Your Trail

He wasn't a best friend, not a friend even. In fact, we are enemies, sworn to fight in every single meeting. Yet unknowingly, I might have started thinking of him as somewhat of a rival. A person on the same foothold as me, someone I could actually relate to. However, he had always been like a beast. He acts based on his instinct. Like a lion that rules over a kingdom, he takes troubled people under his wing. Acting aloof not because he is trying to be cool but because he knows. Just like me. A King just knows. We know somethings that others don't, deep in ourselves without ever knowing why. His jokes are tasteless and he has bad taste in everything, including his sense of fashion and choice of cigarettes.

He knew it was the end. He knew it was going to end. We knew it would end up like this but we didn't say it out, prolonging it as much as possible. Still, I put it through him. For the first time, I had hesitated. After stabbing him, his words to me were for the little girl in his clan. Even till the end, he cared about his clan. Truly, he is a King. Pulling out the saber felt as though it was made of lead. When it was finally out, his body threaten to fall backwards but I held him on. Slowly laying his body down on the pile of crimson snow. Without wiping the blood off my saber, I sheathed it. Closing my eyes for a moment, I thought to myself, "Suoh Mikoto, you are the Red King even till the end, no matter what anyone said. Even me." I noticed a flicker of red light coming from his blood but decided to ignore it as I walked on the crimson snow to a pure white one.

Feeling the need to smoke, I took out a packet from my breast pocket and froze. It was his. I had bought it, knowing he would only smoke this kind. Looking down at the box of cigarettes, two were missing since we had taken one each the day before. Why did I even buy such a thing... was because I knew it would be his last? Or did I just want something to be reminded of him? Crushed the cigarettes, I continued walking, without throwing it away. Past the place we battled, where we had last smoked together, each step became harder to take.

Once the others came into view blurrily, I took out my glasses and put them on. They cheered for me while the Reds were standing still below. I walked to an isolated corner just as the sky turned dark. That was when they began chanting.
"NO BLOOD NO BONE NO ASH"
It became louder and louder as more of them chanted. Again, red flicker of lights began floating from the red clan to the sky. It was most probably from their instigma. Flickering gently to the sky, unlike their King, I started remembering all the moments I had with him. Both fascinated and drawn to it, I looked up and I could feel my cheeks getting wet. I was crying. I wanted to wipe it and stop but a voice past by like a wind.
"No one's looking."
It was definitely his voice. I'd know that voice anywhere. Believing in those words, I cried for the first time in my life. There was a surging warmth on my back, as though he himself was there.
I did not regret putting my sword into him.
I regret not treating him as the King he had always been.