Jadeite leaned over and kissed Rei on the lips. "You're amazing."
She smiled up at him, blushing, and said, "And you're charmingly biased."
"Yes, and I'm the lucky man who gets your love. But it was Usagi who said that you're amazing this time. I'm just reiterating what she sent in the group text. Mamoru has his memories back thanks to you."
"Magic took them away, and I just used magic to restore them. It was supposed to happen the way it did."
"Because Usagi's mother knew you could…" Jadeite trailed off as he watched Rei grow sad. "What's wrong?"
"She didn't get much time with her. Actually, she didn't get any time with her. It has to have been hard to be so close to her mother and not get to reconnect."
Jadeite sighed, "I don't think we all have it figured out the way we think we do. Not that pain like that goes away, and you move on, but…" he shook his head. "It's been over four hundred and seventy years since she last saw her mother."
"So she's just over it? She's a vampire, but she has human feelings!" Rei objected. She knew what it was like to miss your mother, after all.
Holding up his hands in a placating manner, he said, "I'm just saying that she has had almost five centuries of other issues that might take precedence. She's been an orphan in every way for a very, very long time. Maybe she can't process having a mother's love —or a father's. If you give her mother back, do you think she can just fall into the role of child again?"
"I don't understand your point. You're not making sense."
He nodded slowly, "I just get this feeling sometimes that she's, well, off for lack of a better word. Like she really cares about all of us, but she doesn't — expect our care, is that the right word? Like she doesn't expect us to return her friendship. You're a good friend to her, Rei, you really are. It's just that she keeps acting surprised by your friendship, and it doesn't come off as insulting. Like, 'Wow, you can actually be a good friend,' but more like, 'Wow, someone cares that much about me.' Does that even make sense?"
Rei bit her lip. "She's talked multiple times about how she's been alone a lot. Dracula seems to be one of her closest friends, and it doesn't seem like she's seen him in decades. Maybe you're right. But what does it mean?"
"Practically for us? Nothing. We really just should go on being her friend. But for the other things, it probably means she's going to react differently than we would expect a human to act. Not because she's less human but because, in a way, she's more human. No psychologist has seen the centuries of psychological effects her life has had on her."
Three hours previously, Satoru had been speaking with his pseudo-parents and finding out that it was really good that he was okay with the supernatural since, apparently, he was a bit supernatural himself.
Rei had explained that he gave her an odd feeling. One that she had likened to feeling like the way warm honey tasted. That description left him confused but curious.
He discovered she had consulted with Mars and found that he was basically a human lie detector. He always just thought he had good intuition with people. The truth was, he just had an exceptionally good read on them.
Jadeite surmised it was why he trusted the group all so quickly despite his hatred of the supernatural. None of them had lied to him, so he got a good feeling around them—especially Usagi, who had told the truth about killing his sister's rapist.
Then there was Mayumi and her absolute conviction that he was in a cult. They figured her conviction of being right woke him up enough to get him to think for himself.
Ultimately, it left him feeling intensely relieved that he didn't stumble into realizing the truth despite his idiocy. He was a bit of an idiot, but he had been thinking rationally when he found the truth.
It was why he was now standing in Yuki Nishimura's living room. During the cult meetings, the man had been an absolute idiot, insisting that the two sides of the supernatural war had been working together. Every time he had said something, Satoru had felt odd. Now he knew what that bizarre feeling was. The man had been lying.
"Yuki, you think both sides are evil and working together?"
"Of course!"
Satoru shook his head at himself in frustration. Jadeite had told him to ask one question at a time. Otherwise, he wouldn't know the truth of each question. He unclenched his teeth and said, "Do you think the two sides are working together?"
"Of course they are!" Yuki yelled in frustration.
Lie, his brain supplied. He decided to base his interrogation on what he discovered rather than what Yuki said.
"Do you think both sides are evil?"
"Yes." Lie.
Satoru then asked, "The side with the vampires, werewolves, and witches, the ones we can't remember what they look like. Do you think they're evil?"
"Yes!" Lie. "They are of the supernatural they have to be evil. We need to destroy them." Lie. Lie.
Satoru shrugged. "You're very interesting, you know. You lie constantly —but I find that fascinating. I understand why you're lying. I'm president of the Kanto chapter of this shit cult we're a part of-"
"Shit cult?" Yuki interrupted. "What are you talking about!?"
"Don't you agree? Frankly, I'm really starting to suspect you do."
"No!" Lie.
"And we're back to the lying again," Satoru commented lightly. "Now, why lie? Are you an undercover agent for some other group?"
"No." Truth.
"How about are you trying to destroy the organization from the inside for your own personal gain?"
"No." Truth.
Satoru cocked his head. "Family," he said, deciding that had to be it. "It's why I do everything I do now. Is one of your family members in danger?"
"No. Everyone is fine!" Lie. Yuki pointed a threatening finger at him. "I could turn you in! You're harassing me in my home! I knew you'd be a crappy president." Truth.
"Ouch," Satoru said, mock wincing. "You meant that about me. But why would I be a crappy president? Because I'm not an idiot, and I can tell that you're up to something?"
"No." Lie.
"Lie again. So, your family is in danger. Is the danger from the The Order?"
"Why would the group be dangerous to my family? They only go after the supernatural. Of course, there's no danger." Lie.
Satoru nodded. "Okay, so it's family. You won't be the first to have a supernatural family. It's what got the previous president arrested, after all."
"I don't have a witch in the family." Truth.
"Your wife and daughter left you a few weeks ago. Maybe you've disowned them."
Yuki glared at Satoru. "You don't know what you're talking about! My wife discovered I had an affair with her best friend, and she left. My daughter was pissed at me too and went with her." Lie.
"Oh, I know all about that." And he did. He had heard from several members of the group that she had left him after finding him in bed with her friend. Problem was. The group members were telling the truth. They had believed what was said, after all. But a person can believe a lie. "So you were caught in bed with her best friend. I heard you were mid-fuck when she walked in."
"I was," Yuki said sheepishly. "She was pissed and started throwing things at me, calling me a no good dirty bastard." Lie.
Satoru abruptly asked, "So, something is so wrong with your daughter that you and your wife made up the affair to cover up her leaving and hiding your daughter away?"
"No!" Lie.
Here, Satoru had the benefit of the excellent Luna. He knew that Yuki's wife left him, but what she did didn't match up with an affair. She took their college-aged daughter with her deep into the woods to a soothsayer of questionable integrity except to those in the know.
And here was where Usagi helped out. The soothsayer was mostly a quack, except for when he wasn't. There were very few actual instances of a genuine need for his abilities, but mostly he needed money to survive. Therefore most of the time, he was making things up and hoping the placebo effect worked.
"See, I believe there is something supernatural about your daughter, and you're trying to get her healed -in your mind."
Yuki shook his head. "My. Wife. Left. Me." Truth.
"Yes. But did your wife leave because she was mad at you?"
"Yes. I cheated." Lie.
Satoru shook his head. "No. This gets easier if you tell the truth!" He pointed out.
"No. This gets messy if you don't leave me alone!" Yuki pulled a butterfly knife from his pocket, flipped it open, and held it unwaveringly to Satoru's neck. "I will kill you." Truth.
"Finally, the truth," Satoru quipped. "How about, since you object to my questions, I explain something to you? "I am a double agent working against The Order, and I think I found someone in you who wants to stop them too."
Pressing the knife against Satoru's skin and drawing blood, Yuki said, "I don't trust you." Truth.
"Pull the blade away just enough that you're not cutting me anymore."
"Why?!"
"Just do it and tell me what you see," Satoru replied.
Yuki reluctantly listened, figuring he could still kill the man if needed. He kept the knife close to his neck when he gently pulled away. He was shocked when he watched the skin heal instantly. "The cut's gone."
"My daughter gave me some blood."
"Naru? Why would that matter?"
"I'm going to trust you with this now because I truly think we can be allies. Naru is a vampire, and her blood healed me. It's the only reason she let me come here alone. She was afraid you might try to kill me. I told her she was ridiculous. It turns out she might be right in the end."
"Vampire? Bullshit. I've met her, and she's human!"
"She was human. That was until she fell in love with her vampire boyfriend and wanted to become like him."
"Lies!"
"That's your specialty," Satoru said. "I'm telling the truth. And think! The Order would come after me and try to destroy my daughter if they found that out. Now, tell me what happened to Reika."
"She's fine!" Lie. Yuki pressed the knife against his neck again. "I will slit your throat if you don't leave." Truth.
"And then I can't help you," Satoru said matter-of-factly. "You heard me say there is a witch in the group. She's incredibly powerful and will help you if I ask her to. If you kill me, well, she won't hesitate to destroy you."
"I don't trust you!" Truth.
"Naru! A little help here?" Satoru said, giving up on handling things on his own, and he called out for help.
Yuki blinked in shock when Naru appeared out of nowhere. "How?" He muttered.
Naru smiled and showed her fangs. "Let Dad help you. He's telling the truth about me." She then flicked the knife out of Yuki's hand quickly. "Now, tell me about Reika."
Yuki started trembling uncontrollably. He had been holding himself together so tightly that at the first instance that he realized he might have help, he fell apart. As he shook, he said, "She's always been a vessel. Or, actually, she could be a vessel. I knew that and that she was supernatural. Not in an overt way, but one that could still get her killed. I did so much research. I was like a man obsessed." Once he started taking it, he couldn't hold anything in. "Then I found out about The Order.
"I knew immediately that I had to join. Where better to hide her than under their noses? I spent my time being the most seemingly obsessive man in that group. Why look at my family for the supernatural when I was completely on board with their mission?"
"You kept saying they were evil and working together so I wouldn't suspect you?"
"Yes." Truth.
Satoru gave him a wry smile. "It worked."
"Not good enough," Yuki grumbled. "You figure me out."
"No. It just turns out that I have a bit of witch in me, and I can tell when people are lying or telling the truth."
Naru smiled kindly. "Moving on to the relevant information at the moment. Tell me more about her being a vessel."
Yuki frowned. "She was born an empty vessel. That's what this —woman told us. Or Oracle? That was what she called herself."
"What was her name?" Naru asked uneasily.
"Miran. She said my daughter was special but vulnerable. I researched all I could on what Rieka was after that. That horrid woman acted like everything was just peachy, but my life was falling apart. And now…." He rubbed his watery eyes. "Now, she's been filled with something bad, and I'm terrified that it will kill her."
Satoru nodded. "And you and your wife faked a huge fight to give her a reason to disappear with your daughter."
"Yes." Truth. "Something is very wrong, and we need to keep her from being discovered."
"And what is the soothsayer saying?" Naru asked.
Yuki grew angry. "How do you know about him!?"
"Just answer her," Satoru said. "We want to help."
"You can't," Yuki said, yelling in desperation. "At least according to him. If I listen to that nut-job, I have to believe a thousand-year-old witch with a tie to Mars will heal my daughter! He is seriously messed up. He talked about the Roman god and a girl who has died but isn't dead, one that was born a thousand years ago. How does that make any sense?"
Satoru replied. "Even more confusing, I was her murdered unborn child in her first life. Rei does exist, though. She was born that long ago, and then she was killed. She's reborn into this time now and is a powerful witch."
"And Mars?" Yuki asked in shock.
"She is so powerful she talks to Mars, and he assists her. Rei is like a daughter to him. It's all incredibly confusing. The important part is we can help you. She will help you."
The strength in Yuki's legs gave way, and his knees buckled. "Really?"
"Yes. I will call Rei so you can tell her what happened to your daughter."