"Matte yo, Kuroudo. Kudasai!" He shouted at the top of his lungs as the figure proceeded sprinting away. He resumed running until it was too late... way too late.
His shout rang as he fell down the deep abyss. There's no Kuroudo; he was chasing no one from the beginning. His sight recorded the dim skies looking down on a pathetic lad like him falling down to no definite end. He shouted for help but no one heard him, so his last resort was...
"KUROUDO!" He screamed with all power, hoping that the one who ran away from him will return and save him from sure death. Hot liquid ran down his eyes and floated through the air like crystalline beads due to this strong feeling of fear surging down his spine. When he surmised that there's no more clear hope for him, something miraculous happened.
Something silky and soft ran across his tear-stricken cheek. His gray pools opened wider as he saw humongous wings with shiny and clean white feathers fluttering lightly through the air to keep him and his savior aloft the nearly strangling space. He squinted hard, trying to recognize his rescuer who was hovering about him, but all he saw was a great blinding light. To end the dumb curiosity, he asked in a hushed voice,
"A... an'ta wa... dare?"
The light faded slightly though it still didn't leave Jin any clue as to who he or she is... except for one scene, and an unforgettable scene at that. Lips gently curved up into a smile so heavenly, it took the last reserves of his breath. He took a moment to feel the grasp on him. Through it, he felt secured, protected and invincible. The next moment he blinked, the light encompassed the being who saved him, and at last he spoke in an assuring manner, more like uttering a promise.
"I'll come back... and that's the time when you'll be needing me the most."
And the other sentence came more like a whisper, becoming fainter as it was repeated...
"Matte iru yo. Zutto matte iru yo."
The secure touch on his back was gone, and so all the feeling that went with it.
The next moment he knew, he already drifted back to sanity.
A loud "BLAG!" registered on his ears... and on his back. He fell down his bed, now realizing that the once cloudy sky he saw is already replaced by the blank white ceiling... expressionless and blank as his friend. Tch, Kuroudo. Why does he care so much about him anyway? Upon this thought, he decided to better stop thinking about him. But, the voice in his dream... he suddenly felt goosebumps rising on his nape and on his arms. He felt some tugging on his chest, more like telling him to believe... believe the uttered promise.
Weird as it may seem, he felt better after waking up from that falling nightmare. he breathed fresh air after opening the windows. It was a very sunny morning but he didn't complain about the harsh sunlight that's making his eyes explode like balloons... and that was such a queer thing to happen. And he reveled at the morning breeze passing across his quite numb skin like gentle silk, the aria the cheerful birds played and the lush greens. The neighbor was playing the song "I Wish You Were Here" and his mind suddenly flashed the face... the face of his so-called bestest best friend.
"Arrgghhh..." he mumbled as he held his head slightly. "Why do you suddenly pop in my head from nowhere?" he asked while he walked to the washroom to gargle and wash his face. Soon, he already changed his clothes and plopped down his way downstairs.
... and he found no one. Oh yes. they're already at the stadium, still overly-engrossed watching all the action going on in there. They didn't dare to wake him up since they knew he's not worth it.. and that he's still deeply affected.
"TCH..." the eyeglassed little lad grumbled as he set himself down on the dining table. He just sat down and stared, arms folded neatly on top of the table while supporting his lazy head. He stared hard, thinking about what's going on in the arena, and unconsciously, what goes on in Kuroudo's life out there in France.
"GET OFF MY HEAD, WILL YA?" he shouted impatiently as if he's talking to someone in there. The room bounced his voice within his confining walls, returning the words to the annoyed speaker. Deep inside him, there's a part worrying over his friend... only that his mask of ego and pride are overshadowing it.
BAM!
He banged his hands on the wooden table, half-expecting that those thoughts would melt away through that movement. To evade the persistent thoughts that bugged him, he decided to get busy with something. Perhaps, breathing fresh air will do the trick. Not eating anythimg for breakfast, he stood up and left the house silently like someone weren't there ever since.
It was a busy street, full of people unfamiliar with each other especially to him. They looked like ants working so hard that they always get through a day without interacting with anyone around him.
"People really don't care." he heard himself mutter as a song originated from a place distinct and so far away.
It sleeps with just one eye
And awakens the moment that you leave
"Shall I admit my defeat to you?" he muttered audibly while walking to a direction no one --- even he himself --- knows. "I don't understand why it's so hard to get you off my mind." He recalled the moments they spent together while they were still one team in Griffon. True, those were the so-called bright and glorious days, but it couldn't have been any brighter without him there. The assuring smile... the bubbly and hero-like character... and the way his blue eyes sparkle like clouds on a sunny day. It made him feel like he doesn't want to go home to his lab anymore.
The pain it still remains
Only leaving when you're next to me
Never did he feel any more secured when he's right beside this flaxen-haired lad. He'd never felt so light, so comfortable and so protected. He has touched his lifestyle in many ways indescribable, so many ways fitting to be told in a song. It was like he's a guardian angel of some sort. He knew he was too old to believe in such foolishness but yes, to him he is. Though he tried to deny it, though he tried to ignore, he had been wanting him in lonely days so much more. The pain lurking deep within his chest, deeply sealed with bitter thoughts of him leaving, departing, never looking back to the great friendship they once had... call it old but it was just so great to be forgotten and thrown away like that. And the disturbing promise in his dream, those uttered words of hope to someone left behind Was it his? He doubted so well...
Everybody else seems far away?
He clung onto him as if he was the most important thing he could on to according to what his faith had been dictating him all these years. He had believed in him all along, served him honestly, been there through all their bouts...
"But look at what you've done...!" his angry voice caused a civilian to be shocked while reading the daily news. Eyes trailed at him suspiciously at the streets as if he is someone with a dangerous disease. Frankly, he hadn't noticed it, since he was overly-consummed on his thought, defiled and wrecked yet selfless, over the one whom he believed to have destroyed his very strong belief.
"But no matter how I try to deny, no matter how hard I ignore, I've wanted you in lonely days so much more..."
There came his semi-poetic thought. He came to think of those tides, mighty tides that may drown everything on its way, as what he'd been seeing on some movies... He had no idea why, but rhymes came gushing on his mind like well... a tide.
My faith is like a tide,
Sometimes shy, at times full of pride.
Sometimes narrow, sometimes so wide,
That other feelings go and hide.
Once it runs, it's mighty and wild.
But once it starts, it won't easily subside.
Distracted by the sounds
Of everyone and everything I see
And I search through every face
Without a single trace, of the person
The person that I need
Do you know, that everytime you're near
Everybody else seems far away
So can you come and make them disappear?
Make them disappear and we can stay.
Eyes blankly focused on a dark alley, blank and seemingly hopeless, with sounds of heavy machinery running through his senses. "I'm lost..." he mumbled under his breath. It's true, he'd been lost without his best friend. Existence in this confusing world of Gear Fighting is nonsense without a friend... and his friend whom he had treasured through the...
A sudden weight was laid on him, a very heavy weight from above. Sound of metal clashing on the ground loudly reverberated, echoed, multiplied many times by the dark aura in that alley. Jin found himself drawined of strength as he was sent face flat on the ground. Piercing pain welcomed his being, especially on his eye. He left his head throb in humongous pain that he had never felt before... pain that he never knew will happen to him. His body turned extremely numb and unknowing to any contact.
He saw his eyeglasses broke and clash as he stared on the earthen ground with one eye either half open. He tried to feel his other sense of sight but all he felt was excruciating pain polluting his senses, surging all over his being.... even digging down his very soul. Words can't from on his mouth for it seemed to be muffled by an unknown force, some force indistinct and caused by the indescribably agonizing pain...
Pain... pain is everything I have felt.
Tasukete... tasukete kudasai...
Yameru... yameru...
"All this pain... make them... d-disappear..." he heard himself mutter almost like it was never there. He was dire helpless, he can't move, more like he was already immobilized. He was left of nothing to save him. He felt for his other eye... something was splattered on his hand in heavy amount. He set his other weak sight on it. Red and sticky... and all horrid. BLOOD. RED. That was the last color he saw before blackness entirely finished him off... enveloping him.
Yes, his faith ran well like a tide, but something soon will break through that mighty flood of water, testing its strength and worse, it might stop it from gushing forth... permanently.
- Owari :: PART TWO -