"This is your number 2?"
"It was," the white-haired man responds.
"'It'?" You scoff, "How cruel." You bend out and take the gun from Sanzu's hand. "You've changed," Mikey tells you. His eyes were pitch black.
Kazutora was right to believe saving Mikey was hopeless, you thought. There's not an ounce of light left in him. There's no way I could've saved him... If I wanted to...
"That's funny, coming from you," you replied. You cock the gun in your hands and raise it at him, "You're a pathetic man. You were right to believe you were unworthy of me."
Mikey stands up and takes a gun out of his pocket. Pointing it at you as well. "And you're a stupid woman," he insults back. "It took you over a decade to realize that? Maybe you aren't as smart as I thought you were."
You glare at the man, "I'm certainly not," you admit. "You know, you didn't drive me away like you feared you would. You drove me fucking insane."
You slowly walk closer to him, "Every day I wake up and you were my first thought... Morning, noon and nights, I thought about you. It's sickening to think that I was in love with you," you tell him viscously.
"Was?"
"I fucking hate your guts," your voice booms through the empty room. You feel your eyes shake and your vision blur. You wanted to cry. You couldn't tell if the tears, slowly growing, were out of frustration or something else.
"Such cold words," Mikey ways, his voice calmer than yours. "The question is, do you mean them?" Your eyes widened at his comment, "You don't believe me?" You ask furiously.
"Not one bit," he said blankly.
You grit your teeth, "You sound hopeful. Did you expect me to show up and beg you to stop and stay with me?"
"No," he shakes his head slightly, "But I wouldn't mind watching you beg."
You were baffled at his response. "I hope you're disappointed because I won't be," you replied quickly. "I came here to kill you and end Bonten," you declared confidently. You take a few steps closer to Mikey.
"Kill me? Are you sure?" He says snidely, "'Cause right now, you're doing an awful lot of talking. You had plenty of opportunity to pull the trigger yet, you didn't."
"Did you want your death to be as quick as Sanzu's?" You raise your voice and point the gun more aggressively. "I think I prefer to give you a slow and painful one like you deserve."
Mikey starts to laugh under his breath. You weren't expecting any emotion to come out of him at all. But that fact the first thing he does is laugh almost terrified you. But you kept your ground. "I thought you wanted to 'save me' like you swore you would?" He asks, giving you an eery grin.
Your hands start to shake, "Looks like killing you might be the only way."
"Maybe you're right," Mikey lowers his gun and walks closer to you. "I deserve to die, don't I?" As he approaches, you instinctively take a step back. Mikey grabs your hand and shoves it right at his chest. "Well?" He tilts his head, "Let's stop beating around the bush. End this."
"Please, end my agony."
Mikey's smile flashes in your memory. I have him right where I need him... But why...
In a fit of frustration, you trip Mikey by the feet. As he willingly loses balance, you take your free hand and push him down harder. The two of you were now on the floor. You raise yourself up, sitting on his abdomen, as you point the gun at him. Pressing the metal harshly at his forehead.
You look down at him, "You die when I say so! You don't get to have any control, especially of me!" He stares back at you blankly.
"I love you..." He confesses out of nowhere.
"What?!" Your grip loosens.
"I believe you love me too."
"You're a fool!" You lower yourself, meeting eye-to-eye with the man. "Don't flatter yourself, Mikey..."
"Isn't anyone a fool in love?" Mikey questions, "Take yourself, for instance. You devoted yourself to me and only me..."
"A stupid decision, really."
You scoff at his face, "Well, you've got one thing right. It was stupid. I'm trying to correct that right now. Correct... Everything..."
It's my fault that this is happening. My fault I couldn't act sooner. Or prevent this. Prevent... Everything.
"You're the reason my life wasn't happy or trouble-free like you promised in your stupid letter!" You blame. You didn't mean it. "And why is that? Because I didn't stay?" He asks you.
Your lips quiver, "I don't know and it doesn't matter anymore..." Mikey raises a brow, "I think it does. It does to you."
"And why would it?!" Your press the gun harder, "The second I pull this trigger, nothing will matter because you'll be dead...!" Your voice was rough. You felt a lump in your throat as you continued to talk to him.
"So you meant it when you said you'd kill me?"
"I mean just that."
"Well? Go ahead," he encouraged monotonously. "You have me pinned to the floor, almost immobile. And the gun right at my head. An instant death."
The metal starts to shake on his skin, "You have any last words before you go?"
"Last words? How cute," he says almost chuckling. "Is this your way to say you want to talk to me more?" He grins.
You whip him across the face with the pistol, "Don't fucking play around, Mikey! I won't let you get in my head anymore!"
"You won't do it," he said. Like he was unimpressed.
"Excuse me...?"
"You can't pull the trigger," his face was back to blank. "You can't pull it because you love me."
I don't... I really don't...
"It takes a very brave and cold woman to do that. And I don't think you can do it."
You laugh in disbelief, "Even after all this time, you think I'm too weak?" You take offence.
"Because you are," Mikey tells you straight "You have too much heart, [Y/N]..."
"Let me fix that for you."
Bang.
I'm... I'm such an idiot...!
You had completely neglected the gun that was in his hand. Once again, you reacted impulsively rather than taking the time to observe him. Just like the first time you tried to confront him, twelve years ago.
Your body plops to the side and your start to cough and hack out blood. Finally, tears start to fall from your eyes. Mikey gets up from the floor. You stagger your body, lifting your head to look at him. Your eyebrows dagger and you feel your face strain from rage as he looks down at you this time.
"Your heart is now damaged like mine. It's a pity. You had such a bright future ahead of you," he said with disappointment and a slight bit of guilt. "Killed by the hands of your first love. Such a tragic death." You take a good look at him before he turns to walk away from you.
"Don't... Don't jump..." You plead, almost murmuring. But he heard you.
Mikey turns his head immediately as you spoke, "What...?"
"I know what... What you're thinking," you reveal, "Don't jump..."
"Tsk. You talk too much for a corpse," he said coldly. You watch as the man you loved walks away from you. One last time. Before disappearing into the darkness.
So this is it...? This is how I die...? You pant pathetically. How did I let this happen...?
You close your eyes and think of a memory. A memory you wanted to feel one last time.
~
"You missed."
"What?"
You missed," he repeated. Manjiro leans closer to you, lidding his eyes.
Your noses touch.
His soft lips press against your own.
His touch warmed you up from the cold, winter night.
His cold hand makes its way up to caress the side of your face. You didn't care.
You kiss him back and your heart beats faster. Like it was going to pop out of your chest.
At that moment, it was like time stopped and no one else existed. It was just the two of you.
And you were perfectly happy with that.
~
"[Y/N]!"
Your dream gets interrupted and you wake up. Your vision starts to get clearer as you try to make out the figure that was in front of you.
"Take... Michi?!" You blurt out in disbelief.
Why is he here?!
Takemichi starts to cry, looking at the hole in your chest, "What happened?!"
You look at your long-time friend sadly, "Mikey... He..." His eyes widened, "Mikey?!"
"There's no time..." You cough, "He's... He's gonna jump... Off the roof..."
Takemichi eyes shift. Frantically looking for some sort of solution. He turns back to you and reaches his hand out, "Take my hand!"
You squint at him in confusion, "What...?"
"Just take it!" He insists. You grab onto his hand. Takemichi stares at it for a moment. His gaze starts to droop. Confused and saddened. "Why... Why aren't I timeleaping?!"
You squeeze the man's hand roughly and look over at the window pane, "Go to the window... This is our last chance..."
"Last chance?!"
"To save Mikey..." You answer. It was the only reason you knew why Takemichi came.
"Go... NOW!"
It's only a matter of time... Before it's too late...
Takemichi immediately lets go of your hand and sprints to the window. He sees Mikey fall. You notice Takemichi's hands shake as he reaches them out. Miraculously, he catches Mikey.
"I got him!"
He did it...!
The pool of blood grows under you and your head starts to feel light. Your eyes start to droop on its own. Your vision shakes and Takemichi's yelling starts to sound muffled.
I leave Mikey... To you...
Hero.
Chapter fifty-seven, end.