Father And Daughter

Vajdahunyad Castle, Aria's world
10:15 PM

This time we were walking through one of the corridors of the castle. My father was pushing a wheelchair that he made improvised with what he found, although it was not comfortable, nor could I complain. Tama was still next to me healing me, behind were the twins. We went to the main room, where Maria must still be. At this time the magic show must have been, even if it was a repeat presentation to the first time, she would certainly not miss it, in fact, it is probable that by this time she would have already forgotten what she had to do originally. The magician was a famous person from Budapest, so he did not know how to speak Spanish, so he had to do almost all of his show so that we could understand the gestures, despite the fact that the situation was uncomfortable for him. The show went well and everyone enjoyed it.

When we arrived everything was weighing exactly the same as I remembered. Including Maria in the first row bothering the magician from time to time to check the objects that he used from time to time. In this case, it was a six-sided die, but this one was quite large, like a football, and on its faces, there was no dot that would signify a number. But as the magician was rotating it little by little the points of the different sides of the dice appeared, without any explanation. 

"Wow"
"How did he do that?"
"So that's the kind of magic that exists in the west"
"I never had the opportunity to see it, but now I see that maybe it could have more uses than I thought"
"I want to challenge a magic combat to see how far western magic is capable of reaching" It was said by the girl next to me who was currently healing me with real magic.

"What he is doing is very different from the magic"
"I think I could explain better as a sleight of hand and illusions with mirrors and smoke"
"He is not a real magician, just someone works trying to amaze people with his stunts"I explained to her before she caused some other commotion.

When I finished speaking I noticed how suddenly now a person was missing, my father was no longer with us, he was trying to sneak into one of the small rooms when I managed to find him with his sight.

"Very well"
"You two stay here for a moment"
"Tama can you do me a little favor and bring Maria here"
"I have to talk to my father for a moment" I gave a couple of instructions as he lifted me out of the wheelchair to walk.

"Ok but don't overdo it, remember that you are still weak from the wound"
"Kazumi, Charlotte better watch him from a distance, if something happens let me know immediately" she said as she put me aside and started walking

My father was inside a room near the main room, this time the place had a lot of deer ornaments. The castle was primarily used as a city tourist site and an agricultural museum, so originally it had lots of things like this all over the place. But we asked that they keep them to be able to decorate everything with the theme of the party, although clearly, they did not remove all of the entire castle because they were too much. He was inside trying to pretend that he was interested in seeing one of those ornaments even though I think he has never seen a deer in his life.

 "I already told you that you should talk to her whether you like it or not"
"She deserves to talk to you for a moment too"
"You do not believe how sad he will get tomorrow when he realizes that everything that happened here is not a dream and that her father was here but he did not want to talk to her"
"That will certainly do her more harm"

"You don't understand the damage that could come when she sees me"
"Maybe she even her state can go back to before and get sick again"
"And how am I going to explain to her that I am her father?"
"Just look at me! I look like a completely different person!" My father answered in a slightly annoying way

"How shocking"
"Without a doubt, she will not believe you in the least" I told him while I wagged my tail a bit reminding him that I actually had a much more difficult time in that part.
"She's so much stronger now than you give her credit for"
"Do you think it is fun for me to be here scolding my father to do something that he taught me how important family is?"
"You must do something now or else you will be regretting that decision for a long time."
"I just want you to make the right decision"
"That's all"

"Dad??"
"Are you the one there?"

The girl we were arguing over so much appeared right behind me near the door. Maria was with a sad face as if she wanted to cry, with one hand she was holding the wall and with the other, she was holding her chest, she tried to walk but it was clear that her legs did not want to respond to her. My father widened his eyes. He had a surprised face on the same level as having seen a ghost, when he processed what was happening he turned to look at me, but when he saw my victory face he realized that he no longer had a way out.

"Maria!?"
"What are you doing here!?"
"Shouldn't you be watching the magic show?"

"I knew it!"
"It really is you dad" Said the girl convinced now completely

"Why do you think I'm him?"
"How are you so sure of that!?"

"When Cesar came back I thought deep down that something like this could happen"
"And since he came back, I thought maybe something similar could happen to you"
"But I never thought that in this case, you did it to avoid me"
"Did you really want to avoid me enough to do something like that?"
"I can't believe that even someone as irresponsible as Cesar could behave better as a grown man now as a girl than you" Maria said a little annoyed, but understandable why.

"No, it is not like that"
"It was never my intention to do that to you"
"This is all my fault, forgive me" He advanced towards Maria and hugged her.

Seeing the sentimentality of the moment and that they surely wanted more privacy to speak calmly among themselves, I decided that the best thing would be for me to get out of there. So I left silently while Maria cried in the arms of her father, I don't know if of happiness or sadness, but that would be his turn to fix it because it was he the same one that caused that. When I left the room I could see Tamamo waiting close to the door with a face of mocking and full of pride. Without a doubt, she was the reason behind the bad moment in which Maria appeared. 

"I imagine it was your idea"
"I thank you for helping me with this"

"Don't worry about it darling"
"I also wanted the two of them to talk"
"Well, when during the night talking with your sister I understood how important he was to her"
"Also now I also believe about how important a family is now that I have lived with you these days"
"It is certainly nice to be around people like you every day."
"That is why we must try to take care of our two new daughters in the same way"
"Don't you agree my love?"

"So you also agree with my idea to treat the two of them as normal people and not as two robots?"

"Well, if what you told me about her two is true without a doubt they have the potential to be quite important in the future."
"But that is why I think it is undoubtedly essential to teach them how important it is to be around by people who love them"
"I can teach you a little about how to behave like goddesses"
"But it will depend on the love they receive from us on how they behave on their own in the future."
"Well, even I behave differently now that I am next to you than when I was locked in that stone."
"If in those days I had seen someone like you passing by"
"Maybe I would not have hesitated to kill you in the slightest"
"But now I can't even think of being away from you anymore"
"If I had met someone like you when I came to earth the first time, I would not even have doubted what your answer would be if they had told you that I was trying to finish you off"
"I really can't believe how stupid I was during those days for believing that someone as stupid as Konoe really loved me from the bottom of his heart"
"But now that I have experienced it I can tell the differences just by seeing how you treat me even in moments like this"
"But I would not like to change the past either, because if so I would have never met you, my darling"

"Ok, don't expect this conversation to go this way"
"But it's okay, if you want to talk about it I'm not going to stop you"
"There are times when you have to talk to someone about everything you have accumulated throughout life"

"No, I'm done now"
"We better keep waiting for Maria and for your father to finish talking"
"Maybe we should explain to Kazumi and Charlotte what is happening here tonight"
"I think they are the ones who are the most lost and maybe they can help us get out of here"

After almost a now Maria and my father finally came out and ran back with us. They had lasted so long that the four of us were now at a table eating a cake each. At first, I thought that maybe it would be harmful to the Dolls, but according to them, they informed me if they were able to taste and process food to convert it into energy because despite what the toy joints on their body indicate, the idea was that they were as human as possible.  And when the two of them tasted the chocolate cake they were fascinated with it. They ate it in such a way that despite the serious faces they had, you could tell how happy they were. 

"So in order to get out of here, we need to destroy my magic book that is acting as a catalyst because apparently somehow I altered the way it normally works" Maria summarized my explanation of how to get out of here

"Exactly, so if you give us the book and we burn it we should return without problems"

"That's good, I just have a little problem with it." My sister spoke again

"Where was the place that you remember you had for the last time?" I asked directly

"How do you know I lost it?"

"If you didn't have it while the magic show was on, it means you didn't have it with you in the first place"
"According to Stella the book also has to be in this world"
"So it is probably in the house in the forest where you appeared at the beginning"
"Maybe you missed it and it's lying somewhere in that cabin"
"So we will have to go back there and look for it" I explain my conclusion about what I had in mind since I was informed about how to get out of here

"Also not almost the same time where we go back to eat what Mom cooked for family dinner?"
"She is there too then"

"Well then we will eat first and then we will start looking for the book"
"I'm also going to tell mom about the subject that this is not a dream"
"And you better talk to her like Maria or I assure you that I will be the worst of your nightmares"

Charlotte and Kazumi were next to us in the mass but they did not speak in the slightest, they just watched us talk. Tamamo taking care of how they behaved seemed to discover what was bothering them but what they did not want to say.

"If we manage to return, what will happen to Kazumi and Charlotte?"
"Are they going to stay back here or are they going with us?" Asked Tamamo

"Well, seeing that we rescued them and the necklace that they put on them, without a doubt, I think the idea is that they will come with us."
"In case that does not happen, it will be left to Dad to take care of them for the time being and obtain the permits to bring them to Earth"
"In the very unlikely event that the security section backs up and thinks it best to destroy them, you could take them to Oriente 6 and slip into the Tamamo temple and ask Urakaze for help while we resolve that situation."

"Do you really think something like that happens?" ask now Maria

"As I said before I doubt it, but it is better to have a plan otherwise"
"I am their father and I promised both of them that I would protect them from now on"
"I'm not going to break a promise of that level even if it costs me my life"

"You can count on me, in case that happens I know people who could help us fix it" My father answered happily.

When we finished putting everything in order for the rest of the night we set off towards the cabin in the woods to finally finish this long, long night.