Bad Dreams Ch.2
By Morlock and RC

Deep in the mountains of Japan:

A young man limped through the snow. The man looked of Japanese descent and wore a sleeveless white dogi. His feet were raw and bleeding from his long trek through the wilderness. His white dogi was covered in many places by blood. His bare arms showed partially healed scars. His face was covered with dry blood and one eye was gummed shut with the drying fluid.

The man dragged a worn bag through the snow behind him. It was also covered with blood. The man grunted then in pain as his leg collapsed under him. He tried to brace himself with his free left hand, but dared not. He slid down the hill he had been stumbling down and came to a stop at the edge of a pond that was still partially frozen by the retreating cold of winter. The man plunged his hand into the cold water and cried out in agony.

The technique had never been executed successfully before. Not by his Master, the Demon, or Goutetsu. He had been the first to use it properly. It was probably the one thing that rivaled the power of the Shun Goku Satsu. It was the ultimate sum of his power and it had nearly killed him as well as the reserected phychopath he had used it on.

He had completely crushed his opponent's skull. But the chi summoned by his technique had been so great that as he hit his opponent his fist exploded and his hand had been broken in several places. The man's vision had been temporarely gone blind, but now it was returning slowly.

He looked at his reflection in the water and saw the bruised mass that his face was.

"At least...I...didn't lose...any...teeth..." he said to himself.

Then he looked back at his reflection and noticed that the familiar red ribbon was gone.

He colapsed onto his back then and smiled slightly, even though it hurt his face tremendously.

It didn't matter.

He was home.