Disclaimer: I hereby disclaim all rights to all characters (save for those of my own creation) during this little reveal… especially for the one who just wants a drink.

~保護者~

"Of Past and Present"

~保護者~

Tails led the way down the metal stairs leading into his underground workshop, flicking on the powerful overhead lights on his way down. They illuminated many tables, shelving units, boxes, crates, inventions, and more. Many of the inventions dated back to his early years traveling with Sonic and the others, such as his now ancient remake of Sonic's original Tornado bi-plane. Even the Blue Typhoon was still stored here. There were plenty of other things as well, though. Robots, mechs, guns fueled by random energies like plasma or electricity and the like, and so much more.

Wery looked around at all of this, beyond amazed by everything she saw. So amazed, in fact, that she didn't realize she'd tripped over herself and had to throw her arms out and grab onto the railings of the stairs, chuckling sheepishly. "Whoops, eheh…" In a very flustered manner, she quickly righted herself and followed behind him. "You've made some… amazing stuff."

Once he was sure she was alright, Tails let out a sheepish laugh of his own. "I guess so," he answered. "I've… had a lot of practice by now."

"That…" her gaze fell onto the Blue Typhoon and the remake of the Tornado, a thoughtful frown on her face. "That's very old technology. You made them?"

"That big one was the height of tech at the time," Tails smiled. "And, yeah, I did make them. The little one, though, wasn't my design. A friend of mine lived way before I did because of how his species ages, and he made the original version of that plane. I re-made it years afterward with the best equivalent material I could scrounge up."

She nodded slowly before her thoughtful frown grew. "So, how were you alive when that was the top tech? That was something like… forever ago, and at this point a fox would have lived out their lifetime quite a few times over. I've thought about it multiple times, and I came up with some ideas like slowing the cellular expansion and replication but that all ended up in a travesty that singed some fur off my arm. As it turns out, trying to slow that is really not good for your body so I had to rule that out as a possibility-" Wery sighed, rubbing her forehead with the palm of her hand. "I'm rambling again…"

Wery rubbed at her chin. "Another was to effectively change the way your cells are reproducing, essentially, by changing the way that they change over time. If you were to somehow keep them from developing all of the various proteins and such that they make over time, you could technically and maybe feasibly slow down the impending doom but even then I don't think that would be the most effective, and it's dangerous, since that's impeding how the body's naturally functions without letting evolution take place. I finally had to settle on something like cellular regeneration, but to make it continuously happen for so long… you'd need such an extreme and constant power source to keep that kind of tech running, much less functioning at full capacity."

"Well… I hate to break it to you, but the truth is way less scientific than all of that," Tails admitted. "See… there's a reason why I have twin tails. Any guesses as to what that reason is? It plays into all of this, I promise."

She bit the tip of her finger, only withdrawing it when she realized what she was doing. "Well, it seems to be a mutation of some sort, whether evolutionary or through some other means. If it's not super scientific… then I have to say genetically modifying it is out of the question which leaves me a bit dumbfounded as to what is doing it, but it seems like the mutation thing is the most likely?"

"It is," he agreed. "The root cause is a power I was born with but didn't know about for a long time. The very first clue was my tails. The second was when I realized I was suddenly developing new powers that I have no business possessing. The reason why is that I apparently possess some kind of strange radiation that I was born with, and it mutates me and my abilities. This resulted in me developing, by pure chance, extraordinary regenerative abilities." He sighed. "I didn't know that, though, much less the extent to which I automatically regenerate. At least, not until I was… well, vaporized… only to grow back, cell by cell, from whatever microscopic bit of me was left and wind up perfectly fine after the fact."

"It's okay," Tails assured her easily as they reached the bottom of the stairs. Then he invited, "Did you have any other guesses? Your first one was really good."

Saying that the female fox was astounded was an understatement. She was absolutely aghast at the information she'd just been given, and it showed as her mind almost visibly began processing it. "Born with radiation which mutated the very DNA and structure of your body, an absolute miracle of a mutation to begin with since it has proven to be functional and helpful." Wery paced for a moment. "The fact that this radiation was also capable of forming mutations that were capable of giving you other powers is absolutely extraordinary, as you said. Have you ever looked at your own cells to see if they continue to mutate?"

"Not really, but only because I already know that they are," Tails told her. "Even to this day, things continue to change. I've developed two new, albeit very minor, new powers in the last few decades alone, and one of my pre-existing powers has started drastically changing sometimes. That's proof enough, you know?"

Wery's mind continued racing before she ultimately shook her head. "That's so fascinating, but we should probably get moving along. I don't wanna wrack your brain with all sorts of questions about how all of that works right now," she said with a small laugh.

"It's no big deal," he answered with a smile. "But, yeah, we probably should get to work. Or, rather, I should." He approached a crate and slid the lid off the top before reaching in and pulling out one of his radiation guns. "Hey, I don't suppose you have any weapons at all? Even if you end up just going back home or whatever after this, you're probably going to want something to help keep you safe."

"I, uh, don't have any real weapons, mostly some defensive stuff," she murmured, idly messing with the devices on her belt. "I tried to stay away from inherently dangerous things, like weapons, but I suppose now isn't the time to be so reserved, considering there's a war and those creatures are just kinda coming and going."

"Those were demons," Tails helpfully supplied. "And if you're sure you're comfortable handling a weapon, I might be able to find something for you. Otherwise, I have strictly defensive things you can have, such as devices that form barriers and the like."

Wery seemed to think this over before shrugging somewhat. "I think that the time for being solely defensive is over, sadly. If these things are always as vicious as they were when they came here… defense alone probably won't hold up."

"Unfortunately, I think you're right. And, in line with that thinking, I have a question for you." Turning, Tails faced her again. "Do you have any energy-based powers that could potentially be channeled through a proper conduit?"

"Well, I do have electricity, but that's about it. I've even run tests to try and see if there might be anything else, but I never found anything, sadly." Wery answered, frowning slightly.

Tails's eyes lit up and, without any explanation, he gleefully declared, "So I was right! It is still common in our modern gene pool!"

Wery suddenly began thinking and nodded slowly. "It would make sense. My father didn't ever show any sign of having it, but my mom did. Maybe something happened over time after whatever happened to our race, well… happened, but if you have it as well, that's definitely a hypothesis I'm fine with having!"

"It was the power of our race in ancient times," Tails said as he moved to retrieve another gun, "so I guessed it would still be common in our people even in this day and age, but since I've barely ever seen other members of our race before… I couldn't really be sure. I don't even know if my parents had it." He picked up the gun he was after and handed it to her. "Here, this channels electricity. I hate to say that I've found electricity to not be super effective against demons so far, but it's still better than nothing. It can slow most of them down, if nothing else."

She took all of this in, then her mind went to work. "Supposing that it's not normally effective, would making the outgoing current far stronger do anything to increase the damage it may deal to the demons?"

"It's definitely possible, but I don't know how you'd go about doing that," Tails answered with a shrug. "It may seem pretty silly of me, but I've never actually sat down and tried to work it out. Had too much else I wanted to accomplish, I guess."

"There's a few ways I can think of that might work. Perhaps making it so that the resistance is so high that instead of electricity, the gun is firing pure heat… but they seem to have an affinity for fire so that seems unhelpful. The best thing, and most reliable, seems like it would be something akin to letting it charge over time and have it release controlled blasts from the accumulated charge. Even then, you're not really changing the current coming out, so some sort of extra generation method would be needed, within or attached to the gun so that it's creating more energy to supply the… 'ammunition'," Wery explained, idly looking over the gun with her eyes. "I'd need time, but I don't think we have that much time if you're wanting to get back to your friends soon."

"I really do need to," Tails sighed. "A lot of awful things have been happening lately, so it's been safer for us to stick together. I also need to see if we have any sort of a plan of action yet, so dawdling too much here isn't the best idea."

She nodded slowly, understanding his logic. "Absolutely. I can work on my ideas some other time, since I've got my tool set on me," Wery said, idly tapping her hand against one rather small device to ensure it was still there. "I should probably stop rambling so much so we can actually get something done," the female fox laughed sheepishly, rubbing the back of her head.

Tails tossed her a smile. "I don't think there's too much else for me to do, honestly. I'd hoped to grab one of my ships while I was here, but… it looks to me like my proper fighter jets and such aren't actually fully built yet." He gestured meaningfully across the wide open space to the inventions in question. "Guess in the heat of the moment, I'd forgotten about that. So I'm just going to have to hope the Tornado-Z is in-tact after all that world-healing magic that Calypso did."

"World-healing… magic…?" Wery asked, blinking a few times. "Wait, no, no, just explain that later. I'm sure we can upgrade the Tornado-Z once we get there, right?" She suddenly seemed to come up with an idea, blinking once. "Do you have spare parts and such somewhere?" she asked suddenly.

"Absolutely. See those little metal cubes on the table next to you?" Tails pointed. "Those are storage capsules. I keep everything I need for the Tornado in those, specifically for situations like this."

Her eyes lit up at the sight of those cubes and she immediately removed a small rhombohedron-shaped device and pulled it open. "I'm so glad I'm not the only one who thought of storage compartments!" She quickly collected the cubes, smiling brightly. "As long as we have the parts, then I am absolutely certain that we can do any necessary work."

Grinning, Tails picked up a teleporter off one of his many tables. "Great minds think alike, it would seem," he quipped. Then, walking over to her, he said, "By the way… whether or not we part ways after this, I did want to leave you with some good news, if you're willing to hear me ramble a little bit."

Seeming absolutely stricken with something from the quip, she only barely managed to haul herself back to reality in time to give a quick nod. "Oh, absolutely! You can ramble all you like!"

"You know how they teach in school these days," Tails started, tucking his gun away, "about these old wars that were fought a long time ago against enemies like Ivo Robotnik, the Metarex, the Nocturnians, and so on? And how there was this band of people who came together time and again to defeat those enemies?"

Already, Wery was fairly certain that she knew where he was going with this, nodding slowly. "Uh-huh? They're almost always viewed as these amazing heroes that fought off the evils threatening the planet. It's a part of why I got so… into inventing."

"In those lessons, some of the names of these people are taught," Tails continued with a nod. "One of them, as most people these days know, was Shadow, the world's current leader. And I can assure you he's involved in this conflict now as well and very intent on putting it to a quick end." He sighed. "But… there were others, too, that most people will have heard about. Silver, Blaze, Analia, Kaden, Locke, Cream… really, there were a bunch. A few were forgotten over the years as being part of that group of friends, such as me, Amy, Charmy, and Vector, but the biggest heroes of that group… they weren't forgotten. Sonic and Jet… they're still around, and they're still fighting. And just like they did in the past, they will find a way to save all of us." He tossed her a smile. "That's something I can promise you with all my heart."

"I-" For once, she seemed at a loss of words before she smiled brightly. "I don't doubt it." All at once, it fully dawned on her and her eyes widened. "Oh my god, you knew all of them, too? That's… amazing! No, wait, you were one of them, too, oh my-" Wery shook her head to keep herself calm with a deep breath. "Oh my god," she said, seeming finished with her small awestruck breakdown.

Tails's smile gentled but didn't fade as he unexpectedly offered her a hand. "I do have to go now, but you can come with me if you want. You don't have to stay, but you seemed to at least want to see the ship. I wouldn't mind taking you to it."

Her hand shook as she raised it slowly, taking his in hers with an almost trembling grasp. "I-i w-would be h-honored."

Smiling some more, Tails activated the teleporter and sent them away.

~保護者~

Li and Novei had arrived on A'latria only a few minutes ago, and already Novei had given several expletives at having to walk through the snow for any period of time. One time, she fell over a rock hidden by the snow, rising out of the snow with all of the hatred her heart could muster and launching the offending rock into orbit before continuing to their destination. They shortly made it inside and began looking for the forge, something that luckily didn't take Li all too long.

"Alright, Novei. I… I'm gonna need a lot of help from you for this. I can't do all of the heavy lifting, so-"

Novei grabbed up a hunk of metal and raised an eyebrow at him. "Shut up and do your thing. Prove to those chameleons that you are the best at what you do."

Li blinked a few times and nodded, stoking the flames with his own fire (something made to be able to heat and melt down any metal that existed so he could work with it) before beginning the process. Surprisingly, the two were able to operate like a well-oiled machine, effectively keeping everything moving along in a seamless manner. Eventually, though, Li took a break and glanced up at Novei. "Hey… I have something I want to ask you."

She raised an eyebrow, setting down the hunk of metal she was carrying. "Then speak. You can just ask, you know."

The wolf laughed sheepishly for a moment before continuing his work idly. "Sein said something about… you liking me or something like that. I dunno why he said that, or if I'm just missing the point, but I wanted to ask you how you feel I guess?"

The Therian blinked a few times at him before simply, wordlessly, continuing the process they'd been working at for a few minutes. Li berated himself for even bothering to bring it up until she spoke again. "...Maybe. I'm not sure."

Li almost missed his intended target with the hammer, able to correct his swing before he crushed his finger. "I, uh, huh?"

Novei shrugged softly. "I dunno. We've traveled together for years now. You taught me how to speak the so-called 'universal language' fluently, how to control the few emotions I have, and how to feel things I was not capable of prior. I suppose it isn't… impossible for me to have those sorts of feelings."

"Is that why you're so protective of me? It's not really about that sword you want, is it?" Li asked, raising his gaze to hers. "I won't judge you if that's the case, but I really want to know how you feel."

She was quiet for a moment, content to stand there and listen to him hammer away at the sword he was currently working on. "Even if it is, you still owe me," she murmured, crossing her arms.

At this, the wolf seemed to smile faintly. "I sure do. Once this order is finished, I'll make sure to make good on my promise." He picked up the sword and began cooling the metal off with water, only to nearly drop it when Novei suddenly hugged him from behind.

"Make sure it is big and sharp, Li."

~保護者~

It wasn't until she snapped awake that Zareil realized she had dozed off in the first place, looking around quickly to make sure nothing had attempted to make light of the two being vulnerable before making the assumption that they were both fine, more or less. She looked up to Kaden, a small frown on her face. At the least, she knew that his wounds were now healed and he seemed to be calming down. "Kaden," she whispered softly. "How are you feeling?"

His response was abnormally irritable, even for him, as he muttered, "Leave it alone, Zareil." He had his head in his hands, lightly massaging his temples in response to the migraine he had been left with after the assault on his ears earlier in the day.

"Do you want anything? Food, blood, et cetera. I can go get whatever," she said, crossing her arms and pushing herself up to her feet.

"I said leave it alone." Despite his words and quiet irritability, he exerted no actual control over her, leaving her free to disobey if she wished.

She set her hands on the armrests of his throne and frowned deeper. "Answer my question and I will. I'm not backing down on this until I have one."

He bared his fangs at her for a second. "I do not owe you one."

"I never said you did, but you're currently not going to take care of yourself so I will." He growled lowly at her but said nothing in response. "Do you want anything, Kaden?" she asked once more.

When he didn't answer after a long moment, the youngest of the triplets (the one named Tyrnn) quietly approached. She and her sisters had returned roughly half an hour ago, and despite having missed what went on earlier they understood what was happening now. They had seen this sort of interaction take place before. "Mother," she murmured, "Father has not fed in some weeks."

Zareil pushed herself to stand up straight, summoning her spear into her hand and moving for the exit. "Stay here. I'll be back in a minute." With a respectful nod, Tyrnn returned to her sisters and their books. She eventually returned, a demon pinned under her foot and her spear through its heart. "Kaden. This is not negotiable. I will not have you going without food."

"I'm. Not. Hungry," he bit out, baring his teeth at her again with a sudden glare.

She glared in return, ripping the beast's head off and walking closer. "You should eat, regardless, if you haven't."

Alynn, the most stubborn and rebellious of their children (much like their father) could be heard muttering, "He hasn't."

"Quiet," Kaden muttered back at her. Then, if only to avoid arguing further with Zareil, he fell silent again for the moment.

Zareil stepped a bit closer, practically sliding onto the armrest of the throne before moving herself to where she could whisper to him. "You seem to like blood. Would you be against feeding off of mine, if this filth isn't good enough for you?"

Kaden tossed her a look and responded, "Now is hardly the ideal time for that."

"Or is it? You're here, and so am I. We're not going after anyone for a little while, so why not have some… fun in the meantime?" she murmured gently, a small smile on her face. "I'm not one of the seductresses, but I know you find me… desirable enough."

It didn't take too long for Kaden to curse her under his breath, even as he moved to stand. He muttered a simple, "Remain here," to the children and stalked off out of the throne room. Zareil blinked a few times at this before idly kicking the demon carcass out of the citadel and tossing the head after the body it was previously attached to. He led the way into a private chamber he had made use of many times before, waited for her to join him, and kicked the door shut.

~保護者~

It was some time before Armaris finally emerged from the shadows, properly taking her physical form much to Rose's delight. Some more time passed before she bothered speaking, moving closer to Espio. "Hey, Espio?" He tossed her a barely noticeable glance, but did nothing more. "I… I wanna talk for a bit. Is that okay?" After a short pause, he almost seemed to slightly shrug, neither agreeing nor outright disagreeing. She turned her gaze down for a moment, a small frown on her face. "I know you didn't want to talk a lot about it, but… I wanted to ask about what that person showed you in those visions."

Though it seemed to take him a moment to do so, Espio soon muttered a small reply. "I said it was nothing."

"They went to the trouble of showing you… something." Armaris looked up at him. "I'm here for you, and that means that you can talk to me if something is bothering you." He signed a simple disagreement with one hand, something akin to a no. "Espio… please?" she pleaded softly. Now frowning slightly, he answered with the same sign. Deciding that he almost certainly wasn't going to talk about it, she decided to change topics. "I… why did they go through the trouble of showing us what could happen in the future? Wouldn't it be easier to watch us struggle while they know what's gonna become of us?"

After a lengthy pause, he offered a slight shrug. "I don't know." Realistically, he had a guess (that guess being the same as what Toru had said earlier about the enemy wanting them all despairing and whatnot), but the fact remained that he didn't know for sure. And his only guess had been stated once already, so there was no point in reiterating it.

Armaris gently leaned against him. He stiffened up, as if on reflex. "You wouldn't do anything to me if you were in control of yourself, right?"

Openly scowling, Espio immediately answered with a hard, "No."

The cat seemed to manage a smile, nodding. "I'm… really glad to hear that." She paused momentarily before glancing at Rose, then moving just a bit closer to Espio so she could whisper. Armaris would much prefer this conversation be more private, which was helped by the fact that Rose didn't seem to be listening in. "Do you think I should talk to my dad about what I saw?" she asked of Espio.

This earned another shrug. "Perhaps," was all he said.

Armaris nodded slowly. "I think I will," she murmured. "He should be in the loop about it." With nothing to really say, Espio remained silent. She glanced to him. "I guess I'll go do that now, actually," she murmured, pushing herself to stand and opening the portal. "I'll be back soon." He glanced at her and answered with a simple nod. Armaris walked through the portal without another word, letting it close behind her.

"May I ask you a question now, Espio?" Rose suddenly asked, raising her head from the book she'd been reading. As he had done now twice before, Espio swiftly signed a disagreement in reply. She didn't waver, a small frown on her face. "You stiffened up when Armaris drew close. Are you adverse to touch?"

He debated for a short time the merits of actually answering that question before ultimately hedging around the matter entirely. "What does it matter?"

The white cat turned her attention back to her book. "It is merely something that I learned to watch for with Jet when we met. I am sure you have been made aware of his case, so I simply watch to see if there are other people that I can help understand themselves better."

Frowning, Espio turned fully to face her and dared to ask, "...What are you talking about?

"In some cases… children do not receive an accurate diagnosis of issues they have while they are still young. This happens because children are so… fascinatingly different from adults that what may be seen as a mental disorder is merely personality traits, or the other way around. This leads me to try and help those I come across to understand if they also have something plaguing them that was never properly addressed."

Dare he even continue to press her for answers? Before too long, Espio decided he was too curious (perhaps even morbidly so) to just let the matter go. Taking a small breath, he went out with it and questioned again, "What are you talking about?"

"In the short time I have observed you, you have already displayed two symptoms I have grown aware of that coincide with something in the same spectrum as what Jet has, autism. I worry that there is more than I have seen that may have been… overlooked. If that is true, then you have learned to mask that which affects you. A very unhealthy tactic at times, but one almost necessary for survival in the case of someone like you. It is reasonable to believe you have done so, and more than understandable." Rose watched him with curious eyes, waiting to see if there was anything else that may add to her current thoughts.

Espio's thoughts briefly raced as he considered all of this, but he quickly found that he didn't have much to say. He didn't even really know what to think of what he'd just been told, to be perfectly honest. This is… ridiculous.

Rose blinked once before frowning a touch deeper than she had before. "Espio, how do you fare in social situations? Do crowds leave you… anxious? Wanting a sort of escape or out, even if you are required to be there?"

With a slight and unintentional cringe, Espio managed to admit a very small, "...Yes."

She nodded slowly, taking this in. "What about when you were a child? Do you know if you took an exceptionally long amount of time to begin speaking or using basic motor functions?"

Motor skills had never been an issue, but speaking was a different beast. He remembered that clearly. "...I used to be mute."

Rose nodded once more, gently closing her book. "I do not wish to spend our entire first meeting questioning you about personal matters, unless you are alright with such?" He again only shrugged, but the lack of outright refusal was probably permission enough, coming from him. The cat nodded and set her book aside. "What are you most fascinated by? Do you have anything that you could say you like above all other things?"

Though unsure why she would ask that, Espio admitted before too long, "Blades." Even he wasn't sure why he was being so forthcoming, but the truth was that he felt decently at ease right now. Maybe it was because she reminded him so clearly of Analia. That was a person he trusted. Perhaps it stood to reason that that meant Rose could be trusted as well…?

"Would you be willing to say that it is something akin to an obsession, or is it merely a fascination of sorts?" she asked softly, almost… seeming to be aware of the fact that he might trust her but not speaking on the matter.

He somewhat chafed at the idea she had presented and muttered, "I am not obsessed."

"Forgive me for entertaining the idea, then," she murmured, a small smile on her face. "Did you ever have any sort of item that you did not like being without? A blanket… tool, toy, anything like that would suffice."

"A certain dagger," Espio responded after he took the time to actually think back and remember. Soon, he added, "It was only when I was a child."

Rose blinked once. So he grew out of that, then. Interesting. "Did you have a tendency to wander off without warning and seemingly at random times?"

Recalling the many scoldings he had received for that precise behavior from his mother as a child (and others since then), Espio huffed and again admitted, "Yes."

"Do you have any taste or touch sensitivities? Textures that bother you, certain types of tastes, anything like that?"

This reminder earned a subtle and unintentional wince and he looked away. He'd managed to put most of this issue out of mind, since so much of it had to do with the tastes and textures of food and he no longer had any physical need to eat, but… unfortunately, physical sensations did still bother him in general. Not just in regards to food. "Yes."

"Are you capable of looking people in the eyes for any extended period of time, even if you do not know them?" She asked gently.

That was something he greatly disliked. He'd do it, maybe, when he felt like he had to, or when interacting with people he was fairly comfortable around, but otherwise? "No," he answered flatly. Maybe it wasn't even that he couldn't do it, he just refused.

She nodded in understanding. "Forgive my asking, but may I ask how you feel?"

The question was unusual and unexpected, prompting him to respond with his typical basic answer of, "Fine," before he could really consider why she was asking him this. He wasn't lying, though. Right now, he really was fine overall. Or, at least, as fine as one could be at this point.

"You do not seem fine, particularly," Rose answered gently. "It was something I needed to ask, however. How do you handle anxiety? Are there any actions you know of that bring you comfort when you struggle to handle emotions such as being anxious?"

Though more hesitant to do so this time, eventually Espio was forced to admit that he had no good answer for that. "No. I don't."

Rose nodded slowly. "One more thing, and I will leave this kind of questioning behind. Do you have any need to stick to a routine, especially one that dictates how your day goes?"

Didn't… Didn't most people stick to routines? Maybe he was wrong, but he really didn't know why she was asking him this. "I… suppose. Somewhat."

"If you do not mind my asking, what happens if those routines are broken?" Rose asked carefully, tilting her head. Espio was at a loss for how to answer her. It was… upsetting, but he didn't really know how to explain that it was, much less why it was the case. So, in the end, he just shrugged. She nodded slowly to him one last time before giving a soft frown. "I have reason to believe that you may have a similar case to Jet's… but I have to ask questions of your family and friends before I can say for sure," she admitted softly.

Espio gave that a minute or two to sink in before offering a curt nod and moving to stand. Now suddenly seemed like a great time for a drink, and he intended to go digging through the wreckage of his home again in search of any intact bottles of alcohol that may have survived. If none did, I swear…

"One more thing, Espio," Rose murmured softly, standing as well. "If it does seem to be that my hunch is true, then I would like to help you through these things that bother you so that you do not have to mask their effects as much. Would you be willing to work with me on that matter?"

He looked at her for a long moment before echoing, "Help?" What exactly did she mean by help him?

"The questions I asked, each is linked to a symptom. The way you answered means there is something there that has had a noticeable effect on you. I want you to be able to live your life with those things no longer bothering you or being hardly noticeable," Rose admitted honestly, casting a gentle smile in his direction.

Despite not entirely knowing what he was agreeing to, Espio huffed and turned away from her with a quick, "Fine."

"I hope you find what you are looking for, Espio," she said as she watched him before quietly walking away on her own with her book in hand.

He started to ask her how she even knew about that, thought better of it, and just huffed again before walking off in the direction of his home. Fucking Light users…

~保護者~

6,010 words this time. Many thanks as always to Blazing Winds for all of his help and support, and I hope you all enjoyed. Posted (at about 12:01 a.m.) 06-07-20.