For the Fight Ch. 9
By RC

"Hello Mr..." the man at the head of the table began.

"Ryu."

"Ryu..." the man ventured.

"Just Ryu is fine." he said with a tone of finality. Ryu wasn't about to trust someone who had sent "guns for hire" after him, or treat them nice.

"I see." the man paused as he thought about something. "Well Mr... or Ryu, I apologize about the fashion you were contacted in, but your reputation as a fighter is very well-known to us, we just don't know about you as a person, so we had to take...procautions."

Ryu said nothing and the man took that as a sign to continue.

"You are here because the United Nations has requested that we send an undercover agent into a certain tournament which is suspected to be run by an individual named Bison..."

The man waited for a reaction and when one didn't come he smiled and continued.

"We are aware of your relationships with Bison in the past and we think you are the only individual with a chance of getting through his little tournament unscathed. It is rumoured in the underworld here in Hong Kong that the winner will get a special "gift" from Bison. We need you for this Ryu. It is imperitive that you help us. Bison has been thought dead, killed by you and now it seems he is back and he has reformed Shadowloo."

"I know he has reformed it." Ryu said matter-of-factly.

The man looked stunned for a moment and then regained his composure.

"And they have not made an attempt on you?"

Ryu shook his head.

"Bison plays games with me. He wants me to enter this tournament. I'm sure he wouldn't try to do anything to me, he'd much rather do that himself. He'll wait for me to rise through the ranks and then he'd do it personally...or he'd try."

The man considered this for a moment. Sending agents into a situation where their targets knew they were coming and knew what to look for was risky. Ryu could be picked off at any time and all he had to rely on was this man's judgement of Bison's own twisted sense of honor.

"We will fund your entry into the tournament and can give you some form of protection as well as the partnership of our top agent."

Ryu shrugged, "I'll happily take the money for the tournament, but I can't promise the safety of your people. Bison may not hunt me down, but he may want to make an example of your agents."

The man smiled widely and answered, "I assure you our agent can take care of buisiness."

Ryu nodded,"Alright, I'll do it."

He started to walk away toward Chin and turned back to the long black table, "Oh and what's this I hear about your gym and it's sparring bots?"