SF: A Warrior's Path Ch. 6 - The Battle Begins
By Gouki

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.