-=The Aftermath=-

*Darkness.*

*It is all around me. It feels as though I am unconcious. The feeling is persistent, unyielding. I feel as though I am no longer in control of my mind.*

*I feel like I am dead.*

*Yet I am not for sure. I might be dead, but I still feel something I recognize: a slight breathing sensation coming from me. I may be alive from it, but it isn’t strong enough for me to be certain.*

*What concerns me more, though, is that I’m not alone in this…darkness. I feel….another. I see him clearly. I see THEM clearly.*

*Two Dark Lords…completely identical in looks. Both beckon me to them. I can’t tell one from the other, aside from those who stand beside them.*

*Beside one Dark Lord stands the five elders of my village….along with Lord Scorpion. Beside the other stand…Ryu Hayabusa II and Yuka.*

*But….Ryu is dead…and…Yuka…*

*Oh no….Yuka? Yuka! YUKA!!!*

Shadow immediately burst awake from a deep slumber, immediately immersed in panic. He looked around him, eyes wide open, sweat forming upon his head. He was in his room, in his own bed, safe and sound. No monsters of any kind, no evil Dark Lord poised to attack him. Everything seemed perfectly normal. No real destruction of any kind.

*Everything looks normal,* Shadow thought with worry. *Yet somehow, I know it really isn’t.*

Fear and worry relentlessly clutched at his heart as Shadow checked himself out for any abnormalities. He found himself dressed in his entire uniform, save for his shirt and light jacket. In their place were plent of bandages wrapped around his torso. As he brought his legs from under his bedsheets, he noticed his pants heavily stained with dried blood. This intensified his worry. He jumped out of bed, finding the bedsheets also covered in dried blood. The sweat was racing down his face as he wondered where it had come from. He then continued checking himself out.

That was when Shadow’s fear took hold of his heart. Looking down his left side, he found a terrible abnormality. His entire left arm was missing, the area where it had once been connected now covered in bandages. His heart began racing. It was all clear to him now. His mind replayed everything that had happened that night. Dark Lord sent the deadly giant shuriken at him. As it came, a girl jumped in its path, blocking him. The shuriken crashed into the girl, and kept going towards him. As it neared him, he closed his eyes, bringing forth a seemingly unending darkness.

Shadow fell to his knees, trembling and shaking, tears welling up in his eyes. He now knew what had happened. He now knew who that girl was.

The door behind Shadow suddenly burst open. Shadow looked behind to find two familiar faces. One of the village elders, Hakkera, came in with Lord Scorpion. Both of them looked somewhat relieved, but it was only temporary as they began delivering the news to Shadow.

“Shadow Viper,” Hakkera began. “It is good to see you have finally awoken. We were waiting outside for that moment to come. After the attack the evil Dark Lord cast upon you, we thought for certain you would never survive.”

Scorpion added, “You’ve been out for the last day! I never imagined you would survive such a terrible injury!” Scorpion winced from his intense speaking, clutching at his chest. Shadow was alarmed by this, fearing his friend had suffered from the battle as well.

Hakkera laid a hand on Scorpion’s shoulder, calming the young ninja. Turning to Shadow, he explained. “Scorpion here suffered harsh blows to his chest at one point, but he is okay. After the attack you suffered, he endured a vicious assault from some of the one-eyed creatures while dragging you and…Yuka….to safety.”

Scorpion began to falter emotionally upon Hakkera’s mention of Yuka’s name. Shadow noticed this, quickly rising to his feet with extreme alarm pounding at his mind. He ran up to Hakkera, fervently asking him, “Where is Yuka? Where is she? Is….Is she okay?!” Tears began streaming down his face as he looked the elder in the eye, waiting desperately for an answer.

Hakkera looked down on the ground a moment, thinking of how to answer the question. Finally, he looked up at Shadow, and simply said, “She is…at the caves….with the other villagers.”

Upon hearing this, Shadow dashed out of his room without hesitation. Scorpion stayed behind, watching his friend leave, emotion still clinging to him.

Shadow exited his school to find a terrible scene. His home village, with the exception of his school, was almost entirely in ruins. Many homes and shops were destroyed, as well as the town hall itself, lying in a pile of its own material, a shadow of its former glory remaining. All around him, bodies of fellow rouges and ninjas were gathered in a spot not far from the village entrance. The lives of almost every village defender had been claimed. Those few who survived, a dozen in all, patrolled the village, keeping an eye out for anything they could find. A feeling of hopelessness ensnared their minds as they went about their village. The evening sky above the village was covered with clouds of gray, with a light rain falling upon the village.

Shadow looked around at everything going on, his heart falling farther into despair every second he took. Eventually the caves snapped him back into attention, sending him into a full run towards them. As he ran, his mind flashed with memories of Yuka, happy memories that saw her together with him, Scorpion, and even Ryu, smiling and having fun. Shadow clung to those memories as best as he could, trying anything to keep a depression from controlling him.

Shadow made it to the caves, but only to find more horror. Every villager in the cave, every man, woman, and child that made up the general population of the village lay dead, all of them strewn about. The caverns themselves held an intoxicating smell of death in the air, and patches of dried blood spotted the ground. Shadow fell to his knees again, beginning to fall into tears, realizing the worst had happened.

Somehow, the monsters had gotten to the villagers. Somehow…

Shadow heard coughing off to his left. He scrambled to his feet and rushed over to find the one thing he didn’t want to see. He found Yuka, sitting on the ground next to a cavern wall. A pool of blood surrounded her, coming from her own body. She was holding a towel against her massive wound, though Shadow could see it wasn’t doing very much good.

Shadow quickly knelt by Yuka’s side, doing what he could to help lessen the bleeding. As he looked at her, he could tell there was little time for her. Her skin had grown pale, and she was visibly shaken. She felt cold to the touch.

Yuka saw Shadow’s right arm held against her. She looked up at him, trying with all her might to speak. “P-please…d-don’t worry ab-bout me…its…its t-too late…”

“No!” Shadow protested, though deep down, he knew she was right. He sat closer to her, trying to give whatever warmth his body could let go of.

Yuka’s shaking worsened; she could feel her time coming. “P-please,” she stammered. “Pr-promise me, Shadow…if y-you are….s-somehow ch-chosen…to g-go to the Maple World…..p-please…do n-not…do n-not die….you are…p-perhaps the only one left….capable of…def-feating the evil that….that has r-ruined our home….p-please…win, Shadow…win…for all…for all of us….”

Yuka trailed off on her final words. Her shaking stopped, her eyes closed, and her body fell limp in Shadow’s arm.

Feelings of sadness and despair mixed with anger, hatred, and raging fury within Shadow as he continued holding Yuka’s body next to him. Tears pured endlessly from his eyes as he spoke, “Yuka…I promise. I swear upon my life to see this through.”

Shadow’s entire body shook as he let out a scream of outrage to the heavens for what was taken from him.

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The latest installment is complete. Let me assure you that this should be the last sad story that you have to read. I am drawing really close to the main story, and by that time plenty of good things should start happening. For now, I hope you enjoy this latest part of my story. *Leaves behind the world’s biggest bottle of Mountain Dew*