The walk to Aunt Mariko's house felt surreal to Aiko. Javier walked beside her, his tall frame making her feel protected in a way she hadn't experienced since childhood. Neither of them spoke much during the twenty-minute journey, both processing the weight of what they were about to do.
"That's it," Aiko said quietly as they approached the familiar house where she had spent those difficult years. "I haven't been back since I left for the academy."
Javier studied the modest building, then looked at her with gentle understanding. "Are you ready for this?"
"I don't think anyone can be ready for something like this. But yes."
Aiko knocked on the front door, her heart hammering as footsteps approached from inside. When the door opened, Aunt Mariko's expression shifted from surprise to suspicion as she took in Aiko's presence and the tall young man beside her.
"Aiko? What are you doing here?"
"Aunt Mariko, this is Javier. He has something important to tell you. About my mother."
Mariko's face went pale. "About Emiko? What could he possibly know about my sister?"
"May we come in?" Javier asked gently. "What I need to share is better discussed privately."
Reluctantly, Mariko led them to the living room, settling into her chair with obvious tension. "I don't understand what this is about."
Javier looked directly at her, his voice carrying the same quiet intensity Aiko remembered from the park. "Mariko-san," he said, and something in the exact way he pronounced her name made Mariko's breath catch.
"How did you... that's exactly how Emiko used to say my name," she whispered.
"During my coma, I spent time with your sister. She told me about you—her little sister who tried so hard to take care of Aiko after she died. She wanted me to find you both and deliver messages she never got to share."
Mariko's hands began trembling. "That's impossible."
"She told me about the night she left, how you begged her not to go. She said you were wearing your blue pajamas with the small flowers, and you followed her to the door saying 'Promise me you'll come back, Emi-chan.'"
Mariko's face crumpled as tears began flowing. "No one knows about that night. No one was there but us."
"She also said to tell you that the accident wasn't random," Javier continued, his voice growing more urgent. "She was being chased by people who wanted her dead because of what she had learned about certain industries. She was speeding because someone was following her, trying to run her off the road."
"What?" Mariko's voice was barely a whisper.
"She said she had gotten involved with dangerous people, thinking it would give Aiko a better life. But she discovered things she wasn't supposed to know, and they wanted to silence her permanently."
Aiko felt her world spinning. "My mother was murdered?"
"She said please don't let Aiko ever enter that industry because there are hidden dangers. If Aiko gets too much spotlight, they may finally find her daughter and try to deceive or hurt her."
Mariko was sobbing now, her carefully maintained composure completely shattered. "I always felt like something was wrong about her death. The police said it was just an accident, but..."
"She wanted you to know that distancing herself from you and Aiko wasn't because she didn't love you," Javier said gently. "It was because she was trying to protect you both from the people who were after her."
"All these years, I thought she abandoned us for her career," Mariko whispered through her tears.
"Never," Javier said firmly. "She said you were the best sister anyone could ask for, that taking care of Aiko when she couldn't was the greatest gift you ever gave her. She regretted that her efforts to protect you both made you feel unloved instead of safe."
Aiko moved to sit beside her aunt, taking her hand for the first time in years. "Aunt Mariko..."
"I was so angry with her," Mariko said, looking at Aiko with eyes full of pain and regret. "I took that anger out on you because you reminded me of her. I'm sorry, Aiko. I'm so sorry."
As the two women embraced for the first time since Aiko was a child, Javier continued sharing the more complex parts of Emiko's message.
"She explained to me that she had been watching over Aiko, that the bond between mother and child continues even after death through invisible connections. When I was passing through that park on the rainy day and saw Aiko, something made me feel the need to stop and help her. In that moment when I cared for Aiko's hair, your sister saw it was a window—she knew I was going to have my crash soon after, and she saw time differently than we do when we're anchored in physical bodies."
Mariko looked at him with wonder and confusion. "What do you mean?"
"She said she used my unconscious state after the crash to whisper messages and have me search for both of you. It's easier to enter the rest phase of young people, but she couldn't reach Aiko directly because Aiko was too neglected and hurt—it made it difficult for her to enter Aiko's dreams properly."
Aiko felt chills running through her body. "So when you appeared at the park to help me..."
"Your mother was already there, already watching over you. When I stopped to care for you, it gave her a way to connect with someone who could carry her messages back to the people she loved."
"She was waiting for someone who was receptive enough to catch the signal."
Javier's expression grew more intense as he shared the deeper parts of what Emiko had told him. "She said during our time together that she found hairstyling as one of the tools to love humanity, to find and rediscover tangible truths. There are a lot of signals to be found and rediscovered. She told me I would understand more when I got back, that I needed to find credible adults across the top fields of information."
"She said I had already traveled with my father to places with displaced people across continents, and that I would soon understand much more. She couldn't explain everything about my own journey because she can't see all the potentials and ripples I might make—whether I make those ripples or not will lead to different paths, and that's dependent on my choices."
Mariko wiped her eyes, trying to process this flood of impossible information. "What else did she say?"
"She warned me about what lurks to prey against humans, that there's much more than meets the eye. She said the sooner I improve my abilities to figure out and look in the right places, the more the tangible truths and credible documentation will make sense to me. But she also warned to be careful about too much spotlight because it can be dangerous."
As the afternoon progressed, the three of them sat together processing the weight of everything that had been shared. Aiko felt like she was seeing her entire childhood through new eyes, understanding her aunt's anger and her mother's absence in completely different ways.
"I need to ask you both something," Aiko said finally. "Now that we know the truth about what happened to my mother, what does that mean for us? For our family?"
Mariko looked at her with eyes still red from crying but clearer than Aiko had ever seen them. "It means I owe you years of apologies. It means I want to try to be the aunt you deserved instead of someone who took her anger out on you."
"And it means," Javier added quietly, "that your mother's wish for you both to heal and love each other again can finally happen."
As evening approached and they prepared to part ways, Javier turned to Aiko with the question that had been building all afternoon.
"Aiko, now that you've heard what your mother wanted you to know... what happens between us?"
The question hung in the air, touching on everything they hadn't addressed—their connection, their feelings, the future they might build together now that the truth had finally been revealed.
Aiko looked into his eyes, seeing the same gentle fire that had saved her years ago, now focused entirely on her with an intensity that made her breath catch.
"I don't know yet," she said honestly. "But I think... I think I need to find out."