Weiss Kreuz Fan Fiction ❯ It's too late to confess now... ❯ Ken ( Chapter 4 )
[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]
By: Crimson 
How will it all end?
Anime/Manga: Weiss Kreuz Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Thriller | Type: Other | Uploaded On: 09.08.2002 | Pages: 1 | Words: 1.4K | Visits: 381 | Status: Completed
How will it all end?
Anime/Manga: Weiss Kreuz Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Thriller | Type: Other | Uploaded On: 09.08.2002 | Pages: 1 | Words: 1.4K | Visits: 381 | Status: Completed
*****Part 4*****
All sound and static has stopped, barred from entering the trailer, standing so proud and untouchable in the dead of night. Drops of sweat cling to the skin, afraid to fall and shatter the unsettling silence. Drops of blood, on the other hand, are not nearly as forgiving.
Hidaka Ken relaxes back against the wall, sitting beside his friend, Fujimiya Ran, while both remain as muted as their surroundings. They are still in Ran's room, still aware of what has passed between them, and yet they merely sit, staring forward, not speaking a word.
With drooping eyelids, Ran wheezes painfully, the wound in his chest searing up and down his sides with every breath he takes. Heartbreakingly slow, the world is fading away in a rush of memory and forgotten sensations. And yet, even knowing his time is limited, he still does not fear the man beside him, nearly shoulder to shoulder with him on his bedroom floor. What's done is done, after all, but what comes next is what matters. What comes next may change it all.
"It's over..." Ken whispers, though the relief he believed he would feel is no where to be found in the gentle rustle of his voice. "All these years, fighting together, killing together, they're behind us now. It's finally...over..."
"...is it...?"
Turning to look at the red-haired man beside him, Ken finds himself instantly trapped within the violet gaze looking back. Paling, bleeding, dying - Ran is still calm and unafraid.
"...is it really...over...just by killing us...?" Ran questions, furrowing his brow from more than just the pain and beads of sweat on his forehead. "...who will be next...when the call...for blood...comes again...?"
"No one." Ken answers, without a second of hesitation, sharp and unthinking. "No one, ever again. I won't kill anyone else. Not outside these walls..."
The glinting determination in Ken's eyes and the force of his words seem enough to satiate Ran's misgivings. The matter is dropped.
No one outside these walls.
Once again, a sort of peaceful silence blankets the pair. It is all so very different from what happened with the others. Ran will not beg for his life. He will not look on with pleading eyes, begging for mercy. No, not Fujimiya Ran. He will willingly drift off, leaving the world behind with no regrets, and no dreams of what lies in front of him.
"I told Omi he was going to Hell." rips through Ken's sudden statement, tearing the protection of quiet into pieces. "I wish I wouldn't have said that. Not to him. Out of all of us, I think Omi could've made it, ya know? Maybe he really could've had a future, away from all this...death."
Listening intently, Ran fights to hang on and see the end of this, his head hanging limply to the side, held up mostly by the wall behind him, and so little now by his own will. He is looking straight at Ken, unable, even unwilling, to look away. The features of the brunette's boyish face, grown so handsome, so rugged and strong, are bitterly blank and sorrowful.
It breaks the heart.
"Youji, too. He wasn't undeserving of love. Might have even found his way out one day." Ken continues, centering his gaze on some unknown point, far off in the distance. "Even you...you could make it, escape the layers of Hell. At least all of you had a reason to fight. Identity, lost love, family. What did I have? Kase? I thought he was dead. What would a dead man care if I killed for him? What would it have mattered...?"
Blood is still pooling on the ground beneath Ran's crumpled body, but he remains alert, watching every twitch of Ken's eyes, every tear glassing them over.
"Aya...do you think...there is a Heaven for us?"
Ran grimaces from a spasm of pain, as well as a deep, unrelenting tremor within. "...I don't know..." comes his tentative reply, soft and thoughtful. "I hope so...but it really doesn't matter. Whatever...happens...happens to us all. Where one of us...ends up...we all end up. You...are no more guilty...than I am...or Omi is...or Youji. We are...Weiss...together...no matter what fate decides..."
Graceful and fluid, a pale, white hand reaches over to take hold of Ken's, now released from the claws he should have cast aside long ago. Those deadly gloves lay beside him, but they lay there forgotten. Ken desires only the comfort of that hand, the gentleness in that touch, even coming from someone who once seemed impossible of offering comfort or gentleness to anyone.
Tears built up and held at bay release like a dam erupted, pouring from Ken's eyes as he looks back at his friend. His friend...
"Aya...I'm so sorry...I didn't know what else to do..."
"...I know, Ken..." Ran answers back, almost smiling, though everything about him is dimming more and more with every word. It is as if he has already accepted death. As if he had long ago. "...I forgive you...Ken...we...we all forgive you..."
A spark of light, unmatched and intimately beautiful, snuffs out, gone forever. The life in that hand, placed so lovingly over Ken's, draws itself away. Soon, only one breath can be heard, one heartbeat, one heartbreak lingering, and Ken is alone.
He clings to that cold hand, refusing to let go for a million missed heartbeats, until at last he lays it gently on the ground, and reaches up to close the eyelids left slightly open by his friend's silent farewell.
"Arigato...Ran...for more than you know..."
Bodies, weapons, even tears, are all left behind, buried in that final moment. Moving as if in a daze, the entire world blurs around him, and Ken makes his way back to his own bedroom. Once there, though his head barely looks up, his feet carry him to the closet, and to the hidden revolver on the top shelf.
It is doubtful the other members of Weiss were ever aware that Ken had possession of a gun. As far as any of them knew, Ran was the only one who kept one at the ready, and even he barely used it. The idea of stealing the red-head's weapon had occurred to Ken a number of times, actually, but in the end he knew he would want his own for what he had to do.
"No one outside these walls..." Ken murmurs under his breath, fingering the barrel in his hands as he sits on the edge of his bed. "God, forgive me. Wherever we end up...let us be together again. Not as Weiss. Not caught up in any of the shit we couldn't get away from. Just...as ourselves."
No more tears can be shed, for more than a lifetime of them have already fallen. Trembling, but resolute in his decision, Ken brings the gun up to his temple, and closes his eyes.
"...issho ni..."
And a lone sound, unmistakable, echoes throughout every room of the trailer, far into the distance, ending everything once and for all, even before the last traces of that sound fade away. It is now finally over. Four became three, became two, became one, became four again - united eternally in duty, friendship, and love.
The belief that there is always hope is nothing but a lie. Sometimes there is no hope, no way out, no solution.
Sometimes...it is just too late.
*****owari*****
A/N: *sob, cry, wail, sniffle* Oh, the humanity! Okay, I'm done. Anyhoo, if you can't guess, the surprise was Ran forgiving him. Not what you were hoping for? Too bad! This story fulfilled its purpose and now I am at peace.
If you want a happy ending, go read my story, "Fluesternd." It has everything!
Thanks again to all great reviews, and please, PLEASE REVIEW for this chapter as well. The epilogue, which is actually a song I wrote for Ken to fit this story, shall be posted shorty. I wanted to tape myself singing it - yes, I sing - and put it up with a link to it from the story, but my mic's on the fritz. Maybe someday.
Love you all! Till next ficcie! :-)
All sound and static has stopped, barred from entering the trailer, standing so proud and untouchable in the dead of night. Drops of sweat cling to the skin, afraid to fall and shatter the unsettling silence. Drops of blood, on the other hand, are not nearly as forgiving.
Hidaka Ken relaxes back against the wall, sitting beside his friend, Fujimiya Ran, while both remain as muted as their surroundings. They are still in Ran's room, still aware of what has passed between them, and yet they merely sit, staring forward, not speaking a word.
With drooping eyelids, Ran wheezes painfully, the wound in his chest searing up and down his sides with every breath he takes. Heartbreakingly slow, the world is fading away in a rush of memory and forgotten sensations. And yet, even knowing his time is limited, he still does not fear the man beside him, nearly shoulder to shoulder with him on his bedroom floor. What's done is done, after all, but what comes next is what matters. What comes next may change it all.
"It's over..." Ken whispers, though the relief he believed he would feel is no where to be found in the gentle rustle of his voice. "All these years, fighting together, killing together, they're behind us now. It's finally...over..."
"...is it...?"
Turning to look at the red-haired man beside him, Ken finds himself instantly trapped within the violet gaze looking back. Paling, bleeding, dying - Ran is still calm and unafraid.
"...is it really...over...just by killing us...?" Ran questions, furrowing his brow from more than just the pain and beads of sweat on his forehead. "...who will be next...when the call...for blood...comes again...?"
"No one." Ken answers, without a second of hesitation, sharp and unthinking. "No one, ever again. I won't kill anyone else. Not outside these walls..."
The glinting determination in Ken's eyes and the force of his words seem enough to satiate Ran's misgivings. The matter is dropped.
No one outside these walls.
Once again, a sort of peaceful silence blankets the pair. It is all so very different from what happened with the others. Ran will not beg for his life. He will not look on with pleading eyes, begging for mercy. No, not Fujimiya Ran. He will willingly drift off, leaving the world behind with no regrets, and no dreams of what lies in front of him.
"I told Omi he was going to Hell." rips through Ken's sudden statement, tearing the protection of quiet into pieces. "I wish I wouldn't have said that. Not to him. Out of all of us, I think Omi could've made it, ya know? Maybe he really could've had a future, away from all this...death."
Listening intently, Ran fights to hang on and see the end of this, his head hanging limply to the side, held up mostly by the wall behind him, and so little now by his own will. He is looking straight at Ken, unable, even unwilling, to look away. The features of the brunette's boyish face, grown so handsome, so rugged and strong, are bitterly blank and sorrowful.
It breaks the heart.
"Youji, too. He wasn't undeserving of love. Might have even found his way out one day." Ken continues, centering his gaze on some unknown point, far off in the distance. "Even you...you could make it, escape the layers of Hell. At least all of you had a reason to fight. Identity, lost love, family. What did I have? Kase? I thought he was dead. What would a dead man care if I killed for him? What would it have mattered...?"
Blood is still pooling on the ground beneath Ran's crumpled body, but he remains alert, watching every twitch of Ken's eyes, every tear glassing them over.
"Aya...do you think...there is a Heaven for us?"
Ran grimaces from a spasm of pain, as well as a deep, unrelenting tremor within. "...I don't know..." comes his tentative reply, soft and thoughtful. "I hope so...but it really doesn't matter. Whatever...happens...happens to us all. Where one of us...ends up...we all end up. You...are no more guilty...than I am...or Omi is...or Youji. We are...Weiss...together...no matter what fate decides..."
Graceful and fluid, a pale, white hand reaches over to take hold of Ken's, now released from the claws he should have cast aside long ago. Those deadly gloves lay beside him, but they lay there forgotten. Ken desires only the comfort of that hand, the gentleness in that touch, even coming from someone who once seemed impossible of offering comfort or gentleness to anyone.
Tears built up and held at bay release like a dam erupted, pouring from Ken's eyes as he looks back at his friend. His friend...
"Aya...I'm so sorry...I didn't know what else to do..."
"...I know, Ken..." Ran answers back, almost smiling, though everything about him is dimming more and more with every word. It is as if he has already accepted death. As if he had long ago. "...I forgive you...Ken...we...we all forgive you..."
A spark of light, unmatched and intimately beautiful, snuffs out, gone forever. The life in that hand, placed so lovingly over Ken's, draws itself away. Soon, only one breath can be heard, one heartbeat, one heartbreak lingering, and Ken is alone.
He clings to that cold hand, refusing to let go for a million missed heartbeats, until at last he lays it gently on the ground, and reaches up to close the eyelids left slightly open by his friend's silent farewell.
"Arigato...Ran...for more than you know..."
Bodies, weapons, even tears, are all left behind, buried in that final moment. Moving as if in a daze, the entire world blurs around him, and Ken makes his way back to his own bedroom. Once there, though his head barely looks up, his feet carry him to the closet, and to the hidden revolver on the top shelf.
It is doubtful the other members of Weiss were ever aware that Ken had possession of a gun. As far as any of them knew, Ran was the only one who kept one at the ready, and even he barely used it. The idea of stealing the red-head's weapon had occurred to Ken a number of times, actually, but in the end he knew he would want his own for what he had to do.
"No one outside these walls..." Ken murmurs under his breath, fingering the barrel in his hands as he sits on the edge of his bed. "God, forgive me. Wherever we end up...let us be together again. Not as Weiss. Not caught up in any of the shit we couldn't get away from. Just...as ourselves."
No more tears can be shed, for more than a lifetime of them have already fallen. Trembling, but resolute in his decision, Ken brings the gun up to his temple, and closes his eyes.
"...issho ni..."
And a lone sound, unmistakable, echoes throughout every room of the trailer, far into the distance, ending everything once and for all, even before the last traces of that sound fade away. It is now finally over. Four became three, became two, became one, became four again - united eternally in duty, friendship, and love.
The belief that there is always hope is nothing but a lie. Sometimes there is no hope, no way out, no solution.
Sometimes...it is just too late.
*****owari*****
A/N: *sob, cry, wail, sniffle* Oh, the humanity! Okay, I'm done. Anyhoo, if you can't guess, the surprise was Ran forgiving him. Not what you were hoping for? Too bad! This story fulfilled its purpose and now I am at peace.
If you want a happy ending, go read my story, "Fluesternd." It has everything!
Thanks again to all great reviews, and please, PLEASE REVIEW for this chapter as well. The epilogue, which is actually a song I wrote for Ken to fit this story, shall be posted shorty. I wanted to tape myself singing it - yes, I sing - and put it up with a link to it from the story, but my mic's on the fritz. Maybe someday.
Love you all! Till next ficcie! :-)