Author's notes:Hey there everybody. Sorry that this one was a little late. I had home work and other things to do, so there was a delay in my plan to submit earlier. Anyway, enjoy!
Asuka braced herself for a tough battle, throwing her guards up and moving into an appropriate fighting stance, never thinking she would find herself taking on everybody inside a hotel building, but still, this wasn't too out of the ordinary for her. In the past, she had fought dozens of people at the same time, from local school bullies to perverted drunks, who would come down to suffering black eyes, broken noses, fractured ribs, or all three and possibly even worse when coming in close contact with her.
Feng Wei swung his fist forward to attack, but Asuka sidestepped his incoming blow and he wound up falling down the stairs and crashing into the angry mob that stood behind her. Everyone fell on the floor and against the plastered walls from Feng's massive weight and caused a little distraction for Asuka to make an escape up to the next floor. She held on to the thin black rails implanted on the sides of the stairs to avoid tumbling over while running. The stairs going up seemed endless, as if they had just kept appearing out of thin air to frustrate Asuka, but she kept moving, and didn't look back. Within minutes, she had made it to the rooftop of the building, and quickly barricaded the door with a long piece of wood she saw sitting on the ground.
The view from above the building was beautiful with a nice look at the city and ocean, but would appear rather unpleasant for anyone who had a fear of heights, with the view of the ground below being barely visible. A group of small buildings and a couple half structured skyscrapers were seen in the distance, meters away from the hotel. Asuka saw no other ways of escaping, except to jump off the rooftop. It was a long fall from a twenty-story hotel building and she wasn't looking to make a jump that would most likely end up killing her.
The barricaded door was being pushed with great force by the predators chasing after Asuka. They were doing everything in their power to knock the door down as she could hear the sounds of them ramming heavy objects to try and burst straight though. She backed away toward the edge of the building and could feel there was no other trail of floor left to walk on.
"Oh this is just great!" Asuka said, upset that she was backed into a corner with the only option of falling down to escape.
Soon, the door burst open and King, Steve Fox, and Craig Murdok stepped though with the angry mob of people behind them for support. Devilish grins grew on their faces as they could see their target had nowhere left to run. They came closer with hands reaching out to grab hold of her, but Asuka wasn't going to stand for this to happen, and instead, chose death in battle as opposed to death of trying to escape. She preferred to die a fighter, if it came to that, than be a coward and try to run. Her hands were thrown up again in defense, and she circled around, stepping away from the edge of the building to move closer to her attackers. Her knuckles balled into fists and she was ready to strike at any moment, only waiting for the aggressive mob to make the first move. Before a sudden punch was thrown, Asuka saw the angry mob of people before her pause stiffly and scream in horrific agony. Each of them suffered headaches that brought them down to their knees with their eyes slowly reverting back to normal, no longer glowing eerily.
"Ugh…. what happened? How the heck did I get up here?" said a confused Steve Fox.
"I was about to ask the same question," said Marshall Law, rubbing his head.
"That's weird, I could have sworn I was sleeping," mumbled Julia Chang, wearing a nightgown.
The fighters, guests, and employees were all confused and unwary of what happened. Some came to the conclusion that sleeping walking was to blame, but it seemed rather awkward for that to be the case. Shrugging it off, they headed back inside the hotel to return to their activities and duties.
Asuka scrunched her hands in anger as she watched everyone go back inside like nothing happened. She screamed at the top of her lungs to get their attention and ask questions, but everyone grumbled and ignored her as they proceeded back in the building. After she came back inside, on her room floor she discovered a dozing Hwoarang lying on the floor, holding his stomach and head.
"Hwoarang? Hwoarang! Are you alright?" Asuka said rushing over to help him up.
"Whoa, I promise I won't drink ever again," he said.
"Huh? Hwoarang, what happened?"
"Well, I remember being in the fog and the next thing I knew…. Bam! I blacked out. When I woke up, I was laying here. Must have been the alcohol that did it. I knew it messed people up, but damn!"
"You need to go to your room and get some rest," Asuka requested.
"I would, but my roommate, Steve Fox, kicked me out. Those lazy hotel people had to put me in a room with him. He's upset because I always left the place in a mess when he came back from wherever he went."
"Well, I can't let you sit here. I'll take you to my room. I have an extra bed you can sleep on until you feel better."
"That'd be great," Hwoarang grinned, coming up from the floor.
Asuka lead Hwoarang to her room like a lost child, having to hold his hand and keep him stable. His blurred vision was shaky and his body was worn out to the point where he could barely stand. He was thankful of Asuka's kindness but didn't go far in trying to show it.
"Here we are," Asuka said, opening the door to her hotel room. "You go sit on the bed or watch TV."
"Gladly."
With Hwoarang taken care of, Asuka went into the bathroom to wash up. She ran a heap of cold flowing water from the sink faucet and splashed it onto her face.
"This doesn't make any sense," she thought. "One minute they're chasing me, trying to kill me, and then the next minute they don't even know what the heck is going on. What would cause somebody to act like that?"
Suddenly, a booming voice disrupted her thinking.
"Hey Asuka!" Hwoarang shouted sluggishly from the bed.
"What?"
"What are you doing?"
"Washing up. You should try it when I'm finished. I could smell you're underarms when I brought you in."
"Hey!" Hwoarang said, insulted by that statement. "I'll have you know I spray myself down with cologne every day."
"Then maybe you should try using the whole bottle, or maybe a new brand, because you stink!"
The sound of the running water came to a halt with Asuka walking out and demanding Hwoarang to step in.
"Ok, it's your turn. I'm not letting you sleep in that bed till you shower."
"Jeez, you sound like my mother. Who died and made you a parent?" he grumbled, closing the door behind him.
Asuka stood beside the door and listened as Hwoarang turned the knobs on the shower, still wrapped in her thoughts of the incident that occurred earlier.
"What if this whole thing is some kind of joke? What if Hwoarang is in on this whole ordeal? No, that can't be true, could it? I don't know. I'm so confused right now on what to believe. I probably won't get any sleep just worrying about it."
"Hey Asuka!"
"Argh! If he calls me one more time I'm going to hurt him," she said, silently under her breath. "What!"
"I don't have any clean clothes to put on. I forgot to get my remaining pair back from my old room. Would you be a good little runt and go get them for me?"
Asuka's mouth smudged into an angry frown, regarding his words with strong dislike.
"First of all, don't call me a runt, musty pits. Second of all, since when did I become your servant?"
"Since now, go to room two fifteen. And while you're at it, go get me a can of punch from the vending machine, on the double!"
"I'll give you some punch all right," Asuka murmured walking out the door.
She didn't like being commanded to do things for others, especially for somebody like Hwoarang, but she was only doing it to get away from him and have some time alone to think. Upon stepping outside in the hallway, she spotted Ling Xiaoyu and another person, having a conversation with each other.
"Jin, talk to me already!" She begged. What's wrong?"
"You need not worry about it," he replied.
"Well the least you could do is…Asuka?" Xiaoyu said, noticing the girl from Japan coming down the hall.
"Oh, hi. Xiaoyu, right?" Asuka asked.
"Yes. Hey, I'd like you to meet my friend, Jin Kazama. Say hi, Jin!" She commanded, nudging her elbow into his stomach.
The young man called Jin turned his head for a brief moment, nodded and turned back to Xiaoyu, depreciatingly. With a faint gasp, Asuka's eyes widened after seeing the silent stranger's face.