Dating II

"Airi, which university are you from?"

"Tokyo University."

"Will you be fine?"

"I'll be fine, auntie. I–"

"Mom, call me your mom from now on." My Ma cut her words and said seriously, leaving Airi hopeless.

"... Mom, I'll be fine. You don't have to worry about my career. We're not going to have kids as soon as we are married anyway."

"I will not die until the little ones exist, no matter what." She declared. At the same time, Airi whispered to my ears, "She's not kidding. In my timeline, I think she found something like the spring of youth."

My expression changed into surprise as I commented, seriously?

'Do we not have children?' I whispered back.

'We do, but she wants our child to have children too.'

Ma that's too greedy, I thought to myself.

"What are you whispering to each other?"

"Oh, it's nothing!" I replied, "Ma, it's late now and I have classes early in the morning tomorrow. Can Airi use the empty bedroom?"

"You're right, look at the time!" She put the cups to the tray and got up. "You two are going to get married anyways, might as well sleep together."

After saying those, Ma went to the kitchen to clean the drinking utensils. Seeing this, Airi asked, "do you need help, Mom?"

"No need, go back to sleep. You're the guest here. You also need to attend class.

I responded to Ma, "That doesn't mean we can rush things. Airi might become uncomfortable."

"I'm fine with that." Airi shifted her eyes towards me. "Would you dislike it if I slept next to you?"

I grunted in trouble and fell silent for a moment. Anxiously, I unknowingly put my right hand to the back of my head, "no, I don't. You can sleep in my room then. Follow me, it's upstairs."

We went to the second floor and halfway through...

"Wear protection if possible!" Ma shouted. I responded with a high volume.

"We aren't going to do anything indecent!"

"Sorry about her." I scratched the back of my hand in embarrassment.

Airi giggled, "Don't be. She's the same just as I remembered."

We arrived at the second floor and walked on the short hall into my room.

"About our children, I want to know more about them."

"They..." She had a troubled expression with a hint of regret.

"It's okay if you don't want to say it. There are things better left unsaid."

Later, we arrived in front of my room.

"Could you stay here for a moment? My room is a mess."

"Don't worry, I know already you're not a clean freak. Let's clean it together."

"Please, I insist."

"Okay." She nodded as she understood.

"You can use the bathroom and clean yourself while waiting." I recommend it.

"That would be great, honestly. I ran at full speed from my university to see you, after all." She meant it literally. "Do I smell bad?"

"No, not at all."

"Thank goodness, I was worried."

"The bathroom is on the first floor, across the living room."

"Alright, thank you" She stepped down the stairs.

After her figure vanished, I entered the room.

A standard sized room with bed on the side and a study table across the room facing the wall. Left to the bed stood a wardrobe with a mirror. Two sets of clothes hung above the bedroom.

Just above the bed, a window is placed for an alternative alarm clock. If the curtain fluttered, sunlight would hit me right in the eye.

On the floor, there lied a round table with comics and books about computers. Bags of chips also scattered here and there. Dirty clothes on the floor. The bed was also a wreck with its sheet crumpled and half part of the blanket touched the floor.

Looking at it gives me a headache. Let's do a quick cleaning. I quickly put the book onto the shelf, which was next to the study table. Put the empty bags into the trash bin, clean the surface table with a tissue, unfold its legs and slide it under the bed.

I took a broom which rested near the door and sweeped the crumbs on the floor to the dustpan and poured them into the trash can.

I grabbed the clothes, without differentiating the clean or dirty. They got mixed because I am rather busy to have the time to separate them. I put them into the dirty bin.

Once everything was clean, I opened the door and mom stood before my door with a towel and a set of clothes on her hands.

"Give it to her."

"Alright." I accepted them and went downstairs. I opened the bathroom.

The latter had a laundry and across it were hooks with hangars to put your clothes. The shower area was just five meters away from the laundry. It was covered by thick transparent glasses that you could only see the shadow of the person inside.

There's a mirror with a sink in front of the laundry, next to the hooks.

On top of the mirror, there were four tiny cabinets and under the sink, there was a huge cabinet filled with bath necessities like toilet papers, liquid soap, and cleaning liquid.

"Airi, I brought some clothes for you. They are my big sister's."

"Will that be fine?"

"She returned once a year every Christmas. She will not know someone wore it." I hung her clothes on the hooks.

"Thank you Darling." She said.

I heard rustles as water was raining her body.

Although there was a beautiful woman before me, my mind wandered here and there. One would think that I didn't ponder any of it. Nah, it stayed in the corner of my mind for a while.

No, not about marriage, rather, about the mastermind that killed me and she became the last boss to humanity– which begged the question, what happened to the mastermind?

Is he a normal human that possessed extraordinary ability to manipulate people and finally got caught by his victims, or perhaps Airi, becoming the last boss to humanity, is his plan all along? I frowned as I contemplated and shivers from the thought alone. Should my hypothesis be true, this man is dangerous.

"Hey, Airi. What happened to the mastermind that killed me?" I asked.

"He got killed by a man with a one eyed hat. It's better not to say his name. He's a dangerous individual." She turned off the shower as I heard the water receding and came to a halt, following that was continuous drops of water every now and then.

Either water dripping from her body or some left over on the shower hose.

"A man with a one eyed head? If the mastermind is killed, why do you still become the last boss?"

"I did it to attract the bastard's attention. He didn't appear. One day, when elite players tried to kill me, the man with the one eyed hat appeared and offered a deal I can't resist, so here I am now."

"What is the price?"

"There is no price. He said it's compensation. The guy who killed you is the man's nemesis. He used your death to his advantage. Perhaps your ability is a threat to him. I realized that just now."

There are a few questions raised in my head when I heard that, but not important for now.

"Is it worth it? You leave so many things behind and kill people along the way... Do you regret it?"

"I don't have any attachments in that world after you die. Don't get me wrong though, I still take care of the kids normally until they leave on their own before I do what must be done.

"And about the people I killed... I don't know their stories, so why should I care? Do you hate me for it?" Without anyone knowing, her eyes turned cold and empty.

"No, in fact, if something happened on the other side of the world where millions died, I don't care. However, should a threat come upon those I wanted to protect, let the world be my enemy. No one shall touch them." I spoke with determination and soon enough, it felt a bit edgy and corny saying it out loud.

In the comic, it sounds cool as hell.

"Do you think our kids hate your decision?" I asked worriedly.

"If I were in their position and learned my mother became a monster that kills people mercilessly, I will.

"Though, I wish I can spend just one more time before saying goodbye."

The bathroom fell silent as we thought about both the past and the future.

"You'll be able to meet them again," I said in reassurance.

Through the shadow, I can see her touching her abdomen and her head turned to me.

"I want to see them as soon as possible. Want to do it tonight?"

"Let's not rush things, shall we?" I panicked a bit.

Look, as much as I'm curious what our children look like, having them at such a young age harbors some challenges. Financially... no, she knew which stocks were gonna go up. I'm just not ready to have kids, there are many things I wanna do.