Chapter Text
It seemed as if everything had slowed far past the point where time stood still. The fires and ashes drifted softly through the thick air but it was as if they moved in a pattern going against what was right. It was not just still, it was wrong. Buildings stretched far too tall into the burnt sky with misshapen gaps. Behind him the awning of a restaurant crumbled and slid away onto the pavement. Andy was no stranger to disaster, he had been on missions before that lead him into places that didn’t seem capable of mind, but they were not like this. Everything felt so wrong.
Usually quick of reflex, Andy’s limbs moved sluggishly or were completely unresponsive to his commands. His thoughts were so scattered he wasn’t completely sure what he was urging himself to do. He was already too late, too slow. And yet, he rushed. There was screaming-and it might have been his own screams-that he pushed away to forget because maybe he was wrong, everything around him was wrong maybe he could be too. He climbed over the walls of debris, breaking through a barrier of crushed metal signs he hoped were originally such a bright red. Soft promises of that one precious commodity-hope- whirled through his mind.
KYOUSUKE!
He rushed and then wished he had not. Anything to delay the sight before him was something he should have sought. The dirt and dust flared up behind him as his boots came to an abrupt stop at the edge of a clearing free of rubble. He staggered backwards, eyes wide, and almost fell away again. To the right of him a chunk of office building broke away with a thundering crash and tumbled into the mess of corrugated metal, concrete, and fleshier materials around him. It crashed loud enough to make anyone wince but he didn’t hear it. All he heard was his own heart beating and focused on the certain lack of a similar pulse in the body in front of him. He staggered; he fell down to his knees and gripped at his dusty hair while the dirt scuffed his stained cargo pants. Andy kneeled beside an unbreathing form and shakily looked down at the gun in his hand, the Esper Hunter, and then back down at the shock of white hair mudded with earth and blood. He wiped away tears he didn’t know he had and tossed the gun away.
-Kyousuke…-
O the bleeding drops of red,
Where on the deck my Captain lies,
Fallen cold and dead.
-I’m sorry…-