A/N: Times I wonder if yesterday the server went really slow so I couldn't see my changes appear as fast as I normally do and end up throwing me out of the loop to fix the chapters. Hah
The two of them sat on the steps in front of the shrine as they talked. Since barely anyone knew that this small shrine even existed, neither of them needed to worry if there was anyone who might suddenly come by or overhear their conversation. Which suited Keiwa fine anyway.
He turned his head towards Tsumuri.
"So..." Tsumuri glanced back at him. "...have you been living here all these times? All by yourself?"
Tsumuri nodded. "I have nowhere to go anyway, after all. So even if I return to the dimension where Suel and the others who designed me came from, I no longer have any set of purpose or reasons to stay there. Compared to this world."
Keiwa sighed. "I suppose then... the reason why Ace stayed here was because he had nowhere else to go to as well, even if he doesn't quite belong in this world as well. After all, with the DesiGra ceasing to exist he also wouldn't have any other purposes to be here. Not to mention, his mother was no longer around..."
"That's not true."
Keiwa looked up at her as Tsumuri shrugged at him.
"Ace-sama intended to continue staying in this world... because this is where the people he held dear lived."
Keiwa smiled weakly. "People he held dear, huh?" So for Ace to insist on staying with him even until now, does that mean that Ace considered him to be on top of the list of 'people he held dear'? Did he even deserve that kind of affection from Ace? What has he done for Ace to regard him so highly? When all these times he thought that Ace didn't think much about him, considering the many times Ace used to play tricks on him.
"Keiwa-sama?"
Keiwa snapped out of his reverie as Tsumuri cocked her head at him. "Is something wrong?"
Keiwa shook his head at her. "No, it's nothing. I just had my mind wander about stuff..."
Tsumuri smiled weakly.
"Anyway, how is Ace-sama?"
Keiwa raised his eyebrow at her. "Ah, him?" He chuckled softly. "Ace is all right... just that he can be so silly at times. Even when he should've toned down his excitability; since it's barely a few days ago when the vet had treated his injured leg."
Tsumuri giggled after hearing that. Keiwa snorted at it as well. "Somehow now I'm not even sure if I should treat him the way I used to treat him or not. I mean, Ace is still Ace... but now he's a very mischievous fox as well!"
"But it sounded like he was happier now—"
Keiwa frowned at her. "Do you really think that Ace was happy now? Even when he's stuck being a fox?"
Tsumuri nodded her head at him again.
"Ace-sama was a lot livelier now, compared to the first few months since he and I had stayed in this shrine..."
xxx
"Keiwa-sama... do you still intend to find out about the missing details in your memories?"
Keiwa pulled out the small pouch that Tsumuri had given him before he left. Honestly, he didn't expect that Tsumuri would actually give him the three Core IDs belonging to his former DesiGra comrades. Even more when he hadn't actually tried to ask her for it.
But suppose Tsumuri figured out his intention anyway since why else would he have come back there so soon?
Yet perhaps the reason why Tsumuri was worried—the reason Ace must have been worrying about—was not because either of them had something they wanted to hide from him. It was probably because they didn't want him to be hurt. So whatever it was Ace didn't want him to recover, it must be something to do with him. It must be something that he had done in the past...
.
"I wanted this, this is not your fault!"
Keiwa recalled Ace's words yesterday when he said aloud his thoughts that he sensed the reason why Ace ended up reduced to a fox's form was because of him. And Ace was adamant in saying that it wasn't.
So should he still try to find out the truth? Even when knowing that Ace would worry about him?
Keiwa shook his head as he took out the keys to the apartment he and his sister were living in. No, he shouldn't run away from it. Regardless of what he had done in the past, he should own up to the things he did wrong.
Yet even as he mulled it in his heart, Keiwa couldn't stop seeing the worried looks Tsumuri had given him before he passed out yesterday in his mind. And even if his memories of it were still so sketchy, he thought he could faintly recall the looks on Ace's face when Ace had carried him to the hospital many months ago. Ace had looked so anxious and worried for him, even as his own body started to shrink into a fox's.
"It's not your fault, Keiwa...!"
Perhaps he should also be prepared to forgive himself as well, and not be too hard on himself once he found out about the truth.
If he do that, wouldn't everything turn out to be fine?
.
The next moment when he entered their apartment and closed the door behind him, Keiwa forced himself to smile as widely as he could before kneeling down to greet the white fox that had been waiting patiently for him for the whole day. He let the albino fox have its fill of licking his face before Keiwa wrapped his arms around Ace's furry neck and greeted him warmly.
"I'm home... Ace!"
