Restoration: Book 1/3

Chapter 2

"When the war is over, a butterfly will still be beautiful."

That was my mother's favorite quote. So much so that my father had it engraved on her tombstone. He's always told me that the lesson she wanted me to learn from the phrase was that no matter what happens in the world, we should still view humanity as beautiful. However, the more years that pass, the more I come to disagree with that statement.

Don't get me wrong, nothing overly dramatic or traumatizing had happened to me other than my mother's death when I was young, but this jaded feeling just keeps getting stronger. Even her passing was as normal as an untimely death could be: a car wreck. Few memories of the woman remain with me to this day, most being simple snip-its of moments since I was only a toddler at the time of her accident.

My family lives in a large city called Konoha, the city my mother was born in. Her name was Yua, meaning binding love and affection, and she met my dad at a college tour when they were both eighteen. He's from some posh town in the land of rain, but he never gives us many details about his hometown for some reason. I never think to ask about it. So, much remains a mystery.

After meeting, things played out like a storybook for the couple: they dated, married, and years later, they had me. Mr. and Mrs. Hyuga even stayed put in Konoha, a much smaller city then.

My hometown has since emerged as an ever-growing college town with just under a million residents within its boundaries. The upper-class section is often referred to as "New Konoha'' since that's the section of the city that was added on most recently.

This highbred portion of our city is where our family home and the college are. The college is called Iyashi University, meaning Healing University. If the name itself didn't give it away, this school is famous for its various medical and pharmaceutical classes while still offering the usual.

My father, Dr. Hiashi Hyuga, is the leading cancer immunology/immunotherapy professor. According to him, both of his parents died from forms of cancer when he was a teenager, and he decided to spend his life attempting to find a way to prevent others from going through the same thing.

He was raised by his grandparents in the land of rain and moved to Konoha at eighteen to go to school, which is when he met my mother. Once they were married, Yua worked as a receptionist at the school while her husband attended classes and eventually began working there.

My mother apparently loved knowledge, just like my father, but preferred learning things hands-on rather than from books. Dad told me hundreds of facts and stories about my mom when I was in early primary school, but after Hanabi was born, he stopped talking about her altogether.

Hanabi's my younger half-sister, but we look so similar that you wouldn't notice unless you were told. She was born when I'd just turned three as a result of what my father refuses to admit was a one-night stand gone wrong. When my mom had just passed, I didn't understand that he was struggling or why he left me at home with a nanny more often than before, but after I grew up a bit, I realized he'd been trying to cope with the loss of his beloved wife.

Dr. Hyuga had obviously been drinking to dull his emotions and made the mistake of hooking up with one of his students. When I was around twelve or thirteen, I accused him of trying to replace Mom not even two years after her death. Still, now that I'm seventeen, I understand him desperately seeking comfort to ease his suffering.

I just wished, both then and now, that he'd made that choice with anyone other than Masumi, Hanabi's mother and my dad's second wife. Hiashi Hyuga is, was, and will always be a responsible man who accepts the consequences of his actions, so when he found out that his student had gotten pregnant, he asked her to marry him.

The woman wasn't even twenty when Hanabi was conceived, so there's a noticeable age gap between the pair, and no one could be blamed for thinking they wouldn't be compatible because of that and a few other factors, but they'd all be wrong. Masumi, in my unprofessional yet still probably correct opinion, is a master manipulator who's capable of molding herself into whatever she needs to be to thrive. In this case, she became a stay-at-home trophy wife who reared the good professors' daughters while he worked.

If it isn't obvious, she and I don't exactly see eye to eye, and the more time passes, the more broken that bridge becomes. I do my best to hide that fact from my father because I know he still feels guilty about moving on so quickly, and Masumi probably hides it so she can keep spending my father's money like she earned it herself.

"Hina, Dad's home."

My eyes shot over to the doorway of my bedroom and away from the homework on my desk that I'd been zoning out and staring at for who knows how long, offering my bratty little sister a silent nod so she'd leave. She did so without another word but not without giving me an eye roll first.

A sigh slid past my lips, and I gingerly rose from my desk and trudged downstairs to join the rest of my family for dinner, taking a seat at the table while I stifled a yawn with the back of my hand.

I felt my father squeeze my shoulder lightly as he walked around my chair to sit, "Studying hard?"

I nodded with a slight grin as his kind face met my gaze. The gesture became more forced when my attention was pulled over to his young wife as she sat a plate before her husband, "She's been locked away in her room since she got home from school."

Plates were placed before my sister and me before Masumi took her seat across from Dad, "Someone needs to get some fresh air outside!"

I averted my gaze down to my plate instead of glaring at her like I would if my father wasn't here. Hanabi snickered but didn't say anything, so I faked out a polite comment, "Thank you for dinner, Masumi. It smells great."

My dad chimed in next, "I agree! Let's dig in, folks."

I saw my stepmother's eyes narrow at me out of the corner of my eye and had to stop myself from repeating the eye roll that Hanabi had offered me upstairs. The rest of dinner was uneventful at best, and after helping my younger sister clear the table and do the dishes, I flitted back up to my room to try and actually focus on my studies for the remainder of the night. My plan was successful for the most part, and before long, it got late, and I prepared for bed.

A knock came at my door before it crept open, and my dad stepped through, "Can we talk?"

I nodded, scooting over so he could sit on the edge of the bed. He did just that, shutting the door behind him. After adjusting my blanket, he ruffled my hair, "I'm getting close to a major breakthrough at work, Sweetie."

The corners of my lips turned up proudly at his proclamation, "Really? That's great!"

There's no one in this world that I look up to as much as my father, and to see him doing well makes my chest swell with excitement. He nodded, his comforting voice soft, "If everything goes as planned, things will change very soon for us, in a good way."

My grin became slightly stiff, and I simply nodded, leaning toward him as he took one of my hands in his own, his voice more serious than before, "I know how hard you've been trying to make things work with Masumi lately, and I want you to know that I appreciate it. Hopefully, things will get easier for us all."

A wave of guilt washed over me. Despite my best efforts, Dad could still tell that there was some bad blood between my stepmother and me.

With one last ruffle of my hair, he stood back up and returned to the door, "I love you, Kiddo. Good night."

I mumbled a reply before snuggling more deeply into the bed with a frown. He's been working on this "something big" for a few years now, and he's never claimed to be close to a breakthrough, so whatever it is, it'll be big.