Akira Jin's Residence
Tokyo, Japan
17 November 2066, 22:32
The lights in Kyousuke Jin's room died down, plunging the young man's sleeping quarters into the darkness, and that was the sign he had been waiting for. He stepped out from the abandoned apartment which he had used as his hideout ever since his daring escape, and headed towards the house across the street. Though it was a pretty big house, it wasn't fancy at all. Even the green patch by the porch seemed to be just that, and not what one would consider a garden.
A gust of wind blew past, alerting the temperature sensors all over his mechanical body, but he paid the signals no mind, even if some of the impulses were practically tickling him to the bone, if he had bones. Instead, he fixed his hood to make sure that his half-damaged face remained hidden, in case there were people in the neighborhood who were still awake. After all, a normal human would not be found wandering around when a part of his face had been stripped off. An android would, however; an android like him.
As he drew closer and closer, he could feel a sense of familiarity wash over him. He allowed his ice-blue eyes to drift around --- not in the literal sense, of course --- and scan the area for a few moments, yet after doing so rather thoroughly, he still could not figure out what was so comfortable about the place.
The door slid open, and he quickly moved into the curtains of darkness to conceal himself. From where he stood, almost dropping into standby-stealth mode, he saw the dark-haired android hunter emerge from his father's dwelling, armed and ready to help rid of the world of the androids. He had found out from whispering, gossiping folks that despite many offers he insisted on staying with his family, to aid and protect them at the time of unrest. The young man, on the other hand, then started to leave the premises, having checked if he had brought everything he would need for their long-planned hunting trip in the infested streets of Kawasaki. But after taking a few steps forward, he came to a halt, eyes looking around critically.
The android knew he had been sensed, but instead of attempting to hide himself even more, he stepped out to meet Kyousuke face-to-face, blue eyes meeting black once more. The latter already had his hand on his blaster, at the verge of pulling it and using it against the newcomer, but the other then pulled back his hood, revealing his familiar pale features, blonde hair, and orbs of sapphire blue. He wasn't surprised when the smaller lad lowered his guard, his hands dropping to his sides, and after putting his hood back into place, he asked, "Why?"
Kyousuke blinked. "Why what?"
"You had the chance. But why didn't you take it?" He had no idea how such anger and hostility managed to take over him, but the next thing he knew, he had taken the human by the collar of his shirt, and rather forcefully, at that. "Why did you spare my life?"
The other's gaze hardened as though he had been accused of doing something downright evil, when in fact it was the contrary. But his resentment soon disappeared as he noticed how injured the android was. "Let me go," he plainly said, not attempting at all to reply to the questions that had been pinned on him, and to his surprise, it didn't take too long before the blonde-haired mechanical being obeyed. He then spared a look inside the house, checking if his father, Akira --- who was also part of an anti-android faction --- was still in the living room. When he saw that he wasn't, he turned back to his guest and regarded him with a nod. "Come in. I need to get you fixed up."
The blonde hesitated. "I don't understand."
"Neither do I," Kyousuke confessed. "At least, not yet."
The spectacled young man extended his hand for him to take, confusing him even more than he already was. Aside from the unexplainable feeling of familiarity that still did not go away and was flowing from the android hunter as well, there was the incomprehensible friendliness of the lad in glasses towards him. As much as he wanted to believe that he was deliberately being led into a trap --- the blonde-haired twins, who he had narrowly escaped from the other night, could be in Kyousuke's room for all he knew --- he couldn't find a trace of the mischievousness and hatred in the other's eyes he first saw the other night.
Left without a choice, he took Kyousuke's hand and shook it. Well, he could always self-destruct.
Kyousuke's room was cross of a laboratory and a storeroom rather than a sleeping quarters. On one side of the room were his bed and clothes cabinet, pushed near the wall to take up as little space as possible, and on the other were his scientific gadgets and equipment. Hung on the wall were all sorts of firearms, from large blasters to pistols and handguns, all of them specially customized with the genius' special touch.
"Your arm will take some work, but I'll be done with it before morning comes, so you can slip out before anyone else knows you were here," the hunter commented as he approached the sitting android, bringing with him a roll of some sort of flaxen-hued cloth and a pair of scissors. He then began patching up the blonde's face, after having fixed the circuitry without so as much breaking a sweat.
What surprised the android was that the 'skincloth' or whatever it was called happened to be of the exact hue as that of his artificial skin coat. It had to be more than coincidence; he was practically the only pale-skinned resident mechanical creature in all of Japan, as the rest were created with Oriental skin tones. He remembered Zero joking that he was supposed to be stationed somewhere in Europe --- France, if he recalled correctly --- but was wrongly deported to Japan. He never really believed that, despite the fact that it was quite a good excuse, and then he realized that he still didn't know why he was different.
The patching was done in five minutes or so. Wanting him to see how well he had done, Kyousuke led him to the nearby cabinet so he could take a look at the mirror, which was attached to the middle compartment. He had to bend down a little, with the hunter being shorter than he was and the mirror being at his head level, to see the work that had been done to him, and was particularly amazed. He looked as good as new, and he looked human. He didn't know how the other did it in such a short span of time, but he did far better than he ever expected him to.
Kyousuke stood by his working table, watching the android examine the work he had done silently, not wanting to intrude on the other's personal space. He was aware that the blonde still didn't trust him, and he didn't want to do anything that would make the situation between them worse. Then, he allowed his eyes to fall on a framed photograph at his end of the table, that of him and his friends more or less a year back. All of them were in their army uniform and were happily, in fact crazily, posing somewhere in their military camp. He was right in the middle of the picture, his two best friends --- one a carefree brunette and the other a snooty blonde --- ganging up on him from behind as he refused to join them earlier that time. He himself was grinning; fortunately the camera took the shot when he had regained his interest in the matter.
He felt tears glisten within his eyes once more. They had all been happy that day, ecstatic even, having received the news that they were going to go to a real battle the next day, after their long wait. They didn't know that only very few of them would actually survive. He ran his fingers through the photograph gingerly, pointing out who else had managed to leave the battlefield alive. Hiroshi Washida, Satoru Todoroki, Taka Shibuya, Tarou Takoyama, Ebata Ryouichi… Heck, they weren't even fine soldiers. All the skilled ones, minus himself, had died.
At that, he pushed the picture frame face down against the table, and looked back at the blonde-haired android who, by then, had also turned around to regard him. Determination surging through him after his short voyage down memory lane, he scooped up the equipment he would need and began to make his way towards his bed, motioning the android to do the same. He had a long night of repair work ahead of him.
Your deaths will not go unavenged… Mitsuke, Kuroudo.
/To be continued…/
Notes: I apologize for the delay of this update, minna; my summer unfortunately became hectic all of a sudden. I'm doing my best to update as much as I can, though. *points to rough drafts on paper scattered everywhere* Anyway… you guys are confused, aren't you? Sad to say (for you), I'm not going to offer any explanations here; you'll have to wait for the next chapters, or ask me to spoil. Anything goes for me. I, however, would love to know what you think is really going on, so… review? Please? *puppy eyes*
Tokyo, Japan
17 November 2066, 22:32
The lights in Kyousuke Jin's room died down, plunging the young man's sleeping quarters into the darkness, and that was the sign he had been waiting for. He stepped out from the abandoned apartment which he had used as his hideout ever since his daring escape, and headed towards the house across the street. Though it was a pretty big house, it wasn't fancy at all. Even the green patch by the porch seemed to be just that, and not what one would consider a garden.
A gust of wind blew past, alerting the temperature sensors all over his mechanical body, but he paid the signals no mind, even if some of the impulses were practically tickling him to the bone, if he had bones. Instead, he fixed his hood to make sure that his half-damaged face remained hidden, in case there were people in the neighborhood who were still awake. After all, a normal human would not be found wandering around when a part of his face had been stripped off. An android would, however; an android like him.
As he drew closer and closer, he could feel a sense of familiarity wash over him. He allowed his ice-blue eyes to drift around --- not in the literal sense, of course --- and scan the area for a few moments, yet after doing so rather thoroughly, he still could not figure out what was so comfortable about the place.
The door slid open, and he quickly moved into the curtains of darkness to conceal himself. From where he stood, almost dropping into standby-stealth mode, he saw the dark-haired android hunter emerge from his father's dwelling, armed and ready to help rid of the world of the androids. He had found out from whispering, gossiping folks that despite many offers he insisted on staying with his family, to aid and protect them at the time of unrest. The young man, on the other hand, then started to leave the premises, having checked if he had brought everything he would need for their long-planned hunting trip in the infested streets of Kawasaki. But after taking a few steps forward, he came to a halt, eyes looking around critically.
The android knew he had been sensed, but instead of attempting to hide himself even more, he stepped out to meet Kyousuke face-to-face, blue eyes meeting black once more. The latter already had his hand on his blaster, at the verge of pulling it and using it against the newcomer, but the other then pulled back his hood, revealing his familiar pale features, blonde hair, and orbs of sapphire blue. He wasn't surprised when the smaller lad lowered his guard, his hands dropping to his sides, and after putting his hood back into place, he asked, "Why?"
Kyousuke blinked. "Why what?"
"You had the chance. But why didn't you take it?" He had no idea how such anger and hostility managed to take over him, but the next thing he knew, he had taken the human by the collar of his shirt, and rather forcefully, at that. "Why did you spare my life?"
The other's gaze hardened as though he had been accused of doing something downright evil, when in fact it was the contrary. But his resentment soon disappeared as he noticed how injured the android was. "Let me go," he plainly said, not attempting at all to reply to the questions that had been pinned on him, and to his surprise, it didn't take too long before the blonde-haired mechanical being obeyed. He then spared a look inside the house, checking if his father, Akira --- who was also part of an anti-android faction --- was still in the living room. When he saw that he wasn't, he turned back to his guest and regarded him with a nod. "Come in. I need to get you fixed up."
The blonde hesitated. "I don't understand."
"Neither do I," Kyousuke confessed. "At least, not yet."
The spectacled young man extended his hand for him to take, confusing him even more than he already was. Aside from the unexplainable feeling of familiarity that still did not go away and was flowing from the android hunter as well, there was the incomprehensible friendliness of the lad in glasses towards him. As much as he wanted to believe that he was deliberately being led into a trap --- the blonde-haired twins, who he had narrowly escaped from the other night, could be in Kyousuke's room for all he knew --- he couldn't find a trace of the mischievousness and hatred in the other's eyes he first saw the other night.
Left without a choice, he took Kyousuke's hand and shook it. Well, he could always self-destruct.
Kyousuke's room was cross of a laboratory and a storeroom rather than a sleeping quarters. On one side of the room were his bed and clothes cabinet, pushed near the wall to take up as little space as possible, and on the other were his scientific gadgets and equipment. Hung on the wall were all sorts of firearms, from large blasters to pistols and handguns, all of them specially customized with the genius' special touch.
"Your arm will take some work, but I'll be done with it before morning comes, so you can slip out before anyone else knows you were here," the hunter commented as he approached the sitting android, bringing with him a roll of some sort of flaxen-hued cloth and a pair of scissors. He then began patching up the blonde's face, after having fixed the circuitry without so as much breaking a sweat.
What surprised the android was that the 'skincloth' or whatever it was called happened to be of the exact hue as that of his artificial skin coat. It had to be more than coincidence; he was practically the only pale-skinned resident mechanical creature in all of Japan, as the rest were created with Oriental skin tones. He remembered Zero joking that he was supposed to be stationed somewhere in Europe --- France, if he recalled correctly --- but was wrongly deported to Japan. He never really believed that, despite the fact that it was quite a good excuse, and then he realized that he still didn't know why he was different.
The patching was done in five minutes or so. Wanting him to see how well he had done, Kyousuke led him to the nearby cabinet so he could take a look at the mirror, which was attached to the middle compartment. He had to bend down a little, with the hunter being shorter than he was and the mirror being at his head level, to see the work that had been done to him, and was particularly amazed. He looked as good as new, and he looked human. He didn't know how the other did it in such a short span of time, but he did far better than he ever expected him to.
Kyousuke stood by his working table, watching the android examine the work he had done silently, not wanting to intrude on the other's personal space. He was aware that the blonde still didn't trust him, and he didn't want to do anything that would make the situation between them worse. Then, he allowed his eyes to fall on a framed photograph at his end of the table, that of him and his friends more or less a year back. All of them were in their army uniform and were happily, in fact crazily, posing somewhere in their military camp. He was right in the middle of the picture, his two best friends --- one a carefree brunette and the other a snooty blonde --- ganging up on him from behind as he refused to join them earlier that time. He himself was grinning; fortunately the camera took the shot when he had regained his interest in the matter.
He felt tears glisten within his eyes once more. They had all been happy that day, ecstatic even, having received the news that they were going to go to a real battle the next day, after their long wait. They didn't know that only very few of them would actually survive. He ran his fingers through the photograph gingerly, pointing out who else had managed to leave the battlefield alive. Hiroshi Washida, Satoru Todoroki, Taka Shibuya, Tarou Takoyama, Ebata Ryouichi… Heck, they weren't even fine soldiers. All the skilled ones, minus himself, had died.
At that, he pushed the picture frame face down against the table, and looked back at the blonde-haired android who, by then, had also turned around to regard him. Determination surging through him after his short voyage down memory lane, he scooped up the equipment he would need and began to make his way towards his bed, motioning the android to do the same. He had a long night of repair work ahead of him.
Your deaths will not go unavenged… Mitsuke, Kuroudo.
/To be continued…/
Notes: I apologize for the delay of this update, minna; my summer unfortunately became hectic all of a sudden. I'm doing my best to update as much as I can, though. *points to rough drafts on paper scattered everywhere* Anyway… you guys are confused, aren't you? Sad to say (for you), I'm not going to offer any explanations here; you'll have to wait for the next chapters, or ask me to spoil. Anything goes for me. I, however, would love to know what you think is really going on, so… review? Please? *puppy eyes*