Planet Master

“At the time of your birth, we did not even know that you existed or were even born.” The hazy voice then became clearer and gave Tatsumi an answer.

“What does that mean?” Tatsumi quickly asked; otherwise, the time spent would be wasted.

“We did not know that our son would have an affair with someone.” Another voice explained with a hissed tone, as if this was actually happening right now.

“An affair? So I’m an illegitimate child or some sort?” Tatsumi only cared about the information and not his origin. The last obsession he had was about the information about his origin. He did not feel anger for being abandoned since that feeling had only existed in the past when he was little.

Now, he could judge the matter himself and could even objectively point out the matter.

“We…don’t even know since we are just ordinary people of the Heavensend Kingdom. How could we have the resources to look for certain people in the vast territory of the kingdom?”

Tatsumi knew that to be the case. Without sufficient resources, searching for someone could be extremely difficult. Furthermore, the grandparents died on the verge of when the international network was first introduced.

The moment their voices reached Tatsumi, he could start the process of exchanging knowledge through words, or he could initiate Memory Assimilation.

Tatsumi’s breath became ragged as he tried to process the information at a fast rate.

“Then what? You clearly knew about my parents, right?” Tatsumi asked.

He truly did not want to force people to do Memory Assimilation since it affected both sides greatly. Furthermore, the willingness helped in the process so being forced could have an adverse effect.

“Why don’t you do it? As we recall, you can do Memory Assimilation, right? Just do it, and at least you will know the matter that had happened as well as the identity of your parents. That is all we can do for you.”

Tatsumi then willed for the connection to his grandparents to be strengthened and proceed with the Memory Assimilation process.

-

The winter wind blew with the cold that bit the skin and bones, causing the person in Tatsumi’s perspective to shiver.

‘It’s been so long since I witnessed the white scenery and snow.’ Tatsumi thought.

But the person he was in turned out to be his paternal grandfather.

From the physical fitness of the grandfather at the time, he was an entering middle-aged man and lived in a simple but comforting house on the outskirts of a place that felt foreign to Tatsumi.

Then there was a young man in his twenties coming back from somewhere to the house as his direction.

“You brat. Why are you five minutes late?” Tatsumi realized that the person he was in spoke in a harsh tone.

Of course, he would, since the weather was not good for going out in the first place. Any later and even he could not guarantee that he would be able to walk far.

The young man was like this person, wearing a jacket to keep the body temperature as well as gloves. The young man had a good-looking face, a sharp eye, and fine eyebrows. His black hair was actually quite common for the folk at the Heavensend Continent since their predecessor Chi You brought them to this continent.

“Sorry, there was a blockade near the usual road. So what are we going to do?” the young man asked the man instead.

The man narrowed his eyes, staring at the young man from head to toe before he replied.

“We need to wait until the snowstorm recedes. While doing so, get some warmth from the fireplace in the house. After that and the snowstorm, we will clean our places up to the end of the road that connects this house to the bigger main road.” The man said with conviction that his plan must be executed flawlessly.

“Tch. Again with that tone, old man.” The young man said with dissatisfaction while crossing his arm on his chest.

“Or what? Do you want the supplies to our village to be disturbed by the piling snow?”

“Fine. Let us warm up in the house, nice and tidy. How about that?” the young man relented while twitching his mouth.

“Good.”

Then the two entered the warmer house. Although it was warmer but the temperature was barely above the transformation of the water in liquid form into solid form. As someone who had lived on such conditions, they knew that warmth became the most important thing along with necessities such as food and drink.

Other than that, good clothes could help them through the winter. That was why the clothes of the three family members were specifically made so that they could give warm insulation.

Tatsumi saw the face of the grandfather in his life through the reflection in the mirror. He looked stern and serious, to the point that Tatsumi felt that the face was similar to when Miyamoto Mamoru commanded his subordinates.

“Eat the soup while it’s warm.” This time Tatsumi could see his grandmother. Her kind looks on her face was visible even to him.

‘They probably did not see the world change into the transcendent era so their life ended before that happened.’ Tatsumi thought while trying to figure out what time it was in the current scene.

‘But why this scene specifically? What significance does this to the current problem I have?’ Tatsumi asked in his mind.

Then, when the snowstorm receded and the two father and son duo wanted to clean the piled-up snow that had reached their legs, they were surprised by the incoming people.

There were three people who approached the two. They looked similar to the family of three except their child was a son while the other was a daughter in similar age.

“Who are you people?” The man became slightly wary in front of the strangers and even shielding the young man

“We are new in this village.” The other man said truthfully since everyone soon would know about them.

“We have been to most houses, almost all except you.” The woman spoke politely, and the man could see a demeanor of higher rank people in her.

“Is that so?” the man only looked at them, still wary but lessened.

“Who are they?” the wife of the man came out with a simple shovel but she was also wary of the strangers.

“Well, looks like this one is really wary of us. Sorry for interrupting your peaceful day.” The other man sighed with a slight pity in his voice.

“Alright, that is everyone in this village. I’m sure that they will open up to us with time.” He added and then turned around and led his wife and daughter away from the family of three.

“Hmm…” the man Tatsumi was in seemed not welcome to a stranger since he had a bad experience with that. Tatsumi slowly felt the memory of his grandfather assimilate into him and some things were unlocked this way.

“What are you staring at!?” the man, seeing his son, looked at the newcomer, became irritated and kicked him in the calf.

“Ouch. Old man, can you see that I am seeing something amazing for a moment?” the young man protested but he was slightly concerned about that family of three.

They surely walked around when the snow was piled up high and the young man was actually mesmerized by the daughter of that family.

“You…don’t tell me you have a crush!?” The man slightly raised his voice in disbelief.

His son rarely talked about his own life and he had apparently had no interest in the daughters of the fellow villagers since his eyes never seemed to change into one of infatuation when looking at them.

“Don’t tell me…this is the beginning of everything, good and bad.” Tatsumi finally realized why this scene was shown to him through his paternal grandfather.

Then his perspective became twisted, blurred and unrecognizable as if an abstract painting was being drawn.

-

“Old man! If you don’t agree, then I’d just run with her.” The young man was adamant in his decision.

It was an affair that the man did not expect to affect his son so greatly. Furthermore, why did he like her in the first place?

“Damn, son. Let’s first discuss it.” The man plead but as if knowing the man’s true maneuver, the young man did not heed and went away along with his bag.

“Don’t look for me! I knew that you would never agree to my relationship but to me, this is as important as my own life.” The young man’s voice echoed out as he ran away from him, from his family.

‘Why?’ the man thought. He actually understood that feeling quite well but he could not just agree to the relationship.

When Tatsumi was processing this part of the scene along with the memories in it, he sighed internally.

His grandfather was quite stubborn and that was an understatement since even his father knew that his relationship would never be approved of by his grandfather.

It was because he just did not like any strangers at all. He was overprotective of what was his. He’d rather be hated by the people he was protecting than let them suffer at the hands of others.

Tatsumi knew that this was actually a big misunderstanding. But some things needed to be communicated properly for it to be cleared. Otherwise, it would make things complicated.

‘But what’s done is done. Now, I need to send this message to my biological parents that my grandfather was actually sorry for what had happened.’ Tatsumi thought while inwardly sighing.

“That is all we know.”

Then Tatsumi appeared in the Library of Consciousness. He was in a daze before he blinked his eyes and saw that the person in front of him was his grandfather in his peak condition.

“Grandfather.” Tatsumi murmured. He looked at his biological grandfather with a complex emotion swirling inside his heart.

There were so many things he wanted to ask, so many things he wanted to know. But now that he was face-to-face with the person involved, Tatsumi felt something stir inside of him.

“My grandson…I am sorry.” His grandfather bowed ninety degrees, fully doing that by his own will.

“What are you sorry for? If you really wanted to apologize, go to your son.” Tatsumi said with a flat tone.

“Right. It was due to my stubbornness that this happened. But I can’t seem to communicate with your father. Looks like he is truly decisive in severing the ties with me.”

Tatsumi held his breath as he realized the issue. Severing the ties meant that his father wanted nothing to do with his family. Even though his grandfather had been connected to his son, but something was preventing that connection from fully forming.

It was a one-sided communication where his grandfather kept receiving information about his son but his son could not receive anything from his father.

“Now I understand why Father God did not want to expose this. I am not ready for this yet at the time. But now that I have set my mind, I can say that I am ready to face whatever is going on.” Tatsumi said.

For as long as he remembered, he often asked Dian about his biological parents but Dian either shifted the topics or just outright said that he was not ready.

At the time, he was questioning whether Dian just wanted to conceal it or intentionally made things difficult for him. But when he unraveled the truth himself, Tatsumi felt like all of this was prepared by the Father God himself.

“Then mend your relationship!” Tatsumi offered the one solution which was the hardest but also the surest way to reconcile and clear up the misunderstanding.

‘Wait…misunderstanding. Could it be that my parents are also misunderstanding something?’ Since there was the possibility of misunderstanding flowing and there were proofs, Tatsumi had to think in this direction.

“Please let me examine you properly.” Tatsumi said to his grandfather. Slightly behind his grandfather was his grandmother, watching over him.

“Sure. If it's for reuniting and being able to connect with my son once again, I am willing to do something.” His grandfather nodded and let Tatsumi slowly inspect him.

What Tatsumi inspected was actually the familiarity that came from his Nafs. From there, Tatsumi could then identify his father and possibly his mother.

“This is our fault. We should have discussed this and not concluded too early.” His maternal grandfather lowered his head in guilt.

Tatsumi then also inspected his maternal grandparents for a while. He found the thing he was looking for, the similarities between their Nafs and his. Once he identified it, then he could scour the connection between his grandparents and their children.

Tatsumi believed that his parents were still alive even after centuries had passed. It meant that they had become transcendents, likely using Ether as their transcendent energy source.

“You know about this, don’t you?” Tatsumi asked his grandparents about their connection with their child. Tatsumi just needed to use this connection to reverse-track it to the other end of the connection, but it was so faint that Tatsumi was even having trouble establishing a strong connection.

While he did that, he also used his understanding of relationships and cause and effect to find his parents.

Although the connection was so faint that it could dissipate at any moment, but Tatsumi managed to do something this difficult due to his own understanding of relationships in the Afterlife. That was why he could do this despite the difficulty.

Soon, a strong connection was formed and his grandparents could hear piece of the thoughts of their children.

Tatsumi was also hearing that since he was the one who had strengthened the connection in the first place.

“We are living like this, knowing that our parents are dead and our child is probably dead too. Are you truly satisfied with this kind of life? Or do you think that he is truly our long-lost child?”

Tatsumi tilted his head. From the voice, it was actually a woman’s voice. Hearing that caused Tatsumi to feel like this woman had gone through trials and tribulations since he could detect the weariness in her voice.

“Please convey what you desire the most. It will be felt.” Tatsumi then locked on the two people who were supposedly his parents and even gleaned some details about them while letting his grandparents communicate with them.

Although the feeling would be like a lingering voice from the deepest part of the Nafs so it was hard to say whether it would be conveyed properly.

Then his grandparents started to say their innermost feelings and apologies before Tatsumi returned the connection to its previous situation. It could not be maintained for long since it was not suitable. But the faint connection became slightly stronger than before.

“I don’t know whether this can be considered a good result but are you prepared for meeting with your parents?” Kudungga suddenly said.

Tatsumi turned his head to look at the forefather in his sight and knew that the question was important.

But since he was here and had heard everything he needed to know, Tatsumi was confident that he could calmly meet with them.

“Of course, I am ready.” Tatsumi replied.

“Before that, you need to properly greet your grandparents first, don’t you think?” Chi You said.

“Right. Will you three keep accompanying me?” Tatsumi asked with a small hope.

“Of course.” The three said at the same time.

Then Tatsumi took a step forward and was just an arm away from his grandparents, both paternal and maternal.

“Introduction is due even if it is late.” Tatsumi said while his eyes closed. Although he had the memory and knew the names of his grandparents, he’d rather do a proper introduction.

“I am Sasaki Kojiro. I am one of the few who followed the people who went to the Heavensend Continent. I got what I wanted but lost someone important. That is probably my history." his paternal grandfather said with solemn eyes and expression.

"Hmm." Tatsumi nodded in acknowledgement.

“Well, what does that have to do with me now? What I know is that I am alone as far as I remember. Only the people from my orphanage care about the current family I have and me. What do you say about that?” Tatsumi added suddenly.

Kojiro blinked and felt the heavy burden of telling him something during their experience after death since they connected to him in a sneaky way.

“We are allowed to redeem ourselves through connecting with the living. But the very first thing we had to do was connect to those close to us, meaning family members.” Tatsumi’s grandmother explained.

“It means that you probably connected to your child, right?” Tatsumi knew that to be the case, seeing the expression on his grandparents ' faces.

“Yes. That is the time when we learned about you. To think that they had you during their time out.” Kojiro said with a sad expression.

“Fine, let’s just accept what you said as the truth. What happened after that?” Tatsumi asked.

“Then the Father God came to us, saying that he knew who our grandchild is. But he made a condition that we only have a limited connection to you. Only when the time was right could you track it back to us. Please don’t blame anyone else. It is our fault that this has happened.” The grandparents said simultaneously.

Tatsumi frowned upon hearing that.

But just as he wanted to continue asking them, a hand pressed on his shoulder.

Tatsumi realized that the one who did it was none other than Dian. Dian had come as early as possible and watched his Star Child find his lineage.

“Now, let’s settle this properly. Otherwise, Tatsumi here would be displeased.” Dian said.