POV: Isozaki Izumi

"N-Nao!"

I yelled toward the man that's turning his back on me and dragging a big suitcase behind him.

He turned my way to show a face with dark circles around his red eyes which opened wide when they focused on me, he said after hesitating for a bit,

"You idiot, why are you here?"

We were at the front gate of the house we spent three years in, despite living there for so long, both of us are now here but as different people, one is a murderer and another is an immortal.

My eyes shifted inspecting him, wearing the same clothes from that day, and dragging a suitcase behind him.

Why are you in a worse state than me who is the victim, Nao?

Noticing his pale colored skin made me hesitate as I started talking with a low tone and avoiding looking his direction,

"You can't just leave like that without my permission."

Afraid to see his reaction, I just kept looking at the ground and heard his reply that sounded faintly sad,

"This is so like you to be unpredictable like this."

Not moving my head upward, I kept staring down and with a voice a bit stronger I scolded him,

"why did you do something like that? Was that really ... the only choice you had?"

I closed my eyes to focus on them, the words that will justify him.

The excuse he is willing to give.

The reason I had to die.

But I was met with words that broke the single hope I had,

"It's ironic. If I took a few moments to think about it I probably would have realized what a big of an idiot I was. When there was so many things I could have done instead, my mind could only think of that method. I really am sorry, Izumi."

What are you saying? Why are you apologizing? Why are you admitting it? I didn't come here to hear that. I didn't come here for that.

Hearing him talk filled me with anger inside, but I continued scolding him with my shaky voice hoping I'll get the answer I sought,

"I ... didn't come here to hear your apology."

Moments passed but not a single word came from his direction, not a single reason.

I clenched my fist and continued,

"I thought about it over and over again. I just can't understand it no matter how much I think about it, why... just why would you seek immortality?

Is it something way more important than the life of a human being? No, is it way more important than me?

Moreover, I was unsure of this ability myself, yet you managed to kill me without even making sure of it first.

What would you have done if I really died? Ah, right. You would have just turned yourself in."

Restating that fact filled me with unbearable sadness, this person in front of me is the one that killed me, and I should hate him for that, but despite all that I wanted a reason, I wanted the reason I couldn't get sixteen years ago. I wanted to know the reason I was not needed anymore.

My mouth opened stating the feelings I felt not toward the murderer that killed me without any second thought but toward the person whom I shared six years of my life with,

"I admired you for you are a person that foregone his own feelings to gain a place he belonged to unlike the me that only knew how to get into fights and forcing my way through.

Whenever I looked at you, I was so ashamed of my way of living.

But somewhere along the lines, I found myself comfortable around you, I didn't have to force myself to fit in, you accepted all the flaws I had.

You were the first person that actually talked with me without being scared, the only one that made me feel that it was okay to be myself around others. Every single time I saw you smiling like an idiot and having fun talking to a dull person like me, it made me happy.

No matter what I said, no matter how I acted you always understood me, you made me feel that it was okay to make mistakes since you'll always understand it.

You made me love myself for who I am.

Even if we were not friends to you or if I was not important to you, I always thought that I was at least someone that mattered in your life ... even if it was a tiny bit.

But rather than being important, you didn't even think twice or even take a moment to think before attempting to kill me?

Don't give me that bullshit, you bastard!

You just made me lose the little trust I still had in people. You made me lose the place I had finally found.

What is with the suitcase? At least face me and explain it to me, give me any excuse!

Why are you just admitting your crime like you had no choice back then?

How can you be fine after killing me?

How can you be fine after leaving me alone again? Why did you betray my trust as well?"

And creeping inside my narrow vision was his legs that stood firmly facing me,

"You truly are an idiot, Izumi. So idiotic that I can't even believe anyone could be this idiotic."

As blood rushed to my head hearing him I raised my head yelling at him,

"You bastard, I let you go on, yet you keep saying I'm an idiot!"

As I got a better look at his face I saw the tears rushing out of his muddy brown eyes and he said between his sobs,

"I thought I will never ever get the chance to talk to you again. I wasn't fine at all. When I realized you might not return, my head was full of hatred toward myself. My head was always full of trying to protect the people who mattered to me that I ended up taking the life of a person who gave me a reason to continue living."

It was the first time I had seen a weak side to the strong-willed Naoki. The Naoki whom the smile never left his face was crying rivers of tears in front of me.

I was far too shocked by the scene in front of me that it took me a while to comprehend what he had said, then I asked giving him a confused look,

"Wait, who else did you try to protect?"

Responding with unclear voice while sobbing,

"My sister."

Sister? Why haven't I heard of her before?

I asked confused by what he said,

"You had a sister?"

Naoki nodded while sniffing and wiping his tears off his face.

I scolded the crybaby in front of me,

"I never knew you had a sister. Why didn't you tell me? Where is she? Why haven't I heard or seen her for the last six years? Is she living overseas or something?"

Nao stared at me with a questionable look he denied,

"What are you talking about I told you about her."

Then Nao paused for a moment and started sweating heavily,

"I might have forgot to mention that."

I let out a sigh and glared at him asking,

"so how is killing me related to your sister?"

Nao stared at me with eyes full of guilt then avoided my eyes and turned around heading back to the suitcase,

"It's fine, that is not important anymore."

"Hah?"

Nao wore a fake smile and looked at me and said,

"I'm really glad you are fine. But the crime I had done, is not so simple that you should forgive me for it this easily. No, I can't forgive myself for it. So, I'll be leaving Juwan city for a while to cool my head off."

No.

No, I shouldn't let him go.

It's going to happen again.

If he goes, he would definitely-

I ran toward Nao and held his suitcase with my trembling hand,

"Don't die. Please."

Nao forced a laughter out and said with a smiling face with expression that had clear sadness inside it,

"What are you talking about? I told you to cool my head off, I won't die."

Then he forced my hand away from the suitcase.

He's the same as that person.

He too will leave forever.

I lost the power I had in my legs and fell on the floor, I quietly pleaded,

"D-Don't go, Nao. Please, I beg you."

Nao dropped his suitcase on the ground and headed toward me shaking my shoulder and scolded me,

"What are you doing you idiot?! Don't go begging your murderer like that! You are just afraid to start anew, don't worry this time you won't be alone, I'm sure you'll find other people. It won't be as lonely."

My vision started blurring when my eyes got filled with tears which refused to drop down,

"It's not like that... I hate being alone but seeing people die because of me is something way worse than loneliness, I can handle being alone again but please, don't make me be a reason for someone's death again."

Nao sat next to me and said with a faint voice,

"My sister is suffering from lung cancer and she barely has two months left to live. I was trying to make her immortal, I thought if I do that she will never have to die. I would never have to see her cold frozen body. I would never have to see the body that was full of bruises and scars. That's why I didn't hesitate to kill you. My sister means the world to me and if there was a way to save her I wouldn't think twice about it."

I see, I wasn't the reason.

He was doing it for his sister.

I couldn't help but smile and with an excited tone I said,

"You really are something after all! Let's heal her, let's make her-"

But I got interrupted,

"Stop right there."

It was Hoga, he was hiding behind the pole in front of the house,

"How are you planning on making her immortal?"

Nao stood up and asked nervously,

"Y-You are ... Hoga Yasahiro... so you're alive too... but wait why are you here?"

Hoga answered with his expressionless face,

"I was asked a favor."

Nao shifted his eyes toward me making me laugh nervously,

"Ha...ha...ha... well ... I wasn't that sure about facing a murderer by myself so ... I asked him..."

A smile surfaced on Nao's face and said with a proud look,

"For an idiot, you have done the right move. And here I was worried how careless you were."

"Sorry to interrupt the idiocy between the two of you but I have to show you this."

Hoga blurted as he reached for his pocket.

This jerk did he say idiocy?

I quickly got up from the floor and yelled,

"You jerk, you really just can't help but get on my nerves huh? Are you picking a fight?"

He answered me with his expressionless face,

"Was I wrong somewhere?"

This jerk, he is not even apologetic for it.

"Man, you piss me off. I told you to stay away and only come when it was dangerous why the hell did you come out?"

He took his hand out of his pocket and showed us a dead fish,

"To show you this."

This sick psycho.

Did he keep a dead fish inside his pocket?

I'm such an idiot for asking a crazy bastard like him to protect me.

Does he have a loose screw?

Hoga sighed and explained,

"I injected Izumi's blood in it and I thought that it will become immortal like I did, but... it died and didn't return to life even after waiting for a while."

I screeched shocked by what he said,

"What!? But you said you became immortal after getting my blood transferred to you."

He clicked his tongue as if to announce that he is relieved I finally got it so that he won't have to explain it more and he added,

"Which means that we had missed an important detail, that was the first time I died in as well."

So, what does that mean? Is he trying to say it's my fault again?

After letting out a huge sigh again, he explained,

"Which means that the cause might not have been your blood, I might have been immortal from the beginning as well, but I never realized it since I didn't die before."

No no no wait a damn minute! This guy... When did he have time to give my blood to a fish?

Nao interrupted him arguing,

"Perhaps it only works on humans and not on animals? That's why it didn't work on the fish."

He does have a point... it might only work on humans.

Annoyed by Nao's answer he said with monotone,

"Well, you can try giving your sister the blood and kill her then see for yourself if that's the case."

You crazy psycho, watch the way you talk and like hell we'll do that when we're not sure of it.

And like he couldn't add more fire to the situation he added,

"In the first place, I can't really understand why he would forgive a murderer like you, if it was me I would be glad if you went to suicide somewhere since law and police are useless in this case as there is no evidence of your crime."

Blood rushed to my head and I punched Hoga's face,

"You jerk."

Hoga put his hand on the cheek I punched and mumbled,

"Getting defended by your victim. Truly pitiful."

Nao stepped ahead and asked Hoga,

"So, did you discover anything else? Like another way to transfer it or how you guys got it?"

Hoga glared at Nao without saying anything back to him.

Nao backed a bit and laughed awkwardly,

"haha of course even if you did know you have no reason to tell it to me, huh."

Hoga told Nao bluntly,

"I hate stuff I can't understand. That is why I hate you. You don't look like an idiot, yet you have done so many mistakes, your thoughts are a mess and you keep blaming yourself for stuff you are not responsible for. I know well enough not to trust someone like you with valued information, so I will definitely not tell you anything."

Hoga paused and looked toward me with his expressionless face then closed his eyes and said with a disappointed voice,

"Is what I would like to say but I have no idea as well how we got it."

If you don't know just say so without declaring your hatred toward people, sheesh.

After thinking for a while I wondered,

"But since something as unbelievable as immortality and reading minds is possible won't there be someone who have a healing ability or something like that? Shouldn't we just find them and ask them to heal her?"

Both of them just stared at me with their poker faces.

After a few moments of awkward silence, Hoga sighed and said,

"Well, let's go with that idea and search for someone with that in mind. Since if you want to save his sister that is where your best chance is at."

'lets'? So he is willing to help as well, huh? I can't really know if he's bad or good.

Nao asked looking toward Hoga,

"Then... should I go to Mikan City to search?"

Eh? Mikan City? Why?

Hoga grinned and answered him,

"I see it is a reasonable conclusion seeing how you knew this idiot only lived in Mikan and Juwan cities, since you packed your stuff in a suitcase already you can go right away. I'll be doing my research in Juwan city and if any of us find anything that might be useful we can get in contact but..."

Hoga paused and glared at Nao saying,

"But after all of this is over, repent for your sins of hurting this idiot and for thinking of dying leaving your sister behind."

'T-This idiot'!?!?!?! Did he mean ME!?!?

Nao wondered unable to understand the words Hoga said,

"How are you planning on making me repent for them?"

Hoga grabbed my shirt violently and pulled me away with him and told Nao before leaving,

"I'll leave that to you to decide, you can start with sorting the thing with your aunt or being more honest with your sister or even discarding that troublesome mask you have on."

As we were leaving I could hear Nao mumble,

"H-How did he know about all of that..."

This guy read Nao's thoughts and went and acted smart with him to make Nao think he's so smart and all shit. Damn, he pisses me off.

----

"Eh?! It was a lie!?"

I asked Hoga when we stopped right in front of his apartment.

He responded with a calm unfazed voice,

"Yeah, you are the one who made me immortal that is a fact."

But that doesn't make any sense. If the fish died doesn't that mean the blood thing didn't work?

Hoga opened his door and got inside he called,

"Follow me."

When we got inside the tasteless apartment again, Hoga opened another door leading to a room I didn't see last time I was here, it was a small white research room unlike the other colorful rooms.

It had a whiteboard that had formulas I never saw before on it, a microscope and a lot of blood samples.

As I was looking around the room, Hoga said,

"Well, I took my time and researched a few stuff while you were unconscious after being shot. I had to buy a lot of fish to test on since they're the only animals I could buy many of without being suspicious."

He moved toward the blood samples and took one out and showed me it,

"This is a sample I took after you revived, since before you revived all the blood samples I had moved back to your body. I'll start explaining what I discovered so sit there and focus since I won't repeat it."

I sat on the chair he pointed at, and said nervously,

"But I'm not really that good at science so keep ... the complicated stuff simple."

Ignoring me, he moved the whiteboard and started explaining,

"First of all, I was triggered by why I revived before you even though I died way after you. I didn't have time to see how much I take to revive so this is only a theory for now, but I think that your immortality and mine are a bit different than each other.

With that in mind I started researching the obvious factor we had in common, the blood.

In the first sample I took both your blood and mine and injected them to two different fish and the one that took your blood died instantly without me even trying to kill it, the one that took my blood didn't die but when I killed it, it didn't revive as well.

In the second sample when I injected mine and yours again, both fish died instantly."

I interrupted asking,

"Wait even the one with your blood?"

After nodding to my question Hoga continued,

"I definitely had a normal blood up until the first sample, then after injecting my blood into the fish, strangely enough a new component surfaced on my blood cells, and I mean all of my blood cells not the ones in the sample only.

It was a poisonous one, that takes the life of the one it transfers to. The weird thing is that even though it's poisonous when it was inside my body it didn't poison me, it only poisoned who takes it in other than me.

And so, witnessing this I had a theory of my own on these abilities we had, and it goes like this;

We have the ability and are able of transferring it to another person through blood, but when it gets transferred once, a new component surface on the blood cells and our blood becomes extremely poisonous if it's taken in."

I asked Hoga,

"So, if we attempt to make another person take our blood to become immortal then that person will get poisoned?"

Hoga answered my curiosity with one word,

"Correct."

Ugh, this is too great to comprehend all at once.

But I still don't get why he lied to Nao saying it wasn't the blood.

"Because I deemed that guy to be dangerous."

He said while staring at me with cold eyes then he continued,

"If he found another person with an ability that can save his sister, he would have tried anything to get it. But if he doesn't know the way to transfer it, others won't have to be in danger."

I got angry and argued,

"But Nao was regretting his actions! I'm sure he won't do that again."

With a slight smile on his face he said,

"That guy didn't regret his actions, he only regretted killing you. So, if it was a complete stranger he would do it again without a second thought."

N-No. Nao is not that kind of person, he is only saying that because he doesn't know him.

But this guy can read thoughts and I don't think he's the type to make stuff up...

Hoga let out a sigh and advised me,

"Well, I don't really care about your relationship with other people, but I think keeping our abilities a secret will keep us safe."

I asked Hoga curious about his motives,

"But why are you going this far? You didn't seem like you cared much about your reading thoughts ability before, and now you are doing so much to know about the immortality ability... Perhaps, there is someone you want to make immortal like Nao wanted to make his sister?"

Hoga started wiping the whiteboard and said in a faint voice,

"I'm not trying to know the way to immortality, I'm trying to know the way out of immortality."

At that time, all the missing pieces fit together, why he went to the riverbank, why he jumped from the rooftop, why he didn't get affected by his death like I did.

This person in front of me was suicidal.

And Ironically, he was one of the three immortals this world will ever have.

-End of Chapter 13-