19 - Like A Family

“Yumichi?”

“That was the most awesome thing I’ve ever seen!!!!!” Yumichi yelled, ripping his lungs apart from excitement. He rushed towards his sister who was calmly walking away from the devastated cityscape.

“I’m glad you liked it.” Ichika said, patting him on the head. He seemed to be overwhelmingly excited at the gesture.

“They ran away...”

Ichika took her phone out and made a quick call.

“Sakuto, it’s me. I dealt with them, one dead, two escaped. Yumichi’s with me. I’m guessing you know where I am.” Ichika said, hanging up as soon as the last words escaped her slightly cracked lips.

“He’ll probably get mad because I didn’t tell him about this...”

“I couldn’t have just risked Yumichi getting harmed like that. Besides, all's well that ends well...”

“Hey, this is also their first time meeting, right?”

And sure enough, a few minutes later, a presence entered the battlefield. It was travelling fast, too fast for it to be just a soulful running around. It popped out of a shadow next to Ichika.

“Ichika? What the hell happened?” Sakuto asked, approaching her. “That...that thing...it was you, wasn’t it? Did you use a divine accla-”

“Oh, hey, Sakuto.” Ichika interrupted him, turning around. She still had a bit of blood on her face, and her unique and powerful form, courtesy of her acclamation technique, was still there.

Sakuto looked at her and was at a complete loss of words. He was starting to tear up.

“Since...when does she have...fox ears...?”

“There's no way...there's just...no way...”

“It’s actually happening to me...”

“Sakuto?” Ichika asked again, approaching him a little more and placing her hand on his cheek. “What’s wrong? Are you-”

“It’s nothing, I-I-Ichika.” Sakuto said, barely containing his excitement and placing his own hand on Ichika’s. “Just glad to see that you’re fine. But still...I’m kinda upset you didn’t tell me about this.”

“I’m sorry, I didn’t know who they were and how far they were going to go. They said if I brought support they’d hurt Yumichi” Ichika said. “I had to take the risk.”

“Hey, you’re fine, and that’s all that matters.” Sakuto said. “It’s not fine at all, what if something happened to you?!”

“Mister, who are you?” Yumichi asked, getting closer to Sakuto, staring at him as if he were an incomprehensible painting at a museum. “Are you big sis’s friend?”

“A bit more than a friend, but...yeah. Pretty much.” Sakuto said, extending his hand. “I’m Sakuto.”

“More than a friend?” Yumichi asked, accepting the handshake. He gasped with the might of a billion tornadoes as his eyes went wide open. “Y-y-y-y-y-y-y-you mean like...a...boyfriend?!”

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“Yeah, something like that...” Sakuto said, awkwardly scratching his head and smiling.

“Big sis, you actually did it! You got a boyfriend!” Yumichi celebrated, lunging at his sister and hugging her as tightly as possible. “You kept crying that you can’t find anyone, and now you actually did!”

“Yumichi...” Ichika reddened from embarrassment, sounding like she was about to slit her sibling’s throat. “Don’t make me change my mind and call those people to take you away.”

“Hey, is your boyfriend strong like you?” Yumichi asked.

“He’s one of the strongest soulfuls ever.” Ichika smiled. “Hey, you finally found someone you can flex your powers to, Sakuto.”

“You mean like this?” Sakuto teasingly asked, manifesting his shadows into a small cat-like creature that jumped on Yumichi’s shoulder. The creature jumped down, metamorphosing into a fire that would later transform into a sword - stuck in the ground.

“Whooooaaaa!” Yumichi seemed fascinated. “Show me more! There’s no way you won big sis over with just this stuff!”

“Maybe one day. Hopefully you’ll never have to see me go all-out.” Sakuto said. “Even if in the future, you might.”

“Ichika, your parents...” Sakuto said, slightly distancing her from her brother who was playing around with the shadows.

“Once we report this to the GSC, we can request they contact them.” Ichika sighed. She looked visibly distressed. “There’s a chance they will come here to see him.”

“Do you feel ready to meet them?” Sakuto asked.

“Why would I meet them?” Ichika asked back. “They’ve done nothing to me, I’m more than sure that they’d be fine with Yumichi living his whole life abroad and never bothering them again. They probably adopted someone, ugh, someone who is their good little obedient fucking slave...”

“So what are you gonna do?”

“Probably cut them off for good.” Ichika said. “They didn’t care about me, and now I don’t care about them. It’s simple.” There was, however, some hesitation in her voice.

“Hey, it’s gonna be alright.” Sakuto said. “It takes bravery to get close to someone, it takes twice as much to cut someone off. I’m sure it’ll be fine.”

“Right, thanks...” Ichika smiled, sounding more reassured. Suddenly, she felt Sakuto get even closer to her. He planted a kiss on her lips. Once they broke apart a few seconds later, he planted another one.

“Sakuto?” Ichika asked, pleasantly surprised and a little confused.

“Sorry, I just...” Sakuto said, embracing her tightly. “I was worried.” He let go of her a few moments later. "I hope those fox ears last forever...I...can't handle this..."

“I understand.” Ichika smiled. “Let’s just go home.”

“Woah, he really is your boyfriend...” Yumichi said, amazed. “Does she snore?”

“Yumichi, I’ll-”

“She doesn’t.” Sakuto replied, preventing Ichika from laying a thousand year old curse on her sibling. “What about you, though? Shouldn’t you-”

“No! I’m staying with big sis!” Yumichi quickly said. “When mom and dad were always at work, she was the one who taught me stuff! I love her more than anything!!!”

“And don’t you dare steal big sis away from me! I don’t care how strong you are, don’t you dare steal her from me!!!” He yelled, pointing at Sakuto.

“No one’s stealing anything, alright?” Sakuto said. “It’s our job to keep Ichika safe and happy.”

“Okay!”

“Your brother likes you...a lot.” Sakuto told Ichika, while keeping Yumichi busy with more shadow tricks.

But Ichika didn’t reply, she just smiled.

“Ichika, something’s different about you.” Sakuto said. “What happened? Did you experience an awakening?”

“Yeah...”

“What...happened?”

“Nothing too big.” She gave a subtle smile. “There’s just this one person who doesn’t hate me anymore.”

“Then let’s go.” Sakuto smiled. He, Ichika and Yumichi walked off into the...not sunset, but to their place. They all needed a while to digest everything that had just happened, but they were just happy that they were all safe.

At the same time...

“Huh?” Dima asked Oskar, who had just finished telling him his concerns and mentioned a name Dima didn’t quite recognize. “Who’s Sakuto?”

The end of Part 7