The first winter passed by peacefully.
The second winter, not so much. Because Aigis got sick.
Ikumi sighed internally as she pressed another wet towel against Aigis's forehead. She thought that the Shinigami who brought her to Soul Society said something like "you won't get sick here", but obviously that was untrue, wasn't it?
Just one more reason to not trust them.
From what Ikumi understood after Aigis came back one late autumn evening with Yuuta and Kuro under her arms, all of them looking like soaked birds, the boys had gone into the forest to play and accidentally fell into the freezing river. If Aigis had not found them while helping Morioka out, they may have drowned.
After giving all three of them spare clothes and dry towels to wrap themselves with, Ikumi had given the boys a stern lecture on safety while playing around, peppered with a few explosive shouts and rants. By the time she was done, Aigis had already finished cooking dinner.
The next day, she insisted on working, even though Ikumi had given all three of them a day off to recover. Ikumi couldn't say no, not before those determined eyes, and she did need the help – winter was rolling in and there were still some crops to be harvested. The boys guiltily helped around the house to make up for their foolishness.
The day after, Aigis didn't get out of bed.
Or rather, she couldn't.
Hiroki, who had been sleeping closest to Aigis that night, told Ikumi in a moment of uncharacteristic panic that Aigis was running a high fever, which prompted Ikumi to drop everything she was doing to check. Aigis was barely conscious, muttering about work, her cheeks flushed with heat.
Ikumi needed to get farmwork done, so she instead asked Touma to take care of Aigis in the meantime. She trusted Touma, because he had stayed with her the longest – the first child to come in when she was living by herself, asking for a share of food in the freezing winter. She took pity on him, letting him stay as long as he helped around the house. He was down to earth, acting as a big brother for all the other children that came after, which suited his fluffy light brown hair and warm brown eyes. When Ikumi was done with her work, she took over to care for Aigis, feeding her hot water and porridge in the rare moments that she was lucid.
This continued for two weeks.
Aigis's fever only started coming down two days ago, her cheeks flushed a perpetual pink hue. She tossed and turned in her sleep, disturbing anyone who slept near her that night – except when she had nightmares.
Ikumi didn't even know that Aigis had nightmares at first, until she stumbled out to teach on some mornings with heavier steps than usual and the faintest eyebags under her eyes, visible only under the early morning sun. She jumped at surprises, and seemed to view the children with an air of melancholy that was hardly present in her usual self. It was a mystery at first – it wasn't like Aigis was lacking sleep since she went to bed at very reasonable times – but Ikumi had a faint moment of horror when she was about to sleep one night next to Aigis and instead found the poor girl completely still and not breathing.
Ikumi didn't remember anything for the rest of the night, until sunlight peeked through the closed windows and she found herself nursing a nasty bruise on her stomach. She only pieced together what happened when Aigis looked uncharacteristically bashful and nervous around her that day, then gave a sincere apology later that evening. Ikumi waved it off, but made a mental note to run whenever she has to wake Aigis up again from her nightmares.
With her ill and bedridden, Aigis barely had the energy to do more than jerk violently when Ikumi woke Aigis up from her nightmares, and before she could say anything, Ikumi shoved water or porridge down her throat. She already knew what Aigis would say – an apology of some sort, for troubling her. Ikumi didn't want to hear that, not after Aigis had already stayed with them for over two years.
It was times like this that she missed the conveniences that she had while alive – access to medicine and professional care. Whenever Kaoru was injured or sick, she could just barge her way into the Kurosaki clinic to get a checkup or medicine, and he would get better within a few days. In Soul Society, modern medicine simply did not exist. There were no facilities to make them, and since Ikumi had never seen anyone fall sick until Aigis came along, there was no need for it either. Ikumi didn't trust her own knowledge of herbs to help, so all she could do was hope that Aigis would get well soon.
"Mama?"
A tug on her sleeve startled Ikumi out of her musings, and she turned to see Kousuke holding onto the brown fabric. In the candlelight, his red hair looked like fire, while his brown eyes almost glowed yellow. He rubbed the sleep out of his eyes, before holding out his arms.
Ikumi was fairly sure that it was way past Kousuke's bedtime. In fact, she clearly remembered putting him to bed two hours ago. Still, she smiled and picked his tiny figure up, before depositing him gently in her lap. He squirmed a little to make himself comfortable, then settled down to watch Aigis.
Kousuke was their newest addition to the household before Aigis came. As the youngest child physically, he waddled around and tripped adorably in the most random of places, and also needed the most care. He immediately latched onto Ikumi as a mother, a role that she accepted without question since she was already considered the kids' mother. Out of concern for his physical development, Kousuke was the only child that Ikumi did not assign farmwork to, but he picked it up after a year of observing the others anyway. Even then, she never let him work alone, always asking either Touma or Megumi to watch over him, working on the easier jobs, such as sowing seeds.
"Is Aigis-neechan going to be okay?" Kousuke asked, face scrunched up in a worried frown.
Ikumi didn't know.
"Don't worry about it." She said anyway, wrapping him closer to her so he wouldn't feel the slight traces of winter in their otherwise warm home. "Aigis will be get better soon."
"I want her to teach me again…" Kousuke said, hints of a whine on his lips, but too worried to say it.
"I do too." Ikumi replied softly, a forlorn look in her eyes.
It was jarring, how empty the days became after Aigis fell sick. Her morning lessons were routine for over two years, so having them disrupted so suddenly was problematic for everyone. The children were restless, hungering for that seemingly bottomless pit of knowledge that she possessed and of the friendly little spars that kept them pleasantly alert for farmwork. Even the girls had joined in on them, though Megumi is the only one who participated regularly. Hitomi formed a weird teacher-student dynamic with Aigis, with the former occasionally teaching the latter how to control her reiatsu when it threatened to crush everyone in the house, and Aigis returned the favour by teaching Hitomi everything under the sun, from literature to advanced physics.
Aigis had taken special care with Kousuke, putting together a specialised curriculum to account for his younger age. It was endearing, watching her fumble around trying to shelter him from the crueler aspects of life (not that she didn't do it for the older kids – she just dropped more life lessons for those older eyes that were at odds with their physical age), while giving him the tools to survive – knowledge to defend himself.
Aigis really knew how to guide and teach people, but there was a certain kind of awkwardness, a slight stiltedness as she taught, like she knew what the steps of teaching was, but the audience was different. She had to stop and rewind herself several times when she first started, when she went off on tangents about theories too advanced for the children to follow, as if she expected them to follow her thoughts. The same went for combat training, which resulted in several bruises and cuts before she learned to rein in her strength.
Other than that though, combat training was fascinating to watch, because of how paradoxical Aigis's style was. Her style emphasised efficiency – for someone so mild-mannered, she was ruthless. She used everything around her – leaves, dust, buttons, pebbles to teach the children on what to expect in a fight. Yet, even within her otherwise minimal movement, there were some weirdly useless moves. She still recalled one early spar where she had raised her hands at Kuro, fingers trained at his chest, while she flipped in the air with the grace of a dolphin. After she landed, the hands quickly retreated to her sides, and the spar continued without incident.
Ikumi often wondered what kind of life Aigis led in her previous life. She obviously was familiar with combat, fighting in life-or-death situations instead of treating it as a sport, because her strikes were a little too fast, a little too deadly to be used for something harmless. There was something deep in those aquamarine blue eyes, a tiredness that Ikumi was sure no teenage girl should have.
"Aigis-neechan?" Kousuke's small voice broke Ikumi out of her musings – she was that close to falling asleep – and focused on Aigis instead.
Oh.
Ikumi was sure Aigis was lightly snoring just a moment ago, but now there was no noise in the environment save for the rustle of fabric from a fidgeting Kousuke. Ikumi moved him out of her lap as gently as possible, then shook Aigis awake.
The sudden jerk was expected, but it was Kousuke's first time seeing it, and he scrambled back in shock. The towel on her forehead fell onto the futon, soaking it with cold water. Ikumi quickly picked it up before it could soak the futon more, then dunked it into the bowl of cold water. One blue eye opened blearily, the pupil constricting and dilating rapidly for a few seconds before it settled down.
"There's no monsters here." Ikumi smiled.
Aigis opened her mouth to say something, but thought better and closed it again, instead just snuggling deeper into her own blanket.
"Do you want some water?" Ikumi asked, hoping to occupy Aigis's mouth with something before she put herself down again. She nodded.
Ikumi came back to Kousuke attempting to climb over Aigis, while she weathered it as much as she could. She sat up when she noticed Ikumi, and murmured a hoarse "thanks" after taking the cup of hot water. Her eyes were downcast, not meeting any of their gazes.
"Aigis-neechan," Kousuke said, still perched on Aigis's legs. She jolted slightly at his voice, body tense and muscles locked for a split second before she relaxed them again. "When can you teach us again?"
"As soon as I get better." She replied, ruffling Kousuke's hair. Him sitting on her legs didn't seem to bother her, but Ikumi dragged him to her side anyway after Aigis paused to take a sip of her water. "It won't be long now."
"But it's been two weeks." Kousuke whined.
"It will be fine." Aigis smiled. "I'm already feeling better."
The smile looked brittle, and it was so obvious when her voice came out in a rough rasp rather than the usual smooth melody, but Ikumi held out her hope that Aigis will get well enough soon. At least she was getting better – she was moving, even if she was only sitting upright in her futon without support.
Aigis drained her cup and set it aside. "Kousuke, you should be sleeping." She chided gently.
Kousuke made a face that seemed like a cross between guilt and pout, so Ikumi tucked him back into his futon before he made a scene. "Aigis is right." She said gently. She couldn't blame him for being worried about Aigis, but disrupting her rest was not the right way to help. "You want her to get better soon, so you should let her rest, okay?"
"Okay…" This time, the pout was quite evident. Still, he was snoring within two minutes.
"You should go and sleep too, Unagiya-san." Aigis said as she laid down again to curl inside her futon. "You still have work to do tomorrow, correct? I will be alright. I don't think I will have any more nightmares tonight."
It didn't reassure Ikumi.
She idly wondered how Aigis dealt with them before Ikumi found out – how she must have suffered silently. More importantly, she wondered what the nightmares were about. The few times she tried to coax the information out of Aigis were slammed down rather swiftly, because she distracted Ikumi with work, or dodged the question entirely. It wasn't subtle – Aigis must have gone through something traumatic for her to have frequent nightmares, and Ikumi hated herself for not realizing it sooner, for not being able to help.
For being absolutely useless.
And now Aigis was trying to reassure Ikumi. It was supposed to be the other way around.
"I'll be fine." Was all she could manage.
Ikumi only slept after hearing Aigis's soft snores. It took two hours.
Aigis woke up to someone clinking ceramic bowls near her.
It was almost impossible to wake up naturally in the household, because even when the children tried to be quiet, someone would inevitably bang into something or the old floorboards will creak, making a noise that was loud enough for her to wake up to. She was either the first one awake, or someone would make enough noise to stir her. She found out a year after staying in the house that she was a light sleeper – because sleep felt markedly different as a human, compared to when she was a robot. She only woke up when someone hit the emergency alarms installed in her, or when she wanted to. Now, every little noise felt like the emergency alarm. It grated her nerves, but she also knew that it was not any of the children's fault.
So she weathered it as much as she could.
It was not that bad when she was healthy and usually the first one up in the household, but it made sleeping in impossible even if others wanted her to.
Aigis found the source of clinking ceramic bowls to come from Touma, who was sitting next to her, stirring his breakfast. His eyes lit up when she finally focused on him as she blinked the weariness away as much as she could.
"Ah, Nee-san, you're awake!" Touma smiled, radiant from the faint winter sunlight shining through the window. "Do you want some porridge?"
"Thanks, Touma-kun." Aigis said. "Where are the others?"
The house was unusually empty, and she marveled a little at how the rowdy children could sneak outside without her waking up at some point.
"It snowed this morning, so Kousuke, Ryou, Hiroki and Kuro are out playing. Hitomi, Yuuta and Megumi went with Ikumi-san to the town square to run some errands." Touma replied, listing off each child with his fingers.
Aigis looked outside. The ground was indeed covered in a soft blanket of the white fluff.
Touma handed her a bowl of steaming porridge from the kitchen, complete with a few kernels of corn on top. She gave her thanks again, then slowly sipped the porridge, savouring the slight sweetness of the rice. Touma himself took out a sewing set and some torn clothes – she remembered Hiroki tearing them a few days ago – and started to work on mending the holes. Touma worked swiftly, weaving his needle through the fabric and binding the hole together, until the hole looked like it was never torn to begin with.
There was something fascinating about the art of sewing, how Touma made it look effortless, almost into an art form. Aigis supposed that maybe Pallas Athena was influencing her subtly – there was the story about her and Arachne after all. She never had the time to learn delicate arts like that when she was alive, with every waking moment filled with paperwork and missions. Back then, she also tore through her clothes on a monthly basis, because almost none of them were meant to withstand Orgia Mode.
It was a little embarrassing, how she requested new suits from Kanji every month to the point that he expected it.
"When did you learn how to sew?"
Touma looked up, a needle half sticking out of the fabric. "Ikumi-san taught me, when I first tore my clothes and she saw my terrible job of covering it up. I dug out a large needle and some thread while she was out and tried to sew the tear together." Touma replied, smiling at the memory. He traced a finger over the tear of the kimono that he was currently working on in a large zigzag pattern, carefully avoiding the needle tip. "My stitch literally looked like that. She laughed really hard then tore the stitches apart, and taught me how to stich it together properly."
He resumed his sewing, wrapping the thread around the tear, and finishing it off with a knot and a snip from a pair of steel scissors. Aigis finished her porridge, then tried to get out of bed to wash the dishes. Touma pressed her down back into her futon.
"Please leave the dishes to me, Nee-san." He said hastily, grabbing the bowl without much care. "You should be resting in bed, not taking care of all of us!"
"You have been taking care of me plenty for the past two weeks." She retorted weakly. Her throat felt better than last night, but it was still somewhat raw.
"Yes, and you've been taking care of us for the past two years." He snapped back playfully. "That was my job, you know."
Only Touma could manage that delicate balance between resentfulness and playfulness, guilt-tripping her back to her futon.
"If I can't get out of bed, then can you at least teach me how to sew?" Aigis pleaded.
Touma blinked.
"I don't know how to do everything in the world, Touma-kun." She emphasised.
"Well…let me wash the bowl first."
"I can't believe this…" Touma heaved a sigh, looking at the admittedly decent sewing job that Aigis managed. There were a few uneven patches, a spot with too much thread wound in the hole, but for a first try, it was surprisingly good. Then he turned his focus to the actual problem. "How did you prick yourself so many times and not notice?"
She shrugged nonchalantly. The first prick had been a mild shock, when her attention wavered from a cough and the needle did not move the way she wanted. It felt like a tiny jab of static electricity – sharp, but not serious enough to warrant attention. She continued sewing and dealing with the occasional jabs with her usual stoic face.
Then again, something that warranted enough attention for her, as a robot, was usually broken limbs.
"It did not feel like anything serious." Aigis replied.
"What do you mean 'not serious'?! You poked your finger through with the needle!"
"It didn't hurt."
"What?"
A teen boy should not be able to pitch his voice higher than a girl, but Touma managed it.
Really, the only thing Aigis was embarrassed about right now was how she stained the yukata she was fixing with a little blood. It would wash out, but they did not have the liberty of washing their clothes frequently right now. She hoped Kuro would not mind.
"You're not going to touch anything." Touma said darkly, his voice still straining a little from unintentionally going into the soprano range. "Just…don't move." He scampered off to the cabinets in the kitchen, and returned with clean bandages and a small bowl of warm water.
"Normally, anyone who pricked themselves would at least flinch, Nee-san." He said, scrubbing her fingers gently to get rid of the residue flakes of blood. "I cried the first time I did that."
"Nothing wrong with that." Aigis replied. "I guess I just have a higher pain tolerance."
"From all the training?"
She gave a non-committal hum.
"Really, what did you do when you were alive?" He asked as he started winding bandages around her fingertips.
"Would you know of the job anyway?" Aigis asked back. Touma was easily over a hundred years old – a lot of new jobs were created since he died.
Touma paused wrapping the bandages. "You can describe it for me. I always understood your classes."
Before she could answer, he jumped as the front door banged open.
"We're back! Oh Aigis-chan, you're up! And what's going on here?" Unagiya cheerfully announced her presence with gusto, saving Aigis from having to come up with excuses to cover up her job before she died. Megumi walked into the house with a smile, while Hitomi noticeably perked up when she saw Aigis, giving her a wave from behind Unagiya. Yuuta was as loud as ever, but he quietened down when Megumi hastily waved at him. The hems of their kimono were wet with melted snow, and their breaths came out in short, white puffs.
"Nee-san poked her finger through with a needle." Touma deadpanned.
Aigis cupped her free hand over her ear to muffle a nearly identical, high-pitched screech. It did not help much.
"Yeah, that was my reaction too." Touma continued. He finished wrapping the bandage, tying it up with a tight knot that squeezed Aigis's finger.
"What did you do?" Unagiya continued screeching, even as Hitomi, Yuuta and Megumi started to dry themselves off.
"I wanted to learn how to sew," Aigis answered bluntly, "since Touma forced me to stay in bed."
"Young lady," Unagiya growled – and it took a moment for Aigis to register that 'young lady' referred to herself – "you're supposed to be resting, not working!"
"It was a perfect learning opportunity."
"Learning opportunity my ass! Students don't go to school when they're sick!"
"I think I am well enough to do something like this."
"No, you're not. You're hereby banned from doing any work until you are fully recovered!"
"But–"
"You. Need. Rest."
Aigis admitted defeat.
Aigis was finally allowed to work again after three days of absolute rest, enforced by Unagiya, Megumi and Touma.
It was an agonising three days.
What was the term called again? Aigis idly wondered the first night she was allowed to help around the house. It was something that Yusuke had mentioned once after Mitsuru's funeral, about the trend of overwork.
Oh right, it was called 'karoshi'!
Note: Karoshi (過労死): death from overwork.
Happy New Year, everyone!
A late chapter as usual, and it's not beta'd either (I haven't found a satisfactory beta yet). That said, I'm not giving up on this story even if it updates once in a blue moon, because I've grown...a little attached to it.
I've been asked multiple times exactly when the story takes place, so here's your answer: around 300 years after Persona 3 and Bleach (which I assume takes place around the mid-2000s). It is not an AU, so all canon events do happen in both series. Why 300 years, you ask? Nothing much to be honest, I just thought that it sounded about right for the lifespan of a robot like Aigis.
To the Guest review on my last chapter: all I can really say is...read and see :) I'm not about to start giving spoilers here.
In other news, I'm starting to work as a writer (on top of being an artist) in another fan project, and it's going to take some time away from writing this. On the other hand, I'm on my last semester of university and only have two classes to take next semester. I should still find some time to write!
Next chapter will be the start of the first "arc", which I estimate will last about 3 to 4 chapters. It's going to come out somewhat late, because I want to make sure I got my details ironed out before posting anything, so please bear with me.
As always, please review and point out any writing mistakes that I made!