Untitled Ch. 2
By Blankman

Christmas morning at the Master's mansion...

Ryu slowly blinked out the sleepiness in his eyes and sat up. He stretched and let out a low yawn, before leisurely pulling back the comfortor and getting out of bed. After changing out of his PJ's into his white gi, he reached into his threadbare duffel bag, pulled out his navy blue swimming trunks and a towel, and quietly walked out into the main hall. He stopped at the antique grandfather clock and checked the time. *five o'clock in the morning,* he thought, "a good time to start training," he said, as he walked outside towards the dojo.

5:30 a.m., Chunli's room...

Chunli lay in bed with her eyes wide open as she stared up at the ceiling (or into space). She had, had a lot of difficulty getting to sleep the last two nights. Perhaps it was Christmas excitement, or it could have been that she was uncomfortable in a room quite this big. And indeed it was a room of gargantuan proportions...but that wasn't it. She finally decided to take a jog to pull her thoughts together and figure out what was bothering her. So with some difficulty, she crawled out of bed, pulled on her sweats and windbreaker, then sat down to tie up her trainers. As she did so she thought about how much fun she had yesterday with Cammy and Eliza.

*FLASHBACK*

They had gone on a 'Girls night out'. First they went out shopping at almost every clothing store imaginable. They brought Dan along to carry everything, all it took was a little seducing from Cammy, and Voila!, he was their slave for a day. Plus Ken had given Chunli five grand to shop with, some to make up for the now shattered crystal glass set she had gotten for Eliza, and the rest for shopping.

"How can you part with so much money?," Chunli had asked.

"Oh, I have my reasons," Ken said with a grin on his face as he looked past her to where Dan was standing.*Yes Danny boy, you are going to suffer*.

*END FLASHBACK*

After Chunli finished tying her laces she got up and walked out of the room. She walked carefully down the halls past Nanna Master's room (Ken's mother), She was a very sweet lady at times, cranky sometimes, but do anything to annoy her, i.e wake her up at 5:30 a.m., and all h*ll would break loose. Chunli finally made her way out of the mansion and began jogging.

Back at the dojo...

Ryu finished his meditating, after all his training, picked ujp his swimming trunks and slung the towel over his shoulder. He then headed towards the pool changing rooms, stripped out of his gi into his swimming trunks, and walked out to the pool. Suddenly, taken over by the child inside, he looked around, before running and cannon balling into the pool with a huge splash, sending gallons of water into the air. The minature tsunami faded into a cluster of ripples as he surfaced. A sudden feeling of awkwardness swept over him. He looked around to see if there were any enemies lurking around...none. Ryu slowly scanned the pool when his eyes caught something that made him gasp...

his trunks were floating at the end of the pool. *But if my swimming trunks are over there, then that must mean...*

And sure enought there he was in the pool, in all his glory, naked as a jay bird. He blushe a little and thought *thankgoodness nobody's awake*. Suddenly, out of the blue a little squirrel ran down from a nearby tree, to the edge of the pool where his trunks were bobbing on the surface of the water. It looked at him with inquisitive eyes then down at the swimming trunks. It repeated this action for a few seconds then finally held its gaze upon the swimming trunks. Ryu realized what the animal was thinking.

"Oh no,...no y you wouldn't," he said.

The squirrel looked up at him witha look that seemed to say *Oh yes I would!*

At this point Ryu began wading and swimming as fast as he could...but it was too late. The squirrel quickly grabbed the swimming trunks from the pool with it's tiny little paws and ran for dear life in the opposite direction.

Ryu was dumbfounded, what could he do, he couldn't possibly walk out of the pool without one of Ken's guard's seeing him, he'd be mortified.

Meanwhile...

Chunli was now in the courtyard and had slowed down to a brisk walk. *I feel terrible about what happened Thursday*. *I shouldn't have yelled at Ryu the way I did, he's probably never going to talk to me ag...

Her thoughts were interrupted by a small creature running towards her; it was a squirrel. The creature seemed to be holding something that didn't look like part of the vegetation. So using her quick warrior-like reflexes, she ran with the greatest of ease, forward flipped and landed right in front of the squirrel. It was stunned for a few seconds and she used the opportunity to grab hold of it. She closely examined the fabric in its paws...*swimming trunks?*

"Hmmm...looks like we have an exhibitionist on the grounds," she said, looding at the squirrel.

"I'll take this if you don't mind," she said, prying the trunks from its claws. She then placed the animal on the ground, and it ran up a nearby acorn tree. Once a safe distance from her, it picked up an acorn and threw it at her.

"Ow!," she cried, as the acorn hit her on the side of the head.

"You're a feisty little b*stard aren't you?," she said under her breath, rubbing the side of her head. She then walked away...towards the pool.

"Who could be playing a prank like this at this time of day?," she wondered to herself as she approached the pool.

"Oh hi Ryu," she said cheerfully walking by, then she froze and slowly turned herself around to look at him. She quickly turned her back to him again, her eyes widened, her breathing quickened. *Oh no Chunli, it looks like you had WAY too much egg nog last night,* she thought. *Oh my goodness he is sooo hot,* she thought fanning herself with her hand. "Okay," she said taking a deep breath. *Maintain composure.

This time she turned around and grinned.

"Ahem!...so Ryu...you're a nudist?"