FSE

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The setting sun painted the dusk sky with a blood red hue. Tokugawa high school was bathed in an ominous shade of red as the day slowly came to an end. The wind blew over the quiet building, the leaves of the trees rustled as they brushed against one another, the birds began flying back to their nests and all was at peace. Most of the students had left the vicinity, heading back to their homes through the monorail station and other means of transportation. The school seemed empty, except for the figure that stood in front of a grave stone, mourning in silence.

The area seemed to be a beautiful garden of sorts, ornate with beautiful plants and bushes, some benches and a cherry blossom tree. The figure was that of Raiki, the Luxray whom Jason somehow befriended. He was Jason's bane in Japan. From the first day he arrived and started schooling, he already got into trouble with the young Luxray. But, what the Lucario doesn't know is Raiki's dark past... one that had turned him cold to the bone. The Luxray stood there quietly in deep contemplation, staring at the tombstone as tears rolled down his eyes.

"Hey, Raiki-kun..." A soft male voice called from behind, breaking the Luxray's moment of peace.

Raiki sighed as he heard the Lucario's voice. He had sensed him approaching the moment he entered his electrical field but he paid it no attention. He and Jason were friends now, good friends, but he's always tried to hide his softer side. "What do you want?.." The Luxray asked, slowly turning around though careful not to show his sadness, a futile attempt.

Jason slowly approached the Luxray, obviously he had come in at the wrong time. "You know... the last train leaving Tokugawa just left..." Jason scratched the back of his head, sensing the awkwardness of the situation that he had just walked in. "Do you plan on staying here or something?"

Raiki scoffed, turning away from Jason to hide his sorrowful appearance. "You do know there's still that 8 o'clock train right?" Raiki asked, though he completely failed to mask his cracking voice.

As much as Jason used to dream of the day that he'd see the Luxray crying, he would rather be concerned as to why Raiki was feeling that way. "Um... are you crying?" he slowly approached the Luxray, placing his hand supportively on the Luxray's shoulder.

Raiki didn't like to show weakness, and this included his crying. As much as he wanted to swat away the Lucario's hand, it DID comfort him to some extent. "No... it's nothing..."

Jason would normally remain silent, or even leave the Luxray to himself as he didn't know how to comfort a hardened individual. He just remained there by the Luxray, standing by his side and remaining as quietly as possible.

The Luxray felt uncomfortable with the Lucario being there. He couldn't just focus on the past now, he couldn't think straight. There was that side to him that wanted to reminisce, while there's that side that just wanted to slam Jason against a wall for disturbing his moment. "Why are you still here? Shouldn't you be heading home or something?" The Luxray asked, trying his best to divert the Lucario's attention.

"Meh, I told my uncle that I'd be running late on an errand." Jason answered with his usual coy smile.

Raiki almost felt relieved that Jason was with him. He could feel that, a part of his burden was just being lifted away but this annoyingly happy Lucario. It seemed like a miracle that they became friends, but Raiki was sort of glad that they did. As much as he used to hate to admit it, Jason was a great friend. He can somehow manage to put a smile to Raiki's face when the Luxray was down, he can try to relate to the Luxray's problems and Jason's always trying to comfort the people around him.

"Who's Shirasu Hisakawa?" Jason asked out of the blue, slightly startling the Luxray. The Lucario's eyes were a bit squinted, trying to read the Japanese symbols carved on the tombstone. With the time that Jason has spent in Japan, he can now read and understand basic Japanese quite properly. Speaking Japanese however still needed improving.

Raiki was a bit hesitant with talking about his past, he still hasn't... reconciled with himself regarding the incident. "He..." his voice almost cut off as his tears began to moisten his eyes. "He was a friend of mine... a close friend of mine..."

Jason's gaze lowered as he too felt saddened by what Raiki had said. "If you don't mind me asking... what happened to him?"

Raiki gulped down the saliva in his mouth as he tried to get himself to look back to it. He could feel the tears welling up within once more as he bit his lip to keep himself from breaking into tears. "No... I'm sorry... it's complicated right now..."

"I understand..." Jason mumbled as he turned his gaze back to the tombstone that was now slowly being illuminated by the light of the moon as the sun had completely set. A cold wind blew over them as they stood silently, gazing at the tombstone. Jason felt awkward about it all, the silence and the mourning Luxray that stood beside him, so he tried to strike a conversation. "You know... when my friend died... I actually didn't report in the academy for about a week..." Jason said with an awkward chuckle. "Believe it or not... a week is actually too long for a vacation in mourning..."

Raiki's gaze turned to view the Lucario from the corner of his eyes. He recalled Guren telling him to be kinder to Jason as the Lucario too had experienced loss. "May I ask you the same question?" Raiki asked with a soft, saddened voice.

"Which question?" The Lucario asked. "'what happened to him'?"

The Luxray turned to properly face the Lucario. "Yeah... that question..." he said.

Jason couldn't help but stare at the Luxray. The moonlight gave raiki quite the majestic appearance. The way it shown in his eyes, the way it highlighted some of his features, the way it amplified the sadness in his face and made the tears travelling down his cheeks shimmer. "Alright... it isn't that much of a long story anyway."

Before Jason began sharing his story, the two decided that maybe it'd be better done seated. They moved over to the bench and sat down for Jason to start with his "short story". "Well, Damion and I were the best of friends really. He was the first friend I've ever made... with me being the shy-type when I was young." Jason smiled as he looked back to his childhood, his memories with Damion just flashed in his mind. "And then... there was this attack in the Military District... rogues just invaded the district walls and spread chaos..."

Raiki caught wind of where the story was going and didn't let Jason finish the story, seeing how it hurt the Lucario. "He was one of the people who died... wasn't he?" the Luxray asked.

Tears began streaming down Jason's face as he began sobbing a bit... though he somehow managed to maintain his cheery smile. "He was the ONLY casualty..."

Raiki couldn't help but be surprised by what he heard and the sight of the crying Lucario. Jason always managed to be strong even in the face of danger. He hasn't shown much signs of weakness, he always stayed cheerful in most situations that Raiki just couldn't believe the Lucario was capable of crying. "I don't follow... he was the only one who died in the attack?"

Jason nodded in response as he wiped off his tears and took several deeps breaths. "It's stupid isn't it?" He said with a hint of anger in his voice. "Of all the people that the rogues could've killed... of all the powerful military officers that they could've taken out... they only went after Damion!"

"And they got away?" Raiki asked.

"What was left of them, yeah." Jason answered, trying to calm himself down. "Most of the Rogues weren't that powerful. Damion and I easily dispatched several of them... it was their boss that arrived and just predated on Damion..." Jason's eyes seemed to glow in anger, a bright fiery red light could be faintly seen emitting from the Lucario's corneas. "Their boss had power I couldn't imagine... he sure as hell would've been strong enough to turn the tide of the battle but NO... he had to go and chase us down for a slow and agonizing demise!"

Jason was surprised to suddenly feel a hand over his shoulder. Turning to see who it was, he saw the Luxray was leaned in closer, his expression was that of concern and sadness. "Jason... as better as it would've been for you to be serious like this, this isn't you." Raiki said, looking at Jason directly in the eye as he held Jason's shoulder the same supportive way Jason did to him a while ago.

Jason's fiery eyes slowly dimmed down as the Lucario calmed himself, the anger in his face being replaced by a mixture of sadness and his mask of joy. "I'm sorry... it's just that... I tend to get carried away with my anger every now and then..."

Raiki let go of Jason's shoulder and moved a little further away from the Lucario. "You know... Guren-chan told me that you experience loss before... I really didn't believe her since you were always so happy about things."

"Well... I try my best to be happy because so many people are counting on me..." Jason mumbled as he looked up to the stars. "Everyone wants me to just keep moving forward... even Damion and Sarah..."

"Who's Sarah?" Raiki asked.

"My dead girlfriend." Jason answered quite casually, though there was that slight crack of pain in his voice as he spoke.

"I see..." Raiki mumbled as he returned his gaze to the tombstone. "I didn't know that you lost two people..."

"Yeah... and under similar circumstances..." Jason let out a sigh as he closed his eyes, allowing a tear to roll down his cheek. "Sarah was the one who really forced me to just move on... She told me to just forget about her if it was really too painful, and that she'd kill me herself if I was sulking."

"Did you sulk after that?" Raiki asked.

Jason shook his head as he opened his eyes to the vast starry night sky. "Not really. I was a bit bitter about it... but a lot of shit happened so I guess I was too preoccupied to be depressed..."

"What happened?" Raiki tilted his head a bit, his curiosity regarding Jason's past intensifying.

"It's classified." Jason answered. "Anyway, you don't seem to be coping well with your friend's death... no offense."

Raiki sighed and laid back against the wooden bench. "His death was... complicated..." he answered as calmly as he could. "It's not something I can just shake off so easily... That reminds me, you said both Damion and Sarah died of similar circumstances right?"

"Yeah?" Jason replied though confused as to the point of Raiki's question.

"What happened to him, the man that killed them?"

"Well..." Jason turned his gaze towards the Luxray. "That was the one good thing that happened with Sarah's death. Just as he stabbed her... she used her freak psychic powers to create a... hm... I think her brother called it a 'reverse black hole'. I've never felt power like it before and it completely destroyed the Luxray."

"Wait, the killer was a Luxray?" Raiki asked, a bit offended and concerned at the same time.

"Well... yeah... I don't hold anything against your specie though. I'm not crazy."

"Right..." Raiki mumbled as he stood up from his seat. "Anyway, thanks for sharing... I guess. We should head back now. I don't really like staying this late, the whole school with be patrolled by teachers."

"M'kay..." Jason stood up and followed the Luxray to the monorail station.