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« on: February 01, 2016, 06:01:41 pm »
Mio shakes her head and returns the hug.
"It's just.....I....
.....i-it's just not been....I've been....I-I have to tell you.
S-Sachi....s-she wasn't the first person I lost. I-I lost my parents, too. I-It was a car crash. T-Tatsuya was just a baby, a-and I had to......me and Taro....I-I had to take care of my siblings alone, mostly. H-He helped, but....h-he was always ill, and getting old.....and I-I couldn't always just ask him......i-it was hard, but I managed. I had to. T-they left money, a-and I had some h-help managing it, b-but....
I-I wanted to fix the world, after that. I wanted to m-make things better, not just f-for myself and my siblings, b-but.....for everyone. I-I figured, if the world w-was this arbitrary, t-then I'd fight to give it meaning, you know? S-so, when I heard that a girl like m-me could become a Hero of the Shinju-sama, I-I.....I jumped at the chance. I-I wanted to make the world better. F-for everyone....b-but also for S-Sachi and Tatsuya.
T-they said I...was hopeless. I had no chance of becoming a Hero. Ayane, Chizuru, Sora...a-all of them, they had inherent p-potential. I d-didn't. So.....I trained. For four years, I-I trained to....t-to fight, until my feet bled and my b-bones ached. I-I wanted nothing more than to....b-become a Hero, to help save the world. A-at the end of it.....t-they came and told me that I had.....p-potential. Not much, b-but.....I had it. I became a Hero that day.
I was the only one, at first. T-the old generation had just retired, a-and.....i-it was just me, then Ayane, then Chizuru, then H-Hikari.....then Yuki and Sora....w-we fought the Vertex for two years, a-and then the Taisha called me and said that S-Sachi had......t-the greatest potential of us all. S-she was destined to be a b-better Hero than me, than Chizuru, than anyone. I-I objected. Of course I did. I-I wasn't going to let them p-put Sachi in danger, and I-I never should have.
S-she begged me to let her become a Hero, to f-fight with me. S-she didn't want to let me work all alone, a-and......I..I couldn't persuade her otherwise. S-she joined us. She was....s-she really was the strongest Hero we'd ever met.
T-then.....two years ago.....I-I....I shouldn't have let her go near that Vertex. I-I thought it wasn't a threat, b-but......i-it got back up and.....i-if Sachi hadn't.....if she hadn't just.....t-thrown herself in the way....I......I'd be dead."
Mio lets out a small, pained choking noise.
"I-It......I couldn't believe it. S-she....i-it was over in an instant. I-I didn't want to believe it. B-but......s-she was just lying there, still, in her normal clothes.....a-and deep down, I knew.
T-they couldn't even tell the truth about how s-she died, did you know that? T-they said she was struck by a car in traffic. T-they couldn't tell the truth about the Vertex. I-It would hurt everyone. I-I had to lie to Tatsuya, too. H-He knew, deep down....b-but he just......accepted it. H-he didn't want to l-let me cry, he said, because.....h-he thought that a Hero should be......strong.
A-and always....always I.....I have to think....I have to know if.....if I could've done something. I-If I truly did everything I-I could, or if I just....failed, as a Hero. E-even with all my training......I-I sometimes wondered, if....if I was right to want to be a Hero. I-I saved everyone....b-but not one of the people most important to m-me.....
I-It isn't right. T-The older sister.....s-shouldn't have to bury the younger one. S-she should be the one who protects t-the younger sister. S-she shouldn't be the one who just sits by and watches her-!"
The Hero lets out another choked sob.
