Fei had no time to lose. His heart juddered in his throat with the fear of getting caught. If he didn’t leave now, he was sure the paparazzi would be on his trail. He went through his bureau drawers hurriedly, grasping blindly for a flat hard object. The phone machine bleeped and the little light on it blinked in the darkness of the hallway, but he ignored it, he had to.
“Boss, anything I can help with?” Fei’s driver said, waiting nervously on the threshold with two medium-sized bags clutched under his armpits.
“I told you to load up the car already,” Fei snapped, emptying onto the carpet the contents of the drawers. Now his home looked as though it had been burgled.
Condensation had formed between the thick barriers of the windows, trapped between the coolness of the air conditioning and the already searing summer morning heat. He wiped sweat off his brow. He was getting mildly irritated by the answering machine, which was now beeping twice as fast.
“How long we got?” Fei uttered in Cantonese slang, looking behind the cushions on the leather couch.
“An hour if we hurry.”
Fei stopped in his tracks with a look of dismay as he checked his Rolex wristwatch. There were precisely sixteen hours before his press meeting in Kowloon. His stomach churned uncomfortably with the thought of what he would find on his return. If the Triads were still active under his pretense of leadership, he knew he was ruined for good---unless he took matters into his own hands. Frustrated by his own nervousness, Fei kicked the couch leg hard. Then, as he was taking a deep breath, he felt something poke him on his lower butt.
“Goddamn it,” he muttered, retrieving the passport he had been looking for from his back pocket. He stroked his tensed forehead with a small smile, then he raced to the door. “Let’s get out of here,” he ordered, shoving his driver out.
With one sorrowful glance behind him, Fei shut the door with a loud thud. The last thing he heard was another abrupt phone call brrr-anging into his home. They huddled into the elevator where soft piano harmonies played until an abrupt “ting” alerted them of their stop. Fei took his sunglasses from his top pocket and set them on the bridge of his nose. The harsh sunlight pounded his face as he stepped into the driveway. He glanced at the twin white apartments that flanked his own condominium. In front were short trimmed hedges cornering the tarmac, where a sparkling black Maybach 62 awaited them.
“Umm, Mr. Long,” his Chinese driver stuttered, touching his dimpled chin. “I think we have a problem, sir.”
“What the hell are you talking about?” Fei said, swinging one of the bags over his shoulder. But when he saw the unexpected guest reposing on his freshly waxed car, he released it with a soft thud.
Sakura smiled at them, trying her best to keep herself from sliding off the slippery hood. Her face glowed with a vigor brought on by her sunrise jog around LA’s more private areas. Her sports attire was sticking to her moist skin. The efforts of her labors were most clearly marked by large sweat patches under her breasts and back. Sakura grinned. She loved how surprised Fei was to see her. It almost made her feel special.
“Hello, Mr. Fei,” she beamed, clutching at her crossed knee to steady herself. “Missed me?”
“Uh, boss, what do we do?” the driver said, watching him carefully under his brimmed hat.
The air had stillness. Fei scanned the area with vigilant eyes, and felt satisfied that they were alone: no reporters, cameras or other human life. He stroked the tip of his nose with his thumb, then thoughtfully crossed his arms.
“Business as usual,” he said, pursing his lips. He was in no mood to play with a fan girl. “What do you want?” he bluntly asked Sakura. He looked at his watch again, conscious of the time. He hated time.
“Oh, I’m sorry,” she said dramatically. “Are you going someplace? ‘Cause I obviously don’t wanna keep you.”
Taking her time, Sakura slid off the car. She straightened herself up, feeling how numb her butt cheek had gone. As she paced around the car with deliberately slow steps, she saw Fei jostle his leg anxiously. Smiling a little, she placed her palm against the windshield, and then she deliberately smudged it.
“Something I can do for you?” Fei said, in a failed attempt to keep his tone calm.
He stepped forward, ready to get into the car, but stopped when Sakura assumed her fighting stance. He laughed softly, wondering whether she was here to get some sort of revenge on him.
“Unfortunately, I don’t fight girls,” he said, beckoning his driver away into the car.
“Uh uh,” she said, shaking her head with a smirk. “I wouldn’t do that if I were you.” She threw her arms to one side to rouse blue energy into her palms.
Noting the fireball, Fei made a jump at her, but he was far too slow.
“HADOU-KEN!” she yelled, releasing the fireball onto the vehicle.
With a loud explosion of shattering glass and metal, the car shot up in flames.
“Nooooo!” Fei yelled in shock. “What the hell have you--”
“Ahh man, it’s not totally smoked,” Sakura dramatically groused. “Hmm, that just won’t do.” She frowned and took two wide steps back before settling into her stance again. “Maybe my longer range fireball oughta do the trick.”
“Oh, come on,” Fei moaned. He helplessly watched while his driver screamed in high-pitched Cantonese.
“HA-DOUUUUUUUUU-KEN!” Sakura shrieked, grinning as the fireball sped toward the burning car.
Fei squinted at the sudden silhouette. His nostrils flared in anger. Pushing past the smoke, he crunched his fist, ready to grab his assailant by the collar of her shirt, yet forced himself to maintain self-control. Beads of sweat formed on his lips.
“Do you have any idea what you’ve done?” he said, shouting over the crackles of the fire. Sakura shrugged her shoulders, indifferent.
“I’m just practicing,” she smiled with her eyes closed, “before trying it out on my real target,” she said glaring at him. “Seriously, you weren’t gonna leave without saying goodbye, were you?” She pouted, touching his arm playfully just as Tawnya would do. “I thought we were friends.”
Fei felt stiff with rage. His face darkened when he tried to talk. “Okay, you’ve got my attention,” he said, tapping his foot faster and faster. “Now what d’ya want?”
“Hmm,” Sakura hummed, rubbing her chin. “I didn’t know you were a felon, Fei Long, running away after half killing a few people. That’s not very nice, is it?”
“What the hell are you talking about?” he said, irritated by Sakura’s leering smile. He looked to the side, distracted by his driver speaking loudly into his cell phone, relieved that his companion was arranging for another car.
“You can’t start a fight and leave some thugs to clean up after you,” she said, pulling a long face. “That’s not what a real martial artist would do in the middle of a tournament, but what do I know. You’re a superstar. You could get away with murder.”
His jaws knotted as if he wanted to say something, but instead he swallowed the words. There was no way Sakura could know about the Triads. Even if she did, LA Express would never take her story. He would make sure of that.
“Stop wasting my time,” he said, keeping a sharp eye out for incoming reporters.
“So you admit it,” she continued, standing in his way. “The tournament at Mirror Tale Stadium was your fight?”
He frowned. “Mirror Tale?”
“We know you and Rose planned the entire thing.”
The mention of Rose’s name stabbed him in the guts.
“And I’m gonna make you pay for what you’ve done,” she said, poking a finger into his chest. Fei looked angry but she knew she was on the right track, having silenced him with her bogus accusation. Her mouth twitched, seeing his eyes glint behind his sunglasses.
“Come on,” she said, bouncing on the balls of her feet. “I want to fight you. Let’s fight. I won’t give you the chance to knock me down. It’s just you and me alone.”<
br />
In a tone that hovered between wan and wry, he said, “I don’t fight girls.”
“Oh yeah?” she wailed, jabbing a punch into his stomach. It was a real blow, strong enough to make his eyes water.
“Cut it out,” he coughed, retreating. “I’m not going to fight you.”
Sakura laughed, then swung a kick at his waist, putting him off balance. She punched with left and rights so fast that her hands blurred. Fei took the pain. She could continue to kick and punch all day until she tired out.
“This is for getting me fired from my dream job,” she growled, smacking his shoulder. “This is for driving Tawnya Blaze to nearly killing me.” She aimed for his groin but kicked his hands instead. “And now I’m going to break you.”
“Sakura, I won’t fight you. I won’t tell you again.”
“Or else what?” Ignoring Fei’s comment, she brought her palms together in an effort to rouse another fireball. She looked angry and serious as she hopped around him. With much regret, Fei slipped to the side, striking her hard in the neck, then pinioned her arms back. She collapsed onto him, groaning.
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” he pleaded. “I didn’t want that projectile thrown in my--” then he released Sakura abruptly, putting his hands to his face. His own warm blood was oozing onto his white shirt. As he held his nose, his half-shattered sunglasses were hanging from his ears.
“Sakura, are you okay?” Ryu said, pulling her to one side.
“Ryu Sensei, I told you I can handle myself,” she said with a hint of impatience. “That was just the beginning.”
“I’m not going to let you get hurt.”
“But what sort of fighter, I mean, martial artist does that make me if you won’t even let me get hit?”
“A woman’s body is more fragile, Sakura.”
“How do you know? I’m as tough as leather. You gotta give me a chance, Sensei. A real chance.”
“Your chance will come once you’re fully prepared.”
“I don’t wanna wait forever for a good fight. You were practically my age when you had your first big fight. My big one could’ve been with Fei Long.”
“Patience is a gift, Sakura. With patience, you will see time slow down before you, and with that extra time, you will be able to execute the perfect technique without effort.”
Sakura huffed, rolling her eyes at him.
“You need to learn to control your emotions and heighten your senses by unlocking the release of time,” Ryu continued, taking her by the shoulder. “Once you have learnt that, you will be ready.”
Fei watched the two argue. He wiped the blood off his face with a clean towel passed to him by his companion. A car was waiting for them at the foot of the driveway, and he had to be quick. He ran for it but felt his arm caught in an iron grip. Fei struggled to conceal his humiliation, mustering a smile he only hoped didn’t look as synthetic as it felt. Taking off his broken sunglasses, he turned as much as the grip would allow. Ryu stood a few inches behind him.
“Ryu?” Fei said, thumbing his split lip. “To what do I owe the pleasure?”
“Fei,” Ryu acknowledged him, keeping still, though his red headband fluttered. Fei looked very much the celebrity, as depicted on TV. It was so unlike Tawnya, whose charm and charisma had faded with her grief. He seemed more distinguished, well built for his size and oozing confidence, but he somehow was not the man Ryu remembered. “You seem to have changed since I last met you.”
“And you haven’t changed much,” Fei grumbled, glancing up and down at Ryu’s bright white gi. “If you don’t mind, I have someplace to be,” he said, trying to walk away.
“Wait,” Ryu said boldly. He turned his head to one side to catch a glimpse of Fei’s tightened fist. He smiled, then ordered Sakura to fight.
“Whoa, what the--” Fei struggled to say, hurriedly blocking a roundhouse kick aimed at his face.
“The strength of an art is closely followed by the destructive forces of its power,” Ryu instructed, closely watching how Fei defended himself against his pupil. “Once these powers are completely refined, one can easily become lost in its supremacy, mind, body and soul.”
Sakura shrieked, pushing herself faster, twisting through the air and catching Fei in all her new techniques.
“I know this because those who were at a close proximity to me were unable to handle the intensity of the power. Tainted power is passed from one source to another, just as air is passed from living things.”
“Ryu, what is this? I don’t audition people this way, you know,” Fei yelled through Sakura’s howls.
“You’re a man of great success,” Ryu responded. “The showmanship you demonstrate on stage has been passed on to you through the fights you had once experienced in your early career.” Ryu crossed his arms on his chest. “The more powerful an artist becomes, the darker the desire turns.”
“Ryu, I refuse to fight. Can’t we just talk?” Fei yelled again, blocking an uppercut with a forearm. He was determined not to hit Sakura, holding his arms back to block. He dodged left and right, avoiding her incoming attacks, but he felt frustrated that she was unwilling to back down.
“The artist will do anything to ensure their goals are met before moving onto their next objective, just as you have done.”
“What?” Fei recoiled, dashing to one side to evade a weak Hadou-ken. “Am I missing something here?”
Ryu smiled to see his basic assumption of Fei come true to life. For a man who continually supported Tawnya’s emotional trauma of the Dark Hadou, Fei was fast and had sharp reflexes, which helped him defend without conflict. Ken had rarely been steady after helping Ryu overcome the Dark Hadou. He had often been shaken by the flow of destructive energy.
“Evil energy flows from one person to another, even if it’s unintentional. I don’t have to fight you to know how focused your defensive techniques are. Clearly, the Dark Hadou has had no effect on you if you are able to retain such intense focus while fending off Sakura. You may not feel a change within, but the energy will cause harsh peril to your state of mind. As a martial artist, your sense of focus should have been the first to go.”
“Can someone tell me what the hell is going on?” Fei growled, ducking an overhead kick.
From the back of the Bentley, Fei’s driver yelled, “Boss, we won’t make the plane.”
“Ryu,” Fei said stepping in front of him, hoping for this pointless charade to be over.
“Sakura, STOP!” Ryu ordered. Sakura froze mid-way in a low punch position. Fei looked at him dangerously, but Ryu saw a sense of calm in his eyes. No Dark Hadou. No torment. No sign of ever dealing with it. Fei was not in control of Tawnya, but he knew she wasn’t in control of herself either.
Quickly, he flashed a card at Fei, watching for a change in his eyes. Suddenly Fei gasped. The mark of the rose emblazoned in his pupils, then disappeared when Ryu crushed it in his fist.
“Have a safe trip,” Ryu said. His mouth twitched to a small smile as Fei sprinted into the car without looking back.
Sakura slammed her palms against her thigh, dumb-founded by Ryu’s action.
“Sensei, I swear you’re just nuts sometimes, you know that?” she stuttered, watching the car screech away.
Ryu’s eyes twitched, feeling that harsh familiar strangulation clutch around his throat. With a thud, he fell to the ground, wringing his hands around his neck to loosen the aches, but that did nothing for him. He blinked, looking up at the sky, but he could only see darkness. Sakura had been swallowed by its shadows as did the buildings that once surrounded them.
“Sakura...get...back,” he wheezed, taking harsh, panicked breaths, widening his eyes to scan the area. “It’s coming...Just like...I told you. I feel it coming.”
He heard soft laughter from behind him, and the slow, deliberate tapping of high-heeled boots on the pavement. He growled at the eruption of the Dark Hadou burning within him. Veins lifted from his skin like a bad rash. He was
unable to keep his eyes from ground level. The tapping of the shoes stopped. His head snapped up to see her pearly-toothed smile taunt him. She reached over at him, her finger tracing his chin in a conscious attempt to make him meet her eyes. Her long hair blew behind her, as if a tornado was brewing nearby.
Tawnya half smiled, screwing her heel into Ryu’s left hand. He growled, feeling his veins ready to burst. “You been looking for me, sugah?” she said huskily, her face lined with the marks of the Dark Hadou.
*****
Chapter 34:
TAWNYA BLAZE
Street Fighter: Dream Never Ends Page 42