11.- If you want... YOU CAN KILL THEM ALL.

After a while with no sound coming from the room, Megumi came out with Ougi flanking his left side.

"Well... Mai, Maki, I've talked to your father, and the matter is settled. You won't receive any punishment, right?" said Megumi, glancing at Ougi.

"Of course, Megumi-sama," Ougi responded in a respectful tone.

Maki and Mai exchanged glances, a bit confused by their father's sudden change in attitude.

"Alright, carry out your tasks. I'd like you to start by creating a bank account for me and depositing the money there," said Megumi, extending the check Naobito had given to Ougi.

"As you wish. With your permission, I'll take my leave," said Ougi, then hurried off to carry out Megumi's orders.

"Girls, today was a very interesting day. I had fun spending time with you, so you're excused from your duties as servants for today. If you have something to do, you're free to go," Megumi said with a smile.

Maki and Mai looked at each other again, then turned their attention to Megumi and said, "Thank you very much, Megumi-sama. With your permission, we'll take our leave."

Without a doubt, the two girls had a lot to process. Today was perhaps the most bizarre and impressive day of their lives, bringing changes in their perspective on their possible future and filling them with a sense of hope.

—[Maki and Mai's Room]—

When they arrived at their room, Maki and Mai changed out of their servant uniforms and lay on their beds to relax. The situation they had experienced filled them with more stress than seven-year-olds should face.

After calming down and thinking for a bit, Maki decided to voice her thoughts: "That was an intense day, wasn't it?"

"Yes, it was definitely an intense and strange day," Mai replied to her twin sister.

"Of course, it was a strange day!" exclaimed Maki.

"Did you ever think you'd see our father behaving so submissively toward someone?" Maki's tone was laced with mockery.

"That's not what I meant, but I must admit it was very strange. Although I still feel a bit uncomfortable about it; after all, he is our father, Maki," said Mai.

"Pfft, let's stop talking about that trash. Tell me, what else did you find strange besides the old man's behavior?" Maki turned her head toward her sister while still lying down.

Looking into her older sister's eyes, Mai shared her thoughts.

"I don't know... Honestly, today felt different from other days. I suppose it was because of Megumi-sama's presence. People didn't look at us with open disdain, and we even got to go into the library."

"Also, I don't know if you noticed, but Megumi-sama didn't treat us like other servants in the clan are usually treated. Even the head servant who brought us to him was surprised by his courtesy."

"Megumi-sama even called us his friends when he defended us from our father."

"This situation gives me a strange sense of discomfort. I feel like it's not normal to be treated this way. Something inside me says I don't deserve to be treated like this, but if that's the case, why do I feel this warm, comforting feeling in my chest when I remember it?" said Mai, sobbing at the end.

"Mai…" Seeing Mai's unstable state, Maki went to her bed to hug her.

"So, friends..." Maki reflected out loud.

"Yes, Mai, I guess we've made our first friend," said Maki as she stroked her sister's back, who continued to cry.

<><><><><>

It was early in the morning when Megumi decided to take a walk around the Zenin clan complex. Naobito had told him that his training would start at 12:00 pm, so he still had 7 hours to spend as he wished.

As Megumi wandered around the heirs' building looking for something interesting, he saw Maki running in his direction with an urgent expression on her face.

Maki looked disheveled, and her clothes were covered in dirt. Seeing her in that condition, Megumi ran at full speed to intercept her.

When she was in front of Megumi, Maki tearfully told him that something horrible had happened to her and her sister, begging him to please come and help her.

—[Flashback: 1AM]—

It was early morning. While everyone in the Zenin complex was asleep, and after everyone had taken their dinners, a tired and aching Mayu Zenin, Maki and Mai's mother, headed to her daughters' room with a disturbed look on her face and a syringe in her hand.

Click

The door handle turned, and Mayu Zenin saw her two daughters sleeping together in the same bed. Their sleeping expressions were peaceful and utterly relaxed, as if they owed nothing to anyone, as if they had done nothing wrong.

Seeing her daughters sleeping so peacefully, a feeling of fury filled Mayu Zenin. The turmoil of emotions she felt only pushed her further to the emotional precipice she was on.

She took a syringe and a vial from her clothes, which she had previously taken from the clan's medical room while getting treatment.

Carefully, so as not to wake them, she injected a dose of the liquid from the vial into both Maki and Mai, then grabbed each of them by the hand to drag them out of the complex.

<><><><><>

'What the hell?' thought a still-sleepy Maki as she felt herself being dragged along the ground.

Realizing that something was wrong, Maki shook off her drowsiness and opened her eyes wide, only to see her mother dragging Mai with one hand and her with the other.

"Hey, what the hell are you doing, old witch?" Maki said as she shook off her mother's grip, causing her to lose her balance and drop Mai, who hit her head on the ground and woke up.

"Huh? Sister, where are we?" asked a confused Mai, who, unlike Maki, still couldn't move.

Apparently, Maki's Heavenly Restriction had helped her recover faster than Mai, although she was still not fully recovered.

Hearing her sister's question, Maki shouted, "That's exactly what I'm wondering. What the hell do you think you're doing, old witch?" Maki's attention was focused on her mother, who had pulled a knife from her clothes and hadn't spoken so far.

"M-Mom," Mai stammered, finally realizing her mother's presence.

"Ha… ha… hahahahahahaha!" Mayu Zenin's deranged laughter unsettled her daughters.

"I told you to answer me once and for all!" demanded Maki, who was still struggling to stand, though each passing second made it easier.

"Is that any way to speak to your mother?" Mayu said in a shrill voice.

"Because of you… They… they…" Mayu's voice broke.

"From the moment your condition was known… you two have always caused me problems."

"And today! You dared to break one of the main rules of the Zenin clan. Since they couldn't punish you, thanks to that damned boy, they came to take it out on me."

"Why did you do this?" Mayu asked her daughters in a low voice, sobbing.

"M-Mom, I'm so sorry," Mai apologized, crying.

"Shut up! Children should never get in the way of their parents. If only I had given birth to a son, everything would have been different. I regret ever giving birth to you!!!" Mayu screamed in anguish at the end.

Hearing her mother's words, something inside Mai broke. She had endured much abuse, thinking it was normal, that it was what she deserved, but now… she finally realized the truth. All of it was wrong; she had been living in a horrible world and hadn't even noticed.

"Anyway… What could have been no longer matters. You deserve punishment, and for that… I'm going to get rid of you now. I was planning to throw you off the mountain so you wouldn't suffer, after all, you're still my daughters. But since Maki can move now, I won't be able to do that with her."

Mayu slowly approached Maki, who had felt slightly better after a few seconds, but wasn't in any condition to fight against an adult wielding a weapon.

"Damn it. Who would have thought you were such a piece of trash that you wouldn't mind killing your own daughters?" said Maki, watching her mother approach her with a knife.

"Goodbye, Maki…" said Mayu, about to take a step and stab Maki.

"[Construction]"

Seeing that her sister was about to be killed, Mai created a small iron spike where her mother was about to step, using every ounce of cursed energy she had.

"Ouch!" Mayu cried, crouching in pain.

"Now, Maki! No matter how you feel, just run and get help!" Mai shouted to her sister, who was still struggling to stand.

Responding to her sister's words, Maki gathered every ounce of strength she had left and ran from the place.

—[End of Flashback]—

"Don't worry, your sister should be fine. Just give me a minute," Megumi consoled Maki and took off at full speed, enveloped in electricity.

Megumi hadn't sensed any drastic changes in Maki, so he concluded that Mai must still be alive, although that could change soon if he didn't hurry.

Maki had given him a rough idea of the direction they had been, so Megumi decided to search that area first. He didn't have to spend much time looking, as his senses detected a body falling from the peak of a mountain.

'Damn,' he thought, before expending an insane amount of cursed energy from his reserves and shooting off at maximum speed to intercept Mai.

Meanwhile, Mai was watching her life flash before her eyes as she fell. 'Why… why do I have to die like this? No… there isn't even a dignified way to die. Damn, Megumi~,' the last thing Mai wanted to think about was the boy who, despite his intimidating appearance, had given her some of the happiest moments she could remember with her sister in just one day.

Swoosh

'Huh? Why haven't I died yet?' Mai wondered when she felt she was no longer falling.

"Dear Mai, why did you jump if you don't even have wings? Maybe because you look like an angel, you thought you had wings?" Megumi said as he carried Mai like a princess.

"Idiot! How could you joke at a time like this?" Mai said, crying as she looked into her savior's eyes.

"Relax… everything is okay now. I'm here with you," Megumi said, stroking Mai's head.

"I don't care anymore," Mai said softly as she buried her face in Megumi's chest.

"What don't you care about?" he asked, curious.

"These people won't change with words. If you want… you can kill them all," Mai said, looking into his eyes and tightening her grip on him.

"O-okay," was all Megumi could say before he continued descending smoothly toward the heirs' complex.

Once they reached the ground, a worried Maki ran to her sister, hugging her and bombarding her with questions about what had happened after she left. Still a bit dazed, Mai gently answered each of her sister's questions, trying to calm her.

'Phew, and here I was wanting to take things easy. It seems the Zenin clan needs an urgent shock therapy,' Megumi thought, scratching his head.

'How troublesome.'

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A/N: If you find any error, please let me know so I can correct it.

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Next chapter: Prelude to Change.