As he walks to that lonely road, he held his head up high and stared up to the sky.

Who wouldn't know that it was going to snow again?

Skies darkened and winds sweeping those green leaves away from the road; how sulky this weather could be? The weather has always been sulky like this, no wonder he's not surprised.

He was only there, walking on his way to a place where people rest forever in silence. His cigar releasing sensual nicotine onto the air, onto the sky above, onto the heavens; he only watched there, how these smokes go up into the sky, and vanishes into thin air like the others.

Into thin air… it was too soon.

Well that's how our life goes, we can't change it. It was what on his mind ever since that day came, where their bond changed and all of them seemed to be affected by it. All of them, losing 2 people at such short time.

8 years was such a short time, yet it was something to worth, like treasure.

He made it to the place; there was nothing to hear but silence, rustling of trees and birds resting at each grave. He looked around and finally came to the 2 familiar graves, near each other, with each name scribed elegantly at their respective graves.

As he walks, he kept on remembering why he has to go at such place alone. Maybe to think of something, maybe he just wanted to spend his time with them alone. Or maybe he just felt like it.

"…?" His shoes were suddenly glued to the ground, looking at the other person near the graves; particularly staring at one grave only. His head was bent down, and his blue-raven hair shimmer as the sun took a peek behind each moving clouds.

Feeling somebody behind him, that person, looked above his shoulders. His glasses met his, his cold unreadable eyes met his flippant ones, and the Blue King met the gaze of the former Red King's accomplice.

"So, I guess I am not the only one visiting Mikoto and Totsuka today…" Izumo showed a faint smile with a cigar between his lips. Reisi didn't took his eyes off from Izumo, as he slowly walked over and made it beside the Blue King, who wasn't in his usual blue uniform.

The Blue King, Munakata Reisi, only wore formal clothes that day.

"It's a relief that I'm not lonely anymore at this place." Reisi turned his head away and smiled with his eyes closed, showing that he really doesn't mind a former Red clansman with him at this odd place. Knowing that Izumo is beside him, he can no longer hide those eyes of his, merely focused at one familiar name of the person he once knew.

Staring at the two graves, Izumo kneeled down, resting his elbows on to his knees, and smiled gladly, seeing his two friends' graves together and beside each other. He touched Totsuka's grave, like he was touching his face, and smiled at it as if he was seeing that foolish grin of his for real. He held another hand at Mikoto's grave. He patted it and said something that Reisi nearly heard from him.

"I missed you, idiots."

Reisi kept on observing his eyes, and his smile, despite he is looking at his friends' graves. Instead of making such sulky and cold face, Izumo kept his warm and gleeful expression; the one that he always wore even at drastic situations. Unlike him, he was only standing there; his face shadowed, his eyes cold and dead, making him a bit sulky.

He thought there was no point of him to smile. After all, it's a graveyard. He knows that anybody who comes here are gloomy, miserable and cheerless. He knows how sad it is to lose somebody, especially if it is one in your family, or friends.

Does he have any friends?

This guy does. Somehow, he has been looking at Izumo's face for awhile; how he touch and feel their graves, how he looked at them like they were looking at him. It might be stupid for a closed minded individual.

But Reisi suddenly felt he was choking inside.

It was hard for him to breathe, and he doesn't know why.

"May I ask the Blue King…" Izumo interrupted his thoughts. "…how did you take the time to visit Mikoto?" Because he knows it's only Mikoto he's here for.

"I just happen to walk here…" As formal as he is, Reisi adjusts his glasses, composing himself as he had finally awaken from his thoughts. "It wasn't really my plan to walk here."

"Not at the day of his death anniversary?"

"…" The Blue King said no more. He kept silent after Izumo blew up his real intention to come here. Hiding his one hand at a pocket, he formed a firm fist, releasing his tensions and guilt there, not showing it to Izumo, who can definitely read his mind and actions easily.

One year, since that happened.

"But as Munakata Reisi, I want to help you personally, Suoh Mikoto." But he didn't. He suddenly felt useless, and pure guilt made him stiff. It was stupid for him to say that already, he knew it, but he still insists. It was like telling himself that a fact was just a lie; that Mikoto will make it even if it's too late.

Izumo had it in mind that Reisi is struggling, mixing his thought and guilt together, making him silent after asking his real purpose here.

"Y'know…" He again averted his eyes to the 2 graves. "…the three of us didn't really think that we'll make it this far."

Reisi blinked and kept on listening to Izumo.

"We thought—I thought, rather—that after we finish highschool, we'll go to separate lives. Like having a job, go someplace, and make better lives for ourselves. But you know what?" Izumo looked at Reisi, as if letting him answer a pop quiz. Izumo stood up to his height.

"We didn't." Reisi knows the reason why, but Izumo still dared to tell him. "We decided to go through odds together, and we became Mikoto's clansmen."

"Did you regret being one of Suoh's clansmen?"

"Hm? Nope? It was worth it, and I have nothing to regret though. It seemed like, our friendship has become a bond thicker than blood."

"Did you… regret being one… of his friends?"

Izumo blinked and his smile instantly faded. Does he? If he does, why? If he doesn't, why not?

"No." Izumo leaned his head back and stared at the sky; staring at it for long. "I've never regretted anything, even if I was with those idiots. Having them was… the best thing I could have ever wished or hoped for. They made my life a bit disturbing and stressing, but it was fun with them. I tell ya, how fun it was."

"Somehow, he chose to die in my hands, leaving all of you by making himself killed with his own power."

"I knew it was coming." Izumo replied. "But having them as my family, it was something that nobody could ever take away, even you, Blue King."

Reisi finally felt a big sword stabbed to his heart, to his soul, to his mind. He felt weak, his heat raced like he was going to die,.

"I'm…" his head was bent down, and he couldn't hide his fists shaking evidently. "I'm so sorry."

Izumo glanced down to him, and was surprised to see an unfamiliar flow of water drawing to the Blue King's cheeks.

"Very uncharacteristic of me, huh?" Reisi still had his face hidden with his fringes, biting his lips and clenching his fists tightly, making his nails dig deeply to his palm.

Izumo knows the guilt Reisi is feeling. He knows how hard it is for him to kill somebody that he doesn't want to kill. He was the reason why Mikoto died, why Mikoto's body is here, lifeless and slowly decomposing back to earth itself. But he knows that Reisi didn't want anything of this. Locking Mikoto up in the cellar and talking to him personally in the midst of the battle are things that Izumo could tell Reisi want to help him.

Somehow, Reisi cared a little about Mikoto, and his Sword of Damocles.

He looked again at the two graves; Totsuka Tatara and Suoh Mikoto, both a family to each of them, to him. He treated them like his own pesky brothers. Even though how idiots these two were, he could say, these two covered up his boring life with a pleasurable one. For him, their deaths are more important that their birthdays. Because he knows that they have done something for him, for them, for the Red clan, and even for the Blue King.

"It's sad for them to leave. But you know what's sadder?" Izumo asked Reisi, making a dry smile for him.

"…that I can't be with them, yet."

Reisi jerked his head up and looked at Izumo; he was only staring up in the sky, with that smile that he usually wore when meeting other people, but something different came down to his cheeks.

Tears.

"I don't blame you, I will never blame you." Izumo pierced his lips with his teeth. "But it's making me mad whenever I think that I can't do something about it. I just can't blame you, or him or anybody else."

The Blue King's eyes widen, seeing the usually composed and calm Red clansman, now here finally releasing all his sadness and anger away with tears flowing down from his glasses, swallowing down his pride even for once. Izumo's eyes kept staring up in the sky, hoping that both of his friends are up there, whether making that foolish grin or mocking face at him. He knows he's just imagining them, but he wished they were real.

It's hard to lose 2 friends at such short time.

"Me too…" Reisi also leaned his head and stared up in the sky. A snowflake fell to his face; his lips slightly opened knowing that it was going to snow. It was also snowing when he made the hardest decision of his life.

"Me too… somehow, it's making me mad whenever I kept thinking about it, and ending up feeling guilty at the same time."

-oOo-