Darkness dominated Kailan's world. Darkness and a sort of throbbing ache
throughout his body, punctuated in areas by rather intense pain. Like his
left arm, he realized. His left arm burned like a thousand little gremlins
were tossing brimstones around on it like confetti. His eyes swung languidly
over to look at his arm. Much to his surprise, he could actually see the
little imps. Swarms of them, crawling all over his arm. They all turned to
look at him, beady scarlet eyes blazing with unreasoning hatred. Yellowing
fangs were bared, tiny rusted pitchforks were raised. As one mass, they flew
at his face, his throat, his eyes with banshee wails of pure malevolance.
Kailan opened his mouth to scream, tried to raise his arms to defend himself;
but his own arms had turned against him, they had grown claws and were raking
against his skin, and the demons all flew into his open mouth, choking him.
He could feel them dashing through his veins, spreading fire wherever they
went... he saw his skin boiling... saw his body tearing itself apart... and
he could not scream... could not... could... not...
"NOOOO!!!"
Energy coursed around his body, exploding in a strobe-burst of green
light. The rubble that had been crushing him was disintegrated and cast
aside. Kailan lay, panting, in the midst of a scene of carnage, surrounded by
a several-meter wide radius of clear ground where ruined concrete and tiling
hay devils to be seen.
He exhaled loudly, trembling at the memory of magma coursing through his
veins. *But it wasn't real... it was just a hallucination.*
He blinked dust from his eyes, gazing up at the stars. Then he blinked
again in consternation. *Where am I?*
His memory returned slowly. After he fought the turtle-thing, he'd gone
to sulk on the sidelines. Someone was laughing at him, and he didn't care for
it at all. His bad mood faded a bit as he watched with fascination two
black-clad guys, twins or something, wailing on each other something fierce.
He was almost glad he hadn't won his match, because then he'd have had to
take on the red-eyed guy. He'd just been starting to enjoy himself as a
spectator when something happened... his memories became a little fuzzy.
There were big freaky monsters, and explosions, and power levels shooting up
to crazy heights... and then...
He looked up, astonished. The blackness of night stared back impassively.
*Deities... the building's gone! It must've fallen on me...* He whistled
lowly. *I wonder how long I was unconscious under all that debris... it must
be- what, midnight?*
Kailan found his power pole nearby, a bit scuffed but otherwise unharmed.
He stood, a bit unsteadily, and realized when he reached down to pick the
pole up that the bone was sticking out of his left arm. He stared at it,
bemused.
"Oh," he said to nobody in particular. "That's probably bad, isn't it?"
Kailan never knew how he happened to arrive at the restaurant. He must've
stumbled aimlessly down the street until he found the building, and then
decided to go in because he remembered vaguely that what you did with
buildings was go into them...
Ukyou was alone, washing plates angrily. Sometimes, it really sucked to
have martial artist friends with quick tempers. Her customers certainly
didn't care for it too much whe "friendly" brawls broke out between Ranma and
Ryouga, or Mousse, or whoever the hell happened to be around and got on
Ranma's nerves. *It's a wonder I make any money with this place at all, with
all the money I spend on repairing plates, furniture, walls...*
The bell over the door jingled merrily as somebody entered. Ukyou looked
up, pleasant smile appearing automatically on her face- then she gasped.
The guy looked like he'd walked twenty miles along a dusty highway only
to be hit by a bus, savaged by a pack of coyotes, and then have the bus back
up over him again. His clothes- a fairly tight-fitting green fighter's
outfit- were torn and filthy, stained with dirt and blood. His face and body
were covered in abrasions and contusions of all sorts. One arm had an open
fracture, and the wound was caked with dirt. He was leaning heavily on a
staff of some sort, swaying a bit. His eyes focused on her with some
difficulty.
"Hey," he said weakly. "This your place?"
She nodded, eyes wide.
He took a few awkward steps forward towards her, then extended a shaky
hand. "Hello... I'm-" he swayed backwards, nearly losing his balance. She
reached out, unthinking, to steady him, and grabbed sharply onto his left
arm. He screamed in pain, and she drew back, horrified at her carelessness.
"Aw, crap! I'm so sorry, I'm such a clumsy oaf! Are you okay? Well," she
gestured vainly, "I can see you're not okay, but... your arm...?"
He took a number of shallow breaths. " 'S okay," he said with a vague
smile. "Doesn't hurt too much."
She frowned. "Really?"
He thought a second. "No," he amended. "Actually, it hurts like hell."
"Hmm. Yeah, I'd kinda guess it would... umm... can I do something...?"
"Probably oughta clean it," he mumbled. He was swaying more drastically
now, just on the verge of toppling to the ground. "And... stuff... clean...
stuff..."
She came around the counter, laying a hand gently on his shoulder. "Why
don't you lie down for a while, okay?" she whispered, leading him to a large
booth. "I'll go get some water and some bandages, okay? And I think I'll call
a doctor about that arm..."
"Sounds good," he said drowsily as he lowered into the booth. She turned
to leave-
"Hey," Kailan said.
She pivoted, slowly.
"Yes?"
"What's your name?"
She paused.
"Ukyou."
Kailan smiled, laying his head back down on the the upholstery, eyes
closing. "Ukyou... don't worry, Ukyou. I'll remember your name..."
Within seconds he was asleep. Nonplussed, she went off to save his life.
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