The perimeter of the Dome was separated from each section of the stands by a single fire escape door. Near one such door, on a bench next to a gently curving window that commanded a wide view of Osaka Bay, sat Koume Moroboshi. Her back was turned away from the venue where her brother Yuudai fought.
You don’t have to do this anymore, Yuu.
She just wanted him to stop. If he was doing it all for her, then there was no longer any point. He had never told her that he was fighting to get her to speak again, but she’d never needed his direct confirmation. That made it all the more painful, all the more difficult for her to watch. She couldn’t stand to watch as her brother shed blood because of her, so she ran away.
“You’re not going to watch the match?”
The one who spoke to her was Shizuku, who had followed her from the stands. In her surprise, Koume whirled around to face the person who’d asked her the question. Her eyes stopped on the girl of almost exactly the same height as her, who she remembered was the sister of her brother’s opponent.
Oh, she was at the restaurant yesterday. I think…
Why would she have left the stands? Her brother was only moments away from seizing victory over Koume’s own. Shizuku seemed to read Koume’s mind through her puzzled expression, as she smiled a bit worriedly and explained why she came.
“I just couldn’t let you go. As a girl who also has a big brother, I kind of know a lot about how you feel.”
“…!”
Koume’s eyes went wide with confusion as she stared at Shizuku.
“Kiriko told us why your brother revived his career,” Shizuku said as she sat down next to Koume, who seemed to accept her explanation. It only made sense that Kiriko knew all about the Moroboshi siblings. “I understand just how you feel, because I also love my brother very much. Seeing him hurt, seeing him shed blood, it’s all so difficult. And if it was all for me, I’d feel like my heart was breaking all the time.”
“…”
Shizuku’s words described Koume’s frame of mind aptly. With no reason to hide anything given how much Shizuku already knew, Koume nodded slightly in her silence.
“You’d probably think that if this is all for you, then he should just stop.”
Another nod.
“It’s so hard to be a burden on the man you love.”
Yet another nod…
“…?!”
…before realizing that her new friend had said something insane. Koume’s face turned a deep red as she shook her head vigorously in refutation. She and her brother were nothing like that.
“Oh, no? You don’t love him like that? I see…”
Why is she so disappointed?
Koume was a little perplexed by her unusual form of love.
“Well, even if your relationship is different, it must still be uncomfortable to watch and cheer for your own brother like it’s not your business that he’s fighting to help you speak again.”
“…”
Shizuku’s slow, almost soothing speech seemed to put Koume’s innermost feelings on display. Indeed, even she wanted to support her brother. And she did, long ago. So long ago that he was in the Little League at the time. She always sat in the front row, screaming as hard as her little vocal cords would let her. Her brother was so much stronger and cooler than anyone else. She loved supporting him—it was fun. But things had changed.
After the accident, nothing was the same. Moroboshi began fighting only to get her to speak again, as if it was his duty as an older brother. How could she support him in that? No matter how much time had passed, she would never be worthy of supporting someone who sacrificed so much of himself for her.
The question of how long she planned to lean on her brother nagged at her endlessly. Thus, ever since the accident, she had never been able to give her brother her heartfelt support. It had even gone so far as to culminate in her turning tail and fleeing from the arena.
She knows all of that.
It was somewhat embarrassing for Koume, but she felt a measure of kindness in Shizuku, who understood her so well and spoke in such a soothing way to her. She took out her cell phone and tried to type a “thank you” to Shizuku, but Shizuku spoke once more before she could.
“But who cares? There’s no point in you worrying about that.”
“…?!”
Koume stopped cold, so shocked by those words that she turned her attention back to Shizuku’s face. That girl had just revealed the inner workings of her mind and torn it all apart. Of course, Shizuku also had her reasons for saying such a thing.
“Who cares, you know? No matter how much you—no, no matter how much we rely on them, that’s what we’re supposed to do. We’re their little sisters, and they’re our big brothers.”
“…!”
A big brother protected his younger siblings, and younger siblings depended on their big brother. That didn’t only apply to humans, either; it was a convention followed by many living things. If others could do it, then they had that right as well.
“Even if nobody else will be nice to you, your big brother is the one rock that you can always rely on. That’s why I keep relying on mine, and why I will never stop loving him. Even if he loves someone else, and even if it bothers him that I love him, I can’t let myself stop. Compared to how selfish I am, your selfish desire to cheer your brother on—well, even if you can’t literally cheer him on—is microscopic.”
That was the reason behind not just Shizuku’s words, but also her coming to find Koume. She couldn’t bear to watch as the girl was crushed under the weight of her guilt just because she didn’t believe she could rely on her brother. She’d said everything she wanted to say, and just as she finished saying it, there was a great clamor in the venue behind them.
“Kurogane’s just turned up the heat again! Faster, faster, he keeps on carving off more and more of Moroboshi’s magic guard! It’s only a matter of time before he breaks through!”
“Looks like the battle’s about to end. I should get back in there,” Shizuku said, standing up from the bench. “What are you going to do? Or rather, what do you want to do?”
“…”
The question again perplexed Koume. It wasn’t that she didn’t understand what Shizuku had told her, but after getting her brother into an accident and making him worry by not talking, could she really continue to rely on him? She couldn’t so readily abandon such a long-held doubt, so she merely sat on that bench, unsure of what to do.
“And there it is! Moroboshi’s magical guard has finally worn off! He’s truly backed into a corner now!”
Yuu!
Despite her fear, despite her worries, she chose to see her brother, and let her legs carry her to him.