Arata: "I won't live long. And I finally realized… You were all the family I ever had. I just didn't know how to accept it."
His voice cracks, barely holding the weight behind it.
Arata: "I'm a disgrace of a captain. Forgive me."
Kenny's voice trembles, thick with pain: Kenny: "S-Stop lying…"
Arata shakes his head softly. No anger. No defensiveness. Just regret.
Arata:
"I'm not lying.
I lived in pain for so long… thinking I had lost all family.
I was blind.
I didn't notice I had found another one."
His hands tighten around Kenny's shoulders.
Arata:
"I'm ashamed of myself, Kenny.
Please go.
If something goes wrong…
I don't want you to die.
And I don't want them to die with you."
Kenny's tears fall faster now, dripping off his chin and onto the dirt.
Kenny:
"I understand it now…
I'm such a stupid fool…"
Arata:
"No. I'm the one to blame.
Now get going already."
Kenny lifts his head, eyes red, voice broken.
Kenny:
"What did you mean… you won't live long?"
Arata exhales. The hardest truth weighs his chest down.
Arata:
"There's a disease…
One that rots the body from the inside.
It's already spread too far.
My time is short."
Kenny's breath stops.
Arata:
"I chose this war…
so I could die standing.
Like a warrior."
Kenny's legs give out.
He collapses to his knees, palms hitting the ground.
Images flash through his mind—
The laughter.
The training.
The fights.
The brotherhood.
The silent moments.
All of it.
Kenny stays there, kneeling, shaking, unable to accept reality.
Meanwhile…
Arata turns his back to him.
Steps forward.
Step…
Step…
Step…
Toward the battlefield.
His silhouette grows smaller in the rising smoke and burning sky.
Narration: And so, the man the world called a monster… walked alone toward his final war.