Odors have a way of vividly bringing back memories. The smell of burning rice when Mother was busy chasing her little brother back into the house, the stench of sweat after a good laborious workout practicing routines learned from movies, the sweet fragrance of mandarin orange mineral salts melting in the hot bath, calming the mind and smoothing the aches in the body; all these were smells that Sakura would have been happy to take in, creating a keen sense of nostalgia that would transport her back in time. Anything was better than the occasional metallic scent of blood mixed with urine and chemicals, odors that can turn the strongest of stomachs. All hospitals had those smells.
Sakura blocked her nose with her hands, waiting for Ryu, bored stiff. Her hands looked delicate and fragile compared to the dried, tough hands she used to wear back in high school. Maybe with enough practice, she could knock Tawnya’s teeth out for good, just like so many before her. Maybe now would be a good chance to challenge Sean when they returned home. The student of Ryu versus the student of Ken.
That sounds so cool, Sakura thought, smiling aimlessly at the sudden image.
Her smile dropped when she caught an older Japanese woman watching her with an odd expression, as if she were a little crazy. A sense of loathing shadowed her white, tired face. She appeared to be waiting for someone, just as Sakura was. Feeling uncomfortable by the stare, Sakura quickly got to her feet and shuffled towards an isolated, dimly lit room in a scrambled search for Ryu.
“You not go there,” the Japanese woman scolded in bad English with complete resentment. She pointed a threatening finger at Sakura. Her hair was up in a long messy ponytail that limply hung behind her dull red kimono shirt. Her shirt was tucked into black wrinkled trousers that made her look stumpy. Her wretchedness made Sakura want to look down on her.
“Do you work here or something?” she decided to ask, finding the strength to keep the conversation decent.
“No, my fiancé in there. He is in coma,” Rena answered with a long sigh. She smoothed out her long hair with one sweep of her hand, in a conscious effort to smarten herself up.
“I’m sorry to hear that,” Sakura said, feeling guilty to have judged her so harshly.
The poor woman must not have slept for days, she thought dimly. She was sure she would have looked and acted the same if Ryu was ever in that situation.
“Who are you seeing? I hope not bad,” Rena pondered, trailing off into a whisper.
“Umm...” Now she felt really uncomfortable, not knowing what her purpose for being here was. She was at the hospital browsing patients? No, that sounded disturbing. Sakura struggled to think.
“I’m here to see a friend,” she explained. “I heard he was in a fight and not in a good state. I thought it’d be nice to visit him.”
“Sakura?” someone called out from behind her. Flashing an apologetic look, she fled toward the sound of Ryu’s voice, thankful that he had come before she spoke too much, as usual.
“He’s in there,” Ryu directed with a nod, heading for the room Sakura had initially glanced into. He looked more alert and alive. “We have the girlfriend’s permission to go in. But we have to be quick, okay?”
He led Sakura with a gentle pull on her arm, as if she was a blind woman in a cluttered room. As they walked through, Rena shouted with great urgency, “No, get out, get out!” Seeing her flustered and panicked, Ryu stopped.
“Who the hell are you?” Rena said, darting a spiteful look at Ryu, though intimidated by his stature.
He smiled gently as a gesture to calm the woman down, leaving Sakura to enter the room.
“I’m a friend of Guy,” he spoke softly. “My name is Ryu.”
“Ryu...” Rena muttered, having just recognized him from when they had first met. He looked much older, more confident and stronger, but with the same warm eyes she remembered. She suddenly found herself clutching at his chest and wailing harshly. Ryu gently tapped her on the back. Crying women made him uncomfortable, but he sensed the pain she was going through.
“Thank you so much,” she said, her voice muffled against his chest, before pushing herself off in embarrassment.
“I had to see if your brother was okay. He’s a good friend of mine,” Ryu said. “And I brought my friend Sakura with me,” he added, tilting his head in her direction.
Rena had stopped short upon hearing the word “brother”.
“Brother?” she howled, as if he had uttered a foul word. “He...is...my...fiancé. My fiancé.” She couldn’t help but flash the engagement ring at him, almost to prove to herself that their relationship still existed. Her nails were long and her hand was sore with scratches.
“Ryu Sensei, who was the girlfriend you were talking to?” Sakura unthinkingly spoke up.
“Girlfriend?” Rena shrieked, grabbing her hand tightly in an ugly pinch, while looking left and right at the corridors. Sakura winced at her sudden movement.
“Are you there, Maki?” Rena called irritably, unable to control the tempo of her native tongue. “I warned you not to come, didn’t I? I forbade you to enter the hospital grounds. I asked for one simple thing...” Seeing Rena shake, Ryu took a step forward.
“I’m sorry, I must have been mistaken,” Ryu placated, switching to Japanese, wondering to whom he had been speaking to earlier and noting their physical resemblance. “Is it okay to see him?”
Rena didn’t hesitate. In a wordlessly welcoming motion, she pushed past them to run to Guy’s bedside. Ryu and Sakura followed.
As Guy breathed through the oxygen mask, the beeping blip on the heart rate machine leapt high on the screen then trailed into jagged little lines. Rena hated seeing him quiet and immobile, but she reminded herself that at least he was alive. His new heart was doing its job well, at least, for the time being. Feebly, she fingered the wedding band she had placed around Guy’s finger. They weren’t married, nor would they ever be, but that ring on his finger helped her to love him a little more in spite of the raw anger and betrayal she felt striking at her chest.
“How long has he been like this?” Ryu switched to Japanese, watching Guy inhale and exhale in a constant rhythm. He kept his movements to a minimum so as not to frustrate Rena.
“I dunno...” she murmured in Japanese, looking down at her shoes. “Ever since the fight, I guess. He’s in a coma.”
“Were you present at the fight?”
“Yes,” she nodded quickly, “but I didn’t see what happened at the end. The lights went out for a bit but when they returned, he was on the ground convulsing and bleeding.”
Ryu shook his head. He monitored the screen and looked carefully at Guy’s still face. He was unable to take his eyes off him. It was obvious that Ken and Guy had suffered different repercussions from the Raging Demon. The physical lacerations were similar, however, and the bandaged chest told him that Guy too had had a heart replacement.
“Did you see Ken at all?” Sakura asked Rena, looking at Guy with an assertive nod. Her reporter senses were tingling. She was glad that Ryu wasn’t glaring at her. When she did something he didn’t approve of, he tended to give her odd looks.
“Ken?” Rena replied blankly.
“The man Guy fought against, of course,” Sakura said, astonished that Rena didn’t know. Ryu glared at her now.
“Ken Masters is my best friend,” he hesitantly admitted. “He was the other fighter at the tournament. Guy knows him well.”
“Have you visited Ken yet?” Rena asked, slowly finding the courage to look up at Ryu.
“Yes,” he simply said.
“Is he okay?”
“Yeaaaaah sure,” Sakura sarcastically blurted out, pulling at the bottom of her yellow sweater. “He’s fiiiiine!”
“Then he’s lucky,” Rena sighed, oblivious to Sakura’s tone. Ryu looked at her again.
“Ken suffers from impaired consciousness,” he explained with some regret. He didn’t want to talk about Ken at all. “It means he’s conscious, but unaware of himself or the e
nvironment he is in.”
Rena fell silent, twiddling her thumbs, wondering which was worse. Perhaps it would have been better for Guy to be conscious, so that she could verbally relieve the hurt and anger she felt without him realizing it. But she could just as easily hit him now, with the same result.
“Does Ken have a family?” she thought aloud.
“A son and a baby on the way,” he confirmed, standing still beside the bed.
She felt her stomach churn. A comatose man with children must be causing even more pain than a man who was torn between two lovers. “Oh, I’m sorry,” she murmured, chewing on her bottom lip, wondering whether she wanted to know more or not. It only made her feel worse.
“I think the doctor said Guy will be awake in the next few days. They couldn’t tell me when, exactly, so I’ve just been sitting here, waiting.”
“I understand,” Ryu said sympathetically.
“Hang on a second,” Sakura cut in, standing over Guy with narrowed eyes. She watched him silently for a while before looking up at Rena. “I knew I recognized you from somewhere,” she said, thinking back on the couple she had seen locked in a passionate embrace, under the tree that night.
She remembered how jealous she felt watching them, especially of Rena.
“What is it, Sakura?” Ryu said, watching her pull a face.
“You two, you and Guy,” she pointed at Rena. “You were at the park when Tawnya Blaze attacked me,” she stammered. “Ryu Sensei, can’t you see what she’s done?”
“Sakura...” Ryu started, but Rena’s voice overpowered his.
“How dare you point your finger at me?” Rena roared, grabbing onto Sakura’s finger.
“Oh, not you,” she said shaking Rena off, turning to Ryu. “Sensei, do you have the card I showed you?” Ryu shook his head.
“Damn it, we should go back for that and show her. If she has the same card, then maybe Guy was invited to the tournament by you know who,” Sakura said quickly, whispering at the end.
Rena stared at them blankly, feeling irritated that a young woman was talking about Guy as if she knew him. “What are you talking about?” she nervously said, wondering if Sakura knew Guy just as intimately as Maki did.
“Did anything strange happen while Tawnya Blaze was at your place?” Sakura inquired, tapping her foot excitedly.
Rena’s eyes flew wide open. “What?”
“Oh c’mon,” she said with less patience. “You don’t remember looking after a superstar in your own home? Umm, you and Guy do live together, right?”
“Yes,” Rena stammered.
“Well, it must have been you then.”
Rena felt her face grow hot at the thought of her sister taking her place in her own home. She held herself stiff with rage.
“Sakura, enough,” Ryu said, his eyes slightly furrowed, seeing Rena’s reaction. He wanted to learn more about the effects of the Raging Demon, but Sakura’s constantly teasing questions were causing the conversation to stray.
“I have reason to believe Guy and Ken were attacked by an ancient technique called the Raging Demon, which should have killed them,” Ryu interjected. “We’re trying to find out who’s responsible.”
“What will you do once you find him?” Rena half whispered, wondering whether to let herself sit down. Her legs felt weak.
“We’ll destroy her,” Sakura said, punching the air with a little too much enthusiasm.
“Guy survived, and he seems to be on his way to a good recovery,” Ryu tried to reassure Rena, seeing her intensified distress by Sakura’s probing. “He’s probably consumed by the harrowing nightmares caused by the Raging Demon, but once he wakes up, he’ll be relieved of them. Thanks for letting us see him,” he finished. He turned to walk out of the room.
“Ryu Sensei, not again!” Sakura exclaimed in surprise, wondering what the point of the visit was if it wasn’t to find out more about the tournament.
Mel had been lurking in the lobby. Watching Ryu step out of the room where his father’s opponent rested, he panicked. His palm instantly felt clammy and he was unable to keep his knees from trembling. Ryu looked even more frightening with casual clothes on, his muscles bulging beneath the sweatshirt. He always found Ryu intimidating. Sean prodded Mel in the ribs with one finger to make him move, but it only made him yelp in fright.
“Maybe Ryu already took ‘em out,” Sean thought aloud as he watched the scene over Mel’s shoulders. “He’s always had Ken’s back whenever shit went down. You don’t have to throw the first punch after all,” he finished with a snigger.
Mel kept himself tight against the wall, trying his best to stay out of sight, but Sean was too tall to evade detection.
”Hey, whatcha guys doing here?” Sakura said, bemused. She was relieved to get away from Rena, who continued to glare at her from inside Guy’s room.
“Umm,” Mel stuttered, unable to keep his mouth from wavering.
“Gonna teach that dirt bag a lesson,” Sean intervened, pounding his fist into his hand.
“Okaaaay,” Sakura said, rolling her eyes. “Why the hell do you wanna do that for?”
“Because he beat my dad up,” Mel suddenly yelled, feeling braver in Sakura’s presence.
“And we’re going to pound him so hard into the ground...” Sean cut in, trying to sound fierce and menacing, “...that he’s not even gonna need a coffin to lie in.”
Sakura looked through the observation window at Guy lying peacefully in his bed, then angrily turned to the boys. They clearly had no idea what had happened between Guy and Ken, and had come to their own conclusions.
She sighed, then shoved them hard up against the wall. They stayed still under her palms.
“He’s already down,” she hissed under her breath. “Besides, the man in that room isn’t the one that attacked Ken.”
“He isn’t?” Mel said in a small voice, surprised.
“No, and he’s your Daddy’s friend too, just like Ryu Sensei.”
“He is?”
“Yes, so don’t go being a hero for nothing. Ryu Sensei is sorting it out, okay. We both are. And don’t you go stirring things up for him,” Sakura said, looking at Sean with mean eyes. He gulped, feeling her breath on his face.
“Now go home and be a good boy for Mommy, okay? They need you at home to keep the peace, not here messing around with your pal,” she said, darting a sharp look at Sean.
Mel nodded pitifully, having no choice but to believe her.
“You got a problem with that, pretty boy?” Sakura teased, squeezing Sean’s cheeks with her forefinger.
“No, ma’am,” Sean whimpered through his pouted lips. He lowered his eyes to humble himself.
“Good to hear,” she grinned, releasing them from her grip. “Run along and play nice,” she sing-songed, pinching the boy’s hard on their noses, then watched them run through the corridor with loud thudding echoes.
*****
Chapter 33:
TRUE TARGET