towerofanimus | Another Loss...

Entry tags:

Another Loss...

Characters: Hei and OPEN
Setting: Graveyard and Gym
When: April 10th
Format: Prose, but I can do either or.
Summary: Hei is dealing with the loss of Elena in his own way.
Rating: angst, punching the punching bag hard, etc.

[Graveyard]

He hoped after the loss of Lucy, he would never have to come here again. Yet as the body count kept rising, or vanishing in this case, he kept coming here. Minako, Amber, Reno, and now even Elena. No one was being spared, and it frustrated Hei. Even more frustrating was that he could not do a single damn thing but this one simple act. Thus he was here, setting flowers on Elena's tombstone.

"I received your note," he spoke, eyes downcast. "Not sure why out of all the people for this, you chose me for it, but...I'll do my best to keep them safe."

There were no tears, simply sadness hidden by the calmness in his voice. It was already hard enough not to just do something though...

[Gym]

And that anger was hardly being held in check. Wearing only a tanktop, body nearly drenched in sweat, he had been working out the rest of the day. Right now, he was punching and kicking the sandbag, blows fast and hard, not letting up and moving near unpredictably. If it were a human body, bones would probably be broken right now.

And it doesn't take long for it to break, Hei's last punch shattering it. Still, if one looked closely, they would see his hand covered with gravel, earth from the materia he used. With a sigh, he walks away, going to grab another and set it up. Didn't take long before he went back to work, earth from his hand fading at the same time. He couldn't break them all after all.

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[This day's pleasant stroll was going to take a back seat. He's seen this before. Only a few times in person:

Someone practices on the bag and then beats the thing into destruction, as was evident on the floor. Never a good mood. While the doctor's approach was silent, it stopped at some point as he neared. A trick of magic, perhaps.]

You are strong. But there appears to be a lack of a certain...restraint that ails you.

[He bows a bit, humbly but nobly, and not very low at all.]

I am sure we may have met before, but allow me to formally introduce myself. I am Dr. Victor von Doom, and I could not help but wonder where it is your power stems from.

[If it weren't for the situation, one could almost hear the sarcasm in his voice. It might be because he isn't, yet is terrible at avoiding making such a sound.]

Not in the mood, Doom.

[The irritation was clear on Hei's face, still angry. Didn't help it had been this man. Hei recalled this man, and could already see this man being one of the few the hero clones must fight. Bad enough he was in an especially foul mood.]

[About twenty or so reasons why this man was so angry at a bunch of punching bags. And when death was no longer permanent, few reason to be anything else than another disappearing resident. A permadeath, if there was one.]

I beg your pardon, then. However, one should learn to work their anger through words and not destructive action. One of those can only harm everyone in the end, can't it?

Today is not one of my good days to lecture me.

[As it stood, Hei was in more pain than most could imagine. Loss after loss wasn't doing good for his psyche, and wasn't helped with Doctor Doom giving him such advice.]

I wouldn't imagine it. I should just get to my point, then--

[A small, mechanical humanoid--roughly sixteen centimeters in height--fluttered onto his hand as soon as he held it out.]

--perhaps a later date? There was something very important I needed to discuss with you, actually.

[Hei eyes the thing in Doom's hand. What in the world...He takes a deep breath, trying to calm some of his nerves.]

Speak now then.

If you insist.

[The thing--apparently some kind of hideous alter ego of a fairy--flitted about the room with wings that were anything but noisy.]

Doom has found it quite interesting in this tower--it's unwilling denizens, I mean. While some are merely very intelligent, others have...very special gifts. Gifts with which I believe could solve the coming impasse that plagues the collective mandala of our others.

[The fairy-doll hovers down, much closer to Hei than was probably necessary.]

[Hei grabbed the staff behind him, poking the edge at the fairy-doll as a warning.]

If you are seeking to unite them under your own power, that's already asking for an impossible task.

[The pokes do nothing to motivate the doll to move at all.]

You assume too much of me. But that is expected.

No indeed, such a goal never even crossed my mind, I assure you. While I think it prudent to mention that such a task--indeed, a difficult one--is not impossible. It does, however, beg the question as to what to do after one has already accomplished that. Doom, meanwhile, merely seeks greater understanding.

You seek information on those within the tower in short.

[The doctor gestures with his hand a sort of poignant, yet almost unnecessary movement.]

I figured you would know, but it would have been rude to assume anything. Information is key, after all. Progressing at any way in this infuriating tower, whether it be anything at all, would be moot without any known data about its other residents. Don't you seek it as well? Doom of course does not mean just information about what a person's given powers are--the sanctity of knowledge about the whereabouts of one's friends, for example, would be a worthier goal.

The knowledge of what is beyond the "dead" worlds of this tower is of the greatest concern of this place, as I have seen. What say you?

Gathering data on all of us will not aid anyone if the tower administrators is constantly monitoring and torturing us. You want a better solution? We could use more information regarding the administrators. The inhabitants of this tower are not going to tell you anything.

[And the network was shut down because of the information distrust once before. This could only end up worse.]

Of course, of course. The loathsome creatures known as the tower administrators.

[How such a very...left brained look at it, he criticizes to himself.]

I deign to not bore you with such other details then. Trifling steps towards victory, so to speak. I'll not toss around illusions that they are the true villains in this mangled epoch they call a salvation.

Kirika walked in sometime later looking for Hei. She knew well not to walk into Hei's path when he was like that. Those punches would shatter her body. She stared blankly from a safe distance with an idea of his behavior. Kirika hasn't had the chance to loos someone yet, but that didn't mean she wanted to experience it. Her memories were enough.

Today Kirika wore the white spandex body suit that was given to her when she first arrived with her white jacket over it. She would finally speak after Hei shattered the first sandbag. "Hei."

Just as he sets it up, Hei stares at Kirika. Of all the times, he didn't want her to see him like this, not now, not when his rage kept getting in his way like this.

"Sorry you had to see me like this."

Kirika shaken her head at him. For Hei to express his anger was like a blessing. Kirika wasn't sure how to do it since most of her emotions remained locked up. Kirika didn't want to show her violence, and feared what would happen if she did.

"Does it help?"

"Only a little," he spoke, looking at the ground. "Doesn't erase what happens."

What those admins did to him. They took away so much, but at least...at least he still had Kirika, if no one else.

No, it doesn't. No matter what has happened, Kirika never wanted to forget. To forget was something worst than her own sinful self.

"Someone's gone?" Was the only explanation she could think of. She didn't want to pry Hei but once again curious lead to her asking. In the meantime, now that Hei paused his punching she would use the time to walk up to him with a cup of water.

"Elena," he answered softly, taking the cup. He stares a bit before drinking it, feeling a bit better.

"The magic I used just now. She was responsible for giving it to me. It even helped against my Shadow last year."

Without that magic, his life might have been cut short.

Materia came into mind when Hei mentioned the magic. Even Kirika wasn't sure how it worked but it has helped saved him no doubt. Has Kirika herself learned something from the people she met? She hasn't thought about it.

Kirika closed her eyes for a moment with the thought of her own existence. No matter how many times she tried to deny her existence as if it was nothing, Hei's face flashed in her mind. It was proven when she appeared in the tower. Hei's facial expression, deluded and lost. In the end, he would get hurt because of her. Each time someone vanished reminded her of the truth.

After a moment in thought, Kirika opened her eyes again. "Even if a person vanishes from your life, they should never be forgotten. She taught you something, right?"

Kirika bit her lip to pause herself for a moment, then looked away and continued, "even a person like me..." Yes, someone like her could vanish too.

That's when he couldn't hold it in, falling to his knees and embracing Kirika. Tears were already down his face. No, he couldn't lose her too. Not Kirika, not his sister! She was the most important person to him within this tower, and refused to allow her to die or just be a toy for Ruana. He lost Lucy five times, he lost Raven, Minako, Harry, Elena, and more, nearly the entire facility.

To lose it all frightened him more than anything, and not even he could hold it back.

"I'm not going to lose you," he spoke as calmly as he could. "I lost so much already, and I refuse to lose my sister again."

You think she would be used to this already, to be close in the arms she cared for the most. Even if she could muster some false words, she couldn't say them out loud. Kirika was no liar. In truth, she didn't want to loose anyone even if it meant for her selfishness. But Hei's word did made her smile, there would be someone to remember her even if she was gone.

"Thanks Hei," she spoke calmly as she could as well. "Try not to leave, okay?"

"I'll try."

It's all he could do, to help protect her and everyone else. He couldn't do it forever, but he would try at least. He owed it to Lucy. He owed it to his friends. And he owed all the pain this tower healed to Kirika.

"If there's one good thing this tower did, is bring you back to me."

Even Hell could be peaceful at times. No matter how many times she heard it from him, it brought her smile again. Not only the tower brought them together, but the tower proved another thing, this Kirika had her own soul. That was enough to prove her own existence. Kirika nodded to that agreement.

"Hei, if we could leave here, where would you go?"

That surprised him. Where he would go?

"Well, I hadn't really thought about that exactly," he answered honestly. "At first I considered the facility to help the others, but odds are they wouldn't need it, so I also considered the world Elena came from, to take up her offer."

Elena's world. At least Hei looked at something positive. She wasn't sure where she'd go. The facility was the last thing in her mind. Anywhere with Hei was fine with her.

"What's her world like?"

"I imagine its dangerous, but they seem more accepting of people like me and Lucy."

He hadn't even heard that much about it. A gamble, but Hei couldn't return to the original Hei's world. There would just be confusion on top of confusion.

It seemed more promising than the world Hei should be. Although Kirika herself wasn't sure if the world of Kirika's was a place for her, not after what she has witnessed from the places she came from. A world so plain, it would miss something. How Hei talked about it, it made her smile.

"Dangerous seems to adapt easily," Kirika commented in a good way.

"Danger is bound to come in one form or another. Might as well take the one with the best possibility to ensure a good life."

She smiles at that in agreement. Already she's remembering the world of Kirika's, a world not engulfed in magic or strange beasts. A 'normal' world in her own view.

He pats her head, getting onto his feet. "For now, let's just try to go on. I should probably be making food for the others with whatever is hunted."

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Another Loss...

Gym Floor

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