10

Oikawa drops to his knees, hands trembling as he reaches out to touch Kindaichi's pale face. Unexpectedly, the dead body revives and sputters out blood in his wake, and Kindaichi looks up to Oikawa with a groggy smile, while his eyes fight to remain open. "O-Oikawa-san.."

There's tears welling up in Oikawa's eyes and he slides his arms beneath Kindaichi's head. Kindaichi was the first to actually let his tears fall, his cracked voice muttering out a countless amount of apologies to Oikawa. Ushijima stands a few feet behind the pair, watching in much needed silence.

"K-Kyotani has..." Kindaichi tries his hardest to speak, to give Oikawa the information that he needs to know. However, there is only so much he can do. There is only so much he, a dead man who has been revived for a short time, can do. "S-Save..."

"Don't worry, I'll save him. Oikawa reassures Kindaichi, "We'll save you too. Just hang in there. We'll find a way to keep your revived self alive. Just stay awake, Kindaichi." Oikawa adjusts his grip on Kindaichi and lifts him, all the while ignoring the blood that stains his arms. "Ushijima is a smart cyborg. Together, he and I will find a way to keep you alive." To his horror, as he speaks, Kindaichi's eyes slowly close. "Stay awake, Kindaichi!" At first Oikawa shouts, trying to Kindaichi to stay awake. When that fails to work, he pleas. "Please, Kindaichi. Please, please stay awake."

Kindaichi falls asleep.

Kindaichi dies.

"I s-should," Oikawa stammers, in between sobs. "I should revive him again. There's no guarantee that it will work but I should try. Or, I could-" Ushijima cuts him off.

"Reviving him again would cause more pain," Ushijima says in an uncharacteristically quiet voice. "Pain for both you and Kindaichi."

Oikawa, as much as he hates to admit it, knows Ushijima is right. "You're right. What should I do? You know, what should I do with him?"

"Unfortunately, we don't have time for a proper burial," Ushijima replies, still somehow talking in a soft voice. "You know him better than I, but from what I saw, he really likes it here. Specifically - he really likes Earth. I don't think he would completely mind being left in nature, on a peaceful planet."

Oikawa only nods as he lifts Kindaichi by the shoulders, dragging the lifeless body behind some bushes and against a tree. Tears threatened to fall across his face so Oikawa lets his forehead rest on Kindaichi's - and the world flashes before him.

Oikawa watches life played out through Kindaichi's eyes. The orange-coloured surface of Jupiter. The city is ahead of him but he turns back to see a woman waving at him, a bright smile on her face. Young Kindaichi was what they'd call a country boy on Earth - and he was being sent out to sell in the bustling city of Seijoh. There's a bright flash and a new memory begins to play, one showing the feet of the crowd that walked around the market. But then everyone's running off in different directions and Oikawa hears the faintest of screams in the back of his head. The streets are being flooded with an army, the recognizable flag of the Johzenji kingdom high above the crowd. His sight takes him down an alleyway between two buildings where Kindaichi hid. There's another bright flash and it takes him back to the Kindaichi residence. There's a spaceship outside of his house and before long there was his mother urging him up the transport. The ship takes off but Kindaichi's mother is nowhere to be found except through the window, where young Kindaichi watches her get slaughtered by Terushima's men. Then he's up in space - a bright flash - Andromeda.

Oikawa doesn't hesitate to let his tears flow. The droplets land on Kindaichi's lifeless palms. Kindaichi was one of his subjects, a subject of Aoba Johsai. Oikawa had been wrong to say anything about Kindaichi. He wasn't a traitor to his trust or to the former kingdom. He merely served and protected - that was all he was trying to do. Oikawa stands up on his shaking knees, a fist to his chest when he bows down to Kindaichi. "I will avenge you and stand for everything that you've done."

Oikawa turns to walk back to Lesya without a single word. Ushijima decides to follow silently after, but can't resist looking back. And for a moment, it seemed that Kindaichi might have heard what Oikawa had vowed to do, as his lips curled into the faintest of smiles on his pale face.

***

"Let. Me. Go!" Iwaizumi squirms and wriggles about under Kyotani's tight grip as they walk through the metal hallways of the alien spaceship, to where Iwaizumi assumed they'd keep him prisoner. For a few moments, Iwaizumi wanted to squeal and fanboy over the fact that he was on an alien spaceship; if it weren't for the other fact that he was now a prisoner to the aliens controlling the spaceship. Iwaizumi decides to give up on any chance of escape and walks along as Kyotani pushes him down the silent corridors.

"Why am I even here?" Iwazumi asks. To Iwazumi's surprise, Kyotani grabs him by the collar of his shirt and pulls him close.

"You really want to know, you pathetic human worm?" Kyotani snarls in Iwaizumi's right ear. Kyotani, despite having asked a question, doesn't wait for a response. However, he pauses to run his tongue over his sharp teeth... Teeth that somehow don't puncture his tongue. "It's because we know you're close to Oikawa. You're best friends, are you not?" Kyotani's voice grows heavier and colder as he speaks. It is so cold that it sends a chill down Iwaizumi's spine. "Don't try to deny it. You smell like him. You smell like stardust." Pushing Iwazumi away as suddenly as he yanked him back, the two only make a couple of more turns before Iwaizumi ends up in a cell.

"Fucking bastard, I'll get out of here! Just you wait!" Iwaizumi shouts, as a wall of light that forms the door of the cell rises up out of the floor. He shouts and bangs on it with his fists. The light wall doesn't even shake. Kyotani cackles at his antics before striding away.

"You're speaking Japanese," a quiet voice says. The unexpect voice makes Iwazumi jump. Spinning on his heels, Iwaizumi struggles to spot who spoke. That is, until said source of the voice crawls out from one of the beds in the cell. "Sorry, I didn't mean to startle you. I just... I just haven't seen a human in a long time. I haven't heard someone speak Japanese in a long time."

The guy that speaks to him appears to be his age. Yet, he seems older at the same time. There are dark bags under his eyes and violet bruises along his jaw and one over his left eye. To make an already strange situation more strange, his get-up is similar to that of an astronaut. That is, if astronauts wore nearly skin tight, black and orange suits. Iwaizumi also notices a belt with plenty of places to hold weapons. Sadly, the guy has no weapons.

"How did you end up here? You don't seem like someone who would know much about..." the guy lets his voice trail off since he knows that Iwazumi can guess what he is talking about. "I suppose that is a question best saved for later. I hate to be a negative nancy, but if we don't get out of here we will die." There is a moment of silence before he speaks further. "How rude of me! I didn't tell you my name. I'm Sugawara Koushi."

"I'd say it's nice to meet you, but I know we both would rather be anywhere but here," Iwaizumi jokes, as his brain processes all of what Suga said to him. "You're human? And Japanese, I'm guessing... How did you end up here? How do you know so much about aliens? Or are you an actually an alien? That would explain the silver hair..."

Suga laughs at his rambling. "I am both human and Japanese. After all, I must be one to be the other. As for the rest of your questions... It's a long story. Once we get out of here, I'll tell you." Suga picks at the seam of his suit until he is able to pull something out. Whatever it is, it is about the size of an SD card. "I'm hoping that I can get this to work. It is a tiny radio. However, it is something a friend of mine made so we don't know if it will work. I meant to try it earlier but..." Suga motions to his face. "I was a bit preoccupied." Suga squints at the device before saying more. "Oh dear, it looks awfully similar to one of our mini bombs... I hope I grabbed the radio and not the bomb."

"In that case, let's come up with a plan B. That is, let's come up with a plan B and use plan B," Iwaizumi stammers, just as Suga squeezes the device between his index finger and thumb.

"I sure hope this is the radio and not a bomb," Suga nervously laughs, holding the device near his mouth. "Any chance someone is listening in? Also, is there any chance you've figured out where I'm located?"

"Suga," a deep voice responds, sounding on the verge of tears. "Love, you had me worried! Don't worry we're close. There's a GPS tracker in your suit, remember?" The person speaking doesn't wait for Suga to respond. "Why you didn't contact us sooner? I thought..."

"There's no need to worry, Daichi," Suga responds, in a soft voice. "I'm alive. A bit sore, but alive. Anyways, you're close and that's all that matters. Well, that and that this chip ended up being a radio and not a bomb. We really should make them look different." Suga laughs, ever so briefly. "When you do arrive, try not to blast the whole ship away. I'm human and humans break awfully easily. Also, I have a friend imprisoned with me that's human as well."

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Character design & development (for Kyotani): Kira () & Nika Ravenscraft

Character design & development (for Suga): Nika Ravenscraft

Character design & development (for Ushijima): Kira (@nvillera)

Character design & development (for Kindaichi): Kira (@nvillera) & Nika Ravenscraft

Character design & development (for Iwaizumi): Kira (@nvillera) & Nika Ravenscraft

Character design & development (for Daichi): Nika Ravenscraft

Scenario development: Kira (@nvillera)

Writing: Nika Ravenscraft & Kira (@nvillera)

Editing: Nika Ravenscraft & Kira (@nvillera)