CHAPTER 22: IT’S OKAY! P1
~22.1~
*****
After school let out, a certain young black-haired girl waited patiently for her parents to return. When they come through the door, beaming, she ran up to her blonde mother and jumped into her arms. “Mommy!”
“Hi, Rei. Mommy’s home!” Kye pulled the girl into a warm hug. “I love you, sweetie!”
The other children were standing in a line watching, two with bright smiles and three with blank faces, three with calm smiles. Michelle peeked over Kye’s shoulder at them. “Hey, why don’t you do that?”
Joey didn’t react, Kaede shrugged, Adriel shook his head, and the two redheaded girls somewhat mimicked Rei and tackled Michelle. They each kissed a cheek. Adele snickered, and Michelle elbowed her. “Yeah, okay.” She eyed her son. “Adriel, your mother wants you to- oomph!” She elbowed her again. “Dammit, Michelle, that’s starting to-”
The instant Adele said “Dammit”, Adriel leaped into action, shoving a bar of soap that came from who-knows-where into her mouth. Michelle, Alethea, and the five girls burst out laughing. Kye held hers back, giving Adele an apologetic smile.
HAHAHAHAHA
She stood there for a moment with the soap in her mouth, her eyebrow raised. “This soap tastes funny.”
“Pfft, you say that like you’ve tasted a lot of soap before,” Alethea said between laughs.
“Yeah, don’t tell me you’ve never tasted soap. I won’t believe it.”
As Adele pondered what was off about the soap, Adriel answered her, “It’s my special petrol-soap, designed to taste even worse than normal soap!”
Adele sighed, throwing out some soapy bubbles. “You are supposed to be three years-old! Actually, that’s just your legal age. Your third birthday isn’t even here yet. You are not acting your age!”
“Heh, yeah, but it’s just the family here, and Rei knows all about us now.” The young redheaded boy shrugged. “Whatcha gonna do about it, old hag?”
Oh boy...
“Yeah?” Adele chomped the soap in half, one half falling to the ground and the other getting crunched up inside her mouth. “RAAAAAAA!!!” Using the petrol soap to change the smell, she spewed fire all over the boy, carefully manipulating it so as to not actually hurt him. Adriel’s eyes widened, and Adele stood before him triumphantly. “Howdaya like that, twerp?”
He blinked. “Touche.” He looked to Michelle for help, but she had her hands full with Ariel and Anna, all three of them laughing at the interaction. Alethea knelled and applied some light healing magic to clean him up. He wasn’t hurt in the slightest, but he looked like he had just walked out of a soot bath.
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While everyone was laughing, Rei leaned in and whispered into Kye’s ear. “Can we talk now?”
“Yes. I’m sorry, we didn’t last night when you wanted to.”
“It’s okay!”
*****
After they got settled in, Kye and Alethea sat down with Rei privately in the study.
“What did you want to talk to us about, sweetie?” Kye asked.
The three-year-old girl stood straight, then bowed. “I’m so sorry!” She was bowing not to Kye, but to Alethea.
“Huh? W-what?” Alethea exchanged glances with Kye, who shrugged. “Rei sweetie, what are you apologizing for? I don’t know what you-”
“Yes, you do!” The young girl was insistent, but neither Alethea nor Kye had any clue. As she spoke her next sentence, their eyes widened. “Is this all Sayaka Sakaguchi is capable of?”
Kye froze in place, her mouth wide open and her eyes glued to her daughter. Alethea jumped backward, toppling the chair and flinging herself to the wall. Some books fell from the shelves when she hit the wall. “No.” Alethea felt a strange sensation centered on her chest. She clutched her chest, and her breath grew rapid. In her mind, she was reliving the moment she died as Sayaka. The moment Suzuka shoved her sword through her heart from behind. “No! Please, no!”
Kye snapped out of it first and rushed to Alethea’s side just in time to catch her as she fell to her knees. “Alethea, please calm down! You’re okay! We’re okay!”
“Mommy, I’m sorry!” Rei cried out. “I remember everything! I’m so sorry, mommy!”
Alethea looked up and saw her daughter still standing in the same spot, her head still bowed. Kye saw an indescribable fear in Alethea’s eyes.
“No, no, you can’t have her! Give Rei back!” Alethea’s mind was a mess. She couldn’t make sense of anything other than the feeling of death.
Kye immediately released and wrapped white mana around Alethea and used healing magic. It worked, but only somewhat. Kye managed to calm Alethea’s breathing and the sense of having a sword through her heart was gone, but she was still overwhelmed by anxiety.
“Sa-chan, listen to me, you’re okay. We’re all okay.”
Alethea looked up at Kye, the fear still in her eyes. “I...” Tears welled up in her eyes, but she did her best to hold them back. “I...” At that point, Rei had looked up. Alethea met her eyes, and they saw each other’s tears. Alethea grimaced, shook her head, and held her arms out for Rei.
The young girl ran over and hugged her mother, crying into her chest. “Mommy, I’m so sorry!” Alethea held the girl tightly but couldn’t bring herself to say anything. She just held her and cried. “I hurt mommy! I hurt mommy so much!”
Hearing her daughter’s sincere cries of apology, Alethea fully returned to her senses. “Rei-chan, I love you.”
“I’m sorry!”
“Rei sweetie, I love you! No matter what you’ve done in the past, I love you.”
“Mommy!” Rei tried to say something else, but her cries muffled it out.
Alethea pulled Rei off of her and looked her in the eyes. “Rei, sweetie, I love you. I... was afraid for a moment, but... that... no, it doesn’t matter. I’m okay, but Kye...” Both of them looked up at the blonde, who just sighed.
“I really never wanted to have this conversation...” she scratched the back of her head. She was the only one who hadn’t shed a single tear. Her calmness was offputting for Alethea. “Having this conversation would mean reliving one of my darkest hours.” Kye sat down and looked Rei in the eyes. “What do you remember?”
*****
Revision: 2024-8-7