[Tetsuo bolts upright, eyes wide, staring blankly ahead before reality reasserts itself. The first thing he realizes he's seeing is his hands, shakily held up in front of his face. Something fell off of him, but he doesn't notice what it is.
Another nightmare...?! It'd seemed more real somehow...
It's not the first time he's died in his dreams, or woken up in a blind panic, trying desperately to make sure he's still intact. His hands clutch at his chest, pressed hard enough that his sternum hurts. Everything hurts, he reflexively shrugs off, that's nothing new-
Then he realizes that nothing else hurts.
That is new.
He can feel his heart pounding in his chest, where it belongs. But unlike before, when it got this bad, he can't feel it in his head. He doesn't see it drumming spots into his vision, or making the world pulse. If his hands weren't held against it, he might not believe it was there at all.
The gnawing hole in his gut was gone, like the sickness that permeates his whole body was never there; moving doesn't take any effort at all. His skin fit him again, the world didn't expand away from him into cavernous echoes of other people if he stared at a wall too long. The room feels small. Something's very wrong, but what...? There's too many questions to figure out the answers to any of them.
He stares out, disbelieving, at a very familiar room he has no place being in. He can't remember how he got here. Maybe they'll kill him if they catch him here, and just like all the other times he has no idea why he's here at all-
Then he catches sight of what he dislodged by sitting up. His hands drop from his chest, numbly picking up the jacket, bending the leather. Kaneda did find him, after all...
The jacket creases as Tetsuo's hands clench around it, his whole body shaking. No matter how much he insisted that he didn't belong to anybody, in the end... it wasn't Rick, or Kazu, or Hazel that Tetsuo called for. He gets it. Fight whoever he wants, break whatever he can - it doesn't matter at all.
The only way he could ever get out from under Kaneda's shadow is death.
Tears drip onto red leather. With a broken sob, he doubles over onto that damn emblem, clutching the jacket close and feeling the last shreds of his pride fall away, leaving dark splotches in between paint.
Back in Neo Tokyo, he dies. Kaneda doesn't. Here... how had he ever thought it could have been any different...]
Dec 03, 3 AM
[Tetsuo bolts upright, eyes wide, staring blankly ahead before reality reasserts itself. The first thing he realizes he's seeing is his hands, shakily held up in front of his face. Something fell off of him, but he doesn't notice what it is.
Another nightmare...?! It'd seemed more real somehow...
It's not the first time he's died in his dreams, or woken up in a blind panic, trying desperately to make sure he's still intact. His hands clutch at his chest, pressed hard enough that his sternum hurts. Everything hurts, he reflexively shrugs off, that's nothing new-
Then he realizes that nothing else hurts.
That is new.
He can feel his heart pounding in his chest, where it belongs. But unlike before, when it got this bad, he can't feel it in his head. He doesn't see it drumming spots into his vision, or making the world pulse. If his hands weren't held against it, he might not believe it was there at all.
The gnawing hole in his gut was gone, like the sickness that permeates his whole body was never there; moving doesn't take any effort at all. His skin fit him again, the world didn't expand away from him into cavernous echoes of other people if he stared at a wall too long. The room feels small. Something's very wrong, but what...? There's too many questions to figure out the answers to any of them.
He stares out, disbelieving, at a very familiar room he has no place being in. He can't remember how he got here. Maybe they'll kill him if they catch him here, and just like all the other times he has no idea why he's here at all-
Then he catches sight of what he dislodged by sitting up. His hands drop from his chest, numbly picking up the jacket, bending the leather. Kaneda did find him, after all...
The jacket creases as Tetsuo's hands clench around it, his whole body shaking. No matter how much he insisted that he didn't belong to anybody, in the end... it wasn't Rick, or Kazu, or Hazel that Tetsuo called for. He gets it. Fight whoever he wants, break whatever he can - it doesn't matter at all.
The only way he could ever get out from under Kaneda's shadow is death.
Tears drip onto red leather. With a broken sob, he doubles over onto that damn emblem, clutching the jacket close and feeling the last shreds of his pride fall away, leaving dark splotches in between paint.
Back in Neo Tokyo, he dies. Kaneda doesn't. Here... how had he ever thought it could have been any different...]