[center][h3][b][color=ec008c]JURI HAN[/color][/b][/h3]
Level 7: 36/70 
Location: Avenger
Word Count:  2472
Points Gained:  4
New EXP Balance: Level 7: 40/70 [/center]
[b][color=ec008c][hr][/color][/b]

	The Avenger would pick up an unusual object in the Fulton bay. Namingly, one Juri Han, hooked up with limbs and head dangling. Not an unusual state to receive people in given the extreme circumstances of the Fulton recovery process. But what might be unusual was how Juri stayed unconscious. That had unusual implications, given that the Seekers were capable of healing people. Those who spotted her in such a state were free to speculate, though. Her attitude and activities aboard the Avenger had hardly gone unnoticed; in fact, thanks to onboard security footage, her brawl with Pit two days earlier was a matter of common knowledge to whom it was concerned, namely the Lost Numbers’ leaders. After all, with so many irreplaceable souls aboard, figureheads like SJ, Hope, and Vandham had to run a tight ship. Nevertheless, Juri was a Seeker, and due all the medical attention she needed. With some help from Gronk, who made sure to be exceedingly gentle, the Lost Numbers’ healer Eleison moved Juri to the infirmary. There, she received a medkit to deal with the worst of her injuries, follow-up treatment for her concussion, fluids to combat her dehydration, and a combination of oxygen therapy plus blood filtering to assuage her alcohol poisoning.

[center][img]https://i.imgur.com/7E0e9qX.png[/img][/center]

By the time Juri regained consciousness, though, the more intensive treatments had ended. She awoke to find herself in a clean room full of hospital beds and high-tech equipment, all fairly close together since space was at a premium aboard the Avenger. Soft blue light above and warm yellow light below were enough to thoroughly illuminate the place without being too harsh. Fortunately, she would not awaken with a pounding migraine anyway. In fact, it might come as a surprise just how good she felt, with her body and mind temporarily cleansed of toxins and operating at a relatively normal human level.

For the first time in a while, Juri didn’t wake up with an angry-sounding groan. Her eyes blinked open and she tried to remember where she was and what had happened. When she remembered what happened, the angry groan happened anyway. 

There were no other patients in the room, but there was a young man wearing a black outfit with a red, cross-shaped tie beneath a priestly collar and white longcoat. Thin and pale, with slicked-back auburn hair and horn-rimmed glasses, he sat at a desk in one corner with his eyes seemingly shut, though judging by the book in his hands he was probably awake. He’d looked over discreetly when Juri stirred, but then returned his attention to the book, without any apparent interest in initiating a conversation with his patient.

[b][color=ec008c]”Where the hell am I?”[/color][/b] Juri demanded. Though, even as she did, she recognized the interior design of the Avenger even though she had never been in the infirmary. How’d she get here? Last thing she remembered she was laying down on the streets of Esaka. A Fulton? Must be. 

Juri put a hand to her head. There was a bit of a headache, but no hangover. [b][color=ec008c]”Motherfucker…”[/color][/b] Juri growled. 

“Avenger,” Eleison confirmed brusquely without looking up. “Via Fulton,” he then added, making two redundant answers in a row. Juri’s course language neither seemed to surprise nor disturb him, and if the healer had any questions about the conclusion she’d reached, he kept them to himself. A proper doctor would probably be examining and asking questions by now. 

Juri frowned. [b][color=ec008c]”Hey, Father Four-Eyes. Look at me when I talk to you.”[/color][/b] She got up and walked over, lifting her foot and setting it on his desk with a thud. She leaned far forward with a sneer. 

[b][color=ec008c]”Are you a doctor or what? Or just some creep?”[/color][/b]

For a brief moment, Eleison glanced at the limb deposited on his desk, his eyebrows raised somewhat. Then he inhaled through his nose, closed the book and set it aside before pivoting to face Juri with a polite smile. “A doctor…pretty much. Though I don’t exactly have a doctorate. Or a medical license, for that matter.” His voice was dry, but soft. From this range, Juri could see bags under his eyes. She could also see the [url=https://i.imgur.com/Sm8FOFi.png]odd crossbow[/url] hanging on the wall behind him, within his arm’s reach but not hers.

[b][color=ec008c]”I’ve had more qualified doctors in back alleys.”[/color][/b] Juri scoffed. She glanced briefly at the crossbow. Certain to say, she wasn’t intimidated by the medieval weapon. 

[b][color=ec008c]”Just for the record, I didn’t need a damn check up. I’ve slept off way worse. I was just drunk.”[/color][/b] Juri said. [b][color=ec008c]”Thanks for ruining my buzz, by the way. Not.”[/color][/b]

The young man nodded. “Duly noted.” He gestured toward the doorway. “I won’t keep you then. You’re free to go.” He then clasped his hands as he (presumably) looked up at Juri, as if waiting to see if she had anything else to say.

Juri crossed her arms and blew air upwards through her mouth, lifting her bangs for a moment as she waited to see if he was going to say something. [b][color=ec008c]”...You’re not gonna try to charge me money?”[/color][/b] Juri asked. [b][color=ec008c]”I don’t want you thinkin’ I owe you any favors.”[/color][/b] 

“Nope,” Eleison replied, shaking his head in a nonchalant manner. “Not much of an economy aboard the Avenger. With what money we have, we Lost Numbers trade with the world down there. Up here, we all lift together.” He shrugged. “So no, you owe me nothing. The second you set foot out there…” with a quick nod, he indicated the extremity still occupying his desk. “It’ll be like nothing ever happened.”

She leveraged the foot on the desk to pull herself up onto it entirely, arms still crossed. Standing on the desk and bent over, looking him square in the face.

Apparently satisfied, she leaned backwards and smoothly backflipped off the top of the desk without making much noise. [b][color=ec008c]”...No wonder you’re all so broke.”[/color][/b] 

[b][color=ec008c]”Sky hippies, flying around shooting morons at the ground. How long have you been at this, now? A zillion years?”[/color][/b] She set a hand on her hip and extended the other out towards him flippantly. 

Eleison watched her flip, mildly impressed, before offering his reply. He seemed somewhat surprised that Juri wanted to know more, and not just take her chance to leave this event behind her. “The Avenger only got off the ground within the last forty years or so. The City is older than that…well over a hundred. But I’m not versed in City matters. Never lived there.” He crossed his arms while answering, then shrugged. “I was eight when the Avenger picked me up. Been here for eleven years myself.” Though he intended to keep things short, Eleison now realized that he’d said more than he meant to, or ought to, given his audience. “Then again, who cares, eh?”

[b][color=ec008c]”You’re only nineteen? Sheesh. You look terrible.”[/color][/b] Juri said with a frown. 

Eleison snorted, then ran a hand over his hair in an effort to smooth it back, despite it being slicked back already. “I’ll bet.”

Then she rolled her eyes. [b][color=ec008c]’”Who cares.’ You, obviously, string bean. God, don’t be such a phony. It’s embarrassing.”[/color][/b]  Juri said. [b][color=ec008c]”Forty years of this crud. This bird won’t make it to forty-one though. Gonna get blown outta the sky any day now.”[/color][/b] Juri said, checking out her fingernails. 

[b][color=ec008c]”If you were smart, you’d run and hide to, uh…”[/color][/b] Juri looked at him. [b][color=ec008c]”The City?”[/color][/b] Her heterochromic eyes narrowed. [b][color=ec008c]”What city?”[/color][/b] 

Eleison paused for a moment, as if considering what he could and couldn’t say. “...A hidden colony for the Lost Numbers. We all get the same choice: run away and hide, like you said, or wander and fight. It’s mostly first-generation Lost Numbers aboard the Avenger, like me. With the memories of our parents burned into our minds…we can’t help it. But as decades pass, friends die off, and you maybe find yourself a family, it all starts feeling a bit futile.” He looked away, making a helpless gesture. “Resisting Moebius, I mean. Many would rather settle down and just…live.” Pursing his lips, he sighed through his nose. “But even if the Avenger does go down tomorrow, we’ll try and help you Seekers today.”

His imperceptibly narrow gaze returned to Juri as his eyebrows raised. “I mean, [i]if[/i] anyone ends up needing it. Of course.”

Juri seemed to be listening, though she was looking out the door most of the time. [b][color=ec008c]”...You probably think you’re better than me, huh?”[/color][/b] She said.

[b][color=ec008c]”Normally that’d piss me off, and I’d grind ya to dust, but…eh.”[/color][/b] She shrugged. [b][color=ec008c]”Because yeah: I wonder how many freakin’ clowns you’ve seen come and go in just the last few years. More than you can keep track of, probably.”[/color][/b] 

[b][color=ec008c]”I’m sure there’s an endless supply of bozos that get picked up and dropped off who knows where. Cannon fodder. Meat for the grinder.”[/color][/b] Juri grinned. She set her hands on the desk and leaned in. [b][color=ec008c]”And when you get bored, you can retire. Live a full life. Sounds like a pretty sweet deal.”[/color][/b] 

Juri shut her eyes and smirked, before pushing away from the table. [b][color=ec008c]”But. Not for me, even if I could. I gotta light this candle, quick.”[/color][/b] Juri stood and moved to walk out the door. [b][color=ec008c]”Trying to think if I should try and put Pit in a pit first, or what.”[/color][/b] She chuckled. 

Eleison made no attempt to stop her. Judging from Juri’s behavior, she didn’t seem to exhibit any signs of injury or symptoms of concussion. Neither dizziness, drowsiness, nor confusion affected her posture or speech, both nausea and amnesia seemed absent, she could do basic arithmetic, and clearly acrobatic movements didn’t pain her. If asked to pen a doctor’s note, he’d have written her a clean bill of health. Juri needed no such assurances, though, and the healer wasn’t about to insist.

Meanwhile, the interaction left Eleison feeling worse than before. The exchange could’ve gone a lot worse, considering Juri’s reputation, but nobody liked a reminder about their own mortality. Nobody knew how long they had left, least of all the Seekers like Juri, whose life expectancy had a much harder limit. In the World of Light, life tended to be miserable, cruel, and short, and in a world like that, being a doctor was a thankless task. Eleison reached out for his book, but it only got as far as his lap as he stared down at the floor, resting with one elbow on his desk.

Juri wandered around the ship. She ended up back at where she had been deployed earlier that morning, at the Hellpod dispensary. If no one was around she was going to try and get it working on her own. Unfortunately, all the mechanisms were inoperable, and the control terminal required authorization in order to allow any sort of input. Repeated attempts to bypass the system locks led to the activation of a nearby intercom.

Juri was about to get serious, tapping the side of her temple as her eye lit up green.

“The deployment bay is currently offline,” recited the electronic voice of the airship’s resident AI, Hope. “We are currently above Dihua Marsh, so descent via hellpod would have a projected fatality rate of 88%, anyway. To schedule a deployment detour, please coordinate with Avenger leadership.”

 [b][color=ec008c]”Haaah?”[/color][/b] Juri ‘asked’, confused. How long was she out for? [b][color=ec008c]”The what marsh? Where the hell are we? I’m tryin’ to get back to Esaka.”[/color][/b] 

 [b][color=ec008c]”Weren’t those other jokers going to some frozen hellhole? What are ya doin’ over a marsh?”[/color][/b] Juri ‘lightly’ kicked at the machinery a few times, though at her strength level it resulted in some resounding thuds. 

“It's been over a day since then, and we're currently en route to extract the twins from their investigation in Everdream Valley,” Hope replied matter-of-factly. “The Avenger must stay mobile to avoid detection from Moebius. And to stay aloft.” The AI paused before offering a helpful suggestion. “I can log a request to circle back around to Esaka at the first available opportunity, if you like.” 

[b][color=ec008c]”Don’t say ‘the twins’ like I’m supposed to know who the hell that is.”[/color][/b] Juri set her hands on her hips.

[b][color=ec008c]”Ugh. Fine. Whatever. Do that.”[/color][/b] Juri waved a dismissive hand in the general direction of the robot voice. [b][color=ec008c]”Can’t believe this crap. I’m gonna blow my brains out.”[/color][/b] She complained. 

Juri stomped around the Avenger. At this point she had memorized the layout. Bored, she ended up in the training area. It was oddly unfamiliar to her. How long had it been since she actually trained like a martial artist does? Probably since she was a teen. Since then, her only teacher had been experience. 

Training rooms had a certain smell to them. All rubber, plastic and metal from bags, mats, and equipment. It brought Juri back. Standing in a corner, she settled into a Tae Kwon Do stance. Like second nature, her black belt Form came back to her. She punched several times, did a feinting hop kick, and settled back into a stance. Back when martial arts were for self-defense, for improving her body and making herself happy. Before she could fly across the room and rip out someone’s throat before they had a chance to say ‘help’. Before she could end someone’s life by just looking at them. (Though that skill had eluded her in this new world of light. She’d tried.) At some point, and Juri couldn’t pinpoint when, she had transitioned from martial artist to monstrous menace. It probably happened to everyone that got good enough. 

That all being said: [b][color=ec008c]”This is really boring.”[/color][/b] She concluded, dropping her old Form and returning to her usual slouch. [b][color=ec008c]”How do they do this crap for hours on end?”[/color][/b] She asked herself, thinking of that cardboard cutout Ryu, or that little bratty dork Sakura, or that stiff pig Chun-Li. How did [i]Jurii[/i] do it for hours on end? She used to. Why? Whatever the reason, she had forgotten it a long time ago. Now, on another world, an eon removed from the original Juri Han, her trying to find that reason now was like trying to grab mist. It slipped through her fingers and was gone. 

[b][color=ec008c]”...Fuck this. I’m getting my buzz back.”[/color][/b] Juri kicked over a punching bag with a flink of her ankle and let it fall to the floor with a heavy thud as she stormed out of the room. Time to put her hard earned bloody money back to good use.