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He smelled him before he even entered the Courtyard. A noxious, repulsive smell that always arrived at a specific time in the morning without fail, heralding the arrival of his breakfast being hand-delivered by the only human in the Special Defense Unit that seemed to understand how hideous he truly was.
If he could compliment Shouma on one thing, it would be his punctuality. It only took a few days for him to get into a rigid schedule of delivering breakfast, lunch, and dinner at specific times on a daily basis, taking it upon himself to feed the traitor that was shunned by everyone else.
And as much as Eito absolutely HATED any form of human contact, he knew better than to complain when he was literally locked up and unable to even feed himself. If anything, Shouma’s predictability at least gave him the opportunity to prepare his senses whenever he was about to arrive, which made his encounters with him all the more bearable.
The door to the Courtyard opened, and a pile of sludge vaguely resembling a human trudged in, a breakfast tray being carried on one of its blistering appendages. His stomach turns at having to even think about eating food that had been in contact with something so grotesque, wishing that he could simply starve instead…
But it could be worse.
The other good thing about Shouma was that out of all of the abominations he had seen, he was the smallest one by far. The fact that he was nearly a full foot shorter than even Kako was a miracle in itself, but Eito wasn’t going to complain about it since it made his horrific figure much less overbearing than anyone else’s.
The small mound of oozing flesh that was Shouma Ginzaki shuffled towards his cage with all the self-confidence of someone who had absolutely none of it at all. It didn’t take a genius to figure out that the boy had been the victim of intense bullying for most of his life if even someone as socially inept as Eito could guess that just by speaking with him.
“Here’s your breakfast, Eito. I’m sorry that a worthless scumbag such as myself is the one delivering you your food; you deserve far better company than an inept worm such as myself.”
He muttered those self-depreciating words out as he brought the food items right up to the bar of the cage, looking down at the ground apologetically instead of meeting Eito’s gaze.
After a moment of hesitation, Eito quickly snatched the food from Shouma’s hands, minimizing the physical contact while immediately wiping down the sandwiches and his own hands with the copious amount of napkins and other cleaning products that were in his cage (also courtesy of Shouma, who had more than readily agreed to his request).
Shouma Ginzaki was an enigma.
Sure, he may not have the same righteous eyes that Eito has that allowed him to see humans for what they really were, but he had the attitude of someone who had been wronged by quite literally perhaps every other person in his life.
Maybe it’s even worse in his case. His senses show him a superficial beauty that only hides the true, rotten nature of every human being. His senses aren’t righteous, unable to readily see the defects present within others like mine do…
At first it was frustrating. The first few times Shouma delivered food to him in the Courtyard, Eito would always have a snappy insult for his appearance, voice, or other aspect of his hideous visage at the ready. But instead of quipping back, or denying those claims, or even outright ignoring him, the boy would only hang his head in shame and readily agree with what he was saying.
Every. Single. Time.
And so he gave up on those witty comments after a while. He could never provoke Shouma into any sort of confrontation, which was honestly both frustrating and a little depressing at the same time. Of course, he still looked just as ugly as ever, but there wasn’t any point in reminding him of that when he himself gladly did it with every statement he made.
For a moment, Eito saw a reflection of himself when he looked at Shouma. Someone, who, instead of seeing others as monsters and himself as human, saw himself as the only hideous creature in a world of normal humans. It made his heart twinge, though he wasn’t sure why that was the case.
He still felt no sympathy for the boy. Sure, he may have been smart enough to recognize himself as the hideous creature that he is, but that same attitude that he applied towards himself never did apply to others. He held everyone else, even the traitorous Eito, to a level far above his own, which Eito would appreciate if only he didn’t have to share that higher plane with everyone else.
What a pity, Eito thinks. If only the attitude that boy had towards himself was also applied to humanity as a whole, then perhaps he could’ve been a useful accomplice to collaborate with to wipe out all of mankind…
But alas, that was not to be. Whenever Eito asked (more so interrogated) Shouma as to why he held others in such high regard despite not receiving the same attention back, he would always mutter that they deserved nice things far more than he did. Though that answer never satisfied him.
It frustrated him. That he was never able to get a straight answer from Shouma about why his self-confidence was in the gutter. Not because he wanted to help the boy, but because he was unable to figure him out. He had prided himself on being able to read and manipulate others much like the books he enjoyed, but he could never figure out what made Shouma tick.
It was also confusing. Surely, someone who had been wronged so often by other people would learn to start hating people in general? Surely, they would start holding a deep, profound grudge towards human society as a whole?
But while Gaku may have gone down that path, Shouma certainly did not. Perhaps Eito was too busy projecting his own twisted history with humanity onto Shouma, but the boy constantly put himself in the wrong instead of others. Was it all an act? Or did he truly hate conflict that much?
But that can’t be! All human beings do is cause conflict with their very existence!
He had tried to convince Shouma before that the others were not worth putting on a pedestal. That every single human that had ever existed was just as worthless and hideous as Shouma described himself to be.
Shouma had replied that only he himself was worthy of such strong adjectives, and that it would not be fair to describe everyone else with those words. He had said that he felt sorry for the cognitive disorder that Eito suffered from, believing that he would truly be great friends with everyone else if not for his warped perception.
He was tired of pity. Of the looks that adults would give him, always hoping that this ‘disorder’ of his would magically go away someday. But Eito knew better. He knew that this perception of his was here to stay until the day he died.
And he knew better than to describe it as just some ‘disorder.’ It was a tool of truth, perhaps even a blessing! That allowed him to see all of humanity for what it really was: selfish, hideous creatures who deserve nothing more than the extinction of their kind for all of the wrong they had wrought upon the world.
Or at least, that's what he kept telling himself. That was also what he kept telling Shouma, though Shouma never responded to his claims. Perhaps he agrees and is just keeping quiet for the sake of hiding it from the others?
…
No, that can’t be the case… Eito knew better than to be optimistic like that. It’s far more likely that the boy disagreed entirely with his views but simply didn’t have the self-confidence to rebut him in any way. At least he was aware enough to know that there was no changing Eito’s mind.
Eito knew that they would never agree on humanity, even if Shouma never made his disagreement apparent. The boy himself likely knew that as well, which is why for the past few days that he’s been showing up, he had started talking about animals instead.
Which was a welcome change of topic for the prisoner, even if he didn’t make it obvious. Animals looked normal to him for a change. No grotesque lesions, no abnormal limbs, and no horrific anatomy that seemed to defy every type of biological symmetry possible awaited him when he looked at a dog, or cat, or literally anything that wasn’t a human.
Those were perhaps his only fond memories of the complex aside from holing himself up in the library and reading countless books. Walking around the parks and seeing the colorful birds that perched upon the treetops. Stalking through abandoned alleyways and coming across stray dogs or cats.
It was rare to come across another living being that he actively wanted to touch for a change. And these moments were only made more scarce by humanity, who cruelly exploited the Earth for her resources and trampled upon the lives of thousands of other species.
He would never forgive them for that.
Turns out that Shouma shared his love for animals. And as much as he hated to have anything in common with another filthy human, he couldn’t deny that Shouma’s interest in them was genuine. He spoke about his dog a lot.
A Shiba Inu by the name of Leo. Eito’s mind had immediately used the boy’s pet ownership as another reason to hate him, forcing a beautiful creature such as a dog to remain by his grotesque side. But with the way Shouma spoke about Leo, you would think that the dog had domesticated the boy, not the other way around.
Shouma had only good things to say about his dog (As he should, Eito thinks. Any disparaging comments he made would’ve only given Eito another reason to disembowel his prison caretaker, consequences be damned.). With how genuinely happy he looked whenever he spoke about his companion, Eito could almost forget that he was but another revolting human.
Almost.
He felt an empty void in his heart, wishing that he could’ve had an animal companion like Shouma did. He hated humans too much to go about acquiring a pet the normal way, for there was no way in hell that he could stomach being forced to go through the licensing tests and nonsensical trainings created by human society just so that he could keep a pet.
He would also be a hypocrite if he did so, for all his talk about how he hated how humans ruled over other animals as if they were lesser beings. He had tried to get some of the stray animals roaming the TRC to trust him, but they would always bolt away whenever he approached them.
He never had any companionship. Whether human or animal, he had always been alone in dealing with his disorder hefty responsibility as the world’s only decent human being. He didn’t mind working alone, for he had been a lone wolf for all of his life, but…
Some company at times wouldn’t hurt… (provided that the ‘company’ in question was not repulsive human beings)
He would never admit that he was lonely, for that would only result in unwanted pity. Pity that had only
earned him endless hospital visits and questionable medical procedures in the past.
Would Shouma have turned out like Eito did if he hadn’t had Leo as his only friend? Would Eito have been so hell-bent on destroying all of humanity if he had an animal companion by his side for those lonely nights when he would curse out humanity as he tried to sleep?
Who am I kidding? The moment he had been born with his righteous eyes and other righteous senses, he had been chosen to rid the universe of human beings. Of course he would end up hating humanity no matter what his upbringing could’ve been like, for that was the only way he could carry out his mission!
Shouma had still been standing in front of his cage. Normally, he would’ve left immediately after bringing him breakfast out of respect for Eito’s condition. But before Eito could sarcastically remind him to remove his hideous visage from view…
The boy took out something he had been hiding behind him. A gift. As Eito’s eyes ran over the object in his hands, he quickly realized that it was a plushie. A plushie of a dog, more specifically, a Shiba Inu.
His eyes met the uneven, shifting pupils of the mound of flesh in front of him, as if waiting for an explanation as to why he was giving something like this to a known traitor.
“Every time I spoke about Leo, you just seemed so sad… So I felt it was only right that I gave you something that could keep you company… I would’ve tried to find an actual animal for you instead, but I’m afraid I’m too incompetent to pull that off…
So I hope you’re not too disappointed with this substitute…”
“...”
He could snatch the plushie from Shouma right now and tear it to pieces in front of him, sending him a message that he didn’t need pity from the likes of a disgusting human. He could so easily do that right now, and Shouma likely wouldn’t even hold it against him for doing so, but…
In the end, he reluctantly took the plushie into the cage with him without saying a word, spraying it with a considerable amount of disinfectant before he felt comfortable actually exploring the texture of the toy with his gloved hands. He looked into its beady eyes, staring into the smile that was plastered on to its expression.
He vaguely registered Shouma quietly leaving the Courtyard after he had delivered his gift, timidly shutting the door behind him. Perhaps Eito’s senses were fooling him, but he could’ve sworn he saw the boy smile to himself as he left, even through his blistered face.
Placing the soft plushie onto his bed, he couldn’t help but feel at peace for once in his life as he took off his gloves and ran his hands over its soft fur, wondering whether he would have the responsibility necessary to take care of it if it was alive.
…
The man known as Eito Aotsuki would always hate humanity with all of his heart, but there would always be other companions to be found in nature. Perhaps he wouldn’t have to be alone for all his life, even with his disorder.