#righteouseyes

He was the strongest.... Maybe that's why he was the last person standing. He put up as good of a fight as he could. Last time.... Last time he won. In a fight, one careless mistake could ripple into death. Takumi searched his mind frantically. Trying to discover where his mistake had been. What had gone wrong? Why had it come to this?

The plea came from his mouth almost involuntarily. Every single thing in his body screamed to survive. He was scared. Maybe he could go back again if he survived. Maybe he could fix things. Was he even capable of fixing things if he did go back again?

The shoe pressing on his chest made him grit his teeth. It hurt. But he couldn't even process that pain before the blade was at his throat. For a moment, he could almost imagine it digging into his flesh enough to cause him to bleed out. He felt it against his skin. Burning pain shot through him as it dug into his flesh. He gasped. It probably wasn't deep enough to kill him yet. But...

Eito mocked him, dug his heel harder into his chest. It was hard enough to breathe before... But now the weight made him frantically gasp for air. If he could just find the strength to fight...! But his body had been through too much. He was spent. He tried not to focus on the weight bruising his chest or the blade digging into his neck. Eito's taunting words were almost as painful as the wounds.

He lets out another strained breath as the scythe is moved from his neck. It felt hot. His body registering the injury as 'heat' to hide the pain. "I.... I don't want to die." If he died, it was really all over. He wanted to fix things. He needed to... "Please... Aotsuki... I don't want to die.... Please don't.... I'm.... I'm sorry. I..." His pleading was frantic but quiet. Maybe it was his pride. Maybe it was resignation. Something in him told him to keep himself together. To not fall into a sobbing and pleading mess. Would it do any good?

*This wasn't supposed to happen, the special defense unit wasn't supposed to fall to one of its own and yet that's what had happened before Sirei's eyes. The bodies of the members were lying there and the culprit? Eito Aotsuki, the sole remnant of the SDU...the traitor.

The male couldn't believe he was hearing, this was what that snake wanted? As much as the officer wanted to there was no conceivable way he could fight back against someone who could conjure the undying flames.

Trying to figure out his motive was priority number one, he could simply be power hungry or a more sinister theory was that it had something to do with humanity. If it was then as a human himself it was his duty to stop him from reaching the rest of them.*

Takumi is dead.

He's gone.

Just when the group had begun to somehow, in some way, understand each other and how they worked in different techniques and strategy, the one singular person that stepped up to know all of them-- was no more. In fact, it could be said that the shattering new reveal of this twisted line of fate had left many defeated. Their hearts wretched, the will wavering in a dangerous degree of grief.

Her jaw clenched. Hiruko couldn't believe it herself at first. Scarlet eyes staring into Eito's as she let the silence blanket them in a rather uncomfortable layer of silence.

She couldn't let herself be shot with such a loss like this. As (now) leader, she had to take full responsibility for this and somehow snap everyone back into overdrive for the next wave. As cold-hearted as that sounded... she needed a pivot- and that pivot was Eito.

With a hard clench of her fist, Hiruko crosses her arms. Closing herself off from everyone else. From Eito. Standing tall. Unyielding.

"...This wouldn't have happened if you two didn't constantly flake off. Tell me, Aotsuki, you were the last one to see him. How did you not realize he was missing?"

Arguing won't bring Takumi back, but it would provide Hiruko a point to make sense of this. What had happened to Takumi Sumino...?

She  should  have  expected  this.  She  remembered  her  dad  telling  her  that  her  papa  had  been  locked  in  a  cage  for  a  majority  of  their  time  in  Last  Defense  Academy.  Seeing  it  for  herself  felt  a  little  weird,  though.  It  also  felt  extremely  wrong.  Funny  how  these  people  claim  to  be  human,  yet  they  do  something  as  inhumane  as  lock  somebody  in  a  cage.  At  least  put  the  man  on  some  form  of  house  arrest  in  his  room.

From  within  her  cage,  she  could  see  another─  a  young  man  in  the  cage  adjacent  to  hers.  At  first,  she's  hesitant  to  speak.  but  she's  oh  so  curious  as  to  why  the  other  was  locked  up  as  well─  seeing  as  he  was  one  of  their  own.

Tick, tock, tick, tock…. Several clocks hung along the walls of Zen’ta’s abode; each was delicately crafted by a different artisan and featured a new animal that appeared when the hour struck. They wouldn’t be so insufferable if they weren’t a second off sync. Zen’ta had some uncanny tastes, and that wasn’t just in her decor. It was the mismatched coloring on the walls. Muted patches that were nonsensical. Thankfully, Eva wouldn’t be here for long. She was awaiting orders. She didn’t know if the nerves she felt were misplaced or not. There was one thing for certain: Eva didn’t want to be here. She wanted to be with her daughter.

Tick, tock, tick, tock…. Now, it was getting annoying. It had been exactly 20 minutes since she was called here. Waiting wasn’t exactly her specialty. While she waited, Eva contemplated how to pass the time. Before she could pique that interest, she heard some noises from the other side of the doorway. “An invader?” Were words she could make out from the muffled voices. The curious paragon placed her ear on the door to try and listen further. “Yes he said he was on our side. Do you believe him?” It was Zen’ta and Nyewgank. At this point, Eva didn’t care if they knew she was listening in. She opened the door and made her presence known. “Who?” The other two were shocked by her outburst. They didn’t respond right away. Instead, Zen’ta ushered her closer. Several hours later,  Eva met everyone at the rendezvous point. They weren’t going to let some invader know any of their secret locations. V’ehxness finished “negotiations” with some locals, then introduced her to the Earthling traitor. He was in the distance, possibly checking his surroundings. She had no idea what could be lingering in the mind of an invader. But Eva gave her sister a quizzical look as if to say, “HIM?” V’ehxness nodded like she read her mind. The tall white white-haired boy resembled them so closely. He could be some distant relative or even someone from a far-off land. “You will be giving our new… visitor a recap of what we do here.” V’ehxness’s eyes squinted. Eva took that look as a way to say, “Not too much information, though.” The Paragon of Hope walked off, and Eva walked along. She cleared her throat to get his attention. “Hello, inva— newest ally.” Her voice remained soft despite the series of mixed feelings. “Are you truly one of them? Why are you here?” Questions lingered in her mind. She was saving them for later. The most she could do now is be a gentle hostess. Eva showed him a table full of treats and drinks for him to partake in, then took a seat. 

"What are you complaining to me for? You are the one who killed me".

To think he's trapped in Eito's mindscape was not in his plans and neither was getting killed but that happens sometimes in the timelines Takumi has witnessed. The dying by Eito's hand part. This other thing was totally new. He wonders how long his conscious is going to fade out again like all the others. Probably not for awhile since now Eito is forced to deal with decision making that is not at all helpful to his plans of destroying mankind.

"All I get is two options. At most three when making a decision. Not sure why. It just happens that way".

With expert precision, Yugamu removed the final sponsor’s suit. And after months of being tormented by these sponsors, the final one had met their match. A swapping of bombs, a not-so-tender vivisection, and a well-thought-out reveal were all it took. They used the man's rules against him. It sounds so simple now, but they were tugging at the last strings of hope. Beneath the mask was the person who made everyone kill each other. The very cynical beast that decided their lives were mere playthings beyond the grand scheme of it all. It was, “Eito?” The survivors exclaimed. Each one was questioning how he could be a living corpse. “No,” Yugamu shook his head and then continued, “his body is still in my room. How isn't he dead?” That triggered a thought in Yugamu’s mind. “He has those eyes… the eyes of a killer. Just like his corpse.” The coffin lay in his room, bombs that were embedded within their bodies now displayed almost like prayer beads on the lids. He meticulously removed them all himself. He felt it was right. Now, this thing decimated his ideals. He let out an upset growl. 

“How are you here?” Takumi interjected angrily. It was a question Yugamu wanted to ask, as well. Before it could be answered, their fearless leader hunched over in pain, the stitching now coming loose from the excitement of battle. There wasn’t much time for their recovery. They knew that and still allowed Yugamu to perform surgery on them. Though Yugamu knew he was much more an assassin than a surgeon, he couldn’t help but feel responsible. Time wasn’t on their side. Still, he didn’t want that to be an excuse for never being good enough.

He inched closer to Takumi to grab him. “Takumi!” However, Tsubasa was faster because he was closer to him and held him up from under the shoulder. “Yugamu, don’t let him get away.” Takumi muffled under pained breaths. Yugamu quickly ran over to tie Eito up with the rope used for the life preserver. Though he was used to a thinner bind, he still managed to make a decent, makeshift Armbinder tie and wrapped it around his tall stature.

The assassin felt a rage inside him that had been building up over time. He squeezed the rope tight enough to scrape Eito's skin. At least, that is what he hoped. In reality, he was also exhausted. But he needed answers. This room wasn’t enough. Everything he needed was elsewhere. So, he tugged on the rope, signalling him to walk with him. He was going to do his deadly interrogation with better resources and in his personal domain. "I'm not done with you."