Chapter 141 : What Remains Unchanged (3)

Inside the hospital room with windows closed to avoid the late summer heat, only the sound of an old air conditioner running and the voices of two siblings could be heard quietly.

Kohane called her brother again in a low voice.

“Assistant.”

“Dududu…”

A man in his late 20s sitting on a white bed wearing a patient’s gown. He remained trapped in his own world, not responding to his sister’s call even after reuniting for the first time in 6 years.

“…”

Skinny fingers.

Trembling eyes.

Drool dripping from his mouth.

Scars visible under the patient’s gown.

Even this was said to be much improved after Kaede, who had brought the man, used healing magic.

“Dududu.”

Two fingers that didn’t bend well due to tendons cut during abuse had transformed into magnificent-looking armor in the man’s mind.

“Dudududu.”

In the man’s mind, a grand space war had been continuing for 6 years.

Numerous armored suits, numerous villains, he had become a pilot fiercely surviving among them.

An ace pilot of the Earth Federation, separated from his precious little sister due to the schemes of the evil Mars Empire. His entire body’s organs had been replaced with enhancement parts. He continued his adventures through numerous missions, from scorching lands to the cold of space.

“Swoosh swoosh! Bang!”

Kohane’s brother, Daichi, continued the delusion that had protected him from 6 years of harsh abuse and violence, not even realizing his precious little sister was right beside him.

“Vroom… Whoosh… Bang!”

“Assistant.”

“Dududu.”

“…”

Where they found Kohane’s brother who had disappeared after Sumire was taken by yakuza. They were able to locate him because he was accidentally caught as an extra in a remote travel introduction program filmed last year.

A remote travel broadcast that had been delayed in airing until recently due to having to match trends after the appearance of magical girls.

A slave living and eating on the streets.

The village idiot.

That’s how Daichi was introduced by the people of the remote village.

There was little that could be inferred from Daichi’s completely changed appearance in the broadcast, but Sumire had sent Kaede after sensing something from his occasional Japanese utterances and brief conversations where he called himself “Dada”.

When they found Daichi, his health condition was barely at a level of just being alive.

Several missing organs.

Teeth and nails fallen out from malnutrition.

Drugs injected through reckless surgeries.

A broken mind from living as a slave.

The wounds carved into Daichi’s body and mind were permanent damage impossible to fully heal even with the miracles of magical girls.

-I asked magical girls with healing abilities as their unique skills too, but… I’m sorry.

-No, thank you. Boss.

After a life of slavery moving between countries and long-term abuse, he had forgotten even his own name and was living as an idiot named “Dada” in the remote village.

6 years ago.

A cosplay bar he entered by chance after being enchanted by a clerk on the street. After spending a stimulating night with a bar girl he met there for the first time, Daichi was seduced by the promise that he could become a real lover, not just a bar girl, if he paid a ransom.

Enchanted by the first woman’s body he had experienced and the bar’s sultry atmosphere, Daichi knocked on the door of a loan shark to get a loan, and his whereabouts were cut off there.

Daichi’s hell began then.

Kohane’s hell also began then.

“Dudu! Swoosh swoosh.”

“…”

Kohane was shocked to see her brother, who had once had a dull and innocent impression like tofu, changed to be so gaunt. The dull but kind light that used to rise in his eyes above his slow gaze had changed to be like that of a dead fish.

-Assistant! Lose some weight! Isn’t this house too small for just the two of us?

-S-Sorry Kohane.

Several scar marks were visible on his stomach under the patient’s gown, and parts that should clearly have existed were unnaturally sunken in.

She had told him to lose weight, but not to change like this.

“…”

Probably the foolish brother didn’t tell anyone about himself even when borrowing money from loan sharks and starting to pay it back through slave labor.

If he had, terrifying loan sharks would have barged into the house where Kohane was left alone, and tried to sell off the small elementary school student Kohane somewhere.

A foolish mistake.

The brother who bore all his mistakes himself as a final responsibility returned completely broken.

A cold house

A hardened lunchbox

Child protection center

The plaza in Kabukicho.

The day her brother went out with the foolish excuse of going for a walk near Kabukicho.

Everything fell apart from the day young Kohane opened the door and stepped out while clutching her hungry stomach.

“Ha…”

Kohane’s mind was filled with darkness beyond despair. All the pain she had experienced in her life mixed together like dough into a gloomy and painful darkness.

How easily a human life can be broken.

A single night’s mistake

Because of that, the young man whose joy was working part-time jobs and watching late-night robot anime with his little sister returned as an idiot unable to even say his own name.

Because of that, the girl whose dream was to run a plastic model shop and make the coolest dioramas clung to streets her brother wasn’t even in and searched for him.

“…”

Kohane felt herself becoming numb and cold due to the devastation and despair that had passed a critical point. At the same time, the battle in the man’s mind as he played with his two fingers ended.

The right finger standing proudly, the left finger slowly bending.

“Swoosh! Spot!”

“…”

Had her brother defeated his opponent with a beam blade by moving the imaginary armor?

As Kohane watched her brother’s madness in despair, Daichi muttered with unfocused eyes towards his slowly bending finger.

“Ko… hane… Doc, Doc… tor… F-Free…”

“Brother…? Do you remember my name?”

“F-Free… Free her… Villain…!”

“…”

“I… I… will… re… turn…”

“…”

“Doc… tor’s… lab…”

My foolish brother was fighting in his delusion to save me.

He was fighting to return home, to regain himself.

Kohane found it so foolish that tears came to her eyes.

“You foolish assistant, why do you realize the important things only now…!”

If daily life was so precious, he shouldn’t have been enchanted by a woman.

If he wanted to see her so much, he shouldn’t have gone to the bar.

“Why do you make such foolish mistakes!!”

Kohane stood up and screamed.

The chair rolled on the floor, pushed by her movement.

Crash!

Even in the space where the chair rolled and the girl screamed, the man couldn’t escape from his delusion.

What use is the heart left in our lives that have already been twisted and broken as much as they can be?

A frail, skinny high school girl and a man who had become an idiot.

Even without parents, that daily life of happily watching late-night anime in a small room and going out to buy plastic models on weekends can’t return.

Even if we find our family, that time will never come back.

Clatter

The head of the plastic model armor that Kohane had hastily packed and brought from her room rolled out of her pocket as she suddenly stood up.

Broken horns.

No matter how cool a body you complete, if a small part is broken, it loses meaning as a plastic model.

Because that’s the antenna where the pilot receives the most important information.

Because it’s the coolest part that makes an armor suit what it is.

“…Horns.”

Daichi picked it up blankly.

For the first time, her brother recognized his surroundings.

“Assistant…? B-Brother?! Are you conscious?! Can you answer?!”

“The horns…”

Are broken.

This plastic model can no longer become a cool finished product.

“I-If it’s broken… di… di… di…”

“Diorama…?”

Kohane understood the madman’s mutterings.

It was a memory from the past.

A sudden earthquake.

Returning from the shelter to find all the plastic models broken.

-Ugh, Assistant, this is terrible! The plastic models are all broken because of the earthquake.

-Hmm… then shall we make a diorama?

Daichi suddenly took the protagonist’s and rival’s mecha and started burning scratches with a lighter. Kohane was shocked to see her brother ruining the two models that were still relatively intact.

-Whoa?! What are you doing?! Are you crazy?!

-Here, look. If we do this like this…

Daichi recreated the scene from the anime’s final episode where the two mechs fight fiercely with beam blades drawn. And he arranged the debris of other broken models around them.

The final battlefield

Amidst broken mechs, two figures face off in a final battle as everyone watches.

A vividness as if it had come to life from the anime.

Kohane felt the diorama made in a crude cardboard box was so cool.

-W-Wow!

-Cool, right?

-Nyu-huhu! Not bad, Assistant!

-A perfect plastic model is nice, but.

A vivid diorama is cool even if it’s broken.

Because a living, breathing story bursts out of it fiercely.

Like a battered diorama.

Our story is twisted and scarred, but.

We are still alive and breathing.

Our story continues fiercely, though imperfect.

There is a story contained because it’s not perfect.

“…Yeah.”

Kohane rubbed her eyes and hugged Daichi, who was blankly holding the plastic model head.

The visiting hours before Daichi is admitted to the psychiatric hospital are coming to an end.

“…You must stay strong, Assistant.”

“…”

“You ride your armor.”

“…”

“I’ll ride my armor.”

“…”

“From now on, we’ll overcome the Mars Empire.”

“…”

“We’ll create our own cool diorama.”

A fate beyond finding family was born and shone brightly in Kohane’s ivory glass star.

And so another girl with a new star of fate was added.

The world takes another step forward.

“Brother.”

Before going out to the hallway where her friends were waiting, Kohane looked at her brother sitting blankly one last time.

“I’ll come again.”

The door to the hospital room closed quietly.

Click

“…”

The Earth Federation’s ace pilot shed tears at the sadness felt after a fierce but fruitless battle. Victory that had seemed within reach slipped away once again, and the face of his little sister waiting in his hometown became hazy.

“…”

Why is it?

Defeat is familiar, but.

Why does this defeat feel especially sad?

The plastic model head with broken horns was placed on the control stick.

The ace pilot clutched it and cried blankly for a long time.