Ark 4 Episode 27: The Mourning of a Painful Anniversary

Participants:
Ryuzakii Nagara



The Mourning of a Painful Anniversary
- The day had finally came. It was a day Ryuzakii had been dreading for the longest time. Today on this day many years ago, was the day his life changed forever. The anniversary of his father's murder. Ryuzakii wasn't ready for this day to arrive yet. Instead of becoming active he stayed in his penthouse trying to ignore the existence of this day. The problem with locking himself inside was that he was also left alone to brood on these thought. His mind was being flooded with the memories of his fathers death. The memory of that bullet pushing its way through his fathers head. It has been so long he cant even remember his father's face anymore. He knew he had gotten his dark black hair color from his dad but couldn't remember much else. He was so young when he had lost him. It didn't help when his thoughts faded to his mother, who had committed suicide a few short years later. Ryuzakii had walked home from school at the age of 13 only to open the door to his house and see his mother dangling from the ceiling fan. She hung herself by the neck but to make sure it killed her she also seemed to have slit open her wrists. The blood had pooled from her wrists and stained the floor below leaving a large pool below her. There was a small note left, "I cant live with the pain anymore." and on top of that note, acting as a paper weight was a gun loaded with one bullet. Did she expect Ryuzakii to join her in this suicide. He didn't know but he wasn't willing to give in so easily. The memories were washing over Ryuzakii wave after wave. They were pounding against his very soul deep within his mind. He couldn't escape as they started building together forming more and more wicked nightmares. Ryuzakii was sitting cross-legged on the floor of the bedroom in his pent house. No lights on, the windows closed, the TV off. It was totally dark in his room, except for one thing. A dark red light was emitting eerily throughout the room. It was like a flame dancing on the walls, burning it in its deep red color. This flame was emitting from within Ryuzakii's body. It was consuming his body, turning his eyes a bright orange. They were glaring out across the room. He was slowly losing himself to this power within him. A red aura was formed around his body raising up in trails to the ceiling. His rage was formed and there was no turning away from it now. He slowly raised himself to his feet and walked over to his closet. He couldn't stop anymore, there was only one thing he could do now. He took out of his closet a pair of dark pants and a dark jacket. He pulled up the cowl on the jacket and hid his face. He then pulled his hood over his head and headed toward the door. He turned the handle and opened it to the blinding light of his main room and proceeded out of his house. He would enter an elevator and continue down to the lobby and leave out the front door. He held his head down to avoid making any contact with the workers as he left. He didn't want to be asked any questions, or even recognized.-

Wrong Place, Right Time
-After making way out the building he started walking down the street heading toward the slums. This was normally a place that Ryuzakii avoided, but today was different. Today, however, he was seeking it out, embraced it, and was provoking it. As he entered the slums there was a noticeable change in scenery. Every few houses seemed to have busted windows or boarded up door. There where cars put up on Jacks left with no tires, and not as many people on the streets. He took a turn down a shady alley within these slums and it didn't take him long to come across a group of people. There looked to be five of them, all dressed up in outfits of matching colors, purple. One of them spoke out to Ryuzakii saying, " Hey kid, You in the wrong hood." Ryuzakii would keep walking on past the men ignoring the statement made to him. The "gang" then proceeded to move around blocking Ryuzakii's path, forcing him to stop in front of them. "Kid i know you heard me talkin to ya." Ryuzakii wouldn't raise his head to look up at the person just calmly say, "Move..." in a low tone. The other people around him started to chuckle a bit as the one who seemed to be the leader spoke again. "what did you just say kid?" There was a snide sense of self pride in his tone which raised Ryuzakii's anger more. "I said, You need to move your ass out of my way." He looked up at the man his eyes unwavering with a dead lock on the other mans. Now getting a good look at him he was a black man on the hefty side, he was wearing a purple and white striped shirt and some khaki cargo shorts. "Clearly this kid doesn't know who we are boys." "And frankly I don't give a damn." The man would lean down into Ryuzakii's face as he interrupted. "Who do you think you are kid." Ryu responded with a smirk, "Heh.. The name's Ryuzakii Nagara. Got it memorized. Good, cause its the last name you'll ever hear." The man stepped back at the way Ryu was talking to him, not out of fear but because the tone of his voice was very stern and gave off the impression that he could follow up on those threats. He turned to speak to his friends, "Guys lets show this fool how he messed up by coming back here." "Wait a second." "What, you scared now. Gonna run and hide." "No i just wanna challenge you to fight me one on one." His grin would be wide as the red aura would build up from his body again. These men obviously unable to see his aura as it didn't seem to scare them. "Look boys, this guy thinks he is big and tough trying to dish out false threats. Let's see how much bite you got behind that bark. Alright kid i accept, show me what you got." Ryuzakii would chuckle slightly at this and say, "Good but know this when i win I'm going to kill you."-

Rising Tension in a Broken Heart
-The man would stare down Ryuzakii after the last word was spoken. It was clear the time for talk was over. It was now the time of action. He had lifted his arms pulling back his right one quickly. He swung forward in an attempt to deck light in the face right off the start. This punch was easily read and with a slight tilt of his head to the right he evaded the punch all together. "Is that all you got?" Ryuzakii would say taunting the man. This drove the man to throw another punch, left handed, out at Ryuzakii. This punch he would catch with his right hand and tighten his grip on the mans fist. "Ah.. Some grip you got kid." Ryuzakii would smirk at this and say, "You haven't seen anything yet, my turn." In a split second Ryu would utilize the afterimage movements to throw a swift left palm into the gut of this man. The hit would connect knocking all the wind from the mans chest and dropping him to his knees in one punch. "oops, did i put to much into that?" The man would quickly lear up at Ryu, he then clenched some sand off the floor and threw it into Ryu's eyes. "Let's see you dodge this one." The man had succeeded in blinding Ryuzakii for the moment and used this time to throw a right handed uppercut and a left handed straight jab combo at him. Ryu took both of these hits unable to see them coming. The first hit crashed against his chin with a strong force from his opponent rising up to perform it. The second hit kinda hit him unsteadily since the first hit knocked Ryu back a couple steps. The hit did land on the side of his face but just grazed off like a light shove. These were powerful hits but due to Ryu being at a peak humans level of durability the hardly phased him at the moment. he will definitely be feeling that jaw later though. "Alright, now I'm mad." He rubbed the sand from his eyes and stared down the man. He lowered himself into a new stance, His knees bent with his right hand extended out toward the man he was fighting and his left hand tucked down by his side. Both hands opened in an open palm fighting style stance. "Consider yourself lucky. I've never used this style on anyone before. Your the first to bare witness to my crippling palms fighting style." The others all laughed at Ryu because to them his stance looked ill aligned and off balance, but he was perfectly set. The man laughed with them before speaking again, " Oh really, I'm honored to kill some runt with poor posture." "Then come at me sir..." Ryuzakii was agitating the man into opening himself up to a serious attack, just waiting for the right moment, as his Chi was focused into the palms of his hands. The man had fallen for the bait and charged at Ryuzakii attempting to land a right hook on him again. "So predictable." Ryuzakii swiftly moved his right foot forward and to the right a slight degree re aligning himself for the perfect strike angle. As the mans fist was coming down Ryuzakii extended his hand into a chopping form and moved it upward to meet the man's forearm. The blow was meant to block but upon contact the amount of chi Ryuzakii dispersed threw the man's arm back leaving him wide open. He then seized this opportunity to take the offensive showing off a new combination. He started off by throwing 2 finger jabs in a rapid succession at the mans upper pectorals. As they struck the chi would disperse into these pressure points cause the mans chest to tighten. The next attack would follow with 4 additional finger jabs to the 4 main points surrounding the heart. These jabs would move in a blurring speed and strike in the 4 corners surrounding the heart area of the chest. These strikes, assisted by the chi dispersed into the man's body, would force the cardiac muscles to compress around the heart which would force it to pulse slower. Though being in the middle of a fight his heart rate was already accelerated. After this hit landed the man coughed and blood hit the ground in front of Ryuzakii. However the combination wasn't over there was a final attack to come. A single palm strike aimed straight for the mans heart. Upon contact the chi would push its way into his heart forcing it to contort and beat faster. This impact combined with the over tightening of his chest would cause the man's heart to rupture and stop all together. The internal bleeding would be severely fatal and in mere seconds them man fell to the floor and had blood pooling out of his mouth. His "Cardiac Rush" Combination seemed to be a success. As his opponent let out his last breath Ryuzakii's eyes drifted around to the other people who were now surrounding him. "So you think you can waltz in here and kill the boss huh?" One voice spoke out. "You think we'll let you get away with that?" A second voice asked. "You aint leaving here kid, not unless its in a body bag." Spoke a third, each time they were stepping in even closer. Ryuzakii changed his stance slowly moving his right arm back to cover across his face and extending his left arm in front of him. He shifted his weight to the tips of his feet and changed his hands to extending the first two fingers on each hand. He was waiting for them to get in perfect range before unleashing his attack. They were all closing in as Ryuzakii's eyes scanned through them all. Finally, as the last one stepped into range, Ryuzakii unloaded his built up power. He began to spin rapidly, expelling his chi around him and using it to thrust multiple quick finger jabs into each of these men around him. Each of them would be caught off guard by the immense speed show by Ryu as he looked like a red ball spinning rapidly on the ground. The blurring speed of his attacks would be enough to throw each of the guys onto away and onto the ground and along with the chi augmentation the blows would be lethal to their normal human bodies. After Ryuzakii had finished the "Spiral Dispersion" technique, which lasted about 3 seconds, He would stop in a standing position with his hand crossed in front of him. He would be panting softly as the loss of that much chi in such a quick time had winded him and he needed a bit of time to build it back up. The upside was all the men around him were now dead. He had succeeded. However, Ryuzakii soon started to lose his vision and fade out as he fell to the ground losing conscientiousness.-

The Blinding Light
-"Did you enjoy that taste of my power?" those words echoed through Ryuzakii's head like a drum beat. It was the same offsetting voice that spoke to him once before at Keyo and Tetsu's fight. Ryu opened his eyes to see the manifestation standing in front of him. Its form had changed since the last time it appeared to him, if it wasn't for the voice Ryuzakii could swear it was a different person entirely. It's hair had grown much longer since the last time it spoke to Ryuzakii, and it seemed to have an additional row of wings. The eyes were still as cold as ever, peering deep into Ryuzakii's heart. Ryuzakii looked on this person, if he could call it that, and wondered, "Who are you..." The manifestation spoke in a calm yet coarse demeanor,"I am you, or what became of you after this day many years ago." He stepped forward approaching Ryuzakii, standing a mere 4 feet away from him. He was roughly a foot taller than Ryuzakii and seemed to be more toned muscularly. "You can say I'm the darkness inside your heart, the evil born of your pain on that dreadful day." Ryuzakii could see over each shoulder of this monster, his parents dead bodies were there. The left his mother, the right his father. It was only filling him more. The torment of living and raising himself without his parents."That's it, that pain you feel now, that is me gaining strength. I feed from that and grow more and more. Tell me do you enjoy using my power." He would laugh and continue saying," Don't tell me you thought that was all you earlier. It was me, lending you my power. And that was only a taste of it." "after saying that a huge black aura would emit from the manifestation. Ryuzakii would drop to his knees in pain as this was happening it seemed the stronger this monster got the weaker Ryu felt."Do not think this is merely an illusion, your pain is no illusion." The monsters aura settled and Ryu could slowly mange to get himself back up onto his feet. "If you want to use my power in combat again then prove to me you are worthy of it" The aura would travel over his skin changing his appearance again to a more combat ready version. The man took a pose and faced him directly (striking the pose in the picture) "By the way, I am called Light, ironic eh Ryu?"-  ==The Battle of the Inner Mind== -Light would move quickly utilizing some fancy foot work to close the distance between him and Ryuzakii in less than a second. Light would then throw a crushing left straight at Ryuzakii's gut attempting to force him to hunch over from the impact. Following this if it landed Light would drop his right elbow onto the back of Ryuzakii's head. This should force him face down into the floor with a stinging pain in his head. Ryuzakii would not be able to react in time completely caught off guard by the sudden attack, meaning he took the full force of all of those attacks. Him being a peak human may have softened the blow but Lights combined speed and power were enough to overwelm even his peak durability. Ryuzakii would fall to the floor and cough up a bit a blood. He would be on his hands and knees trying to push his way back up to his feet. As Ryuzakii was rising to his feet again, staggering around a bit, Light would speak out to  him again, "Is that the extent of your power? Your weak." Ryuzakii looked up at his attacker and dropped into his new fighting stance, "Guess i have no choice but to show you my power." Ryuzakii would focus on his chi building it to a feint red glow and focusing mainly on his hands. He made sure to keep and even flow everywher to increase his durrability, just in case he got caught off gaurd again. Ryuzakii moved swiftly sending to palm strikes into the chest of light, dispersing the chi through his body upon impact hoping to devastate him. Light seemed to take this hit without wavering, continuing to stare down Ryu. He made a counter attack throwing an elbow across Ryuzakii's face. This hit sent Ryu spiraling down to the ground landing on his back and coughing up more blood. "You can't beat me, not at this level. You don't have enough hate." Light would mutter to Ryuzakii in a calm confident tone. "I can teach you though, you're not completely hopeless." He nods dropping his pose and returning to the first form he had. "I will continue to lend you my power, but if you cant learn to control it properly it will take you and consume you. The darkness in your heart will be all that's left." He would turn his back on Ryu and start to walk away. "I want to see you do great things. This wont be our last meeting young one." Ryuzakii watched as Light faded away into a foggy haze before he blacked out again. By the time he had woken back up he was in his bed again. He wondered how he got back here, or if he ever left. Could he have just dreamt the whole thing. He rolled over in his bed and saw a stain, red in color, on his white satin sheets. "Damn it..." He said softly. Not only was this directed at the stain but the realization that whatever happened truly wasn't just a dream.-