Hrm. This is something I've had laying around for a while, and have
just resurected/rescued..I'm concidering continuing it.  Tell me what you
think...
 	


        I came to under the branches of cherry trees, watching soft flower
petals float down on me from above.    The air was cold enough that I felt
chilled, or perhaps I'd just been laying there for a long time, and  the air
was far more moist than I remember it being at home, so it was a good bet
that I'd not dreamt the whole sequence.
	It took me a few minutes to gather enough coherence to take stock of the
area, but I did manage. I was lying on my back in some kind of park, a
softly wooded area studded with cherry trees.  It was night, although there
was enough light to see fairly clearly by because of the full moon, and the
neon glow of a big city around me.
	I felt like I'd been hit by a truck, or fallen completely off the face of
reality and landed in a Japanese garden.  
	Given my surroundings the latter was probably true.  
	Getting up off the ground proved to be something of a pain, but I was
relieved to find no bones were broken.   On the other hand every cubic inch
of me felt bruised and blistered, though there was no physical evidence to
support that hypothesis.  Which was a pity.    If I'd looked as bad as I
felt I could have given some poor person a real nightmare.
	The garden was enclosed by a high stone wall, and mostly consisted of
cherry trees, benches, and a large rock and water garden that was
unbelievably tranquil in the moonlight.  Beyond that lay a city that was
almost certainly Tokyo, or rather a Tokyo commonly seen in anime and manga.
The Neon lights and Japanese street signs were my first clue.
	The youma/megalomaniac menacing (draining?) the general populous at the end
of the street the garden faced was my second clue.   Recognizing a fictional
megalomainaical psychopath on the street does wonders for ones state of
mind/being, and while Jeddite is not the worst possible thing that I could
have recognized from the Sailor Moon series, I decided that avoiding him all
the same would be a good idea. 
	Provided I could get out at all, that is.    The front gate was a nifty
affair of intricately twisted iron bars that spiraled into a impossibly
confused tangle.  It was also locked and electrified.   Unfortunately my
japanese isn't good enough to read signs posed on the outside of walls I
happen to be inside, so I didn't
notice the electricity until I tried to open the gate with the intention of
getting as far away from the first of the dark kingdoms generals as humanly
possible.
	To be short, I saw flashing lights for about ten minutes thereafter.  I
also swore a lot, in Japanese as that's a habit I try to cultivate, so as to
increase my competence in the language.        
	When I finally stopped having muscle spasms, I tried climbing one of the
trees that over hung the wall instead.  That worked much better, except now
I was faced with the prospect of a two story drop to pavement from the top
of the wall.
	I never got the chance to work up enough courage to jump; Someone blasted
the wall out from under me first.  Someone named Jeddite.
	Landing hard when you weren't wanting to jump hurts.    Of course there are
worse things, such as waking up after such landings to look directly into
the face of the person you had wanted to run away from. 
	Jeddite is, I suppose, not a fantastically ugly man.  Actually, since then
I've heard a lot of girls say he's rather cute elegant and handsome, but I
didn't see it at the time.  Probably it was the expression of superhuman
cruelty he had on his face.   
	"So, you were going to go precicesly where from the top of that wall?"  He
had a really nasty speaking voice too.   
	I was leaning (well lying) against the wall, or rather, the remains of the
wall, and he was standing about two feet from me, watching me try to move
with the same look I've seen on little kids as they pull the legs off bugs.
I remember thinking it was to bad he was out of kick range before I started
saying really stupid things. 
	"As far away from psychopathic Dark Kingdom Generals as this city allows,
baka."  I've more than a few occasions since to regret that line.   Jeddite
didn't take my insolence well at all.  In fact he was quite uncivil about
it: he decided that a little shock blasting was in order.
	I never saw the lightning, though Naru-chan assures me it was quite
spactular.          He just raised one hand, and then I felt like every
nerve in my body had exploded.   I think I screamed in agony, and I know I
went into convulsions, it felt like I had been dipped into a vat of molten
steel.  I couldn't see or hear past the
white fire that seemed to be crawling through my veins and my mind.  I
thought I was going to die, I was certain I was dying, and then, It just
stopped.  
	It took several instants for my vision to clear, and my breathing to
stabilize as I gasped for air.   
	When I could see again I wished I couldn't.  Jeddite had something in his
hand, an eggshaped chunk of stone.    Recognizing it as what it probably
was, given my current luck, took a moment while pain began receding.   
	"Demon egg, yes.  Part of my private stock, and far cheaper to import than
another youma.  How do you know what it is boy?  And how do you know where I
come from, humm?"  It took me a moment to realise I must have said it out
loud.  That or Jeddite was reading my thoughts, which was probably not
beyond him.
	I don't remember the next hour or so, except for the sound of Jeddites
voice asking question after question, and the white, blinding pain I felt
when he blasted me for giving an answer he didn't like.   I remember that he
didn't believe my explanations, and that he seemed amazed that I was
surviving as well as I did.
	I guess he must have decided I was tough or something, because the next
thing he did I've had quite a bit of reason to regret.
	 First he cut himself, and poured a bit of his own blood down my throat.
Then he rammed the demon-egg thing deep into my chest.
	It would be redundant to say that hurt.
(just maybe) to be continued.. depending on the amount of feedback I get...
	
	Youma blues
A different kind of self insertion..

>From Gamlain, Transuniversal courier
hero for rent.
(gamlain@pop.softhome.net)