Kei focused on his breathing, and for the moment he was thankful whatever this was had yet to reach his right lung because it was definitely doing all of the breathing for him at the moment. The dark haired man was scared. He had made those promises to Niall, but truthfully, he had no idea what to do. He didn’t know the origin of whatever had infected him, and more than anything there was a sudden deep seeded fear that he was going to have to abandon Niall. The boy had been so emotional over the idea of Keisuke dying and leaving him, there was no way he would leave this world without kicking and screaming. Clenching his fist he remembered back to three weeks ago, when he had promised to protect Niall. Kei would protect Niall, even if this body ended up withering he would still ensure his safety from his spot in the underworld, use any means necessary, he would not go back on that promise.
The man had been so lost in his own thought that the sudden force of Niall pushing him had the man barely catching himself before his bare chest connected with the grass. Instead, left hand slid through the blades, leaving a path of decay as he slide. But Kei realized what was going on before Niall said anything. He could feel it in his fingers, the energy from the grass combating the disease, and he understood immediately the cure for his illness. The feeling in the pit of his stomach felt as though he had swallowed several iron balls, it was heavy and metallic and his head shot up to make frantic eye contact with the silver haired boy.
His emotions were evolving and devolving at rapid speeds, the initial shock melted quickly away into horror, which morphed into disgust, and then dissolved into anger. The anger didn’t last though, it quickly fell into a heavy sadness that in turn crumpled into despair. His head dropped into his hands as his mind reeled. Kei, no Thanatos, had spent millenniums devoting himself to only committing to the absolute minimum soul taking, only bringing death to those who had reached their destined end. But now, in order to continue to live in one measly vessel, he would be killing creatures that deserved a full life. His heart rate began to race, his fingers digging into his scalp, his only working lung was straining under the toll of moving oxygen into his bloodstream and he could feel he was on the urge of hyperventilating.
Before it got that far he paused. He had promised Niall to live, to stay with him, to protect him, and he had decided he would do that. Even if it meant throwing away everything he stood for, his morals, his ethics, his beliefs, who he was. He had made that decision, and he wasn’t about to go back on it now that he had to follow through. Kei’s hands dropped into his lap and he resigned himself to his new reality.
When he looked up at Niall, for the first time in his existence his expression felt as flat as his eyes, and he gave the boy an empty smile. “You’re right.”
He pushed himself to his feet with shaky feet, stumbling forward just slightly. Everything hurt and he scanned the area with heavy eyes before picking a close and tall looking tree as his target. He moved towards it with sluggish movements, each step taken with his left leg sent tendrils of pain through his spine and Kei realized the disease was creeping down his leg. The tree hadn’t been more than ten paces, but he was panting when he reached it, his left hand extended as his palm connected with the bark. He felt the energy rush through him as the grand tree shriveled under his touch, and he wanted to cry, but made sure to keep his expression blank. The tree served to rid him of the discoloring up to his elbow, and just as he was about to move on to the next a soft huff caught his attention.
He turned just in time to see a large brown bear and happened to wander into the clearing with them, it seemed just as surprised to see them as Kei was that it had appeared. There was just a brief moment where time froze, Kei and the bear both sizing up the situation. Niall was closer to the bear, and that realization is when Kei felt the adrenaline flood his system. The bear seemed startled when he charged forward, the pain of his leg seemingly forgotten as he ran to put himself between the bear and Niall, stopping only a split second once he had put himself between them to glance back at the silver haired boy before ramming his body into the beast.
The creature had been rearing up when Kei hit it, and the moment he did he felt its life drain as the taughtness in its muscles went limb. He pushed its weight to the side, falling to his knees with the creature. He had felt it when he hit he bear, it had such a long life ahead of it that Kei had robbed her of. He felt the time that it would not live, and looked down at his body, all the bruising gone, but at what cost? To be with Niall, Kei was abandoning himself, so in that moment he took the time to be who he was before discarding that person entirely.
The man dug his fingers into the fur of the bear, lowering his head so it too was buried in the pelt and he felt his body shudder as be cried. He was doing this for Niall, he told himself, and muttered a mantra to himself over and over again until it finally sunk in. “I will protect you, I will stay with you, I will live for you.”