"A-Ah." Cecily had been cornered, tightly clenching onto a young Brown haired boy, "Huh?"

"Yo." I awkwardly raised my hand as I squatted down to meet her Eye level, "Don't be scared, please."

"You're...?" She gulped, "You're back!"

"Mommy..." The boy called out with unease.

"Oh, this must be Cene, then." I went to pat his cute little head, though he quickly started crying and hiding his face away from me, "Oh..."

"How is this possible...!?" Anna stood behind me, unsure of whether or not to approach, "A-Aru, explain yourself."

"I know as much as you do." The Purple haired girl shrugged, "Well, his hair's all but fallen off, and he's practically a skeleton if you ignore the skin covering it. But yeah, none can dispute that this is in fact what's happening."

In that very moment, the doors which I had just slammed open a few minutes prior had opened a lot calmer this time. There, a long haired blond guy towering over me by almost an entire head had a look on his face as if he just saw a ghost. Standing at the doorframe, he pointed his quivering finger at me.

"G-Grim..." His shaky voice called out, "You're alive...!"

Whoa, from the voice and mannerisms, is it safe to assume that's Ed? What the hell, he grew out his hair so much, I hardly even recognized him! Damn, no fair, I lost all my hair and he gets to grow his out? Now I'm even more curious about how long it's been since we last saw each other...

But yeah, that's probably the expected reaction. I'm not dumb, I knew from the very moment I woke up in that stone coffin next to Marina's that I had somehow been presumed dead. That day, it was raining, just like how it did when that stupid royal father-daughter duo shot me through the chest. I saw my face in a puddle, it was boney and pale, and almost all of my long, beautiful hair had fallen off. Oooh, I so wanna know how long it's been!

"How long have I been, uhh... y'know?" I didn't wanna say dead just in case I got something wrong.

"Never mind that, how did you even get here!?" Anna inquired, countless tears in her Eyes, "Did grandpa take you here?"

"What? Isn't he in Entropa?" I asked, only for my question to be met with an awkward silence, "Sigh, never mind. But to answer your question, my current appearance really didn't allow me to ask anyone for a boat ride, so I swam."

"You swam over here from Lichtenstelle!?" They all raised their voices.

Oof, was that the wrong answer? To be honest, I can understand their astonishment. After all, not even a healthy person would expect swimming across the sea to be an easy endeavor, but for whatever reason it was super easy for me. Besides, whenever I got tired, I would just cast Heal and continue on.

"Aru, i-is this really my husband?" Cecily asked once again, "Did we really succeed somehow?"

"It's him alright." The girl shrugged with a smug grin, "Hug him, kiss him, do whatever you want now that you have your grand reunion moment. Should be pretty safe to do so, I think."

"Right, and who is this girl exactly?" I pointed to the one they called Aru, "And why is everyone asking her stuff like she knows the answers to everything?"

"That's cause I do, Lune Grimheart!" She shouted as she proudly puffed out her chest, "For I am, drumroll please...! The Goddess of Water, Allucius, in the flesh! Rej-!"

"Rejoice?" I finished her sentence for her just to tick her off a bit.

"Grr...! Don't interrupt!" She fussed, "I know you did that just to rile me up, so don't even deny it!"

"Well yeah, you struck me as the proud and bratty type, so I wanted to throw you off your high horse a bit." I chuckled, "But damn, so Allucius is a girl, huh..."

"And a loli at that." A familiar voice made me immediately turn my head to its source, "Yoroshiku, bud. Been a while."

"Issei!" I immediately ran to hug him, but he dodged in the last second, "Oof! What gives!?"

"Dude, you look like a corpse. And you smell like one to boot." He pinched his nose with a wry grin, "I drew a bath for myself, but feel free to use it if you want. I feel like you need it more than I do."

Why is Issei here? I was already blown away when I saw Anna, though I did assume Ed would be here when I saw her. I think I hear two other female voices on the second floor, so who could that be? Wait, what kind of a crossover event is this? Don't tell me...!

"Is Meil here too, perhaps?" I asked expectantly, only for them to shoot down my hopes and dreams instantly.

"No, he went to University shortly after you die-err, after the war." Ed didn't wanna mention me dying.

"Oh, that's good... And Nelly?" I looked around, "If all goes well, she should be enrolling in a couple years too, right?"

"Ehe..." They all awkwardly looked away before Cecily stepped up to reveal, "Lune, Nelly's thirteen now."

"Hm?" I turned to her, my expression lagging behind as I still continued smiling on innocently.

"She's uhm, with Meil right now." She added, "Studying in Uni."

"So?" I waited for her to deal the finishing blow.

"In other words..." She danced around the answer before finally saying it, "You've been dead for three years."

"What!?" I raised my voice so much I actually got the attention of the upstairs girls, who ran down only to scream in horror once they saw me.

"I-Intruder!" The girl whose facial features resembled Ed's shouted.

"Eleanor, that's rude!" The White haired girl yelled at her, "What if he's a guest?"

"A guest doesn't shout at the top of his lungs like that! Oh, whatever! Let's just ask him!" Eleanor, Edward's younger sister if I recall correctly, then turned to me all angry, "You sir! Just why in the hell did you scream like that!?"

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

"Eleanor Saint, I know of your sins and have come to collect your soul." I stared deeply at her Eyes from across the room as I said in as deep a voice as I could muster.

"Yaaaahhh!" She ran away, pulling the White haired girl away with her for whatever reason, "Take Ed instead, just please don't touch me!"

"Oi, the hell's that supposed to mean!? Eleanor!" Ed shook his fist at her as she ran back upstairs, "Geez, did you really have to scare her like that?"

"Oh please, she deserved it." I stuck my tongue out at him before laughing, "She made fun of you, so it's fair game."

"I think she did that only after you made her fear for her life." Issei chuckled as well.

----------------------------------------

***

----------------------------------------

"So you're saying I genuinely died that day when we went up against the Carmens?" I made sure I understood their retelling completely.

"Yeah, you got shot through the heart and couldn't remain conscious enough to cast Heal." Ed replied, "A lot happened since then, but the main gist is that we eventually won the war, the Generals of ARA stayed back to help fairly declare the nrw borders after the war, Meil and later Nelly went to Uni, and we went to Mount Ivrys with Aru to revive you."

"And Ed and I got married." Anna added as she proudly showcased her ring to me.

"Woah, congratulations!" I smiled, "Ed, how come you forgot to tell me such an important thing?"

I guess he felt offended that I was being smug with him, so he kind of replied way too harshly.

"Well, it's not like you told me when you got married." He alluded to mine and Marina's marriage, "Call it even."

"If I truly wanted to be even, wouldn' that mean I'd have to kill Anna then?" I furrowed my brows.

"...S-Sorry..." He sheepishly apologized, "A-Anyways, that's about all that happened as far as important events go. Obviously, there were other happenings in these past few years, but this is just about the bare minimum."

"Right, I was following until you got to that last part." I furrowed my brows a bit, "You went to Mount Ivrys with a God... without me?"

"Are you a dumbass?" Cecily sharply shot back, "You were dead, dummy. What the hell would taking a dead body up the tallest mountain in the World accomplish?"

"Well, it would've made getting here a lot easier..." I slumped forward, "Geez, if I had known all that commotion on the island was because of an Arthur's, I would've just hitched a ride with him..."

"Still, the Gods didn't really agree to reviving you, at least not by their own hands, so how come you still revived nonetheless?" Issei turned to Aru, "Didn't you guys say it was impossible to return someone from Heaven or whatever?"

"Did we?" Aru played dumb, "W-Well, y'know, I'll be sure to ask Selzion the next time I see him! B-Besides, didn't Pry tell us that a person CAN get revived if they so wish?"

"I don't remember anything in between me dying and waking up on Lichtenstelle." I shrugged, "You said all dead people go to Heaven, and I'm sure I would remember seeing Marina or Carter again."

"Hrm..." Cecily groaned a bit out of a rekindled jealousy, "Dearie, our little boy's in the same room as us."

"Mommy..." Cene asked, "Who is that?"

"Papa." I flat out said, making the mood of the room awkward.

"Huh?" The boy tilted his head.

"Papa." I repeated.

"Papa?" He looked even more confused than before.

"Yep, papa!" I smiled.

"Waahhhhh! Wahhhh~!" He burst into tears immediately after that, "You're not my dad! Mom would never marry someone as ugly as you!"

Yeesh, kids can really be brutally honest, huh? I think I remember Nelly having a pretty sharp tongue as well, though I can only hope she grew out of it now that she's a big girl.

"Hey now, I used to be quite the looker, y'know?" I'll admit I got a bit mad at that comment, "Ask Uncle Issei - He was there when I wooed Ma-!"

"Ha-ha! Oh, you stupid buffoon, you!" Issei stopped me before I initiated Cecily's wrath, "Don't go saying stupid stuff just to prove a stupid point, that's rule number one of being a Scooter Brother, remember?"

"Ahhh, Scooter Brothers!" I recalled the name of our little alliance, "That brings back memories... Wait, there were rules for that?"

"Yep, and I'll be sure to tell you all about them." He patted me on the back before pushing me out of the room, "As soon as you take that much needed shower, stinky. Come on, now."

Left without any other option, I was forced to grab my old pajamas from a terrified Eleanor before kindly thanking her and walking over to the bathroom. Though as I was making my way there, I happened to overhear everyone talking about something without me and well, you know me, I just had to listen in for a bit.

"Aru, how is he alive?" Edward asked, "You said you knew everything that's gonna happen until the end of time, so why didn't you tell us he was the shadowy person?"

"Wait, so the shadowy person was Lune all along?" Anna sounded confused, "Well, I guess they did both swim to the dock in Meridia, and I'm pretty sure no one else would be that crazy..."

Wow, thanks for the compliment, Anna... But wait, what does he mean by shadowy person? I feel like this is something they'll tell me soon enough anyways, but just in case, I'll listen in for a bit more.

"Shadowy person or not, we can't keep ignoring those Eyes of his." Cecily remarked, "Aru, humans have one of 8 different Eye colors, and some have different colored Eyes, we know that... But what does it mean when both of his Eyes contain every color all at once?"

Ah, so they've noticed that as well... That I have Rainbow Eyes now.