Chapter 2: The Whetstone

Leo Chen woke up on a cot in the back room of Zhang's Noodles, staring at a ceiling stained with decades of grease and steam. His head throbbed like a bass drum, and his limbs felt like they'd been filled with wet cement. The cyan glow under his skin had faded to a faint shimmer, barely visible in the morning light filtering through a grimy window.