[Episode 70992] [Episode 70992]A young man to whom liveliness seemed to return in that instant, as he attempted to struggle in their arms and to free himself. The man was simply stung, and once more paralyzed. The drones began to move once more.
He did nothing to help.
"Kamis above help me, for I can do nothing," he whispered, before staring down at his meaty hands, splattered with blood not his own. And with that sight, he was incapable of believing his own lies. Not when faced with the harsh truth that his hands presented. He could do something.
Cowardice and fear, however, had long been a part of his survival instincts. He wouldn't risk being captured again. He couldn't. Not for someone he didn't even know. Not when it meant failing the one man he could call friend. Not when he was so damn close to being free.
He looked up at the young man getting dragged away, not much older than his own boy, his eyes dangling on the youth's frozen expression. He thought back to what he had gone through, and whispered an honest statement, the only he could give.
"Forgive me."
He had to find the boy.
***
He'd awoken in a dark, clammy place. The ground felt sticky and moist, and he groaned quietly as he opened his eyes to darkness. He felt weak where he could even feel. Someplaces, he didn't have that option, and simply lacked any sort of sensation.
His eyes slowly adjusted to the darkness as he thought, 'Where am I?' in his fuzzy mind. Once his eyes were adjusted to where he could make out what lay above, he wished to never find out, and to forever keep his eyes shut. It was horrible.
He couldn't afford to be horrified, however. Not once his survival instincts came alive, crying 'DANGER!' over and over through his head. He attempted to stand up, ready to run for it, fear coursing through his entire being. He could not.
He raised his head as much as he could, staring at his meaty frame. 'Move,' he thought, fear now dancing in his eyes.
He did not move.
'Move.'
Still he did not move.
'MOVE, DAMN YOU, MOVE!'
His arm twitched.
Slowly, feeling began to flow through all of his body, a dry cold sensation coming with it. What hair he had seemed to defy gravity, stretching away from his body in conjunction with this sensation that he recognized as primal fear.
But he could feel at least. And as such... he could also move.
He sat up and looked around.
What the full view of his surroundings presented was no better than what he'd sampled upon his awakening. In many ways, it was worse.
It only heightened his fear and the desperate thoughts of survival.
But he was lost. Lost and confused. He couldn't just make a move through wherever he was.
...But he couldn't remain here either.
He moved.
Silently, and avoiding retching, he waded through bodies. The emotion etched on their frozen faces spoke volumes. He wondered if his own face had been frozen in such a state. He wondered if it still was.
His wonderings would be forced to pause, even as his body did the same, due to the sight of a body ahead of him. He simply stared at the body in front of him, leaning against the wall, and slowly moved closer to it. The body of the only man he could call friend. The body of the man he had returned to Japan to meet once more. The body of the man he wished to call brother through their children.
The body of the man whose eyes were gouged out, and whose entire body spoke of defeat and a broken spirit.
"Soun," he whispered simply. There was nothing else he could think to say.
The head of the man, Soun, rose as he stared towards where his voice had come from, using eyes that no longer truly existed. "Old friend...Genma, I can't see you, but it's you, isn't it?" Soun's quiet and tired hoarse voice asked.
"It's me, old friend. It's me," Genma said, grasping Soun in a hug.
Soun took the offer of friendship heartily, as he weakly surrounded his arms around Genma tightly, sobbing into large friend's shoulder. But with no eyes, only tears of blood came out, darkening the portly martial artist's gi. "They took my babies. They took my babies away from me."
Genma let him cry, and held his friend.
***
"The last thing I remember..." Genma mouthed, as he sat in front of his old friend, now calmed down somewhat. He stared at his ripped gi's sleeve and stared at his friend's face, where the sleeve now sat wrapped around Soun's empty eye sockets, darkened red. "Ranma (that's my boy, if you forgot) and I had just landed on the shores of Japan. We were pleased to be home, and I of soon seeing you. We dried ourselves and began to walk. Suddenly, we heard this buzzing noise. We were totally unprepared for what followed."
Soun could feel his friend's self-loathing at his last sentence. It was nothing to be ashamed though. Everyone had been unprepared. He said nothing though, letting his friend continue.
Surprisingly, Genma felt no need to embellish the event. Instead, he sincerely continued, "There were five of them. Hellish beasts on air, the beauty of their wings and faces not in any way hiding what they were. They attacked and we fought back. I killed two of them, and the boy killed one as well. We were sloppy though. One of them stung me, and as I slipped into the dark, my last sight was of my boy still fighting one of them. Then I awoke here."
Soun marvelled at how Genma had killed two of them without any knowledge of them. That Ranma had done so as well. He wondered though. Could they do it if they knew?
His musings were not transmitted to his friend by him, however, but rather by a new person. Buzzing joined the room as a sweet, honey-coated voice spoke up, melodious to his ears, but stabbing through his heart like the poison it truly was.
"Hello, father... Oh my, I see you've made a friend!"
Genma spun around to stare at the new arrivals, as Soun spat out, "Kasumi."
Genma froze, not only at the sight of the numerous monstrosities in front of him, but from the lead creature's statement. She paid him no mind though, as a frown graced her exotic face. She brushed past the frozen martial artist, placing her hand on the side of Soun's face in a caressing motion.
Soun attempted to recoil away from the touch, but the creature lanced her other hand to the side of his face, and held his face in her hands.
"Is that anyway to talk to your first born child, father?" she cooed, as she pressed her face to his, her lips dancing over his.
Soun said nothing as her tongue danced into his mouth, though he was tempted to bite down hard on it.
He did nothing, if only so his friend would not experience the horrors that he had. Not this soon. Once Kasumi pulled away though, he said one statement, silently but strongly. A statement that would let Genma know what sort of creatures these were. "You took my eyes, Kasumi."
Genma, whose eyes had remained focused on the many reddish beings, whipped around, to stare at his friend and his so-called daughter. At once, numerous hands began to get a hold of him, and pointy stingers, pressed just behind his back, but not going in. He held back from doing anything, knowing he could do nothing if he was paralyzed again, and also feeling once more that cold, clammy sensation of fear.
Kasumi giggled happily, as she placed her hand over her mouth. "Oh my! Father, I only did that so you wouldn't be in pain! You just seemed so horrified to see your daughters again after their rebirth..."
Her fingers went into her lips and she suckled on them, a moaning sound coming from her throat once she pulled them out and she moved her lips to Soun's ear. "And they were such tasty eyes too..." she whispered, hoping to rattle her father into liveliness.
He didn't rise up to the bait, and the wasp-woman pouted shortly before breaking into her dazzling, but disturbing smile once more. "Anyhow father, I'd come to play with you again, but seeing you've made a friend, perhaps we all should play? Akane and Nabiki have been saying they were bored."
That rattled the broken man and he made as if to slap the creature that called itself his daughter. "Leave Saotome be!"
Kasumi easily caught his wild swing, and pushed forward on his arm. A cracking sound resounded as Soun cried out, grasping his broken arm.
"SOUN!" Genma shouted as he began to move, forgetting the stingers at his back. The stingers however had not forgotten him, and he winced as a deadening sensation spread through his back, his mind going hazy. 'Soun...' he thought.
Before he blackened out, he heard the creature whisper, "For you father, I'll let this toy sleep for a bit longer. We'll play alone tonight."
***
He never saw Soun again. Somehow, he didn't expect to either. For his friend though, he had survived. He had escaped. And now, here he was so close to freedom.
...And that man's frozen face kept flashing in his mind, even after he'd made up his mind to be totally free.
He took a deep breath, looking at the figures ahead of him, not yet vanished from sight. He came to a decision.
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(Posted Tue, 30 Sep 2003 19:09)
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