Bayonetta 10: Paradiso- A Remembrance of Time
It was that time of year again.
Her birthday was here, which meant that she and brother would get to spend one day together with their mother and one day together with their father. Then they would be separated again until Christmas where they'd get one week with each parent. It wasn't a lot of time that was given to them to, but Cereza always valued any time she got to spend with her family.
Cereza was waiting at the gate of Crescent Valley for her brother to show up. Today they'd both spend the day before their birthday here with Mummy, or at least the night. The Elder wouldn't allow her to have much visitation time with the imprisoned witch and she'd allow even less time whenever brother was here.
Sometimes, Cereza couldn't fathom why this was her life. What did she do to deserve such a broken family?
"Cereza!"
She recognized her brother's enthusiastic tenor as he ran down the hill. Aunty Sigyn was in the distance too. Since Daddy wasn't allowed to enter the Witch's domain, Aunty usually brought brother. Other times she brought the two of them to Daddy.
Cerezo lifted her off the ground in a tight hug that she eagerly returned.
He was her precious other half. The only person who would ever truly understood her. Cerezo was her best friend.
"Brother, I'm so happy to see you! Did you get my letter about my lessons? I have so much to tell you. I have to tell you about Jeanne, about Mummy, about my Witchly Vows, about everything!" Words spewed from Cereza's lips in a hurry.
Cerezo put her down and she continued talking his ear off while jumping up and down in excitement.
"I know, Sissy! I read them, but I can't wait to hear about it all directly from you. I can't wait to see Mummy too! How's your training going now? Are those girls still being ghastly to you? Do you need me to teach them a lesson?" Cerezo was just as exuberant as her.
They were both so overjoyed to see the other after months of separation and infrequent letters.
"Hmmm, I see you two are catching up just fine. Time is meaningless to you two. It makes my heart swell with happiness to always see your love for one another. There is no greater treasure, than the love of your family." That soft voice belonged to her Aunt. She must have crept over while they were talking.
When she was close enough, Aunty opened her arms towards Cereza. She ran right into them.
Cereza was getting taller. Now when she hugged Aunt Sigyn she reached her shoulders. Sometimes when the young lady hugged her Aunt she imagined that this was what it would be like if she could hug Mummy without the bars in the way.
"Oh Cereza, you're becoming such a lovely young lady. You're as beautiful as your mother. And soon I imagine, you'll be as formidable as her too after you start your Witch training. You'll be strong and beautiful, a deadly combination for males. There will surely be a line of suitors for you. Your father and brother won't know what to do with themselves then." Aunt sigyn sounded so proud.
Cereza's face turned beat red at the praise.
She loved Mummy, but there were times were she couldn't help but feel like Sigyn was more of a mother to her. When that thought entered her head a sinking feeling of guilt would hit her.
Was she wrong to think that?
Sigyn must have noticed her internal struggle because she smiled, but it was sad, knowing smile.
Cereza could sense the older witches coming to the gate. It was time for Aunty Sigyn to leave. While the witches allowed Cerezo to enter the clan's home in deference to his inherited Umbra blood from Mummy, the clan would not allow Sigyn, whose affinity was of the light, to enter.
"Well this is goodbye for today you two. I shall be back at dawn tomorrow to retrieve you both." She hugged them both and kissed their foreheads before she left.
As the gate closed Cereza looked back at Sigyn, hoping she and Daddy wouldn't be too lonely tonight.
"Bayonetta! Bayonetta, you must wake up!" Cerezo was frantic.
His sister wasn't moving or breathing for that matter. He didn't understand why she was in this catatonic state. The sage wasn't pushing any memories into her mind and he could feel nothing wrong with her magic. She was physically fine, but she wasn't reacting to anything.
Could falling into Father's portal have done something to her? Having no choice, Cerezo pushed some of his magic into Bayonetta's chest. The magic entered her heart and caused her to spring up in shock.
"What the fucking bloody hell was that?!" Bayonetta whipped her head around to face him and pointed one of her guns in his face, barely holding back from putting a bullet in his brain.
He deserved that. His method wasn't exactly a pleasant way to be awakened.
Cerezo knew pushing light magic into her body would force the darkness to try and combat it, causing the shock she just felt.
"Well, at least now you're finally awake." The sage calmly stood up and offered her his hand. Bayonetta ignored the offer and stood up on her own.
Cerezo ignored how much that simple rejection stung.
"Jesus. This is…" She muttered as her eyes took in their surroundings.
He figured she would at least remember this place.
The silence was then filled with their father's melody.
"My dear, sweet children…Fear not, for I am watching over you…" Cerezo heard his father's voice and wished the man was here instead to help.
Cerezo didn't have Father's patience. He wanted to cease with all the trails and simply tell his sister what was going on. Give her the truth so that she'd stop this madness and join them.
Alas, Father explicitly rejected that idea on the basis that Cereza would never awaken as overseer if she did not accomplish it on her own. So for now, she would remain Bayonetta to him until she reclaimed her forgotten past as Cereza.
"Did you hear you hear that as well, Silver? Or is it just me?" Bayonetta fixed him with an inquisitive look, expecting a negative answer.
"Of course I heard it. I've been hearing that voice all my life and so have you, my dear." Cerezo crossed his arms and gazed deeply into the witch's gray eyes, hoping it would strike something in her.
Unfortunately, it just made Bayonetta laugh about how she wasn't the only crazy person around. Done with talking, she proceeded forward from the floating clock tower by jumping on the angelic symbols scattered across the sky. After jumping off the last symbol they ended up in the very same garden where he first approached the witch.
Cerezo couldn't turn away this opportunity to pick at her.
"Did you like the flowers I made you that day? They were a lovely batch of Cerezo flowers from a few cherry trees."
He didn't know how many hints he would have to keep dropping for her without outright "spilling the beans".
"Oh! So the creep in a robe making flowers pop was you? I knew I knew you from somewhere. But I get the feeling that's not all I know about you." Bayonetta's tone was casual, but he could sense that she was struggling with something. Her usual bravado of arrogance was dwindling by the moment as uncertainty crept in on her.
Their talk was interrupted by the angels that appeared. Their defeat gifted them with a key that was used on the goddess statue. The key took the shape of a ring and spun in the air, creating a path. As they walked up the spiraling energy, more angels attacked them which led to another key as their reward.
At the top of the spiral was a rotating ball that had an upside down goddess statue. While Bayonetta was inserting the key, Cerezo used a stray feather to brush his silver hair neatly back with a single strand falling near his right eye. He noticed Bayonetta staring at him.
"Has something caught your attention?" He was a little unnerved by her gaze. It was devoid of any emotion.
Had she finally remembered him?
"You know, Silver...you look an awful lot like little Cerezo with your hair framing your face. You two really must be related. Are you his father?" Her observation disappointed him.
While Bayonetta was at least drawing a connection between himself and his younger self, it still was the wrong connection.
They weren't little kids anymore. Good effort only meant so much in this day and age.
"I am not that boy's father. Our connection is a bit more complicated than that. And it is one you will come to understand after you regain your memories." Cerezo had no ability to be as subtle as his father.
The statement caught Bayonetta off guard.
"How do you know about that?" She whispered suspiciously.
"Because I know you, and you know me. I have been a friend to you since the day you were born."
Before Bayonetta could reply, the ball they were standing on moved rotating to align the goddess statue to the tip of a gate. The alignment of the two objects created another spiral of energy. The witch and sage walked up the spiral in silence.
It appeared that his comment got her thinking.
Their relative peace was disturbed when at the top of the platform. A giant ball of blocks hurtled towards them. Not wanting to get smashed, they both raced down the snake's head. While running down snake's body they also had to spontaneously dodge bolts of light coming from the sky. The rampant acrobatics they were doing triggered their respective Witch Time and Light Speed.
At the end of the snake's body was a ledge leading to another platform. they both jumped and narrowly avoided being crushed by the spinning block.
"Another bloody challenge." Bayonetta hissed and began cursing about bloody video games.
How amusing that she saw all these challenges as a reenactment of a video game.
The thought made Cerezo think of his youngest son, Thor. The boy was quite the mechanical genius and adored playing video games.
The latest platform impeding their path had an ornate staff sticking out from a gear mechanism. It seemed one of the cogs was missing. There was also one of the mysterious walls here. Bayonetta busied herself by hacking away at it with her blade. Eventually, the wall collapsed and surprisingly turned into the missing cog.
"That's one way to solve the problem, dearie." Cerezo strolled over to the staff and started turning it while Bayonetta directed him on how much further to go.
With the road of energy aligned to other side, they now had a path to follow. The path led to the square of Vigrid. Cerezo remembered that this was the square with the bakery they'd always go to for cherry cake, both his and Cereza's favorite dessert.
He was starting to think the trip to Paradiso was just going to be a trip down destruction memory-lane. All the places they'd seen so far were places Bayonetta trashed and that he had to fix.
"Sis, Look out!" Cerezo spotted a giant block coming towards Bayonetta and shoved her out of the way. They landed with him on top of her, looking back at the giant block.
"Did you just call me, sis?" She questioned uncertainly.
He did't have time to respond since the block bounced back into the air, preparing to smash them. Instead of aiming for them, it landed on the golden key that appeared, smashing it into five pieces.
Cerezo stood back up, pulling Bayonetta up as well and told her they needed to collect those broken key fragments. The next few minutes consisted of him and his sister looking all over for the fragments while escaping the bouncing block. Neither of them wanted to get flattened. Once all five pieces were found, the block disappeared.
"Well, I've never been one to shy away from the addition of toys in certain activities, but this toy is a definite turn off." Bayonetta was flipping her hair away from her face as she walked up the stairs with the reassembled key.
She had forgotten about his little slip up. Cerezo didn't know if he should be happy or sad.
"You're so vulgar for a woman. It's certainly strange for me to see this side of you." He mentioned.
The more time the sage spent with her the more he was starting to see that Bayonetta was nothing like Cereza. Sweet Cereza would have never said something so perverse. Their father would be mortified if he had heard her.
Well, Father has probably heard everything she's said since stepping foot in Vigrid.
"Hmm, you don't like fun girls then. Such a shame, you look like you could use a bit of excitement in the bedroom." The deviant just kept on with her vulgarity.
"Excitement you say? I don't think I need anymore, considering my already lengthy track record." Not to discourage his sister, he indulged in her obscene curiosity despite how inappropriate of a topic it was.
"And what exactly does that mean? You can't possibly have a woman. You're much too serious."
As they were talking they jumped from symbol to symbol, taking care not to fall off the floating structures. They found yet another goddess statue.
"I haven't had a woman. I've had six wives. Six wives and two sons...and soon a daughter." Cerezo shared wistfully.
As they reached the last symbol Bayonetta almost fell and missed the ledge of the ruin. The sage seized her arm to pull her forward onto the ground.
"Bloody hell! I didn't think you'd be the type to settle down, let alone marry six women and father children. How is that even possible!? You don't look a day older than me."
Their talk had to be adjourned as Cerezo could feel a powerful angel approaching.
So many distractions today.
The flying boat angel, Second Sphere Kinship was easily taken out by the two of them. Between Cerezo's bow and arrow and Bayonetta's guns, nothing could stop them.
Though, he was starting to feel exceedingly guilty about killing his own brethren for the sake of his sister. The angels were under his legion and yet here he was, killing so many of them. It made him ill.
The sage had to keep telling himself that it was for his family. If there was thing left in this world he believed in, it was them.
The defeat of the second sphere opened a ramp to an empty portal.
"Oh, I despise these things. Traveling doesn't bother me if I'm flying myself, but anything else makes me positively sick." Cerezo complained with a heavy sigh.
He gazed into the empty ring and could see these vines swinging back and forth. Not only was he going to be pushed into an involuntary rocket launch, but he also had to evade plants.
This was utterly ridiculous.
"Come on man up, Silver. It's only a little speeding. Women like fast men." Bayonetta ridiculed him. She expectantly waited for him to go through the portal first.
Cerezo was always the brave twin, he had to do this. Clenching his eyes shut, the sage jumped after counting to three.
"I'm pretty sure that saying is the other way round. Men like fast women. I however, do not like fast women. I prefer them slow along with a tantalizing chase." Cerezo wheezed out when they landed on the ground again. "That was bloody awful..."
Bayonetta stood next Cerezo, cracking up over his apparent motion sickness and frazzled countenance.
He strongly felt like retching. The sage hated all modes of transportation with a passion.
After Cerezo quelled his fuming stomach they continued on through the floating symbols and spinning tornados until they reached a familiar gate.
"I know this gate. I know it's important, but I can't remember why." Bayonetta stared at the black gates with a melancholic expression.
"I know this gate as well. I often had to visit it whenever I was allowed to see my sister and mother." Cerezo slowly walked forward and touched the cold gate.
Even now the gate felt so sorrowful to him. It used to hold two people who were undeniably precious to the sage.
For some reason, Cerezo felt Bayonetta yank on his collar, jerking the man back. The force she used to throw him would have broken a normal man's neck. The sage landed on his back with the witch standing beside him.
A humongous block fell from the sky.
"That thing. I remember it's an Occult Golem. Something Witches used to dispose of outsiders." Cerezo informed his bored sister.
Getting back on his feet, Cerezo summoned his bow again for battle. The golem was more versatile than an angel with its ability to transform into different animals. The only way for them to beat the beast was for Bayonetta to distract it while Cerezo shot at its orb. The golem was finished after he kicked it sky high and Bayonetta summoned her Wicked Weave.
"We make a good team don't we Bayonetta?" Cerezo grinned at his sister as they both entered the forlorn cave.
Elsewhere, a boy and girl moved the Cerezo and Bayonetta toys to the top of the toy blocks where the angels were floating.