ALiVE (KHR Fanfic)

74. Choice

74. Choice

"Well, you have scars too, don't you?" 

Russo sounded highly amused when he saw me changing in the room. Without my shirt, he caught sight of the large light surge on my chest. The scars from the surgery I had a long while ago. I hadn't even told Takeshi about this mark yet.

"This...isn't a battle scar." I smiled a little sadly, "it's from a surgery." 

"A surgery?"

Slipping in the buttons of my white dress shirt, I face away from Russo. 

"In my past life, I drowned to death." as I told him that, I heard him draw a sharp breath. "Much like you, I'm slowly rotting to death. The only difference being my body is alive and I feel pain. And my lungs are the only part of me that's corroding like the zombie it's supposed to be."

"Hehh," Russo sounded fake amused now, resting a cheek on his hand, "That sounds hard."

"It is." I admitted, fixing my collar, "I've been physically impaired since young because of that." with a sigh, I flipped my sleeve cuff to its proper length. "And now it's advanced to the point wherein I'm in need of regular checkups and fixed doses of medication."

"A different form of struggle compared to mine, huh." Russo sighed, "This Afterlife system is quite a hassle, eh? I wonder who thought of it."

"Some messed up kid with no common sense, maybe?" I joked.

Russo laughed back in response. 

Pulling on my dark red suit blazer, I buttoned it up quickly and turned back around. "Well then, how do I look?" I asked.

-

It was morning, quite a while before Choice begins (at noon), but Russo and I spent the dawn helping Irie and Spanner move the battle tent. After that, Irie and Spanner went back to base to change and get everyone over.

"I need to be here because I'm typically from the past too," I mumble to the older man, "But did you have to come too, Russo-san?" 

"Nope!" he laughed, "I'm just here because I'm bored!"

Inside the battle tent with Russo, surrounded by incredibly high-tech computers and strange unidentifiable machines, and the bikes. They seemed breakable so we naturally kept away. We pulled out the chairs a distance away and rested there.

It seemed Sui had opted to sit out on this whole event, despite helping out a great deal on the preparations. She was stuck at base with Kusakabe, catching up on the sleep she had missed.

Russo and I awed at the interior of the tent for a very long time, chatted about random stuff, and basically lost track of time. We got heated up for random things-- 

but Russo and I had never gotten to the topic of our personal, past lives, ever since and from the time he let me in on his name. We seemed to have mutual understanding regarding the matter and decided to avoid the topic in general.

-

"You two are increasingly irritating," Reborn's voice piped up, "Do you never run out of saliva?"

Letting out a short shriek, we snapped towards the direction of the voice-- "Wait a minute, you were here?!?" I freaked out at him.

Reborn was probably in the midst of a couple of machines, and as tiny as he was, we'd overlooked his presence.

Russo was quicker to compose himself.

"Ah, right, you're here because," Russo thought back, "the outside's got all that non-trinisette radiation thing going on."

"Oh," I remembered, "I forgot that was a thing."

"We never told you," Reborn added, "Looks like you've gotten another 'I-know-everything' partner, Rei." he mused, giving a deep, ominous-sounding chuckle.

"Reborn's planning on torturing the secrets out of us, Rei-san." Russo said in a monotone.

"Abort mission, Russo-san." I responded in a deadpan. "Abort Mission."

"That aside," Reborn flipped out of joking mood (not that his face had any changes) and turned back over to look at me-- "When will you be telling me your secrets?"

"Do I not have the option of keeping secrets to myself?" I couldn't help retorting.

Russo laughed, "Wanna know, Reborn?" he joked, turning to me, "Hey Rei, do you wanna spill our guts?" 

"Shut up, Zombie." I snapped, "Dig yourself a grave already."

"We're zombies!" Russo laughed, "I'm literally rotting, and Rei's rotting from the inside!" he sounded like he was joking--

I couldn't help a wince at the fact that sounded like a joke. Such a fact being spoken like a joke-- it was a little disturbing to think that it was actually, legitimately, true.

"I see." was Reborn's reply.

That surprised the both of us, most especially Russo. I tensed, turning cautiously to Russo, Reborn, and back-- but Russo-- it was the first time I'd ever seen him losing his composure.

"Wait- wha?!" he jumped, "You- Reborn, You believed that?"

Reborn smirked, glad he was the one with surprises this time--however small the matter was. "Well, I've not known you for long, but I've known Rei." he explained, "And one thing about Rei is that he'd never lie to me."

I flinched.

Russo eyed me with an 'are you serious' look, so I looked away guiltily. "Buuut," I whined softly, "Russo-san, if you were in my shoes, would you be able to lie to Reborn-san?"

Russo sighed, "Nope."

We both turned to Reborn with a serious mood this time. "None of it's a lie," Russo told him, "I'm already dead. Or I'm supposed to be. But I'm not exactly a zombie. I'm not really sure if crushing my head will really kill me."

"As for me..." I mumbled, "Please keep this a secret from everyone, but my lung condition has got something to do with the fact that my lungs are rotting inside out."

Reborn opened his mouth, seemingly to say something-- but we were all interrupted by a crinkle in the communication ear piece. 

Everyone had already arrived.

-

Russo and I stayed in the tent throughout the briefing. 

"We'd pretty much get in the way," Russo said.

Russo was a battle-type, but I wasn't. Neither of us had flames to speak of or brag about, nor the ability to use them at all efficiently. More like, we didn't need to but-

Right now, I was possibly less useful than the girls, but I was still tagging along like the little menace I was. I wasn't even involving myself much in moral support-- I'm not even sure anymore why I came here.

And Russo was possibly the same. 

We were two beings that weren't supposed to exist-- and thus here, we're only a little extra in this plot line that does not fit anywhere. We're mobs that do not have a role, and simply take up space unnecessarily, unable to move the story along.

"Russo-san," I called out to him, leaning against the back of the chair as we settled back down on the seats.

"What is it?" he responded curiously.

"After," I swallowed, "After Choice-- After all of this is over," I tightened my fist, "I think I have something really important I have to tell you."

At that, Russo's face fell into an unreadable, blank poker face-- and it quickly built back up into a smile-- a smile slightly different from before. 

For a moment, I thought that smile was his real smile.

"Yeah," He replied, "I think I have something important to tell you too."