Without thinking, i suddenly stop.

A song with an unpleasant singing voice comes up. The voice occasionally strains and is it's the voice of an completely out-of-tune amateur. But despite that, he's singing in a loud voice as if unaware of how tone-deaf he is... not the kind of guy you'd like to go out together to karaoke with.

It's my singing voice, from long ago.

I did my modelling work perfectly, but I never had experience singing in front of people, so... well, of course I was awful. After going through a bunch of lessons, I'm a lot better now.

It's like dieting recording yourself from when you were no good... which becomes a guideline to how much you've grown. With that in mind, I kept it in my iPod and didn't delete it.

Normally, I'd be unable to keep listening to this and end up skipping to the next song after a few seconds, but for some reason even that feels too troublesome to do, so I let the audio flow on.

Suddenly, the singing gets interrupted, and an unnecessary voice barges in.

It's an idiotically cheerful voice that's laughing.

"Wahahaha! You have such a pretty face, but your singing is way outta tune! Hilarious!"

"But your voice is pretty, so I'm sure you'll get better with some training! I love it!"

After that, I hear my own voice shouting int frustration, as well as the sound of me throwing a chair and probably a bunch of other things at him, and the loud noise of him gracefully but irritatingly dodging all that. It continues on...

And even in the midst of all that, a beautiful melody continues to play. There's no way any kind of store would have this playing, and I mean that in a bad way. In this large universe, it exists only in my iPod as a worthless bunch of notes.

After listening to that idiotic echo of youth, I resume walking along the gloomy beach that seemed like a wasteland devoid of all life.

He was pure like a child, and played those melodies of love with goodwill and passion; I didn't really hate those songs of his. In fact, I actually liked them quite a bit.

I'm not shameless like him, so I don't say things like "I love you". And I'm a sourpuss, so I can't demonstrate positive feelings towards someone in an honest manner.

But even so, the songs that he composed weren't for some stranger. Of course, they weren't for money either... at the very least, they were songs made for me. Us.

That's why I liked them.

Being able to sing together the songs he weaved that was my happiness.

But.

His sword has been rusted by sadness, and broken apart by malice.

He can't fight anymore. Perhaps Knights' ensemble will forever be unable to resound in perfect form. It's been damaged, bent, and broken.

But the things he left behind, no matter how small they may be, still remain. Within this iPod, within the perishing Knights... and within my heart.

Embracing that, I will head towards my grave with pride, even if that pride may just be a bluff.

Even if I get stones thrown at me. Even if I get abused, or spit on.

No matter how ugly and corrupted I become, involving myself with horrible misdeeds.

Because there was one person who existed who told me that he liked me who called me beautiful. Because, even if it was only a moment, a part of my youth existed in my life... where I was affirmed and loved to the point where I was able to think that I was glad to be born.

I don't want to pretend that 'never happened'.

I won't walk forward with my head hanging down in shame any longer.

Even if it may be a bloodstained wasteland. Even if I'll have to do it alone.

Our "Ou-sama" is useless, so...

It'll be a pain, but I'll duel on his behalf.