Takasago

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Jae snorted. "I'm doing fucking fantastic."

He lifted the edge of his shirt to allow Kimiko to bandage the slash across his stomach, hissing quietly as she did so. He wanted to say more, anything to fill the silence, but his throat hurt and he couldn't think of anything.

It was disconcerting, to just... not feel anything. He should be afraid of dying, nervous that they had to be getting close to the end of things, relieved that Jon was more and more likely dead with each passing minute. He couldn't make himself feel any of that. The last couple of days had burnt out whatever he had left. He was exhausted, in every sense of the word.

"...Are you going to try to win?"

[Deamon]

She looked at Min-Jae when he asked her the question and nodded.

After making sure that the bandage around Min-Jae's waist was tight by giving it a gentle tug, Kimiko moved back and raised her hands.

"Not for me though."

The motive behind that statement wasn't in question but the amount of truth behind it wasn't something Kimiko could readily ascertain. She wanted it to be that pure of a motive but it was a childish wish, nothing was that clear cut anymore.

"You?"

She unrolled more of the bandages.

"Anywhere else you need first aid?"

Ironically now only when they were so close to the end did Kimiko find herself following one of the Three Treasures.

Ci.

Compassion.

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"I..."

What was there to go back to, if you won? Who would want you back so badly?

Who is there to win for, that's what he wanted to ask Kimiko. Someone you made a promise to? You think every one of the hundred or so other people here didn't make promises? That they didn't have anyone watching, waiting?

Jae supposed that was what he had never been able to understand. The people who killed from day one - did they really think that they were so fucking special? That they were the only ones with lives left behind, or that their lives were the most important? That they were better, somehow?

He didn't know. He wouldn't ever know.

Jae wanted his parents. He wanted to be at home, in his room, with a working body and living friends and a chance to fuck everything up in ways that didn't involve everyone dying. He wanted a future that wasn't emptiness and pointlessness and a thousand years' penitence in Hell at the end of it. Winning wouldn't give him that.

But God, why should he lay down and die so that some fuck who thought they deserved more than anyone else here could step over him like they had everyone else? They didn't fucking deserve it any more than he did.

In the end, the response Jae gave Kimiko was a half-shrug and mumbled excuse. "That's not why I've been... doing things."

Samuel. Nadia. Lily. Brendan. Jonathan. Even Jae didn't hate anyone enough to make them tally marks towards a pointless goal.

Without adding anything further or asking just who the hell it was that Kimiko thought would want her to kill to live, he held out his mangled left hand to her. Bandages wouldn't fix it, nothing short of surgery probably would, but he wanted it covered so that he didn't have to look at it anymore and so that nothing would get lodged into the space that had been torn out. His broken fingers were still held together crookedly with tape and the split skin was raw and glistening. Jae's stomach twisted, and for the first time he was actually thankful he hadn't taken the food that had been left for him with the rifle.

[Deamon]

Min-Jae didn't say anything for a while and then silently raised his hand up. There was nothing Kimiko could do to fix what it happened to it, she doubted there was anything even an experienced doctor could have done. His fingers were mangled and bent at strange angles, while the skin itself was split open. It looked like he had put his hand in a blender.

Kimiko didn't have anything she could do for Min-Jae other than cover them up, so that was what she did. Pulling the bandages over his hand and between his fingers a couple of times to make sure everything was safely covered. At the very least it would stop his hand from getting infected but Kimiko couldn't do any more than that. It was probably down to luck more than anything that Min-Jae still had the use of his hand.

After she was done Kimiko moved back and sat opposite Min-Jae with her legs crossed.

"That's the best I can do...sorry."

Things between the two of them seemed to be calm, neither of them were all that interested in a fight. The end result of that fight wasn't something Kimiko doubted. It wasn't something that she wanted to do either, especially after giving Min-Jae first-aid. Luckily he didn't seem interested in trying to double cross her so her thoughts stayed just that.

Instead she raised her hands to ask Min-Jae a question.

"When did you learn ASL?"

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Jae scooted back so that he could lean back against the wall. It didn't seem like there was much point in worrying about his leg or his face by now, so he didn't prompt Kimiko to do anything about it. She had already done more than he had expected from her, for reasons he couldn't fathom and didn't really care to ask about.

"Back in middle school," he replied to her question. He didn't offer any further explantion; she would know, and what was there to add? We were friends for a while, you know. Like she would have forgotten.

"I've probably forgotten a lot, so I don't know how much sense I've actually been making."

Jae exhaled slowly and closed his eyes for a moment, resting his head against the wall. Kimiko had had more than ample opportunity to stab or shoot or do whatever to him by now. He could afford to close his eyes.

He thought that if she did take the chance though, did kill him here, he might laugh.

[Deamon]

Min-Jae said that he had learned sign language during middle school. Kimiko had no idea why he had never told her before now. They must have only recently stopped talking regularly when he had learned enough, maybe he had been hoping to surprise her with it at some stage. She guessed she would never know what his intentions had been. Regardless of that fact it remained a touching gesture and one she appreciated even considering the situation they found themselves in.

Kimiko was about to reply to Min-Jae but he leaned back with his eyes closed. Him being comfortable enough around her to not feel the need to constant keep his eyes on her was something she hadn't expected. It didn't defuse the tension in the room but it eased it somewhat. They had reached an unspoken accord with each other. The shadow of violence was still present, as it always was, but it had retreated into the background.

Reaching out Kimiko repacked Min-Jae's first-aid kit and returned it to his bag. Something told her that he wasn't going to use it again. Opening her own bag Kimiko took out a water bottle and an energy bar beginning to eat what she supposed passed for a meal. After she finished eating the energy bar Kimiko raised her hands and began to sign out another question that had been playing on her mind.

"What's your plan?"

She asked the question, even though she had a strong suspicion she knew what the answer would be.

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<Plan?> Jae mirrored Kimiko's signing, the corners of his mouth briefly twitching into an ironic facsimile of a smile.

<No plan.>

None except for making it difficult for whoever decided that they wanted to kill him. If he were honest with himself, there had never been more of a plan than that. The brief attempts at revenge, the ill-fated alliances, the aimless wandering on his own in a fog of fear and anger - his only goal had been to keep moving. To stay distracted until he needed to focus on the violence when it exploded around him again.

Jae dropped his hands again, considering.

"...I want to leave this room," he said finally. "That's the only plan right now."

[Deamon]

Min-Jae wanted to leave the room and presumably the whole area. Kimiko didn't know if it was a good idea and on top of that it flew directly in the face of her current plan which was sit tight and wait it out. At the same time though if they moved in a pair they would have a better chance of survival. Min-Jae may have been in a bad way but they had a notoriety that immediately made people question whether they wanted to be nearby. Just like Blair had run away only a few minutes ago.

Still it went against her plan.

"Leave by yourself? Like you are now?"

Kimiko wasn't sure Min-Jae would be able to survive by himself considering the shape he was in. Surprisingly she found that deep down she still cared about him

"You sure?"

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Jae paused.

"Is that a problem?" He didn't bother to disguise the note of... doubt? Suspicion? Whatever it was, he wasn't sure how to react to Kimiko's question.

What was her motive here? She seemed oddly concerned for someone who was direct competition, when she'd had no problem taking out... what was it now, five people? Six?

Jae snorted. Hell of a time to try and mend the long-severed ties of their friendship.

"What, you want to come with?"

[Deamon]

There was a lengthy silence as Min-Jae's question hung in the air.

Kimiko had been alone for her whole time on the island. Every other meeting with someone had been temporary.

She nodded.

"Yes."

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Just when he thought nothing could surprise him anymore. Every damn time.

Jae opened his mouth to say something snarky, came up with nothing, and closed his mouth again.







<Okay.>

His hands had been shaking this whole time. It meant less than letting Kimiko hear the shaking of his voice.

[Deamon]

Kimiko nodded and stood. Nothing more needed to be said.

She stood, grabbing her bag and rifle.

It was time to leave her den of respite and venture out into the asylum properly. This time though she had a companion.

What difference that would make she couldn't say, but she felt like her choice was the right one.

((Kimiko Kao continued elsewhere...))

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Despite the agreement made not ten seconds ago, Jae's heart still jumped when Kimiko picked up the gun again. Instead of pointing it at him she offered him her hand.

He took it, grunting at the aches and pains as she helped him to his feet.

How much good does it do to ensure that you won't die alone? You'll still be dead and gone, unaware of the people in your past life whether you loved or hated them.

Jae leaned on Kimiko's shoulder until he felt steady enough to walk on his own.

((Min-jae Parker continued in Battle Royale))