An Adventurer's Wish

“Yoruhi, do you want to play tag?” Ryuji asked, seeing Yoruhi prepare to leave the estate.

“Sorry, I have somewhere to go,” he said.

Ryuji turned to Tatsuko who stood nearby.

“Where’s he going?” he asked.

“To his girlfriend.”

Ew. Yoruhi thought. He couldn’t fathom thinking of Altair that way.

He chalked the accusation up to just childish banter and continued on his way to the library. Mizuki had given him a new daily task other than his magic training.

“I want you to check up on Altair when you can,” she asked after everyone left the night before. “Her dad is a busy man, and has to do doctor work around the city in addition to taking care of her. Because of this he can be very forgetful, but he’s refusing any assistance I offer him. Since the two of you seem close, I want you to be the one to check on her.”

Yoruhi really really didn’t understand that man. It was understandable to be stressed as a single father, but refusing assistance was an entirely different thing altogether. Even though Altair had almost died yesterday, his attitude towards help remained closed off. He wondered what exactly was his thought process.

Yoruhi walked up the steps of the library and made his way towards the set of tables behind the Medicine shelves. He expected to find Altair there, but when he rounded the corner, he only saw her dad.

Upon noticing Yoruhi, Mr. Weiss looked up from the book he was reading.

“Yoruhi… What brings you here young man?” he asked.

“I came here to play with Altair,” he lied.

“Oh… I see. I did ask you that. Thank you for coming.”

Yoruhi looked around the place.

“...Where is she exactly…?”

“Oh! Right! Sorry. She’s up on the highest floor of the library where the study rooms are. She often likes to go there to do her reading.”

Yoruhi left the man without another word. He had nothing to say to him after all.

Not wanting to climb the 25 floors to the top, Yoruhi opted to take the elevator up instead. He was grateful this world seemed technologically advanced enough to have such inventions, otherwise climbing up to his estate everyday would’ve been a pain.

The elevator opened with a ding and Yoruhi looked around the open space for Altair.

The top floor of the library was very different from the space below it. It wasn’t open to the floors beneath it, and there was a lack of shelves anywhere. Instead, all there were were small study corners along the walls, each of them walled off from each other and each with its own dedicated window.

The ceiling above was canopied by large overhanging pink leaves from the tree the library was built into, and at the center of the room was a large globe. The space was like a cozy observation deck, and he understood why Altair might enjoy spending her time here when she could.

Yoruhi stumbled across the room, looking around the place in awe. Eventually the sight of a familiarly grotesque flower caught his attention, and looked over to see Altair sitting alone next to the window.

“Hey Altair,” he said casually walking up to her, “is everything okay today?”

She looked up from her book.

“Yes,” she said. “How did you know where to find me?”

“Your dad told me where you went.”

“Oh…” she murmured before tightly clenching onto her book. “P-please don’t hate him too much.”

Yoruhi was taken aback by this request. He thought he had been pretty discreet about it.

“I-I saw you… giving him a mean look yesterday,” she explained, “so I thought… that you might be angry with him.”

Of course I’m angry with him, Yoruhi thought, and you should be too.

Yoruhi couldn’t understand why she wasn’t.

“But why?” he asked, “Why shouldn’t I be angry with him? You almost died yesterday!”

“But that wasn’t his fault!” she suddenly shouted, causing him to flinch. He didn’t know she had in her to yell.

“I… misplaced the medicine bottle myself,” she admitted, “he trusted me to take it on time by myself everyday but… I made a bad mistake.”

“But why should you have that much responsibility? You’re just a kid!”

“I know I am! But he works hard all day and all night trying to find the cure for me! And when he’s not working on the cure, he’s working hard every day saving people! I… I just feel like I need to do something myself for once. I already caused him so much trouble… I don’t want to cause him anymore…”

Yoruhi didn’t know what to say. She was right, but it was unfair that she had to grow up so quickly like this.

“Besides…” she murmured, “he’s all I have…”

“But… he doesn’t care about you.”

“Yes he does!”

“He doesn’t care about what you really want!”

“Yes he does!”

“He doesn’t want you to become an adventurer!”

“I know that…!” she choked out, tears visibly forming in her eyes.

She knows?

“I already know that… and maybe he’s right… maybe I shouldn’t be an adventurer… I couldn’t even walk properly in the rain yesterday… I can’t even place my medicine in the right place… how can I be an adventurer Yoruhi…? How…?”

…What am I doing? Yoruhi realized, why am I yelling at her? I’m supposed to be her friend and yet here I am making her cry.

Yoruhi had incorrectly assumed what Altair truly wanted. He was too caught up with his own ideals and opinions on Mr. Weiss, and was unfairly projecting them onto the little girl. But against a child filled with gratitude, his ungrateful, bitter self, wouldn’t prevail. She loved her father too much, even despite his flaws.

“I’m sorry Altair…” he apologized. “I don’t know what I’m saying.”

She didn’t respond and just looked out the window in silence.

“My mom was an adventurer…” she quietly said.

“I know, you told me that already.”

“So I thought that maybe I could be one too, but… I don’t think I can… Right now, I just don’t want to make my dad worried. I want to focus on making things easier for him… and maybe one day, he’ll find a cure for me… Maybe then I can be an adventurer.”

It was a conclusion much too mature for her age. People didn’t postpone or give up on their dreams like that until they were in their later years. But the girl had suffered too much to not realize that her dreams of becoming an adventurer were too far away.

“Then we’ll help find the cure for you!” Tatsuko’s voice suddenly rang out.

The two of them turned around to see Ryuji and Tatsuko walking towards them.

“How did you know I was up here?” Yoruhi asked.

“I followed you, idiot.” Tatsuko said.

“Tatsuko, that’s not nice…” Ryuji murmured.

“But he really is one! He made a girl cry!” she pointed to Altair. “Plus, we’ve been spying on him for a while, and he didn’t realize until just now. Is that not a sign of an idiot?”

They were following me? Yoruhi wondered. Is Tatsuko’s assassin training actually paying off only after a few days of training??? I thought all she did was learn how to spin.

“Why were you following me?” he asked.

“Hmph. Playing tag without you is no fun,” she said, “But… not being able to play tag at all. That’s even less fun.”

She looked over to Altair who shyly tried to hide her flower behind a book from Ryuji whom she was unfamiliar with.

“My brother may be an idiot, but he’s right about one thing,” Tatsuko continued. “Telling you you can’t be an adventurer is not something that someone who actually loves you will say. But you are right too Altair. You can’t do anything the way you are right now. You can’t even walk in the rain without falling!”

Altair’s face filled with guilt as Ryuji and Yoruhi both wondered if that was supposed to make her feel better.

“But that’s why I want to help you!” Tatsuko said. “You said your daddy works hard every day right? I’m sure that if the four of us all team up to help him, we can all find the cure together! Then maybe one day we can all become adventurers!”

She turned to the group.

“So what do you say?”

Yoruhi nodded his head without hesitation.

“I’m in,” he declared.

They looked to Ryuji who was still mostly confused about what was happening and who this girl was. But seeing the two people he vowed to protect, vow to protect another person, he decided it wouldn’t hurt adding a fourth person to his list.

“Ok,” he said.

Watching three people declare to help her caused Altair’s eyes to well up with tears once more. She was a crybaby, but if anyone had the right to be one, it was her.

“Thank you… guys,” she quietly murmured as Yoruhi ran to hug her.

And for the first time in Altair's short life, she felt that everything was going to be okay.