Air Gear: Blood Brothers, of the Bloody Road

chapter 1: prelude

He laid still in his bed, trembling and confining himself rather uncomfortably in an awkward and crooked fetal position. His head ached horribly of a migraine, bad to the point that each impact of even the slightest motions, felt like crashing thunder that knocked against his temples.

He was in his head right now. Though not all alone, or at least not yet, he wasn't.

"But...I still need you, Agito." His typically perked voice sounding uncharacteristically defeated, though not losing the charm it seemed to have always held. His sharp blue hair hung over his forehead unevenly, partially masking his right eye which, itself was already covered by a fragile patch that was barely hanging on.

His left eye, gazing at the person he was addressing, carried features of honesty, love and hope as well as a detectable iota of pain and sorrow from memories that he had long accepted by now, that they would be forever ingrained in his head

Across from him, within the empty, pitch black atmospheric void of his mind, lay someone with almost identical features with but a few key differences. Sharper teeth,  a narrower, more tainted, open right eye, while his left eye was covered by a similar fragile patch.

The one spoken to, now responded

"No, you don't. And I know you know that, Akito. Kaito is gone. You've made friends. You have your fang regalia back. you are the fang king." The voice of the one who spoke this time, was baseless and raspy, like the hissing of a rattlesnake. It was usually quite threatening but now, it was rather solemn.

To say that it felt to Akito, as if the whole world was falling apart around him, would be rather inaccurate. Instead it felt like only the familiar parts of his world were being torn apart, while the grey, foreign parts of the world seemed to be flooding in at an alarming pace.

But realistically speaking, he did know that this day would come. He knew just as well as Agito did, that this bond was only temporary. And that Agito would sooner or later, fade away from Agito's mind. After all, Agito's existence started to interfere with Akito's body, long ago. Causing him to feel aches and stiffness at random times. The body just wasn't meant to hold two different people at once.

Did Akito know that it would hurt this much, for Agito to take his leave? Perhaps he may have partly expected it. But experiencing it now, was nothing at all like trying to become ready for it.

"Akito. You'll be okay without me." Agito's raspy voice said endearingly, offering whatever comfort could be made available. Akito's vision began to blur. Whether it was from tears, migraine pains or something else entirely, there was no way for him to be sure.

"I'll miss you. You're like a brother to me. A real brother. I love you Agito." Akito said sorrowfully, through a tightened throat. He couldn't see Agito's face anymore but he could still hear him.

"Fuck." Agito seemed to give a rough chuckle. "I'm not a soft little fucker like you and your friends. Fuck right off." He chuckled a bit more and seemed to have earned a genuine giggle from Akito as well. "for what it's worth, I ain't forgetting you or any of them either." Agito confessed.

Their voices were growing more distant from one another and they knew it. It was time for him to go now.

"Goodbye Agito." Akito said, as the dampened patch fell away from his right.

"Farewell Akito." Agito said as the patch fell from his left eye.

And then, for the both of them, there was nothing left but darkness and silence.