Chapter 11: A Star Is Born
Ryu woke up early the next morning. He still felt drained from his ordeal the night before. He slowly crawled out of his bed and was startled to find Chun li asleep in a chair next to his bed. He sat at the edge of his bed just watching the sleeping woman. Her long brown hair was pulled back into a braided ponytail which dangled over her shoulder. She was only wearing a long, light green nightshirt that ended a few inches above her knees. Chun li was curled up in a 'ball' on the uncomfortable looking chair. A blanket had fallen around the legs of the chair.
He carefully picked up Chun li into his arms. She snuggled into his powerful arms. Trying not to wake her, he deposited her onto his warm bed and pulled up the covers around her to tuck her in. Giving one last look at the beautiful woman in his bed he quietly left his room. Ryu walked softly down the hall to Ken's room and lightly rapped on his door. Ken answered the door in his red bathrobe.
"I didn't expect you to be up for the usual morning exercise Ryu. Last night was quite a night for all of us."
"I did not get a proper chance to thank you for helping me last night." Ryu replied walking into the room.
"Hey! What are brothers for?" Ken said with a smile. "Besides I still owe you quite a lot for pulling me out of some really bad situations."
Ryu smiled at his friend, and walked over to the window and knelt down. The horizon was a brilliant color of orange and red. It looked as if there was no rain in sight for the day. Ryu closed his eyes preparing to meditate. Ken soon knelt beside him and closed his eyes as well.
"Ryu?" Ken asked.
"Yes?" Ryu replied back, still facing forward with his eyes closed.
"After we dropped you off in your room last night, Chun li asked me to explain what had happened. I told her somewhat about the various aspects of Chi. I also explained who Gouki was." Ken said still looking forward.
"I see." Ryu answered back.
"Any idea as to why he has shown himself after all these years, and why he is hounding you?"
"I'm not quite sure of that myself yet." Ryu responded.
They sat there quietly for a few more minutes in meditation. Ken finally spoke again.
"Chun li was very concerned about you. She was emotionally drained after last night. I think she is in love with you. A girl like that does not happen along everyday my friend."
"I know Ken. She is sleeping in my bed right now." Ryu replied not thinking of what he was implying.
Ken broke his concentration and turned to stare at Ryu. His eyes were wide as saucers and his mouth dropped, unable to mutter a word.
Ryu feeling Ken's stare upon him opened his eyes and looked over to his friend's astonished face. Ryu gave him a questioning look as to why he was staring at him when it finally dawned on him. Ryu turned a few shades of red.
"It's not what you think, Ken." he stammered. "She came into my room last night." Ken's eyes got a lot wider. Ryu felt as if he was incriminating himself further.
"I found her asleep in a chair by my bed Ken when I woke up! She looked so uncomfortable sleeping in the chair, so I placed her in my bed and came right over here. Honest!" Ryu hastily added.
Ken shot Ryu a wicked smile. "I believe you buddy." Ken laughed elbowing Ryu, and went back to meditating with a big smile on his face.
"This is too funny!" Ken snickered.
Ryu shook his head in defeat and also went back to meditating.
Well after sunrise, Chun li awoke in Ryu's bed. She rubbed the sleep from her eyes and looked around the room. Ryu was no where in sight. Looking over to the chair she had slept in that night, she wondered how she ended up in his bed. 'Surely I did not crawl in bed with him?' she blushed thinking about it. She tossed off the covers and picked up her blanket and walked out of his room.
On the way out of Ryu's room she passed a very sleepy Dan yawning as he walked out of his room in his pajamas. "Good morning Dan." she said with a smile to him. Dan stretched his arms yawning again. "Yeah, yeah, morning." He replied. She walked down to her room and entered. Dan continued to walk down the hallway to Ken's room when he stopped. His eyes shot wide open and he looked back at Chun li's door, then to Ryu's door, and finally back again.
"How the HELL does he do it?" Dan said aloud shaking his head.
They all met in Ken's room later that morning to eat breakfast and to discuss what was planned for the day ahead of them.
"I plan on going down to the waterfront with Dan to see this movie he is the ?Star? of." Ken said between sips of his orange juice.
"Yeah Ken! Maybe I can get you a bit part in the movie." Dan replied sarcastically.
"No thanks, Dan. I just want to watch you in action." he gave a sly wink to the others.
"You'll be amazed, just as they were when they asked me to star in it!" Dan said with a big smile.
"I have no doubts about that." Ken replied. "What are you two going to do today?"
"I was planning on giving Chun li her first lesson on mastering the chi today." Ryu said. "That is if she has no other plans for the day."
"Are you sure you are up to it after what happened last night? You should not push yourself so hard on my account." She asked with concern in her voice.
Dan was about to take a large gulp of his orange juice, while listening to Chun li's statement, when he started to choke. Ken smacked him on the back and Dan started to get control of his coughing. "You need to take small drinks, Dan." Ken said looking over at him.
"I was! It's just that she...*cough*...she said...*cough*... ahh, never mind." Dan said noticing that everyone was looking at him with questioning looks.
It was about mid morning when Dan and Ken left for the shoot. They had all planned on meeting back up later that night for dinner. As they waved bye to the cab the two were in, Chun li looked up at Ryu.
"Where shall we go to do this? She asked.
"We should go to a secluded place away from the city." Ryu said looking around the busy streets. Chun li thought for a second, then she brightened up.
"I think I got the perfect place!" she said with a smile. "Come on, we need to go shopping first!" She grabbed a hold of Ryu's hand and led him down the street.
"Shopping?" Ryu replied confused as he was led along.
After a short drive to the waterfront. The cab dropped off the two fighters to where a large crowd had gathered. Lots of movie equipment was being hauled to and from big trucks parked along side of the wharf. Ken was surprised to find any sort of filming going on here, let alone what looked like a big production.
They walked up to the security guard station that kept the crowd back. "I'm Dan Hibiki, I am the new star in this movie." he said with a smug look on his face.
"Hibiki...Hibiki... Ahh! Yes go on in. Is he with you?" the guard asked. "Yes, this is my.... Err... towel boy." Dan replied pointing at Ken.
The guard gave him a quizzical look, then moved out of the way so they could proceed on down to the end of the dock to where the major part of the filming was taking place. They walked up to where the director was talking to a man wearing black pants and shoes. He was of Chinese decent and well muscled.
"Ahh! Our new star has come!" the director looked over to Dan as he approached. The bare chested man looked over at Dan with a smile.
"I want to thank you for filling in on such short notice Mr. Hibiki. The Chinese man said shaking his hand. This shoot has been plagued with to many problems. If you didn't come along when you did, we would have had to done some major editing of the film."
The man in the dark pants then turned his attention to Ken. "Haven't I seen you somewhere before?" he asked.
"Not that I am aware of." Ken said with a smile. He stuck out his hand to the man.
"Ken...Ken Masters." he warmly greeted. The man had a flash of insight just then.
"THE KEN MASTERS? Of the Master's Foundation?" he asked with awe.
"The one and the same" Ken replied. "That's where I recognize you from! They did an article on you and your father a couple of years back in Time right?" "Yes, that's right." Ken replied.
"I am honored to meet such a man as yourself." He said shaking Ken's hand. " I am Fei Long. I also read that you are a martial arts master, am I correct?"
"Yes, I studied in Japan most of my childhood. That's how I met Dan here." Ken said.
"Well, I hope you enjoy today's shoot. HEY! Can someone get this man a chair here?" Fei Long called out to some workers laying down some cable.
After a few minutes of preparation, they were ready to shoot today's acting scene.
"Now Dan, you are Fei's new partner from the academy. The drug lords that are after him killed his last partner in a firebomb explosion. Fei will be searching the car parked here, which was abandoned by one of the thugs. You will be going over to the door here, but just as you are about to open it, Fei will yell for you to stop, but you don't hear him in enough time, and open it." the director explained.
"What happens then?" Dan asked. "Well, the door is supposed to be trapped to explode and will hurl you into the water."
"WHAT?" Dan's eyes grew wide. "What about a my stuntman?"
"Stuntman? HAHAHA! That's funny Mr. Hibiki... I almost thought you were serious there for a second, until I remembered that you said you worked on many of Jackie Chan's movies. OKAY! PEOPLE, PLACES!" the director shouted out.
Ken had to surpress a grin. 'What has he gotten himself into now?' he thought.
Dan and Fei Long took there places on the set, and after a quick once over by the stunt director to see if the padding on Dan's coat he was wearing for the scene was properly padded, the director called for action.
The scene had a few hitches at the beginning... namely Dan not opening the door. But after some more 'coaching', Dan finally opened the door. The explosion went off as planned, and Dan was sent hurling through the air on fire, screaming at the top of his lungs.
"YAAAAOOOOWWWHHH!!!!" and then came crashing down into the water. They quickly pulled Dan out of the water and checked him over for any injuries. Other than being a little singed, he was fine. They all patted him on the back. Dan was greatly relieved the scene was over and walked up to the director.
"That was great Mr. Hibiki! We just need to get a couple more of those shots." The director said. Dan fainted and fell to the ground. Ken laughed shaking his head.
'This ought to be a very enjoyable and entertaining afternoon' He thought to himself as he was sipping his iced tea.