Path of the Warrior Ch. 7
By Shadow Ryu

"No, no," Thuy told Ryu the next morning as they had breakfast in the hotel's restaurant. "You don't have to do this for me. You've done more than enough already. I don't want you to get hurt."

"It's no problem," Ryu said. "I think I'd like to try it out anyways. I've never been to a tournament before. I . . . think it would be a challenge." Ryu wasn't being entirely truthful. In fact, he still had doubts about entering, solely because he knew his sensei was against entering these types of tournaments. He wondered what Gouken's reaction would be if he found out. Still, he had to try to ease Thuy's concerns.

"The money is not important," Thuy added. "I will get by. I always have before."

"But this way, you'll get the restaurant back!" Narin interrupted. "There isn't anybody who can beat Ryu!"

Thuy was not very sure of that. She had once gone to that tournament a few years ago and saw a fighter break his leg in the middle of a match. The snapping sound was too much for most people watching the fight, especially her. After seeing such a horrific sight, she did not want to go see another tournament again, especially if it was Ryu himself that could suffer such a fate. And since he was such a young age, she didn't doubt for one second that it could happen to him.

"I still don't know," Thuy said to Narin. "Fighting is very dangerous. I don't think you realize just how much danger Ryu was in last night, you know."

"But he won!" Narin told her.

"There's more to it than winning," Thuy stated bluntly. An awkward silence filled the next few seconds.

"The way I'm trained, it's not to let myself lose under any circumstance," Ryu stated boldly. "I've trained all my life in karate. I'm not going into this unprepared. I know what to expect."

Rose, busy unpeeling an orange, smiled in response to Ryu's strong statement.

"I'm afraid that doesn't make me feel any more secure on the matter," Thuy stated frankly.

"Come on!" Narin complained. "I know Ryu can do it!"

Thuy looked at the boy's excited look before gazing into Ryu's determined eyes. "Well, I suppose I can't keep you from trying," she finally said. "But I won't . . . I can't be there. I'm afraid I'm not the type that likes to watch violence."

"That's fine," Ryu said. "I'll fight my best."

Thuy smiled nervously. "I'm sure you will. I just hope it doesn't get you killed."

They all went suddenly silent after Thuy mentioned such a risk. The mere mention of such a risk seemed to shock Narin especially.

"Well, since we have that all settled, I say eat up," Rose said, breaking the tension. "Besides, I'm sure Ryu here has a lot of preparation to take care of. The tournament is in two days."

*****

About an hour after breakfast, Ryu went back to his training, putting even more intensity into his drilling than normal in preparation for the upcoming competition. As he worked on his combinations, Rose leaned on the wall observing the young fighter progress. Narin was right next to her, sitting quietly on the ground.

"You look very good," Rose told him. "You are in extraordinary physical condition."

"Thank you."

"But," she continued. "You do realize that the best way to prepare for a fight is not just punching and kicking air, do you not?"

Ryu looked up at her, wiping off the sweat pouring from his forehead. "What do you mean?"

"It's quite necessary to practice your moves, but you also have to put those moves into application. For that, you might need a sparring partner."

Ryu gave her a puzzled glare before realizing what she was getting at. "You?"

"Why not?" she responded cheerfully. "I've learned a trick or two."

"I don't think so," he said with an embarrassed look.

"Oh come now," she told him. "I'm a big girl. I know how to put up with big boys like you."

Ryu shrugged in disbelief. However, before he could protest even more, Rose moved forward and attacked kicking him in the side sharply. The blow hurt Ryu more than he expected it to, and he promptly assumed a defensive stance. Rose attacked further, throwing what looked like a punch at his face, but when he tried to block it, the blow almost disappeared as if it had never happened. Instead, he buckled over in pain as another kick impacted into his stomach. When Ryu recovered, he saw another kick coming, but just like the previous punch, it too disappeared as if it was just an illusion and was replaced by an uppercut which took him right off his feet and into the air. Looking back down to the ground, he saw Rose jump right up with him as she grabbed him around his head and pushed him back to the ground the opposite way, helping the law of gravity fulfill its duty. Ryu landed with a sudden crash. Sucking up some air, he tried to get up but as he did, the heel of Rose's right high heeled shoe was a fraction away from hitting him right in the nose.

"Wow!" Narin exclaimed from the steps as he gave Rose some applause.

"Why thank you, sir," she said to her newest fan as she held her heel right at Ryu's head. Ryu did not move. He did not really want to fight against her.

"Is this the same man I saw beat up a gang of thugs last night?" she said to him. "Doesn't look like it to me. Come on, Ryu. Fight with me. Don't be shy."

Ryu pushed her leg away and decided to delay no longer. But despite finally attacking, he threw a remarkably weak punch into her stomach, which did not injure Rose in the slightest. Rose countered by slapping him in the face.

"Come on, Ryu," she mocked. "You can hit harder than that."

Unimpressed with the taunting, Ryu hopped into action and threw some punches at her, but was still obviously holding back. Rose countered by dodging most of them and only responded with a warm smile as she did.

"That's a little better, but you're still being soft on me."

After giving up on the punches, Ryu threw his leg up in the air as high as he could, preparing to drop an axe-kick down onto Rose's shoulder. However, before his foot reached the intended target, something wrapped around his leg and tightened. Before he could react to it, Ryu found himself flung into the air, spinning horizontally twice before landing heavily on the ground. Quickly, he rolled backward and pushed himself back up to his feet with a handspring. When he focused his eyes back upon his opponent, he saw his opponent calmly wrapping her scarf back around her neck.

"Come on," she said, using her hand to invite him back into the fight. "We're not done yet."

Ryu stepped back and decided on another strategy. He focused his spirit and amassed as much energy as quickly as he could. He figured that if he could not fight effectively hand to hand in close, that he would try and show her a few other tricks he had up his sleeve.

"HADOKEN!" Ryu cried as he let a ball of electric energy expel from his hands. He only put enough energy into it that he felt was necessary to avoid injuring her severely. In a split second the ball flew right at Rose, but she did not flinch. In fact, with a quick movement of her hands, she seemingly caught the fireball and shrunk the energy into nothing in an instant.

"Nice move." Rose commented. "Too bad I've seen it before."

Ryu looked at her in awe. He had never seen anyone do anything like that to a chi attack before, not even his sensei. The only way to counter the hadoken as far as he knew was to get completely out of the way of it. It took a few seconds for what had happened to register in his mind.

"Well, don't just stand there," Rose teased. "Do something!"

Ryu moved forward again and threw a front kick which Rose dodged slightly. He followed up with a right cross which she promptly ducked. Frustrated at being dodged, he grabbed her arm and tried to throw her, but Rose simply shrugged it off somehow and slipped out of his grasp. As he moved forward once more, he felt silk wrap around his arm. As soon as he felt it, he tensed his muscles and pulled backward as hard as he could. When he did, he stumbled back in clumsiness. When he regained his balance, he noticed that Rose's silk scarf was wrapped around his arm, but Rose had apparently let go of it. He regained his focus just barely in time to duck a kick Rose threw out of nowhere at his head and then blocked another kick aimed at his stomach. Rose quickly moved in and grabbed the other end of the scarf.

"I'll take that back, thank you," she quipped as she spun around swiftly, unraveling the scarf from Ryu's arm and quickly wrapping it back around her neck.

Ryu ignored the comment and attacked again this time with a short kick aimed at her leg. Rose lifted her leg to avoid it and countered with a side kick which Ryu blocked. Rose moved forward to attack, but Ryu pushed her backward quite a distance, knocking her off balance in the process, and immediately charged up enough energy in the hope he could catch her off guard this time.

"HADOKEN!" he yelled once more. Rose had to react quickly to counter, and she did once more. Quickly unwrapping her scarf once more, she waved it in front of her and reflected the hadoken away from her and right back at Ryu. The hadoken sped up when it was sent the opposite direction and it shocked Ryu into reaction. Quickly moving to the side, he managed to move to the side as it sailed past him. He did it too quickly in fact, as he fell on his posterior awkwardly. Ryu looked back in disbelief as the hadoken sailed past and disappeared into the air.

Rose jumped in while Ryu was distracted and smacked him in the cheek with an open hand. The impact brought him back into the fight and he countered by once again pushing Rose back to gain himself some space to recover. Rose pressed forward again and tried to slap him again, but Ryu ducked it and countered with a spinning roundhouse kick aimed high. The kick hit nothing but air, and when Ryu turned around, she had disappeared. A quick, darting look around helped him find her once again, about five paces to his right. Rose was casually standing there with her arms folded and the index finger of one hand touching her mouth. From her comfortable posture, it was hard to tell that she had just been fighting mere seconds ago.

"Mmmm," Rose hummed. "Very good. Quite exciting to see someone with such youthful energy I have to admit," She relaxed her posture and walked over to him. "I think that's enough for now. It was an honour to spar with you."

Ryu relaxed himself and once again wiped the sweat off his forehead with his forearm. Showing proper respect, he bowed to the lady. He was mostly happy that it was over. He did not feel comfortable fighting a lady.

"However, I must give you some advice going into this tournament. There will be a lot of Muay Thai fighters. If you are to survive more than two fights, I think you'll have to get one strategy into your head."

"Okay," Ryu responded giving her his complete attention.

"These fighters like to get in close and throw knees into their opponent's stomach. They also like to strike to the upper extremities with elbows to try and finish their opponents off. Judging from the way you fight, it would probably be best if you kept your distance as well as you can. I think fighting at a longer range will work well into your game plan."

Ryu shook his head in agreement. "That's usually how I fight," he admitted. "So I think I can do that."

"That's good to hear. If any of your opponents get too close, try to push them off like you just did to me a couple of times or throw them, and I think you will be successful."

"Thank you for the advice," Ryu said, bowing his head once more.

Rose walked in and closed the distance between them. "Trust me, my dear. It was my pleasure." Without hesitation, she moved in and kissed him on the lips. Ryu, who did not expect it in the slightest, opened his eyes wide in surprise. For the seconds the kiss lasted, his body froze as stiff as an iceberg. When her lips left his, Ryu breathed out slowly and turned beet red from embarrassment. Rose just smiled and touched him softly once just below his lips before stepping away from him.

"If you have any questions, just come and ask me, handsome. Okay?"

Ryu said nothing and just nodded his head up and down twice with the look of embarrassment still etched on his face.

"Ciao," Rose said as she walked back to the hotel, giving him a sweet wave as she left. After she walked through the front door, Ryu stood there for about a minute, in shock from what had happened. He had never been kissed before and he was hardly expecting his first kiss to happen so suddenly. As he slowly recovered from the shock, he finally realized that someone was laughing behind him.

The giggling came from Narin, who had still been sitting on the steps watching the entire fight. "You got kissed by a girl!" he exclaimed, pointing at him as if he was guilty of a crime.

Ryu looked over at the boy and scratched his head nervously. The only thing he could do was to give him a chagrined smile, as his face turned even more red from embarrassment