Their courtship lasted for many years, and all the while Gorou had the feeling that Tsukiko was hiding something from him. Not another lover no, she would never betray him in such a way… but something. It was on the day that he asked her to marry him that he finally found out what. As she surveyed the ring he held up in suppliance, her usually enigmatic smile hardened into a more sober expression, and she asked him to get up from the ground where he was kneeling and join her on the bench. Gorou had obeyed, but said nothing. Heart in his throat, he feared her rejection. Instead, he received an explanation.

It wasn’t simply the skill of an artisan that gave her tea its many properties, she had said. She was part of a race of magical beings that came from beyond the stars, the Luminescents she had called them, and it was to be kept secret from all who weren’t meant to have knowledge of it.

He almost didn’t believe it, until she showed him the hidden passages and castles in the trees and underground, introduced him to more of her people, people who were capable of things much more ostentatious than brewing a cup of tea that could cure one of heartache.

Once Gorou’s mind had finished processing all of the things he had been told, all of the things he had seen, something occurred to him. If this was all meant to be secret from the rest of the world, he had asked her, then what does that mean for us? She said that if you proved to be unaccepting of my people, of what we are, or if you tell anyone else, then your mind will be wiped of all knowledge of us… of me.

And if I am accepting? He had asked. If I promise to keep your secrets as if they were my own? That’s when Tsukiko took his hand in hers and smiled.

Then I would be more than happy to be your wife, she had said.

So that summer, they were engaged, and you never saw a happier couple. During those blissful three months, Tsukiko taught him everything she could about her people, about covens, about High Guardians, the significance of her Mark, Sanctuary, the never ending war, the Anmal.

Gorou thinks back to this time in his life frequently, not just because of the pleasant memories of spending time with his fiance, but because he struggles to remember. He remembers the first day Tsukiko showed him the nursery. The place in Sanctuary that functioned a bit like a daycare/orphanage, where not only the children of those who resided in Sanctuary spent the day, but where the children of those who had passed lived.

He thinks back to this day, and all of the other days he may have found himself in the nursery, even if it was only for a brief moment; but no matter how hard he tries he cannot think of a single moment where he may have interacted with one of his sons during these visits.

What he does remember, with vivid clarity, was the day that they all became a family.

It was one of the worst days of his life.