Blast to The Past Ch. 4
By Ryu Dragon

Oakland, Mississippi…

“Natalie !!! You’ve got a phone call !” – Natalie’s mother.

A girl, about eighteen years old, wearing a white T-shirt and a brown short, running down the stairs, nearly tripped over the steps. “Coming, mom !” – Natalie. She quickly rushed to the phone, hoping that was her friend, Billy, calling.

“Slow down, Natalie, the phone won’t go anywhere.” – Natalie’s mother.

She grinned and picked up the phone while stroking her hair behind her ears. “Hello, Billy ?”

The voice that replying was familiar but not the one that she was expecting. “I never knew I’ve changed my name, Natalie.”

“Ken !!” – Natalie excitedly. “Hi, how are you ? It’s been a long time.”

“Yep, its sure is. And I’m good, how are you ? Were you expecting a call from your friend ?” – Ken.

“Well, not really, just thought that he might call, anyway, I’m good and healthy.” – Natalie.

“Good then. Hey, listen, do you think you can come over to Seattle for a while ?” – Ken.

“Sure, why not ? What’s the occasion ? and when ?” – Natalie.

“Oh, just want to invite you for reunion with Ryu and Chun Li in Japan. You come here first, then we’ll fly together with Eliza and Me.” – Ken.

“Oh, wow, you bet I’ll come. When ?” – Natalie.

“I’ll send a ticket to Seattle tomorrow. We’ll go to Japan in three days for about two weeks, what do you think ?” – Ken.

“Great, I can’t wait, hehehe.” – Natalie.

“Good, I’ll see you in two days then.” – Ken.

“Okay, no problem. See ya.” – Natalie.

“Bye.” – Ken.

***

The snowy mountain stood huge on the island, it gave the same impression like any other giant mountains, supreme. The mountain was usually filled with jungle animal sounds, but not at this moment. At this moment, there wasn’t even the slightest animal sound. It was as if the animals were hiding from something, something frightening.

Then there were sounds breaking the silence on the mountain, the sound of fighting. Two men, one is old, and the other is young. The older fighter had fiery-like red hair, a chain of beads is hanging on his neck like a priest, and he wore a set of dark blue karate gi, black belt, a pair of fingerless gloves, and a pair of wooden Japanese sandals.

The young man wore black T-shirt, jeans jacket, and a pair of jeans pants, two dark red motorcycle gloves and a pair of black sneakers. Their fight went from the top of the mountain to the jungle near the hill of the mountain.

“You know, Akuma, you’re getting weak in your old age. Maybe you should just stop fighting and let me absorb your power.” – the young man, known as Dark Warrior taunting Akuma as he easily evading and blocking Akuma’s barrage of attacks. In a sense, what Dark Warrior said was quite true, the fight had went on for about half an hour, and Akuma had received more blows than him.

But that didn’t stop Akuma of course. He kept attacking the Dark Warrior with more vicious combos and speed. Eventually, his attack connected, first with a jab to the face, then followed with a series of three various punches and finished with Go Shoryu. The combination sent the Dark Warrior crashing to a big tree, causing a big dent on it. “Little demon, don’t think that you can beat me.”

The young warrior jumped up using his hands and kicked Akuma squarely on the face. He landed, then charged forward and sent a punch to Akuma’s chest. But the punch did not connect, because Akuma had teleport to his side and kicked him with a sidekick that nearly cracked his ribs. Dark Warrior reeled for about five steps, nearly got knocked down.

The fight continued. The two demon warriors pounded at each other, trying to knock each other down. The fight was so big and intense that they had created a mini tornado that started to tear down the jungle. Each blow clashed or blocked made a booming sound that can be heard from very far away. After another ten minutes fight, they had created a fifty meters square open space in the jungle.

Both demon warriors stopped and tried to catch their breath. They had fought for at least an hour. They were tired, but each knew that he and his opponent enjoyed the fight very much. Akuma was amused with his opponent’s power and techniques. Dark Warrior was amazed with his opponent’s power and stamina.

“Little demon, I really enjoyed the fight. It’s been a very long time since I had a great fight.” – Akuma. “But…”

“But ?” – Dark Warrior.

“But you have to die.” – Akuma grinned, showing his fangs.

“Big talk, no action equals nothing.” – Dark Warrior.

Akuma grinned. Then he set onto his horse stance and began raising his power level. Seeing this, Dark Warrior began to chant. As seconds passed by, Akuma’s power began to rise to the highest level, suddenly, he was changed. His outer appearance was not much different, but he looked more frightening than before, his gi also had changed colour from black to dark purple. He had become the Shin Akuma. He looked up to his opponent and looked surprised.

Coming out from Dark Warrior right hand were six dragons – Chinese dragon type – the dragons had different colors. Then the six dragons flew up then down, entering Dark Warrior’s body. There was a black flash came out from Dark Warrior. When the flash was gone, Dark Warrior appearance and power level had changed drastically. He wore a set of black armor – helmet, body, arms and legs. His power level also had changed, only slightly weaker than Shin Akuma’s.

“Impressive.” – Akuma.

Dark Warrior didn’t say anything. He charged at Akuma, trying to take his opponent as fast as he could. He only had twenty minutes to maintain this form, if he couldn’t do it in twenty minutes, he was as good as a piece of dead meat.

The fight started again, this time its much more intense and, of course, damage. The fight was pretty much in balance because both warriors had their own strong points. Akuma was stronger on power and fighting experience, while Dark Warrior was faster and his evil power is purer than Akuma’s. After fifteen minutes fight, they had destroyed almost half of the jungle on the hill of the mountain. On the last minute of his strongest form, Dark Warrior took on offensive; he channeled all his armor power to his right hand and punched Akuma on the chest. If the punch connected squarely, Akuma wouldn’t be able to see another sunrise or drew another breath, but he wasn’t called as ‘Master of Fist’ for nothing, with a lighting speed, he drew all his power into his right hand and punched back.

The two super powerful fists connected, and there was a very big booming sound and a big flash. When the flash was gone, the two demon warriors were nowhere to be seen. There weren’t any trees or rocks that were still stand either in the radius of twenty meters. Suddenly there could be heard two persons groaned.

Dark Warrior got up first; there was blood on the corner of his mouth, a sign that he was wounded internally. Akuma got up two seconds later. He was also wounded internally, but slightly better than Dark Warrior’s wound, his gi’s color was back to black, a sign that he was ‘normal’ again.

Dark Warrior smiled slightly. “You’re really much better than I thought.”

“The same can be said to you, little demon.” – Akuma.

Dark Warrior frowned at the name-calling. “Don’t think that I’ve lost yet, Akuma.”

“Then come on.” – Akuma motioned Dark Warrior to come.

“Heh, Akuma, I don’t want to fight you anymore.” – Dark Warrior.

“So you give up ?” – Akuma sneered.

Dark Warrior shook his head. “No, I’m proposing for join forces.”

“Join forces ?” – Akuma.

Dark Warrior nodded. “Yes. You see Akuma, we have the same passion, that is to become the strongest in the world. You and I are hungry for powers.”

Akuma didn’t say a word.

“And I know one way to do it, but to succeed, I need your help. I can make us the strongest warriors on earth.” – Dark Warrior.

“I don’t think I’m interested, but keep talking.” – Akuma.

Dark Warrior laughed. “Very well. This is the plan…”

***

At one thirty p.m.…

Ryu Dragon and Yuki were sitting on a restaurant having lunch together. They were talking about what happened in their life in the past four years.

“So what happened to you after you left Australia four years ago ?” - Ryu Dragon.

“Not much.” – Yuki. She jabbed a lettuce on her plate with her fork. “I came back, and then I applied for teaching on the kindergarten.”

“You really love to worked with kids, don’t you ? - Ryu Dragon smiled.

“Yes. I do. I really enjoy my work.” – she sighed. “But sometimes I wished I could be like you, wander around the world.”

He smiled. “This journey was because I have to do it, Yuki, not because I wanted to.”

“Oh ? So tell me about you, what happened to you ?” – Yuki.

Ryu Dragon sighed. Telling his stories had never been an easy thing to do, not even to his best friends. He told her his story, from the very beginning when he had the accident that turned his life upside down, then the two years journey (Author: “Read Ryu Dragon’s bio in BF section.”), then the fight with his former arch-enemy, and there were the two adventures with some other fighters, and the last was his one-year journey.

After he finished with his story, she held his hand. “You really had a lot of tough times.”

He smiled sadly. “Indeed, but I have to move on. Right now, what I have to do is to destroy my other self, to avenge my friends.”

“Well, I’m sure you can do it.” – Yuki.

“Thank you for the support and the confidence.” - Ryu Dragon grinned.

“You’re welcome.” – Yuki smiled. Although he looked cheerful, but she could see the sadness in his eyes, so she diverted the subject. “Ryu, do you have a place to stay in this town ?”

“Well, I can sleep on motels or anywhere. I’m an easygoing person.” - Ryu Dragon.

“Oh, you can stay at my place.” – Yuki.

He blushed. “At your place ? But…” – he scratched his back head.

“No buts. As long as you’re in Tokyo, you can stay at my place.” – Yuki. “Besides, there are two spare rooms in my house.”

“Won’t I troubled you and your family ?” - Ryu Dragon.

“Oh no, don’t worry. I only lived with my grandfather. My parents and my brother were in another city.”

“Well, if that’s okay, then, yeah… Thanks.”

“You’re welcome.”

Ryu Dragon glanced at a clock on the restaurant’s wall, it indicated three forty-five. He frowned and looked like thinking of something, but then he dismissed the thought.

“What’s the matter ?’ – Yuki.

“Nothing, I just felt that I had to do something, but I forgot. I guessed its not so important.” - Ryu Dragon. Then they chat more before went for a walk around the city.

***

Meanwhile, at a certain high school…

A boy was standing in front of the gate of the school. Looked like he was waiting for someone. A gust of cold wind passed through him, and he sneezed. “Where the h*ll is that guy ?” – Claude. He looked around again and then he sneezed very hard.