Yuugo and Ryuuga’s room in the fifth dormitory. Everyone gathered there had dark expressions on their faces.
Everyone who witnessed what happened in front of the hospital was there, except Phi and Yui.
Half were baffled, and half suffered under the weight of their sins. And one seethed with anger.
Yuugo was the one to break the silence in this heavy atmosphere.
“…It all happened too fast, and there’s a lot we still don’t know. I want to hear it all. Tell me what you know.”
Yuugo decided clearing the air between his friends and revealing the truth was more important than treating his wounds. And so, despite not having fully healed, he tried to lift this oppressive air around everyone.
The combat miko nodded, understanding he was putting others before himself, and Setsuna responded.
“…Yes, we will. But first… I’m sorry for keeping something this big a secret. We didn’t intend to deceive you…”
“That’s okay. Sometimes people can’t talk about something big…”
“We’re not idiots, we can figure out why you didn’t talk.”
The three combat miko bowed deeply, and Melt and An responded.
Yuugo was silent, but he agreed with them. He thought it couldn’t be helped that they did not reveal Raiha’s secret.
“Raiha’s secret is the top secret among the biggest secrets in Yamato as well. Therefore, our lips had to remain sealed.”
“Ahh…. I can see that. It happened in a small castle, but imagine how big of a mess it would be if it was known a lady of the Utsusemi family turned into a loong and attacked people. Not to mention that someone died.”
“…I’m sorry…! I can never take back…!!”
Ryuuga’s words were laced with sarcasm and anger as he looked at Raiha with a sharp glare.
Raiha apologized, feeling those words as if she was stabbed deep in the heart, but Yuugo admonished his partner.
“Ryuuga, let’s hear them out. You can chastise them after that.”
“…”
Yuugo said they should hear what they had to say first, to which Ryuuga did not agree or deny.
He simply went quiet and looked at Raiha, doing nothing more after that.
“Tell us Raiha. What happened to you five years ago? Why did you become the mad loong?”
“…I need to talk about this eye first. This is the proof of the sin the Utsusemi family carries.”
Raiha moved her bangs to expose the eye hidden under them.
It was not that of a person. Melt and the others expressed surprise as they saw this eye for the first time, and Raiha quietly spoke about that sin.
“Ten years ago, I was gravely ill and between life and death. My right eye rotted and fell due to this disease, my fever would not pass, and the doctors said nothing could be done… But as my parents saw me suffer while waiting for death, they made a decision they should not have.”
Raiha’s small hands trembled as she spoke about her past, and everyone listened quietly to her confession.
“My parents figured if they implanted part of a loong with strong vitality, they could save me. And so… They replaced my right eye with a loong’s right eye that they kept.”
“Implanted a loong’s eye…!? Wait, in Yamato…!!”
Raiha silently nodded, as Marcos expressed great surprise. She then said what he was about to say.
“In Yamato, taking the power of a loong for oneself is taboo. Much like the criminal Zaraki who is being pursued, I am a taboo that should not exist.”
“No way…!? That…!”
Raiha stated she was just like Zaraki, the noted criminal who ate loong meat.
Everyone understood that her ability to shoot lightning from her mouth was due to the eye implanted in her, and much like him, she was half loong. And this time, Angel spoke.
“How many people know that? Something that big can’t stay hidden, right?”
“Yes. The Kogarashi and Amamiya families are close to the Utsusemi family, so they know. And it was soon told to the Yamato government.”
“So why is Raiha living a normal life? I know she’s a combat miko of a noted family, but it doesn’t make sense that this went unpunished.”
“…There are two reasons. First, it suited Yamato’s interests to keep this hidden, rather than make it public. Considering the chaos that would happen if what the Utsusemi family did came to light, it was better to keep it a secret. And…”
Setsuna explained one reason, but stopped.
There was some pain in her expression, but Raiha jumped in before she could continue.
“There is another reason why my family and I weren’t punished… The Yamato government offered a deal. If I periodically turned into a loong and let them observe me, the truth would be buried. My family accepted… And I had various experiments done for the sake of collecting data.”
“That’s terrible…!! You’re not some lab animal of your government!”
“…Looking back, I shouldn’t have been allowed to live. If I was treated as a being that should not exist, that tragedy wouldn’t have happened…!!”
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Why does Raiha remind me of Philip a little bit