Aika, after a few agonizing minutes, finally opened the door and saw her parents for the first time in a few days. Honoka and Haruto thought that she would be more haggard, but aside from her messy bedhead, her skin and eyes were still flawless, making them think that she was sleeping well. The truth is, however, that she had been up most of the time and thinking of all sorts of things with a foggy mind, whereas any normal person who'd gone through this might've collapsed from fatigue. Her training and innate power didn't betray her, "The truth?"
This misunderstanding wasn't that bad because it made Honoka and Haruto at ease. Nevertheless, this didn't change what Haruto had to do, "The truth... Maybe that's overstating it since we, too, don't know very much and I'll be holding some of it back because of what your mother and I want to happen." Haruto then turned around and walked towards the stairs, "But let's not talk here. Let's go downstairs for a warm meal."
Honoka looked at both of them before picking up Aika's dinner on the tray which was still by the side of her door and had gone cold, "I'll heat this up and brew some tea."
Aika watched their backs disappear beyond the stairs and thought that the strange awkwardness from all this time had disappeared. From that alone, she was able to conclude that they were doing this for a good reason and it might've even been for her own good, '...But I want to know... I hate being stuck in this artificially woven reality.'
The three of them sat at the dining table and while waiting for Aika to finish her dinner, Honoka and Haruto asked her about her daily school life and how she was doing in general. Aika contemplated these questions and answered as any other normal kid would, but this response was a telltale sign of how shallow her trust in the two of them was.
"So not a word of what you're feeling each time, huh..." muttered Haruto with a dejected voice, "Well, if what they say about that guy is true, then it's understandable."
Aika immediately put down her chopsticks and looked at him, "That guy?" It was a very energetic response compared to before.
Haruto's wry smile grew deeper and said, "Finish your food first."
And with great gusto, Aika started downing her food as if she'd starved for the last few days. Honoka would have reprimanded her for her manners, but it was her first time seeing her so energetic in a while, so she just smiled happily. Though she was having complicated feelings because of it for some strange reason, 'Now then... What should I do after this?' she asked herself, because there's almost nothing that could stop the situation from turning away from their wishes. But as soon as her eyes caught the smartphone that the mysterious person had given, a certain idea began to form in her head.
In two minutes, everything was gone and Aika was expectantly holding her cup of tea.
"First of all, I can't tell you who this guy is.", Haruto started.
"Why not?"
"Because even though he's the one who all did this, his identity is currently irrelevant."
Seeing that she was not saying anything and just waiting, Haruto continued, "We don't exactly know what happened to you but this man erased your memory for this past year. Don't ask us how he did this since we also don't know. The only thing we could say is that it's beyond our understanding and science."
"Then why did he do this?" Aika didn't question the feasibility of erasing memories, since that would explain all the strange phenomena happening around her.
Haruto shook his head and said, "He didn't explicitly tell us, but if I were to guess, it's too dangerous and you weren't suited for it. He wanted you to live a normal life and that's what we want too."
"Dangerous..." Aika murmured while looking down, "Is that why there are always people guarding our place even though we don't really need it, nor that we're rich enough to have that kind of security?"
Haruto and Honoka's eyes widened and the former asked, "You can tell?"
Aika nodded and said, "Just two days ago. I don't know why, but my senses kept sharpening so that it allowed me to tell that there were other people going around our place."
Haruto and Honoka looked at each other before the latter said, "Looks like his uncle got it right." Honoka then stood up from her seat and hugged her daughter, "...I'm sorry..."
Aika was confused at this sudden hug, but when she heard the sniffling behind her ears, she panicked, "M-mama?"
"I'm so sorry..."
Aika immediately returned the hug and asked, "Why are you apologizing?"
"I'm sorry... It must have been very obvious to you that we were lying... It must have felt lonely... You must have felt all alone... I'm sorry... You're not alone... We'll always be behind you... I'm sorry for not doing this earlier..."
The warmth from her mother's body and the sounds of sniffles started affecting Aika along with the emotions behind her words. Aika buried her head in her shoulder with tears also rolling on her face thinking that this might have been what she has been wanting to hear all this time.
Haruto also grew teary from this sight but held himself back as he stood up and hugged both of them. It had been a while since they'd all felt open like this.
The next day, Aika happily made her way to school to continue her normal life. Despite what was revealed to her, Aika chose to follow their wish, at least until she decided that there was no need to anymore.
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AN(09/11/2022): And that's it for this week. I'm sorry for the delay. I was swamped with work (even now) and had a little accident of getting a cut that is not very small.
Anyways, thank you for reading, and have a good day~!
PS: I was planning on migrating to other sites too because of the WN update, but it seems that they reversed the decision. Still, I'm planning on slowly working on transferring the chapters but I'll have to edit the atrocious first 300-400 chapters first before I copy them.