By Canice Gustave
"SENSEI" Ryu cried and he ran to his master,
followed by Ken. "Are you all right?!"
"I understand your concern my disciples" replied a near
conscious Gouken. "But please, do not interfere. This is the
battle I must partake in. One of us may die today but I must
embrace this alone." They reluctantly obeyed and could only
watch as their master cautiously got up and faced his adversary.
Striking out with an elbow to the abdomen, Gouken followed it up
with a jab to the face, kick to the ankle, crescent kick to the
head, knee to the abdomen, elbow to the gut, another knee and an
open palm strike to the face. Gouken finished his combo with
another open palm strike to the gut. Gouken had used his chi
behind that last attack, causing Akuma to double over leaving him
vulnerable to Gouken's next assault…
"MESSATSU GOU SHORYU!!" he yelled as he went into the
most powerful uppercut technique he had ever performed. As he
proceeded into a series of dragon punches, each strike could be
heard by his students. Akuma flew through the air a second time
and landed face first into the ground. Ryu and Ken could only
stare in awe at the true power their sensei wielded deep within
him, and the strength and agility he had for one at such an age.
However, that attack had drained an immense amount of chi from
him. Akuma slowly got to his feet, his face surfaced in blood but
still adorning that same look on his face.
"You impress me Gouken" he said. "But your end is
near" and before Gouken could detect Akuma’s next
motion, he unleashed his ultimate attack
Gathering the true evil energy of Messatsu to him, Akuma slid
forward with such swift agility, that he left Gouken with no time
to retaliate. As he grabbed Gouken's shoulders, a white light
enveloped the both of them, it's intensity so powerful forcing
Ryu and Ken to close their eyes. An impact of strikes was heard
followed not long after by a scream that seemed to echo over and
over again. When all was clear, what Ryu and Ken saw would change
the fate of their lives. What was left of their master lay on the
ground, surrounded in a pool of his blood. All over his body was
around 15 marks, the main one located onto his chest, where his
heart would be. Stood over his limp body was Akuma himself, with
the symbol of "TEN" burning along the back of his gi
like an inferno. "My purpose has been fulfilled… for
now" the demon murmured as he turned to walk away.
Ken was the first to leap forward towards his sensei, followed by
his best friend Ryu. Placing two fingers to Gouken’s neck,
he managed to feel a faint pulse emitting from his dying heart
before it finally gave in. Both stood silent, but eventually a
tear trickled down the American’s face whilst the emotional
look on Ryu’s face was enough to indicate that he shared his
pain. Ken stood up, fists clenched with his eyes now ablaze with
fury. Akuma stopped, and turned to face the person foolish enough
to face him despite what they had witnessed. A grin slowly
appeared on his face as he stared at Ken, then to Ryu.
"You both are not ready…yet" muttered the words of
Akuma as he faded into the forest the same way he had came,
leaving them alone to mourn for their master's distorted body.
The red ribbon which Ken always wrapped around his prolonged,
blond hair was now trapped between his fingers, gracefully
swaying to the warm summer breeze. He hadn’t found Akuma,
yet the rumours which spoke of a demon indicated that he still
existed in the tournament. He hadn’t won any matches yet,
but he was determined that this streak would end with this match
he was soon to have. Standing a few feet away from Ken with a
sombre look to his face was his opponent. Brushing the bangs
almost covering his brown eyes, the warrior known only as Guy
stood almost still, his crimson gi almost matching that of Ken’s.
The crest bared along his gi, which Ken read as Bushin seemed to
sum it all about this person. Tying the ribbon around his hair,
Ken stood into his stance ready and poised for the fight to begin.
Running at a near inhuman rate, Guy sped towards Ken who
anticipating him to attack effortlessly took to the air to land
just where Guy had stood.
"Impressive" he thought. "I may have
underestimated him" Ken remained in his stance, keeping the
same composure on his face.
Dashing forward, Guy wore a look of utter confidence as he rushed
towards Ken again, who stood standing with a grin on his young
face.
"Shoryuken!" the Shotokan warrior cried as he rose into
his blazing dragon punch. He connected three times with Guy, who
flew backward to the pavement. Leaping high into the air, Ken
came down to earth with a kick, aimed for Guy’s chest.
However, he had foreseen the attack and raised his hands to block.
A sweep kick by Ken made no contact as Guy leaped over behind him.
A barrage of blows made impact on the back of Ken’s body
followed by a high spinning roundhouse aimed at the back of his
head, forcing him to fly onto his chest.
"Not bad" uttered Ken as he wiped the blood trickling
from his lips. "Then again, not good either. Now it’s
my turn!"
Charging forward with speed almost equal to Guy’s, he threw
a jab, followed by a gut punch, and an elbow. Leaping high into
the air, Ken spun his body round with his left leg tucked in
before he extended it as he went to end his assault.
"TATSUMAKISENPUUKYAKU!" the young fighter yelled,
making full collision with the face of his opponent. The match
was in Ken’s favour, for the moment.
Recovering from Ken’s blows, he leapt backward towards a
lampost to leap back forward. Leaping up to meet his adversary
with another dragon punch, Ken realised his mistake as Guy leapt
again in mid-air, well over the move and was waiting for him to
land, giving a sneer before he struck.
At almost the same time, Ryu ducked as his opponent reached out
to grab him. Tripping him to the floor, he quickly rushed forward
and struck out with an axe kick to the side of his head, sending
him back to the ground. Slowly rising to his feet, Ryu took the
time to fully examine his huge challenger. His head was shaved,
except for a blond, blade-like hairstyle which carried a hole in
the middle. Coiled around his wrists, up to his elbows were rusty,
leaden chains, it’s weight being the reason for his drooping,
slouched stance. He donned fingerless gloves, which he now curled
into a fist obviously angry at failed attempt to attack. He had
no name, but on the streets he was mentioned only as "Birdie"
Withdrawing a small blade, Ryu watched as Birdie raised it to his
hair and ran it through, as if he was sharpening it. Questions
flew through Ryu’s mind why he was doing this. Then, he knew
why…
Almost cursing himself for not preparing for an attack, Ryu’s
body flew across the air and smacked the ground under Birdie’s
Bullhead technique. He was down but not out, at least for the
moment. He kicked himself up and quickly leapt to the side as
Birdie rushed past and into the wall that stood in front of him.
It exploded into a cloud of dust and bricks to eventually clear
and show an unfazed fighter, casually brushing the debris off his
face and blade-like mohawk. A grin formed on his face, showing
crooked, deformed teeth its colour matching that of his hair.
Using his speed to close in on his adversary, Ryu lunged in two
strikes to the chest area. Followed were two gut punches, a blow
to the head and a rising roundhouse aimed directly for his neck.
Blood flew from Birdie as he stumbled, but the force of gravity
plus the weight of his coiled chains caused his muscular form to
crash onto the ground. Taking to the air, Ryu leapt forward to
connect with a kick to the head. However, Birdie had recovered
much quicker than Ryu had awaited and was defenceless to the
chains that entwined themselves around his leg.
Ryu gave a cry as his body was yanked down to earth, sent upward
to be sent back down. With one movement of his arm, he threw a
bruised and battered Ryu once more to the pavement.
Ken was sure he heard his ribs shatter as Guy unleashed a flying
roundhouse, the completion of the technique called the Bushin
Hassoken. The unholy mix of saliva and blood flew out of Ken’s
mouth, simultaneous to his body hitting the firm pavement. Across
stood his swift opponent with that serious look to his face, yet
as if to show his dominance over him. Gritting his teeth, Ken
rolled into a crouching stance and braced himself for Guy’s
next attack.
He didn’t wait long. Overconfidence clearly showing on his
face, Guy charged towards Ken who remained in his crouching
position. Keeping his gaze on his adversary, Guy smoothly turned
and launched himself into a sliding thrust kick. Then, he
realised his mistake.
Ken had been summoning his chi to him, and was now directing it
along his arm, to the edge of his fist. He continued until his
whole fist was radiating with energy. His eyelids shut, Ken kept
his concentration as he spoke the words of his self taught
technique…
"SHINRYUKEN!!!" came the sound of Ken’s voice as
the chi within him exploded. He spiralled into a vertical dragon
punch, the internal chi so powerful that a vortex surrounded him,
forcing the Bushin Ninja who now stood within its radius to be
vacuumed into the middle of it. 15 rapid strikes were forced upon
Guy’s upper body until his body gave in and went into
unconsciousness, spiralling back down where it hit hard on the
asphalt. A smile crept to Ken’s face as he felt no presence
of his opponent anymore and fell slowly to his feet. The pain he
had temporarily defeated struck one last time, and Ken was the
next one to fall.
An eye slowly cracked open and squinted as the whitish beams of
sunlight entered it. The second one made an attempt but to no
avail. Ryu slowly got to his feet, placing one hand to stop the
blood that trickled down his nose and again used his eyes to gaze
over to Birdie. He took a step forward, only to fall onto his
chest. Ryu yelled as his ribs smashed the blood covered ground
creating more blood to fly from him. His hair had a new crimson
colour, the liquid flowing along the side of his face. Looking
down to his leg, he saw that it was wounded. Bloodstained, in
fact with a lineament of the chain Birdie had damaged him with.
"Still breathing punk?!" Birdie said "I’ll
have to stop that…"
"Speak for yourself" Ryu replied with one of the
phrases he’d heard Ken use. Birdie just grinned.
"I’ll make you choke on those words" he smirked
and went to throw the chains once more. Ryu let his feet do the
talking as he leapt over and took advantage of Birdie’s
mistake with a kick to the face. Upon touching the ground, Ryu
threw a knee, a gut punch finishing with a backfist to the side
of his head. Ryu wasn’t finished, however. Three lightning-like
punches were sent, connecting with their targets. An overhead
smash came next, and Ryu ended his assault with a dragon punch,
sending a bleeding Birdie quite a distance.
"It ends now…" Ryu muttered to himself. He brought
his arms down to his sides and slowly shut his eyes. All around
him seem to go silent until he heard nothing but the whisper’s
of the calm breeze. Ryu began to call his chi to him. His body
started to give off an azure aura as he commanded it from all
areas of his body, bringing all this energy towards his chest.
With the first stage complete, Ryu slowly brought his hands
together, as if he held a spherical substance. Casually sending
his arms towards his stomach, the aura which surrounded him began
to change its sapphire colour until it was a seraph white.
"Shinkuu…" he whispered. Suddenly, the air around
him started to darken. Ryu’s hands began to glow a blinding
white and bolts of chi flew out until it metamorphosed into a
vast orb of electrical energy. A strong wind emerged, an obvious
effect to the summoning of Ryu’s chi. His eyes still
remained closed as he brought this chi infested sphere backward,
and finally thrust it forward…
"HADOKEN!!!" Ryu finished. A thunderous crack was heard,
as the super fireball screamed through the air, where it
connected with swift speed into Birdie’s chest. It struck
five times before it dissipated, its effects devastating.
Ryu opened his enclosed eyes, and surveyed the damage. On the
pavement was an obviously beaten opponent. Around him lay a pool
of blood, but he would live. His condition didn’t seem to
matter to Ryu, considering the events he’d experienced. He
turned to walk away, celebrating his victory.
Standing camouflaged within the darkness it emitted, the eyes
that belonged to Akuma looked towards Ryu. They flared its
trademark colour as they found their target.
"His power… it equals mine, but how?!…"
Then he realised.
"Could he be…?!" was all the demon murmured before
he disappeared into the cloud of his own evil.
Into the darkness.