But Jupiter and Eliza didn’t speak that day.
To be honest, I stopped them.
I mean, c’mon. It was too much too soon. What was I supposed to do? Make Jupiter talk things out with Eliza when just seeing the woman’s face made her turn white as a sheet and sent her dashing out into the pouring rain?
I was lucky Jupiter was so lousy at running. If she had been as agile as Haruka… Well, I felt a shiver run up my spine just thinking about it.
Once I’d caught her, I asked Albi and my sister to watch her while I went to the living room to apologize to our guest.
“There is no reason to apologize. My master and I knew things might turn out this way.”
The silver-haired, red-eyed woman was dressed in a Western maid outfit. Yet she was sitting in the middle of a Japanese-style tatami room, sipping green tea.
The scene was so contradictory that the cognitive dissonance sent me reeling for a moment. But once I regained my composure and apologized appropriately, I walked over and sat down to share intel with Eliza.
Despite her sagacious appearance, she turned out to be quite chatty. Her character in the game was much more in line with her appearance. Then again, maybe she’d only opened up so much because we were talking about her past life with Jupiter.
She told me about the time they’d spent growing flowers and about the shocking truth that she was the one who’d gotten Jupiter into dating sims.
As she told me silly stories about a childish, innocent Jupiter, I got a glimpse of Eliza’s mischievous side.
Then, at last, she told me about what had happened to her eye. Her words were detached as she told the tragic tale. It riled me up considerably no matter how many times I heard it, but she remained expressionless to the very end.
Once, however, I noticed something flicker in her eye. But she wasn’t upset at the permanent wounds to her face or even that Jupiter had forgotten her.
“The sound of her voice apologizing over and over from within her lightning-proof holding cell still haunts me to this day.”
I could see her kindness shining through, noble and beautiful. It was proof of how she really felt about Jupiter.
“Master Kyouichirou. Please take this.” Once our conversation was over, she handed me a wooden box about the size of my palm. “Please use what you find inside when the time is right,” she said, standing up and preparing to leave.
“All right.”
Eliza didn’t implore me to “take care of Jupiter for her” or anything like that. And, for my part, I didn’t use any heroic lines, like “I’ll do everything I can.”
There are some things in life that are so obvious they don’t need to be said aloud. Like how people can’t survive without water or oxygen. Or how the night is always followed by the morning.
We were going to help Jupiter—that much was as clear as day.