Family reunion

Family Home, Sumida City, Tokyo

The sun in the window marked the beginning of a new day. Unlike previous days, this time Tamamo was by my side in bed. Her eyes looked at me, open, but with a happy face as usual.

"Good morning, Goshujin-sama!"

"Good morning, honey."
"Did you just wake up too?"

"Not really, but downstairs your mother is talking to Maria alone."
"So I thought I'd stay here so as not to disturb them and quietly watch you sleep."
"Surely last night was one without nightmares, considering how happy you are."
"Hey, maybe you want some breakfast. We have to get ready soon because it's almost time for school."

"Tamamo, it's Saturday, we don't have to go to school today."

"Oh, really? So there are days off?"
"Wow, how much education has changed in a thousand years."
"When I was a geisha apprentice, there was never a day off."
"Although that's all in the distant past now."
"....."
"So, since we have some free time... when are you going to explain things to your sister?"
"We should go down and greet her."

Tamamo got out of bed and helped me tidy up the room before we went downstairs for breakfast where my mother and sister were already waiting for us. We took our food and sat down.

It was the first time I had seen my sister in over 6 years and yet she was just as I remembered Maria. It was clear that she had grown a bit, but her body was still small and quite thin, underdeveloped due to her illness, the result of being in the hospital for so long. Even so, it was a great joy to see her here at home and healthy. She also had long, straight black hair that accentuated the mestizo Latino complexion of her face, along with her eyes that were so hard to see open in the past. She was wearing a modern outfit, a combination of dress and black coat; she had finally managed to wear one of those clothes that had been given to her to encourage her to live instead of those boring hospital gowns. She also had her classic headphones on; she had always liked to listen to music in her spare time. It was truly incredible to see her healthy and safe after all the pain and sacrifice our family endured just to see her living like a normal person today. Although maybe it was just me who felt that way, while Maria just looked at us with a face full of doubt before she spoke.

"All right, can someone tell me what is going on?"
"Who are these girls? Why are they living in our house? Why are they dressed like fox girls from some degenerate manga?"
"Am I the only one who thinks this is all weird?" my sister asked our mother, confused.

My mother abruptly stopped eating and stared at us, also worried, trying to think of how to answer her daughter's question.

"Well... how can I... explain it?"
"It's a bit difficult... so why don't you sit down... and calm down a bit first."
"I know what I'm going to say might sound... a bit crazy, and I know it's hard to accept... but I'm sure you'll be able to understand," my mother replied, embarrassed.

"Leave it," I interrupted.
"I'd better explain it myself, at least I'll save you the embarrassment."
"At this point, I think it's going to be a big part of my life anyway."

Before I spoke again, I looked at Tamamo for a second, trying to make her understand that I didn't want any of her usual out-of-place jokes at this moment. Then I mentally prepared myself, trying to find the easiest way to explain this mess to her.

"You like magic, don't you, Maria?"
"You would like it, wouldn't you?"
"What if I told you it was real? Would you believe me?"

"Magic?" my sister said with a curious look, her eyes shining with excitement.
"But what does it have to do with you?"

"Not much, to be honest, but it will help you understand the second part."
"The fantasy stories, would you believe in them?"

"That's impossible," she dismissed without hesitation.

"You like magic, but you don't believe in fantasy? What kind of magic lover are you?"
"....."
"Well, that's not the point."
"What if I told you that your brother is alive thanks to this magic and a strange fantasy story?"

"Leon? But he's fine."
"He came to visit me a week ago, it was quite fun to see him again," Maria said with a confused look.

"......"
"......"
"Oh... it's... well, it's good to see that he's the first brother you think of..."
"......"
"What about the other one?" I said, disappointed.

"Cesar?"
"He's been dead for almost a year now, why would he come back to life? He was a loser, a nobody."
"According to what Leon and Mom said, since he was such an idiot and never found a real job, he ended up joining the army and that's how he got himself killed."

When Maria finished, I turned to look at my mother, who quickly looked away after being exposed. I felt bad knowing how badly others thought of me, how my own family seemed to hate me for what I had done in the past to save them. But I hadn't done much to tell the truth either, and it wasn't like calling me a loser was really a lie. So instead, for everyone's sake, I decided to ignore another painful subject and just get to the point I really wanted to make.

"Okay, that doesn't matter for now."
" As I was saying, what if I told you that your brother Cesar is somehow still alive?"
"Would you think that's too crazy?"

Maria stared at me for a moment before answering again with a curious expression.

"You mentioned something about magic being real, right?"
"I have no idea about the details, but if you manage to prove that magic exists, we have a deal, and I'll believe any nonsense you say as absolute truth."

It wasn't a coincidence that I had chosen the topic of magic to talk to her about; I knew exactly how obsessed she was with it. Of course, it would be much easier for her to believe me if I showed her something she wanted first, and seeing that the bait had worked, it was time to act.

"Very well, I agree, I accept these terms."
"Tamamo?" I said as I turned to my wife who was still eating.

"Yes? I am here to serve you, Goshujin-sama!" She replied with classic Japanese politeness.

"You said before that you could change reality and things like that, right?"
"Do you think you could do something less conspicuous?"
"Something safe and indoors, please."

"Oh, okay, understood."
"I can conjure a blue fireball in my hand, just like that."

Tamamo stopped eating for a moment, placed her chopsticks neatly next to her plate, and then did her demonstration. She waved her hand and a large blue fireball appeared out of nowhere. Despite being so close to her hand and the intense heat it emitted, Tamamo showed no signs of discomfort. It was something that shouldn't exist in our world of science, yet here was Tamamo, generating such flames effortlessly and without burning herself.

"Isn't it beautiful? Such a pretty color, right?" Tamamo said with a proud look on her face.

"IS IT REAL?"
"Is it magic? Really!?" Maria, impressed, put her hands to her head.

"Keep that away from the furniture!" My mother shouted, afraid that a tragedy would unfold with the fire inside the house.

"Oh, I'm sorry, that wasn't my intention," the goddess apologized as she extinguished her flame.

"Seriously, who are you really?"
"How do you know how to use magic?" my sister continued the discussion.

"Well, like I said before..."
"Now that you know that magic exists, what will you do if I tell you that your older brother is alive?"

"I... is that true? He... is... alive?"
"And where is he? Is he coming later? Should we send you first?"
"Did he reincarnate into another world and send his harem of monster girls before he comes?"

I couldn't resist the urge to tell her the truth, to reveal that everything was finally okay for the first time, and maybe even to strangle her for that last comment. So I approached her and hugged her tightly, taking a moment before continuing.

"I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to leave you alone."
"I just wanted to make sure you had a fair future like dad wanted."
"Please forgive me for being away for so long, it was never my intention."

"Why do you talk as if this is your fault?"
"Where are you going with this? Don't make me wait any longer!"
"Just tell the damn truth for once!"

"After your brother died, a lot of strange and crazy things happened."
"And in the end, he turned into an albino fox girl with ears and a big fox tail."
"It wasn't a reincarnation or isekai by the way"

"Is that true?"
"Does that mean Cesar would be...?"

"Yes, that's right, it's true, that's me."
"I am Cesar, your older brother."

"That's impossible! Do you think this is some kind of anime or something?"
"At least try to prove it, how can a girl with huge breasts be my ugly brother inside!"

"Once, when you were still in the hospital, I told you the story of the princess and the frog."
"That same afternoon, when it was raining, one appeared in the garden and you found it, so you thought it would be a good idea to try to..."

I couldn't finish because I got a surprise punch right in the face, one so damn strong it knocked me backwards out of my chair.

"Damn moron!"
"I told you to try to prove it, not to tell that particular story!"
"Don't say another word, I believe you, but if you finish telling that story, I'll kill you this time and make sure you never come back to life!"

After I got up from the hard blow, I started to tell her the story of my current situation again. I only told her the essentials and kept the crazy parts that would only cause more confusion, like being married to the crystal angel Momo, for myself. I told my sister the real reason why I had joined the Alliance army, even though our country didn't even have an army. How my relationship with the angels was what really helped her to improve her health so much and finally overcome her illness. How Tamamo was the goddess of the moon and how I met our mother again by chance. Maria listened attentively to the whole story and occasionally asked a question or two, which I tried to answer as best I could.

"So you managed to come back from heaven through a portal that angels use as a means of transportation."
"And Tamamo is a goddess and at the same time a giant demon fox and not a human," Maria asked cheerfully, seeing a fantastic world of magic unfolding before her.

"Yes, that's right, pretty crazy I know."
"There's a lot more to explain, but I think this is enough to cover the basics."

"Wow, you've lived a pretty strange life."
"But it doesn't matter!"
"Magic is real! I can finally fulfill my dream of becoming a real mage!"
"When do the magic classes start?"

"Huh? I just told you how I came back from the dead, married a goddess, and the only thing you care about is learning magic?"
"At least try to hide it, ask about something else first."
"Show a little more concern for your brother who turned into a girl," I complained to Maria about why she seemed not to understand the important issues.

"It doesn't matter, it's okay, you have big breasts now, I get it."
"That's in the past, the important thing now is to learn magic."
"If I can learn magic, then all your misfortune will be worth it for me!"

"......"
"Ugh... well, at least it's better than nothing."
"I don't really know much about magic, but I'm sure Tamamo could teach you something."
"Go ask her."

"Tamamo! Come here!"
"I want to ask you something."

My sister got up and ran to bother the poor goddess, who was just sweeping the floor, leaving only my mother and me. Adelis, on the other hand, collected the breakfast dishes and began to wash them in the sink.

"There she goes again"
"With her dream of magic and fairies, leaving everything else behind"
"You have to forgive her, you know how she is with these subjects."
"When she sees something related to magic, she drops everything else and goes after it."
"Although it was good that her passion for such things was so high, it undoubtedly got her through the hardest days of the hospital," my mother said as she was doing the dishes.

"Well, it's good for me, she's taking it better than I thought about my change".
"She really seems to believe me."
"It shouldn't be a big problem."
"As long as she doesn't go around with that big black book she calls a Grimoire."
"It was just a book she downloaded from the Internet, but somehow she thought it was real."
"....."
"But right now there are more important things to discuss," I told my mother seriously.

"Yes, you're right"
"I can't believe that someone thought that kidnapping and threatening me would be a good idea under any circumstances.
"I'm going to make them pay for threatening my family so violently."

"Do you have any idea who they were?"
"An enemy from the past?"
"I mean, being a secretary in the Alliance High Command is a tough position."

"There was no one with the guts to try something like that."

" So, and how did you meet Xian then?"

"That idiot from the CIA? He's working in some mines in Botswana, mining diamonds."
"He's done with his career, he's no longer a threat."
"Besides, I have someone keeping an eye on those CIA worshippers to keep them on a short leash."
"......"
"Besides them, there's the Empire, but their capital is in ruins after we bombed it at the end of the war."
"They have more important things to do, like rebuilding their homes."

"So? Anyone else?"
"People don't just kidnap others for no reason, at least not with 50 men with military experience and significant military equipment."
"It's a big and risky investment."

"I really have no idea."
"But Inspector Yamamoto is on the case, so we can let him do his job as a policeman."
"Maybe you don't know him well, but he's quite capable."
"They say he gave the KGB a good fight in they last years; even during the Continental war, the Empire couldn't stop him from working for the Alliance."
"He's the right person to find out who was behind the attack."
"Besides, he has personal motives; his granddaughter was another victim."
"The old man won't rest until he sees someone hanging from a bridge for this, just like in the old days."

"What if we look at it another way, what do you and Inspector Yamamoto have that they would try to kidnap both of you?"
"What about your jobs?" I asked my mother.

"I'm just an intermediary between governments; really, they wouldn't have achieved anything by kidnapping me specifically."
"As for Inspector Yamamoto, it's more of the same; he's retired now, his police work is just local, nothing like what he used to do."

"Ah, damn it, do we really have to wait for the police to do something? That will take forever!"

"Not the police, but Inspector Yamamoto; he will get to the culprit quickly."
"What I really fear is that now that their main plan has failed, they will try something even more direct and desperate than before."

"Well, if that happens, you needn't worry."
"I'm here, maybe it doesn't look like it from my face, but I'm especially good at fighting and doing crazy things."

The rest of the day passed without further problems, after Maria had concentrated on asking Tamamo about magic. The day was quite peaceful compared to yesterday, which felt quite strange to have a day off, although I also wondered what had happened to Momo, the glass angel; she was surely with her parents, but what will she do next? Will she try to return to keep my father under control?