choices... or the sound of emptiness...

"...what is my purpose in life?
What should I do to find it?
Once I've found it, will I become stronger?
....Oh no, my mind is blank.
A strange sound keeps ringing in my head.
What sound is that...?
Ah, I know.
It's...
The sound of emptiness..."

"If to get happiness, I have to make someone miserable, and these two situations will happen at once... how should I choose then...?"

"To wish for your own happiness is sometimes coupled with another’s unhappiness. Since I couldn’t pray for my own happiness, I prayed to the moon in the night sky for the happiness of the one whose warm hand I held..."

-from "Honey and Clover (ハチミツとクローバー)" by Umino Chika (羽海野 チカ)