[center][h3][b][color=ec008c]JURI HAN[/color][/b][/h3]
Level 7: 24/70 
Location: The Upper Tier
Word Count: 1,666
Points Gained: 3 +3
New EXP Balance: Level 7: 30/70 [/center]
[b][color=ec008c][hr][/color][/b]

[b][color=ec008c]”I thought it’d be bigger.”[/color][/b] Juri said, holding the small, spherical bomb in her hands.

“The design is compact and highly explosive.” Cyrax responded, voice deep and metallic, his bionic arms crossed. His yellow helm meant his expression was the thin glass line on its featureless plane. “Place them strategically and in great number. They will level a building and render even the most powerful fighter vulnerable, if not destroying them outright. It’s designed for assassination.”

The cyborg turned and pointed. On the outskirts of the city, no one was around to observe them blow up some scrap piles. Juri tossed the bomb. It landed with a thunk and rolled to a stop near a broken car. Then, she accessed it with her Feng Shui Engine and hacking ability, causing it to remotely detonate. The explosive was small but heavy, and when the smoke cleared, the car was practically gone! Juri let out a satisfied whoop. 

“More explosives will increase the power of the detonation exponentially.” He said. 

Juri started dropping the bombs into her duffel bag. In return, she reached inside and handed Cyrax a sack of gold coins. The cyborg ninja opened it up and quickly counted through them. [b][color=ec008c]”And for the discount, all I gotta do is..?”[/color][/b]

“Throw the match against me in the tournament bracket.” He said.

[b][color=ec008c]”If you’re so big and your bombs are so bad, why even bother making deals like this?”[/color][/b] Juri asked with a grin.

“You have your goals, I have mine. Minimizing risk is key.” He explained.

Juri shrugged. [b][color=ec008c]”Hey, fair enough. Anyone who lets me play with toys like this is alright in my book.”[/color][/b] Normally, Juri didn’t like losing. But she hardly cared if it meant she could get a discount on tools like this, for THIS goal in particular. Turning that bastard M. Bison to ash. She’d throw a tournament she didn’t give a damn about. Who cares? After it was done, what would she have left to care about? 

—

Esaka was haunted.

That much was obvious.

Yet, while every yokai is a spirit, but not every spirit was a yokai. Some of them were ghosts. And one of these ghosts stalked the rooftops. A dufflebag of powerful explosives at her hip, the moonlight shining right through her like she wasn’t even there. The burning fury in her chest had gone out a long time ago- vengeance had frozen her heart over. She chased death like water sought the path of least resistance. Downwards.

It was only ever downwards. Juri Han had been falling for over a decade and she had yet to hit bottom. She yearned for impact. At least then the world would stop spinning.

The Spider crawled to the heights of Esaka City. The Four Kings, swaddled in arrogance, were obvious to anyone who wanted to seek them out. If there was anyone in the multiverse more narcissistic than M. Bison, Juri had yet to meet them. 

One of the four towers belonged to Bison, and it did not take long to find out which. Evidently as the Death Tower, it was identifiable by the giant Shadaloo crests that adorned its sides, each a winged skull with a jagged scar or lightning bolt on its cranium. As the headquarters of Esaka’s biggest and most prestigious tournament, the [url=https://i.imgur.com/aGm0ZLy.png]Death Tower[/url] stood taller than the other three, though not by that much. Nevertheless it cast a long, dark shadow, much like the man who ruled it. At the very pinnacle, within a veritable throne room alight with concentrated psycho power, sat the black throne of the megalomaniacal dictator himself. Even now he lounged there, resting in silence, for there was nowhere Bison could sleep easier than his seat of power. During the day he might find himself surrounded by adjutants, cronies, and obsequious lickspittles, but at this hour no servant or security guard disturbed him. What need had he, after all, of protection?

	Juri was invisible, but she still had to be careful. Her Stealth cloak was noticeable at close distances. She scaled to the top tier and latched onto the wall of the towers and buildings, leaping from foothold to foothold, handhold to handhold. Every camera that might be watching would miss her entirely. 

Much like a spider, the smallest crack was all that was needed for Juri to slip through. The bastards had gotten lazy. Maybe up here at the top of the world, backed up by the god of this world, they thought they were invincible. Juri didn’t care. Maybe she should have thought harder about it, but she didn’t care. Windows were broken, electronic locks were overridden. Inside, it was gaudy and luxurious. Thick carpets, gold-leaf bookshelves, old paintings. Portraits of M Bison. Busts of M Bison. The Spider bared her fangs. Oh, how she loathed him. Where were the guards? There was hardly anyone to kill.

She found him, then, peeking through the keyhole to some kind of smoking room. He was almost unrecognizable without that military getup and skin-pulling grin. But she saw him sitting on his chair in fancy red loungewear, one leg crossed over the other and a book in his hands. The very picture of sophistication. Through one of the windows she saw a balcony. That would be the best place to strike. Leaving the interior through the way she came in, she crawled around the roof and made her way to the balcony. Perching in the nook of one of the supports, she planted Cyrax’s bombs one by one, attaching them to the underside of the entire balcony. 

Then she climbed up. It wasn’t effortless, but Juri was fast, strong, and invisible, so she had the time and the ability to make it work. Catching her breath from all the intense activity, she waited on the roof, eyes on the balcony. It had fine furniture, imported chairs and flowers on tables.
Juri wouldn’t have to wait long. In the distance, in the rings below, there was an explosion. Wasn’t that where the Seekers were at? The idiots were probably getting attacked already, as unsubtle as they all were all the time. Stupid as they were, she wasn’t worried about their safety. Both because she wasn’t all that attached and because they had at the very least proven themselves halfway decent in a scrap. Juri grinned, though. M. Bison couldn’t resist the carnage. Hell, maybe he had organized it himself. Either way, he opened the doors to the balcony and set his hands on the parapet.

You’re mine.

Juri remote activated the bombs. The explosion was condensed but extremely powerful. Surprised, Bison was consumed in a fiery dust storm before being flung upwards by the force of it. Juri slammed into him mid-air, driving her feet into his back. The two of them fell several stories, all the way down to the ground of the Highest Tier, before she crushed him into the pavement. The impact sent her tumbling, breathlessly, no longer invisible. 

[b][color=ec008c]”You’re dead meat!”[/color][/b] Juri yelled, scrambling to her feet. 

M. Bison wasn’t looking too well. His body was broken in several places, oozing and glowing with misty purple psycho power, like his malevolence could barely contain himself. As he pushed himself from the crater with a groan, he plucked at the sleeve of his tattered loungewear with a frown. 

Juri pounced on him, looking him in the face. When he saw her, his eyes, white as the dead surface of the moon above, lit up with recognition. That twisted smile spread across his face. It frustrated her even now, at the moment of the kill. 

[b]”At it again, Spider?”[/b] He asked with a laugh. Like he had been in this exact situation before. It was almost fond, if M. Bison was capable of such a feat of emotion.

[b][color=ec008c]”This time, I’m taking [i]your[/i] eye!”[/color][/b] She said, raised her hand, and then drove it fingers first towards his socket. He caught her hand with his own, smiling up at her.

[b]”Spoiled little brat, pawing at my door. Even now, you are nothing to me.”[/b] He said.

Juri shut him up with a brutal knee to the chest, forcing her claw closer to his white eyes as his strength waned. 

[b][color=ec008c]”You’re gonna scream for me!”[/color][/b] She demanded.

M. Bison’s grin threatened to split his head in half. [b]”This is what REAL POWER looks like!”[/b] He yelled, giddy, and his wounds began to glow. 

The ground began to shake, and pebbles and debris raised from the earth. The light coming from within was almost blinding. M. Bison began to laugh as he lifted from the floor. Juri struck him once, twice, three times, chopping into him, hanging on as he ascended. She forced her fingers beneath his eye and his skull cracked like ancient glass. 

Still, in that last moment, he looked at her. [b]”I’ll only grant you a delicious glimpse of this neverending nightmare.”[/b]

[b][color=ec008c]”Would you just shut up already-?!”[/color][/b] Juri’s question was answered as the evil lord’s body detonated from within, as she forced her hand deeper into his skull. The tremendous explosion sent her flying backwards as she crossed her arms in front of her. When she slammed into the wall behind her, she went limp for a moment and nearly didn’t catch herself before she hit the floor. 

Juri glanced around. Nothing left of him but a smoking crater and the distant alarm. 

[b][color=ec008c]”Oh, oh, a neverending nightmare, is that it?! Looks like you’re dust to me, idiot!”[/color][/b] Juri shouted. She began to cackle. [b][color=ec008c]”Not so goddamn impressive now, are you? What? What was that?! Speak up!”[/color][/b] She kicked at the pebbles.

Juri stood still and heaved her breath, fists clenched, staring at the spot where M. Bison had been. 

[b][color=ec008c]”You think I give a shit what you say? Who's still standing? Who’s [i]left[/i]?”[/color][/b] She asked. [b][color=ec008c]”Me.”[/color][/b] She answered.

[b][color=ec008c]”It’s me!”[/color][/b] Juri repeated, her voice echoing.

To fill the silence, she laughed again. [b][color=ec008c]”You’re so- you're so [i]boring[/i] like this! I’m gonna go find someone else to kill. See ya, [i]loser.[/i]”[/color][/b] With that, she shifted back into the shadows, her form melting away into the darkness.