It was dark. I could feel the intense heat that emerged from afar.

It was hard for me to even open my eyes to the slightest least. There was this cold, slow flowing liquid that kept emerging from the corner of my eyes. I began wondering if it was tears, or blood. Whatever it was, most of my body remained numb. No pain was felt, no temperature seemed alarming enough. It was as if I was dead. Struggling to move my fingers, due to the fact I couldn't move at all, I brushed them over the nearest material I could find. The texture was immediatly identifiable: hard. A few spots seemed plain, just like metal. Others felt bumpy, and flawed around the edges that I could find. God, I just hoped that this state of paralyzing movement wouldn't be permanent.

"God damn it."

The heat became clearer once I finally managed to open my eyes. Apparently, this source of heat was a bright, but small light that emerged from a crack in one of the many gigantic shards of metal and stone. From the little that I could make up in my mind, it seemed that I had been submerged in a heavy pile of rubble.

"Great, fantastic timing..."

The numbness that I had been experiencing just a while ago was now fading away, giving room for the inevitable pain. On second thought, maybe that numbness hadnt really been a bad thing. The unbearable stinging soon came after, as I could now comprehend at what point I was injured. Painfully looking down, I noticed that my clothes had been partially shredded, to point where the many cuts had surpassed the silk itself, and onto my skin, dying mostly my shirt in the familiar, red paint. Cuts, deep wounds, and even sharp pieces of steel were lodged in several parts of my body, and this particularly sharp piece had pierced my left leg from the bottom up, so my limb was stuck between the floor and the fake ceiling.

Closing my eyes for a moment, as to relieve the tension buzzing inside my head, I suddenly shot my eyes open, veins dangeroulsy popping, and then proclaimed.

"NEGATIVE HEAVEN!!" A white light suddenly shot out from me, giving new shadow concepts to my small and tight surroundings. The smoke grew a light, blue tint, as the many obstacles and materials lying around the surface soon began floating in midair, and in the next second, disappeared in a flash of light, leaving behind only my fallen body.

"Ugh...!"

Struggling to move, and probably stepping beyond my point of rupture, I managed to sit up supporting my weight with my arms. Ever slowly looking around, I noticed something that I had failed to notice.

Apparently, all this time I had been lying in a big puddle of what appeared to be my own blood. Sighing, I ran my calloused and bloody hands through the fresh and deep wound on my left leg. It was even hard to look at, let alone feel the intense pain that it willingly offered to me. Even for a demon born from the deepest insides of Hell like me, it was hard to watch. Deciding to ignore it, I took a risk and wasted all of my energy left to try and simply stand up.

Surprisingly, it worked.

"Oh dude, now that's what I'm talkin' ab- OH SHIT!" And just like that, I fell down again, landing agreesively on my ass, only adding to my injuries.

There was, however, no surprise to this failure of mine.

Looking around, just realizing I hadn't even taken a few seconds of my time to scan my surroundings, all the images I got were entirely cryptic. This place was like something he had only seen in those post-apocalyptic movies he had watched. Enormous piles of rubble here and there, damaged buildings, a purple sky covered by the darkest clouds possible, and yet, no signs of rain. But I had this hunch that if it ever rained, it would perhaps be acid rain.

*crack*

I swiftly turned around, momentarily forgetting the unbearable pain that jolted through my whole body. Scanning everywhere in sight, from every single pile of rubble, to the multiple craters and the destroyed buildings, I though at first that it had just been my imagination.

*crack*

And yet again. I turned around once again as to find the source of these suspicious sounds. From the corner of my right eye, I could see this moving figure coming at me. Grinning, I rapidly summoned my trusty Heartbreaker: the two handed sword, with a guard of two hearts of each side, and on the center, a broken, black heart. The hilt was long, enough for two hands, but just for the style, I liked to weild it with one hand only. There were two long scripts attached to it, possessing some strange, ancient letters. The same type of letters could be seen on the long, majestic, sharp blade. In what seemed like a flash, I turned around and slashed the incoming stranger.

"You probably never heard of the Bushido Code, ain't I right?" This was my all time favourite. Like many other decent heroes, the smart-ass remarks were something all of my battles always needed to have.

Surprisingly, the creature jumped up, and landed on top of my blade. Finally, in that pause, I took a good look at it.

"What the fuck are you?" That creature wasn't normal. It couldn't be taller than 1'8 ft, at least at first glance, and it possessed only a black hood on, reminiscent of those Organization XIII bastards.

Suddenly, it lunged at me with intense force, revealing a huge mouth from its torso, its awfully sharp teeth craving for the blood drying on my face.

"OH NO YOU DON'T!" Aware that the creature was running at me on my blade, I did a quick backflip whilst holding on to the Heartbreaker in that same position, sending that dreadful assassin flying against a nearby wall, as it crashed onto it, leaving a few medium-sized cracks on it. While in mid air, I performed a side flip, now facing the recovering monster. I raised by sword high in the air, and slashed the air in the beast's direction in a fast motion.

"AKA TAIHOU!!" The slashed air took form of a big, red colored shock wave, sent against the creature. Against all odds, the bug managed to pull off an amazing flexibility, stretching its legs and avoiding the fateful Aka Giri, which not only left a long fissure from me to the wall, but it also managed to leave the solid wall to lay in dust, as well as opening a few more fissures around.

(A/N: Aka Taihou = Red Cannon)

"Shit, managed to avoid... Where is it?" Busy questioning myself, I failed to notice it coming up from behind me once again. Forcefully, it clenched its teeth deep in my left shoulder, as I gritted my teeth in order not to give it the satisfaction of my scream. But God, that was painful.

"Son of a bitch." I grabbed it by the head, and ripped it out of my skin, breaking a few of its teeth but only prolonging the wounds it left on my flesh. But just like the hungry, blind predator it thought it was, it didn't take a second lying down on the ground, as it came back for another taste. Only this time...

"HEIKAKU GIRI!!!" I shouted, as I swung the Heartbreaker in an horizontal fashion, tearing it half, from its apparent head to the bottom of its torso. Surprinsingly, it fell to the ground, leaving its two halves to quickly rot. The liquid that splashed out of it was the thing that caught my interest.

(Heikaku Giri = Straight Line Slash)

"Green ooze?" I muttered, as I desummoned my Heartbreaker, now holding onto my bleeding, left shoulder. Ripping a piece of shirt, I wrapped it around the deep and disfiguring wound until I could find something or someone to treat it. I sighed.

"Hmm, I still got bitten by that weak bastard... Only shows how much thorn apart I am right now." I said, as I walked through the ruins of that old city. Vast, it was indeed. It had that epic, huge feel to it, like many things had happened there before. It felt very nostalgic, too, like I belonged there, somehow. Suddenly, I shot up another glance around.

"Where exactly am I? What the hell happened before I woke up?"

I looked around once more. Something felt very familiar about these ruins. I didn't know what, and I didn't know why. But something just felt too much of a deja vu. Haven't you people ever been somewhere for the first time in your life, and yet, it felt like you had once been there before? The way you mistook a dream for a memory? Well, to me, it felt just like that, only at least a thousand times stronger.

"Hmm, I wonder if..." Suddenly, I looked up. A wrecked hill far away, but clearly visible managed to answer my doubtd. And in the most unpleasant way, too. It contained a few letters, or at least what was left of it. The word that they were supposed to be making was clear: Hollywood. Which could only mean that these ruins were of none other than...

"... Oh boy!"

... Los Angeles.

END PROLOGUE