The weekend went by peacefully, both Kokomi and Kusuo were anxiously waiting for Monday so they could see each other once again.
Yes, Kusuo could go over to her house secretly any time, but he wanted to do this right. Once was enough.
Monday came and Kusuo got ready to go to school, eagerly he waited on the corner of a street to wait for his Kokomi like he had done before, but the time went by and she was nowhere to be seen. He tried to locate her with her telepathy to avail.
He quietly walked to school trying to figure out why she couldn't be contacted or located, it was very odd. His powers didn't mess up unless they were growing too strong and needed new devices to control them. But, Kusuke had not said anything about it. They only thing he bother Kusuo with was his location on Saturday.
Once he got to school he noticed that his classmates were depressed.
"Where could she be?" someone asked with a desperate tone
"Our angel cannot disappear like this!"
"I saw her house was up for sale…"
"Oh no!" another one said screaming "SHE IS LEAVING US!"
Kusuo scanned the room, his friends were not there yet either.
'I can't seem to find anyone' He thought 'this must be my brother's doing… he kept going on about how I was going to regret not telling him about where I had been'
The cries around him didn't stop, they only got worse.
Not only was Kokomi gone, but the rest of his friends were too.
He got up from his seat and went over to another classroom to find Toritsuka, but he wasn't there.
Kusuo let out a sigh and headed back to his classroom.
The day went by horribly slow, the complaints and cries about Teruhashi not being there did not help. Once the bell rang he hurriedly went to check on every one of his friends, but all of their houses were up for sale just like his classmate had said about Kokomi's house.
They were nowhere to be found.
The neighbors didn't even know that those people lived there.
'Good grief' he let out a sigh 'It's time to go home' he thought to himself, he needed to figure out how to free his friends and his families.
He walked slowly and he finally realized that his heart was aching, he stopped and looked down to his hands. If he couldn't protect them, what good was he? Especially to Kokomi.
He had waited all of Sunday to see her, how come he hadn't even grown suspicious of his brother? He had said several times how he was going to regret not telling him about Kokomi.
Kusuo knew full well that his brother was a sadist and he would not hesitate to hurt his friends, just to show Kusuo what he could do.
Walking alone made him realize how use to his friends he was.
'Dammit' he quietly transported himself to his house.
The entrance to his house had changed. There was a metal caged surrounding the property
Kusuo rolled his eyes and try to find an opening, but he couldn't. It was perfectly smooth.
His phone started to ring
'Hello Kusuo' his brother started once he picked up the phone "I have alllll of your friends here with me.'
'What do you want?' he asked, annoyed.
'I just wanted to see what a real gladiator fight would be like! You should come in and see!' His brother laughed and hung up, leaving him with no chance to revoked him.
At that same moment an opening was shown.
Kusuo headed towards it and entered it. It was dark but there was enough light to see where to go. There were no curves or inclinations, it was a straight line. After walking for a while he finally reached a bright doorway.
He couldn't hear or do anything. His powers were canceled inside of the metal structure.
"Welcome to The Arena!" A voice said over the intercom "We have our participants playing for their right to be alive!"
Kusuo got closer to the rails while the voice continued "Riki Nendo is our first participant! This big and strong guy knows no danger! He will destroy anything in his way!"
Kusuo looked around to try to get down, but there was no way of doing it unless he jumped, and that was not a safe idea.
His heartbeat started racing, the uncertainty of not knowing what was going to happen made him feel light headed.
How was he going to get out of this situation?
How was he going to get his friends out of this?
He rapidly grabbed his phone and called his brother.
'Yes Kusuo?' Kusuke answered 'Are you going to tell me what is going on?'
Kusuo didn't answer. Why did he have to know what was going on in his life all of the time? Not even his mother wanted to know about him that much.
'Make this fight fair, let me use my powers'
'Hahaha!' his brother laughed 'This is the fun part Kusuo! Try to enjoy it!'
His brother hung up the phone, then the door behind him shut down. Now he had nowhere to go.
In the distance Nendou started to fight a beast, he gave it his all but to no avail.
Kusuo couldn't believe his eyes when his friend felt cold to the ground, bright blood spreading under his corpse
"Riki Nendou is down!" The communicator cried
Kusuo couldn't hear the next words the communicator was saying, he fell to his knees and saw his next friend show up in the middle of the arena.
One by one his friends were devoured by the beast, some lasted more than others, but at the end none of them made it out alive.
His heart revolved inside his ribcage while his head buzzed. His thoughts did not come out straight.
He lost them, he had lost all of his friends.
His friends were gone forever and he couldn't do anything about it.
His brother had gone too far and there was nothing he could do now.
"They… they are gone…" Kusuo said not believing what was going on.
"Now now!" The communicator cried "Our last participant is a beauty! Everyone falls for her from her wonderful charms! Will see if the beast will do the same! Kokomi Teruhashi ladies and gentlemen!"
Kusuo got up immediately and tried to locate her in the arena. She was standing still, not moving off to the side, holding onto some kind of weapon.
He saw her, but he couldn't believe his eyes. This could not be real life, right? Kusuke would not go this far? He had killed more than 10 people already. Was that not enough for him?
His friends were gone.
All he had left now were memories, and now he was going to go back to the darker times he had lived before this all started. No friends, no one to share the excitement or happiness with. Yes, he pretended not to care for them, but now he realized it was all a façade. He truly cared and loved his friends.
Why did he do this? Just because he didn't want to give out private information?
How could he do this?
Kusuo cried out in desperation, but his cries got lost in the excitement from the rest of the people, he reached out for his phone and tried to deal his mother
"The person you are trying to reach–"
"Dammit, dammit" his tears started to come out, while he hysterically tried to call his dad, and then his mom, and then his dad again, but no one was available.
"He would not have the guts to kill our parents, right?" he asked himself crying
He looked up from his phone down to the arena, Kokomi ran around trying to avoid the beast, but it was for naught.
The beast opened up his mouth and—
"NOOOOOOOO!" Kusuo screamed while trying to teletransport to the area where Teruhashi was. But nothing worked, he was running out of options, the tears that he couldn't stop made his vision blurry… he truly didn't have any options. The door was closed and he was so high up that if he jumped he surely would die or at least break something. But was that the only option? Surely his brother would not let him die… right? He got on top of the rail and jumped off. The sensation of flying in the air without his powers was terrifying. But what is the point now? His friends were gone, and his love was now dead. All thanks to him.
'Its all my fault' Kusuo thought as he was getting closer to the ground. 'I can't fix anything now…'
Kusuke stared into the computer, he couldn't believe Kusuo had jumped off the rail.
He reached out and grabbed his soda.
"Honey!" His mother cried out "wake up your brother, it's time for dinner!"
Kusuke got up from his computer and went to check on his brother who was lying in bed connected to his computer.
When he got there he noticed that Kusuo was sweating, his expression was not healthy either, the color had drained.
Maybe he had gone too far on his joke this time.
"Ku~~~" his mother said coming up the stairs
"Oh mom!" Kusuke said nervously "Kusuo said he doesn't want to eat dinner"
His mother expression darken "he already skipped lunch and breakfast, he needs to have dinner"
Ms Saiki tried to step into Kusuo's room.
"Mom—"
"Kusuke, get out of the way" his mother said with her darker tone
Kusuke nervously stepped aside
"Ahhh!" His mother screamed, which made his father come up the stairs
"What's wrong, my love?" He asked once he got into Kusuo's room
But Mr Saiki was also surprised, Kusuke had been playing a game on Kusuo and it had turned bad.
"Oh, why is Kusuo bleeding?" He turned around to look at his older son "and why is he attached to a computer?"