Her patented hand blades sent shockwaves after him. Vritra’s head went crashing into the floor, shaking the building.
“……Master, Selen……go.”
Lloyd and Selen glanced at each other, nodding.
“Let’s go, Selen!”
“Yes! Take me away, Sir Lloyd!”
Lloyd picked her up and ran up Vritra’s back toward the snake’s head.
Selen was being princess-carried by the man she loved. That would normally go right to her head and have her blushing up to her ears.
“Vritra…”
But despite the allure of the moment, she stayed on task. Feelings for Vritra? She tightened the belt on her hips, and she stared down at the writhing snake’s face.
“Gahh!”
Feeling them on its back, Vritra tried to flip over, but…
“Ready, Selen?”
“Of course, Sir Lloyd!”
Lloyd used the momentum of the writhing torso to jump and fling Selen through the air.
Their teamwork paid off, and Selen landed neatly on top of Vritra’s head.
“Extend, cursed belt!”
Vritra was flailing on instinct, not heeding a word they said.
But Selen did not give up, piling on the words.
“I’ve figured it out! The cursed belt bears your power—so why is it that I can control it at will?!”
“……Like when you fought me?” Phyllo muttered.
At that point in time, the belt’s defenses had been entirely automatic. But during their battle, Selen had gained the ability to manipulate it herself.
“It was due to the fruits of my training and romantic awakening, but I’ve recently realized it was not just those factors!”
“Gahhhh!”
None of this was getting through to Vritra. He was still thrashing, and Selen lowered her center of gravity, holding on for dear life.
“Namely! You and I were in similar predicaments! Our common ground allowed me to take control! Specifically, you and your daughter are just like me and my father!”
At the word “daughter,” there was a faint hiccup in Vritra’s struggles.
“Because of the belt’s curse, I spent years cooped up in my room. Rinko told me your daughter was equally lonely, trapped in a bed with her illness!”
Slowly…very slowly… Vritra’s rampage was losing steam. Everyone was shouting, “It’s working!”
“You buried yourself in your work and weren’t there for her when she needed you, and you feel guilty about that. Things also grew strained between myself and my father.”
“When I first met you and Robin, you looked likely to cut off his hand if he touched you,” Threonine said. He’d been acutely conscious of how tense things had been between Selen and her father, Robin.
“My father grew distant, but the whole time he was trying to free me from the belt. He was never physically strong, but he trained hard, trying to gain the power to remove the belt with his own hands. Your relationship with your daughter may have been strained, but you never stopped trying to save her, right?”
Selen grit her teeth, riding the bucking snake.
“You’re in pain now because of your daughter, and that guilt! But I was in her place, and I can say this for sure— What guilt?! You’re a stupid father!”
“Gahhh?!”
“You were working yourself to the bone for her! How could any daughter hold that against you?! Deep down, we both want things to return to how they used to be, but just don’t know how! I say so, so it must be true!”
Selen punctuated her speech by stomping on Vritra’s head. Like a toddler throwing a tantrum in front of their father.
“Actually! I should be the one going on and on about how grateful I am! Point is! Don’t make your stupid guilt an excuse to turn into a giant snake and go berserk!”
Selen’s speech came from the soul and overlapped with her own feelings toward Robin Hemein.
The intensity of it affected not just Vritra, but everyone around. They were all rushing in, saying their own piece.
“I’m grateful for my surrogate sister Rol,” Riho said. “She got herself brainwashed, and spent a while being the villain, but that’s water under the bridge now. Any baggage you got will vanish in a jiff if you just talk it out a few times. Don’t let that shit stop you.”
“My father may be called the Dumb Dandy, but he was working overtime for us and our mother the whole time,” Mena shouted. “I’m still too ashamed to tell him, but I know us kids are grateful!”
“……Yeah,” Phyllo added. “I might kick his ass sometimes, but that’s us being affectionate.”
“I’m a hopeless trainwreck!” Allan roared. “But my father hasn’t given up on me. He’s constantly trying to figure out a better future for me, and I’m grateful for that! You got no need to feel guilty, Vritra!”
“My mother’s something else!” Marie cried. “But I remember knowing she loved me. Kids remember more than you think! Your love got through to her, Vritra!”
“I never had a father,” Lloyd said, his hand on the snake’s belly. “But Grandpa Pyrid raised me, and I’ll never forget that. I’m grateful to him, Shouma, Chief Alka—and you, Vritra. How many times have you encouraged me to have faith in myself? It’s time I return the favor. Vritra! You’re a good father! Believe in yourself!”
Lloyd was often pretty bad at this last thing, so for those words to leave his lips—
Well, Vritra had often been frustrated with Lloyd’s refusal to believe his own strength. And this made him realize that he was making the same mistake. At last, his rampage stopped.
“Vritra?! Whoa!”
The snake’s body was steadily shrinking back to Jin Ishikura’s human form.
“That’s right. I’ve always told people to believe in themselves. You’re right. I should be proud of what I did do, as a father. Otherwise, I’m turning my back on my daughter and who I used to be.”
When he was fully back in his human form—he collapsed to the ground.
They ran up to him, peering at his face. He was utterly worn out, but his eyes were still open. He apologized, his voice raspy. He was conscientious like that.
“Sorry about the rampage, Selen. I’ll apologize in writing on a later date.”
“Before you do that, say a word to your daughter. Doesn’t matter what— She’s waiting to hear from you.”
Vritra smiled.
“I will. Not in writing, but with my own voice.”
“Excellent. Then go on, and rest, Vritra.”
And thus, Selen’s speech brought Vritra’s rampage to an end. But even as their fight wound down—well, they had no way of knowing what was going on elsewhere.