Crossing the city seemed to only take a matter of seconds for me. My mind was solely focused on one thing; finding Akira. Whether or not my mental state had any effect on the city itself was unknown to me, however while I was making my way to the distribution center, I noticed that the city was quiet… and dark.

Houses that normally had their lights on were now blending in with the night. I could not see a single person, or hear sound coming from anywhere but the forest life. It was almost as if the citizens of Haila were purposely concealing themselves. As if they had an internal desire to cover themselves with darkness in an attempt to hide until the morning’s light. To hide specifically from one thing- one person.

I could differentiate the distribution center from the rest of the surroundings by a specific characteristic. It was the only building I had seen with its lights on. There was light coming from the window on the side of the building, illuminating the forest it bordered before eventually getting swallowed up by a black abyss.

I slowed down my run to a quick walk before eventually positioning myself right below the lit-up window on the side of the building. I masked my presence and looked through the window.

Two men sat at an old fold-table table underneath aged lights that shone down from above. There were two doors leading to other rooms. One directly across from the window, and one on the right side of the square room. The men were drinking and carrying on a conversation.

“Ahh… did you hear? We got another one tonight. The boss said we were the ones who were going to break it in.”

The other man laughed and replied:

“Oh hoho, the boss must really have a problem with the seller. He never lets us prepare the products beforehand… Remember the last one? Couldn’t even talk right afterwards.  Is that guy here tonight? He loves these kinds of things.”

“Ah… the boss’s right-hand man… ya, he’s in town today. The product is right in his strike zone too.”

“Hahaha! This will be a night to remember! Here’s to a—Oi! Who are you?! When did you get in--!”

I looked over at one of the men at the table.

This is disgusting… Silence.

Looking at yourself in the mirror is a common place occurrence for most people. However, looking at yourself from behind… that is something that most people don’t get to experience. Which is the exact thing I am doing right now.

Listening to the men speak about Akira like that… about a human like that. As if they were an object to be sold. That is something that I could never forgive. I wanted to be in the room with them. I wanted to wrap my hands around them until they spoke their last pathetic words. However, a convenient ability like that doesn’t exist.

At least not exactly. If I could erase my presence and keep people from seeing me… I reasoned that I should be able to also make people see me. Furthermore, if I could do that to other people, I should be able to do it to myself, a human, as well.

The me that I see in the room right now is just a construction of my mind. Made for the sole purpose of directly interacting with the men in the room. And while I could not physically interact with anything using the “fake me” I could make any human think that I could.

Essentially creating a clone of myself widened the options I had ten-fold. The only down-side currently is that I wouldn’t know how to change the target’s perception of the clone unless I could visibly see them.

“You, who were you just talking about?!”(Kei)

“Wha-?! Who are you? Take, who is this guy!?... Take?!”

Take was looking at his friend frantically. He still couldn’t speak and looked like he was on the verge of panic. 

“Answer my question, NOW!”

“It’s the product we brought in today. Wha- why did I tell you that?”

“Product, product…”

I muttered silently. The rage inside me from hearing him say that again; from hearing speak about a human that way again; from hearing him speak about Akira that way again. It was boiling up to the point that I didn’t think I would be able to control myself. There was going to be another death in this city tonight.

“Where… is the girl you brought in earlier… I know you have her here. Just tell me where she is. Now.”

“S-she is with the rest of the group. Through the door right ahead in the main distribution room.”

I am done with you now.

Before ending their perception of my clone in the room, I left the two with one last task.

“I am done with you now so… hold your breath.”

Running around the building to the nearest entrance, I could hear some loud voices coming through the metal walls of the building. I reached another side door and found it unlocked.

I opened the door quickly and froze. Red. It’s red. The walls are red, the people in the room are red. The ground was red. And in the middle of it all; white, covered in red.

A girl laying on the ground with shoulder length dark hair, now damp in areas with something giving it a dark maroon color. White skin stained with red in various areas. Tattered clothing that allows you to see areas that are normally hidden. Finally, black eyes that are looking back at me… not with nothing in them this time. This time… her eyes show hopelessness.

The red is turning to black. Everything is turning dark. The voices are becoming clouded. I can’t see anything but the red on white in front of me. Silhouettes come towards me, I can’t tell if they are moving slowly or quickly. Voices are echoing in the distance. I don’t care, they are keeping me from the white.

Why is there so much red here? What is normally white has become red?

A silhouette reaches out to touch me.

“Die.”

The silhouette stops. It falls to the ground and red begins to spill out.

Oh, the red is coming from the faint black blurs… I need to get them away from the white…

The black silhouettes freeze for a moment after the first one falls, and I continue forward. As they shout and begin to come towards me, I tell them to leave one after another. Leave this world I mean. It should just be the world with myself and the white.

The more the silhouettes fall, the more red flows out. It is attacking the white and I. I can’t tell it to go away. It just keeps flowing.

I get closer to the white figure, still stained with red, now weakly standing in a sea of red.

It reaches out a hand to me and I reach mine to it.

Our hands touch and the white fades away. What’s left is Akira, weakly standing and grasping my hand. She is looking at me and I see in her eyes not the usual abyss of nothingness, or the hopelessness of moments ago. I see that she is looking at me with… concern?

Why is she concerned? Why does Akira look at me like this? She is looking at me as if I am the one who needs saving? As if I am the one that was taken away. As if I am the one with red running down their face.

She takes her hand away from mine and brings it to my face. I feel something sticky and warm as she cups my face. I take her hand away and look at it.

More red. But I realize this color isn’t from her… As I look at her hands in mine, my eyes trace my hands to my arms, and my arms to my body.

It’s me… I am covered in red from my head down. I steadily grow aware of the surroundings. The red I saw upon entering the building. It is still here. But this time it isn’t me just seeing things. There is blood everywhere. So much blood. It is resting in pools on the floor, dripping down the walls; the stench of iron is so strong I can hardly bear it.

I look back to Akira and emotions well up inside me. The relief that I found her, the subsiding anger, the realization of what I had done.

“Akira- I…”

She looks at me and simply shakes her head. She takes my hand and we walk out the door together.

We don’t speak with each other while walking. I am simply being taken along by her hand in hand. For now, that is enough. For now, I am content.

If anyone were to see us in daylight, what would they think? A man covered in red paint being dragged along by a girl with torn up clothing?

However, nobody is awake to see us. The city of Haila is still hiding under the cover of night. Hiding from a person, a thing.

The moon was the only source of light as we walked. She led me past the main part of the city, towards the river that ran all the way through the valley.

After half an hour of walking we ended up where I had bathed earlier that day. The night time atmosphere and the moonlight bouncing off the calm waters of the small inlet made for a peaceful scene backed by the rise of the other side of the valley.

Akira led me to the edge and let go of my hand as she walked further in.

“Come here and sit down.”

I followed her into the water and sat down. The water came up to my chest, and just below her knees. A dark cloud started to form around me from the moment I submerged myself in the water.

After walking for so long all of the blood had dried and coming into contact with water made it feel slimy and fresh all over again. The smell of iron was still strongly plastered all over me, as Akira cupped her hands and began to pour water over my head from behind me.

The moonlight, a man sitting, and a girl washing him.

“Take off your suit and undershirt.”

I took them off and she continued to silently wash me with her hands.

Her hands on my back wiping away the remnants of what I had done felt refreshing. It was as if she were washing away the entire past hour itself.

I turned my head slightly back towards her to ask her a question and she placed her palm on my head, firmly grasping it to turn my eyes forward. But not before I saw what she was trying to take my attention away from.

Her face was slightly flushed, and in the moonlight, I could see her torn pieces of clothing were exposing a lot more than what they were supposed to. A white neck led down to a shirt with a modified “V” in it from being torn, which was hanging down as she was slightly bent over from washing me. The light bouncing off the water let me see two white areas underneath covered by more fabric.

I remained facing forward and enjoyed the feeling of her soothing hands rinsing me with refreshing water.

About ten minutes had passed when I felt her take her hands off me.

“Ok… done.”

I turned around to see a slightly happy and satisfied look on Akira’s face despite the battered condition of the rest of her body.

“Thank you, Akira. That felt refreshing.”

A small smile escaped my lips and I rose onto my feet only to stumble slightly and grab onto Akira’s shoulder.

So small…

“Un. be careful.”

She is like this after everything that has happened.

“You’re right, I guess I am still a little disoriented. Should we walk to the apartment now… Or maybe not?”

I was worried we might run into the woman who was responsible for tonight if we headed back to the old apartment building.

“It’s fine. That woman has never stayed there more than an hour, there’s no reason to change that now.”

“Okay then…”

It had been bothering me since we left the distribution center that nothing was said about what happened there. Even if she did ask a question, I wouldn’t really know what to say to her.

For now, though…

“Akira… Thanks for the bath… and for bringing me back…”

Silence followed that comment as we left the river banks and began walking back. However, as Akira moved to get in front of me, almost as if protecting me from the night itself, I could have sworn that I saw a slight smile on the corner of her lips and heard a soft:

“Thank you…”

After arriving at the apartments, we parted ways and I returned to the tiny box of a room once again to lay down.

I could hear Akira shuffling through the wreckage in the room beside mine and I had to wonder how many other times in her life she had to return to home to pick up the pieces like tonight.

What would she do after this? Where would she go? Would she have to move to a new city?

More questions joined those swirling around in my head.

What happened tonight? What did I do…? How did I…

Nothing could have prepared me for what happened tonight. No amount of “workplace orientation” would ever be able to accurately describe the feelings I experienced and what happened because of them.

To wrap it all up, my suit had become a disaster. The entire set was likely ruined and would smell like iron for the remainder of their use.

Right after I got a new one from the old man too…

Thinking I may need to find a new way to get personal suits in this city, I slowly began to fall asleep.

……..

I wake up to the sound of my door clicking open.

This is… them again? Akira! They came back for her!

Thinking so, I rushed to the door. My blood started boiling as I moved faster than I thought possible towards the entrance of the room.

If they do anything to her, I’ll…

I stopped mid-thought as I pushed the door open and was greeted by a sight I did not expect to see.

“Akira…”

Under the moonlight I could see that the small girl was wrapped in a blanket, protecting herself from the night air.

“Kei…. Boxers.”

Surprised, I wonder what she is talking about. She makes a small cough and I see her trying to keep her eyes from looking down.

I look downwards and notice that, in a rush, I forgot to put on any sort of pants, and right now I am in only a shirt and my underwear.

I quickly move to hide myself and look out at Akira behind the safety of the old wooden door.

“I’m sorry, Akira. I just thought…”

“It’s ok.”

Akira pushes through the door and shuffles into the room.

“Ah… and you’re coming in I see…”

The girl looks back at me.

“I’m coming in.”

“Tche! Say that before you come in!”

“Un… will do in the future.”

“Uh huh… So, what did you need?”

My eyes begin to adjust to the low lighting of the room, and I see that Akira looks… different. It’s not the blanket wrapped around her small body dressed in clothes for bed, but her eyes. Her eyes that are normally filled with nothing are now filled with something I have never seen in them. Something that makes them look deeper than usual, more lonely than usual.

I shut the door and the moonlight that once filled the room disappears, leaving the room much darker than it was and erasing the sight of her eyes from my vision.

“One second, let me find a light or something. If only I had my phone we could use-..”

I was cut off again, this time by a small hand that I could feel grabbing my shirt.

Akira tugged on my shirt twice, pulling me over to the wall that bordered her room.

“If you just give me a second, I think I can let some more light in for us through the window.”

Akira didn’t give me that chance though. Instead I heard the sound of fabric sliding against a wall, and I felt my shirt being tugged down.

“Akira, if you don’t let go of my shirt, I am going to…”

I stopped mid-sentence again. My hand that was trying to take her hand off my shirt felt for the first time her smooth skin, cold and shaking.

I cupped her one hand in both of mine to try to warm it and could still feel the small girl shaking despite the fact my hands were rather warm.

I held her hand and slid down the wall to sit next to her. We sat in silence for some time until she leaned towards me and rested against my shoulder. She was still shaking despite the blanket wrapped around her.

Her shaking seemed to keep going for quite some time as I held her hand in mine and let her rest against me.

We sat side by side in the dark room silently. I felt the need to say something, or rather, I have felt that need but only now have the courage to say it.

“Akira…”

I had trouble phrasing my words in a way that would convey everything I wanted to tell her. How could I make her understand my feelings? How could I let her know my desire from the moment I met her?  The feeling of that moment summed into one thought.

 

“… Akira, it is ok now. I will be here for you.”

And with those words, the young girl’s head fell into my lap and the shaking continued as warm tears poured onto my legs.

I caressed the hair on her head as her silent sorrow continued through the night, ceasing at some point as we both drifted off to sleep.