Epilogue

Several weeks had passed since the whole ordeal with Talpa endured. It took some time, but now I call Anubis, well, and Ariel's been calling him Pops. The others were BALLISTAC over that, but they understood why I wanted that to be in private. It was kind of personal, after all.

Kojiro, Ariel and I DID end up moving to Mia's. Ariel has Yuli's old room, and after some rearranging, I'm now sharing with Kento and Kojiro. Even Dad moved in with everyone. Ariel's now in a better day care, Kojiro and I are going to a better college, and now I can focus my income on less things. I don't have to worry about bills, food, and other things as much. My income goes mainly towards whenever Ariel or I get sick, clothing, shoes, and other things I couldn't supply for her back in Tokyo.

Ariel seems to be a happy kid. Mia mothers her, and she calls her (this is funny) "Mama Mia". Dad adores spoiling her rotten, but I get mad at him whenever he tries to. Kento and the others try to as well. She absolutely LOVES White Blaze. He usually sleeps in her room.

I was glad to know that Kento and Sage had packed all my old things in boxes. I went through them and found old journals, my stuffed whale, cookbooks, regular books, and other interesting things. Kento, Kojiro, and Sage helped me with it. We had a few good laughs.

I eventually DID call my mother. First, she scolded me for not calling in well over four years. I told her about the rape and she nearly had a heart attack. She was hysterical. I gave her my word it was the truth after she asked if it was an excuse. Then I told her about Ariel. She wanted us to come out to England as soon as we could. We were out there three weeks later and stayed four days. Somehow I was able to avoid telling her about Dad. She would have been furious. Sae seemed to love Ariel to death, going around yelling that she was "Auntie Sae". I also got to say hi to some of my old friends. They gave me the natural greetings and were in shock over Ariel, but they thought she was cute.

Ariel liked England. Especially "the big red busses".

It had been a week since we'd gotten back from England. It was a typical morning. Kojiro was up painting in the basement like he usually did (Kojiro's an artist in his spare time), Kento was still asleep, and I was downstairs making breakfast. Mia walked into the kitchen. "Good morning," I said.

"Morning," she said. "Cye?"

"Hmm?" I asked as I played with the omelets currently in the skillet.

"Have you thought about. . . dating again?" asked Mia. "I mean, Ariel needs a mother figure, and I don't think I'm good enough of a mother figure."

I closed my eyes. "Dating was hard after Ariel was born. The only girl I really talked to were the other teen parents and any form of relationship was out of the question. It would be too much of a hassle," I said.

"Well, you know, you should look into playing the field a little bit," said Mia. "You guys should settle down as much as you can before the next battle."

"The next battle?" I asked.

"The Warlords and that heir are still out there," said Mia. "You have to be prepared for anything."

"I know," I said. "We all know. The question is, when?"