BRAINDEAD ~ Ruikasa

FAREWELL!

Tsukasa and Toya were discussing plans on how to ambush Miku while Rui listened, occasionally writing things down in his notebook, which he kept close to his chest and didn't let neither Toya nor Tsukasa look at. While the boys spoke, Tsukasa noticed how things had become much more monotonous with most of the group either having been killed or kicked out. There were only a few of them left. Not enough of them.

When Nene got back to Crawl Green she was panting heavily, her jaw hanging ajar as her shaky breaths escaped her mouth. Tsukasa felt his heart ache as his eyes met the purple ones of his friend, which were filled with hurt and despair and devastation, strong and pure.

"Nene? What's wrong?" Tsukasa asked, standing up too fast and making his head spin. After restabilizing himself, Tsukasa cleared his throat and continued. "You weren't gone for long at all. Did you find Emu already?"

Nene took a wobbly breath before speaking in a crackly voice. "I did." She paused, and Tsukasa waited for her to continue. "But I couldn't bring her back. She was infected."

"I—Infected?!" Tsukasa's face fell and he felt like a blow had been delivered into his heart, shattering it. "Did you shoot her with your gun?"

"Gun..." Nene's hand wandered over to her weapon as she stared up at the ceiling, thinking hard about something. "Yeah, uh... That reminds me, I have to... put this away..." She let her eyes meet Tsukasa's. "I'm sorry for everything."

"What? You're just going to put something away... It's not like you're leaving forever," Toya said with a perplexed frown as Nene started walking towards the ladder.

"Yeah, why are you making such a big deal out of it?" Tsukasa asked. "Also, why are you only thinking about putting it away now? You've never done that before. You always keep it on you."

Nene muttered something unintelligible before climbing down. Rui, whose face displayed pure terror, rushed over to the hole and prepared to jump down only to have his arm grabbed by Tsukasa. Rui shook his head and looked into Tsukasa's eyes with a distressed, pleading look in his eyes.

"Why do you wanna go down there so bad?" Tsukasa sighed, letting go of Rui. "Nene's going to come back up. It's not like—"

He closed when Rui held his hand up sideways, the back of his hand facing Tsukasa. Rui then put down his fourth and fifth fingers and pressed his second and third fingers to his temple. Tsukasa felt his heart stop beating when realization dawned on him.

     "S—Suicide?" Toya stuttered, his face pale.

"Suici—?!" Without finishing his sentence, Tsukasa dropped himself down into the basement, not even thinking about using the ladder.

     Before his feet even hit the ground, he knew it was too late. He'd already heard the gunshot. Instead of landing firmly, Tsukasa tripped over himself and he stumbled over to Nene's body. She had shot herself in the back of her throat and was now laying on her back, unmoving, as her blood leaked out of her neck. Nene's eyes were open but remained completely still.

"Crap!" Tsukasa, holding her by the shoulders, lifted Nene's back up off the ground and inspected her face before roughly shaking her. "Nene! Wake the fuck up!"

Rui, who had gotten there a short moment after Tsukasa, put his hand onto the arm of the blonde in an attempt to calm him down. When
Tsukasa looked at him, devastated, Rui, as always, showed not a sliver of emotion, but Tsukasa knew he was sad.

"It's no use," Toya said, clearly unable to take in the fact that Nene had killed herself, like a pill he couldn't make himself swallow. "She's... not with us anymore."