01.32 - Sweetest Reincarnation

“Kentaro said Kei reminds him of you in your teens?” I asked. “Wouldn’t that mean his transformation looks like a boy?”

“Huh?” Reiko said in an accusing tone.

“I mean,” I said. “I honestly thought you were a boy when I first saw you. Not for long. But you gotta admit you’ve been kind of a tomboy.”

Her brows narrowed. Shouldn’t have said that I guess.

“It kinda seems to run in the family,” I said. “Maybe it’s just a phase? Let it be for now.”

That didn’t seem convincing to Reiko either.

“Anyway, I’ll talk to Kei. See if I can help,” I added quickly.

But Kei did not answer as I knocked on the door.

I did not try to force a conversation, so I decided to get a few second opinions from Ariel, Inari, and Akatsuki first, while Kei was still in self isolation back home.

The girls said that Kei had used that girl form when playing with them earlier too, but couldn’t keep the transformation up for too long.

That apparently changed after joining my training sessions, originally intended to raise Ryu’s Transformation ability by leveling up the ‘Shapeshifter’ Class.

Still, Kei could not keep the new form up permanently, though trying everything to do so, which led to the confrontation with Reiko, and then her conversation with me.

Kei was still in self isolation when I returned home.

I knocked on the door. “It’s me,” I said. “May I come in?”

“Dad?” Kei asked. “Did Mom tell you?”

“Yes,” I said, “May I come in?”

“No,” Kei said in an instant.

“Not even if I can help you out?” I asked.

“Do you want to fix me too?” Kei asked.

“Depends on your idea of fix,” I said. “I can help you keep up that Transform indefinitely, like Tia.”

That seemed to catch Kei’s attention.

The door flung open shortly after, and I got my first look at Kei’s new look. I had to agree with Kentaro, that form did remind me of a young Reiko, but a lot more girly, and a lot less tomboyish.

“Really?” Kei asked with sparkling eyes.

Had I known of it before, I would have boosted Kei’s Shapeshifter class and Transform skill a lot more when teaching Ryu and him. But that was water under the bridge. Now was now, and the Class points consumed by ‘For the Good of The Many’ were worth it.

It took a while for me, and a lot longer for Reiko, to get used to our new, maybe temporary, or maybe permanent daughter.

—

It was autumn.

The grain was reaped, milled, and the flour waiting to be turned into a form more suited for storage.

Our hive based supplies were high as ever, and Isabella and Hermes had used Decomposition to extract pure sugar from some of the honey.

The rest was either stored, turned into mead, or used for baking.

The latter was usually done under Reiko’s supervision, but she was sick at home and still not used to Kei.

The others had taken it better. Honestly, it wasn’t that different from Tia. If they could get used to a chaos dragon in their midst, Kei’s transformation would seem pretty minor in comparison. Unsurprisingly, Kentaro, the man who prided himself on laying a dragon, had no issues at all.

With Reiko out of the picture, Kentaro and I tried our best at being her substitution. Koharu, Loreley, Akane were in the lead, but it was on the two of us to supervise Kei, Ariel, Inari, and Akatsuki.

Truth be told, with the three of them, it was more the other way round.

Kei especially was in high spirits. Despite her mother’s disposition. The permanent transformation had worked its magic. She was more outgoing and upbeat than before and had entirely stopped locking herself in her room.

Some of the kids seemed to be a bit weirded out at first, but slowly got used to it. Or quickly, when compared to Reiko.

Hermes was so used to alchemical transmutation, that someone or something changing part of its nature seemed… natural.

Nami seemed to have smoothed out Nagi’s position.

Ryu was dragonkin, used to his mother’s transformation magic, and his own draconic forms.

Akatsuki seemed to have a similar disposition.

Ariel and Inari had played with Kei long enough to be more bothered with Reiko’s reaction than the matter of fact on hand.

Everyone stood around the oven.

Then we finally got the first batch of cookies out.

“That’s a single, sticky, caramelized mess,” Inari said after looking at the results.

Utter failure.

“Guess we used a bit too much honey,” Kei said. Let's reduce the amount of liquid. And use a bit less.”

At first, the next batch seemed perfect in every way, but then Ariel tried to take a bite.

“Ouch,” Ariel said. “They’re hard as stone.”

“Guess that wasn’t the right balance either,” Kei said after trying, and failing, to break one of the cookies in two.

“Pretty solid for a blind second try,” Akane said after she, Koharu, and Loreley had finished their honey bread successfully. “But you have to balance the wet and dry ingredients.”

“You got too much at first, and then too little,” Koharu said.

“It doesn't take a genius to figure out the rest,” Loreley said. “Know what I mean?”

“The middle way,” Akatsuki said.

“Who knew that uncle Kentaro’s other worldly tales would relate to baking of all things,” Kei said.

The third time was the charm indeed. The aroma of fresh cookies filled the air and the texture was just right. Fluffy, sweet, but not too sweet, and still a bit of a crunch on the crust.

We took a batch of cooled cookies back home.

“Mom, we finished the honey cookies,” Kei said through the living room door. “Do you want to try some? We really did our best.”