Ch.49 The Future that could have been PT.4
The group is rushing towards the fight and they see more dead wizards on the way. It causes Akane to become increasingly jealous now because Nemesis is strong enough to kill wizards so quickly. She isn't happy they're dead, but that the power gap is so great.
The see the darkness from before as they soar to where it is the most present, the location of Nemesis. Tohka and Kotori are the most uneasy along with Mana, who can't believe how different this future is compared to the one she saw with a flourishing city filled with people who live in a peaceful time without worries and without war. It begs the question.
"Is this all because he was born a Spirit Child?"
Akane doesn't have an answer for Nemesis' powers because her Origami is human all the way. However, Kotori does have a slight answer.
"I think it's possible that the Origami of this time became a Spirit at some point. Don't forget that I became one when I was younger."
It is then that Kotori and Tohka's eyes go blank for a moment. Out of concern, Mana stops her flying to check on them. Akane keeps going as her mind is somewhere else. Mana floats over to Kotori and starts shaking her a little and asks.
"Kotori, are you okay?"
She shakes a little harder, and then Kotori's eyes go back to normal as she puts her hand to her head and looks like she has a headache. She then realizes what just happened as she explains.
"I just saw what happened….the me of this time. She isn't here anymore."
Mana, curious, looks at Tohka who is having the same reaction as she says the same thing. The difference being, she expresses despair as she says.
"She was talking to me. She's sad that things turned out this way. That saving Origami meant nothing in the end."
Kotori nods a bit as she explains.
"My other self said to stop him. She said she'd trust me with her remaining power to help him, but she doesn't want us to fight."
Tohka adds to that explanation.
"To put an end to his revenge, that's all they want."
Mana feels a little sad as she feels that Nemesis is still her nephew. The other Spirit Children are, but Hiro is different to her as her other self meant the world to him and that this creates a special bond between them. To her, killing Hiro is like killing her brother.
It is then that a blue portal opens up and Hiro emerges from it as Ellen appears with someone following her. Hiro has a serious expression as he asks.
"How long were we gone?"
To the others, it has only been a little while, and Hiro sighs with relief as he says.
"It's been about five days to us."
Ellen smiles with relief as well because their guest is a person who they hope will get Nemesis to stop or at least slow him down. Hiro equips his Mana eater as he prepares to move on ahead as he explains.
"Keep her safe, and I'll go on ahead to help with the distraction. We've only got one shot at this."
Hiro then begins running at super fast speeds to take the lead and leave the others to guard duty.
At a different part of the city, the old DEM building, Ryouko is fighting with Nemesis in a one on one fight as the bodies of her remaining wizards are scattered around the building. She manages to hold her own as she wields a black saber with a white laser edge. Nemesis is wielding his dark sword emitting from his hand. They clash relentlessly as neither is backing down as Nemesis comments.
"For a human, you're quite skilled."
Ryouko continues her assault as she retorts.
"Well who taught you? This old gal!"
Nemesis shrugs as he replies.
"Heh, doesn't really matter."
Ryouko grits her teeth as she asks.
"When did you turn into such a nihilist?"
Nemesis continues his assault, but as they clash some more, Nemesis summons a second blade on the opposite hand as he blocks an attack from Akane as she has a flaming fist attack ready, but Nemesis' bits appear and fire a dark straight laser at Akane's chest and bypass her flame and make a hole in her stomach, but she regenerates that as Nemesis' eyes widen as he proclaims.
"Theif!"
He sends his bits at Ryouko, who has to constantly deflect them and thus keeps her distracted. Nemesis then puts away one of his swords as he reaches and grabs Akane by the throat, and then proceeds to slam her on the ground as he snaps at her for some reason.
"I thought you had only a small part of Efreet's powers, but you must have stolen it from her!"
Akane feels pain from the impact and can't regenerate it since it is purely external injuries with damaging the tissue. Nemesis then uses his foot to turn her on her back. Ryouko watches helplessly as she wants to help a clear ally in this matter, but can't. Akane's guardian refuses to appear despite her clearly being in pain. She thinks as she tries to get up.
"I beat him before…and I can do it again…"
She tries to get up, but Nemesis elbows her back to the ground and states.
"Efreet was my aunt you sick thief. She used it to help us during the war on DEM. How dare you use her powers as your own!"
Akane's eyes begin glowing red as her flames turn from blue to red as she is losing control, but doesn't care right now. She unleashes a wave of fire to move Nemesis away, but he emits a dark wall that shields him from the fire. She becomes surprised despite lsing control and then he grabs her by the throat again and proceeds to strangle her with clear fury in his eyes and tells her.
"I'm going to watch you die, with my hands around your thieving neck! You won't be able to heal yourself if your body isn't damaged."
Akane is trying to get any air possible through the strangulation and then begins to gather fire into her hands as she grabs Nemesis' arms to burn him off, but he completely ignores the pain as she can't move. Nemesis explains to her with his anger.
"I went through a lot trouble to keep them away from this world, I even trapped them in the dimensional gap for protection, and you somehow got it.
As Akane tries to do anything with her vision fading, a voice demands.
"Hey, put her down!"
Nemesis turns and sees Hiro, but he's in his full armor state with his head covered. He moves with blinding speed as he dodges the lasers that are currently being aimed at him as she manages a blow on his evil counterpart by cutting him across the back and he lets go of Akane after that as she gasps for air with her eyes still being red. She gets a little dizzy from this and then passes out from the trauma and reverts to her normal form. Hiro looks at Akane and becomes worried.
"If she couldn't beat him, I don't have a prayer. But I need to buy time."
Nemesis summons back his bits as he explains.
"I've had enough pointless fighting. This whole world is doomed anyway."
Ryouko and Hiro's eyes widen as they wonder what he means. Nemesis snaps his fingers as a gigantic purple sphere appears in the sky as he explains.
"It took me a while, but I finally gathered most of the Spirits powers and converted them into this, a spacial quake of titanic proportions."
The size of the sphere is appears to be the size of a large moon and it gives off intense power like no one has ever seen. Hiro and Ryouko both argue the same thing.
"You can't do that, if you do then…"
Nemesis then tells them
"Yes, in a matter of minutes, this spacial quake will have reached the proper proximity to pull this world into oblivion!"
Hiro then steps forward and claims.
"You can't do something that horrible. It isn't in you."
Nemesis then demands.
"What do you know about me?"
Hiro removes his helmet as he explains.
" I know because it isn't in me, and you are me."
Nemesis looks surprised and then wonders.
"How are you…No, it doesn't matter. Because I am more "YOU" than you will ever admit!"
Hiro then argues.
"Then maybe you're just being overtaken by the negative power. I have to know for sure…(becomes more serious) I have to reach the real Hiro Itsuka, inside of you. The one who loves Spirits, but also cares about the human people around him, the one the people believe in."
Nemesis' eyes become intense as he declares.
"He's gone for good!"
Hiro has a little disbelief in his eyes as he says.
"Is he? I know he won't listen to me, but I brought someone he might want to talk to."
Ellen floats up to the building with someone in her arms who stands on the surface of the battle ground. Nemesis becomes immediately shock as he blurts out.
"No…it..it can't be!"
The person introduces herself a little as she says.
"It is me, Hero."
Mana, but an older one with long hair that she lets dangle as she is wearing a blue robe with a white jacket for warmth around her. Nemesis walks over as he asks with complete shock.
"Auntie Mana,….is it really you."
He suddenly gets a happy memory of her when he was child and they went fishing together as she helps him reel in a big fish and explains to him.
"Come on, Hiro. I thought you were good at this."
At the time, Hiro was a boastful child and claims.
"Come on, Auntie Mana. You know this fish is too big for one person to handle."
Without him noticing, Mana stops helping and Hiro reels in the fish by himself and it is big, and she says.
"Look at that, you did it."
Hiro looks at her and says.
"Well yeah, but I only got it because of you, Aunti Mana."
Mana shakes her head and says.
"No, you did it because you were strong enough to do it. I helped a little, but you did because you have the strength and heart of a hero. I know, I'll call you like that from now on, my Hero."
With the flashback ending, Mana walks over to her nephew and expresses empathy for him as she says.
"I know everything. I know you've had a very hard time since I died in this time."
His eyes return to their normal amber-brown color as she further says.
"But I want you to know, that right now, I'm here for you, and matter what, I love you."
Nemesis sniffles a bit and replies.
"I love you too….auntie Mana…(falls to his knees) I love you too."
Mana gets on her knees as well and asks.
"Hero, do you remember what it means to be a hero?"
Nemesis sniffles and replies.
"Never give up, and remember what matters most, and never forgetting."
Hiro words it with them as this is something that he never forgot, even during the war. Mana then tells Nemesis.
"Hero, there is an evil inside of you, and you need to expel. For you and the world."
Nemesis' eyes widen as he expresses guilt.
"What have I done!?"
He looks at the sky and says.
"The people of this world counted on me."
Ryouko is shocked as her Hiro is back, but he has to stop that spacial quake as he says.
"I know what I have to do….I have to apologize to everyone for all the bad stuff I did."
Nemesis flies to sky and tries to stop the spacial quake manually as he can't do it otherwise. Mana asks.
"What is he doing?"
Ryouko walks over and explains.
"I think he's trying to use his own power to disperse the spacial quake and make it move directions."
Nemesis starts screaming from the pain as he cries out.
"FORGIVE ME!"
Suddenly, his body turns purple and then he vaporizes. Ryouko is shocked by this as she simply gazes at the sky as it turns back to normal with the spacial quake being stopped. Hiro looks at the ground in anger at himself. After some moments of registering what happened, Ryouko says out of anger.
"I should have helped him. Maybe if we both tried, we could have…"
She then feels Mana's hand as she shakes her head and explains.
"No, he did what he thought was right for everyone, including himself."
She then walks back to Hiro and says.
"I'm happy that I could help, Hero, and I'm very proud of you."
Hiro himself is welling up a bit as he hugs her and says.
"I'm glad to see you one more time, Auntie. It won't be easy, but at least I'll have you in my heart."
Below the building, where Tohka, Kotori, and Ellen are, Ellen explains.
"When he saw how Nemesis reacted to Tohka, he knew that he must have felt the same affection towards the others. Hiro cherished his Mana more than anyone, and that she'd be able to reach him."
Mana turns towards Ellen and asks.
"Why not just send me?"
Ellen turns and answers.
"Because you don't know him like she did. It took us a while, but we found a Mana who survived in a timeline where Hiro was born. He turned out to be a kinder man, but he was overall the same as our friend."
A little later, the older Mana is escorted back to her home by Ellen and Tohka while Akane and Kotori return to the ship. Hiro is helping Ryouko bury her comrades and make graves for them. They bury them within an hour with Hiro's speed and her determination. She even makes a grave for her Hiro.
She stands at his grave for an hour before she expresses guilt over his fate.
"I got him back, but I couldn't stop him. Damn it, Itsuka. Why didn't you stay? I'm sure we could have rebuilt with you still here."
Hiro approaches her as he asks.
"What are planning on doing, coach?"
Ryouko looks at the sky again and replies.
"I can't tell you how long I've waited to be called that again. I wanted to hear Hiro say to me again more than anything else. He was a good man turned bad by that war."
She looks at Hiro and asks.
"How's the city in your time?"
Hiro explains to her what his time is like, about Spirit day, the AST, and about the new laws. Ryouko smiles and comments with a peaceful smile.
"Sounds like paradise to me."
Hiro then makes an offer.
"Coach, would you like to come with me and live in my world?"
Ryouko looks around, thinks, and replies.
"You know, it would be a cliché if I simply answered "no because this is MY world". I want to say that more than anything, but I can't bear it. Truth is, I was thinking about just killing myself when we dug those graves and join my comrades. But the thing is… I can't face them again… especially Tobiichi. I failed her son, and my best student."
She looks at the sky and shouts.
"You hear that, Tobiichi. I'm telling you to hate me with all your heart! I wanted to save your kid, but I couldn't, and I can't stand it."
She looks at Hiro and gives her answer.
"Yeah, I'll come with you. I don't give a damn about this wasteland anymore. I'm tired of the destruction, tired of death, and tired overall."
Hiro nods, but she then says.
"But you guys came through for us and stopped Nemesis. I know you guys have your own fight; otherwise you wouldn't have come here. My last job before retirement is putting an end to your fight too."
Hiro is happy as he's always wanted to fight alongside his coach, and they shake hands to seal their alliance. Tohka and Kotori still have their powers from their counterparts in this timeline and are grateful for not having to fight Nemesis.
Base Timeline DEM Headquarters
Isaac is debating on something as he has Ellen, Collette, and Jessica. He is wondering about his next move as Shinra and Yushin don't want to use his wizards anymore. He gives them new orders, but gives Ellen a little gift before they depart for the next timeline.