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Unraveling the mysteries left by the corpse of a great star was no easy task.
Even Touka had to admit neutron stars were weird. The book she was reading had been recommended to her by a renowned university professor after a lengthy conversation about supernovae, so she’d expected it to be at least mildly interesting, but it was more engaging than she’d given it credit for.
That was the reason her ringing phone startled her as much as it did, almost making her drop her book.
“Who the heck-”
As soon as she checked the caller, confusion replaced her anger. She picked up and asked her question immediately.
“Who died?”
“No one died,” Nemu replied from the other end. “Where did you store Sakurako’s legal papers? I apologize for calling like this, but it’s urgent.”
Touka frowned. “What do you need them for?”
Her forgeries were excellent, her most thorough work to date, but there was no reason Nemu would need them unless there was some sort of emergency regarding Sakurako.
“I received a call from her school,” Nemu hesitantly spoke. “Sakurako broke someone’s arm earlier. They asked for her mother, and I presume she will be expelled for this.”
Touka blinked. Of the many options she’d had in mind, this was not one of them. She put her book back in her bag and stood up.
“Hold on, I’ll be there in a second. Where are you right now?”
Once again, Touka had gone completely overboard.
Her driver had just dropped her and Nemu off at Minagi Liberty Academy after a quick change of clothes at Touka’s—they weren’t about to show up wearing school uniforms. Nemu would say they looked at least somewhat older, but also ridiculously formal, at least in Touka’s case.
Because Touka had decided to wear a full suit, tie and all. She’d also pulled her hair up into a high ponytail and insisted on bringing along black leather briefcase to hold every document they could possibly need. Nemu had been lent one of Touka’s flowy white dresses and a shawl, since it was modest enough to keep her from the cold and comfortable enough for her to move unimpeded. She was relatively sure her companion had noticed her staring, but if she had, she’d said nothing about it.
“Say, why did you pick a suit today? Is it the same reason you had me leave my hair loose and take my glasses off?”
“No, that was just because that necklace I gave you matches your eyes really nicely but clashes with your glasses too much and you don’t need them, and I suggested the hair thing because you look prettier like this,” Touka bluntly responded, too busy reorganizing the files in her briefcase to maintain any sort of filter. “I only have a couple of suits besides this one. I will not be underdressed for this, and we were pressed for time. All my formal dresses take forever to wear properly. Not to mention the jewelry! I took this watch because it happens to match the suit, and your necklace was right there, but usually it takes ages for me to decide on an outfit. Plus, wearing watches on my wrist is annoying, I much prefer using my phone or a pocket watch.”
Seeing as her friend’s focus was elsewhere, Nemu allowed herself to ogle her.
“She’s so… bright.”
That was the safest word she could settle on.
Much to the dismay of her aesthetic enjoyment, Touka quickly navigated the two of them to the principal’s office. Completely ignoring the bafflement on the principal’s face, she held the door open for Nemu, then walked in behind her.
Sakurako had been sitting on one of two chairs set in front of the principal’s desk, and by the look on her face, she was guilty as charged.
“Sakurako, Touka came along,” Nemu telepathically informed. “It may be a little challenging to get him to believe I’m your mother, so play along.”
“Okay…”
“… and who might you be?” the principal asked. “Are you two lost?”
“My name is Nemu Hiiragi, I received a call from the school to come for my daughter. I’m Sakurako’s mother.”
He stared at them. “Right, and who is that, then?”
Nemu had not prepared for that question, and after a glance at Touka, blurted the first thing she came up with. “That would be Sakurako’s father.”
Touka nearly choked, but managed to maintain her composure. “Touka Satomi, a pleasure to meet you. Our family is a little unconventional.”
Sakurako tried her best not to laugh.
The principal sighed. “This girl committed a very serious infraction, and a crime at that. The boy she attacked is in the hospital. It’s quite disrespectful of her guardians to send a pair of-”
This, they’d prepared for. Touka cut him off by sliding their papers over to him as she took a seat, having moved her chair so Nemu could settle between her and Sakurako.
“This should be all the documentation you need in case our word is not enough. Furthermore, Sakurako’s classmate had a clean fracture, he will recover without issue. I own the hospital he’s being treated in.”
Her father did, but that was irrelevant to the situation at hand.
After examining the papers, the principal chose to simply suspend his disbelief. “You… do seem to be her parents, yes. My apologies.”
Nemu had to admire Touka’s acting skills. There was just something about the confidence in her voice, her perfect posture and the flawlessly polite way of speaking she was using. Acting always had a kernel of truth in it.
“Miss Hiiragi is normally a model student, from what I have heard. She is well-liked enough among her teachers, if a little odd. Her grades are fantastic, and her behavior is that of a kind, helpful young lady,” the principal began. “However, even if what happened today is completely out of character, I cannot allow her to remain at this school. I wanted you to hear about this, and I wanted to ask if Sakurako is in any sort of therapy. We are not aware of possible mental health risks, but I would hate to see such intelligent youth go down the wrong path.”
Touka hummed, then leaned forward to look at Sakurako. “What happened?”
“My classmate has a history of making rude remarks about my family. Today, he insulted Mom and I lost my temper,” Sakurako explained, clenching her fists on her lap as she recalled the exact words. “He said…”
“That’s enough,” Touka gently told her. “You don’t have to tell us exactly what he said.”
“… yes, Father.”
Why Nemu was ‘Mom’ and she was stuck with ‘Father’ was something Touka would wonder for the rest of her life. Nemu had started rubbing Sakurako’s back to soothe her in the meantime, leaving Touka to do most of the talking.
“Again, as I said, Miss Hiiragi is one of our top students, and this is unlike her,” the principal reiterated, gesturing in Touka’s general direction. “I believe you and your wife may want to look into this issue.”
“M-my what-”
Sensing her internal panic, Nemu caught her before her entire facade came crumbling down. “Touka, calm down. It’s only natural that he would make assumptions of that sort. He is already suspending his disbelief regarding our ages, just go with it.”
Taking her time to breathe as discreetly as possible, Touka let out a sigh, leaned back and crossed her legs. “I need a moment. You take over. If I’d been in Sakurako’s place, I would’ve probably done something similar, so I have no room to speak here.”
Nemu took up the mantle, switching her focus to the principal. “Sakurako is a very caring girl. She loves me and Touka deeply, and our family has been through many difficulties in the past couple of years, so she has become protective of us.”
Touka was dumbfounded by how afflicted she’d managed to sound, and almost jolted when Nemu put her hand on hers so naturally, so tenderly.
“Our daughter has few triggers, but our safety is one of them. The reason she was strong enough to break that boy’s arm with her bare hands in the first place is because she has trained remarkably hard to be able to protect us.”
“Had he threatened you,” Sakurako interjected. “I would have done more than break his arm.”
Nemu suppressed a smile in favor of continuing her act. She squeezed Touka’s hand and turned her head to face her.
“Darling, we will cover the hospital bill for his family, won’t we?”
Metaphorically, Touka was seeing every error screen she didn’t know existed. She was a flustered mess on the inside and dearly hoped it would not show on the outside.
“Yes, of course. I can find his parents’ contact information myself.”
The principal nodded. “That’s good. I understand why Sakurako acted the way she did now, but I must stress the importance of her facing proper consequences for her actions regardless. Hurting others this severely is unacceptable. She will be suspended for the rest of the year.”
“Thank you,” Nemu agreed. “We will make sure to give her a stern talking to.”
On their way outside to drive Sakurako back to the lab with them, Touka had words.
“Why am I the father?” was the first thing she asked, faux offense layered in her tone. “Do I look like a man to you?”
Nemu stared at her friend’s chest, intently. “Well, no. Your bust is not small enough for you to pass as a man. Not anymore, at least.”
The blessings of puberty. Touka’s response was to blush and cross her arms over her chest, seething.
“But, if you want an answer, it came to mind because you act like your father around Sakurako. You imitate him when it comes to parenting.”
“I don’t know if that’s a compliment… Is she still staring at my boobs? They’re not that big, come on!” Touka shook her head and ignored the burning from her ears and face in favor of changing the topic. “I’m glad the principal didn’t expel Sakurako. I was planning on trying a bribe if he went through with it. It would be way too problematic to put Sakurako in another school right now, even though I can easily erase the expulsion from her academic record.”
Nemu tore her eyes away and gave her the mercy of allowing the change of topic.
“Especially if we consider the repercussions of today’s events on Sakurako’s reputation.”
Touka nodded along. “I’ll contact my lawyer in case the family tries to press charges.”
“You have a lawyer?” Sakurako inquired.
“Ahh, that was… One of our operations in the Wings of the Magius,” Nemu recalled. “Touka made some calculations. She was the one financing the organization at first, but that would have been suspicious if her father ever thought to check their finances, so we came up with a new system where members who have excess funds, such as those from Mizuna or Hokuyo, would donate half of their allowance.”
“That way, it would lessen the impact and Papa wouldn’t suspect a thing. Nothing I couldn’t have handled, at least. Unfortunately, there were many legal incidents after this system was established. That’s why I have a handful of lawyers for myself.”
“I see…”
“Sakurako,” Nemu called. “I know this was not your fault. You are biologically engineered to react in extreme ways when it comes to protecting your four special people. Although neither of us will punish you for it, we do need to find a solution in case something like this happens again. Humans are fragile.”
Touka sighted her driver waiting for them outside. “Oh, there he is. Since I didn’t have to use my bribe money… Nemu, Sakurako, would you like to go somewhere for lunch? I didn’t really take anything with me today, and I imagine neither of you had time to eat anything.”
“I don’t mind skipping classes,” Nemu replied first. “I’m only worried about Promised Blood finding and attacking us. They did find the observatory a few days ago.”
“It’ll be fine, we’re in a public area. And we have Sakurako to protect us. If something does happen, there’s always the ocean. I’ll tell my driver to take us to a restaurant near the beach, and we can flee with my yacht if we’re found.”
When Promised Blood had found their base of operations, Touka had seriously considered buying a nearby deserted island to build a new lab there. She did have both a helicopter and a yacht at her disposal. However, both she and Nemu had to maintain some level of normalcy in their lives, at least for the sake of their families, so the underground lab in the city had been a better choice.
“Should I buy the island anyway? It could come in handy later. Maybe…”
“I’d heard you had a yacht… Are you sure it would work?” Sakurako asked.
“Touka has an inordinate amount of private vehicles, but the yacht in particular is one we’ve used multiple times before.”
The Uwasa tilted her head. This was the first time she’d heard about it.
They took a moment to get in the car, and while Touka gave her driver instructions, Nemu chose to sate Sakurako’s curiosity.
“On our way to the lab, we have only been seen by members of Promised Blood once, that we know of. Neo Magius Feathers are a different story. They have chased us often in the past. If we were anywhere near Minagi Ward, we would use the yacht to flee far from the city. There was one time where they were so close to us that Touka had to pick me up to sprint and jump to her yacht. I had my doubts regarding her ability to steer it… Fortunately, we did not sink or crash into anything. She called some of her staff to let them know and had them retrieve my wheelchair.”
Touka stretched, reclining on the seat. “Yeah, that’s the reason the yacht is stocked up with board games and decks of cards. Those Feathers can be so persistent… We’ve had to wait out at sea for hours until the coast was clear. We even had to sleep there once!”
Sakurako had many thoughts. She decided right there and then she would join Ui in her matchmaking efforts. It came to mind a little late that she was supposed to thank Touka and Nemu for coming to her aid and somehow managing to lighten her sentence.
“Oh, thank you for earlier. Would it be okay if I continued to call you Mom and Father?”
“Absolutely-”
Nemu pinched Touka where Sakurako wouldn’t see. “You wouldn’t refuse a request from our daughter, would you? She never asks for anything… Would you truly be able to say no to her?”
Dutifully, although aware her ‘wife’ was manipulating her, Touka sighed. “You can call us whatever you like.”
Nemu smiled. “Precisely.”
Sakurako then felt her phone buzz in her skirt pocket, repeatedly. When she checked the messages, she couldn’t help how wide her smile was.
“Did something good happen?” her ‘mother’ asked her.
The Uwasa hummed happily. “Yeah.”
Ryo had sent her a few pictures of both ex-Magius, likely taken upon arrival, then texted her about how she ‘never knew those two made such a good couple’. With only a handful of exchanges after that, the plan was set.
Sakurako selected Ryo’s contact and Ui’s contact, then gave a title to their new group chat: The Wedding Party.