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Fates Parallel Epilogue 2 - Shattered Masks
🕑 Added 2025-02-14 19:03:30 +0000 UTCIt was an odd feeling, being back in the Grand Academy. When Fujikawa Ayumi was last there, Jiaguo didn’t even exist, and now it was the biggest empire in the world. For a long time, she’d felt lost—maybe even forgotten. Her friends had all grown distant, getting married, starting families of their own, or leaving to become founders of the new empire now spanning the continent. Meanwhile, she’d floundered.
The previous shogun hadn’t been interested in her idea to start a more academically focused organization to improve education in Yamato. She had hoped that it would be a good way to take advantage of the magical and spiritual techniques they had brought back from the academy, but Hayakawa Takeda only cared about how it could improve his military power.
By the time Ayumi considered trying to move to Jiaguo herself, the empire had already come to her—absorbing Yamato into itself. With Yoshika crowned empress, and several of her old friends assigned to high roles in the new government, moving to Jiaguo at that point felt...opportunistic.
They probably didn’t remember her anyway—she’d always kept to herself, for the most part.
Yamato had been changing under Jiaguo’s aegis, but it was slow and the installation of the continent-wide teleportation network had been just the impetus Ayumi needed to finally take the plunge. Once she’d moved to Jiaguo, she sought out her old friends, but with only limited success.
Harada Jun and Ishihara Naomi had been the easiest to find—or rather, they’d been quick to find her—and they told her what had become of the others. Fujino and Minami had a nasty breakup, the details of which they were sparse on. Minami was around, but lived outside the city itself and was usually in the company of a very intimidating demon woman, so they didn’t meet often. That only left Izumi Makoto who, as far as she could gather, had just disappeared entirely—last seen in the company of a weird young boy, or possibly girl, maybe a panda. The accounts were bizarrely inconsistent.
It had almost felt like a waste. The academy was nice, but Ayumi was slightly too advanced to be an entry level student, and not nearly advanced enough to be a professor. They had a system for fast-tracking more experienced students, but the lukewarm reception she’d received from her friends left her wondering if it was even worth it. They’d all grown up without her, finding their places in the world and starting new and exciting lives.
Meanwhile, even if her unified cultivation was near the peak of houtian and preserved her appearance at that of her early twenties, she was acutely aware of the fact that she was pushing her forties with no notable accomplishments. Single, no family, few friends, and no prospects.
She’d been ready to just go back home and accept one of her family’s arranged marriages if not for a chance meeting with one of the most interesting people she’d ever encountered.
“Achoo.”
Ayumi blinked at the translucent woman sitting across from her at their table in the outer courtyard of a trendy new cafe near the city center.
“Did you just say ‘achoo’?”
Iseul shook her head.
“No, I sneezed. Someone must have been slandering me. Or venerating my older sister. It’s a superstition. Or perhaps allergies.”
“You’re an elemental. You don’t have allergies. Or sinuses.”
“Yes, that is why I had to say ‘achoo.’”
Ayumi giggled and shook her head.
“Okay, fair enough. Why would someone praising Heian make you sneeze, then?”
The mud elemental pouted and crossed her arms adorably.
“Not praise—venerate. She is a goddess now, after all. Just because she happens to be Yoshika’s daughter. Hmph! I’ll catch up under my own power.”
“So you keep saying, but aren’t you also Yoshika’s daughter?”
“Yes, I’m a hypocrite.”
She said it with a straight face and not a hint of irony. Ayumi laughed again and propped her elbow on the table.
“You’re kind of weird.”
“Yes. I’m aware.”
If Iseul was bothered by that statement, she made no indication of it, drinking her tea impassively—which left visible bubbles floating in her body until they were gradually absorbed.
“Why do you hate your sister so much, anyway?”
The elemental blinked at her, cocking her head in what looked like genuine confusion.
“Hate? No, I love her like a sister—which she is. We had a poor first impression, followed by a rivalry which she swiftly outgrew. As the little sister, it is my duty to exaggerate that animosity. In short—it’s a joke. I’m joking.”
Ayumi just smiled, taking a sip from her own drink—an odd, very sweet tea-based beverage with semi-solid bubbles floating within it. Iseul had insisted on meeting there to try it, because it was ‘ironic.’
“You are so weird!”
“You said that already. While it’s a fairly common assessment of my character, there’s an anomalous quality to the way you say it.”
“Oh?”
Iseul nodded matter-of-factly.
“Yes. You say it like a term of endearment.”
Ayumi smiled and nodded.
“Because it is. I’ve spent most of my life being ‘the quiet one’ or ‘the normal one.’ The person that fades into the background and gets forgotten. You’re different, though. So different, and you don’t let anybody’s expectations get in the way of who you are. I think that’s wonderful—and weird!”
“Thank you. I accept your compliments. However, I reject your self-assessment. You are quite weird yourself.”
“What? No I’m not!”
Iseul leaned forward, her transparent eyes somehow managing to steal Ayumi’s attention and bore into her soul.
“You are. It’s just hidden. You’ve tried to shape yourself to other people’s expectations so long that you don’t remember what’s underneath.”
“I don’t—Iseul, I like you and all, but we haven’t known each other that long. How could you possibly know something like that?”
“Because I was like that too. Only the other way around. I didn’t know who I was, so I tried to be what other people thought I was. I don’t know what’s underneath the facade, but I recognize it. You’re weird too.”
The elemental leaned impossibly far over the table, taking advantage of her liquid form to peer at Ayumi until their faces were just inches apart. Ayumi blushed, as much at the sudden closeness as Iseul’s words. Despite her monotone, she’d managed to make ‘weird’ sound like a compliment as well.
“I really don’t know what you mean. I’m not hiding anything—or at least, I don’t think I am.”
Iseul cocked her head and narrowed her eyes.
“Hmm. There’s a chance I’m wrong. Five to ten percent, maybe.”
“Ten—?!”
“That was another joke. If you really don’t know, then it seems to me like a scientific mystery worth investigating. Would you like to discover how weird you are beneath that facade together?”
Ayumi felt like her ears were on fire. She opened and closed her mouth, trying to find the words while her brain unhelpfully supplied her with things like ‘Izumi would have loved this’ or ‘Wow, she’s even prettier up close.’ Rather than any of those embarrassing things, she babbled the first reasonably normal sounding thing that came to mind, regretting it before the words even left her lips.
“Are you flirting with me?”
Iseul’s expression didn’t change as she cocked her head to the other side.
“Yes. Is it working? Too subtle?”
Ayumi fell into an uncontrollable fit of giggling laughter. It was just too surreal.
“Iseul, you are so incredibly weird!”
“Thank you.”
—-
She awoke the next morning to an unfamiliar ceiling and a soothing warmth enveloping her body. Ayumi blinked a few times in consternation while her sleep-addled brain caught her back up. Then she blushed.
After what had turned out to be a date with Iseul, she’d accepted an invitation into Iseul’s home to ‘explore what lay behind her facade.’ Ironically, that hadn’t been a euphemism, and she’d spent most of the night answering increasingly personal probing questions about her life. Iseul truly was a class of her own, but it had actually been weirdly nice to speak frankly about parts of herself that she’d either never considered or intentionally buried. Iseul was an incredibly good listener, and never judged her about anything.
She’d gotten so into it that by the time they were finished, their interrogation had carried them into the small hours of the morning. Then they...went...to bed.
Ayumi and Iseul hadn’t really done anything more than cuddle, but having a body made of liquid made Iseul a very thorough cuddler. Clothes...were not a barrier, and Iseul didn’t actually have any in the first place—they were just a styled part of her body. An affectation which she promptly dropped once they were relaxing together, and Ayumi wasn’t sure whether to be relieved or disappointed that it had also extended to many of Iseul’s anatomical details.
The elemental was like a living blanket, flowing over Ayumi’s skin with a gentle weight that pressed in from all sides like an all-encompassing hug. She’d been oddly cool to the touch at first, but when Ayumi commented on it, Iseul bragged that her father had been a Magma elemental before casually adjusting her own body temperature to the comforting warmth that Ayumi was presently enjoying.
Iseul was already awake, gazing into Ayumi’s eyes with a faint smile on her face.
“Good morning.”
“Oh, good morning Iseul. How long have you been awake?”
“I don’t sleep.”
So she’d just been lying there, enveloping Ayumi like a blanket and watching her sleep the entire time?
“By the Kami, you’re weird.”
“Mhm. Wanna get breakfast?”
She chuckled.
“Sure. Do I just, uh...?”
Ayumi sat up, and the Iseul-blanket moved with her. Only the elemental’s upper body remained in human form, draping her arms over Ayumi’s shoulders from behind like a semi-human cloak.
“I’ll stay like this for a bit, if you’re okay with it.”
She shrugged.
“Why not?”
Ayumi stood up and stretched with Iseul hanging off of her like a cape, still enveloping her body in a warm hug.
“You’re surprisingly light. No offense, but I thought having a whole person hanging off me would be heavier.”
“My body’s not made of real mud, it’s just an essence manifestation. I can be heavier if I need to be.”
“Makes sense.”
She yawned and made her way into the kitchen, then froze with the realization that they were not alone. Seong Eunae bustled away in the kitchen, humming softly to herself as she cooked a fantastic smelling rice dish. She turned to look over her shoulder, as if she’d only just noticed them—which absolutely could not be true—and smiled.
“Good morning, girls! You’re just in time! I don’t usually cook much, but I’m borrowing Eui’s skills for this—I hope it’s not too spicy.”
Some distant part of Ayumi felt offended at being included in ‘girls’ by a woman who was about the same age as she was—which, again, was pushing forty. The rest of her drowned that part out by screaming that she was the Goddess of the entire world, and that she had earned a bit of condescension.
“Iseul, you didn’t mention you lived with your parents.”
“I don’t. Hi mom!”
Iseul waved from her perch on Ayumi’s shoulders, and Seong Eunae waved back.
“Hello, dear. And you needn’t be so scared, Ayumi—we’re friends, aren’t we?”
“You remember me? I mean, Your...uh...divine...?”
“Eunae will do. And of course I remember you! Fujikawa Ayumi, the most studious of Dae’s proteges trying to blend magic and martial arts. Are you still researching arcane healing techniques?”
She blinked. That wasn’t something she’d really started working on until after the academy, and this was her first time meeting Yoshika since then.
“Uh, yes? How did you—?”
Eunae tapped her head with a mischievous grin, and it occurred to Ayumi how odd it was to see her with her eyes open.
“Kaede kept track of you all after the Descent. Her father didn’t approve, but she tried to support your efforts behind the scenes. She was quite disappointed that you gave up.”
“I...guess I just didn’t see a future in it.”
“Well, I hope you’ll reconsider now that you’re here. The academy is always eager to take on promising new projects.”
She shook her head as Eunae began setting breakfast out on the table for them.
“I—I wouldn’t want to presume. It was just a random idea I had—probably a waste of time. Besides, I'm way too far behind for a research position at the academy.”
With the table set, Eunae took a seat and gestured for Ayumi to join her across the table. Oddly, she didn’t set out a place for Iseul, who continued to hang off of Ayumi’s shoulders.
“I wouldn’t be too sure, Ayumi. Healing arts underwent a serious decline under Qin’s rule, and recovering the lost arts has been slow, even with Lin Xiulan leading the charge. Perhaps rather than trying to recover what was lost, it might be more expedient to develop entirely new techniques that take advantage of more modern methods.”
Iseul nodded next to Ayumi’s head.
“Also, I’m the head of the academy’s research department, and you’re my girlfriend. I can get you a job. Nepotism.”
Eunae gave her daughter an unamused look that Ayumi almost failed to notice because she was too busy blushing like a teenager again.
“I-I am?!”
The Goddess sighed and reached across the table to give her hand a reassuring pat.
“Only if you want to be. I apologize on my daughter’s behalf—she’s new to this and seems to have latched onto you as her first love. Literally. Despite her low affect, subtlety has never been her forte.”
“I’m perfectly capable of being subtle, Mother. I choose not to be. I will abuse my position of power to help Ayumi because I like her. She’s cute. And weird. Like me.”
“Semantics, dear.”
Their exchange went mostly over Ayumi’s head. She was still stuck on the ‘girlfriend’ part. Did she want to be? It was hard to say no to an opportunity like the one Iseul was offering. Which, when she thought about it, was actually a horrible way to start a relationship. On the other hand, had they not just spent most of the night plumbing the deepest parts of her soul, then the rest of it cuddling in bed—effectively naked for all the good Ayumi’s clothes did her?
She was torn. It felt like there was no good choice. Part of her wished that Iseul had never made the offer, as kind as it was.
Eunae gave her a knowing smile and sighed.
“Let me make something absolutely clear—I am offering you a position at the academy. There are no conditions. You may accept or refuse it at your leisure, and the offer will remain open indefinitely. Should you accept, I will ensure that you do not answer to Iseul, but directly to Hyeong Daesung. Your relationship with my daughter has absolutely no bearing on your job prospects.”
Iseul drooped slightly around her shoulders.
“But I wanted to do something nice.”
Eunae reached over and flicked Iseul in the forehead, somehow delivering a solid enough blow to the liquid woman that Ayumi felt the impact through her shoulder.
“You nearly ruined your chances in the process, silly! I know you’re not used to having your mind compromised by emotions, but at least try to think about the implications of what you were offering.”
Iseul paused for an unusually long moment, then fell away from Ayumi and reformed a few feet away from her in human form. Her usually mute expression twisted into a panicked grimace as she bowed.
“Oh no! I’m sorry Ayumi! I didn’t mean to pressure you into anything. I don’t—lapses like that don’t usually happen to me, and I failed to notice it until Mother pointed it out to me. No—that’s not an excuse. It was my fault, and I hope you can forgive me!”
Ayumi stood up and waved her hands urgently.
“No, it’s fine! I mean, I guess it’s not fine, but I know you didn’t mean it like that. I’m glad that you like me, and I think I like you too. We’re both pretty new to this, though, so...maybe we take things slow for now?”
“Of course! I’m sorry again. May I hug you?”
“Sure!”
Iseul stepped forward and rather than hug Ayumi like a normal person, just enveloped her from the neck down. Ayumi giggled and did her best to return the unusual hug.
“You’re still a weirdo, though.”
“I know. That is why you like me, and that is why I like you. I look forward to developing our relationship beyond such shallow attraction.”
She snorted and stepped away from Iseul—or, out of her. Eunae beamed up at them from her seat at the table.
“I’m glad we got that sorted out. I’m sorry again about Iseul. She can be an idiot in the way that only geniuses can.”
“It’s okay, I understand. And thank you again for the job. I’m honored, really. I’ll do my best to earn it—and Iseul too!”
“Good! Because if you break her heart, it won’t be your job you need to be concerned about.”
Eunae’s sweet, warm smile didn’t budge an inch as she said it. With the same tone she might have used to greet an old friend. The same tone she had used.
“Ah. R-right.”
“Now let’s eat, already! Breakfast is getting cold.”
Ayumi sat down to breakfast with a goddess—slightly cold, extremely spicy—and wondered just what she’d been thinking, entertaining the idea of dating her daughter. But then she looked over at Iseul watching her eat with a faint smile on her face. A rare smile from a woman who treated her emotions like a precious resource to be carefully rationed out. It made her heart flutter.
Ah well, she mused. One couldn’t always choose whether or not to fall in love. She was glad she’d made the trip after all.
Comments
CringeWorthyStudios
With Izumi missing, the charts have really been neglected. Without her expertise, it’s starting to look like that one gif with the crazy conspiracy board. You know the one. Thanks for the chapter!
DarkTechnomancer
We need Izumi on the case! While she's been off gallivanting about with Jingyi Bo, the charts have fallen to shambles.
ErrebanRrereban
I made a vague attempt at an Lword style relationship chart a few months ago, it did not go well
TheBotler
You know, I forgot Eunae was married to the other two and that she's iseul's mom. Haha I confused myself. Just makes me respect how well you keep track of it all
TheBotler
Another one! Thank you, how you feeling about this ending? Pretty good?
