I needed to have this because otherwise transation is too shit

…

Am I… dead?

Surely not… that beating, that was his heartbeat. Right?

Definitely… is has to be.

As he lay suspended in this inky, velvety darkness, he listened to it - pounding away as if from very far away. He could barely hear it, but he clung to it. The faint pulse in the distance… because it was the only evidence he was still alive.

And Rock Howard desperately wanted to be alive.

This absolutely could not be the end. This is just a nightmare. A very, very long nightmare. One of these days, he was going to wake up and everything was going to be just like before. Maybe he was in… a coma? The last thing he remembered was cooking dinner, then laying down to sleep… then… he just didn't wake up.

This has to be a dream… I'm lucid dreaming, that's it...

It had been like this for… Rock didn't even know. He had 'woken' to this deep darkness with no explanation whatsoever. He remembered looking around-... well, he didn't really look persay. He had no eyelids as he was, nor eyes, nor anything. He willed himself to look, and saw nothing. He willed himself to move, but there was nothing to move. He had no flesh… but he could feel. Something in him knew this place was warm and deep and quite inescapable. It made him tired. This place - wherever it was - was telling him to sleep. Telling him to let go and drift off and accept this new reality...

No, no...

If he accepted the fact he had died, and he would be here - alone, in this dark, muted hell - forever… well, he certainly would have tipped into despair long ago. He simply wouldn't. He couldn't give up hope. The beating from afar, it meant he was alive. He heard it increasing and decreasing periodically… that meant he was out there… doing something, right?

Is… Riot out there?

That was terrifying in its own right. Perhaps Iori's alter ego - the same one who had attacked him this morning, was out there, dressed like him and carousing around. Rock had had very few interactions with the Riot - but he had seen enough to know it was a wildcard. Sometimes it just stood there, grinning and doing nothing… and sometimes it killed people.

Is dad okay? I wonder if he's worried… does he know I'm still here?

There were no happy endings to this situation. Either he had died and this is how he would exist for the rest of eternity (inconceivable!), or he was in a coma - which would last however many years it would last (horrible!), or he had been possessed by the Blood Riot (Also terrible) and potentially releasing a murderer to the streets.

Has this ever happened to boss? Oh man… Ugh, Dad… I'm scared.

Rock sighed - (ah) he tried to sigh, but without lungs and lips, he simply made do with feeling disappointed. He calmed his heart as best he could, collected all his thoughts and tried to remember. Riot had killed Yashiro a couple of months ago, right? And Iori had no recollection of it… maybe this is where he was when Riot took over? Maybe this is how it's supposed to be?

Dammit Iori… why didn't you tell me anything before just driving away… ugh. Okay… shh, it's temporary… Boss always comes back...

It was a mere theory, a far-fetched one. But Rock was good at convincing himself of things. He listened to the heartbeat in the distance and set his mind on it. It was speeding up again, pounding away as if under great exertion. Maybe he was running laps?

Yeah… I had better be running laps…

Broocky.