Regaining consciousness, Ren found himself laying down on his back in a field of pristinely cut grass and beautiful white flowers; the all too familiar sight of fluffy pink clouds brushed across the pastel-nebula sky felt far less entrancing than when he first saw them.
Rolling backwards and lifting his bare legs, Ren kicked upward to lift himself off of the meadow floor. Crouching down as he landed on his feet, Ren rose up to a standing position— surveying the beautiful landscape around him.
"Huh… And here I thought there was a lot less to this place," Ren murmured to himself, after seeing the numerous floating islands in the near horizon— each of them pouring waterfalls down from their rocky edges that dissipated in the comfortable breezy-air.
Lowering his dusty rose eyes from the floating spectacles in the sky, it was then that the eleven year-old boy noticed a colossal city made up of many ivory towers in the far distance— the entirety of it being held up by a lavender-colored foundation made up of bricks, that were built into the majestic mountain range that loomed over the valley he realized he was in.
Astonished at the sight of seeing an imaginative architecture working alongside what could be best described as "Mother Nature's love", to create the perfect symbiosis of infrastructure and natural beauty, Ren didn't realize he had lowered his guard completely— not until he heard a familiar snarky-voice chuckling out from behind him.
"Oh well, look who's back again already~!" The angelic blond woman from before remarked sarcastically, and greeted Ren with an amused smirk across her condescending face, upon him turning around to gaze up at her with bewilderment in his eyes. "Couldn't stay away from me longer than a few hours, could you~?"
"Y-You again…!" Ren muttered quietly under his breath, and furrowed his brows at her accusingly as she wiggled her eyebrows back at him. "W-Why do you keep bringing me here?!"
"Kek! You say that, like I haven't been the one keeping the cruel hand of Fate away from your throat~," The red-eyed woman shot back with sass in her voice, and let out a chortle before elaborating, "As for why you're here though… Well, they don't call it the "afterlife" without a reason, kid~!"
"W… W-Wait…" Ren murmured under his breath as he began to reflect more on what she had just told him. "D… Does that mean-"
"-That you died, and crossed over to the "otherside"? Oh yes— absolutely, you did!" The woman interjected with a half-joking manner, before crassily adding, "You'd think you would have figured that out by now from the LAST time you were here, huh~?!"
"Oh, uh… Y-Yeah, I guess I could see how… W-Who are you, again?" Ren finally asked, after having finally gathered the wit to ask the question that had been eluding his overwhelmed mind thus far.
Though the question didn't seem to offend her in the least bit, the blond woman did go out of her way to roll her crimson eyes at him— scoffing sarcastically at him, before raising her hand dramatically up into the sky.
Snapping her fingers, the blond woman became cocky while staring at Ren's face to read his reaction, as millions of fireworks erupted in the pastel sky behind her— bright explosions of white and gold painting the cosmos in a brilliant backdrop, as giant pink letters of plasma formed the words "Earth Mother" in the center of her magical spectacle.
Starry-eyed by the display of fireworks— that exceeded every expectation of how he figured they'd look from the books he had read— it took the awe-struck child a few moments to realize the gravity of his revelation.
"Y… Y-You're telling me that you're Her?!" Ren stammered out with butterflies swarming in his chest, while his heart felt as though it was simultaneously sinking into the pit of his chest. "E-Earth Mother…?!"
Growing smug, Earth Mother stuck her sleeved arms outward in a showman style— lowering herself closer to the meadow floor, as she stuck her heels out beneath her satin-blue skirt.
"In the aetherial-flesh~!" She exclaimed confidently, before conjuring a bouquet of white roses with a flick of her right wrist. "They say perception is reality— whoever "they" actually is— but perhaps something that's more tangible will be easier for you to accept, compared to that any sort of grand reveal~," she remarked half-jokingly, before tossing the flowers at Ren— snickering to herself, after accidentally hitting him in the face with them.
Not wanting to disrespect the goddess, Ren immediately scrambled to pick up the bouquet of white roses the moment he finally regained his composure. "S-Sorry…!" He murmured apologetically, while shuffling the stems of the flowers together— back to how they were when she threw them at him.
Raising her hand out and waving it dismissively towards him, Earth Mother relaxed the top of her eyelids down to the middle of her crimson eyes. "You should be sorry; after all, I only pick the FINEST of flowers from the Garden~," she replied jokingly, while letting her arm drop down to her side.
Jittery from how anxious he felt in that moment, Ren had a nervous smile across his face while fixing his gaze onto the bushel of flowers he was holding close to his face. "R-Right…! Again: I'm really sorry about that…"
For once since he first met her, Earth Mother's lips curled down into a bothered frown, as she let out a groan before telling him, "Tch! Okay, seriously, lighten up already; I was only joking with you about those flowers— sheesh…!"
Catching himself about to apologize for a third time in a row, Ren paused for a brief moment, before awkwardly saying instead, "G-Gotcha…"
Visibly lightening up with a look of approval in her relaxed gaze, Earth Mother began cockily smirking at Ren once again. "Anyway… You and I've got some time to kill before the drugs you overdosed on start wearing off; and I'd like to use that time to have a little chat with you, before you inevitably take your leave once more."
Upon hearing that he had overdosed, instead of bleeding out like how he was beginning to remember, Ren looked up from the bouquet with a visibly perplexed expression on his face, as he asked the goddess, "W-Wait… Why does it matter if the grellsvice wears off? Didn't you just say that I've already overdosed?"
"Why yes, I did! But as far as that question goes, Ren: you already know the answer," she remarked, while giving him another condescending look with one brown raised sassily at him as she asked him, "Wasn't your mother a pharmacist, back in her hay day?"
"I mean… Everyone just called her "Medicine Woman", but… I guess that's technically what she was, yeah," Ren replied with a distracted voice, and paused again before reluctantly asking her, "A-About them though, uh… I… I-I have to ask if… If they're both here somewhere, and…? And not suffering? R-Right…?"
Upon hearing the nervousness within Ren's voice, Earth Mother suddenly found herself realizing just how callous she had been with him. Softening her posture while begrudgingly letting go of her eggo, Earth Mother let out an elongated sigh before beginning to smile more sincerely down at the visibly anxious child.
"R… Ren," Earth Mother addressed in a pragmatic voice that differed vastly, compared to the way she had been carrying herself, up until that point. "Could you tell me that you would believe me, if I were to tell you that your parents were both reunited in this domain?"
"I… I want to say yes, but…" Ren trailed off in a reserved voice, while feeling himself growing uncomfortable as he mustered up the courage to tell the goddess, "I-I would have to see them to believe that."
Giving him an understanding look in her half-closed eyes, Earth Mother nodded silently before pausing. "I… I see," she finally replied, and let out a low sigh while still smiling at him, as she then asked him, "Could you still tell me that you'd believe me, even if I were to tell you you couldn't see them?"
Although Ren wanted to believe that his parents were truly living in the paradise that they died believing they would ascend up to, the cynical skeptic within him couldn't allow him to say yes to Earth Mother— not without commiting the sin of lying to the face of a goddess.
However, the look on the angelic woman's face as her smile began to wave was all Ren needed to know that not only did she hold no contempt for him, but she already knew what his answer would have been.
"I may be self-conceited, Ren, but I like to believe that I'm far away from being even remotely heartless," Earth Mother stated, with her mask of confidence slowly beginning to slip away before his very eyes. "To condemn you for your lack of faith— after what you and your sister have been through… Only the lowest of the low would ever even consider the thought of damming a grieving child."
Flinching upon hearing her saying what had been lingering in the back of his head since even before he had ever seen her with his two eyes, Ren averted his gaze from hers— childishly hugging the bouquet of white roses closer to his chest, as he tried to think of what to say to her.
Kneeling down on her knees with her skirt beneath her shins to get on his eye-level, Earth Mother's crimson eyes glimmered with sympathy, as her once arrogant smile slowly became warm, and genuinely comforting.
"… As I've said: you have nothing to apologize for; truthfully, I don't even blame you for having loss faith in me— there's… There's times where I don't even believe in myself," Earth Mother lamented, while lowering her head down as Ren noticed the way she became visibly too ashamed to look him in the eye.
"I… I wish I could have saved your parents, Ren; there've been so, so, SO many other instances like that, where I've had to watch terrible atrocities being committed, against those who cried out for me in their final… M-Moments," Earth Mother admitted with a shaken voice, and paused momentarily to regain her composure, before letting out a sudden laugh.
"Kehehe, haha, ah~! Y-You'll forgive me for oversharing, won't you~? You're the first conversation partner I've had for quite some time; I suppose I've built up a lot on my mind since then," She mused while attempting to make light of the situation; her pink lips twitching, as she did her best to form a reassuring smile across her pristine face.
Not saying anything at first, Ren waited for the embarrassed goddess to lift her head up to meet his dusty rose colored-eyes, before finally asking her, "Will I…? W-Will ever I see them again?"
Having been expecting the child to match her falsely positive energy, Earth Mother's feigned smile disappeared almost instantly for but a moment— returning, as she nodded and said, "One day you will, yes; you— along with those who you know—who've displayed valorous acts of bravery, who've lived their lives benevolently, and who've gone their lives sharing the love I advocate for… This will one day be their eternal resting place— respite from the suffering of the world, where only love, happiness, and peace exist…"
"… Heh, hehe~…! N-Not that you believe a single word of any of that, though~! At least, not yet you don't," The blond goddess remarked with an understanding tone in her solemn laughter— letting out a sigh, while still searching for anything remotely comforting in the way Ren was looking back at her.
Hesitant to answer her question once again— not out of fear of provoking her, but out of fear of unintentionally worsening her morale— Ren closed his eyelids softly, before quietly telling her, "For what it's worth, I… I really do want to believe in that— truly, I do."
"Heh…! Yeah, I… I-I mean… Who wouldn't want to believe in that?" Letting out a muffled chortle that lacked any jovial sense behind it, Earth Mother smiled cynically for a brief moment, before quietly joking out loud, "But hey; maybe one day you'll come around to it, right~?"
"Maybe… Maybe," Ren muttered solemnly to the goddess, while turning his attention away from her, and back to the bouquet of flowers in his arms— their enclosed buds opening up one-one-one, and shedding their pedals that began floating upward while glowing brighter, and brighter.
Watching as the glowing white pedals began multiplying as they gently swirled around the eleven year-old, Earth Mother couldn't help but to feel a conflicted sense of longing.
"I… I suppose that's your cue to leave me now, isn't it?" She mused softly, while brushing her skirt off as she stood up from the kneeling position.
"I-It must be," Ren mused with uncertainty and a strange sense of guilt coursing through him, as his vision began getting impeded by the blinding white light of the ethereal petals.
"Am I…? Am I going to remember any of this, or…? Or am I going to forget you again, w-when I wake up…?" He quietly murmured, while holding on tighter to the stems in his arms.
Letting out a recomposing breath, Earth Mother immediately feigned her previous smug attitude before, as more-and-more light particles began to envelop around the calm appearing child.
"As cheesy as it sounds, kid: this experience— along with everything that anchors you to me— will forever be imprinted into your soul," Earth Mother reassured with a playfully pompous tone, while interlacing her fingers behind her head full of blond hair as the blinding white light swallowed Ren up completely.
"I'll always be with you— no matter if you believe in that, or not!" She remarked half-jokingly, and slowly took in a calming breath as she watched the orb of white light slowly fade away in a snap— leaving behind only falling petals that disintegrated as they floated down to the meadow floor.
Exhaling the stresses that their interaction had brought onto them, Earth Mother proceeded to wave her arm out in front of her— loudly beginning to sing to herself to decompress, while creating a massive panoramic display made of light across the sky.
"You'll be back— soon you'll seeee~; you'll remember that you belong to meeee~!" She sang to herself while tapping her foot rhythmically, while beginning to use her extreme spatial awareness to begin performing miracles throughout the world in a quick, rapid fire succession.