A musky, yet overly clean smell enters Mirai's nostrils, filling her with a sense of nostalgia as she enters a very familiar laboratory. Her slightly high-heeled footsteps clack and echo in the desolate, concrete hallway while she walks to an elevator; smiling to herself.
"Hm, seems like this place hasn't changed a bit now hasn't it?" she comments, entering the lifting chamber to go up to the third and final floor. "Everything looks new and polished but it's all just the same."
"You don't look any different yourself Mirai," a male voice chimes in as soon as she exits
"Psh say that for yourself Dr. Mihara," Mirai snarks with a bit of a smirk.
"Oh come on, It's Icchan, you know that," He adds. She rolls her eyes and crosses her arms in a particular way, "come on into the lab, sorry, it's a bit messy."
"Wouldn't expect anything less from you," She follows her former lab partner into a fairly large room full of computers, persocoms, components, wires and monitors. A computer enthusiast's dream really.
"So, I hear that you've taken on my Yoshiyuki as your apprentice huh?" Mirai sits down in an old office chair that is still slightly bent from someone leaning back into for too long and straining the foundation. Reminding her of a time in the past.
"As a matter of fact I have," Ichiro responds, sitting down across the long, steel table across from her.
"Let me guess-"
"Mi-chan, before you say anything no this isn't just part of the experiment, it helps sure, but that isn't the reason why."
The neuroscience raises her eyebrow, "it isn't huh?"
"Nope, as you know Mirai...I only have so long, maybe three years before this form ceases to exist, and I want to achieve two things before that time. I want to pass down my knowledge and experiences onto someone worthy, and Yoshiyuki is more than capable. He is your son after all," the inventor explains.
"It's getting harder to maintain your human form huh?" She asks, Icchan nods in response.
"And...I wanted to get closer to him, maybe take care of him in a way."
"Oh you're doing a great job of doing that," Mirai scoffs.
"Mirai, I didn't mean for him to fall into cardiac arrest, not at all. In fact it is kind of setting back the experiment. That was of his own body's accord. Remember I can't control him only guide him. All I meant was for him to somehow fall into some kind of coma, so his soul could leave his body without anyone noticing."
She shakes her head, "y'know, there are sometimes where I wish I didn't agree to partake in this experiment, especially if I knew it would cause this much pain for everyone."
"But if you didn't, they wouldn't exist. Plus, this is crucial. I need to fix what happened back in the underground when I accidentally created a rift in the timelines. Yume and Yoshi are the glue to seal them back together." Ichiro explains, "but you also have to realize that you were the one who wanted children in the first place."
"I understand that," Mirai takes in a deep breath, "just promise me this. Something like this, like sending my son to the hospital on purpose won't happen again. Or I will never forgive you." her words are like stone, stern and blunt and from the heart. Her eyes have a fire-like anger within them, yet they are also very fearful.
Ichiro gulps, "I promise."
Mirai goes silent for a minute but eventually releases a heavy, shaky breath that she didn't realize she was holding in.
But can you really trust him?
"Oh yeah, Icchan, Yoshiyuki told me something the other day that kind of shocked me."
The Royal scientist immediately sits up straight, looking directly at the travelling Neuroscientist across from him. "Go on, what is it?"
She takes in a deep breath, "he told me, that while he was unconscious he saw his sister... Yume whom we lost five years ago."
"Saw his sister?"
"Yeah..." Mirai repeats what her son told her the day before in almost perfect detail, as she has an excellent memory.
Light glazes over Dr. Mihara's glasses as he lowers his head, "I see."
"What does this mean?"
"It means, Mirai, that things are going over very quickly. If they broke through the timeline barrier then that means it's weakening," a smile curls onto his lips in delight, "if things continue this way then this experiment could very well end in five years!"
Mirai lets out a sigh of relief.
"However," Ichiro puts his elbows on the long, steel table and rests his head along the tops of his hands, "that means that my time is closing rapidly and I will have to work very quickly with Yoshiyuki so that he knows what he will have to do, when he meets her in five years"
Her ears immediately perk up interest. "what do you mean by 'her'?"
Mihara smiles a little bit, "Freya dear? Can you come here for a minute?"
"Freya?" Mirai raises her eyebrow.
"Yes papa?" Freya skips into the room happily and walks next to her father figure as Mirai gasps.
"Ichiro! Don't tell me you actually...!"
"Yes Mirai, yes I did."
Several hours later...
Ichiro you absolute madman... Mirai thinks to herself, as she crosses a fairly well known intersection on the way to the hospital.
But if you didn't, they wouldn't exist, she grits her teeth together. Her children had given her so much joy, more joy than she had ever felt. They brought a strong light to her dim life that she didn't know was missing.
But at what cost? Especially to them...
She crosses her arms out of habit and walks into a nearby shop to grab a quick coffee, when all the sudden she hears her name being called.
"Mirai Kojima!? Is that you?"
She spins around to face the man, "Uh...yes? And you are?"
"Do you not remember me? We were best friends back in grade school!"
Mirai blinks in confusion for a couple seconds, inspecting the strange man when it dawns on her, "oh shit! Masahiro? Whats up? It's been over twenty years since I last saw you!"
"Oh you know, got a job at a law firm in Tokyo about 15 years ago, I'm still working there. What about you?"
A shit ton, "Wellll I got my degree in neuroscience and now I'm living in Argentina working on this huge research project that takes me all around the world."
Masahiro looks at her in surprise, "Argentina? What brings you to Japan?"
Mirai can feel her heart tighten a little, "visiting my son, it was kind of an emergency."
"You have kids?"
"Yeah, two. Their names are..." her heart tightens much, much more, feeling her throat become heavy, "Yoshiyuki and Yumeyukki."
"Huh, never took you to be the kids type," Masahiro glances at his phone, "Hey I've gotta run but can you give me your email address?"
"Which one? I've got twenty!"
A few hours later...
Seiji walks into Yoshiyuki's hospital room early-ish that morning dressed in his work uniform, to see Mirai already there by his bedside.
He is still asleep and wearing his breathing mask, while Mirai's head and arms are gently laying atop his chest. Her eyes are closed, and her breathing is a bit jagged, however she looks to be at peace with herself.
Of course he's still asleep, didn't expect to see her though "Mirai?"
Mirai slowly lifts her head up from her son's chest and turns to face the source of the sound "Morning Seiji," she greets, adjusting her glasses.
"Mornin, I just came by to say that I'll be gone for a few hours because work suddenly called me in," he explains. She nods with a bit of a confused look on her face.
"They're making you work even though you asked for time off?"
"Yeah, I know it's bullshit but what can you do?" he shrugs with a sigh as he tugs at his singular backpack strap.
Mirai looks over at Seiji and kind of raises her eyebrow, "that's not all that you came here for is it? There is something else I can tell, if that's all there was you would've just texted me, also you seem tense."
He steps back, clearly a little startled, but he takes in a deep breath and looks over at his lover, "yeah, there is..." he closes his eyes and reopens them slightly, "Mirai there is something I need to ask you about; It's about Yoshi."
Mirai pulls over a cheap plastic and beckons Seiji to sit down with her, "what is it?" she asks, however for some reason she feels suspicion creeping around in the back of her mind. She watches as Seiji slowly takes a seat beside her and interlocks his hands and fingers together.
"Yoshiyuki...he isn't completely human is he?" he says finally, after seemingly hours of silence.
She takes in a quick and sharp breath as her form stiffens. "What makes you say this?"
"There have been two instances in which one of his hands wasn't human...it sort of resembled a cat's paw. The first time was seven years ago when we were thirteen, he was holding his stomach and it was only there for a few seconds until I blinked and it disappeared. At first I thought that it was my mind playing tricks on me, but just a few days ago while he was unconscious, I noticed that one of his shoulders had a patch of fur, and when I pulled back the blanket his entire arm had transformed into this paw-arm hybrid, that time I touched it for a split second when, again it disappeared," He explains.
Mirai just remains silent, her fingers retract, clutching at a bit of her skirt. Her eyes are nearly emotionless. Unreadable.
"He's a monster isn't he?"
"... I'm sorry Seiji, it's not something for me to say," she sighs, lowering her head, "...that is something that he will have to tell you himself."
Seiji simply nods, clearly a little disappointed from the exchange and stands up, "I see...well I've got to go to work." however, once he takes a step forwards Mirai stops him in his tracks.
"Seiji wait," he turns his head to face the woman who has acted like his near mother nearly his entire life, "when he does tell you, and perhaps even show you please don't freak out or leave him, he will need you to be there especially in the coming years." she cups his large hand in-between her significantly smaller and scarred ones, looking at him with a desperate look in her glossy eyes, "please, take care of him for me will you? I'm worried about him, I worry about him everyday especially now that his heart temporarily stopped. Just please, promise me you'll make sure he is alright and stable. He needs you now more than ever before."
He slowly closes his eyes and places his hand atop of hers, smiling a little, "I promise, I will." and with that he slowly marches out of the dim hospital room, only looking back and nodding before going away.
It is at the moment where the door shuts when Kojima finally opens his eyes.
"Oi Yoshiyuki," Mirai says, nudging her son trying to get his attention.
"what?" he responds.
"Can you help me beat Warlord in Dungeon Wrecker? I've been trying for several days and can't defeat him no matter what I do."
"WHAT?! Mom you're that far? I haven't even gotten to the fifth level yet!"
"You aren't?!"
"No! If you haven't noticed I've been dealing with finals for the past month!"
"Well then start playing then!" Mirai forcefully shoves a controller into Kojima's hands.
"Alright, alright geez," Vrrrrr he looks down at his vibrating phone and cracks a bit of a smile, "hey mom, you said that you wanted to meet my boyfriend right?"
"Well yeah wh-" but before she can finish her sentence, Seiji extravagantly bursts in to the room, turning his head from side to side looking around.
"Someone called my name?"
"I present to you: Seiji!" The two share a simple kiss as Mirai giggles in the background.
"Aha! I knew it! I knew that there was something going on between you two!" She exclaims, pointing at them in excitement.
"Yeah...we're pretty bad at hiding it," Seiji admits sheepishly.
"Your dad now owes me 20000 yen," Mirai states.
"Wait you bet on us?" Yoshi blurts out in disbelief.
She nods, "about ten years ago he and I had a bet that you two would end up together in the end."
"Oh my god..." he immediately covers up his face in embarrassment.
Mirai laughs, "anyways, how long have you two been dating for?" she questions. The two lovers just kind of look at each other.
"About a week-ish," they answer, "although it happened over a few days because at first we couldn't really decide whether to start or not."
"Of course, you are the indecisive type aren't you?" she chuckles.
"So, just to clarify...you aren't against it?" Seiji checks.
"Oh fuck no! I think it's great that you two have finally found each other," she grins. Seiji breathes out a sigh of relief while Kojima hits him in the arm.
"See, I told you so."
"Now Yoshiyuki hurry up and beat the game so that you can tell me how to beat Warlord!" she orders!
"Alright, alright sheesh!"
"Wait, you're not passed him yet?" Seiji asks.
"Shut up!" the mother/son duo yell.
Later that night...
Mirai takes in a deep breath as she glances at her watch, visitation hours are going to end in approximately five minutes. And once they are over she has to leave for Argentina again.
"Let me guess, visitation hours are almost over?" Kojima asks, she nods.
"I really don't feel like leaving you like this," she responds.
"Mom, I'll be alright. The doctors say that because I am recovering so fast I'll be out of here in two days," he assures his mother, patting her on the back.
"I know... it's just scary to think about y'know? What if something happens when I am gone and I can't come back?"
"Nothing will happen, I promise."
Mirai gives him a look of doubt. "Alright, well I am coming back during Christmas in a few months," she states. Yoshiyuki sits up as best he can, and the two share a tender embrace.
"I love you my Yoshiyuki."
"I love you two mom," he replies. Mirai lets go of her son and kisses the top of his head.
"Before I go do you want anything?" she asks.
"Maybe just on your way out you can ask one of the nurses to bring me like a sweet drink or something."
She nods, and slowly starts to walk away, "okay I will. I love you, take care okay?"
"You too," he recuperates.
"Alright I'll call you tomorrow, see you in a few months." And with that she exits the room one last time, relays her son's request to a nearby nurse and slowly exits the building.
Once Mirai is outside she looks at her son's window and takes in the view of the city, before turning and heading towards the airport, feeling as if she is leaving a piece of herself in Tokyo.