‘Ten years... I haven’t seen you in ten years.’ Junichi began. ‘Since the end of it all.’
‘Yeah... And I can see that you’ve kept the eye-patch’
A hand raised to his eye-patch ‘Yes, old wounds.’
‘And this kid here is yours?’ He looked at Kioshi but Kioshi didn’t notice, blind once again.
‘Yeah. A hard-headed kid.’
‘Just like his father. Say, Kioshi, how old are you?’
Not bothering to up, Kioshi answered. ‘Eighteen. I turn nineteen in November.’
‘November... Wasn’t that –’
‘Izumi’s birthday... Yes.’
‘And how is she?’
‘Take a guess.’ Junichi said simply, looking away.
The sound of outside filled a silence that had formed between the three.
‘You saw her right? You saw that something was wrong.’ Junichi sighed, massaging the back of his neck wearily.
‘So it got her in the end huh? The Xero Xone. Man, that sucks.’
Kioshi pursed his lips. My mother had visions of the past in the same way that I am. My fears are coming true, I’m going mad just like her. It wasn’t until she accepted the power of the Xero Xone completely that she completely lost it. And Shibuya was forever changed. Kioshi’s face hardened.
‘What happened to you, Yamato? Where’s Eiko?’
Yamato was silent for a short time but that short time felt very lengthy. Soon he stood to pace the small living room of Junichi’s home, looking at their few possessions placed about as an excuse to delay an answer. ‘Akira made me kick you out of that window. I heard Izumi scream and then my whole vision went black and my body felt like it was filled with electricity and was pulling me in a million directions. It was a horrible feeling, Junichi, I thought I was dying. But then, I woke up and I couldn’t see – it was so dark but I could smell, and all I could smell was dirt. The street lights flickered on then, and around me I could see Shibuya but above me there wasn’t a sky but a dark, rocky ceiling.’
‘You were underground.’ Kioshi exclaimed.
‘Yes.’ Yamato nodded. ‘Though, I don’t know how we got there.’
‘It was my mother.’ Said Kioshi, with his head lowered. ‘I have the power of the Xero Xone too and have an idea of what it can do. I can open these black holes and sometimes they are miniature gateways into the Xero Xone itself. Anything can pass through and the reappear anywhere in the world.’ Kioshi explained without giving eye-contact. ‘The energy my mother released opened a gateway that transported Shibuya underground.’
‘You have the same ability as Izumi?’ Junichi asked.
Kioshi nodded.
‘Don’t tell me!’ Junichi became noticeably tense. ‘Don’t tell me that the same thing that happened to Izumi is going to happen to you! I can’t lose anyone else – especially if that person is my son! My own flesh and blood! You’re all that’s left of my family and...’ Junichi looked at the photo of Izumi placed on the television stand at the end of the room ‘You’re the only piece of her I have left.’
‘Father...’ Kioshi stopped, reconsidering.
‘What is it Kioshi? If it’s important, please tell me.’
He sounds so desperate... I’ve never seen him like this before. I’ve only know the hard man who raised me and never the soft man who fought in vein for world that was lost. It must pain him to wake up everyday because in the end my mother was right; his struggles were all for nothing and loneliness was all that it gave him. ‘It’s already happening, Father... You must have seen it in he car, when I spaced out...’
Junichi’s fist slammed into the ground. ‘NO!’ He had forced his eyes closed in disbelief but opened them again so that he could continue the discussion. ‘You’re mother... You’re mother said she had dreams about Demons. Do you have those?’
‘No. But, I have episodes where I relive moments as her. That’s all.’
Kioshi’s words forced a reaction from both Junichi and Yamato. ‘You’ve lived moments as Izumi?’ Yamato asked, incredulous.
Kioshi nodded. ‘It’s getting harder to tell what’s reality and what’s not. The last memory I saw was the when Shibuya got transported underground. All that’s left for me to see is...’
‘Madness.’ Junichi finished.
The room became quiet.
‘If I don’t die fighting Akira then I’m certain that my mind will be lost forever.’
‘N-No, Kioshi...’
‘Damn...’ Yamato sat back down.
‘I want to continue to fight, father. But, my thoughts and feelings are mixing with hers. And to begin with, they’re already similar so its becoming harder to distinguish. Darkness is present in all our hearts and we can’t pretend that they don’t exist. The problem in my mother’s case was that with the circumstances at the time, there was no bright side for her to look at, no hope. And so she fell into darkness. It was the only thing she felt sure of and could look with certainty into. It was the only thing she could confide in in the end, as it was the only thing to care to understand.’
‘DAMN IT!’ Junchi punched the floor, allowing himself to cry freely in front of his son and his best friend. ‘I didn’t know she hurt so much! I didn’t understand! I kept saying I would protect her! But I didn’t know what protecting her meant! They were just empty words! And now because of me she died! It wasn’t the Xero Xone that killed her! It was me!’
Kioshi gasped silently. I said the same thing about Hatsuo Seiya; that it was because of people like us that she died.
With a hand on Junichi’s back, Yamato asked, ‘What about you Kioshi? What do you feel? Do you feel any hope?’
Eager to hear an answer to the question Yamato posed, Junichi was able to silence himself, wiping away the tears and sitting up. ‘Kioshi?’
Kioshi looked up at the ceiling. ‘I don’t know. All I can do is keep going and hope for the best. Isn’t that what you did when you found yourself underground Yamato?’
Junichi looked at Yamato with interest.
‘I suppose so... It was horrible living down there for the first few years but we all eased into it. There was no escape and no hope. Many of us down there we became Eclipsed. Eiko... became eclipsed...’
‘Eiko? No...’ Junichi shook his head.
There was a knock on the door and Kioshi remembered that the woman who had helped him was waiting outside. She had said that she needed to talk to Kioshi. Kioshi excused himself, letting his father and old friend catch up, leaving to get some answers.