BtF - Part XI

Nikaho, Akita Prefecture, February 17th, 2022

He wakes up slowly from the bed in a room of the hospital placing his hand on the back of his head. It still hurt a lot. He did not remember anything about how he was brought that place, but right on that moment, he did not care about it.

He gets up and grabs his jacket from the bed getting ready to get out of the room, when the door opens.

It was the doctor from the day before.

“Ah, you woke up!”

“How is Sakura?!”

“Relax! She is fine. But she needs resting, no visits right now.

“Can I still see her?”

“Go, but from outside of the room and make it fast.”

He nods his head and gets outside the room. As soon as he way out, he recognizes he was near her room and walking to it, looking thought the window on the door how she calmly and beautifully slept on her room. It seemed that nothing that had they had gone thought the day before had not even happened; if the fact of being of a hospital was forgotten, and also many other things that now where concerning him.

He places his hand on the window.

“Get better; I will do my best here. I will wait until we are together, to tell you what I wanted.”

He removes his hand, and walks out of the hospital, not without, in the way, looking towards Shun’s room.

He gets out of the hospital, noticing his friends standing guard. Upon realizing that he got out, all of them run towards him.

Ikuto: “Are you alright?”

Yamato: “What happened?”

Tai: “Where is the couple?”

Izumi: “How did the fire started?”

Daisuke: “Why where all of you there?”

“Still guys!”

They all shut up.

“They are both alright, and so do I. But they may be a bit more inside of the hospital, Sakura is the worse than Shun still.”

Tai: “But how this happen?”

He sights, recognizing that he had to tell all of them the truth.

“I have not been entirely truthful with any of you. The truth is that I kissed Sakura.”

Dead silence and surprising shock among all of them, but he continues.

“It happened on the festival that we went together. Since then we have been hiding it from Shun and from you also. Afterwards, Kirei discovered me on the day the games were stopped by the police. As punishment, he decided that if I defeated Shun and Ovan afterwards, we could go back together to Tokyo. But I lost. I am sorry for keeping things from you. And I can understand any of your feelings towards me. I will go for a walk around the city. Alone.”

He walks passing the round formed by his friends, but stops after three steps.

“Just one question. What happened to Miya?”

Tai: “They did not find his corpse. Neither was he seen nearby. It is likely that he died, but not sure.”

“Alright.”

He resumes his walk.

Tai and the others enter the hospital and they all go to see Shun.

---

The sunset could be seen upon the horizon.

He had walked thought the city the entire day, crossed nearly a thousand stress and walked hundreds of blocks, trying to clear his head, and finding a way to solve the problem. Nothing of this helped him to achieve this goal. He finally decided to go back to the dormitories.

He enters his room, or what was left of it. The place had been burned almost entirely, and most of it was colored or covered by black and grey ash. Few things were left to him, and someone had placed them on the floor, near the end of what once was his bed. He sits down on it, and starts checking what was left. His cellphone, some books, his IPod, other school things, both his and Shun’s shinais. He rapidly finishes the small pillar of things without finding many important things at the moment for him. He closes his eyes, places his back against the wall and sights.

He was actually glad that some things had survived. But at the moment, he did not care much for them. His head was still focusing on other things. He opens his eyes, and notices something he had not seen before. A small golden metal cage was still on the metal book shelves. It had probably not burned because it was made of metal. He got up and got the box down from there, sitting back down on the bed to check things inside.

Almost instantly, he noticed the letter he had received from his dad some weeks ago, that one he had not opened still. He looks to its back, and reads his father’s condition for another time.

“Son, is sent you this letter not to respond it neither for you to read it. Just for you to know that you must not lose hope and keep on advancing. And if in any moment you do so, just open the envelope.”

Upon reading the message, he noticed that he had arrived to that moment conditioned by it. He could open the letter. Moving his fingers, he opens the letter and takes the white and folded paper. He reads it:

If you opened this, is because you are on the situation the message told you about. Whatever is your problem, know that I and your mother stand with you, and will never leave that place. This are words that have supported our family for generations, and I hope they serve your as well. My father, your grandfather, told me them when I was a similar age you yours right now. I hope they will have the same effect as they had with me:

Why does it hurt?

So we can learn to adapt and overcome.

Why do we fail?

So we can learn how to succeed.

We do not learn from our victories.

We learn from our fears.

From our worst failures.

It is in our darkest dreams we are at our best.

In our lowest moments that we feel true strength.

For when we can go no lower and all that remains is hope, we ASCEND.

And why do we fall?

So we can learn how to RISE once again.

Good luck, Son.

He smiles for the first time in weeks.

“You have not lost your faith in me. Right, father?”

He looks down for a moment, thinking of all what had happened over the last few days. He had never got so down on a hole, and by that moment he had already reached the bottom. That could mean just one thing: there was just one way left to go, and it was going up. He had never given up on anything ever before. Neither would he this time.

He gets up from the bed and grabs both his sword and Shun’s before going out from his room. Soon, he finds all his friends outside the dormitories.

“What are you guys doing?”

Yamato: “Table of with ten legs. Remember that?”

Daisuke: “If one falls, the other nine support each other.”

“We are nine now.”

Percival: “Then join Sakura to the team. We need some feminine spirit inside the group, after all.”

Tai approaches his old friend.

Tai: “We stand with you. As always. There must be a way for you to come with us.”

“After all what has happened?”

Izumi: “Miya always said that brothers protect each other. We have to honor his memory, in thought and deed.”

Tai: “we stood with you in the past. We stand with you now. And shall continue doing so.”

He smiles to them for the first time after all what had happened.

“I do not deserve friends as you.”

Daisuke: “Well. What is the plan captain?”

“It is still forming in my head. But I got an idea about it. Tai will come with me. The rest of you, go with Kirei. Tell him I will see him in an hour or maybe an hour in a half. I want to speak to him and to Ovan.”

Izumi: “What of you two?”

“We will go with Shun. And see if he agrees to this idea I just had. If he does, we may remain together. No. We will remain together.”

Yamato: “Alright. Come on we are going!”

They all run to the entrance and take different directions.

---

The duo arrives to the hospital. They encounter the doctor that helped him to find Sakura and Shun the day before and he tells them that they can go to see Shun, as he was ready to leave the establishment. They run to his room, but before they enter, he stops Tai.

“He will not be happy to see me. Whatever happens, do not interfere.”

“Alright.”

They open the door. And the second afterwards Shun turns his sight to them, and dislikes that his now former friend was in there.

“I am not here for a quarrel Shun.”

“Your presence suggest otherwise.”

“We have had our differences. I…”

“Differences?! You betrayed your best friend, and kissed his girlfriend twice! That a difference?!”

He looks down for a moment, but then looks to Tai on his left.

“Leave us, would you?”

“Fine.”

He turns to his back and closes the door behind him.

“I image how you must be felling right now, with me.”

“You have no idea!”

“But place that out from your head for a moment. Think about your battle in two days. You think you can defeat Ovan?”

“what is your point with this?!””

“Just answer.”

“Yes. As I have always stood.”

“The last time you face him does not favor you.”

“Many things have changed.”

“True but still you have not always fought alone, always. In the arena we fight side by side, back to back, supporting each other. Remember?”

“Days long past.”

“Yet still. Even with your level he is way beyond it. And beyond mine as well.”

Shun turns around, giving his back to him.

“What do you want? After all what has happened? After what you have taken from me.”

“By the situation now I will not go back with you. I have but an idea. If Kirei agrees, we will fight together against him and win.”

“Tell me, after all what has happened, why I would help you?”

“I am not doing this for me Shun. I am doing it for you. I could remain here, alone, without any of you. It would be what I deserve after all I have done. But still, that would mean leaving all of you and turning my back again. I promised myself to never repeat that. We are brothers.”

“No longer. Our brotherhood. The trust I placed upon you. A thing of lies and deceit.”

“I know you cannot forgive me. But that is not what I am asking from you, Shun.” He turns to the door. “The choice is yours.”

He leaves the room.

Shun turns around, walks few steps and notices the wooden blade left on his bed. His Shinai. He had fought some many times, both in the arena and on the dojo. The blade he had used to fight all his adversaries across his life, including Ovan and him.

He thought for a brief moment, but at the end he grabs the blade and slung it to his back, and runs outside of the room, following his friends.

He rapidly approached them

“I am doing this form me, not for you just know that.

“Alright.”

“Well. Now, what is your plan?” Tai said.

“We are going to see Kirei and Ovan to inform them of this. They still have to agree.”

---

The three of them arrive to the dojo. Kirei and Ovan were waiting, and it seemed, that they had been for a long time. Kirei looks to his students as; Ovan keeps on giving his back to them, looking towards the sakura blossom garden outside. He still notices their arrival.

“I am sorry for the arrival so late. We had to pick up Shun first.” He is the first.

Ovan: “Why did you call us here?”

Shun: “We want to make an offering, if both of you agree to hear it.”

Kirei: “Go ahead.”

“Shun and I shall fight you in two days, Ovan.”

Ovan turns around.

Kirei: “What do you seek with this? What do…”

Ovan: “Let them continue. With all due respect Sensei, but it is my battle against them. After all, I have to agree terms with them.”

“All of us know that not Shun neither myself stand chance against you alone. But if we fight together it is a balanced match.”

Ovan: “I accede. But what do you have to offer instead?”

“The only thing I have and can offer: an entrance to the alpha testing of an upcoming virtual reality Sword Art Online.” After saying this words, both Shun and Tai were surprised, yet he seemed to not care about the alpha testing anymore.

Ovan: “Why would I care for a Virtual Reality Game?”

“There will be 10000 players inside. Perhaps, you find someone worthy of fighting against you. Maybe someone with enough potential that one day, give you the battle you seek.”

Ovan turns around and thinks for a moment with tabbing the bokken slung on his hakama’s belt. He walks from left to right for what seemed a minute after he stops.

“Your terms are agreeable. In exchange, if I lose, you can go back with your friends.”

Kirei: “Alright then. In two days you shall face. You two, against him.”

They trio nods head.

“Now if that is all...”

“No.” he interrupts. “Yamato, we have known each other for many months, and had a rivalry with each other for the same time. But I have never had serious and respectful conversation.”

Yamato was surprised; it was the first time he had called him for his first name.

“None would have difference.”

“True…”

He takes out the shinai slung to his back, what Ovan responds by grabbing his bokken’s handle with his right hand. Afterwards Shun grab his own from his back.

“But I want to have it, reagardless of what you think…”

He lets the wooden sword a bit up in the air and grabs it from the blade, giving it to Tai on his left.

Ovan grabs his bokken, and doing the same as him, gives it to Kirei.

“Leave us.” Tai looks at him surprised. “Trust me.”

Tai nods his head, the looks to Shun and makes him a sign to leave. Both of them leave the dojo as Kirei did the same.

Ovan gets outside, to the dojo, giving the back to his rival. He approaches walking next to him. He did not know why exactly he was doing what he was; speaking to the man he would fight in two days. Yet, he wanted to understand why he was as he was, what happened to him to become this, a man so attached to fights and training. The truth was, even with all their differences in ideologies, principles, ideas and after all what had happened between them, he had his respect.

He gets to Yamato’s left and crosses his arms.

Yamato speaks first.

“I must say, that over these two weeks I have seen you change a lot. You are not the man you were. But still, it is a thing known, is it not that you cannot win this?”

“I do not believe in impossibilities. And I have proven many people that thought the same as you wrong.”

“Katou among them.”

“I cannot say that I regret to give him what he deserved.”

“Deserved?”

“He assaulted Sakuya Sakura, one of my best friends, and attempt to rape her. I did what I had to save her.”

Yamato remains silent for a moment, but at last he speaks.

“I would have done the same. But even still, you say that you did not have vengeance upon that.”

“Somehow, it was one.”

“Vengeance is a stupid path, especially for a warrior like you. Has not Kirei told you that?”

“That is one of the many things we disagree upon. Sometimes it is the nearest path to justice, when none actually achieved. Specially on a world where such thing does not exist”

“One day, those ideas may drag you to your doom, if your fate it written like that.”

“Whatever happens to me, it happens because I choose it. I DECIDE MY FATE. Not you. Not anybody else. Not even God, if he exists.”

“And will that serve as balm for our upcoming battle? If the so called Blue Ronin and his best friend are defeated by me. What would you do, to remain with you friends?”

“Nothing will see me far from any of them. Nothing in this world.”

“At last.” He says nodding his head. “An opinion we share. The love for our friends.”

He extends his hand to him.

Yamato looks at him with his deep sky blue eyes, extends his own hand and grabs his forearm. They share a hand shake, similar to the one he used to have with Shun, Miya, and his other friends.

“When we see each other again, I will defeat you.”

“You shall try.” Ovan responds.

He grins.

“It is all what I can do after all.”

They separate.

He leaves him walking back to see his friends. He could not fully understand him, but he learned that he had a dark past, what was what made him like this. Some things are best not to be asked.

Yet, he had also now knew, that whatever had happened to Yamato Ovan, he was still a good person.