Ymeno smiled as Zeki and Magnolia listened to him talking about the two katanas. As time passed, Zeki slowly started becoming more and more tired.

“Thanks for that, Ymeno. I’m feeling a bit dizzy, must’ve overexerted myself.” He stood up with a yawn.

“Could you look after Nolia? I think she still wants to catch more butterflies, and I don’t want to ruin her fun for today.”

Magnolia just nodded as her eyes looked at Ymeno, beaming with excitement.

All the gardener did was nod in response, causing Zeki to smile.

“Thanks for doing this.” As he slowly walked away.

“Is he alright?” Ymeno asked, with a tone of concern in his voice.

“Mhm. Zeki gets tired quickly, and I haven’t seen him this excited in a while. I tried asking him what’s wrong and if I could fix it, but he never answers directly…” a small frown appeared on her face.

She picked up her butterfly net, her usual smile returning once again.

“No need to think too hard on it though, he might just be a sleepyhead!”

This made Ymeno chuckle, seeing her bounce back to her normal self so quickly. The girl was full of optimism, and it really showed. She quickly began swinging her net, a lot of power behind every swing.

Whenever she would catch a butterfly, she’d excitedly run towards Ymeno, explain what type of butterfly it was, and then release it. This was repeated a few times, as more and more clouds began appearing.

Magnolia walked up to Ymeno, proudly showing a checklist that was entirely filled out. He didn’t even know that many butterflies could be found around here. The little girl tugged at the man’s sleeve.

“There’s a place I wanna see!”

Without having a chance to respond, they began walking. Magnolia thought that this place would surprise Ymeno, not knowing that Ymeno knew this whole park from front to back. He knew exactly where they were going the moment they started walking, but decided to play along, anyway.

As they were walking down a path that felt nostalgic for the gardener, he couldn’t help but look to the right as they were walking through the forest, for there was a single building standing there. A small smile appeared on his face, seemingly reminiscing about the past, something that he normally didn’t do voluntarily.

“What are you looking at?” Magnolia asked.

“Nothing, sorry.” Apologizing for nothing, Ymeno still couldn’t stop smiling.

While Ymeno didn’t want to always think about the past, preferring memories to be just that, there still was some nostalgia and happy memories that always stood by him. The place they were walking towards held a lot of nostalgia, too.

With a ‘tada’, they arrived at that place. A gigantic flower garden, the park’s pride and joy. Flowers blooming as far as the eye could see. Ymeno used to go here a lot when he was little, it was his place to calm down, always admiring the beautiful flowers.

But he hasn’t been here for a long time. Seems that some things never change, though.

“You love flowers, so I wanted to see this place with you!”

This just increased the smile on Ymeno’s face.

“Thank you.”

The girl tugged at his sleeve once again, pulling him along. They stood in front of a collection of flowers that looked like flames, all colored differently. They were just finished with blooming, looking very beautiful.

“These look pretty, what are they called?”

“Those are Celosia.”

Magnolia’s eyes sparkled as Ymeno began to explain the characteristics of said flower. Together, they walked down the assigned road for the flower garden. Stopping by quite a few flowers, with Magnolia asking what they were, and Ymeno happily explaining.

The gardener really was in his element right here. He normally wouldn’t talk this much, but it seems that today was an exception. Magnolia listened with her full attention, she liked it when people where passionate about their own hobbies.

“Ooh, I really like these!”

They stopped in front of yellow colored flowers, their petals having many delicate layers to it.

“Those are Marigold.”

Magnolia couldn’t stop admiring them. It seemed that she had found a favorite flower. After a few minutes passed, inspecting it from every angle, they began moving again.

“I know these!”

She pointed at a tree, it’s branches being full of dark pink flowers.

“I’m named after them!” She giggled.

She gave her phone to Ymeno, asking him to take a picture of her standing in front of the tree. With a small pose, a picture was made.

“What’s your favorite flower?”

Thinking for a moment, it was really hard to come up with an answer. It was like picking a favorite child. Eventually, an answer was given.

“Cherry blossoms.”

Upon hearing that, Magnolia’s eyes shifted all over the garden. Eventually spotting a cherry blossom tree. Grabbing Ymeno’s wrist, her hand felt oddly cold. They walked towards the tree, but with each step, it looked like the clouds were getting darker too.

“Let’s take a picture together, to remember this day!”

Ymeno hesitated at first, but it took little convincing from the girl to stand in front of the tree. She pulled a small metal rod out of her pocket, after pressing a small red button, it suddenly extended into a stand that her phone could be placed on.

“Surprised? I created this” A confident grin was plastered on her face.

With the camera on a timer, she quickly skittered towards the tree. Ymeno had 3 seconds to think of how he would stand on this picture. Looking down at the girl next to him, who was holding up a peace sign, he quickly decided to copy that. Holding up a peace sign with his left hand, alongside a small smile that was a bit forced, a shutter sound was heard.

The girl skittered back towards her phone. Pressing the red button on the stand, it became a small metal rod again. She looked at the picture, smiling before showing it at Ymeno.

The clash between the girl’s brimming optimism and Ymeno’s lack of could be seen by the man in the picture. Although that was probably something only he would notice. The picture looked fine otherwise, and Magnolia was happy with it. That’s all that mattered for Ymeno.

A loud bang was heard, and it suddenly began pouring. Magnolia quickly opened her star sprinkled umbrella, but Ymeno had nothing with him. They quickly walked towards a nearby restaurant, the rain becoming worse by the second.

Lightning struck as they entered the restaurant, causing Magnolia to jolt upwards. She was trembling a tiny bit, glancing upwards at Ymeno, before snickering, seemingly forgetting her fear. The man’s glasses had gone very foggy due to the awful weather.

 “Do you want to drink something?” He asked, trying to ignore the little girl’s snickering while wiping off his glasses.

Eventually, they both ordered tea. Sitting down on a couch, rain was heavily tapping on the nearby window, with the occasional lightning flash, which once again made Magnolia jump, with a slight ‘eep’.

Trying to ignore the storm that was outside, the little girl’s crimson eyes focused on Ymeno. Putting her umbrella, which surprisingly wasn’t wet, on her lap.

“Mister, I’ve thought of something!”

Ymeno’s ears shot up as she raised her umbrella high in the air.

“You and Zeki were talking about sacred weapons. This is my weapon that will create peace around the world, so I should give it a name!”

“And what will that name be?”

“Marigold éclair!” She proudly said, sparkles in her eyes as she looked at the starry umbrella.

“I get the first part of that name, but why ‘éclair’?”

As the girl put the umbrella on her lap again, a soft sign of reminisce could be seen in her eyes.

“I don’t clearly remember, but that word.. it brings warmth to me.” She said as she slowly patted her umbrella.

Ymeno nodded in response. As the tea was delivered to them, another question arose, this time about Magnolia’s dream. Ymeno wanted to know what she meant with that.

“MR. Kane says I have two weapons. My brain and my umbrella. I love making things, and he told me I’m super smart! I want to use that smart to make everyone happy, as he told me this world can be a big scary place.”

 She wasn’t wrong with that last statement, but why did Kane even tell her that? At least Ymeno had an explanation for her intellect now. Although he was a bit curious with just how smart she was, he didn’t go further with his questions, thinking it’d be weird to ask.

He also thought it was a cute dream, something that he would’ve said too when he was her age. Although he wouldn’t do it with creations, but more with his own two hands.

“Do you have a dream?”

Ymeno should’ve seen that question coming, yet, he didn’t have an honest answer to give to girl in front of him. Silence slowly filled the room, although it was quickly interrupted by lightning striking really close, causing Magnolia to jump straight up once again.

“I want to travel the world.” Ymeno said, looking out the window.

“What a fun dream!” Magnolia giggled, sipping her tea.

The storm was still raging on, if the little girl tried to go outside, she would probably be blown away.  Ymeno felt that it was his responsibility that she would get home safely. Magnolia was scrolling through her phone, trying to ignore all the lightning.

She showed Ymeno some pictures of the things she created. It was seriously impressive stuff. Besides the water bazooka gun that was created from scratch, there was also Zeki’s book holder, a small pink robot that moved on it’s own accord, A custom made thermos can for Zeki, and so, so much more.

The girl had a wild imagination, and Kane was apparently funding her quite a lot to bolster said creativity. It became apparent that she was always trying to push her own limits and the limits of technology, even while she was still young.

There was an obvious drive behind it that kept her going. She 100% stood behind that dream of hers. And truth be told, Ymeno slowly started to believe that if anyone could try and do it, Magnolia would, with her inventions.

She kept excitedly telling Ymeno about all the things she created, opening up to him more and more. All Ymeno could do was give a listening ear in response, as he wasn’t that technologically advanced. He was more of the street smarts variety.

The rain finally stopped tapping on the restaurant window. Ymeno paid the bill and left with the little girl waddling in front of him. She was humming a tune while the two were walking towards her orphanage, one that felt familiar to Ymeno.

“Isn’t that a song from the Aikawa’s?”

Magnolia stopped in place, turning around, a large smile was on her face and her eyes had widened.

“You’ve heard of Kikaru and Arisu?!” Her hands had make small fists that were pumping up and down.

“Yeah!” Ymeno’s voice raised slightly, due to his own excitement.

The conversation continued about the musical duo, ending when they arrived in front of Magnolia’s orphanage. Magnolia waved her new friend goodbye as she walked inside, and Ymeno waved back too, going back to his own apartment afterwards.

Taking off her shoes, she walked into the main hall of the orphanage, where a woman was sitting. The woman had a short bob-cut, and a noticeable burn scar on her left cheek. She was smiling while knitting something, seemingly in her own world.

This woman was the owner of this orphanage, and Kane Qur’s wife. Joie Fuego.

Magnolia hugged her, snapping her back to this world. She patted the little girl on the head. Magnolia first asked how Zeki was doing, very concerned.

“He’s just lying down, no need to worry. How was your day?”

Putting the concern aside, she chose to believe the person who was her role model. With a large grin on her face, she told about the flower garden and her new friend, Ymeno. Joie listened closely, happy to hear that she had a very nice day, storm aside.

A child ran towards Joie. Tightly holding his finger. There was a cut across his index finger, he was holding it down as to not bleed as much. Joie held a hand against her chin as she inspected it closely.

“Close your eyes, I will fix it.”

Just like that, the boy closed his eyes. Joie placed her right index and middle finger against the cut. The glow of a green aura slowly enveloped her. The cut quickly disappeared. The boy opened his eyes again.

With a thank you, he ran off. Magnolia was taken away by her role model’s aura. She felt special, as she was the only one who knew what it was.

‘One day, I’ll manifest one too!’ She thought to herself.

The girl said goodbye to the knitting woman. Entering her room, it was quite a mess. There were blueprints for several ideas she had lying around, alongside a lot of plushies. She jumped into a bean bag that was placed in the corner of her room. Holding MR. shark, her favorite plush.

She promptly fell asleep, exhaustion hitting her after this eventful day. Goodnight, Magnolia.

 

To be continued