Path of the Warrior Ch.2
By Shadow Ryu

Sagat stood proud over the many people who gathered around to see the man who held the title of World's Strongest. He had won it for the first time five years ago, and he had never lost since then, defending his title again and again without mercy. Not only had no man ever defeated him, but no man had ever lasted very long in combat against his might.

The Muay Thai champ did not come to feel the admiration of the people though. His main purpose was to sign up his star student to enter a street fighting tournament that was being held in Nakhon Ratchasima. There were quite a few of the nation's best Thai boxers competing in it as well as other fighters from other disciplines from all over the globe. Sagat decided that it would give Adon quite a bit of experience for the future.

"The legend is here!" said a tournament organizer who was overly enthusiastic about seeing the huge kickboxer. "Master Sagat, do you intend to enter our little tournament, here?"

Sagat chuckled a little. "No, I'm afraid not. My student will be competing in my place this year. At the risk of sounding arrogant, I must say there doesn't look like there will be a great deal of competition here."

Adon, who had come up behind his master, then laughed a hyena laugh. "There won't be any competition left for sure after I wipe the floor with all of them!"

Sagat frowned slightly at his student. Although they seemed to get along together in public, the truth was that Sagat and Adon did not get along very well beyond their relationship as teacher and student. Sagat quite disliked Adon's arrogance. Although he was an undefeated champion, he fancied himself as an honorable man who did not become corrupted by his ego. Adon continually showed complete disrespect to his opponents, needlessly injuring his partners in training, continuously taunting his opponents in battle, and generally displaying a snobbish attitude outside of training. His general demeanour often left Sagat wondering if he knew what the word honour truly meant. Meanwhile, although he would not admit it, Adon was terribly jealous of his teacher's success. Underneath the admiration that Adon showed his teacher, he also wanted so much to prove one day that he could be much greater than his famous teacher and become the rightful heir to the title of the World's Strongest. In fact, the Jaguar, as he had come to be known, saw the grand master Sagat as a stepping stone for his future success.

"I'm sure you will be impressed with my student's abilities." Sagat said to the organizer. "He's been training hard for this."

"If he was trained by you, I'm sure we all will be impressed, Sagat." the organizer responded bowing his head in respect.

Adon responded to the organizer's observation with a look of disdain. 'Figures, I'll do all the work, and he'll get all the credit.' he thought to himself. 'That's okay though. One day, things will be different. Much different.'

*****

Luckily for Narin, it did not take him long to find Ryu. Ryu, in fact, came to him. After recovering from the little scare with Birdie, the youngster only had to take two steps out of the door before he saw the warrior walking towards the restaurant and towards him.

Ryu had been searching frantically for any sign of his duffel bag or the thief that had stolen it, but had come up empty. He had searched quite a few of the stores in the area and decided to take a look into this one restaurant he had come upon. As he walked up to the steps leading into the restaurant, he came upon the small boy that he had seen while meditating earlier in the morning.

"Konnichiwa. Hello." Ryu said to Narin in both English and Japanese in the faint hope that he'd be able to understand at least one of them.

"Hi." Narin responded. He was a bit awestruck by Ryu's presence.

"You speak English?" Ryu responded in complete surprise.

"Yes. My friend taught me. It not good, but she still teach me. She used to live in America."

"I see." Ryu said. "Did you see the boys that attacked me this morning?"

Narin nodded.

"Good. They took something I need from me. Do you know where I can find them?"

"No. Sorry." Narin said with a frown.

"Oh. It's okay. If you see them, don't hesitate to tell me. I really need what they took from me."

Narin nodded enthusiastically as Ryu began to walk away. A few seconds passed before the boy realized that he was supposed to ask for his help. Slapping himself in the forehead, he ran after Ryu again.

"Wait!" Narin yelled to get his attention.

Ryu turned back to him. "Yes? What is it?"

Narin looked down at the ground and stumbled on his words before finally saying what he wanted. "I. . . I need your help."

*****

Thuy's restaurant was quite busy, with it being lunch time, and the owner was busy trying to manage everyone's order. She was the only person waitressing there at the moment as she did not have enough money to be able to pay for help. To make matters worse, she only had one cook working as well, which often meant orders were slow in being processed, which led to more complaints from the customers. Many of her patrons had many good things to say about the food she served, but it did not matter much if they had to wait a terribly long time to eat it. While there were some customers who were understanding of her problems, others did not hesitate to voice their displeasure.

Ryu walked into the restaurant behind Narin and immediately attracted quite a bit of attention from many of the customers in the restaurant for his appearance. That wasn't enough to cause him any discomfort really, as he was more distracted by the attractive smell of food. He had not eaten for a while and was extremely hungry. Seeing the sight of people eating food in the restaurant did not make him any less hungry either.

Thuy did not see Ryu until Narin pointed him out to her.

"See, I told you I'd find him!" the boy exclaimed brightly.

"Hello." Ryu said with a bow.

Thuy responded by looking at Ryu from head to toe in a little bit of surprise. "Uhm, hello. My name is Thuy." she said holding out her hand.

"Yes, your son here told me about you outside." Ryu responded shaking her hand.

"Oh." Thuy said with a giggle. "He is not my son."

"Oh. Sorry!" Ryu said.

"Oh, it's quite alright."

Narin tugged at Ryu's guy a little. "I told you I saw a fighter, Thuy! He beat a couple of bad guys. I saw it! It was amazing. He'll help you for sure!"

Thuy giggled with a slight hint of embarassment. "You have to excuse him. . .uhmm, sorry, I forgot to ask you your name, sir!"

"Ryu." he said simply.

"Ah, nice name. Anyways, you have to excuse little Narin here. He is a little exciteable. In fact, I figured that this fighter he had seen was just a work of his overactive imagination. It seems as though you are quite real after all."

"He'll beat up the bad guys, Thuy! You'll see."

"Enough, Narin." Thuy told the boy sternly. "Anyways, I'm sorry for wasting your time, but I don't think you can help me with my problems."

"What is the problem?" Ryu asked simply.

"I owe a very dangerous man quite a deal of money. I need to come up with twenty thousand dollars in two days or. . .well, things will be difficult."

Ryu looked down at the floor and pondered what she said for a moment. "I'm not sure I can help you. I don't have that much money." After he told her that, he ended up remembering that he had his money stolen. Not only did he not have that much money, but he in fact had no money at all.

"You don't need money!" Narin interrupted. "All you have to do is beat up the bad guys and make them go away!"

"I'm afraid it isn't that easy, Narin." Thuy said. "Besides, Ryu. I'm afraid I don't have money to pay you as a bodyguard anyways. It will just be a waste of your time and you might just get hurt."

"He won't get hurt! He's strong! He'll beat up those guys for you, Thuy! He will!"

"Quiet, Narin. Please."

Ryu pondered the request for his help for a few seconds. His first impression was actually not to help. He had enough things to worry about, mainly trying to get his money back or get some more, something he wouldn't gain from helping Thuy. On the other hand, he couldn't help but think about what his sensei said to him before he left Japan.

"You've got a good heart, Ryu." Gouken told him. "Make sure you make good use of it. If you do, you could be taking your first steps down the path to becoming a true warrior."

He had often pondered those words on his trip wondering if he'd get the chance to use his heart like Gouken said he could. Up to this point, he hadn't really been given such an opportunity. Although it didn't hit him right away, Ryu suddenly realized that an opportunity was right in front of his eyes.

"It's alright, Ryu." Thuy continued. "Thank you for listening to Narin and coming in to at least inquire about my problems. I appreciate that."

Ryu paused for a second to fight off one last remaining bit of reluctance before looking into Narin's eager eyes. "I'll do it." he said.

Thuy responded with a surprised smile. "But. . .but, I can't pay you."

Ryu smiled slightly. "That's okay. I'll still do it."

"All right!" Narin said jumping up in celebration.

Thuy smiled at Ryu. Although she was sort of happy that he accepted to help her, she couldn't help but wonder how such a young boy could be able to help, especially if the big brute that terrorized her restaurant in the morning came back. How could such a young fighter defeat such a hulk of a man like Birdie anyways? She sighed it off though, thinking that any help at this point was better than no help at all.

"Thank you, Ryu." Thuy said. "If there is anything I can do for you in return, please just ask."

As if on cue, Ryu's stomach rumbled violently. "Well. . ." Ryu responded. "I am quite hungry."

Narin giggled a little as Thuy's smile increased in size as she responded, "Sure thing. I guess a fighter like you must work up an appetite after all."