"Last thing about you"
When a child falls down from a tree…
Neo Tokyo3 : November 19th, 2015
Kaji Ryouji stood still, in a solitary spot of a skyscraper in the outskirts of the city. Though he knew what was coming up for him, he wore a serene expression, and nothing could upset him right then...he would never give them the satisfaction of seeing him afraid...he knew his actions had been for the best, and was proud about them...
*Forgive me, Misato...but I'll have to vanquish from your life...*
His hands stayed in his pockets as he heard somebody's steps, getting
closer to him by the moment...
He recognized them at once...he'd done a couple of jobs with these
particular lackeys of Seele, eager to follow their orders like puppies,
whichever these orders where...
But in the end, he had to admit that it was sort of logical they'd
been sent to him...he was a traitor...and whoever didn't keep loyal to
Seele knew all too well what would happen to them...the same thing that
was going to happen to him...
"Hi...you're late!" He managed to say with his off-hand grin on his face...but the faces of the three Seele men didn't betray any emotion, almost as if they were robots...who know, perhaps they really were... never be amazed of Seele's ways...
They didn't even let out a breath...One of them rose the muzzle of the gun all of them held in hand, quickly pointing it at him, and firing with no hesitation.
"It took but a single shot to shut him up for good..."
At least, that's what the three Seele agents reported before the
whole circle of monoliths, now sure that Kaji Ryouji was nothing but an
unpleasant memory to them...
"Well done..." the Russian member said emotionlessly .
*
Neo Tokyo-3: September 17th, 2020
Kaji Ryouji smiled lightly, as the memory of the last event he witnessed
in Neo Tokyo 3 came back to his mind...
How stupid and naive of Seele...he had managed to trick even that huge
organization...a simple command of which could've caused the end of human
race...it'd take way more than a mere bullet to get rid of him...
He had spent the last five years in Europe, hiding out in a small spot
in southern Italy...he had changed name, identity, looks...
But now, after five years, he had returned to Neo Tokyo 3...something
nobody sane would've done...an insane line of action...why in the world
go back to Japan, since he had already obtained a regular licence to stay
in Italy, and had managed to fix himself up quite well in that country,
so far away from his mother land?!
Kaji knew all too well that if those of Seele would've recognized him
wandering around Neo Tokyo 3, they wouldn't be so 'merciful' as to try
to kill him with a gunshot...this time he could die for real!...
But something else was leading him to death, if he stayed in Italy...
The thought of her...the only person he hadn't managed to forget..
the only one he had managed to truly love...
"Misato..." He whispered as, sitting on a bench in the park of Neo Tokyo 3, he followed with his gaze yet another carob leaf that had detached from a barnch of the tree, and slowly fell towards the water of the artificial pond...
*I wonder where you may be now that...there's this park where Nerv was...* he thought, as he got lost watching the circles spreading at the touch of the leaf, withered by the season.
The formerly spy sighed and shook his head *How stupid of me...to think that I could still find her here in Neo Tokyo 3 now that Nerv is no more...* This one thought of resignation dawned bitterly in his mind, cutting that last thread of hope he had clutched to, and that had given him the courage to return in this city ... the Lord knew why Nerv didn't exist anymore...what had happened to everybody...if they were still alive ... if she was still alive...
He thought again about the message he left in her answering machine...'If I can see you again, I will say the words that I could not say 8 years ago. Bye.', and came to think that, after all, he had never said those words... much less to her... and never would. He would never fall in love with any other woman than Katsuragi...it wasn't possible...
Kaji leaned back on the bench, wrapping his arms behind his head, and gazed the sunny, yet cloudy at the same time, sky, that covered the most modern city of Japan that day. He closed his eyes, and unconsciously started to listen to all the sounds that echoed around him, as he once again ost himself in thoughts of the woman he had been so ingenuous to let go of, and that he most likely would never see again...
He could hear birds chirping happily...it was already time for migration, and by and by, all the swallows and any other animal sensitive to winter temperatures would've left for distant shores...to warm countries, were winter didn't exist ...Earth's ecosystem was slowly restoring itself...and given time, all would've returnet to how it was in the beginning...
Some children were noisingly playing by his left. Kaji could hear their
little voices, merry and joyful, as they echoed all the way to him like
a melody that belonged to that place...how fortunate of them...so innocent
so as to ignore all the horribl events that had taken place in the past...to
learn of these tragedies only through school books...
It didn't disturb him after all, in fact, it brought him memories of
his own childhood...he smiled...
"Sir!! Hey sir!! " The voice of a little girl standing besides him, trying to draw his attention by yanking the sleave of his shirt, distracted him from his thoughts for a second...
Upon hearing himself called, he opened his eyes, and turned to look at the source, without lifting from his position. It was a little girl of five or six years, wearing a pink dress, with short brown hair framing her happy face, with which she regarded him as she held a doll in her arms.
"Hi!" Kaji answered to the girl. "What's up?" He asked in turn.
The little girl held up her doll to the man with familiarity "can you please keep this for me? " she demanded merrily, placing it on the man's lap. Then, without even waiting for his answer, she dashed back towards the pack of kids, gathered not afar from him, around the same, huge carob tree.
Aside of the girl that had given him her doll, there were three more kids. Three boys. But it was one of them in particular that drew his attention: this kid was in fact hanging top-down from one of the tree's branches, at 2-3 meters from the ground, holding just with his knees wrapped around it... while the other three tried to join him, climbing with some effort.
Seeing those children trying to climb on the tree, but most of all seeing that particular kid hanging head-down, immediately spurred anguish and worry in Kaji's mind. "What the heck..." he worriedly mumbled sitting up from the slacked position he had been holding, and forgetting about the thoughts that had been in his mind until then.
"Check this out!! Am I good or what!" Exclaimed the kid on the branch, as he tried to gather speed and height in his swinging. He had to be five or six years old, like his playmates, and wore a cap that, despite the owner's bizarre position, had not dropped down. He had a blue shirt with one of the so many anime heroes drawn on, and white shorts.
"Hey kid! You're going to get hurt if you fall down! Get down now!" Kaji exclaimed worriedly, ready to dash should the need arise.
Upon hearing those words, the boy stopped laghing and swinging, and turned to watch Kaji with a confused and surprised look, followed by his friends, who in turn stopped trying to climb up the tree.
"No way! I'm too good! " He repeated, and resumed swinging. But as soon as he'd spoke, his cap slowly slid off his head and dropped down, and as he tried to to catch it on the fly with his hands, he lost balance and fell down too, amidst his own cries of shock and fright and those of his friends.
"WATCH OUT!!" Kaji immediately shoved aside the doll the girl had put on is lap, lazily dropping it on the bench he'd been sitting on, and dashed towards the falling kid. Thanks to his impressively sharp reflexesm he managed to catch him in time, before his small body could crash on the groun below him.
The rest of the kids, upon witnessing that moment of tension, ran away screaming in fright, and scrambled in all directions...
Due to the momentum the small brat had gathered falling from the tree, Kaji lost his balance and fell sitting on the ground, but not even that could break in any way the hold he had of the little one.
"Hey kid! Are you alright!?" the man exclaimed concerned, as he looked at the boy huddled to his chest.
As he noticed he was out of danger, thanks to the unfamiliar man, the boy looked at Kaji with his big blue eyes filled with fright, and nodded, then burst out crying, relieving himself of al the gathered tension...
Kaji smiled, sighing in relief, as he hugged the small weeping brat, stroking his back to reassure him.
"You gave me one big fright, you little rascal..." he joked, ruffling the kid's black hair, as his sobs slowly subsided...
Kaji stoof up, taking from the ground the cap that, hadn't he been there right then, would've been the cause of a terrible tragedy, and went back to the kid, then put it back on his head.
"See what happens to those who play such dangerous games!?" He remarked with an authoritative tone, crouching to meet the boy's gaze.
The kid felt the reproach in the man's words, and nervously rubbing his shirt, tried to divert his uneasy gaze from Kaji's face...
"Remember not to try that again..." the former Seele spy went on, softening his tone as he resumed smiling at the somewhat wild kid...
After a while, the man scanned his surroundings, as if looking for somebody "Is your mother nearby?" he asked.
The boy shook his head, and finally spoke to the man "No, she's at home..." he replied, as he adjusted the cap's peak.
kaji stood back up, inhaling deeply, "Ok, I'll walk you home then..." he said, then offered his hand to the kid...
"My name's Kaji, Kaji Ryouji! and you? Will you tell me what's yours?"
An expression of surprise almost drew itself on the boy's face in response to Kaji's gesture, and he hesitated taking the offered hand...
"Come on, don't tell me you forgot your name?" Ryouji joked waiting for the kid to take his hand.
Instead, the boy backed away timidly. God knows why, but when he had heard the man's name, he'd felt upset and at the same time almost frightened by it...up to the point, after taking another step backwars, of turning and running away quickly vanishing among the bushes...
"But...where you're going now?!?" Kaji wondered, surprised by the sudden reaction from the child. he drew back the offered hand, and his soft expression turned into a confused one; because indeed, he had been confused by it, not really upset, but immediately afterwards, he was smiling again...
After all, he too had run away many times in his life, and after all,
he was still doing it.
He was running away...
End of Chapter One.
************
Well..^__^;;This is my first mini-fiction about Kaji!^_^
This story can be a bit silly, but I wanted to write it just for this
reason!^^;
Anyway, I hope that I can upload the next chapter soon, and I hope
that all of you will like this story that I wrote due a night inspiration
^__^;;;
I'd like to thank really very much my friend Ebj that translate this
chapter for me^__^(Originally I wrote it in italian, my native tongue)
Thank you really very much, Ebj!!^O^
Don't forget to review!!!^O^
C&C are welcome!