AN: I don't own anything. Sorry for any bad grammar. Also having upload issue, hopefully, third times the charm
Atalanta 1st POV – Two years later.
I finished brushing my hair and put my hairbrush back on my desk. I just need to brush my teeth, and I'll be ready for another day of school.
Turning, I made my way to my TV stand and grabbed my white backpack leaning against it.
There was no point in wasting time just sitting around my room, especially since I still needed to make breakfast and lunch, on top of brushing my teeth.
Exiting my room, I switched on the hallway light and turned to the left to enter the bathroom just outside my bedroom. I reached into one of the bathroom drawers to grab my toothbrush and then got on the step stool in front of the sink. I started to brush my teeth.
Having to stand on a stepstool never stop being embarrassing. It's all my treacherous body's fault for refusing to grow! Both Mom and Dad are tall, so should I be tall too? At least tall enough to not need a step stool.
Being the shortest person in my class is so demeaning.
That blonde is probably laughing from beyond the grave, but I can deal with that. If I somehow meet Miyu again, and she's taller than me... that'd be the end of my pride as a big brother and a man.
I finished brushing my teeth and put away my toothbrush.
There was still an hour left before it was time to go to school, which was more than enough time to make breakfast and lunch for my father and me.
I moved to the kitchen and got to work.
Dad didn't finish getting ready until after I finished making breakfast.
"What'd you make today, sweetie?" He asked as he entered the kitchen. My father was dressed in his work uniform, making him look like a dork.
"Untoasted wheat bread with mustard."
"Uggh, that sounds terrible! What'd you really make?"
"It's a surprise," I smugly responded as I finished preparing his lunchbox. "Your breakfast is on the counter."
I pointed at the breakfast I made for him; it was a small meal of toast and eggs. But, even if it was small, it would still taste delicious.
"Atalanta, are you making my breakfast smaller?" Dad asked while looking at me incredulously.
"It's come to my attention that you've been putting on weight—five pounds, to be exact. Cooks must account for their audiences' nutritional needs before anything else. So, stop whining and just eat. There's enough to fill you up without gaining weight."
"A person's weight goes up and down; five pounds is nothing. I'd go so far as to call myself the perfect picture of health; my body is a temple that doesn't need a diet," Dad said while flexing his arms.
"You may be healthy now, but bad habits will catch up with you. I'm just looking out for your health," I frowned while looking into his eyes.
"Wow, how kind of you," My father grumbled while looking away from me.
"If you have a problem, then make your own breakfast."
Not that I'd ever let him touch anything in my kitchen.
"Nah, I need my beauty sleep."
"No, you don't," I said while shaking my head and walking over to the counter to start eating breakfast. "Beauty sleep won't make you look better, no matter how much you get. Zero always equals zero, no matter what you multiple it by."
"Why must I be cursed to have such a cruel daughter." My Dad said jokily, "oh, why go…."
Dad stopped before saying, god.
"What's wrong, Dad? Are you scared some god will strike you down for using their name in vain?"
"Of course, I'm scared. You never know when a silver arrow will come out of nowhere, fired by a cold, cruel god." Dad said while shuddering. He reached out to start eating his eggs.
"Why a silver arrow?" I asked him. After all, something like holy lightning was a far more common punishment from gods than a silver arrow.
"No reason, just forget it," Dad said evasively.
"Ok... but you'll listen to me, right? And follow the diet I made for you?"
"Listen, I really don't think there's anything wrong with my diet-" Dad suddenly stopped as he looked at my concerned expression. "Don't worry, my little moon, there's nothing wrong with me! Really!"
A dark pit grew larger in my stomach the more my idiotic father talked. Doesn't he know that no one thinks there's something wrong until it's too late? That's how Kiritsugu died, but he might've lived longer if he had taken care of himself.
I refuse to go through that again. I won't lose another parent to something I can prevent.
"Dad, please take my advice. I'm really worried about your health."
My father looked at me with a concerned expression. "Ok, I understand. I promise to follow your diet. You know it's impossible to disagree with you when you get concerned."
"If you don't want me looking over your shoulder, then learn to take care of yourself. But until that happens, I'm going to do everything in my power to watch over you," I told him without a hint of shame.
"I know, my cute little moon, I know," Dad shook his head. "It's time for us to get going. We'll be late if we wait in longer."
Dad grabbed my dirty plate and put it on top of his, and then put them in the sink. I'll clean them when I get home.
While he was doing that, I picked up my backpack from atop the counter.
Before I could make my way to the backdoor, I felt a hand grab my own. I looked up to see that it was my Dad; it seemed that he wanted to hold my hand while we walked to the car.
Letting out a sigh, I close my hand around his. Dad smiled as he felt the pressure of my tiny hand in his. The edges of my lips raised slightly. Seeing my father smile was almost enough to drown out my embarrassment.
"Do you have everything?"
"Yeah," I responded as we walked out of the house. "I'm ready for school, Dad."
"Atalanta, did you finish all your homework?" My father asked from the front seat of the car
"Of course, it was easy," I told him, though truthfully, I would have to be a complete moron to fail any assignments meant for third graders with my high school education. Well... except for English, I'm not that good at that.
"Good, but remember that I'm ready to help if you get stuck on something."
"Thanks, but it would be better if you offered to help me before we were five minutes from school." I pointed out to him. Not that I would ever take him up on the offer. He already does enough for me, and I don't have the right to ask anything more of him.
"Well, that's true, but just remember to come to me if you need help in the future."
"Yes, sir," I responded to him while looking out the window before tuning out the radio music. Dad always likes to listen to his favorite radio station in the morning.
The sight of my new hometown has long since become normal to me, but I still can't help but compare it to Fuyuki.
Instead of being reborn in Japan, I was born in Kansas, United States. My new hometown is tiny, with a population in the thousands. There are only two elementary schools in the entire town, whereas Fuyuki had several... at least before the disaster where I found Miyu.
Whereas Fuyuki was a city filled with skyscrapers, my new home has no buildings higher than three or four stories. Despite how much smaller the town is, everything is far more spread out than Japanese cities. It must be a difference between cultures and city planning. In Fuyuki, everything I needed was within walking distance; learning to drive was unnecessary.
Now, it would be impossible for me to go anywhere without traveling by car. Even walking to school would probably take hours.
I probably need to learn to drive as soon as possible, but I don't think I am physically capable of driving right now.
I don't know which one is better between my current home and my old home.
I would be a liar if I claimed I didn't miss Fuyuki and the things I lost.
"Atalanta."
The call of my name brought me back to reality.
"What's up, Dad?" I asked him while he came to a stop in front of the school gym.
"Are you ready for school?"
"Yeah," I responded to him while unbuckling my seatbelt and grabbing my backpack.
"Alright, don't get in trouble."
"Worry about yourself. I'd be quite sad to hear wolves ate you," I huffed at my father, more amused than annoyed by his cliché goodbye.
"Don't worry. There aren't any wolves in our state; besides, I always carry some anti-wolf canine spray." He jokily fired back.
"That's good, now I can rest easy," I grabbed the car door handle, but Dad called out to me before I could get out of the car.
"Aren't you forgetting something?"
I took my hand off the door handle and moved towards my father to hug him.
"Sorry."
"Good, you'll make your father cry if you leave without saying anything," Dad said while pulling me into a hug.
"Crying over not getting a hug from a worthless person? How stupidly sentimental," I hugged my father back.
Dad looked aghast at that, "You're not worthless! You're my greatest treasure. Your worth is infinite!"
He said that while moving in to kiss me on the forehead, I didn't try to move from it, accepting it—feelings of worthlessness weld up inside of me.
"Then I guess you don't have many treasures," I told him while breaking away from the hug; I started to move until I saw the sad look on my father's face. It felt like a spear through my chest.
"What's wrong?" Why did he have such a sad look on his face?
"Nothing... just have a good day," Dad said, the sad look on his face disappearing, replaced by his usual smile.
"You too... I love you."
"love you too, my little moon."
I exited the car with my backpack strapped to my back and made my way to the gym.
My mind was in another place, though.
What did I do wrong? Why did Dad make such a sad face when I was just speaking the truth?
I will need to apologize to him or find another way to make it up to him. I can't stand to see a family member sad like that.
I'll try to spend more time with him tonight. That should put a genuine smile on his face.
I entered the school gym and looked up at the clock to see that it was just after 6 AM. There was still an hour and a half left until school started.
Looking around the gym, the teacher that was supposed to supervise the students wasn't in the room.
They probably left to get coffee or something before students arrived at school.
I walked over to my class's designated seating area and made my way to the wall of closed bleachers. We didn't have assigned seats, but I always sit next to the bleachers since I can lean against them.
I sat down in front of the bleachers and used my backpack as a pillow.
There wasn't anything for me to do until school started. Students weren't allowed to wander around campus, and I'd finished all my homework.
Maybe I should plan out what I should make for dinner. Considering what happened in the car, I should try to use dinner to apologize to my father. So, I should choose something he enjoys.
But he always loves my food, no matter what I make. Dad hasn't told me any specific foods he likes.
I vaguely remember him ordering a lot of greek food before I started cooking, and he seemed to enjoy it.
Do I have the ingredients to make a greek meal?
"Achoo-" I suddenly sneezed as a strange smell assaulted my nose. The air was filled with a perfume-like aroma that somehow made me imagine desire, pleasure, and love. It was revolting, making my stomach hurt.
Right after my nose picked up the smell, I heard voices talking. Their owners were entering the gym.
"This is the gym, where the student body meets in the morning." I heard a familiar voice say.
Ms. Hopewell looked my way as she came into sight. "Oh! Atalanta, you're here!"
"I am here," I answered awkwardly.
"School doesn't start until 7:30, right? Why are you here so early?" Asked the man who was with Ms. Hopewell. He looked like he was in his mid to late-twenties and had blue eyes with blond hair. The way Ms. Hopewell was looking at him seemed to imply that she found him handsome.
I decided to respond to him, "My Dad has to be at work by 7, and it takes us around 45 minutes to get to work from here. He has to drop me off really early so that he can get to work."
"Well, this is great. There's still a lot of time left before school starts, so why don't you make your new classmate feel welcome." Ms. Hopewell said while motioning towards the girl behind her.
The girl looked around my age, which made sense because my homeroom teacher said she was a new classmate. She had her father's blue eyes but had brown hair. Her dress was made up of a red shirt and a matching skirt.
She took Ms. Hopewell's motions as a signal to introduce herself, "Hi! I'm Silena Beauregard."
Silena reached out to shake my hand with a smile on her face while I simply reached up to shake her hand.
"Atalanta Moonlit." I shook her hand, but my face did not match hers. I didn't feel anything at this meeting; I hold no positive or negative emotions towards Silena. And my expression reflected that.
I refused to fake emotions, as it's disgusting to do so without purpose.
The other girl looked confused at my lack of enthusiasm while I crossed my arms and leaned back.
"Atalanta, please try to be friendly," Ms. Hopewell chastised me. "Silena, your father and I have some more paperwork to do. Why don't you try to make friends with Atalanta?"
"Ok!" Silena exclaimed while sitting down next to me.
"Good luck, Silena," the girl's father called out to her.
"Alright, thanks, Dad!" Silena told her father, who was now following Ms. Hopewell out the gym, waving one last time towards his daughter.
There goes my quiet morning.
Why did my teacher have to throw Silena on me?
"Hey, Atalanta! Why're you wearing colored contacts?"
"Colored contacts?" I asked, confused by her question.
"Yeah!" She said while looking into my eyes. "They look really good! Really natural!"
"I'm not wearing any contacts. My eyes are naturally silver."
"What? I've never heard of anybody with silver eyes!"
"Huh..." Silena is the first person to question my eye color. Silver eyes aren't natural, are they? I could understand my eyes being silver, but why are Mom's eyes silver?
"Hum, well, that's neat!" Silena pushed on. "So, do you have any hobbies?"
I sighed; this girl isn't going to stop until I play along, will she? "I like cooking, housework, and fixing things."
My response was emotionless. This conversation didn't interest me. How could it? I'm talking to a child.
"I like to cook too. And I'm pretty good at it," Silena smiled as she boasted.
"Hm, I'm confident that my cooking is better than yours," I told her without hesitation.
"Nah, my cookings better," Silena declared smugly. "Anyway, how'd I look?"
I blinked. Silena must be worried about making a good first impression, but I'm not the one she should be asking.
I'm a teenager in a child's body; things like fashion are beyond me. I just wear practical clothing, what I like comes second.
In my opinion, Silena should lose the skirt. Skirts are impractical and embarrassing to wear, even if they are comfortable.
"You look fine," I flippantly responded. I'd feel bad if I crushed the dreams of a little girl.
"Thanks!" Silena cheered as a bright smile appeared on her face. "Can you tell me about the rest of our class?!"
"Our grade is broken into two classes; with you, our class has 21 students. The other class has 20 students."
"And how many of them are boys?"
Huh, why would she ask about that?
"There are thirteen boys in our class and eight girls."
"Are any of them cute?"
"Excuse me?" I asked, hoping that I hadn't heard her question.
"I asked if any of the boys were cute."
She hasn't even met any of them, and she already wants to know if they're cute... I sighed. This shouldn't surprise me. Of course, someone who smells like they took a bath in perfume would be trying to get a date on their first day of school.
"You shouldn't worry about that. The appearance of our classmates shouldn't matter."
"Huh, what's that supposed to mean?"
"You shouldn't be worried about boys; you should just ignore them," I told her without thinking.
"Then how are we supposed to find love?" Silena ask.
"You'll never find true love if you search for it. True love is something that forms naturally between people over time. And, in the end, love isn't even worth it," I educated her, trying to teach her one of the things I learned in my previous life.
Not that I should be one to talk about love. I never realized Sakura's feelings for me until she literally told me, and then I broke her heart by rejecting them. The fact that I let her die proves that I wasn't worthy of her love.
"That's not true. Love is something that comes at first sight. That's how my Mom and Dad fell in love," Silena huffed at me.
I looked at Silena and held back my sigh. One of the issues with dealing with kids is that they have such simple views of the world. But eventually, Silena is going to have to grow up eventually. Otherwise, she will end up like Sakura and fall in love with someone terrible.
But I'm not the one who'll be able to teach her that.
"Ok, fine."
"Good, now that you have acknowledged love, we can be friends. So, spill it! Which boys tell are cute."
"None," I honestly told her without a moment of hesitation.
"No way, just tell meeee!"
"I already told you, none of the boys are cute."
That was the only answer not leading to a prison cell. My physical body may be the same age as them, but my mental age was double theirs. All of them were children to me, not people to be viewed as cute. It's the same reason why I can't think of any of them as friends.
Moreover, I don't even think of adults that way. It's not like I can't tell when I would've found them beautiful. It's just that I don't feel the emotions that go with it. The last I felt them was on that night with Sakura...
Hopefully, my body doesn't regain those emotions when it grows up.
"You're mean, Atalanta."
"The truth doesn't care about your feelings."
Silena glared at me, not saying anything. She continued to do that until I heard another annoying voice—one of a girl that I've grown to know since my rebirth.
"Hi, Ata! Oh, who's that?"
"This is Silena. She's new." I motioned towards Silena, "Silena, this is Katie Fernandez."
"Hello."
"Hi, where are you from?" Katie was wasting no time asking questions. The two of them quickly broke into the conversation.
While Katie distracted Silena, I looked around the gym to the clock hanging on the wall, behind one of the basketball goals.
There was less than half an hour before school started. For some reason, I feel today's going to be tiring.
"What?! Ata, why don't you think any of the boys are cute?"
Ah... that's why.
"They're all too immature," I responded to the brown-haired girl.
"Don't act so stuck up, yeah, a lot of the boys may be overly childish, but I know you can be childish too."
I decided to just ignore her. The only childish thing about me is my body, but getting into an argument about it would prove I'm immature.
"Hey, stop ignoring me. Ata, Ata." The hyperactive child kept calling out to me.
Oh yeah, I promised to introduce Silena to the other students. I should tell her about them.
"By the way, Silena, you should look out for Katie here. I constantly have to help her with stuff. Last week she tried to get me to do her homework."
"Really?" Silena looked at Katie with an unreadable expression.
"Yeah, she always tries to get Atalanta to do her homework."
"Oh, hi, Aris," Katie said happily at the voice of our other classmate until she registered what Aris said. "And so do you!"
The blonde girl walked over to us and sat down. At this point, most of the student body was here, and the gym was filled with the sounds of people talking. We had about 10 minutes until school started.
At least Aris was more tolerable than Katie.
Plus, I don't constantly have to deal with Katie when Aris is around.
I listened to them talk until the time for school to start finally came.
The principal went over the announcements for the day and congratulated the various sports team for victory over other schools. Once the principal finished, the multiple grades were released, and my class walked towards our classroom.
Ms. Hopewell introduced Silena to the class, and hellos were exchanged.
Silena ended up sitting at the empty desk next to mine, at the back of the classroom.
It seems that I won't be able to get away from Silena.
The school day started and continued like normal, despite the new student. It wasn't until lunch that I noticed that some people were acting differently.
Both third-grade classes eat lunch at 10:30, but the classes are still divided, with each class sitting at their row of cafeteria tables. Each table had six chairs on each side of them, with no chairs at the head of the tables so that no one was sitting in the walkway.
All the girls of my class sat at one of the tables, with some of the extra seats filled by boys that overflowed from the boy's table. They mostly talked with the boy's table, ignoring the girls.
I tried to sit at the corner of the table, with Katie and Aris sitting across from me. The seats next to me were empty. Unfortunately, now I had to deal with Silena sitting next to me and several boys that had moved in and sat around me.
They were all trying to hit on Silena.
"Hey, Silena, you smell really good," A boy, whose name I think is Beret, told her.
"You shouldn't be sniffing a girl, even if she is one of the most beautiful girls I've ever seen," the other boy that was hitting on Silena said. I think the guy's name was Richard.
Ok, what's going on? There's no reason these boys should be acting like horny teenagers. They should be all 'girls have cuddies'; at this rate, they'll probably try to get Silena under the bleachers by the end of the day.
A headache started to form; what has my life become? How did I end up in a situation where I was thinking about a third-grader going under the bleachers with other third graders?
"Hey, Ata, are you in?" Katie asked me.
"Sure," I responded without thinking and not knowing what I agreed to. I was too focused on trying to figure out what was causing Beret and Richard to act so strange; my main suspect is obviously Silena.
"Yay, I'll get blue, Aris gets red, and Ata will wear white."
"Yeah, I like the color red."
I was broken out of my thoughts, "What do you mean I'll wear white?"
"You weren't listening? Well, no take-backs."
"Katie. Answer my question."
"We were talking about getting dresses so we can play magical girl," Aris explained to me.
My face was frozen at the explanation; I could feel red starting to spread across my cheeks. My previous thoughts disappeared.
"No."
"I said no take-backs, besides we can't be the three As without you," Katie said with sad puppy dog eyes.
Ugh, when Katie, or rather any girl, looks like that, I get flashbacks to Miyu. How am I supposed to disagree when my instincts are telling me to do whatever it takes to make her happy? But I can't take part in something so stupid.
I'll distract her and try to make her forget. It should work since Katie has the attention span of a goldfish with ADHD. Even I can focus better than her with actual ADHD.
"I would rather go camping. The weather is great this time of the year."
"huh, why would you want to go camping?" Silena asked while turning her attention to us.
"Because camping's calming, and the wilderness are beautiful."
"Really?" Asked Katie, who I don't think has ever gone camping. Aris also looked like she was interested. I guess she's never gone camping either.
"Of course, if you ever left your room, you would know this."
"What about the heat? Doesn't it cause you to get all sweaty and stinky? Isn't that horrible, almost as bad as having to use the bathroom when the forest doesn't have bathrooms. And what happens if you get lost in the forest?" Silena asked.
"It's not that hot outside; I even wore my jacket last time I went camping." I responded while holding in my annoyance at Silena's questions, "You can just go to the bathroom behind a tree or something. And I've gone camping several times without ever getting lost."
Silena didn't look convinced.
I sighed, "You don't have to believe me, why don't you try coming with us and see if you like it? Or you could just stay home alone, uselessly pinning over love while the three of us are having fun."
If I can get Silena to come camping, then I'll be able to keep my eyes on her.
Silena, meanwhile, looked angry at my comment on love.
"I'll try to get my Mom to let me go," Aris interjected, trying to avoid a fight forming between Silena and me.
"Oh, if you and Ata are going, then count me in."
"Good," I said, satisfied that I was able to distract Katie, "What about you, Silena?"
"Fine, I'll see if I can go, but I don't like how mean your comment was." Silena seems to think I'll apologize for mocking her.
"'Well, let's try to go camping during spring break."
Ever the knight in white shining armor, Richard decided to finally chime in, "Hey, Atalanta, you should apologize to Silena."
I guess he is trying to live up to his namesake.
"What for? I've not said anything that means."
"You insulted a girl's quest for love."
"Hey, Ata's a girl too! She's just sharing her opinion on love." Katie pointed out the obvious.
"She doesn't act like a girl, so she shouldn't be considered a girl." Beret declared as if he was the arbiter of what I am.
"Hey, Beret, you shouldn't say something like that; Atalanta is a girl. But Atalanta, it's still rude to mock Silena."
"Can you just stop acting so self-righteousness?" I told Richard, annoyed by the way he was acting and the topic of the conversation. "And Beret, will you just shut up. You're not part of this conversation."
They both tried to argue with what I said, but I stopped them.
"I said shut up." I glared at them, letting out a menacing aura that shut them up.
"It is true, though. You're a real tomboy, aren't you? It's really obvious."
Of course, 2/3rds of my life experience was as a boy. It would be stranger if I was super girly.
Silena continued, "but, you know, you'd look really cute in a dress despite that."
"Oh yeah, Ata, when do you want to go looking for dresses?"
I glared at Silena, who was now laughing. It seems that she realized I was trying to distract Katie.
Lunch ended soon after that, and my class went to recess, where I went to the bleachers and lay down and refused to deal with any of my classmates for the entire period. For my mental health, of course.
Following that, classes continued like normal. Nothing of note happened except for Silena sending me death glares throughout the rest of the day.
Apparently, she doesn't take well to people making fun of love. It should be easy to mess with her.
School ended at about 3 o'clock. Katie and Aris went home on the busses while I had to wait for my father to pick me up from school. Luckily, my father got out of work early today, and he was there to pick me up at around 3:15.
Unfortunately, he was on the phone with somebody, probably one of his friends, and could only say hi to me before having to go back to the call. The trip home took the same amount of time as getting to school, depending on traffic.
I sat in the backseat and quietly did my homework for the day, not wanting to interrupt Dad's call.
Dad didn't get off the phone until we were about five minutes from our house.
"Sorry, that was one of my friends. They need help planning a party for their wedding."
"When's the wedding?"
"It's going to be during your spring break, but they want to have the bachelor party two or three days before the wedding," Dad answered my question while looking at me through the rearview mirror.
"Are you going to it?"
"Probably, but only if I can find someone to watch you."
"Can I go camping with my classmates instead?"
"Only if your friends' parents agree to chaperone."
"Hopefully, my classmates will be able to convince their parents. That way, you can go party to your heart's content."
"It's just going to be a small handful of people watching some baseball."
"I know you'll be doing something, but I don't think it will be watching baseball. The only question I have is what base you plan on getting to." I teased my father.
"Atalanta, I promise you I have absolutely no interest in going out with many women," Dad responded thoughtfully, ignoring the fact I was making adult references.
"You just don't want Mom to find out, right? Don't worry; I won't tell her."
The face on my father at that moment was hilarious.
"Again, Atalanta, I have no interest in women."
"Then how do you explain me?" I asked my Dad as we pulled into the driveway of our home.
"Well, a stork dropped you off; it said that raising a child would be good character building for your mother and me."
I just rolled my eyes at his response as I grabbed my backpack and put my unfinished homework back in it.
"By the way, how'd you like your lunch."
"It was good, my little moon," Dad said with a smile, "I don't know what I did to get a daughter who cooks so well."
"I guess the stork saw you and mom's cooking skills and took pity on you. So, he gave you guys a child that could cook to balance things out," I preceded to act like I was lost in thought for a moment before saying, "Or it could have been to stop you and Mom from cooking whatever abominations the two of you would come up with."
Dad put the car in park, as a pout formed on his face. I opened my car door and exited it.
"Can you please hurry up?" I begged my father to stop dawdling and open the house door.
"Slow down, Atalanta. Why are you in such a rush?"
I just huffed at him while he got out of the car and unlocked the house door.
"Ladies first."
I look at my father, not moving a muscle.
"Well?"
"You said ladies first." I sarcastically told my father, "I didn't want to be rude. After you."
"What are you, in second grade?" my Dad said as he entered the house first.
"No, I'm in third grade."
I followed Dad into the house.
"Dad, I'll start dinner," I told him as I sat my backpack down. If I start cooking now, then I can be done by around 4:40 or 5:00.
"Do you want any help?"
"No, I can handle it."
"Ok, I'm going to go get changed."
Before I realized what I was doing, I called out to him.
"Can you come back and help."
"Sure, don't worry, it won't take long for me to change," Dad responded with a bright smile, causing a warmth to spread throughout me.
I quickly turned away from him and just hymned in response, causing my Dad to chuckle as he began to walk towards his room. Staying true to his words, he finished changing and was back within 5 minutes.
"What'd you need me to do?"
I gave my father instructions, using him to grab things that I couldn't reach or to cut ingredients.
At least with Dad's help, I don't have to sneakily use projection to quickly create utensils since I couldn't reach the real ones. Even if I had o deal with his terrible ability at cutting ingredients.
"Good work; maybe you could be a good cook if you practiced a lot." I decided to lie to support my father. No matter how much he practices, cooking anything more advanced than microwave dinners will be forever beyond him.
"Thanks, but we both know that isn't true. You're already a better chef than I'll ever be."
"Of course, that goes without saying," I boasted dryly. "Now, could you please hand me the plates? Our dinner is done."
"Sure," Dad said; he then went and grabbed the plates from the shelves. But he didn't hand them to me.
"I can't make our plates if you don't hand them to me."
"No, you've done enough. Go sit down while I prepare the table."
I coldly stared at him, waiting for him to flinch and give me the plates. But he wouldn't.
After a minute, I sighed and decided to let him have his way.
"Fine."
I went to the dinner table and sat down, waiting for my father. It didn't take him that long to make our plates.
"Thank you," I told him as he gave me my plate.
Dad then sat across from me. We ate for a while in silence without saying anything before Dad started the conversation.
"So, what happened at school today?"
"My class got a new student, her name was Silena," I took a second to make sure my thoughts on her didn't appear on my face. "She's kind of annoying and smells weird."
"What do you mean she smells weird?" My Dad asked me, strangely interested in the smell of my classmate.
"She smells like she took a bath in perfume. It hurts my nose." I lied through omission to my father, stepping around the fact that I was talking about a magical smell and not just some typical smell.
"Oh, well, that's fine." Dad said, seemingly relieved, "Your nose might just be too strong, Atalanta."
"Yeah, my nose and cooking; My only two good traits."
"That's not true; you have countless good traits."
I almost sighed at that. Just what good traits could an unforgivable murderer like me have? My existence is one stained with betrayal and failure that far outweighs any small act of good.
"No, I don't. There isn't anything good about me." I stood up from the dinner table and grabbed my empty plate to bring it to the sink.
I looked back at Dad. He had the same sad face from earlier this morning. Why did he make such a sad face? I was just telling him the truth.
Dad looked like he wanted to say something but didn't know what to say.
I kept walking to the sink and placed my plate into it, and then I continued walking to my room, where I grabbed a white short-sleeved shirt with matching sleep pants and underwear.
As I made my way to the bath, all I could do was think about Dad's face.
That pained expression was because of me; I hurt my father! Why do I always screw everything up! It must be karma, isn't it? I'm doomed to always hurt those I love.
A building feeling of regret and sorrow pounded away at my heart.
As I started to turn on the bathwater, I thought back to my relationship with Kiritsugu. Maybe I could find some way to prevent myself from causing Dad to look sad again.
But nothing from my relationship with Kiritsugu could help me; our bond wasn't that of a parent and child but teacher-student. And Kiritsugu never got sad; his heart was too cold for any emotion.
What can I do?
...
...
I couldn't think of anything, so I'll ask him directly, and I'll do whatever it takes to keep him happy.
I searched for my father as soon as I was done with my bath.
I found him where he usually is at Dusk, sitting outside on a rocking chair while watching the sunset.
As I walked outside the house, I saw the bow I got from Mom for my 6th birthday. Dust was starting to gather on it from lack of use.
My heart started to beat faster at sight, not because of the bow, but because it reminded me of the hunting trip my and Mom are supposed to go over the summer.
I shook my head, now was not the time to be thinking about that.
"Hey, grandma," I called out to my Dad, who was rocking in a rocking chair, looking at his garden. The only thing missing from his grandma's image was some knitting needles and yarn.
"Hi, Atalanta, was your bath any good?" Dad asked happily, a smile on his face.
"Yeah, it was nice," I responded in my cold way and walked towards his garden, taking a look at the flowers.
His garden was made up of only yellow daisies; I carefully looked at them.
"What do you think, Atalanta? Do I still have my gardening skills or what?"
"Yeah, it's good to see that you haven't lost your only skill. If only you were half as good at cooking," I tried to lighten the mood.
"How to mean. You know, I don't think anyone makes fun of me as much as you do."
"I only make fun of you because I care."
"Of course you do," Dad said with a smile as I made my way to stand by his side.
"Dad, I have an important question," I told him seriously, Dad's face losing its smile as he understood my seriousness.
"What is it?"
"Why'd you look so sad this morning and at dinner?" I asked him with a concerned look on my face
"Atalanta, why do you think you're so worthless?" Dad shot back
Huh? Why is he asking about something like that? Of course, I'm the worst of the worst. I've done so many horrible things. But how do I explain that to Dad without talking about my past life?
"It's because I know I am," I told him, unable to come up with an explanation. Dad, meanwhile, had a sad look on his face.
"But you're not. You're smarter, kinder, and more beautiful than your classmates. I know that you'll go on to do great things in life."
But your wrong; I already have had one life to do great things and failed.
Dad got up before I could say anything and picked a flower from his garden. He placed it behind my ear—the flower smelt like mom and me for some reason.
"My little moon, you are too much like your mother; you blame yourself for things you can't control."
But these things were in my control, there were other things I could have done, but I decided to be the villain. How do I explain it to Dad?
Dad pulled me into a hug and cut me off before I could say anything, "Listen to me, Atalanta, I don't know what it is that you blame yourself for, but it doesn't matter. You're my daughter, and I love you. I promise that I will help you overcome it so that you can truly smile, even if it takes years."
"Years?"
"Of course, Atalanta, I know that whatever is troubling you won't be healed immediately, but I'll still do whatever it takes to help you, no matter how long it takes." He said with a smile, one that reminded me of Kiritsugu's smile
His words hurt me more than anything else. What did I do to deserve someone who cares about me so much?
Dad broke off the hug and turned to walk away without saying anything, probably thinking there was nothing left to say.
I reached out and grabbed his arm before it was out of reach. I did not fully understand what I was doing. I just knew that I still had to make it up to him for making him sad.
He looked at me confused, surprised by my action.
"Dad, I'm having trouble reading some of my English homework. Could you please help me?" I lied about needing help, but surely he can forgive this lie if it's for his sake.
"Sure, sweetie," Dad said with a gentle smile that was far different than his normal happy one. It was a smile a father only showed his daughter.
I wish I could see that smile every day/
Letting go of his hand, I turned around to make my way back to the house ahead of him, content to let him have the last word.
AN:
Hello, and thank you for reading this chapter.
I've had exams over the last week, so I might not have gotten to everyone's comments, and I apologize for that, and I thank y'all all for your responses.
. There are going to be descriptions of possible powers for Atalanta at the end, and I was wondering what y'all thought. Also, she's going to learn the abilities over time; she's not going to be able to use them all at once. A few of the powers I've already decided to use, but I decided to include them in the list just in case y'all were curious about them.
By the way, Atalanta will be able to use her magecraft, but I've made some small changes to nerf her for the beginning of the story. By the end of the story, she will be able to use the full force of her magecraft. (The changes are going to be explained later.)
As for the OCs in this chapter, they are just going to be background characters to fill out the roster and won't play any major part in the story besides giving a human (mist-effected) perspective of any supernatural event that happens to Atalanta at school. They also will serve as a means to explore Atalanta as a normal person. In no way will they take part in the main story. (If they were, I would have thought of better names than from whatever was around me, F/sf, Konosuba, and FF7)
The release schedule for this story will vary based on the size of the chapter and what's going on that month. I will try to release at least one chapter a month if the chapter is like 20 to 30K. But the next couple chapters should come out chapter since a lot of it is already typed out, but needs to be altered a lot since it's really bad story-wise since I wrote it all in like one writing spree in like 4 days. (Around 40K in 4 days.)
Also, about Atalanta's personality, I feel I might have been slightly off the mark with my first chapter, so I've tried to slightly alter her personality to better serve as a continuation of OUS Shirou.
To me, OUS Shirou is cold, sarcastic, and laid-back but cares deeply for his family. At the same time, he feels guilty for failing Kiritsugu and Miyu while feeling terrible about killing people (the dolls, specifically Julian's father and sister.) Shirou feels guilty about throwing away Kiritsugu's dream for Miyu's sake but doesn't regret it and would do it again. (Also, remember, OUS Shirou and Kiritsugu did not have a father-son relationship, and Shirou did not go through the fire but instead went through what appeared to be an earthquake. So his personality is fundamentally different from F/SN Shirou.)
Atalantahast all these traits but is not completely trusting of people, given the betrayal of Julian. She's also trying to find purpose in her new life and come to grips with who she is now. She's also only truly open with her mother and father.
I know I mentioned a fight scene in the last AN, but I found that this was a better stopping point for the story and decided to stop there and leave the fight for the next chapter.
Potential powers-
Moonlight absorption and manipulation- This is a power I am going to give Atalanta; it's basically the power to manipulate moonlight and use it to make arrows and stuff made of pure moonlight, but those creations are literally just moonlight solidified in a solid shape and Atalanta will almost exclusively use projection for creating things.
Wild Animal speech- the ability to speak with wild animals.
Absolute Wilderness location – the ability to always know one's location in the wilderness.
Strengthened under the moonlight- Atalanta grows slightly stronger under the moonlight.
Strengthened under moonlight but weakened under the sun- Atalanta grows stronger under the moonlight in proportion to the phase of the moon but is weakened under the sun.
Teleportation by Moonlight- a late-game ability to use moonlight to teleport within Atalanta's line of sight
Guardian of maidens – Atalanta is especially good at sensing the pain of maidens and healing it. Maidens also trust her more.
Limited wilderness manipulation – the ability to manipulate the wilderness to a small extent.
Shapeshifting- more of a joke based on a certain legend where Artemis turns into a cat; Atalanta tries to replicate this power, but it goes wrong, which is where the joke I don't want to spoil comes in. I'm not sure about this one, though, since I don't want to mess up my story for the sake of a joke.
Resistance to love- As a child of the goddess of virginity and maidens, Atalanta possesses resistance to the effects of love and is nearly immune to any effects not at the level of Aphrodite or Eros's abilities.
These are the main powers I'm thinking about right now, but I'm thinking about a power-based around the authority over radiance that I may talk about later.
Again, thank you for reading.