And I'm back! I'm really, really sorry I haven't been so active here lately. School's let out recently, so I should be able to do more, but I can't promise anything. Anyway, I'm actually working on a bigger story right now, but I figured I'd stop to whip this up after seeing episode 7 of Arc-V. I hope it tides you over until my next big story comes out. Read on!

From: The Deepest Darkness

Dearest Mother and Father,

I must say with a heavy heart that the lead that I placed my hopes on has evaporated before my eyes.

That badge... I believed that it would be the key to finding the way to a brighter future. And yet that stupid boy said lots of people have similar badges. Leo Duel School is not a small institution. If all of its students do possess such badges, then what I thought was a crucial clue carries very little meaning in truth.

Worse still, I was forced into a duel with that boy, and had no choice but to reveal my accursed power to innocent people. Even if that boy was a fool, he did not deserve to be endangered as he was. Finally, when my mask was damaged and I removed it, I was mistaken for Father, and the boy and his companions fled in terror. I fear for the repercussions that this could carry for Father and his friends.

I only wished to protect Mother...

...

Regardless, I cannot allow myself to dwell upon the past too fully. If I permit myself to waver even in the slightest, then my mission may very well be a failure already. I have seen the power that Academia possesses, as well as the repercussions of their actions. If not for them, the disaster may not have come to pass...

I can remember with perfect clarity the effects of the Academia's actions. Within the day, riots had begun all over the world. We held fast, believing that all would fix itself in time, but the world only spiraled further into entropy...

The strong murdered the weak...

The weak murdered the weaker...

The weakest banded together and slaughtered the strong in vengeance...

It was as though life itself had regressed to a darker time, except there was no time darker than this. I'd heard that people once thanked God every day for what they had been blessed with, but all I knew was people thanking God that they had not lost their lives yet.

But I performed no such feats. To me, there could be no God if such a nightmare was allowed to happen to this world.

...Then again, I had always deemed changing history to be an impossibility, so the fact that I was allowed to do so may mean yet that there is a God...

But I am digressing.

Things have changed in my quest, and not for the better, but I swore that I would not surrender, and so I will not. Mother, Father, please rest easy. You protected me with your lives, for no other reason that you loved me. Please allow me to do the same.

I will continue, further and further, until our darkened future is cast forevermore into light.

Your son, now and forever,

Yushou Sakaki

And that's all she wrote! Hope you enjoyed it. I can't guarantee I'll get anything new out soon, cause I'm a pretty slow writer, but I promise I'll keep doing my best.

Tomorrow's Hero, signing out.