Transformation and Rebirth
Project Shinzo's lair. Meditation Chamber.
We enter the lair and training grounds where Shinzo currently resides and prepares. The room is poorly lit by a single candle. Once again many incense are burning, filling the air with intoxicating smoke. A large mat is placed behind a small wrapped blanket.
Sitting on the mat, cross legged, is Shinzo. He is bare chested, his shaved head and body exposed by the small glimmer of the candlelight. His chest and arms are riddled with various scars, assumingly from his years of training and experimentation treatments he suffered in his youth.
As the camera approaches him and the shot is centered, he looks forward. He slowly unrolls the blanket in front of him, revealing an hourglass, and a broken piece of glass vase. He picks up the hourglass first, and observes it for a moment. It is a rather large object, and it's outer casing appears to be made of a mix of silver and bone fragments. He looks towards the camera, quietly clears his throat, and begins to speak in a low, calm, yet menacing manner.
"Sand is a very interesting thing, don't you think? A single grain, so insignificant. Even put together, it simply appears to be at the mercy of the elements. Winding up every which way, without any focus. Soft. "
He puts the hourglass back down, and focuses his gaze upon the large broken chunk of glass. He picks it up for the camera to see. Focused in, we can see that it is a piece of the very same vase that Shabazz broke over his face at Down Under. Shinzo doesn't appear angry or phased by this however, as he seems focused on making his point, here.
" But treated in the right way...Under the most intense heat and pressure...It becomes something completely new. It goes through a transformation, a rebirth, into something far more than it's original slate. It becomes sharp, strong, deadly. " Shinzo smiles oddly staring at the glass.
"You see like many of you out there, I was once an insignificant grain of sand" Shinzo takes the hour glass and flips in; the sand inside now slowly, hypnotically, falls from it's top compartment to the bottom level.
"I was a useless, weak boy; forever dancing along the wicked ways of this world. But, much like this shard of glass, I was broken down, I was smashed under immense pressure, and forged into something much, much more than the sum of my parts. I was reborn into something far deadlier and sharper than ever before." Shinzo smirks wickedly and puts the glass down on the mat in front of him. Suddenly, his tone shifts to a more somber, sad style.
"Let me tell you a short tale, Pariah, one very close to my heart." Shinzo takes a deep breath, preparing to recite something that may very well be very painful to remember.
"There was young boy, around 8 years of age. He was born small, meek." he shakes his head in disgust.
"He didn't really have any friends, or anyone that really gave a damn about him. His father, jobless, a drunk. His mother, a drug riddled despot. They had all seemed to even forget this boy existed." Shinzo takes a short breath, a sad look forming on his lips. He continues.
"Until one day some men dressed in dark suits came at their door. You see they were very interested in the boy, so they said, and could provide him with a much better life. They offered them a large sum of money in fact, in exchange for secrecy. And thus, this boy was taken from his home, promised to live a life of greatness." Shinzo chuckles and shakes his head side to side.
"But that was a lie. He was taken to a laboratory, deep, deep underground. But I would more call it a prison." we slowly see signs of quiet rage in Shinzo's eyes now.
" He was put into a cell, alone, amongst many others like him. And the moment he arrived, he knew, deep down, that now his survival was at stake. He would know nothing but fear."
"The men tortured him in unimaginable ways. They burnt him with cigarettes, beat him with sticks, had him sleep naked soaked wet, just to give you a few examples of their evil. But they also tuned him, morphed him, into something new. "
"Days became weeks. Weeks became months. Months became years. He became stronger, leaner, faster, tougher. But he was still afraid, deep inside, that his survival would always be in danger. He began to fear even his peers, whom he had previously befriended, in an effort to find any sense of normalcy." Shinzo appears to be shifting between sadness and rage.
"This boy became a weapon, completely forged anew and reborn. His paranoia drove him to attempt escape, but he could not shake his fear that the ones who held him here, and even others like him, would forever be a danger to his own life. He was still afraid.
One night, he finally did manage to slip his cell, but running down the final hall, he runs into an old cellmate, a good friend, once upon a time. It appeared this fellow inmate had just gone his turn for *treatment*. In a fit of rage, the young boy was reminded of his years of torture, and wrapped his hands around the other inmates throat. " Shinzo doesn't look disturbed at all here. He stands stoic and staring at he camera with dead, cold eyes.
"You see, fear, can make you do some very interesting things, don't you think? And it haunts me, to this day, that I had to snap his arm and neck the moment he wrapped his hands around my throat, that faithful night" Shinzo shakes his head, he is truly sad for his now dead friend.
"Pariah...You call yourself the embodiment of fear. But do I sound like a man who would be afraid of someone like you? Do I sound like man who can be manipulated by emotion?" He is scolding Pariah now, almost like a wiser parent scolds his child.
"If I could survive those horrors, and snap a friend's neck in two. What do you think I will do to you?" he warns.
"That is the unfortunate thing you do not seem to understand, my friend. You're entire purpose, in your mind, is to use other's fears to your advantage. And it's a great gift you possess, don't get it twisted. You create intimidation like no other man here can. You've laid a path of destruction behind you, and that simply cannot be denied. But you are no embodiment of fear, you simply exploit it from others." Shinzo proclaims, his words holding weight.
" The fact you follow a weaker master than yourself has already shown be that you are afraid of walking alone. This needs to be remedied." Shinzo is beginning to smile again, almost as if he was excited, deep inside, by the thoughts of destructions in his mind.
"The truth is my fear has been destroyed, long, long ago. I have already been cleansed of weakness, beaten out of me for more than a decade. There is no amount of brutality or savagery you can create, that I haven't seen tenfold."
" I chose to challenge you to a Taipei Deathmatch for a very good reason, Pariah. Much like sand transforms into glass, you will be transformed yourself at May Day. I will set you free." Shinzo's eye are burning with passion now.
" I'm going to show you what fear really looks like, Pariah, make no mistake about that. When my fist meets your face, over and over, you will glance up at me. And you will see your reflection, shining from the glass coming down on your face. Then you will see what true fear looks like, seeing your own eyes, petrified, unable to muster a single word, until I finally end you miserable existence." Shinzo reaches a crescendo, almost at full intense volume by the end of his sentence.
"And then you will be transformed, your face demolished, your blood soaking on my fists. You will look up at me, broken. But in the end, you will thank me for finally showing you what you can truly achieve, when standing on your own two feet!" "You will understand the meaning of the word fearless". Shinzo suddenly grabs the piece of glass back from off the unfolded blanket.
He points the glass towards his face, and jabs it, slowly and methodically, against his left cheek. Without a word or blink, he pulls the piece of glass down his own face, creating a thin straight cut. Blood begins to flow out of the now cut opening, and drips down Shinzo's face. As it comes down, Shinzo calmly sticks out his tongue, and grabs a bead of blood. He brings it to his lips, and smiles insanely.
Almost simultaneously, the hourglass's last grain of sand fall the bottom chamber.
"Time's up Pariah!"
Shinzo blows out the candle. Darkness.
