Warning: make sure you have read the previous chapter before reading this one!

EPILOGUE

Kyoko was surprised by Sawara's visit. It was a Monday, the palace was closed to visitors, and Ren was on a day off, so they intended to spend the day doing what they did best.

Camping.

"I see you're ready to go somewhere, so I will not take your time. Congratulations on your engagement! As you fulfilled the last condition, I came to bring you Lady Kyoko's last gift."

Kyoko took a few seconds to understand what her friend was saying.

"A gift...? Oh...! Is there one more?"

The good man just nodded enthusiastically, a grin showing all the excitement he was feeling for finally fulfilling the strange mission that had been assigned centuries earlier and which had been handed down to him from administrator to administrator, from curator to curator, until that moment.

Unwrapping a velvet cloth theatrically, he revealed a small wooden chest. Nothing special, Kyoko thought, except for the astonishing amount of padlocks that made the little box weigh three times more than it should have.

"What... is in there?"

Excited, Sawara shrugged.

"I have no idea, my friend. And I do not have the keys either, if you're wondering..."

Kyoko was not. She did not need anyone to tell her where the keys were.

After thanking and saying goodbye to the curator, she set off on her mission to open that chest as soon as possible.

Ren was intrigued by her delay. He knew she had received Sawara's visit, just as he knew the man had left nearly half an hour ago. So where would she be?

Had she given up their plan to spend the day... camping?

He found her in the office, surrounded by keys that had not been used for centuries. Keys that belonged to each of the doors of Hizuri II, and which she tested frantically in an old wooden box. There were padlocks on the table, and she seemed eager to reveal the contents of the box.

"Wow. I have not seen you so focused on a task since I taught you to light the fireplace."

Kyoko looked up at him and smiled. God, how he loved that smile.

"Lady Kyoko left me one last present!"

Ren smiled back.

"Did you leave yourself a third present?"

Tired of that argument, but not annoyed, she just rolled her eyes and continued the testing of the keys. With each lock she opened, her heart quickened a beat.

Amused by the scene, Ren thought she looked like a child opening Christmas presents. And as he thought of a child, his eyes rested on the still-flat belly of the beloved woman.

He could hardly believe she had said yes and they were already with a son or daughter on the way, though he had never doubted her feelings. Watching her hand, Ren saw the engagement ring he had ordered specially for her, smiling at himself as he remembered the faces of Kyoko and Laureen when they saw it.

"How... did you find the last piece of the stone?"

"Not that surprising, believe me. Only I could have found it, since it was a shard near your heart. The piece that had decelerated the bullet, in fact. And since it had gotten close enough, I thought, 'Why not? Maybe this tiny piece will help me to find the way to her heart...'"

Ren was secretly grateful to Kyoko for never mentioning the obvious. It was already enough of embarrassment that Laureen should provoke him whenever she could with the fact that he had kept with him what should have been considered hospital waste. In fact, even he could not explain why he had done it, if at the time he still did not remember Kyoko.

Returning from his ramblings when he heard the cry of victory, he looked at her in time to see her raising the lid and immediately turning pale.

"My love?" Approaching to see what had astounded her so much, Ren immediately understood what was happening as he looked at the yellow parchment. "Oh, I see... I'll be outside. Call me if you need anything."

Before leaving the office, he glanced back the instant Kyoko, with trembling hands, held up the letter she had written to herself.

It is not every day that someone sees their own handwriting and signature in a document written five centuries earlier.

If you are reading this letter, everything went well.

We won, Kyoko! It is not every day that it happens, but when it does, it is magical!

Congratulations on the engagement, by the way. Ren will make you happy like no one else would, believe me. He will also drive you nuts like no other, be aware.

I know you must be freaking out as you read these lines, so I will be brief.

The only thing I have to say to myself is that I know you are afraid of letting people in, but love requires a leap of faith. Maybe it helps if you think of it as a tribute to pay before we reap the rewards of a relationship. Sometimes we get hurt, but sometimes it is worth it. And when that happens, every small or big scar turns into one more stone on the road to happiness.

Yes, you deserve to be happy. So just be happy, Kyoko.

Do it for both of us.

With all the love I have learned to feel for myself,

Kyoko Mogami Hizuri

P.S: Give Laureen my regards.

FIM