After Aya left the shop, Mika and I followed her out.
Mika’s steps were incredibly heavy. Aya’s words were likely circling endlessly in her head.
As I walked behind her unsteady, wandering form, we arrived at a familiar place.
“Mika.”
“...Mm.”
“We’ve walked quite a bit. Let’s take a break.”
“...But, what happened earlier...”
“It’s fine.”
Taking Mika by the hand, I led her to the park where I had looked after her once before. Though barely a week had passed, the sight of it felt strangely nostalgic.
I had her sit on the bench just like the last time. Mika hugged the Onikagura tightly to her chest and hung her head.
“...The truth is, I know.”
“Mika?”
With her head still lowered, she began to speak, the words spilling out of her like a leak in a dam.
“Everything that’s happening now is my fault. I knew all along that I could never be like my mother... but I kept a lid on it. I forced myself not to see it.”
“Mika...”
“I know. I should accept that woman’s proposal. I know that’s the ‘right’ choice. I can’t do anything on my own. I have no choice but to let go of everything... I know that...”
Mika had worked so hard until now. she had struggled to keep the organization running, to protect the legacy her mother had left behind. But reality isn't kind. No matter how much effort she put in, it only responded by baring its cold, ruthless fangs.
“But... but I have nothing but this! This is all I have left!”
When she finally looked up, she was crying. Unstoppable tears streamed down her cheeks, and her voice was a trembling mess of sobs and hiccups.
Her heart had broken long ago. She had simply been forcing the shattered pieces together, putting on a brave front because she felt she had to be strong. No matter how much she blustered, she was still just a fragile girl.
“Mother died, the Himatsuri-gumi was about to fall apart, and I thought I had to do something! Because I loved her, because I admired her... I didn’t want to lose what she left behind!”
She surely hadn't been able to tell anyone. As the leader of the organization, as the daughter of Kagura Himatsuri, she couldn’t show any weakness. There was no one who could see her as just "Mika"; everyone only saw her as Kagura’s daughter.
Now, the floodgates had finally opened, and she was pouring out everything she had suppressed.
“I broke it. I... I broke everything.”
Even if Mika hadn't taken the lead, the Himatsuri-gumi would have collapsed regardless. Uryu surely would have teamed up with Shadow no matter what she did.
All Mika had managed to do was postpone the inevitable for a little while. A sense of desperate powerlessness swallowed her whole.
“Hey, Owari... what should I do?”
“Mika...”
She turned to me, crying as she clung to me as if I were her last hope.
“Everything... everything is going to be gone. The things I wanted to protect, everything my mother left for me... it’s all going to vanish...”
Clutching her precious sword while weeping, she looked like nothing more than a vulnerable girl. She held the blade even tighter as the tears continued to spill.
“...If I ran away, like the Doctor said... would I be able to protect at least this?”
In her weakened state, Mika had remembered their exchange from this morning. The joke the Doctor had made had found its way into the depths of her shattered heart. She wondered if she could at least save the Onikagura if she threw everything else away and fled.
“Hey, Owari. Will you... run away with me?”
Mika slowly reached her hand out toward me. She forced a smile through her tears—a smile that looked ready to shatter at any moment.
I gently took her hand. As soon as I did, she pulled back slowly, trying to draw me toward her. It felt as if I were being pulled into a bottomless swamp. If I gave in now, I would surely sink forever with her.
With my abilities, we could keep running and never be caught. We could go somewhere far away. Just the two of us, forever.
“...Yeah. If that’s what you want, Mika, I’ll run away with you to the ends of the earth.”
I was the one who had decided to stay with her until the end. If she truly wanted it, I would flee with her to the edge of the world.
If she truly wanted it.
I tightened my grip and pulled her hand back toward me with all my might. I hauled Mika up from the bench, using my other hand to support her back and steady her.
Her surprised face was inches from mine.
“Is that really what you want to do, Mika?”
“I...”
“What do you want?”
I knew it was a cruel question. What she’d just said was a desperate cry for help. But if she ran away now, Mika would never be able to look forward again. She would spend the rest of her life in retreat, never able to smile from the bottom of her heart.
I couldn't allow that.
No matter how dark the world she lived in was, I would always reach out to her. Just as Shimogaki had reached out to me that day, when I was left to rot, unnoticed by anyone.
Now it was my turn to reach out to Mika.
“What is your heart screaming?”
“I...”
Tears pooled in her eyes once more.
“I... I don’t want to give up!”
Along with a fresh flood of tears, Mika finally spat out the truth she had hidden deep inside.
“Even if the outcome is the same, even if it’s all in vain, I don’t want to give up! I want to fight until the very end! Because... because it’s precious to me!”
No matter how much she wished for it, the dissolution of the Himatsuri-gumi was likely inevitable. However, even if the result didn't change, that was no reason to quit.
If the path you walk changes, the scenery changes with it. Even if the destination is the same, the view at the end of a struggle is entirely different from the one seen after throwing everything away in surrender.
“Even if it’s going to end, if it’s a mess I caused, then I want to be the one to clean it up! At the very least, I want to fulfill my duty as the Second Generation leader until the end!”
“Yeah. Do whatever you want. I’ll help you until it's over.”
There wasn't much I could do. But I could at least support her.
“Yeah... yeah!”
Mika buried her face in my chest, letting out everything that had weighed on her through her tears. I simply held her, waiting silently for her to stop crying. If this helped her look forward even a little, then perhaps there was a point to me being here.
Even with these hands that were only capable of destruction, I could at least wipe away the tears of one person.
That’s right. I won’t ever abandon her.
For now, I would be Mika’s hero, and hers alone.
Even if every other Hero abandoned her, even if I had to make an enemy of Public Security, and even if the world turned against us. I would never leave her side.
After all, I had never once seen Mika smile from the bottom of her heart. The girl I knew was always on edge, her body battered and scarred, always weeping.
I swore then and there that I would stay involved with her until I saw her truly smile.
A hero is never supposed to ignore someone crying right in front of them.