Ch24: Troublemakers P5
Chapter 24: Troublemakers P5
~24.5~
*****
On December 5, Michelle finished cooking her bun. We found out right away that the kid was special, like the rest of our bunch. Turns out she was a soul weapon that Adele and Michelle had met in a past life and her primary form was that of two katanas. In that life, she was known as Tenrai and Tenshi, Twin Blades of the Divine Angel. Michelle named the girl Sora, and we gave her my surname, since her given name was Japanese.
I was able to bless the girl like I had done with Rei, Kyra, and Liya, and she became my fourth. Once the girl was blessed, Michelle and I soul dived with her, and she decided to undergo Kyra's instant grow-up magic. I actually think I hate that spell, but I'm not going to deny the kid's desires. I think I would have chosen that route as well twenty years ago. Fully grown, she was the same height as Rei, and wore her black hair in low twin tails.
With all of them grown up, the ones that were weapons could assume their full weapon forms. Joey could properly transform into Jouten, Kaede into Kaeshi, and so on. Their mana throughput was another story, but we could fix that with time. Sora had even less time than the other eight, but she trained relentlessly, fully intent on joining her siblings in school.
*****
And then, December 10 rolled around. My own birthday. And the day my mother was expected to give birth. Almost ten months ago, Alfia lost her body fighting Zalen, Zaldin, and Zane. She managed to defeat them and imprison them in Eden, but the cost was great. She needed another body, but the options were limited.
She could not inhabit our original body that lied dormant in the Nexus, though we did have an idea about using our original body that Eve shut down, so I won't go into that. The other option was to transmigrate, so we talked it over with my mother, and she and my father got to work right away. And now, the other half of my soul that I always looked up to as my older sister is now my younger sister. She was born on my birthday. I swear Eve had a hand in that, but didn't bother thinking about it. It wasn't important.
Like the rest, she underwent Lyra's aging magic. She aged to the same age as the children, rather than to my age. She was born with blonde hair, same as me, and we looked like twins after the aging magic, albeit she was about two inches shorter due to the physical age difference. Not exactly a surprise, considering we are literally two halves of one soul with the same mortal parents. She set to work training her new mortal body and progressed much faster than the children, likely due to the fact that she held twenty-four timelines worth of memories within her and knew very well how to train her body.
She asked Mom and Dad for a name.
"Would you name me?" she asked shortly after being born. As soon as she was born and Mom healed herself from labor, we soul dived with Kyra and used the aging spell. She was standing there with an aethersilk outfit made to look like the academy uniforms.
"I'm still wrapping my head around the idea that we just intentionally had a child so that an immortal could transmigrate here," Zen said.
"Zen!" Layla said. "We talked about this. You know who this is already, you've met her before!"
"That's why it's weird to me." He sighed and looked up at what was almost a clone of Kye. "I… let me think."
"Make it good, or I'll pick one!"
"Hmm…" He looked at Alfia and said, "Sanae. Spelled with this kanji," he paused a moment to write the name in both kanji and English into the document on his Neuraphone. He wrote in English, Sanae Akari, and in Kanji 灯真愛 reading Akari Sanae."
"Those kanji…" Kye mumbled.
"Zen honey, you said it was weird, but you already saw her as your daughter like I did! You can't hide it after picking those kanji!" Layla smirked.
Alfia looked at the kanji and smiled. "I see. The kanji for truth and love." She felt a tear run down her face, and Kye wiped it up.
"Welcome to Atlantis, Fia, properly!"
"Eli…"
"Fia?"
"Do I really get to belong?" Her tears began to roll down her face and onto her shirt. "I've been the outcast for so long. I…"
"Of course. I know how much you've been through, Fia. You deserve to belong more than anyone." Kye hugged her sister, and their parents watched with warm smiles.
"Welcome to the family," Zen said.
*****
"I'll catch up when I wake up…" Yami said. Kye and Alfia had just finished explaining everything to Yami and Zen. Yami was overjoyed to have another sibling, but was surprised to see that sibling was already old enough to start the academy.
"What the hell?" Zen said. "First, Kye's baby twins grow up before ANYBODY got to meet them, then the rest of the kids do the same, and now you, too? I don't want mine to do this."
"Don't worry," Kye said. "I wouldn't allow it if all parties don't consent, and it takes an inexorbant amount of mana to begin with. And I'm not spotting anyone else."
"Nor will I," Alfia said.
Yami and Zen exchanged glances and sighed. "So, you lost your body in a big fight and now you're our sister, too?"
"She always was," Kye said. "I told you, Fia and I are two halves of one person."
"Which is weird," Zen added.
"So, how is this going to work?" Yami asked. "How are you going to explain this to anyone else? I guess you could use the restricted upbringing to your advantage, but some of our classmates already know a bout Joey, and now she's academy age."
Kye smiled dryly.
Alfia sighed. "The royals will be told, and the nobles will just have to guess. As far as who's children they are to the public…" She eyed Kye.
"Officially… we were planning to list them as Mom and Dad's, but none of them agreed to that. They said they would introduce themselves correctly and not hide the truth. So, Atalante and I are working on a fake solution via rune magic to explain how they aged, and give official credit to Kyra and Liya."
"So are we calling them Kyra and Liya or Kaylie and Layla?" Zen asked. "It's kinda weird one of them having mom's name. I mean, I have dad's name, but how's that work for a different generation? Would she still be Layla II, like how I'm Zen II?"
Kye plucked away at her NeuraPhone, then flipped it around for her brother. "We already took care of that. It was admittedly a silly idea, and Liya didn't care either way. Mom suggested Laila, and the girls also decided to use Mom's surname, instead of Adele's, since three of the kids already have Adele's and none have Mom's."
The page Kye showed them showed the twins' profiles in short form.
[Name: Kaylie Barrett]
[Born: October 2, 12005, AE100]
[Birth Mother: Kye Akari]
[Birth Parent: Alethea Atlantis]
[Name: Laila Barrett]
[Born: October 2, 12005, AE100]
[Birth Mother: Kye Akari]
[Birth Parent: Alethea Atlantis]
"Their full profiles show Adele and Michelle as adoptive parents and all of their siblings, you two as aunt and uncle, and so on."
"Not Atlantis?" Yami asked. "That means Alethea is still the only one."
"For now. If we have another child, we were planning to consider the Atlantis name, but at the moment… we'll be taking measures to not have surprise children for a while."
Yami eyed Alfia. "And you?"
"Me?"
"Kids?"
Alfia's eyes widened, and she rapidly shook her head. "No no no no no no. Even if I could, no way."
"If you could? What do you mean?"
She pointed at Kye. "That one is the mother between us. I'm just the elder sister and aunt."
Kye smirked. "But now you're the younger sister."
Alfia sneered at her. "Mortal smortal."
*****
Revision: 2024-8-15