Aika's parents remained silent as they looked at Kisuke who didn't move from his position.
A few minutes later, Honoka said with a smile, "Did you think that would be enough?" Despite that, her tone was cold.
"Of course not.", replied Kisuke with his head still down.
"Since you're a Devil, are you going to offer us something in exchange for Aika? Isn't that what you people do?", added Honoka.
"I could.", answered Kisuke without any hesitation. This caused Haruto's frown to grow deeper and Honoko's smile to disappear and they were about to admonish him for even trying to insinuate that there was a price for their daughter. But before she could say it, Kisuke added, "But I won't. I'm not going to put a price on her. Not now. Not ever."
"I could grant you anything that you could think of. That's how much power I possess. However, I don't want it to be the reason or the cause for you to forgive me. It might have been a different story if you didn't put much importance on Aika, but I heard from my mother how you loved her dearly, so I would not like to trample those feelings. Hence, I can only apologize. It was my fault that Aika ended up where she is now."
The couple became silent once again, but this time, they looked and tried to gauge each other's reaction. A few seconds later, they both sighed, with Haruto's frown disappearing and Honoka's smile returning, albeit wryly, "Please get up, Urahara-kun. We're not actually mad at you... Well, we're done getting mad.", the latter replied.
Although he hadn't been forgiven, Kisuke raised his head and faced them as he didn't want to make the atmosphere further awkward by 'forcing' himself on them.
Haruto crossed his arms and said, "As you might have already known, We already had a lengthy talk about this with your relatives and they also kept apologizing on your behalf, especially your mother. They explained the situation as truthfully as they could and it has been a while, so we already learned how to accept these things about our precious daughter."
"But what we needed the most was an apology directly coming from you. With that said, we forgive you.", continued Honoka.
Kisuke was a bit conflicted, "I'm grateful, but..."
"You think that it was extremely easy?"
Kisuke nodded, "That's right. I at least prepared myself to receive a ton of insults."
"Although I hate to admit it, Aika really likes you.", Haruto answered while recalling this past month where they could finally talk to their daughter, "Even though she's obviously avoiding the topic about your relationship due to your polygamy, I could at least tell that you already became one of the most important people in her life, and I'm not going to hurl insults for no reason to the guy my daughter has chosen."
Honoka chuckled and added, "Besides, I heard from Sakura-san that they are completely capable of erasing our memories, making Aika seem not to exist in the first place in our lives but you were vehemently opposed to it, according to her. That already gave you a lot of points in my book."
"Erasing our memories may have been easy and comforted us of our misery but I would rather suffer than forget my precious girl."
Haruto nodded at Honoka's words and said, "That's right. Thinking about it, I'm actually thankful that you didn't erase the proof of our parenthood despite that being the most logical and safe thing to do."
Kisuke smiled wryly, "If I allowed that to happen, Aika would kill me."
"In any case, please drink the tea before it warms up."
"Ah, yes. Thank you."
For the next hour, the three had a long and fun talk since this was actually the first time the couple spoke with Kisuke. Ranging from their daughter and what they were doing now, Kisuke didn't hide anything except for important and sensitive stuff. Although it was not enough time to truly know who Kisuke was, he left a good impression on the couple.
After Kisuke finished his fourth glass of barley tea, Honoka asked, "Are you going somewhere else today? If not, you could stay here. We'd like to hear more from you."
"As much as I would like to, I can't. I still have to deal with a lot of things and I haven't actually met anyone else aside from you after returning."
"Oh my... We're really flattered that you came to us first, but are you sure that your mother won't sulk if she came to know this? We've become good friends so I know how much she dotes on you. And speaking of which, didn't she say that you were coming back with Yoruichi? Where is she? I would have liked to meet her too."
"Well... I'll deal with my mother later. And about Yoruichi, she won't be coming... Actually, I came here not just to apologize."
"Hmm? What is it?"
"Truth to be told, instead of Yoruichi, I brought Aika back with me."
""W-What!?"" The couple was stunned and Haruto even stood up from the couch in shock and excitement.