Confrontation

“Mother? Can I have a word?”

Sakura Sakai continued to read a document on her office computer as if she didn’t hear her daughter. Stella wasn’t deterred. Her mother was always distracted by work.

“Mother,” Stella repeated. “A word.”

Sakura folded her hands on her desk and gave Stella a pinched smile. “What is it, Stella? Having trouble adjusting to your new duties as the captain?”

“Yeah,” Stella admitted. “A lot, actually.”

Her mother perked up in her chair. “I’m more than happy to step in if you need my help.” She smiled again, this time with affection. “You know I’ll always look out for you, honey.”

“‘Always look out for me?’”

“You sound like you don’t believe me.” Her mother looked taken aback by the hostility in her voice.

“How could I? Do you know what I’ve already gone through because of you?”

Sakura pursed her lips in displeasure. “Please, enlighten me. What terrible calamity has your mother brought down on you, Stella?”

“Almost the entire force was completely destroyed in our last battle,” Stella started abruptly, flames wisping on the cuffs of her shoulders. “And a lot of them died protecting me on your orders.”

Her mother’s eye twitched and she pursed her lips. She clearly wanted to interrupt her, but she held herself back as Stella continued.

“I know you’ve never thought I was that strong, Mom,” Stella said, her voice cracking. “So why did you force me to carry all these lost lives on my back?”

“I never forced anyone into anything, Stella,” her mother said carefully. She was clearly being mindful not to disturb Stella’s fragile control over her flames by antagonizing her. “They accepted a job on the Force, and they acted within the stipulations of their contract. You don’t have to feel responsible.”

Stella looked down at her hands. They were unmarred by scars, but she felt like they’d been steeped in guilt. “I thought we all shared the same fate, but in reality, that could never be possible when I was never even fighting with them as an equal.”

“Stella,” her mother said gently, trying to soothe her, “there’s no shame in being weak, or needing to be protected. As the heir to the company, your role on the Force is different.”

“My role shouldn’t mean I have to accept people dying to protect me. Especially when it means the people who saved my life don’t even get honored for their service.”

Sakura wearily checked her watch. “I don’t have all day to argue with you, Stella. You’ve made your case, so tell me what you want.”

“I want you to rescind the order.”

“Absolutely not.”

“Mother, please,” Stella begged, casting away all her pride. “I’m the Captain of the Strike Force. Trust that I can get stronger. Trust that I won’t need an order like that to come back to you.”

“My answer stands,” she said firmly.

“But I can do this! I’m capable of being more than just a figurehead.” Tears teased Stella’s eyes, but the flames that slowly began to engulf her forced them to evaporate. “Why don’t you believe in me?”

Her mother slowly rose from her desk in a familiar gesture of authority. “If you continue to be stubborn about this,” she warned, “I’ll have to appoint a different successor. I can’t trust you when your judgments are so emotional.”

Stella had long known that her mother didn’t think much of her. She was coddled from a young age, treated as if she couldn’t handle even the slightest adversity in her life, whether it was receiving 2nd place in an art contest or being turned down by the boy she liked.

It’d been a challenge to get her mother to agree to let her join the Strike Force, but Stella had desperately wanted to prove to her mother—and to herself—that she was someone capable.

Had she known the cost of her selfishness, she would have never set foot in the barracks. But now, it was too late. Her friends were gone, and her place in the Strike Force had been cemented in the public consciousness. All that was left was to plead and cry for her mother to offer the warriors who protected the city a kinder fate.

“I don’t need to be the CEO of the company,” Stella said quietly. “I really don’t care about your position.”

Stella clenched her jaw and looked into her mother’s starry eyes head-on. “But I do care about Yui, and the people of the city, and stepping up to be the kind of leader that can protect them.”

Sakura stared at her daughter with a calculating eye for a long moment, as if trying to ascertain the strength of her resolve.

“…Very well, then,” she relented. “I’ll rescind the order, and you’ll be free to run the Strike Force however you see fit. But just know one thing.”

She came out from behind her desk and pulled Stella into a one-sided hug. “If something happens to you—something beyond my reach—I might not be able to save you this time,” she muttered menacingly.

“It’s okay,” Stella said confidently. “You won’t need to.”

“For your sake, I hope you’re right.”