"Those fucking back stabbers have ayanda!"
The image of his foster families twisted faces filled his mind, standing in a pose with clueless ayanda like they were taking a family portrait.
"Get away from her or I will kill you with my bare hands"
He thought, his inside voice louder than the strangling reality,shugging off the image from his mind.
He could feel his heartbeat slowing, life draining out without any outlet.His legs where no an exceptio they shivered endlessly like they where attempting to form cracks that were to break them in half, strength evaporating, and something gnawed through his stomach, leaving a hollow ache that reached every part of him.
Phu!!
Remo fell down like a bag of sand, face first unto the ground.
"Help me… help me, please," He whispered as he extended a trembling hand toward Kairo—like he had any solution to this nightmare.
His eyes burned red, all the arrogance and cruelty he'd wielded in the hangar gone. In that instant, a man's true nature was revealed, and Remi had bowed to kairo, because Out of all five recruits, Kairo was the only one still standing.
"Run. I have to run. Move, shitty legs!"
Kairo spun around instantly, muscles straining, ready to leap into momentum. With one thought in mind " If i could just put distance between me and Accex's Nova gas, maybe i could minimize the damage and regain some strength."
Thud.
Thud.
Phu!
He tried, hitting the ground like a crippled dog, tires gone. Walking was agony. Running impossible.
"Moving just makes it hurt more!" Armslaw's voice called out, cruelly casual, woth no intention to help.
"I have to admire your determination , a normal person surviving this long after breathing my Nova gas—You've set the record," Accex muttered, perhaps a proy to weaken his mind.
But it was all of no use, His words never reached kairo; he was too focused on clawing his way out of this fate.
"Don't go numb on me!"
He crawled on his fingers, every muscle screaming. The other soldiers lay cold and lifeless. Eyes open, mouths gagged, twisted in torment before death. Not a sight for a fifteen-year-old, yet kairo pressed forward.
"Let's finish him, Accex!" Armslaw interjected.
"I want to cut off their legs, roast them at the base. I like my meat fresh!"
Pow!!.
Accex kicked Kairo deep in the gut without hesitation. Pain exploded through his body.
"Cough… cough!"
Warm blood poured from his mouth, thick and red, making him retch violently.
Armslaw's hand shot out, gripping him effortlessly, lifting him with superhuman strength. He forced Kairo to kneel, though his body had none of its own strength left.
"After I cook your meat completely, no one will even recognize it. Then… I'll send a portion to your sister as a souvenir."
"Bunch of fucks!"
Somehow, kairo's remaining strength let the words escape.
"Ooh, our little friend here is still fighting the poison!" Accex mocked, pressing a pistol to kairo's chin.
"Don't you dare touch my sister!"
Kairo screamed, fury surpassing his prey status.
"You're alive one but that doesn't count, your sister will be my bitch for the rest of her life, just waiting on her to ripe first !"
Those words—exactly those words—sent his mind into chaos. Darkness swallowed him.
The necklace his mother gave started to glow,floating In midair.
"I left my mother to die and the universe didn't even give me a break for it. But them, these two,
Just because they are Oxides… they go unpunished?
Just because they have abilities… does fate not touch them?"
"If that's the case then fuck fate!"
He screamed into the void, voice echoing, shaking the dark realm.
He was trapped in a trance, a world within the real world. Yet in that realm, the sky was clear, the outside world sharper than ever. Two red lines shot out from nowhere, connecting to his body like a living power grid.
" I'm not going to die without a fight!"
Pow!!!
The bullet was shot.
Suddenly, everything went black. Pain, poison gas, the unbearable suffocation—all vanished. His body felt detached, ungoverned.
"I… I died, didn't I?"
Coldness and numbness washed over him. Anything was better than the poison eating his heart.
"Sorry, Ayanda," he whispered. Her image burned warmth into his soul.
"It's because of me Mom died.If I had just listened that day, then maybe things would've turned out differently … but now, you're in danger because of me once again, I understand if you will hate me forever!"
Tears fell freely, streaming down his cheeks, accompanied by uncontrolled sniffles.
Slowly—his eyes began to open. Blurred at first. The only thing visible: his hands on his lap as he knelt. Vision sharpened gradually.
"But… how… how am I still alive?"
Hah!
He gasped in shock.
"How did I get blood on my hands?"
They trembled as if holding hot coals.
Dramatically he turned to his right.
And there it was.
Accex's head, bodyless, lying on the ground. The gas mask still intact. Eyes blown out, fingers drilled into them.
The rest of his body hung from a tree, a branch piercing his chest, blood dripping steadily.
"What in the hell…I must be dreaming… I must!"
But his eyes saw worse.
Armslaw—the human-eating Oxide.
The old bus they had passed that was drilled into the ground, its metal sharpened. Both legs removed and fed into his mouth. The body impaled on the metal, grotesque and impossible.
"Did… I… do this?"
Kairo stammered in confusion. The poison's pain had vanished completely. Only a hollow, anemic fatigue remained.
Something dripped from his nose. He wiped it with the back of his hand. Only to see blood,thick and warm.
The world spun. Everything became blurry.
"Wait…"
His voice cracked, broken.
"Why is everything… spinning,, no wait don't fall down you idiot, you still have to go find ayanda?"
Phu!!
He collapsed just like everyone of the five recruits did, body crushed by pain. Eyes crossed, vision fading.
Somehow the tables had turned,the place that was supposed to host his death, became his enemies grave.
…....
Five minutes later,
Kairo still layed down asleep, motionless, clueless, exactly like a toddler.
Until
Someone approached him. His blurry eyes opened briefly. He could not see clearly. He did not care. Somehow, he no longer cared.
"You're really strong, buddy. Let's get you to a safe place!"
A stranger muttered, carrying him like a damsel in distress, away from the carnage.