Moyako…
Though this was the first time she had walked into his home, for some reason it felt familiar to her. The atmosphere of the house reminded her of the home she had back on Terra.
As she looked around, her eyes drifted over to the living room and fell upon what looked like a-
“Is that a TV?!” she exclaimed.
“Uh…yeah,” Marcus answered, somewhat surprised by her excited response.
She quickly rushed over to it to examine it and said, “How did you manage to get one of these in this world? Where did you find one?”
“I didn’t. I built it myself using my knowledge of electronics from Terra and using the materials in this world,” he said, smirking as he seemed pleased to see someone appreciate Terran technology in this world.
“Does it...play movies?”
“It does, and I managed to recreate some of the movies from Terra based on my memories and put them onto discs, kind of like DVDs, but not exactly because I don’t know how to replicate that technology,” he said as he sat down on the couch next to Felkin.
Selene, who was confused by her immediate recognition of what the TV was, stared at her with her mouth hung open, struggling to speak.
“Is there a problem?” Moyako asked her.
“N-No, I’m just a little shocked by how familiar you are with all of this. I knew that you were Terran like Marcus and Thalia, but to see your reactions like this was...a little odd,” she explained and Moyako sighed.
“I see…I guess I can’t blame you then.”
Thalia, who was busy putting a plate in the kitchen sink, walked into the living room and noticed her as she waved and said, “Hello again!”
“H-Hi,” Moyako waved back.
Seeing this, Marcus grew impatient and said, “You said that you wanted to speak with me, yes? Do you think we should take this somewhere else, or…?”
She then turned around completely to face him, sitting on the floor in seiza style, and switched to Japanese as she said, “No. That won’t be necessary.”
Marcus’s eyebrows rose as he understood what she was getting at. No one else in the house should be able to understand Japanese aside from the two of them, which would maintain the privacy of their conversation.
“I see… Well then, what is it you wanted to discuss with me?”
Hearing them switch from English to Japanese confused Selene as she quickly looked between the two of them, dumbfounded and lost.
“W-What, what is going on?” she said but Moyako ignored her while Marcus raised his hand and told her to simply be patient.
“I wanted to…share how I feel about the situation between the two of us, and especially towards our agreement about the tournament,” Moyako stated plainly.
“Are you talking about the bet between you and I, about if I lose, I help you, if I win, you leave me alone?”
“Y-Yes, that one.”
“What about it?” Marcus asked in an annoyed tone, adding a hint of anger to his voice which made her flinch.
“If I’m being honest, I don’t want to fight you. I don’t want to see you get hurt by me, even if it means that is what it takes to bring you back home,” she said as her voice dipped slightly.
Hearing this, Marcus’s eyes widened slowly and he let out an exasperated sigh.
“Why should it matter to you if I get hurt in our battle? The arena would heal whatever damage is done between the two of us anyhow-,” he tried to say but was quickly cut off.
“It matters to me! I don’t…I don’t want to see you get hurt by me because…because you matter to me, you are family to me,” she said, but Marcus didn’t seem to respond well to that.
He leaned forward, glared at her, and said, “I don’t know where you get off trying to consider me family when I don’t even know you. I have no idea where you even came from or why you claim to know me as well as you do, but to consider me as a part of your family is far from the truth.”
Feeling as if she had been stabbed in the heart by his words, a gasp left her and she said, “I…I can’t believe you would say something like that? Haven’t you figured it out yet? Are you really so oblivious?”
His expression did not change as he waited for her to elaborate on what she meant.
She laughed humorlessly as she said, “You know, when I was still a young girl, I might have been four years old at the time, but I was still living with mother when I saw the news come on around the time you had disappeared. It must have been when you came to this world, but you were fighting Kayron at the time when he took your sister. That man’s rampage was so brutal and horrific that it became an international incident. Someone was recording your fight with him and it was the first time I ever saw you outside of photos of you with her.”
Marcus’s expression began to soften very slowly just as Thalia sat on the floor next to the couch, leaning back on her hands and fidgeting with the carpet using her feet to pass the time.
Selene, however, had decided to take a seat on the couch in between Marcus and Thalia as she appeared frustrated that she was being left out of the conversation, but said nothing to voice her complaints about it.
“You saw my fight with Kayron on the news?” he asked, somehow bothered by the idea of having his identity shared around the world.
“I did, and I’m not sure there is anyone in the world who didn’t see you at the time, but does that really matter anymore?”
“No, I guess not.”
“When my mother saw your face on the news, she froze up as if she couldn’t believe what was happening. She was terrified for your safety because you had been attacked by that…that bastard Kayron. She wanted to see that you return to her safely, and to be together with you again,” she said, and as she did, she noticed a brief glow of golden light flash in his eyes.
At the same time, the TV behind her turned on and Marcus grabbed the remote from underneath his seat as he grumbled and shut it off.
Could that just have been a coincidence…?
“I…I know that you said you wanted to move on, but I just can’t accept that. Which is why…,” she said as she snapped her fingers and her sheathed katana appeared on the floor in front of her out of a burst of fire and dropped into her hands as she continued, “I want to make one last offer to you, as a way to avoid any violence with you if you would hear it.”
Marcus looked at her with uncertainty in his eyes as he asked, “What exactly are you suggesting?”
“If you still feel so strongly about wanting to move on and simply live in this world, then in your next match, take this sword from me and use it to win your fight against Ares. Show me that you are willing to go to any length to move on, even if it means having to face me to do it. However, if you decide not to take it, that will tell me that you are conceding. Since I know you have other reasons for winning this competition, namely getting information from Ruvick if you win the entire contest, then if you concede to me, I will forfeit my fight with you and we can both get what we want.”
His expression became pained as he thought over it for a moment before he asked, “Why are you willing to go this far for me? What am I to you, that you would risk following me into this world, endure so much, and wait two centuries for me to arrive, just to bring me back? Why would you do all of this, just for me?”
He really doesn’t know…?
Moyako smiled sadly as she said, “For someone who was said to be so smart, you are kind of stupid.”
His expression stayed the same, ignoring the insult as he said, “Just tell me already.”
“Marcus, you are-”
Selene…
She was getting agitated by the nature of this conversation between the two of them as, not only could she not understand what was being said, she couldn’t intervene if either of their emotions went overboard and they started shouting at one another.
The entire time they were talking, both of their expressions changed so extremely that she felt like she was missing some very crucial information.
Thalia on the other hand, thought it appeared that she wasn’t following along with the conversation, it looked like every now and then she was picking up on some words being said.
“Hey, you’re from Terra right? Can you understand what the two of them are saying?” she asked her.
Thalia looked up at her with a frown and said, “Of course not. I only know how to speak English. While I am pretty smart and I do have a decent memory, I’m not a genius like my brother who can speak six different languages and has a perfect memory.”
“W-Well, it looked like you were listening into what they were saying, am I wrong?” Selene asked hopefully.
Thalia looked at her, unsure of how to answer as she said, “W-Well…I used to watch some Japanese TV shows, and memorized a few key words and phrases, but I’m no where near fluent like they are. I can’t just…”
Her voice trailed off as she stared at Moyako as she went pale, her eyes widened in shock, and she looked up at her brother, then back at Moyako again and said, “I…I can’t believe it.”
“What?! What did you just hear?” Selene asked frantically, hoping for an answer but Thalia seemed too stunned to answer.
But just as Thalia seemed like she was about to answer her, Marcus said something back to Moyako which caused her to stare back at him with incredulous anger as she stood up, spouted off a few words of Japanese that felt suspiciously like she was cursing him out, and said, “You better not forget the offer I made with you Marcus.”
She then walked out of the living room, opened the front door, and slammed it shut furiously as she left.
“What just happened?” Selene asked, but Marcus shook his head, brushing her off.
“I don’t know what her deal is either, but don’t worry about it. Let’s just get going already,” he said, to which Thalia stood up suddenly, staring at him in disbelief as if she couldn’t recognize the person she was looking at.
“Why are you looking at me like that for?” Marcus asked her, confused by her sudden change in attitude.
“Uh…n-no reason. Just forget about it. I must have misheard something that made me think of something else. You guys have fun...I’m gonna go to my room,” she said as she ran off and closed the door behind her.
“That was...strange,” Marcus said.
“Yeah, but now that all of that is taken care of…,” Selene said, prodding him to hurry things along.
“Yes, yes. Let’s get going,” he said with a chuckle as he opened the door to let her out and the two of them left for their date.
Thalia…
She must have misheard what Moyako had said…because there’s no way that what she said was the truth.
Her knowledge of the language had to be flawed for her to interpret what they were saying towards the end of their conversation.
Because otherwise, her brother’s reaction wouldn’t make any sense!
Why would he dismiss her words so easily as if they meant nothing to him?
How could he have heard ‘Anata wa watashi no otosan’ and just blown it off like it didn’t matter to him?
Did she really hear that correctly, or did it mean something else? Because if she did, then this meant that her older brother was really Moyako’s father.