At the bombshell that dropped out of nowhere, Marina and I just stood there with our mouths hanging open in silence.
Then Rio tilted her head, as if we were the weird ones, and giggled.
"Uncle, your face is funny!"
"Uh, y-yeah... is it?"
"Yep!"
Her innocent childlike honesty stung a little, but first I needed to figure out whether this kid really was Itsuka-kun and Rinne’s child, so I decided I had to take her to them.
"Hey, Rio?"
"Hm?"
"We can take you to Itsuka-kun—Shido and Rinne. Want to come with us?"
"Really?"
At my suggestion, Rio’s eyes sparkled as she threw both arms into the air, practically radiating excitement.
She really was just a kid, huh. The way she wore her feelings on her sleeve was adorable.
For a moment I was smiling at her, but then Rio’s face suddenly crumpled.
"But... is it okay for Rio to go see them...?"
Her voice turned deeply gloomy, and Marina shot me a glare.
No, hold on. I’m the one who’s wronged here. She’s the one who suddenly got all teary.
Under Marina’s sharp stare, I had no choice but to break out in a cold sweat and comfort Rio.
"R-Rio? What’s wrong? Did I do something bad?"
"No... Uncle didn’t do anything wrong..."
"Th-then why...?"
"...You see, Rio wants to see Papa and Mama too. A whole lot. But..."
Rio paused for a moment before continuing in a trembling voice.
"Everyone’s already happy... so there’s no place for Rio... so..."
Her small body was shaking as she said it.
The fact that this little kid was worrying about whether she was even allowed to exist here felt a little too real, and at the same time it hurt to hear.
Marina seemed to feel the same way, because her expression darkened a little too.
"Rio wanted to make everyone happy... so even if I spread this world out, there’s nothing I can do... That’s why I don’t know if I should even meet Papa and Mama..."
Listening to Rio, something clicked in my head.
Spread this world out.
Could it be that Rio was the owner of this Eden that had been unfolded here?
"Rio."
"Hm...?"
"Sorry for asking out of nowhere, but is this world Eden?"
When I asked carefully, Rio answered by nodding.
That cleared up the thing about Eden that had been bothering me all this time, and I let out a sigh while covering my face with one hand.
"Haa... So that’s what it was."
"......"
Marina seemed to be thinking the same thing as me, because she stayed silent and looked at Rio with sympathy.
"Rio. You unfolded Eden because you wanted to make everyone happy, including Itsuka-kun and Rinne?"
"Mm-hm..."
Just as I thought, Rio’s reason for unfolding Eden was everyone’s happiness.
And like she’d just said, everyone was already happy, so there was nothing she could do.
Because of that, she wanted to meet Itsuka-kun and Rinne, but at the same time seemed afraid to, as if they might reject her.
"Rio. Let’s go."
"Hm...? Where to?"
"Where else? To see Papa and Mama."
"But..."
Seeing Rio hesitate to go meet Itsuka-kun and Rinne, I met her eyes, slowly patted her head, and asked, "Rio, are you an idiot?"
For a second Rio just stared blankly, then puffed out her cheeks and started smacking me with both hands.
"Rio’s not an idiot! Uncle’s the idiot for calling Rio an idiot!"
Of course, her little fists didn’t hurt much, so I decided to just take them all.
That is, until Marina’s voice cut in.
"You used to do that to me too... Are you into that sort of thing?"
That sort of thing was obvious enough that I was instantly left speechless.
"What are you saying in front of a kid?!"
"No, I just thought maybe you were into that sort of thing."
I wanted to flick Marina on the forehead for her shrugging, teasing tone, but I held back because Rio was there.
I turned my gaze from Marina back to Rio and let out a long sigh.
"Uncle...?"
"What a shame. Rio’s Mama and Papa are bad people who’d abandon Rio for something that small?"
At that, Rio scowled and immediately denied it.
"No! Mama and Papa aren’t bad! Uncle’s worse for saying that!"
"Are they~? The ones who’d abandon Rio over something so trivial are worse, aren’t they~?"
"No! They’re not!"
Rio kept desperately denying me, her face on the verge of tears.
If I pushed any further, she really would cry, so I stopped badmouthing Itsuka-kun and Rinne and gently patted Rio’s head again.
"You don’t think so too, right? There’s no way Itsuka-kun and Rinne would abandon you."
"...Mm."
"Then tell me what you really want. What do you want to do?"
When I asked that, Rio answered in a trembling voice without a hint of hesitation.
"Rio... Rio wants to... meet Papa and Mama...!"
"Okay. Then let’s go."
"Yep!"
I held out my hand to Rio, who had regained her bright smile, but she just stared at it for a moment before trotting over to Marina instead.
"Rio...?"
"Even if you were doing it for Rio, I hate Uncle for badmouthing Mama and Papa!"
"Guhk!"
At that one line, I collapsed on the spot and spat blood.
"Sigh. Who told you to say it like that?"
Marina’s exasperated voice hitting my ears was just the cherry on top.
*
"Waaah! So high!"
I was on my way to Itsuka-kun’s house, carrying Rio on my shoulders after somehow earning her forgiveness.
"Uncle! This is really high!"
Rio chattered nonstop, clearly having a blast riding on my shoulders.
My ears were about to burst, but if she was happy, I figured that was fine.
By the time we’d walked for a while, we were already near Itsuka-kun’s house.
"Shouldn’t you get down soon?"
"Guess so. Oof."
I carefully lowered Rio from my shoulders so both her feet could touch the ground.
She looked a little disappointed, but the moment she realized we were near where Itsuka-kun lived, her eyes lit up again.
"Hurry, hurry! Let’s go!"
"S-slow down!"
Marina ran after Rio, who had taken off ahead of us.
In the end, Rio was caught by Marina and lifted up.
"Hehe! I got caught!"
"Haa... Rio, it’s dangerous to run off like that..."
Marina sighed and set her down, while Rio just kept smiling.
Watching them, I found myself thinking that if Marina ever had a child, she’d probably be exactly like that.
"Rio! This way!"
We had already passed Itsuka-kun’s house, since Rio had run far ahead.
When I called to her from in front of the house, Rio came running back toward me with her tiny legs working furiously.
"Is this it?"
"Yep. Wait a sec."
I rang the doorbell, and with its familiar chime, Itsuka-kun opened the door.
"Hm? Hieta? What’s up—"
"Papa!"
As soon as Itsuka-kun appeared, Rio lunged at him and hugged him tight.
Right after that, the commander stepped out to see what was going on, and the lollipop in his hand fell to the floor.
"Huh?"
"Pa, Papa?"
The commander’s eyes sharpened, while Itsuka-kun wore an expression that said he had absolutely no idea what was happening.
Then came the commander’s blazing Rider Kick.
"Just what the hell have you been doing?!"
"Gahk!"
The commander’s Hectopascal Kick landed cleanly, and Itsuka-kun went down.
And then everyone from the spirit mansion, along with Rinne from next door, came rushing out after hearing all the commotion.
"What happened?!"
"What is it? What’s going on?!"
"Shido! What’s wrong?!"
And among them, when Rio saw Rinne, she did exactly what she’d done to Itsuka-kun and launched herself at her.
"Mama!"
At Rio’s declaration as she flopped into Rinne’s arms, everyone except Marina and me—who already knew everything—was stunned speechless.
"Mama...?!"
But that wasn’t the end of it.
Seeing everyone’s shocked faces, Rio popped out of Rinne’s arms and ran over to Itsuka-kun.
And then came another giant bombshell.
"Papa! Everyone’s faces are weird!"
Itsuka-kun was Papa, and Rinne was Mama.
People already knew the two of them had been close for a while, but no one had expected they’d already had a child, so they could only stand there with their mouths open, looking back and forth between Itsuka-kun and Rinne.
"This is chaos. Pure chaos."
That said, I couldn’t exactly say I didn’t understand their reaction.
Marina and I had reacted the same way just now.
We just happened to stay calm because we already knew who Rio was.
"S-Shido is the papa... and I’m the mama...?"
"I-I’m the papa...?"
As for the two people involved, Rinne and Itsuka-kun seemed unable to accept reality, their bodies trembling violently as they wore utterly bewildered expressions.
At this rate, it looked like things would become impossible to clean up, so I clapped my hands to draw everyone’s attention to me.
"A-alright. I know everyone’s confused, but let’s go inside and talk."
As I pointed to the open door, the people who had finally come to their senses agreed and gathered in the living room of Itsuka-kun’s house.
Comments (0)
Please log in to leave a comment. Login or Register