Bay 12 Games Forum

+CRIT, +1 SKL

4-11

Bertholt lets out a small, light chuckle, the slightest hint of a mischievous glint in his eyes.
“My, my, you've gone a little red. I merely meant our future after this is over, of course, assuming we succeed in our endeavours. Eventually, our partnership's original purpose would have run it's course. Surely you must have something you want to do aside from living from day to day, no? I'm just curious."

“.....quite honestly, I haven't given that thought. I....cannot permit myself to admit that failure might be a possibility, though the idea has plagued my mind of late. All I permit myself to believe is in our certain success. I feel as if we are doing what Rhea would want.....even if it seems presumptuous to speak for the Goddess. To save lives, to protect Her creation at all cost, to end this senseless violence.”
"Then, perhaps, at the end of this madness, when all is resolved....I can turn my gaze towards our future, Roux."

Minato listened intently to the whole thing.

He figured there was something to Faith's insecurities; that she felt she wouldn't be attractive because she was an American in Japan, or that she felt like a fish out of water, both being a foreigner in a foreign land, and being someone who hadn't lived with the supernatural all her life. Minato himself had only awakened about two or three years ago, but he'd always been vaguely aware that the Kumon family wasn't an ordinary family. But this, this was something beyond what Minato had expected.

Then he heard what people were saying about Faith.

Minato's blood practically boiled as he heard exactly what people were doing to his girlfriend. Faith might have even had noticed that Minato's vague, but confident smile had been replaced with a cool, dead-serious glare, the moment she mentioned being harassed. The boy was used to fighting people like that in high school; he was a good student, and a good guy, but he'd nearly been expelled a few times for punching a guy who'd pinched the transfer student's ass in the face, or picking a fight with the girls harassing the shy girl who liked to sit alone. He'd never even spoken to the people he'd protected before, and yet their being bullied had awoken a sort of dragon in Minato, one that could only be tamed by ending the threat to the weak. And if that threat could be ended by hitting the person responsible, so much the better.

It was true, Minato knew, that he'd fantasised about Faith in ways that weren't quite innocent. She was beautiful, and Minato could hardly be blamed for wanting something more from someone he found incredibly attractive, who was his girlfriend. But he'd never act on something like that, not unless she wanted him to; the one thing Minato had done well, in service of becoming like a knight, was chivalry. The bastards who dared bully her because of her looks, therefore, were dead to Minato, and people who needed to be taught a lesson.

Yet under the boiling anger was dread. He'd cracked a few jokes, but good-naturedly. He'd told her she'd get used to it; after all, he had. After all, when the first time you'd ever been exposed to the supernatural was a superpowered monster breaking into your house, while you were taking a shower, to kill you, and the only way you could defend yourself was essentially by turning yourself into a transforming hero from a TV show, what else could surprise you? But, Minato remembered, he was a tough guy. He could take it. Faith wasn't.

The cold dread and guilt and the boiling anger and desire to get back at those who'd hurt Faith clashed in Minato's mind, and so he tries to remain calm. It was for her sake, after all; she didn't need him to think he hated her.

No, Faith didn't need the knightly avenger right now, she needed the understanding boyfriend. There wasn't anyone to lash out at, anyway. Nobody. This was something Minato didn't blame himself for, not completely; he did, however, quietly conclude that had he been there, the bullying would never have happened.

Not least of all because he'd shut them up himself.
"....is that.....all that troubles you? Is there anything else I should know that you're comfortable with telling me?"

"D-don't beat yourself up about it. We all make mistakes, we just need to pick each other up afterwards!"

"I suppose you're right. We cannot hope to take on the threat before us alone. Still.....I cannot help but wonder if we could've done this with less death."
Bertholt lightens up somewhat, relaxing beneath Roux's arm.
"In any case, it's always good to have you around, Roux. You help.....remind me what I'm doing this for."

"....well. At the very least, only half of the clan had to die."
Bertholt's tone of voice makes it clear he's rather unhappy with this whole affair, but given the alternative......