Chapter 853 Counseling

Onoskelis pulled out a smartphone from her pocket and operated it for a bit before giving it to Haruto, "There's only one contact saved in it and it's the current head of the Belial House. She's the older sister of Sarah Belial who uses Sakura Urahara in the Human World."

Haruto looked at the smartphone with a screen showing the name Cleria Belial. He then looked up only to see the woman returning to the shadow before entirely disappearing, "Aren't you awfully prepared? And it looks like my guess that there are people watching this place was true..."

Without being able to find the source, Onoskelis' voice resounded to both Haruto and Honoka, "We were given the directives that if you were to ask for a contact, we'd give it to you without any questions. That smartphone is just a standard issue for everyone. And if you're worried about your privacy, please don't think about it. We've been instructed not to tap anything inside the house and I'll also personally make sure that nothing sensitive goes out of your house."

"...That's reassuring."

Deeming that the current explanation was accepted, Onoskelis didn't further elaborate.

Haruto turned around to see his shocked wife and grabbed her hand to lead her back inside, "Now, let's ask what's really going on."

Returning to the living room, the husband and wife sat side by side as the latter picked up the phone and called the only number that was on it. Without their notice, a small and very discreet barrier that blocked off sound waves was erected around them. The standard-issued phone was a high-tech espionage device.

"How did you know there were people outside?" Honoka asked.

"I didn't. I just bet that there were considering how they mentioned in passing that they'd arranged security for us when Aika was not around. I thought that maybe they were still around. Though I didn't really expect that someone would come out of the shadows..."

"Does it tingle your inner chuunibyou?"

Haruto immediately broke eye contact and looked down at the phone, "...L-let's wait for the answer, shall we?"

Honoka chuckled seeing her husband flustered for the first time in a while. Also watching him move confidently and with a clear goal in mind made Honoka gain her own confidence and calm down a little bit, 'I also can't just mope around and passively react to everything...'

The phone rang for a minute or two but there was no answer. Haruto and Honoka looked at each other before the latter said, "Call her again. If there's still no answer, we'll try it again later."

After another minute of ringing, Cleria finally answered with a slightly hurried voice, "Good day, Kiryuu-san. I was already informed that you wanted to talk with Sarah. I apologize for answering late. We had a situation we had to deal with first."

"I-it's fine. Is it a good time now? We can always call later."

"It's fine. You called because you have concerns with your daughter, right? That's Kisuke's responsibility, by extension, is also our responsibility. So if there's a problem with Aika-chan, we'd also like to help. By the way, is it alright for me and my brother to listen in? I think we might be able to help."

"It's alright. It isn't exactly help that we need, but knowledge. Last time, we thought that brushing the issue aside and pretending it didn't exist was a good thing for Aika's situation... But now she's struggling with something and we couldn't even guess what's going on. We want to know what exactly happened to her."

The other side became silent for a moment before the couple heard Sakura's voice, "...If you want to know what exactly happened, we'd have to ask Kisuke since he's the one who took her in. But I guess you wouldn't want to talk about this with him, yes?"

Haruto sighed and replied, "Yes... In the meantime, we would like to have no involvement with him. As you've said, he's the reason why Aika is in this situation so I... No... We might not be able to control our emotions and think straight with him around. I'm sorry about this, but even if it's just a little bit, I'd like to know everything you know."

Haruto then proceeded to tell the siblings about how Aika was doing fine at the start, but slowly became distant until she stopped talking to them and refused to get out of her room.

Cleria and Sakura looked at each other as they too, don't have any idea of what was going on even with what they know, "...What do you think is bothering her?" asked the latter.

This time, it was Honoka who answered, "...I have a feeling that she's afraid of something."

Both sides became silent for a minute. But when Sakura was just about to tell them what she knows, Diehauser, who'd just came back after receiving the news of Erebus' attack, spoke up, "She's probably afraid of those around her."

The unfamiliar male voice surprised the couple for a moment but Haruto asked without questioning who he was, "...Please explain it to us."

Diehauser nodded and continued, "I'm no parent so I don't know what it means to have a child. But if you think she's afraid of something, then I can give my objective view of the situation. But before I explain further, let me ask how you dealt with it whenever she asked something about her missing memories."

"We responded as we planned we would and kept any mention of it to a minimum."

"I see... From what I can see, from long ago, she had been able to tell that you're lying to her."

"What!? But how!? We even prepared all the documents needed to support our responses!", exclaimed Honoka.

"That might be the reason for her fearful attitude. I don't know if even Kisuke predicted this, but even though the ability and memory sealing was successful, it was also only to that extent. Meaning, aside from those two, everything else was open, including lingering emotions and instincts."

"In other words, she might have forgotten about it but her heart couldn't?" asked Sakura.

"Something to that extent. As a seasoned fighter, I can tell to a degree what she's experiencing. Even though she might have forgotten a lot of things, someone who's trained to fight and read their opponents couldn't possibly forget the intuition that they'd honed. Unless your lie is perfectly executed until the very last micro expression, veterans would be able to notice the discrepancies."

Haruto couldn't believe it and said, "You've already said it yourself. Veterans would, but my daughter is nothing like that."

"In an ordinary human sense, that's correct. However, you have no idea what Magic Power or other similar systems could do to the development of someone. One great example of this is Issei Hyoudou who aside from experience, is much better than most veterans out there. And this becomes more apparent when you think of those who contributed for him to reach this height, one of which is Kisuke."

"Only a few know this, but Kisuke has a reputation of being a good trainer or coach since everyone he has helped became wildly sought after. This is also the reason why Aika's existence was hidden amongst the Three Great Factions, since she is one of the few individuals who has been with him the longest."

"Well, to put it another way, you can blame Kisuke again for this." Diehauser finished with a wry smile.