Disclaimer: I do not own Kagerou Project/Mekakucity Actors!
Rating: T for Tsukihiko.
Pairings: Hibiya/Kagerou. Hibiya-centric. Kagerou-centric.
Hehehe. Sorry about the wait. It's a pretty anti-climatic chapter, so a double apology. Triple apology to the pun some of you may notice early in the chapter. Tsukihiko 5 eva.
"I was worried about you."
Kagerou swiveled from his position, gawking at Azami. Did she really say that? In all his time around her, not once had he heard her admit weakness like that. Today must be an off day.
If it was, it wasn't just Azami's sudden pique of concern for him. It was the events earlier. Because of the medusa, he was able to regain all the memories that he lost. Every detail was forged into his mind like a hot iron, and all he had to do was think back to any point in time, and he'd remember the scene in its entirety.
There wasn't a single memory in which Azami admitted something the way she did now. Needless to say, the sudden worry was a bit alarming. Then again, she could just be trying to spite me...that sounds like Azami.
"What do you mean?"
Her vermilion eyes lifted, and a serious, stern gaze demanded attention. The heat haze involuntarily gulped, and shoved his hands in his pockets, trying to smile away the feeling that was settling in his stomach. Shit, did I make her mad...?
"You don't remember, obviously...but an incident happened and you were missing for a while. I couldn't find you anywhere, oddly enough. And it never occurred to me you could be with those kids. However..." Azami turned slightly to her left, hair flying from beneath her. "I had no intention of letting you stay lost forever. When I found you...I was relieved."
The heat haze didn't know what to think of this. She actually cared about him? Of course, he figured that she only needed him as a source of power, and didn't cherish him as a person otherwise. But, if she admitted her feelings like this, than it's possible that she isn't all stone.
"Really? Then I'm sorry to make you worry like that." Kagerou covered, shifting the weight of his feet. "It's a good thing I'm back then, huh?"
"Yes, I don't know if I could handle it if I lost another person close to me again."
Whoa, what? "Excuse me?"
"I never told you, Kagerou? About my husband."
He blinked, and ghostly eyes looked elsewhere than their creator. "Ah, of course you have. You mentioned him, at least. You never talked about it, but you don't-"
"His name was Tsukihiko," the medusa began, ignoring the haze, "and...I had never loved someone the way I loved him."
"Of course."
"Well, did I ever tell you what happened to him?" She cast a wistful glance, but a small smile contradicted her countenance. The wind picked up again, whipping her voluminous black hairs around. So picturesque.
"No, you didn't." Kagerou pointed out, resting his hands at his side. "What happened?"
"I love you, Tsukihiko."
"I love you too, Azami."
Azami smiled up at her spouse, and squeezed his hand lightly. How she loved him.
He had, after all, changed her life. Before, Azami was outcast and hurt, shunned by society and God, a monster born of the most peculiar proportions. For the longest time, she had felt devoid of love and life, and the bright sun would always hurt her eyes.
But, upon meeting the human named Tsukihiko, things began to change. Not all of humanity was bad, she came to learn. At first, she distrusted him like she did to everyone else, her heart hardened by past sufferings. Yet the snow-haired man proved to be no more dangerous than he was tall. Incredibly tall, or at least, when compared to the little medusa, he harbored not a mean bone in his body. Azami was taken by surprise, how gentle he was.
"Why do you treat me so well?" She asked him, still skeptical of his person. "Why do you keep visiting me?"
To these suspicious notions, the man would only laugh quietly, yet wholeheartedly; his bright eyes would light up with delight, and his voice would carry on with the wind, but Azami managed to always hear everything he was saying.
"Why should I not treat you well? It's only the right thing for me to do. I visit you because I like you, is that wrong?"
Azami grimaced, and crossed her arms over her chest. "Are you saying, then, that you are only patronizing me? That it's only out of pity you dare speak to me?"
"Now, when did I say that? I wouldn't do something so cruel," Tsukihiko protested, eyes downcast. "There's no reason to stir up things. If I didn't truly want to speak with you, I wouldn't."
That was the defining moment of Azami's love life. A person that wanted to be with her genuinely, a person who wasn't afraid of her; a person that didn't pity her, or make her regret her existence.
A person. A decent, well-rounded humane being, at that.
The wife would think about their encounters often, and their humble lives they spend together. Several months ago, much to Azami's embarrassment and disbelief, they even shared a night of passion. A half-breed rested inside of Azami for the time being, and her transition from being a wife to a mother was more than shocking.
It was enlightening.
All good things come to an end, however.
That thought always reoccurred whenever Azami found herself in a good mood. Her countenance would drop whenever this negative thought resurfaced. Could she not live in happiness? Her eyes stared up to admire the profile of her husband. Their hands, intertwined and warm, would eventually let go, wouldn't they?
After all, Tsukihiko was human. Azami was cursed to live a life of eternity, outliving and outlasting any species on this planet they called Earth. She was cursed to incredible power that could alter fates and change worlds. The woman was fated to be a goddess, a deity, a monster.
It was the exact opposite of Tsukihiko. The man was only human, and that's all he'd ever be. No matter how kind, how handsome, how perfect he was in Azami's eyes, none of it would matter when he would grow old and die. In fact, there wasn't a guarantee that he would even live. What if he were to catch illness, and perish? Or be killed by evil hands? Because he was human, he was weak and fragile when compared to Medusa-kind.
Surely, I'll outlive him.
Yes, that was his destiny. Tsukihiko was only another human in a swarm of humanity, someone who would contribute to nothing but the gene pool, no matter how hard he tried. In the end, death and disappearance was inevitable. If that's the case, then is there a point to all of this...?
Thoughts like that, along with moments spent with him, are what lead Azami to want to escape this world. A world where people grew old, got sick, got hurt...she wanted something more reliable, something more trustworthy.
The snakes that live inside of her, the awesome power that furies within would give her access to such a place. During her months of pregnancy, she could only think about the future of this warped family, Tsukihiko, and the world she wanted. Where no one grew old, got sick, or died. A place where time stands still.
"What are we going to name her, Tsukihiko?"
The couple stared down at their child. A baby girl, half medusa and half human. Her hairs were short and pale, but her eyes were dark and red. An albino product of two strange individuals, indeed.
It was a rainy day the day she was born. A beautiful, ultramarine rain blessed her birth. Tsukihiko saw it that way, at least. With a smile, he would kiss Azami's cheek, and hold his new daughter in his hands.
"How about 'Shion'?"
"I told you about my daughter at least, right?"
"Yes, I know about Shion," Kagerou recalled wistfully, closing his eyes, "but what happened after that? That world you wanted..."
"...was the heat haze." she answered, "That's where you and her come in."
"So, then, Tsukihiko...he-"
"Yes, it was only a few years after Shion's birth, but he was killed."
The heat haze flinched. Even if Kagerou himself had slaughtered many innocents upon innocents, that declaration made him feel uneasy and, to some extent, sad. Perhaps, because, in a way Tsukihiko had caused him to exist. Is this pity?
"I'm sorry," he instinctively said, rubbing the back of his head, "who killed him?"
It was here that Kagerou was witness to the decades upon decades of loneliness that Azami experienced. Years of listlessly existing, with hardly any family left to call her own, with only artificial beings as her company. Centuries of scorn and hate, power and strength. While many people were victim to the haze, while many people inherited her eye abilities...it was only here did Kagerou see all of it affect her.
And all she did was frown.
Yet, that singular expression showed it all. Had he known better, he could have sworn the medusa was crying.
But he wasn't brave enough to point that out.
"Humans. Humans killed Tsukihiko."
"Ah. But, you managed to live in the haze for a while, right?"
The being named Azami blinked, as if confused. "Well, yes. The three of us spent our short time together in the haze."
"So, at least you could say you had what you wanted for that short time..."
"And what would that be, exactly...?"
"Happiness."
The 's' sound lingered on Kagerou's tongue, but it died as it was carried away by the breeze. There wasn't a single noise to interrupt the silence he had created.
"It surely must have seemed that way. But trust me, Kagerou..." a smirk replaced her disbelief, "all of that died with Tsukihiko and Shion."
"...I see."
"So, that's why...I have to show them how it feels. Their wishes to live forever, to be happy, to make others happy..." Azami stared down, a scene of all humanity before her. In the first place, she and Kagerou were standing atop a skyscraper, looking at the location where a forest had been before it was torn down. Remnants of a destroyed cottage were visible, and Azami's hands clenched in seeing this scene.
"I have to show them how useless those wishes are. What I had to experience..."
"Mhmm," Kagerou affirmed quietly, voice dying, "say, you're just going to let them get away with tearing that place down?"
"It doesn't matter. That cottage was destined to rot sometime, anyways."
"Hmm, alright."
"Besides, this timeline will probably get reset soon. It won't be like this somewhere else."
He was getting tired of hearing such empty, lonely words. Especially after such an emotional anecdote. He forced himself to choke out: "Right."
"You finish up here. I'll check on the others for now."
The Kozakura didn't look back at Kagerou, and began walking away. She took her time, although Kagerou knew that in no time, she would disappear with only a heat wave as proof she was ever there in the first place.
Because that's all I am. A fake.
A sigh escaped his lips, and he looked back at that desolated cottage.
However, his eyes widened when they found a whitish figure standing among the wreckage. He seemed to be looking up at Kagerou, smiling sadly.
'I'm sorry', the person mouthed, 'please save her'.
The heat haze was in completely disbelief, and wanted to approach this figure. However, the moment he moved was the moment that this person disappeared.
"...Tsukihiko."
He turned around, and saw Azami's lasting figure. She finally retreated into darkness, where she was finally dissolved from sight. A pain wrenched within Kagerou, and he placed a hand over where a heart would be.
"I'm sorry, Tsukihiko. But it's impossible."
The red spirit turned, and saw the sun setting on the old cottage.
"She can't be saved."