Chapter 6:

Reasons to Be Strong

Galder

Yep.

There it was.

Exactly what I'd expected.

Still, I widened my eyes like Amachi had just revealed the greatest secret in human history.

"...A hero?"

(Wow. Incredible acting.)

Shut up. I'm letting him talk.

Amachi leaned his head against the wall beside me. Whatever tiny amount of alcohol had survived the baking process was apparently enough to make him more relaxed than I'd ever seen him.

"Yeah."

"You mean like Grazei?"

He nodded. "When I was little, I used to tell Mom and Dad about it all the time."

There it was again.

Mom and Dad.

I already knew how that part of the story ended. Zaw had given me the short version before I'd ever managed a proper conversation with Amachi, but saying Oh yeah, I already know about your dead parents seemed like a spectacularly bad way to continue this friendship experiment.

So I played dumb.

"What did they think about it?"

A faint smile appeared on Amachi's face, catching me more off guard than the hero thing itself.

"I told them I'd become really strong. Strong enough to beat monsters, save villages, rescue people..."

"And everybody would know your name?" I guessed.

His smile grew slightly. "Yeah."

That sounded more like him.

"What about your dad?"

"He'd pat my head and tell me to work hard." Amachi stared upward, his eyes distant but warmer than before. "He said if I really wanted to become a hero, I should become strong enough that people would feel safe when they saw me."

Okay.

That was surprisingly wholesome.

"So he actually believed you'd do it?"

"Yeah. He said he'd brag to everyone when I became famous."

I couldn't help smiling. "Sounds embarrassing."

"It was."

"You liked it."

"Yeah."

The answer came immediately, though the smile slowly disappeared afterward.

"But..."

He went quiet.

I already knew something bad was coming. I just didn't know how much of it Zaw had left out.

"But what?"

Amachi lowered his eyes toward his bruised knuckles.

"There was this man."

I blinked. "What man?"

"He came to our village a few days before everything happened. Said he was a traveler who got lost in the forest."

Amachi rubbed his thumb across one knuckle as he spoke.

"He was strange."

"Strange how?"

"He wore a mask."

That got my attention.

"A mask?"

"Yeah. Covered most of his face." Amachi frowned, apparently trying to picture it. "It looked weird, but I don't remember what it looked like anymore."

"You don't remember anything about it?"

He shook his head.

"I was five. I remember thinking it was creepy, but that's about it."

Fair enough.

At five years old, I probably would've remembered the free food before the suspicious masked stranger.

"He asked me for directions," Amachi continued. "Wanted to know if there was another way through the forest behind the village."

"There was?"

"An old path."

"And you showed him?"

Amachi nodded.

"I thought I was helping."

Classic Amachi.

Even as a kid, this idiot probably would've helped a starving wolf and wondered why it kept staring at his arm.

"What happened to him?"

"He thanked me and left. I didn't think about him again until the village alarm started ringing."

His gaze dropped toward the ground.

"People were shouting that demons were coming."

I frowned. "Demons?"

"Yeah. They came from behind the village."

It took me a second.

"The old path?"

Amachi nodded.

Oh.

"And then I saw him again."

"The traveler?"

"Yeah."

His voice became quieter.

"He was with them."

I stared at him. "The demons?"

Amachi nodded.

"He was walking in front."

"You mean he was leading them?"

"...Yeah."

For a few seconds, neither of us spoke.

"Other people saw him too," Amachi continued. "Some remembered seeing me talking to him before."

"They blamed you."

"Yeah."

"You told them you didn't know who he was, right?"

"Yeah."

"And they still blamed you?"

Amachi looked down.

"...They weren't wrong."

I stared at him.

"What?"

"I showed him the path." His fingers slowly tightened. "If I hadn't, maybe none of it would've happened."

I opened my mouth, but he continued before I could say anything.

"There wasn't much time to think about it anyway. The demons were already inside the village."

His attention drifted somewhere beyond the alley, and suddenly it didn't feel like he was looking at anything in front of him anymore.

"I remember fire everywhere. Houses were burning, people were running..." His fingers curled tighter around his knees. "Some weren't moving."

I stayed quiet.

"There was so much smoke I could barely see. Mom grabbed me and told me to run."

"And your dad?"

"Him too. They kept telling me to get away from the village."

"And you?"

A weak laugh escaped him.

"I didn't want to."

Of course you didn't.

"I kept telling them no. I was supposed to become a hero."

The word sounded different now.

"I said heroes don't run away. Dad told me this wasn't the time and that I had to go."

"What did you do?"

"I argued."

A tiny smile appeared, but there was nothing happy about it.

"I told them we should all run together."

His voice grew quieter.

"Mom was crying."

The alley suddenly felt much more silent.

"I remember grabbing Dad's arm. I told him..." Amachi stopped for a moment. "'I don't want to leave you.'"

I didn't say anything.

His hand slowly relaxed.

"And then everything went black."

I looked at him. "...You passed out?"

"I don't know. One second I was there. The next thing I remember, it was morning and I was outside the village."

"Do you know how you got there?"

"No."

That was enough.

There were probably a dozen questions I could've asked, but none of them seemed useful anymore.

For a while, neither of us spoke. Then I finally asked the question I already knew the answer to.

"What happened to the village?"

"Destroyed."

"And everyone?"

Amachi remained silent for a few seconds.

"Gone."

My mouth went dry.

"Everyone?"

He nodded. "My neighbors. My friends..."

His voice had gone almost completely flat.

"Mom and Dad."

I knew.

Zaw had already told me his village was destroyed, but hearing Amachi say the words himself was completely different.

"Oh..."

For once, I didn't have to fake my reaction.

Amachi rested his head against the wall again.

"Nobody survived except me."

There wasn't a joke in my head this time.

Not from me.

Not from the other idiot either.

After a long silence, I finally looked at him again.

"But the demons are gone now."

"Yeah."

"The ones that did that can't hurt anyone anymore."

"I know."

"Then why do you still need to become so strong?"

Amachi opened his eyes. Despite the alcohol, the exhaustion, and everything he'd just told me, his gaze suddenly looked clearer.

"Because it happened once."

I frowned. "So?"

"So it can happen again."

"With demons?"

"Doesn't have to be demons."

That stopped me.

Amachi looked down at his bruised hands.

"Demons, monsters, bandits, people... doesn't matter. There will always be someone who can't protect themselves."

He slowly clenched one fist.

"And if I'm strong enough, I can protect them."

There was no anger in his voice.

Somehow, that made it feel heavier.

Then one particular green-haired idiot came to mind.

"So that's what Shane is to you."

Amachi looked at me.

"Someone you can measure yourself against. Every time you fight him, you know whether you've gotten stronger."

"Yeah."

I sighed.

"Your entire training philosophy is incredibly stupid."

Amachi nodded. "Probably."

"You could just train normally."

"I do."

"Without challenging him every other day."

"That's extra training."

I stared at him.

"Getting launched into a wall isn't training!"

"It teaches me what hurts."

"EVERYTHING HURTS WHEN YOU GET THROWN INTO A WALL!"

A small laugh escaped him.

I stopped.

Drunk Amachi was significantly easier to deal with.

Still unbelievably stupid.

But easier.

He rested his head against the wall, his eyes beginning to droop.

"So you still want to become a hero?"

"Yeah."

"Even after everything?"

That made him pause.

"For a while, I didn't."

I looked at him. "You?"

"Yeah."

"I find that extremely difficult to believe."

He gave a tired laugh before looking down at his hands again.

"I kept thinking about the traveler. If I hadn't shown him that path..." His fingers tightened slightly. "...maybe everyone would still be alive."

I didn't know what to say to that.

"And I couldn't even protect Mom and Dad," he continued. "So becoming a hero started feeling..."

He stopped for a moment.

"Stupid, I guess."

The word sounded wrong coming from him.

"But then I realized I still wanted it."

"The hero thing?"

"Yeah." He stared upward. "It was my dream before all that happened."

His fist slowly tightened.

"So I don't want to let that day take it too."

Damn.

(That was actually pretty good.)

Don't tell him that.

(Wasn't planning to.)

Amachi let his head fall back against the wall.

"My dad once said heroes make sure people can go home."

His words were beginning to slur again.

"So..."

He yawned.

"...I want to do that."

I stared at him.

This whole time, I'd assumed Amachi wanted to become the protagonist of some imaginary story. He challenged strong people, trained alone at night, and treated every defeat like another dramatic step toward his inevitable comeback.

But I'd been wrong.

Maybe fame had been part of the dream when he was little. Maybe becoming a hero had once meant everyone knowing his name while his dad bragged about him to half the village.

That wasn't what kept him going anymore.

The last time Amachi had seen his home, it was burning. The last time he'd seen his parents, they were telling him to run, and somewhere inside that thick skull of his, he was still carrying the thought that everything might've been different if he'd never shown that masked stranger the path.

He couldn't change it or go back.

So he kept training, losing, and getting back up until maybe one day he'd be strong enough to make sure somebody else got to go home.

"Amachi."

No answer.

"Hey."

I leaned closer and realized his eyes were completely shut.

"...Don't tell me you fell asleep."

Nothing.

"You just dumped your entire tragic backstory on me and fell asleep immediately afterward?!"

Still nothing.

(He's drunk and exhausted.)

Barely drunk.