#60 Asao's death

"I heard what happened, you did a great job by covering for that puppy. Unfortunately, I am not allowed to bring him here anymore." Kazuki tried to comfort Asao when he felt heavy air around him, however, it was quite a hard task since he wasn't even allowed to let him see his friend again.

"I see...how is he?" Asao just nodded with a blank expression.

"He is alright, I am taking care of him and when the next opportunity arrives, I will send him to my family-" Kazuki reassured him, however when he mentioned his family, he fell quite. He observed Asao's expression and he noticed that the heavy air around him eased up a little bit.

"Then it's all-*cough* *cough*" Asao he put his hand to his mouth when he started coughing and when he calmed down, he calmly looked at his palm which was fully covered in blood.

"What?! Are you alright?!" Kazuki wasn't really surprised by Asao's coughing, after all, there were so many drugs he consumed...it would be more strange if he wasn't slightly ill, however, when he saw his palm covered in blood, his expression completely changed.

"It's nothing, this isn't the first time it happened" Asao calmly answered and used a towel to clean his hand. His room was no longer so empty but that didn't relate to furniture. There were only a few regular things for him to use, maybe because Shiro was too tired from taking care of each one of Asao's necessities.

"That's not normal! When did it start to happen?!" Kazuki asked him with a stern expression.

"When Shiro came here and threw out the puppy. That day, he also gave me some new pills" Asao honestly answered.

'New pills?! I told him that I won't be able to gather everything within 1 month but I was obviously lying...Was he snooping around in my office?! I shouldn't have stored them in such an obvious spot as my office!' Kazuki started blaming himself.

"I need you to give me a sample of your blood" Kazuki quickly calmed down and decided that he must check Asao's condition.

"No problem" Asao complied and gave him a few drops of his blood.

...

The next day, Kazuki came to Asao's room with the puppy in his hands.

"Isn't he forbidden to be here?" Asao was slightly surprised by this situation but he still asked after considering the puppy's safety.

"Normally...yes, however, there is something important I have to tell you" Kazuki said with a downcast expression.

"What is it?" Asao calmly asked even after seeing Kazuki's sad expression.

"...I will be completely honest with you...Your condition is worsening each day and there is a high chance that you will-" Kazuki took a few deep breaths before explaining everything and when he was almost done, he was interrupted by Asao.

"die very soon?" Asao completed his sentence and Kazuki looked at him in surprise.

"How do you know? And how can you be so calm?! Aren't you afraid of death?" Kazuki couldn't help but blurt out in confusion after seeing how Asao was calmly sitting without any worries.

'Isn't everyone afraid of death? People are always afraid of the unknown...' Kazuki thought to himself.

"I can feel it. Kazuki already explained to me the concept of fear, however, I was still unable to feel it even after understanding it. Kazuki also explained how people tend to fear unknown which apparently death is, however, how am I supposed to fear unknown if I can't even feel fear?" Asao asked with a confused expression on his face.

'The only thing I have ever felt was that burning sensation when Shiro threw out that little guy...' Asao had a thoughtful expression.

He looked at Kazuki who had a complicated expression when he heard his words but he still decided to ask him because he was a person who was taking care of him and wasn't mean as Shiro.

"Kazuki? How do you recognize anger?" Asao asked him especially for anger because they already covered a lot of emotions and feelings except for anger so he was curious if what he felt at that time was anger.

"Huh? Anger? Hmm...When someone feels intense anger, they tend to feel uncomfortable and very hostile. They also have elevated blood pressure and increased adrenaline, they usually feel like they are burning and have to vent out" Kazuki was surprised by his question but he still answered even if he felt slightly confused.

'So it was indeed anger...Do I hate Shiro?' Asao thought about how Shiro was treating him and even those around him.

'...Yes, I hate him' Shortly after that, he arrived at his answer, however, he was still feeling slightly complicated about it. But it was an undeniable fact that whenever he thought of Shiro, he felt that uncomfortable and hostile burning sensation once again.

"Thank you, is there any other reason why Kazuki visited me today?" Even though Asao wanted to play with the puppy, he would rather not in case Shiro comes here.

Kazuki saw that he had no intention to play with the puppy but he respected it because he knew what would happen if Shiro suddenly came here. There was actually something Kazuki was thinking about for a long time and when he learned of Asao's condition he decided to go with his plan no matter what.

"Do you want to go outside?" Kazuki asked him with a serious expression.

"...Outside, I no longer remember how it looks like outside, however, I definitely don't feel like dying inside this room." Asao honestly voiced out his opinion.

"There is a fairly big shaft inside my office leading to the outside of this facility. Maybe you would be able to fit in there, however, there is no going back once you are outside..." Kazuki warned Asao and he just nodded without any care.

"We will have to be careful once we are outside of your room. We might encounter a few other workers before we will reach my office but I should be able to make up an excuse. Are you ready?"

Asao looked around the small room where he spent months and then he turned at Kazuki and nodded with a determination in his eyes.

'I know that by doing this, my sins won't disappear but at least he won't die in this shitty place.' Kazuki was already ready to face the consequences of this betrayal or his sins. The only thing he hoped for is that his family won't suffer because of him, that's all he wanted.

They easily reached Kazuki's office even though a few people saw them on the way, they never cared about them since both Kazuki and Asao walked slowly and calmly. Who would have even thought that they are actually planning to escape?

"Here we are..." Kazuki mumbled when he opened the shaft.

He looked at Asao with a guilty and sad expression.

"I am sorry for everything I have done. I don't expect any forgiveness, no, I don't even want the forgiveness. I will have to eventually face the consequences of my sins anyway. I just hope you will like the outside world" 'even though it will be only for a while...' Kazuki thought right after saying everything he wanted and pulled Asao to a hug.

Asao was confused by this but he still returned the hug by patting Kazuki's back with his usual blank expression.

"Also, here is the map, this facility is located deep inside the forest so it might take you a while to reach the city. Also here you have some money." Kazuki gave him a small map and also quite a big stack of paper money. But he knew that map and money will be useless for him because there is a small chance for him to reach the city without encountering wolves or other dangerous animals. And even if he never encountered them, he would have died because of his condition before reaching the city. However, he couldn't bring himself to say this, even if he wanted.

"I don't need this" Asao shoved the stack of money back into Kazuki's hand.

Kazuki looked at him with a confused expression.

"I feel that I don't have much time left so I won't find any use for it." Asao explained, leaving Kazuki with a shocked expression.

Asao took a last glance at the puppy and slightly smiled before turning back to Kazuki.

"Thank you" Asao bowed to him and then he left Kazuki's office through the shaft.

Kazuki remained standing there, looking at the open shaft with an absent-minded expression for some time before he recovered and closed the shaft.

...

When Asao got outside he was fascinated by the amount of green he saw around himself. Trees, leaves, grass, butterflies...he was observing everything with a curious expression.

He even started to feel slight excitement even though there wasn't much time remaining for him.

He was walking around for an entire hour without even looking at the map.

*COUGH!* *COUGH!" He started to violently coughing up blood and he had to stop in his tracks.

His body was starting to feel extremely weak and he felt like he had no strength to even raise his arm. He lied down on the ground and started to slowly move his head to observe his surroundings.

'Nothing but trees, huh?' He even had a slight desire to chuckle at the sight, however, he held it in because he would only cough up more blood.

Everything was too blurry for him and before he realized it, he appeared in the same place when he dreamed.

He looked and focused his sight at the monument, he forced himself to sit up in cross-legged position as mentioned on the monument and closed his eyes.

This time, he tried it just for fun because he would die very soon anyway.

The pain he felt and loss of blood made his breathing very unstable and one time it was extremely fast and another time it was extremely slow. He was sitting there for 5 minutes and when he was slowly losing his consciousness, he finally heard creaking sound.

He forced himself to open his eyes and even though his vision was blurred, he was sure that a small gap appeared between those doors. He tried to reach it but all he was able to do was extend his hand towards it.

It didn't take long before he finally stopped breathing. When his heart stopped beating, those slightly opened doors slammed shut once again.