~ Narrator POV ~
Arriving at Ai's apartment for the second time that day. Artorias knocked on the door expecting Ai to be the one to open it, but instead it was a man wearing a black suit with a white button down shirt, he had blonde short hair and thin facial hair. He was also adorning shades.
"Who are you?"
"Who are you?"
Both the man and Artorias asked at the same time. "Ah, Where are my manners? My name is Artorias Pendragon and these 2 beautiful women behind me are my maids Alexis and Claire."
Artorias introduced himself and his maids to the man, while the man who finally saw the women behind Artorias gawked at them or more precisely their '2 large personalities' especially since they were still in their maid outfits.
Seeing this Artorias coughed into his fist gaining the man's attention "Now that I've introduced myself don't you think it's your turn to do the same?"
The man looked at Artorias before he straightened up, leaned back on the door, and put on a 'charming' (At least he thought it was charming) smile and introduced himself more to Alexis and Claire than Artorias, which made Artorias' eyebrow twitch a bit.
"The name's Ichigo Saitou, the president of Ichigo Production, Inc. The owner of B-Komachi and personal Talent manager of Ai Hoshino." He then proceeded to go off on a tangent about how successful B-Kamochi or more specifically Ai was.
'This guy… Hm?' Artorias thought exasperatedly before something behind Ichigo caught his attention. Leaning over to the side Artorias caught the sight of the blonde kid listening in in their conversation.
'If I'm not wrong he's Ai's daughter, Aqua. Damn, I now regret not watching Oshi no Ko…and I'm even more cooked if there's more anime from 2023-2024 in this world.' Artorias thought, cursing himself.
Artorias started losing interest in all things anime related when the Coronavirus hit until he finally stopped watching anime in 2023. Deciding not to think about Artorias called out to Aqua "Hey kid, is your mom here? We told her we would be coming back after dealing with the loser."
Aqua's eyebrow twitched at being called a kid by someone who is the same age as him, however before he could answer, Ichigo who was boasting about his idol group to Alexis and Claire (and was completely ignored) stopped boasting and looked at Artorias.
"Huh, so you're the people that Ai said had taken the man. Speaking of which…where is he? I would've thought that you would take him to the police, but since we haven't had any police visits, tell me that you still have him." Ichigo asked suspiciously.
"He's…alive. Mentally scarred but alive. Listen, we came here because we wanted to have a talk with Ai." Artorias responded, getting sligh annoyed at the fact that they had been standing at the door for a few minutes now.
"Hey, can we come in? We've been standing out here for a little over 3 minutes, and my legs are getting a little tired."
"President Sado who was at the doo-. Oh! You actually came back, and you brought someone new!" A voice came from behind Ichigo that revealed to be no other than Ai Hoshino herself.
"It's Saitou, you shitty idol." Ichigo sounded defeated. 'This must be a common occurrence between the both of them. Also, Her eyes…their different' Artorias thought, intently looking at Ai's eyes noticing that while her bright and bubbly personality was still there, her eyes usually shining bright like a star were now dark.
'So she's acting then.' Artorias concluded before looking at Ai with a smile.
"Yo, I told you we'd come back. Ah! Where are my manners? I didn't introduce myself the last time I was here. My name is Artorias Pendragon, and the 2 behind me are my maids, with the one you've already met is Alexis, my personal maid, while the other's name is Claire." Artorias introduced himself and his maids for the second time today.
"Ah! Yeah I totally forgot about that, sorry, Teehee~!" Ai said as she winked while sticking her tongue out. It would've looked cute to Artorias had her eyes not been so dark and emotionless.
"Im Ai Hoshino, super cute mega lead idol of B-Komachi~!" Ai said as she hit her signature idol pose, but then sweatdropped as she didn't get any of the reaction's she wanted.
"Uh-huh, anyway can we come in? We got some hopefully helpful information on the guy and why he did this."
"Oh- Oh yeah come in." Ai said her smile leaving her face for a moment before it reappeared back on her face.
Artorias, Alexis, and Claire walked into the apartment where they saw both of the twins and another woman. This woman is a radiant-skinned woman with upper-back length strawberry-blonde hair that has bangs hanging on the left side and rouge-coloured eyes. This was Miyako Saitou, wife of Ichigo Saitou.
Artorias politely waved at the twins and Miyako which was returned awkwardly by Ruby and Miyako while Aqua seemed to be in thought about something, but from what Artorias could tell it wasn't a happy thought as much like Ai his eye was dark.
Artorias sat on a couch while both Alexis and Claire stood behind him like the dutiful maids they were, while Ai and Ichigo sat at the dining table where the twins and Miyako were.
There was an awkward silence for a few minutes, when it was broken by Ichigo "Are we gonna start the conversation or not?" Artorias troll side slipped out and he argued with a small smirk on his face "Who says we have to be the ones to start it?"
Ai's and Ruby's lips twitched upwards, while Ichigo's eyebrow twitched and a vein on his forehead could be seen twitching violently. He already had a troll that goes by the name of Ai Hoshino he did NOT need another one especially for a situation as serious as this one.
He was about to say something before a folder was dropped in front of him. Picking it up he saw that the folder had no name "What's this?" He asked. Instead of Artorias answering it was Alexis "That's all the information we could gather on the man that attacked Miss. Hoshino here."
Ichigo hurriedly opened the folder, seeing the man's ID and credit cards, along with a badge from what he could assume to be his job.
"That was all the things he had on him. We sent some people to check his place of residence to gather all of his personal belongings including all of his electronics."
Ichigo listened to her while looking intently at the man's picture on his ID. Miyako and Ai were also looking at the man's picture, when Ai's eyes widened upon seeing it "I know him." She whispered to herself.
Ichigo looked at Ai with a raised eyebrow urging her to continue to which she did "His name is Ryousuke, I met him at a meet and greet we had and he introduced himself to me." Ichigo's eyebrow twitched and he muttered something that made me smile "You remember the name of some guy that just tried to kill you yet you can never get my name right." He was answered with Ai's signature wink
"Anyway the guy was a total loser and since his job didn't really pay him well enough to give him the time to stalk you and support himself while allowing him to buy your merch and go to B-Komachi's concerts, so we, well they, 'questioned' him." Artorias said, interrupting Ichigo's and Ai's shenanigans.
Miyako who was silent since the start of the conversation spoke up "So then how did he find out where Ai lived? And how did he know she has kids?"
"For the first question we were hoping to ask Ai if she had told anyone else where she lived, seeing as how he had no time to stalk her. And for the second…he was tipped off." This caused Ichigo, Miyako, Ai, and the Twins' eyes to widen.
"Tipped off? By who?" Ichigo asked, his voice deadly serious, 'Who could've known that Ai was pregnant? Someone in B-Komachi? No, they all loved Ai…so who?' He thought, trying to narrow down who could've possibly tipped the guy off.
Miyako however eyes widened "Do you think he could've seen the twins at a concert?" She asked but that was shut down by Ichigo who shook his head "No there's just no way of them being connected to her…"
"Ah! Sorry for the misconception, but he knew of Ai's pregnancy before they were even born." Artorias interrupted their thoughts causing all of them to once again widen their eyes in shock.
"H-He knew of my pregnancy before they were born?"
"Yup, and once again he was tipped off."
"If your pregnancy was known before the twins were born then maybe…dammit it was most probably that doctor, that would explain why he disappeared. Where could he have gone and who else could he have told." Ichigo's hands were balled up into fist thinking of the doctor that was supposed to help deliver the twins.
Speaking of the twins Aqua flinched upon hearing about his past self. He wanted to argue that the doctor (his past life) didn't do it, but that would give away that he is a reincarnate, however he didn't need to as Claire spoke up for the first time.
"If you're talking about Doctor Gorou Amamiya then you're wrong. As the man, Ryousuke, admitted to killing him when he originally first tried to kill Ai, in fact the doctor tried to protect Ai but ended up dying in the process, so Ms. Hoshino who else besides B-Komachi, Mr and Mrs. Saitou knew of your pregnancy?"
For the third time today everyone was in shock however for different reasons for Ai it was that the doctor had protected her but dying in the process, for Aqua it was the fact that the same man that tried to Kill Ai today had killed him, for Ruby it was the fact that her crush Doctor Gorou Amamiya had died, and for Ichigo and Miyako it was the fact that Ai could've died much earlier on.
Artorias, Alexis, and Claire just sat/stood there letting them get over their shock for a minute before Alexis cleared her throat getting the adults and Aqua's attention while Ruby was still in shock.
"I'm sorry to interrupt your thoughts but, Ms. Hoshino if you could answer the question of Did anyone else know about your pregnancy other than your colleagues in B-Komachi, the doctor, and Mr and Mrs. Saitou?" She asked Ai who went into thought before answering.
"No, only B-Komachi and President Sai-!" She said but she stopped herself as an image of a woman with chest-length dark hair that was split on either side and with dark colored eyes came into her mind.
Aqua seeing Ai stop and seeing her face become increasingly pale reached out to her "Ai- Mom?" However Ai didn't answer, her mind was racing at a thousand thoughts per second.
After a few minutes of silence from Ai she gently ushered the twins upstairs "Aqua, Ruby. Why don't you both go upstairs and play with your toys" she said with a closed eye smile. The kids looked ready to argue but before they could Artorias stood up, walked over to the twins, grabbed their hands and dragged them to where tenstairs were.
"Cmon, I'm interested in what kind toy's you both have." Artorias said and nodded to both Alexis and Clair to which they bowed slightly and looked towards Ai whose face now showed no emotions.
~
As Artorias was dragging both Aqua and Ruby, Aqua had snatched his hand from Artorias' grip "Who exactly are you?" He asked to which Artorias raised an eyebrow "Huh? Are you dumb? Did you not hear me introduce myself twice?" He looked at Ruby who was quiet and asked "Is your brother retarded?" However he was met with silence.
Aqua's eyebrow twitched and he had an irritated expression "You know what i'm talking about, who are you? Why do you have 2 maids following you around?" However he was ignored because Artorias was now putting his hands on Ruby's shoulder while shaking his head, he had a solemn expression on his face like he was about to share some bad news.
"I'm sorry to tell you this Ms. Ruby, but I'm afraid…your brother is retarded." He said and this caused the quiet Ruby to smile and let out a few giggles. Aqua who saw this widened his eyes and let out a small smile. 'So he saw that she was feeling down and decided to try and cheer her up.'
Ruby, who was feeling slightly better, decided to play along, "Oh Doctor. Pendragon, is there anything that we can do to cure him?" She said as she gathered fake tears in her eyes and 'hopefully' looked at Artorias, "There is a solution for retardation but it will be a long and hard journey ahead of him."
"Oi!" Aqua yelled out seeing as they were making fun of him causing both Artorias and Ruby to start laughing.
~
As the kids were upstairs laughing, downstairs was a different story. Ai was quiet with a shadow being cast over her eyes.
"…There was someone else who knew about my pregnancy." Ai started off and Ichigo and Miyako were shocked, who else but them and B-Komachi knew about her pregnancy?
"Her name was Airi Himekawa."
"Wait, are you talking about famous actress Airi Himekawa? The wife of Seijuro Uehara, that Airi Himekawa?" Ichigo asked incredulously to which Ai nodded "How the hell did Airi Himekawa find out about your pregnancy? Better yet, how is she involved in all this?"
Ai was quiet for a few seconds before she spoke, her voice empty which caused Ichigo and Miyako to be a bit disturbed seeing as how they are more used to her cheerful and bubbly tone.
"For you to know about how and why Airi knew about my pregnancy, you have to know about my ex, the father of Aqua and Ruby. Hiraku Kamiki, we met in middle school and I had seen something in him, something that I saw in myself and I grew attracted to him.
You see, Hikaru was deeply traumatized due to being molested at the age of 11. When we started dating it was going really well, but it was obvious that him being molested was still affecting him deeply to the point where he became emotionally dependent on me.
And him going into the entertainment industry had only made him worse and as a result after finding out that I was pregnant I…broke up with him, not because I started hating him, in fact it was the opposite, I loved him, I still do…or did at least, I loved him too much to make him carry the burden of taking care of me and the kids.
The reason why Airi Himekawa knew about my pregnancy was because I told her."
Ichigo's eyes widened as he stood up quickly looking at Ai like she was stupid "Why would you tell her that?! Are you stupid?!" However Ai didn't answer and her eyes still had a shadow cast over them.
That's when Alexis put together the pieces of Ai's story "That's because Airi Himekawa was the one to molest Hikaru Kamiki, wasn't she Ms. Hoshino?" She asked to which Ai nodded, causing Miyako and Ichigo to open their eyes in horror.
"When I confronted her and told her that Hikaru hated her and that I was pregnant with his children she went hysterical, it was almost like she was obsessed with him…" Ai said as her voice became quieter at the end.
The room was quiet this time however Claire's eyes widened "I see… you think that because you told her, she must've told Hikaru, who tipped off your crazed fan, Ryousuke?" She asked to which Ai nodded.
"…I can see how he would be suspect number one for the hospital incident, but that could've also been Airi Himekawa tipping off one of your fans to get back at you. That also doesn't explain how that same fan found your apartment." Miyako said, looking towards Ai who still had her head down.
"…It's because I told him. I left a voicemail for Hikaru telling him that he should come and visit Aqua and Ruby…" Ai said quietly. Ichigo wanted to yell at Ai for being dumb, but he saw water droplets dripping from her face onto her fist with her shoulders shaking slightly.
"I see, then it's definitely Hikaru Kamiki, to be connected both times is much more than a coincidence, especially when he is deeply connected to both Ms. Hoshino and Airi Himekawa." Alexis concluded which caused the room to go silent.
~
The Artorias, Aqua, and Ruby were now back in the living/dining room area and were talking to each other while Ai, Ichigo, and Miyako were sitting at the dining table in silence when Artorias spoke up out of nowhere.
"Alright! Alexis and Claire had informed me of the situation and Ai. I'm sorry that you have to go through all of this, but now there's another problem." He said, causing everyone to look towards him. "Now that 'he' knows where you are staying, this place isn't really safe for you 3 to stay here anymore. Ai do you have anywhere to stay until you eventually find a place to stay?"
That was an issue that they had yet to address. Ichigo spoke first "As much as I would like to keep Ai safe and watch over her and the kids myself, our place barely has room to fit 1 more person let alone 3."
"Hmmm, I see that would be a problem…had I not been here. Ai would you like to stay with us until you eventually find a place of your own?" Artorias offered with a gentle smile, causing Ai's eyes that were once dark to shine brightly like they did before as her eyes widened.
"Huh? Are you serious?" She asked in disbelief seeing as they were practically strangers before today. "Uh-huh. And besides, it would be nice to have people around my age living with me."
Both Ai and the twins just stared at Artorias in shock but were interrupted by Ichigo "Woah! Woah! Woah! Slow down!" Ichigo tried to say but was cut off by Artorias "You have a very beautiful wife, yet half the time we were here you couldn't keep your eyes off of my maids breast therefore I find your opinion invalid."
Ichigo stumbled over his words after that causing everyone in the room to laugh at him.
Turning towards Ai I spoke to her before standing up. "We'll be waiting in the car outside, so go and pack your things so we can take you to your new temporary home. Mr and Mrs. Saitou you both are welcome to follow us to make sure that the place they will be staying in is safe."
Artorias, Alexis, and Claire left the apartment and got in the car waiting for Ai and the twins.
After an hour of waiting, Artorias was sleeping with his head on Claire's lap Ai and the Twins finally got in the limousine "You said a car not a lim-!"Ai was interrupted by a harsh "Shhh" from Alexis she pointed at me who was sleeping to which she nodded and spoke in a quiet voice.
"Art told me that it was a car not a limousine. Aren't people who use limousine either super rich or celebrities?"
"Yes and on the way to your new temporary home I shall explain Master Artorias' background."
~
They had finally arrived at the Pendragon manner and at this time Artorias had woken up from his short slumber. He walked into the house and Artorias welcomed them "Welcome to your new home, the Pendragon Manner."
Artorias and his maids proceeded to give the Hoshino family a brief tour of the whole house with them all choosing a room to use with Ai's room being across from his, Aqua's room being to the right of his, and Ruby's being to the left of Ai's.
After dinner Arorias was going to sleep, with the last thing on his mind was thanking the R.O.B for putting him in a second peaceful life.
~ Timeskip: 7 Years (Artorias is 12) ~
"WHAT THE HELL!!!!" Artorias shouted in disbelief as he stared at what was currently in front of him.
In front of him was a screen projecting from his phone which shouldn't be possible.
[Welcome (Admin) Artorias Pendragon to the Multiversal Group Chat]