An Emotional Day For Kiyoko Suzuki

[tokyobiohazard]

I stared down at the body of the man I'd just killed. I knew he was a monster and that I'd done the right thing, but now I felt like I was no better than he was.

 

Two arms wrapped around my torso from behind, followed by a cheer. I froze at the sensation of being touched, and the arms awkwardly released me.

 

I turned to see a nervously smiling Arcade Gannon push his glasses farther up the bridge of his nose. The lenses of them were spattered with flecks of blood.

 

I tried to speak, opening and closing my mouth several times, but no sound emerged from my throat. My eyes wandered over to the many bodies that littered the inside of the tent and the blood that was splashed on the canvas walls of it.

 

I walked over to Caesar's throne and sank into it, pressing my fingertips to my forehead. I realized that I now held a pose very similar to the one Caesar himself was known to make when he suffered from a headache. But my head only hurt... because I massacred these people. But who knows? Maybe his did, too.

 

"Thumbs down, you son of a b-"

 

"Boone," I interrupted, "I feel... like I'm... I feel bad."

 

He looked absolutely astonished, "You regret killing them after everything they've done?"

 

I blinked, "No. But when I think of them as people rather than Legion, I feel like a serial killer..."

 

"Hmm..." Arcade said, crouched by Caesar's corpse and staring at the two bulletholes that perforated its skull, "It looks like..."

 

I lifted my head from my hands, "Hm?"

 

"Like his brain must have been horribly swollen," he mumbeld, stroking his chin. He squinted and adjusted his glasses, "I suspect a brain tumor, judging by what we know of his condition and how the wounds look, et cetera."

 

I pressed my hands back to my pounding forehead, "Great. I killed an elderly man with a malignant brain tumor. Nice job, Kiyoko..."

 

Arcade was still poking around the wounds. He produced a set of surgical instruments from the pocket of his once-white Followers labcoat, taking the scalpel in his steady hand.

 

"Really, Arcade?" I remarked, averting my eyes and staring at Vulpes Inculta's intact corpse. My eyes studied every detail of his appearance. He looked so peaceful in death, as if a mere word could awaken him from his eternal slumber, as if a brush of my fingertip against his shoulder could cause him to stir and open his eyes to gaze up at me. My heart skipped a beat as I realized how handsome he was, his distinctive voice replaying in my head. My face flushed, and I felt guilty for killing him.

 

"I need a bonesaw, Kiyoko," Arcade said, his hands covered in blood.

 

I sifted through my unorganized backpack, finding a rusty bonesaw and carelessly tossing it to Arcade, who awkwardly tried to catch it. His fingers closed around the handle of it. He looked down at his hand, astonished by his lucky catch.

 

I looked down at Caesar's head. The skin had been slit open vertically down the middle of his scalp from his forehead to the base of his spine. There was also a horizontal slit at each end of the incision, making it look like an elongated, sideways H.

 

"Why are you being so delicate?" Boone inquired, biting into an apple he had found on a table.

 

The crunch of Boone's teeth piercing the skin of the apple made me cringe. That sound, coupled with the faded memory of breaking a sleeping man's neck as if it were a wet stick, made my stomach churn. I'd done that a thousand times and never felt bad for it. For some reason, though, I felt a wave of guilt crash over me.

 

My thoughts were interrupted by the harsh sound of blade sawing through bone. My eyes adopted a hollow expression, and I pulled my knees against my chest, hugging them tightly. I tried to avoid looking, but my eyes defied my will.

 

Arcade had pulled the two flaps of skin apart as if they were the shutters of a window and pinned them down so that they couldn't flop back into their original positions. Now, he was sawing through the skull.

 

The harsh scraping sound was driving me insane. I put my hands over my ears and squeezed my eyes shut, whimpering as I did so.

 

A voice rang out over the commotion, "Hey! You okay? I'm over here!" It sounded worried.

 

I uncovered my ears and turned toward the source of the voice. My unease intensified. It was him. I clenched my jaw shut and grit my teeth together. I was so upset, I couldn't even fathom what I would do to this filthy traitor. Wondering if Boone and Arcade had noticed, I turned my head to them.

 

Arcade was deeply immersed into his work, but Boone had definitely noticed. His expression was even colder than usual, his eyes furiously fixed on the traitor. He knew what that fink had done to me. He stepped toward the tied-up figure until he towered over him, his fists clenched. He looked over at me, waiting for me to come confront the man who started this whole mess.

 

I glanced back at Arcade. He had removed the top of the skull and had exposed the brain, which he was delicately trying to remove, oblivious to what was going on behind him. He cupped it in his hands and severed the brainstem. When he removed the brain, he turned to look at me. He was teaching me about anatomy so I could become a doctor. I guessed that this was my next lesson.

 

I stepped over to him, my legs shaking. I crouched next to him, and he began to gently dissect the brain, apologizing for the fact that it was swollen and the fact that the bullets had obliterated a few imporant parts, while explaining what the intact parts did for the body. My eyes widened as I saw the tumor in the center of Caesar's brain.

 

Boone started speaking. He said something that I didn't quite catch.

 

I turned to him, "What did you say?"

 

"I said that there's no need for you to feel guilty for this," Boone said, his arms crossed, "Look at the size of that tumor. Even if you'd left him alive, do you really think he'd have lived much longer? He had a ticking time bomb right in the center of his brain and you feel bad for killing him? If anything, you helped the old fu-"

 

"Okay!" I exclaimed, cutting off the last word, "So you're right. But what about all these other Legion? They didn't have brain tumors. How do I justify killing them?"

 

"By killing them, you saved the lives of countless NCR troopers and kept innocent people from becoming their victims. Or worse, their slaves," he replied.

 

Boone knew that he had just made me feel like a hero. I could see it in his expression.

 

I blinked slowly, "I feel like... like I did a good thing..." I felt a tear drop onto my hand. The relief made me feel so peaceful...

 

"Now," Boone said, "To deal with a more... personal problem."

 

I nodded and looked over at the traitor, my happy thoughts now turned to hateful ones, "Benny."

 

"Doll," he began, "I get why you're upset with me. I'm sorry. I'm not gonna beg you to keep me alive."

 

"You remember what happened when I found you..."

 

"You mean when you flirted your way into my room and then started being serious and asking me all those questions about what I was doing?"

 

I blushed, "And then..."

 

"And then you fell for me," Benny said gently, "Kiyoko, I can't lie to you. I used you that night. I've been such a fink, baby. I deserve whatever you do to me."

 

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, "Sounds like you're prepared to die."

 

He stared down at my feet and nodded.

 

I reached over to his hip and took Maria. He didn't struggle. He didn't even look up at me. I studied the ornate patterns carved into the barrel of the gun. My eyes jumped to the picture of the lady on it. I squinted at it and placed the gun back in its holster. Some religious symbol, I guessed.

 

Benny looked up at me, "You gonna torture me? Guess I deserve that for what I did..."

 

I reached down and untied him, "I'm not going to hurt you. I still care too much."

 

He looked astonished and stood up. He threw his arms around me and laughed, "I wasn't gonna tell you 'cause I didn't want to change any decisions you'd already made, but I thought about you constantly ever since I left... And I decided that I love you."

 

I squinted, "You can talk without slang?"

 

He laughed and held me in his arms as if I'd disappear if he let go.

Edited July 1, 2011 by tokyobleach

[darkedge42392]

Very nice. :thumbsup: Keep it up, tokyo. You're doing good.

[LeviTheMetalGuy]

i liked it to an extent but i had a problem with the ending, but then again im a violent person

 

but great writing style, kudos +1000 if i could

[LordWushin]

Very nice piece indeed. Keep them coming!

[ArmoredCascade]

damn tokyo that was really insane good hmm sence u killed Caesar i sould write one that i sided with him

[Maharg67]

Very excellent! Keep writing, please. :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

 

Have already given you Kudos so honourary kudos to you!

Edited July 4, 2011 by Maharg67