“Tsubaki – I need to you listen to me.” Furuta sits his sister down on the pink chair in his office, the preposterous chair he bought just for her.
“Yes, dearie?”
Furuta rolls his eyes. “I can’t eat the strawberries with you because I…have become a half-ghoul.”
Tsubaki raises one eyebrow. “Bitch, I already knew, and I’m so gonna punch you for shortening your life span even more.”
Furuta chokes. “Don’t swear.”
“You like it when I swear.” She leaps into his arms and slugs him in his face. “Take that!”
“My face!” Furuta gasps. “Good thing I have enhanced healing now.”
“And an un-enhanced life span!” she wails. “Why are you so eager to abandon me?”
“I’m not…I just wanted to be stronger,” Furuta pleads. His stomach flip-flops when he sees genuine tears in her eyes.
“I miss you already.” Tsubaki sniffles. “It’s not fair.”
“We’ll…just live happily in the time we do have?”
“You couldn’t even make that sound convincing, bro.” Tsubaki begins pacing.
“Don’t you dare become a half-ghoul to spite me,” Furuta warns.
She narrows her eyes, because that was certainly her first idea. “Shut it. I’m thinking how to save you.”
“You can’t save me.” No one can.
“I can and I will!” She jabs a finger into his face. “I’ll employ every scientist CCG owns. I will sort out this aging crisis. Did you ever think it might have an easy solution that Daddy Dear was just unwilling to find? Because he never loved us. But I love you. I will help you. I will – Furuta, I can’t lose you.”
Furuta sighs. “There’s no stopping you, is there?”
“Nope.” Tsubaki relishes that she’s the one person who can best Furuta Nimura at his own games. “You know I love you, right?”
“Yeah.” Furuta croaks. It hurts to admit it. Sometimes he’d rather no one loved him.
“Do you love me? Please…tell me the truth.” Tsubaki’s eyes shine wth tears, and both recall the time she caught Tsuneyoshi and demanded the same answer.
And he’d asked how a dragon could love a gnat.
“Of course I do,” Furuta whispers, rubbing the top of her head.
Mercy and Magic 