Post by zombie on Feb 26, 2019 17:50:14 GMT -5
Fukushima Zombie slowly opens up her eyelids to see the phone’s light pointed right at her with her burnt and bruised body. She whimpers and tries to cover her face. She feels a hand pull her cover down and looks at Aokigahara Zombie in driver’s seat of a speeding jeep.
“Wake up, kid. You are missing the aftermath to one of the greatest moments of your life! I mean… what’s a little electrocution between friends, huh?”
He bellows this out with a blink followed by some laughter. The flashes of memories come to her with pain as the jeep weaves in and out of traffic. She remembers Zachariah Krähe’s dead eyes as he removed her shoes and planted her feet on the ground. Then looking at Aokigahara’s fury for the first time ever before the electricity ran through her lancing at every single nerve with a scalpel. Her body shakes involuntarily.
“That man tried to kill me.”
“Yeah! This is the life we signed up for.”
“I didn’t sign up for this.”
Aokigahara looks over at her like he was holding back a scream. She didn’t dare move or blink. Then he relaxes with some sadness.
“Everyone signs up for this type of shit the moment they are born. This is all that there is. Some people manage to avoid it all their lives until they decay and rot. There are a lucky few who get to have this experience right up front. You stare death right in its eyes and it gives you life! That’s what living this fast life is. This is what we do. That’s why I pushed for you to fight with me in this deathmatch game and follow us to Valor where the stakes are high.
“These are the bad old days. This is having no time for regrets. This is choosing an action and putting your all into it. When they hit you, then you hit back harder until somebody falls. Tit for tat. Eye for an eye.”
He grips the steering wheel until his knuckles go white. Fukushima fades in and out of consciousness and slurs her words.
“How did… We got out.”
“The staff found us and let us go. This guy here was supposed to take us to the hospital, but we don’t need that crap, do we? Then we have to explain the why and the how. It’s just a hassle. You’ll be fine, right?”
Fukushima raises her arm to give him a thumbs up.
“I love the smell of burnt flesh in the morning.”
Aokigahara howls with laughter. Fukushima turns in her seat to face the window and get away from the view of the man recording them. She sees that they are leaving the city for the more rural areas. She closes her eyes and feels her bandaged feet. They hurt with every bump on the road and she groans loudly. Aokigahara taps her on the head.
“Hey you’re savoring this moment, right? I mean it’s not every day we get to play the victim. I knew that guy had it in him, but I never thought he would do something like this.”
He grimaces and punches the roof of the car twice before forcing the grin back onto his face.
“That’s what is great every single time. About people, I mean. You never know what lengths someone will go to when pushed into a corner, but oh was that cheap. Even so, we have got to look forward and move on. We have a world to destroy and remake in our image as it were. What’s next? Do you remember?”
Fukushima looks on at the passing scenery as cement and bricks give way to trees and a clear night sky. The darkness is overwhelming and she feels a calm like she has never felt before. She gets a thought that if she only gives in to the darkness that everything will be alright. All she needs to do is close her eyes and let go. Just be numb. She rests her head on the side of the window and slowly goes limp.
A yank of her hair brings her back.
“Hey wake up! Stay in the moment. This has just been one battle and there are many more to come! Think. What is the next one?”
Fukushima rolls her eyes inside her head and paws him away. She feels a metallic taste in her mouth as she has just bitten into her tongue as she came to.
“Blood…”
“Yes! The Blood Bowl. We're teaming up in DTW to take on their teams for a shot at the belt. I guess tags are hot now, huh? The Hellcats, the Filthy Few, the ultra-violent, and the random pairing of the fat man and sad girl? That’s a nice recipe for a good time. We’ve got the best of the best pooling their sick minds together for a common goal. To maim, beat and kill for that shot. This is all about camaraderie at the end of it. Just how well you can trust the person behind you to match your drive and take on the world. All these teams are brought together by that goal, but they all don’t have something we do. Not now that you’ve been properly initiated into the life, huh? Inside and outside of the ring.”
Fukushima shakes her head and turns to him.
“Family.”
“That’s right! We’ve been forged. Like two pieces of metal. You know how that’s done right? A lot of people think it’s by melting the solder in the fire and making the two pieces stick but it’s not. You have to heat the two pieces so that they melt the solder. We’ve had our moments but today in the field we’ve been molded together by fire and electricity!”
He laughs again but Fukushima shakes and turns away again to face the window. She spots something in the distance and comes to life. Unfortunately, it’s to recoil in fear as she looks at a river and whimpers. She shrinks back to get as far away from it as possible and bumps onto Aokigahara. He gets one hand off the steering wheel to let her in and she clings to him. He tries to find what is bothering her and gets quiet when he realizes what she is trying to get away from. He immediately stops the car.
“This is not going to happen, kid.”
Aokigahara opens the door and forces Fukushima off of him. He beckons for her to get out of the car but she tries to move away. He grabs her foot and pulls her to the ground as she tries to grab at anything to stay in. Aokigahara clutches her by the hair and forces her to face him.
“You know what I say about fear? You like to watch others be afraid, but when it’s your turn to be in the thick of it, it suddenly becomes too much, right? I want you to think back to the moment you saw the water creeping towards your bare feet and the wire. That anticipation and panic are just… divine! See it for what it is. That was a moment for growth. Don’t shun it forever. It’s time for you to get an education.”
He picks her up onto his shoulders. The man filming senses that something is wrong by how forceful Aokigahara is being and tries to intervene. Aokigahara pushes him back with a kick. He pins him to the ground with a foot and smiles.
“You’re just the witness.”
He leaves the man on the ground with a crooked grin and takes a screaming Fukushima to the water’s edge. She scratches and bites to get him to drop her but it does no good in her weakened state. Aokigahara wades into the calm river up to the knees. Fukushima quiets down when she gets resigned to her fate. Aokigahara throws her into the deep part. Then there is darkness.
Her heartbeat thumps once and she falls.
It thumps twice and she sees flashes of light all around her.
Fukushima feels like she’s hit the bottom. She feels a throbbing in her head and chest. It gets faster and faster willing her to just let go once again. So much pressure all around her. So much fear. One final big flash and she can be gone.
Instead, she goes up and reaches for the light. She fights and screams, bubbles all around her. She rises up and finally using the last of her strength she gets some air. The sky is so clear now.
Fukushima drags herself onto land to see Aokigahara sitting by waiting for her. He immediately grabs a sweater to get her shattered feet dry. She coughs and spits water into his face
“You were going to let me drown?”
Aokigahara wipes his face but doesn’t look up as he works on her feet.
“You’re breathing aren’t you?”
“But…”
“Are you afraid now?”
“Yes!”
He finally looks her in the eyes.
“And how does it feel?”
She searches for her feelings like she hasn’t done in a long while. It was safer to be numb and face the world with a mask of a smile to hide all of that. Now she looks back into the deep end.
“Good!”
Aokigahara works on putting new dressings on her feet. He has her take off her wet hoodie and gives her a large shirt for her to dry off with.
“What did you see down there?”
“I was sinking. It was dark… I felt like when that man, Krähe, was looking at me with his eyes. It was cold. Then I saw them. I saw my people from the tsunami. They were watching me and waiting for me to join them. I don’t really remember their faces to every inch of their skin was shriveled like your fingers when they get wet for a while. They were so at peace with their waterlogged faces as they reached for me. Then I felt the bottom and thought I wanted them to take me. It would finally be over.”
She looks away from the water and clutches at his shoulders.
“Then I saw her on the top. I saw Lisa’s face as bright as the sun on the water’s edge. She was disappointed at me. She didn’t like that I was giving up so easily!”
Aokigahara looks at her confused.
“What? Lisa Seldon? I think that was just the sun.”
“Yeah! She was so beautiful and radiant in her rage. I felt like I wasn’t going to let her down. I couldn’t. Then I felt warm. Like I was being fueled on the inside. Then the people around me weren’t them. I felt you guys. Kowloon, Siberia, Kimitsu and you. You guys were swimming around me and not walking on the bottom. My real family. You pushed me up and I was able to reach the top. I reached her. I breathed air with my lungs. I let go of the water and the fear. I crawled out.”
Aokigahara processed all this and shrugs.
“Well alright. So now after all this do you see what makes us strong? What makes us family?”
“Yes! Sacrifice and blood.”
“You do like to visit your ghosts.”
Fukushima looks around in a manic state. She looks at the man holding the camera and he shakes as she rests her wild eyes on him. Aokigahara gets her to focus again.
“Exactly. We are brought together after being reborn. That makes us Zombie, but to really be a unit we have to fight together and experience these challenges. We’re going to get through this one. We’re forged together like steel through the fire. What do you make of it?”
“We are strongest. Well, Josh Kennedy is strongest but this is one for the teams. He has to rely on Poe and from what I know about him he is not the most reliable. He strays from the path so much that he gets lost in his grandeur. It is not about the violence it is about why. He does not know since he is adrift. Like he does not have a leg to stand on. Also, I heard from Kimitsu that he is all fake!”
She starts to laugh then coughs up some more water. Aokigahara lightly smacks her on her back.
“Good. Filth Parade has a grand history but I am very familiar with it. I remember when they were a group of little punks making trouble. They’re a good group but they aren’t like us… Keep going.”
“Bob and Seven are two individuals forced together by fate. One is an oaf that relies on his bombastic personality and size to get his way. You beat him for his title and his goal will be to get it back!”
“That is true.”
“But I will protect you! He does not see the use of it. He does not see the way it should be. You have been attacked so much for the title and it will be a waste to give it back to that man. He fights the means while he has the mean girl of DTW at his side. They should destroy each other to save everyone the trouble. He will hunt the Means but she is a big mean and she is standing right next to him. Darkness should not be used as she uses it. There can be good in it. I will show her how she can have a heart too.”
“How about the other two that are all bleeding hearts?”
“Rotgut and Deathrow? I think you will like them. They are all about the love of the fight. I know that they have a passion for this type of fight. They are experts at the death fighting but they have your same flaw.”
Aokigahara grins at her.
“I have flaws?”
“Yes. You can all get lost in your passions. The only thing is that I do not think that they can outlast you. You want to help them fulfill their dreams and throw everything at you. They will spend their energies on trying to take the fight to you. Then I can keep the focus on the victory and help you focus on taking them out.”
“Thank you. Now here is where I want you to focus. That last team?”
Fukushima shivers with a passing wind and clutches at the sweater to wrap around herself.
“Anna Mathews and-”
“Lisa Seldon. I can handle her for you if you want. We got a thing too.”
“NO! She is mine.”
Fukushima stares off into the distance again.
“I will make her see my worth if I have to die to do it. She is everything. A top fighter with top titles and top matches. I would say she is now what Josh Kennedy was before. He is firmly on top of this world now but she is coming right for that. The only way I can get her to see me is if I push myself into her life. She has fought with Mathews for a long time They started this Hellcat thing with each other. It’s getting stale and boring. We need to show them what happens when you are met with a true challenge. If we are able to pop their bubble of rising fame then I can be her focus of attention. I want to pay her back for inspiring me by inspiring her! I will make her love me for it.”
She grins sheepishly suddenly becoming shy in front of Aokigahara. He picks her up off the ground and carries her back to the jeep cradling her in his arms. She starts to nod off.
“It’s ok, kid. You can sleep now.”
“I don’t want to. I don’t need to see those things anymore.”
“Sometimes we don’t have a choice in what comes to us when we close our eyes but we can just manage.”
She thinks for a moment and shuts her eyes.
“Uncle, is there going to be glass in this match? I like glass.”
“I don’t know. It’s going to be chaos but I think we can manage just fine”
“I want to do well.”
“If we win we’ll be taking over the tag divisions of two fronts. It’ll be just you and me in DTW and we’ll show them how strong our spirit is. Today you showed me your spirit. They left you to die and you are going to rise up from that into greatness. Now just keep your focus on the next one. That’s how you get through this to fight on another day. Tomorrow is going to hurt. This match is going to hurt. We’ll take that pain and make it heal us. Then return the favor and make them better for it. That’s what all this is about anyway.”
Fukushima curls up into his chest and whispers.
“What if I don’t want to make them better at all.”
“Huh?”
“Sometimes I just want to make them pay.”
Aokigahara goes quiet for a while as he gently deposits her into her seat.
“That is fine too. Just make sure you don’t lose yourself in the process.”
He closes the door and watches her fall asleep through the window. He taps on it then goes over to the driver's side and chuckles before getting in and driving off.
“Wake up, kid. You are missing the aftermath to one of the greatest moments of your life! I mean… what’s a little electrocution between friends, huh?”
He bellows this out with a blink followed by some laughter. The flashes of memories come to her with pain as the jeep weaves in and out of traffic. She remembers Zachariah Krähe’s dead eyes as he removed her shoes and planted her feet on the ground. Then looking at Aokigahara’s fury for the first time ever before the electricity ran through her lancing at every single nerve with a scalpel. Her body shakes involuntarily.
“That man tried to kill me.”
“Yeah! This is the life we signed up for.”
“I didn’t sign up for this.”
Aokigahara looks over at her like he was holding back a scream. She didn’t dare move or blink. Then he relaxes with some sadness.
“Everyone signs up for this type of shit the moment they are born. This is all that there is. Some people manage to avoid it all their lives until they decay and rot. There are a lucky few who get to have this experience right up front. You stare death right in its eyes and it gives you life! That’s what living this fast life is. This is what we do. That’s why I pushed for you to fight with me in this deathmatch game and follow us to Valor where the stakes are high.
“These are the bad old days. This is having no time for regrets. This is choosing an action and putting your all into it. When they hit you, then you hit back harder until somebody falls. Tit for tat. Eye for an eye.”
He grips the steering wheel until his knuckles go white. Fukushima fades in and out of consciousness and slurs her words.
“How did… We got out.”
“The staff found us and let us go. This guy here was supposed to take us to the hospital, but we don’t need that crap, do we? Then we have to explain the why and the how. It’s just a hassle. You’ll be fine, right?”
Fukushima raises her arm to give him a thumbs up.
“I love the smell of burnt flesh in the morning.”
Aokigahara howls with laughter. Fukushima turns in her seat to face the window and get away from the view of the man recording them. She sees that they are leaving the city for the more rural areas. She closes her eyes and feels her bandaged feet. They hurt with every bump on the road and she groans loudly. Aokigahara taps her on the head.
“Hey you’re savoring this moment, right? I mean it’s not every day we get to play the victim. I knew that guy had it in him, but I never thought he would do something like this.”
He grimaces and punches the roof of the car twice before forcing the grin back onto his face.
“That’s what is great every single time. About people, I mean. You never know what lengths someone will go to when pushed into a corner, but oh was that cheap. Even so, we have got to look forward and move on. We have a world to destroy and remake in our image as it were. What’s next? Do you remember?”
Fukushima looks on at the passing scenery as cement and bricks give way to trees and a clear night sky. The darkness is overwhelming and she feels a calm like she has never felt before. She gets a thought that if she only gives in to the darkness that everything will be alright. All she needs to do is close her eyes and let go. Just be numb. She rests her head on the side of the window and slowly goes limp.
A yank of her hair brings her back.
“Hey wake up! Stay in the moment. This has just been one battle and there are many more to come! Think. What is the next one?”
Fukushima rolls her eyes inside her head and paws him away. She feels a metallic taste in her mouth as she has just bitten into her tongue as she came to.
“Blood…”
“Yes! The Blood Bowl. We're teaming up in DTW to take on their teams for a shot at the belt. I guess tags are hot now, huh? The Hellcats, the Filthy Few, the ultra-violent, and the random pairing of the fat man and sad girl? That’s a nice recipe for a good time. We’ve got the best of the best pooling their sick minds together for a common goal. To maim, beat and kill for that shot. This is all about camaraderie at the end of it. Just how well you can trust the person behind you to match your drive and take on the world. All these teams are brought together by that goal, but they all don’t have something we do. Not now that you’ve been properly initiated into the life, huh? Inside and outside of the ring.”
Fukushima shakes her head and turns to him.
“Family.”
“That’s right! We’ve been forged. Like two pieces of metal. You know how that’s done right? A lot of people think it’s by melting the solder in the fire and making the two pieces stick but it’s not. You have to heat the two pieces so that they melt the solder. We’ve had our moments but today in the field we’ve been molded together by fire and electricity!”
He laughs again but Fukushima shakes and turns away again to face the window. She spots something in the distance and comes to life. Unfortunately, it’s to recoil in fear as she looks at a river and whimpers. She shrinks back to get as far away from it as possible and bumps onto Aokigahara. He gets one hand off the steering wheel to let her in and she clings to him. He tries to find what is bothering her and gets quiet when he realizes what she is trying to get away from. He immediately stops the car.
“This is not going to happen, kid.”
Aokigahara opens the door and forces Fukushima off of him. He beckons for her to get out of the car but she tries to move away. He grabs her foot and pulls her to the ground as she tries to grab at anything to stay in. Aokigahara clutches her by the hair and forces her to face him.
“You know what I say about fear? You like to watch others be afraid, but when it’s your turn to be in the thick of it, it suddenly becomes too much, right? I want you to think back to the moment you saw the water creeping towards your bare feet and the wire. That anticipation and panic are just… divine! See it for what it is. That was a moment for growth. Don’t shun it forever. It’s time for you to get an education.”
He picks her up onto his shoulders. The man filming senses that something is wrong by how forceful Aokigahara is being and tries to intervene. Aokigahara pushes him back with a kick. He pins him to the ground with a foot and smiles.
“You’re just the witness.”
He leaves the man on the ground with a crooked grin and takes a screaming Fukushima to the water’s edge. She scratches and bites to get him to drop her but it does no good in her weakened state. Aokigahara wades into the calm river up to the knees. Fukushima quiets down when she gets resigned to her fate. Aokigahara throws her into the deep part. Then there is darkness.
Her heartbeat thumps once and she falls.
It thumps twice and she sees flashes of light all around her.
Fukushima feels like she’s hit the bottom. She feels a throbbing in her head and chest. It gets faster and faster willing her to just let go once again. So much pressure all around her. So much fear. One final big flash and she can be gone.
Instead, she goes up and reaches for the light. She fights and screams, bubbles all around her. She rises up and finally using the last of her strength she gets some air. The sky is so clear now.
Fukushima drags herself onto land to see Aokigahara sitting by waiting for her. He immediately grabs a sweater to get her shattered feet dry. She coughs and spits water into his face
“You were going to let me drown?”
Aokigahara wipes his face but doesn’t look up as he works on her feet.
“You’re breathing aren’t you?”
“But…”
“Are you afraid now?”
“Yes!”
He finally looks her in the eyes.
“And how does it feel?”
She searches for her feelings like she hasn’t done in a long while. It was safer to be numb and face the world with a mask of a smile to hide all of that. Now she looks back into the deep end.
“Good!”
Aokigahara works on putting new dressings on her feet. He has her take off her wet hoodie and gives her a large shirt for her to dry off with.
“What did you see down there?”
“I was sinking. It was dark… I felt like when that man, Krähe, was looking at me with his eyes. It was cold. Then I saw them. I saw my people from the tsunami. They were watching me and waiting for me to join them. I don’t really remember their faces to every inch of their skin was shriveled like your fingers when they get wet for a while. They were so at peace with their waterlogged faces as they reached for me. Then I felt the bottom and thought I wanted them to take me. It would finally be over.”
She looks away from the water and clutches at his shoulders.
“Then I saw her on the top. I saw Lisa’s face as bright as the sun on the water’s edge. She was disappointed at me. She didn’t like that I was giving up so easily!”
Aokigahara looks at her confused.
“What? Lisa Seldon? I think that was just the sun.”
“Yeah! She was so beautiful and radiant in her rage. I felt like I wasn’t going to let her down. I couldn’t. Then I felt warm. Like I was being fueled on the inside. Then the people around me weren’t them. I felt you guys. Kowloon, Siberia, Kimitsu and you. You guys were swimming around me and not walking on the bottom. My real family. You pushed me up and I was able to reach the top. I reached her. I breathed air with my lungs. I let go of the water and the fear. I crawled out.”
Aokigahara processed all this and shrugs.
“Well alright. So now after all this do you see what makes us strong? What makes us family?”
“Yes! Sacrifice and blood.”
“You do like to visit your ghosts.”
Fukushima looks around in a manic state. She looks at the man holding the camera and he shakes as she rests her wild eyes on him. Aokigahara gets her to focus again.
“Exactly. We are brought together after being reborn. That makes us Zombie, but to really be a unit we have to fight together and experience these challenges. We’re going to get through this one. We’re forged together like steel through the fire. What do you make of it?”
“We are strongest. Well, Josh Kennedy is strongest but this is one for the teams. He has to rely on Poe and from what I know about him he is not the most reliable. He strays from the path so much that he gets lost in his grandeur. It is not about the violence it is about why. He does not know since he is adrift. Like he does not have a leg to stand on. Also, I heard from Kimitsu that he is all fake!”
She starts to laugh then coughs up some more water. Aokigahara lightly smacks her on her back.
“Good. Filth Parade has a grand history but I am very familiar with it. I remember when they were a group of little punks making trouble. They’re a good group but they aren’t like us… Keep going.”
“Bob and Seven are two individuals forced together by fate. One is an oaf that relies on his bombastic personality and size to get his way. You beat him for his title and his goal will be to get it back!”
“That is true.”
“But I will protect you! He does not see the use of it. He does not see the way it should be. You have been attacked so much for the title and it will be a waste to give it back to that man. He fights the means while he has the mean girl of DTW at his side. They should destroy each other to save everyone the trouble. He will hunt the Means but she is a big mean and she is standing right next to him. Darkness should not be used as she uses it. There can be good in it. I will show her how she can have a heart too.”
“How about the other two that are all bleeding hearts?”
“Rotgut and Deathrow? I think you will like them. They are all about the love of the fight. I know that they have a passion for this type of fight. They are experts at the death fighting but they have your same flaw.”
Aokigahara grins at her.
“I have flaws?”
“Yes. You can all get lost in your passions. The only thing is that I do not think that they can outlast you. You want to help them fulfill their dreams and throw everything at you. They will spend their energies on trying to take the fight to you. Then I can keep the focus on the victory and help you focus on taking them out.”
“Thank you. Now here is where I want you to focus. That last team?”
Fukushima shivers with a passing wind and clutches at the sweater to wrap around herself.
“Anna Mathews and-”
“Lisa Seldon. I can handle her for you if you want. We got a thing too.”
“NO! She is mine.”
Fukushima stares off into the distance again.
“I will make her see my worth if I have to die to do it. She is everything. A top fighter with top titles and top matches. I would say she is now what Josh Kennedy was before. He is firmly on top of this world now but she is coming right for that. The only way I can get her to see me is if I push myself into her life. She has fought with Mathews for a long time They started this Hellcat thing with each other. It’s getting stale and boring. We need to show them what happens when you are met with a true challenge. If we are able to pop their bubble of rising fame then I can be her focus of attention. I want to pay her back for inspiring me by inspiring her! I will make her love me for it.”
She grins sheepishly suddenly becoming shy in front of Aokigahara. He picks her up off the ground and carries her back to the jeep cradling her in his arms. She starts to nod off.
“It’s ok, kid. You can sleep now.”
“I don’t want to. I don’t need to see those things anymore.”
“Sometimes we don’t have a choice in what comes to us when we close our eyes but we can just manage.”
She thinks for a moment and shuts her eyes.
“Uncle, is there going to be glass in this match? I like glass.”
“I don’t know. It’s going to be chaos but I think we can manage just fine”
“I want to do well.”
“If we win we’ll be taking over the tag divisions of two fronts. It’ll be just you and me in DTW and we’ll show them how strong our spirit is. Today you showed me your spirit. They left you to die and you are going to rise up from that into greatness. Now just keep your focus on the next one. That’s how you get through this to fight on another day. Tomorrow is going to hurt. This match is going to hurt. We’ll take that pain and make it heal us. Then return the favor and make them better for it. That’s what all this is about anyway.”
Fukushima curls up into his chest and whispers.
“What if I don’t want to make them better at all.”
“Huh?”
“Sometimes I just want to make them pay.”
Aokigahara goes quiet for a while as he gently deposits her into her seat.
“That is fine too. Just make sure you don’t lose yourself in the process.”
He closes the door and watches her fall asleep through the window. He taps on it then goes over to the driver's side and chuckles before getting in and driving off.