"You can't," Hajime replied flatly. " Yue was the one there when I had nothing. She didn't stay because of guilt or duty; she stayed because she chose me. She is my number one. If you can't accept thatāif you can only see yourself as 'less than' herāthen you don't belong in this party".
As a group of spectral pirates manifested from the shadows of the ruins, Hajime raised his weapon, ready to clear the path. Kaori took a breath, gripped her staff, and for the first time since entering the ruins, her eyes were clear. She wasn't just a classmate following a hero anymore; she was a woman fighting to prove she belonged in the world he had built. Arifureta_S2_05_Pro_ACB.mkv
Separated from Yue and the rest of the party by a sudden surge of illusory traps, the two were alone in a corridor that seemed to bleed ghostly images of a forgotten war. For Kaori , the silence between them was louder than the distant groans of the ruins. She watched Hajimeās backāthe cold, efficient movements of a man who had survived the abyss by discarding his former self. "You can't," Hajime replied flatly