"Let me ask you one more time. So you're saying that you were her father? All along?"

Riku nodded. Kimihito asked that question so many times, but Riku, out of all people, couldn't tell him to stop. After all, he was the one that had all the right in the world to care about this more than anyone. Apart from whether or not Riku was willing to claim her as his daughter, Kimihito was the one that was the closest thing Satsuki had to a father, or rather, family. Not that anyone else had a problem with that. Miia, Centorea, and Rachnera were still finding it difficult to accept that this man was Satsuki's biological father.

But was Kimihito angry at him? He himself wasn't sure about that. Sure, he wasn't happy about the fact that he has abandoned her until now, regardless of the reason. If he took care of Satsuki in the first place, she wouldn't have had to go through all of that. Being abandoned by her biological mother, to be adopted to a loving family that died too soon, to be under the roof of an extended family that didn't care for her, to ultimately be found in the middle of a river. Not to even mention the whole fiasco with her biological mother appearing again in her life.

But through the image Suu showed him that day, he also knew that it wasn't mainly Riku's fault either. Being a kind and understanding man at heart, Kimihito himself couldn't get himself to hate him. Regardless, he did think that May should be angry at him.

"Stop asking him, Kimi. It's not his fault."

Kimihito stared at his sister. He still couldn't really understand why she dealt with this issue as if it was nothing special. She didn't show much emotion to the fact that her biological father appeared out of nowhere, apart from the trembling even he could see back when they were in the forest. But even that seemed to be nonexistent at this point. She was just calmly drinking water from the cup put in front of her. It felt wrong.

"May, I know that he wasn't… well, but still, he is your father. You have the right to be angry about it."

She shook her head slowly. Kimihito was finding it difficult to read her emotions. If she was actually feeling any kind of emotion, she was doing a good job at concealing it. "I'm telling you this for the third time, but it's not his fault. You know what happened that day when I was conceived."

"Umm… Darling… I hate to interrupt, but what really happened that day?"

Rachnera internally sighed. If only the lamia was a bit smarter. The story was blatantly obvious. Considering that Miia was a lamia, out of all species, she should have noticed it earlier.

Satsuki turned at her. For a moment, Kimihito was afraid his sister might snap at her. Rather thankfully, her expression was still quite blank. She seemed like she was having difficulty finding the appropriate words, rather than containing her anger towards Miia. "My birthmother, she took him by force. When he was all injured up and barely able to move. I guess that wouldn't be too difficult for an elder devil."

The language she used was quite indirect, but everyone in the room except for Papi understood it well enough. Maybe the meaning got across easier because she was talking to a very peculiar audience.

She could hear a few gasps, but that didn't surprise her at all. She already knew that it was an extremely disturbing story. There were children born out of wedlock. There were children born from a one-night stand. But at least those children were born from a somewhat mutual relationship. She was not.

She hated talking about this. She despised it. But no matter how much she hated it, she couldn't change what has already happened, nor could she erase her existence.

A minute or two of uncomfortable silence passed. Although Lamias were notorious for being possessive and clingy, Miia didn't enjoy the idea of forcing someone to be her partner. Centorea herself was the result of her mother's attempt to escape from a forced relationship. Although Meroune was a tragedy lover, this kind of tragedy was not the kind of tragedy she was having in mind. Suu was just sitting there, her eyes narrowed. Rachnera gritted her teeth. Human or not, she hated those that made others miserable.

Surprisingly enough, Riku was faring pretty well. He wasn't going through a mental breakdown or shock. Although he did seem to slightly flinch when Satsuki mentioned what happened, he seemed like he already put the past aside as the past.

"Anyway," Rachnera faced Riku, as she tried to change the subject of the conversation. The least she could do was to free them from thinking about that incident any longer. But the problem was that she was not a very smooth talker. "Then you must also be… one of those…" The moment she spoke that out, she instantly regretted it. That was not a very bright topic either.

"Mutants?" The handsome man managed to chuckle a bit. He didn't seem fazed by that question either. "I guess you could say that."

Rachnera eyed him carefully. Aside from his reaction, she tried to see if he really fit the explanations that Suu and Lala gave about his kind. Extremely attractive. Double check. Appearance-wise, he was probably the most attractive man she had seen throughout her life. Strong? Maybe.

He seemed to match the explanation she heard of his kind. Except that…

"You don't seem to have the so-called 'intoxicating' atmosphere around you. The one that makes girls fall for you and the guys charge at you with an urge to kill."

Kimihito looked at Rachnera as if he wanted to say 'uh-oh'. He wasn't sure if he should tell her that he was the one that she almost pounced on that night at Kii's forest. He felt hesitant about it for reasons that he couldn't quite put into words.

Riku turned to face Rachnera directly. He stared at him. The way he stared at him reminded Rachnera of a young child trying to recognize a relative they haven't met for years.

"Is there something on my face?" That comment was closer to a murmur. Rachnera knew that she wasn't acting like her usual self; her usual self would have narrowed her eyes and curtly asked if he was afraid of being close to an 'deadly and dangerous Arachne'. While she did have an urge to act like that, she tried to restrain it as possible. Some recent events taught her that acting like a porcupine every time someone talks or looks at her doesn't always bring the best results.

After a few more seconds of staring, Riku managed to break the tense atmosphere with a slight smile. Kimihito didn't know this guy too much, but he could tell that he confirmed that she was the Arachne he escaped from that night.

"Hey Rik-"

Riku extended his arm to Kimihito's direction and flailed his hand ever so slightly. Kimihito didn't understand the exact meaning of that gesture, but he thought that it would be safe to think it was somewhat similar to 'don't mention it'.

"Well, I don't know how much you know about my kind, but that atmosphere, aura, or whatever you might want to call it, is something that we can control most of the time." He held his right hand and attached his thumb to his middle finger, as if he was preparing to snap them. "I can unleash it all right now, and I can conceal it as well."

He grinned before he continued. "But considering the circumstances, I think it would be wise for me to hold on to it for a moment."

Although some of them seemed to be curious of how it might affect them, no one openly objected. If it really was as strong as it is said to be, then they would be lucky if the whole house doesn't crumble down. Kimihito personally didn't want the forest incident to repeat itself, this time with even more girls.

Kimihito clapped his hands to get everyone's attention. He didn't want them to keep thinking about this topic either. "So I think the thing we should be talking about is how you're going to manage facing her."

Riku nodded. His grin was still there. "We don't even need to talk about that. I'll face her. End of story."

Satsuki raised an eyebrow. "Huh?"

He placed his hands behind his head. The pose reminded Kimihito of his friends back when he was in high school. "So she's going to be looking for either of you," he looked in the direction of the siblings, "right? You two can stick together to lure her out, and boom, I'll appear from somewhere near."

Philia eyed him. "You do know what kind of being we are facing, right? Being full of conceit won't help you."

Riku's grin was still there when he shifted his right hand, this time to make his palm face the ceiling. A second later, everyone in the living room could feel a gush of wind blow out of nowhere. At the same time, what seemed to look like an orb of wind formed on top of his palm. The orb got bigger at every passing second.

He gently clenched his right fist to put an end to it after a few seconds. Ignoring the widened eyes and 'wow's, he looked straight into Philia's eyes.

"Believe me, I do. And I am more than confident to knock her off her feet this time."

"How on Earth did you-"

"Forgive me for interrupting, but explaining that would take a lot of time. If you would all excuse me," he got up on his feet and faced his daughter. He seemed like he was still grinning, but even a fool would be able to tell that there was something underneath that smile. "I would like to have a word with my daughter first. In private."


When Riku called her out, Satsuki did nothing but to silently walk towards her room. She assumed that if she did, he would follow. And he did. She tried to ignore her brother's and her newly appointed knight's worried glances as she walked away from the living room.

Despite her demeanor, her mental state was in absolute chaos. She was not expecting this. What exactly did she have to say to him? Did she have to be angry at him, as her brother suggested? She knew that she shouldn't, and she actually had no wish to. Then should she be all happy to finally meet her father, like those familial reunions she saw on TV? She wasn't feeling so happy and exuberant. After all, her main problem was that she had no idea what she was feeling about this situation.

When they actually entered her room, she waited for him to get inside and closed the door behind him. As she did that, she looked into him closer. He looked exactly the same as those rather…lively 'videos' her mother forced her to see. She was surprised to say the least. It has been at least 16 years, and he still looked the same. It was as if time stopped for him, and him only.

She could name out some similarities between herself and him. They had the same hair color. She could see that the shape and color of her eyes also resembled her father. Still, she would say that she looked more like him when she was younger.

Of course. That was why all of this happened in the first place.

"So, what did you want to discuss with me? You do know that we don't have too much time left, right?" She didn't mean it to sound so sharp, but she couldn't help it.

It was hard to read his expressions. She could see different emotions flickering here and there, but they all seemed to flash by so quickly. He cleared his throat before he spoke.

"You keep on saying that you don't have much time left. I told you that I could face her, so why are you keep saying that?"

She did not want to impose this dark secret, or rather, this dark side story of hers to this guy out of all people. The last thing she wanted to do was to make him feel more guilty about the things he couldn't do for her. Although Satsuki was aware that he might not feel guilty at all, she still didn't want to risk it.

But despite all that, the words came out of her mouth before she could even stop it.

"She came looking for me two years ago. She snatched me from my brother, and cursed me. Ever since then, I haven't been able to grow, and all of my powers have been struggling to stay in such a small body. My body condition gets worse when I use too much strength or power. Even if I survive this encounter, my body doesn't have much time left. It won't be long until it can no longer contain my powers."

She couldn't believe it herself. She poured out those words as if they were water contained in a very weak dam, that was on the verge of breaking any moment. She never felt like this before in her life. It was as if she has been waiting to tell this to someone, to him, all along.

Was she? Did she have some sort of unconscious longing for a fatherly figure?

Meanwhile, Riku was standing there dumbfounded. He could understand what she just said, but at the same time, he couldn't. He knew that that woman was crazy to say the least. He wouldn't be surprised if she burned down an entire village just for fun. But to place that kind of spell on her own daughter?

"For what reason? Why would she have to do that?"

Satsuki felt like choking. She has pledged to herself to never be emotional. To not show them in front of others. To be strong, to be impregnable, so that she wouldn't shower her negative emotions and her miserable background on others. Especially not on Kimihito, her brother that she owed the world to. To think that this barrier would crumble so easily, to her father that she has never even met before.

She thought that it was pathetic. But that didn't stop her tears.

"She dropped me in front of an orphanage within a week I was born, but she has been watching me," she trembled. "She said that she would have kept me if I were a boy, since I would have grown up to resemble you. But I was born a girl. She found it unnecessary to keep me and go through the troubles it would bring."

She could feel a tear flowing down her cheek. She rubbed it off with the back of her hand before she continued.

"Pushing the burden of childrearing to someone else, she… she enjoyed watching me, since she couldn't find you. She enjoyed watching me because she could see you in me." Another tear dropped down to the floor. "It was as if she was looking at a monkey in a zoo. My hardships were her entertainment. My tragedies were her plays. I moved from house to house, either because my parents died or didn't want me. She didn't do anything but to watch."

Riku tried to wipe out her tears with his hands, but she weakly pushed it away, wiping them with her own hands. She was now visibly trembling, and crying like that day she found out that her first parents died.

"She said that as I grew up, I started to resemble her more than you. She didn't want to see that. She stopped my growth, wishing me to stay in the way that resembled you. She was crazy over you, for all of those years. I…"

Riku didn't let her continue. He embraced her fully, his arms hugging her back and pulling her into his torso. She resisted for a second, but soon gave up and started crying in his embrace, getting his shirt wet. Her arms reached out to coil around his body. She forgot the fact that someone might be listening outside the door, and cried as if she didn't care. She actually didn't care.

For the first time in his life, Riku patted his daughter's back as she tried to console her. He tried to imagine what she had been through in his absence. He at least, tried to understand why she had to go through everything she went through. He couldn't. He could feel his emotions towards his daughter and his emotions towards his daughter's birthmother escalate within him, the two in totally different directions. It was as if he knew he had a daughter all along.

Anger boiled inside him. He didn't even know that he was capable of being so angry to someone else. He told himself that he would never forgive her for what she did; not only to him, but also to the precious child in his arms. The child that he automatically knew, that he had to protect. Yes, despite the fact that she was not intended, he could clearly say that she was his child, and therefore it was part of his responsibility to protect her.

Outside of the room, many ears were listening. But none of them dared to interrupt.


Satsuki fell asleep in his arms. Riku gently carried her over to her bed and tucked her in. It gave him a feeling that he has never felt. It was a kind of love, he presumed, but it felt so…warm and peaceful. Watching her breath slowly and quietly, her head occasionally turning a little bit, all seemed like a small miracle. Some men compared their daughters to fairies and princesses. Riku met both, and could easily say that it was something much more than just that. It was like a bundle of happiness itself in human form. He watched her sleep for a very long time. At some point, the moonlight that shined through the window light her face perfectly, allowing him to fully examine her facial features. He was surprised to see how much she looked like him.

He was never an expert in romance, but something told him that this love was something that romantic love could never give him. He wasn't sure if he could feel this emotion ever again in his life.

When he exited her room, he did his best to get out quietly. He almost tiptoed to the door, and when he reached it, he opened it ever so gently so that it wouldn't make a sound. He did the same when he closed the door.

As soon as he closed the door behind him, he faced some others that weren't asleep yet.

"Is she asleep?"

Of course, her brother. Riku felt grateful towards him. Although Satsuki didn't talk too much about her relationship with him, he could figure out that if it wasn't for him, her life would have been much more miserable than it already was. Riku wasn't too sure if that was even possible. Nevertheless, he appreciated him very much.

He slightly nodded. "Soundly asleep."

The other two nodded as well after hearing that. Riku could understand why the centaur was there, since she was calling his daughter her master (although he had absolutely no idea how that happened), but he couldn't really figure out why the Arachne was here with him. He felt like it wasn't really the right timing to ask, so he didn't.

"Hey, um… what should I call you? You're May's dad, so it feels weird calling you by your name."

Riku slightly chuckled. His daughter was indeed blessed to have this guy as her brother. "I think my name is fine for now."

"I'll work on that." Kimihito scratched the back of his head. He was clearly uncomfortable with that, but he couldn't give a better suggestion.

"I hate to say this," Rachnera quietly spoke, trying not to wake the other residents in the house, "but I kinda heard some parts of your conversation. I didn't mean to but… I guess my ears are too sensitive for my own good."

Riku looked at her. She seemed like a totally different person-well, Arachne-from the one he encountered in the forest. She seemed much gentler and more sociable. That relieved him a bit. The environment surrounding his daughter was unusual to say the least. Not too many people lived with liminals in the first place. To have a house filled with 7 of them, all of them different species… well, that was something that he didn't see every other day. And he spent pretty much his whole life travelling from place to place. Knowing that at least one of them seemed reasonable made him feel better.

"No need to apologize. I know you guys have sensitive ears and all." He shrugged. "Besides, I wouldn't be surprised if you already knew the stuff she said. It was basically just her filling me in."

Riku was pretty accurate. Suu had already filled her in about some of the stuff she spoke about. While there were some things that she didn't know of before, she decided to keep quiet about that. It wasn't really the time to compare and contrast.

"Master has been expecting to lose her life in her encounter with her mother. Considering that you have enough strength to face her alone, would it be safe to assume that that won't happen?"

Riku noticed that she seemed much older than the other girls he saw in the living room. At the same time, he easily figured out that she was pretty much the typical centaur-the kind that lives on their pride of being chivalrous. He didn't find that uncomfortable, though. At least it was nice to see that his daughter had someone else that was on her side. He had a feeling that some of the other girls in the living room weren't exactly her closest friends. He'd seen too many extraspecies throughout his life to be able to figure out that much.

"I will do everything I can. That horrible bitch," if he could have thought of a better insult, he would have spoken it out instead. "deserves to die. However, I have no idea how to stop her curse." As much as he hated to admit it, he was lost when it came to that topic. He never knew such a curse even existed. He has seen all kinds of spells and curses during his life, and he himself could use something that humans would call magic. But this was a curse that he had never even stumbled upon. A way to get rid of it? Of course he had no idea.

He felt like he was the most useless person in the world when he saw the faces in front of him. They looked like someone just took all hope away from them. And he could see why. They thought that he might have had an answer to this situation. But he was clueless as well.

Surprisingly enough, it was Kimihito that recovered the fastest. "Now, let's go to bed, everyone. I think some sleep might do us all a favor. We do have an encounter to brace ourselves from, after all." His eyes that were fixed on Riku shined with hope once more, hope that her newly-revealed father would be able to keep his word and get rid of her once and for all.

Riku read that. He slightly nodded at him. Although he was a horrible excuse for a father, he knew that he could do at least this much. He owed it to her.