The Dream of Becoming a Savior
It was a back alley somewhere.
In the middle of that silent alley, where not a trace of human presence could be found, a girl was standing.
Her white hair swayed faintly, though there was no wind.
Her skin was translucent like glass, and a soft blue light flowed from deep within it.
Rai stopped walking.
Thud.
Something was wrong.
It was clearly... a face he had never seen before.
And yet, somehow, it didn't feel unfamiliar at all.
He felt as if he were meeting someone he'd known for a very, very long time.
The girl turned slowly to look at him.
Her mysterious, kaleidoscopic blue eyes pierced straight through Rai's.
Then, quietly, she spoke.
"A demand. I demand a choice."
Rai's body froze.
"Will you become this world's savior?"
The words echoed through his ears.
With a trembling voice, Rai tried to answer.
"I..."
In that instant.
"...Ugh."
Rai's eyes snapped open.
A ceiling came into view.
A white ceiling.
And the smell of antiseptic flooded his nose.
Wooooooom.
The faint hum of machinery was a bonus.
Swish.
Rai looked around with a dazed expression.
"...Where am I?"
It was a hospital room.
Rai slowly pushed himself upright.
Creak.
Every part of his body ached, but he was in better shape than he'd expected.
"Another dream, huh...."
Rai let out a sigh.
"Same thing when my chest got punched through. Every time I get seriously hurt, I end up having these weird dreams."
Then he suddenly noticed something strange.
"...Huh?"
Rai touched his mouth.
He checked his teeth one by one with the tip of his tongue.
"...They're fine?"
He clearly remembered it.
Almost all of his teeth had been shattered when Chain beat him down.
But now there wasn't a trace of it.
"What on earth... happened here...?"
Rai marveled as he examined the inside of his mouth.
"Have this world's dental technologies really advanced this far?"
Just then—
Click.
The hospital room door opened.
"You're awake."
"...Shalla?"
Shalla opened the door and walked in.
The moment she saw Rai, she smirked.
"You said some pretty bizarre things in your sleep."
"I did?"
"Yep. Muttering to yourself the whole time—'choice' this, 'savior' that."
Shalla shrugged.
"Must have been a nightmare."
"...Ahaha. A nightmare about becoming a savior. What a peculiar nightmare that'd be."
Rai laughed helplessly.
Then someone suddenly crossed his mind.
"Shalla."
"What?"
"Did you find Chain?"
At his question, Shalla's expression stiffened slightly.
"No."
A short answer.
"I knew it...."
"She's missing."
Shalla walked deeper into the room as she spoke.
"And nobody's figured out the cause of that black hole that suddenly appeared on the building's rooftop, either."
Rai lowered his head.
Neither of them spoke for a while.
Shalla watched him for a moment, then carefully spoke up.
"It's just my guess, but."
Rai raised his head.
"That robot that punched through your chest last time—remember?"
"........"
"I have a feeling it's connected to all this."
Rai's eyes narrowed.
But soon he dropped his head wearily.
"...I just want some peace for a change."
A small sigh slipped out.
Shalla looked at him for a moment.
Then she smiled faintly.
"Same here."
Shalla crossed her arms and said,
"By the way, about you."
"Hmm?"
"Trying to save Chain even in a situation like that. I still can't believe it."
"........"
"That's the woman who spent the whole night trying to kill you. Just how crazy do you have to be to think like that?"
Shalla laughed in disbelief.
Rai gave a wry smile too.
"But, you know...."
Rai said quietly.
"When she was beating me like that, remember."
"Yeah."
"Her face... it kind of looked sad."
Shalla's eyebrows rose.
"...You pitied the woman who was beating you to death?"
"When you put it like that, it sounds weird."
"No, it's actually exactly what happened."
"......."
Rai fell silent for a moment.
Then he turned his gaze to the window.
"Either way... if we meet again."
Rai smiled a little.
"This time, I want to talk to her properly."
Shalla looked at him, then said playfully,
"What if I can't protect you then?"
"Don't tell me she's going to try to kill me again?"
"........."
Shalla closed her mouth for a moment.
"Uh... uh...?"
Rai went quiet along with her.
An awkward silence settled between the two of them.
And Rai's expression began to harden bit by bit.
"...She's not actually going to try to kill me again, right?"
"Who knows?"
"........"
Right at that moment.
Click.
The hospital room door opened again.
"Rai~~~!!"
"...Orchi?"
Tiny Orchi came bounding into the hospital room.
TWANG--!!
Behind her followed Bat, the skin under her eyes dark with exhaustion.
Thud. Thud.
"Dive-bomb~!"
TWANG--!!!
The instant Orchi spotted Rai, she leapt straight onto his bed.
"Wait---!"
Thud!
"Gah?!"
Rai's body rocked violently on the mattress.
Orchi burrowed into his arms without a care in the world.
"Rai! Rai!"
"Ahaha.... Orchi, you can't just... out of nowhere like that...."
Rai laughed, suppressing a scream with all his might.
Watching the scene, Bat let out a deep sigh.
"What on earth happened to you overnight...."
Her voice was completely drained.
"Leaving Orchi with me was the worst possible choice you could have made."
"Ahaha.... there was a bit of an emergency...."
Rai said, holding Orchi in his arms.
"Thank you for taking care of her, Bat."
"Great job, Bat~!"
Shalla waved at her too.
Bat sighed again.
"Minding kids—I've got plenty of that at home already...."
"Haha...."
Rai slowly stroked Orchi's head.
Swish. Swish.
Nestled in Rai's arms, Orchi was wriggling around excitedly, playing this way and that.
Rai's hand passed gently over Orchi's head.
After watching her for a moment, his gaze drifted toward the window.
A clear sky.
An ordinary cityscape.
For once, everything looked so peaceful that it seemed like nothing could ever happen.
But the words of the girl he'd met in his dream still lingered in Rai's mind.
Savior.
The word still hadn't faded.
("What on earth... is that woman...?")
Rai closed his eyes briefly.
Then he looked out the window again.
Someday, if he met her again.
He didn't want to run, and he didn't want to fight.
He wanted to face her properly and talk.
"...Senior."
Rai murmured very softly.
"Let's really talk next time."
Far away, on a building's rooftop.
Whoooooosh...!!!
Touka stood there, her scarf fluttering in the wind, looking down at Rai lying in the hospital room.
She gazed at him silently for a moment, then quietly spoke.
"An ending like this."
The corner of Touka's mouth lifted slightly.
"That's a little different from what I predicted~!"
What those words meant, only she knew.
The peak of a certain mountain.
Thick fog rolled down along the mountainside.
Whenever the wind blew, the trees planted in the graveyard swayed low, and pale moonlight settled between the weathered gravestones.
There, a woman appeared.
Bandages were wound across every part of her face.
The one eye visible between the bandages looked weary and sunken.
It was Chain.
Chain walked into the graveyard without a word.
Thud. Thud. Thud.
And she stopped in front of a particular gravestone.
She carefully set down the single white flower she held in her hand.
Swish.
Carved into the gravestone was a familiar name.
Rafia Curtlay.
Chain stared at the name for a long while.
Her lips trembled faintly.
"...Rafia."
Chain spoke quietly.
"I... was trying to get revenge."
Her voice cracked.
"The person who did that to you, sis... I tracked them down... and I came within a hair of killing them."
Her words grew muddled at the end.
Chain bowed her head.
"But... I couldn't even finish it properly."
She clenched her fists.
"And on top of that... I hurt someone who had done nothing wrong."
Chain's voice began to tremble more and more.
"Am I...."
At last, a single tear fell.
"Am I really someone who can't do anything right without you, sis?"
Chain sank down in front of the gravestone.
"Without you... I don't understand anything. Not what I'm supposed to do... not how I'm supposed to live...."
Chain wept as she stared at the gravestone.
"...I'm sorry, Rafia."
Just then—
Whoooooooosh~!
A breeze stirred gently.
The white flower resting on the gravestone swayed lightly.
Swish.
And a single petal broke free.
Riding the wind, the petal drifted slowly toward Chain.
Just as the tear she'd shed slid down her cheek—
Tap.
A single white petal settled softly on the tear.
Instantly, Chain's crying stopped.
"......!!"
Chain's eyes flew wide open.
She raised a hand and gently touched the petal clinging to her cheek.
Then she looked at the gravestone.
"...Rafia?"
Silence hung for a moment.
Chain lifted the petal onto her fingertip.
Then she slowly placed her hand on the gravestone.
"...I don't know what kind of life I'll go on to live."
Chain's voice still trembled, but something had changed from moments before.
"Whether I'll keep chasing revenge... or end up walking down a completely different path...."
Chain slowly closed her eyes.
"I don't know yet."
A moment later, Chain brought her hand to her right eye.
Swish.
And she rested it on the eye patch she wore along with the bandages.
"But still...."
Chain smiled faintly toward the gravestone.
"With this eye you gave me...."
Strength gathered in her fingertips.
"I'll watch over the world again."
Chain gazed at the gravestone in silence for a long while.
"And with my other eye... I'll see for myself."
A cold wind swept over the mountain peak, and Chain's hair scattered in the breeze.
And the white flower resting on the gravestone swayed quietly.