“Mom! Dad!” Tokemi called out to us as she ran into our embrace, happy to see us again. How long has it been since we ascended? It was hard to keep track. So many things had changed lately. Time was… harder to track now.
Of course, this wasn’t our first time coming down to see her. Tokemi no longer looked like the cute and adorable little girl that she had been when she was created, nor the cute and adorable little pre-teen that she was when we ascended. Now, she had taken on the image of a fully formed adult, after spending time studying her own aura shifting abilities.
“Hey baby, how’ve you been?” Sharon asked with a smile, reaching up and gently patting Tokemi’s hair, making the fox girl smile happily.
“I’m good. What about you guys? How’s the next world treating you?” She asked, looking between myself, Sharon, and Yin. All three of us had managed to descend this time, so it was somewhat of a special occasion.
Right now, Tokemi was really the only one left who we knew in the world. Everyone else, whether it was my parents, Yang, even the elves had all gradually passed away over time. Naturally, I had kept those close to me alive as long as I could by lowering their ages, but that wouldn’t last forever.
Yang was the first, deciding that she had lived a long and happy life after over two hundred years had passed since we ascended. She had no regrets, and passed away with a smile on her face, happy that her sister had been with her in her final moments. After that came my parents, who decided to do so for similar reasons.
Yo and Celeste had at one point formed an adventuring duo, choosing a life of action over the slow crawl of day-to-day monotony. Unfortunately, they had an encounter with the lunar titan while exploring the space near Earth. When we discovered that, Sharon flew into a rage and destroyed the titan in body and soul.
Only Tokemi had chosen eternity. And for that I was thankful. We still didn’t know how long it was until she would get her chance to join us, but we had told her about the possibility. It seemed, that was enough to let her make up her mind. She decided that she would wait however long it took.
When I was done reminiscing, I noticed the playful smile on Yin’s face. “John’s champion…”
“Oh, don’t get me started on that.” I let out a small huff, shaking my head. As the new God of Impossible Odds, I had chosen Ackbar to be my champion. However, wouldn’t you know it… he ended up getting eaten by one of the elves’ giant carnivorous rabbits when it mutated into a monster. Sharon, the Goddess of Cuteness, was laughing her ass of when she saw that. What is it with me and rabbits?!
“Are you still seeing… what was her name?” Tokemi asked as she looked at me.
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“Jorel.” I answered, nodding my head. “And yeah, she says I’m making good progress.” The side effects of being trapped in the time bubble for nearly two hundred years had already made it nearly impossible for me to stand being idle before we ascended, so the long waits before anything happened now was a hell for me. Thankfully, I was able to get regular appointments with the Goddess of Mental Trauma, who it turns out was a pretty good therapist.
“Speaking of champions, though…” Sharon said, glancing over to Yin. “Isn’t yours about to be born soon?” We had gone through a couple iterations of the timelines so far, so Yin decided to place her bet on someone that would be born after the reset. She ended up with a rather peculiar domain, one that I had never expected to be free.
The Goddess of Hope nodded her head happily. “Right. Next month. She shows promise.” Yin smiled as she said that. “What about you?” She asked as she looked towards Tokemi.
“I’m doing good, really!” She grinned as she spoke. “And… I’m not alone. I wanted to show you guys something.” We always descended to the same place, the fields in the Qu’Lopti world where we had lived for those few years after Tokemi was born. It felt like a special place to us, and the Qu’Lopti treated it as a holy sight, always making sure it was well preserved.
Tokemi grabbed Sharon and Yin by their hands, and began dragging them away, motioning for me to follow. She only walked a short distance, leading us behind a towering tree that had grown over the years. Behind there, sitting patiently, was a small boy. Like Tokemi, his hair was silver, and he had a similarly colored tail extending from the base of his back. His body was draped in a black robe as he hastily stood up to greet us, bowing respectfully.
“Grandpa, Grandmas. Hello.” He spoke in a quiet tone, keeping his head lowered. Seeing our confusion, Tokemi took the chance to explain.
“It took me a while, but I found the method to create more Baishiro.” She then shyly turned her head away. “I… plan to keep it small, just a few to let me have company when you guys aren’t here. If possible, could you ask about getting them in, too?”
I was about to agree, but naturally Sharon beat me to it. “Of course we will! How could we just make you leave behind your family like that? I’ll talk to the guys up top once we go back. Now, why don’t you invite this little one over, and we can have a proper picnic together?” As she said that, rather than waiting for Tokemi to invite him, she reached down and scooped the little boy up in her arms, taking the initiative to move back to where we had been before.
Seeing as we were actually having a picnic now, I took the liberty of creating some fruits for us. After that, Tokemi told us what she had been up to. For the most part, her life had been one of loneliness, aside from our frequent visits. However, she has also become an object of worship herself within this timeline. Not only is she the child of the gods, but she is herself the strongest being in this timeline, with almost complete control of time itself. Looking at her, I could see that her level had stalled in the lower eight hundreds.
After our talk, Tokemi and I watched as Yin and Sharon played with Jokken, her son. I glanced over, and saw a warm smile on her face as she watched the scene. “I know what you want to ask, dad. And yes, it’s worth it. No matter how long we wait, it’ll always be worth it. So I’ll wait as long as I need to.” She spoke without ever looking at me. She placed her hand down on mine, and her smile grew slightly. “One day, we’ll all be together again as a family. There’s nothing worth waiting for more than that.”