CHAPTER 34

THEY’VE COME THIS FAR TOGETHER

It was some time before Chiaki could properly excuse herself from the goodbye party. Too many people had accosted her for a moment of her time. She had been a mentor to many of them. She had even saved some of them in one way or another. And of course, there were plenty more who wished to speak with her for the sake of it. When would they ever get another chance to so easily bask in her presence after today, after all?

Chiaki had kept up her smile for as long as she could. When she finally slipped away from the function room, all pretense of her expression vanished. She let her head droop slightly and let out a single, deep sigh.

“Ready to head home, Mom?”

Startled, she lifted her head and found herself slouched before her two precious daughters. A much more genuine smile graced her lips at the sight of them. She reached out and put a hand on each of their shoulders, looking at them in turn.

“Not quite yet. Come to my office, you two. There’s something I want to make clear.”

=-=-=

In the confines of her office, where straying ears wouldn’t eavesdrop as long as a celebration was happening elsewhere, Chiaki revealed the truth behind Soren’s demise. She had perpetuated the tale of her best friend’s heroic last stand for Halo Ridge for too long. And while the public would struggle to make sense of it all, Mindie and Ciara listened quietly as their mother explained the truth.

Ciara crossed her arms over her chest, leaning against the office desk. “You didn’t report the Shade’s identity, Mom. That’s a pretty big misjudgment.”

She nodded. “I’m aware.”

Mindie’s head drooped slightly as the pieces started clicking into place. “So, the Shade you defeated the day Uncle Soren was destroyed…”

Another nod. “It was really Soren himself.”

The more Mindie formed a clearer picture in her head of what had transpired, the more an uncharacteristic anxiety creeped into her conscience. All Shades needed to be disposed of, no matter what the circumstance was. Stars who became Shades did so because they were consumed by chaotic energies, right? It was because they were corrupted by thoughts of destruction and wreaking havoc on the world.

But Soren was the best Superstar in the world back then. He was her mother’s best friend. She didn’t like how clear the ugliness of this picture was.

Her head snapped up, her face a pleading and desperate smile. “But—But you had no choice, right? If you didn’t deal with him then, it would’ve just ended badly for so many others…” She found herself unable to keep her head up, letting it slowly turn back towards the floor as her tone became meek.

Chiaki’s eyes shifted to her hands as she folded them in her lap. “I’ve told myself the same thing. It was the only choice. But…”

A silence passed between the three. Ciara righted herself into a proper stand and strode over to her mother. Before she could do any kind of comforting gesture, Chiaki shook her head in resignation and stood to face her.

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“No. It’s in the past now. It was the same choice back then that I made last night. I did whatever it took to come back home to my precious girls.” She placed a hand on Ciara’s shoulder and smiled. “There’s no point in being a Superstar without luminescence, so my days of being one have come to an end. This office is all yours, Ci-chan. You can balance your school work with more Superstar duties, right?”

Ciara beamed, erecting her chin confidently. “Absolutely.”

“Good. Now, I have something to take care of at home. Ittekimasu~ (I’m going on ahead~)”

The former Superstar turned and made her way towards the door. A moment later, she was gone. Another silence passed as her two daughters stared at where she made her exit. The only ambient noise that pervaded through the walls came from the goodbye ceremony somewhere down the hall.

“Mom’s so strong…”

Ciara nodded. “Being a Superstar isn’t all bright sunny days, little sis. If we’re going to be at the top, we might have to make a tough choice like that one day.”

Mindie pursed her lips. A brief bout of reflection stalled her in her thoughts. Choices, huh.

Soren Park was the best Superstar in the world. But he grew disillusioned. And then he became a Shade.

Sheila DeSanto devoted her life to researching the connection between luminescence and chaos. Her final experiment was to attempt to revive a former Superstar, who had been consumed by chaos. And when things didn’t work the way she wanted them to, she became a Shade.

Meanwhile, despite facing similar hardships, her own mother remained uncorrupted. Without a doubt, she was an even better Superstar than either of them.

It clicked into place.

Mindie had always thought that Stars were forced into becoming Shades. They either broke and became energy to feed the minions of chaos, or they somehow let their guard down and allowed chaotic energy to govern their behavior.

But now it was clear to her. Stars became Shades simply because they chose to. She was never going to make such a stupid choice.

=-=-=

As she strolled across campus, Chiaki noted how normal the day seemed. Her students (former students now) greeted her as they typically would on their way to class. Some of them didn’t know yet. Others were up to date with local current events. Some were too busy focusing on themselves, their own life and issues. Those who knew gave her appropriate and brief farewells before returning to their days. That was just the way it was with university students.

Actually, it was much the same whether you were a student with a class to get to or a faculty member fresh into her days of retirement. Time stopped for no one, no matter how important one might have been told they were. Everyone had lives to live.

The walk home today seemed longer than usual. Maybe her pace was slower. She was certainly slowed to some degree by passersby who knew of her final day. HRU didn’t seem to want to let her leave so quickly. Maybe it was the other way around.

Her steps felt heavier when she was finally within sight of her house. No one would be home yet. Her husband had messaged her earlier in the day to let her know of an urgent deadline fire he had to help put out. He wouldn’t be home early, that much was certain. Her daughters were still on campus and would return to their classes, training, and in Ciara’s case, a quick orientation from Artreius on filling in the work she left behind.

She entered the house and closed the door behind her. Although she had done so gently, the shuttering sound seemed to echo a little more than usual. Indeed, all the world felt normal around her. That’s just what happens when a Superstar is lost.

Chiaki decided the picture in the shrine room needed to be changed.

She took another, more fitting one to replace it. When she had done so, she held up the old portrait of Soren and gently brushed her fingers across the glass casing. She had done it again—brought him to heel and rid his chaos from the world. But this time, it wasn’t just Soren who met his end.

“We’ve come this far together, and someday we’ll meet the end together!”

The memory of his words rushed back to her, making her head feel light. Her chest tightened, causing her to hiccup and choke on the air she tried to take in. She felt her eyes go hot and moist as she collapsed to her knees in front of the shrine where she placed a new picture. It was the picture she had kept of three incredible individuals who had bonded as friends, rose as Superstars, and then faded from the world in ways she’d never wish on anyone.

Alone in the room she had set up for remembrance, Chiaki finally broke down until her tears ran dry.