Several years after the World Warrior Tournament…

 Paperwork. Tons of it. You wouldn’t believe the amount of paperwork a detective has to do after solving a case. I yawned. I didn’t really feel like writing them up right now.

 I glanced at the clock. “One more hour and I’m out of here…” To make time pass, I began searching Interpol’s database. My eyes drifted to the desk lamp on my desk, where a necklace with a white stone hung around it.

That had to be the turning point of my life. That was when I decided to stop acting out on revenge and living my life. I typed in several words and a picture was brought on screen. The picture was of a man’s face. He had dark hair, brown eyes, and tanned skin.

“Ryu, I wonder where you are now…”

 I scanned the information Interpol had on him, which wasn’t much. It just noted that he defeated Sagat, the Muy Thai champion about ten years ago, and that he also defeated M. Bison, a powerful dictator, several years ago. I was after Bison several years ago. He killed my father. But by rules of the World Warrior Tournament, Ryu was the one who had moved onto the finals to fight Bison. I had been angry at him for a long time for defeating Bison. That lunatic should have been mine. I even went so far as to hunt Ryu down and challenge him. He had not fought back, and I realized that fighting Ryu was useless. I can’t change the past…I can only look towards the future. Ryu told me that I was welcome to fight him and challenge him again, after I had finally gotten over my father’s death, and the anger I had over it.

 And so I did. At least once a year, I went to find Ryu and fight him. He is a very skilled warrior. And it’s exciting fighting him. He doesn’t hold back and he provides a challenge. He doesn’t seem to mind me finding him for a fight. It’s almost become expected between us…within the last four years, we’ve had four fights. I’m sure he travels, seeking new fighters. Since Bison was the host of the last tournament, there’s no one else around who thinks he or she is strong enough to fight fighters from around the world.

 Time had passed quickly, because when I glanced at the clock again, it was time to go. I grabbed my briefcase, clocked out on the computer, and left.

 It was getting close to dinnertime, so I decided to eat out, instead of cook at home. Besides, I don’t get out much. Interpol keeps me busy. I’m working a lot because I want to open up my own martial arts school.

 The streets of Hong Kong were flooded with other pedestrians. I decided to cut in between buildings here and there…I was heading to this really great restaurant I know of. I found it by accident on my lunch break about a year ago.

 This elderly lady was walking in front of me, very slowly, when some teen came up and grabbed her purse, running off at a high speed. Without even stopping to think, I took after him. He was a fast runner, but I have been training for a long time. I leaped forward and kicked him between the shoulder blades. He fell to the ground, the purse tumbling out of his hands. I snatched the purse from the ground as the old lady approached us.

 “Oh…thank you, dear,” she said. “That was very sweet of you.”

 “You’re welcome,” I said as she walked away.

 I looked towards the ground. Once the teen got his wind back, he quickly got up and ran away. I got the feeling he wouldn’t show up around here for a while.

 “It’s nice to see you aren’t out of practice,” came a voice.

 I turned around to see who said that, and my eyes went huge. I wasn’t expecting this. “Ryu…?”

 He smiled back in greeting.