Chapter 92 - Epilogue Volume VII - Back to School
Ever since the crew was freed, Karito was always scared of her future. She stuck with Matiro very early on, because after all, he's her dad. She figured that Matiro would be a little more cautious about where they would go in life, and not just stick to the first person to give him alcohol, but she was wrong about this as soon as she saw the Bikers in their path. After the bikers took Matiro into the bar for the first time, Karito had a long chat with one of the bikers. Apparently, the bikers had a lot in common with them: The bikers all had bad backstories, and they had seen some serious crimes back in their hayday. They were able to get together and enjoy one thing in common: Riding motorcycles, watching sports, and drinking their lives away. Karito initially thought the idea of it was disgusting, but after a couple of days, they were able to grow on her, with Karito becoming good friends with many of them.
She would go on walks whenever Matiro was watching a sports game (Which happened all the time), so she never had to worry about not getting enough excercise. Her favorite places to walk were around Times Square, and down by the bridge. However, one day, she decided to go a different route, visiting a park. After all, she could sometimes overhear people talking about it in the bar. When she arrived, she knew that she was definitely going to take this route more often. The sun shined through the trees onto the nicely cut green grass, which was next to a beautifully paved road, with benches cleverly placed about. Karito looked around to see families feeding ducks at a pond, people walking their dogs, and couples sitting on the grass eating picnics.
Karito sat down on a bench next to an older woman, who had a paper bag next to her. Karito looked around, basking in the experience. Karito noticed the older woman's paper bag, filled with sunflower seeds. "Excuse me, but... what are these... for, ma'am?", Karito asked, pointing at the seeds. The older woman looked at Karito, before smiling as she replied, "Well, watch, my dearie!" Then, she reached her hand into the bag, grabbing a handful of seeds before tossing them out onto the road in front of them. "Hey, why did yo-", Karito started to say, before a flock of pigeons showed up, pecking away at the seeds. "...And that's how you do it!", the old woman said, looking back at Karito with a smile.
"Can... Can I try?", Karito asked in amazement. "Sure, dearie!", the old woman laughed. Karito reached into the brown paper bag, grabbing a handful of seeds. Before she could toss them out, though, she felt something tugging on her left ear. She looked over to find a 5-year old girl holding her ear. "Heeheehee, you're a biig bunny!", the girl giggled, wearing the most innocent, caring smile Karito had ever seen. It almost reminded Karito of what people were really, really like. This was the cutest thing Karito had ever seen in her life, without any shadow of a doubt. She softly laughed, before replying to the girl, "Hahhh, I am, aren't I?", with a smile on her face. "Do... do you want to meet my fwiends?", the girl asked, softly hugging Karito's ear. Karito looked back at the old woman, still with her hand in the paper bag. The old woman was smiling at Karito and the little girl, enjoying the scene. Karito released her grip on the seeds back into the paper bag, before telling her, "Th...thank you...!" The old woman laughed, replying "No problems, sweetie! Have a good day!"
Afterwards, the little girl brings Karito to her circle of friends, who all gasped when she came into their view, immediately going up and feeling her fur. Of course, the parents all smiled and laughed, finding the whole thing to be adorable. Karito felt like she was back in her childhood, but she was one of the popular kids. She felt like one of them, feeling all the happiness in the world inside her heart. It was this experience that changed the way she saw life as she knew it, bringing a whole different feeling to her outlook. She stayed with the kids, swinging on the swings, playing in the sandbox, for about three hours, before remembering that she had to get back to the pub.
She ended up going every other day, even if Matiro told her not to. "You gotta watch this game, *urrrp* sweetheart!", he would yell as she left the open doors. She seemed to care less and less about what Matiro thought over time, instead going over to play with the children. She was eventually approached by a news reporter, who was interested in her story. Karito couldn't believe it, she was going to be on T.V. because of her love for these kids! She went on T.V., finding out that she had a really special effect on the kids, bringing smiles across their faces everywhere she was. This is it, she decided, If anything big happens, I'm going to help these kids any way I can!
After that day, things were relatively normal for a period of two years, until the day Giko disappeared. After Remi walked out of the bar, Karito was able to escape Matiro, much to his dismay. She knew she would visit him again, but she needed a break from him after all these years. She ran all over the city, trying to find the laboratory that Remi was working for, to see if she could get an education like him. After two hours of roaming around, she discovered it, walking into the laboratory doors. She saw Iremiya and the rest of his team working on repairing the portal device. "Remi!", she called out. Remi paused what he was doing, and looked over at Karito. "Karito? What are you doing here?!", he asked, wearing a concerned look. "Remi.. I need... I need to teach the children!", Karito told him. "Wh-what?!", Iremiya asked, wearing a puzzled look. Then, she could hear Ella's voice in her head, Come in here, Karito! Karito looked over to find Ella waving at her from the other room.
For the next several months, Ella had one of her team members contact another one of the main professors, to teach Karito about the outside world and the wonders of teaching. However, during the first week of intense studying, the team discovered a mind-boggling property of Karito's N: It seemed to slow the rate at which people aged. "Ah, so that's why she's only 4 feet tall!", one of the team members exclaimed. Immediately, she was told to donate any kind of N output she had to the university, with them paying her vast sums of money for it. Despite all the reasons to do it, Karito rejected the offer, explaining, "If this means any less time with those cute kids, I'm not having any part of it!" They eventually gave up negotiating with her, instead having the sewer workers bring it to them for their extraction.
After a while, Karito showed to be the most fond of younger children, so the professor decided to place her into a preschool test environment. As soon as Karito entered the classroom, the children grew very interested and excited, because this was a giant, fluffy bunny rabbit that gave back all the love she received. It was clear from the very, very beginning that she was there for the kids, and that the kids were there for her. She would of course sing songs and read books, and play with the kids. Karito felt whole again without Matiro, and it was these children that really patched her up completely.
As soon as her training was complete, she moved into an apartment, working 60-hour weeks with the kids, spending as much time as she could with them. Every day felt more rewarding than the last, she thought. She always felt a little down when she had to go home, but the kid's usual "Bye-bye Ms. Rito!" would always keep her sane without them. In fact, she grew so attached to the children, that the other staff thought she was burning herself out, so one day, another one of the teachers walked up to her as Karito walked through the door. "Ms. Rito, I'm afraid I have to issue you a paid vacation.", the principal explained to her. Karito felt really bad about it, but she felt better as soon as she knew she could take a trip down memory lane, visiting the park.
She gasped as soon as she saw someone very, very familiar sitting in a bench across the park, facing away from her. "Dad?! Daad!?", she yelled, grabbing his attention. She couldn't stop herself from running towards him, crying tears of happiness. Eventually, they met, leaping into each other's arms. "Sweetheart... you're... you're back!", Matiro happily said, shedding a tear down his daughter's shoulder. "Dad... I'm... I'm sorry I left you!", Karito cried. "No, no, no... I'm sorry I was such a bad father before...!", Matiro said, feeling tears fly out of his eyes. "I promise... I want to make this up to you...!"
It was clear to the both of them that they were apologetic to each other for the mistakes they made, while at the same time, happy at what they had both become.