The door closed behind her with a soft click as the latch slid into place.
Miyabi stood in the entryway and rubbed the tips of her boots against the doormat, brushing off the dust clinging to them.
Then, with practiced ease, she took out a pair of slippers decorated with little foxes, slipped off her short boots, put the slippers on, and walked into the living room.
The lights were still on, warm yellow light spilling through the doorway.
Miyabi pushed open the half-closed door and saw a beautiful woman around thirty years old wearing a white brocade kimono meant for lounging at home.
She sat gracefully on the sofa with a book in her hands.
Even while alone, she maintained an air of elegance and composure.
Hearing movement by the entrance, she looked up.
Only after seeing who had arrived did a gentle smile appear on her face.
“Miyabi, you’re home?”
“I’m home, Mother.”
Miyabi visibly relaxed, the corners of her lips lifting into a small smile.
Kagura Kirisaki was the wife of Hoshimi Souichirou, head of the Hoshimi family, and Miyabi’s mother.
Time had left few obvious traces on her appearance.
She had the same beautiful burgundy eyes and fluffy fox ears as Miyabi, though the corners of her eyes tilted slightly downward, giving her an ever-present gentle expression.
Kirisaki rose and walked over, her cloth-covered feet making no sound against the floor.
She stopped in front of Miyabi and gently smoothed a few stray strands of hair from her forehead before patting her head.
Miyabi seemed to enjoy the touch, unconsciously leaning into her mother’s hand.
“You came home very late today.”
“Mm.
There was a Companion Hollow disaster in the Janus Quarter, so I went to deal with it.”
Miyabi held her mother’s hand as she answered.
“Were you hurt?”
“Don’t worry.
I’m fine.”
Miyabi paused, then glanced around the living room.
“Where’s Father?”
“Him…”
Kirisaki’s beautiful brows furrowed slightly, a hint of complaint entering her voice.
“He hasn’t come home in three days.
He doesn’t think about me at all, leaving me alone in this house.
Sometimes you’re gone too, Miyabi.
Your mother gets lonely, you know.”
Miyabi nodded slightly and smiled as she defended her father.
“Maybe it’s because Hollow incidents have been happening so frequently lately.
The municipal government must be busy.
It’s normal for Father to get tied up with work sometimes.”
“All right, enough about that.
You haven’t eaten yet, have you?
Go take a bath first.
I’ll heat up dinner while you’re washing.”
“Mm.
Thank you.”
Miyabi smiled and nodded before turning toward the bathroom.
Inside, she removed her Executive Officer jacket and the clothes underneath, then stood in front of the mirror and checked her body.
Other than a few light scrapes on her arm, she had no injuries.
Only then did Miyabi fill the bathtub with hot water and sink into it.
The heat soaked into her skin, gradually tinting it faintly red.
She let out a long breath and stared up at the ceiling under the warm light.
“Cael Veyne…”
For some reason, he had been on her mind.
Miyabi quietly murmured his name, then closed her eyes slightly as if trying to recall something.
Steam condensed across the glass, covering the mirror in a thin layer of mist and blurring the girl’s reflection into a soft outline.
Images slowly surfaced in her mind as well.
Broken stone.
Ruins.
Scorched earth.
Thick, burning air.
And…
A young man with black hair and black eyes.
Miyabi had killed many Dullahans in previous battles.
To her, an Ethereal like Dullahan wasn’t supposed to pose any real threat.
And yet, this time, even though Dullahan had clearly died, it had somehow triggered an explosion.
She had assumed that shattering the blue-white sphere would stop whatever was about to happen.
Clearly, she’d been wrong.
She’d been badly injured.
Then the civilian she’d rescued earlier had thrown himself into danger to pull her from the rubble.
He’d carried her on his back while fleeing, all the while saying strange things to himself.
That he’d known her for a long time.
That he knew things about her…
Miyabi searched through her memories.
She was certain that the black-haired, black-eyed young man had been a complete stranger when they first met.
“Was it a dream…?”
Miyabi murmured.
She couldn’t explain it.
When she’d finally lost consciousness on the young man’s back, she’d expected everything to end there.
But when she opened her eyes again, she found herself completely unharmed, standing on Fifty-Sixth Street in the Janus Quarter.
Familiar street vendors had been calling out around her.
She was even still holding a half-eaten piece of honeydew.
Then, just as in the dream, the Hollow disaster began.
She entered the Hollow.
She rescued civilians.
She encountered the young man being chased by an Ethereal and saved him.
Everything unfolded exactly as it had in the dream.
Except this time, the young man wanted to follow her.
He wanted to see her fight.
Miyabi had been afraid.
Hesitant.
She was worried that the events from the dream would happen again.
He was only an ordinary person without even the slightest Ether aptitude.
If he hadn’t encountered her, and if she hadn’t given him an anti-corruption serum, he might already have died inside the Hollow.
And yet, that tiny change was exactly what prevented the tragedy from repeating.
Dullahan could explode.
But this time, she severed the Ether flow.
Dullahan could revive.
But this time, she killed it again with a single slash.
And all of it had only been possible because of the young man’s warning.
Without him, the tragedy from that dream might have happened again.
Miyabi couldn’t understand what had occurred.
Was it some unique property of that particular Hollow?
Or had she somehow triggered something without realizing it…
And traveled back through time?
She raised one hand and examined it beneath the bathroom light.
Years of sword training and constant battles against Ethereals inside Hollows meant that her hands weren’t as soft as those of an ordinary young woman.
They were slightly rough, with hardened calluses across her palms and fingertips.
“…”
Miyabi felt like she was letting her imagination run too far.
Time travel?
How could something like that happen in reality?
“Miyabi?
Are you almost done?”
Her mother’s voice came from outside the bathroom.
Miyabi immediately snapped out of her thoughts.
Only then did she realize she’d been soaking in the tub for quite a while.
Even the water had started to cool.
“Almost.”
Miyabi stood up from the bathtub.
Water droplets slid down her smooth shoulders, tracing a gentle curve before falling back into the water.
After a quick rinse, she changed into comfortable clothes for wearing around the house.
When she left the bathroom, Kirisaki had already reheated dinner.
She had also prepared a small plate of sliced honeydew, each piece pierced with a toothpick and cut to exactly the right size for Miyabi to eat in one bite.
“Honeydew…”
It was Miyabi’s favorite.
“Miyabi?”
Kirisaki suddenly called to her.
“Mm?”
Miyabi looked up and found her mother watching her.
Kirisaki smiled gently and reached over to lightly pinch one of Miyabi’s fox ears.
“You seem to have something on your mind.
Did something happen?
You can tell your mother about it.”
As Miyabi’s mother, Kirisaki had watched her grow from childhood.
No one understood Miyabi better than she did.
From the moment her daughter came home, she’d noticed that something was distracting her.
Miyabi had left her shoes crooked at the entrance.
She’d even lost track of time while taking a bath.
“…”
Miyabi didn’t know where to begin.
Everything that had happened was simply too unbelievable.
She spent quite a while sorting through her thoughts and figuring out how to phrase it before finally speaking.
“Mother…
do you think it’s possible for someone to return to the past?”
“Return…
to the past?”
It really helps the fic grow!