Taira had faced down monsters before. Both in the shells of man and the skins of beasts.
He had endured horrible training that would have killed, if not driven insane, the average warrior.
His father, wherever he was now, was the single most frightening being to ever spawn in the world of Tayar in its entire long and violent history. And he had stared down that bastard many tis before.
His masters were two of the greatest powerhouses within the upper realm. The Great God of Beasts, Fenris, and The Eternal Winter, Velreth.
But never in all of his days has he stared down a more fearso creature than his daughter after he told her he was going to be leaving again.
"Nooo! You can't go again! You just can't!"
Yukiko held onto Taira's leg for dear life. Her face was stark red, and her cheeks were puffed out to their absolute maximum.
Taira was still learning the finer points of parenthood, so pacifying children required more experience on his part.
"Yukiko, this behavior is beneath you..." Taira grimaced.
"WAAAAHHHHHHHH!"
Evidently, he still needed far more practice than even he realized.
He dropped down to one knee and took his daughter in his arms to hopefully get her to stop crying.
He already knew from how often Yuki got up to use the bathroom at night, but his little one really could retain a lot of water...
She had almost completely soaked through his robe.
"I'm not exactly leaving because I want to, princess... But I'm trying to make the world a safer place for you. I want you to grow up strong and free with the ability to go anywhere you want at any ti without fear. And I want that for every other fallen child, too... Can you understand that..?"
Yukiko wiped her face and looked up at her father with snot running down her face.
"...Not really."
A faint smile ford on the edge of Taira's lips. "Maybe it's a little too hard for you to understand now. But I want you to see the world, my darling girl. Experience different people, different cultures, different ways of life-"
"But what if I want to stay ho with you and mommies..?" Yukiko squeezed.
"Then you turn out like Dad."
"That's good!" Yukiko's eyes sparkled.
Taira wondered how he should explain to his daughter that he had the combined social skills of an ice cube and a bag of potato chips. In that order.
He didn't want her to be like him. He wanted her to have the sa affinity for connecting with people that her mothers had.
Life was much easier when you didn't beco exhausted after having simple five-minute conversations.
Taira wiped off his daughter's cheeks with his thumb. He could tell already that it was taking quite a bit of will on her part not to cry again.
"Let's do sothing a little bit different this ti, huh?" Taira smiled. "I won't leave you so empty-handed when I'm gone."
"You won't?"
"No, my darling. I won't."
Taira held out his hand for Yukiko to see.
A small cut opened up in the center of his palm.
His own black blood flowed out and floated above his palm like a miniature tornado.
"Daddy, that's yucky."
"Ah... Maybe just a little bit."
"No, a lot of bit." Yukiko corrected.
Grossness of the matter aside, Taira continued his minor construction project for a few more seconds.
When he finished, he was holding a small, glassy-obsidian statue in the shape of a nine-tailed fox.
"Here. For you."
Yukiko's eyes sparkled as she admired what was clearly the rarest toy in her collection.
Even if it was made through slightly... icky thods.
Yukiko started to take the sculpture but stared at it warily instead.
"...Is this sanitary?"
Taira's brow twitched uncontrollably.
"Should soone who gets her fancies rolling around in the mud really be soone to worry about sanitation?"
Yukiko shrugged innocently.
Taira shook his head at her inability to understand irony and placed the small bust in her hand.
"I want you to do a favor and go hide sowhere. I won't peek, I promise." Taira insisted.
Yukiko thought that this was so kind of ga and imdiately beca visibly excited.
Taira closed his eyes and all he heard was the sound of little feet scrambling away into the room.
"I'm ready..!" Yukiko called back.
'You have so heavy feet, child.'
Taira opened his eyes when he heard movent again.
Yukiko popped her head out from under the bed with the bust clenched in her little fist.
"I heard this thing speak to ! It sounds like you!"
"It is ." Taira laughed back.
Yukiko looked down at the obsidian fox in amazent.
"Uber cool…"
-
Finally, Taira walked out of the bedroom to greet his wives who were already standing there waiting for him.
At first, when seeing their beautiful faces, he almost couldn't stomach the idea of leaving ho again.
He had spent so much ti with them already, but when he thought of having to leave them again, it suddenly felt as if he had hardly spent any ti with them at all.
Life since they had revived the cult had been hectic, to say the least. But he hoped he and Aveena hadn't been neglecting them too much.
Inadu was the first to move.
His gentle wife wrapped her arms around his midsection and buried her face in his chest.
Taira almost didn't want to let her go.
But contrary to his expectations, Ina wasn't upset with him. Though he could feel her sadness.
She smiled at the sight of him and ran her fingers over the subtle lines in his face.
"…You make worry when you make faces like that. It's as if you think you're going to be away for too long, or… forever."
Taira placed his hands over Inadu's. Searing her soft warmth into his cheeks.
"When it cos to being away from you, any amount of ti is too long."
"Maybe so, but for sothing as important as this, we can make a few more sacrifices, can't we? For the good of all."
Taira could tell that Inadu's words weren't just a way to make leaving easier for him. They were her true beliefs.
And that, unironically, was the last push that Taira needed to keep going forward.
"Be safe. Make sure they're all ready." Enyo walked up to him. "Go on your mission, and no matter what, make sure all three of you co back without a scratch."
Taira's brow initially wrinkled in confusion. "Thre.. Oh." He realized.
Enyo smiled as she kissed his cheek.
"Maybe after this… we should all take a little honeymoon together."
Taira could think of nothing that he would have liked more.
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