"Tadaima!" Toshirou said and removed his shoes, placing them at the entranceway by the door.
'I really hope dinner is ready. Knowing that woman...'
"Toshi-kuuun!" A light, feminine voice called his name - well, the beginning of it at least.
'Shit!!'
He tried to dodge but as luck would have it, it was futile. A pair of arms wrapped around him and pressed his head into two soft objects. He struggled a bit and eventually got his head out of them.
"You damned woman." Toshirou grit his teeth at his mother.
"Mou, Toshi-kun is such a spoilsport." The woman - Aosaki Ruri, replied.
"I don't want to hear that from you! And don't put my head in your breasts, that's disgusting!"
"But Okaa-san missed you so much." She said tearfully.
Toshirou sighed to himself. 'Just why the hell does this happen to me everyday.'
"Forget about this, is dinner ready?" He asked her and hung up his blazer on a nearby rack.
"Mhm." She replied cheerfully. Toshirou knew something was up.
"You're lying, aren't you?"
"Hehe" She nervously scratched her cheek with one finger and looked away from him. He looked incredulously at his mother, trying not to believe that she could pull this type of stunt - again.
"You're an adult for crying out loud. Just how irresponsible can you be!"
"Gomen'nasaai, I only wanted to taste some of Toshi-kun's cooking again." She replied soberly.
'Of all things.' "Just forget it. I'll be in the kitchen in ten minutes, so the least you can do is to bring out the ingredients." Toshirou said and walked into his room, shutting the door with a bang.
She looked at her son with joyful eyes and a smile before going to do as he told her.
...
"Itadakimasu!" Toshirou and Ruri said, putting their hands together in a prayer and lightly bowed their heads.
"Uwaa!" Toshirou's mother - Ruri, sighed happily as she took a bite from the bowl of fried rice and miso soup. She raised her hands childishly into the air and leaned back on her chair with an ecstatic smile on her face. Toshirou sweatdropped at his mother's antics.
"Careful so you don't fall." Toshirou told her while calmly eating his own meal.
"Haaai!" She replied, not really making an effort to be cautious. Toshirou could only shake his in amusement.
About thirty minutes later, after all plates had been cleared and washed and a nice shower, both mother and son were in the living room, one watching television and the other reading a book, or rather, tried to read a book. Toshirou couldn't concentrate as his mother kept firing him with questions about both his schoolwork and the TV program - which he found annoying since he didn't even know what the show was about.
Toshirou's eye twitched in frustration and he pressed his palm on his forehead. "Leave me alone, I'm trying to work here."
"But you're giving all your attention to your homework, I want some attention too." She pouted.
'And this confirms it, no way in hell is this woman an adult.'
"Are you really an adult?" Toshirou asked with a blank expression on his face.
Tears welled up in his mother's eyes and she turned away from him. "How cruel of you to ask me that?" She sniffed. Toshirou dismissed her and didn't care to even look at her. He disregarded it as one of her usual antics - which to be frank, it was.
Seeing no reaction from her son, she kept on pouting and laid down on the couch, playing with Toshirou's winter blue hair.
'I should've expected as much.' He sighed. 'But still, it's not bad at all. It's kind of relaxing.' He leaned further into her touch and relaxed his body, breathing out a sigh of relief at the soothing sensation.
Ruri smiled at her son relaxing and continued to play with his hair. Suddenly, Toshirou stopped writing and his face became expressionless which made her worry.
"Okaa-san," For him to call her that way, he was definitely being serious, "you said you will tell me about dad and what happened to him today, didn't you?"
She briefly stopped before continuing to massage his light blue locks. "Mhm." She replied.
He looked at her from the corner of his eyes. "So could you do that right now?"
Now she stopped the massage completely, visibly not comfortable with the question laid before her. Toshirou noticed her unease but said nothing to sooth it because to him, sooner or later, everything will be brought to light.
"I guess I have no choice." Ruri said. Her voice was void of all playfulness and posed naivety. Now, it was Toshirou's turn to feel uneasy. Never before has his mother been so serious and her voice, was very unfamiliar to him as well.
He closed his notebooks and turned around while sitting on the floor. With his hands in front of him, he stared at her with expectancy. Ruri sat up as well and faced her son. Both looked at the other, mentally preparing themselves for what they were about to do.
"I think I'll have to start from the beginning in all this." Ruri said.
"Take your time." Toshirou replied.
With a deep breath, she started. "First, you need to know my name is not Aosaki Ruri."
Toshirou said nothing.
She continued. "My real name is Noelle El Andrei and your father's name, is Nathaniel El Andrei."
'Those are weird names.' Toshirou thought to himself. Is it some kind of mafia? Ruri looked at her son's expression and went on.
"This might be hard to believe but your father and I, aren't from here - and when I say 'here' I mean, we are not from this world."
'The hell does she mean by that.'
She ignored his puzzled look. "Fifteen years ago, I appeared with a child in my arms in the middle of Fujisawa." She got up from the couch and walked over to a nearby bookshelf. She picked a piece of paper from it and handed it over to him which he took from her. It was an article, about a strange occurrence. The headlines read:
MYSTERIOUS WOMAN AND CHILD APPEAR OUT OF THIN AIR IN FUJISAWA.
When Toshirou looked closely, he noticed the woman, unconscious, had dark blue hair, which could easily be mistaken for black in the picture, and she was carrying something like a bundle wrapped in cloth in her arms.
"That's me, from fifteen years ago." Ruri said and sat in front of him. "When I came to, I was at the police station. I was asked a number of questions but at the time I didn't understand since I didn't know how to speak japanese. I thought the language of this world was really strange."
Toshirou looked at her before shifting his gaze back to the paper in his hands. "Then what about dad?" He asked.
With a sigh she replied, "Your father, didn't come with me."
He folded the paper and put it aside. "What happened to him?"
She couldn't look at him, so she diverted her gaze to the floor. "He died. Shortly before I arrived, he died, a gruesome death."
Hearing his mother's statement, he held his head as he felt a bit of pain.
'F*ck! Not now!'
"Are you alright?" His mother's calm voice called out to him.
"I'm fine, go on." He replied.
"The world I come from is called Sekaila. It written with the kanji for another world and society. It's a realm where mythical creatures exist, what you call demons, dragons, angels, and all of the sort can be found there. However, all creatures are under His Majesty. His Majesty is not a person, he's more like the god of creation - no, he is the god of all worlds, and the angels in particular, are his servants who directly monitor the affairs of Sekaila. Among these angels, there are higher beings called the Archangels. We also call them the Hosts of heaven. They rule over the angels and every heavenly body and reside in a higher dimension which we humans call Heaven. Are you following so far?"
He gave a small nod as a response.
"According to the Hebrew texts, there are supposed to be seven archangels, the Originals, who directly serve His Majesty himself. But something unexpected happened, thousands of years later, an eighth was chosen. He was an oddity, but His majesty allowed it."
"And the eighth is my father." Toshirou said. Ruri nodded as a 'yes'.
"The angels are a proud set of beings, they consider themselves superior to we humans and as such don't directly interact with us, though I suspect there's more to it than what meets the eye. Just like humans, angels were also gifted with the ability to procreate. They could bear children to increase their number and to continue that particular lineage."
"There's only one 'but', they can only do so with their kind. They must have no affair with humans or there will be severe consequences. Your father however, fell in love and broke this rule and was stripped of his power, title and authority as an Archangel and was turned into a human. He was a good man, he made many friends and helped a lot of people. He and I were happy and a year later we had you." Ruri smiled fondly at the memory.
"I remember the look on his face when you came. Nathan looked like he was about to burst with joy and I couldn't contain myself as well. Everyone was so happy at the time, we thought nothing could ever go wrong and this happiness would last forever. If only we knew how wrong we were. One year after your birth, disaster struck. It turned out that some of the hosts were unhappy with Nathan leaving and they took out their wrath on the world. It was brutal, people's blood were shed and lives were lost. Families, siblings, friends, loved ones, all taken away from each other. Humanity rapidly drew to an end."
<"Run!! Run for your lives!! Don't sto- ahhh!!!".>
<"Please help me! Please save my baby!!">
Toshirou held his head and a wave of visions suddenly flooded into him.
"I still remember clearly, that day. When your father said he would give himself up for humanity, we all disagreed. He, he had been so good to us all and we just couldn't let him go. Your father has always had a way with words and so he persuaded us and we left. I don't remember the exact details of what he did but what I do remember is that we suddenly saw him running towards us. We thought he had changed his mind to follow us but then we realized that he was warning us."
<"USE THE RING! USE THE RING NOW URIAH!">
Toshirou stretched out his hand and his mother placed her palm in his. He held it tightly in comfort which she appreciated by squeezing back.
"It was too late and so sudden. Uriah-san, Janel-san, Ruri-chan, Yukio-kun, Elle-chan, Ru'el-kun, everyone was killed by that angel." Tears streamed down from her eyes as she recalled the horrifying moments.
<"N-nathan-san r-run">
<"Onee-chan!">
<"Ruri-chan!!!">
"In the blink of an eye, they all died. It looked like it was the end for us as well. Just as we were about to be done for, Nathan slipped this ring on my finger" She showed him a ring on her index finger. It was a simple gold ring and it had a blue gem in the middle, Toshirou couldn't really identify the blue gemstone but that's to be expected since it's from another world.
"This ring is what made me come here. I can also go back if I want to. When he gave it to me, he was at death's door. I, I don't want to talk about exactly how he passed on but I can show you."
She touched his forehead softly with a finger and suddenly, memories flooded into him.
He saw a massive creature - an angel - with huge wings and a sword in hand.
There was a man on the ground with a woman but Toshirou couldn't make out their features, suddenly the man whispered something and pushed the woman away from him.
"I won't let you take everything from me".
It was sudden and Toshirou's eyes widened in horror at the next series of events. The angel put his sword to the ground and a massive blade protruded from the ground and stabbed him in the chest, another followed and pierced him through his ribs. Different blades went through his body. His jaw, neck, back, legs, arms were all pierced by darkened blades.
"Too much! Stop!", Toshirou exclaimed. Ruri immediately removed her finger from his forehead and rubbed her son's back to comfort him. Toshirou realized she was crying and quickly wiped her tears with the back of his hand.
"I'm sorry." He said to her. She shook her head as a negative. "It wasn't your fault. It's no one's fault."
The two sat in silence for a lengthy amount of time, each deep in their own thoughts. Ruri looked at her only child and was shocked at the anger and hatred in his eyes, despite him appearing so calm.
"I'll kill them." He said gazing down. "I'll kill them all."
"Ehh? What are you saying Toshirou-kun? Please think about what you're saying." Ruri said with tears in her eyes.
Toshirou clenched his fists in anger. "What's there to think about? Those bastards, they made you cry, they made you suffer so much and all for what!? A silly rule. They call themselves angels and yet they could do something so horrifying. That's bullshit!!"
"I-I know but this isn't a fantasy game or a movie, this is reality. You can't go, you absolutely can't go. I already lost someone, I don't want to lose you too. So please, calm down!" She sobbed.
Toshirou's eyes softened hearing her cry. He took her hand in his and rubbed it gently. "Gomen'nasai, I shouldn't have burst out like that."
She wiped her eyes and gave him a watery smile. "I understand, but your father wouldn't have wanted you to go back. Nathan, would've wanted us to live a peaceful life." She said.
With a sigh he let go of her hand and leaned back on the sofa. With the back of his hand to his forehead, his gaze went upwards, not really looking at anything in particular.
He picked his books from the floor and stood up. With a stretch he said, "I'm going to bed, don't stay up too late."
"T-Toshirou-kun?"
With his back to his mother he said, "You don't need to worry about me. I'm more concerned for you since you're the one who experienced all those things. For some reason that I can't understand, I kept having dreams of that time but I couldn't recall the faces and names. I have a lot to think about but don't let this change anything between us. I don't want us to become distant from each other because of some deaths, after all we're the only family we've got. To me, you are and always will be Aosaki Ruri. I don't give two shits about your past life. You're my only parent, my only family and my only mother."
Ruri was surprised at her son's speech, and yet so happy. She looked like she was about to cry before jumping up and hugging him from behind. Toshirou groaned in protest but made no effort to push her away.
"You're a really good boy, Toshirou-kun." She said to him.
He turned around and returned the hug with a small smile plastered on his face. "And you're the best mom, Kaa-chan." He said.