Ordinary (Sniper Mask x Reader)

chapter thirty-five

You had been feeling a bit nostalgic as of late. The sudden loss of Kuon had you thinking about things you never shot a second glance too before, and an abrupt, unexpected fixation on death had been plaguing your mind.

Losing Kuon so out of the blue had put a large wall in your mind and blocked you from contemplating anything other than death, and how it could happen without warning. Death did not hold back on anybody. If it wanted to take you, it would.

The thought of such a fate had always been scary to you, as it was for a majority of the human population. But you had learned to accept it as you grew older. That didn't stop the immediate onslaught of grief and sorrow that followed the passing of a person, especially somebody close.

You hadn't experienced this feeling in life too much before. The only major time being when your grandmother passed. Of course, there were distant relatives and friends of your parents, but those deaths never hit you as hard as your grandmother's. You couldn't recall every feeling that you had during that time, as you were only seven years old, but you do remember the heartache.

It was something that you could only describe as emptiness. A hole in your heart that could never get filled, never be replaced. Grief was a wound that healed with time, but there would always be a scar left behind. Everybody grieved differently, and those without closure naturally took longer.

God, you couldn't imagine how those that never received the proper closure they deserved felt.

You were content with knowing that Kuon lived on through Sniper, but in a way, you couldn't help but feel a tad unsatisfied with that conclusion. Her physical body was dead, but her soul, her spirit, lasted in somebody else's head. She would be trapped there forever, in someone's mind with their thoughts. Forever.

She could never feel her body again. Never feel the real wind against her skin, the scent of rain entering her nose, the taste of her favorite foods. Not a hug, handshake, or a playful shove. Those things were long gone, and she was permanently stuck there.

If you were forced to live like that, you would rather be put at rest, no matter how scary the thought was.

You wondered how she felt.

Of course, if she didn't want to live on in someway, shape, or form, she wouldn't have done the life transfer. But did she realize what transferring her life really meant? Encaged for time and all eternity, not having a free will of her own.

It seemed suffocating. And after your relationship with Ryo, you knew all too well what that was like.

"Mr. Sniper Mask." The voice of Aikawa's subordinate snapped you out of your thoughts. He held a phone in his hands, holding it up to Sniper hesitantly. "Our boss would like to talk with you. Is that alright?"

"Oh..." he whispered, grabbing the phone. "Yes, that's alright."

The phone seemed to already be set on speaker, as Sniper made no move to tap any buttons. That, or he just wasn't sure which one to press. The fact that he was lousy with technology made you chuckle a bit, it was a characteristic that most wouldn't expect from a person like him.

"...Aikawa. What do you want from me?"

"Sniper Mask. Hello, I'm happy to talk to you."

The man was silent for a moment, his grip on the phone tightening at the smugness in Aikawa's voice. Despite how much you hated it, you had to give him props for his confidence. Sniper let out a nearly unnoticeable grunt, responding firmly. "...Hi."

A hum from Aikawa came from the other line, and you could tell that he was about to begin spewing off words. What was it with the men in this world and their consistent talking? It's like they didn't know how to zip it. It was annoying. They could at least give a shorter summary of whatever they wanted to say.