This Time, I Have to Save Her
This time, I have to keep her alive.
An old, abandoned house stood at the end of the path we'd been walking. We stepped inside and took stock of the place. Half the roof had caved in, and the windows had been shattered long ago; the wind drifted in and out between them as it pleased. Still, at least the walls were standing. Out in this wasteland, unless you stumbled onto a syndicate's subsidiary den or one of the cities that paid them tribute, a place like this passed for the height of luxury.
I swept a hand across the floor.
"Let's rest here tonight."
Lebetri nodded without a word. She settled into a corner as though she'd done it a hundred times before, and I gathered a few pieces of firewood, pulled out a lighter, and coaxed a flame to life.
— crackle, crackle.
A quiet flame bloomed.
"You're hungry, aren't you?"
"A little..."
"I'll cook tonight."
?
Lebetri stared at me with the expression of someone hearing an impossible sound for the very first time.
"What's with that look?"
"You can actually cook?"
"There was a time when I had to cook for someone."
...
But her only answer was silence. That brief silence stung a little — so I buried it, rummaging through my coat as if nothing had happened. One can, two potatoes, jerky of unknowable provenance, a whole spread of spices.
"Oh..."
"What?"
"Is your coat some kind of magic bag? Where does all this keep coming from?"
"Well, this coat's a relic too, you know."
A relic, this coat of mine — one with an infinite pocket sewn into it.
Thirty minutes later.
...
...
Lebetri stared at the bowl of soup I'd set in front of her.
"It looks okay on the surface..."
After mulling it over, she looked up at me and asked,
"Poison?"
"What do you take me for?"
...
Lebetri picked up her spoon without another word.
One bite.
"Well? How is it?"
I asked with all the confidence in the world.
"It's edible."
That was what she said — but her eyes had gone wide. And she kept eating even as she said it. Watching her, for the briefest of moments, the corner of my mouth curled upward.
"Why are you smiling?"
"I wasn't smiling."
"You were."
"Your imagination."
"No, I definitely saw—"
"No talking while you eat. Just eat."
With that, I went back to savoring my soup. For some reason, it smelled sweeter today than it had in a long time.
The meal was over. We sat with our backs against the wall, and from outside, nothing reached us but the wind.
...
...
Strangely, the silence didn't feel awkward. If this had been the day we first met, one of us would already have had a weapon drawn, watching the other.
I was watching the fire when the words slipped out of me.
"Lebetri."
"What?"
"You said you'd help me once your revenge was done."
"Yeah."
"And if we see my goal through too — what will you do after that?"
She didn't answer for a long time.
"I don't know."
"I've never thought about it."
"All I ever thought about was revenge. After that, I just figured I'd help you with your goal."
...
That answer was so exactly like her that a smile escaped me before I could stop it.
Hearing it, Lebetri deliberated for a good while before she spoke.
"...I guess if it's you, traveling together wouldn't be so bad."
"Huh?"
"What? I think it'd be fun."
Lebetri turned quietly to the fire. The flames reflected in her eyes, and her face looked redder than usual — though that may have been the firelight.
But once my goal was achieved, I would be going home — back into my family's arms. And I still had to deliver word of my comrades, living or dead, to their families.
And yet... I lied.
"Yeah. When it's all over, let's go traveling together."
For an instant, my breath seemed to stop. In the future, too, I had answered just this way. But my heart ached.
"Sapi?"
"Yeah?"
"Is something wrong?"
"Haha, no, it's nothing."
I forced a laugh.
"Just thinking about a future where we get to travel. Made me happy, that's all."
Before long, Lebetri was asleep against the wall, her soft breathing drifting through the quiet. I watched her for a while, then closed my eyes.
I'm sorry, Lebetri. I can't keep that promise.
Just a little... I looked only a little way into the future.
My vision clouded over. Hundreds of threads went stretching out toward somewhere, and I caught hold of the nearest of those countless strands.
In an instant, everything before me flooded white.
How much time had passed? I opened my eyes slowly.
...
I couldn't breathe. My heart was pounding like a lunatic, and cold sweat ran down my spine.
"Ha..."
I opened my mouth, but no voice came out.
Damn it all...
I bit my lip. The process had been different, but the outcome in the far future was exactly the same.
— Khk.
Red blood trickled from the corner of my mouth. It dripped from my nose, too. My skull felt like it was splitting open.
If I looked any deeper into the future... I might not survive it.
...
I buried my face in both hands. Inside the ruined house, nothing echoed but the quiet crackle of burning firewood.
— crackle, crackle.
Only that sound let me hold on to myself. Slowly, I turned my head.
There was Lebetri, asleep against the wall, breathing softly. Knowing nothing at all.
...
I stared at her for a long while.
At last... I can finally change fate... and yet...
Then I murmured, in a voice so small it barely counted as sound.
"...This won't do."
Not as she was now. Never.
I pieced together the information stored in my head. The route we'd traveled so far was far too dangerous. But then the place I'd been deliberately avoiding all this time came to mind.
If anywhere... no. There was nowhere else but there.
I pressed my thumb against my forehead.
"...I have to find it."
Even I didn't know who those words were meant for. But the certainty was there all the same.
Far more than she was now... Lebetri had to become stronger. Only then—
...
I couldn't finish the thought.
Around dawn, a cold wind slipped through the broken window and brushed the tips of my rabbit ears. My ears twitched, and I slowly opened my eyes.
"It's morning already."
When I sat up, the campfire had burned down to nothing but ash. I turned my head to find Sapi already awake. He stood at the entrance of the ruined house, staring blankly out at the wasteland.
It wasn't like him. He was the type to fire off a joke before anything else, but today he was quiet to the point of being strange.
"Sapi?"
At my voice, he turned around slowly.
"You're up."
He was smiling the way he always did. But something about it was off — forced, maybe. Like a smile he'd had to assemble from spare parts.
I studied his face for a moment. He was pale. There was a trace around his mouth of something wiped away, but a very faint smear of red still lingered.
"Did you use your power again?"
For the briefest instant, his gaze wavered.
"Your healing ability. Did you use it?"
"Ah... yeah. I did."
I got to my feet and walked over to him. Up close, the shadows under his eyes were darker than usual, and there was even dried blood on the back of one hand.
He'd pushed that healing power too hard. Again.
"Why do you keep doing that to yourself?"
Sapi looked at me for a moment, then shrugged.
"I'm used to it."
"That's your answer?"
"Yep."
What an infuriating man. I let out a small sigh — I already knew that pressing him further would get me nothing.
Sapi kicked ash over what remained of the campfire, smothering the last embers for good. Then he gave his coat a casual shake, as if none of it had ever happened.
"Let's move."
"Right."
We left the ruin behind. Morning sunlight was spilling across the wasteland. A familiar road. At least, that's what I thought.
But about ten minutes into the walk, something began to feel wrong.
"Wait."
Sapi didn't stop walking.
"Why?"
"This isn't our road."
Only then did he come to a halt. And he said, in the calmest voice imaginable:
"I changed our destination."
"Just like that?"
"Yep."
"...Why?"
Sapi didn't answer. He started walking again, and I grabbed his arm.
"Explain."
Sapi turned to face me slowly. Any other day, he would have grinned his way around the question. But today was different. No jokes. No banter. After a long silence, he spoke briefly.
"We're going south."
"Not north?"
"No."
"Why?"
...
Silence again. I frowned.
"Don't tell me you just haven't picked the next town yet. If that's the problem, we can keep going straight north."
"No. The next destination's already decided."
"Then what is it?!"
...
He drew one long, deep breath. Then he looked me dead in the eye.
"You need to get stronger."
"What?"
"A lot stronger than you are now."
I could only stare at him, uncomprehending.
"Where is this coming from, all of a sudden?"
"It's necessary..."
"What is?"
...
Sapi never gave an answer. Instead, he looked away and started walking ahead again.
"Hey..."
No reply.
"Sapi."
He just kept walking. Something was seriously wrong. He was hiding something, that much was certain — but what, I couldn't tell.
I watched his back for a while. In the end, I followed.
After a stretch, I opened my mouth again.
"...So where exactly are we going?"
Sapi's stride never broke. The wind sweeping across the wasteland stirred the hem of his coat. A silence passed — and then a voice came, so quiet I nearly missed it.
"We're going to the Fairy Forest."
"The Fairy Forest?"
I had no idea what that was. But judging from the direction we were walking, it had to lie south — the exact opposite of north.
I looked at Sapi again. He didn't look back. Like someone whose mind had long since been made up.
Seeing him like that, I raised my voice.
"No. I'm going north. Alone."
...
"My goal is in the north."
"I know."
"Then why do we have to go south?"
Only then did Sapi stop. He turned around and walked back toward me, and took my shoulders in both hands.
"Just as you want to reach your goal, there's something I want to see through too. No matter what it takes."
His voice was trembling. And he looked desperate — genuinely desperate.
"That's why I need you. I'm asking you — one more time."
...
"Trust me."
"...All right."
In the end, I walked after him. Why he had suddenly changed our destination, why he wanted the Fairy Forest that badly — I never did find out.