A New Future

Two months had passed. Two fucking months since that nightmare. Two months since the snow had turned red, since the screams still haunted my mind every time I closed my eyes. Every step I took, every shadow I passed, it lingered there. The forest… the forest had died. Not just quiet, not just still—it was empty. The wind moved, but it was hollow. The trees swayed, but they didn’t creak the same. Even the birds, if any were left, had fled. Or died. I didn’t know. Didn’t matter. Nothing alive moved there anymore. Just frozen silence, memories that clung to me like smoke.

And the village… the village had been shaken. Everyone walked like ghosts, like they didn’t want to meet each other’s eyes. They had survived. Barely. But what was surviving when your heart had been torn out? When the people you trusted, the ones you counted on, were gone? Everyone stared at me like I held the answers. I didn’t. I had nothing. I barely had myself.

Some mornings, I woke and still saw Ricky’s face. Laughing, sliding across ice, ready to fight alongside me. And then… nothing. Gone. Forever. And Luna… poor Luna. She was there, but she wasn’t. She breathed, she ate, but mentally? She was gone. Hollow. Empty. I carried her, fed her, tried to pull her back, but the spark she had… it had been crushed. And I knew it was my fault in some way. I was supposed to protect everyone, and I had failed. Too slow, too weak in that moment.

My body still ached from that fight. Still felt torn from the inside out. That power, the ice… it didn’t obey me. It had chosen me. And it burned. Molten fire in my veins while freezing my flesh at the same time. I had spent a week unconscious after the battle. Seven days and nights of nothing but pain and frost crawling over me while my body tried to heal itself. Every muscle shredded. Every bone screamed. If I had pushed further, if I had tried to move faster, I would have shattered. Broken from the inside. Completely.

Yet… here I was. Still breathing. Still carrying Luna. Still alive. The weight of it all pressed on me like a mountain. The village had lost almost all its protectors that day. Every strong fighter, gone. Every experienced hand, gone. Now? Fragile. Helpless. And I… I couldn’t leave. I couldn’t turn my back on the few still breathing, even if it was hollow life.

I thought of Ricky again. How he had saved me, how he had thrown himself into the fight without hesitation. How he had laughed even with death crouched behind him. And he was gone. And Luna—she had been the other one who tried to keep me alive. And now… nothing.

I should have hated myself. I should have. I had survived when so many hadn’t. I had been weak. I had let the serpent take everything. I had let them die. I had let Ricky die. The men who had followed us… gone. And yet I was here. My body torn. My soul torn. My mind shredded into pieces I didn’t know how to fit back together. And still, I had to keep moving. Someone had to.

I thought about leaving. I really did. There was no reason to stay. The forest was dead, the villages empty, the people broken, and the world outside… worse. Far worse. But if I left, if I turned my back, what would that make me? A coward. A weakling. A human in name only. And I… I couldn’t let that happen.

I ran my hands over the thin layers of ice still lingering on my skin. Moving. Shifting. It didn’t obey. It didn’t bend fully to me. A cruel joke. A power I couldn’t control. Every time I tried, my muscles screamed. My lungs burned. My heart pounded like it would explode. And still… I felt it. That cold, that fire, that hunger. Part of me now. I couldn’t waste it.

I looked at Luna again. She shifted slightly where I had laid her. A faint whimper escaped her, and I felt the weight of her life, such as it was, pressing down on me. I had to protect her. I had to save what little was left. For her. For Ricky. For everyone who hadn’t made it. I had to be stronger than them. Stronger than myself. Stronger than anything that would come next.

I didn’t know how. I didn’t know when. Didn’t know if I would survive it. But I knew this: I couldn’t stop. I wouldn’t stop. I couldn’t. Not now. Not ever.

And in that moment, a thought cut through the fog of pain and guilt, sharp as ice in my lungs: I would make them see. I would make them safe. I would make myself strong enough that nothing, no beast, no serpent, no shadow in this world would ever take them from me again.

I closed my eyes. My body screamed. My frost-shivering skin ached. My soul burned. But I didn’t care. I carried Luna. Every memory. Every loss. Every scream that had haunted the forest. And I would keep carrying it, until I became strong enough.

I heard it before I even saw him—Luna’s father, calling my name. His voice cut through the cold morning air, steady, low, but carrying everything. Weight. Hope. Fear. Rage. Loss. I froze for a second, letting it hit me. My chest tightened so hard it felt like my lungs might collapse. That day… that damn day had finally come.

I had thought, after the snow-stained forest, after seeing them die, that nothing could ever feel normal again. That the world had ended for these people, for Luna, for everyone I cared about. And yet, here I was. Chosen. Me. Ruu Akaru. The outsider. The guy who had barely survived his own mistakes.  The guy who didn't even know his past. And now… now I was supposed to carry their hope. Their lives. Their broken, shattered expectations.

Every step toward the platform made my legs feel like lead. My chest burned. My hands shook. Memories clawed at me—Ricky’s laugh, his fall, the serpent twisting and tearing, the smell of blood in the snow, Luna frozen, eyes blank, her cries slicing the night. Every one of them flashed before me, every failure, every life I couldn’t save. And it crushed me.

I saw Sora then. Standing near the back of the crowd, her face pale, eyes wide, hands twisted in front of her. She wasn’t crying, not yet. But I could feel her looking at me. Judging me. Counting me. Hoping I’d be enough. And for a second, I hated myself for being here at all. I wasn’t enough. I hadn’t been enough. And yet… they were counting on me.

The platform waited. Rough-hewn wood, five meters above the ground. Shaky, creaking. Every step I took to climb it made my heart pound harder. The wind whispered past, cold, biting, carrying echoes of the forest, the snow, the blood, the screaming. I gritted my teeth, forcing my legs to move. Up. Up. Up. Higher.

I reached the top and stood there, shaky, hands gripping the edges. The village sprawled below me. Broken, cautious, scarred. Every face told me a story. Old men hunched over, hands trembling. Mothers gripping children, trying to hide their fear. Young men and women, eyes empty, jaws tight. Everyone had seen death in the forest. Everyone had lost someone they couldn’t get back.

I swallowed hard. My throat burned. My stomach churned. I wanted to collapse right there. I wanted to scream. I wanted to run back into the snow, back into the forest, back to the place where I could forget the mess I’d made. But I couldn’t. Not now. Not when they were all looking at me like I was their only anchor.

Luna’s father was at the front of the crowd. His face was tight, lined, but his eyes were soft. Empty. Broken. Like he was trying to hold himself together for someone else. For his daughter. I could feel his stare even from the platform. He trusted me. He trusted me to protect what he couldn’t. And that thought alone crushed me even more.

The wind shifted. Frost tickled my skin. I could feel it creeping, moving. My body still ached from the serpent, from the fight, from the week I had spent in slumber afterward. My muscles screamed. My joints felt like glass. Every movement made it worse. And still, I had to stand. Had to move. Had to carry the weight. Every step, every breath, every second was heavy. But I couldn’t stop.

I glanced at Sora again. Her hands twitched. Her lips parted. Her eyes… she was holding back tears, just barely. And I could feel my chest tighten again. She was counting on me too. Not just the village, not just Luna’s father, not just Luna. Sora was counting on me. And I… I couldn’t fail her either.

The crowd was silent. Not a single cheer, not a single clap. Just eyes, all of them staring up at me. Expectation pressed down. Heavy, like a rock on my chest. Every whisper, every stare, every heartbeat of theirs felt like it was burning into me. I could feel it in my bones, in my lungs, in my head. I wanted to run. I wanted to curl up and cry. But I couldn’t. Not now.

I took a shaky step forward. The platform creaked, threatening to wobble. My hands gripped the edge tighter. My fingers dug into the wood. I could feel frost creeping along my skin again. Not thick, not solid… thin, fluid, almost alive. I could feel it shift as I moved. My body ached, screamed, threatened to break from the weight, from the memory, from the expectation. But the frost… the ice… it moved with me. It held me up. Held me steady. And for the first time, I realized I wasn’t just holding myself together. I was holding them together too.

I exhaled, shaky, loud. My breath steamed in the cold air. I let my eyes sweep the crowd, letting each gaze hit me, feeling it all at once. Fear. Pain. Loss. Hope. Fragile hope. It made me gag a little, the weight of it all.

I felt my fists clench. My knuckles white. I wanted to scream, to pound the wood beneath me, to shout my anger at the sky. The grief. The guilt. Ricky. The others. Everyone who had died. Everyone I hadn’t been able to save. The weight of it pressed down on me, unrelenting.

But then… I saw Luna. Even broken, even empty, even barely alive in spirit, she was there. A reminder. A reason. A reason to carry all this weight, to hold it tight and not let it crush me completely. And I knew… I had to step up. I had to be their anchor. Their shield. Their hope.

I straightened, letting the frost move fully across my arms, my torso, my legs. It didn’t feel like mine anymore. It felt like it was part of me, part of this moment. Supporting me. Protecting me. A reminder that even in the coldest, harshest, cruelest world, I could still move forward.

I took a long, shaky breath. The silence of the village pressed against me, almost suffocating. And then I stepped forward again, center stage. The platform held. The crowd held. And I felt it—the weight of every life staring up at me, every hope resting on my shoulders, every expectation burning into my chest.

I let my eyes close for a heartbeat. Let the memories crash over me one last time. The snow, the blood, the screams, the serpent, Ricky, Luna, Sora… everything. And then I opened them.

The moment had come. I was ready, as ready as I would ever be.

I drew another ragged breath, chest heaving, frost crawling across my skin. I tightened my fists, swallowed the lump in my throat, and prepared to speak. To face them all. To carry them.

And I began.

"I am sorry, everyone, for not being able to protect the loved ones. I am really sorry that I was the one who only survived."

Around me was all silent. Only I could hear my ragged breath. As I spoke, all of their chatter ceased to nothing, empty and hollow.

"But EVERY soul that day had been martyred. Every soul there that day was the bravest of all! Ricky, Tora, Daisuke—everyone risked their life knowing they might not make it! That is called true bravery! And bravery comes with a cost… BUT they had shown us how fragile we might be, how strong our enemies might be. We will not falter against them. For humans are weak, not cowardly! Their courage will serve us as a guide, for the young generation as an example to become stronger, to strive to succeed! Every death, every shattered dream has meaning! They are not useless! They are priceless! And we can only honor them by doing our BEST! By giving our best!

What's with all these gloomy faces?! Was their death in vain? What are we all doing?! We have to reflect on them! We have to carry on their spirits! We have to be stronger than ever! WE HAVE TO!"

I said this as I rose my right hand, the one covered with frost, relaxing it slightly before pressing harder, squeezing my hand. The frost burst like mist and scattered across the crowd, and with it came the sudden cheer, claps, and raw emotion of everyone present.

Sora looked at me, her eyes wide open, and she seemed really glad.

I knew that what I had taken on myself—the responsibility, the power, the liability—was too heavy for me to carry. But I would rather keep doing something than not doing it at all.

I looked at the sky. The horizon had merged with the snow, and the sky was covered in white clouds, making it impossible to separate from the snow. Then a ray of sunlight fell on it, making it glitter and shine.

It was as if it were welcoming the new future that lay ahead.