After changing into a set of casual clothes to conceal the Shadaloo uniform underneath, which resembled a gymnast's leotard, Cammy quickly made her decision and boarded a train heading toward the Shiranui-ryu dojo.
Chun-Li boarded the train without hesitation as well, but instead of entering the same carriage as Cammy, she chose the one next to it.
At this point, the pursuit had already become extremely dangerous.
To make sure she didn't lose Cammy, Chun-Li kept her eyes fixed on the seat where Cammy was sitting through the otherwise empty train.
She already knew she had almost certainly been exposed.
Even so, the hatred she carried for her father's killer drove her to keep taking the risk.
Hidden behind her sunglasses, Cammy could only sigh inwardly in frustration. If this hadn't been a long-term infiltration mission, she would have killed Chun-Li without the slightest hesitation.
So, she simply picked up a newspaper and started reading it.
Although she could understand the Japanese written on the pages, she had absolutely no interest in any of it. To her, none of it had any meaning.
Her entire existence revolved around serving Shadaloo and serving Bison. She had neither the need nor the right to possess any other thoughts or desires.
Therefore, the wait felt painfully long.
Only after the train arrived in the city where the Shiranui-ryu dojo was located did she finally drop the act and begin making her way toward the dojo mentioned in her intelligence report.
She moved quickly.
Meanwhile, Chun-Li's expression became increasingly strange.
The farther she followed, the more she realized they were getting closer and closer to the home of a man she could never forget.
"The Shiranui-ryu? What's Shadaloo doing here? Could Ryuji really be member of Shadaloo?"
Chun-Li instantly became alert. If Ryuji really was a member of Shadaloo, then everything she had learned before, including seeing her father, must have been the work of one of Shadaloo's psychics.
If that was the case, then she absolutely could no longer trust Ryuji.
But if he isn't...
"I'll wait and see."
After carefully checking her surroundings and confirming that Cammy was indeed heading toward the Shiranui-ryu dojo, Chun-Li decided to wait until Cammy entered before looking for an opportunity to investigate.
Whether Ryuji was a member of Shadaloo or someone Shadaloo regarded as a thorn in its side, she needed to see clearly.
Unfortunately, the gates of the Shiranui-ryu dojo were closed. Just as Chun-Li was lamenting her bad luck, Cammy stopped in front of the entrance and began waiting quietly. This made Chun-Li even more certain that Ryuji was a member of Shadaloo.
But there were still some things she couldn't understand.
"With his strength, he could have killed me whenever he wanted. Was he deceiving me to get information about Interpol's movements?"
As she tried to figure out Ryuji's motives, Chun-Li couldn't reach an answer.
After all, Ryuji's strength far surpassed hers. Under the circumstances back then, he could easily have killed her and disposed of the body without leaving a trace.
As for gathering intelligence, that didn't make much sense either. If it was a large-scale operation, Bison would certainly learn about it.
If it was a small one, it wouldn't pose any threat to Shadaloo in the first place.
"So what exactly was his objective...?"
Chun-Li was confused.
She had always been this suspicious. It was both an occupational hazard and a matter of caution.
Even when her own father had appeared before her, her first thought had been whether he was an impostor and whether it was all an elaborate trap. The current situation naturally made her even more wary.
Meanwhile, Ryuji had just returned, and all he felt was boredom.
"True experts are indeed rare. Their fighting spirit was decent enough to help me temper the killing intent of the Satsui no Hado, but their actual strength was pitiful. That so-called Infinite Fist style was at least worth a glance. As for the rest, they were nothing but chickens and dogs. Some of them haven't even mastered the fundamentals of karate before trying to invent their own styles. They're complete idiots."
Ryuji showed no mercy in his assessment of Japan's martial artists schools.
After all, in Japan's martial arts world, karate and judo were foundations that no one could avoid. So, most of the masters he challenged practiced some form of karate.
Many schools had evolved from traditional karate. Unfortunately, the vast majority of those derivative styles were flashy but impractical.
Some had been watered down simply because their practitioners wanted easier training, while others damaged the body even more severely than the original.
Most karate schools hadn't even considered preserving the practitioner's long-term health.
Although their students cultivated qi and learned to wield it, by the time they grew old, they were almost guaranteed to be riddled with illnesses.
They could still display a measure of strength, but in terms of lifespan, many of them would likely die even earlier than ordinary people.
The more proficient they became in their school's techniques, the worse their health and longevity tended to be.
Like Muay Thai, they were the sort of martial arts that relied on youth.
They couldn't compare to Tifa's Zangan Style, and even the original secret techniques of the Shiranui-ryu that Mai used to practice surpassed these karate schools in terms of lifespan, power, and rate of growth.
Their legs and hands suffered the most.
Anyone who practiced karate long enough was almost guaranteed to develop problems with their knees and lower back.
Ryuji could feel it during every match. Some of his opponents' bodies were already falling apart.
They still looked fine for the moment, but once they were past the age of thirty-five, if they took excellent care of themselves, they might still manage an ordinary life. If they didn't and lacked the money for surgery or medical treatment, they might not even be able to live as well as an average person.
However, they could still maintain their superhuman strength before their physical abilities declined.
Even so, after fighting people like that, Ryuji often found himself healing their injuries afterward. He was genuinely worried that one of them would end up crippled by one of his punches.
Because his reputation had already spread, Ryuji managed to challenge ten different dojos in a single day.
Unfortunately, not a single one contained an opponent capable of making him fight seriously.
"No wonder so many martial artists think they're invincible. This world's basically one giant fish pond."
~~~~~~~~~~
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