A/N: Yay, more writing! These are my new daily writing exercises, to be released every other day. :)
Thanks go to Xros-Hero, Edhla, that's-a-moray, and ReadingBlueWolf for reviewing! :D This will all (probably) start to make sense soon enough.
These are all connected, unlike Memorial Day.
II. Tense
"Look at me, not the past."
It used to not be this way.
"Wait. Please."
It used to be a world with stars.
He did. That was something Taiki just did, Yuu realized. He allowed these little things.
He used to be the one with a cross on his back.
Yet… when he looked around, when he acknowledged what was coming closer to him, nothing had really changed. There was Taiki, and he was still his opponent, his rival. They were fighting to the death for this other world, for their Digital World. Again, he was the loser. He was the shadow, the second-best. This time, however, he hurt so much more.
"Are you satisfied with this, Amano Yuu-kun?"
"Taiki-san…" he said, resting his pale blue eyes on the red light at his neck. Was he waiting for something? The other cocked his head, patient. "Why are you doing this?" The older boy, brown spikes seeming sharper in the red glow, peered at him with an odd twist to his smile. Had he unsettled him? Had he, even if for a moment, caught him off-guard as he hadn't before? "You… You're supposed to be kind…"
The red light receded from its spot at the edge of his throat. Taiki scratched his head, black gaze incomprehensible. "What a strange thing to say," commented the other boy. "Isn't it kind of me… to end your suffering here? If you die you will be reborn as something more. If you keep fighting like this, you will be captured and killed by one much worse than myself. Amano Yuu-kun, I see in your eyes… that scares you more than I." Yuu gripped at the frayed pockets of his trousers, trying to hide the fear that was threatening to seep into his pants.
A gentle chuckle left Taiki's lips. "I thought you were… a good game player. There's no sport left in you."
It's not a game, he wanted to say. It's a war, a series of wars that aren't going to end unless you stop. Weren't you the one who told me that?
"So let me kill you, Amano Yuu-kun," Taiki said to him; his voice pleasant in a way it hadn't been before… before that moment of their lives. "We don't want to fight, do we? We… or I at least… would like this hunt to end… and for everything to begin again."
In those eyes was something… or perhaps someone. They locked with his and Yuu gathered bravado he never thought he had. "Then don't talk," he said with the coolest smirk he could. "I stopped you once."
The hand reached out once more. Instead of attacking however, it rested palm down, to muss his hair. "You're a good boy," Taiki complimented. "A smart, silly boy. I hope this… will bring you mercy."
Once more, his vision turned red. This time, scarlet began to burrow, digging deep to etch into his skin. The pain was not great, as Taiki had promised. Misery and despair took its place.
Taiki-san… was no longer the good-hearted General he had faced in battle. Who was he?
I suppose it doesn't matter… Yuu thought. I can't save him anymore. I… then again… I probably never could.
…Are you really someone who gives up that easily?
Who are you?
…What's the point of telling you that?