Copyright 2001, 2002
Julian McKenzie
Shenmue: Dragons Forever
by Rising Tiger 187 © 2001
Chapter 2 Act I: Aftermath...
Chapter 2 Act II: Aftermath...
Chapter 2 Act III: Aftermath...
Introduction and Notes
Chapter 1: A New Beginning
Chapter 3: Friends
Chapter 4: The Arrival
Chapter 5: Solo
Chapter 2 Act I: Aftermath...
Ryo looked over the guardrail of the ship, hoping to catch a glimpse of the fallen Chai. Where was he? What happened to him? Is he dead? There were so many questions zooming around in Ryo's aching head. Wait... back up. Ryo's head is aching? How long has it been aching?
"Ah, my head..."
Ryo stopped looking at the water and backed up, hitting the wall. It felt like Ryo was hit by a sack full of doorknobs. He closed his eyes for a little bit, but the throbbing pain didn't seem to stop, it just kept getting stronger and louder and stronger again. It was a million jackhammers going off in Ryo's head.
"...What's wrong with me? Oh, man."
Ryo tried to shake it off; maybe he could stay conscious just long enough for him to get back to his room. What the-how far is his room? Longer and longer Ryo had to walk, and with every step, his room kept moving farther and farther. He wasn't going to make it.
"Come on, just a little more... I can make it..."
He couldn't. Ryo couldn't make the seemingly endless walk towards his room. Was it really that far away? Ryo was standing only a couple feet from the empty room, the door still standing wide open. Suddenly, all sorts of colors appeared out from nowhere. Black, white, blue, purple, colored spots filled the sky. Ryo looked up and shook his head. The colors were gone, but now he needed to decide which room to go into.
Three rooms were in Ryo's sight, two on the bottom standing side by side, and one on the top, all of them were forming a blurry pyramid.
"What the-what's wrong with me? What's going on?!?"
The pain increased dramatically, no longer jackhammers but more like thousands and thousands of explosions were going off in his head. Ryo stumbled forward and to the side, hitting the wall once more. He leaned his aching head against the wall and took a couple deep breaths.
"What did Chai do to me? WHAT DID THAT FREAK DO TO ME?!?" Ryo screamed.
He slammed his fist against the wall; the echo carried all through the ship. The colors were back. This time, the pyramid of the three rooms, which were now spinning, accompanied them. Were the rooms spinning, or was it just Ryo's head?
"Ohhhhhh..."
Ryo tipped over forward, the air pushing against him felt a little refreshing.
SNAP OUT OF IT!
Ryo shot his left leg out in front of him, barely catching himself. He opened his eyes and he immediately noticed something strange.
Blood.
There was blood on the floor where Ryo almost fell over. Tiny dots of red covered a patch of ground underneath him. It seemed to be coming out from Ryo.
"Huh... what's this...?"
Ryo bent over to take a look, but the farther he bent forward, the more blood splattered onto the floor. The vital fluid painted a scene from a horror movie on the cold ground. As much as Ryo wanted to stop bending over, he couldn't find the strength the pull himself back up. He just kept bending over, falling over. It seemed to be hours until he finally hit the ground.
There he lay, his head swimming in a small puddle of his own blood. And there, a figure emerges from the shadows...
Chapter 2 Act II: Aftermath...
"Where-where am I?" Ryo finally said.
"Hey, you're awake! D'you have a good rest?" A female voice asked.
Ryo was lying down on the bed in his cabin. He rubbed his eyes and tried to sit up, but couldn't find the power to.
"Oh man... what happened?"
"You tell me! I found you lying down on the deck unconscious. Looked like you were banged up pretty bad. But now it seems you've gotten better."
"Who are you?" Ryo asked, attempting to sit up again. "Ah!" he winced back down in pain.
"Hey! Take it easy! Just lie down for now. You'll get better soon..." she said. "...And my name is Joy. What's yours?"
"Ryo... Ryo Hazuki."
"Nice to meet ya, Ryo!" Joy cheerfully greeted him.
Ryo picked his head up and swept away his blanket. He was surprised to see that his shirt was off, but he was even more surprised to see that his chest and torso were heavily bandaged. Ryo took a look at the girl who had taken care of him.
Joy was leaning against a desk across the room. She was wearing a bright yellow tank top with orange spots scattered on it. Her black leather pants and belt reflected the light of the room, giving them a shiny, plastic look. When she stood up, she looked about 5'7, 5'8, maybe even as tall as Ryo was. Joy didn't look like she weighed much, maybe about 105 lbs. In fact, Ryo thought she looked like Nozomi, with her tall and slender figure. Joy had a pair of bright blue eyes that sparkled with a hint of mischief and a big beautiful smile. The most noticeable feature about her though was her long hair; it was a brilliant orange with yellow highlights, it seemed to match her shirt perfectly.
"Uh... Ryo?"
"Huh? Oh... yeah?" Ryo snapped back to reality, he hoped that he hadn't been caught examining her.
"What happened last night? You got banged up pretty bad." Joy said walking towards Ryo's bed.
"Yeah, I got beat up a little, but I'm fine."
"Fine? Ryo, you were laying in a pool of your own blood! It's lucky for you that I had come by." Joy pointed to herself proudly.
"Don't worry, I don't think it's that serious. I've gone through worse." Ryo put his arms behind his head. He looked at the sealing from his relaxed position. "Joy, what were you doing before you found me? You weren't locked up anywhere were you?"
"Huh? What the hell are you talking about? I wasn't locked up, nobody was locked up."
"What? I thought he said all the passengers and crew were taken care of?" Ryo said under his breath. "He must've been lying..."
"Ryo."
"Yeah?" Ryo looked over at Joy.
"Want anything to eat? You need your strength back."
"Naw, I'm fine. I'm not really hungry."
"Aw, c'mon now! Here, how about I get you some fruit? Like an apple or something? I'm heading up to get something to eat myself."
"Wait, what time is it?"
Joy looked down at her watch. "It's 9:46, why?"
"What's the date?"
"February 6th, 1987. Ryo, what's wrong?"
"It's nothing. An orange would be fine."
"Okay, sure. I'll be back soon." Joy headed out the cabin door.
Ryo looked around the room. "Yeah, I'm gonna need my strength. Thank you Joy..."
Chapter 2 Act III: Aftermath...
The whole parking lot was abandoned, empty. The only noise that had disturbed the silence was coming from several men standing around two limousines; one of them was wearing a strange coat. Something important was about to go down. Something big.
Two men were standing in front of one of the limousines. One of the men was dressed in a black suit and wore sunglasses. The other was a tall Asian man; something seemed strange about him though. He wasn't dressed like the other men, who also wore suits. This man was wearing a silk or velvet robe, green in color with what looked like a dragon print on the chest and back. He stood with his arms behind him, his long braided hair remained as still and motionless as he was; he looked like he was waiting for something. The man in the suit walked up.
"Should we leave now?"
"No. We will wait a bit longer." The man in the robe said. His eyes stayed focused on the sunset.
"But..."
"Do not question my orders."
"Yes sir"
The man in the black suit walked towards the limousine parked beside theirs. He knocked on the window. Another man with emerald green eyes and a goatee appeared behind the tinted black.
"Mr. Ryan, he said we will wait longer." the suit said.
"Fine... but you just tell him that this better be worth it."
"I will tell him nothing. You wait here."
"You tellin' me what to do? Boy, I'll have your ass if you don't be careful!"
...
"Yeah, that's what I thought. Now you go tell'em that if Lo don't get his scrawny behind down here within the next fifteen minutes that I'm leavin'. You got that?"
"How about you tell him in person?" the man asked. "I could bring him here and you could say it to his face. Would you like that?"
...
The window rolled up; it seemed the man in the suit won that little confrontation. He walked off to the man in the robe. Voices could be heard from inside the limousine.
"Keep an eye out for these two boys. I don't like the looks of them." the man with the goatee said inside the car. "They look real loyal to their boss, so don't get too close. You listening?"
"Yeah Terry, we hear ya."
There was a knock at the door. Ryo sat up and ran his hands through his hair.
"Come in!" he said, although he probably knew who it was.
The door opened, it was Joy and she had a plate full of fruit and bread.
"Hey, Ryo. Here, this is for us." Joy sat the plate down on the nightstand. She herself sat down on the chair placed next to it.
"Wow, thanks, but all I wanted was an apple." Ryo said picking up a piece of fruit.
"Yeah, I know, but I thought to myself that just an apple wasn't gonna satisfy a guy like you. So I brought you all this!" Joy picked up the plate and held it under Ryo's nose.
"Really, I'm not that hungry." Ryo backed away, careful not to hurt Joy's feelings.
"Oh, well that's okay. It's all free anyway."
"I guess that's alright." Ryo said. He sat up a bit more, examining the wrap on this chest. "What happened to me? How was I injured?"
"Yeah, you were messed up when I had found you last night. There was blood coming out your mouth, bruises all up on your face, and a really big one on your chest. So what'd you do? Fall off the upper deck or something?" Joy asked, shoving an apple slice into her mouth.
"Nah, it's nothing."
"Oh c'mon! What happened?!?"
I can't get Joy involved with this. I'm gonna have to handle this situation myself.
"It's nothing, really. So what were you doing last night before you found me?"
Joy picked up a piece of bread from the plate and blew some crumbs off of it. "I was just walking around. I got tired of sitting up in my cabin so I decided to get out and view the ship."
"I see." Ryo said, he wiped a couple crumbs off of his bed.
An odd, awkward silence fell upon the room.
"So..." Joy said, trying as hard as she could to break the awkward moment. "Tell me about yourself, Ryo. Like your friends, or your family."
Ryo looked down at his chest and closed his eyes. The word "family" meant nothing to him. "I don't really have a family anymore." he said.
"Oh... I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said anything." Joy said. She looked away from Ryo for a minute; she wasn't really good at these sentimental moments.
"It's okay, you didn't do anything. I just don't like talking about it, that's all."
"Alright, that's cool. So anyway... um... have you ever been to China before?" Joy asked. She started looking at Ryo again.
"No, I've stayed in Yokosuka all my life."
"Really? Wow, you haven't done much then!"
"Yeah, I don't even know what China looks like. Can't imagine the customs would be too different."
"Oh, so what are ya gonna do once we get there? Do you have any place in particular?"
"Yeah... but I just have to get there as soon as possible." Ryo glanced at his watch. "February 6, not soon enough."
Chapter 3: Friends
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