章 6: The Flashback of their Friendship 3

"I have a daughter, I have a daughter, I have a daughter" he whispered, working his way out to paint a picture in his mind to remind him of his beloved family. "Here...here's my family; There's my wife, Hina… There's Yuto and haru and there's… and there's…"

"Why… Why are you doing this to me?" What he saw is a blank space that left him clawing for more information. A blank space with the shape of a young girl, nothing more and nothing less. "Are you ang-angry?. What did I do?, What sort of crime did I do when I was alive to deserve these things?"

"You didn't do anything really, you have a perfect track record to boast with. But then there are two things" Albert fell on his knees, grabbing him by his shoulders to blow his soft words past his ears saying, "One, It's my job to hurt you and two, you're an asshole"

"What?..."

"You killed yourself but refused to pass on." Albert lifted Tanaka's chin and gave him a gentle slap on his cheek to get his attention. "Therefore, you forced me to skip a day off, ride a boat to this ching-chong country, free fall into a forest where I had to kill my way out of because of your damn dumb promise. Good job man, give yourself a pat on the back."

"Just let me watch my wife's operation please" Tanaka cried, struggling to put up words using his mouth. He can feel the cold feeling climb up its way through his face from Albert's fingers, he used all of his power to see if he could take his hands away from him but his only option was to struggle. His mind started to drown because of all the unanswered questions of his heart but then, he managed to pull himself up by remembering the name of his wife, the only pillar left to hold his sense of purpose.

"Oh what a pain in the neck" Albert's pushed his hand to knock him back before he got onto his feet, popping a vein and gritting his teeth.

"Please, I'm begging you. Let me see this through just this one. Let me watch her over and I'll gladly be killed by you" He remembered that he just discovered that he has some kind of power running at the tip of his fingers. He felt it growing stronger and stronger especially when he realized that his wife was on the line. He's not confident that this was enough to stop him in his tracks but he convinced himself that this was the right time to use it even if it was just to restrain him. So he raised his hands and placed it together like he was about to pray and said, "Please. I don't want to hurt you"

"What are you gonna do? Kill me with love and kindness?" Albert scoffed, pulling himself back to assume a battle stance. Understanding that the more he stays and the more emotion or desire he invokes, his power could get stronger. In contrast to what Tanaka says, Albert believes everything that comes out of his mouth, thinking that the only thing he could do now is tamper with his confidence. So with a sharp breath, he kicked the ground and rushed towards him, shouting, "This is for taking sixteen hours out of my day off!".

Albert cut through Tanaka's shriek with his knife on hand. He meant to cut him in one go but that didn't happen. Albert's rush had met a full stop. Countless threads squeezed his limbs, twisting it as it dragged him back to his starting point. It didn't take a while for a wall to catch his back and at that moment, after a single breath, his vision faded to black.

***

"Shit" Albert groaned, forcing at least one of his eyes to open up and meet the path of destruction that he just left behind. The corridor had fine multiple cuts across its surface, contrary to the wall on his left which looked like a part of it was scooped as if it was ice cream. He drew a long breath and gave himself a long sigh as he looked at a few pieces of concrete sticking out of his body. He frowned and bit his lip, looking at the pieces of his broken mask on the ground and remembering his mistake of being too cocky to confront an unknown enemy head-on. He then bowed his head to cope with the feeling of failure, whispering, "This is why I hate one on ones… the power of love is bullshit."

His voice echoed through the broken path and had reached Tanaka who had been sitting in front of the wall where they had met. Tanaka then wiped his sweat and followed his voice with a wide smile on his face. "Thank goodness you're awake. I really thought you're going to die"

"Was about to" Albert murmured, squinting his eyes due to the sharp pain that emanating from his side. "Unfortunately, I'm barely alive thanks to you."

"Wow, hearing that from a guy who tried to kill me a few hours ago. It kinda feels ni-"

"You failed to get my sarcasm just like how you failed to break my neck. Dumbass" Albert followed up, trying to eye his surroundings with his hazy vision.

"Sorry, I wanted to restrain you… so we would like, you know, have a friendlier conversation?" Tanaka looked down and let out an awkward laugh.

"Restrain me? RESTRAIN ME?" He tried his best to show off a sarcastic laugh but he ended up grunting with pain surging from his shoulder and stomach. "Every limb I have... is twisted and broken, It looks like I got dragged across the wall and there is blood everywhere. Look at me, does this look like you restrained me?"

"Yes."

"You... " Albert leaned forwards only to retract his face back due to the sound of bones crunching in his back and arms. He looked away with a deadpan expression to relax his face before saying, "Screw it just kill me. Use those string things on my neck and snap it, I tried to kill you so give me the sweet release of death I truly deserve..."

Tanaka fell silent and walked up to Albert's side to pick up his knife, gazing at it with as it glimmers through the flickering hospital light above them. Silence fell upon the two. Albert closed his eyes and looked away, waiting for Tanaka to kill him and Tanaka, on the other hand, continued to the stare at the weapon in his hand.

"Hey… say you - the part where you said you're gonna send me to the afterlife"Tanaka, on the other hand, stuttered, showing up a broken smile as he scratched his cheek. "Can I still avail that offer?"

"Sure!, Let me go just check my..." Albert's eye twitched as he saw his desperation fly away due to the sudden turn of their conversation. He felt hurt that it's the first time he asked someone one thing and they didn't do it and he felt even dumber thinking that Tanaka would actually do it. He raised his head towards the ceiling to crack the pain in his neck. With a brief moment of satisfaction, he brought his chin down with a sarcastic grin on his face and said, "No shit, both of my arms are broken"

"Well I guess up until this point, nothing goes my way. I-"

"Well considering at first you didn't want to go and then you destroyed me, It's your fault that nothing goes your way. but in any case..." Albert's voice faded and resurfaced as his lips curved up into a smile. "Has daddy decided to gonna run away again?"

"Yes, Daddy can't stand being useless anymore so the only choice for daddy... is to go."Tanaka looked at his feet, bearing the expression of a person who's up next on death row. He shoved his hands back at the pocket of his hands as the broken light above them flickered like a firefly.

"The hell happened to you?, Wait no- how long have I been out?" Albert's eyes widened as he leaned forwards. Ignoring the pain of the strings slowly carving into his limbs.

"About two to three hours and this happened…" Tanaka moved to his side to shift Albert's focus to his two sons cradling a crying little girl. Albert followed up and looked at the spot where the broken path has ended. He saw a crying girl being cradled by one of the two guys in the distance. He tried to have a good look but all he could see is shapes, silhouettes of people moving in front of the emergency room."If that's the daughter I forgot about then she's really is a cute one. I'm sure she'll grow up as a good person like her brothers. I'd like to know more about her but I guess I'd have to leave her hanging too"

"Nice pun. I'll give you that" Albert let out a chuckle, stretching out his neck towards the man in front of him.

"The longer I'll stay, the longer I'll see her suffer. I could see her cry but there's absolutely nothing that I can do, nothing can beat that sense of uselessness" Tanaka held the knife with both of his hands, pointing it to his chest as he asks for Albert's approval. "So do I just stab myself with this and then I'll go? I mean I did hang myself but this experience is kinda new to me"

"Please don't" Albert clenched his jaws as he turned his eyes away from Tanaka"The last thing I want to see is the man who broke both of my arms to kill himself again in front of me"

"Oh, so you need to do it then. Should I try to put you back together?"

"Wait... you, you can do that?"

"No, it's just. I was thinking of holding your body together using strings so you could grip that knife and stab me…" Albert's eyes glimmered with hope before Tanaka's words pierced his heart like a spear.

"Dammit… Just drop the knife, theres another way to go" Letting the light flicker before he uttered his next words. Albert gave Tanaka a long sigh before he meets his eyes. "Go walk to your family, accept your death and say your goodbyes. If you're cool about dying and want to pass on, the light would reappear. That's the easy way."

"I think this will make me cry" Tanaka swallowed, understanding what he needs to do. He turned his back against Albert and started to show his shaking shoulders. Tanaka did his best to wipe everything off of his face and close his mouth to muffle all of his words before it could even come out.

"Sure, go cry if you want. Maybe it's the last time you'll see them so better make it worthwhile" Albert then smiled, seeing that there is no longer a need to be in guard with his poker face. He wanted to cheer him on but this is the only thing that he could do. Stabbing everyone is the easiest way of doing things but being forced to watch as a guy says his goodbyes, he thanked his current impaired vision since because of that, he's has a reason not to relieve his own moments and memories.

"Sure, I guess I'll go talk to them now…" Tanaka's tone is broken and he sounds like he's still catching up his breath. He scratched the back of his head with his trembling arms and legs, after a few moments of silence, he looked at his feet and whispered, "Oh boy, this is harder than I thought. Thinking about it makes me want to stay with them more."

"Do it you pussy, at least let your last act be brave!" Albert clicked his tongue but he grinned as soon as Tanaka nodded and moved forward armed with his advice. As a last effort to check his face and make sure that he's ok, he said, "So yeah… before you go I just wanna know. What happened to your wife?"

"Oh, she was too weak to live through the operation. We actually met each other earlier…" Albert pulled his head back in surprise. Tanaka then turned around and nudged his glasses up his nose with a wide smile complimenting his wrinkled cheeks and sunken eyes.

"And??" Albert followed up, seeing Tanaka's unchanged expression.

"She hugged me, she gave me a kiss and called me a degenerate before she passed on"