Ch. 7: Blending Black and White
As I thought I was about to be trampled, and the monster’s giant shadow fell on me…-.
I looked up to see a dragon with a black and white mane take the blow.
OO: “Ray…!”
Ray: “You wanna die!?”
Having taken the hit, Ray groaned and turned towards the monster for a counterattack.
As the fight continued, Ray continued to get more and more beat up, but he eventually knocked the monster down.
Soldier: “Hey, what’s with that dragon!?”
The soldiers had noticed the fight between the giant dragon and the monster and clustered together in a panic.
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Ray: “You’ll be slow, so this is the fastest thing to do. Grit your teeth so you don’t bite your tongue.”
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(He said it like it was for his own personal goals, but I think Ray said that so I wouldn’t think I was being a burden. In that case, this time I need to protect Ray…!)
OO: “This dragon isn’t a monster, so don’t hurt him…!”
The second I shouted, Ray glanced at me…
And still in his dragon form, he took off into the sky.
Ch. 8: In the Cold Rain
The chilly night breeze caressed my skin…-.
The sun had already set since Ray flew away, and in its place the moon and stars blazed in the night sky.
OO: “Ray, where did you go…?”
Knowing he was hurt, I walked in the direction he’d flown, but I couldn’t find a single trace of him.
I looked around, but all I could hear was the grass swaying in the wind.
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Ray: “If you want to come, do whatever you want. Ah, but… I’m not going to do more than the bare minimum. You have to look out for yourself. I’m not a prince or a knight. I’m not giving you the princess treatment.”
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(He said those things, yet he still saved me… I don’t think a cold-hearted person would risk their own life to save someone else. Ah…)
I felt a sudden cold sensation and looked up to the night sky, noticing that rain had started to fall.
The cold droplets that fell were no longer something to fear for they no longer caused the crystallization, but…-.
(Somewhere, right now… Ray is alone and probably in pain.)
As I imagined him wrapped up in that solitude, pain clenched around my heart.
??: “…-.”
At that time, through the pounding sound of the rain, I heard a faint moan from a nearby cave.
OO: “Was that Ray…?”
(I’m scared since I can’t quite see him but…)
As there was even the slightest chance, I entered into the impenetrable darkness of the cave…-.
…
……
Within the gloomy cave, I felt the cold even though there was no wind…-.
The inside was even larger than I’d imagined, and I fearfully continued on…
Ray: “…why are you here?”
OO: “Ray!”
Ray, no longer in his dragon form, sat with his back leaning against the rock wall, and I hurriedly ran over to him.
His body was still covered with numerous painful-looking injuries from taking the attacks from the monster.
(He really is… hurt more than I’d realized.)
OO: “We have to get you treated…!”
As soon as I opened my mouth to speak, Ray pulled me in close with surprising strength.
He placed his large palm, which also had some minor injuries, over my mouth and cut off my words.
Ray: “No need. Be quiet.”
Overpowered by his sharp words, I nodded, and his grip loosened.
Ray: “…I bet you thought this would be the end of this troublesome babysitting.”
OO: “Troublesome…?”
I questioned his words now that my mouth was free, and Ray looked down slightly…-.
Ray: “If I die, it’s over, and you don’t need to look after me.”
His disinterested words echoed in the quiet cave.
Before I could even begin to understand the meaning behind his words, I felt an immeasurable pain as if my heart had been wrenched apart.
Ch. 9: To Survive and To Live
Ray: “If I die, it’s over, and you don’t need to look after me.”
The words that fell from him echoed in the quiet cave…-.
Understanding the meaning of his words, I felt a heat gradually building and rising in the depths of my heart.
OO: “…did you fight that monster with the intent of dying? Who’s the one that said ‘do you wanna die!?’ before?”
(At that time, Ray wasn’t looking for a new way of life, he was… wanting to end it all…?)
OO: “Why…!? Why is that your choice!?”
Ray: “You wouldn’t understand! You, someone who has everything.”
OO: “!”
Ray raised his voice and tightly clenched his fist.
He roughly bit into his lip, and his expression was overcome with intense pain.
Ray: “Am I supposed to just go on living, going my whole life without that happiness that comes naturally of having your family with you? I thought this was my punishment for carelessly living on. But… fighting that monster, for just a moment, I felt relief at the idea that everything might end.”
He clenched his hand tighter and tighter, straining his fist until blood started to flow.
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Ray: “Dragons… don’t lie. They are cheerful and arrogant, and don’t choose to live their lives relying on their strength to take what they want from others.”
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Ray’s hand was shaking slightly, and I gently placed my own on his.
OO: “Was the Dragon Clan made of people who would not rejoice in the happiness of others? Are they people that would wish for you to be unhappy…?”
Ray: “…!”
His eyes snapped up to mine, and I could see the denial in his eyes.
OO: “If you’re going to deny that, then I won’t let you die. I will never… let you be alone.”
The blood on Ray’s hand that marked him as living dyed and dampened my own.
OO: “…I have no intention of letting you die while thinking you have nothing.”
I wouldn’t lose to that gaze of his that pierced straight through me, and I continued to look straight at him.
Ch. 10: A Ray of Hope to Brighten the Future
Within the dim cave, our gazes met…-.
I wetted my handkerchief in a nearby spring and sat down behind Ray.
Ray: “…hey, who said you could treat me like that?”
OO: “I told you. I won’t let you die.”
Ray: “I don’t need it.”
OO: “Too bad.”
Ray: “Just knock it off…-.
In the second Ray whipped around, the ornament that kept his hair tied back flew off…-.
Ray: “…why do you try to give me things to hold on to?”
OO: “!”
Ray pushed me down and hung over me.
With my back against the hard ground, his long hair fell around me like rain and brushed against my cheeks.
Ray: “It’s fine for me to be empty; it’s too late now for me to be happy.”
His voice trembled as it passed through the lips he had been biting.
Clutching the wet handkerchief, I looked into his eyes while in that intimate closeness.
OO: “…that may be true for you right now, but you don’t know what tomorrow will bring. The rain will stop, and the morning will come… and you may come to desire something. Because neither you nor me, nor the gods… can know the future.”
Ray: “…”
Ray’s face twisted in pain, then he roughly sealed my lips with his.
OO: “!?”
His lips, cold as if they held the pain in his heart, pressed down, rough and forceful, as if he were trying to steal my words away.
Ray: “…it’s best to leave me alone you know. After all, I’m a villain who caused you and others immeasurable pain. If I get hurt, you’ll be happy, right? Yet why…”
His tone was always sharp, yet now it had changed and was full of confusion.
OO: “…why indeed.”
(…I didn’t keep an eye on him because I thought Ray was going to do something.)
From the short time we’d spent together, I knew that Ray had never been the villain.
I had felt the kindness and his willingness to take care of others that he kept secret in his heart, and it had pulled on my own…-.
(Because my wish is for Ray to smile.)
I spontaneously reached out my hand and touched Ray’s cool cheek.
I gently combed his hair, black like the night sky and white like the light of the sun.
OO: “I don’t want to see you hurt Ray; I want to see you smile.”
His body was covered with painful-looking injuries from the monster attack.
Wanting to take away even just a little of that pain, I gently traced the line of the cut on his cheek with my fingers, and his lips moved as if he were trying to tell me something.
Ray: “If there was something I wanted, would you be mine?”
OO: “I’m not a thing. So…”
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OO: “I’ll watch over you… so that nothing else happens.”
Ray: “Ha, if I’d known you’d spout ridiculous words of sympathy like that, isn’t that even more of a reason?”
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OO: “I’ll stay by your side and watch over you, so that you don’t go off and die on your own.”
(I wonder… if I’m getting my feelings across right now.)
In order to express the feelings I had been harboring, I looked him resolutely in the eyes.
OO: “Because I love you.”
Ray took a calming breath, as if processing what I’d just said.
I could even hear his sigh, and that in itself seemed somehow tender.
Ray: “…in that case, give me everything you have.”
I nodded without hesitation, and the corner of his lips twitched up.
Ray: “I’ll give you a warning. If you say you’ll run… I’ll turn into a dragon and swallow you whole.”
OO: “Fine, you can eat me if I break my promise. Because I’ll never run from you. I’ll give you my future and everything else.”
(So please don’t be alone anymore. Live with me, together.)
As I placed my hand to his cheek, charged with the desire that had been born after we’d met again, his expression suddenly relaxed…-.
Ray: “…you’re a fool.”
His tone seemed troubled, yet his expression as he looked at me was glad.
His rough words didn’t match with the myriad of emotions I felt seep their way deep into my heart.
(He can’t forget his painful past or those precious memories. But… we can change the future. I won’t let Ray’s tomorrow be filled only with sorrow.)
His handsome face slowly came closer, and his hair brushed against my cheeks even stronger than before.
Ray: “Anyway, it’s likely your fate as a human to die before me… and when that time comes, I’ll eat you so you can’t leave me. So, spend your entire life here.”
I closed my eyes to receive his rough yet tender kiss.
And I prayed that Ray’s tomorrow would be illuminated by a gentle ray of hope.
END
Secret Story: Before the Light I Can't Turn Away From
The chill of the stone wall seeped into my back…-.
Having released my dragon form, I felt the pain even more now.
(Damn…)
I felt annoyed at the blood that flowed from my wounds and clenched my fist.
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OO: “This dragon isn’t a monster, so don’t hurt him…!”
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Alone, I remembered her voice crying out before I flew off.
Ray: “…there’s no way someone like me could be happy.”
When everyone was snatched away from me, I lived without happiness, and I thought surviving on my own was my curse.
That’s why even on the nights I felt I would go mad with rage, I walked alone and continued to live to this day as punishment.
(…when I’m with her, I ended up wanting something. Even though I never imagined I could be considered important to someone else as I am now.)
While we had gone on our journey together, my feelings towards her had shifted in the wake of her kind heart…-.
I never had any intention of letting myself wish for happiness again, yet my heart ached with a desire for her.
(That’s why I thought I’d be relieved if everything just ended but…)
For just a second, I turned away from that light, and I was almost desperate as I went to face that monster.
But she desperately tried to protect me, who was starting to feel death closing in, from those soldiers…-.
(…even though she’s human. What reason does she have to stay with me?)
I knew I should have run before those feelings had started to grow any more, yet even now my heart didn’t waver, and I smiled bitterly.
Ray: “Why… won’t you let me just give up.”
My voice was filled with exasperation and echoed in vain within the empty cave.
I pressed my hand over my burning wounds and the blood continued to trickle out through the cracks between my fingers…-.
…
……
From within the cave, I could hear the sound of falling water grow louder…-.
Just as I’d thought, she was stubbornly looking for me after I’d disappeared.
I thought of the lecture she gave me full of anger and sorrow, as she forcibly tried to take care of my injuries…-.
(Damn, I’m getting angry.)
Ray: “It’s fine for me to be empty; it’s too late now for me to be happy.”
I pinned her down and hung myself over her, my hair slipping out and falling on her.
Those clear eyes pierced straight through me, and my feelings were in an uproar as they switched to those of frustration.
OO: “…that may be true for you right now, but you don’t know what tomorrow will bring. The rain will stop, and the morning will come… and you may come to desire something. Because neither you nor me, nor the gods… can know the future.”
(…so then why do you give me something to hold on to?)
As I realized it, I placed my lips over hers to stop her talking.
Ray: “…it’s best to leave me alone you know. After all, I’m a villain who caused you and others immeasurable pain. If I get hurt, you’ll be happy, right? Yet why…”
OO: “…why indeed.”
She stretched out her small hand and touched my wound.
OO: “I don’t want to see you hurt Ray; I want to see you smile.”
She traced down the line of one of the cuts left by the monster as if trying to pass on her own body heat.
(Am I… hoping for something?)
Ray: “If there was something I wanted, would you be mine?”
OO: “I’m not a thing. So… I’ll stay by your side and watch over you, so that you don’t go off and die on your own. Because I love you.”
Those surprisingly kind words, which I should have always rejected, reached my ears.
(…you watching over me isn’t just some political position, is it. For some reason, you won’t let me give up.)
Ray: “…in that case, give me everything you have.”
As I quietly spoke those words, she nodded without a second’s hesitation.
Ray: “I’ll give you a warning. If you say you’ll run… I’ll turn into a dragon and swallow you whole.”
OO: “Fine, you can eat me if I break my promise. Because I’ll never run from you. I’ll give you my future and everything else.”
Ray: “…you’re a fool.”
And yet I still felt happy, which was probably even more foolish.
Being happy was frightening, and holding onto something was painful, and though I wanted to refuse…
The feelings deep in my heart wanted me to reach out my hand and grasp at a future with her.
(It’s too late now, even if I have regrets. Because I will definitely take that future with you, that you make me hope for.)
I moved closer, as if to convey that promise.
Ray: “Anyway, it’s likely your fate as a human to die before me… and when that time comes, I’ll eat you so you can’t leave me. So, spend your entire life here.”
As if in acceptance, she closed her eyes and I kissed her again.
(I won’t forgive you, for as long as I live… for letting me choose happiness.)
The shared body heat spread deep into my cold heart.
I whole-heartedly continued to seek it out, as if clinging to that sliver of light that entered my empty heart.
END