Street Fighter EX/Akuma

For more information about Akuma, please see him Street Fighter II, Street Fighter Alpha, and Street Fighter III entries.

Akuma, rather surprisingly, appears only in the first Street Fighter EX tournament. It is unknown exactly what transpired during the tournament, but two events are rumored.

Already aware of Ryu's capacity to tap into the killing instinct of their Ansatsuken style, he may have been drawn to the tournament to witness Ryu's progress in either accepting the murderous intent, or rejecting it. However, once he arrived, another fighter may have intrigued Akuma more than Ryu. Kairi was another martial artist who showed the same level of capacity for Satsui no Hadou as Ryu, but with the potential to twist it for the purposes of life instead of death. When Akuma initiated a battle with Kairi, Kairi was beaten within an inch of his life, and lost the use of one eye when Akuma grazed his face with a Shoryuken. Just as Akuma was about to finish Kairi off, Kairi retaliated with a burst of power that was beyond his control, which actually succeeding in stunning Akuma, before Kairi disappeared from the fight.

It is these events that may have had a hand in attracting the demon Garuda to the Street Fighter EX tournament. Garuda tracked down Akuma, believing that he was the source of power that Garuda had noticed, and attacked him. As the living embodiment of Satsui no Hadou, the more that Akuma tapped into his murderous intent, the stronger Garuda became until Garuda succeeding in defeating Akuma, nearly killing him. Garuda then realized that Akuma was not the source of the power, and immediately left in search of the true source, leaving Akuma to suffer his fate alone. Knowing that Akuma could never win against such a demon, he remained hidden until Garuda could be wiped off the face of the earth by another...