Here are the final two chapters to this particular story. it's been a 
shorter trip than it was the first time around, but no rewarding.
Comments, as always, are appreciated.

Chapter 15

It, perhaps he, waited in silence in the darkness. A great many things
were happening all around it. People were rushing past it in steady
waves. Their faces became a blur, a mosaic of noses, eyes, and mouths.
But none of these faces belonged to the man that it was waiting for. So
it sat cross-legged on the floor, biding its time.

With every moment that passed, its body became more and more real. Its
bones of ether hardened and its muscles solidified into taut sinews that
flexed with the motions of its arms and legs. It was slowly gaining
feeling, too. When it had first raced through the halls it had known
only that it was moving through a hall and nothing about what that
entailed. Now it could feel the cold stones beneath its feet and it
could feel the warmth being leeched from its body through the thin
semblance of the grey _gi_ that it was wearing. But, strangely enough,
its eyes were unaffected. They remained two points of glowing red,
despite the fact that the face around them had coalesced into hard,
angular features locked into a perpetual sneer.

Its lips moved slowly, very slowly, as they formed words. It spoke in a
quiet voice that was inaudible to the ears of those men and women
rushing by. If you could hear the voice, though, you would say that it
was harsh and grating and thoroughly unpleasant. It was not the voice of
a person that one would like to spend any time listening to, and the
topic of the one-sided conversation was even less pleasant. Only one
person in the compound had the misfortune of hearing the demon's words.
The demon's voice was an incessant whisper that never ceased, not even
for an instant. Its harsh voice could always be heard, no matter the
noise level, as a low buzzing in the background. And always it said the
same thing, taunting its victim.

And soon, very soon, it would reap the benefits of its long labours.

* * * * * * * * * *

It had started the minute they had begun making their way down the steps
and into the hidden secrets beneath the temple. It was, at first, a low
humming sound that was indistinguishable from the steady throbbing of
the base's power generator. He frowned, perplexed by the humming, and
that had elicited a question from both Chun and his student. Ryu had
shrugged it off and replied negatively to their queries. But the hum
persisted. Even now he was hearing it, below the throbbing of a nearby
power generator, below the sound that he and the others made breathing,
below the beating of his heart as it pumped blood through his veins and
arteries.

"...Ryu?" asked Chun as she stepped closer towards him. The
investigator's eyes expressed the same worry that she had voiced in a
single word. "Is there something wrong? You seem very distracted."

"Yeah," piped in Sakura. "You looked out of it for a while. In there
something wrong, _Sensei_?"

He started at the word--_sensei_. The words stirred up memories of _his_
teacher, who had died, been killed, so recently in battle with a demon
or spirit or something. Images of Gouken's last moments flared quickly
to life, filling the young fighter with a violent heat that was
dominated by the loud humming in his ears.

"Ryu?" asked Chun again as she stopped and laid a soft hand on his
shoulder. "Are you all right?"

Ryu closed his eyes and forced himself to calm down. "I'm fine," he
replied at last, his eyes opening wearily.

Chun Li looked at him, her gaze falling on his dark eyes searchingly.
But a chilly calm had descended over the dark haired fighter, and his
eyes--or what was behind them, anyway--were submerged beneath an opaque
layer of ice. 'Do you remember what we talked about?' she asked him
silently, willing him to understand. 'Do you remember?' But he showed no
signs of hearing, of course, and she sighed and let her hand slide off
his shoulder.

The corridor they had followed opened up into a large, multilevel
concourse. The walls were littered with display panels and letter and
number designations painted in bright, metallic colours. In the centre
of the room stood a raised circular dais, 10 metres wide. A console
stood atop a thin stalk like a metal mushroom, in front of a glowing
hologram. It was, they saw, a representation of the compound erected in
yellow light.

Eliza descended upon the map eagerly, her hair streaming for a brief
moment behind her like a banner or a kite as she ran to the console. Her
eyes scanned the console and its holographic display eagerly. Eliza's
fingers roamed over the unfamiliar controls very slowly at first. Then,
as she became more familiar with the layout of the commands, her fingers
accelerated. "Here!" she exclaimed at last, indicating a section of the
map that had become blue with a finger. "This is where they're keeping
Ken."

The others joined her at the console. She was right; Ken was being held
within the blue coloured sector. They made other discoveries, too.
Tapping a few controls allowed them to rotate the map and to zoom in or
out on specific areas of the compound.

"This would appear to be our position," noted Rose, pointing to an area
a little off the centre of the map with a violet lacquered fingernail.

"What are those?" asked Sakura nervously, as she pointed at a series of
small dots moving rapidly towards their location. "Those aren't what I
think they are, are they?"

They turned as one to see Adon and the guards that had been placed under
his command enter the concourse from the corridor opposite to them. Not
including Adon, there were six Shadowlaw warriors.

Ryu stirred to life at their appearance, his expression darkening. He
leapt down the dais, placing himself between the two groups. "Eliza,
Sakura: stay back!" he barked, not bothering to turn around to see if
the two women had followed his instructions. They were already very far
away from his conscious thoughts. The humming sound that had been
plaguing him had escalated into a full-fledged whine.

Chun Li reacted only a fraction of a second more slowly than Ryu had,
drawing and turning off the safety on her gun in one smooth motion.
Before she could get off even a single shot, however. She saw a flash of
red hair and then the gun was no longer in her hand; it flipped through
the air until it came to an abrupt stop against one of the walls. Adon
stood before her, a nasty grin gracing his countenance.

"No guns," he said mockingly. "If we have to play fair, so do you."
Then, without warning, the kick boxer launched a furious attack,
throwing a series of punches and elbows at dizzying speeds. It was all
that she could do to back away from the strikes, to duck beneath a punch
and dodge the elbows that Adon used with reckless abandon.

Out of the corner of her eye, Chun saw a streak of yellow lash forward.
Adon saw it a fraction of a second after she did. By then it was too
late for him to avoid the shawl as it struck and coiled around his neck
like a snake. And then, like a giant fist, it lifted him up and threw
the kick boxer against one of the metal walls.

"Are you all right?" asked Rose as she reeled in her shawl. Her violet
eyes never left the kick boxer, who was slowly rising to his feet.

Chun Li nodded and looked around, searching for Ryu in the chaos of the
battle. She found him surrounded by four of the Shadowlaw guards. The
black haired fighter was holding his own against the four men, but that
was all. There were too many for him to take the offensive. She knew,
rationally, that he shouldn't have a chance against so many at the same
time, and yet there he was, defending himself and, even more
astonishing, now attacking. Ryu had only been waiting for an opportunity
and when he saw one, he took it, with devastating results. It took only
a single blow to the kidneys to knock out the man standing before him.
In almost the same motion--only his footing changed--Ryu struck the man
to his right, a fist connecting heavily with a jaw. Then Ryu turned to
face the remaining two assailants.

But the intrepid investigator could not spare any attention; she had two
problems of her own. Two guards--both heavy set men, each standing about
six feet tall, but of no significant character--had come up to her
nearly unnoticed while her gaze had been locked so intently on Ryu's
battle. Only the loud shriek of warning from Sakura's lips alerted the
investigator to the rapid approach of the two Shadowlaw guards.

She turned towards them and then, almost immediately, she leaned
backwards so that her hair kissed the floor as a foot entered the space
that she had just vacated. She had little time to appreciate the sight
of the Shadowlaw regulation boot above her head as another foot came
crashing down, ready to stomp her into the next life. Reacting quickly,
Chun rolled away from the stomping boot and spun adroitly to her feet.
The two guards stood frozen in surprise. Never had they seen anyone move
so quickly and with such agility, too. Once burned, twice shy--or so the
saying goes, and they advanced with a good deal of caution.

Chun watched with growing trepidation. She was faster than they were; of
that was she certain, but she was well aware of what the consequences
might be if they penetrated her defences and she had no illusions at all
in regards to her own martial skill.

Conferring with one another, the two guards suddenly rushed towards her
at the same moment, obvious hoping that they could overcome her speed
with sheer strength of numbers. For a moment, she stood still, frozen
with indecision, as the guards came closer and closer. Then, galvanised
into a course of action, she rushed towards them, her dark eyes steely.
She saw the sudden tension in her assailant's shoulders and she allowed
a feral smile to form on her pale lips.

For a moment, a tiny moment, the hearts of the two guards stopped and
there was fear.

Chun Li leapt high over them, her body twisting lithely and impossibly
in the air so that when her feet touched the ground again, she had
turned herself completely around. Immediately she smashed both of her
fists into the back of one of the guards, eliciting a shriek of pain and
the added benefit of pushing him forward and off of his feet and,
temporarily at least, nullifying the threat he represented. By this
time, though, the other man had turned around to face her, but he lacked
conviction. His attacks were half-hearted and she deflected or dodged
them all easily, eventually putting him down with a swift strike to his
abdomen and a kick that spun him off his feet and to the floor.

A wild thrill coursed through the investigator's veins and she knew, for
the first time, the thrill of combat, the rush of adrenaline, and the
speed and strength that was contained in her lithe frame. It was wholly
intoxicating.

A pulse of energy, roughly the size of her fist, flew crackling past her
eyes. She looked towards the source of the energy pulse and remembered
that Rose had rescued her from a battle with the Thai kick boxer Adon.
The violet haired fortune teller had launched the pulse from her shawl,
which still emitted a bright bluish glow. But she had missed and the
kick boxer had retaliated with a rapid series of kicks and punches that
had surged past Rose's guard before she knocked him away with a glowing
shield of blue energy.

A thin trickle of blood trailed from the corner of Rose's lush lips and
she smiled thinly. Adon was bleeding from a half a dozen little nicks
and bruises all across his tanned, lanky frame. He was breathing hard,
raggedly, his breath coming in short, panting bursts. Rose's eyes met
Chun's eyes and they flared into two small azure lights. Three shadowy
forms, roughly human in shape, coalesced around the tall fortune teller,
each taking its own stance.

"Parlour tricks?" muttered Adon. "I don't much like parlour tricks." The
kick boxer jumped towards one of the shadows and his fist and feet
passed through it, rippling the surface of its dusky body. Adon gasped
in shock. The shadow forms were cold to the touch and his hands and feet
grew numb. Then, as one, the shadows pounced on the hapless Thai,
striking again and again with their rippling arms and legs. They drove
him away, hounding him until, mustering a broken scream, Adon retreated
down one of the many corridors.

Eliza moved first, approaching the two female warriors uncertainly. "Are
you all right?" she asked. "Were you hurt?"

Rose shook her head and dismissed the shadows she had created with a
flick of her shawl. "My injuries are minor and we have more important
business that must be attended to."

Eliza nodded and looked towards Chun, her gaze silently asking the same
question.

"Rose is right," replied the investigator. "We have to find Ken..."

"You two were awesome!" said Sakura, once she was certain that they had
neither of them accrued any serious injuries. "I didn't know you could
even do something like that, Rose! Could you teach me how to do that,
too?" Then, before the Italian woman could answer, the young martial
artist continued with her rapid-fire questions and comments. "And
Chun--you were so fast! I mean, half the time you were like a blur! And
did you see Ryu!" Sakura stopped and looked around for her teacher but
he was nowhere to be seen.

"Did anyone see where Ryu went?" asked Rose, her eyes drifting over the
unconscious bodies that they had left in their wake. "I was occupied
with the red haired man at the time."

"I saw him for a moment," said Chun, her eyes drifting over the place
that she had last seen her friend. All that remained of him were the
four guards, all lying in a large heap, lumps and bruises already
developing on their faces. "He was fighting four men and it didn't seem
like he was having that much trouble..." Her voice trailed off
uncertainly. Then, with a confidence she really didn't feel, she pointed
towards the various corridors and said, "He must have moved into one of
the corridors to recuperate. I'm certain that he hasn't gone too far."
They looked down the halls and even checked the map and its array of
sensors, but still they found no signs of him. For all intents and
purposes, Ryu was missing, too, and even better hidden than Ken, who was
a flashing red dot in a sea of blue.

"What do we do?" Sakura asked in a very small voice.

Chun Li hesitated before answering. A glance at Eliza revealed that the
blonde was feeling even more apprehensive than she was before. To the
investigator's eyes, Eliza looked like she was holding onto her calm by
a thin, ever fraying thread. Sakura was a little better. The young woman
was considerably more disciplined than she had been at the start of
their journey and it was to her own credit that she remained calm. Even
Rose's serene violet eyes betrayed a hint of anxiety.

But Chun Li smiled. Ryu had promised that he would be there and Chun Li
believed him. "Don't worry," she said in a light, airy tone. "He'll join
us; I'm sure of it. Let's go. We have to continue on and find Ken."

Her companions nodded and the four of them proceeded down the corridor,
past the battered Shadowlaw guards. The fortune teller hesitated before
leaving the concourse. Her battle with the kick boxer had been more
draining than she would casually admit and it had required almost all of
her concentration and most of her power. Even still, towards the end of
the pitched melee she had felt a surge of enormous power, dark power. It
hadn't been Ryu; that much she knew. She was certain that the surge of
dark power was related to the fighter's disappearance, though, and that
could not be good.

"Rose," said Chun Li. "Is there something wrong?"

For a moment, Rose debated the pros and cons of telling the Chinese
woman what she thought might be wrong. But a single look into the
investigator's dark eyes told the violet haired wielder of power that
the truth about Ryu's disappearance might cause more harm than good.
"Nothing," she answered. "We had better hurry. These guards will be
awake soon and we don't want to be anywhere near them when that
happens."

Chun Li paused, examining her companion's olive countenance. Training
and instinct told her that Rose was hiding something from her, but what?
She couldn't know, unless she asked hard questions that would yield only
complicated answers. And Rose was right. The guards would be awake soon.
So with a nod of her head, Chun turned on her heel and led them down the
corridor to Ken.

* * * * * * * * * *

Ryu had dispatched the four guards with ease. None of them had been a
match for him and he had dealt with them as quickly as he could. He
could see that Chun was being attacked by two of the Shadowlaw guards
and worry had stabbed at his insides, despite the fact that he knew that
she must have had at least some training in the martial artists. Still,
she was outnumbered and he wasn't certain how skilled she truly was.

Worrying about his friend distracted him enough that one of the guards
was able to land a feeble punch to his stomach. The shock of the light
tap against his abdomen reminded the _karate_ fighter that he was
involved in an uphill battle against four guards himself. Pushing his
worries aside for the moment, Ryu concentrated on the four men and went
rapidly to work. It was easy and he was rid of them in short order,
sending them into blissful unconsciousness with an almost contemptuous
effortlessness.

Only then did he allow himself to worry about his companions. Rose was
in combat with Adon, whom he remembered from the tournament he had
fought in years ago. The kick boxer had been a student of Sagat and was
strong and quick, with an acid tongue and no compunctions at all about
using it. But he saw that Rose had the edge and that she would defeat
her red-haired foe eventually. Chun surprised him, though. She was as
fast and as agile as a dancer and, though she had clearly neglected her
training, Chun Li could be a dangerous adversary and it would be a
fitting challenge to meet her in combat...

Ryu shook his head, wondering where the stray thought had originated.
Since his _sensei_ had died, Ryu had found his thoughts filled with
violent and aggressive impulses. And now there was a damnable, ever
present humming that nagged at the edges of his consciousness. He could
blot out the impulses when he meditated, but he had been finding it
increasingly harder and harder to find the concentration to meditate.
And it seemed that there was nothing he could do at all about the
humming. His thoughts were a mad jumble of worries and impulses. The
peace that more than a decade of training had instilled in him was gone.

"Ryu."

At first, Ryu thought that he had imagined the voice, but when he heard
it again, he turned in its direction. It had come from one of the many
corridors branching off from the concourse. He could not see its owner,
but the voice was real enough. It was harsh and it grated on his ears.
It was like a trio of violins that were all out of tune. One was sharp;
the second flat, and the third violin was somewhere in between but not
correct, either.

"Come, Ryu," it said again. "We have unfinished business that must be
settled here and now." And then it anticipated the fighter's question.
"We have met before, you and I. You're guilty, Ryu, of many things. It
is time to pay for your sins."

"You!" exclaimed the dark haired warrior. His anger burst into a red-hot
flame when he realised whom it was that had been the source of all of
his problems, the impulses, and the violent desires. "I thought that my
_Sensei _had destroyed you!"

"Gouken?" asked the demon in disbelief. It continued on cruelly. "Your
_sensei_ was a doddering old man. What could he do against one such as
myself?"

"_Sensei _was the greatest _shotokan karate _master of his time,"
retorted Ryu, his voice fraying at the edges. "If he had wanted to, he
could have obliterated you."

"Oh?" said the voice in mock surprise. "Well then," it continued. "I
guess that tells you something about how your master felt about you."

"What do you mean?"

"That he didn't care enough to obliterate me, Ryu."

"Liar!" shouted Ryu, who was beyond conscious, coherent thought. He ran
towards the voice, stumbling over the bodies that he had felled just a
short moment earlier in his haste to find the voice's owner. He ran
through corridor after corridor, each one blurring into an indistinct
impression of metal grey walls and lights, not caring that he had no
idea where he was or how he had got there. Only the demon mattered to
him and he ached to destroy it with his bare fists.

He found the demon in a small, dead end passage. It appeared as it had
before. It was dressed in a grey _gi_ and its hair and eyes were fiery
red. It grinned, revealing square white incisors and needle sharp
canines. "So glad you could make it," it said, gaping horribly.

Ryu was beyond words. He attacked immediately, his limbs blurring. The
demon moved sluggishly and was caught by each blow. Each punch was like
a hammer blow and the air was filled with the loud cracking noises of
shattering bones. Each kick struck with the force and fury of a tidal
wave and in no time at all were Ryu's deadly limbs coated with a sheen
of crimson demon's blood.

And yet for all the punishment that it had sustained, Akuma remained
gleeful and it never stopped its tirade. "Your parents--they must have
hated you," it said. Or, "Your _sensei_ liked his other students better
and Sakura would rather train with Ken." Finally, "You don't deserve
their friendship."

Ryu screamed and smashed his fist into the demon's chin, sending it
careening through the air until it collided heavily with one of the
metal walls with a loud thud. Then, with an exquisite high-pitched
whine, the wall gave way and the demon tore a hole through it. The
_shotokan _fighter leapt through the hole, his eyes seething with hate,
and he called forth his power. Energy crackled about Ryu's arms and
torso, pooling into his fists, into a massive sphere of angry red fire.

"Die," screamed Ryu, his lips drawn back from his teeth, before he
launched the fireball with a curse.

The fireball scorched through the air and fell upon the hapless demon
with a ferocious, predatory explosion. Flames licked up and down and
spread all across the demon's flesh. In an instant, the demon had been
entirely engulfed in the fire and it was being devoured at a rapid rate.
The scent of burning flesh and fat filled the air and, for just a
moment, it was as if a beautiful perfume had filled the wandering
fighter's nostrils.

The full horror of what he had done came to Ryu only a moment after and
by then he could do nothing. Akuma cackled, even as its flesh melted
away and was rendered into so much ash, and its voice remained harsh and
whole. "See who you are, Ryu," it said, as its teeth turned black and
fell out. "This is what you have become. You _lose_."

* * * * * * * * * *

"There he is!" Eliza shouted, her excitement at seeing her lover
obvious. Ken was lying on his back on the cold floor, in a circle of
white light. He was still dressed in the tatters of his red _gi_ but
aside from that, he appeared whole and uninjured. Eliza rushed rapidly
to his side and cradled the unconscious man to her chest. Chun, Sakura,
and Rose joined the embrace a little less enthusiastically, though they
were no less relieved to find their friend safe and whole.

"Hmph," said a voice from above them, from the darkness. "You are all
here, finally."

The women turned to look up. Two points of piercing white were visible
above them and they realised that the points were eyes only after a
series of natural blinks. A fiery blue nimbus formed around the eyes and
spread to highlight a man dressed in a baggy red uniform and cape
levitating above them.

"I am not pleased," he said, dropping down somewhat, though his feet
remained an inch or so above the cold floor. "My plans have not turned
out exactly as I had hoped. Where is Ryu?"

"Who are you?" asked Chun, the first to recover her voice.

"I am Bison--Lord and Master of Shadowlaw," he answered, without a trace
of arrogance. He was merely stating fact. "Now: where is Ryu?"

"He isn't here with us," said Rose, in a trembling voice. This was their
great enemy--she was sure of it! He was alive with dark energy and
power. It leaked from him, poisoning the air about him like the
smokestack of a factory. She felt her own power quailing from the force
of his, dwindling, being eclipsed by his dark might.

"You are not lying, Rose," he said. Again, he stated it without any
extra meaning. "I would kill you where you stood if you lied, but you
were and are ever truthful. No matter; Ryu will come when the time is
right. You will all come when the time is right."

"What time?" asked Sakura.

"This has been but the prelude to the main event," he said, cryptically.
"The grain has been separated from the chaff and it is a simple matter,
another step, to further weed out the weak strains from the strong."

"You're talking about another tournament?" asked Chun.

"You are intelligent as well as beautiful," said Bison, allowing a hint
of warmth into his voice for the first time. "But of course I knew that.
I would not have allowed you to continue your 'investigation' if it were
not so. Your American accomplice--the pilot--he was not strong, but his
death will attract someone who is. All of this has a purpose."

There was a long silence as they digested Bison's words. Then, "You...
You creep!" shouted Sakura, her voice raw. "You don't fight just to
prove how strong you are! You fight for... For good!"

"This is what your teacher taught you," said Bison. "This is who he
truly is." Then Bison waved his hand and he caused a ghostly image to
appear in the air. They saw Ryu batter Akuma, who appeared as helpless
as a babe despite his size, and then they saw the murderous gleam in the
black haired fighter's eyes.

Sakura stared at the image and her eyes became moist and glistened.
"You're lying," she said, but her voice was without conviction.

"Why should we take part in this?" asked Chun Li, as she angrily ignored
the images being played before her eyes. "What makes you think that
we'll be a part of your scheme, whatever it is?"

"I mean to rule the world," he said, simply. "I will become lord of all
that I see. I will become God to the people of earth and you--the
strong, the survivors--you shall become my heralds, my disciples. You
will take part in my campaign because you will wish vengeance upon me at
any cost. And therein lies your downfall."

"Vengeance?"

"I killed your father, Chun Li. I slew him slowly, over a period of
days."

"You're lying..."

"I am not," said Bison, with a cold finality. "In 2 years you will
receive the summons and you will come. I will be waiting. The victor of
the tournament will face me in single combat. Will you surrender the
opportunity to avenge your father, Chun Li? Or you, Rose, the chance to
assuage your family's guilt? Ken, will you surrender the chance to prove
that you are a better fighter than your fellow student? I think not.

"Yes, you will all come," he said finally, his gaze sweeping over them
all. "Be prepared." And then the lord of Shadowlaw vanished.

Epilogue

They left Shadowlaw's compound without any further incident and in
silence. Ken became conscious halfway through the trip and, after a
moment of joyous reunion with his lover and the rest of his friends, the
blond martial artist fell into the same malaise that afflicted them all.
Despite being unconscious, Ken had heard, seen, and been just as
affected. They didn't encounter Ryu on their way out and, after waiting
for an hour, they returned to the hotel in the city.

Ken and Eliza returned to the U.S. the very next day, on the first
flight out, in first class. They were warm on the outside and certainly
Eliza was warm on the inside, as well. But the blond fighter appeared
different. He seemed pre-occupied and he hardly spoke. Ryu was a great
deal on his thoughts.

Rose took Sakura home to Japan. The young woman had come through the
events in the ancient temple the least affected. Bison's words had
already lost their poignancy and the young martial artist could think
only of her next training session with her teacher, when he returned,
and the fact that classes would soon begin.

Rose returned to Italy, her mind on darker thoughts. Her power had paled
in comparison to Bison's and if Ryu had truly been so corrupted she
would be the only one to stand in Bison's path. She knew that she had to
become stronger. Hidden deep in her home, in a chest locked with a
sturdy padlock and an enchantment that was far older than she was, were
hidden the secrets of her people. The power would be there.

* * * * * * * * * *

Chun Li stared at the form on her desk. It had been nearly a year and a
half since the Shadowlaw case. In that time she had buried herself in
her work and she had risen to the rank of lieutenant. She had been at
the very forefront of the war being fought against crime and she knew
for a fact that her efforts were having an effect.

But her father had been killed. By Bison--or so he claimed.

Her father had died when she was younger, younger even than Sakura, when
she had been a girl in elementary school. Her mother having died in
labour, Chun had been given into the care of her uncle and aunt and she
had thought about her parents' death only when her mood had turned
sombre, on grey, rainy days. Her father had been a policeman and she had
wanted to follow in his footsteps. He had died on a weekend, when he
wasn't working, in a freak car accident. His brakes had malfunctioned.
The brakes were, at that time, two weeks new.

But there was never any evidence of foul play and the adults never spoke
much about it in front of her. She had heard little snippets of
conversation. Wasn't it tragic? And leaving a daughter so young, too.
And the tests on the brakes... They should have worked.

And she had never questioned this explanation until she had met the lord
of Shadowlaw.

She shook her head and looked at the pictures that she had arranged on
her desk. There was a snapshot of Sakura at her high school graduation.
She had matured considerably in the last year and her expression was
serious and grave, but Chun Li could see the mischievous smile that
lurked just beneath the surface of the young woman's brown eyes.

Beside the snapshot of Sakura was a picture of Ryu, taken from a
magazine article. It was wrinkled, torn, patched with cellophane tape
and fading. She treasured the picture. She hadn't seen Ryu since the day
he had fought four guards and defeated them all. She heard even less.

Then, resolutely, she took her pen and signed her resignation.

Author's Notes

This is actually the second time that this little narrative has been
presented to the public. The first time was on my web page
<http://welcome.to/dwc>. This first, less polished iteration, received a
fairly positive response and I was curious as to what sort of response
it would garner from a crowd of readers not specifically looking for fan
fiction inspired by a video game.

A few remarks about one or two questions that have been asked here and
there by various people. The characters in this story are based on the
characters as they appeared in the game "Street Fighter Alpha 2" with a
few characters thrown in from the original and its sequels for good
measure. A few references to the movie and the animated series cropped
up occasionally, a case in point being the crucifix garrotte that Cammy
wields in Chapter 11, but I stuck with the game for the most part.

Finally, a pair of dedications. The first dedication goes to the initial
readers of this story as it appeared originally on my web page. Thank
you, all of you. The second dedication goes, again, to the rickety
"Street Fighter 2" machine that I helped on its way to the repair shop.
That was some game back then.

Regards,

DucThe Truong
DWC @ <http://welcome.to/dwc>
Thinkin' different.