An Unlikely Return
Feb 2, 2007 12:38:46 GMT
Post by Zechariah Artuna on Feb 2, 2007 12:38:46 GMT
It had been a entire year since the last tournament, an entire year since he had competed in some form decent competition. Even though it had only been twelve months, give or take a few either way, since it had taken place, it felt like a lifetime; ironic how a persons own time perception could become a disadvantage to even themselves. Either way it no longer mattered, he had spent the last year or so searching the planet but alas he was yet to even find a trace of her, not a single trace. To him it seemed as if he had searched every last millimetre of Eden and yet she evaded him as if she didn’t even exist. The chance that she wasn’t even on the planet anymore was becoming more and more of a possibility with each new sunrise but he would never believe it, he couldn’t. These facts had done no good for him over the years since the incident, I mean why would they?
Perhaps it had been down to the fact that good news, any type of news, had been completely absent or perhaps it was simply events that had led him to the man whom he now was, hell maybe it was both, but then again could that really be true? Could the events and news surrounding a particular person change them? Or did that responsibility fall down to that person’s particular decisions, and/or choices that they have made? I suppose this question falls down into the category of questions that can truly never be answered with a specific, or right answer.
At any rate Zack had changed an incredible amount since his bare foot first touched down upon Eden, the earth within his toes. Within the wasteland of the Western Continent, that was where his space pod crashed on that warm summers afternoon, and it wasn’t long after that he met the first person of the planet, another Saiyan by the name of Tyreth whom had also just arrived on the planet; what were the chances of that? Shortly after meeting, and quickly becoming friends and rivals with the young Saiyan. Zack was in for another shock when he accidentally saved his sister Ruby in the same area, and then met the love of his life in the same day. It was odd to think that the majority of life changing situations that had happened to Zack and a large amount of the people he had called his friends, in his early days upon the planet at least, had all happened to him in the Western Continent, within a lifeless wasteland of ; ironic, wouldn’t you say?
Despite having changed since his arrival upon Eden Zack had in fact not changed all that much since he had last been seen. Physically he had lost a little more weight, more than likely due to his lifestyle, as well as his appearance coming across more rough and scruffy. Ever since that terrible day a few years ago Zack had gained in depression at a alarming rate. Looking at him now it was clearer than ever that the Zack of the present wasn’t even a shell of the former hero of Eden, the proud Saiyan. Zack, now almost as hell bent on destroying him self as finding his lost love, has finally returned to civilisation to settle a few old scores within Eden’s martial arts tournament.
As expected the tournament ground was jam-packed with hopeful contestants, tournament officials and excited fans that would eventually make up the entire crowd; it being these fans who made up the bulk of the bustle that was moving around the arena grounds. As usual many great fighters had made sure to turn up. It was always easy to pick them out from the crowd, either from their quite unique choice of clothing or from their evident level of arrogance. At any rate most had decided to participate in this tournament for one of a few reasons: glory, women or wealth. Of course there were exceptions, warriors who were not there for such material things, warriors who were simply there to test themselves, or in Zack’s case to settle old scores.
He did it for the thrill of the chase, the feeling of battle, the rush of blood around his body, the adrenaline; at least that’s why he used to do it, now it could have been anything from those reasons to him trying to find an easy way to end it, although that was one end of an extreme scale. A reason that hadn’t existed before, but was now something that possibly was closer to the truth than any of the other reasons, was that he did it for the pain, especially the pain; it helped him remember he was still there, that he existed, that he was still alive.
So slowly he began the task of moving between the crowds of people within the tournament grounds, a long blue, and quite tattered cape wrapped around his body and neck as too stop it from flapping about behind him. The cape had concealed his entire appearance via his eyes upward and his ankles down, a mysterious figure indeed, but eventually he had made he’s way through the busy crowd to the registration desk. It was here that he finally stopped moving.
A familiar looking young lady was sitting behind the desk with a rather large book in front of her, the book in which all the entries signed up for the tournament no doubt. A bright smile radiated off from her as she looked up from her seated position towards the obscured man. “You look like a fighter to me,” she said quite happily and politely.
“That obvious ay?” Zack’s replied, his voice muffled by his cloak.
The lady nodded vigorously. “Yeah, well that and you look somewhat familiar. ”
“Likewise…”
“…Have I sleep with you before?” she asked. Zack merely raised an eyebrow at first before a pale arm came forth from within the cloak, his fist clenched all but for his ring finger, which he adorned a wedding ring upon. “Oh, so that’s a no then I guess.” It was clear that she was quite embarrassed, her face igniting a rosy red. “Well if you could just sign your mark here please.” she quickly said without making eye contact with him, spinning around the book to face the figure and holding out a pen towards him and pointing down to a space upon the page.
Zack took the pen and reached down towards the book, his hand extending out from behind the cape as he did so; behind his cloak he was grinning, he couldn’t help it. You’ve still got it… however just as he was about to sign down his name when something upon the page took his notice. “Teams?”
“Oh yes, I forgot to explain.” she quickly replied. “This year everyone is allowed to enter in teams of up to four members. I think this is because ratings were down last year,”
“No surprise there…” Zack muttered.
“The advantage to this is that if a team wins then there’ll be more than one champion, which means more of a chance of becoming champion, but the downside to this is that if you enter as a solo, duo or trio and you come up against a team of four then you’ll have to have all of them, despite the un-fair team numbers.”
“Interesting…” many thoughts quickly began to flow through Zack’s head, far too many for him to make a decision there and then. “I‘ll be back in a minute, ok?” turning away from her he began to walk away from the desk, his thoughts circling around inside his head. He suddenly stopped and turned around. All she could see of this man was his thick flowing black hair, to his shoulders in length, and a pair of topaz yellow eyes, eyes that looked so familiar. “You don’t have a smoke by any chance, do you?”
“No sorry, I’m all out.”
“Heh…figures.”
As he moved further away from the desk he started to be engulfed within the crowd around him, none of them noticing him more so than the next person. All he could think about now was what he should do about the whole ‘teams’ situation. Instantly his ego was informing him to take the challenge, to go it alone, that he didn’t need anyone to prove he was the best, but his common sense was telling him otherwise. Suddenly his train of thought went in a different direction, causing him to look back over towards the desk and the young lady setting behind it. “Heh…Déjà Vu…” he muttered shaking his head.
Perhaps it had been down to the fact that good news, any type of news, had been completely absent or perhaps it was simply events that had led him to the man whom he now was, hell maybe it was both, but then again could that really be true? Could the events and news surrounding a particular person change them? Or did that responsibility fall down to that person’s particular decisions, and/or choices that they have made? I suppose this question falls down into the category of questions that can truly never be answered with a specific, or right answer.
At any rate Zack had changed an incredible amount since his bare foot first touched down upon Eden, the earth within his toes. Within the wasteland of the Western Continent, that was where his space pod crashed on that warm summers afternoon, and it wasn’t long after that he met the first person of the planet, another Saiyan by the name of Tyreth whom had also just arrived on the planet; what were the chances of that? Shortly after meeting, and quickly becoming friends and rivals with the young Saiyan. Zack was in for another shock when he accidentally saved his sister Ruby in the same area, and then met the love of his life in the same day. It was odd to think that the majority of life changing situations that had happened to Zack and a large amount of the people he had called his friends, in his early days upon the planet at least, had all happened to him in the Western Continent, within a lifeless wasteland of ; ironic, wouldn’t you say?
Despite having changed since his arrival upon Eden Zack had in fact not changed all that much since he had last been seen. Physically he had lost a little more weight, more than likely due to his lifestyle, as well as his appearance coming across more rough and scruffy. Ever since that terrible day a few years ago Zack had gained in depression at a alarming rate. Looking at him now it was clearer than ever that the Zack of the present wasn’t even a shell of the former hero of Eden, the proud Saiyan. Zack, now almost as hell bent on destroying him self as finding his lost love, has finally returned to civilisation to settle a few old scores within Eden’s martial arts tournament.
As expected the tournament ground was jam-packed with hopeful contestants, tournament officials and excited fans that would eventually make up the entire crowd; it being these fans who made up the bulk of the bustle that was moving around the arena grounds. As usual many great fighters had made sure to turn up. It was always easy to pick them out from the crowd, either from their quite unique choice of clothing or from their evident level of arrogance. At any rate most had decided to participate in this tournament for one of a few reasons: glory, women or wealth. Of course there were exceptions, warriors who were not there for such material things, warriors who were simply there to test themselves, or in Zack’s case to settle old scores.
He did it for the thrill of the chase, the feeling of battle, the rush of blood around his body, the adrenaline; at least that’s why he used to do it, now it could have been anything from those reasons to him trying to find an easy way to end it, although that was one end of an extreme scale. A reason that hadn’t existed before, but was now something that possibly was closer to the truth than any of the other reasons, was that he did it for the pain, especially the pain; it helped him remember he was still there, that he existed, that he was still alive.
So slowly he began the task of moving between the crowds of people within the tournament grounds, a long blue, and quite tattered cape wrapped around his body and neck as too stop it from flapping about behind him. The cape had concealed his entire appearance via his eyes upward and his ankles down, a mysterious figure indeed, but eventually he had made he’s way through the busy crowd to the registration desk. It was here that he finally stopped moving.
A familiar looking young lady was sitting behind the desk with a rather large book in front of her, the book in which all the entries signed up for the tournament no doubt. A bright smile radiated off from her as she looked up from her seated position towards the obscured man. “You look like a fighter to me,” she said quite happily and politely.
“That obvious ay?” Zack’s replied, his voice muffled by his cloak.
The lady nodded vigorously. “Yeah, well that and you look somewhat familiar. ”
“Likewise…”
“…Have I sleep with you before?” she asked. Zack merely raised an eyebrow at first before a pale arm came forth from within the cloak, his fist clenched all but for his ring finger, which he adorned a wedding ring upon. “Oh, so that’s a no then I guess.” It was clear that she was quite embarrassed, her face igniting a rosy red. “Well if you could just sign your mark here please.” she quickly said without making eye contact with him, spinning around the book to face the figure and holding out a pen towards him and pointing down to a space upon the page.
Zack took the pen and reached down towards the book, his hand extending out from behind the cape as he did so; behind his cloak he was grinning, he couldn’t help it. You’ve still got it… however just as he was about to sign down his name when something upon the page took his notice. “Teams?”
“Oh yes, I forgot to explain.” she quickly replied. “This year everyone is allowed to enter in teams of up to four members. I think this is because ratings were down last year,”
“No surprise there…” Zack muttered.
“The advantage to this is that if a team wins then there’ll be more than one champion, which means more of a chance of becoming champion, but the downside to this is that if you enter as a solo, duo or trio and you come up against a team of four then you’ll have to have all of them, despite the un-fair team numbers.”
“Interesting…” many thoughts quickly began to flow through Zack’s head, far too many for him to make a decision there and then. “I‘ll be back in a minute, ok?” turning away from her he began to walk away from the desk, his thoughts circling around inside his head. He suddenly stopped and turned around. All she could see of this man was his thick flowing black hair, to his shoulders in length, and a pair of topaz yellow eyes, eyes that looked so familiar. “You don’t have a smoke by any chance, do you?”
“No sorry, I’m all out.”
“Heh…figures.”
As he moved further away from the desk he started to be engulfed within the crowd around him, none of them noticing him more so than the next person. All he could think about now was what he should do about the whole ‘teams’ situation. Instantly his ego was informing him to take the challenge, to go it alone, that he didn’t need anyone to prove he was the best, but his common sense was telling him otherwise. Suddenly his train of thought went in a different direction, causing him to look back over towards the desk and the young lady setting behind it. “Heh…Déjà Vu…” he muttered shaking his head.