Mother
"Hero! Hero! You're back?"
White Ghost clutched Siwoo's hand tight and looked up at him, her voice overflowing with longing and delight. The face that had held so stubbornly to a cold, blank mask melted away completely.
Her snow-white tail spun like a propeller, wagging with wild abandon.
It called to mind the old story of a dog that waited at a train station for an owner who had gone away.
Sia froze solid. Siwoo looked thoroughly thrown, but he recovered his composure soon enough and addressed White Ghost with careful politeness.
"I'm sorry. We aren't the person you're looking for."
"I-I may look like this, but I'm fourteen."
"Ah."
At Siwoo and Sia's reaction, White Ghost's ears and tail drooped lifelessly.
"The Hero... isn't you?"
"No. I'm Siwoo, and this is my little sister, Sia."
"U-um, are you all right?"
"Ah. Ahh..."
Sia, too, looked startled at the sight of White Ghost's spirits plunging straight into the abyss.
"Aigoo, you damn white mutt. I thought you'd gone home, but you couldn't even wait that long and snuck all the way in here?"
Still staring at Siwoo and Sia in disbelief, ears hanging limp, White Ghost finally turned at Baba Yaga's call.
"Hag. These two... what's their relationship to the Hero?"
"I don't know much myself. Well, considering that fortune-teller from the Order was raising them like precious treasures, they're probably some sort of whatsit from the prophecy."
"Us?"
"Hm? You didn't know?"
"No, not at all."
In the original, they gradually learned about their past as the story progressed, so this wasn't something that should have come up at this point.
"This old woman misspoke."
Ugh.
Siwoo and Sia reacted as if this were the first they'd ever heard of it, so they must not have been told separately by the Order's leader. Baba Yaga scratched her head, looking put out.
"Aigh!"
She suddenly raised her right hand and snapped her fingers.
A burst of white light flared from her hand and touched Siwoo and Sia, and both their expressions went blank for a moment.
"Sorry about that. Let's pretend you didn't hear a word. This topic is still too soon for little sprouts."
White Ghost's expression, as she looked at Siwoo and Sia, gradually hardened.
"Prophecy... Hero... Hmm."
She muttered to herself with a grave look, as if she were about to say something important—and then,
"Hag. You stink. I can't take it."
She pinched her nose without warning and glared at Baba Yaga.
"This old woman stinks, you say?"
Sniff, sniff. Baba Yaga pressed her nose to her sleeve, then her armpit, and shrugged with complete confidence.
"I don't particularly smell of anything. You're just being peculiar, Whitey."
"When did you last wash?"
"I washed two days ago. Recent enough, no?"
Indeed, she was no longer in the neat witch attire from the entrance ceremony, but back in her usual scruffy look, and a distinctly sour smell was coming off her.
"Gross. Stay at least ten paces away from me."
White Ghost frowned slightly, pulled Sia and Siwoo toward herself, and took a step back.
Ugh.
"Huh? Why are we...?"
"Did you fall asleep standing up? Or did seeing Whitey give you too much of a shock?"
Ah!
"R-right. What's going on here?"
"Why are there two Tiss Unnies?"
Having apparently come back to their senses, the siblings looked back and forth between me and White Ghost, then demanded an explanation from Baba Yaga.
"It's not two fluffballs. As you can see, that one over there is White Ghost."
"Eh...?"
"At the entrance ceremony she had more of a hazy, blurry, ghost-like image, though?"
"That's because Whitey was maintaining that unique power of hers. What you're seeing now is the little mutt's true form. Even this old woman hasn't seen it in person in quite a while."
Sia's eyes went round like White Ghost's as she looked back and forth between me and White Ghost.
"Tiss Unnie?"
"Yeah."
"White Ghost?"
"Yeah."
"I-I can't tell."
I'd answered helpfully when Sia pointed and asked, but her face only grew more confused.
"Well? Doesn't she look a bit like the fluffball?"
"No, no, no—this isn't even at the 'looks a bit alike' level!"
"He's right. That's just a carbon copy. Practically identical twins. Ah, the eye color is different, though."
"We look alike?"
"Yes! Tiss Unnie and White Ghost, completely!"
"Really?"
Sway. At the words that she resembled me, White Ghost's drooping tail gradually began to regain its life.
"So what's your relationship to Tiss Unnie?"
"That's..."
White Ghost glanced at me. It felt like she was asking permission to say it, so I nodded my consent.
Saying so, she came over to me and held out her hand as if to gently link arms.
Well, not much I can do about it.
I didn't particularly refuse, either, and held out my right arm so White Ghost could loop hers through mine.
Pffft!
Cough, cough!
Baba Yaga, who had been drinking the water on the table, sprayed it everywhere.
"Khak, khak—Whitey, what kind of damned nonsense is that...!"
"Yeah. Tiss is my daughter."
White Ghost looked at me with eyes that seemed to seek agreement.
"That's right. White Ghost is my mo...m."
As of about thirty minutes ago, that is.
A sudden mischievous impulse made me deliberately trail off the last part.
Baba Yaga and Siwoo's mouths fell open in shock, their faces twisting into the kind of ridiculous expressions you'd see in a cartoon.
Aha!
Sia, as if every last question had finally been answered, seized White Ghost's hand with an utterly radiant smile.
"So you were Tiss Unnie's mother!"
"Mother?"
White Ghost tilted her head.
"Nooooo! My chance to make a good impression on Mother...!"
"Whoa, whoa, that's enough. What kind of rudeness is that toward a legendary hero."
While Siwoo soothed a Sia who was about to go haywire, Baba Yaga pulled White Ghost aside and lectured her about this and that. Even you can't just come and go from a place like this without notice, she said; now that the Management Bureau exists, you have to follow its rules. White Ghost, combing her fur, let the words go in one ear and out the other.
"Aish, damn mutt. You've never properly listened to anyone but that Hero fellow, not even back then."
"That's mean. I came to help."
"The one who came to help...!"
Baba Yaga glanced at me, then at Siwoo and Sia, and swallowed the rest of her words with a sigh.
"The discharge paperwork is done. Fluffball, you head on in as well."
Looking exhausted, Baba Yaga waved her hand.
"Don't wanna. I'm staying with Tiss. With my daughter."
White Ghost protested to Baba Yaga as if she couldn't bear to be separated from me, and plastered herself against my side.
Soft.
The sensation of White Ghost clinging to me—that petite frame that looked exactly like mine... honestly, it felt good, if anything. Not unpleasant at all.
This must have been how it felt when Sia hugged me.
"Damn mutt, know when to quit. The fluffball is a freshman at the Academy. She has to start classes first thing tomorrow."
Fortunately, Academy classes were similar to a university system. You could choose the courses you wanted, and the first week was the add/drop period, so even though I'd blown a whole week, it wasn't too late yet.
Watching White Ghost nuzzle against me and refuse to let go despite Baba Yaga's scolding, Sia wore an expression that would have registered one hundred percent happiness if you'd measured it with an app on her terminal.
"Wowww... it's like Tiss Unnie doubled."
"Sia, I'm begging you, please don't make that perverted face. You'll ruin it."
Siwoo looked at her with a face that would have registered one hundred percent sorrow.
"W-what did I even do!"
"Here's a handkerchief. Wipe your drool."
"Huh? Why is this..."
A hint of longing gathered once more in White Ghost's eyes as she watched Sia and Siwoo bicker. Baba Yaga casually stepped in front of her.
"That's enough. Let the fluffball go, mutt."
"Hmph."
"You can't just crawl into the Academy whenever you please. Even you."
"Tch. Then why does Baba Yaga get to go in?"
"Because I came here at the Director's request, that's why. You think I want to be doing this? I'd rather be drinking myself into a stupor and sprawling out to sleep, but I haven't had a single drop these past few days."
Baba Yaga made her annoyance abundantly clear, and still did everything that needed doing.
"If you're that desperate to crawl into the Academy, you ought to at least play at being a teacher."
"If I play teacher, can I stay with my daughter?"
"Why? Interested?"
The moment White Ghost showed interest, a gleam flashed through Baba Yaga's eyes.
Ah, that look. That was the look from when she was waiting for a chance to kidnap a graduate student.
"Um, Baba Yaga?"
"Tut tut, and it was just getting good... Don't mind us over here. Off you go now. See you tomorrow."
"Let go of me!"
"We're transferring, so hold still, you damn mutt."
With that, Baba Yaga grabbed White Ghost's hand and, with a teleportation spell, vanished from the hospital in an instant.
"That was... incredibly chaotic."
"Yeah."
After watching the two of them disappear for a moment, we could finally look at each other properly.
"Tiss Unnie..."
"You were laughing just a second ago. Why are you about to cry again."
"Hiiing, that's so mean. Do you know how worried we were!"
"There, there."
Pat, pat. When Sia sniffled and bent down, I rose onto my tiptoes and hugged her like a medal hanging from her neck. She already looked almost fully grown on the outside, but somehow she only seemed to get more childish by the day.
"Don't worry. I'm fine."
For now, this condition is on the decent side. I've locked down every power except my mimicry ability, so I can handle ordinary daily life without any trouble.
The problem is Shan, from whom there's been no word at all. I'm worried sick about her. This clearly isn't simply a deep sleep. There has to be some reason she can't wake. I want to confirm that reason right now. And for that, I need to be alone first. Isn't there some way...
Grrroowl!
What on earth was that sound? Thunder out of a clear sky—Sia and Siwoo both looked around.
Grrroowl!
When the sound rang out again, both their gazes turned to me. Pitying looks.
"Tiss Unnie, are you hungry?"
The moment I realized the sound was coming from my own stomach, my face burned instantly.
"Yeah. Super hungry."
"You went a whole week without eating anything, so of course you'd be starving."
Still, thanks to that, both of their sad faces had softened considerably, so that was a relief.
"All right, let's all eat first and think it over. Tiss Unnie, what do you want? I'll buy everything!"
At Sia's words, every kind of dish flashed through my mind.
"If there's something you want, how about we buy groceries and all eat together at the dorm? Dorothy's been waiting at the dorm for news, too."
Of all the suggestions, Siwoo's last one appealed to me most. I'd use that as an excuse for now.
"Yeah. Let's do that. Oh, right—I have a quick errand I need to drop by for."
"Then Unnie can just come with us!"
"Ah, well, about that."
Grab. Siwoo caught Sia, who, like White Ghost, was determined not to let go until the very end, and held her back.
"Ah, seriously! Oppa, what now!"
"Sia. Tiss said she has something she needs to do alone for a bit."
"Is that... so?"
"Yeah, sorry."
"No, no! Why would Tiss Unnie be sorry! It's okay. It's okay."
Sia said it was fine, but she still clutched my hand tightly, as if she didn't want to let go. She shot her brother a resentful look, as if to say, You sent Unnie off alone last time and look what happened.
Siwoo ignored Sia's reaction as if he were used to it.
Thank you, Siwoo. You've got it rough.
"We'll do the grocery shopping ourselves, then head back to the dorm first and get dinner ready. Take care of your business at your own pace."
"...Tiss Unnie, this time you have to come back carefully, and not be late. Promise?"
"Okay. I promise I'll be back before dinner."
Leaving Sia and Siwoo behind, I hurried out of the hospital.