Rebirth

She really isn't a fan of the spotlight, but Maya had practically begged her to accept the interview, which was practically the only reason she was here. Mostly it was about Green Mars thankfully, though it does dip towards the recent trouble with the Parasites.

She's vague about answers when it comes to questions on things like Occlumency and that sort of thing, but she's been careful of what she says this whole time, so it doesn't mean a whole lot.

Then the interviewer takes her a little by surprise by a seemingly random question, “So Lady Shiba, after everything you've done, do you have any regrets?”

Surprise it may be, but since she doesn't want to dump her guilt on the deaths she wasn't able to prevent a couple months ago, it makes the question easy and she laughs, “Beyond the obvious? Only that me and my fiancé can't also both marry our shared girlfriend we've been with just as long as we've been with each other! Since polygamous marriage isn't legal in Japan and all that.”

The interviewer laughs in amusement at that, and things move back on topic.

She tilts her head at Kyouko and Retsu after they're led into the house by Honami, “This is a surprise.”

Retsu smiles, “Ah, that's because Kyouko checked your schedule with your fiancé, but we wanted to surprise you, so we didn't give you heads up that we were coming.”

She gives him a bemused look, “Alright?”

Kyouko giggles and holds out an envelope to her, “There was a petition from the citizens, and the laws have recently been adjusted accordingly. There's also an exception in there. The law adjustment is going to be on the news tonight, but given everything, we wanted to let you know ourselves.”

That certainly doesn't clear up her bemused expression, but she accepts it without a word and opens it up. The moment she realizes what it's about her breath catches and she sits up sharply as she reads through the rest at breakneck speed, including the exception.

She looks up, “Shut up. You're kidding. Tell me you're not, that would be a mean joke otherwise Kyouko-nee.”

Kyouko laughs, “It's no joke! I guess after Green Mars and all the previous work that you did before unveiling it, and what happened with the Parasites people were practically demanding it, saying it was the least we could do after everything you've done so… Surprise! Polygamy is being made legal! With limitations of its own, mind you. And same sex marriage as well, for you and Miho. But you and Sora will be able to marry each other, and both marry Miho as well!”

Retsu chuckles, “And as you read, you and Sora have both been given exceptions to that two year engagement law to make sure there aren't any… explosive active magical fallouts if it turns out they're not compatible since if you've been together with her just as long as each other… Well, an exception is being made, so that when you file your engagements to her, it'll be considered to have been in effect just as long as your engagement to one another, so you'll be able to marry at the same time. You just need to submit the exception papers with your engagement papers, so I'd suggest not losing them.”

She laughs in utter disbelief, “I need to tell Miho and Sora the good news!”

The two laugh happily, getting up. Retsu smiles, “Go and share the good news with your partners. We just wanted to be the ones to tell you, but we don't want to hold you up.”

She shoots to her feet, impulsively hugging them both before tearing off as she shoots her goodbyes over her shoulder even as they laugh.

Her shoulder clips the frame on her door in her rush, but she doesn't care as she rushes to her personal terminal to call them, impatient as all hell as it rings, not even bothering to sit. Sora answers first, unsurprisingly, “Hey Sweetheart.”

She laughs, utterly giddy, “Hi!”

He can't seem to help but laugh as well at her excitement, “Something good happened then?”

She nods quickly, “Ohhh it's unbelievably amazing!”

Miho had answered at the last word, and she seems a bit bemused at her excitement, “What's amazing?”

She shakes her head as her face breaks out in a grin, “It-! No wait, I wanna tell you two in person, are your parents home, or is it safe to apparate in Sora?”

He's smiling in amusement at her glee, “They're as MIA as ever. You free to apparate over Miho?”

Miho shrugs, “Yeah, just let me tell my parents I'm going out to meet you and leave the house so they don't find my disappearance strange. I'll be there shortly.”

Miho hangs up, and she ends her call as well before apparating immediately from her room to the Amano living room where Sora was given the background when he answered.

She laughs in delight as she swoops in to kiss him soundly, something he happily returns as he wraps his arms around her, and when she pulls back her lips immediately tug into another grin, “Hi!”

He laughs, “Hello Sweetheart. Seriously, what's got you so happy?”

She all but squirms in excitement in his arms, “We gotta wait for Miho!”

Hoshi, bless her heart, decides that since they're waiting anyway, now's a good time to ask, “Is this something I should make myself scarce for, or..?”

She laughs, “No. Or well. Not immediately? I imagine it'll just be more happy excitement at first? Maybe a bit later though?”

Miho pops in right after she finishes, and she immediately whirls as Sora lets her go, all but throwing herself at their wife to kiss her soundly as well. Miho returns it for a moment, then pulls back with a laugh, “No seriously dear, what's going on?”

She beams, “So! I had no freaking clue until just a bit ago, but apparently after all the Green Mars and Parasite stuff and all the other stuff I did, there was a petition to legalize polygamous marriage.”

Miho gives her a surprise look, “Shut up. You are not going where I think you're going with this.”

She laughs gleefully, holding out the papers, “The laws were amended! It's legal now! Me and Sora can still marry each other but both marry you as well!”

Sora shoots to his feet, swinging around to peer over Miho's shoulder as she all but snatches them to read over. She's all but wiggling in place in excited happiness as they rush through them, Sora jerking his gaze up in surprise, “An exception too?”

She laughs happily, “Yeah! Don't lose those because we gotta file them with our engagement paperwork, but if we do, since we've been with Miho just as long, they'll consider our engagements to her to be just as far along as our own!”

Miho throws herself forward into her arms, laughing happily, “Oh my gods! We can officially get married! All three of us!”

She nods happily, damn near driven to tears by the situation she's so happy. Sora wraps them both up in his arms, just as ecstatic as them.

They're all a mess of absolute glee, and there's definitely a celebration to happen. Inevitably Sora being in such a good mood he'll throw his all into making the shared favorite, rare though it may be given it takes hours to make. And just as inevitable, a more private celebration after.

Right this moment though, all she can do is clutch at her soulmates, an unbelievable happiness coursing through her.

She's gazing down at her tea, slowly turning it in thought after her most recent sparring session with Yakumo. He inevitably noticed immediately and was just giving her quiet to think, so he doesn't look surprised in the slightest when she straightens and turns to him, “Master, I wanted to ask you something, but I also wanted to make sure you understand I wouldn't be mad or anything if you say no.”

He smiles that usual airy smile, “Of course. You're always free to ask Toshiko.”

She nods, “I've been thinking lately, and I had the thought… We aren't having a traditional Japanese wedding, or any religious focused one for that matter, and one that's going to come across more western for various reasons. Mostly because traditional types of wedding really aren't suitable for a trio wedding like ours and we'd basically have to change it in a way to accommodate which could all too easily come across as us stomping all over the religious aspects,” Which was primarily a side effect of the lack of soulmates in this universe. So the only thing remotely close was something similar to concubines anyway, which was definitely a no, “so would you be comfortable taking one of those quick courses to get a temporary certification and officiating my wedding?”(1)

Yakumo blinks rapidly in surprise, but his usual elusive smile disappears as he grows serious, “I would be honored to, Toshiko.”

She had her reasons but she wasn't sure about bringing them up. Yakumo has no qualms about it though, as that slippery mischievous grin comes back, “Ma. If you're doing more of a western style wedding, it's quite a clean way to deal with things without creating the sort of talk neither of us enjoys, since your biological father certainly isn't the man you'd want walking you down the aisle. But while it's true we've had less of a teacher-student relationship and something significantly closer to parent-child, there'd be an awful lot of talk we'd both prefer to avoid if I walked you. It's quite a tidy way to still have me there without people really batting an eyelash.”

She hums, “That was the thought, yeah. Because you aren't wrong that I was wanting you there, but didn't want to draw the attention and all that neither of us would appreciate while still involving you in a meaningful way.”

He nods at that, and their conversation drifts to discussing her upcoming wedding, set after graduation, in more detail.

It's been something of a whirlwind since graduation started its final approach. The exams were easy of course, and she proudly graduated as a course two student, which had the bonus side effect that the course one students had their sense of superiority utterly shattered. Given she was already hearing murmurs of how to encourage more active magicals into education to do away with the two course system in the three schools who use it to be able to double their number of students in general, it likely would never get the chance to recover since the division was already finding moves being made to do away with it entirely.

The party at the school had been a blast admittedly, if a bit loud and rambunctious for her tastes. She's already said her goodnights to the majority of her group during their post graduation trip and was heading up to their room with her soulmates. It wasn't ready yet, but there were already plans from Maya for a house being built for her, Sora, and Miho to move to after their wedding. She'd even been kind enough to include a smaller separate building for Hoshi so she could live separately but still near her brother. It was going to be a wedding present apparently, but Maya had gleefully informed her that it wasn't the only one, probably happy at a chance to spoil her with little to no comment, since it was the wedding of the Clan Heir.

May also be a tinge of selfishness since along with the separate building for Hoshi, she'd absolutely noticed two more mother-in-law type buildings on the land. One was assumably for Miya if she ever wanted to make use of it, the other was likely officially going to be for other Yotsuba family staying over. Unofficially it was probably more of a mother-in-law suite for Maya without potentially setting off Miya since Maya knows she'd prefer to avoid the drama.

She'd already mentally made plans to offer Mikihiko to stay in one of them whenever he wanted, whether he just needed some time away from his family or not. If by sheer dumb luck people who wouldn't be alright with sharing the quarters came in that would need to use them whenever it was a time he happened to be there, she absolutely intended to let him crash in one of her house itself's many rooms whenever he needed to, or even just use one of them regardless of guests in the other buildings if he'd just prefer that. And it certainly had more than a few, since while it wasn't the sort of mansion the other Ten Master Clans had, undoubtedly due to the fact it was the soon to be residence of the Clan Heir and if anyone found her address it would draw attention if she was in the more normal house she'd lived with her mother in for the majority of her life, it wasn't a small house by any means.

Not that she was expecting both the mother-in-law suits to be occupied at the same time, given there aren't exactly a lot of known Yotsuba who would risk being linked by staying with her instead of at a nearby hotel or something. Given she's certainly not going to let Yuki stay there constantly just to crowd her or anything, the only way she could see both in use simultaneously is if Maya and Miya were there at the same time. Given the way their relationship was strained and they avoided each other, that was highly doubtful.

It was on her mind at the moment because she was contemplating when she should talk to Mikihiko about it. The poor boy was already finding himself having to adjust again. Because he'd slipped up and called her Mom out loud, and that had opened the proverbial floodgates. Apparently, the brats that were her other emotional kids have been keeping an eye on him and just waiting for him to accept his adoption.

The moment he had, while they were currently using an anonymous chat room for now, they'd reached out to him, eager to get to know their ‘emotionally adopted brother’ better. Poor boy was still adjusting to suddenly finding himself with four new adoptive siblings and getting to know them. Ones who are trying not to be pushy, but have already made it abundantly clear they were very supportive. Which, well… She raised them right is all she can say.

If anything, she was barely holding them back from overwhelming Erika, who she may not have emotionally adopted per say since Erika did have supportive family in her older brothers, but while it had taken even her a bit of time to notice, at some point she'd realized she'd emotionally taken Erika as a sort of niece. So Erika had gone from laughing at Mikihiko to flustered at realizing she wasn't much better off… And she has found herself having to hold her emotional kids back from overwhelming their ‘emotionally adopted cousin’.

She's pulled from the way her thoughts are wandering as she heads to their room at the hotel with her soulmates by Yuki's voice calling out, “Oonneee-sssaaammaaa!!!”

She jerks her head up, and the moment she sees those flushed cheeks and swaying stagger, she knows that somehow Yuki got drunk. He's a fucking handful to deal with when he's sober, and just from the way he said ‘Onee-sama’ she knows he'll be worse drunk. She is not dealing with this. She refuses.

Which is why she uses a tripping charm calculated just to make him do that sort of stumble that makes drunk people look down at their feet, activates a flying spell, Decomposes the singular camera with a line of sight as well as a window, and promptly hurls herself out of the seventh floor.

She does make sure to use Regrowth on the window once she's through it, but the whole maneuver is done and she's gone by the time Yuki looks back up. Sora and Miho can either just keep walking or deal with him, that's up to them, but she sure as hell isn't having anything to do with that mess.

She traces his Eidos back through the logs somewhat angrily, wondering how in the hell he got drunk given the legal age of drinking in Japan is something that didn't experience changes and is still set at twenty.

She'd like to give him the benefit of the doubt, to think that it was some sort of comedy of errors that saw him getting drunk on accident. But nope. The little fucker had half-bribed half-threatened someone to get a bottle of something decently hard for him. By which she means he'd essentially told them ‘you can take the money and accept doing it or accept the consequences of saying no’ which was another problem all on its own.

She marks down the poor woman's name, since Yuki had done it somewhere there weren't cameras, even as she traces him back further to find out why the hell he's doing something like this. Not very hard, and she really should've expected the reason. Their group had been discussing her upcoming wedding at dinner, which had unsurprisingly upset him, and he seemed to lose his shit completely when he saw her kissing Sora a bit later. She hadn't really noticed, since he'd stormed off and up to his room, and probably not wanting to drag the mood down, their friends who had noticed hadn't said anything.

He'd had probably the worst temper tantrum he's ever had in his room, screaming and throwing things and punching things before he'd apparently decided to take a ‘drink his problems away’ approach.

Glancing at where Sora and Miho are now trying to calm a hostile Yuki down, she yanks her mobile terminal out.

Mom

Your SON told some poor woman ‘you can take the money and accept doing it or accept the CONSEQUENCES of saying no’ while bribing/threatening her to get him alcohol.

He's drunk now and YOUR problem to deal with.

Sora and Miho are trying to calm him down but he's YOUR responsibility. And so is apologizing to and potentially compensating that woman for the trouble he's caused.

He did WHAT?! I swear, that boy!

Please apparate here and pick me and Honami up so I can deal with this mess.

She doesn't bother texting back, just apparates over to grab her and Honami before apparating back to the hallway, though behind Yuki so he can't see her. After catching her soulmates’ gazes, jerks her thumb at her mom before casting an invisibility spell on herself seconds before their mom shouts Yuki's name angrily as she marches forward. As she does, she uses Decomposition to cause all of the hotel's cameras to go down until what she'd knocked out can be repaired. It shouldn't take more than a few hours, but it would easily create an opening to explain their mom's sudden appearance. The Teleport Gates all over Japan are already known after all, so there's no question about travel time or anything, really just how she got into the hotel without anyone noticing.

As her soulmates go invisible once Yuki turns with wide eyes like a kid who got caught with a hand in the cookie jar at their mom’s voice, she lifts her phone to send a message off to Maya. Specifically to arrange a car with tinted windows to go from the nearest Teleport Gate that's known to the hotel with passengers using illusion magic to make themselves look like Miya and Honami when they climb out before heading up to Yuki's room and slipping away, so that no one will think anything of them walking out, even if someone where to check the road footage. Maya doesn't hesitate to agree of course, so she just screenshots it and edits out any other pieces of conversation above and forwards it to her mom so she knows the plan.

Getting around the corner where Yuki can't see her from where he's being thoroughly chastised by their mom, she glances around for any witnesses and drops her invisibility spell.

Sora and Miho follow suit immediately as they step closer now that they know where she is. Sora is laughing, “I don't think I've ever seen you ‘nope’ out of a situation so damn fast.”

She whips her gaze to him, “I wasn't dealing with that! You couldn't pay me to!”

They both laugh at that, and Miho shakes her head as she glances back, “Suppose I can't really blame you for that.”

She huffs as she shoves her hair back, “Let's just forget about it and get back to our room.”

Sora loops an arm around her waist and tugs her into his side, an absolute wicked smile on his face, “I can help you forget about it.”

She shoves at his shoulder as she laughs helplessly, and Miho shakes her head in amusement as Sora snickers. In fairness, there was a good chance she was going to end up taking him up on that offer, but by gods was their husband a horndog sometimes.

She sweeps into her mom's house -that she moved out of as soon as she was legally able to so as to get away from Yuki- so strongly that she outright breaks the door in her complete and utter rage, startling her, Honami, and Yuki, who hasn't yet settled on what he wants to go to collage for since he seems to have lost all drive since she moved out according to their mom, to their feet.

She plants a hand on the back of the couch and throws herself over it, admittedly rather aggressively before getting right in front of Yuki, less then a foot away, “I am going to fucking kill you, and it will not be painless, do you understand me?”

Yuki suddenly looks utterly terrified, all too capable of thinking of the things she could do to him. Honami and their mom quickly get between them, Honami yanking Yuki behind her with habitual protectiveness, her mom looking concerned as she steps in between them facing her, gently laying her hands on her shoulders and pushing her back, “Calm down! What on Earth-?!”

She turns her gaze to her mom, “Your son tried to kill Sora and Miho. I warned you. All those years ago, when I was back visiting the Main house after I moved in with you, that anyone who even tried to touch them was volunteering to play the part of Dahan in a repeat performance and I was the Yotsuba. Your sonjust volunteered.”

She honestly doesn't care what his motivation was, but considering he was muttering something about them ‘never seeing her divine form in that wedding dress’, she has to conclude that he'd seen her showing the results of her custom made one to their mom on a video call. Purely because she'd gotten sick and didn't want to risk getting anyone else that was going to be at the showing and potential tweak suggestion meet up sick nor make them reschedule given how busy everyone was.

She'd say it had caused him to snap but it hadn't been some emotional confrontation. He'd stalked them at the smaller house they were renting until the wedding and the wedding gift of a house was done. Learning their schedule and rigging their personal car to explode when she was gone for a business trip regarding Green Mars and they'd be alone for what's become something of a tradition of going out for Saturday dinner for something of a set Date Night. Of which they all had an understanding that the other two would still honor if one was gone.

Unfortunately for him, while he knew about her apparition from when she'd used it to circumvent the branch Family Heads’ attempts to keep them from going to the new year's gathering, he had noclue she was absolutely capable of jumping straight from a face to face meeting with Asha and some others in the Indo-Persian Federation on the next step in the project Green Mars was running to home. He certainly hadn't expected she was popping home for lunch on the daily, and given the way she's trained her subconscious to notify her about particular things, she'd immediately notice the explosives he'd used. Not that it really meant much, given as a former assassin and cop, calling them out to ask them about the car to see if she should count it as him murdering them since he would've if she hadn't come back or just attempted murder had confirmed her suspicions that they would have noticed.

Not that it really changed his verdict. Just the severity of the punishment she would've given him. And at that, just in how drawn out the pain would be. It does, however, mean it was absolutely premeditated. It was planned and plotted, not an act of passion. And while he had avoided cameras, that did nothing against her ability to view the Eidos logs and watch him do it.

Her mom blanches at finding out what he'd done, even if she doesn't bother with the details, and Honami suddenly looks like she's making peace with the fact she's very likely to die today, probably because she'd never be able to bring herself to stand aside. Her mom shakes her head, “Wait, just wait! Please! We can work out some other punishment!”

She snarls at her, “Like what?! Do you think there is any punishment you could levy against him that would sooth my rage!?”

Her mom is frantic, “I know! I know, but-! But I mean, look at it this way! You want to punish him for going after Sora and Miho, right?! He's so obsessed with you that nothing would cut him deeper than you cutting him out of your life completely and going on to be happier than ever!” Yuki starts to try to protest, but their mom waves a sharp hand back at him without even looking away from her gaze, “Shut up Yuki! I am trying to save your damn life here!”

She shakes her head, “And you think that will actually help?! He'll just keep bothering me and trying to strike at them!”

Their mom shakes her head quickly, “No, I won't let him leave to bother you, even if I have to lock him up in a psych ward or something similar! I swear! And you can use Gatekeeper on him! To prevent him from using magic!”

Yuku looks horrified, “Mother! I would rather-!”

Their mom all but roars, “Shut up Yuki!”

She stares at their mom, who's desperately trying to save her ungrateful brother, who's legitimately insane enough that it's obvious he was about to say he'd rather die, then snorts, “One, I am using Gatekeeper. Two, I don't care how you deal with him, but he is never to come near, endanger, or contact myself or anyone else I care about. And by that I mean I don't expect you to move him if we visit that city or anything like that, but I don't want him to even be in the same city as us. Three, I want zero information on him from you, not where he is, not how he's doing, nothing. Four, you will never try to seek reconciliation for him, regardless of whether he gets past his obsession or realizes and accepts the gravity of what he tried to do or how sorry he is. Do I make myself clear?"

Her mom seems to practically collapse in place with relief, “Crystal.”

She casts a Gatekeeper onto Yuki without hesitation, and he seems to break at that, all but wailing, “Onee-sam-”

She gives him a hateful look, “You are no brother of mine.” She pauses, weighing it for a split second before deciding that yeah, she is feeling that pissed and vindictive enough, “And as one final thing just to twist the knife in further, how I measure the value of the people around me has never been the same as the way you do, but by either standard, you are worthless to me.”

“Additionally, not only do I not love you, in any capacity given you've burned any chance at a sibling relationship over the years, but here's another thing to chew on. That pain and agony you feel at losing me entirely? Pales in comparison to what I would have felt if you'd succeeded, that's how much they mean to me. You? Before your attempt, I would've felt vaguely unhappy at your death like I would've a stranger child since you never worked with me to build the sort of relationship I was okay with, but after today? The only reason I might spit on you if you were on fire before me would just be to make you continue to experience your punishment.”

Then she turns to stalk out of the house as Yuki collapses into wailing sobs, and she calls back to her mother, “You have twenty-four hours to remove him from the city before I take matters into my own hands.”

Then she leaves, using Regrowth on her mom's front door on her way out. She was too angry to deal with filling the people they're close to in on things though and making sure they at least don't bring Yuki up with her any longer. She'll just leave it to Hoshi or one of her soulmates to deal with.

She bursts into the house in utter annoyance, startling her soulmates. Miho tilts her head, “Everything alright dear?”

She glances at Miho before turning her annoyed scowl onto Sora, “Take responsibility.”

He blinks, “Of course. But what am I taking responsibility for this time?”

She points down at the slight baby bump, “From someone deciding that they do not care that it was an entirely different universe, big brother Alexander had the right idea when it came to food.”

He blinks quickly before it clicks and he makes his way over to stroke her stomach lovingly, “Is the little bundle of joy wanting anything in particular, or just Daddy's cooking?”

She shakes her head, ignoring the way Sora's Eidos does like it always does whenever she's remotely close and turns into an even clingier than usual watchful koala -metaphorically not literally-, ready to spring to their defense at a moment's notice. Clingier and more watchful compared to when she isn't pregnant, that is, “Nothing in particular, no.”

He leans down to kiss her, “I'll make something quicker then.”

Miho shakes her head in amusement, “Kid’s got good taste though, gotta give them that.”

She gives her wife, who was actually also pregnant but further along than her, the stink eye, “That's easy for you to say. Yours doesn't make a fuss as long as it's good in general.”

While she and Sora hadn't been actively trying, they also hadn't been particularly active at preventions, more than happy to let it happen when it happens. That it happened around the same time as Miho's absolutely planned pregnancy was pure luck. Miho's was actually a bit of an experiment. Namely, to see if that line Maya tossed out when she was shooting down the protest to her marriage and idly commented that she'd probably find a way for her and Miho to have a child was actually possible.

Spoiler alert, while she'd had to be careful to make sure there wouldn't be any negative side effects of having two female’s genetics, she was absolutely able to rewrite the genetics on a sperm sample from Sora with the genetics from one of her eggs. And they had purposely chosen Sora's just in case the genetic rewrite failed somehow so the subsequent baby would be their husband's, just made without the usual fun. So while Miho's pregnancy came from Sora's artificially implanted sperm, it was genetically hers and Miho's.

It's for that reason that Miho raises an eyebrow and quips back, “She didn't get Daddy's picky taste no, but she did get Mama's more fine dining tastes.”

She snorts in amusement. She deserved that one. Her tastes weren't necessarily expensive in nature, she just much preferred highquality food, and well, that's more common in more expensive food. It's not inherently guaranteed either way of course, expensive doesn't always mean good and cheap doesn't always mean bad, it was just that you were statistically more likely to get better food if it was more expensive.

As her wife starts complaining about not being able to get the cheap fast food things that are often more to her taste, she shakes her head in amusement.

She's admittedly a bit weary of the recently proposed program.

It's a weapon, which in and of itself isn't necessarily a bad thing, but she can't help but feel concerned about what it may be used for. Thankfully, it's an international project, so the chances of it being turned against countries without good reason is decently diminished by that, and the reasons behind it are admittedly good ones, but…

It was born from recent booms in Ancient Magic research based on her and Mikihiko finishing compiling the actual activation sequence building of Ancient Magic. They hadn't released any actual activation or magic sequences, just what the various things Ancient Magicians did for casting actually did sequence wise to help with the understanding and building of new sequences and magics.

It was… well, quite frankly, if one looked at it, they wouldn't be crazy to immediately have sci-fi mechs come to mind, even if it was actually controlled remotely through spirit based Ancient Magic. It was technologically more of a golem than a mech. Just… an eighty-ish meters tall golem. That was absolutely armed to the teeth. Both in conventional weapons and even magic.(2)

Conventionally, the thing had just about everything you could think of strapped onto it. Shoulder mounted tank guns, rocket launchers, one arm having three machine guns mounted on it, you name it, it's got it. It's also capable of acting as something of a relay for spells. In the sense that much like how Mikihiko can view through his Sprits’ eyes and cast where they are, Ancient Magicians with the magical connection to do so can view around its body to cast whatever spells they were capable of wherever it is.(2)

The two, conventional and magical weaponry, meet in what's mounted on its other arm, namely there were plans to slap the currently still in early testing magic rail gun.(2)

She couldn't even argue the reasoning for why it was being built. If she hadn't been so… well equipped to handle it, the Parasite disaster could have easily ended in either the complete annihilation of or enslavement of humanity. And also, since she had revealed a plan to terraform Mars it had turned humanity's collective attention back to the stars. Recently though, there's been that old fear creeping back up of the possibility of aliens existing, but being both hostile and more advanced.

Poseidon was its name, mostly due to the fact there were plans to keep it as a trump card and have it mostly under the ocean and even use the fact that while it's not a mech, there actually is some quarters inside. As such there was talk of using it to explore ocean depths when it wasn't needed for its primary purpose, as well as the fact it was in the form of a sort of aquatic lizard. The lizard part had nothing to do with Poseidon from what little she knew of his mythos, but aquatic and all that... The name was actually apparently the whole reason they'd put three machine guns on its arm. It was something of a strange kind of humor's reference to his Trident apparently.(2)

She really can't argue the reasoning or anything, but Merlin, does it make her nervous given what it could be used for. All she can really do is hope and leave things to Rowena to step in and do something if the situation turns bad after she's gone. Actually, to that end, after talking things over with Rowena, they'd made her a new container that held a copy of her code to leave behind if she did reincarnate and inevitably summoned the Trunk and the storage of Rowena inside of it.

For that just in case of further reincarnation, she's actually taken to storing a sort of… horde of valuables in there. Bars of metals, gems, you name it, she has it. She was even storing some things that were considered generally less valuable. All the metals she could get her hands on actually, a small horde of things like magic sequence storages, even chemicals. She even had her own seed vault. And additional digital storage so Rowena could keep a continuously updated copy of… well, basically all the knowledge of this world.

Really, she's sort of pushed the limit of how much space the Trunk can make while still not only continuing to expand the magic stored in its reservoirs, but continue to maintain itself for at least five years without the situation turning critical because its magic power draw is more than she can maintain. If she does reincarnate again, and in a universe without magic to adapt it to be able to draw on within those five years, she'll just have to empty it out as much as she can so it can go back to the low power mode she is capable of feeding as well as restoring its battery's storage for critical items she can't lose between lives.

Admittedly not just for practical purposes but also sentimental ones, like her and her soulmates’ wedding rings in their first life as well as the ones engraved with runes to call them into the Trunk the moment they die.

She doesn't know how she feels about the possibility of reincarnating again, but if it does happen, she's not going to be caught unprepared.

Besides, that part regarding the duration parameter that no one has ever been able to figure out about her Elemental Sight seems to hint at it in her opinion. Because it's a bit of a lie to say there isn't something regarding her death in there, just that it isn't in the spell end section, and she honestly isn't sure what to make of what her death does trigger in it.

She's idly watching the kids spar in the backyard of the Mars house, all of them there for their mom's upcoming birthday rather than off busy with their various jobs, mind drifting to another life. All four of their kids -the two her and her wife had carried that had been conceived the natural way and the two between her and her wife that they'd taken turns being the one to carry- were rather incredible, and unsurprisingly ambitious.

They were all their own individuals of course, but the very nature of the Yotsuba's line of work makes them remind her of Melaena. Who had been so very much like the assassin dad she never got to meet and had gone on to follow in his footsteps and officially be an Enforcer for House Potter who she felt most drawn to the beliefs of, but as long as the Heads of the Houses made the excuse she was using, she was always available to House Black and House Slytherin.

She looks over as an arm slips around her. She smiles at Sora as he hums, “What are you thinking about sweetheart?”

She shrugs as she leans her head on his shoulder even as her gaze moves back to the kids, “Melaena.” He stiffens slightly, the daughter he never even knew she was pregnant with much less got to meet still a bit of a sore subject, even if he wasn't mad at her given the circumstances. She sighs, “They're all their own people of course, but… They remind me of her.”

He hums, “Do they?” He seems to look at them thoughtfully for a few moments, then nods, “Yeah. From what I've seen from your memories, I can get why…”

She sighs, “It's not like I don't know full well that she lived a good life, given I outlived her, though that isn't the case for the latter descendants, but… I don't know, I guess I was just thinking that if whatever caused our reincarnation happens again, we'll be in the weird situation of being alive but never seeing them again. That's already been true for our descendents for our last life of course just…”

He sighs quietly, “The reminder of Melaena brought it back to the forefront?”

She shrugs, “I suppose so.”

There may be a tinge of melancholy, but otherwise, the silence that descends on them is comfortable.

She gazes up at the stars, looking over with a warm smile as a strong, familiar arm slips around her shoulders. Sora squeezes her gently, “What are you thinking about sweetheart?”

She shakes her head, “Oh nothing much. I was just… The Earth of this universe seems kinder, gentler than it was when we were first reincarnated into it. I saw a video earlier that put a lot of the change on me. I was just wondering if it really was that much of my doing.”

He barks a laugh leaning over to press a kiss to her forehead, “You never do truly understand the impact you make, so you sweetheart?”

She hears the sliding door behind them before her wife pipes up, and when they turn at the sound they find her holding drinks out to them, both of the handles held in one hand which Sora accepts and separates so there's no awkward trying to give them directly to them both without making her let go of one before they can get a grip, “No she doesn't. I swear, I don't even remember who, but I vaguely recall one of us likened this universe to inside the Matrix and Decomposition as selecting a line of code and hitting the delete button, but if we are programs, she's got a line that seems to make her physically incapable of that. Or seeing how incredible she is for that matter.”

She pouts even as she accepts the drink Sora gives her with a quieter thanks before turning to their wife, “I do not.”

Sora snickers, “Yeah, sorry sweetheart, I'm with Miho on this one.”

She shoves at his shoulder, “Traitor!”

He laughs, “I told you years ago! When you were on that vacation that turned into a disaster and you were calling us traitors because of the whole ‘no working on vacation thing’ that if a traitor I must be when it comes to things like this, then it's a role I shall embrace whole heartedly.”

She shakes her head with amusement, but as she goes to take a drink, there's suddenly a sharp pain in her chest and it suddenly becomes hard to breathe. It's only long instinct born from years of being a noble, formally in her previous life and in all but name in her current life and concealing such things that has her suppressing the reaction instead of letting anything through for them to see.

A quick look at her Eidos makes it abundantly clear that she's suffering some sort of heart failure. Where in the hell it came from, she doesn't know, but she's horrified to realize when she quickly looks through her Eidos log to rewind it away that she can stop it in the moment, but, well, just because she can't turn off Elemental Sight doesn't mean she pays a whole lot of attention to her Eidos without good reason. And she finds out the hard way that if the data is any indication, this is something she's been building towards for a while. Even if she uses Regrowth on her heart and puts it twenty-four hours in the past, she's going to suffer heart failure in another twenty-four hours.

Looking at her laughing soulmates though… no. She refuses to do this to them. So she rewinds her heart the full twenty-four hours. Just one more day.

Who's she kidding. Tomorrow it will also be ‘just one more day’ and the next, and the next.

All she has to do is stay on top of it, remember to do the rewind every day, at least until her soulmates are gone as well.

She's sitting at Sora's bedside holding his hand. Even without the healers of her old life, they know he's reaching the end of his life. It's fairly obvious when a man who's still fairly fit despite his age like Sora has to use oxygen and can't even get out of bed.

It's come with its own change not that long ago, relatively speaking anyway. It had started when Sora had slipped his hands just under the edge of her shirt a few years ago when he'd slipped his arms around her, his hands resting on the bottom of her stomach as he'd leaned his forehead against her shoulder. She honestly hadn't even thought anything of it, nor questioned it.

It wasn't until Sora had piped up, quietly laughing at himself for being ridiculous, before admitting that even with the fact he knew it wasn't physically possible in this life, the older he got and the closer he marched to death's door, the more a rising sense of paranoia had started gripping him. Because yes, he knew it was physically impossible in this world, but his brain wouldn't stop muttering out terrified thoughts of him dying soon only to find out if they get reincarnated again that she was pregnant again. Just like with Melaena.

It had more been a gentle confession, born just out of a concern that he may have been acting strange lately. She hadn't hesitated to turn around and hug him tight, her heart aching with the scar she'd left on her husband's heart, even if she couldn't bring herself to regret it totally, given if she hadn't made the choice she had, the only change to the situation would have been Hei dying knowing he'd never get to meet their youngest.

After that though, she'd had Rowena make her some clothes designs that were tasteful even with her age, but either had some sort of cut out, or some sort of slit towards the bottom or something which tended to make her very flat stomach visible as a quiet constant assurance for her husband. He certainly seemed to appreciate it, if the way he'd kissed her and the rather loving night they'd had the day she'd shown him and asked his opinion on her new clothes was any indication.

She was still wearing those kinds of tops, damn near religiously since it became clear he was dying recently, rather than something more like just having those clothes mixed in with her others but making sure it was never longer than a month since the last time she wore one.

It wasn't really her usual style, but she wasn't against it, though admittedly even then, for Sora's peace of mind, she'd probably be wearing them anyway as a quiet wordless reassurance.

In a somewhat… dark sort of humor, they were going out in the same order in this life the same they had in their last life. Miho had left them a couple years ago, her body not lasting as long after years of her own workaholic tendencies, which she'd thrown towards assisting with Green Mars this life.

She's pulled from her idle thoughts by Sora squeezing her hand, “I'm sorry.”

She gets up to settle on the edge of the bed and brush her free hand through his hair, “Whatever are you sorry for love?”

He shakes his head, expression slightly frustrated, “For leaving you as the last one left again. I know we don't exactly have control of that sort of thing, not without taking frankly insane measures, but I just-... I can't help but regret it.”

She hums lightly, but well. If ever there was a time for a confession, it was now, “Technically, it should've been me who went first. Don't give me that look, I don't mean it like that. I couldn't stand the idea of dying on you and Miho, especially not so early though. Which is why I've actually been using Regrowth on my heart every day for the last, ohh, fifteen years to delay the acute heart failure from finally getting me.”

Sora looks at her in surprise, “I'm sorry, you've been doing what?”

She shrugs, “Do you remember that night I was looking at the stars, contemplating the changes that have happened and how so many of them were put on my doing? And then we ended up joking when I called you and Miho traitors?” He nods, expression terrified, and she shrugs again, “Right when I was taking that first drink, my chest started hurting and I couldn't breathe. It only took a glance at my Eidos to understand that there wouldn't be any restarting my heart, no matter how good the CPR, or defibrillator, or even magic. It was done for. And it became pretty obvious from my Eidos log that it had been creeping up on me a while and I just… hadn't noticed since I hadn't paid any attention to my own Eidos in years at that point. So there wasn't any undoing it either. All I could do was use Regrowth on my heart and buy myself twenty-four more hours at a time.”

Sora blinks rapidly at her, then shakes his head, expression a mess of fond exasperation even as he squeezes her hand, “You ridiculous woman…”

She smiles lightly as she drops her gaze to the ground, “Honestly I… It feels unbelievably selfish given the kids and grandkids, but I don't know if I'll have the strength to keep doing it after you're gone. Or, not for very long anyway. Admittedly… there's been a dark thought brewing in my head of just sorting out your arrangements after you're gone so the kids don't have to deal with handling it for two parents at the same time and letting nature win when it's done.” She looks back up at his gentle expression, “Selfish isn't it? Even if I hold on long enough to get everything regarding your death sorted out, they'll still have to mourn two parents back to back.”

He squeezes her hand again, this time far more tightly, “It's not selfish at all sweetheart.” Then a sort of dark humor comes over him, “Then again. I'm pretty selfish too when it comes to my girls, so maybe I'm not the best judge there.”

“No, I wouldn't say it's selfish at all Mama.” She turns quickly to the door to see her and Sora's oldest, Reina, closing the door behind her, not having noticed her Eidos coming closer due to her distraction, “I can't speak for my siblings of course, but honestly? Don't get me wrong, the thought of losing you both at the same time certainly hurts, but if you're already actively dying Mama and you've just been delaying your death for years, personally I'd actually prefer if you stopped fighting it off after Dad dies.”

“In my opinion, it would be more painful to see your grief at losing Dad too than losing you both would be. I mean, we all saw how much it tore both you and Dad up when Mom died, but at least you had each other. If Dad dies too though… I can only begin to imagine how badly that will shatter you, and it'd hurt even worse to see you inevitably trying to stay strong after. Actually, personally, I… I'll say again, yes, it'll be painful to lose you both and at the same time no less, but the thought of how painful it would be to see that… Honestly Mama, I think I'd prefer to have to sort out everything from both your deaths at the same time then watch it any longer then I have to. I'd say take some time to grieve and heal a bit, but I know you won't Mama. The longer you have to be separated from both Mom and Dad, regardless of what comes next, be it whatever awaits the rest of us or another reincarnation, the more miserable you'll be.”

They'd filled their kids in on that after they were adults, so neither of them is surprised by the mention, and she drops her gaze, her brow furrowing, “I-... I don't know… I mean, I respect that's your opinion, but the rest of your siblings, the grandkids-.... I really don't know.”

Reina shrugs, “I'd just talk to them. My siblings and I's kids are grown and we are too obviously, so it's not like they couldn't make a mature informed decision. But I suspect they'd have the same opinion as me that it would actually hurt less if you stopped fighting the inevitable then to watch the inevitable aftermath of Dad’s death…”

There's a heavy beat of silence before she shakes her head and gives Sora a somewhat strained smile, “But I didn't come by for such depressing topics. The kids and my husband are visiting Earth for some magic development conference thing,” She's not surprised at how vague Reina's knowledge is on it, given she's never been much one for the research side of magic in all honesty, “so since I found myself with a surprising amount of free time, I wanted to come by, see how you're doing and all.”

Sora smiles warmly. He doesn't take it in the negative way that she came by because she had free time, none of them being the sort to hold their family's busy lives and lack of time they can have against them. Especially not when they do end up doing things like this and usually using the free time they do get for additional unscheduled visits.

She contemplates what Reina had said as she happily catches up with Sora.

The other kids and grandkids, surprisingly, had agreed with Reina, so after she'd seen that Sora's health was starting to hit the point of decline where he was going to die any day now, she'd actually given Rowena the magic sequence for Regrowth and orders to keep her at only a minute left on her heart's proverbial clock as long as Sora was alive. To that extent, she ends up passing in her sleep for the second life in a row, having curled up in bed with her husband at the start of the night, but let go by Rowena the moment Sora had died. She was utterly unaware of it and the pain she'd experienced from the heart failure much the first time she suffered it.

Really, one moment she was falling to sleep with her husband, the next a familiar wave of memories was washing over her, though from two previous lives and then her current life basically reinserting itself so it wouldn't get swept away in their wake. 

After the wave of memories fades and everything settles, both the old memories and the new, she stares down at her hands, the hands of a child yet again, as she finds herself as one named Satomi. Mikami Satomi specifically, “Seriously, what is going on?”

Her only consolation to the weird scenario happening again is that her best friends, Kuroha and Tomomi became her friends at school because they also had the ‘weird almost word-like birthmarks’ that people saw their soulmate marks as, so at least this time she doesn't have to go looking for them.

Ahead of her from where they'd been playing tag, Kuroha whirls back to her and Tomomi behind him. “Toshiko, Miho, I gotta say, first we missed you Miho, second, it's damned nice we don't have to try to find each other this time.”