By Canice Gustave
The small, droplets of water fell from the dark, grey-black clouds where it landed and ran through the reddish-ginger hair of Ryu as he ran a hand through it, studying his opponent. He was Sagat, champion of Muay Thai and most feared man in all of Thailand. Wearing a brown cloak that adorned his huge 7 foot frame, covering all but his overbuilt chest muscles, he seemed to stand still, letting the fairly strong breeze sway his cloak to the side. Below the waist he wore pale purple shorts followed by the bandages covering his tremendous feet, being the only source of footwear. Coiled around his hands were also bandages. Reaching up to Sagat’s chest standing up Ryu looked up at him to see him stride an overconfident grin on his vicious looking face and adjust a black eyepatch that covered his right eye. Ryu quickly went into his stance, but couldn’t help but have doubts about this fight. Sagat slowly let his cloak fall to the floor before he went into his.
Sagat was the first to attack. He threw a jab, aiming for Ryu’s face. Ryu crouched with ease under the obvious attack and countered with a leg sweep. Angry that his attack didn’t land, he threw a kick to the side of Ryu’s head. Ryu fell down to the blow and quickly rolled to the side to avoid a stomp by Sagat. Ryu kicked himself up and went into a defensive pose. Sagat rushed in with a flurry of punches, to which Ryu avoided, blocked or parried. He continued, trying to find a break in his guard. Ryu could do nothing but block but he couldn’t keep this up, unless he could find an opening. He did. Sagat’s kick came too late, giving Ryu the chance to counterattack. Starting off with a jab to the midsection, Ryu followed it up with a left and right hook to the pelvis. An elbow came next, then an uppercut to the gut. Ryu leapt up into the air to finish his assault with a flying roundhouse. It connected with the right side of the head near the eyepatch. Sagat growled in pain as he stumbled, but remained standing. Ryu suddenly realised that was Sagat’s weak spot.
Holding his hands apart, Ryu saw as an orange chi appeared and flew back and forth between Sagat’s open palms. Holding it for long enough, Sagat fixed his gaze on Ryu and released it forward…
"TIGER!!" he yelled as the orange wave of energy flew towards Ryu, who leapt over it. He came down with a kick to Sagat’s face, making sure it connected with his eye. Leaping high into the air, Ryu spun around and hit Sagat with three consecutive kicks to the head. The effect of the hurricane kick sent Sagat to the ground. He leapt up to his feet, blood leaking from his nose but more angrier than before. Before Ryu had time to react, Sagat reached out and grabbed Ryu by the head. Holding him high into the air, Ryu gave a cry as Sagat threw a series of knees to his body. Sagat repeated this until he felt the warmth of Ryu’s blood drip along his leg before he gave him one last knee. Ryu landed on his back and got up, only to fall down again. The last kick had caused Ryu to cough up blood, forcing him to hold a hand to his stomach to stop himself from expelling more. Sagat, seeing Ryu' s struggle to keep himself up, ran up to him as if to finish him off with the last blow. In his eagerness to destroy Ryu, Sagat didn't notice that Ryu was just barely upright and channelling his chi to his blood covered fist before he cried out the name of his technique...
"SHOOOORYUKEN!!" A flash of bright chi cut through the air as Ryu leapt up with his arm fully extended into a rising uppercut, connecting with Sagat’s chest. Sagat gave a yell as he landed onto the ground. His last vision was of Ryu before all around him went black…
Ryu ducked as Ken made an attempt to attack him with a
roundhouse kick. "This is too easy" Ken
thought as he leapt backward as Ryu attempted a sweep. Ryu stood
up and was forced to block as Ken attacked with a series of kicks.
Ryu took the time to observe the pattern of Ken’s kicks,
eventually finding a way to advance. He crouched under Ken’s
roundhouse kick and used that opportunity to grab the front of
his gi "What the.." was all Ken could say in surprise
as Ryu placed one foot on his stomach and rolled onto his back to
throw him over in a roundhouse throw. Landing on his feet, Ken
attacked again. Again, Ryu parried his blows and attacked
whenever he saw an opening. In due time both fighters leapt back
and stood facing each other, waiting for the other to attack.
Bringing his hands together, Ken could see the circulation of Ryu’s
chi that emerged between them. Ryu held the sphere of energy as
he brought his hands back and he threw it forward…
"HADOKEN" he yelled. The ball of chi soared towards Ken,
who leaped over and forward. However, that was what Ryu had in
mind…
"SHORYUKEN!" Ryu yelled again. He rose into a rising
uppercut just as he done a week before, but Ken had angled his
jump so that he just missed Ryu as he landed.
"Nice try Ryu" said his friend from below. "But
you won’t trap me this time. Now see what you think of this…
SHORYUKEN" he cried as he rose into a similar dragon punch.
Yet, Ken had improved his technique so that he wielded flames
with the internal chi he released along his arm, up to his elbow.
He connected with the falling Ryu, who was unaware of Ken’s
new style of the move and was helpless to the attack. Ken fell
and landed on his feet and watched as Ryu fell and rolled to
safety before he went into a defensive stance.
"Not bad chum" Ken spoke.
"I know" replied his comrade. "But your dragon
punch needs work."
Ken chuckled. "That Hadoken then Shoryuken trick is getting
pretty old now. I’m surprised you still do that seeing as
you never connect."
"That’s enough" Gouken said, who was watching.
"Ryu, he is right yet you do need work on your dragon punch,
Ken. It needs strengthening." Ryu and Ken stopped and turned
to look at their master before they gave a bow. "In the
years I have taught the both of you, you have both excelled
higher than I anticipated." he continued. "Perhaps
better than I did when I was your age. However, you both have
more to learn. You now need to discover where your real strength
lies to become true warriors. This will be a difficult task, but
I have my faith in the both of you."
"Thank you sensei" they replied in unison before they
bowed and left. Gouken gave a broad smile before he suddenly felt
a chill down his spine. This was no ordinary chill, it was an
evil one. Gouken turned around and prepared himself for his
adversary, a look of readiness on his face.
"Show yourself Gouki!" Gouken said aloud. A strong wind
blew as Akuma appeared from behind.
"Do not believe me to be that weakling of that brother of
yours!" he replied. "Now it’s time to meet your
fate." He immediately went into a low horse stance, whilst
Gouken did the same except his extended hand didn’t close
and no aura emanated around him.
Akuma attacked first. Striking out with a hook to the right side
of Gouken’s face, he continued with an uppercut to the chin,
a palm strike to the abdomen and a leg sweep. Gouken leapt up but
didn’t attack. "Please brother," he said "Stop
this path you have chosen. Your desire for ultimate power will be
the cause of your own death."
"Eventually we will all die." Akuma replied as he hit
Gouken with a roundhouse kick. "Death is what ends our fate
in life. Until that happens, I will strive to perfect this
technique in my quest for absolute power." Again Gouken got
up and continued. "I don’t want to do this brother, but
if this is what you desire, then so be it!" and with the
speed of a tiger, he attacked. Starting with a jab, a palm strike
to the abdomen, then a hook to the jaw, kick to the shin and an
elbow to the gut. He continued his barrage of blows all over
Akuma’s body, almost a blur to the eyes of an ordinary human.
As Gouken brought his hands to the side of his torso, the
atmosphere around both fighters became shrouded in darkness
except for the intensity of the chi Gouken held.
"Shinkuu… HADOKEN!!" he bellowed. The sphere of
energy flew at speed and connected with Akuma with deadly
precision. His body soared through the air and landed with a
sickening thud. Gouken looked at his brother’s body and gave
a breath of exhaustion. It wasn’t enough, though. The demon
who enslaved his brother’s soul leapt up with ease as if he
felt nothing.
"No human attacks can harm me, brother" he
said with contempt. "Now feel the true power of Messatsu!"
In saying this he took the low horse stance, this time the symbol
of Messatsu hovering above his head to disappear the same way it
appeared. Before Gouken could react, Akuma began his onslaught.
Starting off with a couple of straight punches to the face, Akuma
continued with elbows, jabs, palm strikes and hooks. Gouken being
exhausted from his assault on Akuma, could only take the abuse.
Akuma now changed his strategy to kicks, including a low shin
kick into a knee into a crescent kick to the solar plexus and
into another knee to the stomach with each one connecting with
accuracy to finally finish his combo with an axe kick to the
skull. Gouken leapt up only to receive a hurricane kick to the
midsection. The speed and power of the hits were too great,
seriously weakening him. A dragon punch came next launching
Gouken higher into the air. Going into his low horse stance, Ryu
and Ken who had arrived to witness the fight could see the chi
that circulated within his enclosed fists. The sky began to turn
red as Akuma unleashed the deadliest fireball technique that
Messatsu could ever deliver…
"MESSATSU GOU HADO!!" he growled. The immense sphere of
evil energy flew and met with deadly accuracy on the falling body
of Gouken. Ryu and Ken could only look in horror as his body flew
through the air a final time, engulfed in flames and give a thud
as it met the ground.