“What?”
“...If the person who killed your parents and cut off your arm was taking part in this battle, would you want to kill them?”
“That again? What do you know that I don’t?”
“Just answer.” Yukihime looked very serious.
“...If I had to, then I would. For example, if Towa was in danger, I wouldn’t hesitate for a second.”
“What if you didn’t have to?”
“...I don’t know. The old me wouldn’t have hesitated. It was basically my whole reason for living. But then, when I met you, things changed.” I wanted to say more, but I had trouble putting it into words. Eventually, the rest trickled out. “After I met you, and we started living together, I... I stopped having that dream so much.”
“...The one about your parents?”
“Yeah...”
The dream about my parents being murdered. I still saw it every now and then, but it became less frequent. When I was a kid, I used to see it every night, and it made me afraid to go to sleep. It was all thanks to Yukihime, who had taught me other ways to use my powers aside from just thinking about killing. She showed me another path.
That’s why I...
“Yukihime, I’m really grateful to you.”
Grateful. Yes, I’m grateful.
I still hadn’t defeated her on my own, and until I did that, I wasn’t going to allow myself to feel anything other than gratitude – for example, the pure fondness that Nagisaki felt for her. I had no right to feel such things.
“Knock it off. I don’t need your thanks...”
“Remember what you told me when we first met? That if I didn’t know how to use my power, I should just focus on using it to protect other people?”
Yukihime understood exactly what her duty was. She belonged to the Yukigane House, one of the families that had built Otherworld City and worked to protect us from otherworldly invasions. Yukihime knew that from the moment she was born, it had become her duty to dedicate her life to protecting others.
I didn’t want to have anyone decide anything for me – let alone having something decided from birth. I felt that there were an endless amount of factors capable of influencing a person’s life, like the environment you grew up in and your experiences. My entire life changed over a single night.
I was someone who couldn’t accept his own fate, while Yukihime was someone who had completely embraced her duties. No, it actually seemed like she longed for it. She took pride in her duty, and I was envious of that. She probably never once felt that someone else had decided her life for her.
“I’m happy to see you’ve grown wiser over the years,” Yukihime said.
“Back then, I didn’t understand a thing.”
When we first met, I thought she was an annoying jerk. She acted all high and mighty and lectured me on the most insignificant things. I hated how she’d always go on about the importance of duty and how important one’s birth was. Boy, did she irritate me... Because she had everything I didn’t. Everything I’d lost.
Yukihime said that her duty was her own, but her parents had taught her how to deal with it. I could understand what she meant. Even though I didn’t have an astronomical duty like protecting the world, I had still learned a few things from my own parents.
“Kokuya. Men shouldn’t throw punches over trivial things.” Dad once said that to me after I got into a fistfight with a friend.
“When are we allowed to throw punches, then?”
“When you’re protecting something important to you, I guess.”
“How do I know when that is?”
“For example, what would you do if a bad person attacked Towa?”
“Beat the crap out of ‘em.”
“Ha ha... That sounds a little dangerous, but I guess you’ve got the gist of it.”
Dad’s words still remained in my heart. If Yukihime’s duty was a blessing, then my fate was a curse – a curse of revenge. The only reason I had ever wanted to get strong was to kill people. However, a while after I first met Yukihime, one particular event caused me to start doubting myself.
One day, Towa got kidnapped. Yukihime and I immediately went to go save her. Yukihime nearly lost her life in the process, but she managed to save Towa. Before that, Yukihime had sworn to protect Towa no matter what happened, but I had stubbornly insisted that I would protect her on my own. That incident ended up changing my mindset. I realized that Yukihime was someone I could trust, and took an interest in learning what ‘duty’ really meant to her.
Afterwards, I asked how she could risk her life for duty, or for someone who wasn’t even a family member. I couldn’t understand it at all. Is it simply because she was born into that sort of family? Is that what allows her to go so far?
“But it’s easy. After all, I’m just doing what my mom and dad told me to.”
Yukihime’s parents helped end the Second Otherworld War, but lost their lives in the process. They defeated countless enemies, including leaders of the invading army, and never stopped fighting until they took their last breaths. Entrusted with her own duty to protect, Yukihime respected her parents from the bottom of her heart for having died doing exactly that. All she ever talked about was wanting to become just like them. She wanted to keep getting stronger so that she could fight and save the world.
Since she was the one who had saved my beloved sister, and continued to help me protect her, I aimed to be like Yukihime. So when she said things like that with such conviction, I longed to feel the same way. Then, one day, Yukihime showed me a new path.
It happened when we were still in middle school. We decided to make a bet and fight each other. If Yukihime won, I’d have to help her protect the world, and if I won, I’d get to order Yukihime to do something. I lost, of course.
“Now, fulfill your promise, and help me protect our world.” I could still remember her words when she won. Maybe it’s thanks to those words that I didn’t end up as a vengeful demon. Revenge and duty, killing and protecting... Those two sides were always clashing inside me.
Someday, I’ll find an answer. I’ll catch up to her. I’ll become someone who’s truly fit to walk beside her... and then...
“What’s wrong? You’re turning red,” Yukihime said.
“It’s... nothing.”
“...You sure?”
“Hey, Yukihime...”
“What?”
“I was just thinking, maybe it wouldn’t be so bad if I had to protect the world with you for the rest of my life.” As of now, the promise we made was more important than ever before.
“...Now that’s what I like to hear. Don’t go changing your mind, though.”
“I won’t. We’re going to protect the ones we love, no matter what.”
“Of course we are. Who do you think you’re talking to?”
“Miss Yukihime Yukigane, the strongest star sorcerer in the world, and Headmistress of Star Gate Academy, the organization that guards our world.”
“Looks like you’ve finally learned how to talk like a true servant.”
“Huh? But you’re my servant right now.”
“Excuse me?!”
After the conversation digressed into our usual bickering, Yukihime abruptly spoke up. “Mind if I change the subject?”
“What is it?”
“What’s your favorite color, Kokuya?”
“My favorite color? Uhh... silver?”
“...S-silver?” Yukihime paled for some reason.
“Uhh, I guess black and red are cool, too.”
“Red?”
“Yeah, I like red.”
“...Oh! Good, good. I like red, too. Heroes always wear red, right?”
“Is this going anywhere?”
“N-no, uhh, never mind.” She was so bad at playing dumb. “Anyway, we should get to sleep. Once we give them our answer, it won’t be long before the battle begins. We should begin our preparations tomorrow morning.”
For some reason, Yukihime looked really happy. I wasn’t sure what was going on with her, but it didn’t seem like anything bad, so I decided not to pry.
“Okay... Good night, then.”
“Good night.”