Chapter 78: Acceptance
Note: Here you go, 2 chapters at once. Why? 😔🖐️Don't ask too many questions and just Vote Powerstones.
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[Third Person Point of View]
The day wasn't very bright. The sky was filled with dark clouds and it rumbled like lion roars. The LoveMy crew left the hotel and began their shooting.
Once they were in Disneyland, cameras rolled around them and recorded whatever they did to have fun. A couple of hours later, when they were about to be done, the sky let loose and rain began to fall.
– Rumble
"Hey, find cover! It's raining!"
People scattered all over to find shade. A few romantics didn't run and danced under the rain instead. Aqua instructed his aura– his Gold Sign– to vaporize all the droplets of rain that were about to touch him, and he instructed Mem-Cho to do something similar with her power.
Of course, she didn't succeed. Something like costing her skin with Time Aura took advanced control, something that she didn't have.
"Pathetic. You can't create anything other than a circular time bubble?" He rebuked her and raised an arm over her head to keep her protected from the rain.
There were no people around this area, most have taken shelter inside buildings.
"...." Mem-Cho grumbled as they ran off under a closed shop's edge. Couldn't he be a bit nicer to her after he did all that in the morning? No, he was weird every time it had anything to do with her magic. It's as if he switched to another person.
'Punk.' Mem-Cho scoffed, and he missed it thanks to the rain.
"Why did it rain today out of all times?" Mem-Cho complained. "At least it started after most of the shoot ended."
"Yeah," he nodded, crossing his arms as he leaned against the wall. "This is a good time to train my power…"
"Then do it. What's stopping you?"
"Cameras. And people."
She didn't reply to that and instead put her hand inside her handbag. She took out a packet of cigarettes. She lit up a stick after some difficulty and he turned his head to look at her.
"Quit staring,"
"Why do you smoke?"
"Smoking confuses your body not to feel hunger. Enough reason to smoke." Mem took a strong buff, blowing out smoke at the rain ahead. "Heh, it's just a bad habit actually. I got addicted to it when nothing was working out in life. I kept jumping from one small work to another to try and keep my family alive. It has stuck with me ever since."
"I see."
"Sorry. Does the smell bother you? Although it's strawberry flavored…" She turned her head to look at him but found him smiling at her. "What?"
"You remind me of myself from the past," he said and she frowned. "Like way back in the past. Back when I wasn't that old."
"...." Mem-Cho took another puff and just stared at him.
"I was stuck in a Time Loop, and I was trying to change the ending. Yet it wasn't working out. No matter what I did it just… didn't work. The ending was unavoidable. I began to smoke these magical cigars back then, which kept me calm through the research and everything. It was a hard habit to get rid of. It's funny seeing my 'disciple' do that same thing as me."
Instead of giving him a smile in return, Mem-Cho frowned. She hesitated as she took another puff and sighed out the smoke. "Does Ai know?"
"About my age?"
"That you took over her son's body?"
He looked at her and she stared back. "I don't know much about the supernatural world, I already told you the first time we met. But for you to be as old as you claim to be, this 'Aqua' identity must be fake. I think you killed Aquamarine Hoshino and have been his doppelganger ever since. Or is it that Ai truly isn't your mother, given she is so young, and adopted you without knowing who you are?"
"Looks like I poked a hornet's nest when I told you my age. I guess it's natural to be curious," he rubbed the side of his temple. "Well, it doesn't matter if I tell you. Many Gods know already. I've been reincarnated in the body of Ai's newborn. I didn't kill her kid though—I am him."
"That makes more sense," she nodded in understanding. She didn't look shocked in the least. Ever since he told her his age, she had been theorizing what he may be, and reincarnation was one of the basic guesses.
"Yeah,"
"What was the bad ending? In the Time Loop that you spoke of."
"...."
He didn't reply. He turned his head ahead and stared at the rain in front. Mem-Cho frowned and waited but he didn't speak. She opened her mouth to call for him but stopped herself when he reached out to ask for her cigarette.
She gave it to him and stared at him.
"That day was a rainy day too," he said as his eyes stared at a distant past. "Where water mixed with cold red blood. For… a long time, I saw that scene repeatedly. Perhaps because I saw it so many times, I can still vividly see the smile of that person dying in my arms."
"I see," Mem-Cho didn't ask further. This person he spoke of, she could tell they were dear to him. Dearer than anyone in this new life of his. She didn't want to ask him for details and remind him of that.
'He looks… hollow.' Mem felt a tingle in her heart as she looked at him.
Honestly, she had been mad at him since the morning. She was even thinking of ignoring him… for a few days… to make him feel bad. She never quite understood what kind of person he was, moreover now that she knew he was older than human civilization, so she was feeling weird.
Did he really have the heart left to love her if he had been with a million others in the past? Can a person's heart really love more than once?
Mem stared at him in a trance, her eyes seeing something in him that she never caught before. She stared at his side profile as he stared at the empty air in melancholy.
'I asked him something unnecessary,' she realized. 'But at least it clears up a major doubt I had about him."
—Does a man who's been with a million women have any feelings left in his heart to love someone new?
Mem-Cho realized that if that man could make this kind of expression in a reminder of a past incident, he surely had the heart to love a million more.
'He looks lonely…'
She yanked his cigarette and threw it to the floor and pulled him toward her.
'I can fix that.'
Mem-Cho pulled him into a kiss and felt the seed of doubt she had against him burst into nothingness. He broke out of his daze as he ran a hand down her back, making her feel wanted and loved, just the thing she wanted, as he embraced her tightly.
* * *
Cameras fixated on the pouring rain, as a blonde couple stood under it, kissing as the man led the girl inside a cabinet, leaving the camera's sight.
This scene will be aired on the episode tomorrow, but the LoveMy's Producer would be getting the footage right now. He was sitting in his office in Japan when he received the footage, whistling to himself.
"It's been so many seasons since the show has been running, but this is my first time seeing a kid like this." the Producer said as he watched Aqua and Mem-Cho vanishing into a cabinet.
He wondered if he should cut this clip out of the episode… On another thought, this will keep the viewers on edge.
Mem-Cho was the third girl he gave time to in this episode, and while he wasn't blatantly making out with the other two girls, it is still romantic.
In just under a month, this kid had somehow managed to build chemistry with three girls so deeply.
During the rest of the shooting until now, he spent his time with Akane. They shared quite a few rides. Later, he spent a bit of time with Mai Sakurajima too. And now he was with Mem-Cho, all of this under the first half of the last episode.
"This will definitely put the viewers on edge. Just who will he choose at the end of the episode, they'll wonder. Heh, even I'm wondering at this point." The producer chuckled as he shook his head.
The funniest part was that the punk wasn't even acting. He really was playing house with three girls at once, and who knows, if he had more time he might have announced all three of them as his girlfriends.
Producer Masaya remembered what that kid asked him on the first day of the shooting. Aqua had been worried he'd kiss too many girls and get into trouble. He thought that the kid was just another playboy who let his good luck with average girls get to his head—he thought the kid would be taught a lesson when he tried messing with these popular, high-value girls. Who would have predicted this kind of development?
The producer laughed. "Ahh, I feel a bit bad for whoever becomes his girlfriend in tomorrow's shooting. This brat can't stay with a single woman."
He had to ask Ai, where did she find a kid like him? And if he could borrow him for a few more shows. He doubted she'd agree though, for some reason.
* * *
[First Person Point of View]
Mem has been acting hesitant around me since I left her room in the morning, even though she hid it well. But whatever she saw in my face during the rain seemed to break that ice. She was cheerful again, and maybe a bit more loving than before. Just like a girl should be behaving after losing her virginity to a man.
Well, it was probably the melancholia she saw. A good portion of women are oddly attracted to depressed guys.
I'm not depressed though. I've gotten over that life a long time ago… It was hard, as I was barely a few hundred years old back then, the death of my Vampire Mother was a strong hit to my mental state. But it has been hundreds of thousands of years since then, even if I still remember her face just as the first day I saw her, I'm over it.
Returning my senses to the present, I took a sip from the orange juice on the table that I was sharing with Mem and another person. Mem wasn't bothered anymore by the fact that I was going to choose another girl as my girlfriend tomorrow, as she ate her expensive Italian with a satisfied face.
Someone else was bothered by this whole situation though—someone annoying, someone who didn't deserve to be bothered.
"But why? You two make a good couple," Quetzalcoatl yanked my glass of juice and poured it down her throat, earning quite a few stares from the other tables.
She put the glass down and looked at the two of us from above her shades that hung low on her nose. "You two clearly touched each other during the rain, so you guys are already spending nights together. But why won't you date?"
"She's a friend," I admitted and pulled my empty glass back from her, calling the waiter to fill me a drink. "She's the closest friend I made in these 15 years, so you can say she's my best friend. Her humor is nice so I seduced her and made her mine."
"I didn't know you considered me as your best friend?" Mem-Cho raised an eyebrow. "And punk, who is 'yours'? I am with you out of my own will."
"True," I sipped juice and with my other hand, I yanked her face toward me. I pressed my lips over her as her eyes grew wide. We kissed as the sweet liquid spread through our mouths.
"Fucker…" Mem-Cho blushed and wiped her when the kiss ended, glaring at me.
Quku stared at the scene with a deadpan look. "Harem, eh. It's not that rare in the supernatural world, so I don't judge. But I don't think the other two girls will accept it."
"Yet," I shrugged. "If I deliberately went out of my way to seduce the other two too and bring them to the bed together in this short time we had, I could have made them accept this thing. But then I don't want to deal with three new girlfriends at once, it's too time-consuming. I'll take it slow with them and they'll come to accept it. As you just said, harem isn't rare on this side of the world."
"Don't get stabbed by some jealous girl," the Dragon Goddess advised. "Don't tell me the name of who you'll choose out of the other two, but you should go give her some attention. She must feel complicated about you after seeing you with Mem-Cho all the time."
"I'm surprised this great Goddess cares so much," I said with a dry tone.
"I just want a fun last episode. Now shoo, leave Memmy with me, I'll teach her some tricks to keep men loyal." She waved her hand at me as I laughed and got up.
It's not a bad thing if Mem-Cho got close to a powerhouse like her. Though I was hoping to get closer to her myself through this dinner, that didn't work out since our entire group came to the same restaurant for dinner.
So I just spent the rest of the hours with Akane and Mai. Soon, the next day came.
The last half of the 8th episode began. It was time to make my final decision, it was time I got myself a woman.
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