"Billie Jean is always talkin', when nobody else is talkin'

Tellin' lies and rubbin' shoulders,

So they called her mouth a motor!"

- Michael Jackson, "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'"

----------------------------------------

Not long afterwards, the rest of Sean's extended family showed up at his house, also having been informed about the video by Enzo. Sean, after freshening himself up and getting dressed, had gone downstairs to the family computer in the living room to see the video with the rest of them. To Sean's surprise and chagrin, the video had already racked up nearly 2 million views online, and had spread to every major fighting and non-fighting news site, including The MMA Digest, Shoryuken, and even GracieMag, which usually only covered Brazilian Jujitsu exclusively.

Throughout the video, Karin had put on a convincing act, portraying herself and her friends as victims, while manipulating the CCTV footage of the fight to make the Matsuda cousins look bad, muting the audio, and only showing where Sean and Enzo had attacked Ibuki and Karin, making them look like the aggressors. Sean watched the video silently, but he could feel his temper steadily rising with each word that came out of Karin's mouth, and clenched his fists tightly.

"...Before we knew it, a melee had broken out, and those thugs beat the hell out of us!" Karin sobbed in the video, as she wiped off the mascara running down her face caused by her fake tears. "Me and my friends fought back as hard as we could, but they were much stronger, and absolutely relentless."

"Yeah we did, if you leave out that badalhocoa cona stabbing Sean at least five times during that fight!" Enzo remarked angrily at the video. Luiza promptly slapped him in the back of the head for his rude comment. "OW! What was that for, Ma?" He whined, clutching his head.

"You know better than to call any woman that, regardless of how you feel about them!" His mother hissed at him.

"So I'm supposed to compliment these two women who disrespected our family, literally stabbed my brother at least five times, and tried to blackmail us into being their slaves?" Enzo retorted. "Even if if it was a bunch of guys jumping us, I'd still call them the same!"

"I have to side with Enzo for once," Manuela spoke. "Those girls went out of their way to disrespect him and Sean, and insulted Laura with sexual comments; why should we be respectful to them?"

"Shh!" Kinjiro hushed his arguing relatives. "It's showing the rest of the fight with Sean and Ibuki!"

At that, the entire family drew closer to the screen to get a good look. Sean quickly realized he was seeing the part where he had blacked out, since didn't remember a thing shown in the video. He had just pulled out the kunai that Ibuki stabbed him with, and began avoiding all of her attacks, before following up with the Shoryuken Enzo had described to him. It looked nothing like his typical Shoryu-Cannon, or either of his Dragon Smashes, but it was clearly far more powerful than any of them if it could send someone through a wall.

Well, I'll be damned, Sean thought, slightly proud of himself. I guess I got the skills, after all. Now, if only I could shove this in Yang's face, somehow... a smug smile spread across his face, but it quickly went away when Karin reappeared on the screen.

"...Soon after one of those brutish punks scarred one of my friends, the police came and arrested them for attacking us and destroying the store," Karin continued her exaggerated sobbing. "Being the forgiving person that I am, I willingly bailed them out and offered to drop the charges in exchange for an apology, but they literally spat in my face when I made the offer-"

"Vá-se foder, Karin!" Sean growled angrily as he paused the video. "I can't believe all these publications are taking this trash at face value."

"She's popular, rich, and influential; What do you expect?" Fabio said. "I wouldn't be surprised if she paid GracieMag to run that story."

"She definitely paid off GracieMag," Laura said, hands on her hips. She was visibly fuming from the video, and was thinking of what kind of painful spinal lock to put Karin in. "What're we supposed to do? Sean and Enzo are clearly going to get the brunt of the blowback, but this kind of slander could hurt the reputations of both of our dojos, too."

"The dojos are gonna be fine," Sean said, shaking his head. "But this is just gonna be another black eye for my reputation, and now Enzo is gonna be collateral damage, too. I mean, we could make a rebuttal video, but who's going to believe me? It's our word against hers, and I'm already losing the battle as it is!"

"But you two need to respond," Pedro answered. "If you don't, she could use this to get both of you blacklisted from the fighting community for who knows how long!"

"A little too late for that," Sean muttered.

"I'm not having this, Sean," Manuela said. "Our family didn't raise any punks, and we're definitely not letting Miss Kanzuki get away with disrespecting the two of you; we're making a response video."

"With what footage?" Sean asked. "Karin took it!"

"No, she just copied it, and didn't bother deleting the original," Pedro answered. "I have it with me on USB, so we still have the CCTV footage, and the audio to go with it for a response video."

Sean leaned back into his chair with a conflicted expression. He was sick and tired of being walked over, but also felt like it'd be pointless trying to fight someone who was virtually untouchable, on top of making things worse for him. Before he had a chance to verbalize his thoughts, the doorbell rang.

"Who's that?" Brenda wondered aloud. "I wasn't expecting anyone else today."

"Probably some nosy reporter," Sean said, eager to find an excuse to get away from the drama, even for just a moment. "I'll take care of it."

Sean quickly made a beeline for the front door, escaping the talk of vengeance. As far as he was concerned, if he could square up against Karin, he'd be all for it, but trying to sway the tide of public approval was a losing battle he didn't want to bother with. The young martial artist ran his hands through his dreads as he made his way into the foyer of the house, and towards the door.

"Keep ya shirt on, I'm coming," Sean cracked as the doorbell rang again. Once he got close, he looked through the peephole, and was greeted by the sight of Elena and Sakura standing on his doorstep.

"The hell?" Sean said in confusion. He quickly opened the door to make sure his eyes weren't playing tricks on him, and any thoughts of it being a hallucination immediately went out the window when he saw them clear as day in front of them. Elena was wearing a short-set, tropical two-piece, and flip flops; while Sakura had opted for sneakers, black biker shorts, a red headband, and a white T-shirt modified into a sleeveless crop top, covered by a black and red track jacket.

"What y'all doing here?" Sean asked. "Don't get me wrong, I'm happy to see ya, but I figured y'all either bounced, or were being dragged along on Karin's sympathy tour."

"Not a chance," Sakura said. "We came here specifically to avoid that, and see how you were doing after last night."

"We're super sorry about all this," Elena said. "We had no idea she made that video until a few hours ago."

Sean waved a hand nonchalantly. "Don't apologize," he said. "You two had nothing to do with the video or fight."

"Still, we could've done better to stop it," the princess replied. She looked at Sean closely, and noticed that he was completely healed from his fight with Ibuki. "Hey, how'd you heal so fast? I don't even see a scratch on you!"

Sean blinked in confusion, and looked down at his arms. Sure enough, the bruises and gashes he got during the fight were completely gone. Not even a scar remained. To say he was surprised would be an understatement.

"Weird," he said, clearly flummoxed. "I honestly don't know how. In fact, I don't remember half of that fight."

Sakura gave Sean a concerned look. "You don't?"

Sean shook his head. "I remember getting up from Ibuki's ninja attack, and literally seeing red at one point, but nothing else. I had to watch the CCTV footage myself to see what happened."

"That's... odd." Sakura was confused. The few times Ryu had briefly succumbed to the Satsui no Hado in the past, he usually retained his memories, so hearing the opposite happen was new to her.

"Meh, I'm healthy otherwise, so I'm not complaining," Sean said, shrugging. "Anyway, why don't you two come on in? It's hot as hell out here, and we got plenty of drinks and ice cream inside to cool you down."

"You had me at ice cream," Sakura chuckled.

"Likewise," Elena agreed, wiping her forehead. "I knew Brazil got hot, but not like this."

Sean chuckled, and stepped out the way to let them in. "Then come in before you both melt on my doorstep!"

The ladies laughed, and walked inside, grateful to be out of the heat. As Sakura began to take her sneakers off, she noticed a set of familiar looking mats laid out on the floor.

"Hey, aren't these tatami mats?" Sakura asked Sean curiously.

"Yup," Sean answered, stretching his arms. "They're mainly my grandfather's thing. He had brought some with him when he and my dad moved here from Japan, and he used them for our dojo, and a couple of the rooms in here, too."

Sakura gave Sean an odd look. "You're Japanese?"

Sean laughed at Sakura's comment. "(Was my last name not enough of a giveaway?)" he replied in Japanese.

Sakura's face turned red in embarrassment, and she quickly looked away to avoid Sean's eyes. "I mean, there's not a lot of dark-skinned Japanese people, so I kinda thought..." She mumbled, hoping Sean wasn't offended by her ignorance.

"True, but Brazil has a deep Japanese community here," Elena interjected, hoping to ease Sakura's embarrassment. "So you're probably more likely to see a lot of mixed families like Sean's here, than you would in Japan."

Sakura glanced at Elena. "Wait, really?"

"Big time," Sean replied. "We're one of the most diverse countries in Latin America; we're not really hung up on being homogeneous or silly shit like that." He lightly slapped Sakura on the shoulder. "Hey, don't feel like you just had a racist moment or anything like that, okay? What you said was ignorant, sure, but it wasn't out of malice. You're far away from being anything like Lord Freiza last night."

Both ladies laughed at Sean's derisive nickname for Karin.

"I have a feeling that's going to stick," Sakura giggled, before becoming apologetic once more. "Still, I'm sorry for what I just said; that was really ignorant of me."

Sean just shook his head. "Meh, don't even trip," he said casually. "It's nothing compared to how many people still think I'm an American."

Both Sakura and Elena were surprised at Sean's comment. "Are you joking?" Elena asked.

"I wish," Sean chuckled. "But that's a story for another time; let's check in with my fam, then I can get you two some ice cream."

The ladies nodded, and followed Sean into the main area of the house. When they came into sight of the rest of the family, they were surprised to see Sean with them. Laura, ever the teasing sister, immediately took the opportunity to bust his chops.

"I have to give you credit, Sean, I didn't think you'd be able to score two girls, let alone just one!" Laura cracked, earning laughs from Enzo, Pedro, Manuela, and even Kinjiro. Sean immediately grimaced, and facepalmed; while Sakura and Elena blushed madly. Brenda, however, wasn't amused.

"That's enough, Laura!" Brenda admonished her daughter. "There's no reason to say that to your brother, especially in front of company!"

"I'm only teasing, Mom!" Laura said. "Besides, he knows I mean no harm."

"Speak for yourself," Sean muttered under his breath.

Enzo, now over his laughing fit, spoke up. "Seriously, funny as that was, give Sean a break, and those two especially. They were the friends of Kanzuki trying to break the fight up last night."

The rest of the family murmured in surprise and mild suspicion. "What are they doing here, then?" Manuela asked.

Elena decided to step forward. "We personally came here to apologize," she said. "Not just for Karin's actions, but for not doing more to keep things from escalating. As Sean's friend, I've should've done more to reign in her and Ibuki."

"We're also dead against that video she put out," Sakura added. "She made it in secret last night, and we didn't know about it until earlier this morning. I have absolutely nothing against Sean or his cousin at all, and I don't want them to have their reputations hurt by Karin's lies."

"Why do you even hang with her, anyway?" Manuela questioned, crossing her arms. "I know Laura works for her in some fashion, but she strikes me as an elitist bitch."

"Being frank, you're not wrong," Sakura said. "Karin was a classicist prick when we were in high school, but she had humbled herself after she lost to me in a fight. Or so I thought, anyway. I really had no idea she was racist."

"Me either," Elena interjected. "I personally told her where to go when she started hurling slurs at Sean."

"I've never seen you that angry before," Sean remarked.

"She had it coming," Elena replied. "Listen, I know we can't do much about the damages to the store, and whatever punishment it might have brought on your and your cousin, but we're really sorry, and would like to help you turn the tide against Karin's video in anyway possible."

"The fact that you both came here to genuinely make amends, even though you had nothing to do with the fight, speaks volumes about your character," Kinjiro spoke, stepping forward. "We were discussing making a response video right before you two walked in; perhaps you could assist us with it?"

"We'd be more than happy to!" Sakura said.

"Agreed," Elena said. "Anything that can help push back the tide of Karin's lies, the better."

Sean subtly rolled his eyes in mild exasperation. he was still reluctant to make a response, but knew he was going to be outvoted by this point. "Fine," he said in resignation. "I'll go dig out my vlogging gear in a bit to record it, but can I get them some drinks or ice cream first? They pretty much walked here, and were sweating like crazy when they arrived."

"I'll take care of our guests, Sean," Laura spoke. "You go and get your stuff in the meantime."

"Fine," Sean sighed reluctantly, knowing arguing with Laura was pointless. He slouched a bit, and went back upstairs to his room, with Enzo following close behind.

Laura then walked to the ladies. "Follow me to the kitchen," she said. The ladies nodded, and followed the elder Matsuda. Manuela took this opportunity approach the two fighters.

"Hey," she said as she walked up next to them. "Sorry for being confrontational. I'm just tired of people picking on my cousin."

"Don't even sweat it," Sakura said, waving a hand. "I know about the crap Sean gets all the time from the circuit; it's not fair he gets dogged on so much."

If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

Elena nodded in agreement. "It's like everyone forgot he was a World Warrior finalist. After losing in the U.S. Tournament qualifiers, everyone just wrote him off, despite beating everyone who wasn't Ryu or Ken in that tournament."

Manuela scoffed as they entered the kitchen. "Trust me, I remember that clearly. He jumped right into training not long after he recovered from the beating that Ryu guy gave him, and he spent about 3 months training alone almost nonstop until he signed up for that tournament."

Elena gave Manuela a perplexed look. "Mr. Masters didn't help him?"

"Not in the least," Laura interjected. "When Sean lost to Ken in the World Warrior finals, he told Sean not to return to him unless he beat Ryu. So Sean, hardheaded as he is, kept trying to beat Ryu, and eventually got hospitalized for his troubles."

"Wait, Ken set him up?" Sakura asked. "He told me Sean went after Ryu on his own!"

"I'm not surprised he left out that little detail," Laura sighed, leaning against the counter. "I don't think Sean would've done it if Ken didn't ask him."

"He wouldn't have," Manuela said, taking a seat at one of the islands situated in the middle of the kitchen with the rest of the girls. "He'd do almost anything for that guy, if it meant being acknowledged in some way."

"Sounds like someone I know," Elena said, giving Sakura a knowing look.

Sakura just rolled her eyes. "I wasn't that bad over Ryu," She insisted.

"I think that shrine you had of him would say otherwise," Elena chuckled. Sakura immediately turned red as a tomato at Elena's words, and covered her face in mortification. Manuela laughed as well, but gave Sakura a sympathetic pat on the back. Laura had managed to stifle her laughter, but couldn't hide the amused smirk that formed on her lips.

"Hey, don't feel so bad," Manuela said reassuringly. "Sean's room was loaded with Ken Masters memorabilia at one point, so you're not exactly alone in that regard."

Sakura could only offer an embarrassed squeak from behind her hands. Laura just shook her head, and walked over to the deep freezer. "Let's get our minds off the drama for a minute," she said as she opened the freezer. "What kind of ice cream would you girls like?"

"Chocolate, if you have it, please," Elena said.

"I'll have chocolate too," Manuela said.

"Neapolitan, please," Sakura muttered, still covering her face.

Laura nodded, and pulled out two tubs of ice cream. In just a couple minutes, she had filled up several bowls with everyone's ice cream of choice, and brought them over with a tray, and several spoons. The ladies thanked Laura as they took their respective bowls.

"So, tell me a bit about yourselves, girls," Laura said, taking a seat next to Manuela. "I know a little bit about you, Elena, because Sean told me about you."

Elena nodded, taking a bite of her ice cream. "I'm originally from Kenya, but I've bounced around the world, since I usually study abroad," Elena said. "I did high school in Japan, and I'm currently in France for University."

"So constantly travelling is pretty normal for you?" Manuela asked.

"Kinda," Elena said, shrugging. "My father did the same thing when he was around my age. In fact, he got his PhD in pharmaceuticals and veterinary medicine in France, which is what I'm also doing."

"Your dad's a doctor?" Laura asked.

"Sort of," Elena replied. "He's more of a traditional Kenyan healer, but he has the western credentials to be one. I've always liked helping people, and I've assisted him in healing people, so it seemed like a natural choice for me. The rest of my family are all fighters, though; capoeira is our fighting style."

"So I've been told," Manuela said. "Enzo told me Sean said you could give our dad a run for his money, and he's the best capoeira master in Brazil."

Elena's eyes lit up. "Really? Wow, that's a big compliment! I don't even consider myself that great of a fighter compared to the rest of my family."

"Well, our family always had a great eye for talent," Laura interjected. "And Sean is no different, despite what people might say."

"Actually, there's something I was wondering about," Elena said. "Why did Sean choose to learn from Ken? Your family has two distinct styles of their own."

Laura giggled a bit, and moved her hair away from her face. "Because Ken saved his life a while back," she explained. "Did either of you hear about Shadaloo going down in flames a few years ago?"

Both girls nodded. "I know that Karin was the one who organized the team that raided the base," Sakura finally spoke up. "Ibuki was on that team, too, but I couldn't go; I had too many responsibilities to deal with."

Laura nodded. "I was on that team as well," she said. "The reason was that one of Bison's lieutenants had attacked Sean for one of the chess pieces I had, and he would've gotten killed, if Ken didn't jump in at the nick of time. That's one of the main reasons why he wanted to learn Ken's fighting style."

"That explains things," Sakura said. "And I'll have to admit, how he got Ken to be his master mirrors how I often pestered Ryu," she added, giggling.

"See I told you," Elena said, grinning.

Sakura elbowed her longtime friend gently. "Oh, shush, you," she said easily, before her smile gave way to a frown. "That said, I'm only now learning the the extent of how Ken's been dogging Sean. From what you two told me, he seems totally apathetic to training Sean."

"Because he is," Manuela commented dryly as she ate her ice cream. "Granted, he's a businessman, so time is money, which I can understand. But on the rare occasion he does show up to train him, he's usually hanging out with Laura, or finds some convenient excuse to take off. If he either can't fully commit to teaching Sean properly, or simply doesn't want to, he could've easily just said no, instead of basically stringing Sean along."

Sakrua nodded. "I agree. When I tried to get Ryu to train me, he kept telling me no, because he felt he still had much to learn. The rejection hurt, but it's better than constantly being strung along. No wonder Sean seems so jaded, even if he doesn't show it."

"He won't show it to you two," Manuela replied sadly. "The last three years really got him down so much, he basically became a shut in. Hell, this is the most Sean's interacted with me and Enzo in almost a year and a half."

"Oh, no!" Elena gasped. "That's definitely a one-eighty from the Sean I knew. Is there anything we can do to help lift his spirits?"

Laura shrugged. "I mean, I'd say get him out the house, but his wings are clipped because of the damages caused by the fight."

"It figures," Sakura groaned.

"There oughta be some way we can help, even if we can't go nowhere," Elena said.

Right then, Fabio walked into the kitchen. "Excuse me, ladies," the elder Matsuda said. "I apologize for eavesdropping on some of your convo, but I might have a way for you to get him out his shell for today, at least."

"What did you have in mind, mister...?" Elena trailed off, not knowing his name.

"Fabio, or 'Fab' for short," Fabio replied. "Anyway, what I had in mind was you two taking Enzo and Sean to a fighting event happening later on tonight at the Ginásio do Ibirapuera." He dug into his pocket, and pulled out two pairs of tickets. "I won these in a sweepstakes a while ago, and me and Laura were planning on surprising Sean with them, before last night happened. But I think he might open up more around you two than he would with us."

"Oh yeah! I almost forgot that was tonight!" Laura exclaimed, snapping her fingers. "I'm fine with it, since it's for Sean, but how can he and Enzo go if they're both grounded?"

"You know it's not hard to sweet-talk mom most of the time, and Papa thinks Sean shouldn't have gotten grounded anyway," Fabio replied. "Auntie and Uncle Pedro are gonna be harder to sell, though."

"Leave that to us!" Sakura said confidently. "I think we'll be able to convince them to let your cousin out the house for a few hours."

"You sure about that?" Manuela asked. "Our parents can be super strict sometimes."

"Trust me, Sakura can charm anyone when she really wants to," Elena giggled.

Manuela chuckled. "I need to see this."

"I think we will soon," Fabio said as he handed the tickets to Sakura. "Sean and Enzo should be back down any moment, let's go back to the living room."

The ladies nodded, and finished up their ice cream, before following Fabio back to the main room.

Meanwhile, in Sean's bedroom, he and Enzo had spent most of their time digging through his walk-in closet for his film gear, with little success, as it was filled with various items and clothes, and Sean grew increasingly frustrated; cursing himself for not stashing his gear in a better spot.

"This is what I get for not cleaning my shit out," Sean grumbled in annoyance.

"Psh, you should see Manuela's closet half the time," Enzo replied. "I remember one time last month, she had to clean it out, and she was buried in a tsunami of clothes, hangers, and old makeup kits as soon as she opened the door!"

Sean guffawed. "You're joking!"

"Naw, Dad even kicked her door in, cuz he thought something really bad had happened!" Enzo chuckled. "I wish I had got it on camera."

"Def a missed opportunity... a-ha!" A blue duffle bag partially covered in clothes near the back of the closet caught Sean's eye. Quickly, Sean reached over, and grabbed it, unzipping its cover to reveal his film gear inside. "Finally!" He said as he pulled the bag from under the pile. " Took long enough to find! Granted, I haven't made a vlog in almost a year, so I can't be too surprised it got buried."

"Whatever happened with all that, anyway?" Enzo asked as he moved out of the closet. "I know you were in a low point, but I remember you were still pumping out vlogs until about a couple months after we graduated from high school."

Sean shrugged apathetically. "Eh, I just lost interest, I guess," he said dismissively. This wasn't entirely untrue; Sean felt his life was fairly boring when he wasn't training and travelling with Ken, or fighting in tournaments, and thus not worth filming. But once his notoriety reached the point where he was essentially whiteballed from even the local tournaments in Brazil, in addition to the increasingly hateful comments on his videos, he gave up on vlogging entirely.

Enzo didn't seem convinced by Sean's answer, but decided to let it slide. "Well, I hope your filming and editing skills haven't diminished." He paused, before adding, "You do still have your editing software, right?"

Sean nodded. "I couldn't be bothered to delete it, honestly."

Enzo nodded. With no other words, the cousins quickly headed back downstairs, and into the living room, gear in tow. "We're back!" Sean announced as he and Enzo made their way into the room. He immediately noticed his grandfather was no longer there. "Where's Papa?" he asked.

"He went to go meditate not along after you went upstairs," Laura explained.

Sean nodded, then turned back to his guests. "Sorry for the wait, y'all. My gear was buried under a ton of stuff."

"It's all good, Sean," Elena said nonchalantly. "By the way, where are we filming the video?"

"We can just do it here," he said, leaning his head towards a large sofa sitting in the far end of the room. "Just give me some time to get my gear set up; won't take a minute."

Within two minutes, Sean had set up his tripod, camera, and microphone in front of the sofa. Sean silently thanked God that the camera's battery was still charged after so long. "Alright, Sakura, Elena, and Enzo!" he said. "Get on the couch so I can adjust the focus."

The group complied, and sat down in front of the camera as Sean began to fix with the lens' focus.

"I still can't believe we even have to to this," Enzo sighed as he sat down next to Elena. "I wish people would give Sean a break."

"Me too," Elena replied. "But now, Karin put an even bigger target on both of your backs." Elena ran her hands through her white hair. "I should've done more than just yell at her."

"Then you'd be the one getting a smearjob spread across the internet," Sean muttered as he messed around with the lens. "And even if she did, everyone knows you'd have a good reason to, considering how calm you normally are."

"Still..." Elena sighed.

"Don't berate yourself over something out of your control," Fabio spoke up. "Yes, perhaps things could have been settled differently, but you did nothing to instigate or escalate the situation."

"And at the end of the day, the buck also stops with me and Enzo," Sean added. "We could've avoided all this trouble entirely, but there's not much any of us can do now, outside of damage control."

"That's surprisingly mature of you to say, Sean," Sakura commented.

The youngest Matsuda just shrugged. "I mean, what else am I supposed to say? Anger got the best of me, and it ended with me wrecking the store... speaking of, I'm still not sure how I managed to pull off that Shoryuken."

Sakura, knowing the likely reason, opened her mouth to say something, but quickly shut it, not wanting to panic him or his family.

Sean proceeded to press record on the camera, and joined the rest of the group on the couch, sitting between Sakura and Enzo. "Ok, we're rolling," he said. "I was thinking, we could keep our part fairly short, and let the rest be the unedited security footage."

"Fine by me," Enzo said. "So, me and you say our piece first, and then Elena and Sakura?"

"That's what I was thinking," Sean said, glancing at the women sitting on opposite ends of the sofa. "If you two are fine with it, of course."

"Of course!" Sakura replied.

"It's your video, after all," Elena added.

Sean nodded, and took a deep breath as turned back to face the camera. Just get it over with, so you can post it quicker, he thought to himself.

"Hey, all," Sean began, reciting his old YouTube intro. "It's Sean Matsuda, back again with another vlog for ya, this time with my cousin Enzo, and world renowned fighters Sakura Kasugano and Elena Sironka. It's been a long-ass while since I've done one of these, but current circumstances basically forced me out of my sabbatical."

He took another deep breath as he began rubbing his palms on his shorts. "As most of you probably know already, me and my cousin Enzo got into a physical scrap with businesswoman and martial arts master Karin Kanzuki and one of her friends last night, and the video she posted about it recently went viral. I ain't ashamed at all to back up the fact that we decisively won that fight... but the way Karin described how things went down is nowhere near the truth. We're far from thugs, and we definitely didn't start the fight, as everyone here can attest to." Sean glanced at his cousin, who nodded in agreement.

"Me and Sean were goofing around in our family's corner store when Karin and her friends came around," Enzo spoke. "Karin was disrespectful to us from the jump, even calling Sean a monkey and shit to his face. But we had restraint, and were even willing to serve them, despite the disrespect. Sakura apologized on her behalf, but then her friend, I think her name was Ibuki, got disrespectful towards Sean, and also said some foul shit about his sister Laura, which I'm not gonna repeat."

Enzo sighed. "So Sean justifiably cracked her in the face, and Karin got in our faces again with more slurs. So I flipped her off, and she threw a punch at me; that's when the fight popped off. Elena and Sakura tried to break it up, but things got crazy during the fight, and the police arrested me and Sean right after the dust settled."

"I should add that Karin tried to bail them out of jail on the condition that they'd be her indentured servants for the next several months," Elena interjected. "They rightfully rejected the idea, so Karin made the video behind everyone's backs by stealing and manipulating the store's CCTV footage as retaliation. Neither me or Sakura had any idea she made the video until we saw it getting spread everywhere."

"Everything Karin said in that video is total B.S., as well," Sakura added. "Neither me or Elena were attacked or threatened by Sean or Enzo while we were at their store, and they've been nothing but nice and respectful to both of us because we showed them the same level respect back; something Karin and Ibuki failed to do from the start. All this could've been avoided, had they just shown some basic human decency, instead of being such racist, catty bitches the whole time!"

Sean and Enzo immediately looked away from the camera, and covered their mouths in a barely successful attempt to stifle their laughter, while Elena didn't bother hiding her amusement at Sakura's barb. Once they managed to compose themselves, Sean turned back to the camera. "Anyway, what we're about to show you is the original unedited CCTV of the fight, and everything that lead up to it," Sean said. "I know most of y'all out there think I'm a no-talent punk or whatever, but me and Enzo ain't on that bullshit Kanzuki's been saying, and the footage proves it. We'll catch you on the next vlog whenever it comes out, but until then... peace."

Sean, Enzo, and Sakura threw up peace signs, while Elena simply waved. After a few moments, Laura walked over to the camera, and hit the "Stop" button.

"And, scene," she announced. Sean groaned, and got up off the sofa.

"Well, the easy part's done," Sean said. "Now to edit it all together."

"Need a hand, bro?" Fabio asked as he casually leaned against the wall.

"No, I can do this in less than an hour," Sean replied. He turned back to the ladies and added, "By the way, thanks for joining the video, you two. I may not have the reach or influence Karin does, but at least I'll look credible."

"It's the very least we could do for you two," Elena replied, smiling. "You two shouldn't have your reputations hurt over something you didn't even cause."

"Agreed," Sakura added. "What Karin's doing isn't fair to any of us; the best thing we can do is tell our side of it."

"Yeah, well, I don't think even that will help me at this point," Sean sighed resignedly as he began dismantling his camera. "I just wish I could get a break for once; even a temporary one would be nice."

Sakura and Elena looked at each other knowingly, before turning back to Sean. "Well, we might be able to help with that, too..." Sakura started.

Sean stopped what he was doing, and gave Sakura an odd look. "How so?"

"Well," Sakura continued, fishing the tickets out of her pocket. "Me and Elena have tickets to a fighting event later tonight at the Ginásio do Ibirapuera. We were gonna go with the others, but we thought we'd be better off seeing if you and Enzo wanted to go with us, instead." She flashed the Brazilian fighter a bright smile as she held the tickets out towards him.

Both Sean and Enzo stared at Sakura with a confused expression, not sure if they were hearing correctly. Two of the world's best fighters actually wanted to hang out with them? Before he could formulate a response, Pedro spoke up.

"I'm going to have to nix that idea, unfortunately," he said. "We appreciate the gesture, but the boys are grounded for wrecking the store."

"We understand completely," Elena said. "But it's more than an apologetic gesture. If they're seen hanging out with us in public, the people will realize Karin's video is all lies. Especially at an event where three past World Warrior competitors will be given significant press if we're spotted amongst the crowd."

"Not to mention the potential exposure of both of your dojos if Enzo and Sean are there," Sakura added.

"I'm not sure..." Brenda began.

"I think it's a great idea," Laura interjected. "It generates goodwill for both of the boys and the dojos, and it vindicates our response in the public eye. And honestly, Sean needs to start going out again." She whispered the last part to her mother, who silently - if reluctantly - agreed.

"Ain't no harm in letting them go, in my opinion," Fabio agreed. "Not like they're gonna go out their way to wild out at the event."

"I'm not so sure I want Enzo going there," Luiza stated. "He's already grounded, for one, but what about that Karin girl? She's not going to miss an event like this, if it means boosting her side of the story, and I don't want our boys crossing paths with her again."

"I highly doubt any of tonight's fighters are on her radar," replied Elena. "She typically only challenges fighters who are World Warrior calibre, and I don't know if any of them are."

"And even if Karin shows up, she'll probably way up in one of the exclusive skyboxes," Sakura added.

"But what if she does cross paths with all of you?" Pedro asked. "You clearly had trouble stopping those fights last night, according to the camera footage."

"If something does happen, we promise to keep your sons out of trouble," Sakura declared. She then proceeded to unleash her secret weapon: Her irresistible puppy-dog eyes. "We promise we'll come back without any trouble happening tonight." She laid the eyes on thick, hoping to convince the Brazilian parents. The Da Silvas initially appeared to be unmoved by Sakura's eyes, but the Japanese girl's determination eventually paid off, when Pedro sighed in resignation.

"Fine," the capoeira master said reluctantly. "If Sean can go, you can go too, Enzo. But, I want you back home as soon as the event ends, alright?"

"Fine by me, Pop!" Enzo replied eagerly, grateful that his day wasn't totally ruined. Sakura grinned cheekily at Manuela, who just smiled, and gave a silent thumbs up.

"I guess you can go as well, Sean," Brenda said. "Just try not to draw to much attention to yourself or Enzo, okay?"

"I won't, Ma!" Sean replied, trying to hide his obvious excitement. He turned back to Sakura, and asked, "What time does it start?"

"Uh..." Sakura stole a quick glance at the tickets. "Eight, but doors open at seven-thirty. Maybe we could meet up again around six-thirty or seven, and then head over?"

"That's perfect," Enzo said, clapping his hands together. "I can drive everyone there, so we can all meet up at the store when it's closer to showtime."

"Hopefully under better circumstances this time," Elena replied.

"Yeah, hopefully," Sean agreed. "Anyway, I should get to editing this thing. We'll see you two at the store tonight."

The girls nodded. "See you then!" Sakura replied cheerfully. "It was nice meeting you and your family, but we should head back before Karin sends out a search party for us."

"Bold of you to assume she wouldn't look for us herself," Elena countered half-jokingly.

"Touché," Sakura conceded.

"Thank you both for helping us defend Sean and our family's reputation," Brenda said. "You're always welcome in our home."

"Likewise," Luiza said.

"Like I said, it was the least we could do," Elena said. "It was good meeting you all, and we'll see you two at the store later."

The ladies waved goodbye to the families, and Sean waved cheerily back, not even bothering to hide the dumb grin on his face at this point. For the first time in a long time, he was actually looking forward to something.