Or so she was trying to convince herself, at least.
“I can’t exactly be grateful for their decision, considering the tragedy that befell the Speed Clan. I can’t be happy about what happened.”
The Sword of Courage were the ones who massacred the Speed Clan, but I still haven’t told Eve that I killed them. Eve Speed is moving on with her life, looking ahead. She’s not like me. That’s why I’m not telling her.
“Heh heh,” Eve chuckled. “Maybe you and Geo are a bit similar.”
“I’m like him?”
“Surprisingly considerate,” said Eve.
I snorted at that. “You aren’t getting anything for complimenting me.”
Eve burst out laughing.
“What?”
“Geo said the same thing.”
“What?”
Eve grinned at me. “When I told him he was a thoughtful guy—Geo said the exact same thing.”
Before we departed, I managed to have Eve meet with the people she really needed to see. I also asked Lokiella what she thought of the Anti-Vicius magical device that Eve had brought us.
“Hmm… I can’t really say what this thing will do before we actually use it,” Lokiella had said when she saw the device. “There’s no testing it either, so we’ve only got one chance. What I can tell is that this device is terrifyingly complex. It’d take more than just a few years to thread circuits like these… I mean, just pulling this off is a feat in and of itself. Hm? You want to know if it might affect me? Well, right now I can barely use any of my old divine abilities, anyway. My mind is all I have left, so I don’t think it would pose much of a problem to me? Probably not, anyway…”
Eve seemed very interested in Lokiella when the two met.
“Hmph. O this is a divine.”
“I’m not usually this small.” Lokiella had shrugged.
Come to think of it, Eve has never seen Vicius before, has she?
Now, with all our preparations for departure completed…
“These are more or less the original members of the Lord of the Flies Brigade, right? Been a while since we were all in one place.”
Our lineup back then was me, Piggymaru, Seras, Eve, Lis, and Slei. Lis is here in the form of a familiar, hence the “more or less.”
We were all standing in a circle together.
“I hope we can all get together again once this battle is over—with you joining us in person, Lis,” said Seras.
“Yeah,” I answered.
“Squee!”
“Pakyuh!”
Being with this crew lets me like I feel like I can really relax. Seras is kind of similar to my foster mother. Eve is kind of similar to my foster father. Lis is kind of like the way I used to be. I guess that’s a part of it…but that’s not all. Even setting all of that stuff aside, Piggymaru, Seras, Eve, Lis, and Slei are…
“Too-ka.”
Eve put her fist out into the middle of our circle.
“Itsuki taught me this when we were at Erika’s. Before an important fight, you’re supposed to put your fists into the middle of the circle like this to get everyone working together, right?”
…How did Itsuki get to talking about that with Eve, I wonder.
“Well, sure… Since we’re here, I guess.”
I put my fist into the middle of the circle, my hand touching Eve’s. Seras’s eyes relaxed, and her soft lips eased into a smile. She put her fist out into the circle too, just as Eve and I had. Lis’s familiar perched on top of Eve’s hand, placing one tip of its wing on the leopardman’s fist. Piggymaru, who was around my neck, slithered up my arm and made a little fist shape at the tip of one of its tentacles. It moved its semi-transparent fist over to line up next to mine. Then everyone crouched down a little and Slei stood up on her hind legs to rest one of her hooves beside Seras’s fist.
“…?”
Everyone’s looking at me. Are they waiting for me to say something? That’s not really my style…
I looked down at the fists in the middle of our circle.
“I’m grateful to all of you for coming this far with me. Truly, from the bottom of my heart.”
Mimori Touka came from bad blood and awful parents—a scumbag born of scumbags. In the old world, my foster parents brought me back from the edge so I never became like them. It turns out I needed that bad blood in this world. But the reason that evil hasn’t swallowed me up in this world… That’s not just down to my foster parents anymore.
It’s because I have them.
I looked up.
“Thank you.”
Seras looked taken aback—like something had taken her completely by surprise. The reaction lasted only for a moment, though. Her smile deepened.
“Sir Too-ka… Everybody here feels the same gratitude toward you.”
Lis’s familiar nodded its head.
“Heh heh… We wouldn’t have come this far if we didn’t,” said Eve.
“Squee!”
“Pakyuuhn!” cried Slei in agreement.
“Sir Too-ka,” said Seras, looking straight at me. “This battle… Let us win it, no matter what. Let’s all meet again, just like this, at Erika’s place. S-so… All of us, we…”
For some reason, Seras’s face was flushed red, all the way up to her ears—though she looked deadly serious about what she was saying.
“Let’s all go and…”
Seras stood resolute, raising her voice in determination…
“D-defeat her! D-defeat that foul Goddess…!”
It was my turn to be shocked. My eyes went wide as I stared curiously at her rare and completely natural reaction. A passing soldier turned to look at us in confusion.
It’s like…at the end there, Seras just sort of sounded pissed off. Well… I guess she was trying her best to raise our spirits.
As for Seras, she had her hands already covering her mouth after the outburst. “Ah…s-sorry… Ahem… That wasn’t very knightly of me… I may have been somewhat ill-mannered in my ch-choice of words…”
“…Pfft.” I couldn’t help but laugh. “That’s the spirit, Seras Ashrain.” I stood up straight.
“Ah…”
There was just a hint of a tear in the corner of Seras’s eye, her face still flushed and hot—but she slowly started to smile, opening up like a flower in bloom.