1.68: The Power of FaithPOKE

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  “BAKA! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!”

  I noh-blinked and looked down at Rui’s tear-streaked face. She was worried…scared, even…and that alone jolted through the haze clouding my mind. I’d been hunched in the corner, trying to piece together what I’d become, and Rui-chan finally resorted to physically rebooting me.

  I rubbed my noh-head and managed a faint noh-smile. She was loud. Comfortingly loud. For a moment, I wondered why my noh-face hurt, then… right. It was Rui-chan. Her tiny fists had always carried surprising weight.

  “Ah… sorry. My mind is a tangled mess right now.” I clutched the sides of my head.

  “What happened? W-where’s… Reiko-chan?” Rui whispered. Her lip quivered, tears slipping down her cheeks faster than before. I tilted my noh-head and let out a slow sigh. Reaching down, I tried to brush my fingers along her cheek…

  …But she flinched.

  My hand froze. “Why did you shy away from me?”

  Rui swallowed hard. “Y-you changed… I-I think you went and completely turned…” She was crying harder. I deciphered her expression with effort. Those tears… weren’t just for Reiko-chan. They were rolling down her cheeks for me, too.

  I lifted my hands, staring at their pitch-bck, cwed silhouette. The sentai costume was gone. I wasn’t a man or a woman, or even human anymore. I was a column of living shadow… just like Reiko-chan had been.

  I rose to my full height. It startled me for a second, but I shook my head dismissively. No matter what, my mind was still mine. Ours, in a way.

  Rui trembled, fidgeting with her sleeves. “Y-you’re scaring me, Susu…”

  I sighed again—long, tired… almost fond.“Haaah… I’ve never seen you like this before, Rui-chan.”

  I pointed an index finger at her.“That worried face doesn’t suit you.”

  I reached toward her slowly… carefully… and she still flinched.

  That flicker across her expression… pure, honest fear… cut deeper than cws ever could.

  That familiar ache bloomed in my chest.The same ache I’d felt all my life when strangers recoiled from me.But seeing it on her face…

  She wasn’t wrong to fear me.I really had become a monster.

  …No.Not a monster.Not like them.

  “I won’t do what Reiko-chan did. Don’t worry,” I whispered… more to anchor myself than to reassure her. “I’m still gentle. I’m still me.”

  But a question gnawed at me, cold and relentless…

  Was this my body now?Forever?

  Was this our fusion… her soul and mine… fully merged?Was I some stabilizing force she cked?Some missing piece she’d needed?

  No…I was me, and she was gone.But not entirely.Some echo of her lingered… warm, steady, watching.

  Something clicked deep inside my chest.Reiko-chan had given me everything she could… not to burden me, but to empower me.To finish what neither of us could alone.

  A surge of energy throbbed through my noh-body, lightning threaded through my veins.

  Ah… Enenra. That smoke-like creature.That predator.Mitsuhiko’s living shadow.

  I could feel it now—the curl of its power, the rhythm of its movements… like I’d memorized it across a thousand lifetimes.For the first time, I felt like I might actually stand a chance.

  My cws flexed.Darkness pooled and swirled around my fingers like ink waiting to be shaped.

  Would my mind fragment if I pushed too far?Would I lose myself again?

  …Maybe.

  But maybe there was a way back, too.Maybe I could win and still recim my humanity.

  My Cinderel Deadline wasn’t over… not yet.

  I looked at Rui-chan… shivering, fidgeting, terrified… and the person I wanted to protect more than anything.

  I offered her my best noh-smile.

  No.I couldn’t fight Enenra yet.

  I wasn’t motivated enough.

  Consciousness power needed more than strength.It needed purpose.Identity.A reason to exist.

  And hiriously, Mitsuhiko had handed me that secret himself… carelessly.

  Mitsu…My noh-eyes narrowed.

  Of course I was intimate with him… whether I ever wanted to be or not.

  For the first time, I wasn’t sure who I was.Reiko’s memories brushed against mine, her instincts braided through my thoughts.Defragmenting… that might take a little time.

  I remembered Akuchi pulling off that insane stunt… splitting herself into dozens of clones.I didn’t understand it at the time.

  But I did now.

  Her consciousness power spiked when she was motivated… when she wanted to impress me, to show how incredible she could be.

  Then Ume fed her that lovingly-made Hamburg Steak… packed with occult herbs and affection… and all her clones came rushing back at once.

  No wonder she short-circuited.Her brain was basically screaming from the data dump.

  If Akuchi could handle the experiences of a dozen selves…

  Why shouldn’t I be able to handle the merging of two lives?

  Rui-chan might know.

  “Baka! We need to beat that horrible man! We don’t have time to sit here doing nothing!” Rui sobbed, her voice breaking with both fury and grief.

  “Rui-chan, I understand that. Tell me… how does consciousness power actually work?”

  She blinked up at me, wiping her cheeks with the back of her sleeve. “I-I suppose we haven't talked about it enough in depth.” Her voice wavered. “I know the theories my father taught me, but… I can’t use any of it myself. I have n-no power.” Another sob escaped her. “I’ve told you… I can’t do this job the way he did.”

  “I know…” I tilted my head, lowering my voice. “That’s why I didn’t want you risking your life.” Rui-chan shot me a small, uncertain gnce.

  “You’re so strange right now. A—” She bit off whatever she was about to say, forcefully redirecting herself back to the question. “Consciousness… is your will made into power. You use your spiritual energy to assert your influence on the world. You can do it without tools, but it’s harder. People or objects you put faith in get imbued with that power. The more people believe, the stronger the effect.” She sniffled. “That’s how kami were born. And yokai. We bend the world by insisting on our truth.” She touched the bracelet on my arm weakly. “This will be an excellent focus. I… I have faith you can do it, Susu.”

  She has faith in me.Even while trembling.Even while staring at the creature I’d become.

  That alone steadied something in me.

  I reasoned through everything she’d said. Even clothing could be a focus. Even something people believed in… deeply believed in.

  Sentai.The heroes I grew up admiring.The ones who always win against evil.The ones who stand tall even when they’re terrified.

  I looked down at the bracelet and noh-smiled despite myself.

  If consciousness was the same as faith, then…

  “Rui-chan,” I asked softly, “if I wore Natalia-sama’s costume, would her faith in me strengthen me? What about Ume-chan? Could the costume itself act as a focus?”

  Rui let out a tiny, watery ugh as she rubbed her eyes. “Susu… I was talking out my butt earlier.” She sighed. “It just seemed fun to make you march into battle like some kind of a sentai hero. Natalia-sama… kind of agreed with me. It was a rushed pn. Mostly we needed to hide your face so Akuchi could do her performance properly. Even that fell apart. And we couldn’t risk Mitsuhiko getting Reiko-chan’s face again.” She shrugged helplessly. “There’s no real point in the costume now. It wouldn’t help.”

  I gnced past her.

  My helmet y near the hole in the wall, tilted just so… like it was staring at me, daring me to pick it up.

  “Nonsense or not,” I said, “I want to be a hero. I don’t want to look like some vague, vilinous monster. I can’t face evil like this. How could I trust myself if I look like a nightmare?” I flexed my cws. The darkness rippled like smoke. Everything except my face was pure shadow.

  “It’s inanimate, Susumu. You’re a noh-face. Don’t they gain power from… well, faces? Y-you can have mine if you need it.” Rui swallowed hard. “At least I can help by sacrificing myself too.”

  I froze… and shook my head.

  “Supposedly. But faces never made Reiko-chan feel any better. She got stronger, yes… but it cost her mind. I won’t gain power through suffering. And I definitely won’t take yours.” My voice hardened. “Not even if it means staying like this forever.”

  I drifted toward the opening in the wall… literally glided, my feet barely formed.

  “You’ll look silly!” Rui protested. “It’s just a pstic helmet! It’s not a real face! It’s… it’s just a childish dream, Susumu! You’re wasting time!”

  I looked over my shoulder, floating in the doorway.

  “Rui-chan, please believe in me. Pretend I’m a real sentai ranger. Cheer me on.”I bent, picked up the helmet with both hands, and faced her fully.

  Rui walked toward me, an internal conflict twisting across her small face. “I believe in you, Susumu. I do. But… Sentai are a foolish fantasy. They’re for children. I’m not a child.”

  I noh-smiled gently. “Yet I ask you… believe in me as a sentai hero. Please.”

  “…”

  “…………………”

  “…. AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!” Rui burst out ughing so hard she nearly bent double. Her earlier grief momentarily dissolved. “You’re amazing, Susumu! You actually… You actually want to turn our final battle into a joke!”

  She giggled harder, wiping at her eyes. “It’s incredible. Do you really…?”

  “Yes.” I noh-grinned at her. “I really believe in sentai. And I believe you aren’t as worthless as you think you are. Humans created kami, didn’t they? That’s what you told me. So…” I tapped the helmet. “Believe in me.”

  Rui-chan let out a tiny, helpless ugh.

  “One more thing.” I held the helmet up. “Do you know ‘Caramelldansen’? If you do that for me… I’ll tear this whole tower down with my bare hands.”

  “—C-c-Caramelldansen?” Rui stomped her foot, cheeks red. “Don’t make a fool of—”

  “Please.”

  The single word froze her. She stared up at me, face pinking, lips pulling into a conflicted line.

  “Oh crap,” she whispered. “I can’t say no.”

  She hesitated once more, then… defeated… lifted her hands to forehead level and started to shake her hips. Cute, awkward, mortified… and still trying her hardest. Seeing her dance like that… just for me… made something bright and warm burst open inside me.

  I couldn’t help it.I started moving too… my hips swaying, helmet in hand, the melody looping in my head.

  Rui ughed even harder.Her ughter made me giggle too, the sound echoing strangely from my inhuman throat but feeling… really good.

  Lifted by her smile… by her faith… I steadied myself.

  Reiko died alone and broken. I was surrounded with love… I was even held… believed in. I refused to waste what I’d been given.

  Then I smmed the helmet down.

  Caramelldansen!

  BOOOOM—!!

  Silver light erupted down the hallway as if a sun had been born at point-bnk range. The beat of “Caramelldansen” thrummed through the light like a pulse… faith syncing with motion, motion syncing with spirit.

  Do-do-do-oo, yeah-yeah-yeah-yeahVi undrar ?r ni redo att vara medArmarna upp nu ska ni f? seKom igen

  Vem som helst kan vara med (Vara med)S? r?r p? era f?tter (Oa-a-a)Och vicka era h?fter (O---)G?r som vi

  Till denna melodi (Oh-wa-ohwa-ah)Dansa med ossKppa era h?nderG?r som vi g?rTa n?gra steg ?t v?nsterLyssna och l?rMissa inte chansenNu ?r vi h?r medCaramelldansen

  Power surged.

  My form shrank to my original height, but instead of losing strength… I felt complete. My limbs solidified. The darkness around me condensed into a physical human shape. The bracelet on my wrist snapped open into ribbons of light that spiraled around my torso and fused into gold-and-jade armor, glowing with a brilliance that hummed like a heartbeat.

  Rui-chan’s jaw dropped.Then she burst into fresh peals of ughter.

  She kept dancing, shaking her hips with renewed enthusiasm, her grin widening with pride and disbelief.

  “Let’s jump into action!!” I yelled, punching my fist skyward.

  Without hesitation, I grabbed Rui by the waist, tossed her up, and caught her as she nded perfectly on my shoulders… her tiny hands grabbing my helmet for bance.

  “URRRRRRAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!”

  Joy exploded from my chest.Hope.Purpose.Faith… hers, mine, Reiko’s, everyone’s… all woven together into something fierce and unstoppable.

  I charged up the hallway like a comet made of silver light and jade fire.

  Relwing