Subject: [Ranma][StreetFighter]First Knight 3: The Raging Demon
Date: Mon, 18 Jan 1999 20:08:54 -0700 (MST)
From: Donny Cheng <chengd@ucalgary.ca>
To: chengdo@shaw.wave.ca

Disclaimer:  All characters portrayed in this story are owned by their
respective owners and creators.  I don't own any of them.

This story draws ideas from anime and manga of all the series involved.  A
mix of the Street Fighter arcade continuities will be used, but mainly from
the Alpha series.

This is part of my Life and Times crossover series.  This is the third
chapter to the First Knight arc.

C & C welcomed.

First Knight 3: The Raging Demon

by

Donny Cheng

        Ranma yawned loudly as he stretched.  He blinked tiredly as he
took in his surroundings.  It was already light out.  It caused him a bit
of surprise.  A year ago, he and his father would have already finished
sparring and be ready to pack up and leave for their next destination.
Though they kept up with their sparring sessions at the dojo, the both of
them had gotten used to scheduling their day according to Kasumi's meals
schedule.  It was amazing how regular meals and warm beds had changed
their previously strict morning regime.

        Akane would be getting up now.  Ranma frowned and wondered why
that tomboy suddenly popped up in his mind.  He flushed that thought out
and made a mental note to try and regain his old daily routine.  While he
was a better fighter now, he was not necessarily better at coping with
everyday activities on the road.

        Quickly getting up, he started to pack, ignoring the hunger pangs
from his stomach.  He would not always have food on him and it was best to
get his stomach used to a starvation diet again.

        Once packed, he took out the directions Yusuke had given him and
made sure he was on the right track to this Genkai's mountain retreat.
Three more days and he should be there.

                        * * * * *

        "You signed him up?" Cologne asked from her perch atop her staff.
Happosai lay smoking his pipe beside her on the roof of the Nekohanten.

        "I didn't need to.  _He_ signed him up already," Happosai replied.

        "How did _he_ find out?" Cologne asked, but not really surprised
at that fact.

        "Ranma left enough of a trail that anyone who knew what they were
looking for would find him."

        "That fool student of yours, no doubt," Cologne muttered.

        "Not so much a fool than a man blinded, I think.  He trained the
boy much better than either you or I would have done if we had him for
ten years."

        Cologne reluctantly nodded, thinking of Shampoo.  "I would have
been too easy on him had I raised him from a little boy instead of just
dealing with a overconfident teenager."

        "And I would have killed him," Happosai added.

        "Is he ready?" Cologne asked, a rare note of worry in her
voice.

        "_He_ has been waiting a long time for Ranma.  _He_ will not act
until _he_ feels Ranma is ready."

        "Why?"

        Happosai sighed.  It was not the first nor would it be the last
time he would hear that question.  "We promised _his_ teacher that we
would not harm _him_."

        Even with all _his_ actions, Gotetsu cared deeply for his student.
Cologne would never forgive her old friend for his death.  She considered
it nothing less than suicide to go the way her friend had.  Knowing one's
student was evil, yet doing nothing about it until it was too late.

        "_He_ does need to be stopped though.  Gotetsu was one of the few
people that I called a friend.  It would be a slight on the memory of
Gotetsu if we had outsiders take care of this matter.  Ranma is one of our
own and the only one other than us that has a chance."

        "No, not the only one.  There are still Goken's two."

        Happosai paused.  "If they haven't already fallen to the lure of
the dark side of their art that is."

                        * * * * *

        "Hey, what do you think you're doing?"

        Ranma blinked and looked up from his map.  In the middle of the
forest trail stood a short school girl or what looked to be a short school
girl.  She wore a school uniform, but her hands were taped up, a headband
around her short cut hair, and her battle stance totally destroyed that
notion.  In fact she reminded him all too acutely of another girl.
"Huh?"

        "Don't you know there's going to be a fight up ahead in a few
minutes?  I posted a dozen signs along the road.  The place could get ugly
really soon."

        "Fight?" Ranma looked around him and noticed for the first time
that there were indeed makeshift signs hammered to the trees:  Warning!
Fight in area.  Proceed with caution.

        The girl looked at Ranma thoughtfully, noting his bracers and
graceful stance.  "You're a fighter too, hey?  I guess you can go look
too.  None of the Street Fighter fights are closed to the public."

        Street Fighter fight?  His interest growing, Ranma decided a detour
before going to see Genkai wouldn't cost him that much time.  "Name's
Ranma.  I think I would like to see this fight."

        "Sakura's mine.  Ranma?  That name sounds familiar."  Sakura
walked over to where a duffel bag sat on the ground.  Reaching in it she
grabbed a small newspaper and flipped through it.  "Found it!"

        Ranma was startled by the girl's sudden yell.  "Found what?"

        Sakura ran back to Ranma bringing the newspaper with her.  "Your
name.  I knew it was familiar.  Not every day you come across a weird name
like that.  You're listed in the Street Fighter directory as a rookie."

        "Well, it's better than having a plain name like Sakura...," Ranma
said indignantly before catching what Sakura said, "Street Fighter
directory?"

        "Plain?" Sakura asked forgetting the topic for a moment.

        Ranma had an eerie feeling as Sakura's voice rose and a battle
aura seemed to surround her.  "So much like that uncute tomboy."

        Sakura clenched her teeth.  She couldn't hear what Ranma had
mumbled after, but did manage to catch him muttering one word.  He didn't
even know her!  "Tomboy!?  Why you jerk!"

        Ranma looked at Sakura in fear and shock.  He didn't call her
that, did he?  That, he used and saved only for _her_.  It galled him to
think that he would call another girl an uncute tomboy.  "No, not a
tomboy!  You're really a very cute girl!"

        Sakura blinked at the sudden change in Ranma's behavior.  He
looked as if he was afraid of her.  This was a Street Fighter?  "Thanks, I
guess.  But, I have to warn you, I'm already spoken for."

        Ranma regained his composure as Sakura backed off.  He rolled his
eyes at Sakura's words.  "No chance of that happening."

        "What was that?" Sakura's asked, her voice rising dangerously.

        People and their egos.  Ranma was glad his was not so bad.  "I
said something's happening up ahead," Ranma said quickly.  One thing he
gained from living with Akane was that he now had the ability to generate
an excuse at the drop of a hat.

        Sakura turned to where Ranma pointed and noticed the unmistakable
glow of the hadoken.  "The fight already started.  I wasted my time
talking to you!  Let's go!"

        Ranma didn't retort back as his curiosity got the better of him.
"So who's fighting who?"

        "Ryu and some guy who didn't give a name.  He just came out of
nowhere and challenged Ryu to a match.  I bet he isn't even a Street
Fighter.  No points in this fight probably.  Ryu told me to make sure the
area was clear before he began.  I guess they couldn't wait."

        "Who?"  Ranma really wished someone had told him about this
tournament.  He was beginning to feel like a fool with all these questions
about a tournament he was supposedly a part of.  It had to be Happosai who
did this.  The lech would get a kick out of him being pounded on by a
bunch of crazed fighters."

        "Ryu's my senpai.  He is so cool!  He's the current number one
Street Fighter in the world.  Everything I learned, I learned from him,"
Sakura blushed slightly as she talked about him.

        "So he's your teacher?  Takes you to places to train and stuff?  I
used to do that with my dad."

        Sakura blushed again for a different reason.  "Well, technically
no.  I found him about a month ago and have been following him around
after our fight.  He doesn't tell me to leave or anything and doesn't mind
when I watch him train.  I picked up a few things just by watching him and
he said he might have a rematch with me one of these days when I got good
enough."

        Ranma nodded as something about Sakura's battle stance that was
bothering him came to light.  Her stance had no power to it.  If Ranma had
attacked her, she would have fallen down.  It was as if she copied her
entire way of standing and moving without knowing why she moved or stood
that way.  He had done something similar when he was younger, copying
every form he had seen or fought against without knowing the basis for
them.  His pop had severely reprimanded him on learning such 'bad habits'.
One had to learn how to walk before one ran.

        "Oh no! Ryu!"

        Ranma's attention turned to a white gi clad man lying face down on
the ground, at the sound of Sakura's voice.  From the looks of the blood
splattered surrounding area and around the gi, Ryu was beaten quite badly.
The number one Street Fighter in the world losing by this large a margin
meant that either being number one was nothing or the other guy was a
force to be reckoned with.  Ranma suspected the latter.  Happosai wouldn't
have signed him up with such a weak group of fighters.

        Sakura breathed a sigh of relief when she found a pulse.  he was
still alive.

        "What hit me?" Ryu asked groggily as he tried to stand up.

        That was what they would like to know, both Ranma and Sakura
thought at the same time.

                        * * * * *

        "Amazing, isn't she?" Ryu asked, watching Sakura train, with Ranma
beside him at the camp fire.

        Startled, Ranma turned to Ryu.  It was one of the few times the
other man had spoken since he regained consciousness.  Ranma nodded,
"Yeah.  Is it true you taught her everything?"

        Ryu shook his head.  "More like she taught herself.  I first met
her a few years ago in Tokyo.  She was watching me fight and asked for me
to sign a piece of paper for her.  Why, I don't know.  Every day for the
next two weeks while I was in the area, she was there watching and asking
me to write my name on more stuff.  When I saw her again last month she
challenged me to a fight."

        Ryu's gaze widened slightly as Sakura nearly recreated her version
of his vacuum hadoken, a move he had just perfected last year.  "She had
videotaped me it seemed when we first met.  I never really noticed.  From
that she learned nearly all of my school's art with just a couple of
months of self defense training under her belt.  No, not exactly the same
as my art.  She did not know the basic principles of this particular style
of shotokan and adapted everything to what she did understand."

        This only confirmed what Ranma had already guessed.  Even now
watching Sakura train by herself, Ranma could see a form he had never seen
before with over ten years experience as a martial artist.  Sakura was
gradually creating her own form.  Something that was unheard of from a
girl with only a few years experience.  It was all natural born ability
from what Ranma could see.  The very fact that the girl could understand
the concept of chi showed her genius.

        "That move she did right now is a variation of the Shoryuken.  One
of the highest forms that can be achieved.  While not having the overall
strength needed to even perform it, she makes up for it with momentum from
running.  How she ever thought that up, I want to know.  It is little
things like these that she uses to change and make the style adapt to her.
The crazy thing is that in some ways, her technique surpasses mine."

        "Well, I'm done.  Whew!  I think I'll need at least ten hours of
sleep after that.  So, what did you guys talk about?  Me?"

        "No!"

        "Yes."

        Ranma turned and gave Ryu a weird look.  Didn't he know anything
about girls?  The guy was just too naive.  Shampoo, Ukyo, and Kodachi
would have glomped him if he had said that.  Akane would have either hit
him or smiled, depending on her mood.  While it was nice sometimes, it
just wasn't worth the aggravation of telling a girl you were thinking or
talking about her.

        "We were talking about her.  Don't you remember, Ranma?" Ryu
asked, giving Ranma a puzzled look.

        "That's great!  So what did you think Ryu?  Was my form good
enough?  You think I can have my rematch yet?" Sakura asked excitedly
while hovering over Ryu.

        Ryu's calm face turned dark for a moment.  "Maybe later.  We'll
see after I have my rematch with _him_."

        "Who?" Ranma asked simultaneously with Sakura.  He wanted to know
the mysterious stranger that had beaten Ryu.  If Sakura was this good, he
suspected Ryu was close to his own skill.

        "Goki.  The man that murdered my sensei."

        Sakura flinched at the open hatred in Ryu's eyes.  It looked so
wrong on the usually bewildered naive, but determined face.  Even in a
fight, she had never seen Ryu this angry before.

        Ranma's danger sense made him give Ryu a wary look.  The 'kill'
chi he was feeling was enormous.  Almost on par with Happosai's aura
even.  The strange thing was that the feel of the chi was that of Yusuke
and his youkai friends, not like that of a human like the old lech.

                        * * * * *

        "Why are you sleeping all the way over there?" Ranma shouted to
Sakura as he set up his tent beside Ryu's.

        "I told you.  I'm not, technically, with Ryu.  I'm just following
him around," Sakura explained just as loudly.  She was also currently
setting up camp away from them.

        Ranma felt silly yelling back and forth.  He walked over to
Sakura.  since Ryu was off in the woods training, he decided talking to a
girl was better than nothing.  "What?"

        Sakura blushed and shuffled her feet, not looking at Ranma as he
approached.  "If I asked him now, he might say no and then I would have
to leave.  So, I just say that I'm going where he's going.  This way I get
to be by him and know when the perfect time is to ask him."

        Ranma stared at the girl.  All this trouble to learn a few moves
that she nearly had down pat?  Not even Ranma was that dense.  "Well you
can't get warm that far from the fire.  It's going to be cool just like
last night.  Even tom... I mean even you'll get cold.  If I say you're
with me then you can be even closer to him."

        Sakura gave Ranma a suspicious look, "Why are you doing this to
help me?"

        She reminded him of another girl he knew, Ranma thought again as
Sakura's face formed a frown and her eyes narrowed cutely.  "Look, if you
don't want to, you don't have to.  You can freeze to death for all I
care."

        "Well, if we make sure that Ryu doesn't get the wrong impression,
I guess it's alright," Sakura said quickly before Ranma could walk back to
Ryu's camp.

        Wrong idea?  She was worried that Ryu might think that she didn't
want to be his student?  Ranma doubted that.  The girl must really like
Ryu's art if she could devote so much time to it.  Even Ryu should see
that.  "Whatever."

        Sakura frowned as she walked back to camp.  She did not know what
to make of Ranma.  One moment he was calling her a tomboy and the next he
was calling her cute.  He said he didn't care what happened to her but
asked her to share the camp anyway.

        Not that Ryu was much easier to understand.  the only time he
seemed to show any emotion was during a fight.  At first she had been wary
about meeting Ryu again, fearing that it would look like she was coming on
too strong.  Now it seemed that she didn't come on strong enough.  He
seriously thought that she only cared about a rematch with him.  Boys!

                        * * * * *

        Ryu made sure he was alone in the clearing before he found a spot
on the ground to meditate.  This was one technique he did not want Sakura
to copy.  Not that he was jealous of her, rather he feared what would
happen if she did learn it.  He didn't even know if he would be able to
survive after learning it.

        He closed his eyes and brought forth the memory of the battle that
had happened just a few hours ago.  The moment he and Sakura had walked
onto the forest path he had sensed _him_.  Goki, his sensei's killer.  It
was a hard aura to miss.  From the day he and Ken witnessed the death of
their sensei, they had the dark aura and the visage of Goki burned in
their minds.

        Telling Sakura some excuse to leave the area, he had quickly began
his fight with Goki.  Ryu was in the prime of his life and had already
masteared all that his sensei taught him, but Goki had simply been better.
There were subtle differences in both their forms even though they
supposedly learned the same style of shotokan.  It took Ryu only a moment
to discern what those differences were.  Goki's technique held nothing
back and incorporated many attacks designed to kill a person.  In short,
Goki's style was that of an assassin.

        Ryu tried denying that the moves Goki used were part of their
school.  Goki had to have perverted their art.  However, Ryu knew that he
was only lying to himself.  Goki moved with too much fluidity and they too
much awkwardness for Ryu not to notice.  They were the ones that were
perverting the true style.  But he would not blame his teacher for that.
His sensei knew the inherent evil within their art and that the human mind
could not stay unaffected by the killing mentality such an art requred in
its user.

        It brought a small chill down his spine at how he knew all this.
It was because he had already began to feel the darkness envelope him.
All his late sensei's precautions did nothing to prepare Ryu for the
pleasure of going all out.  Even with a gentler style than the one used by
Goki, Ryu still had the capacity to severely injure, even kill a person
with his hadoken.  Already, his shinku hadoken or his vaccuum punch
resembled that of Goki's own technique.  The more Ryu practiced this art
the more it directed towards the true path.  He suspected that his friend
Ken had had similar problems in perfecting the shoryuken.

        Ryu had two options open to him.  He could stop learning this
particular style of shotokan.  Ryu didn't even consider it for another
second before going to his second option.  It was his life and to stop
learning it, someone may as well kill him where he sat.  His other option
was to complete the conversion to the true path.  If he was strong enough,
there may be a chance to save his mind from falling to evil as Goki's had.
With Goki waiting for a rematch soon, Ryu knew that in his present
condition, he would lose again.  His only hope for survival would be to
release _it_.

        All this convincing did not disuade the idea that Ryu wanted to do
it for himself.  All his life he had only wanted to reach the highest
level of the art attainable.  His dream was to have a worthy battle.  One
that would give definition to his life.  His battles with Ken, Sagat,
Vega, and Goki gave him a taste of that, but he wanted more.  In his
heart, he knew there was only one real choice he could make that would let
him have more.

        Ryu reached into his soul and there waited someone that had been
there ever since he threw his first punch.  When Ryu opened his eyes a
moment later, they glowed an unearthly red.

                        * * * * *

        "Here, you can have some of mine," Ranma said and grabbed Sakura's
plate before she could say anything.

        "Hey!" Sakura said and tried to take her plate back.  Her food was
on that.  That is if you could call a very well done day old wild chicken
leg food.  She watched as Ranma put a healthy helping of food onto her
plate.  He had cooked it in a matter of minutes from some of the stuff he
had with him.  It spoke of his experience compared to hers at how much
food he gathered and caught on his journey.  It took Sakura a week to even
find a live bird.  She had been forced to forage for berries and roots
during her stay with Ryu.  Her pride refused Ryu's constant offers of food
and water.  She was just following him afterall and didn't want to give
him any leverage on her.  He could ask her to leave then.

        "You're probably used to home cooked meals and not living on the
road like me.  It'll take some time to get used to, but remember this
saying my day always used to say.  You never know when you're next meal
will be, so eat up," Ranma lectured and finally gave Sakura her plate
back.  Sakura gave him a speculative look.  He felt uncomfortable as she
looked him up and down.  "And yes manly men can cook too."

        Sakura rubbed her ears at Ranma's loud pronoucement.  "I wasn't
even going to say that.  I was going to say thank you."  Sakura frowned
again as she looked Ranma over.  Ryu had been weird but this boy was
starting to really mess up her mind.  All the while she was at Ryu's camp
with him, he would mutter insults under his breath at her, usually
consisting of 'uncute' and 'tomboy'.  When she tried to say something
about it, a wild look would appear in his eyes and he would quickly say
that she's not a tomboy and cute.

        He did nice things for her like putting her tent between his and
Ryu's, cook for her right now, and when Ryu came back, put in a good word
for her.  But they were all done in a veil of insults.  She was a girl and
needed men to protect her.  She was scrawny and needed food.  She would
get lost if she didn't have anyone with experience lead her.  To say that
Ranma confused her was an understatement.

        "Get down!"

        Sakura blinked and was suddenly thrown backwards as Ranma pulled
her into the closest tent near them.  "Why...?"

        "Look!" Ranma shouted, rubbing his cheek as Sakura slapped him
instinctively.

        Sakura looked.  All color drained from her face as Ryu appeared,
shrouded in a deep dark red aura.  So dark was the aura, Sakura could have
mistaken it for black.  Ryu's eyes smoldered.  It was then that he turned
towards them.

        "Ranma!  Sakura!  Leave this area.  I can only hold it at bay for
so long.  I don't know if I will be able to control myself if it is
unleashed.  Run!"

        Ranma felt it.  It was power.  He got up slowly and took half a
step towards Ryu.  This was what he wanted.  He could feel his blood start
to boil as his heart rate quickened.

        "Ranma!"

        Ranma blinked and shook his head.  Sakura's cry broke him of the
trance like affects Ryu's aura was having on him.  He remembered his
battle with Yusuke.  The area had been completely destroyed.  A brief
image of another girl covered Sakura and Ranma knew that he would not let
this girl come to any harm.  He quickly held Sakura by the arm and the
both of them ran out of the camp site.

        Ranma turned back only once and saw a large forest fire already
beginning to grow.  In the middle of it, he imagined seeing a man
performing a simple kata, but reeked of power with every movement.

                        * * * * *

        Sakura felt a tear roll down her cheek as she stared behind her.
He released it.  Ryu had thought she was not in the area when he first
experimented with the devastating techniques he was now performing on the
area.  But she had been in the area and she saw everything.  The other
dark personality Ryu hid beneath his eyes as he trained.  Sakura had
thought that Ryu, being the skilled master that he was, could control it.
She was wrong.  Goki's appearance released whatever reservations Ryu had
had.  Ryu was gone from her reach.

        No!  Sakura cried out in her mind as she looked at the form of Ryu
grown smaller as Ranma continued to drag her away.  She will not let him
escape her this easily.  She tracked him down for years and learned all
that he learned and knew.  There was no way something as little as this
could stop her from her goal.

        So caught up in running, Ranma didn't notice a short school girl
slip from his grasp.

                        * * * * *

        Ranma looked around him desperately.  She had to be here.  Where
was she?  How could she have gotten away from him.  It only dawned on him
now the reason Sakura went after Ryu.  How could he have been so blind?

        Ranma rushed like a wild boar into clearing after clearing.  That
stupid tomboy was going to get herself killed.  There was no doubt in his
mind what Sakura was going to attempt.  A girl that had copied a person so
perfectly could do it.  She was going to follow Ryu's path just like she
said.

        Ranma searched for well into the night before he fell down,
completely exhausted late next afternoon.

                        * * * * *

        "I'm sorry, Ranma.  But Ryu was there first for me.  If I never
met him, maybe things would have been different," Sakura drew a blanket
she had recovered from the fire and placed it over Ranma's sleeping form.
She managed a small smile as she heard him mumble 'sorry' to some cute
tomboy.

        Ryu, wait for me, Sakura thought and left the area.  Her eyes
glowed softly in the shadows of the forest.

                        * * * * *

        Goki turned away from the destructive scene in the forest.  Ryu
hadn't been ready yet as he expected.  He hadn't wanted to intervene, but
Ryu's indecision to accept the demon left him little choice.  The addition
of the girl was a nice surprise.  He predicted that she would soon join
those few that could entertain him.

        His eyes briefly strayed on the prone form of a young man with a
pigtail.  Soon, the cat will face the dragon, Goki thought.  The next few
years were going to be fun indeed.

                        * * * * *

The End. (maybe)

Coming up:

First Knight 4

Another Time, Same Place 7

Dragon Ball R1/2 4

Preludes and Interludes

Man Enough Sequel

Not necessarily in that order.

Fanboy and fanfic writer. ^_^
Homepage at http://www.geocities.com/Tokyo/Ginza/4537