"It looks like Yuki-onii has people over, so I probably won't be going home tonight."

Inukai perked up at the sudden news.

Upon finding out that he would not be able to see Oshiro for an extended period of time, he messaged him to let him know that the two would be together until Inukai had to stay at the base. From there, he had stuck to Oshiro the rest of the day and had planned to be by his side for the entirety of the next day.

Chance! Nice going, Yuki!

There was some worry as to what exactly Yuki was doing, but that only mattered if it dragged others in. Right now, while they walked down the street, Inukai only felt happiness at the chance given to him here.

"Since you can't go back there, how about staying the night at my place? We can cuddle the night away. I want to get a full overcharge of Shiro!"

"Hm... Well, I have been meaning to see your sisters again. I feel bad that I have only been messaging them lately."

"N-n-no need to worry about them, Shiro... Oh, I know! How about we try to be a bit rebellious? We can sneak in and not tell them you're there!"

"That would be rude of me to do, though. Besides, I really like speaking with your sisters. And your parents are really starting to warm up to me, so I want to keep the momentum going."

Why are you so adorable but so dumb at times, Shirooooooo!?

The moment they were to enter his house, his sisters would swarm Oshiro without hesitation. They would take him away for the night, kick Inukai out every chance they had, then force him to sleep in the living room while Oshiro would get his bed.

Oh, but there was that one time I had to get something from my room and saw Shiro sniffing my sheets. I felt so embarrassed that I couldn't walk in on him. I can figure out what else he did in there from the strong smell of spray the next morning, though.

It was cute how Oshiro had tried to hide it, only to expose himself even more than just letting things stay as they were.

When he thought back to the moment, he remembered that he had ended up changing plans and going to the bathroom instead to do some business of his own.

I probably spent too long in there, if I'm being honest...

Wanting to rid himself of those thoughts while in public, Inukai grabbed Oshiro by the shoulder and pulled him in. Oshiro made a small noise but quickly got comfortable at his side.

Inukai took it as a win and gently squeezed his shoulder.

"Fine. I'll let my family know that you need a place to stay for the night."

"Thank you very much. And, um...you can sleep...on your bed this time..."

Even without knowing what he had done, Inukai could have guessed what happened from how red Oshiro's face had quickly become.

Will I be able to last without him!?

Yuki clapped three times, stood up, and threw his hands towards Murakami.

"Okay, okay! Time for the Kō Quiz! At night~ Yes! Today our contestants are Kageura Masato and Kanda Tadaomi! We welcome you to the show!"

"Go die."

"I'm calling Shitokei now."

With three steps, Yuki had swatted Kageura on the head and taken Kanda's phone from his hands.

He moved back to his chair and cleared his throat. The glares he was receiving were easily ignored.

"Now then! Shall we begin!?"

"What are you doing now?" asked Murakami. "You're going to disturb your neighbors."

That had gone through his head before he started speaking, but a realization had hit him.

His neighbors were used to this kind of noise. Any complaints would be sent to Mei. From there, the neighbors would come face-to-face with a calculating face that would make them all anxious to even speak. In that way, Yuki knew just how safe he was to yell like this.

Because he knew the limits, Yuki lightly waved his hand.

"I was just trying to spice things up around here."

"Well, you're being annoying," said Kageura.

Yuki looked at him and lifted his middle finger.

"But what's this about exactly? You had said you wanted to know what's with me."

"I thought the two of you already knew everything about each other."

"For the most part, yeah. Kō knows everything about me, but I only know about what I've asked about."

"Is this about being Unneeded again?"

That was hard to say. In a way, it involved that situation, but it also fell into a different category. One that revolved around Murakami instead of someone Murakami knew.

Yuki tried to find a way to tie that all together, but he found it hard to properly explain.

"I guess I should say... As someone who needed to verify my existence, Kō needed to know everything about me. But as someone who was already a verified existence, I didn't need to know everything about Kō. Even so, I tried my best to know him. That only went as far as when I had met him onward, though. That means..."

Kageura and Kanda nodded before he could finish.

It was good to know they understood.

"You were just abusing some power when it came to Murakami."

"Hey, Kage. Can you call Shitokei now?"

"On it."

In another three-step movement, Yuki swatted Kanda's head and grabbed Kageura's phone.

He moved back to his chair and cleared his throat. The glares he was receiving were easily ignored.

.

I haven't even thought of that, thought Murakami about Yuki's situation.

The two of them had always been honest with each other, and Yuki had always spoken to him about any concerns. When he thought back on it, Yuki had only ever asked him about new information that could have come up in their present instead of questioning him about his past.

Isn't that just his way of telling me that my present is more valuable than my past?

That felt like something Yuki would say right now.

It was ironic that this would be the case after everything came to light about Yuki's past and situation.

"Anyway," said Yuki while sitting on both phones. "I want to first know what's with you and Mitsuteru. That seems like a good starting point."

"You mean the point we want the most."

Murakami blinked and tilted his head.

Hold on. Kage and Kanda I get, but why is Yuki asking about that?

It made no sense.

"Yuki... Did Mitsuteru...never mention me while you guys were on the same squad?"

The way Yuki shook his head was worrying, but so was the pitying look he got.

"The most I knew was that you were his senpai. My friend. He had always called you like that, so I figured that's all there was to it. Even the way you acted towards him felt like it was a clear senpai-kōhai distance."

"Urg... I didn't think that would be the case... I thought he was just staying away since he couldn't get into Border right away."

"I want to hear more on that!" said Kageura and Kanda in unison.

Murakami wanted to swat the both of them, but that definitely played a part in everything that had happened. There was no doubt in his mind that the way Mitsuteru had ended up had been because of the decisions made by Murakami himself.

Going over everything he remembered, he started to notice the issues that continued to come up.

"So that's how it is..."

Murakami gave a sigh and stretched out his legs. He threw his head back and straightened out his back. Because of his odd position, his butt had slid forward and threatened to go off the side of the sofa.

"I guess the past has been affecting both of us without either of us really knowing about it."

"What do you mean?"

"Right," he said with a slight nod.

There was something he needed to tell these people for them to understand his situation with Mitsuteru a bit better.

.

"Where do I even begin...?"

The starting point was as far back as grade school.

At the time, he had been a child who could do it all. Once something was taught to him and he got some rest, he would be able to do it. There was almost nothing he couldn't do once it was put in front of him.

It had been amazing at first. Other children would praise him, try to get him on their teams, and do what they could to be his friend. Someone so amazing deserved to be surrounded by others who could look up to that person.

He had never felt that way, but he could never deny that it felt nice. The attention given to him and the love from his parents were something he enjoyed daily.

"...Then it all stopped. All because they realized something."

They realized what it meant to be near someone like that.

Someone who could do anything taught to him.

There was no contest. While everyone else had to do their best to better themselves in different aspects, he only had to see it once and take a rest. The hard work others put into learning something was being looked down upon by this one child.

The pain of being alone after that was the worst.

His parents still loved him with everything they had, but the children around him refused to do anything with him. They knew they would be nothing when compared to him.

"...So that kid had given up. Instead of enjoying himself like before, he just went about life on a day-to-day basis. Nothing would change, no matter how many things he learned. That thing letting him learn—his Side Effect—it meant nothing anymore. But..."

But...

"Then that person came along."

A boy who had almost no presence.

He tried to remember if he had ever seen the boy, but no memory ever came up. They had never met.

No, that wasn't true. Someone who looked like the boy was in his memory, but there was no definite feature on him. It felt like that boy existed in my memory, but he just couldn't bring himself to remember that boy.

So it came as a surprise when the boy was suddenly in front of him, looking up at him from a bent position.

At some point, he had started looking down.

"Hey, why is your face so scrunched up?" asked the boy. "You look like you're trying to remember something."

That was the first time someone had ever said that to him. Everyone in his memory knew about his great memory, so being asked something like that felt strangely refreshing.

"Oh, but I guess you don't really need to try to remember something. You're really good at remembering things already, right?"

"Um...yes..."

This boy knew about his memory. About how he could learn things so quickly that it had pushed many others away.

With that in mind, he had expected the boy to simply walk away. To tell him that there was no fun to be had as long as he was around. It was something everyone else did once they realized that he could outshine them all without even trying.

That was the only thing anyone could do when faced with terrible odds.

"How cool! You know, I have a pretty average memory, according to my mom. So I forget things a lot of the time. I really hate forgetting things, so I think having that kind of memory is super cool."

The boy had crossed his arms and nodded to himself. It felt like he was talking to himself, but it was clear that he was trying to have a conversation.

It had been a while since someone had been this excited around him. The feeling was nice, but he had fully expected that the boy would walk away after saying whatever he wanted. Then the new memory of this boy saying something bad would remain with him.

Like all the others had.

Their mean words would remain with him at all times now. As would the sight of others leaving him to play by himself and the harsh pushes he would sometimes receive from the particularly spiteful children.

"Except..."

That never happened.

That boy had asked him if he wanted to play something. Even if it was something simple, he wanted to play.

After that, he had asked for help with his homework.

He had found out that the boy was one grade below him. Everything the boy was having trouble with were things he had already learned in full. There was nothing he couldn't help with.

Then it hit him. This was a way he could get those friends back. By helping them with these sorts of things and never asking for anything in return, he could get them to come back. Even if it were to only be used, he would at least have others there again.

It was a selfish wish a child would have.

A week would go by after that selfish wish was thought up. During that time, the boy would find him and continue to spend time with him. Each time they were together, they would try to find something new they could learn together. Then, after he had learned everything from a rest, the boy would ask him about things he didn't understand. This had continued on until it was a common occurrence.

On the final day of the week, he told the boy his selfish wish.

"And as if to counter that selfishness, that boy said something pretty amazing."

He couldn't really tell if that boy remembered those words to this day, but he knew that he could never forget them.

The words that had reached him through his selfish wish.

"Forget those jerks. Anyone would think that it's cool that you can do things so quickly. Yeah, because after you learn it yourself, you can find ways to improve anything! Then you can teach others how to get even better! Oh, speaking of which, can I ask you to help me again? I've brought some rice balls this time, so we can share them afterwards!"

They had only gotten to know each other for a week, and the boy had already figured out that he liked rice.

"When I asked him how he knew how to make those, he had said he asked his mom for help with it. From there, he had learned to make it himself. And when lunchtime came around, he would show up with even more."

He could have learned to make the rice balls himself without any issue. There was nothing stopping him from making the food himself, bringing it with him, and then eating something he himself had made. It would have shown that he could be independent too, making him seem more mature to the adults.

But he had let the boy continue to bring them whenever he wanted.

He wanted to see that hard work pay off. The boy had gone through this trouble for him.

"Ha ha. There were times when we just had some watermelon, though. I would bring those for him. So in a way, we were just giving to each other so we could enjoy something."

.

Yuki tried not to let himself slip while listening to Murakami's story.

From what he had heard, it all made sense. The way Murakami's Side Effect had gotten in the way of making friends.

I'm sure it's the same for Kage over there.

When he looked at the other side of the sofa, he saw Kageura giving an unfamiliar expression. Yuki knew what it was, but he had never seen it on Kageura's face before.

They both understood.

My own Side Effect is annoying and has a "save" feature similar to Kō's Side Effect, but it's much more limited. And besides, the things that stopped me back then were my parents. In their case, it was just the people around them.

This was the difference between them all.

When it came to general hardships, Yuki felt like he could say things were rough for him. But when it came to personal hardships, he would readily agree that he had it easy.

Hm. This is the reason Mei doesn't like Side Effects. Her own caused her a lot of trouble, but she isn't the only one. Everyone can say that these Side Effects are amazing for what we can do during a fight, but there is always a drawback to them.

Suzume and Toby had told him many times their own stories concerning their Side Effects. The way people reacted to them and how they would be treated at times. Even his teacher had gone on to recall some hard times he had been through because of his Side Effect.

Then there were people like Jin, Kikuchihara, and Kageura who didn't need to say anything for others to know what they were going through. It would simply be implied that their troubles were caused by their Side Effects.

Yuki looked down and flexed his hand twice. He repeated the action after closing his eyes.

One day...

Opening his eyes, he lightly shook his head to dispel any thoughts coming from his parents' teachings.

He had his own selfish wish, but that was neither here nor there.

"You two had mentioned something at the restaurant." Yuki looked back up to see Kanda leaning forward a bit more. "You had said something about Mitsuteru standing behind you while you stood in front of him. What was that about?"

"Ah, that. Right. Well, back then, he would follow me around a lot. Sometimes even taking notes."

That sounded like something Mei and Kimura would enjoy teasing him about.

"And actually, his presence back then had been even less than now. His personality was a bit louder, but his overall presence was low. To the point that he ended up getting left behind on some school trips."

"How does that even happen?"

Murakami shrugged, but that was probably because he never forgot about Mitsuteru after their supposed second meeting.

"I do remember his parents and mine having to call the school a few times. It was pretty funny since he took it in stride."

"So he was like that even back then...?"

Kanda must have also seen some things during his time with Mitsuteru. Yuki could understand his muttering since he had also seen some things that made him wonder if Mitsuteru was trying too hard at times.

For someone like Mitsuteru, who is often forgotten about, having someone who could never forget him must have been nice. There was someone who could always verify that he was there, even when no one else thought to remember him.

"But, you know," started Murakami with a smile. "It's because he was like that that I was always able to walk in front of him. As someone who could lead the way for him to follow. It felt nice. Knowing that he would be right behind me, reassuring me that he was there when others would leave me."

When they would push him away, thought Yuki bitterly.

There was no going back in time, but he still felt annoyed with those children who had pushed Murakami away.

That was just how he was now.

"So what happened afterwards?"

Yuki sighed. It had to reach this point, and he was not surprised that it was Kageura who had brought it up.

Murakami's smile fell into a bitter one of his own.

.

Years had gone by, and the two of them had managed to gain some ground. Others were not as reluctant to have him around. Be it on a team or for trivial matters, they would sometimes pick him to fill out numbers.

During that time, that boy had also grown up. His face remained the same, but his hair had grown out a bit, and his eyes held more of a glint in them. A slightly mischievous nature was hidden behind politeness and humility.

After a few years, he had come to understand the boy better than any of his classmates. Likewise, the boy had told him there was no one besides his parents whom he trusted more.

That was just how they were at that point.

It was after those years of getting to know each other was something new introduced into the mix. An organization who had fought back against monster. They had both seen the conference and had heard their parents talking about the incident. A city destroyed until a group came to stop that destruction.

The organization quickly became the talk of the area, with a lot of people admiring them. Both of them had been middle schoolers at the time, so their interest in things had been all over the place. So much so that they had only seen the organization and the incident as something else happening in the world. Something they would likely never get involved with.

Then those people arrived.

More time had gone by, and the news of the organization growing had spread. Everyone wondered what they could do to join them and fight alongside them. To show themselves as heroes who could save others.

Even the two of them had started to wonder what it would be like to live that kind of life.

"I'm sure you would do great," the boy had said. "You could easily learn how to fight like them."

"What about you?" he had asked.

The boy gave a hum and looked around the area. It had been lunch time, and both of them had bento boxes with rice balls and watermelon in them. It was an odd mix, but one they were both used to at this point.

A moment went by before the boy shrugged his shoulders.

"I don't think I would do too well. It still takes me time to get the hang of things."

"That just means you're normal. That's fine."

He had taken a bite of his rice ball and immediately noticed the new flavor. The boy had made a new mix that tasted good both as an individual item and to go with the watermelon.

Taking a few more bites, he opened his mouth to question the boy about the taste. Before he could do so, the boy had started speaking again.

"That's fine with me. It isn't like I'm trying to do much anyway. I still need to get through a year of middle school while you go to high school, then high school itself. Other things to worry about."

"You aren't wrong there," he answered. He took a bite of the watermelon and nodded when he noticed it really did go well with the rice ball. "But if something did come up and I did join them, you know that I would make sure you and your parents are fine, right?"

"Of course! And I would make sure to support you however I could! Then, if you did join, I could mess with anyone who doesn't like you."

"That's called harassment."

The boy had waved his hand, but the smile on his lips said enough.

To go along with that smile, he had laughed and looked over to where their schoolmates were. Some of them were running by, while others were just talking to each other. It was a nice place to eat since this was always the scenery around them.

As he was taking in the atmosphere, a noise reached his ears. A voice had called out and rang out in the relatively quiet area.

"Border members are here! They're scouting for recruits!"

There were some who immediately ran to where the voice had come from. They made noise of their own while running.

Then there were some who only spoke in low voices, excited about the prospect but not going crazy over it.

As for the two boys...

"Looks like that got some people going."

"Yeah. But I'm comfortable here."

"That's true. Besides, we don't even know if it's a general thing or if they are looking for specific people."

That was true. No one had said if they were looking for any new recruits or if they were hunting down specific people to see if they would join. Knowing that put him even more at ease. There was no reason to go crazy about something if you had no chance of getting in.

The boy next to him gave a hum and leaned back on his hands.

"Heh. I would probably be too scared to fight those monsters anyway," he had said as a final statement.

.

"After that, we got a knock on our door," said Murakami bitterly.

Through his story, the other three were listening quietly.

He took this as his chance to continue speaking.

"As it turned out, they were looking for general recruits as well as specific ones. I was one of the specific ones. Probably from talk about my Side Effect."

There had been talk about what to do with the situation. His parents had been told everything by the Border members, from his trion to his Side Effect. How fighting in a trion body meant no actual harm to him.

After some convincing and questioning on his part, they had all accepted the recruitment.

"When he learned about it, Mitsuteru was very happy for me. But I could tell that he was a bit nervous. For me or for himself, I still don't know. But I also had my own worries concerning him. So I had asked him something."

"If I had to guess..."

Murakami nodded at Yuki and verbally confirmed it for himself.

"'Why don't you come join with me?' That was what I asked him."

"And he followed," said Kageura, nodding.

There was more to it than that.

"His parents had been much more worried about it than mine. Because of my Side Effect and trion, the recruiters had a pretty easy time getting my parents to go with it. But when they went through the process with him, they confirmed that he had a good amount of trion. That much was nice, but he was still average in everything else. It was hard for them to recommend it." He still remembered it all. "It took some convincing from both of us, but both his parents and the recruiters agreed to it."

Murakami heard a hum and turned to Yuki.

He already knew where this was going.

"But there were conditions, right? I remember him telling us that when he first joined."

"That's right."

Mitsuteru's parents had made certain conditions that needed to be followed in order for him to join.

First.

"He could not join immediately. He would have to wait a while after they moved to Mikado City."

Second.

"If they were not fine with how things went, they would leave the city."

Third.

"He would tell them if anything was wrong while working at Border. That would then lead into the second condition."

Murakami could see Yuki freeze up. As the main factor for Mitsuteru's shift since joining Border, it made sense that he would worry the most about what could happen now that everything had been settled.

What he had not expected was for Kanda to also go stiff. It was only for a moment, but Murakami could feel the sudden jerk of his arms while on the sofa.

What is that about? he wondered.

"I only knew about that first condition," said Yuki, taking his attention away from Kanda. "We only knew that he had to have stayed in Mikado City for roughly a year before he could join Border. Maybe that's why Kage didn't even know he existed until recently. He's been under the radar for a while now."

"Hasn't he been on a bunch of squads? I would have heard about him, wouldn't I?"

That was hard to say. As far as they knew, almost all of those squads had been low-tier ones. Someone who had been an A-Rank and was currently a top-tier B-Rank might not have been paying attention to the ones who were a large gap away.

Murakami was sure that Yuki would have also been unaware of him if not for having forced him onto Taiyōko Squad.

"Well, all of that aside, there's still the main thing needing to be talked about."

That's right, Yuki had a point he wanted to get to with all of this.

"Kō. What happened after that? What caused the two of you to have a distance where he regarded you as a stranger until recently?"

That was something he had wanted to know for a long time now.

"I really don't know..."

As much as he wanted to say he knew what had happened, he could not think of anything. All of his memories meant nothing when he could not answer something as important as this.

All they could do was find the way to that result.

So when will he finally tell me why...?

Mistuteru could hear them.

Instead of immediately taking a shower, he decided to listen in on the conversation going on downstairs. A conversation talking about his past.

It wasn't like I was hiding it or anything. It's just that no one but Shigeko, Seiji-san, and Mirai-san asked me about it.

Originally, he had some bitter feelings well up inside him about all of that, but those feelings had disappeared some time ago. All that was left was knowledge of everything that happened. Along with that was a longing.

A longing for his once-great friend to ask him about it.

To ask him why they had created a gap between them.

I had hoped easing things tonight would have fixed that, but it looks like Kō still isn't sure what to do.

It felt nice knowing that, but it made him feel a bit lonely as well. His once-great friend had turned into someone so great that he could not see the simple things in front of him.

Mitsuteru let out a sigh as he began to undress.

I guess I just have to keep waiting.

Yuki gave a deep breath through his nose. All of this new information had helped him understand things he had wondered about before.

Now that they knew about Murakami's situation with Mitsuteru, he could say that he was involved with them. If something was needed from either one of them, he could step up and speak to them about it.

"The shower near Shiro's room hasn't been turned on yet. The one in my room has. So Mitsuteru's probably been listening in while Ema was taking a shower."

He spoke in a low voice, just in case their conversation was still being followed by Mitsuteru. There was no real problem with it, but he worried about what might happen.

"In any case," he said. "There's one final thing I want to ask you, Kō."

He tossed Kageura and Kanda their phones back while standing up and stretching.

The joints in his arms and legs made some noise, but that was nothing compared to the noise coming from his back.

Kageura raised a brow at him. The noise must have been louder than he expected to get that reaction.

"What is it?"

Yuki put his arms down and nodded.

"What are your thoughts about Mitsuteru now?"

.

The question was a good one that Kanda wanted to know the answer to.

Murakami had spoken about his past with Mitsuteru, but he was not the only one who had one. There was Yuki's past along with Taiyōko Squad.

Then there's that incident...

But he could not say anything about it right now.

It was not the time for that.

"..."

Murakami fixed his position before answering.

The relaxed position he had taken before started to shift. He no longer let his body sag or waste any space.

From where he stood, Kanda could see Yuki and Kageura's reactions. They tensed up.

Curious as to why, he moved around the sofa to stand next to Yuki.

What he saw was...

"—!?"

There, looking directly at Yuki, were the eyes of a predator looking at its prey.

This was Border's Black Wolf.

"I won't let it go anymore. I won't hold him down, but I refuse to ever let him go like before."

Each word was spoken with a great deal of seriousness. More than that, each word sounded as if it was a threat to some unknown enemy.

"I can't overlook everything that has happened to him since coming to Mikado City. None of it sits right with me, but there isn't anything I can do about it anymore. So instead..."

Instead...

"I will not view him as some kid who stuck around me anymore. I said it at the restaurant, but I'll repeat it for you, Yuki."

The black wolf didn't take a breath, but he allowed the white fox to nod.

This was the least he could do.

"Mitsuteru is now an equal. A Border member who deserves respect. If anyone tries to tarnish that..."

The black nodded himself.

"I will tear into them."

.

Kageura felt his entire body shiver from the response.

Murakami was facing the other direction, but the intense pressure he gave off was enough to stop Kageura from saying anything.

More than anyone, he knew just how sharp the black wolf's fangs and claws could be. When fighting by himself, those fangs and claws were dangerous. They would tear into anything they could grab, rip them to shreds, then continue until there was nothing left.

They were dangerous.

When you add in a human aspect to those fangs and claws, it becomes something else.

The best example was the Suzunari-1 captain. Overall the power of the black wolf went down while defending or taking care of his captain. It was just a matter of his partner not being able to keep up with the strength of the black wolf.

But there was more to it than that.

When the black wolf fought by himself, and his captain was in danger, it added something to the mix. Something human that turned the fangs and claws of the black wolf into something that would accurately and ruthlessly devour anything before him.

From the looks of things, Ariake is being put on the same pedestal as Kuruma-san...if not a slightly higher one.

Someone like the white fox on the chair was fine being below them since he could handle himself. The white fox would always be able to keep up with the black wolf. That was a given at this point.

But those two who were placed higher than him could not keep up. That meant they had the black wolf's full protection. Every ounce of his strength would be going into making sure they were fine or out of harm's way.

That was just who he was.

"Hah... I see," said the white fox, breaking through the tension.

Three seconds went by before he smiled and showed them all something.

A wide smile that was filled with nothing but schemes.

"If that's how you're going to be, I'll match you."

He nodded twice.

"You can protect him. ...Protect them. All of them. Mitsuteru, Kuruma-san, Mei, whoever else you want to add to that list. I'll run parallel to you and make sure they are pulled out of the way."

It wasn't just a lion that the whit fox ran parallel to. The black wolf was someone else he chose to run parallel to.

They had accepted that as well.

"And I... I'll also view him as an equal. It's been long enough. He isn't that kid who I dragged into my squad anymore. He's grown to be able to hold his own."

"No, that's still wrong, Yuki."

The white fox tilted his head.

Another three seconds went by before he gave an O expression.

"You're right. He's better than that."

"That's right," the black wolf said with a genuine smile.

Then it came at once.

From the both of them.

"He will always have someone by his side now."