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End of a Journey, Ch. 12

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Chapter 12: Rival

As the capital of the country of Thailand, Bangkok was by far the largest and most advanced city the nation had to offer. The architecture of the city was, to say the least, full of contrasts. On one hand, it posted several modern buildings and facilities befitting of a city its side. On the other hand, within the city were slums that looked close to forty years behind the times, ripe with crime and corruption. Even though the city claimed to be always looking for the future, Bangkok could never seem the shake off the impure factions that haunted them.

One thing that everyone seemed to respected, no matter their allegiance to the law, was the art of fighting. In Thailand, the national sport was the powerful martial art of Muay Thai. No matter what direction the city of Bangkok went on, one thing that never changed was the immense respect Thai kickboxers commanded amongst the people. Warriors from all over the globe would come to Thailand to test their mettle against the might of Muay Thai, and there was no Muay Thai champion more renowned and feared than the mighty Sagat, who held the very first Street Fighter tournament to prove his might.

Ryu's interest in Bangkok lay not in the city, but the ancient temples out the outskirts of it. This area holds so many memories, Ryu thought as he stepped away from the cover of the trees and entered the village that he had visited many times in the past: a good twenty-mile run from the city. It was in this village that the finals of the first Street Fighter tournament took place, where I gained worldwide fame and recognition and my reputation as a warrior was cemented forever.

Ryu smiled as he remembered the anxiety he felt when he first entered the village so many years ago. He was so young and brash back then, having just received his Master Gouken's approval to leave the dojo and thus swelling his ego immensely. Ryu had been eager to make his mark on the world and see what other fighting styles had to offer. He ran into so many fighters during that first tournament: fighters that he had never seen the likes of before (or since, now that Ryu thought about it), and he defeated all of them to make his way to the tournament's head Sagat.

The good times ended very shortly thereafter, with Sagat pummeling Ryu within an inch of his life like he was nothing more than a child. But it was at that moment, where Ryu felt his consciousness fading, that he lost control of his emotions and ripped a deep scar into the Muay Thai Emperor's chest with a forbidden technique, the Metsu Shoryuken. It was in this village that Ryu first tasted the power of the Satsui no Hadou, and it was here that Ryu's innocence vanished in favor of a deep-seated fear of the power that lurked deep inside of him.

Walking into a field of tomatoes, Ryu looked at one of the stocks and picked off one of the fruits. The tomato was firm and healthy: a sign of the tender care that had been given to the farm. The wandering warrior took a whiff of the tomato and smiled: it smelled fresh as well, and he hadn't eaten since he left the Bangkok Airport that morning. Still, Ryu wasn't without his manners: he would need to ask the farmers for permission to enjoy the fruits of their labor, and thus he followed the rustling of the fields to where one farmer was hard at work.

Seconds later, Ryu followed the rustling to a teenage girl with a deep tan and long black hair tied in a braid, wearing a gray t-shirt and a pair of jeans. "It's been a while, Chit," Ryu called out to the young woman, causing her to turn away from the hedge she was chopping down with her machete. Once he made eye contact with the woman, Ryu walked over and waved hello. "You've grown up quite a bit since the last time I saw you!"

"Mr. Ryu," The young woman called Chit smiled back at the wandering warrior and embraced him in friendship. As her arms wrapped around him tightly, Ryu noticed how much thicker her muscles seemed since the last time they met, when she was just finishing up middle school. No doubt that the reason for her toned figure was working in the fields so much, caring for her tomatoes. Either that or she's been training with Sagat, Ryu surmised as he returned the embrace before the two parted. She and her brother spend so much time with him that it wouldn't be out of the question if he made them his pupils.

Several years ago, very shortly after Ryu defeated Sagat, the Muay Thai Emperor found himself caught up in an illegal tiger hunt, where young children were used as live bait so poachers could lure in tigers for profit. Two of the children involved in the conflict were Chit and her older brother, with the latter being found critically wounded by Sagat while he was attempting to burn off his rage over his loss. Unwilling to accept such nefarious activity under his watch, Sagat then proceeded to completely destroy the tiger hunts and rescue Chit. Since that time, the two siblings had stayed by Sagat's side as if he was their own father, and Ryu always made it a point to visit them whenever he was in the area.

"Where's your older brother?" Ryu asked as he noticed that Chit was alone in the field, which was odd because it was quite rare that he saw the two of them separated. "If you've grown up this much, I can only imagine what kind of man he's grown into since the last time we met."

"Brother had to go into the city to pick up some supplies," Chit explained as she turned back to the hedge and gave it one swift chop with her machete to finish it off. Satisfied with a job well done, Chit turned back to Ryu and noticed something different about him. "Hey, Mr. Ryu, where's your headband?" she asked as she pointed to the exposed forehead of Ryu, noticing a bit of a tanline where the headband would normally go. "I don't think I've ever seen you come here without it?"

Ryu's smile faded as he was reminded of how he was leaving Chun-Li behind for this one final journey, remembering how painful it was to hear her sobs as he left Hong Kong. "I…I left it with a very close friend," Ryu answered after a pause before sucking in air and putting a smile back on. "I made a promise to her with that headband that I'd come back to her as soon as I finished up some loose ends that need to be addressed."

"'Her?'" Chit replied with a sly smile as she reached over to Ryu's chest and spread out the folds of his gi to reveal the white t-shirt with the dragon design that was worn underneath. "It sounds like Mr. Ryu the Drifter finally found a lover! You've given her your trusty headband as proof of your love, and she gave you that shirt to prove that she feels the same! Now you'll never truly be apart and you'll feel each other scent wherever you go!"

"Heh…I never thought of it like that," Ryu said as his cheeks reddened and he rubbed the back of his head. Seeing Chit giggle at his reaction, Ryu started chuckling a bit as well. "When you put it that way, suddenly it doesn't feel quite as painful as it did when I left her side yesterday." Remembering why he came to Thailand in the first place, Ryu's smile diminished a bit as he turned the topic towards business. "Do you know where I can find Sagat, Chit? That's sort of the reason why I came here."

"Is there ever a time where Sagat ISN'T the reason you come here?" Chit asked rhetorically before she pointed to the giant Buddha statue in the distance, lying on its side with its head propped up against its arm. "He's standing up there, waiting for you to come like he always does. He told me that you'd be coming soon, and that he was looking forward to facing you again."

"So he already sensed me coming," Ryu said as he squinted his eyes to see a tall human figure standing on top of the statue, apparently throwing kicks and punches. "I guess he knows me so well at this point that he can see me coming from miles and miles away. I should have expected as much from my greatest rival…"

"It's not much of a rivalry when you're always getting your butt kicked," Chit added thoughtfully. "Every time you come here looking for a rematch, Sagat beats you like a piece of a meat. You always put up a good fight, but you've never been able to say 'I've been Sagat, no questions asked.'" The teenager girl but her hands on her hips and smiled amusingly as Ryu stared off into the statue. "I'm beginning to think that you're some kind of masochist."

"…I've got a good feeling about today, Chit," Ryu replied with a confident smirk before turning to see a tomato hanging down by the corner of his eye from a stock. "I think if I have one of your healthy tomatoes, I'll be able to get a good solid win today!"

"Well," Chit tapped her chin thoughtfully as she pondered whether or not to give Ryu her blessing in the form of her produce. After a few seconds to think about it, Chit nodded her head and plucked the tomato closest to her before tossing it to Ryu. "…if you think it'll lift your chances against the Muay Thai Emperor, then go ahead and eat it. Prove to Sagat that you're not going to get your butt kicked because you have someone waiting for you!"

"It was good talking to you, Chit," Ryu said as he turned around to leave the farm. "I'll see you around!"


A fifteen minute walk later, Ryu stepped onto the tiled ground of the ancient prayer grounds that he had stepped onto so many times in the past. These prayer grounds were less of a place of worship and more like an unofficial arena, where countless battles had been fought between the Muay Thai Emperor Sagat and whoever dared to challenge his claim as the strongest. When Ryu first came to this temple, he was an inexperienced fighter just freshly released from the dojo. When he left the temple, he was suddenly older and wiser than he had been moments before.

The main attraction of the prayer grounds, the relaxed Buddha statue, held a dark secret that seldom knew: not even Chit and her brother knew the statues true purpose. The statue was, in truth, a deactivated robotic weapon created by the fiendish Shadaloo many years ago. By disguising it among the locals as a statue that was supposedly a national treasure, Shadaloo could possess a destructive machine of massive power and no one would know anything about it. Had the machine ever been activated, the criminal organization would have possessed the ability to level cities in an instant and even the most powerful nations would have cowered in fear.

However, thanks largely to the efforts of the Street Fighters, the machine never had the chance to wreak its destruction, and years later it was lying dormant as the statue that it was supposed to mimic, with no one wiser to its sinister purpose. No one except myself and Sagat, Ryu added as he scanned the area to see where his ultimate rival was hiding himself. Sagat allowed himself to fall under Shadaloo's employ, and invited them into his village to create that thing. Being associated with those scumbags is bad enough, but if word got out that Sagat gave Shadaloo the opportunity to create such a horrible machine, his reputation would be destroyed.

Hearing the sound of ponderous footsteps approaching, Ryu turned his head and gazed upon the visage of the giant that he toppled in the first Street Fighter tournament. To say this man was massive was no exaggeration: he stood over seven feet tall and was every bit as thickly muscled as he was tall, seemingly devoid of any kind of body fat. His massive feet and hands were wrapped in white boxing tape, and his purple boxing shorts with red trim were almost big enough to fit two grown men inside of them. With a black eyepatch covering the right eye of his stern face and a large scar blemishing his gargantuan torso, the titanic Sagat folded his arms and looked down at the smaller Ryu with his one good eye, though its milky white color gave the man an almost inhuman look like he was something greater than a man.

"It's been a while, Sagat," Ryu said as he dropped his bag and entered his fighting stance. "I think you know why I'm here by this point."

"...something is different about you, Ryu," the giant Sagat rumbled as he unfolded his arms and entered his own fighting stance: the stance of the brutal variation of Muay Thai that he had innovated.

"It's the lack of the headband," Ryu responded. "It's rare that I don't have it with me so-"

"I am not talking about something as inconsequential as that," Sagat interjected as his eye narrowed, peering into Ryu's soul as the smaller warrior remained strong and true in his stance, careful not to reveal any weaknesses. "Your aura is different that what it was since the last time we fought…and not in a way that could be changed simply by changing training methods. What did you learn in Hong Kong that could have changed you so much?"

Ryu raised an eyebrow in curiosity at Sagat's question. "How would you know that I've been in Hong Kong?"

"I am your eternal rival, Ryu," Sagat answered, his voice matter-of-fact and emotionless like it was something as natural as saying that he was alive. "The promise of facing you again and becoming stronger is the one thing that drives me to continue fighting. I have long since lost interest in the Street Fighter tournaments, so I spend my days monitoring your progress, thinking about the new things you have learned in your quest to become a worthier opponent for me." The Muay Thai Emperor allowed himself a thin smirk as he continued. "So tell me, Ryu…what brings you to my realm this time?"

"…there's someone I have to defeat," Ryu answered, silently gathering his energies for the time where the talking would cease and their battle would begin. "There's a possibility that I will not leave that battle alive, so I've come to you to see if I am ready for the battle that lies before me."

"So you are using me as a benchmark for this 'deadly opponent' you must confront," Sagat concluded as his milky white eye started to glow yellow. "Very well: I shall see for myself how much you've grown since our last encounter. But beware, Ryu: if you treat me as nothing more than a preliminary bout…" With his orange energy burning in his hands, Sagat reared back for one of the many techniques that made him so frightening as a warrior. "…then you shall pay for your insolence with your life!"

When Ryu was recounting his very first encounter with Sagat to Chun-Li's students, the children made light of Sagat's attacks and even mimicked them in their own little way. There was one technique in particular, the Tiger Shot, that Ryu found particularly troublesome since it made even his Hadoken look inconsequential in comparison. The Tiger Shot represented a mastery of ki that few in the world could comprehension, and the students paid homage to the mighty technique by throwing fruit instead of ki.

Unfortunately for Ryu, the real thing was considerably more terrifying than a piece of fruit being thrown at him. The authentic Tiger Shot, shaped like a blade of fire that sped towards him like a bullet, had taken down so many powerful fighters, and it took all of Ryu's skill and reflexes to roll out of the attack's way so that he didn't get leveled by it. As soon as he returned to his feet, Ryu unleashed a blue Hadoken that sped towards Sagat with equal fervor, hoping to get an early start. However, Sagat's mastery of ki allowed him to gather enough energy for another Tiger Shot that destroyed the Hadoken before it could hurt him.

As the two ki blasts exploded against each other, Ryu charged the giant kickboxer. As intimidating and massive Sagat was, there was no way Ryu could defeat the Muay Thai Emperor in a battle of ki attacks. The only way I'm going to win is if I bring the fight up close and personal, Ryu told himself as the explosions faded to reveal Sagat already waiting for Ryu in his fighting stance. No matter what happens, I'm going to get hurt…but if I keep this in close quarters, I can at least have a chance to win.

As soon as Ryu entered striking distance, Sagat's long leg shot out like a whip and struck Ryu's arm with a standing knee, with the leg fully extending for a second kick upon impact. Even though Ryu managed to block the attack, the pain of the kick shot up through his arm and pushed him back. The giant kickboxer, sensing that Ryu was now out of his reach, charged his energy for another Tiger Shot, but the wandering warrior was quicker this time and unleashed a second, more powerful Hadoken that struck true in Sagat's abdomen.

Now's my chance, Ryu thought as Sagat stumbled backwards while the red flames from Ryu's Shakenetsu Hadoken died down. The remaining flames acting as a target, Ryu's leg shot out in a javelin-like motion for his Joudan Sokotou Geri, striking Sagat right in his sternum. In almost every other case, the kick had such power that it would send anyone sprawling backwards like they'd been hit with a battering ram. However, for an an opponent as powerful and massive as Sagat, the attack only buckled Sagat over and forced him to grip where he had been hit.

With Sagat's head now much closer to him than it would have had been while the kickboxer was standing upright, Ryu lowered his fist and prepared to drive it into Sagat's chin…but the kickboxer recuperated faster than he had anticipated, leaving Ryu open to a devastating straight punch to his chest. Ryu tried to let out a scream of pain, but the sound was stuck in his throat and only a pathetic gasp came out instead. Sagat's arms were bigger than Ryu's head, and were capable of shattering rocks. The wandering warrior was lucky that Sagat's fist didn't simply punch a hole through his chest.

With his opponent clutching his upper body like someone had just struck him with a spiked mace, Sagat returned to his feet and looked down upon the man he called his rival. "You'll have to be faster than that if you want to stop me," Sagat growled before using his giant hand to palm Ryu's head and lift the warrior off the ground as easily as Ryu would lift an apple off of the ground. "I told you: if you treated me as nothing more than a preliminary bout, you would pay the price."

Realizing how much trouble he was in, seeing Sagat crouch down slightly to deliver the devastating knee lifts that Muay Thai fighters were famous for, Ryu quickly gathered his energy and fired off another Hadoken, this time to Sagat's head. Although the Hadoken didn't have much power going into it, it struck the Muay Thai Emperor right in the face and blinded him enough to drop Ryu and cover where he had been hit. That was way too close, Ryu though as he let out a sigh of relief before rearing back for a more powerful attack. The next time that happens, I might not be able to get free!

"Tatsumaki Senpukyaku!"

Realizing how quickly Sagat could recuperate, Ryu took to the air and spun around with his leg extended for his powerful Hurricane Kick. The old scriptures of Ansatsuken described the attack as a technique with the power to clear forests like an unstoppable tornado. If that were the case, then what did that say about the hulking tree known as Sagat, who stood his ground even as the legs collided with his body like the blades of a helicopter. Whereas just one strike from the Hurricane Kick would send an opponent sprawling, Sagat endured all three of the revolutions before stumbling backwards and falling over.

Unfortunately for Ryu, Sagat threw his legs into the air and flipped back to his feet, reminding the wandering warrior that Sagat was every bit as athletic and swift as he was muscular and huge. "Damn," Ryu cursed before charging forward once again and attacking with a thrusting punch to Sagat's lower abdomen, pushing his fist as deep as it could go hoping it would have an effect. While Sagat did grunt in pain, it wasn't enough to keep him from lifting his elbow and dropping it on top of Ryu's head. Ryu let loose an anguished shout as the pain ran through his entire head, stunning him long enough for Sagat to once again pick him up and hold him into the air.

This time, Ryu was unable to prevent Sagat from driving his right knee into his midsection multiple times. It was bad enough to be caught in a clinch from a Muay Thai fighter, but it was even worse to be receiving them from the Emperor of Muay Thai fighters who made his peers look like pipsqueaks. The knees were delivered with piston-like force, and Ryu felt something collapse inside of him as he began to cough up blood. Sagat stopped for a moment when he felt the blood splatter against his chest, and then growled in frustration before slamming Ryu's head back into the ground.

"I know you've been training harder than that, Ryu," Sagat bellowed as he watched Ryu slowly get back to his feet, clutching his midsection where the giant almost impaled him onto his knee. "Why don't you show me what you can really do!" Lowering his guard and rubbing his hand against the massive scar on his chest, the Muay Thai Emperor continued to taunt Ryu. "I have not forgotten the promise we made on this scar, Ryu! You told me you would become stronger so that you could defeat me honorably! Show me what you can do!"

"HYAH!"

Letting out a powerful shout, Ryu drove his fist into Sagat's exposed sternum, making the Emperor pay for letting down his guard before the fight was over. Not willing to give Sagat a chance to recuperate, Ryu continued punching the sternum with rapid alternating fists. I have to keep pouring it on, Ryu thought as he continued punching Sagat's sternum while the Emperor's grunts started to become pained shouts. I don't know what's bothering me so much that I can't take him down, but if I fall here, there's no way I can possibly defeat Akuma!

Unlike Dan's Danretsuken, which kept punching rapidly until the punches started to lose power, Ryu was quite aware of how many punches he could throw before they stopped being effective. After the ninth punch connected, Ryu kept his hand lodged into Sagat's body before crouching down and jumping high into the air. As a result, his lodged fist rolled up Sagat's body like a car and collided with the giant's chin, lifting him off of his feet and into the air as Ryu completed his Reppu Jinrai Shou: a series of moves that he created specifically to create an opening for his powerful Shoryuken.

Sagat was the one to land first, planting his feet onto the ground and rubbing his chin while Ryu slowly descended onto his feet and let out a deep breath. "That's better," Sagat commented before he suddenly decided he was done waiting for Ryu to come at him, charging forward with great speed that belied his size. Even though Ryu had already entered his fighting stance waiting for the attack, he couldn't react fast enough to counter Sagat's leaping Tiger Knee Crush, with the attack hitting his sternum hard before riding up his body and colliding with his jaw. "But that is not the Shoryuken that I desire!"

Ryu landed on his shoulders and groaned in pain, cursing himself for not being able to track Sagat's attack. Opening his eyes, the wandering warrior gasped as he saw the giant plummeting down towards him knee-first. Quickly rolling out of the way, Ryu narrowly avoided getting crushed by Sagat, though the tiled floor beneath the monstrous kickboxer cracked into several fissures from his weight and power. The wandering warrior once again sensed an opportunity to attack, and made the most of it by running towards Sagat as he was still standing up and driving another Shoryuken into his chin.

"That is still not the Shoryuken I'm looking for," Sagat roared as he looked up to see Ryu still ascending into the air. Crouching down like the tigers he sparred with, the Muay Thai Emperor took flight and drove his own fist into Ryu's airborne body with a leaping uppercut of his own, the famed and terrifying "Tiger Uppercut." "Show me your true Shoryuken! Show me the true power of the move that left this scar upon my chest!"

Ryu crashed down hard onto his stomach, further damaging the area where Sagat's knees had been pounding into him like hammers and causing him to scream in pain. He's so unbelievably powerful, Ryu thought as he struggled to push himself off the ground, ignoring the voice in the back of his head telling him to give up. Even at his advanced age, he hasn't lost any of his speed and power. What is it going to take to bring this guy down!

"Your fists have told me much about what you have been doing since the last time we traded blows," Sagat rumbled as Ryu finally returned to his feet and resumed his fighting stance. "In the past, your fists were in the developing stages, searching for a defined form that would lead you to victory. However, your aura now is noticeably different: they speak of a man who knows where to channel his resolve and draw strength for that defined purpose!"

"Defined…purpose?" Ryu repeated with tired breaths. "What do you mean by that…Sagat?" As soon as Ryu finished those words, the sound of thunder rumbled throughout the area, causing both warriors to look into the sky and notice that during their battle, dark clouds had been gathering around them. Seconds later, Ryu felt droplets of rain come down on him, cooling off his body and mind and giving him a moment to reflect on Sagat's words.

"You have found true purpose in this world to continue fighting," Sagat said the rain started pouring down on him, washing off the sweat and blood covering him. "In the past, your fists were like the lightning in the clouds, randomly striking whatever stood in its way searching for the quickest way to its goal. Now, your fists are like this rain, whose purpose is to cleanse the land of impurity. Ryu…you too have a defined purpose now…but do you realize what it is?"

Closing his eyes as he too looked up at the rain falling down on his face, Ryu's thoughts drifted back to the sparring session he had in Hong Kong days before. This rain is like Chun-Li's Kikoken, he thought as he remembered the woman's signature ki technique brush against him, as well as the feelings from that time. The Kikoken didn't need to wash me away like a raging torrent: all it had to do was splash against me to confirm its existence.

Opening his eyes, Ryu lowered his head back down to Sagat and saw that the Muay Thai Emperor was conjuring up a bigger, more powerful ki attack by forming a vortex of energy between his hands: the immensely powerful Tiger Cannon. Without saying a word, Ryu cupped his hands and placed them to his side, creating his own vortex of energy by summoning crackling, electric-like ki and pouring it into his hands. There's no need to annihilate everything with unnecessary force: all that is required for victory is one strike to confirm my existence to my opponent.

"TIGER CANNON!"

"Denjin Hadoken!"

Unleashing their gathered energies, Sagat and Ryu pitted their respective ideologies against each other. Sagat was the tiger, the mighty lord of the Asian jungles that mauled everything that dared stood against it. Ryu was the wind, carrying the potential for great destructive capabilities but also capable of gentleness and tranquility. When those ideologies clashed in the form of their ki, there was chaos and plenty of bright sparking as the two attacks struggled to gain dominance.

After several seconds of being deadlocked, both attacks punched through and continued speeding towards their targets, but their great power had been lost. Instead of blowing the opponent away like they intended, what remained of the Tiger Cannon and Denjin Hadoken brushed against the two warriors lightly. "Your Tiger Cannon…it tells of a man who has been seeking to cleanse his fist of the darkness that dwelled inside of it," Ryu said the heat from the attack faded away.

"This Denjin Hadoken of yours is like nothing else I've felt from your ki attacks," Sagat replied as he looked down his crackling hand which he used to block the Hadoken. "Instead of using unrestrained destructive energy to overwhelm your adversary, you use focused, tamed energy to stun them. Impressive." Clenching his hand into a fist, Sagat washed away the foreign energy by gathering his ki into his hand. "Ryu…it's time to bring an end to this. I shall pit your most powerful Shoryuken against my own finishing move, the Tiger Destruction."

Inhaling and exhaling deeply, Ryu focused his own ki into his right fist until it hummed with blue energy. Once his power had reached his zenith, the wandering warrior charged towards Sagat. The key to victory would lie not in who could summon the most destructive and deadliest attack, but who was most aware of what he was truly fighting for. As he rushed closer and closer to Sagat even as the giant was coiled to strike with his mighty attack, all Ryu could think about was the woman who he had decided would be his ultimate destiny.

Chun-Li…

Seeing Sagat's burning fist rushing to meet him head on, Ryu moved his head to the size and narrowly avoided getting his jaw sent rocketing into his own brain. Even as the Tiger Destruction missed him, Ryu could feel the intense heat radiating from it. "My turn," Ryu shouted as he drove his glowing fist into Sagat's stomach, stopping the giant dead in his tracks. Pushing his fist deeper into the giant's body, Ryu crouched down before flying high into the air, causing his fist to ride all the way up Sagat's torso and driving it into his chin. "SHIN!" With his fist going past Sagat's chin and finally finding into destination under the bridge of Sagat's nose, Ryu soared higher into the air as Sagat rocketed upwards like a space shuttle. "…SHORYUKEN!"

Ryu landed softly on his feet as Sagat crashed down hard on the ground. Now that the battle was over, Ryu could once again feel the drops of rain pouring down on him…but the serenity was quickly broken that the rain coming down wasn't water, but blood! With his eyes looking back down to the fallen Sagat, he realized that the mighty emperor's chest with bleeding with a freshly-opened scar. "Sagat," Ryu rushed over to his rival as he watched the giant's blood pool on the soaked tiles. "Are you alright?"

"…Alright?" Sagat repeated amusingly as he sat back up and looked down at his wound. Though he started by chuckling softly, the Muay Thai Emperor eventually erupted into a hearty laugh as the blood from his scar stained his shorts. "HAHAHAHAHAHA…Ryu, you have fulfilled your promise to me wonderfully, and now my scar is weeping in joy!" Once again bursting into laughter as he returned to his feet, the giant looked down at Ryu and smiled at him. "There is indeed something different about you…and it is for the better. That Chun-Li is truly a remarkable person to have unlocked this side of you."

"How would you know about what happened between Chun-Li and I?" Ryu asked perplexedly.

"I told you, Ryu…monitoring your progress is how I pass the time now," Sagat explained as he pressed his hand against his scar. "I have contacts around the world telling me the progress of those that I deem worthy opponents, so that I can look forward to facing them. You spent several days in the former detective's care…and from what I was told, you found something within her that went deeper than mere respect between fighters." Looking at the blood now staining his hand, Sagat instead folded his arms even as blood streamed down him from the rain. "Tell me, Ryu…do you think she is the one?"

"…yes," Ryu nodded his head once before looking down at the white shirt covering his body now soaked in the rain. "The reason I have sought you out is because I intend to finally confront my master's killer. If I can defeat him, then I can be free to be by Chun-Li's side forever." Looking back to the smiling Sagat, Ryu bowed his head in respect. "I needed to face you one last time, Sagat, and prove to myself that I could succeed in this nearly-impossible task in front of me."

"You now have what you need from me, Ryu," Sagat said before pointing past Ryu towards, to the East. "Return to Japan and face your master's killer. This new scar you have given me will act as the promise that you will return alive, not just for myself, but for Chun-Li."

"…thank you for your blessing, Sagat," Ryu bowed once again before picking up his bag and walking out of the training grounds. "But no matter what happens to me when I face that man…know that you will always be the one that I call 'my greatest rival' and that I couldn't ask for a worthier opponent."

Before he heads to Japan to meet his destiny, Ryu goes to Thailand for one final showdown with his greatest rival, Sagat.
© 2010 - 2024 JellyfishKrag
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Awesome. That´s a good take on the respectul rivalry Sagat and Ryu have going on since the oldest days of the series. Always liked the idea that in time those two are more friends than enemies.