Chapter 9: Relief, A Warning / Akari And The Twins!

“What the hell was that? That was some lovecraft kinda shit right there! Jeez. I guess he technically is infinitely more powerful than even those gods. Or the thing that’s above even those. I’m not surprised that it can happen. I’m surprised that it did happen. Why the hell am I still sane? That doesn’t seem like something a human should be able to process.” Rai said

“It’s because you learned magic. Greatly increases your tolerance for headaches. Not that it helps me much. For example, what just happened is a headache.” Akari said, rushing over

“GAH!” Rai said, surprised

“Oh, hey Akari. When did you get back?” Rai asked

“A few minutes ago. I was getting my new kids adjusted to the guest room when the entirety of reality started to fall apart. I’m pretty sure that freaked the fuck out of almost any living thing that understands what the heck was going on. What the hell happened? The only times this ever happens is when Evan talks about certain subjects, what did you ask him? What did he tell you?” Akari asked, agitated, energetic and concerned.

“Um. He started talking about the time he both didn’t and did lose his memory? I’m not exactly sure. It has something to do with the reason he hates omniscience, I think.” Rai said

“Oh. Yep. That’ll do it. Thankfully it didn’t have to do with lime.” Akari said, literally collapsing in exhaustion and relief

“Damn, that was worrying.” Akari said

“What do you mean by it having to do with lime?” Rai asked

“Oh. Right. I guess it isn’t really all that well known to people, or at least people usually just treat it as a story and think nothing more of it. It’s probably pretty damn well known, actually.” Akari said

“What?” Rai asked

“Mhmm. So. Listen to what I say very, very carefully. What I am about to say is not a joke, and not something I’m saying to scare you. The god has, on multiple occasions, shattered and destroyed reality. He has killed a near infinite number of living things. Thankfully, he hasn’t made any species extinct because of how he broke it, though. He split each earth and other stuff into infinite copies of itself which became new dimensions, layered on top of each other in reality. That’s the EASY explanation. Read the story called the god and the demon. Not the book, just the story itself.” Akari said

“Oh, I remember that one. My mom told me that story, every night.” Rai said

“I’m not surprised. Apparently the people around Evan spread it almost infinitely into the conscious and subconscious of every being in existence. As a warning. The one thing that nothing, nobody, in any way, should ever even think of coming close to attempting to do. And that is making an enemy of god through the mistreatment or any similar negative action towards lime. Everyone that does, who isn’t immediately forgiven by lime, is killed. Body, soul, existence itself, yet, they are also put in a state of infinite torture and hell at the same time. Luckily, she only knows about the killing bit. She also, in most cases, doesn’t have enough time to speak before the offender is killed. I may be bad when I snap, yes. I admit that. But god is god. And despite his name being Evan. God is NOT always good. If he kills someone horribly, something the kind person we know as Evan would never do to such an extent, we refer to him as the god. Never as Evan. At least try not to. Evan's the nice one. Some who survived prefer to call god the devil in those cases. The ones who lived through even the tamest phase of his anger, the red mist. That’s often why they call him that, I think. It isn’t exactly wrong to call his smile a personification of our idea of the devil itself. Okay, you get it, right? Please, please, please, tell me you do. Even I don’t want to fuck with him when he’s like that.” Akari said, alarmed, startled, frightened, traumatized, any of the above seemed fitting.

“Am I really that bad? Jeez. Thanks. I actually didn’t really realize that. Usually I zone out in my anger.” Evan said, walking downstairs.

“Didn’t you fall asleep? Wait, why do I know about that?” Rai asked

“Forget about it, Rai, reality was destabilized. Almost anything could have happened. Thankfully, according to this, the only stuff that was affected was in this room. And barely affected at that. I think that memory was the only thing, other than Evan himself, that destabilized. That, and you passed out for an entire day. It’s probably due to everything we have set up in here. This was probably the safest place, other than his room in the tower, for him to destabilize.” Akari said, reading a little gadget

“Um. Why exactly do you hang out with him, if he’s so dangerous? To me he’s family, but what is he to you?” Rai asked

“Oh. Don’t get me wrong, Evan is probably my best friend, other than lime. The one, I heavily emphasized this point, that’s scary is the god. Not Evan. He, again, can’t really control destabilization. Also, there’s a few other things, I guess. First, he is harmless against you if you aren’t mean to him or lime. Second, if reality does fuck up, no matter how close or far you are from him, you are dead. Third, Evan is not god. Well, he is god, he isn’t The god. In fact, The god isn’t necessarily bad, either. He’s basically Evan, but super cruel to his enemies. It’s weird. Inconsistent, too. But that’s because the god kinda destabilized reality. It screwed up how he’s referred to. That, or we called him Evan out of habit.” Akari said

“Um. I’m confused.” Rai said

“And I’m not surprised. Akari, just leave it.This isn't my story. It’s not something people need to know. Let’s go back to that slice of life stuff.” Evan said

“Sounds good to me. I already chose to forget what happened. I’m happy here. I’ve found what I was searching for. Anyways, I’ll go put the consoles upstairs.” Rai said

"I'll come with. I have to duplicate them for you." Evan said

They went upstairs

“Here you go, set it up however you want. Use the card if you wanna buy games or something. Get me some fun ones, too.” Evan said, duplicating the consoles

“Sounds good to me.” Rai said, setting everything up

“I’ll go check on my kids. They're asleep right now, but still.... I remember this feeling from when I was raising Akane. It feels… right, like, right right. You get it?” Akari asked

“Yeah. How old are they, by the way?” Evan asked

“Both around 10 months old, I think. Twins. Boy and girl. Actually, once you check up on lime, come in. It’s really cool.” Akari said

Evan laughed joyfully

“It’s great to see you’re all grown up now.” Evan said

“I know, right? I mean, look at this body.” Akari said

“That’s not what I meant. I’ve known you since you were what, 15? It’s been eons or something since then. Yet you still act childish most of the time. I’ve seen it on you before, long ago, and I see it on lime every day. That’s a mother’s smile, Akari. You aren’t that little kid anymore. Regardless of looks, that body suits you a bit better now.” Evan said

“Sappy. What have we agreed on about being sappy!” Akari said, tearing up.

“Jeez. Let’s go, then.” Evan said, pushing Akari towards the stairs

They went into Evan and limes room, and Evan took care of everything she needed, before leaving her, so she could sleep.

“Despite your looks and your carefree personality, you’re actually pretty damn reliable.” Akari said

“I’ve saved multiple worlds.” Evan said

“And destroyed billions.” Akari said

“One thing you may not know about that, is that I restored all of them. Everything back to exactly how it had been before. And I restabilize reality if ever it gets destabilized naturally. If it’s my fault, all I need is lime. I'm the one who protects reality, believe it or not.” Evan said

“You wha?” Akari said

“You heard me. Didn’t you want to show off your kids?” Evan asked

“Yeah! They felt special. To me, at least. Compared to every other child, they shined in my eyes.” Akari said

“Interesting. Why do twins always seem to have something special? Yours especially.” Evan said, as they peeked inside

“Oh? They do?” Akari asked

“Mhmm. The ability to make you feel happy.” Evan said

“Oh. That’s indeed a-“ Akari started

“Oh, right. And the good and evil concept inside their body will crystallize with their core when it forms. If it’s a minor category, it’s still going to be pretty cool.” Evan said

“I’m not letting them condense a core or practice magic at that level. If they figure it out, let them play with the tiny fire on their own. The only ones I think would be okay are probably light and wind. I’m not going to teach them anything myself, though.” Akari said

“One of them already knows wind. I don’t think she realizes it.” Evan said.

“Oh? I wonder.” Akari said

“I kinda wanna work with them as they grow. Make them think it’s kinda normal, so they don’t do it. I’m worried the girl will get too attatched to her brother, or vice versa, however...” Evan said

“No child of mine would be….that weird…oh....right. Akane.” Akari started

“See. I’m a little worried. The girl seems fine, luckily. Quiet and weak, though. Reminds me of lime, when she had no power at all. Back then she was fine at first… ah, whatever. She’s more just weak than fragile. Still… no magic, right?” Evan asked

“Depends. I want them to have the power to protect themselves, but..” Akari said

“I have a patch that I make my kids wear. It’s protective.” Evan said

“Huh? That goes against my point.” Akari said

“No, I know. Normal family. I get it. It just has stuff like their information, but works like my jade slips.” Evan said

“That’s the talisman you make to detect good or evil, right?” Akari asked

“Yeah. I made a version for Renji, but if you don’t have mana you can’t see it flash different colors, so it can't help him much. I want to give each of them one to tap against anyone they think might be a bad person, and teach them what the colors mean.” Evan said

“Well, what do they mean?” Akari asked

“No change means neutral. Yellow means not that good of a person. Orange means bad person. Red means a very very bad person. Pitch black means that they are disturbed. For good...let’s see. For helpful civilian it glows a little bit, and the glow is green. For decent person it glows a decent amount, and it’s color is blue. For good and upright people it glows bright pink. For an upstanding incredibly nice person, it turns clear, almost invisible, and a holy light seems to glow from the center. If someone is trying to use something that would normally trick these devices, it becomes a solid neon lime green color, and a lime symbol appears. We get alerts for anything past yellow and for a lime alert. There are others, but they aren’t important.” Evan said

“Clear, with a holy light, means one of the best people in the world?” Akari asked

“Yea.” Evan said

“Remind me what limes original core looked like, again?” Akari asked

“Oh. It was a nearly invisible gem, with a holy light shining with the power of a billion suns coming from the middle. The light was warm, rather than blinding.” Evan said

“Again. You don’t see the connection? Jesus Christ, how the hell does someone get this attached to something? Limes core and the representation of absolute good on the jade slip thing are the exact same.” Akari said

“Huh? Oh!!! They are!!!! I never noticed that.” Evan said

“And this is the god an infinite number of people worship? Seriously? You know that we still have fan girls come to the tower, right? Hell, even some dudes, too.” Akari said, sighing

“Why? I look plain.” Evan said

“You have had many different looks. And this look you have? This isn’t all that plain. I’m just glad you didn’t choose a body that looks like gin. There would be way too many people questioning you.” Akari said

“I don’t have a body like that.” Evan said

“You don’t have to use one of your other bodies. You can do what I’m doing. I do admit it’s uncomfortable.” Akari said

“Here, I’ll fix that. I can make that a real body you can switch between comfortably.” Evan said, snapping his fingers

“....if you could just make it real why not do that for yourself?” Akari asked, slapping her forehead with the palm of her hand, sighing

“Because I just came up with the idea a few seconds ago!!” Evan said, smiling, and floating in the air

“I admit that it is a lot better. And you’re floating again…. I guess it’s fine for you to float. I’ll just tell the kids you’re a special case. Both in the head and in this context...” Akari said

“Why not use an example like, uncle Evan is able to do special things, like… what’s your daughters name?” Evan asked

”Kuro. Definitely Kuro.” Akari said

“The boy?” Evan asked

“Hm. Aha! Akihiro!” Akari said

“Guh!!” Evan Guh-ed

“Kidding. Hmm, how about Gray?” Akari said

“That… sounds a lot better than I thought from you..... Why do you name your children after colors?” Evan asked

“Hm. I don’t know. Why do you name yours after food?” Akari asked

“Ah. Crud, you’re right.” Evan said

“I know. We’re unoriginal.” Akari said

“Let’s wait for lime so we can get some advice. I actually think it’s fine, but you never know.” Evan said

“True, she did approve of you naming them after food. Specifically after fruits.” Akari said

“Yeah, how did you notice that? Oh! Rin’s not actually named after a food, by the way. We liked the name a lot. Like a lot. It has such a nice Rin-g to it!” Evan said, asking to be put into a chokehold by the narrator

“So she’s not named after an apple? Renji is named after an orange, right?” Akari asked

“Yeah. Rin does fit into our fruits naming scheme, but it wasn’t planned. Pretty lucky, actually.” Evan said

“No kidding. Seriously, what is it with you and fruits? Is there anything special?” Akari asked

“Yeah. Lime.” Evan said

“Her name isn’t actually lime, though, right? It’s… hold on a sec….Tourmaline. Takes me back. I remember back then fondly. What would you call them? The good ol’ days or something?” Akari asked

“No idea what the heck that is. But I do admit that I am prone to nostalgia.” Evan said

“Your nostalgia is machines, isn’t it?” Akari asked

“Well, yes and no. It’s both magic and machine.” Evan said

“Why’s that?” Akari asked

“Because I created magic. Back when I was tinkering with various ideas and stuff.” Evan said

“What? That…..I can’t find a file on that. Oh, wait, right. It’s that. Now it makes sense. For some reason, things stopped working for a moment.” Akari said, shaking her head

“Akari, how long has it been since you slept?” Evan asked, looking at her eyes

“Uh. Hold up…. around three months.” Akari said

“Ok. Akari, I think it may be sleep deprivation. You are in a mortal body, in a world that wasn’t made for immortals. This isn’t the lab, nor the tower.” Evan said

“What? Most of that time I was in the lab. Oh. According to this the human body works best with… okay, got it. You’re right. I’d tab it, but all the pages close when I go to sleep. I’ll bookmark it instead.” Akari said

“You really are like a human computer, aren’t you.” Evan said

“Yeah, Haruto even tried to use me to play games. He failed, obviously. It was fun letting him try. It...was.” Akari said, sadly

“I’m still working on it. There really isn’t much to do, except wait. Let’s get some rest, you look like you need it. Good night, Akari.” Evan said, returning to his room

She went into the room she was staying in and slept peacefully