Co-written by O Real History
Although Ikuro had effectively knocked out two drunks in four moves, the bouncers believed the two men simply drank too much. Watching the drunks removed, the group now sat down once again to chat.
"Seriously, guardian angels?" Kari groaned, rolling her eyes.
"It is true," Ikuro replied. "In the north it is a common belief held by many. The spirits of the departed can linger to watch over their descendants. It is an honor though only given to those of the purest heart."
"Ghosts I believe in, " Charlotte stated. "Chase, Aaron, and I have personally had to exorcise them, but those are usually vengeful spirits or souls who have unfinished business. Guardian angels? Bit of a stretch."
"Gotta agree with Charlotte," Chase said. "Ghosts are rare enough. Caleb and Connor told us they've run into maybe a dozen in their lifetime." The young hunter now turned to his girlfriend and Odayakana, looking for their opinions on the subject.
"I've never run into a ghost," Andromeda shrugged. "Nyx, you ever see one?"
"Nope." Nyx replied, taking a swig of beer.
"I may have never see a ghost, however, one does not need to see a guardian angel," Odayakana replied. "According to legends, if one is calm and quiet then they can feel the presence of their guardian angel. Regrettably, I have never felt one's presence. Perhaps it is a simply a folktale."
"Well if it requires you to be calm then I know Haley's never seen it," Aaron joked, drawing a soft chuckle from the group. Haley simply frowned, glaring at her twin in annoyance.
"I have seen a guardian angel," Haley grumbled, a look of certainty on her face. "And Ikuro believes me." The group looked to Ikuro, the young man gently take Haley's hand as he gave a firm nod. Aaron could appreciate his sister's new boyfriend taking Haley's side, but guardian angels were a bit far fetched.
"Okay Haley," he grinned. "Who's your guardian angel?"
"Grandma." Haley replied confidently.
"Ugh, this again." Kari groaned rolling her eyes.
"What am I missing?" Andromeda asked.
"Haley always has dreams about our grandma," Kari stated. "She's been telling us about them for years now. The thing is though, they're just dreams. Our grandmother died when we were in preschool and while we all love and miss her, her spirit isn't watching over us like a guardian angel."
As Haley looked to speak, Ikuro raised his hand. Aaron expected another defense of Haley, one that would endear him to his sister. Aaron could appreciate the effort, but he had his doubts about guardian angels. What Ikuro said instead though made Aaron begin to question his own beliefs.
"A guardian angel does not simply appear in one's dreams," he said. "They make their presence known in other, more subtle ways. Think back for a moment. Has there ever been an instance where something occurred you could not quite explain? Perhaps something you may have not given a second thought to and never told your siblings?"
"Well...." Kari began to say as she began twiddling thumbs. "There was a moment back during the fourth grade when I was sick that I thought I saw her." Kari finally answered.
"There you go, maybe elaborate a little more, what do you remember about that day specifically?" Ikuro asked as Kari now thought back to her younger years.
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Poor little Kari was lying sick on her bed as Mika put a damp washcloth over her head as Claudia was helping get the other kids ready for school.
"But mommy....I...(cough, cough), I'm feeling fine. It's just a little cough, and I can't miss school, I have to keep up my per....(cough, cough) perfect attendance....record." 9 year-old Kari pleaded to her mother as Kari, even at her young age wanted to be the best in school.
"No sweetie, I'm sorry, but you'll have to miss school today. You've got a bad cold and you can't let your classmates get sick." Mika said putting her hand on her daughter's shoulder.
"I bet she's faking it, I don't have perfect attendance, and I wasn't that sick." Haley said as both Mika and Claudia glared at their young daughter.
"I mean....I didn't feel as sick on those days mommies." Haley said putting her hands behind her back and sliding her foot around in embarrassment.
"Kari, it's just one day, trust me, you'll feel fine after a good long nap for the day." Mika said as she and Claudia helped Haley and Aaron get ready for their third grade class, while Mason was being dropped off at pre-school.
Kari was now left home alone in bed with her thoughts as she lay there in bed. She thought of how much the teachers had praised her excellent math work, her impressive geography skills, and her ability to speak a second language, Japanese, at such a young age so fluently. She did make friends at school, and they thought she was pretty fun to be around. Kari hadn't missed a day in school before, but now her mother had called her out sick for the day.
"This is terrible...." little Kari cried to herself. "The teacher will think I'm not a good student.....and all my friends will think I don't want to be around them....this is going to be my worst day ever....." Kari began crying to herself as she soon felt a hand gently touching her cheek.
Little Kari looked up and thought she was hallucinating from being sick, because she saw her grandma, Marjorie Harris in front of her.
"G-Grandma?" Kari asked while crying.
"Kari sweetie, you'll be okay, you're just a little sick. Everyone gets sick now and again." Marjorie said to her granddaughter.
"But I'm not supposed to get sick, I'm supposed to be a perfect student." Kari replied looking sad.
"Oh, Kari. No one needs to be perfect, and in my eyes, you're perfect the way you are. I want you to promise me something, alright? Never try to be perfect, always try your best." Marjorie said to Kari as she thought for a moment and nodded.
"There, now....just got to sleep and you'll feel much better tomorrow." Marjorie said as little Kari yawned and went to sleep as Marjorie wiped her granddaughter's tears away and kissed her on the forehead.
"You're such a smart girl. Grandma loves you." Marjorie said.
"I love you.....grandma." Kari said sleepily.
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"So.....yeah, after that, I went to sleep and then I felt much better the next day." Kari said finishing explaining to everyone.
"How come you didn't tell us this story before?" Aaron asked his sister.
"I was sick that day? Mom and mother wouldn't have believed me, they would've thought I was just hallucinating about seeing grandma." Kari explained.
"But it does sound like something grandma would've done. She did watch me and Aaron that one time we were sick, I remember a little bit of that." Haley recalled her early age experience when their grandmother was actually alive.
"Anyway, what about you Aaron? I don't recall ever hearing you saying you had an experience with grandma?" Kari said.
"That's because when I saw grandma, she.....helped me.....stop having nightmares about.....well, you already know.." Aaron replied as Kari, Haley, and even Nyx all sighed knowing what he was referring to.
"Well, how old were you when she helped do that?" Ikuro asked Aaron as he thought for a moment.
"I'd say I was maybe.....ten years old when this happened to me." Aaron recalled as he now thought back to one night in particular.
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It was a rainy night as Aaron remembered it. He was tossing and turning in his bed, before he got up and almost opened the door to go and see his parents, when he heard 5 year-old Mason going up to his mother's bedroom door.
"Mommies, the thunder scared me, can I sleep with you?" Mason asked Aaron heard their mothers letting his little brother go into their bedroom.
Aaron didn't want to seem like he was a little child like his kid brother, he wanted to prove he was a big man. Which was why he had been training at the Moreland home since he was 3 years old. It had proven to be challenging, but it was fun getting to know Chase and Charlotte more, they seemed like a second family to him. Aaron climbed back into bed and closed his eyes and went back to sleep.
In his dream, he saw Hinata there holding her sword, but she looked more ferocious than she did in real life, mostly because Aaron had been frightened of her.
"Stay away from my son!" Dream Mika said standing in front of Aaron.
"Do you want me to kill him or you first?" Dream Hinata asked sinisterly.
"You won't kill either of them. You'll have to go through me." Dream Marjorie Harris said stepping in front of Mika and Aaron.
"Grandma, don't! I'm supposed to be the hero and save you guys!" Aaron shouted as he watched Hinata's sword pierce through Marjorie's chest.
Marjorie now lay dead on the floor as Aaron knelt beside her and cried. "I'm sorry grandma, I wanted to save you." Aaron cried.
"Aaron, sweetie, you've got to stop blaming yourself for what happened." Marjorie said as Aaron looked up to see his grandmother looking fine and very beautiful as she seemed to glow.
"But....but I could've done something, I could have saved you." Aaron said with tears in his eyes.
"Aaron, I was a mother and grandmother, and as both of those things, it was always my job to protect my both children and my grandchildren. I lived a good life, I got to see you, Kari, and Haley. You've got to be a brave boy now, you've got a little brother to watch out for, and I know boys, he'll want to grow up just like his big brother. Be a brave boy and remember, this wasn't your fault. I love you Aaron." Marjorie said hugging Aaron as Aaron hugged his grandmother and slept soundly the rest of that night.
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"Aw, that was so sweet, you're grandma's really watching out for you." Nyx complimented Aaron. "I know G.G. would probably watch after us too." Nyx said as Aaron finished his story.
"Yeah, I remember hearing my dad's voice when I was fighting against little Ann in that vampire arena, but I thought I was just hallucinating." Chase remarked recalling his fight back.
"Huh, I think that may have happened to me once. I was actually outside trying to get one of the horses back inside during a bad storm. As I was standing there, I suddenly heard a voice calling me to get inside, I thought it was mama at first, but I ran over to the house, just as suddenly as lightning hit a tree where I just was startling the horse and making it go back over to the barn. I didn't tell mama, 'cause I thought I was just hearing things, but I guess it was my daddy all along." Charlotte recalled.
"It seems you and Haley all had some experience with your grandmother, but what about your youngest brother, Mason, did he ever have a moment like yours that he told you about?" Odayakana asked the three of them, now interested in hearing what story the youngest Harris sibling had told the others.
"Not that I can remember," Aaron shrugged. "I mean honestly when I hang out with Mason it's more fun than talk. He'll ask some questions and I'll answer as best I can, but he never mentioned anything about grandma. What about you Haley?"
"Nothing comes to mind," Haley said. "And we talk all the time. He's been asking me a lot about girls since he started dating Anjelica. You know like where he should take her on dates or things to get her. Would he even know what grandma looks like?"
"Maybe," Kari replied, rubbing her chin. "When I was giving him driving lessons he asked a little bit about her, but never mentioned her ghost coming to see him."
"Well then there's only one solution," Charlotte said, turning to her brother. "Pay the bill Chase. We're off to talk to Mason."
The group now all headed out of the bar and after a time, opened up a portal to the kitsune realm. Chase, Charlotte, and Andromeda, all had a little experience beforehand when going to the kitsune realm, so they thought it looked very nice and they couldn't tell that any civil war had recently been fought there, now that cleanup and recovery was almost done. They made their way to the capital to find Mason in his hybrid form doing meditating with his grandfather, Tatsu, in a very lovely garden section.
"Hey, Mason!" Haley called out as Mason's concentration was broken and he ran over to his siblings giving Haley a big hug as she returned a big one right back.
"Ha, you've really been working on those muscles, haven't you little bro?" Haley joked as she gave Mason a little hit on the shoulder.
"I see you also have been taking up meditating with grandpa as well. I thought you might have found it boring." Kari noticed raising an eyebrow at her little brother.
"I thought I would too, but it's actually really helpful for both me and Fenrir." Mason explained to the group.
"Listen Mason," Aaron said getting to the question. "We all came here, because the three of us learned that....well, we think grandma Harris might have all visited us at one point in time or even more as our guardian angel. We wanted to know, have you ever had some kind of experience where....you think you saw grandma Harris or maybe just heard her?" Aaron asked Mason as everyone now looked at Mason waiting for him to answer.
"Well....do you guys remember that one time we played hide and seek outside? I was probably six years old?" Mason asked as Haley, Aaron, and Kari all nodded recalling this event.
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It was getting close to dinner time, and the sun hadn't set yet, so the Harris siblings were still interested in playing a game outside.
"Okay, I talked to our moms," 12-year old Kari said coming out from the house. "They said we can play hide and seek until the sun sets then we have to come inside."
"Great, I'm gonna hide so good, you'll never be able to find me." 11 year-old Haley said crossing her arms.
"Well, I'm going to hide, really good. But please don't try to trick me into revealing myself like Haley does when she plays the finder." 11 year-old Aaron said as Haley laughed knowing her brother almost always fell for her false call outs.
Now the older Harris siblings looked at 6 year-old Mason as Kari bent down on her knee to talk to her little brother.
"Now Mason, do you want to hide with Haley or Aaron this time, or do you want to hide by yourself?" Kari asked.
"I want to hide by myself! I'm a big boy now Kari, I can do it!" Mason said enthusiastically.
"Okay, so....look around, if you want to hide, find it in a place where we can see you, okay?" Kari asked Mason as he nodded. "Alright, I'll go count, you guys hide." Kari said as Mason watched Aaron and Haley hide.
Mason looked around to make sure his siblings didn't see where he was going to hide and went to the woods behind his house to hide. He made sure he was a good enough distance away and could still see the house before finding what he thought was a good hiding spot. Mason now waited a couple of minutes patiently before getting a little bored and thought about giving up, but he wanted to win a game of hide and seek so waited another few minutes. However, Mason started drifting off to sleep and closed his eyes. When Mason opened his eyes again, it was completely dark and he couldn't see exactly which way his house was. Mason tried to head off in the direction he came, but accidentally took a wrong path and began walking further and further away from his home. When Mason finally realized his mistake, he didn't know which way to turn back now and slumped down to his knees and began to cry.
"Mason!" Mason heard a voice call out to him as he looked around.
"Huh? Mamma?" Mason called out as he looked around and thought he could see Claudia calling out and waving to him in the distance.
"This way Mason!" The voice of the woman, Mason assumed to be his mother called out to him.
"I'm coming mamma!" Mason said as he ran towards his mother, who seemed a little further and further away now.
"Huh? Ma-Mama? Where are you?" Mason called out as another voice called out to him.
"Mason Harris, there you are! You had us worried sick." Claudia said as she ran up to her son and hugged him.
Mason looked around to see that he had arrived back outside near the edge of the woods. He was a little confused why his mother was relieved to see him, hadn't she just seen him a few moments before? Claudia now carried him inside from the opening of the woods where he hand ran, to the back of the house with everyone else looking just as relieved to see Mason safe and sound.
"Oh, thank goodness, Mason, please never do that to us again." Mika said rubbing Mason's little head before kissing him repeatedly with love.
"Mommy...." Mason groaned.
"I know you wanted to be a good hider Mason, but you didn't have to scare us." Haley said slightly joking to her little brother as Claudia set him down to the ground.
"How did you find you way back, it got pretty dark out there?" Kari asked Mason now holding Mason's shoulders looking a little concerned as an older sister should.
"I....I heard mamma calling me." Mason answered pointing to Claudia.
"Me? Honey, I went outside to start looking for you and I only just saw you as you were at the edge of the woods." Claudia explained now confusing Mason.
Mason went the the rest of the night through dinner and then before being put down for bed wondering who he could have seen calling him. He knocked on both Aaron and his sister's bedroom doors to ask them who he might have seen.
"Mason, it's almost time for bed, why are you still up?" Kari asked him.
"Is there another lady who looks just like mamma?" Mason asked them referring to Claudia.
"Well....Mason, the only lady who would look like mamma is grandma Harris, but....she....she died before you were born." Aaron explained to his little brother.
"She died?" Mason said now looking a little sad.
"Yeah, she didn't feel good one day went to go be with grandpa Harris up in heaven buddy." Haley explained putting her hand on her brother's shoulder.
"Is she coming back when she gets better?" Mason asked as Kari, Aaron, and Haley all didn't know what to say to that now.
"N-No Mason, she's not. But don't worry, we're here and so are mom and mommy" Kari reassured Mason as she, Haley, and Aaron all hugged their little brother together.
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"And that's what I can remember most about grandma Harris being my guardian angel, but.....I think there have been other times that I didn't consider that she was watching out for me." Mason finished recalling to everyone.
"Like when?" Kari now asked.
"Well, I kind of felt like there was someone helping me with my handlebars when I learned how to ride a bike without the training wheels for the first time." Mason remembered.
"Hey, I was there help you that day! Maybe grandma wanted to make sure you didn't fall." Haley remembered now as well.
"When I got my driver's license and was driving down the street one day, it felt like someone was telling me to stop. When I did, and I waited to go for a few more minutes, I realized I would've almost hit someone who ran a red light at a four way intersection." Kari now remembered.
"I guess...I guess the three of us just never really gave it too much thought to moments like that, but maybe it's true. Maybe grandma Harris is watching over us and we just don't always know it." Aaron concluded as Haley now gave a smirk on her tip toes waiting for the words to come out of Aaron's mouth.
"Go on Aaron, say it. I know you're gonna say it." Haley said in a slightly teasing tone as as Aaron sighed and nodded in reply.
"Okay, okay, I believe we owe you an apology Haley. You may have been right all these years." Aaron apologized to his twin.
"Aw, I wasn't going to hold it against you, it is a little hard to believe, but grandma's just doing what she always did: look out for us and make sure we're safe. Now c'mere you guys." Haley said holding out her arms as Mason, Aaron, and Kari all went in for a sibling group hug together as all of them wagged their tails together.
Odayakana, Ikuro, Chase, Charlotte, Andromeda, and Nyx all found this moment between the four siblings to be a very wholesome moment. And while none of the others, nor did the Harris siblings notice it, but Marjorie Harris was alongside her grandchildren hugging the four of them as well making them all feel a great warmth.
"Grandma loves you all." Marjorie Harris whispered to the four of them.