AUTHOR'S NOTE: If you haven't already read my previous MKnR story 2092: Aftermath, then some things in this story may not make sense. I highly recommend you start with 2092: Aftermath. Otherwise, I hope you enjoy my stories.

"Can it be…no other way, madam?"

She looked on her current companion with as much sympathy that was left inside her.

"You know as well as I that it has to be this way."

The sadness in his eyes nearly reached her heart.

"I understand madam."

With these words his back straightened and the dependable man she had known since she was young returned in all his dignified splendor. The confidence he radiated now filled her with gentle reassurance.

"It will be as madam commands it."

She weakly reached out for his hand. After a moment of stunned hesitation, he extended his own hand and grasped her around the fingers.

"I know it is a terrible burden I am placing on you. I wouldn't ask this of you if there were anyone else…"

He interrupted her then with a warm smile.

"Your confidence in me fills me with honor. To serve this noble house is the glory of my life. You may rest reassured that this one will not fail you."

With these words, he released her hand and slowly sank to his knees. Once seated, he placed his hands on the ground before him with the index fingers and thumbs touching their counterparts. He then solemnly lowered his head till it touched the back of his hands. Only then, did he speak once more.

"It has been the honor of my life to have served the noblest and worthy of ladies!"

He rarely raised his voice. That he did so now indicated that even he was near his emotional breaking point.

She waved weakly towards him to rise up. Once he had she extended her hand to him again and he readily took it.

"You came into our lives at their darkest point. You took two broken girls under your protection and guidance even though they weren't your own, and you led them as best as anyone could under the circumstances to womanhood with care and conviction. It is I who am honored by your service."

She paused then to collect herself as she suddenly felt emotionally overwhelmed. After a few moments, she spoke again.

"You are more than a servant to me. You are my mentor and…my friend."

Her companion reached into his breast pocket with his free hand and removed a handkerchief. For the first time, she could remember he used it on his own eyes.

"Madam…you honor me more than….."

"Nowhere near as much as you deserve."

She then smiled weakly at him.

"Look at me."

He lifted his eyes to meet hers.

"This mortal coil is a container, nothing more. A projection of the true self which resides in the Eidos. This shell was meant to fail, and it soon will."

He turned away at her last words but a sudden firmness in her grasp brought his eyes back to her.

"We shall meet again my most loyal and noble friend. This is not a wish, this is a promise. We are, all of us, immortal souls. We shall look upon each other again one day."

He managed a smile for her and spoke to her softly.

"I await that day with hopeful anticipation madam. You may rest assured madam that I will look out for the children and your sister with every fiber of my being. This is my pledge to you, most noble lady."

She nodded gratefully to him.

"I entrust everything I care about in this world to your most capable hands. I can rest easy knowing that you have never failed us, and never will, my most dear friend."

He bowed lightly towards her, tapping his forehead gently against the back of her hand. She nodded lightly in reply and then they released their handhold.

After a moment to compose himself he spoke to her again.

"Shall I have them come in now madam?"

Her eyes took on a faraway look, and then she lightly shook her head from side to side.

"No…"

Something glimmered deep in those sad and beautiful eyes.

"….just him."

Her companion was about to make a mild protest for the madam's young daughter, but his mistress's words preempted his attempt.

"I won't have her see me like this. We have said all we had to say to each other, and since this is not the end, there is no need for goodbyes."

She smiled at him then and he bowed once more before stepping back several steps, turning, and proceeding towards the door.

She had been incredibly brave throughout this whole ordeal. She was truly becoming a strong young woman before his eyes and that filled him with some ease of mind.

Though the hard part was yet to come.

They stood together in the hallway with their father and a few servants. None of the other family members, including their aunt, had come in yet. The awkward silence between father and children probably heightened the tension for the servants in attendance.

She was as close to him as they could get without embracing. She had her left hand on his right arm. He could feel the tension in that embrace.

Soon would come the flood. He had to be prepared for her intense sadness.

The idea that he should be sad too didn't exist for him, even though the woman that would surely die this day had also given birth to him.

He didn't bother to watch what was happening on the other side of the doorway.

His focus was all here on her.

On Miyuki.

That was all Tatsuya cared about.

He was just as surprised as she was when the door suddenly opened. She jumped slightly and then her aura changed. She was bracing herself for the dreaded words. Their father also looked at the man moving through the doorway with expectant eyes.

Hayama gently closed the door and smiled as softly as he could towards Miyuki, sympathy radiating with that look and his words.

"Madam…"

Yet he uncharacteristically paused to find the right words.

Tatsuya could feel Miyuki doubling down on her internal resolve. She was now braced for anything, or she at least thought she was. Tatsuya, on the other hand, was ready to be her support no matter what.

"…..wishes to see Tatsuya-dono…."

All three Shiba family members in the hallway now looked at Hayama with surprise. It was in this stunned gap he added the multiplying word.

"…..alone."

Stupefied silence clung to the air between them for a few moments as they processed what they had just heard. It was Tatsurou who finally broke the silence.

"She wants to see…..him…alone?"

Miyuki and Tatsuya turned towards their father. It was fortunate that he did not see the look of contempt his daughter pierced him with.

"Indeed Sir, alone."

Hayama's words left no room for interpretation. Tatsurou backed down instantly but not without showing his displeasure at one final rejection from his legal wife and the mother of his children. Tatsuya found it odd that their father should take offense to this final rejection when he had purposefully lived a separate life from his family and with his mistress all these years.

Still, it showed to Tatsuya that there was at least something in the man that still cared about the opinion of the woman he married, even if only for his own pride's sake.

Hayama, with absolutely no interest in whether their father's feelings were hurt or not, instantly turned a sympathetic look onto Miyuki. Tatsuya too thought it would have been natural for their mother to call in Miyuki, the child she adored and heaped her love and praise upon; instead of the reject she was embarrassed by.

To everyone's surprise, Miyuki's eyes began to glow and a smile spread across her face. She then turned and looked Tatsuya in the eyes, tears forming in the corners of her eyes but an expectant and nearly happy expression radiating from her exquisite features. Taking both his hands in hers and pulling them together up between them, she leaned in and began to whisper to him.

"This is her final chance to show you she loves you."

Tatsuya immediately felt regret and unease at Miyuki's words. He should have known she'd interpret their mother's actions in this way.

"This is your final chance to tell her how you feel too. Your final chance to unburden your heart."

She was happy because she had unrealistic hopes for the two people she loved most to reconcile before one of them died.

"You can finally be mother and son. You can't let this chance pass Onii-sama."

He mustered up a smile for her, even though no joy came to his heart.

"Tell her how you truly feel."

The rules between this mother and her son had been set long ago and there was no real chance to change that, even now. Tatsuya lived in a world of absolutes. To think that their intractable mother would suddenly regret her long-held convictions and suddenly express affection for the son that was her greatest failure was less believable than a sudden miraculous recovery for that same woman.

"I will do my best, for you."

Still, he would never break a promise to Miyuki. He would do his best, for her sake alone. Because making this whole affair easier for Miyuki to bear was his one and only concern.

"We shouldn't keep madam waiting."

Hayama's words brought Tatsuya back to the matter at hand. He bowed to Hayama and then to Miyuki. He then released her hands and stepped back.

"Please stay with Father until I return."

Miyuki smiled with tears of joy about to release from her eyes.

"Yes, Onii-sama."

This was the only thing that could make Tatsuya feel.

Miyuki.

Her hopeful expression tore at his very soul. He knew she would be disappointed in the results of his final conversation with their mother. To see her so hopeful and knowing that those hopes would be dashed to pieces made Tatsuya hate himself for his limitations.

It also made him mildly resent the one who had imposed these emotional limitations on him. The one who did this to him, and thus to her through him.

The woman waiting for him on the other side of that door.

Hayama turned the doorknob and opened the door for him to step through.

This bedroom in the main house had once been his mother's own parents' bedroom. They had all been born in this same room. His mother and aunt, himself, and Miyuki. Their grandmother had died in childbirth in this very room as well, along with her infant son.

If Tatsuya had been an emotional creature, he might have found the odd mixture of hope and despair this room represented for the Yotsuba family as a fascinating topic for reflecting upon.

It wasn't a hospital room by any means. There were no medical monitors, no chirping or beeping sounds, no drips and tubes for medication. They would be superfluous here since there was no medical science that could repair what was wrong with the "patient" that currently was housed here.

A large four post canopy bed occupied the left-hand third of the room. Its head being against the left wall. It was an original piece of furniture to the room, though the mattresses and beddings had been changed many times over.

It was between those four posts of mahogany that the greatest disappointment ever to befall this family had been birthed.

Himself.

Two high windows occupied the far wall. Late autumn afternoon sunlight streamed through the gauzy light interior curtains. The heavier drapes had been tied back to allow the light in. It was easy to see the tiny particles of dust and lint that floated constantly, riding on the soft air currents, being highlighted in the sunbeams' light.

Beneath the window on the right sat a large high-backed chair, not unlike the reading chair in his mother's bedroom back home.[G1]

There, just in the shadow between the sunbeams, in that very chair, in a white kimono with the stylized four-leaf clover mon of the Yotsuba in purple ink, and under a knitted violet blanket, sat the woman that would die in this room on this very day.

Despite her impending demise, she didn't look any different than normal to him, even now.

Her eyes had been aimed towards the door when he walked in. Their gaze locked with each other the second he turned towards her. The same cold eyes as always. The same disapproving look. Nothing had changed on the surface for Tatsuya in those orbs aimed at him now.

Why should it change? This woman has been dying for years now. Tatsuya didn't need to cast his special vision to see what was wrong. He had known for some time that her last reserves of psions were ebbing away. For the last year, she didn't even have enough psions left to cast even the simplest of magics.

Now, the few remaining psions she had left were all that kept her attached to her weakened body.

Hayama stepped up beside Tatsuya after he closed the door and they both bowed in unison towards the chair.

"I have brought Tatsuya-dono, madam."

"Thank you Hayama-san."

The voice was a little weaker, but not abnormally so. Any signs she was on Death's door were well hidden.

After both stood upright, Hayama bowed slightly to her once more.

"If madam needs anything further…"

"No."

Hayama rose yet again and with a short head nod turned around and walked towards the door they had just entered through.

"Tadanori-kun."

Tatsuya was as stunned as Hayama to hear her call him by his given name. He turned to hear her with emotions warring across his face.

"Yes….Miya-sama?"

Tatsuya had never heard Hayama address his mother by her given name before.

She smiled almost warmly at him.

"We can never repay you, for all that you have done for us; but…."

She seemed to almost choke up for a moment.

"….I want you to know, how much your loyalty and friendship has meant to me. And how very much you are appreciated. Thank you, for everything have done, and will do."

Hayama, despite his obvious discomfort, straightened his back and stepped back up beside Tatsuya. He placed his left-hand palm out beside him and his right-hand flat on his stomach. He then performed the most graceful bow Tatsuya had even seen.

"Miya-sama, to serve such a noble lady as yourself has been the honor of my life."

He rose, and then lowered his head.

"If Miya-sama will forgive an old man's faults, I must say, that I could not have loved you better, had you been my own daughter. I will remember my promise to you and will keep my word, till we meet again, in a better world."

Tatsuya was mildly stunned by this open display of affection between servant and master, which to his continued surprise received no rebuke from his normally etiquette harsh mother. Instead, she smiled at Hayama almost with the same happy expression she normally reserved for Miyuki alone.

"I look forward to that day Tadanori-kun."

Hayama bowed again to her.

"Madam, until then."

Turning to his left, he retreated past Tatsuya towards a side door to a servants' closet instead of back out into the hallway. In shock, Tatsuya realized Hayama had become strangely emotional and needed to center himself in some privacy. He respectfully chose not to eaves-drop on him with Elemental Sight.

Then, mother and son were finally alone.

"Tatsuya."

Having been looking intently at the door Hayama had just retreated through, Tatsuya turned to face his mother. He then crossed his hands behind his back and straightened his posture. With a nod, he replied.

"How may I serve madam?"

When he received no immediate response to his inquiry he slightly lifted his eyes to find that familiar harsh and cold glare boring into him. Only once they had reestablished eye contact did Miya speak again.

"Has Miyuki changed your standing orders?"

Her voice was as cold as her stare. Tatsuya straightened himself before crossing his arms around his back again.

"I am unaware of any changes."

He showed no sign of any emotion in his voice or expression.

"Then her order for you to call me 'mother' is still in effect, is it not?"

He almost cocked a disbelieving eyebrow raise at her.

"...it is."

She was apparently in no mood for his defiant expression.

"And you have already violated her order? Is this what I can expect from you once I am gone? That you will disobey Miyuki's commands? That you will fail her in your duties?"

Now Tatsuya knew that his expression had changed to one of irritation. He began to squint a bit at his mother's ridiculous assumptions.

"Certainly not. I thought only that in your current condition you would prefer a return to a more comfortable way of addressing each other. Especially since Miyuki is not present."

Miya turned away then as if uninterested in what he had to say. They had instantly fallen into their old patterns.

"What I prefer is for you to not break your word to Miyuki."

He had to fight to not smirk at her.

"Very well….mother."

The nearly sarcastic emphasis on her title brought Miya's eyes back to her son. After a few long moments of staring each other down, she waved him to her with the first two fingers of her right hand.

Tatsuya approached her, as slowly as decorum would allow. Though he doubted she would, for Miyuki's sake, he wasn't going to give their mother an excuse to change things in the eleventh hour because of his actions. Once he was within a meter of her, he came to a position of parade rest and stared out the nearest window awaiting her next words.

The day would be over soon. The red color maple leaves drifted slowly down towards the freshly raked grass below. He could see a light breeze blowing them softly towards his left. He knew that tonight that refreshing breeze would become harsher and chillier. He reminded himself to make sure Miyuki had on warm undergarments beneath her furisode for the funeral.

"Arrangements have been made with your father and your aunt."

This was the direction Tatsuya thought this conversation would head in. Final instructions and orders. What more could a master want with a servant than that?

"As planned, Miyuki and you will attend First High next year. The house and the car will stay in your father's name until you graduate high school and then they will become your property. The two of you will live there on your own. Your father will not invite himself over without Miyuki's expressed approval."

This was also expected information. Tatsuya eventually becoming the owner and their father currently retaining ownership keeps Miyuki's name off official documents. Tatsuya would own the property in name only for Miyuki's sake, insulating her from the legalities of the outside world.

"When you graduate high school my shares of FLT will be transferred from a trust to you. This will give you control of the day-to-day operations of FLT."

This was a mild surprise for him.

"May I ask a question?"

She nodded to his request.

"Oba-ue has signed off on this arrangement?"

Miya nodded lightly before elaborating.

"So long as the profits keep flowing your aunt will not interfere, under the same conditions in which I originally set up FLT with Eisaku-Oji-sama. You will eventually have managing control. You will retain your father on the payroll as a vice president and with the same or greater salary until he is either seventy-five or voluntarily leaves. He'll get his full compensation package and you will pay him fair market value price for his shares if that is what he desires, his shares to be purchased by Miyuki, not you. Otherwise, Miyuki will inherit his shares on his death."

A reasonable arrangement. Tatsuya didn't bother to ask his mother why she left him in control of FLT instead of Miyuki. He was to insulate her in this regard as he would with ownership of the home. By the time their father retired or died Miyuki would be a full grown woman and more than ready to own a business in her own right.

"I have a hard time believing Chichi-san and Oba-ue both consented to this arrangement. I am just a servant."

She cut her eyes toward him before explaining further.

"Maya likes insulation for herself more than I do for Miyuki. She is also as aware as I am that you are best equipped to manage a technology firm as anyone they could hire and your loyalty to Miyuki is unbreakable. There is no threat to the family from you so long as Miyuki lives. Instead, you are literally the perfect person for the job. All parties involved understand this."

It was a basic understanding of his existence. He and Miyuki were inexplicably tied to each other. He could no more defy Miyuki's wishes then he could hold his breath indefinitely underwater.

"Plus, it will give you something that is your own."

Tatsuya did raise an eyebrow to this unexpected statement.

In a way, this was a reward for him, though. He didn't care for the money since money had never been and would never be an issue for Miyuki and thus himself. He was already earning a substantial income even as a middle school student, thanks to the debut of the very popular Silver Series CADs he had helped design for FLT. Since their debut, last spring FLT profit margins had increased nearly thirty percent. Even his mother had seemed impressed.

Yet he did have another question for her.

"And Chichi-san?"

Miya almost rolled her eyes at the mention of her wayward husband.

"He agreed to this arrangement in exchange for a few crumbs of freedom."

Tatsuya wasn't always good with innuendo, but in this case, he easily read between his mother's lines.

"He will be allowed to marry Sayuri-san?"

His mother vacantly nodded.

"And have children, if she still can."

The last part of his mother's statement seemed to contain a bit of venom in it. His mother had been as disinterested in her marriage as his father had been, at least as far back as Tatsuya's memory could recall. Still, negative feelings seemed to have a way of lingering on well after any positive memories have faded away.

There was only one question on Tatsuya's mind now.

"How soon?"

Tatsuya didn't care if his father remarried, personally, because he didn't concern himself with his father at all. For some reason, despite her great resentment of how he treated Tatsuya and their mother, Miyuki still cared for their father deeply, even if she also was constantly angry with him. If not for Miyuki's sake, both father and son would have no interactions at all.

Miyuki also resented Tatsurou's long-time mistress, Furuha Sayuri, whom their father had been living with for nearly a decade now. Their impending marriage was something Tatsuya had wanted adequate time to prepare Miyuki emotionally for.

"As soon as decorum allows. In this case, six months."

That was unfortunate news.

"That soon?"

Miya easily read between Tatsuya's lines this time.

"She won't like it, but it will smooth things over for the two of you as well. Better to have them focused on their new marriage than on interfering in your lives. Anyway, he's 'suffered' long enough I suppose."

Though her disinterested expression continued unabated, Tatsuya thought he could detect the slightest hint of sympathy from his mother for her spouse, who by all rights deserved nothing from her but scorn. Their relationship had always been a strained affair. At times it seemed that Tatsurou wanted his wife to love him. He'd make efforts at it till Miya made it abundantly clear she wasn't interested so long as the other woman was still around. Then he'd go away once more just to try again later, after a few months. Not that Miya seemed interested in a meaningful relationship with her husband either. Tatsuya had to wonder at the unknown circumstances that brought these two very different personalities together long enough to marry and produce two children.

"How does this situation change once Miyuki is married?"

For some reason a small smile crept across his mother's face when he asked this question, then she looked up at him with an expression Tatsuya couldn't read.

"Do you think her feelings for you will change once she is married?"

Her nearly teasing and sympathetic tone suddenly irritated him for an unknown reason.

"I am her brother, though I suspect she will continue to look on me favorably it is only natural for her to begin to rely more on her husband, once married."

With that same strange look, his mother continued to smile at him, tilting her head slightly.

"Oh, naturally."

She then looked away while still smiling.

"Her husband, whomever that will be, would be a fool to try to step between the two of you. I suspect that Miyuki will always rely on her Onii-sama first."

She then turned those unusually warm eyes to him again, the smile still warm.

"Though neither of you seemed aware of it before Okinawa, Miyuki's love for you is just as intense as yours for her. It is a bond that no husband could ever hope to sever. Any woman trying to pry you from Miyuki's hands will surely find herself in for a cold reality."

Suddenly Miya laughed lightly at her own words. Apparently, her pun was intended. Tatsuya, for some reason he couldn't fathom, felt awkward and almost embarrassed by this turn in the conversation.

"I want to hear you say it."

Her sudden request threw him off his previous thoughts.

"….say what?"

The smile was gone now. Miya's "infamous" thousand-yard-stare had returned. Whatever she saw in that distant look always seemed to him to be something that brought her pain.

"Tell me the one true emotion you have left. Tell your mother, who violently took all your other emotions from you, the one emotion she left to you. Express it so that I can hear it. Let me hear the one truly human thing I was able to leave behind for you."

Even Tatsuya could feel the emotional war his mother seemed to be in. Perhaps being so close to death had weakened her emotional state.

But he didn't hesitate.

"With every fiber of my being, I love Miyuki and nothing else. I will protect her and defend her with my life."

She closed her eyes and released a deeply satisfied sigh.

"Yes…..Miyuki."

She then turned her smile and warm eyes upon him again.

"I made you into the perfect brother. Protector, defender, champion, idol, role-model, caregiver. There is nothing you cannot be for Miyuki or she for you."

"There is one thing I most certainly can never be for Miyuki."

Tatsuya chose to keep that thought to himself, though. This was not the time or place for that. His mother continued speaking along a different path.

"Your relations with Kazuma's group will be negotiated in the future by your aunt. I don't want Miyuki or you to get bogged down in the negotiations of your 'service' with the SDF. You are Miyuki's Guardian first, nothing else matters after that."

"Of course."

She turned to look at him with hard eyes again.

"Miyuki will be the next head of the Yotsuba."

It was the most logical conclusion, but Tatsuya was surprised to hear this news.

"Oba-ue has decided already?"

Miya shook her head from side-to-side.

"She decided a long time ago, though she has told no one, including me, of it."

Tatsuya was confused by this answer.

"Then how…"

"I am lecturing to Budda here, but you are, despite your other magic handicaps, the most powerful Strategic Class magic user in the known world."

This was something Tatsuya had only finally and fully comprehended since Okinawa. Material Burst, the matter to energy conversion strategic class magic, had no known upper limit. All the other known strategic class magics had some limit to them imposed by the physical laws of the universe.

Material Burst was the glaring exception to this rule.

A sniper bullet had been enough matter to produce an explosive force of almost the same magnitude as the Castle Bravo hydrogen bomb detonation, the most powerful nuclear weapon even detonated by the United States.

"You are literally the most dangerous person alive."

The matter Tatsuya could convert to energy was only limited by Tatsuya's ability to conceive of that matter. A sniper bullet is a small thing when compared to a paperweight, or a desk, or a building. Tatsuya knew, almost instinctively, that he had but to look up at the moon, or even the sun and all trace that humanity ever existed would be gone in the blink of an eye.

He truly hoped he'd never have the need to test his gut instincts on this matter.

"The only way imouto has to keep you in the fold is to tie you by your one string to the Yotsuba."

Tatsuya immediately understood.

"Miyuki."

Miya nodded vacantly to his correct answer.

"Gate dies today with me, not that I have been capable of using it on you for some time now."

The thousand yard stare was back in his mother's eyes.

"Cocytus is the only magic left that could turn you off should something unfortunate occur."

She turned those lonely, empty eyes on him again, as if looking through him to something beyond.

"Miyuki will drift to wherever you are and you will drift to Miyuki's side. Making Miyuki eventually the heir will tie Miyuki to Maya and thus tie you closer to her as well. There is simply no way Maya can let you build your own base of support within the 101 Battalion or the SDF as a whole, independent of her."

Tatsuya nodded his understanding to her.

"Thus Miyuki will be named the heir, so Oba-ue can retain control over me."

Miya nodded her confirmation to him.

"And after Miyuki becomes the leader of the Family in her own right?"

Now Miya turned a suspicious gaze towards her son.

"Something she would only want now for your sake. The Uncles won't tolerate you being the leader of the Yotsuba. They probably will not tolerate you being the power behind Miyuki's throne either. They are your enemies and by default are Miyuki's as well, so long as you are her favorite. They will assume they can pry her away from you, though. They don't understand…."

She looked vacantly out the window, allowing her words to trail off before continuing.

"I suggest you prepare to defend Miyuki and her rights when the time comes. I have no doubt you will prevail, but killing off half the Family to do so would leave you vulnerable to our outside enemies. Dominate them, but don't decimate them. Even you can be overwhelmed if everyone arrays against you."

She then smirked at him.

"You seem to already have the Kuroba Twins in your pocket despite Mitsugu's best efforts to the contrary. It's a start."

She then smirked towards the main residence gardens through the gauzy window covers.

"What Miyuki and you do after that is far beyond my abilities to speculate on."

He was perplexed by the turn in their conversation.

"Are you saying that, through Miyuki's love for me, that you expect me to become the defacto head of the Yotsuba?"

A mild laugh escaped her mouth as she looked vacantly at the maples with their yellowing to red leaves beginning to collect around their bases.

"Is that not the logical conclusion? Surely you are not surprised by this? Maya needs Miyuki to be her heir to control you. Once she dies or retires she won't give a damn what happens after that. You'll take care of the malcontents and after that Miyuki will do whatever her Onii-sama suggests she do."

Now it was Miya that cocked her right eyebrow at him as she turned away from the window.

"Have we been that effective at isolating you from the rest of us that simple logic cannot be believed by someone as logical in nature as yourself?"

Under the assumption that Maya would name Miyuki her heir to control him, and that Miyuki would continue to rely on him even after marriage and becoming the head of the family; the logical conclusion was that Tatsuya would at the least run the day-to-day affairs of the Yotsuba once Miyuki was the head. Something a bit more powerful than Hayama's relations with their Aunt was currently, but a similar role.

The hate and scorn he suffered at the hands of his "family" made this naturally logical prospect seem like a pure fantasy to him. He couldn't overcome his lifetime of experiences thus far to believe even the most likely of scenarios.

"Even if I could overcome the internal opposition. Even protected behind Miyuki, the government, the SDF, and the Ten Master Clans would never allow a Strategic Class magician to be the head of the Yotsuba."

Such an arrangement would be a threat to the established order of things. Having that much power in one set of hands would be intolerable to the rest of those that already held power.

This was truly a logical conclusion, but to his utter surprise, his mother giggled at it.

Once she stopped laughing she spoke again.

"My child, who could stop you?"

She smiled on him with a glow and a look he had never seen before from her. She almost looked at him as if she were proud of him.

"Only one magician in the world can now ever hope to stop you and she's more likely to be the one encouraging you forward. The only limitations on you now are your own scruples and Miyuki's good opinion of you."

She looked away with that far-off gaze again.

"No one else can hope to stand in your way."

She no longer had any fear of telling him the truth because she knew he had been trained and programmed as well as possible to deny himself and his own desires for the sake of another. For Miyuki's sake alone could her all-powerful son truly unleash his terrifying might against the world.

Even now he couldn't completely understand or process what she was trying to tell him.

"It's alright Tatsuya."

Again they locked eyes. Again he couldn't read her perplexing expressions. Again she smiled at him with sympathy he rarely ever saw in that beautiful but normally cold face.

For some reason he could not explain, even in what was likely the very hour of her death, he had never seen his mother so "alive" before this moment.

"Miyuki wants us to have a last minute breakthrough here, does she not?"

Only mildly surprised by his mother's next question, he answered her almost immediately.

"I will tell her that we parted company on good terms. That should relieve her."

Miya smirked back at his answer.

"And are we?"

Tatsuya had to blink a few times before formulating a reply question to answer his confusion.

"Are we what?"

Her eyes noticeably softened before she spoke again.

"Are we parting on good terms?"

Her wry smile remained as she looked away from his perplexed glare.

"After all, even I can acknowledge that I was a terrible mother to you."

Tatsuya composed himself quickly and with his hands again clasped behind the small of his back, he replied in a confident tone.

"I'm sure, given my unique abilities, you did what you felt was necessary."

Without turning to face him, her slight smile instantly turned into a frown before his eyes.

"Ah, necessity."

She paused to shake her head slowly.

"The root of all justifications. The ends justify the means. A cold-hearted philosophy that has justified the worst atrocities in human history."

Tatsuya couldn't help his face from returning to its previous perplexed expression. In his recollection, the only time he had seen his mother this animated and open before was in the Naha Airport as they awaited their flight. With Miyuki in the restroom, Tatsuya took the opportunity to confront his mother about the magic she had been using on him to manipulate his memories.

On that day, for the first and until now only time, he felt that he had had a real conversation with his mother.

Now, with death at the door, she seemed to be opening up to him again, of her own free will this time.

He couldn't let this chance pass.

"Since we are parting on good terms, I have a few additional questions for you."

The smirk returned with her eyes refocusing on him.

"Oh, how intriguing. And here I thought this would be a boring day for me."

Was she joking with him now? Tatsuya couldn't believe the possibility of that happening.

"If you would rather not…"

She slowly waved her right hand at him to get him to stop speaking as she herself spoke.

"No, it's fine."

She looked away from him then.

"As always, if it's something I can't tell you then I won't."

She folded her hands in an Ojou-sama like way on the blanket covering her lower half. Then she looked at him again with a serious expression.

"For having brought you into this cruel world and being the cause of additional cruelty to you, I suppose I owe you at least a few answers before I go."

With a mild hand flourish, she indicated for him to proceed.

"Why was I not killed as an infant?"

Her eyes temporarily expanded at this first question. She quickly regained her composure before responding.

"An aggressive start."

Tatsuya showed no discomfort at his mother's retort. Seeing this she looked away again and proceeded to answer him.

"Eisaku-Oji-sama immediately took that option off the table. He was intrigued by your powers and believed that they could be harnessed for the family's benefit."

Tatsuya's lips only slightly indicated the beginnings of another wry smile as he pushed forward for more details.

"Still, as you have said yourself, I am literally the most dangerous person alive. Surely it would have been better to kill me before I could use my power. Even if Oji-sama opposed it, I'm sure there were plenty of times when you were alone with me. Wouldn't it have been the responsible and logical thing to do?"

Miya wouldn't look at him but even Tatsuya could tell he had hit a nerve. Her eyes wondered in their sockets for a few seconds and then she forcibly turned away from him.

"You…"

She paused to collect herself before continuing.

"….assume I could do such a thing to my own child?"

Not the answer Tatsuya had expected. Not given the history of willful neglect from his mother towards him. Still, he intended to press onward.

"It would have been the logical thing to do for the greater good of humanity. I am an existential threat to the continued existence of the entire human race."

At her continued silence, he threw a verbal dagger at her.

"Nothing in the history of my dealing with you would indicate any emotional issue related to killing me."

She whipped her head around at him with anger flashing in her eyes. She almost looked like she was going to bound up out of her chair and smack him.

"Who is this woman? Where has she been all these years?"

This level of emotional response was beyond what he thought his mother was capable of.

She had gripped the arms of the high-backed chair as if to stand, but then all the anger that seemed ready to burst forth from her instantly disappeared. The frail woman on Death's door returned, and sank into the chair and the blanket as if she were about to disappear in them.

"Despite my cruel treatment of you, it had its purpose."

It was more a mumble than a spoken statement. To Tatsuya's ears, it sounded more like she was talking to herself than him.

"Did you think it was easy for me? To treat my own child that way?"

Her sad eyes bore into him and for some reason, he felt mildly offended she could ask him that question and specifically with that look. He straightened himself, arms still locked behind his back.

"You made it seem…..effortless."

Those sad and lonely eyes turned away from him then.

"Well…..I suppose I deserve that."

Then she turned to him again, with the slightest glimmer of "fire" in her eyes.

"No matter what you think of me, as a woman and as a mother, I would never intentionally harm my own child if it were not for their own long-term benefit."

She seemed genuinely upset at him.

"I may be cruel, but I am still human."

She turned her eyes even further from him, as if suddenly embarrassed.

"You weren't killed by me because I could never have done such a thing, or allow it. You are, despite everything, my own son."

Then a petulant expression crossed her face.

"I hope that satisfied your curiosity on that subject?"

Tatsuya was truly fascinated by the unexpected reactions his normally taciturn mother had displayed to him.

"It was most illuminating, my thanks."

She turned angry eyes toward him again before looking away.

"You have another question?"

Tatsuya nodded to her inquiry

"Indeed."

He slightly moved his left leg before repositioning himself more in her line of sight.

"If Miyuki's Cocytus is meant to stop me from abusing my abilities, and after all the careful work everyone put into distancing her from me emotionally. Why did you so easily relent after Okinawa to her new-found affections for me?"

Miya took in his question with an interested look. Once it was her turn to reply she waited for a few moments as if she were finding it difficult to answer him.

"Because her loving you….."

She paused to bite her lower lip as if not sure of what she was about to say.

"….means she could never allow you to become something she could hate."

Tatsuya again was perplexed by this answer.

"I don't follow the logic."

A wistful smile crossed Miya's face as she looked back at him.

"Good, it will give you something to ponder until you can. It is the only answer to your question I have for you. When dealing with emotions, logic is not a prerequisite condition. Next question."

Tatsuya was surprised by how illogical his mother's response was. He decided that since her time was short he'd ponder her statements on his own later and proceed.

"Very well."

He looked away out the windows to the gardens beyond for a few moments before returning his eyes to his mother.

"Why am I here?"

She blinked at his question to her.

"What do you mean?"

"Here, in this room, with you, at the hour of your death? You love Miyuki intensely, and yet you specifically called me in here instead of her. That makes no sense. I have been a great disappointment to you, and yet you chose to have me here and not her?"

He paused to give her a moment to respond, but seeing her look away again as if she planned to ignore him, he pressed the issue.

"Why am I here mother?"

She took in a ragged breath before forcing out a response.

"Because in the last moments of this existence…"

She was practically whispering now. She again seemed like she was talking to herself and not him.

"…I have suddenly become very selfish."

Tatsuya mildly shook his head at this confusing response.

"I don't understand."

Miya's eyes drifted to lock onto her son's visage.

"You think the way I treated you has cost me nothing?"

She turned away from him with a bitter expression.

"You have known since Okinawa that the magic I had been using on you took away years from my life."

Again she turned her eyes upon him, this time with the familiar look of disappointment.

"And still…you think I treated you poorly because it was what was best for me? It would have been so much easier for me to have treated you as normal mothers get to treat normal sons."

She turned again from him, this time with a look of sad resignation.

"But to have loved you as a mother would have been the worst thing I could have done to you."

She clenched her jaw as if fighting back pain, but Tatsuya could see in Elemental Sight that she wasn't experiencing that sort of physical pain at the moment.

"Do you know what it cost us both for me to do that? To suppress and abandon my motherly instincts? You have seen me with Miyuki. You know what I am capable of as a mother."

Now the eyes she turned to look at him with were radiating an emotion Tatsuya couldn't read. If he tried to put words to that look he might have said "pleading".

"I have done what needed to be done DESPITE what nature called on me to do because it was what was best not only for you but everyone."

She took another ragged breath before continuing. He could see that her reserves of energy were all but depleted now.

"And it has cost me my life to do so, Tatsuya."

Was this stoic pillar of his existence suddenly becoming a fragile and emotional creature before his eyes? Tatsuya was surprised and confused by this whole exchange.

"I never understood why you would waste your life energy on a defective product. There's no logic in it. You should have killed me as an infant, but you did not. It has perplexed me since Okinawa."

She looked up at him from the chair. An indescribable expression on her face. For the first time in his life, Tatsuya felt like his mother was looking at him and only him. Not seeing his awesome destructive powers or their consequences. It was as if she finally saw the young man and not his defects.

"There is nothing in this world I have ever wanted more than to have had the chance to treat you as I do Miyuki."

Now Tatsuya clenched his jaw in surprised frustration. A sudden knot of pain seized his chest. He hadn't felt this sensation since that night on Okinawa more than two years before.

"I…I can't understand….."

He wasn't looking at her anymore as he worked to suppress the sudden sensation inside him. He didn't see the sympathy in his mother's eyes she directed towards him.

"But my son was born with a fatal flaw. He was made the ultimate living weapon. The culmination of all the demonic dreams of those that breed us magicians like cattle for the slaughter."

In his sudden discomfort, he didn't see her slowly and inadvertently extend her right hand toward his left arm.

"A weapon that could inadvertently be set off by the seemingly most innocuous of things."

Tatsuya's eyes suddenly flashed at his mother with what in a normal boy's face might be called anger.

"And that would that be?"

She quickly withdrew her extended hand before he could notice it.

"...love."

At the mention of the emotion that he could only feel for one person, the knot in his chest suddenly intensified in discomfort.

"You, my son, could not be allowed to have emotions outside of those you have for Miyuki."

Miya turned her eyes away from him again. The familiar glare off into the far distance returned.

"She alone can stop you. Had anyone else…"

Suddenly it seemed as if she were having issues catching her breath.

"…including your mother, been allowed to…"

She was openly breathing heavily now.

"I…..I can't…."

Tatsuya forgot all about his unexplained knot of discomfort and moved closer to the chair. She looked up at him and then extended her right hand upwards.

"I believe that I am done with chairs."

He grasped her hand in his and placed his other hand behind her elbow.

"Get me to my feet please."

As he gently applied force to lift her upward she suddenly went limp in his arms. He was forced to grab her around the waist to keep her from falling back into the chair. Her breath was ragged, and her eyes rolled back to the back of her head.

"Mother!"

"Ahh!"

After releasing that sound from her lips her eyes refocused again to see her son's face next to hers as he supported her weight.

"Perhaps I am done with walking as well?"

Without being asked Tatsuya scooped his mother's body up into his arms and lifted her as if she were as light as a little girl. For some odd reason, she seemed to blush in that moment as he gently carried her to the bed.

Beside the bed, he gently sat her down and turned her so that she could grasp the nearest post of the bed frame.

"Perhaps you should lay down?"

Her chest still heaving, she turned weak eyes up towards him.

"For the last time, you think?"

Seeing that he didn't have a response to that she turned her eyes from him and let him support her weight as he angled her into the bed. As her head touched the pillow and he removed his hand from the back of her head she suddenly smiled lightly at him.

"You have been told by others that you are plain looking for a man."

He nodded acknowledgment of her statement. He had never concerned himself with his looks beyond the basics of masculine grooming, but he was often told he was plain looking.

"I have never said such to you."

She was right. In his recollections, his mother had never once commented on his attractiveness.

"Since I consider you to favor me over your father in the looks department, one could say that you are in fact quite handsome."

She seemed to be getting surprisingly agitated by this.

"Your aunt and I certainly were told all our lives how pretty we are. If the same person that says you are plain says we are pretty, then that person is lying to one of us."

Tatsuya looked on with mild curiosity as he placed additional pillows behind her head.

"Maya thinks you look like Father."

Tatsuya stopped midway through his actions when his mother's declaration hit his ears. They looked at each other intently for a moment, and then his mother turned from him with mild embarrassment showing.

"I suppose you do look like father a bit, but then so do Maya and myself, so that's only natural.

Tatsuya nodded his understanding and reached down to lift the bed covers over her.

"No, no covers."

He stopped his actions and stood upright. It seemed then she remembered the white kimono she was wearing. After a moment of contemplation, she turned an almost mirthful look towards him.

"Do you think I should go ahead and switch the lapels?"

With kimonos, the only time the right side lapel would cover then left was in death. For some reason, he couldn't explain the knot in his chest came back for a moment.

"No mother, you are still alive. I will take care of that for you."

She blinked at him in surprise for a moment, and then the most fragile of smiles crossed her delicate lips.

"Though I don't deserve it?"

She practically whispered the question. Tatsuya pondered her meaning before replying.

"I have been your Guardian since Honami's death. It is my duty to serve you."

As his words hit her mind the smile vanished as if it had never been there and a light that seemed to be in her eyes just moments before went away with it.

"Ah….yes."

It seemed as if the last string of hope Miya had left to her had just been severed.

"As my Guardian."

She looked absently down toward the end of the bed now. Lost in her own thoughts for a moment.

"You will make sure that I am properly displayed for Miyuki's sake?"

Tatsuya, again in parade rest position with his arms behind his back, nodded to her as he replied.

"Of course."

She sighed lightly, then spoke again.

"Everything you will need is in the top shelf of the dresser."

Tatsuya's eyes drifted in the direction of the dresser near the entrance before returning to his mother.

"Understood."

Again she looked off with that thousand yard stare again. Aiming it towards the far window this time.

"Did you have any more questions for me?"

"No."

Suddenly before his eyes, his mother seemed to shrink into a small girl. A sad and frightened small girl who seemed to want him to give her some form of comfort in her last minutes.

"...I see."

His own size had exceeded her in the last two years since Okinawa. Now he was nearly half a head taller than her and more than four kilos heavier. It was in these last two years, as Miyuki and he grew, that Miya declined rapidly before their eyes. She was still taller than Miyuki, but she probably weighed a bit less than her daughter now. Compared to himself she seemed small and fragile now.

Tatsuya didn't have it in him to waste comfort on someone who was not Miyuki, even their mother. If anyone should have been able to understand that it was surely the woman who had denied him the ability to feel for others.

Yet here she was, acting as if she had forgotten that it was she herself that had turned him into this hardened creature.

Despite himself, Tatsuya decided to do what he could to alleviate her with his limited abilities.

"Is there anything else I can do for you?"

She turned her eyes towards him and he saw her eyes glow for a moment. Then she turned away embarrassed. She seemed to be contemplating something significant that was causing her great consternation. Then the weak sound of a response slipped from her mouth.

"…..yes."

She closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

"There is."

She slowly released the breath and spoke again.

"Take off your house shoes and lay down on the bed beside me."

Tatsuya's mind seemed to be having a hard time processing the request he had just heard.

"I beg your pardon?"

The line of Miya's mouth hardened into a frown before she replied.

"I didn't stutter."

Tatsuya's eyes rolled around for a second as he still couldn't believe her request.

"You want me to lay down beside you in the bed?"

She was both embarrassed and frustrated at this point.

"That IS what I said, is it not?"

Now all he could do is comply with this most unusual of requests.

"Yes."

He approached the corner of the bed and sat down. Then removed his house shoes.

A sudden possibility struck his mind and he turned to confront his mother.

"You realize that you are no longer capable of taking my memories from me with that magic, right?"

Miya looked both irritated and hurt by his suspicions.

"Please wait till I am dead to insult me."

The venomous response surprised Tatsuya.

"I didn't….mean to imply…."

A heavy breath of exasperation escaped his mother's lips and stopped his words mid-sentence. She then aimed intent eyes at him.

"You will erase all traces of that magic that you possess as you promised me, correct? Miyuki can never be allowed to..."

"I have already, mother."

She looked at him intently for a few more moments, and then great relief seemed to flow into her.

"...good."

She then gently patted the bed beside her with her left hand to indicate for him to lay down.

With no alternative left to him, Tatsuya swung his feet up and lay beside his mother with his back firmly against the bed.

"Stretch your right arm out."

At first slightly confused by the instruction he received, Tatsuya extended his right arm over the pillow his mother's head was laying upon. She lifted her head and laid it upon her confused son's arm. Then to his further surprise, she weakly pushed herself into the space snug to his right side with her own face just centimeters from his own.

Seeing his disturbed confusion on his face, she blushingly provided an explanation.

"So that I can look out the window. I can lay my head on your right shoulder and see out the window. I want to watch the leaves fall in the sunlight."

Her eyes now focused across his chest to the nearest window, Tatsuya's surprised eyes looked upward towards the canopy of the bed they now shared.

Time seemed to stretch on awkwardly for him. To his best knowledge, this was the first time he and the woman that gave birth to him had been this close physically to each other since his infancy. He can count the number of times previously that they had even touched each other for a non-practical purpose on just one of his hands.

Into this awkward silence, a near whisper reached his right ear.

"I have made arrangements for you to stay with Miyuki overnight in her room. She will need you….well…she will always need you; but tonight, she will need you physically close at hand, even as she sleeps. The next few weeks will be very hard for her."

The love Miyuki had for their mother was the defining aspect of her life up to this point. Tatsuya was well aware of the difficulties ahead for her.

"I understand."

He could understand her need for him to mitigate her loneliness after their mother's death. He, of course, could never hope to understand the emotional pain she would experience. Either way, he would be there for her.

"I would recommend going through Hayama whenever you need anything from your aunt, or when you must report information to her. He is adept in filtering out things that would cause unnecessary friction with her. Both of you should avoid direct contact with her as much as possible."

This was a suggestion to continue her own policy when dealing with her twin. Hayama often acted as the go-between with the two sisters that rarely spoke directly. It was still sound advice.

"Especially you."

This addition to her advice was slightly confusing for him, but he resisted the urge to ask her for elaboration.

"I….understand."

After his slightly awkward response, a few more moments of silence ensued between mother and son. He became aware, without looking at her, that her eyes were focused on his face and not her stated purpose for their strange coziness of looking out the window. She again broke the quiet with a whisper.

"You asked me why I chose you to spend my last few moments of life with."

He nodded softly as not to rock her head on his shoulder.

"It's because you can handle it. My death will not affect you emotionally. Miyuki will see enough hardships in her life. No need to add me dying before her eyes as one. I'd rather her memories of me were all positive ones."

This was something Tatsuya could heartily agree with.

"Of course."

Despite their own difficulties interacting, both were aware of each other's value to Miyuki. Tatsuya would never allow anything to harm Miyuki if he can help it. Miya's death was unavoidable, but her memory would strengthen Miyuki as a person.

"I answered you earlier that I was being selfish by having you here."

This change in topic resulted in a verbal confirmation from him.

"You did."

She surprised him with her next words.

"I didn't want to start this new journey alone, and outside of Miyuki, there is no one else I could share this moment with other than you."

He could sense that her eyes were focused on the window now instead of his face.

"And even Miyuki might still be too young to understand it all, but not you."

To his mounting surprise Miya now weakly extended her right arm across his chest. Once her hand was tucked between his left side and arm, she applied light force to pull herself into him even more. To his stunned and confused mind, it seemed as if this cold and distant mother he had known was suddenly embracing him.

"Just one more heavy burden for my son to bear in this life. I am a cruel mother indeed."

After a moment to focus his mind during this mentally confusing exchange, Tatsuya managed a feeble sounding response.

"I do not consider this to be a great burden, outside of the fact that being here prevents me from directly comforting Miyuki at this difficult time."

Her eyes still locked outward toward the world beyond the window, a heavy sigh escaped her lips. A few seconds later the weak voice spoke again.

"Miyuki….yes."

Tatsuya readily admitted to himself his limitations in understanding emotions. Since laying down in this bed just a few minutes before, he had been taxed to his limit in emotional understanding.

"Cling to her and protect her. She is your hope and salvation."

Hope and salvation weren't words he associated with his mother's typical speech patterns.

"I will."

And he would, for Miyuki's sake he would do anything. For him, this was the easiest of replies to give.

"I know. I designed her that way."

Now a stab of concern hit his mind. What did she mean by "designed her that way"?

"…what?"

She slightly tightened her grip around him and moved her head to a more comfortable position while ignoring his one-word question.

"It is wrong to be jealous of one's on children."

Another surprising comment threw him off track again.

"I…suppose so."

"Is she jealous of me? That I will get to live a life with Miyuki that she cannot?"

The idea that Miya could be jealous of a defective product like him seemed fanciful at best. The alternative scenario, which was potential jealousy toward Miyuki's impending life with him, never occurred to the self-deprecating Tatsuya.

"She can give you what you need. She will keep you human."

Tatsuya only had a vague understanding of this comment. Sensing her psions nearing their final exhaustion Tatsuya was forced to assume that some of what he was being told were just the ramblings of someone slowly losing their last connections to this life. Instead of bombarding her with questions for clarification, he would do his duty.

He would stay in this position and with his mother, till she was no longer with him.

He could understand sympathy, even if he was incapable of feeling it.

And he understood duty and obligation, even towards someone who was ashamed of him.

"Most people love the Spring. First the cherry blossoms, and then the plum blossoms, and finally all the flowers are in bloom before Summer. Admittedly it is the most colorful time of the year."

She sighed again in what seemed to be a contemplative state of mind.

"I've always liked the Fall, though. Despite its associations with impending Winter, there's still something beautiful in the completion of the annual mission of mother nature."

Just as that day in August on Okinawa, when he confronted her at the airport; again he felt he was seeing another unknown side to this cold and distant mother.

"Something nice about the idea of one last effort before the rest that finally comes with Winter. The vibrant colors, though different than the hues of Spring, are still lovely to behold."

There was a surprising longing in her words. A yearning for something she had lost a long time ago. If he didn't know better it seemed like she wanted to go outside and watch the leaves fall one last time.

"The crispness of the wind moving through the branches and leaves, bringing a much-needed relief from the oppressive heat of the Summer."

Perhaps it was her returning to a child-like state just before the end of life. She seemed innocent and fragile to him suddenly. She seemed like a stranger compared to the woman he had known.

"Spring is all full of false hope. It is only in the Fall that one finally understands the true mean of life."

After a long pause, he asked her the obvious question.

"What would that meaning be?"

Soft and kind eyes met his own concerned gaze.

"That all life must eventually come to an end."

A sad but inevitable conclusion, delivered with a slight smile of reassurance.

"That seems rather dark, even given your current situation."

And for the first time in his life, to his own knowledge, his mother, Miya of the Yotsuba, gave a genuine smile to the son that had been her greatest disappointment in life.

"Then you have hope, my child?"

That knot of pain stabbed him in the chest again out of nowhere. He swallowed hard before responding.

"Hope…..might be the wrong word."

Her smile never wavered.

"Then what is the right word?"

He felt his already round eyes widen as her left hand came up and cradled his left jaw.

"I….am not certain."

That surprisingly warm and hopeful smile, those happily shining eyes. This was not Miya Yotsuba. Not the Miya Yotsuba he knew.

"Could it be…..Faith?"

Fighting down the confusing pain in his chest and the strangeness of the moment, he mustered another response.

"Too grand of a concept for me. Though…"

Her smiling face gently encouraged him along with her words.

"Go on."

He offered the only reply his struggling consciousness could find at the moment.

"Perhaps believing in the cyclical nature of the Universe is a certain type of Faith?"

She twisted up the corner of her smile into a wry grin before responding.

"Perhaps it is."

Tatsuya instantly recognized this facial expression as one he himself often gives.

He could no longer hold back his curiosity.

"If you don't mind, I have one more question for you."

She dug her head back into his right shoulder and returned her eyes to the window.

"No, I don't mind. Your natural curiosity is something I have always liked about you."

Again another unexpected word of kindness from her. He pressed onward.

"I was born in April."

He hesitated to proceed but for only a moment.

"Am I the reason you prefer the Fall to Spring?"

To his continuing amazement, a small giggle escaped her mouth.

"Oh no."

She even shook her head slightly at his suggestion.

"I have made many mistakes in life but they have all been mine."

Tatsuya suddenly noticed that their breathing had synchronized.

"I stayed when I should have gone."

He felt surprisingly calm despite the awkwardness their sudden "closeness" had been causing him before.

"I obeyed when I should have defied."

His mind began to feel lighter. As if his burdens were receding from him.

"I stopped when I should have run."

Tatsuya began to find a warming sensation in his chest where moments before the tightness of the strange pain had been.

"And worst of all."

He felt like he was near to sleep.

"I underestimated another's desire to make what was mine her own."

His conscious mind suddenly realized that his control over his body was escaping him.

"I turned my eyes from the danger, and it cost us both everything."

"Cost us….everything?"

He was finding it hard to respond to her.

"I'm not certain what…."

Her hand again caressed his jaw and he drifted further from the conscious world.

"Fate made you the ultimate weapon, so I did what I had to do."

Sadness reached his mind from…somewhere. Her voice perhaps?

"If you were to weld the mightiest of all swords, then I had to give you the armor worthy of such a warrior."

He suddenly began to realize something was acting against him.

"Magic? But she is too weak to….."

His mind told him to fight it, but his body was unwilling to obey.

"I was hard, to make you ever harder. I was cold as iron to make you into forged steel."

Her words seemed to be coming from the other side of the room now instead of being whispered to his ear. Yet her voice was suddenly clear and strong as if she was shrugging away impending Death with ease.

"Even now, still yet a boy, no one individual on this Earth can hope to defeat you when you unleash your full abilities upon them."

Suddenly Tatsuya wasn't sure it was even his mother talking to him anymore.

"I can remember the cherry blossoms the Spring you were born. It was a particularly good year."

He was hearing her voice or was it someone else's. Was it Miya, or perhaps Miyuki? Could that be Honami's voice he was hearing now?

"They had almost all fallen around the coast by your birthdate, but here in the mountains they had just started to bloom fully."

The warmth increased as his fragile grasp on consciousness slowly drifted further from his reach.

"How can she…use….Gate…..in her condition?"

"I rocked you in my arms for perhaps the last time, as I watched the petals fly in the light wind through that very same window we are looking through now.

"Or is this the magic from…Okinawa? To erase my….memories?"

"It was the saddest and the happiest time of my entire life."

Her words, or those of another, reached his ears. Though subtle, the differences between his mother and aunt's voices had joined in a chorus of other voices in his mind.

"But….how can that….."

It was his turn to sound feeble.

"Rest now my son."

Blackness began to engulf him from all sides.

"Wait….I…I….."

A warm hand, was it real or the memory of a warm hand? Suddenly added to the warmth radiating from his chest.

"Your rest will be a short one and mine much longer, but we can both lay down our burdens for a time together here."

The world of dreams had merged in his mind with reality.

"When you wake the cruel world will still await you, but you will conquer it as you were made to do. So for now, rest my child."

He felt as if he were being enveloped in someone's arms. He felt tiny compared to them.

"Here in my arms, where cruel fate took you from so young. Again I can hold my precious boy in this one quiet moment."

He could smell her, his mother. A faint scent as if pulled from the memories of his childhood that he no longer possessed.

"And if there is Hope, and if there is Faith; then perhaps this will not be the last time I hold my poor abused son in my arms."

He suddenly felt a great urge to hold onto the presence that had seemingly lifted him up as if he were a baby into its mysterious embrace.

"We have immortal souls, my child. Keep your Faith in the cyclical nature of the Universe."

Despite what was left of his conscious mind knowing that something was wrong, this near dream-like version of himself was content.

"The wheel of fate will reunite us in a better world, my beloved Tatsuya."

He felt like he was now clinging to the mysterious presence. As if he couldn't let it go.

"It is selfish for me to say this, especially now, but I have never stopped loving you."

Was this…could it be…"Happiness"? If felt to him the same as when Miyuki smiled at him. Could this warm feeling overcoming him in his sleep…."Love"?

Darkness finally closed off the last light of consciousness as the chorus of women's voices spoke to him one last time. Something warm, and refreshing seemed to pass through him in that moment.

"And I never will."