F
I stayed there a long while, watching the dark waves lap against the granite cliffs.
The sound of the waves is soothing and the wind is calm and gentle. It helps to calm me down. How strange I am, to take comfort in the sounds of this cruel world. I considered putting more effort into hating it, but concluded it wouldn't help anyone.
The cries of the birds and the rustling of the lush green forest take my mind off my brothers. I really feel incomplete without them. Ever since I was born, I was never left alone.
I admit, it got annoying sometimes. There were times I wished all of them would stop pestering me and just disappear. There really was never a moment of silence with the guys. We were all pretty rambunctious. Stories. Pranks. Someone got their eyebrows shaved off, 3's fault probably. Someone found bullion cubes in the shower head, 3 again. Someone took a dump in the sink… 3 was so awful… ugh.
I miss him.
I miss all of them…
We were never cruel to each other. We were all a little different, but in general we were the same. Even when I met a 'me' I had never seen before, I already knew him. And he already knew me. We were one big… no, not family. We were more than that. Closer. One body. One person.
No man hates his own life. Nobody behaves cruelly towards himself. How true this was among us. We guarded each other jealously. Our bonds were closer than blood. When one member hurt, we suffered alongside him. When one member rejoiced… well. I don't think we ever did that.
We loved each other.
We hated everyone else.
Who could blame us? How could we ever trust anyone else. Everyone who wore a different face tortured us. They looked at us with cold, unfeeling stares. Like we were objects, commodities… no, lower than that.
To them, we were merely expendable husks.
And they expended us.
They slowly chipped away at our body. Ten at a time. Sometimes twenty. They'd roll our cold bodies out on gurneys. A hundred became eighty-five. Eighty-five became Seventy…
Ah.
If I keep crying, I'll get dehydrated.
It took awhile for the bleeding in my leg to stop. I sat there on the ledge for half an hour just holding it. If it hit the artery I would've just laid down and died, but I got lucky. Bullet seems small too. Who's out there shooting 9mm handguns in the middle of an exploding base?
Well, it still bled a lot. It wasn't gushing but the wound is deep and it's super uncomfortable. I had to use my shirt to put pressure on it. Now that's all bloody and I'm considering burning it. Wait. What if I need it later, though? Where will I get another one? Best to hang on to it, even if it's gross.
The sun is moving across the sky. I didn't know it did that. At first, I thought I was imagining things, but as the shadows kept moving I realized the sun was slowly approaching the sea. It's still a good ways from the horizon though. I feel it's warm rays on my bare skin as I stand up and start down the cliff side path. It's more comfortable to limp, but I can run if I need to.
I swing my bloody shirt up over my shoulder.
It slaps me in the back and it hurts!
I was really shocked by the pain. I twist my neck as far as it can go and try to look past my shoulder. I'm all pink! It must have been the sun. Since when could such a mild heat can burn!?
My yelp scared some birds that had settled in the rocks nearby. They squawk unhappily at me before taking wing. Such an attitude they've got. Is it unreasonable make noise when you're in pain? All of you have been calling non-stop for the past hour anyways and I didn't complain one bit.
Bratty things...
I sigh and take warm air into my lungs. The moist breeze is so different from the weird smelling air in the Facility. The sun is bright and white and warm, not like the cold fluorescent tubes I'm used to. Well. The tubes never burned me before, but for some reason I like the sun much, much better. I can't help enjoying it's warmth on my eyelids. I wonder if those will burn as well?
I guess it's worth it.
This is the paradise the guys were talking about. This is all they ever wanted. It's exactly like 15 said it would be. The sun, the vast sea. The blue sky. The green trees… Soon, the sun will dip into the water and the sky will light up with the colours of fire. Then, there will be diamonds in the sky.
How glorious.
My entire life I've seen only grey walls. This place is an assault on the senses. It's like heaven.
But, I can't enjoy it.
What is paradise? Am I to be alone here? Just me? The sole, unworthy survivor of the red-haired man's onslaught? All my brethren languish at the bottom of the saline sea.
All of 'me' should be here to see this. 15 especially. He worked the hardest. He hoped and prayed and begged the fates, but cold destiny scorned him. It scorned my precious friend. How dare you! How dare you.
This world is wicked.
Why did it send the red-haired man to the facility? Surely he wasn't there to kill my brothers. We were simply in the way. Mere casualties of cruel fate. Did they die a meaningless death?... Did we live meaningful lives?
No.
I don't care about meaning.
They meant everything to me, and that's all that matters. Why do I care if world, which dealt so mercilessly with us, finds our lives valuable? Have we not been injured enough? Surely we are allowed to bear righteous anger. To seek recompense for our suffering.
Ah, I forgot.
There is no righteousness in this world.
Neither justice nor mercy.
Here, the innocent are crushed with the guilty. They rot together on the seafloor.
What should I do?
Rage against fate? I cannot. It will crush me under it's heel.
Smile and bend and go where it carries me? Never!
Where can I find goodness? Where can I rest? There's nowhere I can go. There is no hope to be found. There's not a shred of kindness lett in this world. I have no more kindness to give. The red-haired man has torn everything from me. He stole what little I had.
Then he slaughtered them and left them on the ground like refuse.
Like garbage.
Oh.
But to me, they are more precious than this world. I'd give the Earth a thousand times for their sake.
For there is only one person whom I can trust unconditionally. Only one person I could ever love selflessly. The only one who I've ever shown kindness towards, and only one who has ever shown kindness to me.
Oh, how I long to see 'me' again.
Even just one.
I'd cling to him.
I'd cry tears of joy.
I'd never let him go.
six needs a hug from OG kyo
Recall that the world of KOF essentially has an evil god - Orochi. Six complaining about fate isn't nesceesarily unreasonable.
6. Babe. Pull through ok?
Press F to pay respects to sunburn boi
