Tournament 2, Round 1, Block D, Match 3

"Juli vs Ryu"

Her tournament match would be starting soon. Didn't she already go through this before? Oh, right. She did. And just in case she didn't realize it enough already, she even had her fanclub to rub it in for her!

Her partner staring confusedly behind her, Juli didn't even sigh as Fenrir met her in the hall to the main arena battlezone. She knew what was coming. The other doll would rant to Juli about how she lost so ridiculously early into the last tournament because she didn't train enough then call Juli a slack off who really should train more and give more effort to everything.

What she actually got, however, was worse. Though she didn't realize it when the conversation started.

"Going out into the wild blue yonder of the ever so flourescent spot lights, huh, Juli?" The sentence really didn't have any meaning, but it probably sounded nice or cool to someone out there. "I trust you've made the proper preparations?"

"Not by your standards, Fenrir." The brunette scoffed.

Fenrir leaned back and crossed her arms. "Juli, I don't care about my standards anymore. At least, not for this stupid tournament. You realize that you and Juni were chosen to participate in this tournament out of all of us because you are the best out of all of us now, right?"

Juli didn't answer, because she was wondering too much about what Fenrir's point could be to answer, herself. There was Cammy, but she decided to opt out of the tournament for various personal reasons.

"Juli, let me repeat. You were supposed to be the best out of all of us. You are supposed to win, even if you do slack off too much. I think you know what my point is, now. I suppose all I can say to you is good luck against Ryu. Good luck against actually not getting eliminated within the first round, like last time. Don't think of it as a gift from me though. I care about our image probably even more than you do. The dolls being Lord Bison's finest is fast becoming a laughing stock to everyone."

Fenrir walked away as Juli stared at where she once stood, realizing her point all too well.

"Aw come on, Juli!  So Ryu's only like, supposedly the greatest martial artist in the entire world.  And it'll end up with you getting eliminated within the first round of the tournament.  Again.  I don't think it'll be that bad!"

Kitty cat on her shoulders, the young blonde was trying to be optimistic as her older brown-haired partner walked down the empty hall to the arena entrance.  Juli paused, then turned to comment on the girl's remark.

"Juni, didn't you get Fenrir's point? We lost the last tournament.  We lost the last tournament BADLY.  And you already lost your match, too.  To a DOG.  Do you know how humiliated the rest of the dolls feel because of that?  I mean... dogs SUCK!  You could have at least lost to a cat or something.  Or even lose because your own cat, Cuddles, beat you up instead, since she seems to enjoy doing that to me so much."

Just as cheerful as her owner, Cuddles looked ready to 'playfully' pounce on Juli at that moment, but before she could, Juni quickly grabbed her off her shoulders and hugged the kitty cat.

"Aw, Cuddles only does that because she really likes you!"

"Mew!"  The kitty cat happily agreed.

"Okay," Juni continued, letting go so the cat could climb back onto her shoulder and still trying to be as cheerful as possible, "Maybe I did lose to a dog, but I don't think it's that bad.  We ran into a little trouble, and maybe all of us including even Sir Bison did end up getting wiped out in the first round which was definately not very fun but still..."

"Juni, it made such a mockery out of Shadowlaw that... that... well, did you SEE who they pitted Sir Bison up against for this tournament!?  That has GOT to be an insult!  They put him up against Dan, Juni.  DAN."

The blonde girl looked off to the side.  "I'm still trying to figure out how it can be publically known that we're from Shadowlaw, and if so, why we weren't arrested yet."

"....."  Pausing for a moment, Juli eventually shot her partner a glare.  "Juni, I'm the one who's supposed to be the rational realistic one here."

"Oh."

"Anyway, if you're so curious about THAT, it's because this is a random cross over tournament.  Continuity has no place within these battles."

"Wow."  Juni replied.  "How... rational."

"Yes.  It is."  Juli asserted, even though Juni couldn't help but feel that the whole cross over argument for something lacking continuity didn't fit, for reasons she couldn't quite put her finger on.  She couldn't think on it much because the fourth wall was quickly repaired as Juli resumed reality.  "Anyway, I guess I should get going.  To fight the great Ryu, martial arts champion who even beat Lord Sagat.  And get myself beat up.  Ugh, a girl trying her hardest but never being able to win is supposed to be Fenrir's cup of tea, not mine."

"At least you can say that even though you lost, it was to a fighter as good as Ryu?"

Once again, Juli found herself stopping to glare at her naive partner.  She didn't bother saying anything this time.  Finally, Juni spoke again, a bit more depressed.

"Um... you want to win, huh?"

"Well, it WOULD be nice!"

Juni grabbed Juli's arm to prevent her from going further, and looked up at her.  "I'm sorry, Juli!  Um... at least you have my support?"

"Juni, while I'll appreciate you cheering for me, I don't think that will be enough.  It wasn't enough, last time."

"Okay, so I screwed up."  Closing her eyes, the blonde smiled as she hugged her partner.  "I know what to do now, though!"

Quickly letting go, Juni pushed off then happily spun around.

"I'll be supporting you, Juli!  You're right!  Shadowlaw deserves to be appreciated for once!  So go out there, and beat up Ryu a lot for me!  I'm sure it'll be really neat!"

Juli was confused for a brief moment, trying to figure out what Juni was talking about, before she finally faked a smile back and waved, although the motion was awkward enough to show that it wasn't very sincere.  Until Juli slowly finally began to realize what Juni was talking about...

The brunette beamed more frankly, this time.  "Ha, Juni, of course I will!  We'll get to see a win for once."

"I'll be there to see it, of course!"  Instead of standing there to watch Juli walk away in the distance, Juni quickly ran and caught up to her again.  "And I won't screw up with my..."

Juli quickly shot Juni a worried look, causing Juni to stop mid-sentence and reconsider what she was about to say.

"Um..." The blonde stuttered before thinking up something.  "I won't screw up my morale boosting cheer of cheerfulness, this time!  Really!"

Suddenly, the gate shut behind both of them, as the two quickly realized that they were already within the arena.

"And," continued Juni, "I seem to be stuck in the arena with you now.  Um... doh?  At least I get the best seating ever for this match?"

Juli simply shook her head.

"ZOUNDS!!! VEE VELCOME YOU TO YET ANOTHER ROUND OF THE DARK FIGHTER TOURNAMENT!!!"

The audience paused in confusion at the announcer's voice, until they finally remembered the blinking "APPLAUSE" sign and cheered.

"Once again, it is I, your announcer for zees match, Hirovine!!!"

Hirovine's female Native American partner added her line. "And I am the other announcer, Dai-sire!!!!"

The audience stared in confusion again. Something seemed odd about Hiro and Dai... and since when was Dai Native American?

"This is a very special match for today! Our first contestant for Match three of Block D is the mortal arts shotokan master, the World Warrior, the Street Fighter Champion, RYU HOSHI!!!" The audience cheered sincerely this time, as Daisire continued. "Ryu Hoshi is a very special man! He cares about nothing but the fight and his soulmate Ken! But ever since Ken got married, there was nothing else for Ryu to care about but the fight, and care about the fight, he did! Thus is the history of the greatest mortal arts champion ever, and we get to see him in action, tonight!!!"

"VHAT?!?!?!" Hirovine quickly grabbed the description card and read over it, ignoring the stumped audience. "Vhat zee HELL is ZHIS?!?!? You are not reading the description right, and your description is too much about silly soulmates instead of zee true mates, just like zhat silly girl, Desire! Zee truth about zee 'great' Ryu eez zhat he must fight because he lacks zee drive to get zee mate! ZERE MUST BE COMPENSATION!!! Szo he keeps fighting until zee day he meets Chun Li and zhey get married but it will never come no matter how much you szilly fans cheer for it because Ryu represses his dezire for zee mate so he must keep fighting on!"

Dai-sire was fast to retort. "Na ah, my good Hirovine. Hah, you remind me of a certain foolish professor. But Irvine is wrong! I might be more specialized in the realm of females when it comes to soulmates, but even I can see this. I will tell you right now, Ryu seeks only the purest man destined for him. Or he did. It's quite tragic, really. Here, when this match takes place, I will prove it to you. I predict that Ryu shall win this match by using the hyper version of his hurricane kick! The spinning kick has a vaccuum effect that shall draw in his opponent as a binding force, which is representative of what SHOULD HAVE been the eternal bond between him and his friend, rival, and true soul mate, Ken Masters!"

"BAH, you silly girl! I vill let zhis match show you zee truth! Ryu shall defeat his opponent by uzing zee Shin Hadoken!!! He firez zis powerful blast from hiz hands, which in truth ez all his inner chi manifested in a powerful explosion meant to impress zee mate (But he doez not know it! Becauze he is repressing!)! ZAT IS ZEE WAY!!!"

"I'll take you on your bet, Hiro." Taking the challenge in stride because she knew she was right, Dai-sire leaned back and smiled. "You know that there is no way Ryu would ever deviate from the eternal path! Soulmates forever!"

Juli listened to the announcement in disbelief as the audience cheered the white-gi wearing Shotokan master who had entered the ring. Already they were taking bets not on how she'd LOSE. That... was not very good for her ego.

"And who is the lucky opponent for our great but alas soulmate deprived hero?" Dai-sire's voice echoed from the loudspeaker. "It's none other than Julia! One of Sir Bison's finest!"

"Wow, Juli!" Juni stared upwards at the shiny lights trying to find the announcer booth. "Don't those two voices of those announcers sound familiar?"

Juli didn't hear her, because suddenly the audience started cheering really loudly. Woots and yells rang through the entire stadium as a wide array of men from all areas of the audience started chanting in rhythm.

"JULI!

JULI!

JULI!"

"They're... cheering for me?"

"Wow, Juli! You're really popular!" Juni beamed. "Look at all the people that want you to win!"

Before she could answer, Hirovine was already speaking again. "ZTHIS IS AGENT JULI! Zee finest of Bison's finest! Or at least in zee true sense! Ignore zee stupid efficiency ratings! Zee best is HERE! I almost think zat zee poor mateless Ryu actually vill have a difficult fight today! Or he might even lose, for zee finest of zee truly fine group known as zee dolls shall surely be a very powerful foe!"

"Hey, Juli! Even the announcer supports you!" Juni beamed some more, even.

"They... think I could actually win?" Juli was staring with even more disbelief than before. She was shocked. Then Hirovine finished his statement.

"YES! You can already see all zee men cheering for zee girl! Because she truly has zee mate attraction capabilities! Zee two large headlights (zee largest out of ALL zee dolls, I might add!) fast attracts nearly ALL zee men of the stadium, even some of vhich are already married to life mates of their own!!!"

Several slappings from angry wives to their cheering husbands occured as Juli paused.

"Wha...?" The brunette began before Hirovine interupted once more.

"YES! Zis ez truly zee finest! It ez well known among many of zee dolls even zat she is zee most beautiful! Perfect for attracting zee mate, which makes her zee finest of zee fine in zee personal harem known as zee dolls! Vhy, she might even be enough to make Ryu stop repressing vright zere, and he shall pass out from pure shock at zis fine specimen!"

"My... two... large... HEADLIGHTS?" Juli glared downwards at her chest. "That's... That's all you care about!?"

"JULI!" The men cheered even more.

"ZEE MEN want Juli to vin! Zey want zee one with zee perfect body design to be zee winner! If she were to move on, zey could see her more! Ninety-percent of male viewers agree! Juli being knocked out in zee first round of zee last tournament vas a humongous dissappointment!!!"

"Stop Ryu from repressing!? They only want me to win... because..."

Juni blinked, not noticing the dismay fast piling up within her partner. "Um, Juli, what's he talking about? I don't get it..."

"FREUD IS PROVEN RIGHT YET AGAIN!" Hirovine shouted.

"Oh. Nevermind. Now I do." Juni shrugged.

"My good Hirovine..." A rather large hint of anger was in Dai-sire's voice. It was obvious that she was trying to keep from strangling her announcer partner. "Ninety percent of men, you say? Might I remind you that ninety percent of statistics that a person states are PULLED FROM HIS ASS? Agent Juli has a strong chance against Ryu not because of your evil theory of mate TAINTMENT, but because she has the true support of the ones closest to her! Most notably, her very own soulmate that she shares her room with, Agent Juni! Why, you can look there right now that the two are so close together that Juni even followed Julia into the arena, most likely so Juni would always be there for Julia to see her cheers and know that her eternal love is there for her! She brought her soulmate along to get an upclose view of the match, Hirovine.  Do you see how important Juni's support is to Julia!?"

"BAH! Stupid semantics, silly Dai-sire. Zat eez not zee way! Juli's primary move for zis match shall be zee upwards kicking cannon spike!!! It pierces UP with a powerful thrust zat can not be denied!"

"Julia's primary move shall be the sniping arrow." retorted Dai-sire. "It aims straight for the head and relies purely on momentum to crack the foe and send him back, and not any of your stupid piercing drills. Symbolic for the pure love of two eternal lovers together, forever."

"Juli, am I the only ones that is finding our announcers to be very disturbing right now?"

Juli stared at Ryu, who remained determined (to fight, not to get zee mate!) but nothing else. The audience continued to cheer, and the many male voices continued to chant her name.

"Yea, Juni. Pretty much. Well, me too, but that's about it."

"Oh. Wierd."

"LET ZEE MATCH BEGIN!!!!" Hirovine shouted.

"Um... hi?"

Not really smiling at all, Juli semi-nervously waved to Ryu as a loud horn sounded to start off the match. It was really a rather unnecessary formality. They were both tournament members and they both really were here for the fight, despite what Hirovine and Dai-sire said about all that mating of the soul. The cheering of the audience, the lights, the uproar... it was just background. In the end, what truly mattered now was the moment. The fight. So they wouldn't bother taking any of those gimmick teleporters, because it wasn't worth the time. Still, it wasn't like Ryu himself was a complete unfeeling emotionless warrior. He had his goal and his priority, of course, but there was a little time for the greeting gestures, even if they were pointless. So Ryu nodded in response to the girl, then the fight began.

Juli immediately spun back then flew straight for Ryu's head with a sniping arrow, but Ryu had already begun his own assault as he drew his arms back then pushed forward, sending forth a chi blast.

"HADOKEN!"

The fireball slammed right into Juli and knocked her back. The brunette crashed into the ground next to Juni, who stared at her partner in shock.

"YES!" Hirovine cheered.

"NO!" Dai-sire shouted.

"Juli! Are you..."

Still on the ground, Juli pointed her finger up to indicate to Juni to not bother asking the question. "I'm okay!"

"Um... okay..."

Flipping to her feet, Juli quickly leapt over another hadoken. And another. And another, but this time she leapt for Ryu and prepared to give him a kick to the head. Ryu, however, was more than ready, and quickly did an upward dragon punch, knocking Juli out of the air and sending her crashing next to Juni again.

"ZEE UPWARD THRUSTING DRAGON PUNCH!!!!" Hirovine cheered again.

"QUIET, YOU!" Dai-sire snapped.

"Juli..."

"It only hurt a little! Really!"

Ryu watched Juli roll back before he prepared for his next move. The girl hadn't even landed a hit yet but he knew that he couldn't let his guard down. The two stared at each other for a full two seconds before Ryu unleashed another hadoken.

"HAI-YAH!"

Juli quickly did a small hop and spinned right past the fireball, before landing next to Ryu and punching him with a spinning knuckle punch.

"TATSUMAKI SENPUU KYAKU!"

Juli quickly blocked as Ryu came spinning back at her with his hurricane kick. She cringed a little as the multiple kicks cracked against her gloves, but it didn't hurt too much. She ducked the last couple passes of flying feet, but couldn't retaliate fast enough as Ryu landed, grabbed her, and threw her, whereupon she crashed next to Juni yet again.

"YES! HE GRABBED HER BY ZEE CHEST AREA!" Hirovine cheered AGAIN.

Dai-sire had no comment. However, that remark was enough for even Ryu to glare at the announcer booth with the raised eyebrow of confused annoyance.

"Juli..."

"I'm still conscious!" Juli remarked to her partner.

"I... guess so."

"Really! I am..."

"I... I know! Of course you are... it's just that..."

Ryu crossed his arms and sighed. Juli was supposed to be concentrating on the fight, not on talking to her partner. However, it really wouldn't be very ethical to attack her now while she was talking and distracted like this... unfortunately he couldn't really think of anything to say to get her to set her priorities straight, either.

"Hooray!" Dai-sire beamed. "Julia's getting moral support from her partner!"

"She eez not, silly girl! Look at her! Her partner is telling her zat things are looking hopeless!"

"YAH!" Juli quickly assaulted Ryu with a series of forward chops and pokes. Ryu parried a couple and countered furiously with his own fists, and the two were locked in combat for a while there until the series of punches finally resulted in Ryu reeling back as Juli... got slammed to the ground next to her partner again.

Ryu put his hand on his cheek where Juli punched him and backed off for a bit, breathing a bit heavier. He was winning the fight by quite a lot, but the brunette still managed to deal some significant damage to him. Juli, however, was in much worse shape.

"STILL CONSCIOUS!" The brunette cried before Juni could even begin to speak, though there were a couple of tears in her eyes. Whether they were emotional or because one was a black eye was difficult to determine. It might have been both, though.

Ryu looked at the girl and inwardly sighed. She really was trying her hardest. He could see it in her eyes... right before she almost poked out his with one of her pokes. But that was why he couldn't back down, either. Backing down in the fight would make it lose all meaning, and he couldn't show any mercy in that respect no matter who he was fighting.

Not that that did Juli any good.

The brunette slowly struggled to her feet again. Ryu shot another hadoken at her, which she was able to barely dodged. Juli was still trying to think of a way to get past his defense, but dodging the constant projectile attacks wasn't giving her any time to concentrate.

Ryu aimed carefully and fired off another hadoken which Juli dodged again. He knew he wasn't getting anywhere, but he was trying to think of a new way to launch his next offense. He still wondered what the blonde girl was doing there. Well, as long as his foe didn't start cheating by using her spectator friend as a human shield or so...

Unable to jump in time, Juli blocked as another hadoken seared into her. The gloves showed some burnt marks as she slowly closed her eyes. Juni watched as she closed her eyes, trying to regain her focus. The fact that even a blocked hadoken could disturb her mindset so much showed that she wasn't in a very good condition at all.

"Juli, I..."

The brunette looked off to the side at her partner as she blocked another hadoken which pushed her back a little. Cringing, Juli opened one of her eyes a little and saw that Ryu had stopped the barrage. She took the oppurtunity to make one last desperate sniping arrow kick for the Shotokan fighter.

Ryu was expecting it. Backing off a little so he'd be right at the end of the kick, Ryu tensed as Juli flew towards him, but right before she reached him...

"SHINKUU TATSUMAKI SENPUU KYAKU!!!"

Juni's mind boggled at how Ryu could say those words so quickly and what kind of super move that was basically a non-forward moving hurricane kick would have such a freaking long name like that, before she cringed as Juli got caught in it and slammed back and forth within the world wind with several loud cracking sounds.

"YAY!!!!" Dai-sire screamed as Juli was sent crashing into her partner. "Ryu defeats Julia with the hyper hurricane kick!! I knew it!"

"VHAT!? THIS CAN'T BE POSSIBLE!"

Everyone stared at the brunette on the ground, but she wasn't getting up. Juni simply layed there blinking wondering what to do when Juli quickly did a roll to get away from Ryu, slamming Juni to the ground a bit more.

"OW!" Being rolled over wasn't Juni's idea of being a simple bystanding spectator.

"Still... conscious... still... can win..."

Juli coughed a little but quickly put her hand over her mouth to keep any blood from flying out. She kept the hand over her mouth as she slowly turned back to Ryu with a look of both pain and desperation in her eyes.

"YES!!! SHE STILL EEZ UP!!! ZEE VORTEX LACKS ZEE POWER OF ZEE STAB NEEDED TO DEFEAT HER!!!" Hirovine quoted the obvious.

"DAMMIT!" Dai-sire crossed her arms.

Ryu wondered if he should continue. There were limits to everything, and although he didn't want to hold back, he didn't want to KILL the girl. Yet she kept on persisting. She couldn't go on forever though, could she? He'd fire another hadoken at her. Odds are it'd be enough, and wouldn't be deadly...

"HADOKEN!"

Juli stared at the fireball flying for her as someone got in the way.

"Hey! STOP! You can't end this match without us being able to give any announcements for it! OOF!"

The hadoken slammed into a guy which sent him flying away as Dai sighed.

"Oh, that was a smart move, Hiro..." Hiro got up and shook his head, clutching his stomach where the hadoken hit him as Dai looked around. "Arrrgh! They threw us into the arena? I swear, when I get my hands on that girl that clubbed me over the head then took over my spot..."

"Hey, the guy that took mines STABBED me with a stick!" Hiro frowned.

Ryu was distracted for only a brief instant by the two announcers (or maybe ex-announcers temporarily), but it was apparently enough. He looked around but couldn't figure out where his opponent ran off to.

The pain...

It hurt... but it wasn't like she didn't feel it before...

She got beat. Badly. Head ringing, shot, blown up with missles... it was all part of the job.

In the end, it wasn't supposed to matter. She was supposed to be the best out of all of them, now. She was supposed to win, even if she did slack off too much.

She never won anymore.

Where was she? Did she pass out? She probably lost already. All she could see were fuzzy images... bright colors... waves... it was... peaceful. There was nothing out there. The ground was soft, and the sky was clear. Her own sight was beginning to clear up too, until she finally realized where she was.

"What... am I doing at a beach? Wait... this beach is..."

"I took the teleporter, Juli..." Juni looked around and sighed. "I didn't think we'd end up here. I guess this was the latest one, huh? I lost here already. To a dog. I should have at least lost to a cat, huh? Maybe saved face by having Cuddles accidentally knock me out or something, right?"

"Mew!" Cuddles purred happily as it rubbed up against her owner.

"Juli, why won't you let me..."

Juli looked downwards at her hand. Her palm was covered in the blood she coughed up earlier. Her gloves were seared nearly completely by the chi blasts. She felt bruised at her leg somewhere where she kicked right into Ryu's shinkuu hurricane kick. Then she stared back up at her worried partner and closed her eyes.

"I wanted to win. I wanted to... finally be a winner again. I was a winner once, Juni. But we got beaten so badly in that last tournament. I think we get beaten badly in EVERY tournament. No one respects us. I bet that I could go into any crossover federation fighting website that even dares to mention us, and we'd be lucky to make it past the qualifying round. If this were a video game, we'd be considered second rate characters not worthy of being paid attention to. A sequel would ignore us, a fanfic would dub us generic henchmen... I wanted to prove that we were worthy of being called Sir Bison's finest."

"Juli, I don't know about crossover website fighting tournament dohickies... but I think we've been going about this the wrong way. I think that... if I just was ready to do what you asked back when you fought Makoto, you might have won. I think that if you were there with me to get my priorities straight when I was fighting Iggi, I would have actually stood a chance. But... I guess... that's why we always lose, huh? One on one fighting doesn't really suit me that well..."

Staggering to her feet, Juli shook her head. "It doesn't, huh? I guess... it's time for me to go back. My head hurts. I can't think very clearly. And I still can't think of any way I could outpace him."

Juni turned away. "I... think I'll stop watching. I don't want to see you lose, again."

"Yea, well, then get over here and help me out a little, okay?"

Surprised, Juni quickly turned around. "Huh? You mean it?"

"I think we can pull this off." Still tired, Juli was able to beam a little. "Here, why don't you..."

Ryu looked around the beach that the announcers pointed him to. This fight was really taking a long time. He wondered where Juli ran off. Odds were she didn't have the time to recuperate, yet. Ryu himself was still feeling some of the pain from that literally hand-to-hand assault the brunette launched against him, so there wasn't much chance that Juli had recovered much at all during such a short time, especially given the horrible condition she was in. But he couldn't back down. He still had to keep his guard up. He would never back down during a fight.

It was easy to spot her across the beach. The Shotokan fighter got a good look at her to assess his opponent. He wasn't expecting her to be in fighting condition but he carefully looked her over, anyway.

She still had the black eye.

Her gloves were still burnt.

But she wasn't limping, kneeling, or showing any signs of fatigue. The look in her eyes showed her fighting spirit was even stronger than before, a far cry from the near crying desperate girl he had seen only moments ago.

He didn't know how she managed to recover so quickly, but right away, Ryu knew that the battle was far from over.

Juli made a fist and held her arm inwards, charging up as a blue aura surrounded her. Ryu quickly put up his guard, expecting Juli to unleash some sort of super move, which was the only plausible explanation for the blue aura that he could think of. Juli, however, instead simply finished charging, then leaped for Ryu with a sniping kick as normal. The kick was easily blocked, but Juli was able to recover fast enough to attack Ryu in the middle of his attempt to counter with a hurricane kick. Which, coincidentally enough, was actually with her super move. Unfortunately, Ryu couldn't block in the middle of his move as Juli spun upwards in a vertical drill, hitting Ryu multiple times as the two flew into the air. The world warrior slammed right next to his opponent's blonde spectator friend, but she didn't notice because her eyes were closed in concentration with various sparkles flying around her for some reason. The fighter didn't have time to think about it though because Juli had already come flying for him with another sniping arrow. Ryu quickly put up his guard and blocked it and the upwards cannon spike kick that Juli followed it up with, before he blasted her with another hadoken as she landed.

Knocked back, Juli glowed a blue color for a brief moment again, this time without even showing any signs of intense concentration. What exactly was going on, Ryu had no clue, but the fireball did show signs of hurting her, even though she recovered from it so quickly. Ryu prepared to shoot another one which Juli quickly antipated and jumped over, but it was actually a fake.

"SHORYUKEN!"

Knocking Juli out of the air, Ryu rushed with another hurricane kick. Juli planted her hands to the ground and did a roundhouse kick, knocking him out of it. She quickly followed up with yet another sniping arrow that slammed into Ryu before he could hit the ground. Rolling away, Ryu tried to get her bearings.

The leggings of her uniform were torn slightly from the shoryuken, but that was it. She didn't look any more fatigued since before being hit with either the hadoken or the dragon punch.

She must have had an insane amount of determination or spirit, or something else. But it didn't matter. That last kick hurt a lot, and Ryu was beginning to get tired, himself, but there wasn't any backing down. Ever.

Juli clenched her fists and kneeled back in her stance as Ryu did the same. They quickly charged for each other and unleashed a barrage of kicks and punches, which the other quickly parried while trying to counter as much as possible. Juli landed a quick hard chop to Ryu's head, which knocked him down. He slowly stood up, and stared at her. Looking into her eyes, the attack apparently didn't phase her at all. He heard the announcers Hirovine and Dai-sire in the background scream about how amazing Juli was doing before arguing about more mating of souls, but like everything else, that was just background. Juli was glowing that blue aura again. What was it? Chi? That had to be it! She was somehow focussing her chi to the point where she was able to overcome all the pain and fatigue she had gone through. But Ryu didn't think one could focus that much. But it didn't matter... the attack hurt, the battle had lasted way too long, and he had to ignore the pain, himself. Charging up his own chi, Ryu made one last desperate attack. The large shinkuu hadoken flew at an incredibly fast speed. Unfortunately, still clearly focused, Juli quickly concentrated and dashed right through it with an alpha counter mach slide, ending up right in front of Ryu. The shinkuu hadoken slammed right into Juni though, sending her flying away. Before Ryu could recover from firing off the blast, Juli flew at him feet first with a super cannon drill. The Spin Drive Smasher smashed right into Ryu and was seamlessly followed up with a cannon spike which knocked him into the air.

When Ryu finally hit the ground, he didn't get up.

The blue glow around Juli was gone. Actually, it was before she even began the spin drive smasher. But it didn't matter. She won.

The audience didn't make any noise. They were too busy staring trying to believe what they just saw. There wasn't any announcer to announce it because Hirovine and Dai-sire were apparently currently wrestling with another guy and girl who had just entered the announcer booth. But she was standing over the proof right there.

"I... won?" Juli was so much in disbelief that she wondered if she should have poked Ryu with a stick just to make sure, but decided against it. "Juni! We w..."

"OW..."

Juli quickly ran over to help her partner get up. "Juni, you..."

"Those stupid shinkuu hadokens HURT!" Frowning, the blonde brushed herself off, then stared at her partner and beamed. "Aw, don't worry about it, Juli! It's okay. We... really were supposed to share everything, huh? I couldn't use you as a human shield for ALL of the battle, could I?"

Juli smiled then hugged her partner. "No, of course not! Maybe next battle they'd let you be the shield again. I'm sorry... you had to overruse that role for your fight against Iggi. I know better than that, now."

The audience was stumped. They just saw Ryu get taken out by one of the gals who seemingly couldn't even advance past the first round. It was talked among many that the dolls were probably just there for fanservice, because they seemed to be so inferior to the rest. And yet she won.

And why was she hugging her partner? And what were they talking about!?

"YES!!!!" Hirovine shoved Hiro away, sending him slamming into Dai, and grabbed the mike. Unfortunately, he didn't offer an explanation to the audiences' questions. "SHE HASZ DEFEATED ZEE GREAT RYU HOSHI WITH ZEE SPIN DRIVE SMASHER!!! Zee move consists of both zee cannon drill AND zee cannon spike, and both truly offer zee piercing thrust zat the sniping arrow can not deny!!!!"

Dai-sire, also able to speak now that Dai was knocked away from her, quickly glared at the camera screens. "What!? That can't be right! He can't be! He can't be..."

"PROVEN RIGHT YET AGAIN!!" Hirovine cheered as Hiro and Dai ordered a bunch of big burly bouncers to grab him and Dai-sire yank them away.

Dai-sire continued to stare at the camera. She was able to see it even with Dai trying to give her the bitch slapping cat-fight of a life time. She saw the move Juli beat Ryu with. She saw Ryu's last minute desperation attempt and the move he used for it. Both supported that idiot Irvine's theory fully. But it couldn't be right. Juli wasn't a girl who 'sought zee mate' who won with moves used to 'compensate'! She was supposed to be with her soulmate Juni forever!

The videos... Juli was hugging Juni... something was up! She knew she had to be right, spin drive smasher and shinkuu hadoken or not! Crossing her arms as the guard continued to drag her away, Desire smiled. She didn't know how, but Juni was helping Juli during that match. She wouldn't be able to prove it to that idiot Irvine, but it didn't matter, because it was true and she was right so that was that!

"Do you think they can..."

"What can they prove? You didn't really do anything."

"I... think I really did something, Juli."

"They don't know that. What, next thing you know, they'll make cheering or hissing or even taunting illegal, because it's the same thing."

"I guess so."

"Juni, I want us to win..."

"That'd be really neat, Juli... Oh yea! Hey, you know what's really cool?"

"Huh? What?"

"I saw that Sakura Yugure is in a block by her own! If she wins it, she might be the championship match, assuming I have the ruleset right. If we win, that means we'll be fighting her! Wouldn't that be neat?"

Juli paused in shock.

"D... Dark Sakura? The walking holocaust!? We'd have to go up against HER? Aaaaaah... maybe winning is overrated..."