The Path of the True Warrior Ch. 20
By Ryu-san

"WHAAAAAAAAAAT!!!"

A loud scream can be heard throughout the whole of China.

"Where did that JERK go!" Chun-li fumes.

"Chun-li, calm down, luv. It's not like something bad happened to him. He just left after all," Cammy tells a very p*ssed off Chun-li.

"He should've known better than to run off. When I find him, I'm gonna…"

"Chun, look, I've found a note!" Cammy says as she lifts a piece of paper.

"……" Cammy's face darkens with each word.

"What's it say!?" Chun-li asks.

"It's written in Japanese…" Cammy tells her.

"Well if you couldn't read it, then why didn't you just say so!?" Chun-li yells. "I learned some rudimentary Japanese while I was stationed in Japan…let's see…" Chun-li says as she grabs the note.

"Basically it's saying that he left for Thailand and that he'll be back in a few days…" Chun-li translates. She rises with a resolute face.

"Hm…That settles it! Let's go, Cammy!" Chun-li says as she heads into her room.

"Uh, what!?" Cammy asks in curiosity.

"Aren't you going with me?" Chun-li asks her.

"Going where?" Cammy asks.

"To Thailand, of course," Chun-li tells her.

"…Seems like an awful lot of work doesn't it?" Cammy asks. ;-)

"No, not at all. Are you coming or not!?" Chun-li asks from the other room.

"Sure! Just give me a few minutes to pack my things!" Cammy yells as she heads into her own room.

In a certain Chinese dojo…

"WATAAAAA!" Fei-Long yells as he grinds another punching bag into dust with his fist.

"It seems that, at least superficially, you've improved. Do you wish to spar with me?" Gen asks Fei.

"Of course, sifu!" Fei says as he charges for Gen. Gen easily sidesteps and punches Fei in the ribs. Fei drops to the floor, clutching his side.

"Done already?" Gen asks, with his eyebrow raised.

"Just, huff, getting, puff, started…" Fei says as he gradually rises. He jumps into the air and kicks downward. Gen leans back and jumps into the air, utilizing his gekirou, kicking Fei into the air seven times. Fei falls to the floor and drops down on his back. He rises again. Gen taunts Fei by motioning him to attack. Fei's pride forces him to rush Gen with a rekkaken but Gen rolls forward and punches Fei several times.

"Fei! You should really meet this man named Ryu. Now HE is on the path to becoming a true warrior…You, on the other hand, are too easily distracted and provoked, in addition to having less devotion to the fight!" Gen yells. Fei's hand turns into a rapidly shaking fist that turns into flame as Fei runs forward and strikes Gen with it. He rushes forward and punches Gen six times with his fist and then he leans on his back leg and then jumps forward with a dragon kick.

"ARAAGH!" Gen yells as he falls backward.

*What on earth was that!?* Gen wonders as his head falls to the ground, knocking him unconscious.

"I AM BETTER THAN HIM! I WILL NOT LOSE TO HIM! I'LL PROVE EVERYBODY WRONG!" Fei yells as he walks out of the dojo.

*Ryu this, Ryu that…I am the strongest…I will prove it with my fists…*

In a mayor's office…

"Uhhhhh…"

"I think he's coming around…"

"What happened, where am I?" Ken asks as he looks around. He sees a large man wearing a suit staring at him.

"Well, well, Ken, you finally woke up," the man said.

"Who are you? And where is this?" Ken asks the man.

"Why, this is my office! I'm the mayor, Haggar, and Guy brought you in here. After the match, he brought you in here and he said that he had to help a fellow named T. Hawk look for a girl," Haggar tells him.

"Oh, that's right! Well, I'd better get going too, thanks for the hospitality. I am THE Ken Masters and if you need anything just give me a call…" Ken says as he closes the door. *I'd better look for Ryu…*

Meanwhile, in Thailand…

*Blink*

Ryu blinks. *What happened?*

Ryu opens his eyes to see that he is on top of a bed. He rises slightly so that he can see his surroundings. He looks around and sees that it is inside a dark hut of some sort. He looks down to see that he is wearing bandages and other medical treatments for that which ails him. He walks out of bed and into the world outside and he squints, his eyes adjusting to the sun, and he spots a few young children playing. Two small boys are having a pretend sword fight with sticks, a few young girls are playing various games of their own and one small young girl sits apart from the others by herself. Ryu walks over to the girl.

"Hello," Ryu greets her. "I'm Ryu, what's your name?"

The little girl turns around, stops whatever she was doing before and looked up at the stranger before her. She is holding a small doll in her arms and seemingly stares into Ryu's soul with her large brown eyes. Ryu, though a bit overwhelmed by this serious-looking little girl, tries to talk to her, undaunted.

"You don't feel like talking to me? That's ok…Do you want me to tell you a little bit about myself?" Ryu asked her. The girl nodded. Ryu goes on to talk about five minutes on his general information, always looking for some sort of response from the girl.

"…so anyway, I travel the world and…"

"Watashi Shinomori Kasumi," the little girl tells Ryu. Ryu stares at her in shock for a few seconds but then a smile lights up his face.

"That's a nice name…Kasumi…" Ryu tells her. "Kasumi, are you lonely playing here by yourself?"

"Yes…but the other kids don't want to play with me…" Kasumi tells him.

"Why is that?" Ryu wonders.

"They say that I'm weird. They say that whenever they go near me, they feel scared inside," she tells him mysteriously.

*I wonder…! This is the girl from the dream!*

"Well, I'll be your friend," Ryu tells her. "Do you want to do anything with me?"

The girl thinks for a few moments, smiles, and nods her head. She spreads her arms and motions for Ryu to turn around with his back facing toward her. Ryu thinks about this for a few seconds and realizes that she wants a piggyback ride. He crouches so that she can grab on to his shoulders and he then lifts her, carrying her on his back. She tells him to go to various places and Ryu runs to the places she points to, running, jumping and doing other unusual tricks to keep her occupied. After about twenty minutes, she asks him to go to her house so Ryu runs to her house, still carrying her. He then drops her off in front of her house and he realizes that it is the same place that he woke up from.

"This is…your house?" Ryu asks her.

"Yes! That was fun! Let's play again tomorrow, Ryu-nee!" (nee refers to a sibling, in this case 'brother') the girl says as she runs into the house.

"That was interesting…Ryu-nee, eh? Hm…what a nice little girl…" Ryu says to himself.

"Excuse me, Ryu-sama?" Ryu turns around and the sees the same Japanese woman from before.

"Konnichi de gozaru wa," Ryu greets her.

"Genki desu ka?" the woman asks.

Before Ryu can respond, the little girl comes out again.

"Nee-san! Do you want to…" she starts to say but stops, her eyes wide open at the sight behind Ryu.

"What's the problem, Kasumi-chan?" Ryu asks her. Ryu turns around and sees a towering figure standing at the gate of the village with three people behind him. The one to the left is a wicked-looking man with a scar from his left cheek all the way to his right cheek. His jet-black hair is tied in a ponytail and he appears to have great strength. The next man has an evil mask on, with horns popping out and sharp 'teeth' jutting out, and his hand has claws on both of them. This man is constantly bouncing rapidly on the balls of his feet and Ryu feels that he will have great speed. The third man behind is relatively normal in appearance, with his blonde hair in bangs and his arms crossed. He says nothing and appears to show no emotion as he merely looks at Ryu with contempt. The tall man has a hat on, he is also carrying a bat and he is wearing a suit.

"Who're they?" Ryu whispers to the Japanese woman.

"I will explain better later but they are part of a gang of men that constantly harass our village," the woman explains.

"HEY! YOU! WHO'S THE NEWCOMER!?" the tall man yells. "Oh well, it doesn't matter. Go get what we came for!"

The three men behind him walk towards Ryu and grab the little girl. Ryu jumps in the middle of all three and hit their heads together with a tatsumaki senpuukyaku.

"Are you ok?" Ryu asks the little girl. The girl says nothing as she tightly clings on toe Ryu's leg.

"What do you think you're doing!?" the tall man yells, shocked at Ryu's temerity.

"I hate people like you!" Ryu yells back.

"We'll see about that! Kill him!" Ryu already leaps into battle, grabbing the masked man's arm and kicking him in the face several times, HARD, so that the man falls down unconscious. He then ducks underneath the scarred man's jump-kick and grabs the man's outstretched leg, slamming him to the ground. He throws the man back and forth and then throws him out of the village. The blonde man runs forward and feints a kick. Ryu runs forward and the man punches Ryu. Ryu takes the hit, grabs the man by his neck, and smashes his head to the ground. He then lifts both this man and the masked man and throws both of them out of the village as well.

"What…you'll regret this!" the man yells as he picks up his fallen comrades and runs out of the village.

Ryu turns to the woman and the little girl.

"Are you two ok?" Ryu asks.

"Yes, we're fine…but I better explain some things to you," the woman tells Ryu. She leads Ryu to her house and the little girl follows. The woman sits down on a chair while Ryu does the same and the little girl sits on Ryu's lap.

"Now, you may have many questions but I'll try to explain everything from the beginning. First, those four men you saw out there, they are working for somebody else. That somebody is much stronger than those four weaklings are. In fact, his fighting ability is so great that he defeated 100 men all attacking at once. You defeated those underlings before they had a chance to attack with their full strength but even those weaklings possess great fighting ability. The daicho (leader) of the people lives in a castle where he kidnaps people and kills others for fun and money. He has selected my daughter because…well, because she is a special girl," the woman tells him.

"Special? In what way?" Ryu asks.

"Well, do you remember up in the mountains, where you lost to an old lady?" she asks.

"Yes…! I'm sorry! I couldn't get it, she was too strong……! How do YOU know that!?" Ryu asks her.

"I WAS the old lady," she tells him.

"????" Ryu is still bewildered.

"I have special powers. I can change myself into different shapes and forms as well as create illusions to attack others," she tells him.

"Then, why don't you just attack those men?" Ryu asks.

"If only it were that easy! Those men are part of a giant underground organization who supplies them with incredible technology. Right now, they…" she stops, looking at her daughter.

"Um, would you mind leaving Mr. Ryu and me alone, honey?" she asks the little girl.

"Ok," the little girl says as she walks out of the room. The woman waits until she leaves and then she walks right next to Ryu and whispers in his ear.

"…Those men control my daughter and they can kill her whenever she wants because they experimented on me once they discovered I had special powers. She was a creation, made in a lab and not from a hospital. They have special technology that can explode her cells, causing her body to deteriorate and die. She's still my daughter, though, and I will do anything to protect her," the woman says.

"So ka," Ryu says as he clenches his fest, causing his knuckles to turn white. "Can you give me a few days to think about this? I think that if they believe I'm not helping you when I attacked them but rather I wanted revenge, then I think I can go stop that machine with them harming Kasumi-chan. Just tell me where this castle is and I WILL stop this!"

The woman looks shocked as Ryu's eyes start to glow red faintly but she tells him the location anyway out of fear for her daughter. Ryu walks out of the hut and begins to walk to the castle.