Marie looked at herself in the mirror, checking her make-up and glancing at the outfit she had chosen for the outing.

At last, she could return to one of her beloved outfits.

Since she spent her days training in the Mafia dungeon, her clothes had been stored in the wardrobe waiting to be worn again on a daily basis.

Her only consolation remained her nightgowns.

She took a deep breath and left her room.

A very busy day awaited her.

"Marie...!! Where are you going?"

A squeaky little voice forced her to stop before she crossed the threshold.

The girl stopped, allowing the little girl to cling to her dress.

"Elise..." She sighed.

Why did she always have to pop up at the most inopportune moments?

"I'm going out..."

"You found a boyfriend?" The little one asked in a joking tone.

Marie laughed.

"I hardly ever go out, where am I supposed to find a guy to hang out with according to you, silly?" She replied, lowering herself to her level.

Elise snorted.

"A nice girl like you... Are you sure you're just seeing to see your friend?"

She asked suspiciously.

"How do you know I'm seeing my friend?!" Marie feigned surprise.

"Akiko is the only person you go out with." She replied resolutely.

Marie relieved herself.

"Will you tell my father that I'm going out?"

"Only if you promise to buy me some sweets!"

"Will do!!!!"

It was true, though.

Yosano was the only person she went out with.

The only friend she actually had.

It had not always been so between them.

For a long time they had lost sight of each other, but then life had decided to intertwine their destinies again, but their first meeting was a good 14 years earlier, during the Great War.

When Yosano was still a child full of hopes and dreams for the future.

Before Mori destroyed her completely.

And all she had been able to do was watch her break without being able to do anything about it.

"Here we are sweetheart. This will be our home for a while."

Little Marie looked around holding tightly to her only puppet her father had allowed her to take with her.

The place scared her.

And she missed her mother, but she knew her father would be angry with her if she voiced her thoughts.

And she certainly didn't want to make him angry.

She didn't want to be abandoned by him too.

Mori placed their only suitcase next to the bunk bed.

His position as a doctor in the army gave him access to accommodation that was far better than the dreary barracks that ordinary soldiers were forced to share, but it remained a place not at all suitable for a six-year-old girl.

Seeing Marie visibly distressed made him feel like the most helpless man in the world, but the alternative he was offered to that accommodation was definitely out of his mind.

Marie would always remain under his gaze, no matter what.

"Elise, how about preparing the bed on top for Marie?"

Elise, the manifestation of his ability Vita Sexualis that he had decided to display in adult form at the time.

He could not afford any kind of distraction in that context of war, and his daughter was enough of a problem to deal with.

It would certainly give him pause for thought, but he hoped that implementing his plan with the soldiers would help him focus on his goals and lock his feelings away in a remote corner of his being.

If he could have, he would have thrown the keys into a mere hole, but that was not the choice a leader made.

A leader never had to erase his feelings, he had to learn to live with them, to mute them.

He had already learnt to bear the pains caused by emotions, but he knew that this war experience would make him a ruthless and perfect actor.

A devil without feelings, but inwardly regretting the lost paradise.

Even though he had been able to savour little of that place.

He watched Marie and Elise arrange the upper bed.

He thought it safer to have his daughter sleep in that one.

They were, however, in an environment of war and, just as in love, everything was permissible.

And what he was about to do had every right to make him an easy target for the soldiers' discomfort.

He turned over in his hands the keys to the room that, who knows how long, would be their home.

For the time being they would be alone, but lend the little girl who would be the key to his strategy would join them.

That little girl seemed to be full of life and the hope that she could help Marie feel better was high.

Perhaps they could help each other survive the war.

Yosano Akiko came like a bolt of lightning into their lives, first lighting them up and then burning them down.

Marie was playing with her stuffed animal when a squeaky voice echoed in the closet.

The little girl raised her gaze fearfully, meeting bright magenta irises.

"Mori told me I would find you here! I am Akiko. Akiko Yosano."

She extended her hand towards her, but Marie merely squeezed her soft toy tighter.

"Don't you want to be my friend?" Yosano asked, snorting. "We are the only little girls here..."

Marie was definitely dazed by all that exuberance, but she tried to overcome her fears.

"I am Marie." She whispered weakly.

Yosano smiled and then cast her eye on the other's stuffed animal.

"Aren't you old enough to still be walking around with a puppet?"

In response, the other child squeezed the puppet even tighter.

Yosano lowered her gaze on the object, wondering what was so special about it.

Some sentimental value, perhaps?

It was a little black dragon with red eyes.

Yosano passed his gaze from the animal to the little girl.

"You look alike!" He exclaimed enthusiastically.

"I'm too old for stuffed animals now, but it's very cute. Did your daddy give it to you?"

"Yes, it is indeed a gift from me."

"Oh... I took the liberty of introducing myself without expecting you..."

"You did very well. You're likely to find yourselves spending a lot of time together, so I hope you can get along."

Mori went and sat down at the small desk that hole was equipped with.

"Yosano, I'll sort out these papers for a moment and then I'll take you to meet the soldiers we'll be working with, alright?"

"Yes, sir!" Replied the little girl, always with too much enthusiasm. Yosano sat down on the bed next to Marie, squaring up with curious, enthusiastic eyes.

"Your daddy offered me to come here to help the soldiers!"

Marie looked at her curiously.

"My skill is called Thou shall not die, it allows me to immediately heal people's wounds, from the mildest to the most severe.

With my help, soldiers would no longer have to die... and at the end of the war they could return home safely to their families..."

"What a beautiful skill you have..." Marie whispered.

Yosano nodded vigorously.

"What about you? Do you have a skill too?"

Marie nodded, lowering her gaze to her little dragon.

At that exact instant, Mori intervened in the conversation.

"Yosano, ready to meet your future patients?"

"Of course! Marie, see you later!"

Mori cast a glance to see if his daughter was alright.

That familiar pain that invaded him was the answer to his question, but he sensed no reaction from Yosano.

He gritted his teeth and got out of there.

Shortly afterwards Yosano returned to Marie, enthusiastically telling her about the soldiers.

"Hey, but we didn't continue our talk before.

So, you have an ability too?"

Marie nodded.

"Mine, however, is not as good as yours..." She whispered in a feeble tone.

"Don't say that! Every skill is unique and I bet yours is too!"

"I make people suffer."

"What?"

"I hurt people."

"H-ho... How is that possible? What does that mean?"

"People scream and... fall to the ground when it is activated."

Yosano widened her eyes in amazement.

"What! But it's like a weapon! It's terrible!

Marie's eyes glazed over with tears.

"No! I didn't mean that..."

"Mama also said it was horrible..."

Yosano stood motionless processing what she had told her.

Marie suddenly felt two arms tighten around her.

She did not think it was possible that a mother could actually say such a thing to her own daughter, but she felt it was not appropriate to say it out loud.

''No one chooses the ability with which you are born. Besides... Even if you have the ability to hurt people as long as you don't do it deliberately it's not a problem... but... do you hurt them physically when you use it?"

"Physically?" Marie asked confused.

"Yeah, I mean... does it leave a visible wound on the body?"

"No... I don't think..."

"Curious."

Yosano then smiled at her. "We are complementary!"

In part they really were. Marie was shy and closed, while Yosano was open and resourceful.

In the early days, she was always the one who sought Marie's company and carried on their conversations, but gradually, Marie too began to appreciate the other girl's presence more and more.

Marie always listened with interest to Yosano telling her how the soldiers adored her because with her, death seemed never to come.

The sparkle in Yosano's eyes was contagious.

In that desolate place, they did not have much to play with or distract themselves, but their mutual companionship had become a precious treasure that neither of them seemed to want to give up.

One day Yosano showed up at Marie's with an accessory that could not go unnoticed.

It was a beautiful golden clothes peg in the shape of a butterfly.

Marie looked at it fascinated.

'But it's beautiful! Where did you find it?

Yosano sighed.

'One of the soldiers there has the ability to manipulate gold and he made it to thank me for saving his life so far.

He says it is because of me that he will be able to return safely to his family one day. He says I am an angel."

Marie was about to comment on how nice this was, but there was something in her friend's tone that made her desist.

And it wasn't just that.

She had noticed that, for a few days now, there seemed to be something wrong with her.

It was as if she had partly switched off.

That enthusiasm that seemed to characterise her so much was no longer there.

"You don't believe what he told you? But it's true! Thanks to your skill, many soldiers are still alive."

The other took a moment's pause before replying.

"It's also true that without me they would have more time to recover and wouldn't have to return to the battlefield right away."

Marie reached out a hand towards Yosano, lightly caressing her new butterfly.

"This gift is here to prove exactly the opposite. Your skill is precious. You're precious and what you are doing is priceless."

She gave her a smile.

Yosano leaned in to embrace her.

"You are an angel Marie. Are you sure you are really Mori's daughter? You're always so sweet and pretty, while... no offence, but your father sometimes has a really scary aura."

"I know. He's always been like that."

It was partially trute, but it hadn't always been like that. Not with her at least. Using his threatening aura even against her was a novelty she had not yet gotten used to.

That was why her father still scared her so much.

She knew she was the cause of his malaise.

Maybe that was why he preferred to use Elise to relate to her.

'Didn't she have anyone to leave you to? I mean... you're not as indispensable as me... why not leave you at home?"

"Mom left little before the war broke out. Now I only have my daddy." Replied Marie.

"Oh... I didn't know she died... I'm sorry..."

"No! She's not dead. At least... I don't think so. She abandoned us."

Yosano widened her eyes.

The two had known each other for a few months, but Marie had never opened up to her as much as she was doing at the time.

"Do you miss her?"

Marie nodded.

"You... Have Mori anyway..." Yosano whispered cautiously. She was probably the only one who saw the interaction between the two almost daily.

His superior did not indulge in sentimentalism while he worked, but she had never seen him show the slightest affection for his daughter.

Not once.

"Dad has changed since she left..."

Although Yosano struggled to imagine a different Mori Ougai from the one she dealt with every day.

That Marie's mother had succeeded in making the man who seemed to have no emotion showing some feelings?

With the tail of his eye she saw Marie's plush and had a flash of their first meeting.

"Did he... gave the dragon to you before your mother left?"

Marie was surprised at this sudden question.

She brought the stuffed animal to them.

"He gave it to me when I was born. He gave my mother a similar one, but bigger. She liked stuffed animals so much."

This image left Yosano speechless.

She could not believe that the man was capable of making nice gestures, and even less could she imagine him as a loving companion.

It looked like an oxymoron.

She wanted to know more, to see if Marie knew what the reasons were for her mother to leave, but she felt it was too delicate a question.

If the woman had left shortly before the war, then it was an open wound.

Not only for Marie, but also for Mori.

She should have waited for her to add more details to the story.

At the time she could not have known that she wouldn't know the whole story until many years later under completely different circumstances.

The war had in fact taken an unexpected turn and the situation worsened day by day and Yosano's interventions with the soldiers became more and more frequent.

Until one day she tried to rebel against Mori's will.

"I won't cure him."

"How, please?"

"You understand very well. I don't treat him. It's not a serious wound. He will spend a few days in the infirmary and then he will be able to return to the battlefield."

Mori sighed.

"How can I say no to you? I am weak in the face of the demands of the girls."

Yosano's smug smile turned into a grief as strong fingers anchored to her head, forcing her to look into her superior's eyes.

"But you are an exception. Did you say his wound isn't serious?"

A shot echoed through the room.

"Very good. Now he's dying. See to it quickly."

That was the first day that Yosano didn't go to Marie's after her treatment.

The little girl wondered why she hadn't visited her.

She's been doing it since the first day they met.

When the father returned, the little girl dared to ask him if something had happened to her friend, but he only said that it had been a hard day and that it would have been better to leave her alone.

Marie asserted, but after more days of absence she decided that she could not pretend and that she had to understand what was going on.

She found Yosano a bit turned off.

Much more than she had been on that day of confession.

"Yosano..." With her voice reduced to a whisper Marie tried in vain to attract her attention.

She didn't seem to hear it.

Or she didn't want to hear it.

She hesitated.

Yosano's appearance made her think it was better to give up, but precisely because of her appearance she couldn't let go.

She had to get out of her comfort zone and try to reach out to her.

She approached her cautiously.

"Yosano...?"

The other did not seem to give a nod, but then a brief spark passed through her gaze.

"Did Mori send you to get me? Do you want me to treat other people?"

The hatred with which Yosano uttered these words left Marie breathless.

What had happened to make her express it this way?

"No." Muttered Marie, still shaken by her words.

"It's just... you haven't passed. A few days ago my father told me that you both had a hard day and I didn't want to..."

"Have you had? HAVE YOU HAD?!" Yosano snapped.

"Have you had a hard day? Did he really tell you that?"

Her face was strewn with tears.

"It's only his fault that I'm like this... He doesn't care about people... NOTHING!!!"

Perhaps a stabbing in the chest would have hurt less than seeing her friend reduced to that state because of her father.

"But... you are here to help people... You save them from death... You are their angel..."

Yosano showed her a wound on her arm.

"This was made to me by those who, until recently, considered me their angel..." Yosano's voice became a whisper just mentioned.

"You save their lives... why should they..."

"Save their lives?" Yosano burst into a sarcastic laugh.

"I do nothing but prolong their agonies... With normal doctors they would need more time to heal and they could stay longer away from the battlefield, while so... with me... because of me they are forced to relive that hell over and over again and those who were on the verge of death... because of me they are forced to live it daily if not several times a day and your father... does not lift a finger... He demands that you continue to treat them even when it is clear that they have long passed the limit of endurance..."

Her voice was now reduced to desperate hiccups.

"And when I tried to refuse to heal a superficial wound... Mori cut him to the end of his life... to force me to heal him? Do you understand?"

Marie was out of breath.

She understood Yosano's pain. She understood perfectly why she hadn't visited her.

And yet...

And yet, deep down, her father's behavior didn't surprise her.

Not a bit.

She was more than sure that Yosano was telling the truth and not exaggerating.

It was definitely true.

"I'm sorry..."

Marie tried to hug her but was rejected by Yosano.

"I don't want your compassion... I don't want anyone's compassion... I just want this hell to end..."

"You can vent with me..." Marie ventured, but Yosano seemed unable to look her in the eye.

"You don't want to see me anymore either?" Asked Marie.

Yosano took a deep breath, putting a hand over his arm wound.

"Since Mori wounded that soldier, I can't use my skill the way I used to, I... I need the person to be dying..."

More hiccups.

"Yosano, listen..."

"I'm not surprised your mother left you, who would want to be around a monster like your father?"

Yosano charged every single word of pure hatred, leading even Marie to her limit.

Yosano's scream that followed shortly after was a sound she would never forget.

What happened next was all very confusing.

Mori had heard Yosano's cries and, knowing that Marie was with her, had easily sensed what had happened and had rushed from her hoping to save the situation.

Upon arrival, Yosano's screams were nothing more than a background noise compared to Marie's completely absent gaze.

At that time, he was not the victim of family pain caused by Umi to Dokuyaku, but of a much worse Hell.

Ignoring everything and everyone, he took Marie in his arms and carried her into their compartment.

He held her close and lulled her until sleep took over.

Mori still held her close to him for a while.

How he wanted to be the father Marie needed.

The next day Marie had gone to Yosano to apologize for what had happened, but it seemed that the other child had decided to hate her too and not just Mori.

A few days later, the catastrophe completely destroyed Yosano's soul.

The soldier who gave her the butterfly clasp made an announcement on the radio.

He couldn't get enough of having to go back to the battlefield and keep coming back to life.

He blamed Yosano, calling her too good for him.

He was apologizing.

When Yosano reached the place from which he was broadcasting, he found the man hanged.

Dead.

Marie had also gone there in an attempt to be close to Yosano, but first she had shouted the worst things at her, and then she had become insensitive, unable to react anymore, and even though Marie did not give up bringing Yosano back there was nothing left to do.

Fortunately, the war came to an end soon after, but the consequences were too great for everyone.

No one excluded.

25/04/2024

That was an hard chapter to write 🥺