isle of avalon app

Q1: You've been stranded on a desert island with only one standard-size travel suitcase. If you could only have 3 items in that suitcase, what would you want those items to be and why?

"What, is that supposed to be a joke? Did you forget the punchline? You actually expect me to answer something so tedious?"

Yes? The answer is yes. Kamui rolls his eyes. Well, if he must, then he's going to make it about food.

"I'd pack a suitcase-sized portion of fried rice, a bottle of soy sauce, and my communicator. That way I can call Abuto to come pick me up while I eat."

Q2: Tell us about a defining event in your life that you think influenced who you are today.

Kamui snorts, amused. For a young man who hasn't even breached twenty, he's experienced an inordinate amount of defining events in his life. But the most recent and the most affirming would have to be…

"Well, I did help save a planet. It wasn't even my planet." He chuckles wryly. "It's funny, you know, the difference between fighting to win and fighting to protect. I used to think the gap between the two was impossibly wide. But even I was able to protect something."

Q3: What does family mean to you and who do you consider a part of your family?

"You're trying to make me angry, aren't you?"

Kamui frowns as he considers the question. It's the most loaded question anyone could ever ask him. What is family to him but broken by his own hand? The dying mother he failed to save, the absent father he failed to kill, and the weak little sister who cried when he left them all behind.

Oh. Wait.

That's right.

His frown softens, and the edges of his eyes crinkle with growing affection.

She's not weak anymore, is she?

Kamui left her for dead, but she came after him anyway. She followed him halfway across the galaxy just to teach him a lesson. She beat him into submission and told him that he could never escape from the family he'd destroyed, from the family he'd thought he no longer had a right to. No matter how far away he ran, no matter how many atrocities he committed, he would always be her brother, and they would always be the progeny of the greatest Yato warriors in the universe.

She gave him someone to be, something to live up to. She gave him strength in a way he'd never thought possible.

She showed him what real strength is.

"Well, there is one person... She's a snot-nosed brat with terrible taste in men, but one day, she may be even stronger than me. She's my little sister." His expression turns sharp, dangerous. "She's the only reason you're still alive. I'll cooperate until her world is safe."

Q4: Tell me about a time you were involved in a personal conflict (not a physical fight). What would you do differently to resolve it?

"Personal conflict? Not a physical fight?" he echoes, genuine confusion flashing across his face. His brows furrow, a bit irritated at what he perceives as the utmost stupidity. "No such thing. Physical fights are how you solve personal conflicts."

Fighting is what Kamui knows. He's a master martial artist who has assassinated countless men for sport. That is how he has resolved every conflict, even mental ones, since he failed to save his mother's life and ran away from home a decade ago. If he's not sure of something, he just has to defeat it. Feelings? Bonds? Compromise? He's attempted to murder each of these concepts within himself with varying degrees of success. The most effective way to accomplish this, he soon discovered, is to murder others who display these concepts toward him. Thus, every personal conflict becomes a physical one.

If he had the patience to sit down and reflect on this question honestly, Kamui's answer may very well be his decision to run away on that day. If he could have just faced his feelings, accepted that bonds aren't permanent, and compromised with the rest of his family… If he could have done all that instead of run away a failure, maybe he would be a stronger person today.

Q5: Do you have any regrets? If so, what are the biggest ones? If not, what is something you wish you had gotten to do back home?

He smiles, wide and toothy and deadly. "If you keep asking questions like that, I might have to ask a few of my own. Like how attached you are to your lungs."

Since his sister managed to beat her unconditional love into Kamui, he has made some serious strides forward regarding his overwhelming guilt. Before, he couldn't even allow himself to think about the past without being haunted by his weakness. Now, at least, he can see his weakness for what it is and accept that it is a part of himself. He can look back on the day he tried to kill his father in order to save his mother, the day he ran away in shame after he failed to accomplish either, and he can admit to himself that his failure had broken him. He can admit that he's regretted it every day of his life since.

He is not, however, anywhere near the level where he can admit as much to a stranger.

Doing that would accomplish nothing anyway. It's infinitely more important, in his mind, that he be able to keep pressing forward into the future. If this time he can successfully protect the family he'd destroyed…

Well, that would mean something, wouldn't it?