Chapter Text
Yang Cheng tried to stay awake
After the fight against the Old E-Soul, Yang Cheng lost his right arm. Along with taking repeated hits from E-soul's lighting, he was bleeding a lot and also losing consciousness. But he couldn't just faint and go unconscious, especially not in front of the cameras he'll be seen weak and pathetic. But he was losing blood alarmingly fast along with his vision becoming distorted, all he saw were multiple colours and spots mirrored and reversed...Was it? He couldn't tell anymore, his sight was becoming a blur, he was gonna faint if he didn't get medical help immediately. Yang Cheng looked around before directly at the camera, his armor...No Shang Chao's armor and mask was falling apart with cracks and rips as it's original design became stained from the blood of the Original E-soul. He then looked down to where the Original E-soul's body laid at, he slowly made his way towards it trying to not trip. He stopped right in front of the hero who was nearing it's end, Yang Cheng knelt down and took a good look at the man he once admired and wished to meet. He always wanted to meet E-soul again after how he was saved years ago when he was a child, he got his wish yet in a different way then what he would've imagined.
"How does it feel? To lose and have everything taken..."
He wouldn't show an ounce of pity for the man who hired Shang Chao's killer, the "hero" brought this to himself.
The Hero didn't respond.
"well?"
The Original E-soul forced himself up with visible wounds and injuries, he sat down against the pile of debris and rocks. The mask he usually wore was shattered and half of his face was showing, the mask that was never shown was now shattered and Yang Cheng partially saw what he looked like.
"Fine, don't talk all you want then. Sooner or later you'll be forgotten"
Yang Cheng got up and started to walk away before he heard the Original E-soul talk.
"I never hired those killers"
"Bullshit"
"Believe what you wanna believe.."
"...Was it worth it? All this just for you to die?"
"I don't know ask yourself, was it worth it for a title?"
"A title..? This was justice for what you did..."
Yang Cheng stared at the dying hero, the hero said nothing and just tilted to head to look at Yang Cheng.
"I'll be honest...I expected my time to come eventually, I fallen down from my prime long ago. People already stopped bothering with me, the only reason I managed to stay a hero for so long was because of my fight against Zero"
"And you embraced fate, pathetic..."
E-Soul didn't say anything but his mask was cracked and fully off, Yang Cheng could see the Hero's face clearly now. Yang Cheng just had a frown hidden by his half cracked mask, but the original E-soul had a small smile.
"You think this is justice, I been around long enough to know. You're falling down a rabbit hole of evil in belief that it's justice, but the deeper you fall the harder the truth hits"
Yang Cheng didn't want to hear what E-soul has to say, it was pointless. Yet he found himself standing there listening, almost like he subconsciously knew.
"36 years of this, you'll see the true colours of the world. Yet I still protect it..."
"Why then, because all I'm hearing is bullshit"
...
"Because no matter how cruel the world is, there's a portion of good. The ones who smile and aim for their dreams, the ones who innocence remains, the ones who have hope...I realized my purpose, it isn't to be a hero because I want to be a better person, but a hero so people would have a light in the dark...A symbol of hope...I believe that...with Hope...they won't give up, they'll believe and learn to love...Because no matter how imperfect humanity is, it's also what makes us perfect..."
Yang Cheng stood there, not wanting to admit it hit deeper then intended.
"No matter how corrupt the world is, seeing people live in peace is enough to make me continue"
Yang Cheng stared, he saw E-soul's eyelids slowly falling indicating his time was ending.
"The least you could do is give me a proper bury..."
Yang Cheng didn't intend on it, but why was he hesitating to decline it.
"I'm happy how I spent my time here...I don't regret it...I'll still choose to be E-soul in any other lifetime..."
With that E-soul closed his eyes his whole body going limp, why did it hurt? Yang Cheng got what he wanted yet...This all felt like false justice, it felt like he just killed himself...Afterall what was his purpose now..? He didn't get time to recover sand think until he felt a huge headache from the blood lost and injuries, he soon saw people arrive on the scene. Firefighters clearing out the rubble with an ambulance siren arriving, he tried to walk over there and reach out but he couldn't. He was too tired, he fell onto the ground lying beside the now dead corpse of the Original E-soul. He stared into the distance realizing this may be the end, he lost so much blood already...But just but...could it have been different..? If his parents never died would it have been different..? What if the Old E-soul took him in, would he have not caused the whole fight and become E-soul's successor in a more peaceful way? What if he didn't hesitate...Shang Chao would be alive and they'd all be happy...Yang Cheng started to lose consciousness and he saw someone approaching, that someone was a ghost...Shang Chao...Yang Cheng reached out for Shang Chao, Shang Chao covered the man's face.
"Rest well Yang Cheng...live without regret, without worrying about me...Become a hero...And I'll be waiting...I'll wait till the day we meet again"
With that Yang Cheng lost consciousness and closed his eyes laying there unconscious, Shang Chao's ghost just stayed there with Yang Cheng resting on him as if saying "I miss you"...Did Shang Chao really hold no resentment to Yang Cheng despite causing his death..?
Yang Cheng woke up to the sound of monitors beeping and birds chirping with leaves rustling against the wind soon realizing he's in a hospital and his face was covered with bandages, Yang Cheng was confused wasn't he bleeding out to death? He survived then...But where is he, he lifted his hand up but he couldn't feel his right hand, only his left hand, he remembered suddenly. He won the fight against "E-soul" and lost his right arm, no wonder he was in the hospital, blood lost obviously...As he laid there he wondered, what were Xia Qing and Pomelo thinking? Were they happy he lived? Were they mad he killed the Old E-soul? Did they hate him? He wanted answers badly...Yang Cheng attempted to sit up until he felt someone put him down down onto the bed and looked in the direction like he could see but he couldn't obviously from the bandages, he then heard a robotic voice talk.
"You're injured still"
Yang Cheng stared attempting to guess who it was, and why did they use a robots voice to talk...he recognized the voice though, it was one of the voices from the Fomo app.
"W..who..Are you..?"
He was confused for a moment...Why couldn't even talk without feeling a burn in his throat, he was fine moments ago when talking with the old E-soul why now was his voice giving out on him.
"Ghostblade"
Yang Cheng was confused, why was Ghostblade here? Hell didn't he kill Ghostblade's colleague-
"Why....are you...here"
His vocal cords felt like it was being ripped.
"Boss sent me to look after you"
A boss..? Why would they bother with him? He killed the old E-soul for crying out loud.
"Boss..?"
"Yan Mo"
Who?
"I..don't know who that..is"
He coughed badly, was this the extent of the damage from the fight?
"He said he knew you"
Really..?
"Don't worry Ghostblade, I'll take it from here."
Wait a moment that voice...
"..Uncl..le...Rock..?"
He shifted his head to where the voice came from.
"Ah yang Cheng you woke up, how are you feeling?"
"...The bleeding stopped"
"That didn't answer my question Yang Cheng"
"...I don't know...I feel numb"
"I see then, very well I'll take my leave then"
Already? Why was he leaving so soon? Didn't Uncle Rock just come in? Why leaving so soon, maybe he had to go back to the shop to work. But was that more important then his own well being? He didn't know anymore...
"Ghostblade here will watch over you to make sure nothing happens"
At least someone was here to watch over him...
Yang Cheng heard footsteps leaving before he shifted his head to the other side where Ghostblade was at.
"Do...you mind...help..ping...me..s- coughs -sit.."
His throat felt like it was being burnt with acid, every word hurts his vocal cords. He felt Ghostblade helping his sit properly on the hospital bed, his whole body pained. just how bad was the after effect of the fight? I mean he did faint and all but was that really the biggest cause here? He was fine for a while, but guess not.
"...What day is it..?"
He couldn't even speak a small sentence without coughing, just how pathetic was he...
"January 29th 37AD"
...Sorry...37AD!? He was unconscious for about 3 months...
"What..happened in those...t...three months..."
...
"People are arguing over if your fight was rigged or how unfair it was or just how it was wrong"
"I see..."
"That's why I'm even here, so no assassinations happen"
Wow did people hate him that much...I mean he did kill the Old E-soul so to be fair yeah it is reasonable...
"...Can you get me a glass of water.."
The pain in his throat is still there as painful as ever but at least he's getting used to it. After a while he heard the sound of glass being put onto the table, he reached for it but he couldn't see and ended up tripping the glass. He heard Ghostblade get up and immediately thought he was mad.
"Sorry I-"
"It's fine I'll get another"
With that Yang Cheng heard Ghostblade leave, he just stared. Fuck he gotten so used at being lashed out for whenever he did a mistake he'd immediately apologize, he did this even when he was doing his job back as an entertainer...Wait why was he thinking of the past- No Yang Cheng forget the past...yet why can't he forget...Back when he was dropped off at an orphanage after his parent's death, the caretakers didn't treat him well, they'd yell at him whenever he made a mistake or did something wrong, how weird he was still thinking of it years later...Ghostblade soon returned with a glass of water held grabbed E-soul's left hand to hold the cup
"..thanks"
He drank the water, it helped a bit but his throat still hurts. Ghostblade meanwhile sat back down next to him, Yang Cheng could hear him writing on something. He didn't bother with him then, he just wanted to get well better and leave as soon as possible...
After about 2 weeks the doctors were there to remove the bandages from his face, he had gotten them changed a lot to make sure his face wasn't bleeding anymore. Apparently he had a scar on his right side of the eye due to the old E-soul's Lightning Slash, it was bleeding badly when they found him. When they finally removed the bandages Yang Cheng opened his eyes and he couldn't see anything...Everything was blurry and in mirrored layer viewed in many shapes with flickering spots and changing rainbow colours, it hurts his head badly. It ended up with Yang Cheng having a mental breakdown, he was repeatedly saying this wasn't real and breathing hard, it wasn't real after all right? How could he not see anything!? How can he be a hero in a pathetic situation like this!? When he saw his reflection in the mirror he didn't even recognize himself anymore, was this really him? His hair had grown out a bit and the scar covered his right eye going down to his mouth and his left eye was a bit grayer along with his right eye being a mess of colours. His head also hurt badly as the vision hurts him, this wasn't him...It wasn't him It just wasn't! The doctors ended up keeping the bandages on his face, Ghostblade was still there with him and wanted to ask something but yang Cheng didn't look like he was in the mood to talk.
"Yang Cheng?"
...
"What is it.."
"Are you alright?"
"Yes i am i totally didn't yell like a madman for the past 30 minutes over this"
"...How's the vision?'
"Terrible.."
Ghostblade wanted to ask more but he held himself back from asking more
"...Can you leave me alone for a few moments.."
"Alright"
Ghostblade didn't really mind leaving but he could tell something was off.
After Ghostblade left, it soon became midnight, Yang Cheng was sitting on the hospital bed almost lifeless until he got up to the window and removed the bandages and stared at his reflection, this was what he looked like? No..No..This wasn't him, it was someone else...It wasn't him...
"Yang Cheng! You're awake!"
Yang Cheng turned around, he saw Shang Chao there staring back and waving
"...You're not real.."
"But I am.."
"no you're not"
Yang Cheng looked away and back into the window, his vision combined with the ghost/hallucinations? was ruining him enough.
"But Yang Cheng...we're actually here"
wait..We're?
Yang Cheng turned around to see beside Shang Chao was the Old e-soul, all bloody and covered in the injuries from that day
"...Get out of my head"
"Yang Cheng we're real"
No you're not..
"Yang Cheng"
Get out of my head
"We're waiting"
"GET OUT!"
In a fit of anger he let out a huge shockwave of electricity flickering the lights and breaking the windows near him, he turned around to see Shang Chao and E-soul gone instead Xia Qing and Pomelo were there...
"Xia Qing-! I"
"Don't-!"
Was Xia Qing scared of him..?
"Xia Qing it's me.."
"You're not Yang Cheng..."
"I am..."
He took a step forward but Pomelo blocked his way
"GET AWAY FROM MY SISTER!"
what..?
"You hurt her!"
He did what...Shang Chao and E-soul wasn't there..It was Xia Qing and Pomelo...HE hurt them both...He didn't mean too- He-
"...What did you become Yang Cheng, you're not the person I once knew...You became this...A person I don't even recognize anymore...I shouldn't have come..."
With that Xia Qing left with Pomelo following after her, Yang Cheng stood their frozen in place. His breathing was increasing
"My what a mess yang Cheng"
Yang Cheng turned around and saw Shang Chao waving, he punched the ghost but the ghost disappears and turns out he nearly punched ghostblade who easily avoided the attack yet Yang Cheng still panicked.
"WAIT I DIDN'T MEAN TOO I-"
His breathing increased a lot, what was wrong with him!? Yang Cheng...DID HE EVEN RECOGNIZE THAT NAME ANYMORE!?
In the heat of the moment Yang Cheng fainted