Reaver’s Song

“God, I missed you,” I sighed, laying back, my arm wrapped around Akira’s shoulder as we lay naked on the bed.

“Did you miss me or the sex?” Akira poked my cheek playfully.

“It doesn’t need to be an ‘or’ thing,” I pointed out. “It can be an ‘and’ thing.”

“You make a good point,” She conceded. “But I’m all done for a while in Tokyo, so I’ll be here with my favorite former world savior every day until spring.”

“Former?” I cocked an eyebrow at her haughtily. “I’m still saving the world, one kemonomimi at a time.”

“Well, aren’t you a little overachiever,” Akira giggled.

“I’m a legend in my own time, what can I say?” I shrugged, kissing Akira’s head, the smell of her shampoo filling my nose, her drying sweat damp against my cheek.

“A legend in your own mind, maybe,” Akira chuckled, snuggling into my shoulder, her breasts pressed against my side.

“You weren’t saying that a few minutes ago,” I huffed. “In fact, you were saying the exact opposite. I believe it was something like ‘Oh, my God, Minji! I couldn’t imagine the things you can do are physically possible! I have seen the face of God and it is yours! I am so wet right now I am in danger of becoming a desiccated husk from dehydration. I’ve cum so many times physics has run out of numbers!’ “

“I never said any of that,” Akira shook her head with a scowl.

“You were thinking it,” I smirked, laying my cheek on Akira’s head, and closing my eyes. A comfortable silence descended on the bedroom as I snuggled tightly against Akira, her warmth spreading through my body. My body was always cold so I was grateful to leech off her heat, though honestly, I usually felt the way I imagined a lizard would lying on a warm rock; content and listless.

“Why?” Akira whispered after several moments; her voice so quiet in the near dark I almost missed the question.

 “Hmm?” I asked without opening my eyes. “That’s kind of a broad question.”

“Why did you forgive me after everything I did?”

I had asked myself that very question a number of times in a number of different ways, I thought. When I’d first woken up in the hospital the answer was less clear and definitely more closely tied to the potential for sex, but as day after day passed the solution coalesced and became far simpler. While still tied somewhat to the potential for limitless sex, other reasons had coalesced. 

“I guess I had only two choices,” I replied slowly, trying to make sure the words I wanted to say came out properly. “I could either forgive you and embrace a future with you or hold onto what had happened and grow angrier and more bitter without you. The choice wasn’t that hard.

“Honestly, I fell for you when I went into the warrens,” I continued. “I mean, yeah, you were a crazy psycho bitch with a mean streak a thousand kilometers wide, but there was something about you. I guess you were my type or something.

“As I got to know more and more about you, I realized you were no different than anyone else. You had your own reasons for what you did the same as everyone else. Where you were different was your ability to see things through and the will to do what it took, no matter how batshit nuts it may have been, to finish. Though I have to admit it kind of sucked when I realized I wasn’t even the main character in my own life.”

“Huh?” Akira glanced up at me, dark eyes glinting curiously in the darkened room.

“You were always the driving force in everything we did as a group and, actually, everything I had to do on my own,” I replied. “It sucks and is kind of humbling to realize you’re an NPC at worst and shitty sidekick at best in your own life.”

“You kind of were, huh?” Akira murmured.

“You didn’t have to agree so readily,” I scowled down at her. She grinned up at me and shrugged. I paused for a long moment before sighing.

“I was kidding,” Akira giggled.

“Honestly, I still have nightmares about a lot of the things I did in that other world. The people I killed, the lives of people I never met that I upended, and I will probably live with that for the rest of my days. I can justify things by saying it was them or me, but that excuse only holds water in the rational part of my mind.”

“So you have a rational part of your mind?” Akira giggled through tears. I scowled and nudged her with my shoulder.

“Hey! I’m saying nice things right now, you know,” I sniffed.

“I know,” she snuggled closer to me again and sighed. “I’m just teasing you.”

“The reality for me is it takes a certain kind of person to take the life of someone else and not be changed. I’m not that kind, I guess. I don’t need to tell you what you did,” I continued after a moment. “Not just to me, but to a lot of other people. But you don’t need to tell me what I did, either. We both realize our sins. I don’t know, maybe by forgiving you I might be able to forgive myself someday. Regardless, to answer your question; I guess I forgave you because I love you and I didn’t want to face a life without you.”

“Thank you,” Akira whispered after a long moment.

“I wouldn’t thank me quite yet,” I pulled her closer to me, her naked skin warm against mine.

“Why’s that?” Akira glanced up at me.

“Once my sex dungeon’s finished payback will begin in earnest,” I answered.

“Ok,” Akira chuckled.

“I’m not kidding,” I lay my head back against the headboard and stroked her shoulder idly.

“Really?” Akira asked after a moment. I remained silent. “Wait! Seriously?”

“Would I do something like that?” I cracked one eye open and regarded her coolly.

“Yes,” Akira nodded, a look of mingled unease and excitement on her face.

“I guess that’s your answer.”