Chiharu gazed at her three daughters' tearreddened eyes.
A goddess who had never shed tears now felt them gather.
She lifted a shaking hand and stroked Yuna's cheek, finally uttering the longdelayed call:
"YunaYaeAsahi"
The voice was as clear as ever, yet carried the unparalleled tenderness only a mother possesses.
The three sisters stood as if struck by lightning.
That voice it was Mother's! Absolutely Mother's!
Yuna seized Chiharu's wrist. It was cool as ice, yet so real it made her heart race.
"Mom? Is it really you? But you"
Chiharu shook her head. Tears at last slipped free, gleaming in the firelight.
She slowly removed the fox mask, revealing the beautiful face that matched their memories perfectly, now softened, weathered by years they had never known.
"Mom!"
"Mom!"
All restraint vanished; the sisters hurled themselves into her arms.
Though her spiritual body felt faint, the blooddeep familiarity was undeniable.
Chiharu clutched her daughters tightly. Loneliness and longing burst forth, turning into a flood of tears.
The four of them wept together, as though trying to reclaim every moment lost to separation.
Around them, the other girls exchanged bewildered looks.
No one understood how this sudden "motheranddaughters reunion" had come about.
YukinoshitaYukino glanced at Rei Ao, who merely raised a finger to his lips, those iridescent eyes unusually gentle.
Everyone took the hint and fell silent, simply watching the touching scene by the fire.
Tohru folded away her tail, the angels stopped bickering, even Sataniawho'd been loudly vowing to conquer the seasat quietly on the sand, nibbling cotton candy and watching.
Gabriel whispered to Raphiel, "Is that lady really a goddess? She doesn't seem all that scary."
Raphiel pondered. "Her spirit form is remarkably stablemore like a being born of faith and a shrine, not some rampaging monstrosity."
Rei Ao stood at the edge of the crowd, a subtle, meaningful smile curving his lips as he watched the four embrace.
Moments later his voice sounded in Chiharu's ear:
"Now do you believe? Tell mewould you like to stay and live with your daughters like this forever?"
Chiharu's body tensed, but her arms tightened around her girls.
She lifted tearbright amber eyes to Rei Aojoy at reunion, resentment at his power, and an emotion she refused to name: a ripple of wavering.
The sea breeze carried the bonfire's warmth, blurring the boundary between divinity and humanity.
Rei Ao smiled.
This seaside encounter had only reached its most interesting part.
And Chiharu understood: the moment she took off the fox mask, her calm had been completely shattered by the man with iridescent eyes.
~~~
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(Bonus Chapter) Chapter 750: Will do Anything...
The firelight sent shadows dancing and fading across the sand.
Yae clutched Yuna's hand so tightly her knuckles whitened, while Asahi buried her face in Chiharu's shoulderas if the moment they let go, the mother before them might vanish like a soap bubble.
"Ththis isn't a dream, is itMom?"
Asahi's voice was muffled and tremulous, on the verge of tears.
Yuna lifted her swollen, redrimmed eyes and stared at the faint halo of spiritlight wavering around Chiharu's waist.
Its ethereal quality made her doubt once more whether she was dreaming.
AmagamiChiharu stroked Asahi's hair, yet her gaze drifted to Rei Ao, who stood a short distance away.
His rainbowhued pupils shimmered in the firelight, as though they could see straight through all their fears.
"If you want to talk," he said, "let's do it inside the villatake our time."
He waved at Eriri and the others still on the beach.
"Keep playing; don't mind us."
Though phrased like an invitation, his tone brooked no refusal.
The lavishly furnished living room only deepened the sisters' bewilderment.
"Sit," Rei Ao gestured to the sofa, then leaned against the fireplace.
"Don't be so tense. Ask whatever you wish."
Yae drew a long breath and finally managed to speak.
"Mom are you really still here? But you already"
The unspoken word died pricked every heart in the room.
Chiharu's eyes dimmed. She glanced at Rei Ao; when he gave a slight nod she began, voice low:
"I did die.
"But my soul didn't disperse. It remained at Amagami Shrine and became a guardian deity of that place."
She paused, fingertips brushing the carved armrest.
"All these years I've watched youwatched you grow, watched you bustling about the shrine"
"Then why didn't you tell us?" Yuna cried, hugging her.
"Every year Asahi sets an extra pair of chopsticks on the offering table for your birthday Mom, do you know how much we miss you?"
"I'm sorry truly sorry," Chiharu said bitterly, helplessness written on her beautiful face.
"Between a god and mortals there's an impassable boundary.
"I can't show myself in physical form, nor speak with you directly.
"That is the rulemy fate."
Her grateful eyes turned to Rei Ao.
"Until todaythis Rei Ao-sama lifted the restriction so I could appear like this, for a while, and meet you."
"For a while?"
Asahi snapped her head up.
"Mom, do you have to leave again?"
Chiharu's spirit form trembled. She could feel the divine power Rei Ao had infused into her slowly ebbing; the force holding her manifest was unstable.
"I don't know how long this state will last"
"No!"
Asahi burst into tears and flung herself before Rei Ao.
"Rei Ao-sama, please let Mom stay! We can't lose her again!"
Yuna knelt as well, clutching his trouserleg.
"Yesplease! If Mom can stay with us, we'll do anything!"
Though Yae remained standing, her eyes were equally pleading.
"Rei Ao-san, if there's any way please help us."
Rei Ao set down his wineglass and walked to the three sisters.
He crouched, meeting their tearfilled eyes one by one.
"To let a deity remain forever in the mortal realmbreaking the boundary between god and mando you understand what that means?"
They shook their heads blankly.
"It means AmagamiChiharu would cease to be a god. Her spirit might collapse without its divinity, or she could become a wandering soul unable to reincarnate," he said quietly, every word weighted.
"Even the world's laws might intervene."
Chiharu stared, shocked. "Is is that true?"
She herself had never knownonly that she was constrained.
A faint smile curved Rei Ao's lips. "I know far more than you imagine."
He faced her.
"Still, I do have a way for you to stay in the mortal world, even regain a fleshandblood body."
"Truly?"
Chiharu and the sisters gasped together.
"But it requires a price."
His rainbow eyes glinted with danger.
"AmagamiChiharu, what are you willing to trade?"
Chiharu looked into her daughters' hopeful faces, recalled her own millennia of solitude, and hesitated no longer.
She rose and bowed deeply to him.
"If it lets me remain with my daughters, I'll give you anything."
"Excellent," Rei Ao nodded, satisfied.
"You've passed my test."
"Ttest?"
Chiharu stiffened, unsure what that implied.
But the moment she felt Asahi's small hand clutching her sleeve, all doubt turned to resolve.
"I understand whatever it is, I accept."
"Mom!"
The three sisters threw their arms around her, weeping anew.
Watching the scene, Rei Ao was already calculating the next step. Granting Chiharu a body would not be difficult
"Come nowno more tears." He clapped his hands. "Since we've come to terms, enjoy your reunion first."
He pointed outside: Tohru was chasing Kanna across the beach, while Gabriel and Satania bickered over the last sausagelaughter everywhere.
"See? They're having a blast out there."
Rei Ao chuckled. "Chiharu, why don't you try it toofeel the bustle of the human world again? We can discuss the deal later."
Chiharu hesitated; she'd grown used to being a sideline god.
But the sisters tugged her along, and she followed them out of the living room.
When her feet sank into the soft sand and the sea breeze brushed her cheekssolid, real sensations
the heart that had lain still for years seemed to beat once more.
Seeing the excitement on her three "daughters'" faces, she felt that any price would be worth it, and an involuntary smile touched her lips.
~~~
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Chapter 751: The Trade Deal...
The villa's nightlamps spilled a warm, amber halo along the corridor.
The three Amagami sisters were crammed onto the big guestroom bed on the second floor. Moonlight slipped through a gap in the curtains, tracing the tense outlines of their faces.
Yae stared up at the ceiling, fingers picking nervously at the sheet.
Yuna hugged a pillow, curled into a ball.
Asahi pressed her face into her sisters' shoulders.
None of them felt the slightest bit sleepy.
"Sis, do you think what happened today was real?"
Yuna's voice sounded in the dark, thick with congestion from crying.
"Did Mom really come back? We're not just dreaming because we miss her too much are we?"
Yae was silent for a moment.
Again and again she replayed the image of Chiharu removing her mask, tears in her eyesand that soulstirring, familiar aroma of her cooking.
"I don't know" she whispered. "But the feel of her hand, her voiceeverything was far too real."
"But Mom is already"
The words died away, and the room fell silent.
That their mother had passed away was a fact they had already accepted.
Yet today's experience had been so vivid it blurred the line between dream and reality.
"But that man called Rei Ao" Asahi lifted her head, confusion all over her small face.
"Who is he, really? How could he make Mom speakand let us see her?"
The question plunged them into another silence.
Powers beyond reason inspired gratitudeand fear.
"I heard him talking about a 'Trade' with Mom," Yae recalled Rei Ao's words in the living room, her tone turning grave.
"He said there had to be a price for Mom to stay, and it sounded like she agreed."
Yuna jerked upright. "A price? What kind of price? Could it hurt Mom?"
"I don't know"
Yae sighed. "He seems mysteriousand dangerous."
She remembered the possessiveness that had flashed in those iridescent eyes when Rei Ao looked at Chiharu, and her heart tightened.
"Tomorrow we'll ask Mom," she said. "We have to find out."
The three sisters clasped hands in the dark. Joy at regaining their mother wove together with fear of the unknown, making the night stretch endlessly long.
Meanwhile
In the villa's topfloor study, AmagamiChiharu stood before the vast picture window, gazing at the slumbering beach outside.
Her spirit body shimmered silver in the moonlight; her face still held the thrill of reunionand the uncertainty of what lay ahead.
"You wanted to see me."
Rei Ao's voice came from behind, still carrying the damp warmth of a recent bath.
He wore a silk robe, hair slightly wet, rainbow pupils gleaming like jewels in the dark.
Chiharu turned, twisting the sleeve of her shrinemaiden garb in nervous fingers.
"Rei Ao-sama, I wish to know what price I must pay to remain by my daughters' side."
Ever since he had spoken of "a price," she had braced herselfready to bear whatever it was.
Rei Ao stepped closer without answering.
He lifted a hand and traced a golden sigil in the air.
[Ding! You have selected a subgroup of the chat group and assigned it to target: AmagamiChiharu!]
With a soft whumm, a faintly glowing interface materialized before her: rows upon rows of avatars and chat logsthe Trade Chat Group.
"Whwhat is this?"
Shocked, Chiharu stared at the screenthen a torrent of information flooded her mind: knowledge of countless worlds, the group's rules, and Rei Ao's absolute authority as its master.
Only now did she grasp that the man before her not only pierced all her secrets but also controlled gateways linking many realities.
"Every member of the chat group is bound by trade," Rei Ao said as the interface vanished.
"You wish for the power to stay in the mortal realmeven to regain a fleshandblood body. To obtain that, you must offer an 'item' I deem acceptable."
Chiharu's heart pounded. What could she give?
Her divine power? The shrine's faith?
Against Rei Ao's overwhelming might, those seemed worthless.
Which left only one thing.
"I what can I trade?"
A meaningful smile curved Rei Ao's lips.
He leaned in; his warm breath brushed Chiharu's ear.
"There's only one thing you have left to offer," he murmured, eyes sliding over the graceful lines defined by her spirit light.
"Your bodyits right of use."
Chiharu's head snapped up, amber eyes brimming with shock and shame.
Even after death she had never been so close to a man. Watching Rei Ao with Mai that afternoon had already set her heart awhirl; facing this demand outright made her want to flee.
"I know it's sudden," Rei Ao said, his voice soothing, almost hypnotic.
"But it's the simplestand fairesttrade. You're free to refuse, if you can find something else that interests me more."
He paused, reading her hesitation, then added gently: "And this would let you truly live again. No more hollow spirit
Wouldn't you like to hold your daughters with real arms, feel their warmth?"
Hold my daughters
Chiharu whispered the words.
She pictured Asahi flinging herself into her embrace, imagined the warmth she had yearned for since death. For thatanything seemed worth the cost.
She closed her eyes, drew a deep breath, and when she opened them once more they gleamed with resolve.
"I accept."
[Ding! AmagamiChiharu has initiated a trade request!]
[Trade objective]: Let her exist in the world as someone alive, able to embrace her daughters.
[Please select the trade terms!]
Rei Ao smiled in satisfaction.
Almost instantly:
[Ding! Trade commencing!]
[Target]: AmagamiChiharu
[Objective]: Grant her a living form so she can hold her daughters.
[Price]: 'Onetime right to use her body.'
~~~
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