Bell-mère's eyelashes trembled, and then she opened her eyes.
Blank.
Nothing but blankness.
She blinked, staring up at the blue sky and white clouds, then at the familiar faces around her—the villagers were still on their knees, crying and laughing at the sa ti, like they'd seen a ghost.
"I…" she rasped, her voice hoarse. "Wasn't I… dead?"
Her mory stopped at the mont she was shot.
A sharp pain in her chest, and then endless darkness.
But now…
She lifted a hand and pressed it to her chest.
Whole. Perfect. Not even a scar.
"Bell-mère—!"
Two small bodies hurled themselves into her arms, clinging so tightly she nearly couldn't breathe.
Nami and Nojiko—both of them sobbing, faces drenched, even wiping snot on her clothes.
"You're alive! You're really alive!"
"Don't die again! Don't leave us again!"
Bell-mère froze for a couple of seconds before it hit her. She hurriedly wrapped her arms around them.
Her hands found their backs, felt their warmth, their heartbeats—only then did she dare to believe it.
She was really alive.
And she started crying too.
"Silly girls… I'm here… I'm here… don't cry…"
The three of them clung together, crying in a heap.
Around them, the villagers wiped at their own tears.
A few people tried to step forward to say sothing, but others grabbed them and shot pointed looks—don't you see there are still two "gods" standing over there?
After two or three minutes of sobbing, Bell-mère finally steadied herself a little.
She loosened her hold on the girls and wiped her tears, and only then noticed Rei Ao and Robin standing a short distance away.
They looked completely out of place in the village scene.
Especially Rei Ao—black robe, that presence… nothing about him felt ordinary.
Bell-mère's heart lurched.
She rose, shielding Nami and Nojiko, tugging them behind her.
"You two are…"
Her voice still shook with tears, but her eyes were already sharp with wariness.
"Who saved and the children?"
A villager hurried over and, over everyone talking at once, explained what had just happened.
How the sky split open, how the two of them appeared, how a single wave of a hand turned all the fish-n to ash, and how Bell-mère was brought back from the dead.
With every sentence, Bell-mère's face went a shade paler.
And when she heard Rei Ao say, "The price is that their future belongs to ," her whole body tensed.
"No."
The word burst out of her. She yanked Nami and Nojiko into her arms and held them tight.
"My children can't go with you. They're still young. They don't understand anything."
"Whatever the price is, I'll pay it. You saved my life—tell what you want, I'll do anything, but let them go."
Rei Ao looked at her. He didn't get angry—he smiled instead.
"Too late," he said. "The contract's already in place. They agreed to it themselves."
Bell-mère whipped her head toward Nami.
Nami kept her head down, unable to et her eyes.
"Bell-mère… I'm sorry…"
She spoke in a tiny voice. "But I… we wanted you to live… As long as you could co back, we'd do anything…"
Bell-mère's chest tightened, her eyes burning red again.
Of course she knew they did it for her. And because she knew, she couldn't let them throw their whole lives away for her.
"My lord…"
She turned back to Rei Ao, softening her tone, pleading.
"They're really still young. Let take their place, please. This life is yours—you can ask anything of —"
She didn't finish.
Rei Ao cut her off.
"No."
His voice stayed calm, but there was no room to bargain.
"The deal was with them. You can't swap in."
Bell-mère bit her lip until it hurt.
Rei Ao looked at the way she was guarding them and smiled again.
"Relax," he said. "I'm not planning to mistreat them. On the contrary—"
He snapped his fingers.
Pa.
A streak of golden light shot from his fingertips, split into two, and sank into Nami and Nojiko.
Both girls stiffened at the sa ti.
Then, under Bell-mère's and every villager's stunned gaze, their bodies began to change rapidly.
They grew taller. Limbs lengthened. Their baby-fat cheeks thinned, and their features sharpened into clearer, more defined lines.
Nami's short orange hair surged longer in a rush, dropping to her waist in the blink of an eye, the ends curling into a playful arc.
Nojiko's blue hair lengthened too, gathered back into a neat, brisk ponytail.
A soft glow swept over them again.
When it faded, they were dressed in fitted clothes—Nami in orange-and-white, Nojiko in a simple T-shirt and long pants.
In just a few seconds…
Two eight- or nine-year-old girls had beco teenage girls, around sixteen or seventeen.
Everyone stared, dumbstruck.
Bell-mère's mouth hung open—she couldn't get a word out.
Nami stared blankly down at herself—her sudden height, her longer legs, and her chest—her face went scarlet.
"W-what… what is this?!"
Even her voice had changed—no longer a bright child's voice, but a clear teenage one.
Nojiko panicked too, touching her face, then looking at Nami, eyes wide and round.
Rei Ao withdrew his hand, sounding as casual as if he'd just done sothing trivial.
"Saves ti," he said.
"I skipped you straight to the usable stage. Your mind and mories didn't change—you're still yourselves. Your bodies just matured. Strength, reflexes, learning ability—everything caught up."
He paused, then added, "Makes things easier."
Bell-mère finally snapped out of it.
She rushed forward and pulled the girls behind her—though now they were both half a head taller than she was.
"What exactly are you going to do to them?!"
Her voice trembled, half fury, half fear.
Rei Ao glanced at her, then looked to Nami and Nojiko.
"First thing," he said. "You're coming with ."
"Where?" Nami asked.
She was still getting used to her new body; even the way she stood looked a little awkward.
"To my territory."
Rei Ao turned and walked toward the shore.
"You'll find out when we get there."
Robin followed behind him, silent the entire ti. As she passed Bell-mère, she glanced at her once.
That look was complicated.
Sympathy. Understanding. And sothing else, too.
Bell-mère tried to stop them—but Rei Ao had already reached the waterline.
He raised a hand and drew a line through the empty air over the sea.
The air split open again.
This ti the tear was larger. Inside wasn't a void, but a bottomless corridor, lined with faint lights stretching into the distance…
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