Of Love, Honour and Revenge Ch. 38
By Matt Lawson

A field of grass, still as the air around him…

He was alone, sleeping in the midst of the field, curled up tightly in a fetal position as if to keep as much warmth inside him as possible. However much he tried, he couldn’t stay asleep. He woke up with a start.

Green grass?

Where was the plane? He was supposed to be awake in the plane. Chun Li was supposed to be at his side. So why was he sleeping in the middle of a grassy field in the day-time? Alone?

He struggled to pick himself up, wondering where the h*ll he was as a gentle wind started to blow. His red headband started to flow gently behind him, picking itself off his gi.

Slowly, almost imperceptibly, the grass began to sway.

This is just a dream. It has to be…

“Just a dream? It’s funny how real dreams can turn out to be…”

Ryu turned round sharply to face the man who spoke behind him. Akuma stood there, arms folded, no hint of emotion in his face, except the blood red that were his eyes.

“Akuma!”

Ryu ran towards the demon standing before him and kicked his right foot towards him. His foot followed the wind into nothingness as Akuma merely disappeared, then reappeared further away.

“Don’t bother, Ryu. This is just a dream, even though I’m controlling it. It’s not as if you can hurt people in dreams, can you?”

Ryu relaxed his body as he realised the truth in Akuma’s words. “What do you want?”

“Merely…a little chat.”

“A little chat? Bulls***. You’re not the type to merely indulge in ‘a little chat’”

“Why not? What’s wrong with me?”

“What’s wrong with you? You simply seek to destroy lives.”

Akuma smiled as he started to encircle. “And what’s wrong with that? Life comes about from death, destruction, disorder and chaos. Your life I believe came from death if I’m not mistaken?” He pointed to Ryu forcefully to emphasize his point.

“What do you mean? What’s your game, Akuma?”

“Shall we take a look?”

Akuma clicked his fingers, and the scene before Ryu suddenly shifted. He saw himself standing near a forest village, a village surrounded by the peaceful sunshine in the eastern sky. It was morning. The birds starting singing their songs in the morning sunlight and the cool air. He gasped as he started to remember this place.

“My home village…”

“Yes.”

Akuma lay a hand on his shoulder and stepped past him. “Remember this place Ryu? Your only home?”

Ryu was too stunned to even take Akuma’s presence into account. “How…”

“How did you come to be here? What do they say about dreams?…Dreams mirror the heart, they help you remember past images of things that should have been forgotten. I’ve merely given you a way to see them more clearly. Come.”

Akuma walked on, Ryu following behind him, until they reached the perimeter of the village. There, Ryu saw something that was supposed to have been forgotten.

A beautiful young Japanese woman stood in front of someone he knew. She looked as if she was about to cry. Beside her, a young man, as muscled as Ryu was now, and about the same age. He held a young boy, about four years old, in his arms, sleeping.

“Do you remember them, Ryu?”

He could. He shouldn’t have been able to, but he could.

“M…moth….Fa…”

“Yes, your mother and father. And that’s you they’re giving away, isn’t it? Oh yes, and that, uh, man in front of them hardly needs any introduction, does he?”

“Sensei?”

“Mmm. From what your memory tells me, your parents gave you to your sensei because your father

was in a little trouble from the Yakuza. In order to protect you they gave you to their friend, a nearby hermit named Gouken, is that not right? They died two days later, didn’t they?”

“That’s what sensei told me…”Ryu said almost breathlessly as he leaned against one of the huts.

“Yes, that’s what he told you.”

Akuma stepped past an almost stunned Ryu as he looked out at the scene being played before them. “You know, I could help you change all this. I could bring you back to your parents, your true family. Wouldn’t you like that?”

“…No,” Ryu said after a long pause.

“And why not?” Akuma asked.

“Because it’s not real. It never would be.”

“Real, huh? Does that matter?”

“Yes, it does.”

“I think you need a reminder of how bad reality can be.”

Akuma snapped his fingers, and time changed forward. It was now night-time, a storm erupted around the village. Several men armed with Mossberg 500 shotguns started running into the village.

“NO!” Ryu shouted, running into the village, towards one of the armed men. He leapt into the air and stretched out his foot, hoping to kick one of the men in the head as he flew passed. He landed on the ground after the foot passed through the head, as if there was nothing there. He turned, stunned, as the man he had just tried to kicked continued running towards one of the huts. A man armed with nothing but a wooden staff emerged from the house they were running towards, trying to bring his staff down onto the head of one of the attackers. The staff was just about to strike when a shotgun was fired. Ryu’s eyes opened wide as several holes appeared in his father’s chest. Two of the attackers ran into the hut, and a woman’s screaming started while several other men started executing the other villagers with their shotguns as the thunder and lightning erupted all around.

Rage boiled up inside as he charged up the energy into his hands.

“HADOKEN!”

The fireball erupted, sped towards one of the attackers, and passed through everything it had touched, including the houses, the trees, and a passing Yakuza. When it disappeared, everything was still as it was, as if Ryu hadn’t launched a fireball after all. Ryu looked at his hands, wondering why he was so helpless.

The firing stopped, but the screaming continued. Coming to his senses, Ryu started running towards the hut where the screaming was coming from.

“Leave my mother alone!” He screamed as he ran.

A gunshot was heard, and the screaming abruptly stopped. Ryu hesitated, then continued running. He ran into the hut, and stopped.

There was nobody else in there. Just him, and a dead woman on the floor, a single bullet hole in her forehead. The bullet had passed through her head, as a pool of blood was soaking into the straw floor. Other stains were nearby. From the fact that they were off-white, they were not blood stains.

His mother had been raped, then murdered

He stepped up to the body on the floor, tears evident in his eyes, and bent down to pick it up. He drew himself back instantly upon further inspection of the face.

His mothers face had changed. She now looked just like Chun Li…

Akuma lay a hand on his shoulder. “How did you feel when your Sensei told you the truth about what happened to your parents?”

“I…I felt anger…”

“You felt hatred. Hatred towards the criminals that had killed your Mother and Father. You wanted to fight every criminal element that had come into this world. Whenever you saw a hint of criminality, you attacked it without question. It’s no wonder that you almost instantly agreed in helping Chun Li in her fight against Shadowloo. You thought that by fighting Shadowloo, you were fighting against the criminal element itself, who had wronged you so many years ago.”

He circled Ryu, who simply stood staring at the body of the dead woman who looked like his girlfriend.

“You see, that’s always how it’s been isn’t it Ryu? All your life, you’ve been fighting, and why? Because something bad happened to you, and you wanted to fight back. You think you’re strong enough, you can deal with it, but you can’t. You’re just one man. And you’ve only fought for yourself. What about others? Remember that time that you couldn’t fight to protect someone particularly close to you?”

The scene shifted around Ryu and he was in a new place, alone. Another forest, one he remembered very well. It was the forest he had lived in through most of his young life. The forest where he’d been taught the art of Shotokan Karate.

He thought he could hear fighting nearby.

He ran towards where he thought the fighting was. The sounds were getting closer. Then suddenly, he heard someone shouting.

“SHUN GOKU SATSU!”

Ryu ran faster, towards where he knew those words had come from. Then, he stopped.

There, in front of him, was the body of Sensei Gouken, dead. Towering over him, Akuma stood still, his arms folded in defiance.

“Remember this little scene, Ryu?” He shouted to Ryu, who was standing in shock at the sight before him. “Remember how you watched pathetically as you saw your master killed before your eyes?”

Akuma disappeared and then reappeared behind Ryu, who still saw his Sensei’s body lying on the grass.

“It’s not your fault. You were too weak. There was nothing you could have done.”

“I wasn’t there in time…”

“How could you have known that by the time you were ready to leave, your master would be fighting his last battle. There was nothing you could have done to save him.”

“But I wasn’t there!”

“And what happened after that? You found another pathetic excuse for fighting. You thought, that by fighting everyone, you would be, in fact, training for a future fight with me. You fought for revenge. Isn’t revenge a dish best served cold?”

“And what if it is?”

“Why do you fight, Ryu? Why do you find such pleasure in fighting? You declared war on criminals, the criminal masters, and me most of all. Isn’t war an evil thing?”

“Are you saying that I’m evil? I’m not evil, I’m nothing like you!”

“So what are you then? Good?” Akuma sneered. “Let me tell you about people who are on the side of good. They believe in several different gods who are all such underachievers, that they have difficulty deciding which one to go for, so they fight amongst each other because of it. If something good happens to them, they say it’s their god’s will, if something bad happens to them, they say that he moves in mysterious ways. They read their pieces of paper and binding like the Bible or the Koran, and what do they say? s--- happens. What’s so good about that? Besides, I’m not saying that you are evil. But you’re getting closer to it.”

“What do you mean?” Ryu asked, confused.

“Remember what I said about dreams? They help you remember the past, and they mirror the heart. You have a dark past. And therefore…you have a dark heart. Why do you think I’ve spent so long trying to persuade you to become that which you should be, Ryu? Why do you think I’ve been trying to instill Satsui No Hado into your soul.”

Ryu stood silent. At last, he knew the reason as to why Akuma was here. He was trying one more time to convert Ryu towards Satsui No Hado.

“What’s so great about Satsui No Hado?”

“Think of it as a new chance for life. A new beginning. A chance to get back at the criminal element of mankind for real. You would have such power you could fight against those who wronged you and you would win every time. In essence, you would have great power over man itself, it would be so cool.”

The surrounding area blacked out, only Ryu and Akuma were left. He stood behind Ryu, smiling. “Just tell me that you want it, and I’ll give it to you. No questions asked. What do you want?”

Ryu stayed silent. He then at last spoke. “I’ll tell you what I want. I want you…” He turned to face Akuma.

“…to go to h*ll.”

Akuma stopped smiling. “Yes, well you see, the problem is that…”

He extended his arm and grabbed Ryu by the throat. He picked him up off the floor and held him in a strangling grip. “H*ll often comes to you!”

Ryu struggled to free himself from Akuma, trying to push Akuma’s hand away from his throat with his fingers, but it wouldn’t budge.

“I’ve spent far too much time trying to convert you to Satsui No Hado,” Akuma continued angrily, “to waste it all on killing you. Just tell me that you want it, and I’ll give it to you.”

Ryu stayed silent, loosing his arms by his side.

“TELL ME!!” Akuma screamed at him.

“F…..f--- you.”

Ryu charged the energy into his hands and pushed it forward. A burst of fire erupted from his hand and slammed into Akuma’s chest. Akuma released his grip and flew backward, dropping Ryu onto the floor.

“You think you’re so strong, huh?” Akuma shouted in a rage. “You think you’re so tough you can defeat the power of Satsui No Hado, huh? Fine then. I’m getting sick of this keeping-you-alive s--- now.”

The scene appeared. The same forest that he had just been in a moment ago, but this time, they were standing near a large lake, near where Ryu had lived and trained for his life.

“This will be where our final battle will be. I will be waiting for you here, where it began, and where it will ultimately end. This is my game, Ryu. I am the hart, and you will be the hunter. But this hart will lay a trap of his own here. I will be waiting for you Ryu. And you’d better put up a good fight, because I will not hold back any more.”

Akuma blurred, then disappeared. Ryu stepped forward, looking around to find him.

“Wait! Akuma!”

Then Akuma’s voice spoke in his mind. “I am waiting for you…Ryu Hoshi.”

Ryu’s eyes suddenly opened. He was somewhere different now, somewhere familiar. He was back in the plane.

He started to remember. They had landed the Chinook near an air base near Rio De Janeiro, and had transferred to a private plane to take them back to El Toro. By his side, Chun Li lay sleeping, her head rested on his shoulder. Her soft breathing mixed with the sound of the jet engines, and that was all he could hear.

He knew what he had to do now. He had to face Akuma one last time. He had to leave his friends behind one last time for this final fight. And he had to do this alone.

As the sky drifted by, Ryu looked down to Chun Li’s head as she lay beside him, sleeping. He lightly kissed her so as not to wake her up, and stared forward, thinking, preparing, waiting for the fight to come. How was he going to tell her?

Akuma’s last words from the dream echoed in his mind.

I am waiting for you, Ryu Hoshi…