[8]
Oh oh oh we’re doing this bit again. The Free Will Check In that we’ve had a couple of times before - at the end of Acid Tokyo, and at the end of Infinity. It’s our small little decompression arc where the characters suffer in the wake of the tragedy that has happened, where they call Yuuko for information and each of them has a chance to decide for themselves what they want to do and if they want to continue.
Of course, being where they are in the plotline, and all of them being so far into their character arcs, this is fastest yet. In the same page that Yuuko asks them they’ve all already answered - they’re all going, and their expressions on Fai and Kurogane’s faces make me want to CRY.
It’s a deceptively quick moment for what it means for them all, but in a pattern of threes this is the third time they’ve confirmed they’re going all in on saving their family no matter what.
On the page before, Lava Lamp declares that he’s going to save BOTH Sakura’s, not just the one that matches him. He isn’t going to let Sakura die (hopefully implying once again that EVEN THOUGH WE SAW HER DIE, TWICE, Perhaps Sakura can still be saved)
Fai chooses to save her as well, because of course he does. He’s loved her on purpose this entire time and knew the truth every step of the way. He is DEVOTED to this Sakura, and he will do anything he needs to save her.
But more importantly this is his first choice made openly and willingly, with no doomed narrative holding him hostage, with no manipulative family or evil wizards pushing him towards either outcome. Every other time they were asked this he didn’t have this luxury - he NEEDED to continue, for his mission, for his brother, to fix everything he thought he started, to enact someone else’s plans. But HERE he’s free of it all. This is the Post-Seresu Fai, who has no ghosts haunting him, no death wish, and has finally chosen that he can LIVE and be HAPPY and love the people around him. So, this choice he makes finally and completely Just Because He Wants To - and he’s making the EXACT same choice he chose every step of the way. To save Sakura, because he loves Sakura.
AND LET’S NOT EVEN TOUCH ON KUROGANE - WHO IS FINALLY BACK IN NIHON AND INSTANTLY CHOSES TO LEAVE IT.
He’s HOME, here with Tomoyo, his ultimate goal - but back in Acid Tokyo he had said that he had two goals. It was true then and it was true now - as much as he loves Tomoyo, he loves his new family just as much, and so he’s going to save Sakura too.
And OH I hope we get a conversation between him and Tomoyo about this because I LOVE THIS FOR HIM and yet it’s so poetic it hurts.
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