“…It’s over. What are you going to do now?”
“…”
The battle was over, and Yuugo asked Skull a question after leaving the rest to the guards.
He asked about Skull’s future after helping achieve its revenge, and Melt cheerfully offered a proposal.
“If you don’t have anywhere to go, you can come to the Luminous Academy! Staying with us doesn’t sound bad, does it?”
“Skull is technically a monster, so it’d feel dangerous if it walked around town, but they might understand if we explain what happened…”
“…But what do you think, Skull?”
It squinted at Yuugo as he tried to get its opinion, and sighed a little.
Skull then closed its eyes and quietly shook its head.
“…I see. That’s what I figured.”
“Eeh!? Why? Don’t you like us?”
“That’s not it. Skull just needs time. It died, and was reborn as something else, even if it resembles what it was. It kept charging forward because it wanted revenge, but… Now that that’s over, I think it needs time to sort out its feelings. Right?”
“…”
Skull nodded.
Yuugo then brought his face closer, and whispered quietly enough that only Skull heard him.
“I really get how you feel. The same thing actually happened to me.”
“…!?”
Yuugo winked while Skull looked clearly surprised, and smiled.
He told Skull he also died and was reborn, to show that he understood how it felt.
“Think about it, Skull. About what you are now, and what you’re going to do. Find the answer to those questions, and when you want to see us again… Come to the Luminous Academy. We’ll welcome you, as your friends.”
Yuugo bumped his loosely clenched fist on Skull’s forehead, and nodded gently while encouraging it.
Skull lowered its head, as if expressing gratitude to Yuugo for understanding it. And then, it pounded the ground with its front hooves, and sent out a small fireball.
“Uwatoh!?? W-what…!?”
It flew until it was in front of Yuugo’s face, and started going down.
Yuugo reflexively caught it, but rather than a burning heat, it felt mild and warm. He looked at it with squinted eyes, and saw what looked to be a flaming crystal inside the fire.
“Is this… A magic crystal!? And a rare one with the fire element! High quality crystals like these don’t come around too often!!”
“…Are you giving it to me?”
Yuugo heard Angel yell with excitement, and after turning to Skull with a question, it nodded with its eyes still closed.
It was both a thank you for helping defeat its enemy, and a present from a friend that bonded with Yuugo through this incident. Yuugo took the fire crystal, and also nodded.
“Thanks Skull. I’ll cherish your gift.”
“…Guh.”
Skull responded with a small neigh, and ran off after turning around.
The others saw it leave, with the rising sun illuminating both the grassy field and Skull.
“Ooh…!?”
Skull turned into a skeleton horse for a moment after being bathed in the sunlight, but quickly returned to the black horse form it had before dying. And it continued running like that, with the sun shining on it.
Up until very recently, strong light would reveal its monster form, so…? Yuugo questioned it, but Phi started explaining.
“I’m sure Skull has been freed from negative emotions like hatred and anger after getting its revenge. Skeletons are monsters that are born from corpses that house negative emotions. I’m sure if Skull continued to fight for revenge like that, it would become a real monster eventually, after the reasoning power that was left inside it disappeared.
But it met you, got its revenge, and found new beings it can call friends, so… It broke free from the past, and is now facing the future.”
“I see… So I changed its destructive fate…”
If the fight with the Bull Golems took too long, would those feelings of revenge inside it completely paint over its reasoning?
But Skull got its revenge with its reasoning power intact, and before turning from a black horse into a skeleton horse. And broke free from its past.
And meeting new friends meant it had something to support it emotionally as it found a new way of life.
Yuugo felt distressed over the possibility of having introduced confusion into this world as an invasive species, but knowing meeting him could save others like that, worked towards saving him as well.
He saw his friend run towards the rising sun, and spoke quietly.
“…Until next time, friend. Let’s ride together again.”
Surely Skull’s future would be bright… Yuugo thought as he saw it running, with his other friends, and smiled while thinking about the day when they would meet again.
He looked forward to feeling the wind as they ran together again, and rivaled the sun with how bright his expression was.
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Aight, time to turn that fire crystal into a power up trinket, here we go blaster fire
Ok, the chapter was kinda cool to imagine as an anime~
Is there ever gonna be a “main character” that’s not pathetic. They can be corrupt, evil, scum or whatever but rn they aren’t the most interesting aside from the possibility that one of them is the hooded figure