Blades of Despair

-Chapter Seventy-Nine-

Eyes of Gold

"I'm lying? Whatever do you mean, Ori?" Junichi's stern voice rippled through me like an icy current. "Why would I lie to my dear son?"

"You should keep your mouth shut if you know what's good for you, princess," Ori's father added haughtily. "We wouldn't want you getting hurt."

"If you lay a finger on her, I will kill you," I instantly snarled in her defense, but her father merely laughed and shrugged.

"I am not lying to Morino," Junichi repeated.

"Then you have to explain your actions as a father," Ori spat. "You treat Morino like dirt, you isolate him completely his entire life then force him to watch his friends kill each other. Tell me exactly how that makes you a loving father!"

"You hid yourself from him all his life," Mina shouted, "with no justification! Why would you do that to not just Morino, but to all his brothers and sisters? You abused him! You're nothing but a child abuser!" My eyes were fixed on Morino, who was watching the exchange between the girls and Junichi with perplexion, as though he were unable to comprehend our perception of his life.

"I think you two must be mistaken," he whispered. "I was not abused. I was merely punished for my imperfections."

"That's abuse, Morino," Ori told him flatly, but Morino shook his head. Junichi smirked.

"No, it isn't. It was I who made the mistakes in the tests, after all," Morino recalled. "Therefore, it was my responsibility to ensure that I retained all information that I came across in those books. It was the same with the killing game - if our deductions had been wrong in any of the trials, could we be forgiven? Did we have the option of being wrong?" Ori didn't answer.

"Those aren't the same thing, Morino", Nishi argued. "Don't compare your childhood to the killing game-"

"Additionally, if you're going to argue that anyone was abused, would it not be more apt to say that the fifteen of you were more victimised than I?" Morino said, his voice resuming its usual monotonous tone.

"What do you mean?" I asked warily.

"The first half of this trial was spent discovering that all of you were lied to from the day you were conceived," Morino replied. "Your friends, families, significant life events, even your talents, were devised and fabricated; the way you think, your perceptions of life, your philosophies - all controlled by the Blades, but I've suffered the most? I, whose life has not once been controlled by another. My life was my own, I thought for myself, my perception of life is unbiased, I could decide my own Ultimate Talent, I was never impressioned upon or conditioned to be a certain way and I now know that I have a family. Brothers and sisters, a mother that I can finally meet and a father who tells me he loves me. What do you have?" Even though Morino's voice carried no inflection nor emotion, his words still sent a chill through my body. The only other person who's made me feel this way is... so, Morino really is Junichi's son.

"Morino, why can't you understand?" Mina wailed. "Your father is a monster - he orchestrated these killing games. Uehara died because of Junichi. All of our friends have died because of the Blades of Despair and the killing game. Are you really going to defend the person who masterminded all the pain and death we've been forced to endure?"

"I'm sure Morino will forgive me," Junichi interrupted with a dismissive wave of his hand. "Isn't that the beauty of love? It heals all wounds."

"Time heals all wounds," I corrected his improper use of the phrase, "and I agree with Ori. You abused Morino, of that I have no doubt, and you deliberately manipulated his mind so that he would turn out the way he is."