An alleyway laid dormant, the bustling area outside of it remained silent. Out of nowhere, a flash of energy shimmered as it merged together to form a ball of concentrated power. It rustled loose papers and trash into the opposite direction as it grew. Almost instantaneously, the orb vanished in a strobe, leaving scorch marks of carbon and sulfur residue masking a circular shape. A goddess lay in that shape, rising from her Phoenix-like rebirth.
The last surviving daughter of Aku; Ashi has returned.
She rose from the ground slowly, disoriented and regaining balance, lost within the flow of time itself. Her memory served as practically a blank slate, remembering only the Samurai that she was prepared to marry and the sights of her father dying; one image of his death vivid while the other stayed patchy and incomplete.
Ashi staggered but stood, stumbling to the wall beside her in an attempt to find a familiar sight, only to be met with a bleak slab of concrete and pipeline. It seemed to reach the sky through a series of jagged turns, speckled with remnants of posters and chips of decay.
"W-where…where am I?" She shakily asked with hope for a response, however, it was to no avail.
Air passed through the alley and swept by her face. It felt nice; a cool and crisp reminder that she was okay. She gathered herself and began to take steps as if she were learning to walk again. From the numbness, a pain brewed in her and spread through her body like a sprouting root. She kept one hand on the wall and one hand over her chest, with a firm grip on her loudly beating heart.
I-I'm alive! And…in quite a bit of pain. Her eyes blinked and she gazed into the abyss behind her eyelids and feeling the emptiness. The ground was still, absolutely motionless, speckled with gray patches of different colors, all as frigid as the next. I have no idea where I am. Ashi grew focus and her gaze widened to absorb what she could. A shadow that seemed to permanently cast itself in a perfect circle, stuck to the floors and walls. She was surrounded by a darkness of which had only been felt during her possession; the darkness of solitude. She recognized that connection and stood up, clutching her right lung.
I feel so alone. She ran the thoughts through her head of when she felt as an outcast among people. The audience was missing, but the feeling of discomfort stirred in her. Ashi had absolutely no idea where she was, or even when she was.
This place is so big, I can't see the rooftops. Barriers of concrete stacked high on the sides of the alley, but these walls held life. Edge by jagged edge, the walls were host to windows, most either broken or taken out completely, but some near the top housing light. Clotheslines held dust and cobwebs, but remain absent of clothes for what looked like years
Maybe if I leave this tunnel I…
As Ashi inched out of the alleyway, the sound rose with each step forward. The streets were lined with trash and debris, floating freely with every choppy, passing gust of wind. When Ashi looked up towards the skies, however, she could see bright buildings, showered in colorful rays from the overactive, sometimes flickering, glowing lights.
She was taken back by all of the activity on one city block alone, crowded with men, women, children, and other creatures of which looked to have come from elsewhere in the universe.
The storefronts had words plastered on their doors, windows, and walls, written in various scribbles and each being different patterns than the last. Their large panes of glass in front of the store, some containing boxes with moving pictures and containing firearms with large paper cut-outs, describing their features.
The earth around her trembled with the force of one thousand hornets. Two metal carriages shot from a tunnel above, expressing the power of rancorous metal and ravaging fire, tearing through wind as if the world had stepped aside for them.
Ashi realized she was naked and covers herself with a tarp left in the alleyway. She began to wander through the crowded streets as she passed each person, each different from the last and giving off a very criminal nature. As she was walking, she passed a bar. Ashi glanced at the window, trying to see how she looked. What would I even look for? she pondered removing her tarp hood to get a better sight. She looked to the ground, feeling beaten. I know I'm in a different time, and completely foreign, Ashi held the thoughts like an echo until she heard it: her heartbeat. The rhythmic thumping that screamed 'YOU'RE ALIVE' ripped through her thoughts and she stood high.
But I am alive. I still exist.
She shared one more glance with the mirror before walking away. But something made her quickly performed a double take. She saw a list of Marshall bounty hunters and at number one in the line-up, she recognized that profile; a friendly face.
"Jack!" Ashi felt that heartbeat and it was louder in her ears than ever before. The busy street around her momentarily went quiet, though she did not notice. The people kept moving along as if nothing had interrupted them. Ashi gathered herself and ripped the paper from the window, wearing a large smile across her face.
Rushing into the bar, she stopped herself and closed the door as to not let all the heat out. She waded through the masses of thugs, delinquents, and criminals in a desperate attempt to find the barkeep. The bar was musty and full to the brim with smoke that hit Ashi's nose like a freight-train; the shaky ceiling fans were hardly making the air any more breathable. Thick patches of people wearing war-torn, bullet-riddled armor culminated in corners, gambling, shouting, drinking to have a good time, trading ammunition and admiring each other's differences. Ashi thought that in a way, it was very like her only other bar experience, but instead of defeated villains, these men and women seemed to be right in their prime champion forms.
As she kept walking through the herded masses of felons alike, she saw a man scrubbing glasses behind a counter; it had to be the owner.
"ESTABLISHMENT OWNER," Ashi shouted over all the commotion, "I NEED TO FIND SOMEBODY FROM YOUR WINDOW PRINTS IMMEDIATELY."
A roaring room quickly turned into a dull commotion of confusion and prying eyes from all around. It was just as Ashi began to read the room when loud footsteps shook the dust from the ceiling. Slow and cumbersome, the largest member of the bar leaned over the second-floor rail and leaped down, causing the cement underneath him to crack as well as a fair spilling of drinks. He regained his composure and spoke monotonously.
"You don't seem to be from around these parts, so here's a free crash course lesson. We patrons don't talk to the barkeep like that, so what makes you think that you, a damn stranger, can come in here asking for hand-outs from him?"
Ashi stood her ground against the large beast-like man with nonchalance. That had been the first confrontation she faced since Aku, and by comparison, he was little more than a twitch on her danger radar.
The photo of Jack glistened as she raised it to an angle that he could see well, "I am looking for this man here in this picture and unless you have an answer as to where he is, you should step aside."
Drinks clattered down as people began to take notice, rallying around the two with an itching to see what would happen.
A hearty laugh erupted from the goliath's mouth, "And what's gonna happen if I don't make way for the princess?"
"I'd much rather you go to the side, rather than through the window," Ashi threatened with the chilling calm of a winter wind. Sounds from the crowd arose, with oohs and questionability; many stared, patiently waiting for what would come next.
"Well I ain't moving," he hissed back.
"Yes, you are," Ashi dictated, dashing forward with a quick grapple.
The fight escalation stopped for a brief moment as the Goliath looked down, paused, and laughed. The crowd began to chuckle and laugh for themselves, thinking that she had no clue what she was doing trying to lift someone three times her size.
She looked up and met his eyes, and with a spark, she made a quip, "Don't forget to sweep the mess you make."
With that, she near effortlessly lifted him, bowing the ceiling slightly. A cacophony of chairs sliding on wooden floors, audible gasps, and shambling surrounded the bar. The onlooker circle gradually expanded with each step of Ashi's turn, lumbering this behemoth on her shoulder. She took a deep breath and hurled the body of a terrified giant out of the front window as she promised. A deafening crash and sprinkle of glass filled the atmosphere with cracking sounds, wood, and dust.
"YOU BETTER HAVE A LARGE SUM OF MONEY OR A DAMN GOOD REASON NOT TO PUT YOU UNDERGROUND," a particularly upset bartender shouted from across the room, vigorously scrubbing a glass. He spat on the ground with distaste and started to saunter to the front of the bar, where a crowd beckoned and victorious Ashi stood. He set the polished glass on a nearby table and rolled up his sleeves on approach.
"First off," he stated with a slight waver of tremble, "no one has been able to lift cousin Krieg. In order to get him a checkup, we have to bring him to the auto mechanics, so DAMN you're strong. Second, you have-"
"I have a request. I need to speak with you about the whereabouts of this man in the picture. I do not have any money to pay you back for the front of your bar, I am…from out of town, but if you can point me in the direction that he has gone, there will be reparations for the trouble caused."
Her diplomacy shined as the bartender stood with jaw hanging and gave the crowd of bounty hunters mixed reactions of laughter, cheering, and head scratching. He got cut off in his own bar and there wasn't a thing he could do about It, as reminded that there were always more walls to put him through. He looked into Ashi's eyes still dumbfounded by her strength and upset with confusion, and it was obvious that this woman had been to hell and back; more importantly, a woman with nothing left to lose stood in front of him with a determined fire burning inside.
"Lemme have a look at this fella here," He gestured towards the picture, "he might be one of the regulars here. If not, I'm afraid I can't help."
The bartender looked over the picture as everyone went to sit back down. He gave a confused look back up towards Ashi once or twice and handed her back the photo. "I don't recognize him from the bar, sorry."
Ashi's heart sank a little, but she refused to show defeat.
"Then what is the purpose of having him in the window?"
"A lot of people come by and leave stuff around the bar, and frankly, I don't have all the time in the world to pick their shit up," The bartender explained, then looked down at the tarp Ashi wore, "but that's not to say that I don't pick stuff up from here to there. Last week, a bounty hunter came by looking for someone and their head got blown clean off, so the stuff was up for grabs. Their build was really similar to yours if you wanted to check out the get-up."
"You mean to say that you took the outfit off of a woman's corpse? To be such a pervert towards a woman after death is unspeakable." Ashi furrowed her brow in disgust, taken back by his offer.
He crooked his head with a confused look, "She? No no, it was a synth. A RECC with the form of a woman."
"A what?"
"A robot, if we wanna stereotype."
"Like Aku's beetles?"
The bartender's eyes perked. He began to shuffle back to his office, quickly.
"I don't know what you're talking about, but before you say anything else, come back to my office to see if this outfit will do, I won't be the reason another girl gets accosted out on those streets." He motioned to his office and mouthed the words I CAN HELP.
She had set traps before. There was desperation, fear, and urgency behind what he said, making it seem more like a cautionary situation. But if he did have information on Jack, she was going to get it, even if she had to put her only source through a wall.
"Alright then, let's see your outfit then sir."
