Change

"I'm fine, Wraith."

"I'm really fine."

"No, no, I'm fine, so you don't need to carry me over the buildings. There's nothing wrong with my body."

Under the cold night sky, Kael Lohars let out a helpless sigh for the first time. Wraith was stubbornly standing on the edge of the Silver-Winged Corpse family's spire, holding out a hand to him.

He had held that pose for three minutes.

It was obvious what he wanted to do.

"I'm really fine." Kael repeated himself. "I'm healthy. There's nothing wrong with me."

"Ten minutes ago, you didn't have a heartbeat or breathe."

Wraith grumbled. "That voice said something about dying all over again, and demons and whatever. You must feel as much pain as you did before."

"...I don't feel any pain."

"Really?"

"I've never lied to you."

At that, Wraith frowned and protested loudly. "You haven't lied to me, but you don't tell me things, either! You sent me to clear out the outposts, then came here by yourself!"

"..."

Kael rubbed his brow, his head aching, then sighed heavily and sat down on the edge of the spire. The night was still young. He was willing—and had to—spend ten minutes sorting this out before he and Wraith dealt with the last thing.

"All right, Wraith, let's start from the beginning. Are you going to stand there and listen to me, or are you going to be polite and talk with me?"

Wraith pursed his lips, walked over, and crouched beside Kael. Even crouching, he was still much taller than him.

"First, I owe you an apology," Kael said. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you what I was going to do, Wraith."

Wraith didn't speak. He only nodded, his face expressionless, but Kael could tell how he felt.

He was plainly displeased.

"Second, how did that voice get in touch with you?" Kael asked casually.

Wraith blinked, then spent five minutes describing how he had been unsettled by the visions, and how he had heard the voice when he saw Kael's corpse.

He kept it simple. His words were plain, but clear enough, and he left out no details—not even how he had felt at the time.

Kael pressed his lips together.

"...So you saw a future where I died?"

"No! You weren't dead in the vision!"

Wraith's eyes widened. "But I saw you being swallowed by blood! You were floating in it! Nostramo was burning, too, engulfed in flames like blood!"

Blood.

Kael narrowed his eyes and quietly made a note of it, then brought up something else. "That voice called you Konrad Curze?"

Wraith nodded lightly. "Yeah. I asked him who that was, and he said it was me."

So it was the same person, Kael thought.

Still, he had to be cautious. They had called him Prometheus, and said, "my body." What was that about?

Kael lowered his head and clenched his right fist. A vibrant sense of power flowed through his body. It felt different from when he had received power before.

If he had to describe it... it was a little like the warmth of the sun. Kael didn't know if that was a good thing, so he decided to observe it for a while before considering whether to keep using it.

"Did he say anything else?" Kael asked.

"He also said it would hurt you a lot." Wraith answered quickly, then pointed at the rooftop across from the spire and held out his left hand to Kael.

"...It doesn't hurt," Kael said helplessly. "There's really nothing wrong with my body, Wraith."

"Really?"

"Of course. I haven't lied—well, maybe I did once. I'm sorry, all right? I'm sorry."

"All right, I believe you, Kael. Oh, he also said you would pass through the Veil." Wraith nodded, satisfied, and continued.

Kael's brow furrowed sharply.

He didn't understand what this Prometheus was thinking. Why tell Wraith that, too? He claimed to be Wraith's father, but...

Kael glanced at Wraith.

Wraith was looking at him with wide eyes. His face was pale, his eyes black, and he looked nothing like the dark-skinned man standing on the prairie.

They didn't look alike at all, he thought.

Never mind. Anyway—

"What else?" Kael asked.

"He also said he would come with my brothers."

Wraith pushed the hair falling over his forehead aside, looking utterly confused.

"Who is he, anyway? And what does he mean by my brothers? Do you think my brothers look like me, Kael?"

How would I know? I didn't even know you had brothers. I thought you were... Sigh.

"...Maybe," Kael said calmly. "As for who he is, he should be your father."

Wraith's eyes widened in surprise.

"Why are you making that face?"

"Father?!" Wraith cried, eyes wide. "Mine?! Didn't I come from a laboratory?!"

"..."

Kael forced himself to resist the urge to sigh. He didn't want his somewhat negative attitude to affect Wraith's mood. Finding out all of a sudden that he had a father and brothers he had never met must be quite a shock.

Besides, the story about the laboratory... Kael had been the one to tell Wraith that.

He continued to analyze the situation.

"So, based on what we know, you have brothers and a father—which means you might have a family, Wraith. No, no, Konrad Curze."

Kael frowned as he thought it over. "It's just..."

"Just what, Kael?"

I just don't understand how he became your father, Kael thought. He wore dazzling golden armor and could trade blows with those things, but at least his proportions looked normal.

But you—you were so different from a human. You were over three meters tall at a year and a half old.

"It's nothing, Konrad," Kael said. "Also, I'll call you by that name from now on."

"I don't like that name." Wraith shook his head repeatedly. "It's hard to say."

"...Your father gave you that name."

"You said he should be my father, didn't you? 'Should be' means he might be, or he might not be, right?"

Wraith tilted his head. "If he isn't, why should I accept that name?"

"...How about this?"

Kael couldn't help laughing. "Once he gets here, we'll find out whether he's really your father, then decide if you want to accept that name. Does that work?"

Wraith nodded, finally looking satisfied.

"Anything else?" Kael asked. "Did he say anything more?"

"That's all." Wraith shook his head, looking a little lost. "He said I'd seen my brothers in the vision. But I don't remember."

"Your brothers... We can talk about them later. I hope they won't be too difficult to get along with."

"Why would you think that? You haven't even met them," Wraith asked, puzzled.

Because if they're all as superhuman as you, your brothers probably have some psychological issues.

That would be inevitable. Even geniuses were often eccentric, let alone a bunch of actual superhumans.

And someone with an unstable mind might become antisocial after years of anguish, going from hurting themselves to hurting others. If one of your brothers is like that...

Tsk.

And that Prometheus—how did he manage to create so many superhumans? Who was he?

"Because I'm a pessimist," Kael said. "I tend to look at everything from a pessimistic perspective."

Wraith blinked. "That doesn't seem good, Kael. You're so negative."

"..."

Kael stood up in exasperation, at a loss for how to answer Wraith.

Then he changed the subject. "All right, chatting time is over, and we've settled the matter. Is there anything else you want to ask me, Wraith?"

"..."

"Wraith?"

"Yes." Wraith pursed his lips. "Kael, could you please not do that again?"

Kael froze.

Wraith continued.

"I don't like pain, so you probably don't either. Nobody likes pain, right?" Wraith said, lowering his head.

He was much bigger than Kael, but now he looked like a helpless child.

"That voice... the one who should be my father said that a ghost coming back to life has to suffer pain no less than dying all over again. Could you please not die?"

But everyone dies eventually, Wraith.

Kael let out a quiet, rueful laugh.

Everyone died. Death's meaning was to put a period at the end of life. Without death, what meaning did life have?

The only difference was how one died. Being murdered or dying under oppression was nothing like passing away peacefully.

Why was I thinking about this?

His quiet laugh gradually turned into helpless, loud laughter. It was the first time he had laughed so happily on Nostramo. Wraith looked up at him, confused.

"What happened, Kael?"

"Nothing, Wraith," Kael said.

"But I can't promise I won't die. No one can make that promise; people's lives have a limit. But I can do my best to stay alive. How does that sound?"

Wraith thought it over, then nodded firmly.

"Good. Then let's go. We'll deal with the last family, and then we can rest for a while and wait to see what happens. Oh, and one more thing: he isn't your 'should-be' father."

Kael turned and spoke seriously. "If you want to express uncertainty about who he is, you should say, 'my possible father.' Understand?"

"...Oh. So he's my possible father?"

"...If you want to say that, you need to change the wording. In Nostraman, you'd say, 'He might be my father.'"

Wraith nodded obediently, and he and Kael jumped down from the gloomy spire.

Above them, the night watched in silence.

Posting early to celebrate a birthday. :)

Also, no angst, right?