Author's Note: Yes, I am officially back (AGAIN). That's right, I have not died, and I still love KOF. This is, of course, the sequel to 'Even My Shadow Left Me'. I left too much angst at the end of that to just let it go... besides, doesn't everyone want to know what happened to Alba, Soiree and Chae after they were all possessed by aliens? Of course you do! Duh. -smile.-
Yes, all of the chapters are named after certain kinds of flowers... but not any cliched ones, like roses, tulips, or forget-me-nots. Ones that actually mean something. Flowers can mean all kinds of stuff, you know. Even bad things. It's not always 'everlasting love'.
Anyway... let's get started.
--
Five-Leafed Clover
The Sequel to 'Even My Shadow Left Me', a KOF fanfiction by Strike To Incinerate.
Chapter o1 - Almond Blossom (Hope and Watchfulness)
--
"There's a place that I've found
As far as I can see
This place lies within
The depths of my dreams
In a garden surrounded
By fire and trees
Through the smoke a silhouette I can barely see..."
My Apocalypse by Escape the Fate.
--
He had a dream that he was standing in a field full of clovers.
She was there.
He was, too.
She smiled; he smiled back, but he didn't know why. He looked to the other man, who gave him an encouraging thumbs up. He waved, and then sat down, playing with the stem of a clover in his hand.
She sat next to him, leaning against his arm, watching him as if it were very fascinating. She was warm, she smelled clean; like mild soap. She was a very ordinary-looking girl, aside from the white stripe in her bangs, but he thought she was very beautiful.
Suddenly, she kissed him, and his hand left the grass to carress her face, inadvertantly taking the clover with him.
The other man ran over, laughing and telling them to stop fooling around. He had no idea of who they were, or where they were, or what they were doing there... but he felt he cared about them very much.
He looked down into his hand. There rested a clover with five tiny leaves. A five-leafed clover... who had ever seen that? He'd rarely seen four-leafed ones, so was a five-leafed one supposed to bring more than seven years of good luck?
He didn't know... but he had a warm, contented feeling in his chest, and he decided that, yes, it probably did.
--
He woke up in a hospital room.
It was white, and there was a curtain drawn around his bed. There was an IV in his arm, and a machine monitoring his heart beside the bed. He sat up. His legs felt numb, and his arms tingled. His stomach felt very, very empty. His mouth was dry. His vision was a little blurry at the edges, but he couldn't see past the curtain anyway.
He wondered how he had gotten here... and when he couldn't figure it out, he knew that he had amnesia, and had probably been in an accident of some kind.
He looked around for the call button, and then pushed it.
He waited, for maybe a few minutes, until a nurse came into the room. She was short, a little plump, and had long brown hair that was tied up into a ponytail. The shapeless magenta scrubs weren't really her color. She was smiling at him.
"Wow... you're finally awake!" she congratulated him.
He paused, blinking; he hadn't yet considered that he'd been asleep for more than one night. After all, he didn't even know why he was there.
"You don't know why you're here, huh?" she asked him. He shook his head. "Well... you were brought in here, already in a coma. Best the doctors can figure was that you overdosed on drugs, but they never found anything unusual in your system. There were two others with you, too."
He paused again, and then asked, "... A man and a young woman in their mid-twenties?" He was hesitant, almost uneasy; he suddenly felt sick. He was lightheaded, and his chest was tight.
She nodded. "Yes, they were," she agreed. "So, you remember what happened?" she asked him.
Slowly, he shook his head. "No..."
"Oh, that's too bad. I was hoping to find out what had happened to you three," the nurse replied, disappointed.
"Are the others still... out?" he asked.
"Oh, well, your brother is," she answered.
His brother. That explained the connection he had felt in his dream.
"The young woman woke up, though... about a month ago. She didn't remember what had happened, either, but she remembered you and your brother very well," the nurse answered.
A month. So he had been in a coma for nearly a month.
"Exactly how long were we asleep?" he asked her.
"Oh... well... you were brought in in August. The girl left in October... it's November 19th now. So, about three months, I'd say."
Asleep for three months... he didn't know what to say.
"Your brother is right next to you, you know..." she said, pulling back the curtain. Now, he could see a young man asleep in the other bed, with an IV and a heart monitor, the same as him. He had white-silver hair... and as he had suspected, he was the man from the dream about the clovers.
Could it, perhaps, have been a recessed memory?, he wondered.
"I'm sorry," he began, "but I don't remember anything at all. Who am I?"
--
His name was Alba Meira, she told him. His brother was his younger twin, Soiree... after learning that, he remembered that their names meant Day and Night in different languages. They had been orphaned as children, and had grown up in Southtown... that was where the hospital was. They were both experts at martial arts; Alba had been considered the best in the city before the accident that left himself, Soiree and the young woman in a coma at the top of Geese Tower, a local landmark dating back to the late '80's.
The young woman was a detective named Sohn Chae Lim. She was a Korean immigrant, in America on a work visa. She was also internationally famous as one of the best Tae Kwon Do masters in the world. She had filed the necessary paperwork to become a US citizen a month before they'd gone into a coma. The nurse wasn't sure about how they knew each other; so, for all he knew, they could be complete strangers...
but it nagged at him. She was a trained martial artist, too. They must have had some kind of connection...
The nurse had instructions to call the young woman as soon as either of the Meira brothers woke up. That, also made him suspicious, but the doctor said that there were to be no visitors that day.
The next day, Alba began physical rehabilitation, to make sure his limbs worked properly after months of disuse. After a few hours, he could stand on his own, and the day after, he could walk with no trouble. His muscles were still strong, probably from his life-long martial arts training.
He tried talking to his roommate, his brother, who was still in a coma. He wondered when he would wake up, and he asked him so. He also asked his brother if he still had his memory, if he knew who Chae Lim was, and if he had ever found a five-leafed clover.
The third day after he had woken up, the doctor and nurses were still unable to contact the young woman, and he wondered why. Perhaps they were not acquaintances at all. Perhaps he was the unexplainable reason they had all slipped into comas, and she knew it, and was scared of him.
Whoever Sohn Chae Lim was to him, she could still have her memory... which meant that she could have answers to his questions.
A week passed. The hospital told him that he could be released soon. He finally began to wonder about he and his brother's medical bills, which were probably very expensive. The doctor told him that they had been billing someone named L. Meyrink for their stay. Alba asked if that was who had admitted them; the doctor told him that someone named Kyo Kusanagi had called 911 that day. They didn't know who L. Meyrink was, and had just assumed that it was a relative who was responsible for he, his brother, and Miss Sohn.
Just another mystery to add to the pile.
Two days later, he could check himself out of the hospital, and he planned to do so. He was given back his belongings; a red leather jacket, black pants, and a tight black top. There was also a pair of stylish orange sunglasses, probably designer. It made him wonder first if he was gay, and second, if he was wealthy. It all looked expensive, but after he put it on, he found that the outfit was very worn, singed, and frayed.
He promised Soiree that he would find out who they really were, and visit him everyday until he woke up.
As he left the room, and went down to the lobby, he saw her, sitting in a chair. She looked so tired, he didn't recognize her at first. He wouldn't even have looked again if he hadn't seen her stare at him, and then break into a smile.
She had dark circles under her gray eyes, her hair was messy, unparted, layered, and long... it looked grungy and unwashed. Her skin was a little pale, except for her red cheeks, looking almost sickly. Her lips were nearly colorless, and she seemed... unwell. She didn't look like the girl from his dream. But still, she smiled, and uneasily, he returned the expression.
She must have taken it as an invitation, because she stood up, and walked over to him. "Alba... you're awake. I'm... I'm so happy..."
He realized then that she didn't actually look sick; she looked like she'd been worrying. She looked like someone who had cried, not gotten enough sleep, and ate very little... out of concern for another person. Or people.
As she threw her arms around him, he knew that they were not strangers, or even merely acquaintances.
This girl was someone who knew him very well... and in this situation, she knew him better than he knew himself.
--
"I'm dying."
"I know."
They had sat on the couch for an entire afternoon, pretending to watch TV, while actually trying to think of a way to say those two sentences to each other.
Iori Yagami was dying, and there was nothing either of them could do to stop it.
It was a curse that had plagued his family for centuries, ever since his clan had come up with the stupid idea of sharing power with the Orochi. Now, he had to pay for it. It wasn't fair; Kasumi was screaming that in her head. It made her want to punch things, to destroy things, anything to take care of the anger and complete sorrow she felt at losing the one she loved. They both knew it wasn't fair.
They both knew there wasn't anything they could do.
Just the way it was.
That's how life goes.
Iori had known it since he was a child.
But now, death scared him.
He and Kyo were practically friends now. He had Kasumi; he had a semi-successful career as a bass guitarist, and was famous for that as well as fighting. He had a great apartment. Now that he had a chance to seriously look at his life... it was pretty fucking good, and he didn't want to leave it so soon. He was ready to move past his hatred of Kyo and be a dashing Prince Charming (or, you know, a gruff, rockstar version of it) for Kasumi. Iori Yagami wanted to live.
But, he only had a few more months, as far as he could figure.
Since he had first starting coughing up blood in August, it had gotten worse. The clots that came up were bigger, and there was more blood. The week before, he had vomited, and it had a sickening vermilion tinge to it. He was feeling weaker, he got tired more easily, and became agitated with the smallest things that Kasumi did, causing her to cry or scream at him. Kasumi was pestering their doctor almost daily; they were on the second one, and Iori knew his patience was wearing thin.
They were both worn out, emotionally and physically, and it wasn't going to get any better.
Kasumi rested her head against his shoulder. She was watching the television, but her eyes darted up to meet his every once in a while.
"I'm not going to die right this second," he told her.
"I know..." she mumbled.
'I know,' was her new answer for everything. Every time he said something, she already knew it.
"I don't want to watch this shit."
"I know," she said, and changed the channel.
--
Alba was surprised to find that he had a red sports car. A shiny, well-cared-for convertible.
Chae Lim handed him the keys, and hopped into the front seat.
"Are you sure that it's alright for me to drive?" he asked her.
She nodded. "Well, it is your car..." she told him. "I actually feel a little bad. You never let anyone touch it... but I thought you'd be happy to see it. I'm sorry... you aren't mad at me for driving it here, are you?" she asked him.
He blinked; it was amazingly thoughtful, yet she thought he might get mad?
'Okay, so I was a rich narcissist...' He looked at the girl again. Didn't rich narcissists date supermodels? She certainly was not a conventional beauty.
"No, I'm not mad," he finally said. "I just didn't remember that I had such a nice car."
"Well... uh... I guess that means you don't remember how you got it, either?" she began. He shook his head. "Or the way back to our apartment?"
Our apartment. So they were dating. It made sense, but without his memory, he didn't know any of the 'why's or 'how's.
"It's okay. I'll direct you," she told him. He started the car, and to his relief, he did remember how to drive it; it came naturally, on instinct. He must have been very fond of driving that car.
She told him how he had gotten the car; he had saved up for it as a teenager, doing odd jobs for a gang. He was the adopted son of a gangster, along with his brother, and they'd grown up in Southtown. He was mildly shocked, but he didn't show it. Gangs had been popularized by the media, and Southtown did look the place for it...
"Am I still in a gang?" he asked.
She chuckled. "You're the leader of the Sons of Fate," she replied.
"That's a strange name."
"Um... Fate was your father," she said.
He felt a bit guilty. "Oh, okay."
"Yeah... so, I already told the others that you woke up, and they're going to let you rest for a few days before they visit you," she explained. "A lot of people... will probably call you Don, or King."
"I thought my name was Alba."
She chuckled again. "It is. But... uh..." She went on to explain that he was considered to be the leader of Southtown's gang-ridden underworld, after he defeated Duke, the leader of Mephistopheles, the old ruling gang. That was a few years ago, during something called a King of Fighters tournament. It was also where they'd first met.
"Actually... did they tell you where we were found?" she asked him.
He nodded. "On top of some tower."
"Geese Tower. That's it, over there," she said, pointing to a large, gray sky scraper. Atop it was a red construction crane. "Ironically... that was exactly where we first met. Right on top of that tower."
"Really?" He was surprised.
"Really. We were actually supposed to fight..." She was blushing now. "It was so cool. You actually jumped off the crane--"
"I JUMPED off that crane?" he asked.
She nodded. "Yeah. You jumped, and landed perfectly. It was really cool... you were respectful to me, too. You approached me like a serious competitor, not like I was a woman."
"But you are a woman."
"Not during KOF. Then, I'm a martial artist first, and a woman second. You understood that," she continued. "But... you accidentally knocked me out, so you took me home so that Soiree and Mignon--"
"Who's Mignon?" Vaguely, he remembered that 'mignon' was French for 'cute', like 'filet mignon'.
"Soiree's girlfriend," she answered. "Anyway... they took care of me until I woke up. Then, you came home from beating Duke, and I took care of you. After that, I tried to go home to Korea... but..." Her blush became deeper. "The three of you followed me to Korea, and brought me back. So, now, Southtown is home for me."
It was romantic, almost like a movie. The kind of romance any girl would want. He and Chae Lim sounded very lucky...
Which made him wish he could remember it even more.
--
Alright, there's the end of chapter one.
I'm sorry about Iori. But I must write that angst!!! Blame SNK for the Yasakani curse.
Anyway, let's see some reviews!