“Why… Why… are you fighting?”

The girl was crying alone.

She sat on the ground, sobbing even after the two of them had vanished from sight.

“Risking your life… Why… Why throw your own life away for something…?”

Why was the boy fighting?

Why fight with a body like that?

Just standing should be agony. Even keeping his eyes open must hurt.

Yet why fight?

His opponent was the empire’s strongest knight.

Stronger than her father, who towered like a cloud above them all—the greatest knight in history, known as the Sword Saint.

Fighting someone like that with a body that could barely even walk was clearly a death sentence.

Reina couldn’t bear to watch Kenya die.

That’s why she couldn’t stand up, no matter what.

She lacked the courage to face it. Her legs wouldn’t move.

“Why protect someone worthless like me… Why value me more than your own life… Why?”

Reina sobbed uncontrollably, repeating those words over and over.

She recalled the words Kenya had spoken before leaving.

The battered boy’s declaration that he would fight to protect her.

The words from the boy who had confessed his love that day, vowing to stake his life on protecting her. She repeated them endlessly.

“Ugh… ugh… I don’t have that kind of worth… I’m not worth protecting… Not worth…!?”

Suddenly, Reina clutched her head as memories from the past flashed before her eyes.

Triggered by Kenya’s words about protecting her with his life, her emotions surged, unlocking memories buried deep in her heart.

“Mama…?”

Reina remembered.

The person who had protected her with their life that day.

◇ Reina’s Past ◇

“It’s okay. Mama will definitely protect you. Definitely. Rei-chan, Mama will protect you with her life.”

A woman shielded Reina, covering her completely.

Bullet wounds riddled the woman’s back, blood pouring out in torrents.

In the pitch-black hole.

Blood dripped onto Reina’s face.

Gunshots echoed, mingled with the screams of Japanese people.

Her mother had covered her to protect her child, shielding her desperately.

From the enemies’ sight. From the bullets.

Staking her life… and when Reina awoke, her mother was…

Her memories ended there.

◇

But Reina remembered her past.

Fragmented, yet crystal clear.

“That’s right… Mama…”

What she recalled was the memory of the war between Japan and the Earthguard Empire.

Her mother’s face as she shielded her and lost her life. The sight of her mother’s cold corpse still holding her tight when she woke.

“She protected me… with her life… Why did I forget… ugh… ugh.”

Her chest ached as if it would tear apart.

Remembering her mother’s face, her past—it nearly shattered her heart.

She pictured her mother’s face as she held her tight, shielding her from bullets.

The face of her beloved mama, who still smiled at her despite everything.

Her body trembled at the memory. She bordered on hyperventilating.

Yet because she remembered, she kept remembering.

She had turned away from the truth before, forgotten it all. Now she was on the verge of repeating the same mistake.

“I have to go.”

So the girl rose to her feet.

Recalling that painful past she could never face, trembling, tears streaming down her face.

She lifted her gaze.

What came to mind was the boy’s face.

The boy who said he loved her was now staking his life for her, just like that day.

Just like her mother back then.

Yet she had tried to run away again, avert her eyes.

“That’s no good…”

She couldn’t do anything back then. She still couldn’t now.

Staying here would change nothing. She didn’t want to regret it again.

No more hiding out of fear.

Maybe she couldn’t do anything herself.

Maybe all she could do was cheer from the sidelines.

Even so, she had to be there. She had to witness it with her own eyes.

She had to see the fight of the one who vowed to protect her with his life.

“I have to cheer for him. For Kenya-kun. I can’t look away—I have to watch properly!”

The girl ran.

Toward the battlefield where the boy was fighting.

“I won’t run away anymore!”

…

(Huh? What was I doing again?)

Kenya barely blocked Osiris’s slashing strike.

But the impact still rattled the cockpit fiercely, slamming his head since he couldn’t fully deflect it.

Already on the verge of blacking out, oxygen deprivation and blood loss made it worse.

The shock knocked him out cold.

Anemia set in fully, plunging his consciousness into darkness.

(Why am I even piloting KOG?)

Kenya’s mind went blank.

His consciousness flickered out for a moment, memories fuzzy, thoughts refusing to turn.

His vacant eyes stared blankly at the cockpit.

“—Do your best! Big bro!!”

A voice drifted in from outside, its meaning barely registering.

KOG picked up external audio, but Kenya couldn’t make sense of it.

(Big bro? What’re you talking about? No good… I’m sleepy… Cold… Hurts…)

Kenya stared into the void, oblivious to the voice’s meaning.

(Come to think of it… This happened before… back in the day…)

Suddenly, a distant memory surfaced—a similar situation from long ago.

In his previous world, alone at home with a raging fever.

No one else there. No parents or friends to ask for groceries.

Just him in bed, coughing, cold, hungry, crying.

And above all… lonely.

He hated being alone. Even if he died like this, he hated being alone.

Loneliness hurt, it was empty, unbearable. He yearned for someone to need him.

But he lacked the courage to beg his abandoning parents for help.

So, delirious with fever, he powered up his VR gear in bed and dove into his favorite game.

Delirious with fever, he had no strength left to play.

But going there meant he could see them.

Meet them, so he wouldn’t be alone anymore.

“Reina… Kaguya…”

Because they would call his name.

In that world where no one spoke his name anymore.

In that world where no one looked at him anymore.

Reina and Kaguya called to him, said his name.

Looked straight into his eyes, acknowledged him.

So he wanted to hear it one more time.

Their voices calling his name were truly special…

“Stand up! Come on, stand!”

(Why do I have to stand?)

“Please… please…”

Reina had reached the arena, calling out to Kenya in a loud, prayer-like voice.

She climbed the wall near where Kenya had been flung into the spectator stands, shouting right in front of him.

Yet her voice didn’t reach him.

Still, she kept calling to her makeshift big brother.

Calling to Kenya, who still couldn’t rise.

And before her eyes loomed the ominous red-and-black KOG, sword at the ready.

“Wake up. Wake up! Please…”

(So sleepy…)

Kenya sank into the dark abyss.

His consciousness should have cut out completely.

“Kenya-kun… Kenya-kun.”

(…I hear… a voice…)

But a voice reached him.

A voice calling his name.

Clear and distinct, calling to Kenya.

“Wake up! Kenya-kun! Wake up!!”

“Farewell, Sword. I wish we could have fought longer… You were undoubtedly the strongest knight I’ve ever faced.”

(This voice… Reina calling me? …Wake up? What do I do if I wake?)

Osiris unleashed a bullet-like thrust aimed to impale Kenya.

“Farewell, Sword!”

At the same moment, Reina screamed.

From the depths of her heart, with all her might, calling him.

“Wake up and fight!! Kenya Mikazuki!!! You’re supposed to protect me, right!!”

Kiiing!

The resounding clash of metal on metal—iron against iron.

A sword deflected the strike. Another sword was repelled.

The white giant’s blow sent the red-and-black giant’s attack flying.

“Kenya-kun…”

The girl’s desperate cry from the heart, her call to the one she loved.

It pierced the depths of the boy’s soul, awakening him with the voice that had called him so many times.

“I heard you, Reina…”

Osiris’s full-power strike was deflected by Kenya.

Though surprised, Osiris laughed.

At the return of his worthy rival.

“Hah. Waking up to a woman’s voice… What a mercenary soul.”

Even after his sure-kill blow was parried, his tone held a hint of joy.

And the white giant slowly rose. The knight inside spoke in a parched voice, yet one filled with clear resolve.

“Yeah, my eyes are wide open now. I could use a wake-up call like that every morning.”

Light returned to his once-vacant eyes as he faced forward.

“Hahaha! That’s the best news yet. You’ve fallen for a fine woman.”

Blood streamed from his head, from his mouth.

His condition was awful—the worst imaginable.

“Yeah… I’m never letting her go…”

Even so, Kenya awakened.

To the voice of the girl he loved so dearly—the voice that had given him courage time and again.

“Because she’s”

She was Kenya’s reason to fight.

“the wife I fell head over heels for.”