Open Sky Yet Not [KHR Fanfic]

Target 43: Awareness (2)

Kawahira stared absentmindedly at his hand. He has, admittedly, never felt so weak and vulnerable since he was but a child all those eons ago.

He was born knowing the purpose to his and his kind's existence and the weight that they must bear on their shoulders. Protecting the planet was their duty and carrying out the Will, to maintain the balance of Trinisette until their last breath, was their sole purpose of existence.

(It was engraved deeply in their memories -- a hereditary trait gifted by the Laws.)

There were times when he felt helpless against Fate, when he felt fear for his stone-carved future, when he felt the weight of the world on his too small shoulders. But he was taught to push on, to move forward -- because that's the only way for them to continue into the future.

However, pushing on does not mean his race will thrive forever. The once powerful race weakened through the passage of time, and with it, the strength to keep Trinisette in balance.

He watched his kins, his friends and family, fall one by one until there were only five, then two, and then only he was left behind.

Time dull the senses they say, but he would be lying if he said he didn't feel anything every time he watched his companions leave the living -- leave him -- but he knew they existed only for one sole purpose. 

Dying only meant they had fulfilled that purpose with their lives.

Kawahira clenched his fist, face impassive but indescribable emotions swirled with his eyes. Death, he mused, was something not foreign to him -- yet, at the same time, it is as foreign as it should be to the living. He has seen the phantom take countless lives from the living, but he has yet to experience it himself.

He has witness humans' fear of dying, but he has also seen his kin's peaceful smile upon the end of their lives as if welcoming Death's embrace at the journey's end. Perhaps, for them, it was a solace because they were relieved from the shackles that bounded them since their birth.

He often wished he could join them as well, but his fate was not his to decide, his role has not yet end. As the last of his race, he must continue moving forward. Watch as the world change, as countless eras of Man rise and fall, and continue to fulfill the purpose of his existence -- to carry out the Will of Trinisette.

"Uncle Kawahira?"

The Administrator looked over his shoulder and smiled. "Tsuna."

He regarded the child for just a moment. It was in those images that Trinisette allowed him to view, due to the world's predicament, that brought a human emotion that he thought didn't existed in him.

He had accepted his fate the day he was born, but seeing the child in those memories-not-his and now right in front of him, he saw...

Hope.

He had admired the boy's resolve and marveled at the his creativity for finding something he himself couldn't. 

"Did you know?" Kawahira looked back to the scene before him, the trees lining in the distance, the city behind, and the encompassing sky above in the horizon. "I never did come to terms with sacrificing the lives of humans to maintain the balance of the Laws."

Tsuna walked up next to him, resting his chin on his folded farms as he reclined his upper body against the railing. "I doubt it was because of pity for mankind."

"You know my other self well," Kawahira chuckled with mirth. "But yes, that was the last thing on my mind... unlike Sepira."

Tsuna turned his head to the Administrator, silently waiting for the latter to continue his abrupt tale.