Cherry Blossoms Ch. 1
By Gouki

“A few weeks after that unfortunate incident, Sakura’s admiration for the warrior named “Ryu” would grow and release a sudden interest in Street Fighting, much to Kei and her friends worries and concerns. She’d encountered the enigmatic warrior once more, and from then copied everything from his fighting stance to his techniques. Whatever she didn’t know she simply made up, surprisingly feigning years of expert training and replacing it with absolute creativity and effort. However, without the training and guidance of a master, her techniques remain to this present time to leave her vulnerable and drained if her energy is used too much.”

“A year passes on, and Sakura’s “hobby” continues…”

Within the midst of a small, developing crowd, a young fighter slowly adjusted his fighting gloves whilst he waited for his opponent to arrive. He would clench his hands on a few occasions, testing the tightness of his gloves and eventually stopped, seemingly satisfied with its current fit. He sighed impatiently. It was about 10 minutes since his opponent was supposed to arrive and it seemed that they would never turn up. He usually didn’t mind an opponent turning up late to a match, as he sometimes did due to circumstances he had to endure. However today, he had a ton of homework to get on with as well as looking after his mother, who had been sick for a number of days now. Despite the fact that today had been the last day of school until the Summer Term, he was still given some proportion of homework to complete. The crowd made up of students from numerous schools, were also getting impatient and a few of them were beginning to leave whilst most stayed, not wanting to leave and realise that a fight had taken place.

“Sakura, wait up!”

A pair of dark brown eyes turned to the origin of the voice. Up ahead, two girls were running towards where the crowd was. The one in the lead, obviously the one named Sakura was running as if competing in the 100m dash for the Olympics, whilst the one who had called out the said name seemed to be struggling to keep up with her friend but was getting by. He looked at the first one. Her brown hair was short, almost tomboyish from a distance and a long white headband ran across her forehead, trailing freely behind her as she continued her running. A short, sleeveless shirt covered the upper half of her body. Its main colour was white, but there were areas of blue, which made it resemble some sort of sailor top. She was also wearing a short, pleated blue skirt that lead as far as near the end of her thighs and a pair of plain red and white trainers covered her feet which obviously had some assist in her running. The last thing he noticed was a pair of scarlet fighting gloves, much like his own that adorned her small feminine hands and it was then he knew as well as the crowd that she was his opponent.

Sakura made her way through the crowd and to the fighter, who used a gloved hand to brush away a few bangs that fell in front of him. She gave a small friendly smile, to which he gave a slight nod.

“So…you…must…be Batsu” Sakura stated between breaths. “Sorry for being so late, I…”

“Don’t worry about it,” he interrupted, cutting her off. “Happens to me on a few occasions” He paused for a moment to allow her to catch her breath. “You ready?” he asked.

Sakura gave a nod and the pair walked away from the crowd, and onto a nearby empty street, keeping a firm gaze on each other. Sensing a fight about to begin, the murmur from the students quickly became cheers of excitement. Sakura took off her backpack, passing it onto her friend who walked away from the two fighters and into the crowd. As soon as the fighters reached the middle of the empty road, they immediately entered their stances.

Batsu was the first to attack. Sakura’s body tensed, her mind thinking of all the moves he could release and how and when to defend against them when his fist flew toward the right side of her head. Sakura parried the blow, returning with a quick jab to his stomach that he managed to deflect. He attempted a gut punch and an uppercut. The gut punch was blocked and Sakura avoided the uppercut. Seeing an open opportunity, Sakura gathered her energy and lunged towards her opponent.

“Sho-o-ken!” she cried, punching Batsu in the midsection and following it up with four more punches before she leapt up, bringing her fist up to Batsu’s chin but not before striking his chest in the process. The final blow sent Batsu’s head up and took his body along with it, and he fell to the ground. He kicked himself up rather quickly, indicating Sakura’s attack wasn’t necessarily strong though it looked as though it was. He checked his mouth for any signs of bleeding and after realising there was none, returned to his stance.

“Interesting attack, but not so strong…” he thought. He scanned his opponent’s stance, hoping to gather some data that could serve to his advantage. “She looks a little inexperienced, her posture and some of her attacks indicates this. Still, I can sense a great fighting spirit from her, meaning I’ll have to be cautious.”

Batsu rushed in once again, but before he reached Sakura, he leapt upward and high into the air. Coming down at a moderate speed, his foot went to connect with Sakura’s chest but was blocked by the teen street fighter. Batsu threw a flurry of punches in an attempt to break through her guard but Sakura managed to block them all. Batsu this time feigned a right cross. Sakura fell for the fake, placing her right arm to her side to block the blow and in doing so left the left side of her body vulnerable for the next assault.

A hook made its way to Sakura’s jaw. She reeled from the impact and felt the force of a side kick. Quickly summoning his chi, Batsu glanced at the recuperating Sakura and sent his stored energy forward.

“Guts Bullet!” he cried as he threw his hands forward, fists first at Sakura. An azure orb of chi flew and dissipated as it struck with the adolescent and she staggered backwards from the force. She shook off her dizziness in time to see Batsu closing in.

Immediately ducking under a roundhouse, Sakura aimed her leg at Batsu’s standing one and he met the ground harshly. He got up to feel a gloved fist strike his face, his chest and then a knee to his midsection. He doubled over from the last move and received two more strikes as Sakura rose into a weaker version of the Sho-o-ken. He fell onto the ground a third time, but still managed to pick himself up and assume a defensive posture. Sakura was also panting lightly as she gathered her breath, the adrenaline that consumed her during that period beginning to fade.

The last assault giving her confidence, Sakura dashed in with a shin kick followed immediately by a thrust of her leg as she forced it towards Batsu’s face. With a quick backward hop and a crouch, Batsu avoided the impact of the two blows. The last attack Sakura released had left her extremely vulnerable, verifying Batsu’s thoughts on her being inexperienced as he went to punish her with another Guts Bullet. Just as the fireball stunned Sakura briefly, Batsu summoned his chi to him once again the power he was drawing indicating this was perhaps his most powerful attack…

“SUPER GUTS BULLET!!” he yelled as he threw his fists forward, to which a much bigger blast of chi flew from his body and towards Sakura. However Sakura had managed to recover while Batsu had been collecting this energy to him and as he fired the huge sphere she somehow, whether it was on instinct, luck, reflex or plain skill, managed to avoid the blast with a leap to the side. Upon touching the ground, she initiated a small roll before finishing into a crouched position. The crowd was in awe as well as Batsu, who hadn’t expected Sakura to recover in such a short span of time.

“Woah, that was close” Sakura thought. “Way too close…” She stood upright, her hands cupped and placed to the side of her midsection as a large cerulean sphere of chi formed between it. Bringing her arms further back, the teenager then whipped her hands across, releasing what she had just summoned.

“SHINKUU HADOKEN!!” her voice erupted. From her parallel palms hurled out a mushroom-like burst of energy. Batsu, who was still recovering from his attack, felt the force of Sakura’s energy blast as struck for a total of three times, but he merely staggered back instead of falling. “Man, it’s not as strong as when he did it…” Sakura thought. She could’ve used her strongest version, but the last time she did this she was left tired and weak and costing her a well-deserved victory. Besides, it didn’t look any stronger but only hit more times, and that was when it was huge. From observation, she knew that the smaller it got, the weaker the damage was and after a certain distance it would fade. Nevertheless, Sakura was proud of her attack because she learnt it herself without any training, only from observation of the one her idol did as well as all the attacks she had. Few people could do that, especially those who were her age with the exception of her latest opponent and a few others from other schools, if they learned by the same method as she did, of course.

So deep in thought, that Batsu’s leap went unnoticed. Reaching his intended height, he collected his chi once again and in a flash of energy sped downward to the still contemplative Sakura.

“Shooting Star Kick!!” The loud cry of Batsu’s voice brought Sakura back to reality, in time to see her opponent descending down at great speed and at an angle towards her. Sakura tried to leap back to avoid the impact but she was too slow, and too late. Batsu’s outstretched leg sunk deep into the slightly airborne Sakura, igniting her in electricity and striking her three times in total. Sakura fell to the ground with a groan, clutching her stomach and cursing herself for her self-distraction. Picking herself up, she was greeted to a jab and a kick to her abdomen. Batsu then initiated a roundhouse but Sakura ducked underneath his leg and tripped him, to which Batsu rolled into his stance once again.

Batsu rushed in again, placing a punch to Sakura’s now weak area: her stomach. Sakura gritted her teeth in an attempt to stop herself from screaming as the blow connected, and Batsu placed another punch to the same area before adding a palm strike, a hook, and a leaping roundhouse to the side of Sakura’s head. Sakura spun from the impact and staggered onto the ground with a few murmurs of “Did you see that?!” and “Man, that was some move” from members of the audience.

“She’s pretty strong…” Batsu thought, “…but her lack of fighting experience will guarantee her loss.” A dizzy Sakura got up from the ground and after slapping her cheeks a few times, shook off her dizziness and gazed towards Batsu with determination whilst he did the same.

“I don’t know how long I can manage under this pain.” Sakura thought as she gritted her teeth in an attempt to subside it, and embraced her defensive posture. Her opponent lunged in once again, his foot trailing through the air and towards Sakura’s midsection. She crouched low, using her arms to absorb the attack and as she linked her hands together she raised them upward in some sort of uppercut which caught Batsu under the chin but only caused him to stagger backwards, but kept him from his offensive assault temporarily.

Managing to stand upright, the young fighter coughed out a few droplets of blood that stained freely over his attire, clearly matching the fighting gloves he wore. He wiped out any remaining crimson on his mouth and chin, waiting for the next move Sakura would use. Seeing that she wouldn’t attack, Batsu lurched forward, as if to dash and Sakura reacted to the movement almost instantly. “It’s all or nothing…” was her final thought as she released her counterattack.

“MIDARE ZAKURA!!” Sakura yelled as she flew into a rising uppercut, repeating the sequence twice more and increasing each attack’s power in the process. However, Batsu had halted his lunge and immediately side-stepped after parrying the first hit. A surprised and shocked Sakura rose high into the air, and a realisation instantaneously came to her head.

She had failed.

Not even waiting for her to land on her feet, Batsu arched his arm in a deadly uppercut as his fist was engulfed in flames with a cry of “Rival Launcher” and sending Sakura airborne from impact. Launching himself upward after her, Batsu’s body began to glow an ocean blue as he drew on his chi energies for his final attack. Sakura’s eyes were closed, but she could feel Batsu aura rising and knew what was about to happen but was too weak from the discharge of her attack to prevent it. She waited for the pain.

“SUPER GUTS BULLET!!” Batsu yelled, and it was then that Sakura knew it was all over…