The boy rushed to his big sister’s side. She embraced him, smiling beautifully as if she were a saint. She directed a gaze of kindness his way, so profound that it was difficult not to believe that it was sincere.
The boy seemed truly happy. Kaguya found herself oddly loath to ruin that happiness.
But I have to see this through.
That was Kaguya’s role. It was her mission.
She would never give up, no matter how much resistance or animosity she faced. But that didn’t mean she didn’t sometimes want to give up.
“Can we…talk for a little while?” she asked.
The Goddess was resisting more stubbornly than Kaguya had expected. Kaguya tried to get the boy away from the Goddess. She also repeatedly shoved the Goddess into the illusory sea or openly insulted her to her face, not even caring that she was doing so in front of what was supposedly her younger brother.
At first, of course, the boy reacted to Kaguya angrily, but he slowly grew intimidated by her unusual ferocity. The Goddess, after all, was only imposing on the boy’s mind. All she had were flimsy illusions, whereas Kaguya was flesh and blood—real.
“Wait…”
Kaguya peered at the boy closely. His eyelashes fluttered in surprise, and he took a step backward. He quickly recovered, however, and squared off, facing her. He held a water pistol full of seawater in his right hand, which he pointed toward her now. The way he held it told Kaguya everything that she needed to know.
“You’re with the Extermination Bureau, aren’t you?”
Even though it was just a water pistol and thus completely harmless, he kept his finger off the trigger. It was common sense to keep your finger off the trigger of a gun when not in battle, but that wasn’t something that a child would have any way of knowing. And even if they did know better, that knowledge wouldn’t apply in this case, seeing as this was just a water pistol.
Which meant this must have been an ingrained habit.
The only people this young who could have formed such a habit were the soldiers of the Extermination Bureau.
“The ex…termination bureau…?”
“Yes. It’s the organization I belong to. And which you belong to as well. It was created to save people from the heroes. Don’t you remember?”
“I don’t know anything about that!” the boy shouted, sounding suddenly like a petulant child. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. I’m just playing with my big sister today! But if you don’t—”
“Listen to me,” Kaguya said, kneeling down. She was certain now. “You remember, don’t you? Who you are, and what you were doing. And what you’ve become now. You caught on to who I was as soon as you saw me, didn’t you? You weren’t angry because I had hurt your ‘sister.’ That look on your face doesn’t lie.”
Kaguya spoke coldly and without leniency. Speculation or not, she was giving the boy no room for denial. There was no real reasoning behind what she said; all he had to do to end this matter was insist she had no idea what she was talking about. However, the boy did no such thing.
Instead, the sound of the waves began to grow louder. As if they were coming from inside her own ears.
A voice mingled with the sound of the waves. A grating sound, like scraping glass.
“Aaaggghhhhh!!”
It was a scream. A man’s scream.
The scene suddenly changed.
Two blood-soaked humans were standing before Kaguya. A young boy cradling a young girl. It looked like it was already too late for the girl.
“Of course I didn’t forget.”
The boy’s voice was deep. He was almost old enough to be called a young man now. He stood next to Kaguya and stared at the scene before them. He didn’t reach out, however, because he knew it was already too late.
“How could I ever forget? My sister was killed by a hero.”
“I see… Of course.”
At some point, the boy’s clothing had changed to a turquoise uniform. He glanced toward Kaguya and sighed, sounding tired.
“If you’re wearing that uniform, you should understand. All this fighting is pointless. There’s no way for us to know if it will ever end, and there’s no reward for us in the end. It’s all so damned awful, so why do we keep doing it? What are we even here for? It’s like we’re trapped in some tiny sandbox garden with no escape,” he said plaintively.
What could Kaguya possibly say in response to that?
“Will you remember for me? Remember what I wished for?”
“I will. I won’t forget. Both the way you died and the way you lived will remain etched in my heart. So long as I remember, it means you didn’t die as a monster in the end.”
“I’m sorry…” The boy looked genuinely apologetic. “Your being here saved me. Now I can die as a human being…”
“I…hope so.”
The scene around her suddenly vanished. In the blankness, total whiteout, a smile of surrender formed on the boy’s lips.
“Don’t forget us.”
There was a loneliness to his words. Kaguya felt uncomfortable. It felt like a piece of herself, something inside her, had once again been shaved away.
Unaware of what Kaguya was feeling, the boy trembled and disappeared, much as a wave dissipated into foam.
“…guya! Kaguya!”
She could hear a voice coming from somewhere far away.
People were staring down at her, half-destroyed building walls visible behind them. Azuma and Koyuki stood at the front of the crowd.
Kaguya gasped and sat up. She felt something like dirt scattered across her palm. Several small stones had embedded themselves lightly into her skin. It was this pain that finally pulled her entirely awake.
She took a look around. They were watching her with trepidation. She could feel the heat and humidity against her skin. Kaguya breathed a sigh of relief, realizing the world was just as it had been before she had entered the hero. She had not been asleep for another month like last time.
“Are you okay…?” someone asked, their voice gentle.
It wasn’t just a perfunctory question—the person sounded genuinely concerned. Kaguya had heard that same voice, been subject to that same look of pity, countless times before. It was Azuma who had actually spoken this time, but she knew they all felt the same way.
Kaguya tried to tell them she was fine. She sat up without trouble, her usual smile upon her face, and—
Wait, what’s wrong with my voice?
I’m fine, she tried to say again, but something rose up in her throat, clogging her mouth like a dam clogs a stream. The words wouldn’t come out.
“Kaguya…?”
Kaguya remained silent. Azuma looked worried. She needed to let him know that she was all right, that she wasn’t injured.
“Ah…” It took every drop of willpower she had to squeeze out the words. “Fine. I-I’m…fine…”
Why did she sound so strange? Every time she tried to speak, she felt that lump in her throat threatening to overflow. She needed to tell them. The others stared at her, speechless, as she tried to form words.
This didn’t make any sense; she wasn’t injured, was she? She felt something hot streaming down her cheek—tears.
It was only then that Kaguya realized she was crying.