I walked out of my room, with Sharpshooter following behind me. “The bathroom is the last door in the hallway. There should be a spare blue towel no one uses in there.”

“Thanks.” She said, walking towards where I directed her to. I walked back to the living room to find no one except Chaos, who was still drinking on the couch whilst reading a newspaper.

“Where’s everyone?”

“In their rooms. They got sick of hearing me go on and on about this hot Russian chick I cursed by having her break any mirror she looks at. So many years of bad luck, I almost feel bad.” She took another sip of beer, then looked at me with a grin. “Since they’re in their rooms, how about you do that thing where parents walk into the room at very concerning moments? I think that’d make for a great time. For me. I don’t know about you.”

“Uh… sure. Just asking, since it’s your thing, but it won’t be things that are too bad, right?”

“Haha… ha…” She looked back at her newspaper before letting out a last ha.

“Alright then.” I went to the door that led to our bedrooms and pressed the number 3 on the keypad to go to Elizabeth’s room. Her room was minimalistic, with only a single bed in the far right corner, a cabinet that only had maid dresses inside them, and a carpet in the centre of her room. She only ever spent time inside her room when she went to sleep, although today seemed to be an exception. I found her lying on the carpet, face down and naked.

“What are you doing?”

“Moping.”

“This isn’t one of your perverted episodes?”

“No.”

“By the way, for a maid, you’re pretty bad at cleaning your room.” I looked around and saw tons of empty ice cream tubs, wet maid dresses and used tissues.

Instantly, Elizabeth sprung up, pointing at me angrily. “I’ll have you know, Master, that it’s your fault!”

“What? How?”

“You let May be your daughter. Kageko and Mara might as well be too. Phoebe can go off and do her own thing, and Sam doesn’t have a surname. Despite me being an avatar like them, you’re very distant, Master. I even have a surname, unlike the others. This room keeps getting dirty because I constantly get depressed at my different treatment.”

“Well, it’s too late for May and Mara, and I only treat Kageko like that because of Izanagi. I can’t really control Phoebe, she’s off in a different realm, and I named Sam in the middle of a battle. You really think I can think of a surname in those conditions?” The moment I finished, tears started building up in Elizabeth’s eyes, clearly not satisfied with my explanation. “Fine, fine. It’s not like Stone is your actual surname anyways. Let’s say it’s your middle name now. Got it?”

She nodded, seemingly satisfied. “One last thing?”

“Yeah?”

“Can I call you mommy?”

I stared at her for a few seconds, processing what she just said, before teleporting out of her room. From behind the door, I could hear her scream, “I didn’t mean it entirely in a sexual way!” I wonder why she ended up like that. Actually, I wonder how my avatars ended up the way they are.

“Maaagic.”

“Are… are you really trying to pull that gag off again?”

“Yes. What about it?” 

I was seeing a horrific scene. There was a female demon lying face down with numerous pitch-black daggers stabbed into her back, a bunny girl trying to balance on a giant watermelon, and Mara casually playing on her Switch on her bed despite what was happening in her room. 

“Do you not see this chaos?”

“I do. Just your regular, everyday acupuncture, circus training, and gaming.”

“Is she still alive?” I said, pointing at the demon lying on the floor. I'm pretty sure acupuncture doesn't involve daggers and that daggers also kill.

“Don’t worry, she’s a Demon Lord. She’s taken worse.” Mara patted the demon on the head, and the demon did a thumbs up.

“What about the bunny girl on the watermelon? Where did you even get the giant watermelon?”

“You know that time when I dumped all my things onto Susanoo? I only dumped the unimportant stuff.”

“Wait, didn’t you dump a nation’s worth of gold in that fight?” And also a bunch of powerful-looking weapons and corpses that I could swear some were giving off Divine auras.

“It was actually three nation’s worth of gold.”

“...”

“Like I said, unimportant stuff.”

“I don’t see how the giant watermelon is important.”

“I can.” She said, looking back at the bunny girl, who then flopped and landing straight on her face, making a cute whine upon landing.

“You know what, I only came here to check on you, and I think my checkup time is done.”

“Well, have fun with the others then, mom.” She said in her signature mocking tone.

“I’ll try to, daughter,” I replied back. I could see a tiny bit of red appear on her face. Haha… a tiny victory, but a victory nonetheless.

I entered Kageko’s room and found her playing a fighting game against Sam whilst Amaterasu was cheering for her. Pretty normal compared to the past two checkups.

“You guys wouldn’t happen to secretly be doing something weird, right?”

“The only weird thing I have observed so far is my esteemed Ko-chan curb-stomping this samurai imitation, having not dropped a single set in six games.” 

“Fighting games are nothing like a real battle. I will not lie, but I feel quite scammed.”

“S-sorry about that, Sam… I’ll try to choose a game you’ll like next time. This is my fault.”

“There really isn’t anything weird going on?”

“Why are you so insistent on knowing if there are any abnormalities, mother-in-law?”

“Well, I had to confront a naked sulking maid and then Mara.”

“Speaking of Mara, I hear she went to another world and is super strong. Is it true?”

“Yes, it is. Why did you want to know?”

“I want to fight her.” 

“Okay then… you know what, since I’m here, I’ll ask you guys a question. How are you guys settling down here?”

“Elizabeth’s cooking is tasty and nutritious, and I have access to some fun sparring partners. That and you’re nicer this time around, so I like it. Especially your treatment. So much better.”

“My room is nice… and… uh… you all are nice too. I like it.”

“As long as I am with Ko-chan, anything suffices.”

“I forgot to ask, but why are you still here, Amaterasu? Don’t you have a home elsewhere?”

“Is it not customary to live in your partner’s household to acquaint yourself with their family?”

“I wouldn’t know. I’ve never been married, let alone been in a relationship.”

“Huh. I thought otherwise.”

“What do you mean by thought otherwise?”

“Nothing, nothing.”

Sam threw her controller to the side with a slightly annoyed look on her face. “Argh! Again. We shall continue until I am able to win one ga- no, one round.”

“A-are you sure you want to continue? We could pla-”

“Are you looking down on me?!”

“N-no!”

“Then continue we shall!”

I left them to go do my last checkup on May, the remaining Avatar. Excluding Phoebe, who I haven’t forgotten. I’d rather not sleep right now. I hope she’s doing well and that May isn’t doing anything weird.

Good news: May is sleeping peacefully and, more importantly, normally. Although Mori is in bed with her, too, I’ll just chalk it up to May’s obsession with having Mori be her dad.

Bad news: The bed is on the ceiling, May’s room seems to be a weird, endless black void, and Phoebe is here playing the guitar. It’s a really cool solo, I’ll admit.

“Thanks. I’ve been working hard.”

“You can read my mind?”

“In the Dreamrealm, yes. I’m basically the Queen here nowadays.” She put down her guitar and started admiring the room. “Magic sure is convenient. May was able to connect her room to the Dreamrealm. It seems she wants to be connected to all her “Sisters”. I’ll admit, her cuteness is getting to me.”

“She is pretty cute.” I feel like she’s been using magic unconsciously because I feel like she’s gotten smaller since our first meeting. Not that it’s a bad thing, it has made her much cuter.

“I’m not opposed to it, but then I remembered that’d make you my mother, and I don’t like that.” Phoebe poked her tongue out at me.

“Why are you hostile towards me?”

“Tell me how many times you used me before we all split up?”

“Uh… four times?”

“You’re off by one. It was three times. The rest of the time I spent inside that crummy soul of yours, and as much as I love the other avatars, I don’t. I’m grateful you haven’t sent me back in.”

“You’re welcome… I guess.”

“Pfft. I wasn’t thanking you. Don’t worry though, I won’t be spiting you.”

“Since this is the Dreamrealm, and May and Mori are sleeping, where are they?”

“They’re playing chess.” She pointed off to the side, and in the distance, I could see both May and Mori in the air. Below them were giants dressed in an assort of medieval clothing, and they moved whenever May or Mori pointed.

“They’re playing chess?”

“Yes. Chess.”

“Huh. Surprisingly normal.” Excluding the fact that it’s giant chess pieces.
“Did you expect something weird?”

“I saw a bunny girl balancing on a giant watermelon just a while ago.”

“Mara?”

“Yes.”

“Well, she always was the weird one.”

“Always?”

“Yeah, always. Did you not know?”
“Uh… no.”

She scoffed. “That explains a lot. Then again, the only one who was out daily was Maid. No way you would’ve learned.”

“Are you going to explain further?”

“Nah… I’ve just realised I don’t care enough.” She grabbed her guitar. “I’ve got some sick tunes to play.”

“Oh. Okay. Can you tell May I came to check up on her?”

“Sure thing,” a mocking smile came to her face, “Mother.”

Through some force, I was pushed out of the room. I feel like all the avatars are secretly plotting something behind my back with their whole “Mom, mother, mama” thing going on.

I walked back to the living room to see a stranger on the couch, with Sharpshooter holding her sniper rifle aimed point-blank at the stranger. Chaos was next to the stranger, still sipping her wine and enjoying the situation.

“Oh, hi, Evelyn. House is still as cosy as it has been. By the way, who is the old hag,” She coughed. “Sorry, I mean office lady.”

“I’m Chaos. Awfully rude of you, but I’ll let it slide. This is an exciting development, after all.”

“Sharpshooter, put the gun down, please.” Sharpshooter put her gun down and moved behind the stranger.

“No funny business.”
“I wouldn’t do such a thing. I’m not a clown.”

“Who are you, and why are you here?”

“I’m the plot twist villain who was secretly the mastermind behind it all, and I’m here to commit suicide. Before that, however, I’d like some orange juice.”

pojlk

So you're probably wondering where I've been. Well, I did have assessments and stuff that I did have to do when I went on hiatus. After the assessments came a short holiday, which I could've used to make a chapter, but honestly, I couldn't be bothered to touch a computer after all the presentations I had to make, so I just spent that holiday reading stuff from the public library. Then came more assessments and eventually exams. I did my exams and passed them, and before I knew it, I had graduated high school. Man, I forgot I wrote this while in High School. My holiday after graduation was great, and since here in New Zealand, our high school exams happen from September to October, my long holidays happened during November and December, so I had no motivation to do anything of note. Then I entered Uni. Uni kept me quite busy. However, I've come back to writing since recently I read my own story, thinking it's an alright work that'd I followed and hoped it'd update soon, then I realised I was the author. I ended up taking nearly 2 months writing this chapter, thanks to both procrastination and also that long hiatus, but don't worry. Eventually, I'll get my stride back. I might not get my stride back. I won't lie, releasing this chapter made me nervous. I forgot how easy my nerves were hit by releasing chapters.

Oh yeah, since I'm a Uni student, I have even more time to write since my mornings aren't filled with high school classes. However, since I'm in Uni, I actually have less time too. So expect the chapter release times to stay as inconsistent as they always have been. They might even be slower, considering I haven't written this story in particular in a while. I did a short stint writing a different story the previous month, but I decided to return to this one since I left it on a cliffhanger.

I usually have a third paragraph, but I can't be bothered, and this Author's Note is already pretty long. I feel like I've forgotten some stuff I wanted to share in this one, but oh well. There's always the next chapter. Assuming I make that. I promise I'll write it. If I don't, feel free to shame me on... uh... the comment section, I guess. Oh yeah, one last thing. I'm sorry for taking a long hiatus, and to all those who read this, thanks. Even if it's one person.