“Because you don’t actually know whether you have enough power inside you to save the world.”
✦ ✦ ✦
Boom!! An explosion of light flew.
Sharp nails had extended from Fiamma’s Third Arm, launching an enormous attack at Kamijou.
But his adversary was not reduced to rubble.
Instead, Touma Kamijou held the tempest of light in check with his right palm stretched before him, then twisted his wrist to force it diagonally behind him.
He was unharmed.
As if to say this was the suitable result for the power that would kill all illusions.
Because of that, his words wouldn’t stop.
When he thought about it, this was only natural.
It was extremely, utterly natural that Fiamma of the Right couldn’t obtain that sort of conviction.
After all—
“The world hasn’t ended or anything,” Kamijou continued. “I don’t know what it was like a long time ago in the age of legend, but in this era, at least, I’ve never heard of any world-ending events like the ones in myths.”
Words to carve a path to the impenetrable fortress that was Fiamma—words to find a way in.
“And if the world didn’t have a crisis that could end it, you’d never be blessed with a chance to show you had enough power to save it. Just like how my Imagine Breaker looks like it has no power unless I’m surrounded by espers and sorcerers.”
In other words, the reason Fiamma of the Right had prepared every measure, the reason he had executed such a grandiose plan, was a very, very simple one.
✦ ✦ ✦
“If you’ve never saved the world at least once before, how would anyone ever know if you actually had the strength to do it?”
✦ ✦ ✦
“…”
Fiamma of the Right was silent for a moment.
Eventually, his shoulders trembled.
The man who controlled Red, Right, Flame, and Michael gave a low chuckle.
“…So what?”
The words fell out of him.
Something like a strange, deep-seated grudge leaked from the mouth of the man who had incited worldwide strife and controlled it all completely.
“It’s not only me. Nobody living on this planet has ever experienced destruction on a legendary scale due to the simple fact that they’re still alive. And do you have the right to criticize me for that? Are you saying you’ve felt power enough to save the world?”
“Of course I have.”
But the answer Fiamma received in turn toppled his expectations.
Touma Kamijou even made this assertion without a second’s pause, too.
“We humans living on Earth aren’t anything special. If you looked down at the planet from a satellite or something, we’d probably all look like insignificant ants. But I’ve saved them. Call it insignificant or whatever, but I’ve seen the moment people have saved the world for a single person.”
Yes.
Kamijou had been wrapped up in incident after incident in the past. He didn’t want to see those he knew spattered with blood in front of him, so he’d always desperately gripped his fist. He was carried off to hospitals all the time, and now even his right arm had been cut off—and his memories? They’d broken off at one point, and beyond that instant, he couldn’t remember anything.
So maybe what he’d been able to obtain really was trivial. He did sometimes feel like the result wasn’t worth the effort. Simply put, if he’d been stronger, he’d have been smarter about how he went about resolving things. If he’d been wiser, maybe he could have gained much more.
But.
It was for that very reason that he truly felt as though he’d gained something important.
He knew that the things he’d so desperately grasped in his clumsy hands were definitely not worthless.
If Fiamma had been less concerned with the greater machinations of the “world” and simply helped those in front of him, he never would have had to fear how much power was needed to save the world. Even without a grand master plan, or a huge temple, or special traits, or a strange right arm, he wouldn’t have questioned it.
But Fiamma hadn’t done that.
And that was why he couldn’t see it.
Ever.
“Nobody who says they’re gonna save the world can protect it.”
It was so obvious.
If Kamijou had been acting under the same impression, he’d have lost everything, too.
Under the golden firmament…
To a lonely man who had never gained anything and had never even reached out, Touma Kamijou quietly said:
✦ ✦ ✦
“Our world isn’t so weak it needs someone like that to save it.”