As she said that word, the table went silent. Metsumi's eyes widened, Kaori's lips parted with surprise, Keiko looked back and forth between the woman at the end of the table and Ash. For several seconds after speaking that word, Ash couldn't move.
For years, her parents' faces, their names, their lives as far as she had seen them, were all blurry. But now, with Ayami in front of her, all of that came back, flooding her thoughts. It was so much that she simply couldn't operate.
Her mother was sitting there, a stunned look on her face as she and Ash locked eyes.
The half-demon had spent so many sleepless nights imagining what she'd say to her parents if she saw them again. She'd rehearsed many different curses and outbursts, all in case a moment like this ever happened, and yet, with her mother here, now, she forgot it all.
Instead, all she could think of was what she was feeling. And what she felt went from confusion to pure rage.
