Story Reader / Affection / Watanabe: Astral / Story
Watanabe: Astral VI
...
Why are you still here?
Relax. I'm not human, I don't die that easily.
There's nothing to apologize for. This is war. No one comes out the other side unscathed every time.
That said... it seems that I'll have to rest up for a while.
But... there's no next time...
...
Let me ask you—the Eden that you envision... what is it like?
Ha. I guess we're similar, aren't we?
What a crafty answer.
The apocalypse hasn't ended, not just because of the Punishing Virus or the war... It's because of the humans. Because of human nature.
The exploiters and the exploited, the oppressors and the oppressed... those who make choices, and those who get their choices taken away... This... loop, it never ends.
Eventually... they don't even lie about it anymore, those prideful bastards.
But no one has the right to decide someone else's fate. No one gets to say who lives or dies, who stays, and who is left behind.
Closing your eyes so you can't see, trying to forget if you did see... Running away if you can't forget. Up there, far away, with everything you would forsake.
...Better to stand where the world refuses to face, to challenge it, to create a real "Eden".
Why? For the Eden I envision, of course...
Perhaps, as much as it pains me to admit it. Maybe that's why... we're similar.
A naive idealist.
...Like you.
As long as there are humans like you, I guess the world is not beyond saving.
But how can there be more of you on that flying boat, I wonder?
Do you know why I saved you?
Because, in my Eden, you'll be safe...
