There's No Love In the Deathzone (BL)
Chapter 310 - 302. Twilight

Chapter 310: Chapter 302. Twilight

Following a faint red footprints, Rina climbed the stairs until she reached an arrow sign that said rooftop. At the end of the stairs, she found two things; the rooftop door, and a crouching Han Shin.

"Shin? Why are you here?" she asked the healer, who, instead of going to the rooftop to heal Zein as he intended earlier, was crouching beside the door with his head between his knees. "What about Zein?"

"...later," he replied quietly with a restrained voice, as if holding back on his tears. "Let’s...let’s come in later...okay?"

Rina shifted his gaze toward the rooftop door, and faintly, through her heightened sense, she could feel the presence of two people, and the sound of choking sobs.

In the all years she knew Bassena Vaski, she had seen the man getting angry, throwing tantrums, and venting everything by breaking the training room. But today was the first time she saw Bassena shed tears, and the first time she heard him crying so miserably. And she didn’t think she would be able to ever forget that sound.

Biting her lips, she crouched beside the healer and hugged the quietly sobbing man. "Okay," she patted his back. "He’ll be fine," she said, perhaps to tell herself too. "It’s Zein, he’ll be fine."

"I know," Han Shin whispered a reply, burying his head deeper on his knees. "I know..."

Rina let out a long sigh, patting the healer’s back while looking out the window, watching the sky getting dimmer and dimmer, and listening to the sobbing voice getting quieter and quieter. As an esper who always stood as a vanguard, she often became the first witness to violence and death. Because of that, she had thought she got number and number each time, that she wouldn’t get affected by anything anymore, and yet...

In the end, heartbreak is heartbreak.

For her, and probably for everyone who knew about this today, it wasn’t just a matter of something bad happening, or that they weren’t able to prevent it from happening. What made it all the more heartbreaking was because she knew...she knew it was the one thing Zein had tried to fight, to avoid. Becoming this strong, wearing masks and covering his skin everywhere, always acting cautious—Zein did everything that he could to prevent this exact thing from happening.

And yet, in the most ironic way, it happened to him when he was seemingly safe and sound inside a highly protected building in the green zone, after managing to dodge it all when he was still in the end zones.

It wasn’t fair, although these things were never fair to begin with.

As the sky got darker, she suddenly heard footsteps from the stairs. "Ah, Mister Jock," she blinked her reddened eyes and stood up to face the bodyguard. "What’s the situation?"

The bodyguard gazed at the crouching healer and looked briefly toward the door. But he held himself enough to not ask what happened. "We found a log of conversations; it seems like the head of this place was ordered to receive the ’package’ and wait until someone’s arrived later," he reported. "We’ve prepared a perimeter to wait for that ’someone’."

"What about those people downstairs?"

"We’ve cleaned the place temporarily for now, but we’ll do it more thoroughly later. One dead, one critical, four heavily wounded. But since Sir Han already healed them, we could just take them into custody right away,"

"I hated it," Han Shin grumbled through his gritted teeth. It disgusted him to have to heal the people who hurt Zein.

"I know, me too," Rina sighed and patted the grumbling healer’s head. "But we have to keep them alive to make sure we know who’s the real mastermind."

Han Shin clicked his tongue. Of course, he knew that. But it didn’t make healing them less unpleasant. Erasing the wound that Zein painstakingly made didn’t sit well with him, so he did it in a way that was enough to make them live, but would still leave a long-lasting scar, making sure he did not heal the severed nerves and, especially, the genitals.

Rina smiled and nudged the healer’s boots. "Alright, why don’t we check on them now, I’m worried about Zein’s wound," she said while looking toward the door, feeling the place had grown quiet in the past minute. "It shouldn’t be easy facing nine espers alone, however good he is."

"...mm, okay," Han Shin nodded and stood up, carefully opening the creaking door and looking outside in caution. "Zein?"

"Hmm? Ah, you’re here too,"

They heard a casual reply, and saw Zein sitting on a pile of crates, wrapped in a large coat while Bassena kneeling on the ground, holding the guide’s slightly bloody hand. The amber eyes were clearly red, almost devoid of light, but that wasn’t Shin’s priority for now.

The healer ran toward them with worry across his face. "You’re wounded!"

"Of course, I would. Do you think I’m an esper?"

"Then you shouldn’t have running around to the rooftop—" Han Shin bit his lips, feeling his emotion spiked as he let his mana flow around Zein’s body, looking for wounds to heal.

The physical ones, at the very least.

"Well..." Zein leaned back against the crate, looking toward the distance, at the last red lines as the sun disappearing from his sight.

Why did he drag his tired, injured body to the rooftop? Honestly, Zein didn’t even remember. Perhaps because he didn’t want to be in a room that was reeked of blood he had shed. Perhaps because he wanted to breathe in fresh air. Perhaps he just wanted to rest, or perhaps because he thought it would the the last...

Yes, perhaps that was it. He thought it would be the last.

He had done what he could to prolong the time, but he realized later that it might bring him nowhere. All the commlinks those people wore were locked with a password, and it wasn’t biometric. But even if there was a link he could use, Zein realized his lousy memory couldn’t even remember his own account’s serial number, much less other people’s, so there was no way he could contact Bassena or Trinity. He had no idea how to operate a computer or other devices, and was much too exhausted to attempt an escape without a decent weapon or decent clothing. He didn’t even have any shoes.

So there was a possibility that the one who came after this was not a rescue, but the enemy.

And yet, more than the thought of losing his life, he was afraid of losing his esper.

It felt so ridiculous for him, who had always prioritized surviving over anything else. But at that moment, he couldn’t help it. He had seen enough relationships getting destroyed over the same thing. Disgust, shame, guilt—it was enough to tear people apart.

So, yeah...he thought it might be the last, for more than one thing.

"I wanted to see the sunset," he said finally, with a gentle smile as the last light of the day reflected on the clear, serene blue.

Something inside that calm, melodious voice was breaking the hearts of those who heard it. Han Shin bit his lips as he sent more and more healing waves toward the guide. "How could you be so..."

"Hmm?"

"N-nothing," the healer shook his head, lowering his head as he felt his eyes stung again. He told himself to stop crying, because Zein was putting such a strong front. He shouldn’t foil it with his childish outburst. "Okay, I think that’s all for the external wounds, but..."

Han Shin pressed his lips as his words and hands faltered. He couldn’t say it, about where another wound might be. He had no heart to bring it up.

"It’s enough, thanks," Zein dismissed the healer as he tried to stand up, holding onto Bassena who was wordlessly supporting him. "Ah, I think there should be someone coming over to take me out of the city or whatever,"

"Yeah, we heard," Han Shin nodded, a spark blazing again inside his reddened eyes. "We’ll try to ambush them."

"Alright," Zein balanced himself by clutching onto Bassena’s back, while the esper held him carefully by the shoulder. "It’s fine for me to go home, right?"

"Yeah...yeah, you should," Han Shin nodded his head repeatedly, until a callous hand patted his black hair.

"Thank you, Shin."

This time, not even biting his cheek could stop the tears from flowing out of the black eyes. Zein continued to pat the healer for a little while, before leaning completely toward Bassena and whispering; "Let’s go. Take me home."

Embracing Zein as tight as he could manage without hurting the man, Bassena enveloped them in his darkness and brought Zein to safety.

Or at least what he thought to be safety. Because it was clear that even their home was not so safe after all. Even after Radia renewed the layer of security, putting new barriers and formations in Bassena’s apartment, it no longer felt safe. No place felt safe anymore, not if he wasn’t there physically.

But Zein wanted to go home, so Bassena took him home; the home from where he was being abducted from, the home which was supposed to protect him.

The home that had failed him—

"Bas," the soft voice caressed Bassena’s ear, as cold fingers caressed his cheeks.

Here, now that it was only them again, he could see the blue eyes better. They were tired, and they were shaken slightly. "Zein, I—"

"If," Zein pressed his finger on top of Bassena’s lips. "If you’re going to say you’re sorry again, I’m going to make you leave."

The lips quivered slightly, and Bassena spoke in a weak voice. "...really?"

"...no," Zein sighed, leaning his head against the wide, sturdy shoulder. Bassena tightened his hold as he felt the guide falling slack inside his embrace. "I don’t want you to go anywhere right now."

Bassena held the guide tighter and buried his face in the black hair. Go anywhere...where would Bassena go anyway? Zein was his light, his world, his home; where would he go if not to his guide?

"I won’t go even if you kick me out," Bassena spoke through a burning, choked throat. "I won’t go even if you don’t want me anymore. I’m going to cling to your legs and annoy you until you die."

He heard the sound of laughter; short and restrained, but a laugh nonetheless. It went on for a while until it dwindled, and Bassena could feel the guide tremble slightly.

"Bas," Zein whispered softly, vulnerably. "Would you wash me up?"

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