| abstract | - Kokutō went through an entire different phase in the ‘gifts of eyes’. He assumed that his tutor would end the training with another flashback of his torments. The boy had learned to accept it, that it is something he can’t dabble over. He could bear no grudge to it, it’s as it is, and it is part of his life. It is essential a key of who he is today. And the woman he adored, who had liberated him from those torments, taught him that. It may have been horrific and traumatic, it might have driven him to insanity, but he understood it. And, then, the illusion began… the same beginning, the same young boy with sapphire blue eyes, that boy that is born into slavery. The greedy men whispered irrelevant things about their valued catches. He heard his number in between their conversation too. Ah, of course, he was the ‘main dish’. “We’ve found her.” That caught his interest. It seems it’s time. Showtime. But, something else happened. A cage? Tribunes for that filth? What’s with these yells of who should win? “Ao-kun,” his supposed friend whispered, when the two faced each other, that face was familiar. He was broken, back then. “I’m sorry.” He apologised again, before striking at ao. Kokutō dodged with ease, his movements fluently corresponding against the other boy. “Why?” His younger voice, ao, questioned him, plead him. “... Ao-kun, fight me!” The boy was determined, fighting him for real. Kokutō didn’t understand, this wasn’t what his past is, or was it? Was all of the former a lie? “I don’t want to…” He sounded pathetic, that ao, him, Kokutō. “I don’t want to hurt you!” The spectators yelled at the pair, they wanted to see blood. There was none. It was supposed to be a battle, neither wanted that. “Ao-kun… think about her. You told me about her, remember?” Ao stopped in his movements, allowing the other boy to successfully hit his abdomen, making Ao stumble backwards. “What?” His eyes widened, they shook in fear. “It’s too late… Ao-kun.” The boy rushed in, he was too open, what was he doing? Ao, Kokutō, moved at his own, his red eyes gaping at what he had done. He had killed his only friend, his only ally, out of instinct. Ao dropped on his knees, cradling the body of his fallen friend, whispering apologies of what he had done. The pain… it stabbed his heart. An eerie aura emanated from the boy, soft sobs escaped him as the waters started doing their work, the droplets rolling down the cheek of the other boy. Ao had his forehead pressed against his friend, after all. He held him close. His number was called, urgently even. Abruptly, the dark-haired boy ripped himself apart from the limb body, weakly standing up. He didn’t look up, his hair shadowing his eyes. That was, until he looked straight in the eyes of his ‘masters’. A blank expression, with glowing crimson eyes reflecting his hatred, and brimmed due his cries. But, that wasn’t a good move of Ao, for he had already been a ‘bad boy’ to them; his performance was bad. He was going to be punished. And it wasn’t as what he expected it to be, what the rumours said. Ao, no, Kokutō was thrown into a different isolated prison. His lips still a bit bloodied from the fight and his wounds stinging him. These guards chained him roughly, he hissed out the pain, with his expression still blank. What Kokutō didn’t notice was the woman that was chained in front of him, the slight chingling noise as she tried to move closer. It was until one of the guards hit her pale cheek, her head swinging to the side. It was then that Kokutō’s eyes snapped to the woman, he knew her, his throbbing heart went still, figuratively. “Y-ou,” he croaked out. Why was she here? He can’t remember that the woman that liberated him from this, would be captured. It is his fault… and it’s his fault that she will undergo what is meant for him. The torture, it agonized him to see her being treated like this. The pain she is going through. And for what? How did they know that he cared for her? He saw the blood spilling from her wounds, her ragged breathing after the beatings, and left to near death. Why? Ice cold water was thrown at him. The shaky breath of the woman disturbed him. His eyes were hollow, weakened, as his expression started to break apart. She didn’t speak to him either, her eyes spoke to him, instead. “Kurami,” he whispered, his voice very broken, his throat dry. He had barely been given any water, no food at all. The woman was in a worse condition, no nutrients for her. Then, one of his master entered the cage of the pair. “You’ll finish it, that’s your sin.” His hollow eyes darkened, shading to that cursing eye, that misfortune. One of the guards janked at the chain, forcing him to step closer to the woman. He silently sniffled, nothing rolling down his cheeks, no nothing. It were those eyes that spoke for him. He was handed a rusted blade, the sharpness gone… “Why?” He softly whispered to the woman, who looked in his eyes. Those warm eyes he knew, gone. Empty. It was his fault. “For you…” It barely came out, but the words meant the world to him, “...to be free.” No more words were exchanged between the pair. He rested his forehead against hers, and the tip of the blade inching away from her heart. Her eyes answered his worries, they were sparkled with the last bit of life. “I-I’m sorry.” With all the strength he could muster, he pierced the blade through her skin, and he never took his eyes away from hers. He saw the life fading, from this cruel world. Immediately, Ao pulled out the dull blade and dropped it on the ground. His hands… smeared with the blood of her and himself. He wanted to tremble, he wanted to scream and incarnate all these evil men. His inner-self loathed his obedience, his weak tumble mind. This happened because of him, the woman that hung limb with the chain keeping her up, and with his forehead still pressed against hers. It was his fault that his saviour would lose all her warmth. If only the world could take him away instead. Away from this cruel, cruel world. The world that should not exist, the world that has no pain… where he can be free.
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