In the hospital room, away from the late summer heat, only the sound of an old air conditioner and the voices of the two siblings broke the silence.
Kohane called her brother softly once again.
“Assistant.”
Doo doo doo…
A man in his late twenties sat on the white bed wearing a patient gown. He remained trapped in his own world, not acknowledging the call of his sister, whom he had not seen for six years.
…
Skeletal fingers.
Shaking eyes.
Drool leaking from the corners of his mouth.
Scars visible beneath the patient gown.
It was said that Kaede had used healing magic to help him a lot.
Doo doo doo.
His fingers, which could hardly bend due to cut tendons from abuse, had transformed into a magnificent armored form in his mind.
Doo doo doo…
In his mind, a grand cosmic war had been ongoing for six years.
Countless armors, many villains—he became a pilot fighting desperately to survive.
Separated from his precious sister by the evil Martian Empire’s schemes, he was the ace pilot of the Earth Alliance. His organs had been replaced by enhanced parts, and he continued his adventures from the scorching lands to the cold cosmos, crossing numerous missions.
Huush huush! Pyeong!
Kohane’s brother, Daichi, who didn’t even realize his precious sister was right next to him, was merely continuing the delusions he had woven to protect himself from six long years of abuse and violence.
Buuung… Pusuu…. Kwang!
“Assistant.”
Doo doo doo.
…
Kohane discovered her brother, who had disappeared after being dragged off by the yakuza, thanks to her appearance as an extra in a documentary about remote travel filmed last year.
The airing of the rural travel program had been delayed because of the trend set by the appearance of magical girls, and it had only recently been broadcast.
A slave living on the streets.
The village fool.
That was how Daichi was introduced to the people of the remote village.
There were few clues in the broadcast to infer his completely altered appearance, but occasionally uttering Japanese and calling himself “Dada” led Sumire, feeling something was off, to send Kaede.
When she found Daichi, his condition was just alive.
Some missing organs.
Malnourished teeth and nails.
Drugs injected due to arduous surgeries.
A mind shattered from living as a slave.
The scars etched into Daichi’s body and mind were permanent damages that even the miracles of magical girls couldn’t completely heal.
“I asked the magical girls with healing abilities… but I’m sorry.”
“No, thank you, boss.”
After a long life of being a slave traveling across foreign lands and enduring abuse, he had forgotten his own name and lived as a fool named “Dada” in the remote village.
Six years ago,
Kohane’s brother, Daichi, had fallen into a cosplay bar, mesmerized by a clerk. After spending a thrilling night with a bar girl, he was seduced into thinking he could become the real lover of the bar girl if he paid the price.
Captivated by the first taste of a woman’s body and the sultry atmosphere of the bar, Daichi knocked on the doors of a loan shark to get money, and with that, his trail vanished.
Daichi’s hell began then.
Kohane’s hell also began then.
Doo doo doo! Pusuu puuusuu.
…
Kohane was shocked at how drastically her dull and simple-minded brother had changed. The once dull gaze now carried the brightness of innocence, but it had transformed into the look of a dead fish.
“Assistant! Lose some weight! Isn’t it cramped in our little house with just two of us?”
“S-Sorry, Kohane.”
Multiple scar marks peeked from under the patient gown, and clearly, there were unnatural holes where something should have been.
She had told him to lose weight, but not like this.
…
Her foolish brother probably hadn’t told the loan sharks anything about himself even while he lived as a slave, repaying his debts.
If he had, the terrifying loan sharks might have barged into the house where Kohane was left alone and tried to sell her off somewhere, as she was just a small elementary school student.
Such a foolish mistake.
Taking full responsibility for all his mistakes, her brother returned utterly broken.
A cold home.
Harder than stone lunch boxes.
Child protection center.
Kabukicho plaza.
That day when her brother had foolishly made the excuse of going for a walk near Kabukicho. It was that day when young Kohane had stepped out with her stomach growling, and everything fell apart.
Ha…
Kohane’s mind was filled with darkness beyond despair. All the pain she had endured mixed into a thick, dreary darkness.
How easily human life falls apart like this.
A single night’s mistake.
Because of that, the young man who found joy in working part-time and watching late-night robot animations with his sister returned as someone who couldn’t even say his own name anymore.
Because of that, the girl who dreamt of running a model kit shop and creating the coolest dioramas was searching desperately in a street where her brother did not exist.
……
Kohane felt herself growing numb and cold due to the emptiness and despair that surpassed a critical point. At the same time, the man’s struggle in his mind came to an end.
Right index finger standing tall, left index finger slowly bending.
Fuush! Spot!
…
Had her brother moved the imagined armor to defeat an enemy with a beam blade?
As Kohane watched her brother’s madness from her despair, Daichi murmured, gradually bending his fingers with unfocused eyes.
“Koh…Kohane… Dr. Dr…”
“Brother…? You remember my name?”
“Pu… Pu… let me go. Villain…!”
…
“I…am… Ban… Ban… dou…”
…
“Dr…research…lab…”
Her foolish brother was fighting desperately in his delusion to save her.
Struggling to return home, he was fighting to reclaim himself.
Kohane found it so foolish that tears began to flow.
“You foolish assistant, why are you realizing something important only now?!”
If everyday life was that precious, he should have never been captivated by a woman.
If he truly wanted to see her, he should have never gone to the bar.
“Why do you make such foolish mistakes?!”
Kohane stood up and screamed.
The movement knocked the chair over.
Thud!
In the space where the chair rolled and the girl screamed, the man remained unable to escape from his delusion.
What use were the feelings left in our twisted, ruined lives?
A frail, skinny high school girl and a man reduced to a simpleton.
Even without their parents, that happy time spent watching late-night animations in their small room and going out to buy model kits on the weekend could never return.
Even if they searched for family, those times would never return.
Clatter.
Suddenly, from Kohane’s pocket, the head of a model armor rolled out, hastily brought along as she rushed out of the room.
Broken horn.
No matter how splendid the body had been completed, if a weak part breaks, it loses its significance as a model.
Because that part was the antenna where the pilot received the most important information.
The best part of the armor, where it could exist as armor.
…Horn.
Daichi stared blankly at it as he picked it up.
For the first time, he became aware of his surroundings.
“Assistant…? O-Oh, brother?! Are you back to your senses?! Can you respond?!”
“Horn…broken.”
This model could never become a splendid completed product.
“If it breaks… th-th-then…”
“Di-di… Diorama…?”
Kohane understood the ramblings of the madman.
That was a memory from the past.
A sudden earthquake.
Returning from the evacuation center, only to find all the model kits ruined.
“Uh-oh, Assistant! It’s a crisis! All the model kits are destroyed because of the earthquake!”
“Hmm… then how about making a diorama?”
Suddenly, Daichi brought out the protagonist’s machine and rival’s machine, setting them on fire with a lighter. Kohane was horrified to see her brother destroy the two machines that were relatively intact.
“Wah?! What are you doing?! Are you crazy?!”
“Look. If you do it like this…”
Daichi recreated the final scene from the animation, where the two machines, wielding beam blades, battled fiercely. He laid the ruins of the broken machines around them.
The final battlefield.
Amid the ruined machines, everyone watched as the two figures faced off in a climactic battle.
The vividness felt as if they had come alive from the animation.
Kohane found the diorama made from a shabby cardboard box incredibly cool.
“Wah, waaaah!”
“Cool, right?”
“Ne, Nehuhuhu! Quite impressive, Assistant!”
“A perfect model kit is splendid, but this ruined yet vivid diorama is also amazing.
Because the story living within it spurts out intensely.
Like a scarred diorama.
Though our story is distorted and full of wounds.
We are still alive and breathing.
Our story, though immature, fiercely continues.
Because it’s imperfect, it holds a story within.
“…Yes.”
Kohane wiped her eyes and hugged Daichi, who was blankly holding the model kit head.
The visiting hours to meet Daichi before he was hospitalized in a mental institution were coming to an end.
“…Hang in there, Assistant.”
…
“Assistant, ride on your armor.”
…
“I’ll ride my armor.”
…
“From now on, we will overcome the Martian Empire.”
…
“We will create our own splendid diorama.”
Inside Kohane’s ivory glass star, a destiny greater than finding family began to shine brightly.
Thus, yet another girl with a new star of destiny was born.
The world took another step forward.
“Brother.”
Kohane looked back at her brother, still sitting blankly, before stepping out of the hospital to her waiting friends.
“I’ll be back.”
The door to the hospital quietly closed.
Tap.
…
The ace pilot of the Earth Alliance wept over the sorrow felt at the end of a fierce yet fruitless battle. The victory that seemed so close slipped away once more, and his sister’s face, waiting back home, faded from memory.
…
Why is that?
I’m used to defeat.
Yet this defeat feels especially sad.
The broken head of a model armor lay on the control stick.
The ace pilot clutched it and cried for a long time.
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