The Return To Sophias House

October 13th - Kimura Kiyomi

When we arrived at the house I was surprised by how it looked. I didn't expect a European looking building in our City, but there it was. The inside was very cozy though and we all sat down on the leather couches in the living room. Reiko told me she didn't feel very well and she had her mother pick her up and so I ended up sitting next to Suzuki, much closer than I intended to be honest.

“I guess I have to explain some things.” Kento began after everyone found a place to sit.

“Some of you know that I'm Sophias husband. Or at least I was.” He stopped after that sentence and it wasn't really clear whether the pause was for the sake of the audience or because he realized that Sophia was really gone.

“We seperated long ago, but we never divorced. It's just how it happened. But today I came back after 15 years because I sensed that something important was going to happen and I'm glad I did, because Sophias sacrifice could allow us to end the fight against the Kälte forever.” Now he had the attention of everyone in the room, even my mother didn't seem to know what he was talking about.

After he waited for a couple seconds Kento continued his explanation.

“Our families are fighting the Kälte for a very long time now, but we never could truly beat it since all we could do was fight it before it could achieve its end goal. And that means that we never could fight the true substance of the Kälte. It's like we were chopping of its limbs every 20 years, but they always grew back.”

“What is the end goal of the Kälte?” Everyone seemed surprised when I asked this and for a second I feared that I asked something dumb, but Kento only smiled and nodded, which put me at ease.

“That's a good question. No one knows for sure, but from all we do know the end goal of the Kälte is too freeze time basically, meaning all life will stop in its tracks. Noone knows why it happens either, but if it succeeds it basically would spell the end of all life on earth.” Now everyone was pondering his words. I knew that the stakes in fighting the Kälte probably were high, but this seemed a bit too much for some teenagers to handle.

“And how does Sophias sacrifice help us?” This time it was Suzuki who asked and Kento showed the same reaction towards him as he had towards me earlier.

“Another good question. The thing is that for the Kälte to achieve its goal it has to expose its true form and not only show some part of it. And when that happens it should be possible to attack its core and destroy it for good. But of course everything is frozen, so how can you attack? That's where the pendant comes in, or better the two pendants. One filled with the soul of a Sun and one filled with the soul of a Moon. If the Sun and Moon that intend to fight the Kälte wear their opposite pendant they should be able to act normally even if everything around them is frozen.”

So that's what this was all about. But where did the moon pendant come from?

“Do we have a Moon pendant Kento?” As I was asking it I happened to look at my mother and she visibly reacted to my question. And Kento also looked at her when I asked.

“Yes, we do. When Yuto died 20 years ago his soul was saved in a pendant by Sophia.” Now I could see my mother producing a pendant just like the one we saw Kento use earlier, only the one my mother had was gray like the moon. Both pendants were laid down on the table in front of us. They looked beautiful and it seemed to me that they were emitting a faint glow, but the knowledge that the beauty and shine of these objects stemmed from the death of two people made me feel conflicted about appreciating them. But if they were tools that could help us win a war that was going on for a very long time, maybe it was worth the sacrifice they represented.

“And what do we do now?” asked Suzuki. That was another good question. Having the pendants didn't really do anything for us if we didn't know how and when to put them to use.

“I think we should call it a day for now,” answered Kento and he was probably right about that since it was already pretty late or rather really early. We decided that we would all stay at Sophias house as there were enough rooms to accommodate us all, at least after Kento agreed to sleep on the couch. So my mother and myself could have one room and Suzuki and his mother could have the other. The room we ended up in was Yutos old room, but it was pretty much as empty a room as it could be and the two futons we placed on the floor were almost the only things in it. I wondered whether the room Suzuki and his mother occupied was the same way, as it apparently was Suzukis mothers old room. When we entered the room my mother laid straight down on the futon that way laying on the floor and I thought she fell asleep right away, but instead she called my name and I was wondering what she wanted from me.

“Yes mom, I'm here.”

“Kyio, I'm sorry for causing you so much trouble.” She spoke with a very silent voice, like I had never heard coming out of her mouth before.

“It's alright mom, you didn't mean it.” I wanted to ask her what caused the state she was in now, but I felt hesitant about asking my mother such an intimate question.

“I ran away because of something Sophia told me.” Apparently my mother wanted to tell me about the reason anyway.

“And what was it?” I held my breath I was expecting nothing good to come from this, but to my surprise my mother was smiling, even though it was a bittersweet smile.

“You know when I told you about the person I was fighting with and why he died?”

“Yes, I remember.” She had told me it was because they fell in love before.

“Well, I was wrong about it. The reason we couldn't work together anymore was that he wasn't in love with me. That was what Sophia told me. In fact, he being in love with me would probably have saved him.” I didn't know what to say. But I could understand how hearing something like this after such a long time would be devastating.

“And why are you telling me this now?” Now my mother smiled again, but it seemed more earnest this time.

“When I see you with Suzuki it reminds me so much of me and Yuto back then. And I think he likes you. So if you like him, too, there is no reason to hold back.” Then she closed her eyes and she seemed to fall asleep for real. She used the last of her willpower to stay awake to tell me about this it seemed. To be honest, I didn't really think about what she had told me that day when it came to Suzuki. I certainly was attracted to him and wanted to spend more time with him, but was that because I liked him in a romantic way? Reiko would probably have slapped me and told me that yes, obviously it was because I loved him. Thinking about him now made me really want to talk to him. Considering the time hat probably would have to wait until tomorrow. But I still wasn't sleepy at all. As soon as I was sure my mother was actually asleep I stood up again and left the room. I wanted to go and sit down on a bench I saw in the garden earlier as it was a beautiful night and the weather was really pleasant. When I opened patio door and looked outside I could see that someone was already sitting on the bench outside. And even though I could only see the silhouette of the person I knew right away that it was no other than Suzuki. Now my heart was really beating fast.