"What was what?" Aether and Kai asked the same thing at the same time, but only three of them heard them saying it.
"I think I saw Aether." Astraea told them after giving a thought about what she saw. "Where is he?" She asked her sons.
"Here." Jin held Aether's shoulders from the side and made his figure visible.
"Where were you standing at?" Astraea assumed where the head should be and talked to him.
"Here. Although I've turned the direction." Aether spoke and, Jin told them.
"How tall are you?" She asked again to the ghost.
"About here." Rin made like a shield on top of Aether's head.
"Yeah, now I'm sure I saw you." Astraea nodded to herself. "Could you two repeat what you just did?"
"Sure." Kai went back to the spot in front of the mirror and stood there. "Is this it?"
"No... Could you repeat that part where you walked away?" Astraea asked while her hand was at her chin, making her look like a movie director.
Kai and Aether repeated the action. But they did not touch each other accidentally this time. Hence Aether's figure didn't appear in the mirror.
"Did any of you remember in detail of what happened?" She then looked back at the only people who could see Aether.
"Any additional detail?" Alek asked her brother. They were all eager for the reunion of the first son of Minazuki.
"I don't remember." Aether lowered his head, making him appear tinier than he already was.
"Did you touch him?" Iris gave her an idea.
"I don't know. Maybe." Aether answered.
"You could try." Alek told her brother.
"Okay."
"Now, Kai would you repeat the thing again,please?" Alek asked her brother. Kai sighed deeply before repeating what he did before. He stood in front of the mirror again. Aether touched his shoulder when he was a little behind him.
"See, there!" Astraea pointed at the white figure in the mirror. It was, indeed, a figure of a small child. All in white, but somehow, they couldn't see his solid features. He was a blurry white shadow, and also, the shadow looked like it was a fire.
"Aether?" Panacea asked the reflection in the mirror. She saw the head nodding. "Oh dear... is this what you see?" She asked her daughter in disbelief. If that was the case, how would they know it was him. It was like a human-sized white flame.
"No. He looks solid to us. He doesn't look like a ghost if there wasn't for the shadow. He doesn't have a shadow." Jin answered it for her. Alek looked like she didn't hear her mother.
"Oh, can you talk?" Even though she couldn't see her sons face, maybe he could talk. Aether spoke out loud but, they could hear him. So he shook his head to show that he couldn't. That was the direct way of communicating with him, through sight.
Alek touched lightly on Aether's shoulder to indicate sadness. They had maybe a little too high of hope. Although her family couldn't see him, at least they now had a way to communicate with him.
"What the f*ck?" Kai's jaw dropped at what he saw in the mirror. There was a boy who was standing next to him with his head down. He immediately looked at his side to see no one standing close o him apart from his sister. No one cared about the fact that Kai cursed. Because apart from Alek and Aether, everyone saw the clear image of Aether in the mirror. But it disappeared as soon Kai looked at his side in surprise.
"What?" Alek asked. She still had her hand on her brother's shoulder.
"Aether, hold him again, with Alek hold you." Jin was the first one to recover from the shock and told his cousins. They immediately did what they were told. The moment Aether touched his brother again, he was visible in the mirror and solid like Kai. It was bizarre. They felt like they were seeing something they shouldn't.
"Wow." Bia spoke. The boy in the mirror was shorter than she expected. He had a shocked expression on his face. His hazel eyes were wide open, with his mouth forming a perfect O. He was dressed in all white that made him look like an angel from the sky.
"Aether..." Panacea forgot about the pain and approached her son's figure in the mirror. She accidentally came in front of ghost Aether and blocked him from the mirror.
"Yeah, I think you should stand somewhere here." Jin guided his aunt quickly so that his cousin would be able to appear again.
"Thanks, Castor." Aether smiled at his cousin. This earned gasps from many people because they now could hear him.
"Aether..." Panacea cried silently, as she heard her son speak and smile. His simile was one of the many things she had missed the most.
"Mum." Aether didn't know what expression to make nor what to say. He, too, was shocked. Kai had his jaw about to drop on the floor. "Hello, Kairos. My brother."
"Aether..."Kai barely made his voice out. He didn't know his brother sounded this sweet to his ears than in videos.
"Yes?" Aether looked at his brother questionably from the mirror.
"Hi." Kai waved at his brother awkwardly. He has stopped blinking.
"Hi. Now you can see me. I guess my wish was granted." Aether flashed his warm smile. He was referring to the time in the previous room.
"I guess so." Kai resumed blinking after realising he had not been blinking since his brother's appearance in the mirror.
Aether chuckled sweetly and, the sound filled the room. "I think we have time. Maybe we can talk one by one?" He suggested when he felt that many of them wanted to tell him things in private. He was becoming a counselor to the family (?)
"But we need to keep in contact." Alek told him. If she removed her hands right now, he would become a ghost again. Not that he wasn't a ghost...
"Could you stay? Maybe be you can use headphones to block out the sound as you do it every now and then. Also I think you need to seak with your beast." Aether spoke to his sister.
"Okay." Alek nodded and, Bia got out of the room.
Just a minute later, she brought Alek's headphones with her and handed them to her.
"Thanks." She received it and wore it using two hands. Aether's figure disappeared from their sight for a few seconds before reappearing again. Alek's theory was confirmed. "Can you sit?" She asked her dead brother.
"Or do you need a cushion or something if you can't sit on the chair?" Junto suggested. He was a ghost. From the movies he watched, ghosts were able to go through things. If he was one of the types of ghosts from the movies, the same thing would happen to him, right?
"No, thank you. I like to sit on the floor." Aether replied to him and, Alek's eyebrow went up. So he had the same habit as hers. Or maybe, she had the same habit as him. "Anyway, let's start." Aether abruptly sat down on the floor without a warning, and Alek lost contact again. She followed him soon and sat next to him quickly.
"Mum, you should go first." Kai told his mother and, everyone agreed to it. His mother took the most troll and, she has been holding it in for a very long time.
"Thank you." Panacea told them while she sat down opposite Alek, who was sitting on the right of her brother. Everyone left the room silently.
"You guys don't need to mind me. I will try to talk with Kiryuu." Alek told her mother and brother and closed her eyes in concentration. Soon, she was in the place she was in before. The place in her mind where her beast lived. "Ryuu, I'm here." She gave her nickname since it was long to call her 'Kiryuu'.
Kiryuu came out of the shadow slowly.
"Yes?"
"I'm sorry about earlier. I didn't listen to you." Alek told her while looking straight into her eyes.
"It's alright. Well, I also didn't know the full story, so I also have part in this... thing."
"Mmm." Alek put her arms around the beast when they were close enough. The beast nuzzled her head in Alek's neck and breathed softly. The beasts head was so large that it was the size of the one-by-one metre dining table.
They stayed like that until Alek felt something touching her behind. She instantly jumped in shocked to see what touched her. It was Kiryuu's tail. It was stretching out from the shadows. It was yellow like the rest of her body and had golden fur in the tip.
"How long are you?" Alek asked the beast.
"Pretty long." Kiryuu told her with a smile that showed her dangerous fangs. She was proud that she was long and big.
"Can you show me? Or you can't because we are in our minds?" Alek asked. She wanted to see how her other beast was doing.
"You are right. But I can show you once we are in the physical world. I promise to not go berserk." Kiryuu added when Alek squinted her eyes.
"Okay. Then I have something to share to family." Alek smiled. Having a shapeshifting ability was something she felt weird with since she was not used to it."Oh, yeah. Aether is here. Do you want to say hi?"
"He is? I want to talk to him." Kiryuu answered while twinkling her eyes. It looked odd for a scary-looking beast to have this kind of look. "Looks like the talk is over. Let's go back."