“I don’t have any other choice,” she said. “I shouldn’t even be allowed to exist.”
“Yeah? All right, well, for argument’s sake, let’s say you did go off and live on your own. Let’s assume you decide to make your living as an adventurer. You’d be a solo adventurer, right? You could pick some place where you wouldn’t bother anyone. Let’s say the eleventh level. You’d go there to take down spirits every day to make ends meet. Makes sense. I’m sure it’d work out fine at first.”
With Jupiter’s powers, living in the dungeon would be no problem.
Not to mention the fact that the three of us were the only ones capable of getting past the tenth floor for the time being.
“But listen, Jupiter. You never know what might happen in the world. Maybe, one day, the enemies in Sakurabana’s dungeons start going berserk all of a sudden. Or a strange phenomenon occurs that amplifies the darkness in people’s hearts. If society were to become unstable, everyone around you would only get meaner. Envy, jealousy, unjust discrimination. ‘How come we’re all barely scraping by, but that brat’s raking in all the dough?’ Crap like that… If something like that happened, what do you think would happen to you?”
“Well…”
“You’d get stressed out, right? Not only would you be lonely, but anytime you did meet people, they would all hate you. You’d lose it. That’s only natural. Anyone would have a hard time withstanding that kind of pressure.”
And when that stress reached critical mass, the real tragedy would occur.
“Filled with loneliness and anxiety and envied by those around you—once those emotions build up inside of you, your spirit will start to act out. And since you won’t be under the protection of any of the major clans, imperial officials would show up and throw you in a prison cell for a long time.”
Foreign people who commit crimes in the empire, even if only once, tend to face severe punishment. It doesn’t matter if you’re a naturalized citizen or not. The authorities see that as little more than flowery words.
You might be a citizen, but you’re still a foreigner. So, even if they treat you kindly at first, the instant something goes wrong, they’ll gladly stone you to death.
And it’s not like that way of thinking was limited to the empire. Most countries in this world treat people the same way, more or less. Even after getting their hands on the perfect source of energy, the creatures known as people remain just as irredeemable as ever.
“Or you might become the target of an evil organization and get tricked into joining them—something like that’s possible, too.”
That’s how extremist losers were born.
“None of this is your fault. Society is to blame.”
They’d feed her that kind of clichéd crap, luring in their lonely prey and then using her as a tool. It made me want to puke just thinking about it.
“And then you’d find yourself in a world of violence, doing these crappy adults’ bidding as if they were your stupid parents.”
This is all society’s fault.
You don’t need to hold back anymore.
Everyone around you is a bad person who has hurt you.
“Whenever you kill someone, they’ll praise you. Destroy a building and you’ll be showered in gifts. And, hey, why feel guilty? Everyone you’ve killed is just a bad person that’s made you suffer, right? But ask yourself this: Would you still be yourself after going through all of that?”
“…All of these examples are hypothetical,” she said. “None of these could happen. You made all of this up.”
“Maybe. But tell me, Jupiter, while I was talking, didn’t you think to yourself that, if all that stuff really did happen, you’d probably end up picking all the choices I mentioned?”
“……”
You won’t be able to deny it to yourself. After all, in another, very similar version of this world, a stupid, stupid girl followed that very same path.
Do you know what they called that girl, Jupiter? They called her the Raging Dark. Pretty extreme name, huh? Makes you wonder why she’s so pissed off.
It’s lame as hell. So, so lame.
“Sorry, Jupiter, but I ain’t gonna let you make such stupid choices.”
What, was I supposed to let her go off on her own? Be persecuted? Go berserk? Get tricked? And in the end become nothing but some crazed terrorist who can’t even remember Szilard’s face—the very man who saved her?
Screw that! Like anyone would accept that kind of garbage-tier fate.
Calamity, unfairness, tragedy—to hell with all of it! I’m gonna ruin your piece-of-crap sob story, you damned parasite devs.
Sorry, but now that she’s our friend, she’s gonna be happy and prosperous.
And if that dumbass secret society (Hah! Don’t make me laugh) wants to talk a bunch of crap about this and that being society’s fault, well, they can just choke on it and die.
“So what if you can’t control your powers? So what if your spirit goes berserk every now and then? In that case, let’s just kick that overbearing lightning-bolt dad’s ass! Teach him a thing or two about butting into his daughter’s social life!”
“Oh yeah! And once we do that, we can castrate him to boot! Cut him down to size so he won’t misbehave ever again!”
“Now you’re talkin’! Haruka coming in hot with some great ideas.”
“Heck yeah!”
“Wah-hah-hah!” We let loose our trademark laugh 30 percent more intensely than usual.
The silver-haired girl stared at us in complete disbelief. “Aren’t you afraid of me?”
“Nope.”
“Aren’t you sick of me causing trouble?”
“It’s no trouble at all. If anything, you should lean on us even more.”
“Wh-why…? Why are you so nice to me?”
“That’s easy! It’s ’cause—
“—the three of us are—”
“—a party!”
Haruka and I took turns saying that last part. We hadn’t planned it, and it was a bit embarrassing, but it was the truth.
“The whole reason we added you to our party is ’cause we couldn’t make it past the fifteenth floor. Now that we’ve made it past the tenth floor again and our goal’s right in front of us, we’d be totally lost without you, right?”
“That’s right! Pretty soon, you’re gonna be the one carrying us! We’re counting on you, Jupi!
“Kyouichirou… Haruka…” Jupiter slowly covered up her face like she was trying to work through something. “If you both think so…then I’ll try…a bit harder, too.”
We responded to her courage with two of the biggest smiles we could muster.