78. Perspectives

Takeshi

Takeshi has been Rei-deprived, if he could say so himself. They'd been stuck in the future for a very long while now, and he's only seen Rei once. They didn't even have very much of a conversation that time.

Throughout Choice and even after, Rei seemed to have found a replacement best friend in Russo. They stuck together and were very similar in personality. They seemed to have better bonding than Takeshi and Rei sometimes.

Takeshi really didn't know if this was what could be called jealousy.

Either way-- he hadn't been able to find a chance to talk to Rei in a while. Even after they'd returned from Choice and gathered for a semblance of peace in the base, Rei and Russo had quickly left the scene before anyone could put a word in. Together.

Rei and Russo were strange. Confusing-- no, right after Choice, when Irie had explained the events of the future--

How did Rei and Russo know things? They spoke as if they'd known this would happen; or as if this had already happened to them before. They spoke as if they already knew it.

How did they know?

Once again, it was just them two. 

Them two, and Takeshi had no place there.

This whole time, Rei had been carrying a very heavy secret behind his back. Rei was keeping a gargantuan secret from Takeshi, and Takeshi hadn't even noticed.

Takeshi didn't even realize how big of a burden that small, frail back was shouldering.

He was such a failure of a friend. Such a terrible excuse of one. No--

Could he still call himself Rei's friend?

-

Tsuna

Tsuna was always slightly wimpy, no matter what. However, he was one to always worry about people he was with. He was one that couldn't leave people alone; leave someone behind.

When Russo and Rei were told they couldn't come into the Realtor, he had the urge to step out too. He had the urge to ask everyone else if they'd be willing to find a different spot where Rei and Russo could be with them too--

Rei shot him a smile, as if he'd read Tsuna's intentions. 

With that moment of hesitation, Tsuna didn't make it in time. Kawahira shut the door, and Gokudera was pulling his toward the back of a bookshelf. 

He was worried the whole time, not just for Zakuro who was about to find them-- but also for the ones left outside. How were they? Where were they? Why were they out?

Tsuna was worried sick.

He didn't even want Rei here. If anyone, anyone but Rei should have been sent here into the future. Rei was weak-- physically, he was evidently doing worse by the day. It had been ages since he was well enough to do a live show.

What if something happens to him? 

"Yuni," 

Everyone with an earpiece heard the voice from the communication device. It was Rei's voice-- slightly strained, hushed, forcefully toned down-- 

"You know where I'll be."

A sharp frequency ripped through the speaker-- the signal had been lost. No one had even the chance to respond-- Zakuro was right at the door. No one could speak up about it either.

Tsuna felt his stomach drop in absolute dread.

-

Reborn

Reborn always felt annoyed by Rei's presence and his know-it-all personality and identity. Now that the number has increased by one, he had decided to take advantage of the situation and use their knowledge to the situation's needs.

However, he is often struck with wonder.

What exactly was their identity?

Could they see the future? That wasn't possible. Yuni, the grandchild of Luce, was the only one left who could do such a thing. 

They knew things in a much more descriptive detail than Yuni did. that was the most intriguing part of it. Their knowledge seemed a tad too convenient. 

Such a convenient matter-- so why do they not change situations for the better? Why do they tend to get in trouble with us, rather than seek to change it?

Butterfly effect, Reborn decided. But why would they simply watch like bystanders?

"I'm just a passerby in this story." Rei had once said. "I'm a side character that doesn't matter. You shouldn't take too much notice of me."

Why were they even here?

The more he thought of it, the stranger it felt for Rei and Russo to even exist.

-

Yuni

Yuni didn't know everything. She was young and inexperienced-- but one thing she knew about Rei and Russo were that they didn't belong.

It was difficult to explain.

They had in them a dark, murky air-- a tainted, impurity in the core of their being--

and Yuni was in no way saying this out of spite. She knew the two of them were nice people. They hadn't held a conversation, but each time she turned or accidentally met eyes-- they would give her a kind, gentle smile.

People whose natural instinct is to smile when they see someone-- those kind of people are always good people, she believed.

But there was just something shrouded around them. Something that veiled them-- protected them--something that's not evil-- just unnatural.

It made her feel uneasy.

The two of them aren't supposed to be in this world, she knows. She can clearly tell and understand that they don't belong in here-- They were foreign beings, and that was why they could not hold the same aura as ones of this world.

Then how did they come in?

Something-- something incredibly unimaginable must have brought them in.

It did not matter who exactly they were, she had then convinced herself. It did not matter. They are not, and will not cause harm to us and the world. I know it.

It did not matter, and thus Yuni will not dig too much into where she does not belong.

She will accept it all with an unfaltering smile, like the sky she was.

-

Russo

From the moment he'd met the younger Ninomiya Rei, Russo knew he was very, very less matured than his older counterpart.

His older counterpart held no tells, held no flaws; But his younger counterpart had plenty of tells, plenty of flaws. Plenty immaturity and plenty weaknesses.

That's why Russo could tell in one instant.

Ninomiya Rei was bad at acting. Lying. Deceiving. But he was good at adapting physically. His body was better at adjusting to the situation than his head.

At that time he had simply closed his eyes-- and gave one sigh.

Ah, he had thought, It all makes sense now.

For the years since he'd arrived in this world, Russo had only been waiting. He was not here to live for another life-- he was here so he could do one thing he couldn't in his past life.

And with Rei's arrival, he could finally fulfill his last wish.

"Are you sure about your decision?" Void had asked that day, a watery chortle heard in the distance-- in this infinite expanse of the void.

"Yes," Russo had answered.

Just one last wish, he had been promised. And when it is granted--

Russo eyed Rei closely every day. To what he's gone through, to what he was-- and every day, he has much more fun than the other. 'Russo' grows closer to Rei each day, as a friend closer bonded than any other. Every day was full of smiles and laughter. 

Just a bit more, Russo constantly reminded himself. And then, when my wish is finally granted...

I will leave.