"Mom… Dad…"
Staring blankly at the ceiling, Ais touched her own head, as if still savoring the feeling of her mother's hand stroking her hair in the dream.
"It was a dream… so real…"
Ais understood perfectly well that it had been only a dream—her parents were the parents in her memory. Even the mother in the dream had said as much.
Yet she couldn't help wanting to stay there. Maybe the mom and dad in that place weren't real, but she still wanted to go back.
Curling up, she realized the people who had supported her resolve all these years were in that dream. Thinking that, her will to keep pressing on in reality wavered.
"Those thoughts are dangerous, Ais."
Ais turned her head and found Loki, bare as the day she was born, sitting on the bed watching her.
"Loki. Mind reading."
Ais puffed her cheeks, scolding Loki for peeking into her heart.
"After sealing our divinity, gods can't read minds," Loki yawned. "But with all the time we've had, the shrewd ones can read a child's heart from the surface alone. And yours is a little too obvious."
She brushed off Ais's protest and returned to the point, a faint smile tugging her lips.
"Yesterday, Tsuna sent you into a dream only to ease what's inside you. It wasn't to let you drown in it."
"Loki… mean."
Hearing that, Ais knew she wouldn't get to return to the dream world whenever she liked. The only one who could send her there—Sawada Tsunayoshi—probably wouldn't help her do it again.
"Mean or not, that's how it is."
"If you want to experience it again, then work hard in both worlds, Ais."
Still barefoot, Loki padded to the cabinet to grab clothes. "Oh, right—yesterday Tsuna also told me his growth plan and the reinforcement plan for the others."
"!?"
"Finn, Gareth, and Riveria are included. We didn't talk about you."
Not again?
Ais's eyes widened. During the expedition she'd been stuck on guard duty the whole time and hadn't trained at all. And now, after the expedition, there was a reinforcement plan that didn't include her name? Didn't that mean she'd have no hope of getting stronger for a long while?
Her fresh longing for the dream flipped into a nameless sense of urgency.
She couldn't return to the dream world, and she wasn't on the reinforcement list—would she be the one person standing still?
She couldn't stand that.
"I'm going to find him!"
Before Loki could say a word, Ais flung aside the blanket and stormed out of the room.
Loki pursed her lips and kept getting dressed. "That temperament won't change overnight."
"Still, Ais will be glued to Tsuna for a good long while. If the dream world and new ways to grow are all tied to him, she'll be on him constantly." She didn't intend to stop it—there'd be no stopping it for the next six months anyway, especially with Tsuna leading Finn's reinforcement plan. "I'll leave it to Tsuna. Hope he doesn't get hounded to death."
Just picturing a weary Tsuna showing up at her door made Loki smile. That scene might be even more fun.
Leaving Loki's room, Ais sped toward Sawada Tsunayoshi's quarters.
Having followed Tiona and Tione there before, she knew the way.
Knock, knock, knock!
Turning a corner, she heard knocks and saw Tiona and Tione already at Tsuna's door.
Ais walked over, curious. "Tiona. Tione."
"Oh—morning, Ais."
"You're here to train too?"
The sisters couldn't help smiling. Even after an expedition that had fizzled at the end, Ais still thought first of training—exactly as they knew her.
"Nope," Tiona laughed, shaking her head. "We were going to drag Tsuna out for a walk."
They weren't training fiends like Ais. Besides, their stats had already hit the limit; they only needed more great deeds to consider leveling.
"Ais, from the sound of it—you're here to train with Tsuna?"
"…Mm."
Ais nodded without hiding a thing. "Loki said she talked to him. They're starting a reinforcement plan. My name wasn't mentioned."
No wonder. No wonder.
So that's why she'd come to find Tsuna at dawn.
The sisters' interest piqued at the words "reinforcement plan."
"Ais, what is it exactly?" Tiona asked, cutting straight to the point.
"I don't know. Loki only said my name wasn't on it, so I came here."
The sisters exchanged a look. That was just like Ais—hear "training" and tune out the rest. It hooked their curiosity too.
Tione turned to the door and rapped her knuckles lightly. "Fastest way is to ask the person himself."
Simple and direct.
Footsteps approached from inside.
The door opened, and Sawada Tsunayoshi appeared in sleepwear, blinking at the trio outside.
"You're up early."
"Heehee—since the expedition finally ended, we were going to take you out for a stroll," Tiona chirped.
"Nice thought," Tsuna said with a wry smile, "but me walking out there as I am is… troublesome."
"After an expedition, some of my information needs to be 'leaked.' This is the best time to set my public image, so I should send a puppet in my place. I want the other gods to fixate on me as a summoner—nothing more."
"That's the operation you and Loki discussed," Tiona and Tione recalled—the plan to use Raul's 'leak' as a sacrifice to spread intel about Tsuna. They weren't unreasonable. Given that, they could only sigh and shelve the outing.
"In that case, once Raul's information is out, we'll go out together?"
"That can work," Tsuna nodded. "I just need to prepare a casual disguise."
(End of Chapter)
[Check Out My P@treon For +20 Extra Chapters On All My Fanfics!!][[email protected]/euridome]
[Thank You For Your Support!]