"Hmph!" exclaimed Long.

"Cool off in here tonight" said Willem, the lead soldier. "Tomorrow, we'll come and get you for your sentencing. You'll get quite a few years for trespassing."

He laughed, and walked off, leaving Long alone in his cell. He would have to find a way out. He couldn't be put in jail. He had things to do, and being in jail was not one of them.

He walked over to the cell window, and grabbed the bars. They wouldn't budge. He sighed, and plopped down on the straw pallet that was in the room. He looked up at the ceiling, and thought for a bit. He ended up thinking so hard, that he fell asleep.

Long saw himself standing in a dojo. He remembered what it was, but he couldn't put his finger on it. Then it hit him. This was his childhood dojo. He grew up here. He looked to the side, and saw his master walk onto the mat.

"Little Chan" said Elias Chan, Long's former master, and uncle. "You have come far in your training."

Long fought hard against the tears that were creeping into the corners of his eyes. It had been so long since he had seen this man. He had been like a father for Long, and in one cruel twist of fate, he had been taken away. Killed by a freak tornado that had destroyed Long's hometown.

"Don't cry, Little Chan" said Elias, using Long's childhood nickname (he had always been small compared to the rest of his family). "I'm still dead, so nothing has changed."

"But Uncle, I've missed you" stated Long. "I've done so much, but I've never forgotten you, or my training."

"I know, Little Chan" said Elias. "But it has stopped. You've neglected it. You've been involved in something other than your original mission. You were supposed to find the perfect state of mind, and then become the strongest fighter in the world."

"I know" said Long. "But, it was important. I've been helping many."

"But you haven't been helping yourself" remarked Elias. "You've been neglecting your training. So, when you have the chance, continue it. You know where to go to do that."

Long nodded. He knew where he had to go to continue his training. A special place, high in the mountains above Ryube village. Much higher than where most people went. Higher than most of the monsters went. He had to go to the Buddha's Temple.

"Yes, Uncle" answered Long. "I know where to go, but I don't know if they will accept me. Last time I was there, I kind of told off one of their greatest trainers. He wasn't very happy with that. They won't enjoy seeing me again."

"Don't worry, Little Chan" said Elias. "I used to be one of their greatest fighters. I can appear to them once. I will do so, and then they might see you in a different light."

"Thank you, Uncle" said Long. "Goodbye."

Elias shimmered from view, and Long found himself alone in the dojo. He walked out it, and he woke up.

He found himself on the straw pallet which he had fallen asleep on. He rolled off, and got to his feet. He looked outside, and saw daylight. He had slept all night.

He paced the room for a while, thinking of what he would do next. He had to think of a plan to get out. His mind was blank, though.

Suddenly, the door burst open, and Willem the soldier came in. He walked up to Long, grabbed him by the arm, and dragged him out.

"Where are we going?" asked Long.

"To your trial" answered Willem. "We'll see how many years you get for trespassing on Muse Federal property."

Long swore to himself, and kicked the dirt. Willem pushed him along. Long got dirty stares from everyone that they passed. It was as if he was a bad person now. All he had done was trespassing.

They kept going down the street toward the city capital for Long's trial. Then the unexpected happened. An arrow hit Willem right in the side of the head, and he went down. He saw the arrow was plastic tipped, so he was only unconscious. Long taken by surprise, just stood there watching.

A small man ran up to him, and grabbed him by the arm. He started running, and motioned for Long to follow. Long snapped out of his reverie, and followed after the man. They ran up to the city gates, but were shocked to see ten soldiers standing there, blocking the way.

"Damn!" yelled the man.

He dropped into a fighting stance, and pulled out a small sword. Long sighed at the young man, who obviously had very little combat training. The man charged at the soldiers, while Long slowly followed behind.

The soldiers advanced to the man, and easily disarmed him. Long, then, chose his moment to attack, and jumped up into the air. He performed a front flip, and landed in front of the man.

He lashed out with a swift kick and took out one soldier. He turned, punched out, and took out another soldier. He jumped up, did the splits, and took out two more soldiers. The other six began to get cautious, and Long took that moment to run. He grabbed the man by the arm, and took off. They were pursued by the soldiers, but a hail storm of arrows blocked them off.

Long and the man ran off, using the arrows as cover. They reached a safe place, and Long stopped. He turned to talk to the man.

"Who are you?" asked Long.

"I won't answer that" stated the man.

"Bull sh. . ." started Long.

"But he will" continued the man. He pointed off to the side, and Long saw a large man walk toward him.

"Hello. Long I presume? Am I right?" asked the man.

"Yes" answered Long. "But who are you?"

"The name's Boss" answered the man. "You don't need to know my real name. We are a group of bandits."

"We?" asked Long.

"Me, Boldun" Boss motioned to the man. "Hilliam." He motioned to the woman coming toward them with a bow in her hand and arrows in a pack on her back. "And a few others."

A half dozen people followed behind Hilliam. They also had bows and arrows with them. Long nodded to them, and then turned back to Boss.

"Why would bandits help me?" asked Long.

"We were asked to help by a friend of yours" answered Boss. "He gave us a very large sum of money, and he threatened to kill us all if we didn't help you. By the looks of him, I think he could, so we helped out. He went by the name of Radcliffe. Sound familiar?"

"Yes" answered Long.

How had Radcliffe known that Long was in trouble? Maybe he had just assumed it because he knew Long so well. Or he thought he knew Long. Anyway, he had just been saved by these people, and he should thank them.

"Thanks" said Long.

"Oh don't thank us yet" answered Boss. "Our job isn't done."

"What?" exclaimed Long. "You did enough already."

"No" stated Boss. "Our next assignment is to escort you to a location of your choosing. Inside Jowston, that is."

"Okay" answered Long. "You could escort me to Ryube village. I need to get there right away. It is very important."

"Okay" answered Boss. "We'll get you there in no time. Shall we be off?"

Long nodded, and Boss shouted out a bunch of orders. The men nodded, and set to work. Boldun ran off, as he was a sentry, Hilliam walked off, sleepily. Boss waited for Long, and they walked off together.

"Walking could take a while with such a large group" said Long.

"Who said we were walking?" asked Boss.

They walked over a hill, and Long saw a bunch of horses. Boldun was already riding off. They approached the horses, and Boss motioned for him to get on one. He nodded, but when he leaped onto the horse, it keeled up onto its hind legs, and threw Long right off.

"Ha Ha Ha Ha" laughed Boss. "Do it subtly. You don't want to hurt the stupid animal."

Long nodded, and got on the horse gentler. It neighed, but it didn't keal up. Long sighed, and kicked its ribs, and it sped off. Boss quickly caught up, followed by Hilliam, and the other archers.

"Um, Mr. Chan?" asked Boldun timidly.

Long looked across at the young man who was on his own horse, riding beside Long.

"Yes?" responded Long.

"That was some great fighting back there" said Boldun. "The way you took all those guys out, and kicked all of their butts. It makes me want to take up martial arts. You are an inspiration to us all. I want to be just like you. You are amazing. The greatest! Can I have an autograph?"

Long sighed, and then one of the archers rode up beside him.

"So, Boldun, still as bootlicking as ever?" asked the man. "He's only been here for a while, and you're already leaving your designated post to ask him for an autograph?"

"Shaddup, Roc" retorted Boldun. "I'm just being nice."

"Yeah" exclaimed Roc, while chuckling. "And soon you'll be opening the Long Chan-Chan fan club."

Roc laughed out loud, turned his horse around. He rode back to the other archers.

"That's why I'd like to learn martial arts" said Boldun softly to himself.

"Just be stand up for yourself" said Long.

Boldun looked up, and was completely surprised. He didn't think anybody had heard that.

"If you can prove that you have enough guts, then others will help you" stated Long, encouragingly. "If you just run cowardly, then everyone will make fun of you."

"Thank you, Mr. Long" said Boldun. "I'll try that. Now if you'll excuse me."

Boldun sped up to get ahead of the pack. He was supposed to be a sentry, so he needed to distance himself from the pack. Long rode on in silence for a bit, until Hilliam's horse rode up beside him. He saw her sound asleep, swaying from side-to-side, almost falling off. Long was about to poke her in the arm to wake her up, but Boss rode up on his other side, and held his arm back.

"She needs her rest" said Boss. "She does this often. Don't worry, she won't fall off."

Long nodded, and watched Hilliam's horse go on by him. He turned to Boss, and smiled.

"You sure have an odd bunch, Boss" remarked Long.

"The name's Percy" said Boss. "No one else here knows that, so make sure it stays that way. Or else some unfortunate mishaps may come to you."

Long gulped, and nodded. For a bandit boss, he wasn't that bad, but Long suspected that it was because of Radcliffe's threat.

"How is Radcliffe?" asked Long.

"He was in Forest Village" answered Percy. "He was saying something about having to go somewhere very quickly. He saw us, and well gave us the cash, and the threat. We don't know what happened to him, but I hear he had a nasty confrontation with the mayor of the town. The mayor's son had to come home to protect the old man from now on. Don't know what good it'll do if guys like Radcliffe show up, but if it makes the old geezer happy. . ."

Long nodded. So Radcliffe had taken some frustration out on Fram, Forest Village's mayor. Poor old man. Long didn't think he deserved something like that, but it was Radcliffe who did it, so it wasn't in Long's control.

They kept on riding in silence, until they finally came to the village outskirts. It was Ryube. Long didn't need to go in the village, so he stopped there, and got off of the horse. Or tried to, but ended up falling face first into hard ground.

He got up, and wiped himself off. He turned toward Percy and the bandits, and nodded to them.

"Thanks" said Long.

"Don't mention it" said Percy. "But really don't mention it. If word gets out that we were bullied into an escort job by one man, we'll be a laughingstock. We don't need that right now. If you do say anything, and I don't care who threatens us, we'll tear you limb from limb. From now on, we don't know you, and you don't know us. C-ya."

The bandits turned and rode off. Long watched them go, then he shook his head. That man was a mean one. Long hoped that his men would notice this, and leave him for a better job. People like Boldun really didn't need to do things like that for a living.

Long turned from the bandits, and started toward the forest path, that would take him to a mountain path, and finally the snowy path that would lead him to the Buddha's Temple. It would be a tiresome trip, but it was worth it.

He walked along the path for a bit until he came to a fork in the road. He remembered that one path lead to a cliff, and the other path lead to the mountain path that Long needed. He chose the right hand path, and hoped for the best.

After an hour of walking, he realized he chose the wrong path. He got to the cliff edge, and saw that there was no mountain path, only a cliff. He turned around to leave, but saw a lone individual standing there.

The individual was wearing a white poncho and was holding a staff. It seemed that he was leaning on that staff. He had a straw hat on his head, which covered his eyes. He had long white hair, which was tied in a pony-tail in the back of his head. The man looked up at Long, and they stared into each others eyes.

The man had emerald green eyes. They seemed much too green to be normal. His face was not wrinkled, but Long could sense by how the man held himself, that he was older than Long. He had a goatee of the same color as his hair. It seemed the man had almost inhuman powers.

"Long Chan-Chan" pronounced this man. "You are sentenced to death by his greatness, Master Sai. His will is that you should die, and I am the bearer of that will."

Long nodded, and dropped into battle stance. The man threw of his poncho, and pulled out a deadly looking sword. Long gulped, and the man dropped into a battle stance, as well.

"I know it seems unfair that I have a weapon and you don't, but deal with it" said the man. "And if you must know, my name is Loki. Now you will die."

The man charged at Long. He reached him, but instead of attacking with his sword, he stared at Long. Then Long saw it. Loki's eyes flared up, and fired out energy bolts at Long. He barely avoided it. The bolts impacted with a small bird flying by the cliff, and the bird dropped from the sky. Long gulped again.

Loki charged, and this time, was swinging his sword. Long dodged it once, but not twice. It cut a small opening on his shirt. Long felt for blood, but found none.

Loki fired out a few more bolts, and Long was dancing around to avoid them. Loki then charged at Long with the sword waving. Long was twice cut on the chest, leaving long, yet small , cuts there.

Between the eye bolts, and slices, Long had no openings to attack. Loki's offensive strategy was effectively creating a strong defensive bubble around him. Long was slowly losing this fight.

They fought all over the cliff area. Long was being backed against some trees at this point in the fight. Loki sliced through the barrel of one tree, yet he had done so quickly, so the tree remained upright. Long ran behind another tree, and Loki blasted it. Long stayed there, until Loki sliced through the tree, and cut Long's right arm. It was a deep wound, not small like the others.

Long swore, and ran out from the tree onto the open cliff area. Loki gazed at him malevolently. He advanced slowly. Long looked on the ground for anything that might help him, and then he saw the rock. It was big, and so he picked it up. He hefted it through the air. . . and it missed Loki by about three feet.

Long swore again, and then he backed up. The cliff edge was surprisingly close. His back foot scraped against the edge, and he waved his arms back and forth to keep his balance. That's when the tree fell.

Long's rock had struck the tree instead of Loki, and it was now tumbling down. It dragged down another cut tree, and together, they pulled down a few more. Loki turned to the trees, and swore at the world in general as they collapsed on him.

Long had nowhere to run. The trees would soon land on him, and then he would be dead. Then it occurred to him. It wasn't the brightest of ideas, but it was an idea. He jumped off of the cliff. He fell until his hand was at the cliff edge, and he grabbed on. The branches hit his hand, but he held on strong. But he only had one good arm, and it was getting increasingly harder to hold on. He felt himself slipping, and was about to fall, when a hand caught him. Long thanked the heavens, and another hand pulled Long up. He climbed onto the cliff, and kissed the ground. He would never leave it like that again.

He turned to his saviour, and saw the last person he ever expected to see again. That was when the person punched Long in the face, and Long fell into dreamland.

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"Long Chan-Chan" and "Suikoden 2" are (C) Konami This chapter was posted on July 7, 2000