● Illusory ●

Chapter 25

"Seiko, I couldn't hurt you, even if I tried," I told her, wiping away one of her tears, "Nothing in me ever wants to hurt you."

The glint was nonexistent now, as she started to stutter and mumble again. Then, her tears started overflowing from her eyes, before she fell on me and began sobbing into my shoulder. Not knowing what to, I paused for a moment as she bunched up the fabric of my sleeves. I felt like I was stuck in the same position as I was a few months ago now, thanks to how horrible I am at cheering others up.

"I want to go home!" she wailed into my shoulder, to which I sighed and wrapped my arms around her. I couldn't possibly imagine how much she was hurting right now.

"I know, Seiko. I know," I patted her head, ignoring the fact that one of her knees was digging into a bruise on my thigh. Instead, I felt myself becoming just as emotional as her, still struck with the fact that she's alive. She's actually alive! And she's here, with me, and not dying somewhere! I couldn't say it to myself enough how relieved I was to see her again, after months of anxiety-influenced dreams and searching for one clue, or any clue for that matter. It was enough to bring grateful tears to my eyes.

Though, with the way Seiko cried and refused to let go of me, I could only assume the past few months were not dreamlike for her. I could almost recognize each of her dejected sobs, as if they were my own. Though, I doubted hers were caused by a neglectful grandmother who disregarded your existence half the time. I knew they were for far worse reasons than mine.

Though, as Seiko continued to cry, I recalled my earlier methods of calming her, and proceeded to use them. "It's okay, you're going to be okay now," I assured her, though I knew that we probably wouldn't be able to leave without conflict from Kalle. Either way, I'd do anything to get us both to safety at this point. "We're going to get out of here alright, and then we're going to meet up with everyone else and rejoice. We're going to be okay, alright?"

I didn't hear any reply from her, except for a muffled "Soba ni itekudasai." Not being able to understand Japanese, I couldn't reply to what she had said. I only assumed it was a repeat of her audible wishes to go home. Though, as we lay there, Kalle rose to his feet, stumbling for a moment before turning and glaring at us from behind platinum locks covered in dust. I sat up slowly then, returning the glare as Seiko's head rose, but did not face Kalle. I put a hand on her back protectively, anticipating whatever Kalle's next move may be.

"Well, you've done it, Sokolov. You found who you were looking for, but I should warn you. She's not who you think she is," he smirked. I raised an eyebrow then.

"What do you mean?" I asked in a suspicious tone. I wasn't too convinced with Kalle's act so far.

"Why, don't you remember!? She tried to kill you! Not only that but she's plotted to kill you the whole time you were looking for her! Why would you trust her suddenly now!? Do you have a death wish!?" he reminded me, bringing back the gray memories of crimson staining my shirt and the bottom of Seiko's shoe. I would have almost listened to him if it wasn't for the fact that he quite literally used his stolen powers to brainwash Seiko earlier. In fact, if I look deep into my mind from the past, I can recall seeing a glint in Seiko's eyes that night, but I mistook it for slight light reflecting from her eyes. Now I'm aware it was actually the glint that was evidence that Kalle's stolen powers were in use. Suddenly his statements were no longer as trustworthy as they seemed.

"Maybe she did, or maybe you made her do it, Kalle," I replied, seemingly startling my best friend slightly from this statement, as I felt her barely jolt. I saw Kalle glare down at me with murderous intentions in his eyes, but I only went on. "After all, you love making people submit to you, don't you? You act so high and mighty and always push to get what you want, like in that meeting where you tried to convince Nadine that it'd be alright to make your 'agents' kill the people you considered as suspects! All because you wanted to break Seiko away from everyone who cared about her just so you could keep her to yourself like some obsessed creep!"