Tamaki had just leveled up, having hunted down numerous Shadows.
“I took down two myself!” she told us excitedly. “I threw knives at them from where they couldn’t see me.”
Shiki puffed out her chest with a bit of pride, but her eyes seemed troubled, wavering as if she was in pain.
“What happened, Shiki?”
“Nothing.”
We locked eyes.
Perhaps it was something I didn’t need to ask about. I might have been meddling too much.
Yet, I wanted to understand what was weighing on her. If she was going through a tough time, I wanted to at least give her a chance to express it.
Thankfully, she was the first to break the silence. She gave a minute shrug of her shoulders and forced a wry smile. “You’re an idiot.”
“Yeah, I’m quite the fool, aren’t I? So, what happened?”
“My mom, grandma, and grandpa were crushed under the rubble. It doesn’t seem like there’s any way they could have survived.”
Everyone gasped.
“I heard someone talking on a walkie-talkie on the next street,” Shiki went on. “It was one of Mr. Wan’s friends.”
“You heard… from the next street?”
“My Reconnaissance skill is high, so I can hear voices from quite a distance. I guess they were going to wait to tell me. They were trying to be considerate… which is unfortunate.” Shiki crossed her arms over her chest and lifted the corners of her lips in a sarcastic smile.
Ah, this is that thing, I realized. When she’s hurting, when she’s sad, when she wants to scream and cry, she puts on a brave front like this.
“Just so you know, I don’t need your sympathy or comfort,” she told us. “I don’t regret being the first to head to my house after coming back here. I won’t give you the satisfaction of regret.”
“Always putting on a brave front, then.”
“Of course. I love to pretend I’m stronger than I am. Unless, Kazu-kun, as the leader, you’re going to take responsibility and bring my mom and grandparents back to life…” She trailed off, her expression suddenly freezing as she realized what she had said. “Sorry, forget I said that.”
She looked away from me, biting her lip, her face on the verge of tears.
✦ ✦ ✦
It was an unusual slip for her. To this day, I didn’t believe for a moment that Shiki harbored any resentment toward me. It was just a slip of the tongue, an expression of her emotions boiling over, and I’d long since understood that.
“I do feel for you,” I assured her. “But let me say this, Shiki-san. We have to win the battle in front of us, no matter the cost, no matter how many sacrifices we have to make. Maybe your family died because of that strike we allowed the Ghost King to unleash, which was reckless of us… But even so, I don’t regret letting that happen. It was necessary for victory.”
“Yeah, that’s true. If anyone complains about the decisions you make on the battlefield, let me know. I’ll go out and slap them myself. Your decisions in battle are always right. So, if there’s a next time, when a similar situation arises… don’t hesitate.”
We looked at each other again, nodding simultaneously.
In a way, it was a standoff of pride between two of a kind. But in that moment, what we both needed to do was to keep putting on that brave front, without yielding. Because otherwise, we couldn’t remain leaders. We couldn’t continue to bear the responsibility of sending people to their deaths.
If it had been just one of us, we would have been crushed by the pressure long ago.
So, surely, there was meaning in the two of us being together.
There was meaning in our continued standoff of pride.
“I can almost say I have no more regrets left on Earth. I feel bad for my dad who survived, though.” Shiki clapped her hands together. “Well then, let’s begin the meeting. Share all the information you got from Mr. Wan; don’t hold anything back.”
Following that, we discussed the whereabouts of Diasnexus and our strategies moving forward. Shiki also seemed to agree with the notion that Diasnexus was acting to disrupt the barrier being deployed over Tokyo Bay, intending to aid the Demon King.
Hmm, but that scenario presents a few different problems…
“There might be a traitor within Mr. Wan’s organization, or somewhere our information is being leaked.”
“Isn’t it possible that they’re gathering information through magic, Rushia?”
Apart from her, there was hardly anyone who had information about the magic of the other world. However, she only shook her head and said, “I know absolutely nothing about the Ghost King’s magic.”
“For now, we might have to leave it to Wan,” I decided. “Let’s focus on defeating the Shadows while we can and accumulate as much experience as possible.”
“Talking about grinding experience points at a time like this…”
“But this White Room is the most convenient place for meetings, isn’t it?” Shiki said with a chuckle.
Well, she’s not wrong!