Chapter 89: You Are Human
Aoi then entered the room and saw them sitting on the bed. He approached.
Ryuko saw Aoi arriving and smiled.
— So, how was your day?
Aoi smiled, placed Matatabi on the bed, and said:
— There was just one thing I needed to take care of.
Nemuri looked at Aoi and asked:
— What is it?
Aoi thought for a moment and decided to tell them. After all, no one would get hurt in his plan. He then looked at her and explained his nuclear test plan.
When he finished speaking, he was hit by a kick from Rumi. He had to control his body with Return to Life to avoid injuring her leg, but he was still thrown far, breaking several walls and crashing into the living room.
Aoi was about to get up to ask what happened, but Rumi jumped on top of him and grabbed the collar of his shirt. Rumi then shouted at him:
— What the hell do you think you're doing? You're not a fucking weapon! You're the father of my child, you asshole! Do you want to become the absolute symbol of terror in the world? A being who can't even enter another country because he'll be watched by every nation the moment he sets foot outside Japan?
Aoi looked at her and said:
— Well, I think it's a small price to pay. And only the politicians will know. I don't see anything wrong with that.
Nemuri appeared beside Rumi with Ryuko. Nemuri then looked at him and said:
— What do you mean nothing wrong? What if some idiot messes with you knowing about your strength? What are you going to do? Are you going to carry out your threat and wipe them off the map—or in other words, the entire country?
Aoi looked at her and said with a serious face:
— If necessary, yes. They've already had their chance. I've shown enough mercy by revealing my power to the world. If they still insist on dying, that's their problem. I've done my part.
Ryuko sighed softly, crouched down beside him, and said smiling:
— I know you're under a lot of pressure—whether it's the responsibility of the race, the planet, or the babies' safety. I know you try so hard.
She then placed her hand on his hair, stroking it gently, and said:
— We make mistakes, right? We're not perfect. What are you going to do if it wasn't that person from that country who wanted war, but instead a bad person who made the mistake on purpose? Are you going to destroy them anyway, knowing it wasn't their fault and it was just an accident?
Aoi fell silent.
Nemuri, seeing this, crouched down beside him and said:
— You know, we all make mistakes. You also made a mistake with Ryuko, didn't you? But you had the opportunity to apologize. Are you going to take that opportunity away from them too?
Rumi pulled Aoi's face to make him look at hers and said:
— Look here, you idiot. I really like your blue flames. They remind me of oceans. They're beautiful. So I don't want you to dirty them with the blood of innocents.
Nemuri said smiling, holding his right hand:
— Yes, there has to be a way. I'll help you find it.
Ryuko said, holding his left hand:
— I know I can't be as strong as you and I can't have your view of the world, but one thing I can be sure of: the fact that you came up with this whole plan to keep your conscience clean and only attack shows how much you don't want to hurt innocent people in this world.
Aoi said with a tired smile:
— You know, sometimes I wonder if it would be easier to simply not care about anyone and just have power as my only goal in life. It would be so easy—just destroy what I don't like and crush what I can't stand without thinking about the consequences.
Rumi stared into his eyes and asked:
— So why don't you do it? It's so easy for you to do that, right? After all, if you're willing, even this continent we're on could cease to exist if you wanted.
Aoi said:
— Yes, that could be true and so easy to do. But it would also be easier to have consequences that I can't afford.
He then rested his forehead against Rumi's head and held Ryuko's and Nemuri's hands. He then looked at them and said:
— You know, I don't deny that this path is easier. But this isn't the happiest path, right? It's not because it's easy that it will bring happiness.
Rumi looked at him and said with a tired smile:
— I know that to you we seem arrogant. You're here willing to show your power to the world and be feared just so we have more security, and we're acting this way—denying your plan and attacking you. But I really don't want to see you turn into a weapon. When I hear people talk about you, it won't be about how good a father or how good a husband you are. It will be that dangerous weapon arrived. I don't want to hear that.
Nemuri said:
— Yes, my advice might be kind of useless. After all, I'm not very strong. I don't know the view that beings like you have from up there, but I know the view I have of my idiot, playful, lazy husband. And I don't want that view to change.
Ryuko looked at him and said:
— So even if we can't help with strength, we're going to keep the promise and help keep you on the right decisions.
Aoi, hearing this, laughed and said:
— Seriously, when Rumi said she was going to kick me to wake me up if I was wrong, I thought she was joking. But no, she used me to break like three walls. But I really am an idiot. It's not even two days since I asked you to help me stay on the right path and I already got kicked. If this keeps going like this, the house is going to collapse.
Aoi then looked at them and said with a tired face:
— Sorry. I thought that this change of being called a weapon by the world wouldn't affect me. After all, I don't care about the world's opinion. But I forgot to consider how you would feel seeing me being treated like that.
Rumi smiled and said:
— Yes, idiot. You finally understood. When you have someone, what people call you may not matter to you, but it matters to us who are by your side listening.
Nemuri said:
— Yes, it makes us feel bad knowing that you're not like that, but seeing the whole world treat you as something dangerous.
Ryuko smiled and said:
— So before thinking that something doesn't affect you just because you don't care what they say, remember: we feel for you.
Aoi looked at them and said:
— You know, there's something I've always thought about what it means to be a hero for me. And the answer I found was: when I have this power, I thought: why should I follow the rules, right? There's nothing in the world that stops me from doing what I want. But there's one point I thought: does only strength matter and only it decides the right to treat people's lives as I want because I'm stronger? I then searched, then looked and realized that true goodness is having the power to do all the evil in the world with no consequences and choosing not to do it. This way of being a hero for me, despite being full of flaws and not being as grand as saving everyone with a smile, I think it serves. What do you think?
The girls then hugged him tightly.
Rumi said:
— Yes, I liked this way of being a hero. It suits an idiot like you.
Nemuri said smiling:
— Who thinks they can solve everything perfectly so nothing goes wrong.
Ryuko smiled and said:
— Just remember that we're watching to make sure you keep that hero motto of yours.
Aoi smiled and said:
— Well, it seems I'm in trouble. But I count on you.
He then closed his eyes. When they heard a scream:
— Who broke my walls?!
Aoi opened his eyes only to see Rumi, Ryuko, and Nemuri running away and leaving him to deal with the mess. He then looked at his mother who was already watching him with a bitter smile and said:
— Well, I'm screwed.