Chapter 2: Episodes 23-37
After Seito invaded Hokuto, Kazumi and Akaba went to rescue Kiba. Until they got back, Sento and Banjou had nothing to do but sit at the entrance to the Sky Road and wait. The setting wasn't great. Dry, dead plants on either side. Dry, dusty road under their feet. Sky overcast, with the red of the Sky Wall bleeding into the gray air, painting everything in a foreboding haze.
Banjou paced. He had too much energy. He wanted to go to Hokuto himself and fight to save Kiba, fight to defeat Blood Stalk, fight to beat back Seito. He wasn't good at waiting. Sento, on the other hand, stood still, staring at the Sky Wall. The moment he saw Kazumi, Akaba, or Kiba, he was going to jump into action.
Releasing a pent-up rush of air, Banjou scrubbed his hands through his hair. Despite the tense situation, a fond smile lifted Sento's lips. "Relax. It could be a while."
"How can I relax?" Banjou retorted. He waved at the Wall. "They're fighting bad odds!"
The odds were bad, but if they could get through the Sky Wall into Touto, Sento and Banjou would even those odds. The Kaiser system was strong, but Banjou and Sento had grown stronger too. And if Cross-Z and Build weren't enough, they had Grease to help out, and Akaba's Hard Smash. And, if necessary, the Hazard Trigger. Now that Sento knew Banjou could snap him out of it, using the Trigger was—well, it was still terrifying, but it was manageable.
"Try thinking of something else," Sento suggested with a half shrug.
"And what are you thinking about, then?" Banjou asked.
"Running calculations." Banjou groaned and Sento huffed out a laugh. "Muscled Fool," he muttered.
"Who are you calling a fool?" Banjou asked, but without his usual exuberance. Instead, he plopped down into the dirt and put his elbows on his knees, fists on his cheeks, to stare at the Wall too.
Banjou was cute when he pouted. Perhaps that was why Sento enjoyed riling him up so much. And how could it be that, in the midst of invasion and with peoples' lives on the line, Sento could still smile? It was all Banjou.
"Oi," Banjou said at length, cutting into the quiet. When Sento hummed, showing he was listening, Banjou continued. "Does science…Can you explain soulmates with science?"
Sento frowned and lowered his eyes. "No."
Banjou let out a noise that said he was unhappy with the simple answer, so, despite how it might confuse the other man, Sento explained better.
"Science tells us that soul marks likely appear at puberty because of the change in the chemical signals the body gives off at that time. That much is easy," he said in the same tone he always used when talking about science or engineering. Confident, with a bit of swagger to it.
Science said Sento would never have a soul mark, that Sento simply did not have a soulmate.
"From that data, we can also confidently claim to understand why being exposed to the light from Pandora's Box erased the soul marks. It changed the personalities of everyone present, changed the chemical levels of their brains. So, if the soul mark said you were meant for someone before, the new you, so vastly different, is no longer that person's soulmate, because you are, at least neurologically, a different person."
Sometimes, Sento wondered who Himuro Gentoku's soulmate was and what happened to them. Had it been a platonic match? He couldn't imagine Gentoku in love, but he also didn't know what the man had been like before the Sky Wall Disaster. Maybe he'd been cuddly…
Yeah, no.
"We can also see in data that people can be happily married to others who are not a romantic soulmate, and good friends to those who are not a platonic soulmate."
It was possible for Banjou to fall in love again, after Kasumi. The bond would not be as profound as a soulmate bond was, but he could still be happy.
"But no one has ever been able to explain how the names appear, or how the universe chooses whose name appears there. There's no scientific explanation for the depth of understanding between soulmates nor the extent and strength of the feelings people experience only around their soulmate. We just…don't know."
His voice trailed off, not even echoing in the air around them. For a few long moments, neither of them spoke.
"A strength of feelings," Banjou breathed out. He took a heaving breath. "In all that research, you ever hear of one-sided soulmates?"
Now Sento regarded Banjou curiously. One-sided? "No," he said, incredulous. "That's not how soulmates work, Muscled Fool."
Banjou didn't even rise to the bait. He just roughed up his hair, clearly agitated. One of his braids started to fray. Sento wanted to re-braid it for him. As if hearing the offer aloud, Banjou shook his head.
"Then I don't understand," Banjou griped, lightly punching the ground. "I thought—What does your mark say?"
Sento took a step back. His mark?
Banjou turned around, no doubt staining the seat of his pants, and frowned up at Sento. "Is it Misora?"
The laugh snuck out before Sento consciously realized it was coming. He covered his mouth with the back of his hand while Banjou narrowed his eyes. "Sorry. No. It's not Misora." He shook his head. "She's like my sister."
"Then who's Misora's soulmate?" he asked. He shook his head forcefully, dispelling the thought. "No, no, never mind. Who's your soulmate?" His voice was as forceful as when they argued, but with an undercurrent of something softer, something shy.
No one had ever asked him that. For one, it was a social faux pas. For another, Sento simply didn't interact with people regularly enough for the topic to come up. Misora had found out firsthand, and they had both told Owner. He had never had to admit to his deficiency before.
"I—"
The words caught in his throat, and he swallowed thickly. Still staring up at him, Banjou lifted his eyebrows and softened his mouth—an encouraging expression rather than an interrogative one.
Sento swallowed again. "I don't have one."
"Huh?!" Banjou jumped up, grabbing Sento by the shoulders. "That's not possible!"
Sento shook Banjou off. He didn't back away, though his body was as tight as a piano wire. Instead, he met Banjou's disbelieving gaze. "I don't have a soul mark. You could strip me bare and not find one." Another thick swallow and Sento's even tone faltered. "I'm no one's soulmate. And no one is mine."
Saying it out loud hurt more than Sento had anticipated. His chest gave a pang that hurt worse than any Smash hit. Saying it out loud was like admitting that Sento wasn't real or wasn't worthy of a connection that deep.
Banjou shook his head. "Bullshit," he said under his breath. He grabbed Sento's left shoulder. "Sento—"
Noise came from the direction of the Sky Wall and both men's attention flipped there. Kazumi and Akaba were hobbling as fast as they could away from the pass. The Kaizer System fighters followed behind.
To say Sento was glad the conversation was forced to end would be an understatement. He would rather fight to protect people than talk about soulmates. Especially with the one person he most wished was his.
…
…
Gentoku returned as Kamen Rider Rogue. Blood Stalk took many of the bottles. Kazumi moved into Nascita with the rest of them. Something weird was going on with Misora's bracelet. Nanba Children tried to steal Pandora's Box. Akaba died. Sento had to create a way to control the Hazard Trigger so Touto would win the proxy battles with Seito. Sawa revealed herself to be a spy. Nabeshima's family was in danger. Seito invaded. The queen of Mars took over Misora's body. Sento had to get labeled a traitor to recover Pandora's Box from Blood Stalk.
For a long while, there was no time to consider soulmates.
And, in the battle for the Box, Sento still wasn't thinking about it.
"Did you really kill Kasumi just to make me stronger?!" Banjou shouted, his voice carrying over the sounds of battle.
"Ah, Rogue told you, did he?" Blood Stalk asked, bored tone as usual.
Banjou's soulmate had been killed for a reason like that? Blood Stalk had manipulated the soulmate system for something that twisted? Banjou attacked Blood Stalk, who commented on his fury, but it wasn't that. Banjou wasn't angry. He was sad. He was so sad that he had to punch something or he would start to cry.
And Sento was sad for him.
A cube of power from Pandora's Box surrounded Banjou, landing explosive blows all over his body and forcing him out of his transformation. With pained gasps, Banjou fell to the floor.
"Banjou!" Sento called, locked in combat with a Hazard Smash.
"Is this really all you can manage?" Blood Stalk asked condescendingly. He lifted his hand toward Pandora's Box once more.
If he touched the box—if he threw another attack at Banjou—! Without his armor, he would die!
"Don't!" Sento shouted, shoving the Smash away from him and racing toward Banjou.
Soulmate or not, Banjou was special to Sento. He was a fire, burning brightly in Sento's life no matter how dark it became. He was an idiot, but he made up for it with passion. And he was the one person Sento's heart called out for. The one person he could not survive losing.
Blood Stalk's hand landed on Pandora's Box. Sento threw himself between Banjou and the attack.
The Build transformation shattered upon impact. Even with armor, it felt like getting stabbed in the back. Sento collapsed next to Banjou.
"Sento," Banjou puffed, voice pained. Sento couldn't inhale deep enough to reply.
Blood Stalk lifted Sento by the jacket only to kick him in the head, sending him crashing to the ground once more.
"You must have a death wish, taking a blow that close range," Blood Stalk commented. "Fine. I'll grant your wish and kill you." He dragged Sento across the floor, every inch sending fresh aches down his spine. "And once again," Blood Stalk glanced over his shoulder at Banjou, "you'll have to watch someone you care for die before your eyes."
Blood Stalk lifted Sento into the air. He couldn't breathe. It hurt. Everything hurt.
"Why…can't I move?" Banjou wheezed. The paralysis from losing the transformation still held him. He wouldn't be able to do anything. "Why can't I stand up?!"
Sento was going to die.
No. Blood Stalk wanted to kill him to raise Banjou's Hazard level. He wanted to hurt Banjou. Emotionally and physically. And Sento couldn't let that happen!
Sento managed to get a hand up, grabbing Blood Stalk's wrist and trying, desperately, to make him let go. Blood Stalk only lifted him higher, choked him tighter.
"He believed in me, dammit! He gave me a future!" Banjou yelled into the floor.
Sento's head was starting to spin.
"He's my rabbit," Banjou cried quietly. "And now…I can't do anything? Again?"
Spots appeared across Sento's vision. He couldn't even make noise anymore.
"Hell no," Banjou's voice was full of effort, making it through the fog in Sento's mind. "It's not!"
Blood Stalk dropped him and Sento crashed to the floor, gasping, lightheaded from the return of oxygen. Across the room, Banjou stood, eyes glowing red. Blood Stalk touched Pandora's Box and shot an attack at Banjou. Unable to breathe properly, let alone stand up, Sento watched it hit.
Except it didn't hurt him. Instead, it purified Banjou's bottle. It allowed him to use the Knuckle to become Cross-Z Magma and defeat Blood Stalk. And the entire time, Sento's brain was racing.
Red eyes. Stalk saying he was doing all of this to raise Banjou's Hazard level. The fact that he'd been framed for murder so that Faust could get ahold of him for experiments. Pandora's Box responded to his touch.
Maybe…Maybe there was something…inhuman…about him…
"Ack! Ah! Hot! It's hot! Hot hot hot hot hot!" Banjou yelped, hopping around after using his finisher.
"I was a badass!" he bragged to Kazumi, before they wrestled on the ground arguing about who was the bigger idiot.
"Do we still have any of that instant ramen? I'm starving," he asked when they returned to Nascita. "Protein! Ramen! Best Match!"
Sento chuckled softly. Same, stupid Banjou.
"Hey, Sento," Sawa called his attention. "I looked into Banjou's past…"
…
…
Banjou had alien DNA. It explained so much.
It worried Sawa and Misora and even Banjou, but Sento didn't miss a beat. "It doesn't change anything," he said to Misora over breakfast. "He's still the same Muscle Brain. Still has the same heart." He smiled at her. "No matter what happens, he's still Banjou. And nothing's gonna change what we've shared."
"You still love him."
Sento jerked back, but the fact that he didn't immediately deny it made Misora's smile grow. "Like that matters," he scoffed.
Misora giggled. "Of course it matters," she said. "It matters if it makes you happy."
Being around Banjou did make Sento happy. And recent events had proven that Sento wasn't the worst the world had to offer, and he'd been doing his best to make up for the sins of his past. He was in a much better place, mentally speaking, than he had been. But Sento's happiness wasn't what mattered. Banjou's was.
Before Sento could respond, Sawa burst into the room. If Misora had been happy before, she positively lit up at the sight of the older woman. Not for the first time, Sento theorized that the name under Misora's bracelet was Takigawa Sawa.
…
…
Banjou always knew what to say to make Sento feel better. It was part of why Sento loved him so much, why he sometimes wondered if perhaps they were soulmates after all. But it never felt like Sento could do the same in reverse. The best he could do was make snarky comments or take Banjou's mind off whatever was bothering him. He wasn't good with words.
Even after watching Blood Stalk tell Banjou that they were the same, that Banjou had the same urges and bloodlust. All Sento could do was tease that Banjou looked down and offer to fight for him. It was Banjou who pushed through Blood Stalk's words on his own, stood up and fought back on his own.
Well, they weren't soulmates. It made sense that Sento would be lacking somehow. That didn't mean it didn't hurt.
…
…
The night after Prime Minister Himuro was kidnapped, Sento took a warm bath and tried to think. Was there any way he could have prevented it from happening? Where would he be held? Seito? Hokuto? Somewhere in Touto? Pandora's Tower? How could they get him back? By the time he exited the bath—the water gone cold—he was no closer to coming up with a plan than he had been before.
It wasn't until he was pulling on a shirt that Sento noticed the mark on his chest. He paused with the shirt barely over his head and reached up, fingers shaking, to trace the intricate lines over his heart. Touching it sent a flutter through his chest and he quickly pulled his fingers back. Sento picked the mirror up and brought it closer to get a better look.
The lines weren't hard black, like he'd seen on Banjou's shoulder. There were silver and gold tendrils weaving through the calligraphy, so thin they might be overlooked except that they caught the light and shimmered. Only after staring at the soul mark for endless minutes did Sento finally take in what it read. Just one symbol.
"Dragon," he whispered.
What had been the inciting moment? When had the mark appeared? Was it taking the hit for Banjou? But the mark had not been there the night afterward. Was it…watching Banjou stand up for himself and his humanity? Or had Sento been right a year ago when he said he simply wasn't old enough yet, and now he was?
There was no way of knowing for certain. The only concrete facts were that the mark had not existed that morning when he got dressed, but it did tonight after his bath.
And who was named 'Dragon' anyway? Immediately, Sento thought of Banjou. Banjou Ryuuga. His name included the same kanji for 'dragon' as what was on Sento's chest. The idea that perhaps, somehow, his soulmate was Banjou—Sento's heart leapt. But it was only for an instant. Banjou's soul mark had been prominent across his shoulder blade.
Ogura Kasumi. Not Kiryuu Sento.
'Dragon' had to refer to someone else. Perhaps he would meet someone new whose name was just 'Ryuu.' Just 'Dragon.' After everything else they had experienced with the Smash, Faust, Blood Stalk, Kamen Rider Rogue, the Hell's Bros, the war, a name like that wouldn't even be the weirdest thing of the month.
Sento clenched his hand into a fist and used it to cover the soul mark and pressed his lips together. If this 'Dragon' was his soulmate…would he feel more for them than he did for Banjou? At least half of Sento's heart was always considering Banjou, was thinking of how to help him or make him smile. Was it even possible for him to love someone else more than that?
"This is terrible," he said to his reflection. "But I guess I'll have to try."
…
…
Sento was never going to meet Dragon.
He wasn't going to save the world from Blood Stalk – from the alien Evolt.
Pain laced through his veins and Sento cried out, falling to the asphalt below.
Banjou shouted his name, but Sento couldn't respond. He couldn't think straight. Every breath hurt. The very movement of blood through his body was excruciating. Sounds of pain, gasps and groans and moans, escaped him without notice. He couldn't hear himself, couldn't focus on anything going on around him.
Sento's hands clutched at the neck of his shirt, ripping at it as if that would allow him to breathe, would stop the pain. Someone was shouting. The sound hurt. The light in the sky hurt. Everything hurt. One of his hands jerked from his collar to clutch over his heart.
The touch over his soul mark sparked a flash of relief. Worry, concern, love washed over him. His soulmate was out there. His soulmate was feeling for him. Tears pricked at Sento's eyes, pouring down his cheeks, and he didn't know if it was from the pain flooding back in or the knowledge that someone cared about him so deeply that he could feel it at a touch.
…
…
Once in the hospital, with heavy painkillers, the agony dimmed just enough for Sento to comprehend human speech again.
Evolt had infused an alien poison into him. He would die in two and a half days. Only Evolt could cure him, because Vernage was too weak.
Misora was at his bedside, her eyes red from crying and her inability to save him. Banjou was two steps back, arms crossed defensively over his chest, eyes on the floor. Amid the shivering of his body, Sento managed to clumsily reach out.
"Banj-jou," he stuttered. Banjou tensed but didn't look at him, and tears gathered behind Sento's eyes. "R-ryuu—" His voice failed him then as another wave of pain racked through him and he whined.
Someone was holding his hand. Sento squinted his eyes open. Though his vision was blurry from tears and pain, he would know that red hair anywhere, would know those hands. Banjou was touching him. Sento was dying, and Banjou wasn't his soulmate, but he was there. At the end of it all, Banjou was there with him.
More tears poured from Sento's eyes, but no one commented. Banjou held his hand tighter and leaned over Sento to be closer.
"You gotta fight it," he said, his voice thick. "You can't—Sento, you can't—" Drops hit Sento's cheeks that didn't come from his own eyes. The tears were obvious in Banjou's voice. "I can't lose you, stupid rabbit," he gasped out.
Rabbit. That was the second time Banjou had referred to Sento as a rabbit. Rabbit like the first bottle Sento ever used to become Build and still used often. What a match they made. A rabbit and a dragon. Never a perfect match.
Rabbit.
Dragon.
Feeling just on the edge of an epiphany, Sento tried to follow the sensation, but the poison returned with a vengeance, heedless of the pain medicine. Sento shouted, gripping Banjou's hand in a vice and squeezing his eyes shut.
All coherent thought left him.
…
…
Vaguely, Sento was aware of being moved. A rumbling that suggested he was in a vehicle. The sounds of combat. But it was all so far away, muffled by the constant piercing pain in his head, the feeling of fire in his veins, the way his lungs ached with every breath.
"My only partner is Kiryuu Sento!"
Just over Sento's heart, his soul mark pulsed. For a moment, for eternity, the pain and ache of the poison dimmed. His body relaxed. He heard Sawa calling his name, panicked, even though he felt better than he had in—how long?
"Will you give your own life to save Sento's?" Evolt asked.
The pain crept back in and Sento gasped. No. No, not again. Prickles all over his skin, flames eating his body, it all came back except for the pounding in his head.
"This is the worst," Banjou snarked. Despite the exhaustion pulling at his voice, Sento could hear Banjou's smile. "It's because of you that I can't break free from being a foolish human." A laugh. "Thank you."
Stay human, Sento wanted to say, but his lungs were seizing. Stay with me.
"I'll leave the rest to you. My soulmate."
He wasn't looking at Sento. He was facing away, toward Evolt. Alone.
Wait for me, Sento begged. I'll fight at your side. Dragon—
Banjou transformed into Cross-Z Magma, and as night fell, the mark on Sento's chest throbbed. His soulmate was suffering. Banjou's body was failing. His pain mixed with the pain from the poison and Sento convulsed. He couldn't think straight, just a repetitive Banjou, Banjou, Banjou!
Everything went dark.
…
…
He gasped back to life, exhausted but pain free, just to see that Evolt had taken over Banjou's body.
"No. You're—" he gasped.
Banjou—Evolt—gave a patronizing smile. "How strange," he commented, lazily, like he was bored. "To think my own DNA would have a soul mark," he reached up to touch over Banjou's heart. "And such a soul mark, indeed."
Banjou's soul mark was on his back. The inane thought crossed Sento's mind. His own soul mark was over his heart, but he had seen Banjou's clear and dark as ink on Banjou's shoulder blade.
Evolt chuckled, lowering his hand. "No matter. His having a soulmate only made this easier for me."
Then he transformed into Evolt Phase 2 and went after Pandora's Box. Sento chased after him, leaving the ambulance, Sawa, and Kazumi behind.
"Do you think you can take me, in that shape?" Evolt taunted.
Sento, panting from the effort of standing upright after three days suffering from Evolt's poison, shook his head. "Shut up. I'll protect Pandora's Box."
Evolt chuckled again. "Pandora's Box, huh? What about my host?"
Glaring, Sento strapped the Build Driver to his waist. "I'll get him back, too."
During their fight, Evolt explained that Banjou was not only alien, but a part of Evolt. Evolt's DNA arrived on Earth and possessed a human, and that human was the unborn Banjou. Banjou was Evolt.
"Do you still want him back?" Evolt teased cruelly before shoving Sento away.
Banjou always knew the right thing to say or do to snap Sento out of his funk, get him out of his own head. The Build System reacted to him, let him transform, because he cared about other people, because the desire to protect people was strong in his heart. He liked card games and protein ramen. He complained about how hard it was to braid his hair, but still spent an hour every few days to do it. He'd even let Sento try once, except Sento's braids were loose and crooked, and Banjou had banned him from ever trying again.
What did it matter that he shared DNA with Evolt? Maybe that was part of why Banjou was 'punch first, talk later,' but maybe it wasn't. And nothing of Evolt contributed to the man Sento loved. Nothing evil resided in Banjou Ryuuga's heart.
"Of course I do," Sento ground out. "I'll always want Banjou at my side. No matter what."
Evolt huffed another laugh, this one a tad surprised as well. "I suppose that's why you're his soulmate."
Before Sento could even properly process the words, Evolt attacked and knocked him out of his Build transformation. Then, while Sento was still reeling, he explained why Sento's father had killed himself—Evolt's doing, again—and how every fight, every terrible thing in Banjou's life since he'd met Sento, had been Evolt raising Banjou's Hazard level so that he could merge them together.
"Had I known he could have a soulmate, I would have waited until it appeared before cutting him loose from Nanba Industries," Evolt mused. "Because then I would have known how best to raise his level." Even in his armor, it was clear to see the patronizing look he sent Sento. "Maybe I even feel a little bad for him, since you don't share his mark."
Sento, still half-paralyzed from the fight and exhausted from the poison, wheezed a defiant, "And how do you know I don't?"
It wasn't something he should admit to the enemy, but the enemy was also Banjou, and if Banjou was still in there, could still hear him—He needed to know.
Evolt shook his head and stood up. "You forget. I've seen your body. I know you don't have a match. A blank body for a blank person." He rolled his shoulders. "Well, I'll be taking Pandora's Box then."
And, despite Sento's best efforts, he did. Evolt took the Box and the bottles and Sento's soulmate and disappeared. Because Sento was too weak to stop him.
…
…
He woke up back in Nascita with Misora and Kazumi looking over him. Pandora's Box had not yet been opened, but it was only a matter of time.
"I have to go," Sento said, struggling to sit up and grab his shoes.
"You can't!" Misora argued, trying to push him back down. "You're not healed yet. And if you go, you'll be fighting Evolt in Banjou's body!"
"I know that!" Sento shouted, startling both of his friends. Misora pulled her hands back. There was a rushing in Sento's ears. "But I can't abandon him." He met Misora's gaze. "He's my soulmate."
While Kazumi let out a strangled, "What?" Misora frowned.
"I know you love him," she said, "And I know he loves you too. But, Sento…"
Without hesitation, Sento pulled his shirt up enough to show the mark over his heart. He didn't need to look at it to see that it had changed. He could feel it. No longer did that black, silver, and gold calligraphy read 'Dragon.' Proudly displayed across his heart was a full name.
Banjou Ryuuga
Misora and Kazumi gasped—though for different reasons. Both Misora and Sento ignored Kazumi shouting about the indecency. He was background noise. Misora's hand came up, reached toward Sento's chest, but retracted before touching.
"Sento," she breathed. "How?"
He shook his head. "I told you," he teased, though his voice shook. "I simply wasn't old enough."
Her shocked frown melted into a warm smile, which he managed to return for a few moments. Then, dropping his shirt, he frowned.
"I can't leave him as he is," he said. "I have to save him, and the world. I'm the only one who can."
…
…
Except he couldn't.
Evolt defeated Kazumi, and then Gentoku, and then tricked Sento by impersonating Banjou. Hearing Banjou's voice was enough to make Sento hesitate, and that led to his defeat.
"How'd you like that impersonation?" Evolt asked smugly. "Ah, this soulmate stuff is fun. It makes humans do the stupidest things."
And then he opened Pandora's Box. The only reason the world didn't end was because Evolt's weapon failed to respond and Vernage showed up to save them.
…
…
Using a panel from Pandora's Box, Sento would be able to become strong enough to defeat Evolt. It would save Banjou, but more than that, it would save the country—the world! But the power in Pandora's Box was too much for a human. If he used it to fight, it would kill him.
Dying was terrifying. Imagining the pain, not only for himself but for those who would be left behind…It hurt as badly as Evolt's poison ever had. They said losing a soulmate killed a part of your soul, and Sento didn't want to do that to Banjou. But the alternative was that Banjou—that everyone—died.
If Sento had to give his life to ensure that everyone he knew and loved would survive…there was no question. He would do it.
"Why can't you take better care of yourself?!" Misora shouted when she learned what he would do. "Ever since you came here—! You always put everyone before yourself. I knew," she admitted sadly, "that you did it in part because you had no soul mark. Because you thought you were less than other people. But you have a mark now! You have a soulmate! You have to think of him too!"
Sento swallowed thickly. "I am," he said. "I'm thinking of all of you."
"Are you?" Misora challenged. "Are you thinking about how we'll feel if you die and we weren't able to stop you?!"
"This all started because of me. Because I made the Build System."
"So you have to be the one to end it?" Misora snatched the Pandora tool from him. "You're the only one who thinks that way!"
She began to cry, trying to hide the tool from Sento so he wouldn't use it. Sighing, Sento ruffled her hair. "I understand," he said quietly. "But I have to fight." Misora hiccupped. "I promise I'll come back, though."
Misora's eyes squeezed tightly shut. "Promise?" she repeated.
It was wrong to promise this when he knew the chances of him surviving this encounter with Evolt were slim, but it was all he could do for her. This girl who was like a little sister to him. "Of course," he said with false bravado. "Like you said, I have a soulmate now. I can't die yet."
A laugh came through Misora's tears. "Right." And she begrudgingly handed the tool back to Sento. "See you later," she called when he reached the stairs.
Sento paused. Without looking at her, he repeated, "See you later."
If she knew he was lying, she did him the favor of not mentioning it.
…
…
Using the Pandora Box panel, Sento's Hazard level jumped to six – a full level above what the human body should be capable of handling. It was uncomfortable, and staying at that level for long would result in permanent damage to his body, but it did what Sento intended.
Evolt wanted his power. He wanted Sento's strength more than he wanted Banjou's at level five. So he reached into Sento to take it…and let Banjou go.
As soon as Banjou fell free of Evolt, Sento cranked up the power. Hazard level 6.1, 6.2, 6.3, 6.4, 6.5. The higher the level went, the more Sento's muscles protested, the worse the pain. But it was worth it.
"You and I are going to die together," Sento said like a promise, latching on to Evolt so he couldn't pull away.
He wouldn't have a chance to say goodbye to Banjou, to talk about the fact that Banjou's name was on Sento's heart. He wouldn't get to eat with his friends again, or watch Misora be the idol Miitan, or run experiments with Banjou, or see any of their smiles again. But it was worth it. Because they would live. Because Banjou would live.
The world exploded.
…
…
The cogs and wheels weren't turning. The equations were stagnant. Everything had gone quiet and still.
…
…
In the distance, a sound. It echoed in the dark. "I'm going to destroy everything you love."
The briefest flashes of memory: Banjou. Misora. Sawa. Kazumi. But where there should have been a rush of emotions, there was nothing. He was muted, confined, tired.
…
…
"Give Sento back!"
That voice. The mark on his chest throbbed. For a moment, the world came back into focus. Banjou, holding a golden bottle in his hand, punching at him. No, at Evolt. Evolt had control of his body.
Sento held still, let himself get hit, because he could still feel Evolt within him, around him. And if they killed Evolt, the world would be saved. It didn't matter what happened to him so long as the world survived. So he didn't speak, didn't try to have any last words.
Banjou, he said in his mind, the only place he could. Another blow landed. I love you. Banjou transformed into Great Cross Z. And I'm so sorry.
Not yet, you're not, Evolt snapped, shoving Sento away from the world yet again.
This time, it felt like chains held him down, crushing him into a non-existent ground, pressing him into oblivion.
…
…
tbc
