Chapter 103

[Intermission 5] —And So I Head Off-World— “What’s wrong, Belial? Don’t suddenly start crying like that—you scared me for a minute there! Did you remember something important?” As my vision blurs from the tears, I see Lilith panicking. I slowly sit up and look around. I can see that I’m in Lilith’s lab. “No, it’s not that I remembered…” It feels like I’ve been in a very long dream. Astaroth created the Kisaragi Corporation, then he and Lilith joined up. There was a lot that didn’t go right at first, but the corporation started to grow. Of course, we made a lot of enemies in the process, but we made a lot more allies in the process. I thought things would keep going well. As he and Astaroth went from constantly fighting to getting closer, I found myself torn between being happy and being sad. Astaroth is my best friend, so I was happy she was getting to like him. He’s also a dear friend, so it was hard to watch him getting closer to Astaroth. I hated the fact that I was so weak that I had to lie to myself, afraid to damage our current, comfortable friendship, despite the fact that I knew full well why I felt such pain in my chest. Still, it was so fun to be with everyone that I wanted things to keep going that way forever. Things would probably have stayed that way if he hadn’t been seriously injured fighting the superheroes. When I saw him sleeping after receiving enhancement surgery, I made the decision to undergo surgery as well. “Hey, Belial, we can stop if it’s painful. There’s no need to force yourself to remember.” I want the power to protect everyone. I want to be someone with the exact opposite personality, someone strong, someone everyone can depend on. Lilith explained to me that the more of my brain I dedicated to my abilities, the stronger my abilities would become. And so, after Lilith set the dial to the very limit of what was safe, I turned the dial myself and— “Oh.” “…? What is it? Are your memories okay?” ……Have I become a strong person? I know I have the greatest power of anyone in Kisaragi when it comes to fighting, but I don’t think my heart is all that strong yet. I’m going to go see him again. And if I feel like I’ve really become strong, then— “Hey, what do you mean ‘oh’?! Hey, Belial, don’t ignore me!”