TWO SIDE
Haruki's eyes began to open to a world of blur and confusion. The only sounds heard were of the resulting debris settling into their new homes on the once people-crowded streets. Where cars once sped, now pools of metal and burnt flesh lay. Where humans once populated the sidewalks, now torn shreds and pools of blood. Ruble was everywhere; it littered the streets like trash and homeless do in slums.
Haruki raised her head, pushing a few bricks and iron cast rods out of her way to see daylight; what was left of it, I mean. Smoke was in the air, everything seemed to have only just finished. What on earth had caused this? Such destruction on a mass scale… No earthquake known to man could liquidate vehicles and smother human flesh. Nothing known to man. Nothing known to these kinds of men.
The seventeen-year-old Haruki climbed out of her profound cage and tried to seek out the cause of the mess. There, no less than a hundred feet away from her, was a man that stood. He wore a black trench coat and a tan paperboy hat. His hands were gloved with cream colored leather.
She looked around and found the melted yellow Sedan with her parents' charred remains within the mess and smiled. She turned her head back to the man in black in time to see him collapse.
"Shinigami-sama! Shinigami-sama, are you alright?" she called out, working against the pain to reach the fallen death god. When she reached him, she saw he had fallen quite closely to another boy who was mudded in a pool of blood, a dark crimson color. A color people usually detest.
Haruki winced when the man in black coughed up blood and began to panic. The man who had saved her was dying! She looked around for the Shinbanshi Parking Lot. Surely this man had not melted the cars there, right?
She was wrong. Most of the cars there were melted, too. Although, they weren't as badly damaged. Haruki managed to steal a pair of keys from a crisp man next to a vehicle and turned it on. The very poor sounds it made clearly meant it wouldn't last too long. Haruki only hoped it would last long enough.
She slipped the bleeding young boy into the back and then proceeded to place the death god into the passenger seat. The seat belts were melted firmly together, so there were no safety measures if the car suddenly decided to quit and spit them all out.
Haruki had sped the car enough to get to the power lines between Yokohama and Tokyo within the hour. The bleeding and dying men she had in her care needed professional attention, but they'd doubt anything she'd say. Especially if she said they came from main Yokohama… in fact, that was where the hospital was located.
The small half-melted BMW mini cooper peeled itself over the dusty ground as it made a turn off the road. It found a trail, and followed it around a bend to finally park under a stocky willow tree.
Her own wounds weren't many compared to these two men, Haruki decided, and put them first. She carried the short and small one bridal style to the cottage-like log house only about a hundred feet away. Her hurried step and rushed mood made her fumble with the keys for a moment before finally setting foot inside. She quickly slipped to the door to her right and set the young man on the bed in the guest room. Then she headed back for the death god…
"Heavy…" She lifted him up on her back and slammed the door shut only to have it fall off after Haruki took a few steps.
She set the man down on her couch and removed the man's trench coat and hat. As she slid off his gloves a gasp escaped her lips and memories over five years old flooded into her brain.
THREE SIDE -DREAM STATE: HARUKI-
"Haruki-chan. Stand up."
"But, Sofu…"
"I said stand! You will stand! How are you to become a great ninja like your Sofu or Sobo if you can't stand after receiving a hit! Now, stand!" The young ten-year-old Komai Haruki, sore from the numerous hits from her grandfather, stood and got herself ready for the next wave of attacks.
"I'm ready, Sofu."
"Yes, Haruki-chan… You are ready for Nabari…"
"Sofu, tell me about the forbidden techniques."
"Why?"
"Didn't Soba die because of one? Which one was it?"
Komai Osamu sighed deeply and turned his gaze to the distant trees. "Ah, Naoko… she was very straightforward, like her name; but that's beside the point. Your grandmother was very stubborn and wouldn't let a mission be left incomplete. She would usually run in and attack instead of devising a plan. I was always the brains of the missions…"
"Sofu, which forbidden technique did Soba die from? Tell me."
Osamu sighed. "It was Iga Village's 'kira' technique."
The young Haruki cocked her head to one side. "'Kira'? Can you explain that to me?"
"Eh, I don't see why not… Kira is very bad, for one. Not only does it hurt the desired target, but also it's user. A user of kira shoots his or her 'ki' into a target's body to tear them apart from the inside. But using this technique, as I have just told you, is very bad. The 'ki' you shoot into a target, doesn't ever come back."
"So it's like chiseling away at your life every time you use it, right? Why would some one do that?"
"I'm not certain, but surely those bad types of people who would sacrifice their own life for power. In the end, I guess, it all comes down to how afraid you are."
"What do you mean?"
"Are you more afraid of a powerless life, or a suffering death?"
"How is it suffering, Sofu?"
"As kira chisels away at the user's life, it also steals with it the five senses. You loose them, one by one, gradually, until you're nothing but a hollow shell. Don't you think not being able to have any senses as suffering?"
"Sofu, who would want to suffer such a fate?"
"I don't know. Maybe those who are lost and believe their fate to be suffering already."
"Those poor souls won't know what hit 'em…"
Osamu started laughing and rubbed Haruki's head. "Hahaha. Haruki-chan, you're such a pure soul. Even though your Soba was murdered by a kira user, you still pity them! I admire your kindness. Try to keep it, okay?"
"Sofu, this is going to be the last time I'll be seeing you, right? Otou-san and Okaa-san are taking me back, right?"
Osamu nodded his head softly. "I'll miss you, Haruki."
Tears started flowing. "I'll miss you, too, Sofu. Thank you for this knowledge."
TWO SIDE
The tips of his fingers were black with decay and reached half-way up his arm, almost passing his elbows. Haruki felt his hands and rubbed his arms. They felt soft and cold. They were very cold.
Haruki took off the man's boots and laid a warm quilt on him. Then she left to the guest room where the bleeding boy lay. If she were any lucky, he'd still be breathing.
But Haruki doesn't have any luck. The poor boy had no breath, he was no longer bleeding, and his body was icily cold. Haruki dropped to her knees and cried.
ONE SIDE
Yoite's eyes begin to open slowly. The fact that he was in an unfamiliar room didn't matter. The fact that he was surrounded by an unknown person's scent didn't matter. The fact that he was dying didn't matter. Nothing did now that Miharu was gone. Nothing was worth anything… He might as well destroy this structure along with himself. It certainly seemed like a good plan…
But then someone came in. It was a young woman wearing stylish clothes. Was he somewhere near Shibuya?
"Oh, you're awake," she said silently and paused for a moment as they stared at each other, the woman and Yoite. Then she smiled and set a tray of food down on he coffee table. "Hello, my name is Komai Haruki. Nice to finally meet you, Shinigami-sama." He winced. "Hm? You don't like it? How about… Kami-sama! It's more fitting, isn't it?"
He looked away from her. She puffed her cheeks. "If you don't like it say something. You don't have to ignore me."
"Yoite."
"Ah! I have your name! Yoite-shinigami-sama!"
"I'm not 'shinigami-sama'."
"But… you use 'kira,' right? That must mean you're afraid of a powerless life… I mean! I mean! Eh… I'm sorry, Yoite-shinigami-sama! I won't do it again!"
"Miharu…"
"Hm? 'Miharu'? Is that the boy that flew out the window onto the road…?"
Yoite shot up and pointed his finger at Haruki. "What did you do?" he shouted, but coughed up blood.
"Oh, my! One moment, one moment!" Haruki rushed into the kitchen and came back with a damp cloth. She quickly began to dab away the blood, first from his face and then down his white sweater. "Don't worry, I'll help you get better!"
"Don't touch me!" Yoite pushed Haruki away and she bumped into the table, knocking over the bowl of warm soup. He froze and stared at the hot steamy liquid spread over the table and onto the hardwood floor. Then he looked at Haruki, who's eyes were hidden. For a while, nothing was said.
"Yoite, I'm sorry. I don't know anything about you. I shouldn't have worried." She began to clean up the soup with the same bloody cloth she used to wipe Yoite. "Just let me get you back together and you can be on your way, I promise." She picked up the bowl and placed it on the tray.
"Why are you doing this? Even after I pushed you… why don't you get rid of me?"
Haruki looked up at him and smiled. "I told my Sofu that I'd keep the kindness in my heart… I know you're a kira user, the same kind of person that killed my Soba. I know you're loosing your five senses slowly… but I'd like to help! It's the least I can do for saving me."
Yoite raised an eyebrow. "What?"
Haruki dropped the cloth on the tray and sat on the floor next to the couch. "That outburst you had earlier today… it saved me." Yoite glanced at her fingers, bloodstained. His?
"How? All I can do is hurt and destroy… I can't help. I couldn't help Miharu, I can't help anyone."
"Oh, but you did! You see, I come from an abusive family that seems to be obsessed with leeching everything out of me. They have this weird idea that I owe them for everything they've done. I don't think it's fair, and neither did my Sofu or Soba. At the time you went into a fit, they were driving me home to beat me; do you know how scary that is! To know your fate and yet can't do anything to--" She caught herself before she finished. Of course Yoite knew. He knew of his fate as soon as he had accepted kira.
"I do know--"
"I know you know. I'm sorry; I couldn't help myself. There won't be anymore outbursts like that during your stay." Haruki stood with the tray in her hands.
"Where's Miharu?" Yoite asked in a rushed voice. A frown came on Haruki's lips.
"He's in that room." She pointed to a room behind the sofa next to the door. "The kitchen's right here and the washroom's here. You can go see Miharu if you'd like. But, like you expected, he's dead. I'm sorry… Um, if you need anything, I'll either be in the kitchen or upstairs. Goodbye." She turned and left to the kitchen, tray in hand.
Yoite sat up and stared at the door to the room Miharu was in. Did he want to see Miharu's dead body that badly? He grit his teeth and got up wearily. He took staggered steps to the door and opened it. He took two steps inside and let the door close behind him as he cried.
