Chapter Text
“Why do you – you, of all people – insist on stopping me again and again…”
Kuro returns Rikka’s piercing glare evenly. It’s never been even, between them, but he thinks that if he’d been like her (beautiful, warped, alone) then things would’ve been different.
But he’s not, and he knows who to thank for that.
Who would stand between Iwanaga and the things she refuses to dodge, if he became an ordinary human?
(He would, in the space of a breath; Iwanaga would never ask him to but she’s never needed to, either.
But after that? Even the question itself scares him, like little else does.)
“You wouldn’t have to wish the same thing I do, Kuro,” Rikka murmurs, as if she’s heard his thoughts. “I would gladly allow you that.”
“Then what should I ask for? For Iwanaga to be like this? Like us? Never,” he grits out, against the shudder down his spine; he’d live millennia alone before he allowed that. “I don’t wish anything of what you want to create, Rikka-san, except its destruction.”
It’s something she should’ve realised for herself long ago, smart as she is, knowing him as well as she does.
Kuro’s always had a bit of a blind spot when it comes to Rikka-san, he’ll admit that, but for the first time he finds himself wondering if the reverse isn’t true of her as well, when it comes to him.
“That’s why I will – why we will always be standing in your way, Rikka-san. Whatever it takes.”