The air was gray, choked, heavy with ash that clung to his throat like hands tightening around his neck. His boots crunched on scorched soil that stretched endlessly in every direction.
And in the distance—voices.
At first faint, like whispers carried on smoke.
"…why didn't you save us?"
"…where were you?"
He turned. Shapes stirred in the gray. Vague, faceless figures, their outlines warped like shadows thrown against broken glass.
Kizutoro. Chika. Nisuki. Itsuki.
Their features blurred, indistinct. They hovered at the edge of his vision, far away but unyielding, their voices flat and monotone.
"You left us."
"You were supposed to fight harder."
"Why didn't you come back?"
Tatsuya stumbled back, throat dry. He tried to speak, but ash filled his mouth, choking his words before they could form.
The shadows advanced.
And as they drew closer, the world sharpened.
No longer blurred, no longer distant—faces carved into him like blades.
Yatsu. Kiome. Aoi. Sora. Misuki. Tom.
They stood before him, eyes gleaming like shards of obsidian, their voices cutting deeper, louder.
"You swore to protect us."
"You swore you wouldn't leave me behind."
"You swore you wouldn't run."
Yatsu's blade gleamed red with reflected firelight.
Kiome's eyes trembled with disappointment, not rage.
Aoi's voice was like steel breaking, low and steady: "You failed."
Sora's suspicious eyes watch him, her expression the same as when he first arrived at the mansion. "I should have never trusted you, I should have killed you when I had the chance."
Micah laughter warped into a scream, twisting into accusation: "You let me die."
Misuki, her words twisted like a knife in her chest, "did our promise mean nothing to you?"
her silence was louder than screams.
Tom's voice, ragged with betrayal: "You had one chance. You wasted it."
Tatsuya staggered back, shaking his head violently. "N-no, I—I didn't mean—"
But the ash thickened. The air roared with a thousand whispers, building, pressing, suffocating.
And then—
The world stopped.
The whispers fell silent, devoured by a crushing stillness.
Two figures stepped forward.
Luna. Ruza.
They weren't shadows. They weren't whispers. They were vivid, alive, more real than the ground beneath his feet. Their eyes cut through him with merciless clarity.
Luna's voice was trembling, fragile, like glass about to shatter:
"Why didn't you keep your promise, Tatsuya?"
Ruza's words were steady, sharp, every syllable a blade pressed against his chest:
"You were supposed to protect me."
He reached for them—desperate, frantic—but when his fingers brushed their hands, they crumbled to ash. Their faces collapsed into dust, their disappointment lingering longer than their forms.
The ash clung to his skin, to his lungs, to his soul.
And in the silence that followed, every voice returned at once.
"Why didn't you save us?"
"Why didn't you save us?"
"Why didn't you save us?"
The chorus grew deafening, a thousand accusations digging into him like claws, until the ground gave way and he was falling—
Falling—
Into a darkness that felt alive, a darkness whispering with every voice he had failed, every life he had broken.
He woke with a gasp, throat raw, body slick with sweat. The fire in the cabin had burned low, shadows creeping in like those from the dream.
And for the first time since arriving here, Tatsuya wanted to scream.
The phantom voices clung to his ears, murmuring, accusing. Luna's broken plea, Ruza's steady reproach—it wouldn't fade.
"…Tatsuya?"
Her voice was soft, uncertain.
He turned.
Meki had stirred from her corner, small beneath the patchwork of blankets he'd forced on her earlier. Her hair was still a tangled mess, her frame frail, but her eyes… her eyes carried no blame. Just quiet concern.
And that was the problem.
The sight of her sitting up, blinking sleep from her lashes, looking at him like he mattered, like he was someone worth worrying about—
—it was unbearable.
"Y-you should go back to sleep," he muttered, voice cracking. He rubbed a trembling hand over his face, trying to mask the sweat slicking his skin. "It's nothing. Just… nothing."
But she didn't lie back down. She stayed where she was, watching him.
"You were… shaking," she whispered. "And crying."
The words hit harder than any blade. He hadn't even noticed. His chest tightened, shame twisting deep into his gut. Crying. In front of her. How pathetic could he get?
He bit down hard on his lip. "I told you—it's nothing."
The fire sputtered, throwing a brief flare of orange that painted her face, and in that moment he saw it again. Luna's disappointed eyes. Ruza's steady gaze. The nightmare hadn't ended.
Meki's face blurred with theirs. She was just another figure waiting to turn to ash in his hands.
Tatsuya's voice broke before he could stop it.
"…I can't do this."
Her expression shifted—confused, worried, leaning forward slightly as if to reach him.
"Do what?" she asked gently.
The words lodged like shards in his throat. His body shook, memories slamming against him—Misuki falling, Kiome bleeding, Aoi's silence, Tom's accusation, Luna's eyes, Ruza's hand turning to ash. Every failure carved into him, pressing until he couldn't breathe.
He wanted to scream. He wanted to run. He wanted her gone before she added her voice to the chorus of the damned.
So he forced the words out, voice raw, almost pleading:
"I want you to have nothing to do with me."
Part 2
"…Huh?"
Meki's, unable to grasp the meaning of the words spoken to her, let out only a faint gasp from her throat.
"I can't be around you," Tatsuya continued, scratching the back of his head trying to hide despair in his chest. "It isn't anything personal, it just… hmm."
Pausing for a moment to gather a thought that would justify his request.
"I don't deserve to be around anyone. Its not that I dislike you, your a great person. Your lovely." Tatsuya righted himself and smiled kindly as he looked at Meki.
"It's just because… I am not worthy to be the one who takes care of you. There are way beter man in the world who can keep you save."
He knew his nonchalant act wouldn't fool anyone, hell it didn't even fool himself.
Meki seemed to be clinging to the best possible interpretation of the true intent behind Tatsuya's words.
But right in front of the girl who believed this of him, Tatsuya decisively repudiated that thought.
"There is just nothing I can do for you. Fly away, be free, go see the world. I heard that Poseidon is famous for their beautiful waterfalls and Gaia. Did you ever hear of that place."
Now trying to act excited and happy that she can go freely into the world he raised his voice to encourage her to go.
"Gaia is the most beautiful kingdom in the world, I only heard rumors but what I heared it's amazing!"
"Back where I came from there is this place called Italy, from what I heard it resembles that… oh wait you've never been in Italy right?"
"Ahh! Right, my bad! Sorry, I didn't realize at all! Er, just now I was completely caught up trying to make plans for stuff you can do. So embarrassing!"
Tatsuya slapped his face, grinning in recognition of his mistake.
"It took a whole lot of experiences for me to realize a few things, but the answer was obvious a good while ago."
A wry smile, a truly wry smile, appeared.
He'd tasted bitterness. He'd chewed on his regrets. He'd shed tears over the absurdity and irrationality of it all.
He'd been toyed with by a cruel fate.
All of it had led to a single answer, one he now keenly understood.
"Meki."
Calling her name, wanting her to fully understand the meaning of the request, he put the feelings welling within him into words—
"I want you to have nothing to do with me." His defeat at Fate's hands was loud and clear.
A moment of quiet settled between the two.
Then, wanting to dismiss Tatsuya's request. Meki said a single word. "But…."
"JUST GO!!!"
Tatsuya's roar cracked through the cabin like a blade splitting the silence.
Meki froze, lips parted as though her protest had been stolen from her throat.
Tatsuya's chest heaved, every breath a ragged wound, and yet the scream hadn't been enough.
The truth—the curse he carried—swelled up, demanding to be vomited into the world before she dared to stay another second.
Because how could she understand? How could she know what it meant to stand near him? To look at him not as a stranger, but as someone to lean on—only to end up buried beneath the rubble of his failures?
Everywhere he went, everyone he let matter, the ending had always been the same.
—The mansion. He could still hear the laughter echoing in its halls. Nisuki's shy voice, Itsuki's cheerful grin, Sora's easy warmth, Misuki's sharp tongue that softened only in rare moments. Even Yatsu, who seemed untouchable, untamable—gone.
And worse still—Luna. Who had extended her hand to him in an attempt to not be lonely anymore, She had vanished before he could apologize for leaving her behind.
And Ruza… Ruza, who had loved him in a way so pure it was terrifying, who had stayed by his side even when he had no right to ask for it. Who had believed in him when he could not believe in himself.
The mansion had been a graveyard by his hand. Because he led the cult there.
Tatsuya dragged both hands through his hair, gripping hard enough that it hurt. His voice, when it broke through the silence again, was hoarse.
"I don't want you to die too, Meki."
Hearing the words that indicated a portion of his past, Meki's heart filled with curiosity and pity. It didn't push her away, it only brought her closer to him.
Her face went soft and by seeing this Tatsuya snappedz
"Don't you get it…? This—me—staying here with you, talking with you, caring about you—it's a death sentence. Every time I've let someone in, every time I've dared to think I could protect someone, they've ended up dead. One after another, after another… until all that's left is me. Standing over the ashes."
His throat burned. His chest felt hollow.
"I don't deserve you," he whispered, the words trembling into the stillness. "I don't deserve anyone."
"No…." Meki interrupted.
Hearing Meki interrupting him Tatsuya snapt.
"JUST LISN TO ME!!! I CAN'T YOU DO JUST DISAPPEAR ALREADY!!!"
Screaming through the pain of his own words, as a last attempt to push her away.
But she still wouldn't give up on him.
"No I am staying by your side. I won't leave you behind."
Her stubborn words, shattered the last bit of hope Tatsuya had left.
The only thing he could let out was a soft shaking. "Why…."
She smiled, Meki who was told time and time again to leave him behind because of her safety.
Stayed because her stubbornness and trust in him hadn't shattered.
"Because…" she started. "I only want you to protect me."
"I want to be the first person you see when you wake up. I want to be the last person you see before you sleep."
"When I couldn't move, you carried me. When I couldn't eat, you made sure I did. When the fire went out, you stayed awake just to keep it alive for me."
Her lips quivered, yet every word cut through the silence like glass.
"You could have left me to die, but you didn't. You kept me warm. You stayed."
Tatsuya's breath caught. His chest tightened, suffocating.
That wasn't kindness. That was guilt. It was all guilt.
Meki's gaze locked onto his, burning with a stubborn glow that no weakness in her body could dim.
"You talk like you're dangerous to me. Like I should run away. But tell me—what danger is there in someone who gives away his blanket, who spends the night watching over me instead of sleeping himself?"
Her words dug deeper.
Because I couldn't bear to see you die like the others. Because I can't take another body on my conscience. Because I was just trying to save myself. That's all it was.
"You think I don't see it? You hide it well, but I know." Her smile softened, but her voice only grew steadier. "Every time you looked at me, I saw it. You weren't looking at a stranger. You were looking at someone you wanted to protect. Not because you had to. But because you wanted to."
A sharp breath rattled in his throat.
In the space between Meki's words, the cabin walls seemed to dissolve, and in their place—flashes.
Laughter, high-pitched and cruel.
"You really think anyone would want to look at you?"
Girls turning their faces away in mock disgust, whispers like poison on the wind.
"Ugly. Creepy. Don't even talk to me."
Tatsuya clenched his jaw, but the scenes came faster, jagged.
Yuto's smirk—twisting like a knife.
Haruki's shove—slamming him into the corner of a desk.
Ren's voice—taunting, echoing.
"You're worthless. You'll always be worthless."
The images spiraled, snapping forward to a night drowned in red.
The knife in his hand. His knuckles white around the grip.
The sound—crunch—so final, so sickening, yet so relieving.
Yuto's skull caving in beneath the first blow.
Haruki's screams gurgling as they were cut short.
Ren's eyes—wide, shocked—before the silence swallowed everything.
The memory flickered, drenched in blood, and then—gone.
Why are you looking at me like that? If you saw what I've done… if you saw what I am… you wouldn't stay.
"No…" Tatsuya muttered, shaking his head, nails digging into his palms. "You don't know anything… you don't understand. I only did all that because—because—"
"Because you care," Meki finished for him, without hesitation. "Even if you don't believe it, your actions show it."
The room fell still, the crackle of the dying fire filling the gap between their words.
Care? Don't make me laugh. If I cared, I wouldn't have left Luna behind. If I cared I should have done everything in my power to protect Ruza. If I cared, the people in the village wouldn't have died. Every time I've said I'll protect someone, they've ended up buried. That's my truth. That's all I've proven.
And yet, here was this stubborn girl, clinging to every scrap of kindness he had given, refusing to see the rot underneath.
Meki leaned forward, amber eyes bright even in exhaustion.
"I don't care if you think you're cursed. I don't care if you think you'll only bring me pain. I'm not leaving. Because you're the only one who made me feel like I was worth saving."
Tatsuya's throat tightened, his mind screaming—
Stop. Stop saying that. Don't look at me like that. If you stay, you'll die. If you stay, I'll kill you too.
"You're lying…" Tatsuya said.
"I'm not lying!" For the first time the two of them met each other Meki raised her voice to him.
Being surprised by her sudden change of tone, Tatsuya unconsciously got scared she might break through his defenses so he too raised his voice.
"What do you know! What the hell do you think you know about me!"
"Nothing!!"
Meki, who kept her composure listed more things she found wonderful about Tatsuya.
"I think your strong, Kind.."
"NO!!"
He vented the flames smoldering inside his chest in an incandescent rage. Tatsuya shouted angrily, slamming a fist on the table right beside him.
Part 3
Just how far, how far, would Meki go in denying that she was better of alone then with Tatsuya?
Why, after he had suffered such humiliation, did she so deny that he was in the wrong? Just what did she see in Tatsuya?
It was so disturbing that he couldn't take it anymore.
"Do you want the truth? Fine. I'll give it to you. I'll carve it out of me and plant it at your feet so you can see what you're choosing to stay beside. Look at me. Really look."
"Everywhere I go—everyone dies. It's all my fault. It's always been my fault. I am the monster that everybody say they are afraid of, I am that monster that everyone hides in their bed from every night."
Faced with the truth that he'd smiled frivolously in an attempt to hide, making light of things as he kept running from them, never facing them but Meki's stubbornness had pushed Tatsuya to admitted what he really felt.
"I am never strong enough. Not when it mattered. Not when I promised. I told them I would. I swore it. But I just watched them fall apart anyway. I promised people things I could not keep. I said I would protect them and then I hid when they needed me."
That was who he was a at his core a coward, a small weakling who didn't belong in a world like this.
"You ask why I don't deserve you? Do you think I don't already know every reason? I left Luna because I wanted to feed my wrath, my stupid, selfish need to tear something down. I chose my anger over her and I convinced myself I was righteous for doing so but in the end I was just a coward wrapped in excuses."
Maybe in his old life he could get away with things like that, making excuses. But here in this world where he didn't matter anyways. Nothing would be kind enough to show him any mercy.
He didn't deserved it anyways.
"I made excuses. Always the same old, worn-out words—'I tried,' 'I couldn't help it,' 'it wasn't my fault.' I swallowed responsibility I denied what I had done, denied the harm I caused. That's what I am: a liar to everyone who trusted me."
"I wanted things to be different. I screamed that I wanted change and then when I got the chance, I ran. I ran until my lungs gave out and the only thing left in me was a hollow shell that called itself survival."
"I wanted everything—love without risk, bonds without weight, trust without responsibility. That's not longing. That's greed. The cruelest kind of greed."
Yearning for something when he doesn't want to put effort into anything, goes way beyond the limitations of arrogance.
"When you thanked me for keeping the fire alive, I pretended it was nothing. But inside I devoured the words like a starving man chews on the idea of bread. Wanting to hoard the people who made me feel alive—made me selfish in a way that can't be forgiven."
He doesn't deserve to be loved by people around him but his ego still made him yearn for more.
"I struggle. I scream like a child who envies the world. I want to demand why everyone but me gets to be free of this burden. But then I look closer—at the carnage behind me—and I realize the truth: it is all my fault. Not fate. Not bad luck. Me."
He was unsalvageable. He was hopeless.
Even if he'd redone it all from birth, he'd probably go down the exact same path, waste his time in the exact same way, arrive there with the same feelings, and experience the same regrets. His rotten personality wouldn't change. A shallow human nature was the only one suited to the human being called Tatsuya Fukushū That fact would never change.
"Do you know what it feels like to get bullied everyday? Do you! It…it feel like hell, Girls who called you ugly, who spat and laughed only because it was you. Their hands pushing, shoving, smirks that bloomed into violence. you spent everyday in fear looking over your shoulder, hiding yourself from the inevitable that has yet to come.
"It's like falling into a black hole that you can't escape from. Wondering what they would do to you now, what they would say, how they would hurt you."
And he deserves it, because what he has done and allowed to happen to others cannot be compared to what happened to him. What happened to him was child's play compared to what he allowed to happen to those around him.
"no one helped, everyone said it would be alright, that they would do something about it. But nobody did a dam thing!"
In irony, it's was you call karma.
"Because why? Why would anyone care about me. A small filthy piece of trash who has absolutely nothing to offer."
"I killed myself because I was so tired of the humiliation, so tired of the constant ache of being unwanted. I thought sleep would be final and it would be kind. And I was happy, for a second, stupid with the idea of freedom. But then I woke up here. Why? Why am I alive? What purpose am I supposed to fulfill now when my only legacy is ruin?"
Even death itself would let him be at mercy, he was taking the easy way out as usual. Afraid of the consequences he would face.
Running away was what let him to this world in the first place.
Everything happened because he ran, because he was running away and his guilt only grew as he ran.
"Do you think words can fix this? Do you think confession will absolve me? I've messed up this second change at life and only caused harm to others people."
"I hate the part of me that wanted to be noticed. I hate the part that craved affection and then punished it. I hate that when a hand reached out, I turned away. I hate that my idea of protection was absence, that my supposed mercy was a betrayal. I hate that I am coward enough to hide under pretense and call it prudence."
His nature as a human made even him want to puke. Even though he'd spewed it all out, the deep feelings in his chest only soured further.
"Everything is grey to me. The world has been drained of color so many times that even laughter is a muted echo. I see hues in other people, but not in myself. When I look at myself, I see no warmth, no light, only an absence that looks like lying, like an accusation reflected back."
"Sometimes I think if I could change one thing—just gave me one change I could make it all right again. But that thought was futile because nothing had changed from the person I was before I killed myself."
"Why did I come back? Why did I wake up from death only to be dragged through another form of living torment? Maybe this is my punishment for every face I destroyed. Maybe whatever mercy was promised was conditional on carrying memory like a cross, and I am bound."
"How pathetic am I? So pathetic that I beg for punishment and then flinch when it is offered. So pathetic that I will choose my own exile rather than the risk of being a man who can stand fast and bear the weight of others' trust. I am the coward who wants absolution while avoiding the only thing that might grant it: responsibility."
Exposing his weakness with so much filth, thinking of nothing beyond his own concerns, was the stupidest thing of all.
With Meki standing right there, still believing in him, Tatsuya had tried to sully and stain the beautiful picture in front of her sparkling eyes, exposing it as a fraud. And now, after all that, he was more concerned with his own standing than with her.
"I hate myself more than I hate my greatest enemy. I would choose to suffer every insult a thousand times over if it meant I could undo one small part of what I did. But desire is a useless thing in a ruined field. My wants have become weapons that cut the people who handed them to me."
Tatsuya collapsed to his knees, snot and tears streaming forth. He made his final confession while pressing his head against the hardwood floor.
"Meki—if you love me, if you care even in the smallest, ridiculous way—please stop looking at me like that. Free yourself from this. Go find a life that isn't tethered to my mistakes. Do not be the next name in my ledger."
"Meki please, free me… kill me…"
As Tatsuya sank to the lowest depths of his filthy ego, still, the orange-haired girl—
"No I don't want to!!"
"—"
—Still wouldn't give in.
Part 4
Her stubborn absolute love, her inviolate trust, chafed upon Tatsuya like nothing before.
Having berated himself so much, having divulged so much of the ugliness in his heart, having confessed that he was a complete fraud, an unsalvageable piece of garbage-
-Why did she look at Tatsuya with such affectionate eyes?
"You don't know how many times you've saved me…. When you found me, I was nothing. Cold, starved, too tired to even want to live. And you… you kept the fire alive. You didn't think it was much, but it was everything to me. I woke up because of that fire. I woke up because you wouldn't let me freeze."
"When the demon cult captured me, when I thought I would die you came to save me."
"When you returned from scouting, if the demon cult had disappeared, first I thought it was just a excuse because you were sick of me."
"But when I woke up and saw you, I was so happy to see the person I wanted to see the most. Sat by my side and didn't abandon me."
"I didn't do anything…." He spoke softly, denying her appreciation for him.
"…Tatsuya," Meki's voice trembled. Not with fear, but something that pressed against his chest. "You say you're a monster. You say you destroy everything you touch. But do you know how many times you've saved me?"
His heart was screaming.
While Meki wove those words, Tatsuya's chest cried out.
"...Stop it."
"You gave me food when you could've eaten it all yourself. You gave me your blanket even though you were shivering. You thought it was nothing, but it was you choosing me over yourself. That's not the choice a monster makes, Tatsuya."
"You talked to me when I couldn't speak. You listened to me when I thought my voice didn't matter. Even your silence… even that clumsy way you look away when you're embarrassed—it reminded me that I was still human, that I wasn't invisible. That I mattered to someone."
"Why….?"
Why was she still talking?
Why was she still able to toss out such compliments at Tatsuya, the useless fool that he was?
"You call yourself greedy. But if you were greedy, why did you never once take from me? You gave. Over and over, even when you hated yourself for it. Do you understand? You've already saved me—so many times I've lost count."
"When I couldn't walk, you carried me. When I cried, you turned away so I wouldn't be ashamed. When I couldn't see a reason to keep breathing, you became that reason."
Meki was looking at a convenient illusion.
The real Tatsuya wasn't that kind of person. The real him was filthier than that. His genuine self was ugly, the exact opposite of the one she viewed so favorably.
"Tatsuya… I don't need you to save the whole world. I just need you to keep saving me. That's all I've ever wanted."
"You just don't understand! I can't even do a single thing like that, you'll die just like everyone else!"
"And I'm still alive aren't I?!"
Reflexively, Tatsuya raised his voice, but Meki'd shout was even louder than his own.
Tatsuya was shocked.
It was the first time she'd raised
her voice higher than him.
The shock made his breath catch in his throat. At long last, he realized that Meki's eyes, dutifully maintaining their neutral expression, had large teardrops welling in them.
Of course hearing Tatsuya's confession had hurt her. Of course listening to his extreme masochism had brought pain to her kind heart. Yet even so, she believed in Tatsuya.
"Tatsuya… I don't need the strongest knight, or the bravest hero. What I need is you. The same you who stayed awake just to keep the fire alive, who stumbled through exhaustion to make sure I had food in my hands, who carried me when I was too weak to walk."
Meki knew all the horrible things within him that he had told her about, and she believed in Tatsuya despite them.
"Why do you...? So much... I'm weak, I'm running away...! Even now, I'm running away just like I did before, so why...?"
Why do you believe in a pathetic, unreliable guy drowning in his weakness like me...? If I can't believe in myself, how can you...? Are you a spy trying to kill me?
"— Because I Love you, Tatsuya —"
When those words of unconditional, infinite trust hit him, Tatsuya heart quietly trembled.
No matter what awful conditions piled atop one another, no matter what flaws he might have, that one sentence was infused with the hope that he would come running and chase evil away.
And far too late, finally Tatsuya realized it.
He was wrong. He had been so, so wrong.
He'd thought that he alone carried the burden of failure, that no one could bear to see him stumble, that the weight of his past mistakes would always define him. That no matter how much he tried, he was destined to leave ruin in his wake.
He had believed that every life he touched would wither, that every bond he formed was only another chain to drag someone down.
—But he had been mistaken.
Meki. That fragile, wary girl with fire in her amber eyes. The one he had found trembling in a back alley, curled against the trash. She had refused to let him turn away. She had refused to let him run.
Everyone he had known, everyone he had lost—they had been casualties of his inaction or his self-imposed distance. Their voices, memories, and accusing gazes haunted him. They told him he was worthless, that he was incapable of protecting anyone, that trying was a fool's game.
—But Meki would not allow him to hide.
Even when he hesitated, when the grey haze clouded his mind and he thought to leave her behind, she had spoken. She had whispered—fragile, trembling, but firm—"Please don't go."
It was simple. It was nothing. And yet it shattered the fog he had wrapped around himself for so long. She had seen past his walls, past the monster he believed himself to be, and asked him to stay.
She didn't demand words he couldn't speak. She didn't judge the guilt he carried like a leaden cloak. She simply… needed him to be there. To exist. To protect. To care.
And Meki… Meki was standing in front of him, stubbornly, defiantly, holding the weight he thought would crush her, and saying she would carry it anyway.
"I want to be the first person you see when you wake up. I want to be the last person you see before you sleep. I say those things because I want to walk beside you, not because you're perfect, but because you're Tatsuya."
"My Tatsuya."
"No matter how much like a burden you felt, how much you've convinced yourself your are. I will still walk besides you, because.."
"…I love you, Tatsuya. And no amount of your self-hatred will take that away from me."
Meki sank to one knee, her hand moved to touched his cheek was hot. Her eyes,
gazing at Tatsuya from up close, were moist.
That look, everything about her, made him accept that she was truly sincere.
"You're.. fine with a guy like me..?"
He'd tried over and over, redone over and over, and he had nothing to show for it.
Everyone died. His hand never reached them. He'd let everyone die. His thoughts were inadequate. He was empty, powerless, dumb, late to act, a blockhead dragged around by his desire to protect someone.
Was he really good enough for her?
"I'm fine with you, because."
"_"
"I don't want it to be anyone else."
"...Meki."
"Yes?"
When he called her name, she quietly responded.
He lifted his face. He looked straight ahead. He gazed into Meki's eyes.
Softly, gently, they awaited the reply from Tatsuya's lips.
Is this enough? Is this enough to love someone? She had saved him from being dragged into hell. Made him see color again.
Is this true love? Is this what love feels like? If it is I can only embrace it?
"I can't do anything by myself. I come up short in everything. I don't have the confidence to look up. So.. Will you lend me a hand? Help keep me on the straight and narrow when I take a wrong turn?"
Meki leaned in pressing her soft lips against her forehead, then stood up and quickly turned around.
Her face as red as a tomato, "You are a terrible person, for only now realizing it!"
Crossing her arms like a angry mother. And turned around.
"Hey, it's pretty tough for me to ask someone who scolds me all the time."
They smiled at each other for a while. "There needs to be someone who keeps you in place." She said.
"Yeah, you just watch." He said as he stood up.
She let out a small "Ah" as Tatsuya drew her close, burying her petite body in his chest. He was grateful that there existed a girl so soft, so warm, and who liked him so much.
"—The man you fell in love with, will be the coolest, knight the world has ever known!!"
It was hot within her breast. As Tatsuya embraced Meki, she buried her face in his
chest, hiding her expression.
Her breathing was hot. Her forehead and cheeks were hot as she rubbed them against him. But the tears flowing from her eyes were probably the hottest of all.
-Even then, Tatsuya's could not like himself. He still hated himself.
But a girl had told Tatsuya she liked him.
If there was a girl who could like him, just as he was...
He could not yield.
With her love nothing is impossible.