To summarize, Mom and Dad were obviously far from happy since I had hidden things from them. Despite trying my hardest to apologize, they wouldn't even let me talk.

Although the rest of the team couldn't hear me being scolded like never before, my red face probably gave away my embarrassment. Fortunately, no one said anything, except for Aki, who kept chuckling at my side.

It took six whole minutes of them ranting before I was able to say a word. The only way for me to calm them down was to promise them I was going to spend the next three days resting as the doctor had instructed.

Once that was over, we spent the entire trip back home discussing the plans for the upcoming album. Two hours were far from enough to come up with a course of action, but the sun had already hidden behind the buildings of the city by the time we arrived at HQ.

Everyone had already packed their stuff back into their suitcases, so they simply climbed off the bus. Although I didn't ask her to, Aki stayed last with me to make sure no one had forgotten anything.

As we climbed the stairs down and out of the bus, the chauffeur nodded at me and winked. There was no reason for me to think he was going to say anything about Aeryx, yet I couldn't help but be nervous about it.

The bus drove off once we were all standing on the sidewalk, merely leaving a bittersweet sensation behind.

"Should we go home?" asked Miki.

"Of course, it's long past working hours," I answered.

"Okay. See you all tomorrow, then."

Almost everyone joined him to walk to the nearest station since they were going to take the same monorail or because it would be easier to get a taxi.

"Let's go," Aki said to me and started walking. It took a couple of seconds for her to realize I hadn't moved at all. She turned around and stared at me.

I laughed nervously, "I… have to make some calls to make sure our freight—"

Aya grasped my shoulder. "Three days."

"I know, but that can wait for tomorrow."

Aki suddenly snatched my ear and pulled me away. "Don't worry, I'll make sure he's rested enough to go to his parents' tomorrow."

"Thank you," Aya replied.

"Leave it to us, dear friend," Tomokazu added. "We'll call you if anything comes up."

I had no other choice but to let myself be taken away by Aki.

Since it was closer and Aki already had clothes to change into in her suitcase, we headed directly to my apartment, where we spent the rest of the night and part of the next morning.

One hour before noon, Aki walked with me to the station. The next monorail was four minutes away, so we merely chatted while waiting. I then kissed Aki before hopping in and the monorail silently accelerated away.

Even though it wasn't rush hour, the monorail was still crowded. Luckily, the person sitting in front of me got off a couple of minutes later and I was able to sit for the remaining fifteen minutes.

Unlike last time, my parents were already waiting for me as I climbed down the stairs. I got in their car and we drove away.

Mom instantly turned around on the passenger's seat to ask, "How was the monorail, darling?"

"It was crowded, for some weird reason, but I was able to sit the entire trip."

"Good. Have you eaten yet?"

I nodded. "Aki cooked some eggs and vegetables for the two of us."

She smiled, "It's nice knowing my daughter-in-law is taking good care of you."

"She's not your daughter-in-law yet."

"Yet," she remarked. "Alright, save the most energy you can because you have a lot to explain to your father and me. A lot."

"Yes, I know."

We didn't talk much for the rest of the drive, allowing me to take a deeper glimpse into the city I had lived in for eighteen years.

Not much had changed. Contrasting Saitama, there were considerably fewer buildings around and shorter. If there was a tall building, they would make its top half invisible with HoloForm.

In general, the city was less populated than the average city, which was equally good and bad. You lived with more space and freedom, making you feel less pressure to be better than everyone else, but it also meant that there were far fewer opportunities to move forward in your career. That was the main reason I moved out.

Since I had purposely gotten off at the nearest station, we arrived home a few minutes later. Even though I wasn't weak anymore, my parents insisted they carry my backpack and help me walk into the house.

I sat down in the living room, while Mom sat down on the sofa in front of me. Dad headed to the kitchen and returned with my favorite grape juice in his hand, which he had prepared himself.

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The first sip made time rewind to my childhood which, if I was ever asked to describe it, I would've done so by describing the taste of this juice.

"I keep forgetting to ask you for the recipe," I said.

"I'll send it now or I'll forget," Dad laughed nervously.

As he was busy doing that, I asked, "How is Takuya doing with his independence?"

"Surprisingly good," answered Mom.

"Even you had low expectations."

"What? No, I didn't. I was just worried for him. I felt the same when you moved out." Her smile turned into a pensive frown. "I didn't when Aya moved out, though."

That's a nice way of saying she only had hope for her.

Mom continued, "Thankfully, he's not afraid to ask for help like you were, although sometimes he asks for too many things that he could easily find the answer for."

"I told you I wasn't afraid, I wanted to face the real challenge of living alone. You shouldn't be so lenient with him or he'll never learn."

"Alright, alright. I'll try."

She won't.

Finally, Dad's message appeared on my glasses with his recipe. "Done," he said.

"Splendid," smiled Mom. "Now, please tell us everything that has happened since the last time you visited us."

"Since I visited you? Too many things have happened, but I've told you the most important things on calls or in messages. Except for one thing. Before I tell you; you can't tell anyone about it, alright? Not even Takuya."

"Why?" asked Dad.

"Because the police will sue me if any information is leaked before they reveal everything to the public themselves."

They glanced at each other.

"It's still weird to think this is something serious for the entire country," Mom laughed nervously. "Okay, we won't say a word," she added as she zipped her mouth.

"Thank you," I said. "Here it goes. Do you remember Chiharu?"

Mom instantly answered, "Ah, the girl you liked?"

I sighed, "Yes, the girl I liked. More importantly, she was the one I started my first business with and later ruined her career."

"We remember," Dad replied.

"Good. Did you know that she had passed away?"

They glanced at each other with their eyes wide open.

Mom answered, "The last thing we knew was that she disappeared. After that, we never asked her parents about it not to hurt them more, and they never said anything either. I feel really sad now."

"Don't be."

"Eh? Why?"

"Turns out she was alive all this time, she just faked her death."

They both looked more confused than I had ever seen before, so I continued.

"Apparently, she did it because she hated her parents and because she wasn't able to land a job because of me. For some reason, the logical thing for her to do was to fake her death and turn into a hacker."

"A hacker?" Dad wondered.

I nodded. "And as fate would have it, she found out I was starting a company, and what better way to get revenge than to leak information about it and the people close to me."

"Wait, was she the hacker that revealed the ex-president affair and all of that?" Mom asked.

"The very same. To make things short, she threatened me to I would meet her again a few days ago. Of course, the reason she wanted to meet me was to threaten me again. However, we didn't expect a robot to shoot us."

"Shoot you?!" screamed both Mom and Dad.

"Yes. Luckily, the police were nearby and killed the robot before it could do something else."

"Then it exploded, right?" Mom asked.

I nodded. "Apart from the robot, no one died, but Chiharu was in a worse condition than me. It's still conflicting for me to think that she'll spend at least twenty years in prison. She deserves it, yet I can't help but think it's unfair as well."

Mom stood up and sat next to me to hug me. "I can't believe you have gone through all of this. We knew being a public figure was dangerous, but not to this extent."

"Don't worry, I'm sure nothing worse will happen, and I'll do everything I can to stay safe too. What happened was really bad luck. Actually, it was good luck in disguise."

Mom moved back to look me in the eye. "What do you mean?"

"Have you thought about how much promotion these controversies have given us?"

She shook her head and smiled before resting her head on my shoulder and hugging me back. "Enough talking about work, you're here to rest."

"Okay," I replied. "Do you have any plans?"

Dad answered, "We have a few. However, we noticed how happy you were while looking out the window of the car, so why don't we drive around first?"

Although confused by the suggestion, I had no reason to say no. We walked back to the car and flew back to the city. However, we wandered around its outskirts instead of driving deeper toward the center.

They wouldn't tell me where we were going despite me asking them a couple of times. It took a fleet of docked rocket ships for me to realize we were going to the city's spaceport. Although they varied a lot in size, the biggest one was even taller than the tallest building in the city and it could be seen from kilometers away.

We parked before the bridge that connected the mainland with the artificial island and walked down to reach the spot my parents used to take me to when I was a kid or that I used to visit alone when I was a teenager. From this spot, I could see every ship take off. To my luck, the biggest one took off just as we sat down on one of the benches on the bridge.

The distance didn't do justice to show how massive the ships were. Their four columns connected with crossing rings being rocketed through the clouds was the coolest sight ever and I never grew tired of it.

I didn't believe it was possible to make it more exciting, but thinking how close Blostars was to becoming galactical, managed to make it so.

"Have you told anyone that you were about to become a spaceline pilot?" asked Mom.

"Only Aki. We chat a lot while at home or in therapy."

"I see. Talking about therapy, how is that going?"

"I haven't had an anxiety attack ever since we started, so I'd say it's going well."

"Good."