Silence inevitably fell in the living room.
Shinka felt the urge to get up and run out so that father and daughter could talk between themselves.
However, he couldn't move a single centimeter of his body.
"How did you reach that conclusion?" Raymond couldn't help but ask.
"Because what's the point of risking ourselves and exposing ourselves to danger like that?"
"You know very well what the answer is."
"Ugh, yes! Of course I know it, but... it's unfair! Everyone else is out there, oblivious to what's really happening. They live ordinary lives, have friends, go shopping, have boyfriends, and their biggest concern is studying. Why does it have to be us who carry this burden?"
"Because we're the ones with the ability to defend others... If this is truly what you want, and if you're completely sure, I won't stop you or try to convince you." He smiled as he got up from his chair.
"I'll go finish cooking for the three of you. Now you're rebels skipping your classes! And I'm an indulgent father for not saying anything!" He walked to the kitchen normally.
'He really didn't care?!'
Shinka was notably confused.
'What kind of father is this guy?'
"Don't you find it unfair, Kusaka-san?"
"U-Uh. Well, a little, truth be told." He coughed slightly.
'This is a bit awkward.'
"No. There's no way you understand. You lived most of your life as an ordinary person." She approached and sat down.
Thump!
She dropped her head onto the table.
"Of course I understand. Before, I didn't think about it, but now I see that sometimes ignorance is a privilege."
"Right? Besides, what's the point? If I had died yesterday, no one would ever know, just a few people... Would people really value that?"
"It's... completely human, what you're feeling. The act of doing so much and not being rewarded in any way is painful." He said understandingly.
"Stop talking like a damn psychologist."
Shinka could only sigh, and drop his head against the table too.
"Hey, I'm serious... I've felt that way too. Even when I train hard, I think about it. What's the point of trying so hard?"
Silence fell for a few moments.
"So what's your reason?"
Shinka let out a snort.
"Our starting points are different. Your family has strength and connections to protect themselves in case something supernatural occurs or attacks, but it's not the same for me. My relatives are ordinary people, who don't belong to this hidden world. They could die just from seeing a stray devil."
"Sounds like you're supporting my decision to quit being an exorcist." She turned her head slightly.
"If your dad can't tell you what to do, I can't either."
The awkward silence landed again.
For a few moments, nothing was heard.
Not even the fire from the kitchen stove.
Drip, Drip...
Two transparent but visible drops hit the dining table.
Kaede's eyes couldn't hold back what was passing through her mind.
"Kusaka-san, aren't you afraid?"
"Of course I am. Every time something supernatural happens, I'm afraid."
"Then how can you accept your new life so normally?"
'Normality, you say...?'
"To be honest with you, at first I treated this like a game. When I got my powers, I overthought so much that I somehow managed to convince myself that all this was fun... I just kept going out of pure inertia. But the first time I really felt fear and regretted having continued forward was when I met your family. From that moment on, I stopped moving forward out of inertia, and I just kept advancing out of fear."
Kaede understood.
At that moment, both sides were willing to kill each other.
The fear of death was real.
But perhaps she didn't feel it as such because Shinka couldn't have killed.
Perhaps it was because Shinka's appearance didn't evoke fear.
But none of that mattered, because now that same person was opening his heart.
"Out of fear?"
"Yes. Out of fear of not being able to come home one day... And out of fear of coming home and there being no one there." He sighed.
He clenched his fist slightly and stood up.
"I'm sorry, Namikawa-san."
Kaede watched as Shinka picked up his backpack, which Raymond had brought from school the night before.
"Why are you apologizing?"
"Because I remembered I have some matters to attend to. So I should go." He approached the door while playing with a strand of hair.
"It's okay. Take care. See you tomorrow at school."
"Excuse me..." He nodded and left the house.
The boy continued walking.
Without looking back.
'I'm not one to judge whether what God did was right or wrong.'
His expression was confused.
'He bestowed Sacred Gears upon certain individuals because too much power in the hands of all the earth's inhabitants could be disastrous. But still, that which was meant to protect us disappeared...'
'What was the point of not giving power to all humans like other supernatural beings? Was it just to leave us at their mercy?'
For a second, his gaze shifted to the sky, as if he wanted to converse with the creator.
'I'm sorry, Kaede...'
'I lied to you...'
He closed his eyes for a moment.
There was something inside him he couldn't admit publicly.
A belief born from his immature mind, but pragmatic in a sense.
Something he couldn't admit he thinks publicly.
'I'm not just motivated by the fear I feel.'
As he walked on the flat, green grass belonging to the church, he turned his head slightly, where he could still see the Namikawa house.
He remembered how, the day before, the forest was full of corpses.
How the stray devil had a symbiotic relationship with the Kodama.
A transaction carried out with human beings.
'Every time I remember that... I feel my blood boil.' He clenched his jaw with rage.
He dropped his backpack at his side.
'To supernatural beings, the human world is nothing more than a playground. They can come, do and undo whatever they feel like.'
'And those of us who inhabit this world are nothing more than cattle in their eyes... Whenever a strong and powerful human is born, they take them, change them, mold them however suits them best.'
He raised his hand as a strange heat formed in his chest.
Bzzt!
Like any other animal, he had a certain sense of belonging, but his rage wasn't because he had great love for humanity.
He had listened carefully to Kaede's words.
He felt the same.
Why must he protect everything?
Why must he carry the imposed responsibility of protecting everyone, putting others before himself?
And even now, there was someone or something lurking in the shadows, conspiring against the city he lived in.
He wasn't so cold and ungrateful as to let the city die on its own.
And above all...
The humans of this world, judged by other races due to their low power level and threat, were seen as inferior beings.
And because of that, Shinka Kusaka, as the human he was, was also seen as such.
His eyes flashed with blue fury.
He couldn't help but remember how when he spied on his sister, Souna Shitori, or rather, Sona Sitri, she had the audacity to conspire to draw him to her side.
Bzzt!
With a blue flash, a lance of pure mana formed.
'We...!'
'We also have the right to choose!'
With a movement of his whole body, the lance shot into space.
WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSH!
There was no need to create explosive magic to propel it.
The pure force of the anger Shinka felt was more than enough.
. . .
From the Namikawa house, Raymond saw through the window a thin ray of bluish light soaring through the sky, opening a hole in the middle of the clouds that threatened to soak the ground with rain.
"Well, I was hoping he could try my cake." He whispered as he took his creation out of the oven.
In the living room, Kaede still lay motionless, her head against the table, thoughtful.
In the room upstairs, Shizumi was conjuring a test version of the reinforcement spell, oblivious to everything that had happened.