[ S t r e e t F i g h t e r A l p h a (2) ( P a r t 2 ) ]

[Shadaloo Base, Amazon Jungle, Brazil]

Buzzz……Buzz…

"Is he all right?"

Buzzz….. Buzz…Buzzzzzz..!

"I dunno, he's been sort of dull…"

"You think he needs a break? He hasn't had one for about a week."

"Master Vega might be mad…"

"Shall we ask for permission?"

Buzz…Buzzzzbuzzz!!

BOOM!

"Err….he collapsed…"

"Is he dead?"

"Hm…no…I guess he does really need a break. What do you say, two days? Let's go contact Master Vega."

"Poor no-life…sometimes I feel sorry for him."

[*, Japan]

"Did you get his autograph, Sakura?"

"Of course I did!"

Sakura and her friend, Satsuki, were walking to their house, talking about how she had met Ryu the day before. Although she was excited, Sakura felt that Ryu wasn't very talkative, and was in a hurry to go away.

"Did the training pay off?" Satsuki asked her.

"Training?" Sakura said, alarmed. "Oh… no, he didn't want to fight me."

"Huh? Didn't want to fight you… well then there was no point of you to meet him!"

"At least I got to meet him," Sakura sighed.

After taking twists and turns in the very narrow alley system in the neighborhood, Satsuki finally stopped at her house. These alleys were really nice to walk through. Only a bicycle could go through them. And they connected so many houses and even hidden shops, since the maze-like system was enormous. Sakura sometimes even got lost in these alleys.

"Bye, Sakura," Satsuki hopped on her house's back-door.

"See ya….."

Sakura began to walk away before Satsuki even shut the door. Suddenly, she stopped. There was a blur of light behind her, and a loud, flashy noise. She swung around and saw that Satsuki wasn't there. The door was closed. There was no light… the sound had gone.

Sakura blinked, and shrugged, continuing to walk to her house. Her house was about four alleys away. Although the way was short, Sakura stopped and caught sight of something. She looked more closely. It was a man in pink clothes, with a peculiar looking face, fighting against a few thugs.

"Huh?" Sakura wondered. She hadn't seen much fights before. This was a street fighter!!

But the man hardly seemed like a street fighter. His skills were monkey-like. He goofed around too much in midst the battle. As she saw him randomly roll and kick, the man was finally caught by about four thugs. Unable to move, the man wriggled around, trying to get free.

"Do let go, you pathetic fools!" the man said, gritting his teeth.

Sakura made an enthusiastic pose. "Ooo, this is my time to show off my skills! Don't worry, pink man, I'll help you!"

Sakura sprinted to the thugs and jumped all of them in a single tackle. The man stood up and scratched his head, watching Sakura repeatedly punching them with her very soft hands. The thugs, however, seemed to be hurt by the fists still.

After about a confusing minute of fiddling around, the thugs finally stood face-to-face with Sakura, standing there all by herself.

"Hm…It's a school girl!" one of the thugs said.

"Not just a school girl…she's more of a nice high school one…"

"What should we do with her, boss?"

"Take her? I go with her first, though.."

"Errr….."

"What are you talking about?" Sakura said angrily.

"Let's go, girl, we'll drop you off home."

Sakura laughed. "Like I'm stupid enough!"

"Oh come on…we insist…"

"Not without a fight!" Sakura said, making a strange Ansatsuken imitation stance.

"As you wish."

The thugs bolted at her, and jumped all at once. Sakura did a quick, small uppercut and caused most of them to fall. The others fell on top of her. Getting back up, four of them grabbed her two arms and two legs each. Instead of beating her to trash, they picked her up and headed for their car, parked at the exit of the alley.

"Hey!!—Let me go!"

The man with the pink clothes stood there, looking at the girl, and changed his face into a wide smirk.

"Fear not, amateur girl! I, the amazing Saikyo Master, will save you!"

The man dashed towards the thugs and began to thoughtlessly punch and kick in and out, without a certain aim. But this weird technique did work, for the thugs had no place to escape, and crashed into the alley walls. Sakura fell on her back, and blinked, not knowing whether to scream in pain or not.

"Err…thanks?"

"'Twas not to save you, a street fighter cares not for being good or evil," the man said proudly. Sakura blinked again.

"Err…ok?" she said. "….wait a minute! You're a street fighter?!"

"Why, lass, you know not the most amazing fighter in Japan?" the man said in disappointment. "Why, I am the amazing Dan, creator of the millennium's most admired fighting style, the Saikyo style!"

"Uh-huh," Sakura said. "So your name is Dan?"

"Dan Hibiki, aye."

"I thought the strongest street fighter in Japan was Ryu," Sakura said.

"Ryu? Oh, no no… he's merely a pathetic amateur, reflecting you….with your headband and imitation of him so profoundly!"

"That's because I'm his biggest fan!" Sakura jumped on her feet. "I will study Ansatsuken from head to toe!"

Dan looked disappointed once again. "Foolish lass… if only you knew, the amazing powers of Saikyo-ryuu."

Dan seemed miserable now, and began to walk away. Sakura lowered her head, wondering if she had let down the man. How she had, she had no idea. Feeling slightly triumphant, Sakura dashed by his side. "Could you tell me when the next Street Fighter tournament starts?"

Dan jumped slightly. "What did you say? Street fighting? You want to learn? Ahh!!—yes! You have found the right man, lass! I am the master of street fighting. Come, follow me. What has fate concluded your identity?"

"Um…what?"

"Your name, lass, your name!"

"Oh….Sakura…"

"Sakura, ah…fine name! Follow me, young Sakura."

Sakura scratched her head, not getting the answer that she wanted, and continued following him. He led her to a circular area in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by rocks. It seemed like they weren't in Tokyo anymore. In the middle of this odd place was a small shed which she suspected was Dan's home.

"Er…this place?"

"'Tis my dwelling," Dan answered instantly. "Now, I shall witness your capabilities! Drop and give me … uh.. thirty!"

"Eh…that's it?" Sakura said, taking this as a challenge. "No problem!"

She did the thirty pushups in less than a minute. Dan was surprised, but tried to remain normal.

"Still need improvement!" He said with a weird-shaped face that was stuck in the middle of impress and calm. Then asked, "Are you able to collect energy within?"

"Hm?" Sakura said, confused. "What do you mean?"

"Like this," Dan said, proudly forming a very tiny fireball in his hand and shooting it at one of the surrounding forts of rock. "Hadouken!"

The fireball vanished before flying six inches out of his hand. Sakura blinked in surprise, and broke into a loud laugh. Dan turned slightly red.

"Laugh not, filthy amateur! We shall see your mastery at the traditional Hadouken!"

"Oh, of course!" Sakura said seriously, and performed her own fireball. "Hadouken!"

Her fireball collided into the rock and caused a slight avalanche of rocks.

"Hm….it's still not good as Ryu's," she said, observing the blast.

But Dan's face was wrinkled again with surprise. He looked like he had swallowed a lemon. He quickly managed to straighten it up before Sakura could look at him. "Hah! One would be able to historize a mountain with a Hadouken! Yours is pathetically weak!"

"Um…is historize even a word?" Sakura pointed out.

Dan began to get annoyed. "If you are so powerful, break out all the surrounding rocks!"

"It's a challenge!" Sakura said, jabbing her palm with a fist.

"Shalt I return in ten whole strucks of the longest hand of a clock, so complete your mission by then!" Dan said, walking away. "Resume training."

"Mmk, ten minutes…"

Sakura scratched her head again, watching Dan disappear. What did Dan mean by Resume training? She shrugged to herself, and began to break down all the rocks.

[Tokyo, Japan]

Dan began to search around back in the city, thinking about how he would continue training his new apprentice, Sakura, of his Saikyo style. Upon thinking so deeply, he bumped into someone who was apparently about double his size. Dan fell.

"Ouch! Err… sorry sir.."

Dan looked up to the face of the huge man, who was still standing there, looking down at him.

"S….Sagat?!"

Dan stood up, enraged. "You!!!"

Sagat kept his gaze on him, scanning who he was. "…Go?"

"It's not Go, you asshole!!!"

"Hm… I thought so?" Sagat said, scanning more deeply. "You look much weaker…must be the spawn of that loser."

"Grrrrr…!!!" Dan jumped up and kicked into Sagat's face once with the right leg, and then left leg, and right leg again, before landing back on the ground, watching him crash a distance away from him.

"How was that?" Dan said, steaming with fiery.

Sagat sat back up in no time, scanning Dan once again with his single eye.

…

The battle back with Ryu… although short, I hesitantly learned that I was being an idiot… should I have overlapped my anger with more impact on my skill? Yes, skill does sort out your paths more easily than anger does…

Anger is more like… crushing your way through what you desire most. In the end—you realize the anger has been going in a circle…traveling in this circle-like path, takes you back to the position where you were back at the time where you began.

…

At this moment, I am in the place of Ryu.. and he—this boy…Go's son, is in the place of me at the time I wanted to avenge my loss to Ryu… Ryu didn't want to fight back with me, because he knew he'd be wasting his time fighting against the opposite of my true potential.

…should I do the same?

"Prepare, Sagat, to be defeated!" Dan shouted, attracting the attention from all the surrounding people.

Sagat stood up, acting weaker than he actually was. Dan rushed towards him as fast as he could and shot in as many fast and quick punches as possible, ending with a high uppercut. Sagat flew back a distance and landed far away.

The uppercut… why did this attack become the finishing move for so many?

Dan's anger seemed to have finished off. Although still flaming with fury, his mission was complete. He began to walk away and caught sight of Sakura, standing there a distance from him. After dealing with the surprise of Dan beating up someone she hardly could see, she walked over to him in her usual triumphant mode.

"You said you'd be gone for ten minutes?" She said, pretending to be mad. "I had the job done in five!"

"Hmph…good for you," Dan said.

"By the way, who was that guy?" Sakura asked.

"No one…"

"Hmm…he was pretty tall, like that guy from Thailand…Sagat…," Sakura wondered.

"..How…do you know Sagat?" Dan asked, gritting his teeth.

"Well, I'm learning about street fighters worldwide, for one," Sakura said, "and… I saw Sagat in the Street Fighter tournament."

"Oh.."

"So, that was Sagat, right?" Sakura asked.

Dan nodded.

"Hm…last time I saw him he gave Ryu quite a time…in fact, Sagat had actually defeated Ryu, but you know how Ryu is…pushing himself harder than he actually can…but he lost to you so easily…"

Dan nodded once again, gritting his teeth even harder. At last, Dan heard something that was important to him.

"Newspapers!! Only a quarter each! Headline: Critical Explosion in mid-Amazon Jungle, Brazil!"

Dan formed a firm fist, and followed the voice. It was a man holding a bunch of newspapers, walking around. Dan hurried toward him, ignoring Sakura's babble of talk that had no head or tail. He could tell that she was tailing him though.

"Well, hello, would you like a newspaper? Only a quarter each," the newspaper man said.

"Yes, onc, please," Dan said.

"What do you need a newspaper for, you geek! Let's have a match!" Sakura whined.

Dan ignored her, and read the newspaper…. Or atleast tried to. He had now found a use for Sakura.

"Er...Sakura," he said to her pleadingly, "Will you read me the headline, please?"

"Huh?" Sakura said, blinking. "You can't read?"

Dan turned red, but overcame it easily. "A fighter has no time for education."

"Yeah, sure," Sakura said sarcastically. "Um ok…here we go with the headlines…Critical Explosion in mid-Amazon Jungle, Brazil…Many reports have been applied about boisterous noises of suspected explosions. People in the city Rio Branco conclude that these noises came from the far north.

" 'These disturbances,' says the scientist Andre Kortman, 'are from no other than the Amazon. After taking notice of these explosions, we headed off to the Amazon and found areas with revoltingly burnt-down trees…As we progressed further in a couple of hours, we received signs of smoke and none other than fire. The causes of these fires was not a lightning storm, satellite signals proved no sign of any approaching storm at all. And looking at the fact that the fires established in different areas—it seems that we may not reach the core of this issue yet.'

"It's no doubt that these fires initiated from electrical disturbances. However, we cannot explain how this could have been done. 'The possibilities are vast, but due to past experiences with the threats of Shadaloo, there is nothing impossible…'"

"Hm…." Dan thought. "I don't see why the hell they don't get to the point. Using high vocabulary is so stupid."

"Well, looking at the fact that I've understood your weird talk back then—" Sakura said, being cut off by Dan.

"—I'm going to Brazil. Will you come with me?"

"Um…ok," Sakura said. "Hey…as a matter of fact, you're starting to talk normal now! I was wondering how I was living so easily for the current few minutes."

"Uh huh, whatever," Dan said sarcastically. "Well, come along, Sakura!"

"Yeah, ok…off to Brazil we go," Sakura said. "…wait a minute…why are we going to Brazil?"

"Glad you asked," Dan said. "I may have a solution to this buzzzzzzzzzy issue."

"Buzzzy?" Sakura said, confused. "Oh, you mean 'electrical'?"

[Shadaloo Base, Amazon, Brazil]

"Ah, here we are!" Dan said victoriously. "It has been a long walk, don't you think, my pupil?"

"Of course not, what are you talking about?" Sakura replied sarcastically, falling on her knees with her hands on her tired legs.

"Ah…that's not the spirit of a pupil of the Saikyo still… you must be resolute!" Dan said, although he was tired as well.

"What is this place anyway?" Sakura asked.

"Hm…Good question," Dan said thoughtfully. "I…I remember this place, though…"

"You do?" Sakura said. "How?...have you been here before…?"

"I…"

"Hm…although I have no idea what we're doing here, I know we're going to have to whoop some butt, right?" Sakura said.

"Now that's what I called a Saikyo pupil!" Dan said, gaining his usual hyper self again. "Let us proceed, shall we?"

"Of course!"

They both found the main gate of the base, and found two guards guarding the gate as well. Sakura thrashed out both of them without making them scream once. Dan blinked.

"Piece of cake.."

They advanced and found even more guards. This time Dan got to show off his skills, since there were so many. Later they discovered what was no doubt a maze. There were three long halls that went down as far as you could see.

"Which one should we take?" Sakura said, and put a smirk on her face. "Or do you wanna go separate ways? Gives more of a challenge."

Dan turned red. "Of course not! Fighting in a team is a moral of the Saikyo style. Let us take this way first."

Dan pointed to the ceiling. Sakura looked up and scanned a plate. She hopped on top of Dan's shoulder and opened up the plate. As she tried to throw the plate on the floor, Dan fell, making her fall as well. Luckily, Sakura thrust the plate in a different direction before falling.

"Ouch!" She shrieked. "What's up with you?"

"Hush," Dan said. "Let's go in, you go first."

"Why me?"

"You have yet to discover how to be a leader."

"Whatever."

Sakura hopped inside the tunnel that the round metal plate had covered. Dan hopped in after her. They both crawled down the dreadfully long tunnel and finally got the chance to find an open area to stand up. Sakura straightened her back.

"Ah..this seems a dangerous place," Dan said skillfully. "Don't touch the walls. Might be protected."

"How could you turn so smart now?" Sakura said in a wondering tune.

"Arrr, are you questioning from your master?" Dan said, pretending to be angry.

"Master?" Sakura said, confused. "Um…"

"Huh?" Dan said.

"Uh…"

They both stared at each other for a long bewildered minute. Sakura was just clouded thinking why Dan was including words like pupil and master to describe her.

"What's up with you?" she asked him. "You're weird…"

"Let's just keep going," Dan said.

Although they were going on their feet again, it was a long way until they finally found a new way to go. There was a hole on the floor now, and a ladder leading down.

"Must be a shortcut," Sakura said, jumping down and observing the sewer-like system. "This reeks!"

"Aye, how righteous you are!" Dan agreed.

"Now, don't start with that kind of talk again," Sakura whined, still looking at the contaminated water.

"Yeah, ok," Dan sighed. "Don't you hear that sound?"

"Hm…there's too many sounds here to mind just one," Sakura said.

"That buzzing sound?"

Sakura listened more closely. There was a buzzing sound. "Yeah…what could it be?"

"Electricity, of course," Dan said.

"Where is it coming from?" She asked. "It's like coming from all directions…"

"Listen more closely!" Dan advised. "The skill of hearing keenly is vital in the Saikyo style."

"That's for you to know, I'm an Ansatsuken," Sakura denied.

Dan was too busy hearing the sound of the buzzing to be outraged at Sakura's words of being an Ansatsuken fighter. By this, Sakura could tell that Dan too didn't have the 'skill of hearing keenly'.

They passed through the sewer and finally found another ladder leading up to another hole. They climbed up and the buzzing sound grew louder.

"See, I was right in going this direction!" Dan said triumphantly.

"Don't get too happy, the sewer was only leading to one direction," Sakura said to him.

"Uh-huh," Dan said, being annoyed of Sakura for once. "You know, you have too much smart-talk to say."

"I'm only sticking to the facts!" Sakura said aggressively.

"Whatever," Dan said, growing more annoyed. But he overcame this irritation by finally finding that he was meters away from the buzzing sound. He looked around. There were two halls to go to, one led right and one left. He looked at the left, and there were signs of electricity there. He looked right, there were signs of electricity there too!

"Huh?" Dan said, puzzled. "Both places lead to the buzzing."

"Observe deeper, oh intelligent one," Sakura said, pointing ahead. "There's a shiny gate over there. That must be the core of the sources in both these rooms."

"Oh—yeah," Dan said, walking towards the gate straight ahead with Sakura. She opened the door and revealed a tremendous area. It was nearly magnificent… There were a number of see-through chambers in here, which were supposedly made of glass. There were electric conductivity materials, and there was a strange capsule in the middle of the area.

"What is that?" Sakura said, pointing to the capsule. "It's too shiny to see what's inside."

"Mass electric focus in that thing," Dan explained about the capsule.

As the advanced a few steps in the area, Sakura finally pointed out that back then, both the right and left passages were leading to this very same area. They both continued walking through narrow areas, hopping over pipes, and crouching under defensive blades (which were operated by a machine, and kept slashing at the same level, back and forth).

The prize of all that labor of what seemed like an hour was finally their approach towards the capsule.

"Finally, this place is a disaster! They have so much protection," Sakura said, catching her breath.

"Well, this must be…"

Dan was getting slightly worried. He bit his lip, and continued towards the capsule. It was still gleaming with electricity. As they both reached close to it, Sakura advised, "Don't touch it… you know it's not going to be good."

They looked around and found what they were looking for. "This lever will probably do the trick…"

Dan reversed the lever and, just as he expected, the electricity turned off. The capsule now revealed a beast so immense, it was about double the mass of Dan and Sakura together. The beast had the shape of a human… two arms, two legs, the same structure of a human. However, his body was green, the arms were so long they could touch the ground, and his legs were bent. He had red, spiky hair that shot back like fire from his head and a little way down his wrist. He was also wearing silver, vast bangles wrapped around his massive legs.

Sakura backed away. "WHAT…IN THE WORLD……..IS THAT?!?!?!?!!!"

Dan, however, seeming courageous, stood there, gazing at the beast. Sakura tried to whisper to him, but he seemed not to hear her at all.

"Dan….get away!!" she hissed. Giving up, she looked up at the capsule and noticed a title on it saying Blanka.

"Blanka?" She repeated loudly. The beast opened his eyes suddenly, and set them on top of Sakura. He observed her for a bit, making her scowl much more, and suddenly erupted. The capsule surrounding him shattered into pieces and charged off in different directions. The beast roared loudly at her.

Dan turned around swiftly to see Sakura stepping back even more. "D-dan…what's it want with me?"

Dan couldn't answer, but noticed that this beast was already setting for her. Sakura bolted around the little area with the beast following her.

"W-wait!!" Dan rushed in the Beast's path, who tackled him down and forced him on the ground with his enormous paws. Sakura halted and turned around.

"Dan!" She rushed back and jump-kicked the Beast away. Dan got back up.

"Are you stupid?!" Sakura shouted. "What are you trying to act, brave? Let's get out of here!"

Sakura tried to hold on to Dan and run away, but Dan just stood there blankly, staring at the beast. Who is this beast..? He seems so familiar……

Dan shook his head and now saw the beast standing right in front of him, only inches away. Paralyzed with fear, he had to be tackled by Sakura to be able to move. Then, they both quickly got back up and ran away.

"It's about time!" Sakura shouted as they both dashed around the area, avoiding all the defensive blades, with the beast following them rapidly. "Not so brave now, are you?"

"It's all a game!" Dan shouted back cheerfully. "You can never find out what's fun about death until you play around with it!"

"Hey, it's that buzzy noise again!" Sakura notified, as they kept rushing away from the beast.

Dan took a risk to turn his head back to see the beast gaining on them, with electricity sparkling around him. Dan's heart beated rapidly.

"What's the matter?" Sakura shouted at him.

"H…he….can produce electricity straight from his body!!" Dan shouted back.

"W…WHAT?!"

Too afraid to be aware of this problem, they both kept dashing as fast as they could. They stopped at a dead-end area, although it was very large as well.

"Where were we running to?" Dan asked.

"I don't know…we were too busy running to know where we were going," Sakura said. "Where's the beast?"

"We must've lost him," Dan said. "But if he finds us now, we're toast. There's nowhere to go from here!"

Sakura looked around, and had to agree with Dan, unfortunately. There was nothing… no doors, no ladders. And yet this area was so large, like the one where the capsule of the beast was. The only things different about this area was that there were large, see-through windows here. Sakura sprinted over to one and looked down.

"Whoah!" She exclaimed. "We must be on the highest floor…"

Dan looked outside one of the windows too. "Yeah…We can't possibly jump down from here to save our lives."

"But there is water down there," Sakura pointed out.

"Yeah…must be part of the river," Dan said. "Even if we jump in there, the current will lead us to our own deaths."

"Agreed…"

They heard a clatter of noise behind them. They both swung around at the same time to see a force of guards facing them. One of the men said something in Brazilian. To Sakura's surprise, Dan replied back in Brazilian.

"Huh? You can speak Brazilian?" she said, bewildered.

"Of course! I know a variety of languages," Dan said proudly.

"Cool!" Sakura said, smirking. Perhaps, with him, I can travel to other countries…

But it was too early to be excited. The men began to surround them.

"I think we got ourselves in a situation," Sakura said.

"Hmm….but we will not fall!" Dan exclaimed. "The Saikyo style is unlimited in power!"

They both began to punch and kick and tackle their way out of the lines and lines of guards. For a while the guards kept trying over and over to capture them, but they were too wild to be caught easily. In the end, one of the men shouted something to tell all of them.

"Oh no!" Dan shrieked.

"What did he say?" Sakura asked, concerned.

"They're bringing in…him…"

"The…beast?!" Sakura said, in a panicky tone.

They kept fighting the men around them, but since they were outnumbered, they couldn't escape the area. In less than a minute, they heard a roar, and a crash on the ground. All of them jumped up and fell back down because of the beast's loud thrash.

"Arrr….that's the THIRD time I fell on my butt so violently!!" Sakura shouted.

"Don't whine," Dan said. "We've got ourselves a bigger problem."

All the guards cleared out to make way for the beast. Now there was only Dan, Sakura, and the beast standing there on the wide area. Dan stared in the beast's eye… they were sparkling yellow, like made out of electricity… Dan kept wondering deeply into his mind…

This beast was so familiar… but, how?

The beast approached him and Sakura slowly.

"Oh noooo," Sakura muttered. "We..can't..save..ourselves..now…………oh noooooooooooo…I rather fall on my butt ten times than deal with this situation!! Wait….eleven times!—no…eleven is too much………………..ISN'T TEN ENOUGH?!?!?! ………Arrrggggghhh…DAN!!! CUT IT OUT! STOP DAYDREAMING!!!!!!"

Finally, Dan said something to the beast.

"J…Jimmy?"

The beast stopped there, halted like a statue. Its yellow, sparkling eyes opened wide. For a while, it seemed that the beast had softened down… Its spiky-like hair settled on top of its body like normal hair… for a second, the beast looked completely innocent. Even Sakura noticed its kindly look.

Jimmy…is that its name?, She wondered, and looked slowly at Dan. So, you know him…you know this beast, don't you?

And then, a guard shouted something at the beast. For a while, the beast wanted to ignore the man, but he shook his head. His hair shot back like fire again, looking spiky. His face looked vicious again, the mouth opening wide like a vampire's to unleash a strong roar. The strong muscles reformed on his body, making him firm again.

"N…no!" Dan shouted. "Don't listen to them, Jimmy!"

For a slight moment the word 'Jimmy' made the beast slow down again, but this time he recovered faster, and charged at them. Sakura covered in front of Dan and kicked up, into the beast's neck.

"No..don't hurt him!!!" Dan shouted at her.

"But, he'll kill us!" Sakura said. "He won't die anyway…look how big he is! We're only holding him back to run away!"

"No…"

But the beast recovered easily and, while she was distracted, smacked her hard enough to discharge her into a metal wall. The beast then faced Dan.

"How odd."

Dan looked and saw one of the guards speaking to him in english.

"You call him by Jimmy," he said. "Yet his name is Blanka, and he serves the Shadaloo of Brazil."

"WHAT?!" Dan erupted. "Jimmy, you work for Shadaloo!...so, it's been you who's been causing all those fires in the Amazon! You have electricity…"

The word 'electricity' suddenly caused Blanka to surround himself with the electric aura gain. The electricity sparkled around him, gleaming like his yellow eyes. Dan backed away.

"Jimmy, you are not evil!" Dan said emphatically. "Jimmy……you must fight them! They're controlling you for their own good!"

But Dan's words didn't impact upon Blanka anymore. Blanka unleashed the lightning surrounding his body at him. The jolt of thunder thrashed into Dan, giving his body a jolt so powerful, he wasn't sure he was living now… he couldn't feel the pain of himself crashing through one of the windows, the glass sticking in his back, and he couldn't feel the pain of seeing Sakura do a kick-in on Blanka's face….. He was falling down slowly…

…his eyes closed.

[Gouken's Dojo, Japan]

Fifteen years ago…

The dojo was quite like its usual self. The windows were opened wide, letting the nice, cool air in. The curtains were drawn, so that the sunlight could make the floor sparkle like emerald. The door of the dojo was opened, visitors coming in every now and then. Standing by the door, on his chair, was Gouken himself. He looked quite young, with his beard only the length of a rice, being nice and smooth.

Standing in the middle of the dojo was a boy with unlimited vigor… a boy so spirited, training to learn the rare style of Ansatsuken. His name, was Dan Hibiki.

Standing only a distance away from Dan, was a very little girl, who was observing his every moves.

"It's not done like that, Dan!" she pointed out, doing the move herself. "You first have to punch straight in, and then rise a little bit with the knuckles exposed…like this, see?.. and then you rise all the way up."

"Shut up," Dan said, irritated, and stuck his tongue out at her.

"Daddy!" the girl said loudly. "Brother Danny is being mean, and he's not doing your Shoryuken right!"

"Is that so?" Gouken said. "Well, correct yourself, sir Dan! My daughter is the master of Ansatsuken. She even defeated me!"

Gouken laughed and winked at Dan. Dan moved his face back to the girl and gritted his teeth, controlling his anger. He continued to practice.

After the practice, it was almost sunset.

"Come, Dan, let's have dinner," Gouken said.

"Yes, master," Dan said. "Um…master?"

"Yes, lad?"

"When will you teach me the Hadouken?" Dan asked desperately.

"Impatience will get you nowhere, Dan!" Gouken said angrily. "How many times have I told you? You must stay to your level for now! If you continue to reveal your desperacy, I will never expose the arts of Ansatsuken to you."

Dan grew angry. "But we've been training for two years! You must teach me..!"

"Name your reason, Dan," Gouken said calmly.

"I want to be impulsive to face my enemy," Dan said determinedly.

"Enemy?" Gouken said. "Just what I wanted least from you to say."

"Wh…what?!"

"That is right, Dan," Gouken said. "You are completing your training with anger, not skill."

"That's not true!" Dan said.

"You will never be as powerful as you wish, and most likely your enemy will defeat you again, unless he holds back by his pity for your pathetic outrage. I am disappointed in you, Dan."

"Be disappointed, I could care no less!!!" Dan shouted so loudly his voice echoed throughout the dojo. "But I will defeat him, and you can never deny that!"

"That is enough," Gouken said. "OUT."

"What?!"

"OUT, I say…you are not worthy to be my apprentice. Never darken this dojo's door ever again. Perish, you fool!"

Gouken grabbed him by the collar and carried him to the door, hurling him out into the rainy, gloomy night.

Before shutting the door, Gouken concluded, "The path that you are going, you might lose some of your deepest friends."

Deepest friends…

..Do I have a deep friend?

[Amazon, Brazil]

Dan opened his eyes, and could feel his pain reviving. His back was stinging with fury beyond his belief. It was disgustingly cut. But he noticed that the blood wasn't dripping as much as it was going to be. His skin was slightly dark, which he suspected was from the electricity Jimmy had hit him with.

"Ouch..," he moaned.

"Hm..that's odd.."

Dan moved his eyes to Sakura.

"You?"

"Yeah, me," she said. "Don't move, now…you're extremely wounded… those glasses of the window that you fell through were stuck into your back. Oh my gosh, it's so painful to think about it."

"You took the glasses out?" Dan said. "H…how did I survive that fall? And how did you find me?"

"Well, when you fell off the window, I thought you'd be dead for sure," Sakura explained. "So I gave all I got to that beast…and I escaped to a room with a load of explosives…the beast was stupid enough to electrify all of them….caused quite an explosion. In fact, I was like an angel who landed safely away from the corpse of the blown up base."

"D-did Jimmy survive?" Dan asked worriedly.

"Yes, after the explosion, I saw him and some of the other survived men running away."

They both didn't talk for a minute.

"Well, anyway, luckily the current of the river somehow pushed you slightly on shore, so I was able to reach there in time before the current pulled you back in…and um…well you left the river with quite some red."

"Well anyway," she continued, "what is odd is that right before waking up you muttered something like 'Do I have a deep friend?'"

Note: Note how Sakura's friend, Satsuki, disappeared suddenly in the ray of light. It'll be restated later in the story.

Next Chapter - Heaven's Judgement