[44.9] The Most Unholiest of Holy Admissions

As I was admiring Felix's strength, Zephyr burst into the tent, "REIKA!"

I turned to him in surprise, "Wha-"

He jumped on me, pushing me to the ground in a hug. His fox tail and ears were visible as he shouted, "YOU TRASHY GIRL! I THOUGHT YOU DIED!"

I blinked in surprise before returning the hug, "I'm okay. Stop crying."

He pulled away sniffling, "I-I'm not crying! I don't care at all!"

I reached out to ruffle his hair, "I'm sorry I made you panic."

He wiped away his tears and stared at me indignantly, "What even happened?! You were in there for so many days!! How'd you escape!?"

"A wolverine came and saved us."

He paused, "A… A what?!"

I stood up, "Do you want to meet her?"

He watched me in confusion, but still stood up and followed me out. I walked over to the tunnel and waited until the wolverine demon had escorted the last survivor out. I waved to her to get her attention and she hopped over to me.

Zephyr let out a shriek and quickly jumped behind me to hide. I looked at him in confusion, "What!?"

He spoke through our telepathic communication: <>

I gasped in surprise: <>

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"..."

Don't most siblings fight?

I let out a sigh: <>

He replied quickly: <>

<<...If she can't recognize faces, then why are you hiding behind me!? She shouldn't be able to know who you are!!>>

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At that moment, Hazel found us and ran over to us, "Reika! Are you okay!?"

Suddenly, Atta straightened up as if she sensed something off.

In the blink of an eye, she appeared in front of Hazel who immediately froze in her tracks.

Atta abruptly lunged forward at Hazel.

I prepared for a fight, but instead, I was confused to see Atta hugging Hazel so intimately. She was so close, she even started rubbing her face on Hazel's.

Hazel stood completely frozen with her mouth wide open.

Zephyr jumped out from behind me with a shriek, "WHY ARE YOU HUGGING HER!?! She's mine!!! MINE!"

Atta jumped with a start and turned to Zephyr in surprise as if she had just now noticed him.

He gulped, "Oh crap."

Soon, she pounced on him, hugging him so tightly he was struggling for air.

Two lines of tears soon stained Atta's face.

I felt a bit jealous to see that her tears only made her look far more beautiful.

I watched as a smoke suddenly exploded from her body, attaching to each person around her.

Soon, we were all bawling our eyes out.

I tried to stop, but even I couldn't prevent my tears.

As I looked around, both Zephyr and Hazel were crying uncontrollably.

Zephyr screamed telepathically: <>

I wiped at the tears that continued rolling down my face: <>

He pushed Atta off of him and shouted aloud through his tears, "I DON'T CARE! She never ONCE came to find me! SHE abandoned ME!"

Atta was struck by surprise when she heard this. She wiped away her tears and got back in control of her emotions, allowing us to do the same. The only person still crying was Zephyr.

Although he was trying so hard not to, he was trembling from the effort. Instead of looking more like an alpha male, he resembled a child who accidentally let go of his balloon and lost it.

Atta quickly pulled out her chalkboard that she had attached to her waist and started writing on it. She held it out to him: "I looked without rest until they told me they had killed you."

He was confused as he read it, "Huh? Who told you that?"

She quickly erased the previous message and wrote a new one.

It read: "Her handler."

It was then that Atta motioned to Hazel who had only now come unfrozen.

Zephyr's confusion gradually became suspicious, "Who's handler?"

Hazel panicked, "Wait! Atta! Don't-"

But it was already too late.

Atta wrote one simple word: "Alora's."

Zephyr slowly followed Atta's gaze and turned to look at Hazel.

In a brief moment, confusion, anger, sorrow, and bitterness all flashed over Zephyr's face.

He clenched his fists as his body trembled from anger. He emphasized every vowel, "Alora."

Atta was unaware of his change and wrote out another message. She held it up with an innocent expression.

It read: "I'm delighted you and Alora are still together."

I watched as Zephyr trembled so pitifully, a new round of tears rolled down his cheeks.

I looked around in confusion, "Wait… So Hazel is… Alora? As in… THAT Alora!?"

How is THAT possible!?

Zephyr spoke through a clenched jaw, "...I should have known."

Hazel immediately panicked but didn't try to hide anything. She called to him in a desperate tone, "Zephyr! It's not what you think! I can explain-"

He shoved her aside, "Explain what!? How you tricked me into showing you our home!? How you tricked me into loving you so that you could kill my mother!? How you destroyed my family!?! And after all of that, you decided to TRICK ME AGAIN!"

She shook her head quickly, "No! NO! It was a misunderstanding! Really! I-"

As she took a step closer to him, he took a step back.

For a brief moment, a look of fear came over his enraged face.

She was struck by a deep pain at seeing his fear that she actually froze in her spot. She could no longer find the words to explain.

He wiped at his face then ran off screaming, "LEAVE ME ALONE!"

I watched him run off and suddenly felt anxious.

I looked at Hazel- no wait. Alora?

Whoever!

I looked at her in confusion, but she spoke quickly, "I can explain! Reika, I didn't mean to deceive either of you. Just let me tell you what happened-"

I took a step away from her feeling unsure of how to address her, "M-Maybe you should leave us alone for a while."

Hazel stood in her spot as I ran after Zephyr, leaving only her and Atta behind.

Atta watched the entire scene completely lost as to what happened.

She wrote down: "Why are they so upset?"

Hazel didn't answer her and only stared at where we had run off to.

Atta looked at her and then into the distance. She couldn't understand just what was going on.

She may be able to feel emotions, but she could never make sense of them.

She quickly wrote down: "Are you mad at me?"

When Hazel still didn't look her way, she tapped her shoulder.

Only then did Hazel let out a sigh before turning to face Atta. Her voice was surprisingly soft, "You know… Out of all the siblings, you always treated me the best. You never really cared about me. Whether or not I was there didn't matter to you and I really respected that."

Atta looked confused for a moment before pointing to the word "mad".

Hazel gave a weak smile and shook her head, "No. I'm not mad at you…. I'm only upset with myself. I knew I couldn't hide my identity forever, but I didn't want it to end so quickly."

As Hazel slowly sauntered off, Atta turned to look at the Samurai woman who had been hiding skillfully in the tree the entire time.

The woman jumped down and simply gave her a smirk, "Did you have a nice family reunion?"

Atta closed her eyes for a moment and took a deep breath.

When she opened her eyes, she quickly wrote a new message.

It only had one word written on it: "Moni?"

The woman pursed her lips, "His shadow puppets suddenly disappeared. Did you find him?"

Atta shook her head and wrote: "I only felt his mana for a moment. Now I can't."

She clicked her tongue, "Tsk. How did he manage to hide so well these past few years?"

Atta's face grew serious.

She wrote two words…

"Body possession."