Kio was walking down the road. It was already dark on the streets. Today he was going to visit his friend Souby.
Kio never understood Souby's relationship with Seimei and never supported it. But after their break up, Kio couldn't stay aside.
"We weren't together on the first place," repeated Souby every time when his friend started to grumble at Seimei.
"Well then, how would you call this then?" asked him Kio.
Souby just would turn away and say nothing.
Kio bit his lip. It was so painful to see his best friend all shattered. Souby didn't eat, didn't sleep, didn't move. Like a marionette that lost his threads, Souby forgot how to live without Seimei's orders. He could see all bones under Souby's sickly pale skin. Seimei was always rough towards Souby and demanded total obedience. He broke Souby hundreds of times and in the end just threw him away to take something new. Kio doubt that Seimei thought of someone as an equal.
Kio turned left and entered a park. It was a quiet night and Kio could hear his own steps on the gravel. He was five-minute walk from Souby's apartment when he heard a strange noise. Kio stopped and turned around.
*rustle*
'It's coming from the playground,' Kio thought a second and then he went toward it.
Kio stepped as silent as he could not to scare off someone hidden in the darkness. Street lights gave him some illumination, but it wasn't enough. Kio looked down a slide and found shivering child curled in a ball. Kid started when he sensed Kio approaching him.
Souby watched his cigarette waning in an astray. Unused, not wanted it was fading from this world. Souby envied it. Why couldn't he disappear the same way? Lit by someone, to leave silently without a trace.
Seimei found his real fighter. Nisei. Now they shared the same name on their bodies, in their souls. Beloved. Souby new from the beginning that he was just a substitute. Seven Moons couldn't find Seimei's destined fighter and choose Souby, clean fighter (A/N: I don't know how it's called in english) to take his place. Three month ago Nisei was found on the streets of Tokyo. He ran away from his home when he was six and since then he lived by himself on the streets.
"You have no pare in this world. Your mission is a replacement." Sensei's words imprinted in his mind long ago.
"Why?" a single word sounded in silence.
Souby's trace of thoughts was interrupted by Kio's knocking at the door.
"Sou-chan, hurry up and open the door! He's heavy, you know!"