Disclaimer: Don't own Gundam, working on shiri bakudan, DEATH TO THE ILLUMINATI!!
Chapter 2: Nightmare
Domon's pain and confusion threatened to consume him, and Gareth certainly didn't wish for this to happen, but there was little he could do. Domon was doing everything he could to keep himself from thinking of Rain, but these thoughts came whenever he ate, slept, or stopped hurting, so all those were not an option for him. And to make matters worse, Domon had remembered that the fourteenth gundam fight was going to take place soon, and that scared Gareth, for he knew what could happen to Domon if he kept this pace up in a gundam fight. There was a good chance he would die, and a better chance that he would kill someone. But Domon seemed determined to enter the gundam fight, and being the champion from the last one, few desired to argue. And so, through the phone that Gareth had once offered Domon so that he could contact Rain, Domon managed to set himself back up as the pilot for Neo Japan. And with a goal, Domon trained even harder, not that that was humanly possible, but his current training regimen wasn't humanly possible either so it didn't really stop him.
Soon, Domon's new gundam was delivered to him: it was the Burning Gundam, but with a few enhancements. Needless to say, Rain had turned down the job on his gundam crew and so a squat nerdy guy with glasses replaced her, though he often kept to himself and stayed out of Domon's way without a word, and Domon couldn't complain… well, not about that anyway. Part of him had expected Rain to be his crew, and that part was disappointed when it wasn't Rain, but the disappointment was nothing that harder training wouldn't block out. Soon, Domon left Gareth's hideaway and went out into the gundam fights, the nerdy guy tagging along as his job required. And he never said anything save 'yeah', 'no', and 'Shut up so I can do my job!' which had only happened twice.
Domon's first match up was with Neo-Egypt's Anubis Gundam, which was a black, brown, and gold gundam with a dog-like mask on its classic gundam head, so that the gundam's head looked out through the mouth. As a weapon, the Anubis Gundam held a long stave that curled into a crook at the end, like those held by mummies but much longer. The stave was black and gold in a spiral along the shaft, and the dog head was black with gold eyes and markings here and there. After the preliminary 'Ready! GO!' that preceded all gundam fights, the Burning Gundam and the Anubis Gundam charged one another, the Anubis Gundam striking out first with its stave across the Burning Gundam's head. The gundam's head snapped to the side from the force of the blow, which was soon followed up by Anubis Gundam jamming its knee into Burning Gundam's stomach. Domon felt the pain stab into his stomach as he reeled backwards. He tried to strike at Anubis Gundam, but it ducked and swept the shaft of its stave under the Burning Gundam, knocking the gundam's legs away and causing it to fall on its back, where the Anubis Gundam brought the staff down on its head again and again.
The fury began to build in Domon, he couldn't stand the thought of losing the fight, and so he lost control, punching through the staff that the Anubis Gundam wielded against him. The Burning Gundam leapt to its feet and, spinning, sent a powerful kick to the side of the Anubis Gundam's head, sending it reeling. Then, charging forward, Domon used the Burning Gundam to deliver a powerful blow to the Anubis Gundam's face with his fist, and then turned back on his momentum and brought his elbow into the side of the enemy gundam's head, sending it snapping to its left. Before the Anubis Gundam could retaliate, Domon quickly used the Burning Gundam to give it a swift uppercut to the stomach and then, grabbing the opponent gundam's head, slammed it down onto his quickly rising knee. The head hit it hard and bounced off, his gundam flipping backwards and landed on its back. As Domon's gundam loomed menacingly over the fallen enemy, the Anubis Gundam brought both its feet in a powerful kick to the Burning Gundam's head. However, quickly recovering from the shock of such a sudden and powerful blow, the Burning Gundam grabbed the attacking gundam by the leg and, placing his foot firmly on the Anubis Gundam's chest, ripped one of its legs off and began to pound at the Anubis Gundam with it. In intense pain, the Anubis Gundam tried to crawl away, but Domon wouldn't let it. In the heat of the fury that now consumed Domon, he stooped and lifted up the Anubis Gundam by the neck and, after it, because of the pilot inside, went limp, he punched through the head, without his classic Burning Finger.
The ferocity with which he beat the Anubis Gundam became a signature of how ruthlessly he dealt with any gundam that crossed his path. He worked as hard as he could, trying to distract himself from the pain, and so he fought harder and harder, damaging his gundam as well as the others, and damaging himself through overexertion. He wanted nothing to remind him of Rain, and so deliberately avoided the rest of the Shuffle Alliance and did everything to forget and not talk about Rain, and his partner made that very easy for him, never speaking or complaining, just quickly and efficiently fixing the gundam for the next day's match. And Domon did find a way to have a gundam fight every day, for a day without fighting was a day where he might have thoughts of Rain. Though, however hard he might have tried to not think about her, she would always come to him in his dreams.
The nightmares ravaged his mind every night, and they were often the same: of Domon sitting happily atop the crest of a green hill, warmed by the golden sun that cast down its heat from the cerulean sky… the same color as Rain's eyes while the sun reminded him of one of Rain's earrings. A cool breeze passed over him and the small field surrounding the hill, sending the grass--and the myriad of colored flowers that dotted the field and hill here and there--swaying like gentle waves in the ocean. A forest surrounded the field, and a few cherry blossoms drifted from trees hidden within this forest, to blow over the field and occasionally land on the emerald grass. A faint scent, flowers and grass mingling together, also blew in on the cooling wind. Domon would smile and recline on the tree… until he sensed something behind him. Not knowing what it was, or bothering to look, Domon would scramble down the hill, rolling over the moist grass. At the foot of the hill, he would look back up to see that it was only Rain, though she seemed to be in pain from his hasty retreat, tears beginning to well up in her beautiful eyes. Domon then only wanted to climb back up the hill and hold Rain close, to hug her and wipe away her tears… but his legs refused to move. He was trapped, unable to return while Rain grew more and more unhappy, slowly slinking away from the hillcrest. When Domon tried to call out to her, he would awake.
And while this dream was horrible for him, perhaps the most horrible one was merely a dream of him actually being close to her, holding her and smelling her perfume and the shampoo in her hair. Of holding her close and seeing her beautiful smile. But in the end the dream seemed to last for only a moment, cut short by his awakening and the tortured feeling of having just lost what was most dear to him, of it just being out of reach. The realization that it was all just a dream turned it to torture, rather than release.
With the ferocity and sheer force of Domon's rage, a fury that made his Burning Gundam always seem to hover in his first kind of super mode, the one caused by anger rather than tranquility, but in this state Domon managed to pound through his opposition with superlative ease. But, unaware to Domon, his progress was closely watched by Gareth, though nothing as spectacular as in his last gundam fights happened. In truth, his current ascendance to the finals was rather uneventful, to Gareth's relief. It didn't seem like long before Domon and the Burning Gundam made it to Neo Tokyo and the gundam fight finals. However, though Domon didn't want to think about it, the rest of the Shuffle Alliance would also be in the finals. But, unbeknownst to Domon, Rain herself was also there.
Rain walked through the night-locked streets of Neo Tokyo, the lights of the city draining the black sky of all its stars. Though it was late, people still walked through the streets, some clearly gundam fighters by the looks of them, just arriving in the city and trying to find a place to stay. Subconsciously, Rain searched the streets in the hope of finding Domon, though she was still questioning why he left; crying herself to sleep over his absence. She missed him, even though she felt she would never forgive him. Part of her longed for him to return, and another part promised her that she wouldn't let herself be hurt again. A cold wind blew about between the tall buildings and goose bumps formed all over Rain, especially where the cold wind washed over her bare legs. She shivered and clasped her arms around her in a vain attempt to warm herself. Feeling the night grow even colder, Rain hurried on her way to her hotel, but on the way she thought she saw Domon walking down the street… but upon looking she saw that it wasn't him; an occurrence that had been happening a lot since he left.
It was a short while later that Rain checked into the warm, bright lobby of the hotel, decorated in a western fashion, with white walls and a red carpet. The lobby, edged with varnished wooden benches and a pair of reflective, metal elevator doors on the left from the wide glass entrance doors, was filled with people walking around and conversing; the discordant drone of a host of various voices filled the lobby and spilled out into the cold street, a harsh welcome for Rain as she opened the door and entered. She quickly walked up to the tall, lanky man behind the light wooden counter at the far end of the lobby, an old, balding man with a hawk nose and graying hair. His fingers were long and bony, his eyes though were clear and contemplative, peering out from under the shadows from their deep set position.
"Name?" he asked quickly, peering up at her with his deep, grayish eyes.
"Rain Mikamura," she responded quietly, looking down at the desk, almost scared of his eyes, as if they could see into her soul. Without responding, he handed her a keycard with 'Room 72' written on it. Rain took it and headed through the nearby elevator, with an antiquated look but a voice activated system, and entered her room just in time to miss Domon walking down the hallway and checking into room 76 just two doors down. Rain gazed out at the empty night sky through the window of her hotel room for a while, and then thoughts of Domon broke through her mental barriers and tears forced their way into her eyes, and, like she had for so many nights before, she cried herself to sleep. Because, even now, in the midst of her pain, she knew still that he was her true love.
The next day, Domon quickly left his hotel room in order to find something to do so he didn't have to sit around and think of Rain. In the daytime, the streets of Neo Tokyo were filled with even more people than could be imagined. The discord of random voices filled the streets, and the whole city. People of every conceivable size, shape, and dress mingling into one huge crowd, one huge entity that was Neo Tokyo. Domon himself was almost glad to become part of this entity and lose himself in this crowd, as the dodging of people and the constant sound of talking made it almost impossible to think, and, therefore, think of Rain. His entire life had changed around his avoidance, shifted to accommodate his fear. Though he may have been considered by many one of the strongest and bravest people in the world, he had become a slave to his own fear. He had let it control him, and become, perhaps, one of the most pitiable people to exist. But it seemed to Gareth that only he saw this, and he feared for Domon's soul. So, in an attempt to protect Domon, he had arranged a few things and was now following Domon out of some sort of protective instinct. From personal experience, Gareth knew that it was at times that a person deserved sympathy the least, that they needed it the most… but people didn't care. People were always caught up in their own personal problems, however trivial, and seemed never to care about others, save those closest to them.
Domon looked about, taking in the huge buildings, not that they were alien sights to him. The cerulean sky glowed warmly above, whitish clouds floating here and there, all in all a beautiful day. A few black clouds from smokestacks could be seen in the distance, but they didn't seem to corrupt the blue sky. The sun was beginning to reach high into the sky, nearly reaching a height that would show that the time was noon. It being nearly lunchtime, Domon was looking around in an attempt to find a restaurant and he soon entered a small building tucked away in one of the older parts of the city, between two buildings that were both many stories tall, though it was only one. Domon entered this incongruous building and saw only a few people eating at a couple of small tables. Behind the bar was the owner and proprietor of the establishment, a very pale man with light blond hair and grey eyes, almost monochromatic. He peered out at Domon through a pair of rectangular spectacles and a smile formed on his almost nonexistent lips.
"Well, well… you're Domon Kashu aren't you? I saw your last gundam fight… though I still lived in Neo America at the time. It's an honor to have you here," the man said, inciting no response from Domon. "Ah, the stoic type. Sit, have a drink, maybe a bite to eat. What'll you have?"
"What do you have to drink?" Domon asked.
Suddenly, the man lifted his head slightly and a glare swept across his glasses while another smirk formed on his face. "Why, everything," he responded happily, the corner of his spectacles catching the light in a tiny flash.
"Sake," Domon selected, tersely. Rummaging beneath the bar, the man set an eight ounce cup on the counter, before starting to head into the back room. This prompted the question from Domon, "Isn't that a bit large?"
"Trust me," he began in a voice that made him seem omnipotent, "You'll need it.' With that, the man disappeared into the back room while Domon pondered his words. Even before the man returned, Domon heard someone enter the building and, looking back, saw that it was Rain who entered.
"Rain…" he said, though it refused to come out as any more than a hoarse whisper.
Needless to say, when he saw Rain, her sapphire eyes also caught sight of him, and she responded to this very similarly by whispering, "Domon…"
"Rain… what are you doing here? No… wait… I… I'm sorry Rain."
"Domon…"
"Rain, can you ever forgive me?"
"…why did you leave? I was so worried."
"I… I don't know… I… Can you forgive me?"
"…no." With that, Rain turned slowly, her eyes on the ground as she walked out of the small, dark building.
"But, Rain…" Domon called quietly after her, his voice breaking and his legs weakening.
"You got what you deserved, bro," came a voice from behind Domon. Turning to look, Domon saw Sai Sici standing in the doorway to the back room.\
"What?" Domon asked him, confused.
"You hurt her Domon. And as much as I like you, you did something wrong. I have to side with sis on this. You have to pay when you do something stupid."
"And you know this from intimate experience right?" Domon grumbled in anger.
"Hey Japanese. Is that the first joke you've made ever?" asked Chibodee as he came through the door.
"Now what happened Domon? I saw Rain running away crying," George asked as he followed Chibodee into the restaurant.
"Bro here left her a while back. Didn't you know?" Sai Sici responded.
"No," George answered, "Why would you do such a thing to mademoiselle Rain?"
"Oh, don't be that way French-y. He got his fun out of her and moved on. Can't say I blame him," Chibodee cut in. Suddenly, Domon was over at where Chibodee was leaning against the wall, lifting him off the ground in a death grip around his neck.
"Don't ever talk--even THINK about Rain that way or I will remove those nasty thoughts from your head the only way I can! Do you understand!?" Domon growled demonically into Chibodee's face, receiving a terrified nod from Chibodee in response. Domon then dropped Chibodee to the ground and turned away.
"Jeez Domon, you need to lighten up!" Chibodee said, turning from Domon and leaving.
"Chibodee…" Domon said, turning back.
"You know, you've changed bro. I'm leaving," Sai Sici said, disappearing into the back room.
"Wait… Sai…" Domon said, now turning to him.
"You sure know how to alienate your friends, Domon," George said.
"Stay out of this!"
"And you did it again. I've been waiting to see you, to tell you that I know who your next opponent is… the mysterious Celtic Gundam. I heard no one knows who the pilot is, and that he pulled some strings to face you first. But that's the last thing I'm going to say to you, because I vowed to tell you. Salú t."
"No, wait… George…" Domon said, but it was too late, George had already left. His head sinking, Domon slumped into his seat at the bar and looked down at the wooden countertop. As he sighed, the owner returned with a bottle of sake. "How did you know?"
"Sai Sici works here, and the others come in every day. So… how much?"
"Oh…" Domon sighed, slumping against the counter, "fill it up all the way to the top."
