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Day 99 - Night - Last Defence Academy Rooftop
It was finally the night before everything would be over. All our hundred days here at the academy and it was all for nothing.
We had failed.
We had lost five people.
Moko.
Hiruko.
Ima.
Eito.
And Nozomi…
Even if Eito had betrayed us he had still been one of us.
He had still been a part of our team.
He had been our friend at one point, but he obviously hadn’t seen it that way.
“You are all hideous creatures—I hate everyone last one of you! I despise you the most, Takumi…”
I let out a loud sigh, rising from my bed. I hadn’t left my bed since the talk with the undying flames boy on Day 95. I don’t think anyone else had either.
What had transpired on that day—that one of our own had betrayed us…
It was inconceivable…
And yet it had been happening from the very beginning.
Eito had been playing pretend while we were all ignorant to his true motive.
It made me seethe with anger that I had trusted him—told him things I never told the others.
The stuff about the similarities between Nozomi and Karua.
Did he use that to his advantage?
Is that why he snuck into my room and turned everyone against Nozomi?
He spread a fabricated version of what she’d told me around and everyone had believed it without giving her a chance to explain.
It also caused everyone to fall into a trap because everyone was too blinded by the lies Eito had spread about Nozomi.
I let out a deep breath as these scrambled thoughts continued to flow through my head like a movie.
Maybe I should get some fresh air.
Tonight would be my last night that I would even be seeing the night sky anyway, depending on what happened tomorrow.
I got up and out of bed, headed for the door of my room and headed outside, stretching my legs as I did so. I hadn’t really moved around the last couple of days so my body felt a little sluggish. As I moved down the steps in front of my room I noticed someone was standing in the walkway, staring up at the sky. I recognised the silhouette immediately due the pigtails and the way she stood.
It was Kako.
What was she doing out here at this time?
“Kako?” She turned around to face me. There were unshed tears in her eyes. “What are you doing out here?”
She wiped her eyes and tried her best to appear cheery before me but I knew it was put-on. “Oh Takumi. What brings you out here?”
“I just wanted to see the night sky one last time.” I came up beside her and looked up at the sky with her.
“It’s beautiful, isn’t it?” She said wistfully and I nodded. “It’s too bad we won’t be able to see it from up there…”
I turned my head to face her noticing how she had lowered her head. “There’s no guarantee that Sirei was lying about an escape for us.”
“But it doesn’t mean he wasn’t either…” She spoke with a tremor. “Tomorrow could come and nothing could happen and we would be stuck here … forever…”
I stood next to her with my head also downcast as the same thoughts from the last couple of days passed over my head.
Everyone we had lost.
Our mission had failed.
We had failed from very early on.
All because we hadn’t picked up on Eito being against us the whole time.
If there really was no escape then we really would be stuck here—on a dying planet with the Invaders.
But I now had an option to go back and redo everything, but should I?
Everything would be redone including the relationships I’ve made with my teammates in this time.
My friends…
But when I think back on what happened on Day 94 … when we lost two people on our team … our friends.
That day we hadn’t just lost two people, but I’d felt so much rage in me at the Supreme Commander.
Kako had as well.
No one else but us had tried to go for the killing blow.
“Kako, do you…” I never got to finish my question as Kako turned her gaze to me her face bearing a kind of rage similar to a few days ago.
The same rage I had felt that day too.
“I know what you’re about to ask me, Takumi?” I closed my mouth and just let her vent. “Do I regret killing the Supreme Commander? No, I don’t! Because did she regret killing Nozomi? Did she regret killing my brother?! No, she didn’t!” Her rage had started to subside and turned into quiet sobs. She was still in pain over that day. Still grieving. “She just laughed at us.” She covered her face with her hands. “And I had only just gotten him back too…”
I stood next to her, feeling unsure if I should console her or not.
I felt so out of place.
Kako was my friend but I wasn’t close enough to her to really try talking much to her previously.
Ima had done most of the talking in the early days of our stay here while Kako had still been unsure about her decision to fight or not.
After Kako had decided for herself to fight and the twins joined the team they began to see each other as equals and not just that they had to protect each other. No one else here had felt as inclined to stay hiding because everyone who was waiting for them was on the Artificial Satellite while the twins had been together from the get-go. They had no reason to fight if they were both already together unlike the rest of us.
My reason for fighting was like everyone else’s.
At least it was at first…
I wanted to get back to Karua.
Then Nozomi and … her final words to me…
I’m so confused over them.
I had finally gotten it into my head that they were separate people, but now I’m not so sure…
This means I’ve been fighting alongside the person I hold the most dear all this time and never realised it.
Now she’s gone…
“You’re not the only one…”
I spoke without thinking, biting my bottom lip as Kako turned to face me with tears in her eyes, confusion on her face.
“Huh?”
“My childhood friend has—had been with us this whole time. I couldn’t protect her…” I tried to hold back tears as Kako stared at me with wide eyes. “I knew there was a reason that they looked so similar, but I hoped they were different people.” My voice cracked and my lip trembled. “She’s the only one that knows that nickname. She had the same scar too. I couldn’t…”
“Takumi…” Kako reached out a hand towards me but pulled back, unsure of how to help me.
“Nozomi is Karua…” I blurted out, finally getting it off of my chest.
“A…Are you sure?” Kako asked, sounding unsure about what I had just said.
I hadn’t told any of the others about Karua, only Eito. However they had heard about how similar Nozomi looked to a friend of mine. They all chalked it up to them being different people that looked similar, but now…
Now I know the truth…
“There’s a certain nickname Karua has for me. I’ve never mentioned it while we’ve been here—not to anyone, so there was no way that Nozomi should know it unless she is Karua…” I stared at the ground between my feet. Unable to make eye contact with the girl standing next to me.
Not to mention she had the same scar on her stomach from the car accident her Dad had died in too.
Then how—why didn’t she remember me?
Why were her memories so different to mine?
Did she just never tell me about the experimentations?
And is the reason she used to come to my house so often was because her Mum really was…
I’m not going to get answers about this anyway, so I should just stop wondering about it.
Kako hummed to herself as she glanced back up at the sky with a solemn look on her face. “Then I guess … we’ve both lost someone important to us…”
I lifted my head up to glance at her, noting the tear stains down her cheeks and how her eyes still had a glossy sheen to them. I turned my attention up to the sky as well and saw the Artificial Satellite looming over us up above.
“Yea…”
We stood there for a little while longer until we decided to part ways and head back to our rooms. I waved to Kako as I headed back up the stairs to my room only to turn back around when she called out to me.
“Takumi! Thanks! It was nice chatting with you!”
I gave her a smile and a nod. “You too!”
I entered my room and closed the door behind me, heaving out a sigh.
That conversation with Kako really hit home of how much we’ve all been affected by this.
A smile pressed across my lips as I leaned against my door. It was nice to properly talk to Kako even if it was a depressing subject.
Now we just need to see what happens tomorrow … on Day 100…