(c) December 03, 1998 media31 Chicago
First Draft www.studiointerrupt.com

November 17, 1998

media31 is a division of Lotek International, www.lotek.org

FADE IN:

INT ORIENTAL TEMPLE

Harumi sits, we see that there is a candle in front of her and some sticks of incense. She has straight black hair and fair skin. The candle and incense are not lit. The room is dark as no natural light can be seen, only candle light.

Harumi closes her eyes, claps her hands, the candle wick combusts.

She slowly takes up a stick of incense and lights it over the flame.

Harumi then brings it across her face and blows out the flame. The new smoke treks a path between us and Harumi’s face.

CUT TO:

Harumi and her sister Lotus as children playing in a garden.

Lotus fades out, Harumi cries. The wind picks up and blows Harumi’s hair, the grass ripples like ocean waves.

CUT TO:

Harumi places the incense stick on the floor in front of her and begins to meditate.

Her arms extend and fold inward to gather the world’s energy as she breathes in. Her breath is very controlled and audible. She is seen with a warm glow.

Harumi is in the center of a véÀvéÀ type floor pattern. Its shape is made mostly of concentric circles and Chinese characters that she had carved into the floor. It is a time wheel and has a diameter of approximately 11 feet.

The time wheel is divided into four quadrants and represents balance in the universe and opposite forces acting upon each other. The four quadrants are the tiger, the phoenix, the tortoise, and the dragon.

Her meditation complete and her mind open, Harumi draws a deity sword from its sheath. Its metal rings and the blade flashes… Harumi holds it at arm’s length. She then brings it closer to her body.

Harumi runs her hand along the sword’s blade. She grasps the blade with a firm fist. A tear rolls down her cheek as she opens her eyes… they are filled with determination.

The tear falls and hits the floor. More drops fall and hit the floor but they are red. There is a flash and a noise as the sword is driven into the ground.

HARUMI

Sister…

We pull back to see the time wheel with the deity sword driven into its heart. The ground pattern cracks and a supernatural light floods from the pattern. Harumi is engulfed in a column of light. The view over exposes to white.

The light collapses into itself and the room is silent and void of colour. The floor pattern smolders.

As the smoldering subsides, the only sound that we hear is that of Harumi’s blood dripping from the sword’s hilt. The blade no longer shines and appears mat or black.

FADE TO:

BLACK

The sound of an underground train passing by.

HARUMI V.O.

(dull/matter of fact)
So… you’re the one who took my sister.

CUT TO:

Harumi rushes, right fist clinched. The background is a blur.

HARUMI

Aaaaaa!

Harumi plants her left foot and strikes towards her opponent. As her fist is about to land, her opponent, Geod, vanishes and then reappears next to her.

She is startled and looks to her right where he had reappeared. Static is thick in the air.

Geod drops his elbow and raises his knee, crushing Harumi’s arm.

HARUMI VO

Shit.

HARUMI

(in pain)
Grr! Give. Her. back!

Harumi strikes at Geod with her left fist, which he catches in mid air.

Geod grins with amusement as he crushes her fist.

Harumi cringes.

Geod twists Harumi’s wrist, making her buckle forward. He strikes her in the chest.

A CRACK OF THUNDER

Harumi is thrown back into the darkness.

Sound of electricity arcing and heavy breathing.

Thunder and a flash of lightning

The light from the lightning reveals Harumi’s war-worn face. Blood creeps from the left corner of her mouth. She spits out blood.

HARUMI

(faking confidence)
That wasn’t very nice, now you’re starting to piss me off!

GEOD

You’re pathetic

Geod charges his energy

GEOD

But it’s no matter… SHI-NE! (pronounced "she-nay")

Geod strikes the ground with his hand.

The heavens appear to open and the earth splits where Geod struck the ground. Dirt flies, the ground cracks as a path of high-energy approaches Harumi at tremendous speed.

Harumi braces herself, holding her torn arms in front of her face.

HARUMI

Sheild!

Geod’s energy attack deflects off of Harumi’s chi shield. It shines blue where the two forces meet and is spherical in shape.

Harumi’s shield breaks down like a fractal pattern and she is thrown back as the ground lifts up.

GEOD

All of your efforts will not change a thing. Give up and spare yourself the trouble.

Geod looks inward, fizzing into infinity

HARUMI

You bastard!

The air around Harumi begins to spin. The upturned earth and loose rocks lift up off the ground and surround her.

INT CYCLONE

One of the rocks strikes Harumi on the cheek and opens her face. Red pours out of the wound and joins the rest of the cyclone, surrounding her in the fashion of this super natural cyclone.

Harumi’s blood has been unleashed, her wound glows and the circle of blood surrounding her glows.

HARUMI

(a scream of passion)
Give Her BACK!

A super nova.

Silence.

Out of the blackness we feel the air move. We feel the ground rumble. And then it’s there. A subway train rounds a corner and its light strikes bright. The windows whizz by at breakneck speeds and the people onboard are a blur of colour.

We see a girl, we focus on her. (it is or it represents Harumi’s sister lotus)

The train continues to blur by and then it is gone and all is black and silent once again.

Harumi melts out of the darkness like an acid burn. She is in a meditative position, sitting on an asteroid in limbo. Her body is unblemished, all wounds gone, and she wears a flowing white/blue priestess robe with blue trim. She glows.

Harumi opens her eyes.

HARUMI

Lotus…

SOUND OF CAPE IN WIND

BLACK

FOOTSTEPS

As Geod continues to walk towards Harumi we now see his silhouette. He is back lit by Harumi’s aura.

GEOD

(matter of fact)
Ahh… so you managed to follow me.

HARUMI

Master Geod, my sister… (demanding) Where is she?

GEOD

There is only one path… but you carry too much weight to follow her, I can only offer you the peace of death.

HARUMI

Give her to me!

A blue flash arcs from Harumi’s hands. The energy thrusts across space towards Geod.

Geod turns around (looking away from Harumi) and her energy attack fizzles into nothing against his chi shield.

Harumi cries as she falls to her knees.

Harumi

(emotionally distraught)
Why?

GEOD

(seductively)
Your sister is very beautiful… and an excellent lover… We compliment each other quite nicely.

HARUMI

Shut UP!

GEOD

She was prepared, you are not. How dare you??

CUT TO:

Harumi’s face, she looks perplexed.

HARUMI VO

Huuuh?

GEOD

HOW DARE YOU! THIS is MY realm. How dare you enter without my permission? And now… you EXIT!

Lightning from behind Geod’s eyes… his hair stands on end and his skin is grey.

GEOD

Mmmmmmmmmm, eh! Oblivion!

Harumi gives a scream, her body ripping and arching, blood running like a hot river of magma across her body.

SILENENCE

Harumi’s still body drops to the floor with a thud.

Geod and the 5^th dimension fade away as the world fades in. Harumi’s body still lays there.

The sky stretches out like a blanket and meets the ground far off in the horizon. The vegetation is sparse and the air is dry. There is a mountain to the north. And a river to the east where fruit trees grow.

Harumi blinks.

The sun crawls over the tops of baobob trees and the morning songs of birds fade in.

She sits up, and looks around her. Moving from a laying positions seems to have been a task.

HARUMI VO

Where am I?

Harumi groans

GEOD VO

This is where man began. The primal planes of Africa.

HARUMI

Why am I alive?

Geod appears like a ghostly figure 20 feet in front of Harumi and 5 feet off the ground.

GEOD

Alive? What is the line between death and life, death and rebirth? Things are neither created nor destroyed, they simply are. You can not escape the realities of life. We follow the same laws.

Harumi blinks.

GEOD

You can not escape your fate. This IS the end!

CUT TO:

SHOT OF HARUMI’S FACE

CUT TO:

SHOT OF LOTUS’S FACE

LOTUS VO

(whispy/dreamy)
This is the beginning.

HARUMI

Sister?

The ground begins to shake, the sky goes red, Geod fizzles out, like a television signal’s decay.

The mountain begins to melt and reality is collapsing like a vortex.

GEOD VO

The absoluteness of eternity.

CUT TO:

WHITE

FADE TO:

Lotus holds Harumi in her arms, they are wearing fine silks.

HARUMI

Is this eternity?

A cherry blossom floats by. They are in a garden.

LOTUS

This is your wish.

HARUMI

Why did you leave us?

LOTUS

Destiny is not a straight path, and the road is never easy. We make our choices… we shape our lives. Our lives become a testament to who we are.

We see Lotus and Harumi on a hill, beneath a cherry tree. Blossoms are blown by in the wind.

LOTUS VO

It was just something that I had to do. I felt it calling me and I followed it. I followed it to the end of the earth and beyond. I love him HARUMI.

HARUMI VO

But he’s evil!

LOTUS

No, he is neither evil nor is he good. He simply is. Our union has brought a certain kind of balance to the world.

CUT TO:

Harumi’s Face, she blinks.

LOTUS VO

(softly and sincerly)
I love him.

HARUMI

(whispy)
balance?

FADE TO:

BLACK

Almost without warning an underground train is heading straight for us. It roars and the lights become brighter and brighter. They fill the screen and over expose. We hear the sound of the train’s Doppler effect and then it’s gone.

FADE IN:

Harumi opens her eyes. She is in the temple. No candles are lit. She lights several candles.

Harumi draws her sword from the Time Wheel and pours water on the blade.

Harumi dries the blade off and slides it back into the sheath.

Harumi puts the sword back on its stand.

Harumi sweeps the floor of its incense ashes and dried blood.

Harumi walks to the door and opens it, light floods in

CUT TO:

Harumi steps outside, she walks to the grove. She cuts a flower from a cherry tree and places it in her hair.

A gust of wind comes and blows the cherry blossoms. Harumi fades out as the blossoms fall.

FADE OUT