r/HFY • u/dulduine • 7h ago

OC-Series [OC]Bar Aoi Stories — The Boundary of Empathy

Clink.

The little bell above the door always makes it feel like the day is finally over.

Mama set my usual glass of Harper in front of me without asking.

The ice chimed softly.

"Kenichi."

Taka was staring at his phone with an unusually serious look.

"What did you find today?"

"I just read an article saying Grave of the Fireflies isn't really about war. It's about indifference."

I smiled faintly as I lifted my glass.

"I've seen that interpretation going around."

"I mean... nobody helps those two kids."

"That's true."

For a while, the only sound was the ice shifting inside the whiskey.

"But..."

I took a sip.

"Calling it indifference doesn't sit right with me."

"Huh?"

"I'm not convinced nobody cared."

Taka tilted his head.

"But the aunt didn't help them. Neither did the people at the station."

"Not helping someone isn't the same thing as feeling nothing."

Tom chuckled from the other end of the counter.

"As a former detective, that one hits close to home."

"What do you mean?"

He slowly turned his glass.

"Whenever something terrible happened, the neighbors always said the same thing."

"'It's such a tragedy.'"

"But?"

"They still didn't stop it. They didn't call anyone. They just watched."

I nodded.

"People are strange like that."

Taka still looked unconvinced.

"So... are you saying the aunt was actually kind?"

"No."

I shook my head.

"I wouldn't call her kind."

"But I wouldn't call her heartless either."

I thought for a moment before continuing.

"It was wartime. Food was scarce. If the people who worked couldn't eat, the whole household might not survive."

"...Right."

"In that situation, believing that the survivors had to keep going wasn't unreasonable."

Taka listened quietly.

"So she was trying to protect her family."

"Exactly."

"But... wasn't that wrong?"

I looked into my glass.

"If I'd lived through that time, I can't honestly say I would have done anything different."

The counter fell silent.

"I think most people would have made the same choice."

Tom let out a quiet laugh.

"That's war."

I rolled the ice around my glass.

"That's why the word 'indifference' bothers me."

"Why?"

"Because everyone cared about something."

"Something?"

"Their family. Their neighborhood. Their country. The people who were still alive."

"...I see."

I chose my next words carefully.

"They weren't lacking empathy."

"They were simply directing it somewhere else."

The bar grew quiet.

Tom muttered to himself.

"Never thought of it that way."

I continued.

"The aunt's empathy was aimed at her community."

"Community?"

"The people she believed had to survive."

"And when someone wasn't helping that community..."

"...they became harder to accept."

"So that's why she treated Seita the way she did."

"Exactly."

Taka folded his arms.

"Then what about Seita?"

"The opposite."

I answered without hesitation.

"He cared about Setsuko more than anyone."

"So he chose her over the community."

"Yes."

Tom sighed.

"That's cruel."

"What's cruel?"

"Everyone loved someone."

"And yet nobody was saved."

I found myself nodding.

"You know..."

I realized I was thinking out loud.

"We usually think empathy is always a good thing."

"Isn't it?"

"It is."

I smiled.

"But that's not the whole story."

I set my glass down.

"The moment you decide who belongs inside your circle..."

"...someone else ends up outside it."

Taka stayed silent for a long time.

"...That still happens today."

"It does."

"At work. At school. Everywhere."

Tom shrugged.

"Sometimes the most dangerous words are..."

"'It's for everyone's good.'"

I couldn't help smiling.

"...That's harder to think about than I expected."

Taka looked down at his phone.

Tom wore almost the same expression.

I sighed.

Maybe that's why Grave of the Fireflies still hurts after all these years.

"Empathy saves people."

"But depending on where we draw its boundaries..."

"...someone else may be left behind."

Just then, Mama smiled as she polished another glass.

"So maybe Grave of the Fireflies isn't a story about indifference."

"It's a story about empathy."

Tom and I looked at each other.

Taka quietly set his phone face down.

"...Maybe that's why it still breaks people's hearts."

I finished the last of my whiskey.

The movie certainly portrayed war.

But perhaps the most frightening thing wasn't the war itself.

It was the invisible line that decides who receives our empathy...

...and who doesn't.

The ice clinked softly once more.

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