Mommy Issues (story) (Patreon)

Nozomi cannot believe that at this point in the 20th century, in 1985, just after her father Akira's funeral, her mother Laia still clings to outdated family principles and tries to be an obstacle to his goals. Nozomi loved her father Akira deeply, she thinks as she looks at her father's grave, but she couldn't disagree more with her father's ideas. Akira Izumi, the son of powerful aristocrats in World War II Japan, in his time saw the Izumi zaibatsu family fortune eroded and dismantled while his parents were among the few responsible for the war who received any punishment while everyone else saved their necks. Within a few years Akira's parents would die from mistreatment in prison at the hands of the occupying army, while he would be left in the custody of his grandparents a few years later when he had come of age in the early 1960s. All Akira kept of the old family legacy were a few investments in Tokyo, a dilapidated old traditional palace in his native Aomori and nothing else.

On the other hand, as the family story goes, one day in 1963 Akira found a dirty and hungry woman outside his home, near what looked like the wreckage of a strange crashed vehicle, a vehicle resembling a small airplane, but Akira had never seen anything like it. That woman, very loose and with an appearance that seemed to be created by the gods themselves, with a face as delicate as a doll's, identified herself as Laia. Laia said she was an orphan since her parents apparently died in the war and she was apparently raised by a neighbor, on the other hand Laia was always doubtful and nervous whenever someone asked her about her age. Once Laia told Akira that she wasn't from that time and dimension, even though Akira took it as a joke, considering Laia's strange sense of humor. On the other hand, Akira didn't know whether to believe Laia, since even though she definitely looked like she was from Japan, Laia spoke a somewhat strange and colloquial Japanese, something she wouldn't get used to for decades, plus her strange blue dress didn't seem to be very Japanese, to which Laia alluded that she was raised abroad. 

It wasn't long before Laia and Akira fell in love and had a daughter together in 1963, Nozomi, a name Laia chose, although she seemed less grateful for her pregnancy and very exhausted by it once Nozomi was born. On the other hand, Laia seemed to have some sort of postpartum psychosis, although fortunately Laia did not do anything crazy. Also, something that had to be taken into account was the strange clairvoyance that Laia had about the future, something that Laia used to her advantage, like recommending Akira to bet all her savings in Casio, a company that turned out to be very profitable, or in general Laia knew in which places she should not be when some unfortunate event happened, everything seemed to indicate that Laia knew what would happen in the future, although nobody was sure how Laia knew that. On the other hand, although Laia was blessed by her clairvoyance, on the other hand she had several mental and physical problems, such as being very sickly and being in a wheelchair all the time, needing someone to always carry her in the chair or carry her from one place to another, needing Laia a maid dedicated only to her after Akira got sick.

Finally, when Akira died in 1985, 22 years after Laia appeared and Nozomi was born, Laia was very saddened, as much as when a cute rabbit she adopted as a pet died, reminding Laia of that situation more and more about a great loss of something that was her own, and being convinced that she was finally going to die, while her hair was already dyed with time in a gray tone. On the other hand, Laia was strongly opposed to Nozomi's actions, after she made some bureaucratic moves to keep her father Akira's fortune, leaving Laia in the street, while disgracing her father's memory by marrying shortly after his death Alexei Morozov, one of the first new businessmen and future oligarchs of the Soviet Union after Perestroika, the reforms that allowed some private property to exist in the old communist empire.... On the other hand, Nozomi was planning to move with Alexei to America. Laia knew that Akira would never have accepted such a relationship, because Akira saw the Soviet Union, where Alexei came from, and communism, as a danger to Japan and the Japanese... On the other hand, Akira never forgave the Americans for the atomic bombs and for dismantling his family's power, so he would never have approved such a move to America. This situation provoked an aggressive argument between Laia and Nozomi, between mother and daughter, who got along badly since Laia and Nozomi never had much communication, since Laia did not talk much in general, she was just sitting in her wheelchair all the time knitting and telling stories of an exotic but perhaps fictitious alternative universe, which caused Laia and Nozomi to be very distant nowadays.

Nozomi:

 Huhhhhhhhhh...............

 What do you mean you don't agree?

 You never loved me....

 You never talked to me or anything 

 No advice as a mother...

 Do you know how much I suffered learning on my own out there?

Laia just nodded her head with teary eyes not knowing what to feel, even though her patience was close to end

Nozomi:

 And what will you do to avoid it????

 You're just a little doll, in your silly dress!

 You're always there in that wheelchair in your silly dress without lifting a finger!

 You even got used to being fed in your mouth!

Laia:

 DON'T TALK TO ME LIKE THAT

Nozomi:

 WHAT WILL THE VULNERABLE LITTLE OLD DOLL DO, EH?

 HMPFF, I'LL GO WITH ALEXEI AND YOU'LL NEVER SEE ME AGAIN!

Laia:

 GRRRRRR, OLD LADY!? WHAT...

 HOW CAN YOU SAY THAT TO ME

YOU'RE HORRIBLE!

Nozomi then pulls Laia's hair and shows it to Laia herself in front of her eyes....

Nozomi:

DON'T YOU SEE THIS!!!???

THESE ARE GRAY HAIRS

Laia:

W-WWWW..

Then, Sophie, Laia's maid, a young blonde woman from England, decides to intervene and interpose herself between Laia and Nozomi, saying that violence was not necessary, and asking Nozomi to leave Laia alone. Nozomi, with her arms crossed, leaves the place indignantly, never to return, because that same night she will take a flight to America, leaving Sophie and Laia alone.

Sophie:

 Are you all right, Miss Laia?

Laia:

NO

 I'M GOING TO DIE…

Sophie knew about Laia's strange and confusing senile thoughts, as she claimed to have been immortal in the past but because of a tricky enemy, she was stripped of her powers and her immortality, Laia fearing death ever since. This motivates Sophie to give Laia a gift in advance, an old grimoire that had been in her family for generations, as they were said to be descended from a powerful witch of the past. Sophie didn't believe in magic, but she thinks that at least Laia will be entertained a bit by the grimoire and thus forget the argument with Nozomi for the time being. Then Sophie hugs Laia and takes the huge grimoire out of her bag

Sophie:

 M-Miss....

 I-I...

 I don't know if it will work...

 I wanted to give this to you...

 It's an heirloom from generations of our family

 H-he... I've never known if these things work...

 But they say that our ancestor was a great witch....

However, Laia recognizes the grimoire instantly, as she is also a person with extensive knowledge in magic, even though she is now an ordinary human.

Laia:

 A-At last...?

 I will be free...?

Sophie, disconcerted by Laia's words, only sees how Laia, when touching the grimoire, begins to emanate and disperse a great power coming from inside her, leaving Sophie stupefied in front of what she sees... It seems that Laia was telling the truth, somehow, but having recovered some power would not give her back immortality yet, so there was still a long way to go...

[Drawing 1]

Meanwhile the years passed quickly as if it were the blink of an eye.... 15 years later, in the 2000s, Nozomi would return to Japan with Ina, one of her two children, after the marriage with Alexei failed, mainly because both saw with displeasure how Ina and Markuz, their two sons, a pair of twins, had fallen in love with each other and planned to start an incestuous relationship, something that Nozomi and Alexei saw as an abomination so they decided to separate and each take one of the two children with them. Nozomi took Ina to Japan, while Markuz would stay with Alexei in America.

However, three years later, in 2003, when Ina has come of age and since she can now make her own decisions, things have changed.

Nozomi: 

 Y-YOU CAN'T DO THAT LITTLE GIRL....

 I DIVORCED YOUR FATHER FOR THE SAKE OF YOU AND YOUR BROTHER.

Ina: 

 WHAT DO YOU KNOW ABOUT LOVE...? YOU WERE ALWAYS BITTER, YOU WERE ONLY WITH DADDY FOR THE MONEY.

Nozomi: 

 YOUR AFFAIR IS IMPOSSIBLE AND WILL ONLY LEAVE CHILDREN WITH CONGENITAL DEFORMITIES.... YOU AND MARKUZ ARE TWIN BROTHERS

 YOU CAN'T DO THAT

Ina: 

 AND WHAT WILL YOU DO, OLD WOMAN...? I'M ALREADY 18 YEARS OLD... AND IT'S A FREE WORLD!

Nozomi: 

 a-an old lady...?

Then Nozomi's gaze is lost in the emptiness...

Nozomi: 

IM NOT AN OLD LADY.. DONT DO THIS TO ME

Ina: 

HA, what about that gray hair?

Then Nozomi looks at her gray hair... Remembering that it is a hereditary congenital malady, since from the age of 35 the hair of the women in the family starts to turn gray, even Nozomi can't help but get depressed about it.

Nozomi: 

 I-I.. I separated you from your brother for your sake!

 Y-you can't leave me alone! I only have you!

Ina: 

 Ah yes..? I don't have anyone, I've never had anyone. .... No one has ever asked me how I feel.... Only Markuz cared about me, so I've already made a decision... 

Ina, with a suitcase and a dress for the cold, since it's winter, is about to leave, but Ina decides to stop at the door before leaving to make one last comment, while she caresses her swollen belly

 Ina: 

 Also, Markuz came a few months ago.... And you know, I haven't really put on weight.... 

 I'll call her Karenina, but that's all you'll know about her, try to stay away from us....

Then Ina leaves, leaving Nozomi shattered as she cries on the floor.... However, something breaks inside Nozomi, and Nozomi will never be the same again.... 

[Drawing 2]

Since then Nozomi has considered that marrying Alexei and giving birth to Ina was a mistake. From that moment on, from that day on, Nozomi would fall more and more into a special of degeneration. Nozomi would enter Japan's politics throughout 2004, with a fake identity that she got with a good contact posing as a 20-year-old upstart politician, taking advantage of the fact that, despite her gray hair, she still looks very young, something that became an obsession for Nozomi, after her daughter called her old. Nozomi shielded herself from honoring the memory of her father, who wanted a great Japan autonomous from the Americans and any other outside force, to make a political career out of sleeping in bed with old men and going to secret erotic costume parties with masks, something common among Japanese elites.... Nozomi even became so brazen in her justifications and dishonor, that she would go to erotic costume parties wearing a heavy queen's dress that Laia had once made for Nozomi, arguing that "in another life" Laia had a daughter in such a dress, a dress to which Nozomi would add clumsy toy wings, which made it difficult for her to pass through doors and walk.

One day in the winter of 2004, Nozomi drunkenly came home, taking off her mask while still drinking from a glass of wine and bumping the cumbersome wings of her costume all over the place. By then, Nozomi was already a councilor in the house of councilors (something like being a senator in America or Lord in England), and she could savor being prime minister as if it were giving oral to the leader of the LDP... Nozomi was unleashed and out of control in her nymphomania and ambitions, but she was also a shrewd woman, and probably would have achieved her goals, if not for strong, violent red eyes glowing in the dark, waiting for Nozomi in the dining room of her house: Laia had returned. Nozomi, frightened, takes a gun that she hides behind a drawer and points it at Laia.

Nozomi: 

 NO.. YOU CAN'T BE THE OLD LADY

 SHE COULDN'T HAVE MADE IT HERE BY HERSELF.

 SHE WAS WEAK AND SICKLY, SHE SHOULD HAVE DIED A LONG TIME AGO.

 WHAT DO YOU WANT AND WHO ARE YOU?

Suddenly Nozomi feels that her body has become numb and immobile just by crossing her eyes with Laia... Laia stops, or rather, floats, and approaches Nozomi, caressing her face with her hand while Nozomi is very scared.

Nozomi: 

 W-WHAT...

 THIS IS A NIGHTMARE, ISN'T IT?

 B- I DRANK TOO MUCH...

 YES

 THAT MUST HAVE BEEN

 Laia: 

 What a disgrace...

Nozomi: 

 B-BUT I'VE STRAIGHTENED MY PATH!!!!

 I-I'LL MAKE A BIG JAPAN LIKE DADDY WANTED...

 Y-YES... THAT'S WHY I DO THIS... 

  Laia: 

 TOO LATE

 YOU WON'T

 You are really disappointing...

 No, it's all over

 Shut up already...

Nozomi by then was frightened, on the verge of insanity and with crossed eyes, a broken and hopelessly nymphomaniac woman.... A broken doll.

[Drawing 3]

Finally Laia touched Nozomi's chest and with a spell and absorbed all her vital energy and youth, uniting both their souls and achieving both immortality, since that was the missing piece as a spell for Laia to regain her immortality, a relatively young woman with her same blood and direct descendant of her. However, Laia attained immortality as a person, while Nozomi without youth and strength, became a cute and helpless porcelain doll in a 1:8 scale.

After a few hours, Laia sees Nozomi's house on fire in the distance. While Laia wondered what to do with Nozomi in that state... Maybe erase some memories and give it to her granddaughter, Ina, as an inheritance, will be enough, so Nozomi can spend time with her daughter.

[Drawing 4]