DATE A LIVE: The Angel of Justice

Act 14: The Spear of Truth

Sera and Tonomachi made it to the playground, as they overlooked Tengu city, just as Shido and Tohka did not so long ago. The same place where Sera followed Origami to and tried to stop her from pressing the trigger.

"Gee, lucky us. We sneaked past the restricted parts, and here we are. Look at the split off cliff, have you ever seen that before?"

"No... But looking at it makes me wonder. What could have made this...? All this destruction, I mean."

"A force beyond reckoning, my dear friend."

"A force that destroyed so much..."

Tonomachi took his phone out.

"Maybe. But as my girlfriend says, when something as precious as this is left intact amidst destruction and chaos, then it prompts the question: What was the reason this was left untouched?"

Sera wondered and thought about the question.

"Maybe they didn't want to destroy something so precious?"

"Bingo! Then, another question is prompted, and I cite my girlfriend: Is the force behind events like this evil?"

"Evil? Why would it be evil?"

"Dunno. That's the question, isn't it?"

"Well, I don't think it's evil. But... can a force like this be good either? What does this make them?"

Tonomachi showed Sera his phone, with his girlfriend waving at him. He read the prompt.

"Aren't her sentences just elegant and perfect? Why find good and evil in everything? Sometimes, good things do bad things, and bad things do good things. Be it humans, nature, animals, or anything, really."

The spacequakes spirits trigger are not purposeful...

"But... then what is such a thing? If not good or evil?"

"It just is, Sera. Even I must admit, the view over Tengu is nice, isn't it? And the beauty in it is that it just is. Just like we. We do what we must, whatever it takes, and we don't let anyone stop us."

"Hiroto..."

"Just like I won't be stopped from getting my girlfriend that ultra-rare necklace! Ah, but I digress. Point is... follow your heart and make peace with your decisions! Don't doubt them, just do what feels right! Be that wrong or right, this is how things should be. Isn't that the truth?"

Sera looked at Tengu city and the sky. The rain stopped a while ago, and it made him realise the truth. All this time, he was looking at his dreams wrong. It wasn't good versus evil, angel versus demon, but a protector fighting for what he cared about, and someone who tried to take that away.

And in that moment, he felt a strange resonance from his chest. Tohka, the girl who's name he didn't learn, Origami, the AST, Ratatoskr... none of them were in the wrong or right. They each fought for what they believed in.

Origami believed the spirits had to pay for what they did, Tohka believed she had to avenge Shido, the AST believed they had to protect the populace, Ratatoskr believed the spirits needed to be saved, not exterminated... Everyone had a belief, and it was time for Sera to find his own conviction.

The belief he would caress and protect with his life. His long-forgotten dream came to mind. He always wanted the world to be a better place, and for violence to cease, for all conflict, pain, and suffering.

But to make that world a reality, he would have to fight to make it so. Make decisions that are wrong in the eyes of many, and right in the eyes of many as well. Only he could decide whether it would be the right or wrong thing to do, and act on his desires.