Asuka followed the girlish voice crying out for assistance down the hall. She had bolted quickly out the door, leaving it to fling open and smack hard against the wall, creating a line of webbed cracks upon its delicate structure. The voice would call out even louder as she homed in on its location. Near the elevator, she saw Jin Kazama lying on the rugged carpet with a small girl sitting beside him.
"Hey! What's going on? What's wrong with Jin?" Asuka asked, coming closer.
"He doesn't look too good," said the girl as she worriedly tried to keep his head elevated from the floor. "He's looking paler by the minute."
Asuka noted the tiny beads of sweat dripping from Jin's face. He appeared to have a fever of some kind, also suffering from a severe pounding headache. He would continuously curse and move himself away from the girl's reach as she tried to touch his face with her hand to try to relax him.
"Get away from me!" He screamed, repeatedly.
Asuka crossed her arms as she kneeled to the floor, disgusted by Jin's rude behavior of evading assistance. He wanted to be left alone with whatever the cause that was bothering him, but hardly anybody was going to allow the young man to lay flat on his back and scream in agony all day.
"Hey! Let us help you!" Asuka commanded. "Quit being so stubborn!"
Jin coughed with his teeth clinched. "You don't understand. Just go! Its getting worse and your not helping."
"If you weren't sick, I'd hurt you right about now. You should be lucky I'm even deciding to help you."
Asuka and the young girl helped Jin to his feet, but the pain tightened up in his stomach and brought him down to one knee.
"Come on, Jin! Fight the pain. Quit being such a wuss! I know it doesn't hurt that bad."
Jin violently shoved Asuka and the girl away while kneeling on the floor, creeping against the plastered wall and sliding down until his butt hit the ground. His face began to ooze more sweat as he pressed his hands against the sides of his head to try and suppress the headaches that bothered him.
"Hey you," Asuka said, addressing the girl. What's your name?"
"Miharu," she answered.
"Well Miharu, do you think you could stand him up while I go call an ambulance?"
"I would, but he claims he doesn't need an ambulan…."
Jin suddenly shot up from the floor, screaming loud with all his might as the pain burning within his mind went deep into his chest and weighed down his legs.
"That does it. I will call an ambulance. You stay with him," Asuka ordered, rushing back to her room.
"Will do," Miharu confirmed.
Asuka barged into her room and yanked the phone off the hook, dialing the hospital quickly. Hwoarang and Xiaoyu came to her side suspiciously, to see what the problem was. As she brought the phone close to her ear, Asuka did not hear a dial tone. She tried dialing the hospital again, but there was no usual noise.
"What the? The phone's dead," she muttered as she placed it down on the table.
Xiaoyu carried an expression of worry as she tugged away at Asuka arm. "Asuka, what's wrong?"
Asuka did not want to relay any of the information she knew concerning Jin to Xiaoyu, believing it would only scare her. Nevertheless, she had to know, she was Jin's one and only friend, the single person who seemed to care for his well being the most and look out for his best interest. The female Kazama could see it her new friend's eyes without even having it explained.
"Xiaoyu, Jin is sick, really sick. He looks like he needs a doctor."
"My Jin is sick!" Xiaoyu squealed.
"Yes, but the phone isn't working. I suggest we lay him in here until we can manage to get one over here. Moreover, I doubt the hotel is going to do anything about it themselves if they find out. They do not seem to care about anything but making money."
"Where is he now?"
"He's out in the hall with Miharu. I'll help her bring him in here."
"He's outside? Please, get him!"
"Look, there's no need to panic, just say…."
The TV and lights from the ceiling immediately shut off, blackening the room in total darkness.
"Should we panic now?" Xiaoyu asked.
Asuka grabbed a small flashlight from her luggage bag and led herself to the outside hall, where she discovered all the power within the entire building was out.
"This isn't good," she mumbled to herself, brushing a strand of hair away from eye.
She explored the hall until she met up with Jin and Miharu, who were seen coming toward her. Leading them back to the room, she laid Jin on top of the blankets on her bed. Xiaoyu slowly crawled on the bed and smeared her palm against her sick friend's face.
"Jin, don't worry, it'll be ok. Is there anything I can get for you?"
Jin tried to speak, but all that came out was a soft stutter that was too hard to translate.
Hwoarang leaned against the wall, mugging Jin with a fiery vengeance surging though the pupils of his eyes. His rival laid in front of him, staring up at the ceiling as if he was on his deathbed. The Korean could see the pain intensifying as he watched Jin toss and turn rapidly in the bed.
"Man, he looks bad," thought Hwoarang." I do not think he will be able to make it to the tournament in that condition. It is a shame really. I was so looking forward to beating him this year. Damn it, Kazama, why must one of us always get in a predicament when the chance we get to fight comes near."
Asuka leaned against the fluffy red bed pillows, wiping the steamy beads of sweat from Jin's face with a moist towel from the bathroom, while keeping her flashlight fixed between her legs.
"Well guys, it looks like there's no power in the whole building," she said.
"No power? What'll we do?" Xiaoyu said in a low whisper.
Hwoarang gave a confident smirk. "I don't know why you girls are freaking out. As long as you got the stud master here, you have nothing to worry about."
"Now you're just being ridiculous," Asuka scowled. "You need to take your foot out of your mouth and realize we're in a delicate situation here."
"What delicate situation? You mean, Kazama?"
"His name is Jin!" Xiaoyu said, correcting him.
"Chill out, both of you. I was just kidding."
"Well your joking around doesn't help, my Jin's really sick."
Asuka paced to the door. "I'm going downstairs to get in touch with the front lobby and see if they can do something about this. I will be back soon. Just watch after Jin while I'm gone."
"Hold on there, runt. I am going with you. You will probably need some help," Hwoarang said.
"I'm fine looking after myself. Besides, you can keep Jin and Xiaoyu entertained while I am away."
"Entertain? What am I, some kind of clown?"
"Do you really want me to answer that?"
"Just shut up and go!" He said, frowning.
Asuka scurried into the shadowy darkness of the hallway with her flashlight in hand. Not a single shed of light burned within the quarters of the building. All was quiet, giving off an eerie unpleasant silence that made Asuka walk slowly with extreme caution. She crept to the stairway, placing her hand on the side rail. It felt cold, just like the building's temperature, which had dropped exceedingly, right as the power went out. Before she knew it, something jumped down from the ceiling and attacked with unrelenting rage. Asuka held her flashlight up just as she backed away, seeing it was one of the lowly bellhops. His eyes glowed a sickly green color with saliva forming around his lips. Another zombie like bellhop emerged from the bottom staircase and grabbed Asuka from behind, strangling her with his hands. Again, Asuka would not have it, thus elbowing him in the stomach to remove his touch from her body.
"Great, the freaks are out again," said Asuka.
The other bellhop reached for her neck, but only tasted the thickness of her knuckles digging into his cheeks. She swelled part of his face, and he backed off into the corner, only to lash out at her again when he recovered. This time, Asuka kicked his groin and slammed his head into the wall, but he recovered again, shortly, shaking the pain off and moving back into a stiff stance.
"No way," Asuka muttered. "I hit you too hard with that one."
Asuka then felt a jolt of pain hit her ribs in the form of a kick. Apparently, the bellhops did not just possess enhanced recovery, but an increase in speed and power as well. This fight was getting tougher and all Asuka could do was hold her ribs as she leaned against the wall and fell to the floor. She was now at the their mercy with things not looking too bright for her. However, it was not over just yet. A heavy kick soon shot up and whipped into the stomachs of both bellhops with a harsh sting of pain that had them whimpering on their knees. Hwoarang stepped forth from the shadows with his arms crossed, displaying a cocky grin before taking his finger and waving it in the air.
"Naughty, naughty. You boys should know better than to mess with girls."
The bellhops stood on their feet and jumped at their smiling new foe, attempting to bite deep into his flesh. Hwoarang smacked their heads together once they within grabbing range. As she watched him annihilate her attackers, Asuka noted something. Hwoarang's fighting ability was fiercer with the bellhops than the encounter she had with him when they first met. She looked on, as the Korean seemed to have everything under control and his favor.
"Wow, he's actually not bad. He might be more of a challenge than I thought," she laughed, still holding her ribs.
Soon enough, the bellhops' fell to the floor, unconscious from the blows taken, their glowing eyes reverting to normal. This left the young man raising an eyebrow in suspicion as he walked over to check on his friend. Against the wall on the floor, Asuka reached up and grasped Hwoarang's offering hand with her own.
"Everything ok?"
"Yeah, I'm fine, but why are you here? I thought I told you to stay in the room."
"Men don't take orders from woman, it's that simple. I do not listen to anybody but myself. Anyway, what is with those two? Did they get fired or something and decide to just go berserk?"
"I don't know what's going on. The same thing happened earlier."
Suddenly, the lights came back on and the power to the building returned. Asuka wanted to kick herself, for she had almost forgotten about Jin after the two bellhops attacked her. With time wasting away, she needed to act fast. She quickly rushed to the front lobby, filling them in on Jin's condition and requesting an ambulance to come to the hotel. It took a few minutes, but the paramedics made it, wheeling out Jin on stretcher as he tried to toss and turn on his back.
With Jin safe in the hospital's custody, Asuka and the others could finally breath easy. Xiaoyu retreated to her room with her friend Miharu, while Hwoarang was to stay the night with Asuka. Hwoarang brushed his teeth and washed up before going to bed, with his roommate already sleeping. He could not help but watch, as she lied there, snoring on her pillow.
"Hey, she's kind of cute when her mouth isn't flapping," he chuckled with a smirk. "It sounds for odd for me to say this, but she almost looks like an angel for some reason. I wonder why? Bah! What do I know?"
Hwoarang pulled the sheets over his body and sunk his head into a pillow. Lying on his stomach, he closed his eyes and drifted off to sleep, but was awakened by an irritating sound. Asuka's snoring had gotten louder, disturbing him from getting any rest. He tossed his head underneath the pillows to drown out the noise, but he could still hear her snores filling the room. For hours he had to sleep hearing it, almost driving him mad.
Morning time
Hwoarang woke up from the covers, yawning and stretching out his arms toward the ceiling as the warm rays of the sun passed through the open curtains. He looked around and took notice that Asuka had disappeared from her bedside.
"Where the hell did she go?" he wondered.
His question received an answer when the cold flowing sound of water gushing from the bathroom sink caught his attention. It turned out Asuka was washing up for the morning. The sudden rush of water stopped and the squeaky noise of the handles of the sink turning passed through the walls. Asuka stepped out finally, donning a pair of black capri pants, a light blue blouse, and black short-heeled slip on sandals. Her hair was moist and smoother looking than it was the other day and her skin was much clearer to the eye. Hwoarang stood with his mouth hung open, speechless, as he watched his roommate approach and dazzle him with her appearance.
"What? What's wrong?" she said.
"Nothing," he replied softly. Its just… damn, you look great."
"You think so?"
"I mean it. You've never looked this hot," he complimented
"Well, thanks. I'll take that as a compliment," she smiled.
Hwoarang fell flat on his bed. "So, we have one more day before the tournament starts. What do you want to do before then?"
"Oh, I wish it would get here sooner. I cannot take the suspense any longer. It is killing me."
"There is a new mall opening up down the street from here, I heard. Would you like to go there?"
"Nah, I don't care for that sort of thing, but I am hungry and could use some breakfast."
"Ha, ha. You and that stomach of yours. Well, there is a nice restaurant close by we could try. You up for it, runt?"
"Yeah. Sure," Asuka said, nodding in agreement.
Sorry about that, I haven't updated in days and wanted people to know I am still alive and doing this story, lol. And sorry about it being slow in some areas. I promise it will pick up soon. Anyway, ignore what I just said, what did you think? Review, please.