Nishi opened his eyes with a groan of discomfort; his body weighed heavily against the softness of the surface he appeared to be laying on. Nishi tried to recall what happened after he shot up his classroom, but his mind was foggy. Turning his head slightly to the left was about all he could manage for now without feeling dizzy. What happened? Nishi frowned when a figure in the corner of the room stood up and turned to face him, and his eyes grew wider. Oh. Nishi finally recalled the recent incident when the armed forces began swarming into the classroom a few at a time. His "Saviour," stared back at him with a mixture of frustration and somewhat concern, which Nishi didn't like nor appreciated. That's right, I was shot. Nishi thought for sure he should have died there and then, but it was only thanks to Kei that he hadn't. The fact that he owed Kurono for helping him yet again wasn't the biggest issue. No, it was that he didn't ask.

"Do you wanna explain to me what the hell happened?" Kurono asked as he sat at the edge of the bed.

Even though Kurono was taller than Nishi, the younger boy loathed the vulnerable position, so he ignored the throbbing pain in his body to be at least eye level. That's when Nishi noticed. A frown soon appeared on the boy's face. "Where the fuck are my clothes?"

Kurono rolled his eyes, not in the mood to deal with Nishi's distrust; he wanted answers. "Answer my question."

Nishi's frown deepened. "They deserved it."

Kurono was right in Nishi's face in a flash, gripping both arms tightly, replacing Nishi's angry expression with a pained one. "That's not good enough!"

Despite the pain now shooting up his arm, Nishi grinned. "It's the truth. They deserved to die. Every – single - one of them." Nishi's eyes widened with excitement. "The rush was exhilarating."

Just as fast, Kurono jumped back from Nishi as if he'd been burnt, a disgusted look on his face. "Damn it. You're fucked up."

Nishi tilted his head with a less malicious grin; there was truth to his words, but he only said them in a way that would get Kurono off him. "You're the one currently holding a fugitive. You could easily throw me out you know." Nishi laughed, "I certainly wouldn't hold it against you."

Kurono's hands curled into fists. "If you don't give me a satisfactory answer soon, I still might."

Nishi shrugged because he honestly didn't care. "Go ahead. I'm sure big tits won't protest." Nishi stared looked around the small apartment, scoffing inwardly at the explicit posters decorating the walls. Honestly, he really didn't see the appeal. "So, where is Miss Melons? Ditch you already?"

Kurono glared. "It's Kishimoto. And she didn't ditch me." Kurono looked down at the floor as he leaned forward. "She's with Kato. Kato and his brother found an apartment, and when I came back with you, Kato offered her to stay there. Just until-"

Nishi laughed. "Please. This was the opportunity she was waiting for. She was only using you anyway, right? You're the fucked up one if you think she'll come back here." The boy continued to laugh. "You're so pathetic. Face it, you'll never have her. Kato is probably screwing her right now."

"Shut up!" Kurono bared his teeth, eyes darkening as his fingers curled around Nishi's neck. "Just – shut – up."

Nishi raised his hand to wrap around Kurono's wrist, except he made no attempts to pull the hand free. Nishi gave Kurono a knowing grin. "That look in your eyes. You can talk shit about changing all you want, but I know the truth. That look never really left, and only I can see that. Isn't that the reason you helped me? Because without me, you'll have to face it on your own with no one to hide that side of you behind."

Kurono shook his head and released his hold once more. "You're wrong. You're sick. I'm nothing like you, so just shut the fuck up."

Nishi sighed. "Whatever. Deny it all you want, I really don't care."

Kurono scoffed. "Sure you don't."

When Nishi pushed up against the wall, he was once again reminded of his state. "Now answer my question. Where the fuck are my clothes?" The fallen sheet revealed bandages tied around Nishi's abdomen and a smaller one wrapped around his left arm.

Kurono stood up and opened one of his draws. It annoyed Kurono that Nishi never really answered his own question, but he realized it might actually be a delicate subject, so Kurono decided to drop the matter for now. "No need to get all freaked out. It's not like you're completely fucking naked or anything. How else was I supposed to treat your injuries?"

Nishi slipped his hand under the sheet and practically sighed in relief. After all, Nishi didn't want things to be more awkward than they already were.

Kurono shook his head when he saw Nishi check but didn't react. "All I could really do was bandage them and hoped the bleeding stopped. I guess the bullets passed through, so there's that." Kurono chucked a hoodie on the bed. "If you're that bothered, put this on. It'll stop the neighbours asking questions if you wear something that's not covered in blood."

Nishi clicked his tongue but shuffled into the oversized hoodie regardless.

After a moment of awkward silence, Kurono grabbed his wallet from the side table. "I've gotta go to the store." Kurono reached for his laptop and shoved it on Nishi's lap. "There's still a few hours before we meet with the others, so make yourself useful and find the temple's location."

Nishi frowned in annoyance. "What the fuck am I, your secretary? Find it yourself."

Kurono slipped into his shoes. "Stop complaining. You're alive because of me, and if you wanna eat tonight, then I don't think what I'm asking is too much."

Nishi rolled his eyes and switched on the laptop. "You whine like a girl."

Kurono frowned and left the apartment, lest he ended up killing the boy.

…

"Kishimoto is the reason you're alive in all honesty," Kurono said as he placed his chopsticks across the empty packaging and leaned back on his palms to glance up at Nishi. "If she hadn't told me about the news, I never would have known, and you would have probably died."

Nishi looked at the piece of chicken held with his chopsticks. It had been silent for some time, and Nishi rather preferred it that way. "Is that so," he said before popping the meat into his mouth. A frown formed on Nishi's face as though the information annoyed him. It did, but mostly because he was alive. All this time - all this time, he fought so hard to stay alive. To return to his mother's side and live as a somewhat normal teenager again. Now he started to question what the point was; now, he really didn't have any reason to live anymore. Kurono blinked in surprise when the sticks between Nishi's fingers snapped. "I didn't ask for your help."

Kurono clicked his tongue. "Just be grateful for once in your life."

Nishi glared. "I'm not grateful. Stop trying to use me as an excuse for your own questionable guilt. I didn't want saving, is it that hard to understand?"

Kurono shuffled onto his knees and tried to calm the anger inside him; Nishi always got under his skin, and all he ever wanted to do was punch his lights out. "They were there to kill you. Are you telling me you wanted that?"

Nishi curled his hand around the sticks. "Not exactly. I was hoping to disappear before they had their chance to kill me themselves."

Kurono frowned. "What the hell does that mean?" Nishi looked Kurono dead in the eyes, and the older boy just knew. "Oh. You mean you were – what the fuck." So that's what he meant by 'it wasn't supposed to be this way.'

"I'm not a coward, and I don't regret what I did. But if the punishment for it is death, then I'd rather do it myself." Nishi gave a small grin. "Seems only fitting, right? It all started out that way, so why not finally end it that way."

Kurono gritted his teeth and stood up to turn away, fists clenched. All Kurono wanted to do right now was knock some sense into the boy behind him. "I thought you changed your mind. I thought you didn't want to die anymore. I thought all you wanted was to get your hundred points and go home. That's what you said."

Nishi watched Kurono walk toward the bathroom door. "Don't bother hiding the razor blades." Kurono stopped with his hand on the sliding door's handle. "There's a much more effective way to die than that. I would know." Nishi curled his fist unseen, not willing to let Kurono see his discomfort with the subject and the fact his mother used razor blades just this morning to end her own life.

Kurono gasped a little when he realized what Nishi was talking about.

"I jumped off - from the-"

Kurono turned to face Nishi with narrowed eyes. "If you really wanna die, then I guess I'm wasting my time by helping you, so get lost. All of us want to live through this, and I thought you did too. I wanted to believe you were different, but I guess you're really just a sick-minded coward with an excuse. You're no better than the sick kid who beats up homeless people, and all he wants to do is kill."

Nishi didn't bat an eye to Kurono's words and slowly stood up from the bed, finally mindful of his injuries. "I couldn't really care less what you think. Have fun dying by the way, and if you end up flashing back in time again, don't waste your time dragging me into it, because I wasn't really going to help you survive in the first place."

Kurono angrily stalked forward as though to stop Nishi from leaving so he could smash his face in, but his foot caught the tv remote, and he slid on his ass. Kurono and Nishi's attention fell on the screen.

'A young woman fell into a coma in the early afternoon today due to a large consumption of pills mixed with alcohol. Emiko Nishi aged thirty-four was found unconscious by her husband, Eiichiro, in the bathtub. Eiichiro made a statement to the reporters that she had been dealing with depression due to their son going missing a year ago, but he didn't expect this to happen. Although the doctors worked to pump the toxins out of Emiko's stomach, she fell into a coma and it is unclear whether she will recover.'

Nishi stared at the screen in shock, physically unable to move due to numbness. When Eiichiro told Nishi he'd found his mother in the bathtub, Nishi assumed she had slit her wrists, and because of his grievance, he never questioned the lack of blood on his father's clothes.

Kurono remained quiet for a moment as his mind began to piece together information. The sudden change in Nishi started to make sense, but why would he risk everything if there was a chance his mother would live?

"He told me she was dead," Nishi stated quietly as if to answer Kurono's unspoken question. Nishi curled his hands into fists, slowly becoming angry. Nishi only ever saw the ambulance drive away; therefore, he only had his father's word, never thinking for a moment the man would lie to him about something like that. Nishi killed his entire class, almost including himself, out of grievance for someone who wasn't even dead. "Shit."

Kurono watched Nishi's legs buckle as he sat on the bed. It was obvious from the surprise on Nishi's face that now there was regret for his actions, if only from the pointlessness of them, and what trouble it might bring to his mother. I think I get it. Nishi blamed those from his school for his initial suicide, and therefore, blamed them for his mother's death, so he killed them all, believing there were no repercussions. But if his mother is alive, then – shit, this could be really bad. And he's in my apartment. Fuck.

"Kei… I've fucked up…"

Kurono's eyes widened at the boy whose eyes were usually cold and sadistic, now glistening and threatening to show the slightest tears. Looking carefully, though, Kurono could see the anger already about to take over. "Nishi, I get it. We can figure something out. Just-"

Nishi stood up quickly. "Fuck you! You don't know anything!"

"Wait!"

Gone.

Nishi was out the door before Kurono could even get to him.

Find him. Kurono had to find Nishi before he did anything else he might regret, or rather, won't live to regret.

…

Nishi couldn't believe it. There she was—his mother. Lying on a hospital bed hooked up to a ventilator, wires decorating her once smooth skin and delicate features. Nishi placed his hand on the glass from outside the room, thankful his dad wasn't in there at the moment, and he really didn't care why. "I'm so sorry mom. It's my fault you're in this state now. I should have come home sooner. Maybe if I had left that damn letter, you'd still be…" Nishi curled his hand against the window.

"Young man, can I help you with something?" A female doctor suddenly asked from beside him.

Nishi quickly pulled his hood up to hide some of his features. "Will she live?"

The doctor stepped closer and looked into the room to see who the boy was referring to. "Are you a relative?"

Nishi tensed; if he told the doctor who he was, they would surely tell his mother if she ever woke up, but it had taken almost two hours to find the room Emiko occupied, and he wasn't about to leave without knowing. That, and his injuries hurt like hell. "I'm her son," he stated quietly. There was a gasp from the doctor, which was expected, but Nishi didn't give her time to ask questions. "Will she make it?"

"If you give me a moment to double check your statement of relation, I can-"

"Just tell me!"

Whether it was out of sympathy or whether Nishi had frightened her somehow, the doctor said, "It's hard to say right now. There's a very good chance she might not ever wake up, depending how long she stays like this. Your mother is actually very lucky to be alive, so there's always hope."

Nishi scoffed at the sympathetic tone of the doctor's use.

"I'll give you a moment, but visiting hours are over."

Nishi placed both hands in his pockets. "I'm leaving anyway." Nishi turned away from the room, but before he left completely, he said, "If she wakes up, don't tell her I was here."

…

"Still wanna die?"

Nishi looked up from the ground as he left the hospital; Kei stood by a lamppost outside. Nishi sighed. "Why are you here?"

"Making sure you didn't do anything stupid."

Nishi clicked his tongue. "Making sure I didn't kill anyone you mean."

Kurono shrugged. "Maybe. Or yourself for that matter."

Nishi ignored him and carried on walking, only to hear footsteps beside him a few seconds later. "Fuck off already."

"I've been thinking. No one really had any proof it was you that shot all those students, right?"

Nishi frowned. "It doesn't matter."

"It does."

"Nothing will get back to you. That's really all you're worried about."

"No, it's not. You were grieving, I get it, I don't need to know the details, but I'm not as dumb as you think. With regards to the armed forces, how stupid would they look if they tried to pin something that unexplainable on a human anyway."

Nishi debated Kurono's words; no one had really seen him do anything. They merely assumed because he and that girl were the only ones left alive. To cover up their mistake of killing a student unjustly, they'll most likely go along with the wild animal story. "What's your point?"

Kurono blinked in surprise, not realizing that Nishi actually listened. "Well, uh, I guess my point is that you don't have to worry about what happened." He's practically got away with murder, but at this point, haven't we all? I guess killing aliens really aren't that different from killing humans after all. "She's alive," Kurono said suddenly, causing Nishi to frown. "Does that mean you might change your mind again?"

Nishi realized what Kurono meant and clicked his tongue. "You just want me to help you, so you and the two idiots don't have to do it by yourself."

Kurono laughed. "No offense Nishi, but having you there probably won't make that much of a difference in that sense. Besides, you'd be surprised how many of em were willing to help last time."

Nishi tried not to get defensive, but he was a veteran and having someone who only survived four missions tell him he wouldn't make a difference was aggravatingly offensive. "Then why are you so annoyingly insistent?"

Kurono shrugged. "Because, you psychopath, you're part of the team, and if you really do wanna survive, it's just better to cooperate, right?"

Nishi glared before turning on his heel to walk away. Nishi then stopped for a moment once he realized that Kurono questioning his role's worth in the team was just a trick to get him to agree. Nishi carried on walking without looking back, already knowing Kei probably had a smug look on his face. "I really hate you."

"See you at the Ratenin temple!"

…

Nishi winced when he reached inside his pocket for his motel key, his body ached from moving around too much, and the meeting at the Ratenin temple lasted two hours. Nishi froze when he noticed the door to the room was already open. What the fuck? Nishi was certain he had locked it when coming back for his suit before going to the temple, except that he had left his gun at Kurono's in his other bag since he came straight here after the hospital. Shit. Even though Nishi wore his suit, he had already been injured prior, so he didn't know how the suit would work. Nishi was confident there was an intruder since he technically lived here, so there'd be no reason for the owner to enter the room and never had before.

Nishi pushed the door wider and cautiously stepped into the room. There stood a tall man with long black hair, way too long for a man to have, in Nishi's opinion, at the back of the room near the closet. The man was dressed in slightly baggy pants and a dark-blue waistcoat. "You picked the wrong room to steal from," Nishi said as he stepped further into the room.

When the man finally turned around, he was a lot younger than Nishi expected; early twenties at most, but that didn't matter. The man was an intruder, so Nishi had the right to defend. Just before Nishi acted on his instincts, he spotted something awfully familiar showing just under the young man's plain white t-shirt and froze. He has a Gantz suit! But how? Nishi took a step back. This could be bad.

"Don't fret boy. My name is Shion Izumi, and I've come to warn you."