Senran Kagura; Shinobi by Death: Volume 1, The Beginning

Chapter 13: To Save Everyone

Yukio woke up outside of the old building, inside the barrier. He dropped to his knees, and he curled himself into a ball out of fear from what he witnessed.

Death, death, death. It doesn't matter if I die. I'm just gonna keep on suffering, and suffering until I just give up. Is that it? Is that what you want from me?!

Yukio rolled out of the barrier, and Kiriya saw him on the ground.

"Yukio! Yukio, what's wrong?" Kiriya asked.

Yukio was mumbling to himself, until Kiriya slapped him back to reality.

"Yukio, what's wrong with you?!" Kiriya asked.

"Huh?" Yukio finally came back to his senses.

"Yukio, what happened?" Kiriya started shaking Yukio.

"K-Kiriya, I can't...I can't do it. I can't save them." Yukio tried to hold back his tears. "I wanted to help, but I can't, I just can't do it anymore." Yukio covered his face with his arm, as he started sobbing into his sleeve.

"Yukio, you're saying that your actions only make things worse?" Kiriya asked.

"Yes, I am. You won't understand, no one can understand!" Yukio yelled at Kiriya.

That's just the side effect of this damn ability that I've been cursed with!

Yukio hated himself. He wanted to help the girls, but he ended up letting one of them die, again. He wanted to give up, he wanted Kiriya to say that he should give up, that's all he wanted to do at that moment.

"Yukio, do you still wonder why I accepted you so easily?" Kiriya asked.

"Huh? What does that have to do with-" Yukio tried to dodge Kiriya's question.

"Do you know why I accepted you so easily?" Kiriya repeated the question.

Yukio wiped his tears away. "Because I had my Soul Travel ability..."

"True, it was 'one' of the reasons why I accepted you, but you know why else I decided to let you hang out with us? It's because of your strong desire to help others, despite being a weak civilian." Kiriya said. "A normal civilian helping Shinobi has never been heard of before. With your caring morale, and the way you have handled these tough situations. I believed you could be the first civilian that could be around us."

Yukio was speechless, he didn't want to feel good about himself. He tried to convince himself that Kiriya was wrong.

No, I did all of that because I was desperate. I had to get out of the situation I was in, and I wanted to take revenge against the people who've hurt me in my previous lives.

"You're wrong! I didn't do all that for anyone else but myself. I'm weaker than you think I am, and I'm not smart enough to handle any situation. I'm selfish, it's just second nature for me." Yukio snapped at Kiriya.

"If you were selfish, you wouldn't have warned us about the evil ninjas. You wouldn't have told us about your Soul Travel ability. Even if you say it was for yourself, you can't deny that you were concerned for us." Kiriya said, remaining calm. Kiriya flicked Yukio on the forehead.

"Ow." Yukio stood up. "What was that for?"

"Don't beat yourself up for something you had no control over. Just because you can't see the light at the end of the tunnel, doesn't mean that you should just turn around, and go back home." Kiriya said. "Now, go save them. You said it yourself, you're gonna save them."

Kiriya pushed Yukio into the barrier, and Yukio fell to his knees inside.

Yukio stood back up. Instead of walking back outside of the barrier, he glared at the old building.