Chapter 3: Grandma Sparkles

“Yukio, this way.” Mom said.

She led them to an elevator. The doors shut and she pressed a button. A rather fancy button, at that.

[Confirmed. Authorized user recognized. Welcome back, madame Akane.] A computerized voice said.

[Second user detected. Scanning….New guest detected. Welcome to the magic tower. Enjoy your stay, Master Yukio.] The voice said.

The doors opened. It was a beautiful house, massive and modern.

“What is this?” Yukio asked.

“It’s a magic elevator. This is weird to say, but technically each of the floors in the tower of magic are in their own dimension. So, this is our house. This is our new home, where we will be staying from now on. Beautiful right? I never thought I would be living with someone here. I never thought of having a family to live with me. So there’s only one bedroom that’s super decorated the way I like it. Sorry.” Mom said.

“That’s how it’s always been.” Yukio said.

“No, there was that time when we slept apart from each other in that inn that one time. I also figured you would have wanted your own room.” Mom said.

“I’m fine, there’s an entire house I can hang out in. I only need to use the bed to sleep, so it’s fine. Plus I’m just used to it. It’s not like I can help you if I’m in another room. I mean, what if something happens to you? I wouldn’t know. It happened at the inn. I don’t really want it to happen again.” Yukio said.

“That was not something bad that happened. I just got a little drunk and passed out. I guess not sleeping in the same room was stressing me out, though.” Mom said.

“See! That! You drank until you passed out, and I worried until morning. You ramble when you’re drunk, so I heard you all night. So what if there’s only a single bed. It’s fine. Let things be like they always have.” Yukio said.

“Yes, yes, Yukio. You're right.” Mom said.

“Mom, do I have a grandmother? You’re the daughter of the tower master, right? That means the tower master is my grandma, right?” Yukio asked.

“Eh? Oh, yeah. She’s probably going to come over here as soon as she finds ou-“ mom started.

There was a puff of smoke in front of them.

“You blasted IDIOT!! It’s been 15 YEARS! How long do you think that is? Is it nothing because we live forever? No! I still worried about you for a damn long time! And-huh? Who’s this young little boy?” Yelled a girl, around the age of 19, who popped out of midair.

She had the same hair color as them. She was wearing a pink jacket, blue one piece dress, white sneakers with pink bows on them, and a necklace with a bunch of ornaments on it. Her wrist had colorful bracelets on it. On her finger she had some rings, most of them were flashy, one was a single band of solid gold, though. Her eyes pulsed the colors of the rainbow, her mana blanketing the entire area like a cool breeze on a sunny day.

She reminded Yukio of cotton candy and sweets.

She floated in front of them.

“Akane? Hello? Who is this young boy? Did you kidnap him and bring him here? Is he your type?” The girl asked.

“Oh. No, I didn’t. And yes, he is exactly my type.” Mom said joyfully.

“Mom! That’s not it. This is my mother, it’s nice to meet you….” Yukio said, blushing slightly.

“Akari. I’m Akari….. wait…. did you call her mom?” Akari asked.

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She froze, turning to stone.

“Uh. Yes, I did. Why? Is that bad?” Yukio asked, slightly nervous.

“Never in a million years is that bad!” Mom yelled.

“Thank you, mom.” Yukio said, smiling, the nervousness fading away.

“Akane….you had a kid? What the heck is wrong with you! I didn’t even know he existed! How am I supposed to make up for the birthdays, Christmas, and any other kind of gifts! I didn’t get to see him at all! I didn’t even get to see him grow up! Do you at least have photos?!” Akari yelled, hurt.

“Jeez. Yes. I don’t get why you seem so upset.” Akane said.

“You don’t GET it?!?! He doesn’t even know his own grandmother!! I never got to watch MY OWN grandson grow up at all!!! At least tell ME about it!!!” Akari yelled.

“Wait, grandson? You can’t be older than 20.” Yukio said.

“And he doesn’t even know that?!?!?! Akane, what have you been teaching this poor kid?! Wait…. holy shit. He has a core. No wonder. And the category, too!” Akari whistled.

“Yeah, I wanted to ask what it was.” Akane said.

“Hey, wait! I got off track! You didn’t even tell him that our family sometimes stops aging at around 19? He doesn’t even seem to question the fact that his own mother still only looks to be 20! Where the hell did you live? What the heck happened?!?!” Akari asked.

“Wait… what?” Yukio asked.

“Huh? Ah! Oh, dear. You must be really confused. Uhhh. Under normal circumstances you would have gone through the family's traditions, and trained under us, as well as studied our rich history. Those things are the answer to your question. And you have 15 years worth of catching up to do on that. I’ll put it simply. Me, Akane, and you. We’re all immortal. Normally, Akane's kids wouldn’t be, but it’s technically a regressive trait, so it’s present in you by sheer luck.” Akari said.

“Wait, immortal? I’m immortal?” Yukio asked.

“Hmm...yes, I believe so. You won’t age. But as to the other type, the extent to which your immortality can prevent you from being injured changes for everyone, it's a little bit unclear even for me. It could heal, it could make you nearly indestructible, it could cause all attacks to phase through you, it could reverse time, it could reflect every attack back at whoever attacked you, it could absorb the attacks, turning it into mana, or it could be one of those in a much lower quality. That or none at all. The most common one is healing. Most people would have a medium level healing power. There’s some who have multiple. Oh, most of the people who have a unique power also have a low rank healing power, too, at the very least.” Akari said.

“What? You two are immortal? Then, do you guys also have those unique powers?” Yukio asked.

“Dang, you really told the boy nothing.” Akari said.

She sat there, shaking her head.

“Either way, yeah. Your mother has her own very unique type. As for me, I have multiple. I have the healing, highest grade. Then there's toggle indestructibility, assimilate, resound, and more that I can't really remember.” Akari said.

“None of those match the others you just said.” Yukio said, confused.

“Oh. Healing, I heal from any injury. Blow my body to bits and I’ll slowly heal back together. As for toggle indestructibility, it’s like it sounds. I make my body indestructible if I want to. Assimilate absorbs attacks. If I want to be more specific, for example, you throw a knife at me. It gets stuck in my gut. If I activate assimilate, it will take the weapon and reverse time, freezing it and sending a duplicate attack at the enemy, and healing me. If it’s not a weapon, then mana, if not that then literally just sheer force itself blows them up. As for resound, if I get hit, it causes it to completely disperse all of the force, damage, etc and bounce it off of walls to gain momentum and force. The more walls and objects around the stronger it becomes, but it’s always at least going to hit them as hard as they tried to hit me. I can also set up deflector walls with resound that have the same effect if you hit them, as you would if you hit my body. Stuff like that. You get it?” Akari asked.

“Uh… I think so. What do I have?” Yukio asked.

“Hm. Immortality is different from normal mana. It’s a side effect from one of Evan's experiments. Well, not a side effect, rather, what he called a cool bonus. So it probably wasn’t an accident. Either way, the powers get passed down through a set of regressive genes. Meaning it’s incredibly rare, even for people with immortality, but totally possible for a person with our blood to carry such powers. I dunno, pretty cool in my opinion, but I prefer magic. Though I did fuse both of them. That’s why the absorption I was talking about exists. Ah whatever, enough about me and Evan's experiments. To answer you, I have no idea.” Akari said.

She rambles like the god does.

“I do not!” Akari said to the air.

“Damn you-! Ah, right. No, not you two. Ignore that ok?” Akari asked.

“O….Kay?” Yukio said.

“Hey, mom, my little Yukio is probably tired. I’ll take him to bed for tonight. We can talk tomorrow.” Mom said.

“There’s only one bed here, where will you sleep?” Akari asked.

“With Yukio. Like always.” Mom said.

“Oh dear. Huh. Uhhhh. No, even you aren’t that dumb, right?” Akari asked.

“Mother?” Mom asked.

“Ah! Uh, nothing, Nevermind. Just don’t do anything stupid.” Akari said.

“I won’t? What?” Mom asked.

“Well, I’ll see you tomorrow, bye Akane.” Akari said, leaving through the elevator like a normal person.

“Bye, mother.” Mom said.