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He sat at the table, polished clean, and looked at the clean silverware wrapped in a napkin and the slightly water-spotted cup beside him atop it's saucer. Overall, it was a nice place, complete with the clang and clatter of silverware and people enjoying their meals and conversations. While no one knew him here, it was nice to feel surrounded by people, included in this world, yet left alone.

He looked across the table to look at the empty seat and felt a longing for company. Eating alone was nice when you just wanted to take a breather, but he liked conversation, but he couldn't recall why he came here. Was he waiting for someone to join him – or had someone already left him.

As he stared at the booth, he thought of Rin, knowing he most likely was waiting for the woman. He didn't know many other people, and considered the battle with the broken world. It was much nicer here in the booth, and he must have dozed off to be thinking about the battle to being here.

He remembered the battle and how the moment he arrived to the top of the tower, he had been thrown into fire. When he felt even a small swelling of victory that he managed to crawl his way out when experiencing a pain he never felt before, he had been useless on the field again. He had thought that after many months of training and research, he would have been more capable and educated to be more useful to his friends, but he had only gotten hit hard and thrown down in mere moments sicne arriving. His stomach sank as hit own inadequacies, and he wondered now if ti wasn't just a matter of learning or doing better, but simply a fact he wasn't cut out to fight. That he ultimately was more of a hindrance that got underfoot to those actually making a difference than being of any use.

In the end, Rin had arrived to guard him and Rep, and Melvin took a small amount of comfort to know that even the massive Sun had fallen for a moment. Rin had been there though, protecting them both. The three of them, a close knit group of friends, alongside in the battlefield.

And then he felt his stomach grow small, colder, and he stared at the empty plate as it slowly started to fade away.

She had been there, watching over them, turning over to look at him, when the red blast came. It was strange now, when he remembered it, how easily a body could be torn apart. She still managed to kneel there, but her body was missing like someone punching out a Jenga piece, and the hole had those red rays of light from the other side traveling through. It was like her insides were glowing with that destructive light.

And she knelt there, tittering in her balance, looking at him but she didn’t say anything. He wondered what she would have said if she could. What would her final words be? She had fallen then, upon him, and remained there. She hadn't moved, and he had to put her beside him, a smashed jigsaw puzzle of parts. She had the worst luck when it came with limbs, having lost the other, and her tablet had fallen there beside her.

The world continued to dissolve around him. The diner clatter faded away.

Rin had gone blue and around her was a pool of Red. There had been a smell too – one he never smelled before, and even though his clothes were coated and soaked, he didn't feel messy.

He had just wanted Rin to look at him and say something.

Maybe he'd just been too demanding wanting too much out of her when all she had ever done was give.

AJ

What's death? He only knew how to kill, blood gave him bliss and exhilaration, but that's all. The concept of death never get to him, at least in his real life. He could heartlessly watching someone losing their lives but got excitedly and asked for more because of the blood immersing from the bodies. Their mourns or grieves didn't catch him since his heart had bee shattered to countless pieces by his parents and people.

That was the boil named AJ.

CLICK.

"So~ It's over?" The boil asked.

He was in the air, enjoying all the violence carried on the battlefield with his wings widely spread open, and then everything was swallowed by the darkness.

AJ crossed his legs and support his tilted head with one of his lift-up arm. "I guess so." There was no one opposite to him at the table, he chuckled. "Oops. I guess I was talking to myself, how weird and silly." He changed the position of his leg, one top and another bottom. The boil didn't forget the strange emptiness. "Strange? I didn't remember how I get to this table?" He tic-tac his tongue, sweeping within his mouth, he seemed to remember tasting something. "Weird....but interesting." The boil leaned his back comfortably against the chair. He felt someone should be with him since it was a table for two, but he didn't really care for that. What he did was trying his best to recall the meal as it was a shame not able to remember the good tastes of the food, maybe it was an awful meal but at least he wanted to recall that.

AJ didn't really experience death in his short life surprisingly, not that he didn't witness one, but they were of no importance to him. In the past, he only cared about his Shishou after he gave up his family. However, she was such a living figure, like immortal existence. AJ adored her as the opposite sex but no more. There was a smile on his face when he recalled everything of her, the time he preferred to spend with her instead of wasting in school. He would forever remember the rainy day she found him in a dark alley, when the sunlight after rain shone through the darkness with her grin. He was beaten on the wet ground and panting, that was something he unexpected. With a pair of shocking and recalcitrant eyes, he glared at her who bent down, hands on hip and teasing. Jacking! That was how they met and she never lose to him once.

Yet, she wasn't always with him. When she was gone, he reverted to type - the emo violent kid. People blamed him for taking other's lives so easily, his parents' apology didn't make him regret any. The lost of life was meaningless to him, it was their faults to be that weak yet irritated him. He looked at them with the coldest expression. It was like that, the only one who can heat him up was his Shishou.

Then, everything changed.

After his Shishou left for a long trip, he gave up and put his gamble to the school that his parents recommended. He treated it as an escape but it turned out to be something more. He realized the concept of friend there. First, it was Head who attracted by the flare, but he found his exaggerate reaction very funny. That's Andrew, a grumpy fire demon that he called a friend. Then, it was a shy ghoul that he attempted to talk with under a blind date. She was timid, stumbling most of the time but she was adorable and he enjoyed taking care of her. That's Maple, a witch that he felt the need to protect at his best. He enjoyed every moment staying with them, irritating Andrew or teasing Maple to make her blush, they called them out for time killing, but they never reject.

Thus, a friendship development naturally and unconsciously, out of his expectation. He started to worry about them, hoping smile will be always on their faces. The two became something important in his life. With his Shishou's advice, he suppressed and locked up the beast of violence in the deepest place of his heart so that he could stay along with others at ease. Nevertheless how hard he tried, he started to have a fear. AJ was afraid one day the beast inside would tear his friends up, and his nightmare were surrounded by people mocking at his weaknesses and the death of his friends by his hands. It became an important concept in his soul gradually.

The concept of Death.

At the table, he tried to recall the days he spent with those who were important to him, but no matter how deep he thought, the nightmares that hurt his heart was blank out, the same for his emotions. The blood was there, the corpses were there and he was smiling wickedly on his throne made of bones. Below the stairs of his throne was a giant pool of blood and a carpet completely absorbed the blood lain perfectly on it. There were a single of bat-like wing in his claws but the someone was erased, as if crossed over thousands of time by a black ball pen, he should feel painful and unforgiving of himself because that was a - friend. That was ████ - and in his memory there was the corpse in black with her heart missing - he yelled her name - " ████!" and collapsed on the blood pool desperately fisting, and it slowly turned into a hysteric laughing.

What - why - As if someone was stealing his memories bit by bit, like invisible mist taken from his brain - he forgot their existences, there was only him in the dreams - as if acting a one-man show, the only audience was himself. He tipped the table with a finger, indolently looked at the further front without anyone. An annoying expression rarely seen on his face. "Something - well - I don't know but I hate the feeling - the emptiness and it freezes my heart -" The boil frowned, closed his eyes to clear himself of any broken memories. "That had been a nice meal, I guess, though I forgot anything about it......thank you." He stood up, putting his hands in the pockets. "But -" He turned around, back pointing the empty table for two. "-I guess I have to go now, I miss them."

-----

There was an urge telling him to leave even he forgot about it.

If his partner for the meal had left, so should he.

And -



-never return.

shh I am reserving this