Chapter 164 [Bonus Chapter] A Feeling I Understood All To Well

"Wait! Can't I come?!" Eliza asked as Nya tried to pull me alone, and I stopped her, freeing myself.

"Not this time, babe. I have no idea what will happen there, so I want you to wait here. The house is the only real place that is safe right now. I am going to lay a barrier over the city, but I need more time to figure things out," I explained, and Eliza sighed but nodded.

"I get it. Are you going to come home for supper, at least? I know you are staying with Listenia tonight, but I would like to see you again for a bit. It feels like you are a whole new person, and if everyone didn't have their eyes on you before, they do now," Eliza said, pulling at her dress and looking away from me. I reached forward, pulled her into my arms, and stroked her hair, kissing the top of her head.

"I will come and say good night before bed, and we can talk some before I leave. How does that sound?" I asked, and Eliza looked up with a bright smile and nodded. I put my hand on her cheek and kissed her gently before letting her go.

I turned to Nya and nodded.

"Let's go," I said, and Wings burst from my back, but Nya shook her head.

"Master, you can expect me to sprout wings! Come, we will get there just as fast, nya~!" Nya said and then jumped thirty feet into the air to land on the manor's roof.

I jumped and landed beside her, but I Nya leaped an impossible sixty-foot gap to the new house to the west. I shook my head and flung myself, but I did a flip. It wasn't to show off; my body just wanted to do it.

"That is much more like it, master! I was starting to wonder if you might have got a little rusty, nya~!" Nya said as I landed beside her.

"Rusty might be an understatement. Most of these things I am doing because I see you can do it," I said.

"Didn't you say that the greatest master is an eternal student?" Nya asked, and I pointed at the barracks, but Nya pushed my hand down.

"I know this doesn't mean as much to you as it does for me, but that woman will still be there in ten minutes. I have been waiting a long time for a creature that didn't exist to appear. I have been waiting for the night sky to light up and fill my eyes with wonder as I stared up at the place you called home. Ophiuchus, you were my master in Yaggisdral for the entirety of my time there. This is not my first time in this world," Nya said, turning to look into my eyes with her rainbow-colored ones just Like Tallia's.

This was how I felt with Tallia, so I understood how she must feel when I treated her like a stranger. If I got some memories back from the Astral Isles, I should know more about Yaggisdral.

I closed my eyes and dug, and memories of us flooded me. Times spent at the pavilion moving through forms. Hours invested reading through the Libraries of Knowledge. Magic that we studied on the cloudy astral plains.

Then the lovemaking that we seemed to share in every corner of Yaggisdral. I opened my eyes, and Nya was standing directly in front of me, her hot sweet breath mixing with my own.

"You remember?" Nya asked softly.

"Like it was yesterday," I said and pulled my Kitten to my lips.

Waves of passion pulsed off us, and even some women on the ground cheered up at us. Nya's lips were like clouds, and her questing tongue swirled with mine as her claws dug into my chest. Nya broke the kiss and suddenly crawled up onto my shoulders, where she flung her legs around my neck. She used to do this to me all the time, but her claws never seemed to dull.

"I am delighted that you can remember me now! I also find it funny that I have become best friends with the women you did this all for! All because she missed you and didn't even know it! Silly girl, but I approve! Tallia is going to make a nice addition to the place! I was surprised when I woke up here one day in this world without knowing where I was. The only thing that helped me was a dream of you and a younger Tallia, nya~!" Nya laughed as she stroked my ears, and her thinner tail danced across my back.

"I am glad that I am getting all the pieces back. It has really been a pain walking through this world with no idea who I was," I said.

"Well, let's get going. I just wanted you to remember me. We spent a lot of time together, so I would have been pretty bummed out if the master couldn't remember his pupil! Titania is going to be so excited, nya~!"

"The Fairy Goddess?" I asked, and I received a judo chop between the ears. "Hey! Stop that!"

"Where do you think goddesses come from?! Do the Guides just wiggle their fingers?" Nya asked, and I closed my eyes and sighed.

"This means that all the goddesses are students of mine?" I asked.

"Students? I am the only one that you teach, the rest... you do not teach, nya~!" Nya giggled, and I laughed.

"Is not teach a fancy way of saying that we did the tango in bed with no clothes on?" I asked, started running down the roof, and jumped to the next.

"There you go with all your silly sayings! Who even does the tango?!" Nya exclaimed, and I chuckled.

"So, that means they are students of the other Zodiacs?" I asked, then hopped down to the ground, making Nya squeal in excitement.

"Precisely! But all the others have partners! Unlike you, Mr. Thirteen! I always thought we would be enough, but this is about more than that. That is what you said, and I know that you became angrier each life that you came back from. You weren't supposed to remember Tallia, but you couldn't forget her," Nya explained and hopped off my shoulders as we got to the Barracks.

"I am sorry that you had to wait so long here. This all happened because I was selfish," I said with a sigh.

"I will love you forever, and time means nothing to a person that will always be reborn. You might have been selfish, but you are you, Ophiuchus, and that is why you were chosen as the defender of everything. No one knows why you were picked as the odd one, but the Guides picked you, master."