Path of the Warrior Ch.3
By Shadow Ryu

Ryu spent most of the next day helping Thuy out in the restaurant, carrying dishes to and from the kitchen along with other casual chores. When there was a small amount of time when the restaurant wasn't busy, Ryu did what he always did in his spare time. He trained.

Outside the back kitchen door was an area that provided enough room to practice some kicking. There wasn't a lot of space for him to manoevre, but he wasn't going to allow such a small detail stop him. He would just do the best he could with what he had.

As Ryu kicked on, Narin came out and sat on the concrete steps that led to the kitchen to watch his training. After watching him for a few minutes, Narin stood up and tried to mimick some of his movements himself. Ryu did not pay very much attention to him, but Narin still kicked away anyways. The boy lost his balance almost every time he tried to follow Ryu's kicks, but he would not let each failure dampen his efforts.

"How do you become a great fighter?" Narin asked him finally, when he found copying one of Ryu's side kicks became too difficult.

"Well." Ryu said not stopping his drilling. He was breathing nice and steady, and almost seemed comfortable conversing while putting a great deal of effort into his kicking. "It takes practice. Lots of practice. And a good teacher."

"Can you teach me?" Narin asked with an inquisitive look.

Ryu stopped throwing his kicks, a little bit surprised by the question. "Teach?" he asked as he looked at the boy, wiping the sweat off his forehead as he did.

"Yeah!" Narin responded with a joyful smile.

Ryu scratched his head. He'd never been asked this before. He'd always been a student; never a teacher.

"I don't know." Ryu responded. "I've never taught anyone before."

"Oh." Narin responded with disappointment. Taking a few seconds to realize his disappointment, Ryu decided to soften up a bit.

"How about this." Ryu said to him. He took a second to try and think of the methods Sensei Gouken uses to teach him and then continued. "Try this. It's a front kick. Very basic to get the movement. Follow me here."

"Okay!" Narin responded immediately assuming a fighting stance. Ryu smiled a bit at his enthusiasm.

"Okay. Start with the right leg. Bend the knee and bring your leg up, then snap your leg straight out quickly. Like this!" Ryu demonstrated the movement without too much power so Narin could see it properly.

"Like this?" Narin said as he attempted it. The boy slightly lost his balance but was able to execute something that resembled Ryu's movement.

Ryu smiled at his effort. "Something like that!" he said enthusiatically. "Keep trying! Lift the leg up then snap it out!"

Narin obeyed and kept on trying the kick, stumbling a few times in the process like most young beginners would. As Narin kept kicking away, Ryu joined in and continued the drill himself.

"Have you ever entered a tournament?" Narin suddenly asked.

"A tournament?" Ryu responded. "No. I've been in some fights and some exhibitions with my teacher, but never in a tournament."

"Why not?" Narin asked. "I'm sure you could win!" Narin stopped kicking as he felt his leg getting very tired. "There's a tournament that is going to take place here soon you know!"

"Really?"

"Yep! Why don't you enter it?"

Ryu stopped kicking for a moment. "No. I don't think so. My sensei told me that a lot of the wrong people run those types of things. He suggested to me that I stay away from them." Ryu could certainly remember sensei's protests when he found out that his former training partner, Ken, had entered tournaments in his home country.

"Oh." Narin responded in a confused tone. Narin had often watched the yearly tournament that passed through this region and was too young to understand some of the goings-on behind the tournament. All he cared about was the fighting.

"I have a friend who often competes in tournaments, but I'm not really like him." Ryu said simply as he stopped his drill long enough to start kicking with his opposite leg.

"Narin!" Thuy yelled, appearing at the kitchen door. "Can you come in and help me set up some tables!"

Narin sighed at first before responding. "Okay!"

As Narin left the fighter to his training, Ryu wiped the sweat that was pouring from his forehead due to the powerful Thai heat. He had never trained in such a hot climate before; even some of the other places he had already been to in southern Asia were not as humid as this. To him, though, the heat was just another obstacle to fight through. Instead of giving up or complaining about the heat, he just simply fought through it and continued throwing his kicks.

*****

Later that evening, Sagat and some of his students decided to dine at Thuy's restaurant. Adon, however, was not particularily happy about being there. Instead, he wanted to go off on his own, especially to drink lots of wine while flirting with the local women. Unfortunately for him though, his teacher demanded that he stay focused on the upcoming tournament and the tournament only. So, Adon was forced to sit, in relative boredom, with his teacher and a couple of other students instead of going about his life the way he would prefer to.

Much to Adon's dismay, Sagat recieved quite the response when he first entered the restaurant as many of the patrons in the restaurant seemed to recognize the World's Strongest Fighter and paid him a great deal of attention as he sat at his table. Sagat though, just went about his business as normal. He ordered the food, giving very little notice to the attention he was getting from the other diners. Adon seethed in jealousy. All Adon could think about was why Sagat wasn't introducing him as his top student to the many people who were dining at the restaurant. After all, Adon knew he would eventually be his teacher's successor as the future King of Muay Thai. And Adon was positive, at the very least in his own mind, that Sagat knew it.

While listening to the compliments that came from other tables, Adon then thought to himself about how his life had been controlled by his master lately. He was supposed to sleep early, wake up early, eat only what the master himself, Sagat, would allow. He wasn't a child anymore, but his teacher made him feel as if he was still a baby in a crib. He was tired of doing all of this for his teacher only to get little recognition for it in return for his hard work and dedication. That would change though and winning this upcoming tournament would ensure that. Then Sagat would have to give him his due. Then it would be his time to reign.

Sagat was aware, albeit not surprised, of Adon's unhappiness with being stuck in the restaurant. However, the champion was more distracted by the busboy that appeared every now and then from the kitchen. He found it quite odd, much like everyone else dining that night did, that a busboy would be performing his duties wearing a white karate uniform. Sagat could not really decide whether this boy was just dedicated to his martial art or if he was just posing as some kind of karate practitioner.

Meanwhile, as he carried the latest stack of dishes to the kitchen, Ryu was totally unaware of the attention that he recieved from the Muay Thai champ as he carried the dirty dishes to the kitchen. He was more distracted by the stares he was recieving from a strange woman who was sitting alone in the booth in the furthest corner of the restaurant. She wore a red dress and a yellow scarf which was odd attire for such a hot climate. Sitting very casually, all this woman had done since entering the restaurant was stare at Ryu as he went about his work. This made Ryu quite uncomfortable for reasons he couldn't completely explain.

"Ryu?" Thuy asked as she saw him about to retreat back to the kitchen. "Can you take this dish to table eight for me, please?"

"Okay." Ryu responded as he took a dish to table eight; the table in which Sagat and his entourage were sitting. Adon laughed as soon as he got his first clear look at Ryu as he put their food on their table.

"Well, well. What's this?" Adon said bursting out into a fit of his annoying laughter. "It's Karate Kid!" A couple of the other students at the table laughed at Ryu as well, although not nearly as loud.

"Enough." Sagat said throwing a cold stare at his students. Adon stopped laughing almost immediately. "You will not embarass me here. Show some discipline."

Adon sighed angrily in response, although not loudly enough for Sagat to hear him.

"You study martial arts? Karate?" Sagat asked Ryu calmly.

"Yes. Shotokan." Ryu answered simply not aware that he was responding to the King of Muay Thai himself.

"Good." Sagat responded unemotionally and the conversation ended as he did not give Ryu any more attention at all and instead turned his focus to the food that was now in front of him. Adon snickered at Ryu a little bit more as he left the table.

Ryu was not bothered in the least by Adon's rudeness. He had learned not to let himself become insulted by such cheap remarks. Besides, he was still so distracted by the stares he was getting from the odd woman sitting in the corner, that there was little else that was really on his mind. Her staring continued though, and would continue on as customers came and went as night began to fall.

*****

Later in the night, with only a few sparse customers remaining, which included the odd woman in the corner booth who was still showing the same amount of interest in the karate-uniformed busboy, the door of the restaurant opened softly allowing a rather physical-looking group of men to walk in. The group of mostly Thai men did not have expressions of good nature written on their faces. A couple of these men were already throwing out obsenities in their native Thai language at how ugly they thought the restaurant looked. In front of these men was a Caucasian man who contrasted the rest of the men behind him in the fact he was quite well dressed. Wearing a silky white jacket with a loose, red neck tie and an expensive blue hat, he definitely stood out from the others who were garbed in the T-shirt and jeans fashion.

"Come on, boys." the man said as he walked a few steps forward inside the restaurant.

After the group organized themselves at the entranceway of the building, a bald man in a dark black suit who walked with a fancy gold cane followed in behind his thugs and placed himself in front of them. Following behind this man was the thug, Birdie, who was cracking his knuckles, seeming generally enthusiastic about being there.

"So, you want me to go to work?" Birdie said in an anxious tone.

"Hold on. You've got to show a little patience." the bald man said with a devious grin. Looking through his thin spectacles, the man observed every corner of the restaurant before focusing onto Thuy who was pouring a drink at the bar. Busy with her work, Thuy did not notice the new visitors at first, but finally showed an immediate look of concern when she realized who had come in. Putting the glass and the bottle she had in her hands down on the counter towards the group yet making sure she was a safe distance away.

"What are you doing here?" Thuy protested. "I have until tomorrow to make the payment!"

"Well, I'm afraid to inform you of this dear," Mr. Black interrupted. He had an extremely arrogant tone of an English accent. "But I'm afraid I have other appointments to keep tomorrow, so I decided to come and settle up tonight. Of course, then again, my dear. I know you certainly don't have the money, do you?"

Thuy responded to the question with silence.

"I thought not." Mr. Black said with no surprise motioning his. "Then I'm afraid we have a bit of a problem, won't we boys?"

On cue with Mr. Black's suggestion, the man at the front with the flashy blue hat produced a baseball bat that he had been concealing behind his back and smiled widely with approval.

"I'm afraid your restaurant will not survive the night then."