Disclaimer: I do not own nor claim to own this franchise or any of it's characters.
Afterwards
oFFENCe
"So ready to learn how to play? First things we're going to send you all back to life."
Oh back to life. That seems nice. What's the catch?
"Except you can't be seen or heard." Carrot Top explains.
What is this? A Christmas Carol? I wish. This is just so stupid. This whole thing is stupid. This place is an eyesore. None of us are sorry. None of us seek redemption as it can not be achieved by the likes of us. Nothing can be achieved by this so what's the point? And I'm not sorry. I won't be. Didn't I already say that? Seems like Kiryu is getting to me. Oh.
"You'll be sent to one person in your life that you were close to and have to watch them suffer. The exception is you Placido, heh, you and Antinomy will be staying together." Carrot Top grins.
Oh yes that's certainly fair.
"You can however interact with the victim, oops, I mean old friend. You can make them aware that you are there. You can be forgiven and you can forgive. Let's start! As per last time it'll be in teams of three depending on the floor." He grins again.
"Sounds like fun!" Kiryu giggles. "I want to see Yuusei again!"
"And for added humiliation you have to drag your other teammates around with you if you want to go anywhere!" He laughs.
Oh great. Having to see Yuusei, speak with Antinomy and deal with Kiryu and Divine. Thank you Carrot Top.
"On your mark! Ready! Set! Forgive!" He announces.
Everything is changing. Just like during the memories. How fun. Damn eyesore the world is. The world beyond this place is always colourful. Colours hurt my eyes. Colours are always too bright. I actually prefer the eyesore gray. The sky is too blue and the streets are too full. We are just outside someone's home. Probably Yuusei's. I wonder where Antinomy is. I wonder who Z-ONE has yet to forgive. I know where Paradox is at least. With my other sides. Birds are chirping. They are obnoxious. Children are screaming. Lucciano is probably with those twins. Children are stupid. There is no room for idealistic behaviors in this world. There is no room for fools that still believe in humanity. I walk away from the two before being pulled back by an unknown force sharply. Go on force harm me. I have a God of my own and you certainly can not compare. I'll go in to see who's in the building I guess. Oh I hope it isn't Yuusei yet. I'm not ready. I'm not ready and it can't be helped. It just can't be helped.
A young man with black vaguely crab shaped hair walks past hand in hand with a young woman with magenta hair. Yuusei. How dare he live happily. How dare he when I can not. A man with a head full of blonde spikes runs over to the two with a smile. So Yuusei your heart is connected too so many people. You're the one cause all the sins we have committed as you are the one that steals hearts huh? You and your family. Disgusting. If only you could have never been born. If only you were something destroyed long ago when you took breath. If only your family was completely erased from history. I would still have everything. Everything I have ever longed for. A woman with dark green hair glares at Yuusei as well. See heartbreak. Why don't you see? What you've done has ruined us all. Connecting your heart to all these people. People that are not yours! I follow behind the other two as the lovingly follow the other hearts of their pathetic, frail and human hearts. What are hearts good for? What is anything good for? Human emotions cloud judgment. Human tears cloud eyes.
"Aki, can you feel something?" Yuusei asks.
"Yes, kind of. I can actually smell someone." Aki frowns. "Someone that isn't here anymore."
"Same here." The blonde mentions.
Kiryu reaches out a hand to brush the crab haired human. He grabs him from behind and breathes deeply. Is this what 'love' does to you? If it is then I certainly don't need the thing.
"Ai!" Yuusei screams.
Ai. What a funny way to scream. I didn't think screams really sounded like much more than the extent of pain.
"It's alright Yuusei I'm here and soon you'll be with me." Kiryu mutters.
No laughter. No tears. No angry fits. If this is what love is then I don't need it. It removes emotions that even I admire. Anger and hate and pain are the things that humanity needs more of. Happiness and loneliness and love and love are all too weak. It's all too weak. Humans need to understand what makes them weak.
"Ghosts. Aki there are ghosts. I think Kiryu's ghost is touching me." Yuusei coughs out.
"Maybe he's here because we have to lay him to rest." Aki suggests.
The blonde laughs sharply and king like. How does that laugh go? Ho. Yes it goes ho.
"Or he could be here for revenge on you." He smirks.
The large and wet blue eyes widen. I've only seen that once before. Before I tried to kill him. His eyes are soulful. More soulful than mine. My eyes are empty. Maybe that's why Antinomy was drawn in. He's always been an eye man. Disgusting. Souls are just pretty eyesores. Humans would be better off without them. Humans would be far better off without every emotion. Humans would be better off dead. Don't you agree? The weak ought to be removed. The weak must be removed.
"No Yuusei, not revenge. I only want what I am owed. It'll be alright. Death isn't painful. Suicide is painless. You won't have to hurt anymore. It can be just you and me. Forever and always just like you promised on our first summer. Like you regretted on our fourth. Four years. You and I. I want to go back to that first summer. Even if you must die for our love to return. Yuusei." Kiryu rambles.
He seems almost sane. Oh how adorable. Love redeems oh? Well that's just breeding more weakness. In order to be strong you must carve your own path or you will dance and you will dance. Yuusei dances quite well. What a strong worker bee. Though dancing in iron shoes always gets you killed, later if not sooner. What a painful thing to die dancing. We all die dancing though. We're all pitiful I guess.
"Kiryu, Kiryu, if it is you then I want you to know that no matter what you want I won't die for you." Yuusei states.
Kiryu's eyes flash open from their apparent closed-ness and his irises shrink. What is it with crazy people's irises? Divine's do the same thing. Fuck, everyone's do the same thing. What is it they say? If you go among mad people then you must be mad as well? I wonder if I'm going mad. No. Clockwork doesn't go mad.
"You promised we'd be together forever. You promised!" Kiryu cries. "It's not fair! You've stained yourself and you're fading! You don't even care about the utopia we held together! The world of death is a world so unlike ours that we can live happily! You and I together forever! As you promised me! AS I promised you! Why do you hate me?"
"Kiryu let go of me." Yuusei demands.
Oh even if clockwork can go mad at least I'll never be as mad as Kiryu. Love must make you mad. Why would humans willingly go through mental torture? What are the benefits?
"Why do you hate me?" Kiryu sobs and screams.
Go on dance. Both of you. Give me a show.
"Kiryu let go!" Yuusei screams.
He breaks free of his grip. The psychopath screams and grabs onto the frail human again and begins dragging him backwards into the road. I'm not sorry. He's not sorry either. There is no such thing as forgiveness and I don't care because-
"Kiryu! Kiryu! Stop!" Yuusei's still screaming.
Music to my ears.
"D-Divine?" Aki asks.
"Ah Aki, as soon as I die you run to another man's arms. That's alright though. Because I have you now." Divine laughs.
'I would never hurt Aki.' Liars. Humans are liars and murderers and monsters and mad men.
"Aren't they?" Antinomy asks beside me.
The wind blows his hair into his face and his coat behind him. Almost like we're really here. Damn you Antinomy. It's not fair. It's not fair to me or to you. I hate you.
"They are also painters and lovers and judges and heroes and dancers and lovers and saints. They are more than you and I could ever be." He smiles at me.
He's laughing at me again.
"Ah Aki, hush it'll be alright." Divine laughs deep.
It doesn't sound like a ho but more like a naoh. I wonder how many people laugh like that. It sounds like laughter hurts. Why do they keep hurting themselves?
"Sometimes you seem so innocent Placido. Sometimes you are a child. Sometimes you are a young man with a bad sense of humor. But most of the time you are you, the cruel misanthrope that isn't smart enough to understand a thing." Antinomy laughs at me.
"I understand more than you!" I yell.
"You don't understand humans." He smirks. "And you never will."
"I don't need to! They are too weak! It's like trying to understand the dirt! It's so beneath our level that it's inane to even try!"
"Maybe they are just too smart for you. That's okay, it can't be helped."
Stop laughing at me.
"And I'm sorry." Antinomy laughs.
Sorry? Liar. He doesn't understand what that word even means.
"I'm sorry that you will never feel or understand anything."
"I'm sorry you have feelings." I snarl.
"I'm sorry I betrayed the mission or whatever."
"I'm sorry I trusted you."
"I'm sorry I love you."
"I'm sorry that's a lie or if it's not that you think you do."
"I'm sorry you can't love me back."
"I'm not sorry about that."
"I'm so sorry you're not human and that we can't be just two people in love."
"I'm sorry I killed you."
Oh sorry. I don't understand what it really means all I know is that I don't want to hate him anymore. What's the point? I'm only dancing to music too loud to bear. He doesn't dance. I don't want to dance. If only that man with those eyes had never existed then I wouldn't have to dance for his amusement, for God's amusement, for Antinomy's. And I'm sorry. I'm sorry, alright?
"I'm sorry I killed you."
We turn from each other. This is a peace treaty I guess. Why bother fighting anymore?
"I will never forgive you!" Divine shrieks at the magenta haired woman as he throttles her.
A sharp crash and a scream. Kiryu's laughing. The blonde haired lad is holding fast to the green haired woman and they're crying. What's with all the sappy love stories anyway? It's stupid. This is an eyesore. I wish to return to the open gray sky. Even if it's an eyesore as well.
"Your body belongs to me!" Divine hisses.
Oh. Disgusting. Even worse than emotions is the human sexuality. It's messy and it hurts. Why do something painful and messy? What are the benefits? Wait no one can actually hear or see us. That makes this a little horrifying. Getting violated by an invisible force and no one can help you. Disgusting. Even I have standards. What is it they say again? If you go among mad people then you are surely mad. I am mad as well. Feeling things beyond my reach. It's not fair. But I'm not sorry. The smoke settles to show Kiryu laughing with a tinge of insanity. Yuusei's nowhere to be found.
"So did you kill him?" I ask the laughing man.
"No, I let him go! He loves me! He loves me and only me! The first summer together he promised but the fourth summer he regretted it. The fourth fall and he promises me we will be together forever once more. His heart is now mine and only mine. His heart is mine in return for his own life! As death will break too many hearts and kill too many people he settled to stand my love!" Kiryu rants.
Disgusting. Disgusting. Humans. Humans are all disgusting. Filthy eyesores that dance and dance to the screaming of others and infect other beings with their insanity. The notion of feelings, the curse of romance or whatever. And pain and pain and pain. I'm infected now. Feelings are exploding inside of me and it hurts. It hurts but as Antinomy says it can't be helped. Thank you, you stupid left footed half human, thank you for infecting me. I hope you choke on my love.
The world starts slowly turning back to gray. The colour that doesn't harm my eyes. Carrot Top is smirking. Various persons are sobbing or screaming or laughing and the wetness that yanks at my eyes means I'm crying too. I have never cried before. It kind of hurts.