“Big Sister Albi is weird. She’s so powerful, but she’s still so nice to me. I always have so much fun spending time with her. I want to keep playing games with my big sister.”
“Little sister. Let us leave monsters behind. This is the age of the frog. Unlike the creatures inside those games, frogs can provide us with tasty snacks.”
She took a third step, recalling the words of her new sister. On she went, through the snowfield lit up by black lightning.
“James listened to my request, even though I asked to leave his clan. Even though I caused him so much trouble, he helped me out to the very end… And he kept helping me even after I left.”
“You’ve made the right choice coming to me! I, James Szilard, will gladly join your ranks!”
She took a fourth step, her heart filled with gratitude for her former clan’s leader.
“And Eliza… Eliza was always there for me. Even when I forgot about her, she kept me in her thoughts.”
I wanted to apologize to her, the girl thought. I want her wounds to heal. And I want to plant more flowers with her. There’s so, so much I want to talk to her about.
“Stop, stop, stop!”
The beast’s pleas called down countless black bolts. But…
“It’s no use.”
…she would not be swayed—neither by the beast’s words nor by its lightning. They meant nothing to her now.
She had experienced the light.
She understood true warmth.
The girl knew real joy now.
She knew what it was like to have friends waiting for her.
To achieve her dreams, the girl had overcome so much…
The girl was alone.
She was being held captive.
She was always crying.
Her parents sold her. She was made into a test subject. Nothing more than a guinea pig.
Her new father was cruel. Violent.
She hurt a lot of people.
Many shunned her.
Everyone rejected her.
And the girl hated herself most of all.
“None of this is your fault. Society is to blame.”
The girl succumbed.
Whenever she killed, they praised her. Whenever she destroyed, they rewarded her.
Her values became twisted. Her ethics all but disappeared.
Before long, she surrendered herself to madness and became little more than an empty doll who did what the evil adults around her told her to.
“So, cry for me. Scream for me. Struggle in vain; humiliate yourselves! I, Jupiter, will enjoy every moment. Your worthless, incompetent squirming is your only path to redemption! Kya-ha! Kya-ha-ha-ha! KYA-HA-HA-HA-HA!”
She made others suffer just as she had been made to suffer.
She caused as much damage as others had done to her.
The more hatred she felt, the stronger she became.
The more she gave in to madness, the easier everything was.
Hatred, hatred, hatred, hatred.
Madness, madness, madness, madness.
Hatred, hatred, hatred, hatred, hatred, hatred, hatred, hatred.
Madness, madness, madness, madness, madness, madness, madness, madness.
Hatred, hatred, hatred, hatred, hatred, hatred, hatred, hatred, hatred, hatred, hatred, hatred, hatred, hatred, hatred, hatred.
Madness, madness, madness, madness, madness, madness, madness, madness, madness, madness, madness, madness, madness, madness, madness, madness.
“I’ll submerge this world in hatred and bathe myself in a fountain of madness! Kya-ha! Kya-ha-ha-ha! KYA-HA-HA-HA-HA!”
Jupiter, the Raging Dark.
Sold, used, controlled, and finally, forced to play the “good girl” for the sake of adults. The girl was a pitiable dancing doll, forced to kill more and more of herself as she danced to a hellish tune.
She would never be free from this mad performance until someone put her out of her misery.
That was the girl’s destiny.
That was the girl’s fate.
That was how she met her end.
That much was certain—or, at least, it should have been.
“I’ve got one more piece of advice for you. If that crappy ‘dad’ of yours really starts getting to you, just punch it right between the legs.”
“Okay, Kyouichirou… Here goes…”
The girl clenched her fist and approached the beast.
“STOP! DIDN’T YOU HEAR ME?! I TOLD YOU TO STOPPPPPPPPPPPPPP!”
But the girl could no longer hear the beast. She was preoccupied. She was about to try out something her benefactor—the boy who had brought her out into the sunlight—had taught her. The beast’s hysterics were no longer her concern.
Black bolts exploded from the ground—but all to no avail.
Keraunos thrashed about in a fit of rage—but it was no use.
The beast tore at the girl with its claws and fangs—but she was unfazed.
“I’m not afraid of you anymore. And to prove it, it’s time for you to get neutered.”
After uttering words that would strike fear into the heart of any man, the girl stooped down.
“Misbehaving males get punched in the crotch. It’s about time you shut up.”
The beast did, in fact, have something down there to punch. It had probably appeared as soon as Jupiter decided to punch it. This was a world of dreams, after all. One’s beliefs determined reality.
It didn’t matter what Keraunos’s body was like in the real world. Nothing could change its dream form now.
“That’s enough fooling around! You think I’ll let you rebel against me like this?! I’m your father! Do as I say, Jupiter!”
“No. This is my life. I’m the one who decides. I refuse to live the way others tell me to.”
Her tightly clenched fist became as hard as a diamond. Her punch was shaping up to be a doozy.
“I hope you’re ready for my diamond punch. I’m going to completely shatter that little thing of yours.”
“Stop it! STOP IT! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!”
“Fat chance!”
She focused all her emotions into her fist and gave the beast a farewell uppercut.
The ever-turning wheel of fate had been spinning the girl toward a particular destiny—but no more. Now that wheel came crashing down.
“Neutering complete.”
The beast’s crotch exploded, forever changing the power dynamic of master and spirit.
Cracks formed in the girl’s fate—cracks that dared to ask, “What if?”
The girl stood, fist in the air, having destroyed the symbol of the beast’s manhood. In that moment, she was more human than she’d ever been.