AN: Once again, back to Yukio once more.
I wasn't expecting anything. I didn't deserve anything anymore.
They gave me bread and water. And fruit, vegetables, and meat, too. They were humane. But I had given up on it. The life I had was stolen from others, from their support. It wasn't working for me. It didn't belong to me anymore.
When my students got there - Shiemi, oh god, Shiemi - I felt like my heart was breaking. Scratch that. It was broken. Past tense. Their faces. So glad to see me (wait, wasn't right now supposed to be their lessons?) when I couldn't look at them genuinely.
I'd cried too much recently. There were no more tears for me, and good thing. I didn't want Shiemi and Izumo and Ryuji and Paku and Koneko and Shima and Rin, never Rin, to see me that way.
"Yuki-chan!"
Shiemi's excited tones.
"Okumura-sensei."
A reverent way of speaking I should've lost the privilege of hearing.
"Shiemi-san, Suguro-kun, Izumo-san, it's good to see you." My voice was hoarse from lack of use, my smile forged and likely unnatural-looking. I would just try to pass this, tired as I was.
"Have you been feeling better?" "How're they treating you in here?" "What's it like, not having anything to be doing?" As soon as I approached the window, which now was able to be opened with a handle on the outside, I was bombarded with questions.
"I'm alright. Alive." Maybe not for long, the way I saw it. The Vatican would probably be notified by somebody if I didn't improve fast. "They've treated me well enough. And it's not as relaxing as you'd think." I had expected a chuckle out of that, but more than anything it sobered the three of them up. I was surprised and a little hurt that Rin had neglected to come see me, but I couldn't blame him, really. At least Bon and Izumo - two I hadn't expected to see - had decided to pay a visit.
We had small talk for nearly an hour before I told them I needed to sleep. I was tired and had barely slept the last night, but I didn't actually need sleep. What I needed was to be alone.
All three of them waved goodbye to me, their reluctance to leave touching, but it made me flinch.
They were finally gone and I was alone.
I knew I was unmonitored by video, as that could be tampered with, edited, or stolen. Only human eyes were allowed to observe me.
That was their first mistake.
I watched as the guard shifts were changing. They moved almost robotically, in perfect accordance with the previous guard.
That was their second mistake.
I also saw that there was about a four-minute delay between guard shifts because they met in the middle, their perfect tandem allowing them to time one another's motions perfectly.
That was their third mistake.
It took those three mistakes for me to formulate a plan to get rid of the problems that I had cursed everyone with. To get rid of the root of all the issues. That root was me, but I didn't care. I was just so tired, and I didn't want anyone to be hurt by me ever again.
It was eighty minutes after the trio had left. Eighty one. Eighty one and ten seconds. Eighty one and fifteen seconds.
At eighty one and nineteen seconds exactly, the guard got up to leave. That was my cue. My flames burst out of me, surging my body with adrenaline but I was still in control. I would stay in control - I could do this if I moved quickly.
My hands, my claws that disgusted me to look at, dug into me. I punctured myself again and again, until my vision began to blur, my mind dulled, and my flames disappeared. I was on the floor now, bleeding. For a moment, I thought my blood was black. The irony in that made me want to laugh. Black blood spilling from the veins of Satan's youngest fledgling.
The last thing I heard was a voice. A feminine voice, but with a distinct ring of familiarity. I was blacking out a lot as people yelled at me, wasn't I?
"YUKIO!"
