"Hello son."
His mother Star Fire remained in the doorway, waiting for Mystic to say something, anything.
The woman standing before him looked nothing like the mother he remembered. Her blue hair hung loosely around her face, framing the same striking red eyes he remembered from years ago, but the rest of her seemed worn down, almost hollow.
Dark bags had settled beneath her eyes, her skin looked pale, and several cuts and bruises marked her arms. Some appeared old, others newer, and there was no obvious explanation for where they had come from.
Mystic stared at her for several seconds, his expression slowly tightening, his eyes moved from her face, down to the injuries on her arms, then back again.
The woman who had once seemed impossible to break was standing in front of him like someone who had spent years fighting a battle nobody else could see.
"Mother what are you doing here and how did you find where I lived. What happened to you, you look like life turned hell the same way it did to mine." He asked, taking a cautious step toward her.
Star's expression barely changed, but something flickered behind her eyes when he mentioned what had happened to her. She looked past him, scanning the house.
Her gaze traveled across the walls, the furniture, the repaired sections, the equipment, all the signs that Mystic had slowly dragged the abandoned place back into something resembling a home.
Then, her eyes landed on Luna and the change was immediate.
The faint softness disappeared from Star's face, her jaw tightened, and her fingers slowly curled into her palms, her red eyes fixed themselves on Luna, the warmth vanishing so completely that Mystic almost wondered if he had imagined it being there in the first place.
"Did you seriously ask that, my precious son. I always know where you are because I have put a tracker in every clothes I got from you but why are you still standing next to this witch." His mother muttered, the last word coming out more like a growl than a sentence.
Her eyes never left Luna, and the tension in her shoulders made it clear that her attention had completely shifted.
Mystic's eyes widened as he looked at his mother, then at Luna, unable to understand how quickly her entire demeanour had changed.
One moment, Star looked exhausted, almost broken, and the next, she was glaring at Luna as though the girl had personally stolen something from her.
Luna stared back at her, disbelief slowly replacing the caution in her expression. She stepped forward, her shoulders squaring as she looked Star directly in the eyes. Her grief had not disappeared, but now it had something else to attach itself to.
"Did you really call him that after you abandoned him for a few years to do your whore like hooker job." Luna asked, walking closer, her expression had gone completely cold, and whatever fear she had felt moments earlier seemed to have been swallowed by anger.
Star's nostrils flared. For an instant, her face looked almost stunned, as if the insult had struck somewhere deeper than Luna intended. Then her expression twisted, her voice rising as she snapped back.
"Who the fuck do you think you are talking to me like that; you don't know what's it's like to lose everything you cared about." She shouted, her voice echoing through the house, her hands trembled at her sides, and for a second, the anger looked less like hatred and more like someone desperately trying to keep something buried from spilling out.
Luna's expression faltered while she glanced toward Mystic, then back at Star, watching the woman's face shift again. The anger remained, but something underneath it seemed to crack.
"Wow, what's with the attitude change. It's like she is a whole different person when you're not talking, Mystic." Luna muttered, taking a small step backward. Her eyes remained fixed on Star, uncertainty creeping into her expression.
Star's smile vanished, she stood completely motionless, her arms hanging loosely beside her. The anger drained from her face, leaving behind an unnerving emptiness, her eyes stared straight ahead, unfocused, as though she had suddenly stopped seeing the room around her.
Then she laughed but It was only one short sound, quiet and strangely hollow. Her head tilted slightly, and when her eyes settled on Luna again, the fury was gone. There was no trace of the woman who had just shouted.
"Well, that's simple because Mystic is all I have left in this accursed world. No job. No home. No life except Mystic." She explained, her voice suddenly softer, almost gentle while the words sounded completely different coming from the same mouth, as though someone else had stepped into the room without ever opening the door.
Mystic's stomach tightened, he had seen his mother angry before, and he had seen her sad, but this was different. Her posture, her voice, even the way she looked at him had changed. It was like watching two different sides of the same person fighting for control.
"Can we go on topic. What happened to you mother, I hardly remember you but you were never this sad or depressed in your life." Mystic asked, turning away from her as he headed toward the kitchen, his footsteps echoed across the floor, each one taking him farther from the woman who had just claimed he was all she had left.
Star's hand lifted halfway toward him, then It stopped. Her smile froze, her fingers remaining suspended in the air as she watched Mystic walk away, and something in her expression seemed to collapse.
The woman who had been staring down Luna moments ago was gone again, replaced by someone whose entire world appeared to revolve around the back of her son's head disappearing around the corner.
"You could blame the group formed as the Yandere killers for my arrival. They killed my colleagues, my friends, my new boyfriend and all because somehow I did something to them by hurting you." She explained, following him toward the kitchen, her voice remained calm, almost unnaturally so, while her eyes carried the weight of everything she had lost.
Mystic stopped near the kitchen counter before he lowered his gaze, absorbing each word, while she continued approaching from behind him. Her footsteps were slow, deliberate, almost hesitant and when she reached him, her arms suddenly wrapped around his body.
"I won't let you leave now since I won't leave you and you won't leave me." She continued, tightening her embrace.
Her cheek rested against him, and for a moment, the exhausted woman from the doorway seemed to disappear completely. She held him with the desperate familiarity of someone trying to recover a childhood she could never get back.
Mystic stiffened in her arms and his eyes moved toward Luna but she was already backing away. Her hands had risen slightly, her fingers trembling, and her eyes remained locked on his mother.
Whether the fear on her face was genuine or forced, Mystic couldn't tell. Star couldn't tell either and The uncertainty only made the room feel more uncomfortable.
"Luna could you tell Harold about the situation please." He muttered, watching his friend move toward the door, his voice remained controlled, but his eyes followed her until she disappeared from the room.
The front door closed but Star didn't loosen her arms. Her grip remained firm around Mystic, her head resting against him as her breathing gradually slowed and For a moment, the woman seemed almost peaceful, as though she had finally found the one thing she had spent years searching for.
Then her expression changed again, the sadness vanished from her eyes, replaced by something softer, almost childlike. Her arms shifted around Mystic, holding him with the same possessive tenderness someone might use when refusing to let a beloved child out of their sight.
"Go on, tell him but that won't you make you less mine."