Els moaned and spoke haltingly. “L...” he struggled to say. “Light...”
“Els? Big brother?!” I yelled. “Are you really back to your old self now?!”
My brother had been turned into a monster by Doc, but here he was uttering my name. After twenty-seven long hours of fighting, we had finally defeated Doc using a combination of our usual weapons mixed with a bunch of Hellfire cards. But because Els had been embedded in Doc’s golem, the Hellfire had also burned him quite badly, and I used an SSSR Overheal card to restore him so that he was good as new again. It was at this point that my brother started acting less like a monster and more like a human, though I didn’t know whether this had been caused by the Overheal card, the pain induced by the Hellfire cards, or some other kind of miracle. Even Doc seemed unable to believe his eyes, although it was hard to tell with his mask on. As for me, I ran up to my brother and hugged him for the first time in over three years, hot tears streaming down my cheeks.
“Brother!”
“Li...” Els repeated, holding his head. “L-Light...” All of a sudden, my brother roared with animalistic fury and raised his fists to pound me, suggesting the monster was in charge of his psyche once more.
“Master Light!” Mei yelled.
“Rroww!” Aoyuki cried out.
“Mei! Aoyuki! Stay where you are!” I shouted. “This is a direct order!” I knew my two lieutenants were about to come running and position themselves between me and my brother to protect me from him, but I wouldn’t allow that. I was perfectly willing to let myself be attacked by my brother without laying a finger on him. Come what may, I would focus solely on defense.
Els continued to roar and whale on me with arms the size of tree trunks and using his full strength. Just one of these blows would have instantly crushed a normal human, but since I was Level 9999, none of the hits inflicted any damage.
“You carried Yume away from danger, remember?” I said, ignoring the blows. “She’s fine now. She’s somewhere safe. Mom, dad, and everyone else in the village died, but...” I paused at the thought of this horrible memory. “But this time, things’ll be different! I won’t let anything bad happen to anyone ever again! I’ll protect you, Yume, and everyone else! So please, come and live with us!”
Els stopped hitting me, clasped his head again, and grunted. “L-Light...” he whispered. “Light...”
I reached out and touched his hand. It wasn’t the hand I knew from before, because its skin was as hard and cold as steel, but I knew the blood pulsing away under that skin also ran through me. This was my brother’s hand. When I touched him, the crazed glint in his pupils faded away, and standing face-to-face, we locked eyes. This moment brought back a memory of when we were both still on our family farm.
The sun had started setting because I’d spent too long playing outside and totally forgotten that I was supposed to go back home. I was still very young at the time—so young, in fact, Yume hadn’t even been born yet—and when my brother came to get me, he took my hand and led me down the road toward our home, the two of us bathed in the fading orange light. I remember being scared our parents would get mad and no longer like me because I’d broken my promise not to stay out too late. I was ready to apologize profusely to my parents and beg them not to hate me. Els—who was a head taller than me back then—had gripped my hand tightly to reassure me.
“Mom and dad only get angry because they worry about you,” Els had said gently. “Our parents will never hate you, and neither will I, Light.”
“You mean it?” I’d replied. “You, mom, and dad will never hate me? Not ever?”
At this point, he’d turned to me with the sun setting behind him. “Of course not. I’ll never stop loving you. No matter what happens, I’ll always be with you.”
Hearing those words back then had cheered me up completely. Knowing that my brother would always be with me had brought forth tears of joy.
“We’ll always be together,” he’d repeated.
I’d all but forgotten about that memory since it had happened so long ago.
“Light...” Even though he’d been turned into a monster, my brother had the same smile on his face as he had done that evening, and the familiar sight had jogged my memory. His smile was still as warm and gentle as I recalled it.
“Light, you’ve...” Els whispered, struggling with each word. “You’ve grown. So big...”
My brother’s smile broadened even more as we let go of each other’s hands, and this time, Els brushed his giant palm lovingly against my cheek. Then, before I could stop him, he used that same hand to reach into his chest and gouge out his heart before crushing it before my very eyes, getting some of his still-warm blood on me in the process.
“Brother...” I whispered.
“Light...” Els murmured. “Yume...” He finally collapsed and breathed his last. “Thank you...”
Why had my brother just ripped out his own heart?
“Big brother...” I breathed in utter disbelief. Rationally, I knew exactly why Els had killed himself: he didn’t want his monster side to take over his mind and make him attack his own flesh and blood again. But emotionally, my mind refused to register what had just happened.
I knelt down and held up my brother’s head, his face smiling with relief despite the unimaginable pain he must have endured at the end. It was if he was proud that he’d sacrificed his life to protect the ones he loved.
“You were always like this...” I murmured. “You always put me and Yume first, and yourself last.”