The peaceful morning quiet in the rear yard of the Rindou Dojo in Tokyo was broken by a series of kiai's. The rapid *pakpakpakpak* of fists and feet contesting for control of the space between two bodies was halted when one of the combatants let out a yell and leaped upward, taking off like a rocket and becoming visible to any hypothetical early-morning observer over the retaining wall around the Dojo yard.

The somewhat dark-skinned young girl making the creditable attempt at unassisted flight peaked at about forty feet high, cupping her hands by her side as she prepared to unleash her *chi* at her sparring partner.

"Hadoken!" yelled Sakura Yugure, letting her *chi* blast fly. Unfortunately, her opponent - one Akiko Tendo - ducked to the side and lifted off in a superjump of her own, rising up to meet Sakura as the latter girl descended. There was a brief flurry of fists and feet as the two passed within reach of each other, relenting as their altitudes became too different to allow contact.

Akiko, however, let out a brief pulse of *chi* of her own, which hit Sakura as she was still some ten feet above ground. With no way to brace herself, the result was predictable - Sakura slammed into the ground face-first rather than feet-first, and with enough force to imbed her a good foot into the soil of the dojo yard.

"Knockdown! Match to Tendo-san!" cried a middle-aged woman with blue hair, raising a hand in the air to emphasize the end of the match as a frustrated Sakura flared her *chi* without focusing it, her aura blasting the soil away from her as if it had been the resting place for a small bomb. Sakura looked at the woman - and the man watching from behind her - and let out a long breath, relaxing her stance as Akiko landed.

"Hai, Comb-san," Sakura answered the blue-haired woman with a brief nod and an impish grin. The man behind Comb - the Amazon Kho-Om - shook his head.

"Youth... unable to show the patience to even pronounce a name correctly. You know very well the lady's name is Kho-Om, Sakura," Itamu Rindou, the Dojo master and Makoto Rindou's father, chided the fuku-clad schoolgirl.

(Note: Itamu means 'Mourning', and I chose the name because that's what he's been doing since the death of his wife. I know, I'm overly ironic.)

Sakura dusted herself off - not an easy task given how much of her outfit had been driven into the dirt - and bowed in brief apology. Mollified, the Rindou patriarch moved back into the house, and Sakura turned to Akiko. "Che! I still can't do it, Acchan. I *know* I performed better than this in the fight in China, I can *feel* it - I just can't seem to reach that level again for some reason."

Akiko shrugged slightly. "It could be that you need a *reason* to fight to reach your full potential. Many of the greatest warriors of history fought for a cause." The stunningly lovely redhead paused. "By the way, do you realize you're giving everyone a free show when you jump or use high kicks? With nothing but panties on under that *fuku* skirt," she finished with a mischievous glance, "You could give a girl the wrong idea..."

"Eep!!" Sakura yiped, and hurriedly concentrated, forming a pair of bike shorts underneath her skirt to cover the oft-exposed undergarment. Hiking up her skirt, she showed the new apparel to Akiko. "Better, Acchan?"

Akiko nodded, smiling slightly. "I'm still amazed that you can do that, even knowing your origins," she commented.

Sakura shrugged in reply. "Go figure... I still don't know why I got a look into your heart back in China. I really need to find out more about myself, *what* I am and what I can do... but first I want to train," she finished.

Akiko smiled gently. "Is that the only reason you stay with me, Sa-chan? Training?"

Sakura gave her friend (of a few days) a hurt look. "Acchan! You know I care more about you than that! I said I'd stay by you when we got here, and I meant it!"

Akiko chuckled softly as the events of the past few days came to mind.

The trio of Sakura, Akiko, and Kho-Om had arrived, thanks to Sakura's teleportation, in the vacant lot where Sakura had camped near the Rindou Dojo while waiting for Makoto Rindou to arrive. After a few moments to orient themselves, the three had gone to the door of the dojo and knocked. Itamu Rindou, Makoto's father, had answered, and his perennial depression had lifted a bit from seeing Kho-Om, who had once meant to become his wife, in his home again. She and Sakura introduced Akiko as a friend and powerful martial artist who had been a victim of Shadoloo, and the kindhearted (if often overwrought) man had agreed to take her in.

Sakura had been gratified to see Akiko's aching heart soothed by the almost-familiar surroundings and the peace of the grounds, and that night had confided in the scarlet-haired master warrior about the true origin of "Sakura Yugure," and about the visions she had seen while freeing Akiko of the Shadoloo collar that controlled her mind. Finally able to fully unburden themselves to someone, the two had cried in each others' arms for most of the night, finally separating to go to sleep.

The next morning, the three visitors set about performing some repairs to the dojo and grounds that Itamu had obviously been neglecting, and Kho-Om even managed to coax the man out of his overlong grieving to help out. All four martial artists had regained a bit of lost calm and focus in the mundane but satisfying work, and by the end of the day, the Rindou compound was looking in much better repair than the somewhat-rundown place that Sakura had arrived at looking for Kho-Om and Makoto a bare two weeks ago.

The third day had seen the beginning of what became the routine at the Dojo over the next few days: A yawning Sakura had been surprised - and quickly dumped into the pond in the back of the compound - by Akiko in the moments just after dawn. (Akiko later noted that the 'Sunrise Surprise Attack' had been a great training idea, even if the trainee never liked it much.)

Kho-Om and Itamu had heard the noise and awakened in time to tone the match down to a sparring-for-points level, luckily *before* a somewhat annoyed Sakura could escalate matters to a point that would most likely have wrecked the dojo. The sparring had suddenly become a morning institution... which led matters up to the present day.

Akiko smiled gratefully at Sakura. "Arigato, Sa-chan," she said quietly, her eyes aimed at the ground. Looking back up, she smiled again. "By the way, if you'd been a little less emphatic with the follow-through of your last kick while we were airborne, you might have been able to block the *chi* blast I hit you with."

Sakura grinned wryly at the redhead. "Just you wait! I'll get you next time!" she promised, then chuckled at her own presumption. {Yeah, right, girl,} she thought to herself. {She's a fighter good enough to rival - oh, admit it, completely surpass - Ryu. Where do you get off thinking you're going to be able to defeat her tomorrow? Or ever, for that matter?} Taking a deep breath, she let it out in a sigh.

Akiko, of course, wasn't slow to pick up on the sign. "Sa-chan? What's the matter?" she asked.

Sakura paused, but was spared the embarrassment of replying when another voice called out from the compound gate. "Sakura? Sakura, is that you?"

Sakura turned to see a young girl her own age holding a bookbag and peering cautiously around the gate's edge. Recognition set in immediately. "MEI! Oh, it's been wayyyy too long! How are you?" she asked brightly, once again sounding like a carefree schoolgirl and not a careworn fighter.

(Note: Mei is the girl seen in Sakura's endings, the one she talks to about stuff - and who holds her bag in some of the Marvel Vs. games' opening animations. She's Sakura's best childhood friend.)

Mei smiled tentatively at Sakura. "Well, I hadn't seen you for a while, and I was just leaving school this morning - classes got cancelled - and when I saw you leaping up like that, I just had to see if it was you."

Sakura grinned sheepishly. "Ehhh heh heh! You know me too well," the schoolgirl streetfighter complained good-naturedly, rubbing the back of her head.

Mei smiled back. "I was just going to get something to eat at a cafe; you want to join me? I'd love to talk to you," she offered.

Sakura glanced back at Akiko. "I'm gonna go with her for the day, Acchan. Don't wait up for me!" she grinned as she jogged out of the compound's front gate.

Behind her, Akiko shrugged and turned back to repairing some of the damage their sparring had done to the grounds.

Sakura spent the whole morning rediscovering the joys of ordinary life with her oldest friend. {My *former self's* oldest friend,} she reminded herself once, but generally let the objection be carried off in a rush of nostalgia and memories.

The two of them stopped for snacks and ice cream, spending a while just sitting on the rim of a fountain in the sunshine licking at the sweet confections and being happy to have met once again.

They went to a movie together as well: Mei, much to Sakura's amusement, chose a Fatal Fury marathon. Sakura complained good-naturedly afterward that it was too much like real life, and Mei had to laugh.

The next site was also Mei's choice, but made Sakura a bit sad as well: the two went to an arcade in the Juuban area that Sakura had often frequented.

{Of course, Mei-chan doesn't know I came here so often to meet with the Sailor Senshi, or that they're gone for now,} Sakura sighed internally. {I can't fault her choice: the arcade still has all the best games, and I always had so much fun here trying to beat the Sailor V game with Usagi and Ami...}

Finally, the two went to a far corner of a park on the outskirts of Tokyo and just sat down to talk, sipping soft drinks that they'd gotten from nearby vending machines and chatting about old times.

"Mmm," Mei said as she sipped, going on when she'd swallowed. "I was glad to see you today. I hadn't seen you for so long, I was wondering if you were okay."

Sakura made a noncommital noise around the straw of her own cola. {I'm still wondering what she meant by not seeing me, since my old self goes to the same school as her, but I can't really ask outright. I *can't* tell her about everything that's happened to me: just my old exploits in the Alpha tourneys freaked her out enough!} Unable to say much, Sakura nodded and gestured for Mei to go on.

Mei sighed and sat back. "Yeah, after you dropped out, I haven't seen much of you, Sakura..."

Sakura's mind immediately went into a closed feedback loop as she sputtered on her drink. Her mind in complete turmoil, she blurted out, "DROPPED OUT!? When- how- why???"

Mei looked at her strangely, then squinted her eyes. "Um, yeah... you dropped out about two weeks back. I don't really know what happened or even if you're still staying at home, but..." The look in Mei's eyes was oddly assessing, as if she was measuring Sakura, but the fuku'd fighter didn't notice.

{Kasugano dropped out?? WHY? She's the one with a chance at a normal life, a happy family and everything - why would she give all that up??} She paused and jerked her head upright as a horrible thought occurred to her. {Oh no... what if it's *my* fault? What if she's been getting vibes or something from me that made her do this?? What if she heard about me and went looking for Ryu like I did?? What if...}

Another, much more direct, line of reasoning was going on close to Sakura.

{target at near-maximum level of emotional disturbance}

{unit preparedness optimum}

{systems online and prepared for full activation}

{begin assignment phase 2}

Mei stood and cleared her throat, causing Sakura to look up. "To tell the truth, I'm *really* glad to have found you today. You see, there's something I wanted to... *Show* you."

Sakura *blinkblinked,* trying to focus on the here and now through her confusion. "Wha-" she managed, only to recoil in horror as Mei went through a horrible, but all-too-familiar, transformation.

Her skin darkened to a reddish, nearly African shade.

Her eyes began to glow a lurid red.

Her form seemed to compact a bit, becoming more densely muscled, more defined and toned - a fighter's body.

Finally, her hands began to emit a pale blue flame, nearly grey in colour.

Mei gave Sakura a savage grin, her red eyes lighting up in violent joy. "What's the matter, Sakura-chan? We're the same now, don't you *LIKE* me?"

The 'LIKE' coincided with a savage downward punch that left the bench they had been sitting a pile of smoldering splinters. Sakura dropped her cola and backflipped, putting some distance between them. "Mei! No! You can't have..." she protested.

But the evidence was inescapable. To all appearances, Sakura's oldest friend had fallen under the sway of the Satsu no Hadou.

Sakura leaped backward, long and low, clearing the rushing attack of her friend by mere inches. The fight had been going on for at least five minutes now, and at sufficiently high levels to send most spectators screaming from the park.

{I just can't believe it,} Sakura thought, ducking a flaming Shoryuken uppercut. {*Mei,* under the Satsu? And concealing it so well that I didn't sense anything all this time? Where'd she get the training to-} "-UNGH!"

Mei had landed from the leaping uppercut and lunged forward with a gut-punch straight from Ryu's arsenal. Caught unawares, Sakura doubled over and took two follow-up blows: the up-and-down axe kick Ken Masters was known for. Crashing to the grond facefirst as the second blow brought Mei's heel down on Sakura's exposed neck, the former schoolgirl rolled away from her crazed friend as the girl in question slammed a fist into the ground where Sakura had landed.

Springing back to her feet, Sakura tried to reason with Mei. "Mei! Listen to me! I know you're angry - the Satsu no Hadou is built on anger. But-" she paused to leap up over a Hadoken that Mei hurled at her, then bounded into a tree to get out of reach for a moment. "-but you can still control it! You aren't like this, Mei, I know you better than that! Please, let me help you get control, before you destroy yourself!"

Mei glared up at Sakura with those eerie glowing eyes. "And what makes you think I want to be the way I was?" she asked, before swivelling her hips and slicing one leg across in a waist-level roundhouse kick - another Ken Masters special - that crushed a fair section of the tree trunk and sent it crashing to the ground. Sakura leaped away, clearing the foliage and landing well and Mei kept talking as she advanced. "I used to be a simpering fool. A weakling who didn't know what being alive was! I'm different now," she finished as she came within range of Sakura. Spinning again, Mei lifted off in a move Sakura had yet to fully duplicate - the Tatsumaki Senpuu Kyaku, also known as the Hurricane Kick.

Sakura didn't *mean* to counter, but her too-sharp instincts betrayed her. As Mei lifted off, her outthrust foot trailing flame, Sakura ducked, letting the attack pass harmlessly over her, then lashed her leg out in a footsweep as Mei landed, dumping the shorter girl on her back.

Mei kippuped and gave Sakura a savage grin. "You see? That felt good, didn't it?" she asked, nearly purring. "*We* know what it is to feel alive, Sakura-chan. We've felt our lives riding on our every move and maneuver. And nothing makes us feel more alive than a good fight! Fight me!!" Mei shouted, leaping back to the attack.

Something in Sakura voiced a silent cheer of agreement with those words, but far more of her recoiled in revulsion. "NO!" she denied, leaping back and up out of Mei's reach. "A challenge makes people feel more alive, yes, but Mei-chan, it doesn't have to be a deathmatch!!" Sakura paused as she landed. "It was Akuma, wasn't it?" she asked, not really expecting a reply. "You went to him, or he found you, and he made you like this. You don't have to do this, Mei-chan!! Please!! Come with me!! I can help you, so can my friends back at the dojo!!" she pleaded.

To no avail. Mei charged again, her Shoryuken sending Sakura tumbling through the air.

For another five minutes the one-sided fight raged on, Sakura doing her best to keep away from Mei while the berserker girl attacked in full fury. Sakura blocked, took blows, leaped and dashed, trying to create enough separation for her to use the Ashura Warp and flee back to the dojo, away from the horror that greeted her eyes every time she looked at her former best friend.

Mei, however, was having none of that, and vigilantly cut off Sakura at every turn until finally she was brought to bay in a stand of trees too thick to superjump in. Sakura dashed through a dense bush in the hope of evading Mei, but the berserker dashed around it, meeting Sakura on the far side. A bird flapped away, startled from its resting place by Sakura, and Mei snatched it in one hand as it passed near her, the flame from her fist charring it dead on the spot.

Mei circled around Sakura, crackling with the dark power of the Satsu no Hadou. "Sakura-chan, we are the same, don't you see?" she claimed. "We *live* for the fight. In battle, the body becomes not the prison of the soul but a part of you! The blood sings, the head pounds and the entire world flares white. We exist for that perfect moment of rapture when the opponent lies broken at our feet," she finished, casting the charred corpse of the bird aside. "Join me, Sakura-chan - in a world of absolute white!" With that, Sakura's former best friend sped at her with incredible speed; closing the gap between them in an instant.

She met a roundhouse kick that snapped her head around and knocked her sprawling as Sakura finally fought back against her. "NOOOO!" the taller girl howled in denial. "I am *not* like that! You find rapture in destruction, I find it in *challenge!* Rose-san was right. *I* am a *warrior.* *You* are a *destroyer!!*"

Mei hissed in feral delight as she kipped up. "Finally," she said softly. "Let's see how good you really are then, Hero of Jokuzetsu."

"How did you know-" Sakura began, but her open jaw was closed for her by a sharp high kick, which was followed up by a pair of fast jabs and another move Ryu was famous for.

"SHINKUU TATSUMAKI SENPUU KYAKU!!" Mei cried, leaping up three feet and spinning at a speed that would do credit to a jet turbine while extending one leg. The Vacuum Hurricane Kick sucked Sakura in and pummelled her viciously before hurling her across the clearing and into a tree, where she frantically healed the crushed muscles and cracked bones the attack had incurred.

When Sakura looked up, Mei was already leaping in. Hopping into the air in reply, Sakura manifested a wave of *chi* in front of her fist and let it draw her forwards in midair.

"Sho-Oh-Ken!" she cried out, her dashing punch- to-uppercut combination serving her well once again as it catapulted Mei across the clearing in turn. The berserker crashed through the bush where Sakura had entered the clearing - and didn't come back through it, at least not immediately. {Did I hurt her too badly??} Sakura wondered in sudden horror, regretting her overreaction. {Damn, even with the Satsu, it's only *Mei,* she can't have had much training, I could've just *killed* her-}

Sakura's line of thought was cut off by Mei's voice echoing from the far side of the bush.

"SHINKUU-HADOKEN!!"

The torrent of blue-grey fire that poured out easily matched Sakura's own version of the move. Caught unawares, the young karateka was blasted back between two trees and out of the clearing onto open ground, where again she had to spend energy - which was growing more and more scarce - on healing herself and restoring her modesty, her *fuku* having burned to ash in the blast. {That wasn't a normal Vacuum Wave Fist! It was hotter, almost like Dhalsim's flames-} Sakura thought, then stopped thinking and simply reacted as Mei came hurtling out of the trees at her foot-first.

Training and instinct took over. A Hadoken as tall as Sakura herself blasted Mei to a midair halt a bare two feet in front of her target. Sakura lashed out with a sharp three-hit combination, an upward kick keeping Mei airborne and off-balance, a two-handed swinging punch jolting her a bit higher, and finally a side power-kick, Sakura's trademark Roundhouse, connected with her head and sent her spinning away. Sakura watched as Mei bounced headfirst off a stone garbage receptacle before landing, but instead of wasting sentiment this time, she moved in to make sure her opponent was down.

An ugly, startling sight revealed itself once she arrived. Mei was down, apparently unconscious, and her head was bleeding. Turning her over to check the wound, Sakura recoiled in shock. A section of skin had been torn off Mei's head by the impact, but under it was, not the white of bone, but the gray of some dark metal... and in that metal was engraved a symbol. It wasn't completely visible, but enough was there for Sakura to recognize it:

The winged skull. The symbol of Shadoloo.

{I never realized... there was no aura to her, no *chi* at all,} Sakura thought, reviewing what her senses had been telling her now that she had time to think about it. {And she knew about Jokuzetsu... and fought like a mix of Ken and Ryu, not like Akuma... Then the 'Satsu energy' was probably technolgical flame, which would explain the hotter Shinkuu-Hadoken, and that means that this whole time...} the rage began to build inside her, but she calmed herself, having no target for it, {...this whole time I've been with a damn Shadoloo android, like the ones Ryu mentioned once!!} Fuming, she got up to leave-

-and leaped away in alarm as the thing's eyes snapped open. "Strucutral integrity compromised," it said in a mechanical voice. "End covert mode. Begin final phase of assignment: defeat and retrieval of target Yugure Sakura. Commencing."

Rising to its feet, the thing attacked.

Another five minutes had passed.

{I'm on my last legs,} Sakura admitted to herself. {This damn monster's taken nearly everything in my arsenal, between the first fight and this one.} The Shinkuu-Hadoken, the Midare-Zakura, and the Haru-Ichiban had all been tried, but despite being battered, the android just kept getting back up. {Thanks to my healing power I'm not *injured* per se, but I'm so low on *chi* that I can feel it, like a cold, hollow spot where I usually feel my inner fires...}

As she stood there, panting, 'Mei' moved in again. Sakura tried to set herself for the charge, but she went flying back into a tree anyway. As she pried herself up and got into a shaky combat stance, she glanced forward, expecting to hear the whistle of wind as the android attacked.

Instead she heard only one word, in a man's deep (and horrifyingly familiar) voice:

"SHOUSHI!"

Sakura's head shot up as the android was engulfed in blackness, and amid the sounds of mayhem from in the dark space there was the occasional 'clang' of a part hitting the ground.

The Kanji for 'Hell' flashed in red on the darkness as it dissipated, revealing the shattered remains of the 'Mei' cyborg on the ground... in front of a pair of red-skinned, sandaled feet in a tattered black *gi*.

Slowly, not wanting to see what she *knew* she would, Sakura raised her head.

A blood-red *gi* belt.

A black *gi* top with torn-away sleeves.

That awful, dark face, with its hateful red eyes and samurai topknot.

"Get up, girl. I have business with you," growled the voice of Shin Akuma.