Chapter 1: Toshiko, Yoshie and Masami

Toshiko watched, helpless, as Sora ascended with other kids and monsters to the world in the sky. Her daughter was going to risk her life to save a world she had nothing to do with. Toshiko couldn't agree with that. How could she be okay with Sora putting herself in so much danger? But she also couldn't stop her.

Sora had promised her, as she was rising, that she would come back. There was no sign of annoyance or anger in her voice, only concern for Toshiko.

Was Sora going to die? Toshiko couldn't shake that thought off. Was she going to lose her daughter without ever making Sora understand how important she was to her? If only Toshiko had been able to be less closed-off, to be more open with her emotions, to show clearer how she felt... an endless row of missed opportunities flashed before her eyes.

The weight of her regret made Toshiko feel like sinking.

"Could it be...?" A voice she hadn't heard in almost a decade said. "Takenouchi Toshiko-san?"

She turned her head to the left and saw that couple. Izumi Yoshie and Izumi Masami didn't seem too different from the last time she had met them. What were they doing there?

"Sora-chan... her last name was Takenouchi... I thought it was just a coincidence, but she was your daughter, then..." Yoshie muttered.

"How do you know my daughter?" Toshiko asked.

"She came to our place a few times with Taichi-kun." Yoshie explained.

"Why would she do that? How does she know the two of you?" Toshiko was getting impatient.

"Because our son is in her club." Masami said.

"Your son? You can't mean..." Toshiko paled as she understood the situation. "Koushiro? Sora knows him? Is she friends with him?"

"Yes." Yoshie confirmed. "They seem to get along well, despite not knowing anything..."

"Maybe they get along because they don't know anything," Masami commented, darkly. "If Koushiro were to know what your husband did..."

"Does Koushiro know he's adopted?" Toshiko asked.

"We told him not long before..." Yoshie said, looking at the mountains in the sky.

"He also went there? Just like Sora?" Toshiko murmured, looking upwards as well.

Those two kids attended the same school, the same club and were both chosen to fight for that other world. What were the odds of all that happening? They were never supposed to meet each other, but fate had brought them together anyway.

"We didn't have time to tell him much." Yoshie said, scratching her head. "He doesn't even know his biological parents' names yet... or about Haruhiko-san..."

"We're not telling him about that man!" Masami stated.

"Dear, we've talked about this and we agreed-"

"To tell him about his parents, yes! Shunsui and Ame were good people and they loved him, it wasn't their fault that they died! But that man..." Masami had disgust in his voice "... that man abandoned him!"

"It wasn't like that!" Toshiko interjected. "Ame-san's death was too devastating to Haruhiko-san! He couldn't bring himself to take care of her baby, it was just too hard for him!"

"Do you really think that's an excuse?" Masami raised his voice. "He was too sad?! Do you think we weren't sad after our Makoto...?" He bit his lower lip and looked down, trembling. "What would have happened to Koushiro if we weren't there to take care of him? Would that man have just ditched him somewhere?"

"Of course not! I wouldn't allow that!" Toshiko stated. "I would've convinced Haruhiko-san to take that boy in! And if he didn't want to be around him, I would've taken care of Koushiro by myself, like I did with Sora."

She imagined for a moment, like she had done countless times before, how it would have been if she had taken care of Koushiro. Maybe Haruhiko would visit his family even less often. Perhaps Sora would've grown happier for having a kid close to her age to keep her company. Or maybe both children would resent Toshiko. Would she really have been able to raise both kids by herself?

"We know you had good intentions, Toshiko-san. We're not blaming you for anything." Yoshie comforted her. "Koushiro is a blessing in our lives. Adopting him was the best decision we ever made."

"We love Koushiro more than anything!" Masami said. "I don't want my son to suffer. That's why I don't want him to know that his own uncle didn't want to take care of him. Koushiro doesn't deserve that!"

"But... wouldn't Koushiro and Sora-chan like to know that they're cousins?" Yoshie inquired.

Toshiko didn't want to hear about any of that topic anymore.

"Why are we discussing this when we don't even know if they're coming back alive?" Toshiko asked. "They could be all dead now. My Sora could be..."

She didn't feel when the first tears fell from her eyes, only noticing that her vision had gotten blurred.

"You have to believe in them." Yoshie told her. "Trust in your daughter!"

"She's just a kid! This situation, this responsibility... it's too much for her! It's not fair! She can't..." Toshiko protested.

"She promised you she would come back, didn't she?" Masami asked. "Believe in her!"

"How can you two have such blind faith? Aren't you concerned?!"

"Of course we're concerned!" Yoshie stated. "But we know our son! He's intelligent, resourceful, responsible! He can do this! And he's coming back to us... he promised he would show us that he was okay!"

Masami embraced his wife and they didn't say anything else. Toshiko didn't comment on Yoshie's soft sobs, muffled by Masami's body.

She had to have faith in Sora. Otherwise, she would break down. Believe in Sora! Toshiko told herself. Her daughter was strong, she even tried to play a game with a hurt leg once. Sora was brave, she had never feared to stand up to her. Sora was so kind...

Toshiko didn't remember if she had ever told her daughter those things. She just assumed that Sora knew or that she should know... no wonder Sora hated her...

That wasn't true. Toshiko knew that.

If Sora hated her, she wouldn't have seemed so distressed when she flew away on her bird friend while her mother was cornered. Sora wouldn't have looked at her with concern while leaving to that world. She wouldn't have promised to come back.

Sora loved her and would return safely because of that. Toshiko had to believe in Sora's love.

She will come back! Toshiko told herself. And once she returned, Toshiko would tell Sora how much she loved her. She would tell her everything.

Everything...

What would Sora do if she knew that her father had refused to take care of her cousin? That she was related to her friend from the soccer club? Would she hate Haruhiko? Would she hate her mother? Their relationship, that had seemed to begin to get better, would be ruined again? And Sora's relationship with Haruhiko? They had always gotten along. He wouldn't take well to be confronted by Sora. It wouldn't be fair to let him be haunted by a bad decision he had made when he was in despair, a decision she knew he regretted.

"It would be better to everyone if Sora and Koushiro never find out." Toshiko said. "The kids have gone through enough already. They don't need more reasons to suffer."

The three of them agreed to keep that secret.

When they saw the children returning in the flying trolley, any other concern that didn't involve hugging their kids vanished from their minds.

The idea for this story came to my mind and wouldn't leave me, so I decided to write it down. I don't know yet if it'll be a one-shot or if I'll continue the story. I had already used this cousin plot in The Song of Love, but I wanted to write about that in a story in the main timeline too. I hope you liked.