The Alchemist (Todomomo)

2. History & Information

"Ochako darling, how are you?" A short woman pops up as soon as they open the door to another similar looking house. Shouto feels the cold wind and looks at the sky. Grey clouds are gathering slowly and he's sure that the rains will pour.

He looks back into the house and sees the two women take their time hugging and asking how they've been while Shouto awkwardly stands in the side with his cloak on. Between their chatting, he hears the younger woman talk about him but he waits for them to look at him before he speaks. His illusionary spell is still active but he feels it break apart the minute the short lady lays her eyes on him.

"Remove your cloak please. I do not tolerate strangers in my home." She speaks a bit too spookily for Shouto. He conplies to her wishes and earns a couple of widened eyes.

"You look exactly like them." She whispers into the air.

Shouto's mouth curls into a frown as he thinks that the woman has recognised his red hair and teal eyes.

"From this side, you look like a male version of Rei. Not that much like her father, but just enough to be her twin." He is surprised at those words because his assumption has been proved wrong. This woman recognized him because of his mother and again, he feels a little more respect towards a stranger.

"You knew my mother?"

"She's your mother? Well, that's great. Wait, you don't know? Your mother is well-known in these parts. What do you mean by 'knew'? What happened to her?" The bunch of questions slap him one after the other. He's glad to hear that he's in an area where his mother is well-known but after seeing how fondly she talked about his mother, he cannot find the courage to tell this woman about his mother's fate.

"My mother is in a coma." He says those words like he fires an arrow.

"Come, sit down boy." The woman leads him to a table and chair which are eerily similar to the ones in Ochako and Izuku's house. He rests his cloak on the back of the chair and his bag on the floor by his side and sits. Ochako nervously sits beside the shirt woman who has taken the chair opposite to him.

The older mage waves her hands and a kettle flies over to be filled with water and hovers over the fire afterwards.

"You have a bit of Miho too." She speaks again but earns a confused face.

"Miho?"

"Kid, you don't know anything about your maternal family, do you?" He shakes his head and hears a sigh.

"Miho was Rei's mother who died just before her marriage to your father, whoever that is. She was the one who carried the ice elemental gene which your mother inherited. Rei's father was a normal human who died due to an illness." Shouto accepts the information while feeling weird that he is learning about his own family from a surprisingly kind woman he met five minutes ago.

"How did my mother get married?" He asks slowly.

"All we know is that she got married to her somebody who took her away and never returned. A few days before the wedding, Miho died mysteriously and a few days after, her father died. In both their wills, it was written that Rei was to be married to your father."

The magical kettle had flown in accompanied by three cups and tea was served. After a sip of tea, the old woman looks at the young man and sees his plain expression and sighs again.

"You didn't know that do you?" He shakes his head again.

"Enough of history. Tell me everything that happened during the day she fell into coma. Ochako, mind picking those Ellas out there? It's about to rain already."