There's No Love In the Deathzone (BL)
Chapter 643: Side Story 2. Dance of Flame and Shadow - 2

Chapter 643: Side Story 2. Dance of Flame and Shadow - 2

Flashes of Red.

Curdling, eerie red. Blood red. Blood all over his body.

And then black.

Thick, like curdling ink. Blood, looking like ink. All over his hands.

Splash

Agni raised his head, staring at the reflection in the hazy mirror. He let the water run for two seconds, just to pretend he could afford the luxury, before turning it off with regret. If he could, he would let the water gather and dunk his head in to cool off, but...

The reflection showed him the reality. His once dark but blazing eyes were nothing but an abyss, sunken. His skin was dry from the harsh air riddled with miasma, and a hint of wrinkles was visible on the face, which was once said to be the epitome of youthful.

What youth? Agni chuckled bitterly. He spent his youth in the military, and the moment he hit thirty, he was thrown to this place. The grey gate of hell. Where letting the water run for two seconds was a sin.

Just five years...and the light in his eyes was gone. But even while his outer appearance made him seem to aging fast, he felt even older inside, as if he had died and come back to life over and over again.

Perhaps he did.

If it came down to it, this aging thing worsened in the past year. Ever since he had to step up to fill his friend’s position when he hadn’t even finished his grieving.

Inhale...exhale...

Agni muttered the words softly like a meditative mantra, closing his eyes and pretending that he wasn’t there. Hell--he could pretend that he was in the military boot camp and everything felt so much better already.

"Captain!"

At least, until someone interrupted his alone time. "Haa..." a long sigh came out almost in reflex. "Can’t you give me like five minutes to myself?"

His deputy, Eshter, leaned against the bathroom door and grinned. "What? Are you jerking off or something?"

"I wish," Agni groaned. It felt even more disappointing because he hadn’t felt much arousal since that last mission that doomed his fate. These days, he merely did it to ensure he wasn’t impotent. Yet. He stared at Eshter through the mirror. "What is it now? Is someone fighting again?"

"Nah, they spare you this time," she waved her hand. "But the agent from the headquarters will be here later, so you better check the outpost for the latest report."

"Why don’t you do that and report to me?"

"Because I don’t have my own coffee maker in my bedroom?"

Agni rolled his eyes at her smirk and threw the tower he had just used. With her laughter trailing him, Agni went to the outpost. Well, at least he could get rid of unnecessary depressing thoughts if he worked.

It was a regular day, so only two espers and one guide were stationed there. All of them were in the outpost, huddling around a bubbling pot of watery coffee. They raised their head when Agni came, but came back to their coffee after a brief ’Hey, Cap’.

"Hey, how’s the day?" Agni asked while rummaging through the outpost’s log.

"Nothing much, except for someone going inside the Deathzone."

Agni turned his head and stared at the esper incredulously. "You call that nothing much?"

"Hey, I tried to stop them!" the esper shrugged. "I yelled, I gave a warning shot, I tried to chase them--the whole thing, you know? But that person suddenly disappeared."

"Disappeared?"

"Yeah, like...melting into the ground?"

The other esper gave a better alternative. "Shadow."

"Right--melting into shadow!" the first esper snapped their fingers. "Anyway, since we properly warned them, their safety is no longer our business."

Indeed. While people knew Deathzone wasn’t a place they should enter even for a challenge, sometimes some stubbornly came to test themselves or record themselves for that social media thing or whatever. What a bunch of madmen. It would be too bothersome if they had to chase those people every time, so it was decided that giving warnings was enough.

Why should they care if people want to waste their own limited life?

"Haa..." Agni sighed. Again. He could easily accept such thinking if he wasn’t the Captain. "We shouldn’t let anyone cross the boundary in the first place."

"But if they could hide in shadow..."

The espers looked at him with fake innocent eyes, even trying to blink cutely--which only made Agni grimace in disgust. "Fine," he sighed. Again. This was why he aged so easily. "Just watch the line."

He snapped his fingers and pointed to the abandoned binoculars. The espers grinned and raised their mugs with pitiful expressions that could only make Agni shake his head in exasperation. As if laughing at his state of mind, a fight actually broke out near the guide clinic when he returned, and not even five minutes after he stopped it, the staff from the borderland headquarters--or Unit 01-00--came for the monthly report.

Agni, who had never been good at desk work, sighed before quickly compiling the monthly report and giving it to the fortunately patient staff. Ah, he should stop sighing; it really did not help with his fast aging.

"Here’s the list of new people," the staff gave him a stack of files.

It was time for new recruits to come, and as one of the most dangerous units, 04-2 had the privilege of choosing ahead of the other units. Agni had no idea if he would call it a blessing though, since there was not much difference between each people who came. Good talents didn’t come their way unless for punishment, and that only came once every blue moon.

"That’s not too many," Agni muttered as he checked on the list. Low quality too.

"Not too many psychos it seems," the staff shrugged.

Agni chuckled, if only to console himself. He read the list once more and calculated what kind of espers the Unit needed at that point, depressingly finding that four additional espers weren’t enough.

"Oh, right; someone called Hertz had been trying to be a member," the staff said suddenly.

Agni flinched for a second. Even after a year, hearing his old colleague’s name still stabbed his heart uncomfortably. And then came the curiosity and his brow arched.

"You said we should never give a pass to anyone called Hertz, right?" the staff added.

Agni blinked. That name wasn’t really a unique, one-of-a-kind name. But...what was the chance of someone with the same name but completely unrelated to the old college who died a year ago coming to this place?

Feeling his throat drying, Agni swallowed and asked cautiously. "A young man?"

"Yeah; around twenty years, I think? Too bad though, he was quite good," the staff pointed at the list with a sneer. "Two-star after two years, and he has a good skill."

"Yeah?"

The age seemed to be a match. He had placed the restriction just as a precaution, but he never thought the boy would really come. As a recruit, no less. He had only seen the boy once, when he was still in the military, and the boy came to look for his father. He never interacted with the boy because honestly...other’s familial relationships were irritating for him back then.

But he had a debt to pay, and a promise to fulfill, so he tried his best even though he didn’t want to stick himself in another’s family business.

The staff’s next words, however, made his blood run cold.

"Something to do about shadow," the staff added, and Agni froze.

"What?"

Suddenly, the outpost’s report he just heard an hour ago replayed in his mind.

"It’s good, isn’t it? It has a good synergy with this place, especially since he’s a scout--hey, where are you going?"

Ignoring the staff’s call, Agni grabbed his claymore and ran out of the building as fast as he could. He looked up when he reached the gate and called out his deputy. "Eshter!"

"Captain?" she looked down from the top of the gate and widened her eyes as she saw the geared-up Agni. "Where are you--"

"I’m going to the Deathzone!" Agni replied without halting his run.

"Suddenly?!" she jumped to the ground and caught up with the berserker.

"I’m going alone, but ready some people--only send them if I lit up a flare."

Certainly, there were a lot of questions in Esther’s mind at that moment. But she did not make a fuss and nodded firmly when he saw the berserker’s eyes. "Be careful!"

Agni had no leeway to reply, because he had to run. He snatched a key and got into a van, driving it to the nearest Deathzone’s line like a madman. It was a miracle that he even remembered to turn off the engine when he alighted and rushed to the dark forest.

"Haa...fuck!" he clenched his jaw and kicked the ground. "Fuck! Fuck! It’s not you, right?"

Can I ask for a favor?

The voice of his old colleague resounded in his head, and Agni couldn’t help but curse. "Damn it!"

Can you take care of my only son?

"Fuck!" he ran through the stifling darkness of the Deathzone and called out with anger and guilt. "Ronan Hertz!"

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