Date A Live: Starting as Acheron

Nia slowly slipped the balcony door open and stepped outside. In front of her, Kyo sat quietly in a white plastic lawn chair, staring at the remnants of the setting sun. Contrary to his earlier stoicism, his figure now seemed small. Vulnerable, even.

Current time: May 15th, 06:26 pm.

"Hey," she started, leaning against the doorframe. "Wanna give me my explanation now?"

"What do you want to hear?" He asked softly, his gaze still fixated on the darkening horizon. 

"Not your sass," Nia frowned. "I want to know what the hell you were doing today. Picking a fight with those three, one of which you even called a friend? What the hell were you thinking?"

Kyo went silent for a moment. Then, while sighing, he stood up to face Nia with an emotionless gaze. "Yoshino is a good kid. Good, but far too weak-hearted. Faced with the fact that she will face enemies that wish her dead, she must change. And I thought I could make that change."

"That's stupid," Nia rebutted, crossing her arms. "You thought you could change her by fighting her and then gifting her puppet back afterwards?"

"No, that plan came way later," Kyo corrected, turning to face the sky again. "What I just described was what I thought when I first met her, weeks, perhaps a month ago."

He paused to glance back at Nia, who gestured impatiently for him to continue. "When I first met her, I decided that I would help her. I disarmed all her assailants, I tutored her on her own power… I played the hero, and for that, she paid the price." The price? Nia quickly sorted through her memories. What price? What exactly happened to Yoshino?

"..are you talking about that napalm stuff you had me search up?" She asked dubiously. "It was just some random German scientist. What does that have to do with you?"

"They developed it for Spirit-made ice," he growled. "Before me, all Yoshino would do was run. She never utilized her powers for anything but escape, but because of my intervention, she started to defend herself."

"Isn't that a good thi-"

"No!" Kyo clenched a fist until Nia could see his knuckles turn white. "In any other circumstance, yes, but for her? All it did was paint a larger target on her back, raise her danger level, and cause them to throw stronger, larger weapons at her. Napalm! Even I probably wouldn't leave unscathed if that hit me, let alone that weak child. And yet I was the one who caused that technology to be unleashed on them." 

"...is that why you were so thorough in destroying the AST's equipment? But that still doesn't explain why you decided to fight the two of them in that field. After all, weren't you trying to help Yoshino?" How exactly was fighting her going to make her feel better?

Kyo sighed again, seemingly struggling to verbalize his thoughts. After a few moments of uncomfortable silence, he spoke again.

"...had I not interfered, Yoshino would have met Shidou, and their relationship would have moved… unnaturally quickly, in all honesty. She would've latched onto him for support without a second thought. But when I went to return Yoshinon, I witnessed her turning him away; it was a distance that had never existed in the timeline before. And that was when I decided to bring them closer together."

"Closer… together? You realize you're not making sense right now, right?" Nia raised an eyebrow. "How exactly was what you did 'bringing them closer together?'"

Kyo furrowed his brows. "You got there late, so it's reasonable that you don't entirely understand. But surely you still saw the two of them facing off against me, right?"

"The two of them…" Right, before I threw [Raziel] at him. Those two were standing together while facing him down.

"My… teacher, let's say, once said these words: 'The fragility of humankind often freezes them in their tracks, but in truly desperate situations they will strive to save themselves.' But for someone like Yoshino, that isn't how it works. Instead, for people like her, they will rely on the kindness of others to bolster themselves. And in order to guarantee that she feels the kindness of another…" His voice trailed away into silence.

"...you created a desperate situation where Shidou would work with Yoshino to overcome it together," Nia finished. "You sure have a lot of confidence in that boy."

"It's his only redeeming quality," Kyo muttered.

"Says you. After all, despite everything you said, all you accomplished was creating more stress for her."

"I won't argue with that," he laughed weakly. The two went silent again, watching as the last rays of the sunset finally faded entirely and the neon lights of the street shops began to glow.

"...why didn't you just apologize?"

"What?"

"Why didn't you just go to her and apologize?" Nia asked again, taking a step forward. "You could've tried to support her as a beacon of kindness again, instead of posing as an enemy to get another person to show her that kindness. Wouldn't that have led to a better outcome?" More silence, until-

"...it's not that simple," he uttered with a hint of frustration. "My plan was far more likely to work. I'm not an expert in the mind, but I'm sure that a common enemy unites people far more successfully than a mere apology."

"Oh, come on. Just from what I've seen and heard, Yoshino isn't like that. She'd have forgiven you if you'd have just taken the time to explain everythi-"

"I don't deserve to BE forgiven," Kyo suddenly spat, venom in his voice. "In this story, I was nothing more than a powerful fool who imposed his own will on another. Since I've already started on that road, I might as well walk the entire way, right? Yoshino doesn't need a person like me in her life. You wanna know the real reason why I chose this path? It's because she deserves someone better than me by her side!"

Why do I feel like I've heard those words before? Nia swallowed. "How could you have known about the AST changing their weapons, or how Yoshino would react to Shidou? You say you made a mistake, but I think you're just being too hard on yourself."

"Well, that makes one of us. After all, you haven't seen the truth. That in a world where I did not exist, Yoshino would have lived through less pain before being sealed," he muttered self-deprecatingly. "I tried to guide her, and I failed miserably. Not only did I end up painting a bigger target on her back, I affected her relationship with others who would try to help her. Everything I did today was me repaying my debt. I just repaired something I broke, at the cost of something that was already broken."

An unpleasant yet familiar feeling settled in Nia's stomach, but she brushed it off. "Look, maybe I don't know exactly what you do, but even if you did end up changing something for the worse, you still didn't have to choose to fix it in this crazy way-"

"Enough, Nia. Please." Kyo turned around and looked her dead in the eyes. "What's done is done, and I refuse to regret my actions. After all, I know that it was for the best."

For the best. Those words echoed in her mind, awakening memories of an old friend. Ah, that's it. I remember why this feels so familiar now. After all-

Those are the words I told myself when I cut myself off from Hiroki.