“Ugh...” Nozomi groaned, and her eyes fluttered open as she lifted herself off the floor slowly.
The cold stone floor had almost frozen her side, and when she touched it, the icy burning sensation caused her to pull away instantly.
“You are finally awake.” A deep voice whispered, and Nozomi glanced over at the other end of the room.
She narrowed her eyes.
“Where is my Elichi?” She demanded, her voice hard and determined.
“She’s dead, unfortunately. ”
“Wha...What?!” Gasping, she placed a shaking hand to her chest, where her heart was tearing itself apart.
“I love you, Nozomi.” The ghost of a whisper echoed faintly in her memories.
“Want to grab parfajts before we head back?”
“I promise Nozomi, that I’ll remain by your side, forever.”
Elichi...
I love you too...and I can’t bear to see you go.
I can’t let you go, not yet.
Not when I’ve yet to say goodbye, and not when I’ve yet to thank you...
For loving me.
Tears rolled down her cheeks in torrents, and her hands balled into fists against the cold floor.
“Elichi...” She mourned, sobs wrecking her body as she supported herself with her hands and knees.
Yuutsu ran his eyes over her figure, feeling an unknown emotion wash over him. Maybe deja vu?
Or maybe, just a tiny hint of sympathy?
No, he had told himself that there will be no more of that after Kori’s death.
He gritted his teeth to the point of pain, and ruffled his hair impatiently.
Again, he had caused the death of someone who was loved. And he could empathize with her, surprising himself.
But he had to.
“You bastard!” She cried out, slamming her fist on the floor, not caring that her skin split under the force she had applied.
“I am sorry.” He mumbled, and Nozomi snapped her head up.
“How can you say that?! You’ve never lost someone, it’s not like you loved her anyway!” She screamed out, holding her head in between her hands and panting heavily.
His breath hitched in his throat, and ice blue eyes flashed fleetingly in his mind.
“I do understand how you feel.” He whispered, and folded his hands together, squeezing gently.
Nozomi’s angry green eyes flickered ever so slightly, but it hardened again. “What do you mean?”
His electric blue eyed softened for a moment, and a slightly guilty look was allowed to settle in his gaze. “I too, once loved.”
Standing up from where he was sitting cross-legged on the cold floor, he continued, “She was my every perception of perfection. Those cold eyes encased a history that they were too afraid to tell. To this, she hid behind a shadow of her former self.”
Nozomi sat quiet, unmoving.
“With a temper of cold fire, and a level-headed attitude towards everything, she seemed indifferent. But she too, had feelings bottled up in her.” He knelt next to Nozomi and placed a hand on her shoulder. “Just like the rest.”
“How could I have known better? We have all been trapped in this horrid place since the beginning. There was no way that we could escape. Not without certain death.” He continued, his blue eyes finding Nozomi’s stunned green ones.
For a moment, she swore that she could see the same pain and hurt that had appeared on Eli’s face from time to time.
“Ayase-san had to die, to save others. You will understand later.” He whispered, a stark contrast to the previous image that Nozomi had painted of him. “And also why all of this is happen-”
“Onii-chan.” Another voice called from the shadows. “Alpha asked if you have captured Subject 2110.”
Yuutsu glanced up anxiously and replied, “Yes I have.”
“He ordered you to check on the Reaper.”
Nozomi stared and stared at the tall lone figure standing at the entrance of the stone room.
A figure that she had seen countless times.
Teasing Honoka, sleeping carelessly all over the place and welcoming regular customers to the bakery with a smile on her face.
“Ho-Hoseki-chan?”
XXXXX
“Maki-chan, wake up.”
“...five...more...minutes...”
“Get up, you’re crushing my already-flat-boobs.”
Maki just nuzzled further into Nico’s chest, ignoring the older girl’s request.
Nico groaned and rolled onto her side, sending Maki spewing onto her right.
“Mmm...” Maki mumbled inaudibly and wrapped her arms and legs around Nico’s torso.
“Fine.” The raven-haired girl sighed and rubbed circles on the redhead’s back with a gentle loving thumb.
Soon after, Maki fell asleep, and her limbs loosened themselves from around the nurse.
“Finally, I need some water.” Nico muttered to no one in particular, her pink eyes scanning the doctor’s slumbering figure.
She peeled Maki’s arms and legs off herself, and got up to open the door quietly.
Closing the door behind her, Nico made her way to the kitchen, only to be greeted with the sight of Kotori and Hanayo sleeping on their girlfriends’ shoulders, and the others just staring into space.
“Oh, Nico, you’re awake.” Shuji spoke, setting his cup of tea down.
“Remember,” Nico muttered irritably. “Last name basis.”
“Right.” He responded dejectedly.
“What’s going on here?” Nico asked, filling a glass cup with water and making her way to Honoka’s side.
“Trying to figure out where Seki-chan could have gone.” The gingerhead mumbled, her eyes blank.
Nico nodded, and plopped herself down on the sofa ungraviously, while crossing her legs in the process.
She took a small sip of water, and set it down on the coffee table.
How had she gotten herself tangled in this mess?
“I would like to believe that she is safe.” Umi insisted, and placed a comforting hand on Honoka’s back.
Honoka grunted. “Thanks,”
She got up and stretched, making her way to the sink and washing her hands. She pulled the refrigerator door open, took a small apple out and closed it, earning her a grumpy look from Nico.
Taking a bite, Honoka was about to head back to the sofa before something caught her eye.
“This is...” She lifted the paper off the table where Shuji was reading it solemnly.
“Oh, it’s the issue that was published the day your blue-haired friend disappeared. Why?” Shuji enquired, getting off the comfort of the chair to Honoka’s side.
“Well...that is the problem.” Honoka passed it to him, who started flipping through the pages confusedly. “There is nothing about it.”
“Is this yours?” Nico asked, plucking it out of Shuji’s hands.
He raised an eyebrow, but complied anyway. “Yes, I bought it while investigating my case.”
Nico shoved it back into his face, and scrambled through the stack of newspapers that were kept tucked away in her kitchen.
She pulled one out and set it down on the table, a frightened look in her eyes.
The newspapers looked exactly the same, but with one difference: on the front page of Nico’s paper, it was spelled out in urgent bold black - “Scientist’s Disappearance Puzzles Investigators”.
“Why does your paper have the report while mine does not?” Shuji asked, flipping through his version one more time. “No wonder I could not find any clue of your friend’s disappearance.”
By this time, Umi was staring at the trio with a curious yet irritated look in her copper eyes. “My name is Umi, you know.”
“I knew.” Shuji retorted, and threw his paper down, annoyed.
Honoka rubbed the back of her neck, puzzled.
Why were there different versions of the same paper? She did remember receiving Nico’s version of the paper, however.
“Honoka.” Umi said, attracting the gingerhead’s attention. “Don’t you think that it is odd? I was working at a laboratory. Surely they would suspect something if I was missing. However, did they call you?”
Honoka’s eyes widened in realization. “No...they never...did.”
Umi nodded. “So there are only two possibilities. One: that we have been receiving fake news this entire time. Two: that somehow, there really are two different versions of the same newspaper.”
Eli looked at all of them and sighed. “Possibility number one seems the most likely in this situation.”
“Then why are we receiving fake news?!” Nico demanded, a scowl written all over her face.
“I think...” All of them turned towards the voice of the person who had just stepped into the room with a disheveled red shirt and tired purple eyes.
“I know.” Maki whispered, holding her head in her hands.
XXXXX
“If we don’t do anything, it will take over the world.” He growled,slamming an angry hand into the mahogany desk. “I do not care that I am now Japan’s most wanted criminal. We have to stop them.”
“I know, Yokina-san.” One of his underlings spoke, his black eyes nervous. “But we cannot risk any more exposure.”
“My...siblings...are still trapped in there, and you expect me to sit here all calm and cool about this?!” He raised his voice at him, bronze eyes blazing and burning.
The boy cowered in fear, shivering in place. “O-Of cour-course not, sir...”
“Good.” He sat back down on his leather chair and swivelled to the window behind his desk overlooking the city that was alive below. “Run that operation, whether you like it or not.”
The younger male nodded frantically.
“Our world depends on it.”
XXXXX
We just want to feel the warmth of life again.
XXXXX
•3.9.2017•