"Winner"
He never thought he would hate the word more in his life.
As he stared at the stick in his hand, the memories came back.
Flash by flash, he saw them.
Memories, precious memories of the man he grew to care for.
Even with Power's help he still felt sick.
The memories hurt, so so much.
He still had trouble with sleeping.
From the moment he wakes up in the morning, his head felt dizzy. He couldn't think or see anything without his heart having a strange ache. His stomach could barely hold in the food he eats sometimes, which began to taste bland.
His senses felt dull.
He felt dull.
His brain must've gone down a shithole.
Nothing really felt right anymore apart from his time with Power.
Power...
She was the only thing anchoring him to this world.
Whenever she held his hands, he felt like a piece of his soul he didn't know was missing returned to him. Her smile shined brilliantly and lit it the darkness left by Aki's death. Her laugh always made him laugh with her. Her presence shielded him from the ghosts that haunted him.
If he had to be honest with himself. He thinks... no... he knows the Blood Devil that he's grown to love took priority now over Makima.
He knew he can't live without her, she's all he had left.
She carries his heart and soul.
His mind drifted from her to Aki.
He silently grieved, staring at the night sky with unshed tears as he laid on the bench.
His thoughts then shifted to Pochita.
His first friend, the first to leave him.
"Pochita." He groaned in soft despair.
He felt cold.
"What are you doing, Denji?"
Speaking of Makima...
Her voice stirred him from his melancholy.
When he gazed at the woman, she's still as beautiful as he last saw her.
His heart skipped a beat.
Weirdly, it didn't skyrocket as it used to when she first took him in.
"Ms. Makima... I... I won a free ice cream..." He stated softly as he extended his ice cream stick to her.
Maybe she would be a little proud of his achievement.
Anything to take his mind off the pain.
Denji hadn't expected her to invite him to her apartment.
It was the first time he's been there.
He felt that he should be excited to be in Makima's residence but for some strange reason, his guts stirred uncomfortably.
It did ease when her dogs gave him a warm, sloppy welcome.
Makima laughed for the first time since he met her, soaking up the affection of her furry companions.
Denji couldn't help the blush making its way to his cheeks.
It was a beautiful laugh, one of joy and love.
He hoped that one day he could make her laugh like that as well.
When she had asked him what he wished for, his mind wandered.
Any wish in the world...
He remembered when she first told him about how she would grant any of his wish. He had at the time wanted to be intimate with her, to put plainly, have sex with Makima. She was drop-dead gorgeous, and she still is.
He could have that wish granted. She let him touch her chest, hell, she put his hands there. So he doubted she would refuse.
But...
After everything he's been through... he just didn't feel the need to do it with her.
He's in pain, so much of it, he could barely breathe sometimes.
If he could have any wish, it would be to make the pain go away.
His guilt had built up over time since Aki's death.
Power was able to grant him some relief but every day he could not help but believe it was his fault.
It was why he chose to be her dog...
He didn't want those mistakes to be repeated again.
He began to empty his mind and tried his hardest to obey Makima.
To rid himself of his painful thoughts.
"Because I'm going to kill her."
He wasn't sure he heard that right.
...
"Don't open it." A voice echoed in his head.
His thoughts displayed that door again, warning him to keep it closed.
"Open it." Makima stated simply.
He tried to filter out what she was saying but he felt every fiber of his being was trying to work against him.
Trying to make him open that door.
Power did not know what was happening to her.
One moment she was laying down on the couch watching TV, the next she found herself going through her room.
She pulled out a cake she didn't even know she made.
"Happy 17th Birthday, Denji"
...
Power found herself walking in the dead of night with the cake in her hands.
She tried to struggle but she felt her will being slowly sapped away.
Whatever force was pulling her, it made her stop in front of a door...
It opened...
"Denji"
He saw Power holding a cake.
His eyes moved, noticing Makima had raised her hand.
Power stared at Makima's pointer finger.
Every alarm in her body screamed for her to run but she was frozen.
She couldn't move.
"Bang."
It was with those words that Power knew no more.
When her head hit the ground, Denji felt nothing.
It wasn't in a way that he once thought that if someone close to him died, he wouldn't cry.
He wanted to cry so hard.
He wanted to scream so badly.
He wanted to roar in grief and anger, unleashing his rage at anything and everything.
But he couldn't.
When Power died...
She took everything he had to feel.