For 410 - prompt: side
26. Choices
Yu stares at his friend. The MetalSeadramon coiled around him, dressed in black and red.
Keisuke isn't supposed to look like that, smiling with that face and laughing with those eyes. He's not supposed to smile and say that -
"But you've gotten strong Yu! I don't have to protect you anymore, right? Now we can do this together. We can help your friends together. Without Judes or Hudie or anyone, you don't need them anymore."
He says this like it's good, like he hasn't caused all his friends at Hudie to suffer. Like Choose. Chitose had EDEN Syndrome. Ryuji had lost his mind and -
Yu… Yu had lost everything.
"I didn't need you to protect me!" Yu snaps! "I didn't need you to make me strong! I can do it myself! I made it myself!
MarinAngemon chirps by his side, and for a moment, he is warm and alive and has hope.
Keisuke beams at him. "Prove it."
He will. He'll stop him. He'll save Keisuke, no matter how much he wants to cry. He cannot, will not, cry again.