Sub-Zero: Origins

The Quest to Find the Shirai Ryu

"Kuai Liang?" he heard his name, but it sounded like it had been said underwater.

Disoriented, the Cryomancer ran his fingers through the warm grass as he pushed himself onto his knees. He felt drowsy, like he was caught somewhere between reality and a dream. The bright colors blurred together in a surreal mosaic that would not focus no matter how hard he squinted, like he was stuck inside a kaleidoscope. Time had slowed to a standstill. A crisp ocean wind steadily whipped across the rocky land and blew in his face. The sudden chill, a stark contrast to the blazing heat bearing down on him from the sun, finally snapped him out of his confusion.

"Kuai Liang?" he heard again, clearly this time.

"I'm okay, Tomas," he said, sitting and holding his head in his hands. Once, he and Tomas snuck into a tavern in Tingri and spent the night drinking warm Japanese sake. At the time, the sake went down smoothly. But the next morning, neither of them could move, and he spent the day throwing up, much to his father's chagrin. It had been the first and last time they'd gotten drunk, but now, sitting in the middle of the Shikoku highlands, he felt like he was nursing a hangover yet again.

"Well, that was awesome," Tomas groaned, rubbing his own temples painfully.

"If by 'awesome' you mean awful," he replied.

"I feel like I've been run over by a train."

"I was just thinking the same thing."

"Great minds think alike," his friend declared and stood. He held out his arm to help the other to his feet. Kuai Liang clutched his forearm and stood as well.

"Shikoku," he said as he rubbed his aching, shredded shoulder. The bleeding had already stopped. "If you were the Shirai Ryu, where would you hide?"

Tomas looked around at their surroundings. They stood on a grassy plain littered with huge boulders, but the landscape was marred by deep, sylvan ravines. Thickly forested mountains towered behind them. At the seashore nearby, a bustling city thrived. "I'd hide the hell away from us," he replied.

"We should lay low until sundown," he declared. "Wait until we have the cover of darkness. We should also find disguises. We don't exactly blend."

"Aw, but you just look so handsome in blue," his friend teased. Without warning, Kuai Liang punched him squarely in the meatiest part of his shoulder. "Ow!" he yelped. "Some people can't take a joke."

"Some people insisted on parading into enemy territory, so maybe, just maybe, some people should start taking this seriously," he hissed back.

Tomas narrowed his eyes. "Some people think that maybe, just maybe, you've missed your afternoon nap so now you're getting cranky. Can I get you a binky and a bottle? Maybe a soft blanket?" Kuai Liang took an aggressive step towards his friend, and the other stood defensively, anticipating a skirmish, but then held up his hands and caught the oncoming punch already sailing towards his face, stopping him. "Look," he said. The Cryomancer turned around and saw a small, beat up Toyota pick-up truck meandering on a road nearby them, driven by a middle-aged man. Tomas began laughing heartily.

"What's so funny?" Kuai Liang demanded to know.

"The Shirai Ryu."

"What about them?" he hissed.

"When you think of them, don't you imagine some old-world Samurais or something?" he asked. "Like a group of warriors stuck a few hundred years in the past? But here we are, where they live, and they've made a home in the midst of all this modernity. I mean, we live in the remotest part of the Tibetan Himalayas. That is as old-world as you can get. But not them. Look at that city down there, and those ships in the harbor. That bridge over there. And even that guy driving that truck on a paved road. It's funny."