"I was at my sister's wedding once...”
Johnny is talking happily with a flame at his fingertips as a lamp, at the end of the desert, behind the Resistance's hideout, where the sky is full of stars. Remy LeBeau, with a drink in his hand, quietly listens to Johnny's voice, which has become a recent pleasure for me. He talks about all kinds of things I don't know. Snowboarding, video games, the Internet, motorcycles, comic books, movies, outer space, and his former friends. He seems to get especially passionate when it comes to the members of the group. The way he talks about them with his sparkling eyes, genuinely trying to remember those days and those people, makes my heart flutter, but at the same time, I feel a twinge of impatience that he might disappear from here, and I desperately try to hold back the urge to hug him and tell him not to go. It's not cool at all that this gambit is so disturbed by one man's behavior. The angel of the flame seems to be engrossed in talking, oblivious to the man who is frolicking next to him.
" I was so happy to get this special power,” he says. It was so rewarding to be a hero and save the city and make people smile. This is what I wanted to do! That's what I wanted to do! But then I realized. But then I realized that I couldn't do the normal things that I used to be able to do and the things that I should have been able to do. I was limited in what I could do and what I should have been able to do. The most obvious thing is that I can have a girlfriend, but I can't get married. I can't be with this burning man. It's sad, but he has a point. But after witnessing the beautiful weddings of my girlfriends, I thought to myself, “I want someone who can make me happy like that.”
Well, I'm not old enough to say that anymore. My angel leaned against the crumbling wall behind me, laughing.
"I heard you're a playboy. I heard you were a playboy.
"You're a hussy, you know that? I'm not sorry. I wasn't just playing around even back then, you know. I was serious. But back then, it was fun to do stuff with the guys in the unit.”
I see. Okay, then.
"Do you want to go back? To that world?”
I asked without thinking. I asked it without hesitation, as if it was nothing, as if it was extremely cool, as if I didn't want her to think that I didn't want her to go back.
I don't know if Johnny noticed it or not, but he laughed and said, “No way.”
”Well, at first, of course I wanted to go home. But I realized that it was impossible. I can't stay in that world anymore.
Ha, I feel frustrated. I'm so frustrated. I could make everyone's wishes come true, but none of my wishes came true, and now I'm here. I wonder if I'm really not wanted anymore.
I'm so frustrated that I'm saying this to myself.I'm not this kind of character!
I'm not like this, I'm a nerd.”
I know that I'm really thinking and worrying about it, and I'm trying not to be swallowed up in this world where I can't see any goal or goal, and I'm trying to keep myself in check.
The Void is a terrible world to be in without being corrupted.
Pride as a hero is useless here. The pain of being a hero is not healed, but only the fact that you are no longer needed in the world, and you are forcibly separated from the world you were in (although I don't even exist in that world to begin with). The people who are sent here are forced to gamble every day that they will soon die or betray the world. The enemies who don't want to give in have terrible abilities that they can never hope to match, and they have organized themselves into an army of people with abilities like ours. We are the freest dictatorship in the world.
On the other hand, our opponents are just a collection of people who live by licking each other's wounds. They have their own quirks, and no matter what they do, they will never be able to turn things upside down like Johnny's former unit mates, the ...... family.
There is no miracle or hope in The Void. Belief in them will only destroy you. This world sucks, Johnny says. I don't know about the rest of the world, but I'm honestly a little grateful to have met Johnny in this shitty world. I can't say that in front of him, though.
Johnny wonders why I was silent for a while, and peeks in to check me out.
”Hey. Remy? What the hell? You've been staring at me in silence for a long time. Say something. You're just gonna make me a miserable whiner, aren't you? Darling.”
”Johnny,”
I said,
”I'm not going to give up. I'm not giving up. I've got to get out of here and find out what I was born to do.”
Johnny heard that and looked at me dazedly.
”You're so blue. But like I said before, I can't go back to my world. According to the TVA people, that world has ended, and it would be bad for us to be in that world, especially if I exist in the world as it is. Especially if I exist in the world as it is, it will cause chaos. So, in the sacred time line that TVA was talking about, I'm a nuisance, so I'm in a box to get rid of me.”
”So, when I get out, you're coming with me. I'll take the angel away from here, and you can fly as freely as you like.”
“Hey, hey, hey. Is that a pickup line? Remy really likes me. He's going to make my wish come true, isn't he?”
“Yeah, that's right. So let's get married first.”
“What?”
Johnny's noisy movements stopped suddenly with a stupefied voice that seemed to come out of his mouth unexpectedly.
The first thing you need to do is to make sure that you have a good time with your family. I didn't know.
”I didn't know that,” he said. Why don't you try to fulfill with me what you couldn't fulfill in the original world? Let's have a wedding. Let's do it here.”
”Are you serious?”
”Of course.”
”You mean you and I will be man and wife?”
”No. It means we're going to be the best of partners, and we're going to be happy. This Gambide, or rather Remy LeBeau, is a once-in-a-generation seduction...not a proposal. Will you accept it? My angel.”
”Angel... you really like me?”
"Didn't you know? I've been telling you how much I love you."
“No, you were really hitting on me? I'm an old man over 40 years old. I'm a 40-plus year old man. If you had really meant it when you called me a pretty angel, I'd have thought you were losing your eyeballs. I thought you were joking. I see...seriously. I didn't feel bad about being hit on by a sexy guy either, and I was uncharacteristically happy about it, but...”
While I was talking, he turned his face away from me. His voice gradually became thin and he spoke in a muffled whisper like a smoldering fire, making it hard to hear him. I couldn't see her face, but her earlobes were stained red as if they were on fire, not figuratively. I want to see his face. Let me see your face.
"And what's your answer?”
"STOP! Wait! Prepare yourself! I mean, can we just skip the whole dating process and get married? Common sense?"
"Johnny, you're bringing common sense into this. It's only a matter of time before they get married. The members here are already calling us a married couple."
"Is that so?"
"Yes, that's right. "That's a lie. I made it up.
"So, please. Won't you make happiness come true with me?”
ーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーー
Today is a good day.
We are standing in the middle of the desert under a clear sky.
We have decided to have our wedding ceremony, but at Johnny's request, we decided to make our vows at the sunken object where only the OX part is visible. By the way, no one was there to witness it. Johnny said, “We're going to get married! "He said, “Oh, well, I wish you all the best. Everyone went back to their own work. Johnny was pouting, saying “You're so heartless, aren't you?
There is a luxurious ship ahead. I suggested that it might be chic to make our vows quietly on board, but Johnny said this would be the most appropriate place for us to start our journey. I see. I don't know.
I was thinking about that, and he said, “Let's skip the pledge.
"Johnny, I thought weddings were supposed to be held in a chapel, where people say their vows to each other slowly."
“Ha-ha-ha, Remy. I don't care about that. They were also flying, and they said their wedding vows under the torii gate of a Japanese shrine, you know? It's okay, it's okay. Then, kiss your vows at the end.”
I smiled and felt a hand cupping my cheek, and then a pair of sky-blue eyes appeared before me.
"Make me happy, will you? My hero.”
Even if I'm gone.
That unforgettable, longed-for kiss was hot, sweet, numbing, and sad.
ーーーーーーーー.
After the battle, I was walking in the middle of the enemy territory when a ring appeared in the air. What I could see at the end of it must be another world, not here. What Johnny said was true.
Hey Johnny, did I become your hero? Did I make you happy?
I'm leaving here to do you and me a favor. I will be the hero of the world you said I would be. Maybe I'll even meet someone like you.
If I'm a real hero in the other world, I'll find you and get you out of here. I'm not a man who gives up. Then I'll tell you everything you didn't know about the years you were gone. Someday, I'll tell you everything you didn't know about the years you were gone, just like you taught me in your happy talks.
Oh, I miss you already. I can't wait to find you.
My angel, my love, my, my own hero. Johnny Storm.