Life Returns, Life Prevails.
Corruption.
Corroding corruption that seeps into the lungs from the pungent,stagnant air of a world gone, to put it bluntly, to the crap-sack.
Poverty, Loss, Deprivation, Pain, Hate...and Fear.
Eons upon Eons worth of fear to fill the nooks and crannies of every soul, hundreds of millions of them.
Rentaro sighed as he grasped the paper in front of him with both hands.
He proceeded to rip it carefully, methodically, into shreds, and then gather them up to rip them again. He continued this methodical, careful action until the shreds where too small for him to grasp properly to rip anymore. Continuing to mutilate the pieces by rolling them up and sticking them in a glass of water, he kept a blank, detached look as he went about this business.
Once the paper was all stuffed into his glass, he swilled the contents around, having lost interest in drinking them, obviously.
He rose from his seat and dumped the sodden mess into the sink.
47.4% Percentage till critical breakdown...2.6%
The glass crashed against the counter, missing the sink by a good foot as a shard from it's thick bottom pinged off and flew away somewhere.
He didn't care to look where.
He could increase the frequency of the shots... No. They were too busy, Enju would get suspicious... and that only slowed the process... It didn't stop it.
It couldn't stop it.
He'd have to tell her. Under his shaking hand, the glass protested his continued abuse with a rather ominous pop that predated a crack. The crack hadn't come yet, but it would...when he lost control.
There was an instability factor. He knew this. It could let her maintain it, at a knife's edge, up until 52-53%...but that instability factor worked backwards too...for 47 or 48... She was already in the red zone.
The glass cracked. Still ever the trooper, it didn't shatter.
Yet.
His mind brought up an image, unbidden.
Of Fuse.
Of Senju.
He shook his head once, violently, as if trying to throw something off with one sharp move.
His hand shook. The glass gained another crack. A mere drinking glass defying him? Surely you jest!
"Rentarou?"
With a sound akin to an imploding fish tank, The glass shattered with such force that a few shards soared and cut his cheek. The glass was like powder on his fingers. His bloody fingers. He spun around and a fleck of blood landed on Enju's cheek.
He had crushed the glass with his left, human, hand.
"Rentarou? Are you..."
"I'm fine."
His voice was hoarse, and just a bit too quick. Enju took a look at the imploded glass, but couldn't see any indicator of what was going on. She adopted a sly smirk.
"Drinking down some courage for a proposal?"
Her growing leer only made him feel worse. Here she was, joking, unknowing. His face tried it's best to give out a normal response, and he succeeded in morphing it into the typical deadpan. He responded accordingly.
"What the hell...propose?"
"I accept!"
He smacked his forehead in exasperation. Unlucky for him, it was with his glass powdered hand. He didn't notice until he saw some red drop unto the counter.
"Rentarou!"
"Yeah. I know. Crap. I'll get it everywhere."
"You've...um.."
"Enju, can you get me a towel please?"
"You've still got some...on your face."
Great.
"...I'll be in the bathroom."
Enju perked up instantly.
"Is that an invitation?"
If he wasn't wary of getting more blood everywhere, he would have performed another facepalm.
"No."
The door slammed shut, leaving Enju with glass dust covering the counter and blood on her cheek. Inexplicably, Tina wandered in at this time too...and despite getting better...she was still nowhere near a morning person. Her sleepy eyes gave tell before it happened, but Enju still had to snap out of herself when Tina poked the counter and rose a finger to "taste" what the shiny little shards were. She grabbed her hand just in time.
"Glass, glass! Not spice!"
+-1-+
It was the weekend today, so of course, Enju and Tina took possession of the T.V. Not that Rentrou minded...there was nothing on there for him to watch.
Besides the news, and honestly in his line of work, he got the calls for trouble before the news could tell him about it anyway.
As for the weather, Rentarou hadn't even been thinking about getting an umbrella.
It was always raining around him...and that rain wasn't always water. Key reason he didn't own one. They didn't stop acidic spit or contaminated blood from getting him and well...
Never take up a useful hand with a useless umbrella in a fire fight.
The last thing you have to worry about was bullets of rain when it starts raining bullets.
No, Rentarou was left to the turmoil of his mind.
He couldn't stop.
When he looked at Enju he had to wonder every time.
Did she look any different?
Were her eyes just a tad more red?
Skin a bit more pale?
Was she a bit more nauseous as they walked by the new monolith?
His eyes shifted to Tina and he forced himself to look away. 41.3% Percent till critical...damn it, he knew how percent's worked! Why did they always put that? Who DIDN'T know?
The show the two of them were watching ended, and he got up and shut off the T.V.
Enju pouted at him, and was about to call him out when he spoke rather flatly to them both.
"It's time for your shots."
Enju's mouth shut, but her pout didn't lessen any. He quietly got the setup prepared, and was proud that he was able to keep his body relaxed and his face blank, his work efficient, neat.
He had...gotten to the point where people's deaths and suffering didn't effect him anymore.
Just like he had hoped not to.
He took a deep breath as he packed away the supplies, take a slightly longer than necessary glance at the vials laid out neatly in the case. He idly wondered if sticking in a small overdose would help stave off the increasing corruption, but the thought was squashed before it could even begin to think about taking root. The "vaccine" he gave them was also a kind of poison in it's own way, and over dosing it would do no good and far too much harm. You didn't win a losing war by throwing more manpower at it. No; that wasn't the right way.
He shut the case with a definitive snap. Once he locked it he looked up and met a set of dully red eyes. They were as locked on him as the case was locked by his hands. One of which was still wrapped in a bandage. I have to tell her.
"Enju-"
An ugly ring from his phone cut him off. He reached and snapped it off his belt with irritation.
When he finally decides to try and set the scene to tell her, of COURSE some form of trouble would pop up.
His voice had a touch of impatience in it when he answered, but it was still within polite bounds...just in case.
"Hello?"
The voice on the other end was vague, low and full of something that Rentarou could only describe as well hidden fear.
Well hidden... ...but not well enough.
"I need to speak with you. Now. No one else. Just you."
Before he could even gather his brains about himself, she had hung up.
Seriously? What kind of a call was that?
That was Sensei wasn't it? So what if it was? Was she going to tell him what he already knew? That Enju and Tina were well within the red zone? That he would soon have to put a veranium bullet in both their skulls? He knew this.
He didn't need it rubbed in his face constantly.
But still...he might as well go and see. He'd bring Enju and Tina with him.
He'd have to tell them.
En Route.
