Children of the Mirror 3: Acceptance
...Eleventh Part: Dark...
Kosuke had gotten a real surprise when he returned home. Immediately, he began looking up any information he could about the girls.
I really hoped he could find something good. I didn't want to seal the artwork and loose them...
I glanced over at Krad again, who was sitting on the couch with Rita on his lap. He was asking her question after question, wondering at the intelligence of a girl that looked to be about five years old, give or take. I liked seeing him interact that well with someone other than me.
"Krad likes Rita's new eyes – Krad just doesn't want to admit it," Rita said gleefully.
It seemed the girls completely past the freaking-out stage. Now they seemed just like any other ordinary little kid – except, of course, for the wounds on their heads from separation and the weird deal with their eyes. They didn't even notice that part, though, as far as I could tell.
"Your eyes are unnatural," Krad told her.
"Krad's eyes are exotic!" Rita enthusiastically emphasized the last word. "Rita likes Krad's eyes a lot!"
A crooked, awkward sort of smile crept onto Krad's face. "You shouldn't be able to see my eyes."
"Rita knows!" she insisted. Rita giggled. "Dark is looking at Krad again. Dark better run!" She waved her tiny hand at me.
Shaking my head at the girl, I waved back and turned to find Emiko and Meikano. I favored Meikano over Rita, although I had grown to like both girls. Meikano was the first one I had talked to, and the first one who had reacted to me. Her bloody eye sockets still gave me the creeps, but I was even starting to get over that.
"Dark is coming!" she squealed. "Emiko, put Meikano down!"
Emiko laughed to herself and set Meikano down on the floor. I knelt down and she ran over to me in the wobbly way that little kids do, and when she got to me I scooped her up into my arms. Meikano smiled and kissed my cheek.
"Meikano is happy Dark is back!" she exclaimed.
"She really likes you," Emiko said.
Meikano nodded. "Dark likes Meikano, too!"
"Of course I do," I told her.
She beamed. "Meikano was telling Emiko about how Dark saved Meikano. Dark is awesome! Dark has wings and Dark can fly – just like a bird! Whoosh!" she demonstrated, swooping one arm out to the side. The other was around my neck.
"You're sure a hyper little thing, aren't you?" I commented.
"Meikano feels good! Meikano can move her head aaaalll around now!" She rolled her head back and to the side, and forward, and around to the other side. "See?"
I laughed at her enthusiasm. "You're pretty good at that."
"Yep!" Meikano tilted her head to the side. Her eyelids came down in an odd way and her adorable little smile got bigger.
Kosuke came back from his research. "Well, I found some of what we were looking for," he said.
Meikano's eyelids came up again and she frowned, turning her face toward me and pointing at the stranger questioningly.
"That's Kosuke," I told her. "He's married to Emiko."
"Ohhh. Hi, Kosuke!" she greeted him, smiling again.
"Hi, there," Kosuke said pleasantly. "You must be Meikano."
Meikano looked up at me again and whispered, "Does Kosuke know, too?"
I laughed again. "No, Meikano. Kosuke knows a lot of things, but not the same way you and Rita do."
"Meikano has no Rita," she informed Kosuke. "Has Kosuke seen Rita?"
Kosuke looked up at me. "You didn't tell her about Rita?"
"Dark, what is Kosuke talking about?" Meikano asked me. "What did Dark not say about Rita?"
"Rita is here, Meikano," I told her. "She's with Krad."
Meikano screamed. "Why did Dark not tell Meikano Rita was here!? Meikano did not know!"
Kosuke took Meikano from me and calmed her down. "Meikano, Rita was kept a secret on purpose," he informed her. "You need to be away from her for a while so we can figure out a solution to you problem. Do you want to know why the two of you got separated?"
Meikano sniffed pitifully and nodded, wrapping her little arms around Kosuke's neck. It hurt to have her scream directly at me like that, but I didn't say anything. "Meikano wants to know," she said.
"Well, you and your sister had a terrible accident one day, and you were killed," Kosuke told her, avoiding any gruesome details he may have found. "Did you see that portrait Dark took?"
Meikano nodded. "Daddy painted it. Daddy said Mommy and Daddy were sorry that Meikano and Rita had to be stuck together, but Meikano and Rita didn't mind. Daddy called the picture Gomenasai, anyway. Gomenasai is a good picture."
"That's right," Kosuke said. "Well, when you and Rita died, you got stuck in the picture."
"How did Meikano and Rita get stuck?" she wondered.
"I don't know exactly. Gomenasai had power and it wanted you there where you could be happy again," he tried to explain it to her.
Meikano nodded. "Meikano understands. Meikano knows, now."
"Do Meikano and Rita have to be connected again, somehow, or will they heal because of the artwork?" I asked him. I wanted Kosuke to confirm the latter, but I tried not to get my hopes up. If I was completely out of luck, I would have to seal the girls away forever.
"Meikano is sorry she yelled at Dark," she said, reaching out for me to hold her again.
"Should I bring Rita over?" Krad asked from where the two of them still sat on the couch.
"Go ahead," Kosuke told him. "As long as they stay calm, they shouldn't have any more of those episodes you told me about. Meikano and Rita should be able to just be ordinary identical twins, now, I think."
I grinned. "We might just get to keep you around, squirt," I told Meikano, tweaking her nose.
She laughed and pushed my hand away.
Krad came up to stand next to me with Rita in his arms again. She was playing with his hair. "Will you stop that, already?" he scolded her, untwisting her fingers from the long gold strands.
"I just hope you can handle them," Emiko said. "Children are a huge responsibility."
"You mean they're staying with us?" Krad looked back down at Rita unsurely. "I don't know..."
Rita giggled again. "Krad likes Rita. Rita likes Krad," she chanted. "Krad likes Dark..."
"...and Dark likes Krad," Meikano finished her sister's sentence. They both giggled. "Meikano is gonna miss Meikano's old mommy and daddy," she sighed.
"Rita, too," Rita agreed.
They were actually silent for a while.
Krad and I looked at each other strangely.
"Did you just get us into... what I think you did...?" Krad asked me.
I shook my head slowly for a while, then began to laugh. I laughed, and laughed, Emiko glared at Krad, Krad glared at me, and I just laughed some more.
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Now, some of you may be wondering where Daisuke and Towa happened to be in all this mess – well, I don't know. I think Daisuke went to see a movie with Riku that night, but you'll have to ask him when you see him. Towa could be just about anywhere else in the house – probably listening to Daikii talk on and on about something, seeing as he wasn't around, either.