Aftermath

As Azuma fell, screaming, Ilona, rushed to him. Doing a quick scan on the teen, what she felt left her with a face full of fear.

Azuma still screaming his lungs out, looks at her with a hint of resentment, as if saying, -This is your fault, do something. - The only thing coming to Ilona's mind was knocking him out, at least that would stop him from feeling more pain and damaging his throat.

Which is precisely what she did.

After she made sure Azuma was out and patching his arm the best she could, she rushed to her mother, which was less than a meter away, that's how near Václav was from killing her mom. Once again, she stares at the teen in the ground, a gratefulness one could never imagine in her face.

"Mom,… mom, are you okay?" Florián doesn't answer, Ilona, yet again, this time all the more worriedly asks, "Answer me, mom, are you okay."

Florián who looks shellshocked reacts, "Huh...." She looks around, for the first time since regaining consciousness, at her surroundings.

The backside of the house is destroyed, a miracle it's still standing, the ground behind the house, near where she is standing, filled with craters as if someone just fired mortars in their general direction.

"MOM!" Ilona screams at her, "…...Yes, yes I'm fine, thanks to you and your friend there." She looks toward Azuma, with gratitude.

Ilona looking at her mother's gaze whispers something to her, Florian's already pale face pales considerably more.

She quickly stands up, and hurries to Azuma, looking at him, while touching his body, she gasps.

"Move Ilona, fast, we need to go to a hospital. NOW!"

As she's yelling at Ilona, a voice asks. "What happened here?"

Worriedly Florian's and Ilona's faces, look in the direction of the new voice.

Ilona's face changes to relief, while Florian's is still worried, she moves her body, attempting to block her savior from the eyes of the new person.

Looking at her mom's actions Ilona hurriedly, tell her who he is, "It's okay mom, he is with us, his name is Arek, he was taking care of the mercenaries, the son of a bitch hired."

Before Florián could say anything, she continued. "Are you finished?" Arek nods his face, "Yes, they were easy enough, but there were definitely more than twenty." He tells Ilona. Looking around and seeing Azuma's body, he asks "Is the boy dead or what."

Ilona realizing they're wasting time, curses, and tells Arek. "No, but he will if we don't hurry, you carry him, we need to get to a hospital yesterday." She orders Arek, not taking a no for an answer, grabs her mom, carries her and sprints, away.

Arek just nods, and hurries toward Azuma, grabs him, and sprints to Ilona.

._._._._._.

No more than an hour had passed since their arrival.

Back in the car, they arrived in, they rush to the hospital, having called the mission leader, when they first got to the car, explaining to him the situation, and telling him to ready an operating table at the hospital.

As they arrive at the ER, a full team of medics, and nurses ready for them, at the entrance. Florián gets out of the car, Ilona tells her, "Mom? What are you doing? You need rest, I can take care of it from here."

Florián only answers her, "No, the boy is my savior, I can rest once he's stable, let's go, fast, we are wasting time." Ignoring whether Ilona had anything to say, she walks forward, talking to the medics at the entrance.

Ilona only sighs and follows.

._._._._._.

Azuma only remembers pain, excruciatingly terrible pain, not really able to think about anything else, he finds himself in a familiar white void. Hearing voices.

"We meet again boy" One voice says.

"Surprised he made it the first time" Another one.

"That's for sure" And another.

"Do you want to stop the pain?" One directly asks Azuma.

Not really understanding what's happening he nods, the feeling of pain so great he would do anything to stop it.

"It's really easy." The same voice says.

Like a small kid, full of hope, Azuma answers "Really?"

"Really, all you need is forget" The voice finishes.

Forget? Forget what? Azuma thinks.

Suddenly, he feels something other than pain, pulling, he starts feeling a pull.

._._._._._.

._._._._._.

I wake up, gasping for air, looking at my surroundings, I find myself in a hospital room, again, after having the same dream.

However, this time, I know for sure about that dream, and what causes it.

I was right it's my state of mind, last time I was scared, unprepared, and fearful for the stabbing, this time unbelievable pain assaulted me, the only relation between the two of them being the great, unexpected emotional turmoil I found myself in.

I cannot say it would be like that for anyone, I just don't know, but what I know, the dream is a test.

Once I arrive at the white void, I seem to forget all my memories of my past life, and any thought regarding them, on this one.

Then come the voices, the first time mocking me, this time offering what I wanted the most. Both times mentioning to forget. As if testing my... conviction.

I now, completely understand what Alexia said about most losing their memories, or simply don't want or caring about them. In the first case, the test happens when you are at your weakest, not really able to think about anything else. Only through sheer will can you get out, on the second case, if you do not care or want, you'll simply 'fail' the test instantly, with no will nor drive to push against it.

Lost in my thoughts I seem to have failed to realize Ilona and Florián are standing in front of my bed, both smiling at me.

Snapping back to reality I watch them, for the first time being able to take a close look at Florián, she resembles Ilona, a lot, well Ilona resembles her.

Florian is taller than Ilona, still small, at least 160cm, same blond hair but longer and in a ponytail, mid-forties if I had to guess, wearing a doctor's robe.

"Well, well sleeping beauty is awake" Ilona starts the conversation. Followed by Florián who elbows her daughter and continues. "It is my pleasure to meet you, Azuma, before anything else, let me thank you for saving my life." Once she finishes, she deeply bows towards me, dragging Ilona's head downward with her.

"But mom, I don't bow," Ilona complains. Before she can continue her mother only says, still in her bow, "If you keep complaining like a child, people will really think you are one, you already have the looks covered."

Ouch!

"Pfttttt, Hahahaha…...*wheezing* good one ma'am." I, only answer, not being able to say much else due to the laughing.

Between laughs I see Florián finishing her bow, and releasing Ilona from her grip, she looks at me and smile, while Ilona looks..., what was the saying? ....

Ah yes, if looks could kill I would be dead, that's her look.

Once again thanking me, this time Ilona even saying she was in my debt, and whenever I should need her, to simply call, Florián made the same promise.

After the promises, bows, and bubbly atmosphere, came the seriousness, Florián leaving the room, excusing herself. Leaving a really serious Ilona, with the look your doctor gives you when you fucked up.

"Alright, doc, tell me how it is." I start the conversation.

She does not look amused. "You are one lucky son of a bitch." She tells me, I just stay silent, letting her continue.

"If you want me to truthful…" I just nod at her. "It lucky you still have your arm, and both your legs." Fuck, I expected things were bad, but not that bad.

I wave my hand at her, signaling to continue. "As I said, you are lucky, Václav's arm missed your joint by a hair's breadth, had it pierced it, instead of fixing your arm, we would have needed to put it back in place."

I sigh, expecting that the worse part has yet to come. "Your legs on the other hand" She stops, looking around and saying. "I don't know if you've realized, but you've been here for a month."

WHAT! What does she mean a month, HOW?

Looking at my surprised face, she inhales, "You had ten, thirty-six-hour surgeries, alternating between me and mom, literally half the time you've been here has been at an operating table."

She exhales and inhales, "Pretty much every single muscle in your legs was torn, without counting the broken ligaments, or the fact that both femurs and tibias were in pieces." She looks at me, not letting me interrupt her. "Whatever that move against Václav was, pretty much cracked your legs, that last move at the end when you rushed at him, broke them."

She looks sadly at me, I'm getting increasingly worried, how on earth do I still have legs, I wonder. I knew the Twin-Dragon Kick would mess me up, but not this bad.

I remembered the move, around half a year ago, and thought about how to replicate it with only the tools available in this world.

I understood what I had to do, lacking the energy or "laws" of that world, I substituted them with physical prowess and Dou ki, just as Renewal, that was the easy part, the issue came on the underlying move and result.

The move at its core in from Renewal, however, in GOH, Renewal already takes a stupidly large toll on the body if not sturdy enough. I did not suffer from this here since I created the style and applied it to the parameters from the world, which is why the style will grow with me.

But the Twin-Dragon Kick, I copied and replicated from, GOH, exactly from GOH, no decrease in parameters, no adaptation to me, simply, copy and replicate as best as possible, so, as I did not have the bullshit level of durability shown in GOH, I ended up here.

The second move, well that's just a stupid idea I had around the same time as the Twin-Dragon Kick. Could I replicate Soru, from the Rokushiki?

The answer was no, for some obvious reason, kicking the ground ten times does not allow you to suddenly move at extremely high speeds, but the conceptual process of its possible recreation in this world did give an idea, what if instead of Soru I copied Luffy, the principle of the gomu-gomu no mi, hoping for a Soru like result.

The answer to that question was a big ass yes.

Using the principle for the Twin-Dragon Kick, instead of compressing and tensing my leg muscles to increase my kick power and speed, I compress and tense them, to try and replicate a spring, a heavily compressed spring, so once I release the tension I can move at stupid speeds.

Realizing I got lost in my thoughts, once again, while parsing my ingenuity. I focus on Ilona, who was giving me a stink eye, I procced to awkwardly laugh and, to my surprise, I find the celling looks extremely interesting, so I look at it.

Not caring about my interesting ceiling, Ilona keeps talking, "As I was saying before I lost you, god, know where dose moves you did…."

At this moment Florián walks back into the room and says, "I can take it from here sweetheart." The trying but failing to control my anger look she gives her mom is priceless. I just heard Florián whisper, not trying for it to be heard, "A child I tell you."

I just laugh at loud, not caring about Ilona, who huffs and leaves angrily, whispering, "I'm not a child" to add insult to injury I heard her, so I shout, "If you act like one and look like one, pretty sure it makes you one."

Now Florián laughs.

For two minutes straight.

Coughing out of her laugh. Having embarrassed her daughter enough, she continues, "As Ilona was saying, those techniques she mentioned, sorry to say, if you want to keep your legs, you will never use them again."

She expected sadness on me or anything for the matter, but I just answer, "Are you sure ma'am?" I did not express anything, because I couldn't believe what I was hearing, after months of trying, for only being able to use them once.

Before she could answer my question, Ilona's face pops through the door, "You are in theory incorrect mom, I know you are not a martial artist, so let me just say, if somebody was able to use those moves without repercussion…. they would need to be...legendary." Sending a wink in my direction.

Ahhhhh, well isn't that good to know.

Not really understanding what Ilona just said, Florián continues, "Whatever that was, the issue is, you cannot use those moves again, my daughter and I are some of the best doctors in the world, and it took us this much to be able to heal your legs."

"Of course, ma'am I answer, I will not use those moves again." She nods with a smile and says, "Good thing you get it. The good news is that in around two to three months you will be able to walk perfectly fine, and in six continue your martial arts."

"I'll let you rest. If you need anything press that button and a nurse will come to the room." She says before leaving.

._._._._._.

I stayed in the hospital for another week.

I talked a lot with Florián, seems we clicked, getting close due to the magic of enjoying messing up with Ilona, much to her horror.

I leave tomorrow and Florián and Ilona have left, not before exchanging numbers and a lot of promises to call them. I was just happy, to be able to leave the hospital.

I losing myself in my thought, but I hear a knock on the door. "Yes," I answer, a nurse walks inside.

"Excuse me, Mr. Azuma?" She asks, I nod my head. "Yes, that me, why?"

"You have a call" She answers, hands me a phone, and starts walking back.

Intrigued I answer the phone. "Hello, who is it?" A pause, then I hear,

"Do.you.have.an.idea.how.angry.I.AM. Thank all the gods you believe in that I did not go looking for you in Germany. You will return, you miss a day, I go for you. You miss a call; I go for you. YOU.WILL. RETURN.TOMORROW." The phone hangs up.

"Mom?"