"Ah, yes, accidentally." Kanae held tight to Hotaru, just in case she did anything funny.
Kanae wasn't gonna get used to these huge changes, not any time very soon. But smaller things, things like pestering Hotaru to carry her and meeting with Akira every so often and seeing both the city...
Kanae...
"Fireflyyyyyy...I wanna visit the island. Can you carry me...?"
...was mostly up to the same shit.
Alongside the power those medallions gifted her was an immense amount of responsibility. Of course, she was diligent about it; she provided as much aid as she could in the formation of...
"Yeah..." Kanae nodded. "No, yeah, we can pull it off! We'll make an island, and then you all can lead the Eldiari there!"
Kanae usually went off on ideas like this, but... something about this was different. This actually sounded plausible!
"Do you think I could make something to put all these Eldriari in?"
Kanae thought about the bureaucratic nightmare that having Eldrians living amongst humans would cause. "I wanna trust you three with helping humans and Eldrians coexist. But the Eldriari need somewhere to go so that they can't...
Kanae playfully returned Hotaru's pout. "I had it under control, you worry too much."
The evac went...surprisingly smoothly. As they had said, the Eldrians' blood kept everyone from being attacked, and the Eldriari were safely subdued and kept from advancing any further into the city.
But as...
Kanae smiled. "Haru. I'll tell you like I told Hotaru some time before; I'm not gonna blame you for what you became, or for what happened to you. We're gonna have plenty of time to reconcile, don't worry."
From above, a screech could be heard. A beastly ant-hawk glowered at the scene below it...
Inside the city proper, warped beasts of all shapes and sizes were rampaging. Buildings were being toppled over, the ground shook, and humans ran screaming for fear of dying.
But on the horizon, help was arriving.
"Everyone!" Kanae shouted over the chaos (has her voice always carried this...
Kanae gripped Hotaru's hand. "If he comes for you all next, he'll have to answer to me."
Rui held the branch Aolfa gave them tight. "Here's the plan. We'll go into the city and start evacuating everyone. Each group is gonna get some of this blood to keep the Eldriari from attacking."
"And the...
"And will killing them bring them back?!"
Kanae spat back at Genki.
"I learned about Hotaru literally today. I don't know if I'll โever get over it. But I can't bring her back to life, and neither can Enjyuu, and neither can anyone else here. But those things"โShe pointed at the horizonโ"are...
Holy shit...so they weren't out just yet. But it's as Hotaru said; if Aolfa isn't on board...
"You told me you admired humanity." Kanae looked at Aolfa. "I want to help them. But I can't do it at the cost of those I love."
She pointed at the vial Rui held. "That's the ticket to our survival...
Rui took the vial with a fierce look. "We'll make good use of this."
Kanae thought. Here it was, an opportunity for her to return to her old life, before she got wrapped up in all this.
...No. An "old life" won't exist for her if she chooses that. She said it to Akira before: she'd rather die...
Rui took a breath.
"Kanae...I don't know her all that well, outside of the context of her being my enemy. But she wants to protect something. I know what that's like, having something you're willing to die to protect."
They glanced at Shouji.
"Unlike Kanae, however, she has two things she...
"Dammit..." Kanae looked at the horizon, at the definite destruction these creatures were causing. So after all of this, after all she's done to protect everyone, she couldn't...
Kanae's attack had left a massive crater in the earth. In the center of that crater, the Kaiserin struggled to get...
The silence was so strong that Aolfa's voice startled her. It seems like this fight wasn't quite over.
"I can't do that, Aolfa!" Kanae glanced at Hotaru. Selfish. "There's gotta be another way! It doesn't have to be just humanity!"
She didn't know if her words would reach him.
A thousand scenes from a thousands shows played in Kanae's head, scenes just like this one. The last great attack, made with every ounce of strength the hero had. It was as if everything went silent, and all she could hear was roaring wind and her own heartbeat.
She had promised something to...
Kanae frowned. She wanted to say that it was fine, that Hotaru shouldn't apologize, that Kanae loved her with the heat of a thousand stars. But there wasn't time. She could say what she wanted once this was over.
For now, she took advantage of the path she cleared.
The Kaiserin's roars grew...