Before and After

Garmen district, Manhattan, New York.
March 5st
8:30 AM

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  Maria POV
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Tamamo and I were shopping in one of the largest stores in New York. This was incredible, I was in one of the most reputable stores in the world, I was excited to take several photos to put them on social networks, the only thing I was missing were friends who saw them. In this place of a terrifying eleven giant floors, there was absolutely everything, furniture for the house, food, tools, technology, and of course clothes, a lot of clothes. Tamamo sometimes looks like she might have her head in the clouds but her fashion sense was to be feared. She could easily create amazing clothing sets with fairly simple clothes. I didn't think she knew about clothes as she always wears those traditional Japanese clothes, but I was amazed at what she is capable of doing with normal clothes. So much so that now I am depending on her to choose my clothes now.

"This jacket looks pretty big and pretty"
"Do you think my darling likes it?"

"Tama, that's pink"
"I'm sure my brother would like something more manly"

"I know, but it's a shame you know !?"
"He's a too pretty girl, I'm sure he would look like a doll in this!"
"I plan to make him wear this!"

"He already looks like a doll, that's why he looks for the other clothes"
"And I don't think it works if you buy it, the only thing he will do is keep it and forget it"

"Yes, you are right"
"I think it will make him happier if I buy him another cap to replace the one he lost yesterday"

I went back to look for some more beautiful clothes for me when I found a leather jacket for a girl

"Hey!"
"What do you think of this?"
"As soon as I saw this I immediately thought it would be perfect for Lisa since she basically uses strings instead of clothes."
"Don't you think it would look perfect on her?"

"Well actually yeah, it would look great on her"
"Maybe together with some long shorts and socks"
"I think even her blue color of hers will look good with that"

"Yes, that was just the same as I thought!"

We both laughed a bit. And strangely when we stopped I remembered how it was that she came to our family so unexpectedly and that it still seems that we had not thought much about it.  Especially regarding Tamamo, because she still hadn't said anything about her feelings or anything.

"Tell me Tamamo, what do you think of all this?"
"What do you think about my brother and the other girls?"
"Why are you still with him?"
"You don't think he is a womanizer"
"At this rate, another girl arrives it will be a matter of time"
"Don't you think it would be better if you look for someone else?"

"You are evil sister in law"
"You shouldn't tell that to your brother's wife, it's horrible." She said looking for more clothes without even looking at me

"I did not say it with that intention!" I said regretting
"I just wanted to know what you thought about that because I like you and I want you to do well in life"

"Well regarding how I feel"
"I don't know what to say, the arrival of that crazy girl doesn't really comfort me"
"But in the past, I wasn't much different either, so I think she deserves a chance"
"In addition, Cesar seems to trust her a lot to try to save her despite what he has done"
"I imagine that he also has his reasons why he does it, so it is my duty to support him even if I do not entirely agree with having her around"

"And what about Momo?"
"What do you think of her?"

"A victim of circumstance but it is also her fault for being shy to act"
"If Cesar had never gotten lost in the woods right now she would have had it all to herself"
"And yet I'm sure she would never have told her feelings to him"
"She only did it because she saw me being with him, so she tried to talk to him because she no longer had anything to lose"

"So do you hate her?"

"What? no!"
"She is quite cheerful and she is the one who has more things in common with Cesar than the others"
"She likes technology and machines just like him"
"And the two are always talking about how to improve the house or did you see them talking about airplanes"
"The truth is that I'm even jealous of how well she gets along with him"
"I would like to talk to him in the same way, but still gives me a lot to learn about this new world so advanced for me"
"I treat her as a friend and rival rather than a nuisance"

"And what about you?"
"Why did you decide to be with someone as rare as him?"
"When you met him, you didn't even know that he was a man, right?"

"Maria, it is not a question of whether you are a man or a woman"
"It's about finding the right person for you"
"I wanted to find the right person before, and my impatience was what ended up killing me in the end"
"I decided to trust a person who didn't deserve it and paid the price for it"
"And a thousand years later Cesar always appeared bringing problems, but even with those he tried to save my life even though he did not gain anything by doing it"
"That day was when I realized that I had the right person in front of me because although he knew who I really was, he still tried to rescue me, something that no one had done since the day I was born"

"What!"
"That's not true, even I would have helped you too if you were in trouble!"

"That's because you know me now, and because you think that the slave collar that I have keeps you safe, right?"
"But what would have happened if you came across a Goddess known for killing humans, with whom you fought to the death the day before, lying badly wounded in the middle of a forest?"
"What would you really have done?"
"Not even the angels that released the beast that attacked me they thought to help me"

"..." I couldn't answer her, because I knew that I couldn't lie to her.

"You see how you feel bad for asking things that you did not want to know the answer"
"All that is behind now"
"What matters now is that we are all one family and that we can count on the family to solve our problems"
"You are also an important person for me now"
"Now I would never think of hurting you"
"I will protect you with everything I have because I want to, not because you are simply my husband's sister"

"Tamamo" I said pathetically because of my urge to cry 

I ran and spoke to her because I felt happy about what she thought of me because I also thought of her as part of my family too.

"Don't think about saying a single word of what I said to my stupid brother, okay!"

"Maria, you must learn to be more honest with him and with yourself"
"If you really hate your brother, you wouldn't have asked about how the other girls and I felt"
"Or trying to stop to buy the pink sweater"

"Shut up!"
"I don't want to hear any of that" I said angrily.

Suddenly, several sirens were heard everywhere. The other people in the store were as confused as we were because we did not know the reason why that scandalous sound. Not long after, a buzzing sound was heard coming from several of the roofs of the buildings, a couple of seconds later several explosions, loud and threatening. Tamamo hugged me tightly, it seems like trying to protect me from whatever was happening. People started screaming and running towards the stairs to go out into the streets shortly before, I wanted to do the same but the Goddess did not leave me, she did not let go, forcing me to stay where we were.  Her eyes began to shine a little next to his hair, he reached his hand towards the window that we had close by and threw a couple of papers, one towards the window and another to the ground a couple of meters from us. The next thing I saw was how suddenly several golden fox tails surrounded me and Tamamo, they were surely hers. 

A second after a huge explosion, I could feel her strength even through whatever Tamamo did, I screamed in fear, but she didn't say anything and just hugged me more.  At the same time, I  hear how various things crumbled and it sounded like rocks fell, hitting the ground with such force that it made it shake. I think the ground cracked and we both fell from where we were. The fall was long and although I thought that it hurt more, I felt as if we had fallen on a large mattress from a bed. Then nothing else happened for a couple of seconds, but I could feel like something was holding the tails out. Tamamo told me that he waits a moment while she removes the rubble that we have. At that moment I did not understand what she was referring to, but I could feel one of her tails slide and push something. A moment later something heavy fell near us and made a brutal crash. Seeming to confirm Tamamo that whatever happened had ended, she was slowly withdrawing her fox tails until she only became one again. 

As the foxtail cocoon opened, more and more sounds began to be heard. They were all screams of panic, buzzing sounds, and explosions in the distance. My eyes could not see what I was seeing, it seemed like another place completely. The building we were in a moment ago was nowhere to be seen, in its place, there was only a mountain of the rubble of stone and steel. I saw how several people approached here and began to throw stones everywhere trying to reduce the mountain of debris as soon as possible.  I felt completely lost, I did not know what was happening or what to do.  What had happened to the place where we are? Where were the people who were going down the stairs? where were the ladders to start?  Someone was screaming somewhere, he was asking for help, but the only thing I could see was an endless sea of debris. I watched as someone ran to one side and with all his might he moved a large basting stone, only to remove a severed arm from someone.  I began to scream immediately when I saw such a heartbreaking scene. 

SLAP!

"Maria!"
"Focus!"
"Here I am!" Tamamo had hit me to get my attention

"What has happened?"
"Where we are?"
"Where are the others!?"

"We have to go!" she said taking my hand 

"What?"
"Where?"

"I don't know, but we must find a safer place"
"At any moment they could repeat another one of those attacks!"

"Wait!"
"We have to rescue the others"
"We can't leave them like this!"

"We cannot, we must continue!"

"What!"
"Do you plan to leave them like this?"
"We must save them!"
"You are a goddess! do something!"

"I am an evil Goddess!"
"Save lives not is my job!"
"My duty is to keep you safe and that's what I'm going to do!"
"There is nothing I can do for them, I do not have the permission to interfere so much"

"Are you just going to leave them behind?"

"There is nothing we can do"
"We must find a safe place and wait for Cesar"
"He in his past stories had said that the subway is more resistant than a fort, we have to go to one"

I look again at the mountain of rubble in which we were, if it had not been for the goddess I would also be under all this. I had been lucky to be with her at the right time. The others had not been so lucky. Tamamo was right, there wasn't much we could do, especially me, I couldn't save anyone here. It was not my fault what had occurred, it was just something that happened. I kept repeating to myself trying to justify what I was doing. I took Tamamo's hand and we ran from there to a subway station.

The subway was about two blocks south of what was now a mountain of stones. We ran as fast as we could to get to safety, but since exercise wasn't my thing, it wasn't that fast.  Again several sounds were heard and the people around us came back to shouting even more than before. I looked up and I could see how there were several things flying in the air. Suddenly one of those things just flew over our street changed course towards the ground in a dive. Tama stood in front of me to protect me from the threat again, she seemed to be confident that whatever it was that it would not attack us with such force because I did not see her do everything she did before. I looked at what had fallen and then I understood why I did it. 

A couple of meters away there was a girl who looked quite like Tamamo and Cesar's daughters, hell no, she was the same as if she were a clone. But even so, I was sure that they were neither Kazumi nor Charlotte at first glance. The look of that thing was fixed but dark, it seemed that it was enjoying whatever she was doing, almost the same as Lisa's. Everything around her said danger and that equipment and wings, I don't think they are exhibition. 

"Is you one of the sisters of my daughters?"
"Stop this and come with us, we will save you!"
"Kazumi and Charllote would like to have one more sister with them" Said the goddess moved with a face with tears

"Tama!"
"I don't think she is the same as your daughters!"

"I found the target's daughter"
"Initiating extraction of the individual" Said the android while lighting a sword of light that she had with her.

"How do you plan to use that to kidnap a person!?" I asked

"Drop this!"
"Stop!"
"If you leave this behind you can come with us!"
"Come I will introduce you to a family that you want to have so much!"

"Tamamo stop that!"
"She can be another machine that can see identical but don't even know each other!"
"That android wants to kill us!"

"Ok, here I go!"
"Do not die quickly please"
"I don't like my toys breaking fast!" I leave the robot girl lighting the propulsor on her back

"Shit!"
"Here it comes!"
"Tama do something please!"

As the DOLL came towards us, the goddess seeing that she did not listen to what she was saying took her spear out of nowhere, and without moving from where she was, with a simple and beautiful diagonal movement she stopped her opponent. The robot split in two and its pieces with the momentum they were carrying went in different directions, stopping further back in the middle of the street without damaging anyone. Tamamo turned around and I could see her face, she was crying because of what she just did. She ran to her opponent's feet to see what they had been like. 

"I'm very sorry, I didn't want to hurt you, my daughter!" she said.

"Tamamo leaves her, she is not one of your daughters!"
"You know it too!"

"But just look at her face!"
"I really felt like I did something terrible to them!"
"Is this different from mistreating them?"

"That you are not the one who said that we have to look for a refuge?"
"We can't stay here!"
"Cry later for her in the subway!"

Suddenly, the half that still had the upper part of the robot began to move again. He took back his sword and tried to attack Tamamo. Seeing the need for the robot to continue with its task, the poor girl had no choice but to attack the robot again until breaking it into more pieces.

"This is cruel"
"I wanted to save her but she didn't even stop for a moment to think what she was doing"
"She just followed orders as if her life depended on it"
"Is this how the machines behave?"
"Are my daughters the same as her!?"

"Listen to me!"
"Do you really think your daughters are the same as them?"
"Do you think so badly of your daughters as to bring them down along with that thing?"
"That machine tried to kill us like this was a game"
"Your daughters have helped us even though no one has asked them to do so!"
"And even though they could cause much more damage than all of these puts together, she did her best not to"
"She wanted to save people, that's why they are with you"
"Because they wanted to be better than these stupid robots"
"Don't you think that they will be sad because you think that they are no different from that machine?"

"You're right."
"I don't know what I was thinking"
"I must trust them too"
"My way of thinking is wrong"
"Thank you for making me see what was right in front of me"

"Perfect!"
"Can we go now !?"

"Yeah"

We got back on track and reached the station without any more mishaps. Once there we tried to contact my brother but we couldn't, then we realized that nobody's phones work. Seeing that we could not communicate to know what to do, Tamamo suggested going to a place further away from the rest, we went to what we believe was a maintenance tunnel remembering the story that Cesar told us when he was locked in the subway, and it turned out to be true, there were only tools there and I was pretty lonely. Once there Tamamo said to look for my brother from the ass with his goddess powers and try to find out what he was doing to act accordingly. According to what she told me, he is heading here, so we decided to wait for her arrival. Tamamo continued to watch and when she reappeared said that he was close so we left the subway to run into him.