By Canice Gustave
A low, weak groan slowly journeyed its way out of Chun Li’s
bruised body. Painfully pulling herself off the cold, pebbled
pavement, she glanced over at Rose and winced as a burst of pain
flooded through her lycra-clad body. Rose’s eyes blinked in
almost disbelief yet she also felt admiration for her opponent.
Her fighting spirit was strong, unlike any she’d ever
witnessed. So far that is.
"Your inner spirit is determined, Chun Li" Rose spoke
"You may defeat me today, and perhaps gain what you desire."
"Yeah… maybe…" Li replied and with sudden
renewed strength, she launched herself forward.
Rose instantly went into the defensive as a unnaturally fast Chun
Li went to place a roundhouse aimed at her head. As Rose raised
her hand to parry the blow, she realised her mistake as she felt
a side kick to her vulnerable midsection due to Li disguising her
true attack. Having broken through her guard, Chun Li punished
her opponent with a multitude of hand and feet techniques,
including a mid air spin kick followed into a roundhouse. Quickly
gathering her chi to her, the Wushu Mistress released her intake
of energy at her mystic opponent.
"Senrestukyaku!" burst Li as she propelled herself at
Rose. Starting with a low shin kick, it was smoothly pursued by
an upward strike to the chest. The remaining energy locked within
ultimately exploded as Chun Li went to finish her raid of blows
with her Hyaku Restukyaku. The force of the impact caused Rose to
roll and it was then Chun Li knew it was over.
The crowd rose in an uproar of cheers and fanfare, who up until
now were silent with awe. Chun Li took a heavy number of breaths,
now that her fighting spirit and adrenaline were subsiding and
wiped the sweat of her brow with a trembling and weak hand.
"Not bad Chun Li" She spun around in almost alarm to
see Rose, but relaxed when she saw that she was in no stance.
"You are a formidable opponent" she continued. "May
your fighting spirit burn as fiercely in your next challenge.
However…" her face now took on a serious tone. "Do
not underestimate his power. To do so would be your last…"
And with those words, she was gone.
**********
Dan casually strolled through the market district of Hong Kong. A
community he’d grown accustomed to since his departure from
Gouken. The cheers, praises and smiles he was know receiving were
the same as every week, due to his almost flunky, but effective
removal of two figures who claimed to own this region of Hong
Kong. Normally, Dan would’ve joined their approvals with one
of his arrogant taunts, but he had other matters to deal with.
Namely, how he was gonna find and defeat his nemesis. His first
initiative was obviously his homeland, Thailand but it was too
big to wander across. Now, he’d heard of this "Alpha
Tournament" and how Sagat had entered. All he had to worry
about was how to get to Thailand, and to the location where he
heard Sagat was. He looked upwards at the sun, who seemed to show
no remorse in the release of its heat. He had to reach Thailand
by at least sundown.
So deep in thought, he was unaware of the collision that soon
followed. Looking down to apologise, he was greeted by what
appeared to be a young girl, possibly in her late teens. She wore
a white, sleeveless sailor top with a pleated blue skirt, which
lead as far as near the end of her thighs. Covering her feet
where a pair of plain, red and white trainers. A white headband
ran across her forehead, and scarlet fighting gloves covered her
hands to which Dan wondered if she was some sort of martial
artist.
"Owww…" the girl moaned as she rubbed her head and
picked herself up. "Next time, watch where you’re go-"
She stopped in mid sentence as she looked up at the person who
bumped into her. She found herself staring at a man, with well
toned muscles and slick, brown hair tied back in a ponytail. He
was wearing a light red gi which almost looked pink. Large fists
were wrapped in his brown punch-guards and he wore no shoes. A
new expression appeared on her face as the teenager seemed to
realise something.
"That gi…" she uttered "Do you…know Ryu?"
"Huh?!" Dan replied, a confused look on his face before
realisation hit him. "Oh…I once trained with him and
some other guy…what was it…oh yeah, his name was Ken.
Why, anyway?!"
"You mean you trained with the Street Fighter Champion?!"
the teen obviously paid no attention to Dan’s query
emphasising on the last three words said. Memories of his father’s
demise flew back to Dan and he fought the urge to take out his
rage on the market scenery. His arrangement of his trip overseas
came back to him and he realised that he had no time to talk to
who was obviously a fan of Ryu and so he gave his apologies, and
continued on.
"Wait!" the girl cried. "Don’t you know where
he is?" Dan didn’t respond, but just continued on
walking.
I have to at least challenge him the teen thought as she
ran after her only link to Ryu, who had surprisingly, covered a
great pace though he appeared to be walking slow. "It’s
something Ryu wouldn’t hesitate to do besides, if he trained
with the Street Fighter Champion, then he must be as good as him."
Taking a deep breath, she called out over to the warrior and
awaited his response.
"I, Sakura hereby challenge you!"
Dan stopped, and turned to the origin of the voice. He looked at
the sun again, then at Sakura who now had a serious, yet
childlike look to her face.
"You wanna challenge me?!" Dan replied with some hint
of arrogance. Sakura for a moment wondered if she was doing the
right thing, but reminded herself that her idol wouldn’t
back down from a challenge.
"That’s right" Sakura retorted. "Think you
can handle me?!" Okay, maybe that was a little cocky…
her mind pondered. Her response earned a slight grin from Dan. He
would go easy on this one, nothing serious. In a way, he admired
her bold challenge, but sensing from her weak fighting spirit,
she had a lot more to learn. If not for Dan’s overconfidence
of his abilities, he would’ve noticed the irony of that
statement due to the fact he himself was far from able to defeat
the Muay Thai fighter.
"Prepare yourself, little one" Dan said. "You will
now be one of many to feel the true power and greatness of Saikyo!"
And he went into his fighting stance.
Saikyo? I thought Ryu was Shotokan... were her last
thoughts before she went into hers also, which she realised had a
similarity to her opponent’s.
**********
The gigantic ivory statue known as Buddha overlooked the Muay
Thai training grounds, its silent, closed eyes having seen the
many great battles that transpired here. Once ago, only two
warriors took battle here. One was a master, the other a disciple
yet it was a matter of time until they became rivals. Those
battles were those of honour and respect, also what these
fighters of Muay Thai had for one another.
Until now.
The Muay Thai fighter known as Adon stood pretentiously at the
base of the ivory figure, believing the fight to be already his.
Once a disciple of Muay Thai, his strength and speed had earned
him the style of the "Jaguar" from his sensei. His
respect for his mentor soon faded upon his dethroning of the
Street Fighter Title by a mysterious warrior by the name of Ryu.
Adon believed his sensei to be a disgrace to own his current
title, thus breaking away from his master and awaiting the time
when he would take what he thought his sensei didn’t deserve.
His time had come.
Over the battlefield stood the Muay Thai Champion, the master of
the "Tiger" style Sagat. His hulking figure towered the
around 6 foot Adon, the glare on his face indicating his hatred
for the former student. Adon merely chuckled at Sagat’s
attempt to instil fear in him and returned a glare of his own.
"Sagat! Your upkeep of that title will soon be lost!"
the warrior cried. "You will soon know how weak you truly
are!"
"Know this!" Sagat growled "You will experience a
taste of how I will end Ryu’s life!!"
"Enough talk." remarked Adon, smiling smugly as he went
into the stance Sagat taught him. Sagat brought his large fist in
front of him to which Adon knew he had gone into his fighting
stance. Neither of them bothered to pay homage towards the iconic
frame that laid before them.
This was no longer a battle of honour, but a brawl.