Mommy... didn't return back... is she back?
I search from hotel we recently booked in but... there's no sense of Ether from her... where's mommy?
"oh? you awake Osiria? sorry for waking you up this early"
"aunt Rin... where's mommy?"
"mommy had to return back to fieldwork due to your brother and sister having some trouble, don't worry, they'll be taking care of you soon once they return... oh right, we're in a different world... oh well, I'll just guide them here"
so... my older siblings will be taking care of me?... I... haven't talked to them that much...
"what about papa?"
"your father too, since Mei need two people for the fieldwork for efficiency, what about you? what will you do today?"
"m... play with you?"
I... really don't have anything to do...
"ehh... umm... oh! I know! why don't you train your abilities with Arie and Ingrid! I bet it'll be worth it"
"aunt... are you evading me?"
"a-ahh?! ehh!? what'd made you think that!? no! of course not! my cute little Lily would never be abandoned! I'm going to meet with someone and it's probably best if you don't follow me, since we don't have your mother and your father's protection for now"
I... see... well... I guess that's alright?...
"I want candy..."
"oh! then why don't we get some! it's still quite early so until your brother and sister arrives then I'll be accompanying you"
I nod and we head outside.
Aunt Rin began dressing up... should I too?...
"oh! wait a sec Osiria... and... there! is that fine?"
a cute dress... white like the Lilies in my world...
"I... like it..."
"it came from an anime I knew when I was a child... well... I was a child when I died... it suits you! but... I feel like some people will be crying when they see you... hahaha..."
I... don't get it...
. . .
. .
"OH! why don't I tell you a story until we get there? it's still quite a few blocks to get to the store"
I nod... Aunt Rin's stories are all quite amusing
-the world was quite devastated, it was almost like the world was devoid of life, monsters would sense even the slightest breath of life, homes were wrecked, cities destroyed, even the depths of the ocean weren't safe. but, there were a handful of people that we're able to save such devoid planet, heroes that came from other worlds, summoned by the corrupted king of the human kingdom, these heroes were able to defeat monsters with ease, the stronger they get, the easier the battle.
there was a man among the monsters, no monster ever dare to touch this being, he was believed to be a fallen like us, with a face as if he was in pain, screaming in agony, darkness loomed over him like they were controlling him. a single step could mean your end, heroes began a quest to subjugate the fallen child and gathered a band of the strongest to defeat him... they succeeded but everyone was dead by the time the fallen child died.-
"so? what do you think? I was quite in a rush since we were closing in"
"hmm... I like it... where did that come from?"
"it was the second generation's story, he died a rather painful death, it was only something that he deserves"
deserves...
"we're here, so? what'd you like?"
. . .
. .
.
"looks like both of them are here, I'll be leaving you to them for now, I'l be back in an hour or so"
I wave goodbye and I was suddenly engulfed by a large crowd...
"excuse me kid-"
"sorry"
"passing through please-"
none of them are stopping... help!
. . .
the crowd finally subsides but...
"where... am I?"
a... big tower... building? it's not like the ones I see back at home...
「-----」
no... I have to run...
「!!----!」
. . .
. .
.
I... may have lost them...
「--.」
"eek!"
I shriek in a rather high pitch voice but... no one seems to have heard me... aunt... sis... big bro... help me...
--------------
"um... I don't like scaring her... I feel like I'll get killed if her parents see us like this..."
"just grab her and put her in the guildhall, her guardians will probably search there"
"yeah... I know but..."
this kid's not even trying... she's way too scared... not even letting me show her face, oh come on! don't cry!
"shit... quick! call the officials!"
"o-on it! give her something for crying out loud! I'll be going now!"
a-ahhh.... something to give... something to give... aha!
I grab a piece of chocolate to her that I haven't eaten yet
"Here, are you fine with this?"
she's not even looking at it...
"come on! at least calm yourself! I'd look like some kind of pedophile when people see me like this!... ehh... ahh... fuck it! you're coming with me! fuck my pride! hup!"
yeah, carrying a crying child isn't that heroic, I know but... the more I wait, the worse it gets!
. . .
. .
.
I finally arrive back at the guildhall where Phillip was just going back to where I was
"y-you fool! now everyone thinks you're a pedo!"
"shut... up... I ran back here hoping she'll finally calm down..."
「!!---!!」
"oh, now she's crying even more! you should've just waited for us you god damn idiot!"
"gah! I don't care anymore! why don't YOU take care of her! I'm going back to the Hall!"
"now bro, Mell, just calm down a bit, I'll be taking care of her. did you two know who Rin is?"
Philia's a guild attendant, she can fight too of course but she picked this since it was more of her style
"hahhh... we know but... we don't even know where she is..."
"just... go to the mass and ask if they noticed her. here... do you like this? it's candy and you like it too right?"
she takes it rather hesitantly... well... as long as she's fine...
. . .
. .
.
"empty on this side? what about you?"
"same... all I hear are some useless rumors about some masked teens"
haahhh... this is becoming quite tiresome... I buy something at the vending machine just close to us
"your sister's quite something to calm her down huh? here, it's on me"
"thanks"
I hand him the soda I just bought, it's amazing that some are still being produced and stocked here
...
"so? are we just gonna give up"
I really can't be bothered with doing this, search missions is not my style
"gathering intel is something needed, fieldwork is our jobs as survivors, anyway, how was the one you did in that digital world?"
"you mean the grounded echelons? I did quite well, the monsters there wasn't much, but the deeper I go the more dangerous it gets"
the grounded echelon is the digital world created for the people who just recently joined, our job there is to maintain peace and analyze any discrepancy possible, we don't want the digital world to be chaotic like the outside
"I see... I'll be gathering giants in the Russian continent once I'm finished here, I have a party ready for me already so you don't need to worry about me dying"
I take a long sip on the soda and reply
"well, just make sure to return with scars, your sis will get pissed at you if so and I finally have a chance at her"
"dude, she's my sister, I'm not going to let you go your way with her, I'm telling you this, if you make one move you're dead to me"
I laugh it off and stand up
"well, let's return and say that we can't find our target"
we head back to the hall and conveniently-
"oh? are you miss Rin?"
"are you the two that were harassing Osiria? well... that's more of a stretch, we already know what you guys were trying to do"
we just laugh it off slightly... we really can't help a child with that kind of situation
---------------
"hey, Osiria, did they treat you well?"
I just nod slightly... I... hate it that I'm not comfortable when I'm alone...
"good Lily. Arie, Ingrid, I leave her to you, I assume that both of you studied in their language?"
sis Arie responded
"we still need to learn but we have a fair bit of understanding of it, don't worry, we'll take care of Osiria"
"good, well then, I'll be going now, remember that Liliya and Naoya will be your deaths if Osiria's injured or if something happens to her, tootaloo~"
with a grievous smile, she waves goodbye to me and sis and big bro...
...
I bow and wave to the people who sheltered me for quite a while... I don't understand their language but... at least bowing was something common to both worlds...
"so? what do we do?"
"I'll be researching a bit more, you should hang out with Osiria more since you were the one stressing out that other day"
"O-oy! come on! don't be like that. anyway, what do you want to do Osiria?"
what... I want to do...
. . .
. . .
. .
"and that's what happened, well? do you like the story?"
"mm... but... is big bro fine?"
"he's fine, thanks to your aunt Mei of course, without her we could've left him..."
what does... sis think of Ingrid?...
"sis... what do you think of big bro? why are you that close to him?"
I don't even hesitate on it... it just... came out without another thought...
"hmm... maybe because... we're literally siblings, by heart, of course, having a clone with siblings is something of a rarity, if twins ever did happen then there's a high chance of the other one dying"
"if I gotta say it in other words... erm... we both have deficiencies... probably because of that? I don't know, we just... kinda bonded like this when we were around 18 years old..."
18 years old?...
"then... what happened when you were first born?"
"ahh... those times ehh?... well... why don't we talk about this another time? why don't you show me something here? surely you can show me something beautiful and something special from this world?"
something... special... "what about Van Eisha? it's in the district just across here..."
"then lead the way!"
with those words said, I held sis' hand tightly so that I won't separate from her.
the mall that we were just in... the central district... and...
"is that a... hey, Osiria, mind coming with me for a minute?"
she carries me and heads to a detour... I wonder...
"I knew it... it's a spirit being... Mei's been searching for this for years!... but... it seems like it has an owner..."
「y-yes? do you have any business with me?」
sis bows in advance and talk in their language... since when?
「mind- if I ask? where did you- find this being?」
「a-ahh! are you perhaps a friend of Rin? well, I summoned this dog here when he was about to die, do... you understand?」
「y-yes! I understand you words!...」
"I don't get it... death?"
"sis? what's about the spirit?"
"a-ahh... well, why don't we say our goodbye? I've found quite an information that I can get"
... I just wish I can get some good peace and quiet with sis... that's what I wanted...
. . .
. .
.
"this... is the ship your mother was talking about?"
"yes... but... we didn't get to enter it because I got lost..."
sis chuckles a bit...
"you are quite small. why don't we enter in a different time? this world... earth was it? their time is quite small, I can probably live in a month without sleeping here and it's probably best if we don't lose our world clock, if so then I'm afraid working back at our own world will be too troublesome"
"yeah... I want to go back to the inn... what about big bro?"
"Just forget him, he can do whatever he wants...."
big... I wonder why he wants to do research more...
sis looks at me quite intently and shrugs it off "you'll probably understand the reason...
we arrive back at the hotel and we rest up for a bit... this room... didn't look like this when we first left it...
"haahhh... that brother of mine... well, we just have to live with this for now, Osiria... by the way, do you like stories?"
"stories... do you have one?"
"of course! well, what kind of stories do you favor?"
I like... "history... like about my mother..."
"ahh... I see... well then, why don't you sit down over there for a second, I'll take out a booklet for a second..."
she takes out a camera from her bag... I think she stole it from aunt Rin...
"HERE! I heard from Theia that this was Liliya's first little embarrassment."
a picture of... someone slapped... and my parents... looked like children... probably older than I am right now...
"your parents were quite troublemakers when they were was just above your age, I believe you're 50 right now right? am I wrong? probably 30... we don't really take note of that do we huh?"
she laughs it off... it's true that our age as Fallens are irrelevant... we'll age like nothing when we're in our prime...
"well anyway, your mother was given a decision to erase her own memories or live with it"
"why... was she given with those decisions?..."
"you see, for a clone or a creation such as your mother, father, me and Ingrid, and Mei. a clone having personalities is a sign of deviance and imperfections, and Kirin, that man that was slapped in that picture, being such a nice guy, forced your mother into the Ether capsule without consent!"
that's... what happened?
"although, it was all a ruse, Mei discovered that the newly discovered race, the Floran race along with the dryad race were compatible with her genetics and Ether veins so this was an immediate upgrade for her. from Rin's story, Liliya also uttered "I loved you" when she was forced into the capsule and after her release, this is the picture that Rin took without flaws... quite amusing right?"
it quite is... I... would've never thought of that from my mommy... who's energetic and loving...
after quite a while of talking, big bro came in half-naked... sis immediately covered my eyes and started arguing without me seeing anything
"Ingrid! get some decency when Osiria's here for crying out loud!"
"sorry, I was quite in a rush when I finished remodeling the room, so? what were you two doing while I was gone?"
"INGRID! Get dressed! now! Osiria, mind looking in the window for now... I got a talk with my brother for a second"
she holds my hands and puts them in my ears... further than that, she uses silencing crystals... no I really can't hear anything...
the place looks nice even for a sub-world... this world is something alien to us... well... all world entirely, what a surprise to me is that people are capable of creating worlds like this... if you can create a blank space breaking all dimensions... then is it possible to create something from nothing too? or time travel? I'd like to see my parents when they were young...
"hey... so? what do you want to talk about Osiria?"
"big bro... you look injured..."
he has a lot of bruises... guess it's from sis... I don't really mind big bro being half-naked...
"I think it'll heal quite quickly, your sis went ahead and bathe in the bathroom, what about you? what do you want to do?"
does everybody says that to me?... it's getting too repetitive...
"why... do both of you have masks?"
"ahh... that... well, why don't you ask something else, I can probably answer that when Arie is gone"
then sis doesn't like to talk about it?...
"hmm... why don't I tell you about the stories of the fallen? the stories of the determined souls that stood in the world of Laplace?"
I guess... that sounds good... I nod and he sat down beside me with a device in his hand that shows pictures
-a long time ago, mana was scarce and every race was on its wit's end, the Fallen, our race, have been cursed by the ancient dragons and turned our ancestors into monsters, suffering for so long and granting us immortality, not because of pity, but because of the punishment that was given to us. "you shall suffer for eternity, give birth to children that will die the moment they feel pain, weak to pathogens and create a pandemic until you all learn and die". the damned were cursed for all of eternity, not even giving them the cure for their curse, but one person, by the common of the king, solved the problem and turned their curse into blessings, thus, the battle style called 'Arts' was birthed. the people that were cursed by eternal poison learned how to create effects and buffs to support their allies, people that were cursed to bleed in pain for eternity learned to control it and create monstrous effects. the strongest and hardest to control out of the two, mutated beings that didn't resemble humanity anymore, controlled and amputated their selves to create weapons made of bones that were hard enough that even the dragons were able to cut through. these curses the were hated by all of the Fallen now turned into the blessings they couldn't live without-
"that's the end of the story, how do you like the lore Osiria?"
there's... still some things that I don't quite understand... but... if that were our ancestors...
"what did our ancenstors do? why were they cursed in the first place?"
"that's..." he was hesitant to tell... no... rather... he doesn't know...
"we'll talk about it once I know the start of the story, why don't you join your sister for a bath, I'll be staying here since I can't check on you"
well... duh
I head to the prepare for bath and-
"oh! and don't forget to not drown!"
I... chuckle for a bit... I don't know why but... it puts a little smile on my face
"I know..."