A/N: I would like to make it clear that Hiiro didn't shoot the "girl across the hall." Never in a million years would she be in a terrorist group (in my thought at least). And no he didn't shot Minako. The girl he shot was just your average stranger who just so happens to be a terrorist. Smiles.
Disclaimer: "Cow, cow. Where art thou? You're in my stomach now." I don't even own that quote! You think I'd own these anime characters!
"It's better to burn out than to fade away."
- Kurt Cobain
Chapter 3
Not even bothering to wipe off the blood on his face, or take a shower for that matter, Hiiro fell face-first on his bed. He ran from the base all the way to his apartment; which was a good hundred miles or so. And by the time he arrived at his apartment building, he didn't settle for taking the elevator to his room. No. He just ran up the stairs. The loud pounding sound in his ears drove him crazy, as well as his thunderous panting. An enormous thunderclap was heard between all this outside. Rain fell hard like metal; endless tapping noises on the window in Hiiro's room.
So he tuned it out, and ignored the pain of his heart trying to burst through his chest like Ace Ventura when he tried to squeeze his way out of the robotic rhino though the buttocks. He closed his eyes and tried to calm down his wheezing. But every time he closed his eyes, the vision of that solider girl's fearful eyes came like a bad dream.
"Looks so much like her," his voice muffled by the comforter.
'So, so much like her,' his thoughts finished before he began to dream.
"I'm sorry," was all he said as he hovered over her body. He bent down to close her tainted eyes. But as he got back up, her eyes shot open frighteningly. Without moving her body, she turned her face towards Hiiro. Hiiro's eyes widened with disbelief. Instead of the solider-girl's face, it was Her face. Her eyes looked at him with betrayal and pain. Unable to bare the guilty feeling in his gut, Hiiro hung his head low, staring at the tiles. His knuckles began to turn white from clenching his fists. Sucking up his guiltiness, Hiiro looked back at Her. All he saw was a puddle of blood.
"Hiiro," a gentle voice whispered from behind.
Hiiro whipped around to see who it was, but there was no one.
"Hiiro."
He looked around everywhere frantically. "Where was this voice coming from?" was his only thought. Hiiro stopped turning around when he caught the sight of a circle-shaped broach. He stared at it in wonder as he approached the broach. Extending his hand to touch it, it suddenly opened up and revealed a great darkness and an earth-shattering shrill. Hiiro cringed and attempted to place his hands over his ears but saw Her bathed in a bright light up ahead. She reached out for him, and Hiiro reached out for her. But each time he took a step forward, something would pull Her a step back.
"Wait! No!" Hiiro begged.
And he ran endlessly.
Hiiro awoke in the afternoon, his head still pounding. He tried to remember the events of his dream, but all he could recall was a voice and him running. He gave up as his migraine doubled in pain. He looked at himself in the mirror, as if it could answer the questions he had.
Droplets of blood, not of his own, stained his clothes, his face, and his bed. It was time for a shower.
Hiiro stood there in the shower stall, not even flinching from the cold water. His head swayed down and his eyes were glued to watching the mixture of blood and water being sucked in by the drain. More images of the "solider-girl" flashed in his mind.
'Was it wrong to kill her? She did nothing wrong. She was innocent.'
His counterpart argued back with him. 'Innocent? Nothing wrong? Are you kidding me? She was apart of a terrorist league. Is that innocent? And no fucking way was it wrong to kill her!'
'But—'
'Think of this as way of knowing that you are perfect, and now you don't have to worry or even care about that weak girl across the hall.'
"I'm going crazy," Hiiro concluded to himself. He turned off the water, dried himself up, and began to dress in a pair of denim jeans and a black shirt. Feeling the need for caffeine, Hiiro finished up towel drying his hair and headed out to Java Doll.
"Hey Andrew! Where's the remote? The baseball game is finished and I want to watch something else besides Martha Stewart," Usagi shouted as she leaned over the counter at Java Doll.
"Yeah. Hold on a minute, I'll get it for you," Andrew answered from the back of the kitchen. Usagi drummed her fingers on the counter waiting patiently. She stared up into space.
'I wonder what—'
"Here you go," Andrew arrived, placing the remote on the counter, smiling brightly. Usagi returned the smile. Usagi began flipping through the channels, trying to find something worth watching, but was stuck with Martha Stewart since the rest were just news and a re-run of The Cosby Show.
"Give me your largest cup of black coffee," a voice demanded next to her.
She turned and come face to face with whom she called "Mr. Stone Face." His face was pale and his eyes were bloodshot. Usagi arched her brow in question, "What happened to you? Are you okay?"
His "polite" answer was a glare. Usagi threw up her hands and exclaimed, "Geez! So much for civility."
Hiiro took the seat next to her in the counter row trying to contain his composure. If he didn't, he'd probably slam his head on the table much like how he collapsed on his bed the night before. He stared up at the TV, trying to ignore the girl next to him.
As if he was actually interested in Martha Stewart and lavender scented candles.
Usagi, not liking the silence between them, started the conversation. "You know, I just realized something."
"Hn," Hiiro didn't really care at the moment.
"We never actually introduced ourselves to each other," she ignored Hiiro's grunt. "My name is Usagi Tsukino. What's yours?"
"Hiiro Yui," Hiiro droned out, thinking that if he answered her, she'd stop her questions. Ohh, but no. It didn't stop there.
"So what do you do for a living?" she continued.
"I'm a mechanic," he wasn't entirely lying. He does work on his Gundam.
"Ohh. Well I'm a college student," she smiled. "How old are you? You look like my age."
'Why won't she stop?'
"22."
"Whoa! I was close! You're two years older than me," she cheered, smiling. Again. "So you—"
"Look," Hiiro cut her off. "I really don't want to talk right now."
The smile on Usagi's face continued to fall as he uttered each word. Hiiro tried to ignore the guilty feeling inside him. He felt bad. Truly he did. But now really wasn't the right time to make friends with him.
"I'm sorry," she said faintly and soon resumed her cheery façade. "Not much of a talker, are ya?"
"Not today I'm not," he lied as he grabbed his coffee to leave.
"Well I hope next time you're in a better mood!" she yelled after him in a "get well" kind of way.
"Me too," he silently said to himself, walking back to his apartment.
Hiiro decided it was time to visit his Gundam and make so repairs since he had been doing nothing but working out for the past couple of days. Packing up his tools and laptop in a duffle bag, he took a taxi to the outskirts of Tokyo and continued to walk from there on into the woods. Counting his steps from when he entered the woods, he stopped on the number "100." Pressing the remote in his pocket, the ground before him began to ascend and rumble. Lo and behold was his Gundam: Wing Zero. Hiiro began to climb onto his Gundam when his laptop started its irritating beeping. Hiiro ignored it and decided he'd answer it when he was in the cockpit. Upon arrival in the cockpit, Hiiro opened his laptop.
Another mission.
Pilot 01,
Eliminate yet another rebellion terrorist group immediately. Location will be sent to you after retrieving this message.
-Doctor J
Location was in the Fiji Islands. Hiiro smirked to himself. Now was the time to use his Gundam.
"Fucking news reporters!" Hiiro shouted in his Gundam. The base of the terrorist group was quite big, and divided. So in order to destroy it all, he had to shoot one at a time. But unfortunately, by the third building's demise, reporters came swarming in to take a glimpse of the legendary Gundam. And taking a glimpse they did; with video cameras. Finishing what he started, Hiiro demolished all the buildings, and fled.
He needed it.
The bittersweet taste of alcohol.
It's what he desired.
He inwardly thanked the man who created a bar.
He needed to forget today very badly because it, in plain words, sucked.
"Vodka on the rocks," he demanded roughly.
"Coming right up," answered a sweet voice. A voice that sounded like Her. Usagi. Hiiro looked up with hope of apologizing to her (yet again) for what he did earlier that day. He came face to face with cerulean eyes. But it wasn't Usagi. It was yet another look-a-like.
'How many are there?' He thought with irritation.
She had the same eyes, but her hair color was a tad bit lighter than Usagi's. She sure as hell didn't have the weird odangos like Usagi. No this girl had her hair down.
Hiiro ignored the look-a-like and began to drown himself in vodka when it arrived. He took it all in a gulp and slammed the glass to the counter loud enough to be heard by the look-a-like.
"More."
Two gulp.
"More."
Three gulp.
"More."
Skip ahead to the ninth gulp. . .
"Mooorree," he slurred. Hiiro felt light-headed and woozy. He was officially drunk for the first time in his life.
"Listen 'ere," the look-a-like held his jaw and lined his eyes down to hers. "That's enough. You've had one to many drinks."
Hiiro swatted her hand away. "Listen here--," he grabbed her name tag on her chest to read.
Unfortunately he missed.
The look-a-like's eye twitched menacingly before she screamed, "PREVERT!" Before she had a chance to even punch him, her forearm was held back by a waitress. "Let me go."
"He's drunk. He doesn't know any better," she said in "as a matter of fact" way. "We'll just get—"
The waitress looked at his face which was currently bobbing back and forth like a pigeon with eyes closed. "Hiiro Yui?"
"Eh?" was his response as he opened his eyes to the sound of his name.
"It's okay Minako. I know him," she let go of Minako's forearm. Minako huffed and walked back to another customer.
"More vodka," Hiiro whined like a baby.
"No."
Hiiro's eyes squinted at the voice. "Usagi?"
"Yes it is," she answered. "Look we better get you a cab or some—"
Her sentence was again interrupted. This time by a group of husky men tampering with the TV. It was the news and they were lusting for football. Minako handled the situation by taking away the remote.
"This just in. Gundams. Are they back? We have footage here of a Gundam annihilating a building as what was known as a simple meat factory."
Usagi's eyes were glued to the TV. As soon as the word "Gundam" was mentioned, her eyes glazed over. Unaware of what was going on, Hiiro turned to the TV.
"Gundam?" Hiiro said stupidly.
"Yeah. Gundam. A bunch of help they are. They just kill and don't bother to think," Usagi said with disgust.
"Wha? What do you mean?" Hiiro asked in a kid-like manner.
Usagi sighed and sat down next to Hiiro. "Ah. Well I can tell you since you're not gonna remember it in the morning." Hiiro leaned in, eyes still squinting. "Well that same Gundam on TV. . ."
Reality kicked in after what was heard next.
"That gundam killed my brother."
'Oh shit.' Was Hiiro's last thought before passing out.
A/N: Okay, Hiiro is very OOC here. But he's drunk. I'm sorry I didn't make it longer when Usagi told Hiiro. I think this was a stupid way for her to tell Hiiro. Maybe I'll rewrite this whole chapter next time. You can hate me, its okay.
