going through a very difficult conflict in his head.
"Y…you bastard!" Sagat said. "I…I will kill you some other day!!!!! And double times harder!!"
With those weakly-said phrases, Sagat stomped away, after landing one last blow to Ryu's bloody face.
Ryu rested at that spot where Sagat had placed him to beat. He was soaking with blood. The wounds he had with the battle with Gouki had reopened with this battle. He almost pitied Sagat… a man who took the wrong path after defeat.
And then, Ryu heard a small sound behind him. He slowly revolved his head to the other direction, and spotted Sakura, holding a bag in her hand.
"H..hey.."
"Hey, Ryu," Sakura said slowly, noticing he had been badly hurt, then rushing over to him. "Are you okay? Hold on, I'll open up my kit."
She withdrew a very large box of first-aid from the bag she was carrying. Ryu blinked slowly.
"Hm…," he said observingly. "It's like you knew what was going to happen to me, huh?"
Sakura giggled slightly, beginning to treat him. "Well, actually, I bought this for you after I lost track of where you went. I decided to get you this…oh, and this too—"
She took out what looked like a very bright, clean, and elite-looking karate uniform, just like the one Ryu had, only it looked more expensive.
"Uhh, you didn't need to buy me that," Ryu said.
"Well, I like to," Sakura said, continuing to treat him. They didn't talk for about a minute.
"By the way, why were you following me?" Ryu asked.
"Oh, that," Sakura said, "Well, I saw your battle with that guy Sagat in the Street Fighter Tournament. I actually visited to the battle stadium, and got front-row seats to see you. You were awesome! Since then, I've been your biggest fan and always wanted to see you. Some of my friends are your fans too."
"But you're more of a fanatic," Ryu said.
"Yep…by the way, can I have your autograph?"…