The Jungle
Not wanting to stay in the jungle, in case the spirit of Evil Ryu returned, Rainbow had followed Sagat back to the small camp that he had made for them. Under the protection of the massive leaves that crisscrossed overhead, the camp consisted of two mats, a campfire, a pool of crystal clear water and some vials that she knew nothing about. While it was as barebones as a camp could get, at least it made sense to her.
What made absolutely no sense was the seven-foot-tall human that had knocked her out and dragged her here. Sagat, as he called himself, hadn’t answered a single question she had asked him on the way back to camp. Among those questions were the likes of “why did you kidnap me?” and “why on Equis did you bring me to this place?” Aside from a scowl, Sagat hadn’t responded in any way. Now Rainbow sat on her mat, staring at the mountain of a man who sat with legs crossed, hands on his knees and eye closed, breathing in and out slowly.
She didn’t know what to make of him. Now that she had a better look, she could see even more scars aside from the massive one that was on the front of his body. In fact, nearly all of his exposed flesh was covered in scars. Similar to Zangief. She wondered if they knew each other?
“Are you ready to begin?” Sagat asked. His voice was so sudden and deep that Rainbow nearly leapt off of her mat. She regained control of herself and narrowed her eyes at the man.
“Am I ready? Yeah, I’m ready. Ready for you to explain who the hell you are, why you kidnapped me and for you to take me back home! All that I’m ready for! As for…whatever the hell this place is, I have no intention of spending any more time here!”
“I already told you. If you wish to leave this place, you must conquer Ryu first,” Sagat replied, his voice practically a snarl. “And to do that, you need to be taught from the ground up. Unless you wish to face him again so soon.”
“Like I said, I have no intention of fighting him. Nor do I have any intention of staying here,” Rainbow snarled. “And if you don’t take me home right now, my friends will come to get me and when they do, your entire body will be one big scar!”
“Your friends are not coming. No one is,” Sagat informed her. He rose to his feet and walked over to the mare, towering over her as he glared down. “This is a location that only the beings called Changelings know about. It will hide your magic and your presence so that, if you fail, it can consume both without any interference. The only way out of here is to fight your way out. Now then, kitten, are you ready to learn? Or are you going to continue your mewling?”
Rainbow Dash opened her mouth to respond, before the image of Evil Ryu flashed through her mind again. The stump on her back began to burn at the thought and she turned away from Sagat, curling up on her mat and ignoring him as best she could.
“Feh, your fear makes you less than a mewling kitten. Even they know when to brandish their claws in the face of a threat. You just lay there and wait for it to kill you,” Sagat spat.
“I don’t care. I’ll just lay here and wait to die,” Rainbow said.
“If that is what you wish for, so be it. Once Evil Ryu finds this place, I have no doubt he will not hesitate in granting your wish,” Sagat said. Rainbow Dash sat up and spun around to face the human, her eyes filled with fear. “Did you think you were safe here? That I made our camp in a place where he could not get to us? No, he will be here. Most likely soon. And if you face him in the state you are now, then I will have to find a new student.”
“Are you crazy?! Why on Equis would you set up camp in a place like this then?” Rainbow asked, before she started to look around. “We gotta move. Who knows how close he is? With his speed and bloodlust he could be here already.”
“Right now the only think keeping the spirit of Evil Ryu back is my presence,” Sagat told her. “If you go into that jungle without me, you will die within seconds. But eventually he will come here to claim your soul. And I will not stand in his way if he does. Either you will best him or he will kill you. There is no in-between.”
Rainbow stammered out a few words before she fell to her knees, tears welling up in her eyes as terror flowed through every vein in her body. “Why are you doing this to me? What did I ever do to you?” she sobbed.
“I am doing this because I owe a debt. A debt which I can repay by training you to be an even greater warrior than you once were. But I never promised that my training would be easy or that you would make it out alive. I promised to train you. It is up to you whether or not you survive my training,” Sagat said coldly. “If you have the motivation to sit there and snivel, then you have the strength to get back up and learn. Which will it be, kitten?”
“You don’t understand. Evil Ryu…he’s not something you can fight,” Rainbow whispered. “His speed, his strength…his ferocity. It’s power the likes of which I’ve never seen. How am I supposed to face something like that! You don’t know what you’re sending me up against!”
“I do not know the power of the Satsui no Hado? I do not know of the darkness that Ryu holds within? Who do you think gave me this?” Sagat asked, pointing his thumb to the massive scar on his chest. “I was at the peak of my power when Ryu defeated me. I was the greatest fighter in the world. And then he came along and toppled my empire with a single uppercut.”
“Do not waste my time whining about the loss of your wing or the loss of your status as champion. I have felt both. I have lost my eye. I have lost my crown. And I too lost my will to fight,” Sagat berated her. “But when you reach as low as you can go, there are only two options. To lay there at the bottom and pity yourself. Or start to climb once again. I chose to climb. All that is left is to see what you choose.”
Rainbow didn’t have anything to say. She was too busy trying to wrap her head around what Sagat had told her. He had faced Evil Ryu and been bested. It made sense, considering how he had known the spirits moves when they fought and had spoken about overcoming him. But the loss of his eye was not the same as the loss of her wing. He lost a little bit of depth perception and the ability to check his right. She had lost a tool of speed, mobility and aerial superiority. He had to change his fighting style slightly. She had lost the entire way she fought.
“You’d just be training me to prolong my death,” Rainbow spat. “Ryu himself was already a tough foe. He beat Zangief, for the love of Faust, the greatest fighter to have ever lived! And his evil form is even stronger than that! How would any amount of training help me to…to…”
Rainbow stopped talking, because Sagat had started laughing while she had been speaking. He threw his head back and laughed a hard, mirthless laugh for a moment, before his scowl returned to his face and he shook his head at her.
“How little you know. Zangief, while strong, is not the greatest fighter in our world. Ryu, even in his evil form, is perhaps second. But there is another fighter, one who makes the both of them seem like children. Akuma.” Rainbow didn’t know who Akuma was, but the moment she heard his name she felt her soul turn to ice and her stump began to blaze with pain.
“When Ryu uses the Satsui no Hado, he is using, at best, fifty percent of what it can actually do. Akuma though, is a true master of the killing intent. His form is perfect, his strength is unmatched and he holds no regard for his opponent’s life,” Sagat said, a smile crossing his face. Not one of joy or excitement. But one of fear. “There are none who can match him. He is a true demon in a fight. I have only witnessed him once. I hope never to do so again.”
“So Ryu, even Evil Ryu, isn’t the best?” Rainbow asked. Her voice shook like her whole world was coming down and she started curl up into the fetal position once more.
“Why does that upset you? If anything, what I have told you should make you happy,” Sagat said.
“Happy?! How on Equis can I be happy after you just told me there is a fighter who can kick around Evil Ryu like he’s nothing?!” Rainbow screamed. “Evil Ryu was the most powerful foe that I’ve ever faced and now you’re telling me he’s only second fiddle to the true master! What in that scar covered brain of yours would think that telling me that would make me feel better?”
“Simple. You believed Evil Ryu to be unbeatable. But I have just told you that he can be beaten,” Sagat explained calmly. “You cannot best him through raw power or might. But Akuma, from the little I saw, did not beat Ryu with power. He beat him with technique. With skill. By making all of his might worthless. And that, Rainbow, is something that you can do. It is something that I have done.”
Rainbow’s eyes widened in disbelief and she gazed up at Sagat with something growing in her heart that she thought she have never felt again. Hope. “You…you beat Evil Ryu?” she asked.
“I defeated Ryu. I bested Evil Ryu. And I held my own against Akuma himself,” Sagat told her, a true smile crossing his face. “That is why the being who wishes to help you came to me. Because only one who has overcome the Satsui no Hado knows how to best it. And just as Dhalsim taught me, so shall I teach you.”
Rainbow couldn’t believe what she was hearing. A warrior, probably the only warrior, to have defeated Evil Ryu was before her, read to teach her how to do so. And for a moment she remembered herself in all of her glory, winning match after match, tournament after tournament, being hailed as the greatest in all the land. That was the her she wanted to be again. And it was time for her to reclaim her title.
“So are you ready, little kitten, to be pushed to the point where you wish for death, only to be driven beyond that?” Sagat asked her.
“Yes. I’m ready,” Rainbow said with a wicked smile.
“We shall see. Now then,” Sagat started, before he brought his arms close to his face and lifted one knee off the ground.
“BEGIN!”
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Dash, you may think you know what you're getting into now, but trust me, you DON'T.
Very well done! I am so stoked to see this continue. Sagat had one of the most interesting character profiles and I want to take a stab that it was Ryu himself that asked Sagat to train Dash.
9344921
Shh... Let her learn the terror that is the God of Muay Thai...
There is a school of treatment for trauma that believes that mental wounds cause a kind of scarring- that is, unless the mind is forcibly reset by some means, PTSD is the result.
Muay Thai training from the Tiger himself is both the proper medicine and the size of the dose required for an egotist as big as Rainbow Dash.
9344937
My money is on either Zangief or Fluttershy asking.
I think Rainbow Dash must unlearn all she has learned to make any progress.
Knee meets face.
This is going to happen a lot isnt it?
Which one is it Rainbow?
I mean she does have a black belt in karate so she should be fine, right?
Oh and there’s a fighter called ‘Oni’