"Mommy, are you going to be busy tomorrow?"
A boy with black hair and midnight black eyes walked towards his mother, grabbing the hem of the apron as he looked up at her.
Ryuuko paused on cutting the potatoes, putting the knife down and rubbing her hand on her apron before she looked down, a small smile gracing her lips.
"I don't think so." She gave her son a gentle boop on the nose which made him smile, "It's my day off, I can stay home tomorrow all day and we will spend it together if you want."
"Really?" His eyes brightened up, his smile turning into a wide grin as he beamed at her.
"Yes, darling. Really." She let out a quiet laugh and picked up her son, he was quick to wrap his arms around her neck and place a kiss on her cheek.
"Where is Rozia?" Ryuuko walked inside the living room, pushing her son to her left hip and looking around, "Is she taking a nap?"
"Yes, mommy. She said she was feeling tired and did not want to bother you so she went to sleep on her own." Roziel mumbled, laying his head on her shoulder and burying his face in her neck.
"It's been a while since you tucked us in bed, mommy.. She's starting to do things on her own now." The little boy muttered, a saddened tone lacing his muffled voice.
Ryuuko's heart ached at the words she heard.
Her son, Ruziel Vargas, is playful and cheeky, but he is honest and does not like to lie.
Hearing him say that his twin sister is doing things on her own now when she was the most needy and clingy out of the two of them had made her heart break into pieces and makes her want to cry.
"I see.." Ryuuko forced a smile on her face as she put Ruziel down on the couch, "Thank you for being honest with me, darling."
"Did I hurt you, mommy?" The look on her son's face was heartbreaking, he does not like to lie so she always does her best to not lie to him as well.
"Yes, a little." She answers truthfully, deciding to come clean and caresses Ruziel's cheeks with her thumbs, "But it's okay. It can't be helped. Things just don't go our way and we need to learn how to accept that."
"Just like what happened with my father?" Ruziel looked at her with innocent eyes, "He left us because he was bad to you, right?"
Ruziel is right.
Her supposedly ex-husband filed a divorce last year when he awakened his ability to guide Espers.
His sync rate with one of the Espers he guided in the guild he worked in was the highest rate he got so far and given the chance that Espers earn more than a normal civilian, he booked it.
He filed for a divorce as soon as possible, but he still has to do child support according to the court.
The judge made sure that he will not get away from his responsibility on raising his children just because he found an esper with a good sync rate with him, and because of that, Ryuuko could not thank the judge enough for pushing through.
"People like him shouldn't have awakened as a guide."
She remembered the words of her lawyer, cursing her ex-husband for discarding her after that incident.
Still, she is thankful for the people who supported her through the divorce process— her mom, her mother-in-law, her sister-in-law, and her father-in-law.
It was quite a funny sight to see them cursing him out when they found out why he was divorcing Ryuuko.
They got even more mad when they learned that the Esper was a mere B-class who could barely help the top ranked espers because of her ability.
"The nerve of that excuse of a man!" His own father stooped so low that he refused to let her ex-husband back into their house after the divorce.
He just couldn't accept the fact that he would do something as horrible as that.
The divorce was sudden which shocked everyone, she was forced to look for a decent job that would help pay the bills because the child support money does not help much.
She was lucky enough that the house is under her name and bought it with her own money before she settled to be a housewife.
Besides, she can't use that money for something else, it was solely given to her for the twins.
"Yes, sweetheart." Ryuuko decided to tell the truth again, "He was a bad man, but he's still your father, okay? Don't be too hard on him."
Ruziel pouted, puffing out his cheeks as he crossed his arms in front of his chest, "I don't like him no more. He doesn't even play with me or Rozi, he is always being bad to that woman inside their room."
A horrified expression crossed her face as she asked, "Bad?"
Did her ex-husband start to harbor forbidden desires to inflict pain on his current girlfriend just because she's a B-rank Esper?
However, she couldn't jump to conclusions anymore because Ruziel started speaking.
"Uhuh! Last month, he told us to not come out of our room because he said they will play house together in their room then boom! The girl started screaming fso I tried to help her by going inside their room, but the door was locked!"
Her son's face looked so puzzled as he recalled what happened in his father's house.
"Rozi told me to stop it so I stopped, but I think he was doing the same thing he did to you to that woman, mom! She was crying and screaming! It was scary!" Ruziel grasped her cheeks and shook her head lightly, "We need to help her, too! He is a bad man, mom!"
She feels sick. Did her ex-husband seriously do that while the children were staying with him? She can't believe it. The audacity of that man is really something else.
"Darling, why didn't you tell me? I could have talked to your father if I knew about what happened." Ryuuko said, her eyebrows furrowed and her lips puckering because Ruziel squeezed her cheeks.
"Rozi told me to not tell you." Ruziel beamed at her and let go of her cheeks, "She told me that father will get what he deserves soon! She said that I just need to wait for it to happen and I trust Rozi so I know that it will really happen."
"Get what he deserves?" Ryuuko blinked, a worried expression on her face, "Oh, dear.. What is she planning this time?"
As if to answer her question, the door of Rozia's bedroom creaked open. The little girl stepped out of her room while carrying her tablet, a bored look on her face before a mischievous smirk slowly creeped into her lips.
"Guess what, mommy?" Rozia approached her with a bounce in her every step, "I posted something in Russel's account~"
Russel Del Rosario was the name of her ex-husband and for some reason, Rozia has been calling him by his name ever since they came back from their grandparents' house when they were babysat for the weekend.
"Rozia, I told you to not call your father by his name. That's bad manners, okay? Your grandparents won't be happy if they hear that." Ryuuko was quick to scold her daughter for calling her ex-husband by his name.
"Don't worry, mommy! Grandpa and grandma love it when I call him by his name! They told me he doesn't deserve to be called with that f word because he was a bad person." Rozia assured her, puffing her chest out as if she did something good.
"That's wrong—"
The mother stopped talking abruptly and couldn't finish what she was saying because her surroundings suddenly started to shake.
She was quick to grab the twins and wrap her arms around their head to protect them from anything that could fall before anything else, her sudden movement made Rozia drop the tablet on the floor and cry out in panic.
"Mommy!"
"Mom, what's happening?!"
The twins grabbed her shirt, wrapping their arms around her so they wouldn't fall as she made a beeline towards the dining room's table.
She slid to her knees, crawling under the table, pulling the children under the table with her and putting her twins in her lap before proceeding to put her hand at the back of their heads as they hid their faces on her chest.
"I don't know what's happening, baby." She answered her son's question as she shielded their head, "But don't worry, mommy will protect the two of you."
However, despite her efforts to assure them, their surroundings seem to have another plan.
FSSSHHHH.
A whistling sound had caught her attention. She turned her head to look at what it was, but before she could see it, she felt her body being sucked in that direction.
"Mommy!"
"Mom!"
The twins cried on the top of their lungs, hugging each other as they cling tighter to her torso.
She tried to grab the table's foot to ground herself, but it was not enough to stop her body from moving.
She could see things flying to the same direction of where she can feel she is being forced to, but she didn't want to risk her children's life.
"Damn it!" She cursed out loud, feeling her fingers slip from the table.
To her luck, she did not have to worry about letting go of the table anymore because the table itself got sucked to the other direction.
That was when she saw it.
A rift has opened up in the living room, the purple hues of the rift indicate that it is an S-rank, but the purple hues have a black mixture in it.
Her eyes widened when she realized that she had nothing to hold on to anymore. The wall that separates the living room from the dining room had disappeared so all she could do is wrap her arms around the twins.
"Hold on tight!"
She screamed as they got sucked in, the rift movements of sucking everything around it got stronger as it finally consumed what it wanted.
A human life.