Volume Four, Chapter Five: Concerned About The Future
Our meeting with our future co-workers came to an end, and thus we all decided to head home for the day. In my case, I'm in my flat with both Akane and Yoko.
"Daisuke-nii, What's mitosis again?", Akane asks.
"It's when a cell reproduces itself by spliting into two identical cells."
"Right, thanks."
I'm sort of helping them out with their home-work right now. These two are in Class 2-A after all, so they don't need too much help. It's funny to think that when next month comes around, I'll be out of school, and these two will be third years. I had all intentions of returning home after graduating, but now with my current situation, those hopes are dashed. With such hefty responsibilities hanging my head, I can't waste time thinking about such frivolous things.
"Aniki."
"....."
"An-I-Ki~"
"Hmm? Sorry, I was thinking about something."
"I couldn't tell. What's bothering you?"
I'm so caught up in my own thoughts that I don't even notice that Yoko and Akane have stopped working and are now staring at me with looks of slight concern.
"It's nothing, just day-dreaming.", I say quickly.
"That's not the face you make when you're day-dreaming, Daisuke-nii.", Akane denies immediately.
Yoko nods in agreement. Do I seriously make a face when I'm day-dreaming? Nevermind that now. They've noticed that something's wrong, so I may as well come clean.
"Well, I'm was just thinking about the future is all.", I say admittedly. "I'm honestly afraid of failing. Not so much for myself, but for you all."
There's a slight pause, but I continue with what I'm saying.
"I'm not very strong right now, and I don't if I'll ever be good enough to lead people. Especially leading in a way that guarantees the safety of all of our members... I don't know what I'll do with myself if I were to let any of you die.."
Call me patheic, but I really am scared. I was so gung-ho at first, but seeing Naoya and Akai struggle against Scarecrow sobered me up instantly. Yoko and Akane hug tightly me by both my arms.
"Aniki, I understand your concern.", Yoko says with understanding. "Honestly, I'm glad to hear that you're actually worried about those things."
"Uh-huh.", Akane concurs. "If you weren't, we would've been worried that you aren't taking this seriously."
I can level with that, but I'm still slightly taken aback by the fact that they aren't put off by my vunerable behaviour.
"All of us have faith in you, Daisuke-nii. We all believe that you can lead us."
"That's right. If we didn't, we wouldn't have gone along with your plan. We'll be sticking with you through all the good times and the bad ones, no matter what happens."
...I really do love these two girls. I'm so glad that I agreed to this three-timing situation, degeneracy be damned.
"And besides-", Yoko concludes. "We'll murder all of your enemies, so there's no need to be worried about that."
Eh?
"Yeah.", Akane says intensely, nuzzling up even closer to me. "We'll keep you safe forever, Daisuke-nii."
"Please don't kill anyone.", I plead. "Squad Leader's orders."
They both nod in agreement. Oh, that went a lot more smoothly than I thought it would.
"We'll just beat them half to death instead.", Yoko says.
How gracious of you both. They simultaneously plop some kisses on my cheek, as if to soothe me. Well, I guess that's just the 'yan' that comes along with the 'dere', isn't it?
....And it mildly concerns me that I like it....