Oh, look who's back with more angst. This is really short (probably the shortest thing I've ever written, actually) because I couldn't bring myself to write more angst for them. Sorry. They deserve to be happy.


If there's on thing Kuina learned as an officer, it was that betrayers deserved the death penalty.

It was the first thing taught to everyone that came to the job; betrayers and people that didn't follow the rules do not deserve their lives and they should be killed immediately. Like all the other officers, no matter young or old, Kuina engraved this rule onto his heart. It was the most important rule that every single officer remembered and followed.

Kuina was quite young when he was first recruited to join the officers; he was stuck between the awkward crack of being a child and a grown teenager. Although the other officers were strict and and sometimes treated him as a child, they were great people and very skilled at their job.

With his wits and talents, Kuina quickly rose through the ranks and he soon became one of the heads of the departments. He didn't have to go on all of the captures and executions of the traitors, and he had quite a comfortable lifestyle.

But today, he insisted on going. He needed to go on this capture. He can't not go. He just had to. The officers were heading to that birdcage.

The birdcage he grew up in.

He never failed when it came to officer missions. He would always be the first one to succeed, even in the most difficult missions.

Yet today, he failed.

Watching the airplane blow up into ashes, his eyes widened as his blindfold came loose. It was as if his whole world had stopped spinning. He didn't hear the explosion, and everything seemed to stop moving. Just like a scene in a movie. The moment he came back to his senses, he made his feet carry him down the steps and past the birdcage. He sped across the rubble and wasteland, not caring about how desperate he looked as he ran. There wasn't anyone there to watch him anyways; the other officers were all somewhere else.

In the midst of the broken pieces of the airplane, he saw the body of someone that was way too familiar. The orange hair, the blue eyes that were now closed, and the pilot goggles that were the same as his... Kuina's childhood friend Kawasemi was right there. But at the same time, he wasn't.

Kuina walked slowly over to the other boy. He looked as if he was simply asleep, and he could wake up anytime now. Kuina knelt down and put Kawasemi's head on his knees.

He was a traitor. He tried to fly out of the birdcages, out of the city. He didn't follow the rules. He disobeyed justice.

He deserved the death penalty.

It's weird... That was what Kuina had been taught. That was the rule Kuina had followed for years now. It had become part of Kuina's lifestyle already. But why...?

He opened his mouth to yell at the traitor in front of his eyes, but no noise came out. Drops of water fell onto Kawasemi's face, and for a second Kuina wondered if it had started raining. But no, these were not raindrops.

They were teardrops.

"...You idiot...!" Kuina choked out, unable to stop the tears. "Why would you do something like that? Why would you chase those stupid, childish dreams? Why would you follow my plans?" His eyes widened at the last sentence he uttered.

It was always him who delivered the death penalty. The last blow that made the traitors' eyes loose its glow, and their bodies fall to the ground. He had planned to be the one who would stop Kawasemi's heartbeat.

He let out a yell of anguish, and he cradled his best friend's corpse in his arms. It was already loosing its warmth. Kawasemi had died in the airplane that Kuina had designed.

Kuina did deliver the death penalty to his best friend.


No more Datsugoku stories for now, I think... (But if you want to request something, I mean, sure, I might write it) Let me just go cry in a corner now... Please review to tell me how you feel!

~Chinnie Ai