Last Man Standing
A [K] Project Fanfiction
Disclaimer: No ownership rights here.
Summary: The battle was long gone but he still remains on the battlefield, the last man standing, according to Izumo Kusunagi.
"…Sorry," whispers Tatara with his last breath.
Izumo Kasanagi stares as the light that practically defined one of his best friends flickers and fades into an unfamiliar glazed gaze that peered blankly into some far-off place he doesn't know. There's a typical smile on his pale face but this time, Izumo can't return it. This wasn't happening, this couldn't be real. But the blood on his clothes and the crying from Misaki-chan refuses to fade from his sight.
Izumo turns around quickly and before he could breakdown into an incapable mess – which no one could blame or fault him for – he dials a number etched into his brain and emotionlessly delivers the worst news he has ever had to in his life. Mikoto stays just as silent and Izumo knows that if an emotion crosses that invisible barrier leadership has erected for both of them, HOMRA would burn.
The phone clicks and shatters on the floor as Izumo falls to his knees at last. He crawls to Tatara; the once rude and obstinate middle schooler, and collapses on his cooling body. There is no pulse. There is no movement of his chest. There is just no life in one of the most liveliest he had ever known. And it makes it all real.
Misaki-chan blinks the tears from his eyes and for once, the boy is utterly speechless. His mouth opens and closes while his lips tremble. Staring at the Misaki-chan, Izumo smiles grimly. Finally something worthy enough to film and Tatara… Tatara wasn't… he couldn't…
His chest burns with a fire, not borne from his powers, but one so much more powerful. His breathing begins to shake and he gasps for air that suddenly can't enter his body. His fingers link themselves with Tatara's and he closes his eyes as he waits for the others to reach them. He could hold back if he closes his eyes and pretends… just for a little while.
The others, except the King, are soon there. No one mentions the breathless sobs from Misaki-chan. No one mentions the trembling fingers grasping cold, pale, dead ones. Because none of them could see beyond the tears streaming down their faces nor could they hear beyond the pit they've all fallen into.
There is only silence. And that is exactly how wrong this picture is, because for those of HOMRA, silence was unheard of.
Misaki-chan disappears into the night, and who could blame him? Izumo wishes he could disappear too. Maybe that's why he became a bartender. Alcohol seemed like a brilliant idea.
The bottles are empty and he begins rolling them on the table before him. In a sudden move, he grabs one and lobs it against a wall; the glass shattering into millions of pieces, just like his heart.
For the first time that night, secluded in his room in the bar, his emotions break through and he cries for the loss of Takara, one of the most beautiful people he had ever met. The tears run down his cheeks and he tosses his glasses somewhere on the floor.
Why? Why? He screams the words in his head. Why him?
He rests his head on the table and wakes in the morning with the sun blinding through the windows. A new day has begun but the question refuses to leave his mind.
Why him?
Days later, Izumo knows life was never going to be the same for anyone ever again. HOMRA had lost its three pillars. Tatara was beyond their reach. Izumo walks around in a daze during the day and depends on the beauty of oblivion alcohol grants him in the night. And Mikoto… Mikoto is unstable.
His Sword of Damocles is a crumbling mess and no one can blame him. Izumo knows that Tatara was the person who best grounded the violent King, who could calm his raging thoughts and soothe his guilty ones. Without him…
Their members always assume that Mikoto was the infinite and great King, which he undoubtedly was. But what they failed to recognize was that he was only able to rise so far as long as Izumo was there to support him and Tatara was there to catch him. An unholy trinity of some sorts…
But now, the pillars collapsed and so suitably, did the Red King's Sword of Damocles.
Revenge and retribution replaces his alcohol crutch until Mikoto decides to be captured by the blue bastards. He knows now that the worst just became even worse.
He bullshits to the rest of HOMRA because Tatara is no longer there to do so for them. To take care of their needs, emotional and all that. He can't take his place. He doesn't even try. But for Misaki-chan who was with him that night and saw Tatara fade away with his own two eyes, he could try.
"… all a part of his plan," he assures them. He doesn't relate that the plan involves the complete destruction of another King and its repercussions on their King. One tragedy at a time.
As the Sword of Damocles disintegrates in the sky, he stares unseeing into the distance. His first thought is, 'How lucky! Mikoto gets to see Takara again.'
The red light pulls from his skin and all his emotional blocks are gone with them. He turns from his fellow group, who haven't even noticed. The red lights fascinate them. They don't understand the fatal impact as yet. But he does. So he walks away.
The last pillar standing. But his pillar feels like a tower of childish blocks that wants to fall to the floor. Instead, he feels powerless. And alone. And empty. The emotional blocks seemed to have taken his emotions with them. The tears can't come. Not like before. Because, he knew from back on that dreaded rooftop that he was mourning more than just Takara's death. He was mourning the end of the happy life the three of them had built together. He was mourning Takara. He was mourning their stable King. And he was mourning the man he was before tragedy and death close to the heart hit.
Staring in reclusion at the red lights as they finally disappeared into the night sky, he realized belatedly that he was instead, the last man standing.
A.N. Just finished the anime and manga. Still in that weepy state that all started with Takara in Episode 6. Dammit. Just felt like getting the angst out. I don't think it helped very much.