Chapter Text
Luke Braveheart had almost lost Hirose Natsuko three times.
Hirose Natsuko was a strange human — an animeeetor from a place called The Kingdom of Reality. None of them knew where that was, nor did they understand the powerful summoning spell she used. She had simply appeared one day — no warning, no explanation — and thrown all their plans into chaos. But she was also the light, the star, the painter who had filled his greyscale world with color.
The first time he thought he had lost her, it was during the first battle after they met Justice again at The District of Despair.
It was the first time her drawings had failed to save them. She had almost been swallowed by the Void. If not for Unio’s last-minute protection spell, she might have been lost for good. That was also when she suffered the worst backlash from her summoning magic. It seemed that drawing too much didn’t just exhaust her — it strained her far more severely than simply putting her to sleep for three days. That time, the entire arm she used to draw had taken on a deep, unnatural shade — covered in dark red and black, as if the muscles had been torn and inflamed from the inside. It took the combined efforts of both Memmeln and Unio to restore it to normal. After that, he had spent hours watching her sleep every night. He was worried it might have more side effects and she would sleep longer. Gladly, she didn't.
He couldn’t understand her then. That girl was too stubborn to work with the rest of them. It was like she only trusted herself to do everything. That mindset of hers made everyone anxious. She was too reckless. Memmeln had once commented that Natsuko fought like someone desperate to protect something. That stuck with him for a long time. What could she possibly be protecting here? She had no connection to this world.
It took a whole group effort for her to finally come to her senses and learn to cooperate with them. The biggest credit went to QJ and Memmeln, and Luke was grateful. Relieved, too. That she had finally begun to trust them, rely on them.
The second time he thought he had lost her, it was to the hatred of the very people she had once saved.
That was the darkest chapter for all of them. Her drawings that had once become a spark of hope for everyone were used against them. Somehow, the Voids had learned to replicate the form and power of Natsuko’s creations. In a moment of desperation, QJ sacrificed himself, taking out the Void mothership in a final, blinding self-detonation.
It was because of that — those people. The very ones who had once thanked Natsuko for saving them. The same people Luke and his friends had given everything for — even sacrificing their lives — to protect. They had turned their backs on her. The townsfolk, gripped by fear and suspicion, used the incident to accuse her of secretly aiding the Voids. They even dared to demand that he lead the hunt to kill her.
He tried to protect her. He was ready to raise his sword against the very people his comrades had died for, if that was what it took. Yet, he still failed to protect her. In the chaos, Natsuko was swallowed by a Void — along with Unio who was trying to save her.
Those villagers—
They had cheered.
They celebrated.
They threw their weapons at that Void, knowing full well that she was still in there. That Unio was still in there.
It shattered something inside him.
Was that what his friends had died to protect?
Was that what Natsuko got in return for saving them?
To everyone in the Last Town, the Soul Future was their light. Their hope.
But for him, it was her.
It was her who had lit up his dark, tragic life.
It was her who gave him a reason to fight, a reason to live.
She had painted his world in colors he never thought he'd see again, lit a fire in his heart with emotions he never believed he'd feel again.
But his light—his everything—was destroyed by the very people she had protected.
He had lost his light because of them.
He had lost his best friend, his family because of them.
He had lost his reason to fight because of them.
His mind was drowned in the names of all he’d lost.
Chingosman… Capitan… Admiral… Ganger… QJ…
And now Unio.
Now her.
How long would it take before they turned their backs on Justice, once they knew he couldn’t fly anymore? Couldn’t “serve” them anymore?
How long would it take until these worthless, ungrateful beings might push Memmeln into wanting to destroy the world again?
Was that it?
Was that why Memmeln wanted to give them up?
Because she was so tired of watching her friends — good people — die in vain while these parasites remained? Had she seen through them — through the hollow, rotting nature of this world’s people?
In rage, he had believed the Soul Future was the source of all their tragic fates.
Wasn’t it to protect those things that everyone had died?
Wasn’t it to consume those things that the Void had even come to be?
Fine, then. If this so-called “light” — THEIR light — was so useless, then he would destroy it himself.
Luke was drowned in despair. And it was his despair that transformed him into the Ultimate Void.
He would have destroyed everything.
No.
He already had.
But she came back. To save him. To save his world. To rewrite a tragic ending that had been set in stone. Once again, she had reached into his pitch-black soul and filled it with light. She had brought back the color, the warmth, brought back everyone he thought he had lost forever.
She had undone the darkness.
Natsuko was truly the light.
His light.
The last time he thought he had lost her, it was right after she had saved him. Saved his world.
Just when he thought everything was going to be fine. Just when they stood together, hand in hand, looking at the new Soul Future with hope in their hearts. Just when his chest was filled to the brim with happiness, knowing everyone he loved had come back.
She, the one he loved the most, had collapsed beside him.
He caught her, held her exhausted form in his arms. He watched her slowly fade away, helpless to stop it. She told him she had things to do in her “real world”—in the Kingdom of Reality. He pulled her tighter against him, as if holding her tightly enough could make her stay. He wanted to keep her in his world. Forever. But he couldn’t.
It was unfair. He had only just gotten her back. He had only just found out that the girl he loved the most was still alive, still by his side.
And yet, they were parting again.
“I’ll love you forever.”
She had whispered that.
Her eyes — her beautiful, ocean-deep eyes, shining like the sea beneath a starlit sky — looked up at him with a love so deep it made the whole universe blur around her. Just one glance was enough to drown in her love.
He had always loved her eyes. Just as he loved every part of her.
She had once told him that his eyes were a crystalline blue — clear like sunlight spilling across an open sky. And he had loved that. He loved the thought of her as the ocean, and himself as the sky.
The ocean and the sky.
Always close.
Always meeting at the horizon.
No matter the storm, no matter the passing time, they never truly parted. That was what they were. Two halves of the same beautiful whole.
So the thought of the sky without the ocean…
The thought of never seeing her again…
It was more than he could bear.
“Next time, I’ll go to the Kingdom of Reality. I promise I’ll come to see you!”
He had promised her that. It was partially out of desperation. He didn’t know what the Kingdom of Reality was. He didn’t know how to get there. But he said it anyway—because he had to believe. That they would meet again. That this would not be the last time he held her in his arms.
She didn’t respond. She just looked at him — like she wanted to memorize every piece of him, like she wanted to burn the image of him into her soul.
And then she smiled.
Soft. Content.
Before she faded away.