Swirly II- Round 2 Done

After a long internal battle with himself, which he eventually lost, Shuuya went back to grab Kitan's discarded schoolbag. Feeling like a vulture and hating himself for it, Shuuya began digging through the bag for anything that could be of any use.
He started by tossing all of the text books, one or two of which still had their plastic wrapping, out onto the sand.
The kid hadn't even read-- Shu forcibly derailed his train of thought right there; thinking like that now would probably cause his hindbrain to tap directly his legs, making him to walk out into the ocean.
Shuuya ended up with a pile of discarded school stuff next to him and, slung over his shoulder, a satchel containing the following: A pocket knife; a few sticks of gum; a pair of scissors; a half-filled paper lunch bag; a small first aid kit.
He got to work by cleaning the cut on his face with a small blob from a tube of antiseptic from the kit, before inexpertly placing a band-aid over the wound.
After regarding the scattered objects next to the small mound of freshly-turned sand, Shuuya forced himself to turn and head to the gate.

The sun was setting by the time he entered the very thick walls of the dead funfair. The red-orange rays of the dying sun caused the rides to loom like ancient monsters.
As lights clapped on either side of the concrete path on which he now stood, Shuuya saw, heading for the tower, the silhouette of the two hosts that'd announced the start of the Round. Shu frowned; that white-haired one being carried by the tall host in a blue coat, looked oddly familiar…
Again, the unusual sensation of 'feeling' the sheer island-shaping power of the hosts' auras caused Shuuya to stumble back a step; that's where he'd felt this sensation before! That white-haired one had been in the first Swirly tournament, hadn't he?!
Putting two and two together, Shuuya assumed that guy with the pointed ears had won the last tourney and, for his sins, had been given the island to watch over.
Shu smirked and adjusted the hang of the bag. And now he's a host, eh?
Shuuya had never been much of a religious person; the only experience he'd had with a bible was about two years previously, when he was holed up in a hotel and had nothing else to do but read but a tattered old bible that some guy named Gideon left behind.
However, one verse had stuck with him, and presented itself for inspection at this time:

"What shall it profit a man if he should gain the whole world and loose his own soul"
-Mark 8:36

Would that happen to me?Shu wondered; Trapped here to shape the island into my own personal purgatory… Wonder how long it'd take to drive a person totally insane; the loneliness, the--

Suddenly, it was too loud to think; the clanking of chains, gears and other mechanical innards echoed out around Shuuya, and got faster and louder as the gargantuan beasts around him shook off the cobwebs and creaked into life. Strobes and bulbs of light flickered and then exploded into luminescent existence as the rides started up.
Behind Shuuya, the gate shut with a clang that echoed around his head like the crack of doom. The fairground was officially open, and he'd already paid his admittance fee. He secretly wondered how much it'd cost him to try and leave now.

"Excuse me? Mister?"
Shuuya cast around for the source of the voice in the gloom found it to be a young, smiling face behind a cardboard box. Shuuya managed to make his eyes to focus on details other than her penetratingly bright gaze; his head, as if on a winch, was dragged down to the thing beside her that could be called a dog, but only by default. The thing was vaguely canine, but looked like someone had spliced a Doberman and a T-1000 and added some extra zombie in for good measure.
It turned a bright red eye to him and tilted its head to one side in the most unnervingly knowing glance he'd ever seen on something animal-shaped.
"Are you a contestant?" the girl asked, putting the box on a nearby bench and rummaging inside it.
"Uh, yeah," Shu murmured, scratching the side of his head. Feeling this was somehow insufficient, he added, "and you're not?"
"Humming whilst she worked, the girl shook her head, sending her cerulean hair dancing. "My name's Lae;" she said, turning to smile at him. "I'm just here to make sure you're okay for the next round. So, do you need any food? Are you hurt?"
Shu considered this for a moment or two before asking, "Got anything to eat?"

It was about ten minutes later, and Shuuya was sitting on a bench somewhere in the park, chewing on a stick of the salvaged bubblegum, and simply watching the rides creak and clank around him.
Even though the day had almost been chokingly hot, Shuuya found himself wiping his forehead every other minute; the heat radiated off the pavement beneath him, hanging listlessly in the dead night air.
He leaned back and blew a bubble as he stared up at the moon.
Suddenly, a figure appeared in his line of sight, growing larger and larger, before landing on the bench next to him, which shattered under the jarring impact.
Shu, every neuron on his brain screaming in terror, found himself bouncing off the bench before landing in the exact same position, arms resting on the back of the bench.

Regardless of the mind-numbing terror now wrapping its tail around his senses, Shu decided that getting up and screaming would be too much of a waste of energy; instead, he bit down to pop his bubble, winched in the gum and chewed on it for a bit, using the rhythmical mastication to regulate his breathing.
Finally, he asked, "You alive?" before blowing another bubble, which popped almost instantly.
There was a couple of moment of absolute stillness from the pile wreckage beside him for before a rustling of wood and metal suggested that the person was digging themselves out of their crater. One great shrug, and gasp suggested that a head had excavated itself.
"Y-yeah…" muttered a young, female voice, to the accompaniment of rattles and clinks as remnants of the bench were shaken loose. "Just a bit shook up."
"You want some gum?" Shu asked, retrieving the pack from his pouch whilst still staring up at the moon.
An awkward pause, and then, "What flavour?"
"Strawberry, I think."
Another pause, and Shu felt a strip being removed from the pack.
Shu shimmied up to make space on the ruined bench and sensed the girl sit beside him, but not too close.

A scream echoed out from the other side of the park, barely drowned out by the whoosh and grinding of the rides, filled the awkward silence.

"So, where'd you drop in from?" Shu asked, after a space of time in which the sounds of smacking and popping gum mingled with the not-quite-peaceful atmosphere of the park.
"Ferris Wheel," the girl said, simply.
Shu tilted his head over the back of the bench and tried to see the ride in question. The circle of lights flickered in the near-distance.
Quite the jump</I>, Shu observed, finally deciding to look at his new sitting companion. And only a few bruises?</I>
He smiled down at her, as politely as he could manage, "What's yer name, kid?"

Brown eyes turned to him as an expanding pink bubble obscured the girl's features. The bubble deflated safely and she cheeked the gum long enough to say, "Anna Rivers."
Shu continued to smile politely at her. "Well, Miss Anna Rivers; my name's Shuuya Muto. And I can safely say, without fear of contradiction, that it's a pleasure to meet someone on this island who isn't actively seeking to kill me," he said, with absolute sincerity.
"Same here," the girl agreed, smiling. She seemed to remember something and then looked down. "Y-you… had to kill someone… didn't you?" she asked, hoarsely.
Shu nodded and admitted, "To be fair, my first choice of action, would have been a coin-toss or something, but--"
"My opponent didn't see things that way either." Anna agreed.

Another scream.
"I reckon they've started round 2 already," Shu observed.
"I guess so…" Anna's voice had taken on a rather hollow quality, as her mind raced to the possible conclusion that they were probably the only pair not duking it out yet.

"Excuse me…?"
Shu and Anna both looked up to see Lae, with her vaguely-canine companion, approaching them from the direction of the tower.
"Have you two finished your fight?" she asked, politely.
"Fight?" Anna echoed, leaning forwards and resting her elbows on her knees.
"This… is a tournament Miss Anna," Lae explained, demurely.
Anna moved to stand up, but Shu raised a hand and, still looking past Lae, said blankly, "We're not going to fight; I have a better idea. Have you got a marker pen?"


A while later, Anna tried leaning onto her tiptoes to glance over Shuuya's shoulder as he scribbled industriously on a map of the island. Apparently noticing the strained 'nnngh!' of effort behind him, Shu arched his shoulders over the paper.
The girl frowned at the Shuuya barrier and then began to look around for something. Seeming to find it, Anna wandered off shot and came back dragging a crate. She pulled it up behind Shu and leaned on it, leaning onto his shoulders. Shu didn't even look around to cover her eye with a hand. She frowned, batted the hand away, and began to clamber on Shu, like a kitten trying to ascend an oak. Shu sighed, backed away from the freestanding map, with Anna sitting on his shoulders and craning to see the map.
Shuuya took great care and ceremony in taking her off of his shoulders and plopping her onto the bench on the other side of the path. He silently shook an admonitory finger at her, smiled, tugged her hat down over her eyes and walked over to the map again.
Almost instantly as Shu picked up the pen again, Shu felt a weight land on his back. Shu hesitated, pen hovering over the map, sighed and planted his forehead against the map; He hated kids.
"What," he demanded, through gritted teeth.
"What're you drawing?!" Anna demanded, shoving Shuuya's head aside to get a good look at the map.
"This," Shu said, his head still at ninety-degrees to his neck and adding the finishing touches to his creation, "is the route we'll be taking."

It was an interesting route; the red marker snaked its way from the entrance where a red arrow ensured the uncertain reader that You Are Here!!!, to the far end of the park. The race actually started back at the Swirly Wheel, through the Dodgems 'O' Doom, around the basin near the Flying Swings, and ending at the Snack Hut, which Shuuya had gathered was the HQ for Lae and the Hosts' other little helpers.

"Is that it?" Anna asked, hopping down from Shuuya's back.
Shu's brows knitted in bewilderment and he turned to her. "It? Well, our route takes up three-quarters of the island; it'll be quite a long trip."
Anna glanced from him to the map, back again and gave a shrug. The shrug to practically voice the thought 'it's your funeral', but she simply asked, "Well, when do you want to get started?"
Shuuya shrugged. "You get yourself prepared, and meet me at the Wheel in five."
Anna nodded and, with nothing else to add, Shuuya shrugged and headed off towards the looming bulk of the Swirly Wheel, waving over his shoulder.
Anna stared after the tall boy as he stalked off, hands in his pockets. There wouldn't be any issue with this round, after all; that idiot hadn't even noticed that she'd cleared distance between the bench and the map without touching the ground. If so, he probably didn't know about how tall she could really be... She had resented the ruffle, but resisted the urge to kick Shuuya's knees out of the back of his legs.
She was toying with the idea of not showing her full height, not after round one, but it would be best if she finished this round quickly and without ceremony.

Shuuya stared up at the Swirly Wheel as he walked towards the monstrous structure. Okay</I>, Shuuya mused. Let's say that the wall surrounding this place is a couple of stories tall. Four, maybe? Okay; three for the sake of argument.</I>
Shu absentmindedly reached out to a milk-bottle stand, picking up three baseballs and beginning to toss one up into the air as he thought. Standard regulation stories in most buildings are about ten feet tall. So, the wall's about thirty feet tall.</I>
Shuuya began to toss the second ball into the air, juggling the two with one hand. It was a trick his father had taught him, but Shuuya could never really do it unless his mind was on something else.
Now we take the rough size of the wall (thirty feet) and mentally 'fill up' the space between the ground and the top of the Wheel with wall-sized increments… Four 'walls' equals half of that ride, so...</I>
A second hand and third ball were added as Shu mentally drew a circle around the final total and nodded to himself. Two-hundred and Forty feet. In other words, too tall for a normal person to walk away from. If Shuuya had tried that, he'd be oozing away with all limbs not just broken, but shattered into a fine powder.
Maybe it'd been a mistake to challenge the girl to a race after all… Shu shrugged. "Oh, well; too late to call it off now." he muttered.
As if in passing, Shu looked down at his hands, blinked as they realised they were being watched, and dropped all three baseballs around his feet.

Shuuya reached down to pick up the balls and put them back on the stall, but halted, his hand lightly closed around one of the projectiles. Deep in the back of his mind, Shuuya felt the gentle warm glow one gets when the beginnings of an inkling of a suggestion of a hint of plan begins to form. Shuuya knew that, if he wasn't careful about how he approached the small seed of a plot, it would vanish without a trace. The only way to bring the idea to fruition is to sidle up on it, only glancing at it out the corner of his eyes, until it was strong enough to face the world on its own.
Slowly, and carefully, Shuuya picked up the remaining balls, placed them in his bag, and went hunting for supplies.

Shuuya adjusted the hang of his bag and checked the rope around his waist as Anna approached.
"You all set?" she asked, looking him up and down. "We're going on a race, not an expedition," she added, gesturing to the rope.
"I know what I'm doing, Anna," Shu assured her, bending to retie his shoelace, rather unsteadily.
She shrugged and moved to stand beside him, moving into a similar stance; she looked like a runner at the starting block. She looked over and winked, before saying, "C'mon, slowpoke; let's get a move on!"
Shu sighed. "Such impatience," he muttered, straightening up and cracking his knuckles. He dropped his vest from his shoulders and kicked it under a nearby bench for safe keeping. He tightened the knot around the bats now tied to his lower back by the rope belt.
"Ready?" he asked, straightening his arms above his head.
"Set." Anna replied, straightening up and leaning in preparation.
"Wait for it..." Shu muttered, leaning onto his left leg. "Wait for it..."
They glanced at one another and, without needing the word 'Go!', both started running at the same time.

The race itself was entirely different from what Shuuya had expected. There was no banter flying back and forth, no shouting, no punches thrown; there was just this intense, all-consuming determination to pour all their energy into trying to out-jog than the other guy, or girl in Shuuya's case.
They were pacing themselves, of course; they had quite a long way to go. No sense in burning themselves out before the halfway mark. As they rounded the corner amongst the huts and game stands, the sounds of metal-on-metal and the high-pitched whining and sparking of electricity began to make themselves heard.
The pair rounded another corner and saw the squat pagoda-shaped building draped in such gaudy blinding luminescence that Shuuya thought they'd taken a wrong turn and stumbled onto the Las Vagas Strip. Then, as the bizarre, irregular sound of plastic suicidal-rushing against plastic rang out around the alleyway of stalls, Shu realised that the first obstacle was ahead.

"We go through, remember," Shuuya told her. "Not around, or over, but through!"
Anna was quiet on this subject, but both she and Shuuya sped up in order to clear the fence surrounding the attraction. After a moment or two, Shuuya and Anna regretted this, being floored by a dodgem to the back of the legs. The two of them slid and stumbled to their feet to avoid getting between the driverless vehicles and their seemingly inevitable crash.
Shu managed to vault over one car, landing him in the path of another, whilst Anna was constantly side-stepping and spinning to avoid getting her knees crushed between two sets plastic bumpers.
Finally, after almost getting her feet run over for the third time, Anna obviously snapped; She leapt onto the nearest car, looked around to get her bearings and, with barely a moment of thought, began to jump from car to car.
Shuuya, however, was too busy struggling with his rope belt.
Knocked back onto his ass for the last time, Shuuya screamed, "FUCK IT!" He untied his bats and turned them into their sword forms as he rolled back out of the way of three careening cars, which met with a heavy crash and trundled away from each other for a foot or two, before backing up and--
SCHWI--THUDTHUNK!
Shuuya cleared one of the stricken vehicles in a running bound, bringing Crime and Punishment around for another set of half-hearted swings at the passing cars.
Sparks erupted from the cars as the blades gouged ragged lines in the hardy plastic and caught on the inner workings of the ride.
From then on, the cars seemed to flee Shuuya, the striding, vengeful madman, as he culled their kin like so many fish in a barrel.

Reaching the end of the floor and slashing down the fence, Shuuya took a moment or two to breathe slowly and, retying his bats as he jogged, left the sparking and melting remains of the dodgems behind him.
He walked a couple of steps and gripped at his head with a wince. He must have taken a knock or two from a passing dodgem; his brain felt like warm cotton wool. He shook his head and tried to focus on the job at hand.
Anna was not too far away, but she was opening the gap between them rather rapidly. Shuuya began to jog gently and then, feeling he could trust his legs could carry him in a straight line, began to run after her.
Anna looked over her shoulder, saw Shuuya gaining, and seemed to come to a decision; she hopped, skipped, brought both legs up into the air. When both feet hit the ground, Shuuya could have sworn he saw the ground concave slightly as sneakers hit concrete. In the mean time, the girl's legs straightening, Shuuya saw dust rise up around her ankles as she leapt into the air. And kept going.
It shouldn't have been humanly possible, and Shuuya was expecting something like it, but the fact that the girl jumped her own height still came as a shock. Even as he shook his head and began to sprint after her. As she hit the ground and bounced again, Shuuya reached into his bag and grabbed a baseball.

"HEY!" Shu shouted, yanking on the rope that kept his bats knotted to his back. He skidded to a halt, grabbed a bat as it slipped from the makeshift sling and tossed the ball into the air.
Anna turned in mid-air to watch as Shuuya drew back the bat in both hands and brought it round to smack into the small projectile. The ball screamed through the air towards its target as Shu shouted after it, "GO LONG!"
The ball was already screaming towards her before Anna could raise her arms; the missile caught the girl squarely between the eyes, knocking her backwards in midair.
The girl hit the dirt next to the pavement with such force that she apparently bounced. Before she hit the ground again, Shuuya was already passing her, both bats in hand, the rope still trailing from one of them.

Anna rose slowly, deliberately to her feet. She snarled angrily and leapt. And leapt. And leapt!

Shu glanced over his shoulder to see Anna landing hard enough to leave a small crack in the concrete. She bounded over head, causing Shuuya to jink sideways as she careened back to earth and took off.
A loud cry of "SHIT!" from down bellow told Anna that she'd missed. Pitty.
Shu scrambled to his feet and leapt sideways, employing a serpentine run. Keeping his head down and occasionally leaping backwards to avoid the near-orbital strikes from the young woman.
"STAND STILL!" she demanded.
Before he knew it, Shuuya was sliding under the swinging pod of the ride he'd forever know as 'The Flying Pirate Ship' no matter what shape it was. "It's still a race, y'know!"

There was a solid 'Thump' and then a lack of response from on high caused Shuuya to look around and then up. Apparently, in the time it took Anna to leap up and attempt to stomp Shuuya, the heavy pod had swung out of nowhere.
Shuuya mused, as Anna's complaints described a rising arch in the air, that although being able to jump so high was a really handy trait in a fight, it only had one problem; the higher you jump, the longer you spend in the air, moving in that one direction.
"Looks like Anna's blasting off again…" he muttered, leaning back onto the handrail of the ride.
Anna managed to gain enough control of her trajectory in order to roll upon landing on the rollercoaster tracks. At almost the same time, both Shuuya and Anna realised that Anna was on an unblocked straight line for the finish line.
Shuuya looked around and then up as Anna proceeded to run from beam to beam. Leapt over the barrier behind him and turned to the control panel for the ride. After a while of screwing around with dials and leavers, Shuuya found what he was looking for and grinned to himself.

Anna looked over her shoulder and smirked as the lights of the ride dwindled behind her.
"So long, sucker," she muttered.
She was about to turn her full attention to running when she heard--

The best way to describe Shuuya's journey through the air is by transcribing the noises heard at each individual stage;
"Let's rock!!"
This is where Shuuya, gripping the handle of the Pod's emergency exit roof hatch, wasn't fully aware what he was getting himself into.
vvvvvwooo-Woo-WOO-WOOOOO--
That was the noise of the ride's Motor winding up over time to get the centrifugal waltz.
"YEEEEEEAAAA-"
This is at the start of the launch, where Shuuya released his grip on the rise.
"--AAAAAW-- Uhoh…"
This is where he reached the top of the arch, realised that it's all downhill from here, and he hadn't actually fully thought this out...
"--Oh crap, Oh, God! OH JESUS! AWH CHRIIIIIIIST!"
And that, Anna realised looking up, was where he started to fall back to earth, before acting on automatic and throwing his rope, with a bat tied to it, at the ride.
"WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING OOOOON!!?"
Is when he Tarzan-swung around and around before landing, rather awkwardly, on the tracks.

There was a long moment of stunned silence from both parties, before Shuuya turned to Anna, threw his arms up in the air and shouted, "HAH! Stick the landing!'
He then collapsed to his hands and knees and proceeded to throw up.

Anna took a hesitant step backwards; this guy had managed to survive a fall like that, by sheer luck?
She tripped over her own feet and fell back in a heart-stopping moment, before the boards caught the back of her knees. Anna enjoyed the rest; her legs were tired, and she had a bit of time before Shuuya could probably stand up straight enough to run.
"You alright over there?" she managed, inexplicably grinning to herself.

Shuuya spat to forcibly remove the taste from his mouth and then stared down through the slots of wood. In the easy-going way of the mildly concussed, he muttered, "Urgh... Yeah, but… when the hell did I eat carrot?!?"
Shu staggered to his feet, swaying slightly, and turned, trying not to fall, and moved to untie his rope from the tracks.
Behind him, Anna stood and began to walk towards him. A board creaked underfoot and snapped. One leg went straight through, the other slung over the rail of the track.
"Owww…!"
Shu turned his head to look at her over his shoulder. "Need a hand?"
Anna considered her situation and shook her head. "N-no… I'm good!"
Shu shrugged, slipped the rope around his waist and tied the bats to it. "Fair enough; See you at the finish," he muttered, slinking off, stepping carefully from board to board.

There was a rattle. Anna turned her head frantically. What the hell--? Then she realised; She was on a rollercoaster track, which was rumbling and shaking. The clanking of chains as the train was hauled up to the top of the hill just around the corner.
She looked back to Shuuya and screamed to get his attention, but he kept walking, seemingly lost in a world of his own.

The rumbling of the tracks became unbearable; each passing second pulled the promise of certain death closer and closer, and there was nothing she could do! Her throat was dry from screaming and felt like she'd been on a diet of steel wool one for a year.
Anna brought her arms tight around her head and curled up as best she could into a ball.
This was it- Oblivion approaching with each passing moment. It was enough to make you wish for an instantaneous--!

The thumping of footsteps on metal echoed in Anna's tiny world, which by now was a tight acid-green ball of terror travelling from her throat to the pit of her stomach. Someone was running towards her.
And then, they were leaping overhead.
"KEEP YOUR HEAD DOWN!"
Anna didn't need a second telling.

Shuuya cleared the girl without much effort as the rope fell away from the freshly-transformed blades in coils of severed thread. As he landed, he brought the blades around to bare and anchored himself my bracing one foot against a board behind him.
"Big goddamn hero time…" he muttered, and screwed his eyes shut.
And then the train hit.

Anna, heard it; it sounded like high-powered dam turbine encountering an iron bar in the mechanism. It was the noise of tortured metal; one long, high pitched screech.
Silence. And then a series of crashes and splashes from far bellow as the cars hit the ground.
More silence, and then Shuuya's voice, somewhat shaken, but nonetheless cool and collected, saying, "I'm sure that'll buff out; should have this ride working again soon enough."
She felt a hand on her shoulder, felt the pressure around her trapped leg being released as Shuuya cut her free.

Shuuya placed the bats on the board behind him and lifted Anna up by slipping his hands under her unresisting arms and hauling her out.
She refused to uncurl from her ball. Shu shook her a bit and then sat her down on the boards in front of him.
"You okay?" he asked, after a while.
Anna loosened up, slowly and by degrees, until she was sitting on the board, staring at her dangling feet. She eventually nodded, just once.
"You sure?"
Nod.
"Certain?"
Nod.

Shuuya had suddenly reached out, grabbed the girl by the top of her head and pulled himself so close that he almost head butted her, and screamed, "BULLSHIT!"
The girl stared up at him, saucer-eyed as he glared at her.
"You came within feet of becoming a thin smear of plasma spread across a wide area of the park," he growled. "I wouldn't be okay. You're not okay; Don't deny it."
Anna stared up at him with watery-rimmed eyes and then, burst into tears, throwing herself at him and flinging her arms around his neck.
Shu knelt beside the girl and patted her shoulder.

"Why did you not turn around?" Anna asked.
The girl was now being carried on Shuuya's back whilst holding his bats for him; a splinter of wood had been driven through her leg, and Shuuya wasn't prepared to try field surgery by moonlight.
"Mmh?"
"I was screaming," Anna said, persistently, "when the train was coming. You didn't even turn around."
"I… was thinking."
"About leaving me to die, you mean?" she asked, tartly.
"I saved your ass, didn't I?" Shu snapped, irritably, whilst looking down at the service ladder built into one of the Track supports.
"What were you thinking about, then?" she demanded.

Shuuya trudged onwards whilst, behind him, Anna screamed his name in blood-chilling terror.
That train's going to squash her flat, Yui observed, in the tones of one discussing the weather. She was floating backwards beside him, arms folded over her stomach. She was slightly transparent, and apparently unscathed, as if her killing blow had never taken place.
"Go away," Shu muttered, groggily. "You're just a figment of my imagination…"
She looked over at him and smirked, happy in his discomfort. If that's true, she reasoned, then why do you need me to tell you what you already know?
"She tried to kill me," Shu muttered, keeping his eyes fixed on the dark horizon.
You know as well as I do that you're going to turn right the fuck around and go save her, regardless of that. She smiled and rolled onto her front. I know how stupid you can be, she added, by way of explanation.
"You don't have to be so truthful about it…" It was the grumble of the defeated.  "When I'm done, we're gonna have a long talk," he added, turning to run, grabbing his bats.
Yui's smile hollowed a bit as she said, Sure, cowboy. Now go be the big goddamn hero. It's what you do best.

"Oh," Shu muttered, quietly, "Nothing much…"