Neon flickered in the smog. Steam hissed from broken pipes.
Sector 7 was not designed for a casual stroll. It certainly wasn't designed for a casual stroll while wearing a hundred pounds of depleted uranium.
"My legs," Reno wheezed, leaning heavily against a rusted streetlamp. "I can't feel my legs. I think my kneecaps just fused together."
"Keep moving," Cissnei ordered. Her breathing was ragged, her Turk uniform soaked with sweat, but her pride refused to let her collapse. "We are elite operatives. We do not quit."
"Elite operatives who just got outclassed by a pre-teen and forced into a lethal gym class," Reno groaned, taking another agonizing step.
Rude didn't say anything. He just adjusted his sunglasses, though his massive shoulders were visibly trembling.
Walking ten feet ahead of them, completely unaffected by gravity, was Ryu. He was practically skipping.
"Come on, guys! It's just a few more blocks!" Ryu cheered, turning around and walking backward. "The food here is the best! Tifa promised me free burgers for life! Do you know how much a 'forever' burger costs? Infinite Gil!"
"I'm going to shoot him," Reno mumbled. "I swear to the Planet, Scarlet can fire me. I'm taking the shot."
"You couldn't lift your arm if you tried, Reno," Cissnei pointed out bitterly.
The glowing, cartoonish angel of the 7th Heaven sign finally cut through the gloom. Ryu pushed the swinging saloon doors open and marched inside. The Turks stumbled in behind him, looking less like Shinra's most feared assassins and more like survivors of a train wreck.
Tifa was behind the counter, polishing a glass. The bar was relatively empty, the late-night crowd having already filtered out.
She looked up. Her crimson eyes locked onto Ryu's spiky hair.
Immediately, a warm flush spread across her cheeks. The exhaustion of a long shift vanished. She felt that strange, electric flutter in her chest—the pure, untainted energy he brought into the room.
"Ryu!" Tifa smiled brightly, setting the glass down. "You came back!"
"Tifa!" Ryu grinned, running up to the bar and hopping onto a stool. "I brought friends! And I'm starving! I need, like, fifteen Supernovas! Oh, and they're paying for their own."
Tifa looked past Ryu. Her smile instantly vanished. Her eyes narrowed into dangerous slits.
Three figures in dark suits had collapsed into a corner booth. She recognized the sharp cut of the fabric. She recognized the electromagnetic baton hanging from Reno's belt.
Shinra. Turks.
"Ryu," Tifa's voice dropped, her hand sliding under the counter toward a heavy wrench. "Why did you bring Shinra dogs into my bar?"
Reno lifts his head from the table, looking utterly miserable. Dogs? Lady, right now I'm a crushed bug.
"Dogs? No, they're humans," Ryu corrected, completely missing the hostility. "They're my new students! We just finished evasion training in the wasteland. They're super weak, but they have good stamina. Hey Reno, pass the salt!"
Reno groaned, his face pressed against the varnished wood of the table. "Make it stop."
Tifa stared at the lethal assassins. They were trembling. The auburn-haired girl was massaging her shoulders with a look of pure agony. The bald giant was just staring blankly at the ceiling.
"Students?" Tifa blinked, completely baffled. "You... you made the Turks your students?"
"Yep! They stalked me, so I made them wear the heavy vests!" Ryu beamed. "Now, about those burgers?"
Tifa couldn't help it. She let out a short, musical laugh. The sheer absurdity of this boy—casually torturing Shinra's black ops team with exercise—was too much. The tension left her shoulders.
"Alright, Ryu," Tifa smiled, a fierce affection blooming in her chest. She reached over and ruffled his spiky hair. "Fifteen burgers coming up. And I'll get your 'students' some water before they pass out and scare off my regulars."
While Tifa cooked, Ryu happily spun around on his stool. The Turks remained completely immobile in their booth.
But beneath the surface of Midgar, miles below the plates in a sterile, white-tiled laboratory, someone else was watching.
Professor Hojo leaned over a massive bank of monitors. His greasy black hair fell across his wire-rimmed glasses. He tapped a long, bony finger against the glass screen.
The screen displayed a heat-signature feed. It was locked onto Sector 7. Specifically, onto 7th Heaven.
"Fascinating," Hojo muttered, his voice a raspy whisper. "The Executive Director's little pet. He dismantled Shears' hydraulic arm with a grip strength that defies all known physiological limits of Gaia. No Mako. No Jenova cells. Just... raw, impossible density."
Hojo typed a command into the console.
"Scarlet thinks she can hide him. She thinks she can hoard a specimen like that." Hojo chuckled, a dry, rattling sound. "Ignorant woman. Science waits for no one."
He pressed a glowing red button.
"Release Project Bloodhound. Let us see if the boy bleeds."
Back in 7th Heaven, Tifa set down the first mountain of burgers.
"Eat up," she said softly, watching Ryu dive into the meat with terrifying speed.
CRASH.
The front window of the bar exploded inward.
Shards of glass rained across the floorboards. The neon angel sign outside short-circuited in a shower of sparks.
A beast stepped through the shattered frame.
It was a monstrosity. It looked vaguely canine, but it was entirely hairless, its skin a sickly, translucent gray. Veins pulsing with concentrated Mako glowed green beneath its flesh. Its jaw was unhinged, dripping a highly corrosive acid that burned holes into the floorboards. Embedded in its spine was a metallic Shinra data-recorder.
"What the hell is that?!" Reno yelled, trying to stand up, but the 100-pound vest slammed him right back into the booth.
"A mutant," Cissnei gasped, reaching for her shuriken, her arm shaking from muscle fatigue.
The Bloodhound didn't look at the Turks. It didn't look at Tifa. Its multi-faceted, insectoid eyes locked directly onto Ryu. It let out a high-pitched, screeching roar.
TARGET ACQUIRED. SECURE TISSUE SAMPLE.
"Hey!" Tifa shouted, stepping out from behind the bar. She didn't hesitate. She didn't run. She dropped into a low, Zangan fighting stance, her fists raised. "Get out of my bar!"
The beast lunged at her. It was impossibly fast, a blur of gray muscle and acid.
Tifa braced for impact.
She didn't need to.
Ryu vanished from his stool. The half-eaten burger fell to the counter.
BAM.
Ryu appeared directly in front of Tifa, intercepting the beast mid-air. He caught the monster by the throat with one hand. The impact sent a shockwave through the bar, rattling the bottles on the shelves.
The beast thrashed, its acid dripping onto Ryu's arm. The acid hissed, smoking violently.
Ryu didn't even flinch. His Ki formed a thin, invisible barrier over his skin. The acid simply evaporated.
"You interrupted my dinner," Ryu said. His voice was no longer playful. It was cold. Saiyan cold.
Tifa stares at Ryu's back. He's smaller than her, but right now, he looks like a giant. Her heart hammers a frantic, terrified, exhilarating rhythm.
The beast twisted, slashing with a razor-sharp claw aimed at Ryu's eyes.
Ryu tossed the beast backward. It hit the floor, skidding across the wood, tearing deep gouges into the floorboards before recovering its footing.
"Tifa," Ryu called out, not looking back. "You wanted to show me your Zangan style?"
Tifa blinked, then a fierce, confident grin spread across her face. "You're sharing?"
"I don't mind a tag team!" Ryu laughed, his battle-lust flaring. White aura began to pulse around him. "Watch its tail. It's got a stinger."
The Bloodhound roared and charged again.
"Beat Rush!" Tifa yelled.
She exploded forward. Her speed was incredible, honed by years of relentless training. She bypassed the beast's snapping jaws, slipping to its left flank. She unleashed a flurry of rapid-fire punches into the monster's ribs.
Crack. Crack. Crack.
The blows were heavy, backed by her own internal strength. The beast staggered, letting out a pain-filled screech. It whipped its tail around, aiming the stinger directly at Tifa's head.
"Nope."
Ryu was there. He grabbed the tail mid-swing.
"Pull it!" Tifa yelled, pivoting on her heel.
Ryu yanked the tail hard, throwing the beast completely off balance and pulling it toward Tifa.
Tifa dropped low. "Waterkick!"
She launched a devastating, sweeping upward kick. Her boot connected squarely with the beast's jaw. The force lifted the 600-pound monster entirely off the ground, sending it flying toward the ceiling.
"Nice combo!" Ryu cheered. "My turn!"
Ryu jumped. He didn't just jump; he launched himself like a missile, intercepting the beast in mid-air. He spun, driving his heel into the monster's spine.
CRUNCH.
The beast slammed back down into the floor, creating a massive crater in the center of 7th Heaven. Dust and debris filled the air.
The beast twitched. The glowing green veins began to pulse faster. The data-recorder on its back clicked wildly. It wasn't dead. Its cellular regeneration was kicking into overdrive.
"It's healing," Cissnei warned from the booth, having finally managed to stand up. "It's a Hojo design. Physical trauma won't be enough!"
"Is that so?" Ryu landed lightly next to the crater.
He cupped his hands at his right hip. The white aura around him condensed, shifting into a brilliant, blinding blue light. The air pressure in the bar skyrocketed, making it hard to breathe.
Tifa shielded her eyes from the glare. The heat coming off the boy was intense.
"Ka... me..."
The blue light formed into a perfect sphere of crackling energy.
"Ha... me..."
The beast shrieked, scrambling to its feet, trying to flee. Its programming realized it was outmatched.
"HA!"
Ryu thrust his hands forward. A massive beam of blue energy erupted. It wasn't the small, unstable burst he had used in Wutai. This was focused. Precise.
The beam engulfed the beast entirely. It tore through the monster, atomizing the Mako-infused flesh in a fraction of a second. The beam continued, blasting cleanly through the reinforced steel wall of the bar and shooting out into the Sector 7 slums, illuminating the night sky with a flash of blue.
When the light faded, there was nothing left of the Bloodhound. Just a scorch mark on the floor and a perfectly circular hole in the wall.
Silence descended on the bar.
Reno slowly took his hands away from his face. He looked at the hole in the wall. He looked at the smoking crater. He looked at the twelve-year-old boy.
"I am never skipping leg day again," Reno whispered in absolute horror.
Ryu blew a wisp of smoke from his fingertips. He turned around, his cheerful smile returning as if he hadn't just evaporated a biological nightmare.
"Phew! Good workout!" Ryu walked back to his stool and picked up his cold burger. He took a massive bite. "Still good! So, Tifa, what did you think of my energy attack?"
Tifa stood frozen. She looked at the hole in her bar. She looked at the boy eating a burger.
She walked over to him. She didn't yell about the property damage. She didn't ask questions about the laser.
She grabbed a napkin and gently wiped a smudge of soot off Ryu's cheek. Her hands were shaking slightly, but her eyes were filled with absolute, undeniable awe.
"It was... bright," Tifa murmured, a deep blush painting her face. "You're incredible, Ryu."
"Right?" Ryu beamed, completely missing the romantic intensity of her gaze. "If you learn Ki, you can shoot lasers too!"
Shinra Headquarters - Floor 67 Lab
Static filled the monitor. The heat-signature feed was completely dead.
Hojo stared at the screen. The glass reflected his wide, manic eyes.
"Complete cellular atomization," Hojo breathed, his fingers trembling with dark excitement. "Energy projection capable of bypassing Mako-enhanced regeneration entirely. No incantation. No Materia."
Hojo began to laugh. It was a terrible, echoing sound that filled the empty laboratory.
"He is not a mutation. He is not an anomaly." Hojo slammed his hands onto the console. "He is the ultimate lifeform. Better than Jenova. Better than Sephiroth."
Hojo turned toward the shadows of his lab, where massive, sealed cryogenic tubes hummed with power.
"Scarlet cannot keep him. I will have that boy's blood. Even if I have to burn Midgar to ash to extract it."
The war for the Saiyan had just begun.
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CH30+ in pat.ero.n -- Ryu reach Namek with Zack and Sephiroth??
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