Fanfic: Akuma vs Hsien-Ko

      Deep in the mountains of China a lone figure has been traveling his lone journey in search of worthy opponents and greater strengths. This man known to many as Akuma sits in concentration atop the rocky crags of a misty forested mountain far from the cities.

 

     His eyes snap open as he senses a strange power, “The Satsui no Hadou?” he says to himself, “No…deeper, a soul completely engulfed by the power.”

 

     Akuma grins in anticipation as he leaps impossibly across the boulders and trees of the mountain following the strange aura.  He stops on a cliff looking down at the source of the aura…and pulls his head back in confusion. What he sees is not what he expected, not some large vicious muscular man, not some scar covered tortured soul, no, its two sixteen year old Chinese girls in hiking gear carrying backpacks.

 

   “What is this?” he growls. He can feel now even more so than before the utter blackness in their souls, power not unlike the Satsui No Hadou, yet this stands in stark contradiction to the two smiling girls laughing as they hike up the mountain path. He jumps down from the ledge landing twenty feet in front of them, eyes glowing.

 

      The two girls stop and just stare at him the one with black oddly looped hair turning to the girl with brown hair saying, “Uh, Mei-Ling, is that a Darkstalker?”

 

    “I don’t know Hsien-Ko, he kinda feels like one, but its different, a little like that Donovan guy…”

 

    “Who are you?” growls Akuma, “and how is that that two little girls could master the Satsui No Hadou?”

 

    “The what?” says Hsien-ko genuinely confused.

 

    Akuma points his finger at them, “Do not try and lie to Akuma, I can feel it inside you, the darkness, the lust for destruction and battle, your souls are completely saturated by the dark power. Now tell me, who are you?”

 

    “Darkness…” says Hsien-ko in a sober tone. She turns to Mei-ling who agrees, “I don’t think we have a choice, this guy wants a fight. We’ll have to defend ourselves.”

 

     A blue spiritual fire surrounds the two girls, swirling like multitudes of snake coiling around their prey. Akuma can even see what appear to be the heads of dragons in the flames. Had he been able to see inside the flames he would see the two girls transform, growing in size to adult women with Hsien-Ko’s skin turning blue as their packs vanished into a void along with their cloths only to be replaced by their battle costumes.

 

    Akuma sees above the flames two large forms that he at first mistakes for the heads of fiery snakes, the flames mold themselves into two large sleeve arms with metal claws. The flames subside to reveal the now transformed warriors. As the flames subside a strange, thick, un-earthly mist envelops the mountain path; not a too unusual thing for these mountains

 

    “Transformations, channeling Ki into solid objects.” says Akuma as he enters his combat pose with red flames flicking off his body, “You may indeed give me a real fight with such skills.”

 

    Akuma’s aura dies down and his face regains it’s earlier confused expression as Hsien-Ko’s arms phase into her sleeves like a ghost’s and Mei-ling’s body glows gold and transforms into a small scrap of paper that adorns Hsien-Ko’s hat.

 

    Akuma shakes his head growling, “So you fused into one? Making yourselves stronger? It won’t do you any good, you will still die at my hands.”

 

    “What ever” says Hsien-Ko, “We have someplace to be and you’re in our way dweeb.”

 

    Hsien-ko flicks her sleeve sending an oddly familiar spiked arm cuff flying at Akuma. He catches it easily from the air and tosses it to the ground,

 

“kid’s stuff.” He says.

 

    Hsien-ko says, “okay fine.” As she throws a large boulder from her sleeve and jumps back to put some distance between her and Akuma.

 

    He takes the boulder as a challenge, leaping into the air with a Shoryuken, obliterating the boulder. As he lands he screams out, “Stop playing around and fight me! Show me the real extent of your strange Satsui No Hadou!”

 

    Hsien-ko separates her arm from her sleeve tipping up her sister/seal from her face and rolling her eyes as she turns her neck stretching, “listen Mr. Aki-what ever, I don’t know anything about some Sassy Knee Happy. Dark, me, man, I’m a Chiang-Shi. You know, a Darkstalker, Chinese vampire, supernatural monster.”

 

     Mei-ling’s seal glows speaking to Hsien-Ko’s mind, “oh,” says Hsien-Ko as she yells out cupping her hands around her mouth like a megaphone, “hey Mr. That stuff you said earlier, dark soul stuff right? Well I think your confusing your sissy nip hippy with our Igyou Tenshin No Jyutsu.”

 

    Akuma growls in a broad smile as his red flame aura erupts all around him like an erupting volcano. “Two arts that envelope the soul in darkness and transcend humanity.” He says, “We will see which of the two is superior!”

 

     Akuma fires a purple flamed Hadoken at his opponent. Hsien-Ko vanishes from sight; small puffs of mist on the ground would have been the only clues to her location. Even if Akuma knew to look for this the ever thickening mist was making that nearly impossible as it rolls across the ground in waves.

 

    Akuma looks around trying to find his opponent, he snaps himself in the direction of the sound of metal clanging. He sees rise into the air a long metal chain. He looks up anticipating an attack from above, not expecting the chain to impossibly attach its self to nothing in the air, allowing Hsien-ko to take him by surprise as she comes spinning at him swinging from the chain, claws spinning.

 

   As she flies through the air, Mei-ling flashes a message in mind, “Stop! Don’t kill him!” At the last minute Hsien-ko turns her blades to their blunt side only smacking Akuma sending him flying about eight feet and knocking him to the ground. Akuma quickly rights himself fists forward looking around trying to anticipate where from the mist the next attack will come, finding it increasingly harder to sense Hsien-Ko’s location, “The Mist” he mutters, “its not natural, its hiding them.” He thinks for a moment, “that seal, they aren’t stronger. She sealed her own power to fight me. Why?”

 

    High above on the side of a cliff Hsien-Ko has embedded her claws and stands crouched legs spread hanging on to the side of the cliff, “Okay,” she says, “I’m just going to kill that guy, no more holding back. I played nice, and all it did was annoy him. Look Mei-ling, that dork just brushed off being hit by the blunt side of my claws.”

 

    “No!” flashes Mei-ling inside her mind, “He’s human, the darkness in him isn’t like Donovan. It’s more like a poison, its spreading through his body and wrapped around his soul twisting him. It may one day consume him, turning him into a monster.”

 

   “and?” says Hsien-ko, “He may be human now, but he’ll become a monster? So you won’t let me use my full strength and kill him now? What if he someday turns into some demon and starts eating human flesh? Then if we run across him I can kill him? What ever I’m sick of this guy either way, and I’m sick of fighting these freaks; if you won’t let me kill this idiot then let’s just go home like we were doing.”

 

   Mei-ling agrees as Hsien-ko leaps into the air running on the air above the mist, leaving no footfalls to give away their location as her feet touch no earth.

 

    Eventually the mist subsides leaving Akuma alone with the realization that his opponent has left. “Fled?” he mutters, “no, they left, just as I have done when facing unworthy weak opponents.” Akuma growls as he reaches his hand towards his chest like a claw, as though wanting to rip out his own beating heart, “Why? Chiang-Shi, Chinese vampire, ghost. Was it my humanity that made that thing under-estimate me? RAAAAH! Come back here demon!”

 

     He smashes his fist into the cliff side causing a land side that he just brushes off himself like light rain. He clenches his fist, “My wretched humanity, weak human soul.” He walks to the edge of a cliff overlooking a forest far below and screams speaks as though talking to the world its self, “I will completely transcend humanity, and on that day I will fight you. A world of monsters, a world of worthy opponents just waiting. Wait and soon enough you too will learn the power of Akuma.”

 

     Far away Hsien-Ko has run above five mountains and lands in the woods. The blue spiritual fire engulfs them again returning them to their younger forms, complete with hiking gear and packs. Night has completely fallen,      

 

    “Flying is the only way to travel.” Says Hsien-ko

 

     “we didn’t fly, you ran on the air.” Says Mei-ling

 

    “same difference” retorts Hsien-ko sticking out her tongue, “now come-on I think we’re almost home.”

 

     “Almost?” asks Mei-ling

 

    “yeah, I think I landed like five miles from home.”

 

   “oh come-on, you couldn’t have landed closer.”

 

    “what? You want mom and dad to see any of that crazy magic stuff?”

 

    “well no” sighs Mei-ling as she hefts up her back-pack, “I just wish we were as strong human as we are transformed.”

 

    As they walk through the dark woods Mei-ling starts to see a few familiar landmarks, “hey! I wander if we are close yet….I’m so tired”

 

    Hsien-ko smiles, “Don’t worry sis, we’re almost there”

 

   Hsien-ko points ahead at a well lit two story house with two people, a man and woman standing outside the garage, “Ah! Look its mom and dad! Yes! Finally!”

 

   The two girls have finally reached home, looking back that night on all their recent adventures, even on the weird guy they ran across on their way home from the strange world they had escaped from.