Chapter 19: Protagonist!

I walked slowly towards the frozen form of the girl. The analysis of her Angel, Zadkiel, was already complete. I had acquired its cryokinetic abilities during our first encounter; this time, I was here to finish the data set, to map the colossal ice rabbit itself.

My processors sorted the information, categorizing its defensive capabilities, its structure, its energy signature. I understood it completely.

With my objective achieved, I looked at Yoshino. She was still suspended in time, tears of fear and pain frozen on her cheeks. In this static state, she looked like a beautiful, tragic painting.

My eyes fell upon the wounds on her small body, some from the AST's earlier assault, some from my own. A flicker of responsibility stirred within me. Since I played a part in this, I should probably heal her.

" Endo Armament: Activate "

" Zafkiel Dalet "

I raised my arm, still in its cannon configuration. The familiar chime of a clock echoed as the numeral IV on my arm glowed. The Fourth Bullet was my only means of healing at the moment.

"Wait!"

I ignored the sudden shout. A golden beam of light shot from my arm cannon and pierced Yoshino's head.

Only after the deed was done did I turn to face the source of the voice.

A short-haired boy stood amidst the rubble beside the giant ice rabbit. The Spirit, Tohka, was with him, one hand on her sword, the other supporting the boy, keeping him steady.

My face remained a mask of indifference as I took in the scene.

Tohka recognized me instantly, her entire posture radiating hostility. But it was the boy who held my attention.

In his eyes, I saw an emotion I had not yet inspired in another. Pure, unadulterated fury.

Shido Itsuka's eyes were filled with a righteous, burning hatred. And for the first time, I found myself genuinely interested.

Subject: Itsuka, Shido. Standard profile: The Archetypal "Yasashii" Male Protagonist. A kind-hearted hero, blessed with the power to seal Spirits, driven by a profound empathy that compelled him to save them from a world that hunted them.

Accessing database files on the core conflict of this world. The human-Spirit war. A tangled web of fear, loss, and misunderstanding. 

Humans died in spacequakes, yes. But the Spirits rarely, if ever, caused them intentionally. Kurumi was the exception, and even her actions were part of a grand, desperate plan to undo all the suffering a plan that required her to become a monster in the present. It was a moral calculus I had no basis to judge.

The true source of it all, the prime mover, was clear: Isaac Westcott and the Spirit of Origin. A closed loop of tragedy they had set in motion.

Shido Itsuka knew none of this.

He was still at the beginning of his journey. He had only just met Tohka and Yoshino. The name Kurumi Tokisaki, and the truth of her time-bending Angel, meant nothing to him.

Therefore, from his limited perspective, the logical conclusion was simple: I had just murdered the helpless girl before his eyes. The golden beam of light was not a restorative measure; it was a killing blow.

His fury was perfectly rational.

"Why..." he roared, his voice cracking with rage and exhaustion. His body, battered and bruised from his own ordeal, trembled with the force of his emotion. "Why would you do that?!"

"Shido..." Tohka murmured, her hand tightening on his arm, the other gripping the hilt of her sword. She was the only thing keeping him upright. 

She said nothing to calm him; she could feel the inferno of his anger and knew words were useless. She could only watch me, her body tense, ready for the attack she knew could come at any second.

The memory of our first encounter was still fresh in her mind. The invincible shield. The effortless way her own power, the power of her Angel, had been stolen and turned against her. 

Even at her full strength, she had been helpless. Now, with most of her power sealed, she was a fragile guard protecting a furious, broken boy. The pressure was immense.

And in the face of their combined grief and defiance, I offered no response.

My face, the one I had so recently learned to animate with Pseudo-Haniel, was now back to its factory setting: a placid, lifeless mask. My true form.

The golden, mechanical eyes simply stared. They did not judge. They did not threaten. They did not comfort. 

They were lenses, capturing the light, processing the data, cataloging the scene with cold, detached precision. 

To them, the raw, human emotion radiating from the boy below was not a plea or a challenge.

It was just information.

Shido waited, his chest heaving, for an answer, a justification, a threat. Anything.

But the machine gave him nothing but silence.

The silence that followed was heavy, broken only by the whisper of the wind through the shattered buildings.

Ten seconds.

Then, the hold on Yoshino broke. Time rushed back into her small body. She went limp, slumping forward and tumbling from the back of the fading ice rabbit.

She fell toward the ground where Shido stood.

All the fury, all the righteous anger, vanished from his mind, replaced by a single, desperate need. He had to catch her. He had to hold her one last time. But his body betrayed him. His legs were jelly; he could barely stand, let alone lunge forward.

Tohka understood. Without a word, she moved for him, half-dragging his broken body forward. They stumbled together, arms outstretched, and caught Yoshino's small, still form just before she hit the rubble.

As the last motes of Zadkiel dissolved into the air, I lost my perch and floated gently to the ground, my feet making no sound as they touched the earth.

….

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