Days later, Liscia had mostly managed to blend into the household.
Though she still occasionally disappeared for certain things. Usually to buy books for herself, apparently.
Meanwhile...
I stood in front of a massive white mansion.
The same mansion we visited over twenty-one years ago. Only now, there were more flowers than trees surrounding it.
"I think Hinami likes tulips."
Anathasia stood beside a patch of tulips lining the cobblestone pathway, slightly hunched over as she gently brushed her fingers across the petals.
"I could be wrong..."
"I'm pretty sure Noah's the one who likes tulips."
She instantly turned toward me with an incredulous look.
"That guy has a thing for flowers?"
I nodded while walking over beside her, my eyes drifting toward the tulips.
"He doesn't look like it, but yeah."
"He likes flowers. Especially tulips."
"That athletic-looking guy who used to come over just to raid our fridge?"
"Yup. That one."
"Talking bad about me in my own yard, really?"
The two of us turned the moment a familiar voice sounded behind us.
Walking down the stairs of the oversized porch-
-was Noah himself.
Older now.
More mature-looking than before.
Yet somehow still unmistakably Noah.
Resting against one arm was a baby girl with dark hair quietly looking around.
Sayaka, if I remembered correctly.
"Long time no see," I casually raised a hand toward him. "You look old."
"Well no kidding, genius. I'm just a guy." He shrugged while walking closer.
Meanwhile, baby Sayaka completely ignored Anathasia.
Her tiny hands immediately reached toward me instead while Noah was still approaching.
Anathasia froze.
Then slowly turned back toward the tulips again, shoulders slightly slumped.
"...Tsk. Even your daughter likes him."
"How's that my fault?"
Noah merely rolled his eyes before stopping beside me as Sayaka wrapped her tiny fingers around my index finger.
He let out a long sigh.
"Seriously..."
"Does this have something to do with you being a god?"
I glanced at him, brow raised slightly.
"Did Hinami tell you?"
He gently shook his head before scoffing quietly.
"I'm Hinami's husband. Or consort. Whatever they call it."
"So obviously I know."
His gaze shifted toward Anathasia, who was now silently poking at the tulips while muttering to herself after being ignored by Sayaka.
"Even the part about your wife supposedly being the source of everything or whatever."
"I didn't bother digging too deeply into it." He shrugged again.
"Finding out my best friend of almost fifty years turned out to be some incomprehensible cosmic entity is already mind-breaking enough."
Then his eyes shifted back toward me.
A faint smile tugged at the corner of his lips.
"But even with all that..."
"I still see the same idiot who kept everything to himself because he didn't want to burden everyone else."
"So honestly?"
"It doesn't matter whether you're some cosmic horror or not."
"You're still Kyle Ruzen Abe in the end, aren't you?"
Something about those words made me stop.
My eyes slowly drifted toward Anathasia as she wandered along the tulip patches beside the cobblestone path, absentmindedly running her fingers across the flowers.
A quiet laugh escaped me as I processed what Noah had just said.
I shook my head slightly, letting out a slow breath.
At that moment, I could feel the warmth of the sun against my skin.
The occasional breeze brushing past us while we stood in the middle of the Fuyukawa estate's stone pathway.
"That's true," I finally admitted after a long pause.
"No matter what I am..."
"...it doesn't really change the fact that I'm still the same guy you used to steal snacks from back then."
I shot him a quick glance afterward.
"Yeah?"
Noah's eyes widened briefly before he suddenly burst into laughter.
Even Sayaka paused to stare at him for a second before immediately going back to playing with my finger again.
"I swear..." he muttered between snickers.
"You seriously never forget the dumbest things."
"I made those for my midnight snacks, y'know..."
Eventually, Noah's laughter began to die down.
His gaze drifted into the distance, expression softening slightly while Sayaka's quiet baby noises filled the brief silence between us.
"Even so..."
He looked down toward the baby in his arms, gently poking her soft cheeks until a tiny laugh escaped her.
The smile on his face became more genuine afterward.
"...it's still hard to believe we used to do dumb stuff back then."
My eyes settled back on him as he continued.
"Competing with each other just for the sake of competing..."
"Dealing with stupid rumors..."
"And you treating your birthdays like they were inconveniences instead of something worth celebrating."
I paused.
My brows furrowed slightly.
"No I didn't...?"
"You absolutely did." Noah immediately shot back.
"Like seriously, who buys a whetstone for their own birthday gift?"
"Anathasia's knives were getting dull, so obviously I'd-"
The words abruptly died in my throat.
I slowly looked away afterward, one hand covering my mouth while staring toward the ground in thought.
Right then, Anathasia stopped beside me while casually holding a freshly plucked tulip.
"He's not wrong," she chimed in smoothly.
"You did treat your birthdays like inconveniences back then."
I glanced up toward her, brows knitting together.
"...Did you just pluck one of Noah's tulips?"
Anathasia instantly froze.
The two of us slowly turned toward Noah behind us.
He still held Sayaka in his arms, his expression completely unchanged.
"I spent three years taking care of those, you know...?"
"Sorry..."
I immediately stepped away from Anathasia a little, both hands raised while grinning toward Noah.
"I didn't pluck it. She did."
"That's pretty obvious already..." Noah muttered flatly.
Meanwhile, Anathasia silently stared at me, still holding the tulip in her hand.
Then she quickly cleared her throat before gently letting the flower float back toward the patch.
The stem slowly repaired itself in real time.
Petals reattached.
Roots settled back into place.
Until the tulip stood there once again as though it had never been touched at all.
Anathasia turned back toward Noah afterward before casually giving him a thumbs up.
"See?"
"Good as new."
The two of us stared at her.
My expression flattened completely while Noah merely looked flabbergasted for a moment before a dry laugh escaped him.
He shook his head again.
"...You guys really are something else..."
Meanwhile, Sayaka simply stared up at him before suddenly grabbing his face with both tiny hands and squishing his cheeks for absolutely no reason.
Anathasia crossed her arms before shooting me a quick glance.
"What?"
"It's fixed, isn't it?"
"...Must be convenient having reality obey whatever you want it to be."
She tilted her head toward me as though she genuinely didn't understand the question.
-
A little later.
After Noah managed to put Sayaka to sleep and leave her with their caretaker, the three of us eventually got inside one of the cars parked outside the estate.
Apparently, we were heading toward the main headquarters of Shuishuo International Conglomerates in Kyoto.
Anathasia and I quietly stared out the windows as the scenery gradually shifted around us.
Country roads.
Rice fields stretching endlessly into the distance.
Small towns occasionally passing by beneath the afternoon sky.
"That said..."
The two of us turned toward Noah, who sat across from us with both arms draped lazily over the limo's backrest.
"I was actually pretty close to posting those old photos of you from high school and college if you ended up being even a day later."
My body instantly stiffened.
I frowned toward him immediately.
"Dude..."
"You still have more?"
"Why didn't you send all of them to me??"
Anathasia suddenly spoke up beside me.
She was already holding her phone while staring at Noah with suspiciously intense interest.
I slowly turned toward her.
The moment our eyes met, she immediately froze before awkwardly looking away instead.
"I mean..."
She lightly cleared her throat.
"...tourist locations, y'know?"
"Tourist attractions and stuff."
"Not..."
"...not your old pictures or anything..."
When I continued staring blankly at her, Anathasia immediately went silent.
She casually slipped her phone back into her pocket before whistling to herself while staring out the window instead.
Across from us, Noah slowly shook his head while trying and failing to suppress his laughter.
The two of us immediately shot him matching looks, brows raised.
"What?"
"Yeah," Noah muttered between snickers.
"You guys are still the same idiots I knew back in college."
The two of us paused briefly.
Then turned toward him completely deadpan before replying in perfect unison.
"The biggest dumbass here is calling us idiots, really?"
That immediately broke whatever composure Noah had left. A soft laugh escaped him as he leaned farther back against his seat.
"Seriously..."
"You two still have the exact same energy even now."
He glanced between us again before shaking his head.
"And somehow neither of you look older than twenty."
"Honestly, people would probably assume Fran and Lena are your younger siblings instead."
"We're already getting comments like that, just so you know..." I replied dryly before leaning back against my seat.
Beside me, Anathasia had already turned back toward the window again-
-with her face now dangerously close to sticking outside completely.
Then she suddenly pulled back slightly before opening her palm.
A tiny luminous fragment slowly materialized above it.
"...What's that?"
"It's the Fragment of Continuity."
Anathasia casually flicked the fragment off her palm.
The tiny light instantly disappeared through the open window before she dusted her hands afterward like she had just finished something trivial.
"I don't really need it anymore."
"Especially now that the other three Outer Gods are already here."
She shot me a quick glance, a faint smile tugging at the corner of her lips.
"It can go find a new vessel to permanently embed itself into instead."
"Think of it as traveling alongside me for the ride all this time."
"But now..."
Her gaze drifted back outside the moving car window.
"...it gets to choose its own partner."
"Maybe it'll become one with them completely instead of remaining tied to the Source while the others are already out there making names for themselves."
A brief pause followed before she continued more casually:
"Basically, it gets to become an independent First Outer God of Continuity instead of just riding on my authority."
Then, just like that, she sat back properly against her seat before patting her lap lightly.
"Anyways,"
"Let's go visit Hinami."