Chapter 118: Just One Pantheon? Nah, I'd Win.
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We walked by the golden beach side as the sun set in the far. We talked about the scenery for a bit, before falling silent and enjoying it.
Only a few minutes later did we move to more important discussions. Surprisingly, it was Ruby who did it.
"Why are you so… different from when you were Doctor Gorou?" she faced the last shine of the sun and asked.
"Memory loss," I admitted, staring at her side profile. "Right before the end of my 9th life, I had a big fight with a powerful, multiversal organization. They went by the name of the Order of Crimson Abyss. Their goal was to kill me for good so that I don't reincarnate anymore.
"But they didn't quite succeed seeing as how you're here?"
"Kind of," I shrugged. "They did manage to damage my memories exceptionally. I forgot the details of my lives till then and even experienced a series of reincarnations that I have zero memories of even to this day. During my 10th life as Gorou too, I didn't have my earlier memories. Why else do you think I never treated your illness with magic, Ruby?"
"Well…" she stayed silent. I'm sure she had theorized this much herself.
I continued, "My consciousness as well as my memories were amiss during the many reincarnations I've missed. So in those unknown numbers of lives between my 9th and 11th, I didn't have a sense of self. Only out of pure luck, did I even remember my life as Gorou after waking up as Aqua."
"...."
"So essentially, the reason Gorou and I act differently is because he had memory loss and I don't." I finished. "You know, some philosophers may argue that Gorou and I are completely different people, as memories make a man."
"Are you trying to reassure me or giving me more anxiety with that last line?" Ruby asked with a frown and I laughed, pulling her into a hug.
"Why? Did that shake your belief in me?"
"...No" she wrapped her arms around him. "Thanks for telling me. Now I understand things a bit… Does she know?"
She meant Ai. "No, she doesn't. I haven't even told her that I'm Gorou, that will go and needlessly complicate things. Why, aren't you happy being the only one to know these secrets?"
"Yes," she giggled and rubbed her face on my chest. "I love getting special treatment from you."
And honestly, he liked giving her that. His memories and emotions from his 10th life riled up in happiness when he saw Sarina be so happy around him. Even outside that, it was rare he had a sister in his life, let alone a twin. As his other half, he wanted to pamper her.
"You're so clingy," he ruffled her hair.
"I just can't keep myself away from you," she sighed. "Am I annoying?"
"I didn't say that," he kissed her head. "I would rather find you adorable and cute."
"Well, that's because I am." She looked up at my face with a small grin. "Do you remember the promise?"
It could be any promise, she didn't give enough context to give an idea. However, I still had a clear idea of what.
It was about the promise that Sarina made that she'd marry me when she turned 16… She's a few months away from turning 16.
"No idea which one you mean," I said with a confused tilt of my head and she pouted. "Ah, is it the Path that I promised to give you?"
"You're so bad," she grumbled but hugged me tighter. "But I'll assume you haven't yet regained all your memories, that's why you don't know. If you still don't remember in a few months, I'll remind you myself… You better be ready."
Since I told her I didn't have the memory of a lot of reincarnations that I'd missed between 9th and 11th, she had a point in assuming that I might just have gaps in the memories that I already have.
It was true. Although I think I have 99.99% of my total memories, excluding the said missed reincarnations, a very small percentage is missing. I probably need not worry, but who knows what hides in those 0.01%? That is still hundreds of years.
Probably nothing important, though.
"I have something to ask of you, Ruby." After a long silence where we hugged till the sun dipped and the moon arose, I spoke to her. "Would you listen?"
"I don't want to reconcile with her." She buried her face deeper into my chest, hiding her eyes from me.
"And why is that?"
"…." She didn't have an answer.
In the beginning, she was doing it for me, because she was mad that her doctor, her brother, was being mistreated by Ai. But since I already forgave her and told her to stop bringing it up just an hour ago, she had no other real reason. None other than being stubborn just for the sake of it.
"She doesn't deserve to be treated like that, you know?" I insisted. "She lost her father at a young age, her mom was a criminal who was sent to jail. When her mom was released, she didn't come to see her daughter and rather fled away. She was an alone girl from the get-go. She had nobody," I gently ruffled Ruby's hair and tried to make her understand. "Now she has us, but we are pushing her away. I already settled things back with her, but you're being stubborn."
"…Well," she sighed.
"Even if she made a mistake, which I personally think wasn't a mistake but a justified reaction instead, you should give her another chance. Remember, it's still the same Ai you've idolized. The person whose voice was beside you till the very end. Now you're lucky enough to have become her daughter… are you really okay with throwing all of it away?" I finished and she shook her head right away.
I was expecting her reaction to take a bit longer than that, but I was pleasantly surprised. She looked up at me with teary eyes as she shook her head, "I don't want to throw it all away. I'm jealous of both of you acting like family while I remain on the side, I don't want to continue that feeling. I want to apologize. I really do. But…"
It was rather embarrassing for someone her age to apologize to her parents, I realized. I ruffled her hair and smiled, "I am here, you just need to listen to me. Just… go and hug her, she wouldn't bother asking for an apology."
"…."
I led Ruby back to where Ai and the others were staying. The extra eyes put pressure on Ruby's shoulders, I noticed they dropped a little, so I squeezed them a little. She looked up and into Ai's eyes who was busy folding the deckchair, ready to go back.
She smiled at us with a blink, "Oh, you guys are back. I-"
Before she could finish talking, Ruby jumped at her and hugged her tightly. Ai's eyelids fluttered in surprise and her lips widened into a smile. "R-ruby? Baby, are you alright?"
"I am not," she said, her voice almost breaking. "I am sorry." Although I told her that she didn't need to apologize, she was a big girl, she wasn't going to half-ass it. "I'm sorry for the last two months… mama." Her voice broke as she failed to hold back her sniffs.
Ai looked taken aback, pleasantly surprised, worried seeing her cry, and incredibly happy. She hugged her daughter back and ruffled her hair, kissing her head and telling her that it was alright, that everything was fine.
The other members of our family gathered, circling the two of them while smiling to themselves. A warm atmosphere was created, and honestly, it was sweet enough to sway my olden heart. Finally, they're back to their senses. Both of them.
It took a bit more time than I'd have preferred but… I like this development. The family is finally back together, as strong as it always was and always will be.
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I did promise Ruby that I'd give her a second energy pool today, but neither she nor Ai wanted to be separated from each other, so we decided to postpone it for a day.
It was about 1 AM now, and everyone was sleeping. I wasn't sleepy tonight since I slept last night, so I sat at the beach and watched the moon and the stars. Sipping on hot tea, I once again lost myself in the melancholy of the cosmos. It happened often, whenever I enjoyed a particularly happy session and then found myself alone at a later time.
"It's hard not to miss some people during your happy moments, you know? You just wish that they were beside you to experience that." I wasn't talking to myself, those words didn't even come out of my mouth.
I turned to the side to find a little girl sitting beside me, her white hair swaying in the air as her blue eyes stared at the moon. "Amaterasu?" I muttered.
"You've done well," she turned to look at me with a smile.
"Oh, thank you, I wouldn't have known if your Divine Self didn't come down from heaven just to tell me that." I gave her a dry stare. "What are you really here for?"
"Oh, how impatient the young generation is," Amaterasu giggled and looked at me. By now she knew better that the chance of me being a 'young generation' was too little to count, yet she found it worthy of teasing. "I'm just here to warn you. Now that your family is back to its happy times, I'd hate to see it crumble just because some Gods want to play politics."
I decided to take her words a bit more seriously as I nodded, "Is it about Norse?"
"It is," she said. "They're after you. Not just Asgard, but the entire Pantheon."
"Just a single Pantheon? I'm not worried. I'm sure my lovely Amaterasu-sama and her pantheon will keep me and my family safe from those bad guys." I said as I looked at her.
She laughed but there was no humor in it, "We'd try to stop them from getting into Japan, surely, but we can't reach out our direct help to you. We don't want a Pantheon War; you know?"
"Aren't they declaring war on Shinto if they slide into Japan to begin with?" I asked and her smile thinned.
"Unfortunately, no. Since some minor parts of Japan are occupied by different factions, such as Kuoh under the devils, we don't operate there. It is an agreement between us, they're not parasites. So if trouble does bloom there, we can't intervene. You'll be on your own." She looked at him seriously and then shrugged easily. "But I'm sure you'll be fine. You did call me a 'mere planetary deity' before, so it shouldn't be hard for you to deal with a few of my kind."
"To think the Great Goddess would take a mortal's spiteful words to heart despite all the legends about her being a benevolent deity and hold a grudge, count me astounded." I joked with a small smile that she returned with a playful shrug.
"Thank you for letting me know, but yes, you're right," I slowly stood back up and looked back at the mere planetary deity. "I'll be fine."
The Goddess giggled and thinned in the air, her form scattering like stardust as I turned back to the cosmos above. This vacation has been extremely productive, my family and therefore my Sect have gained a lot of extra firepower. But it's not enough, apparently.
It has been 15 years since I've been on this little rock planet, taking it slow and enjoying life. But it appears I've been a little too laid back if some irrelevant pantheon of Gods dreamed of fighting against me.
"Disgusting little ants."
The grip of my willpower shattered the teacup into pieces, and the same will spread out to call forth hungry waves and roaring sea storms. That night, we had to cut our trip short as did everyone else around the island.
Tsunamis engulfed the beaches all around Japan, and if it wasn't for the different Sea Gods working behind the curtains, it'd have spread all over Asia.
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Author Note: Starting sunday, I'm looking froward to get the chapter update rates up now that CG has ended. Enjoy!
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