(continued from part 1)
It was the second time Professor S.’s smile froze the way it was: like he had suddenly became petrified by the gaze of a thousand basilisks.
“You went there again, didn’t you?” Titani asked, her deadly smile was still on her face.
“Uhh…”
“And what it is in the plastic bag?”
“Not…nothing” Professor S. held the bag up in his arm and turned away, trying to protect it from Titani’s wrath.
“So you won’t hand it up peacefully huh?” Titani furiously stare at Professor Spear, and suddenly the air was cracked with electricity, the lights flashed frantically and mechanical devices in the house went haywire.
“Stop it Titani! Please!” Professor Spear said, almost broke into tears.
“Not until you hand it over!”
“Sniff…Sniff”
“Stop crying like a girl and give it up!”
“I did not remember raising my daughter to become like this…”
“Did you say something?”
“Nothing, nothing at all!”
“Put the bag down.” Titani commanded, and Professor Spear did what Titani told him to do, but with a painful look on his face, as if he had to parted with his heart.
Then Titani snapped her fingers, and Maria came and brought the bag before Titani. With another gesture of her hand, Titani made Maria turned the bag upside down, dumping its content on the floor. And falling out from the bags were figures. Figures of anime girls of all kinds were falling down on the floor in the defeated look of the Professor and the victorious gaze of Titani. Professor Spear was a genius, but one of his weaknesses is his irresistible love for figures – a kind of illness that almost all otakus have.
Without a word, Titani raise her hand up in the air. Correspondingly, Maria’s metal foot rise up, before the lump of figures on the floor. Realising what was happening, Professor started to beg: “No…please no…Titani, please don’t be so cruel to your own father.”
“Not good enough, Dad.” With that, Titani dropped her hand and Maria crushed the figures under her foot.
“NOOO!!” Professor Spear cried, then like a soulless person, he knelt down in front of the broken pieces and muttered, “My inspiration, my love…gone, all gone…” before falling completely on the floor and crying.
“Dad, you know how much I loathe those figures.” Titani looked away in spitefulness.
“Why? What have they done to you? They are completely harmless, beautiful figures…”
“It was not those figures but your love for them that makes me angry at them.”
“Since when a cat man loves beautiful figures becomes wrong?” Professor Spear looked up with teary eyes.
“Since the time you designed my body to look like them.”
“It is just to show you how much I love you.”
“Then what about the time when I was on low-battery mode and you mistaken me with one of them then put me in a box?”
“It…was an accident.” Professor S. looked away.
“Dad, you must understand how scary it was to suddenly woke up inside a box and seeing thousands lifeless figures of your size looking at you.”
“But you destroyed them all after that! My 10 years collection! All gone in one hour… You even created a power surge and made the whole enterprise network crash! The sale dropped 10% that year…” The Professor said, lying still on the floor and looked at the broken pieces.
“And now you bought more and trying to make that happen again?”
“But they are my inspiration, Titani! They are what help me to create Dolls like Maria! And you just crushed them all; crushed all my sweet fantasies and dreams…” With that, the professor put down the broken piece of the figure he was holding in his hand and cried.
“That is enough Dad, stop crying.”Titani, still flying, looked down to the Professor. But tears from the eyes of the heart-broken cat man keep flowing out like rivers.
“Dad, stop crying.”Titani said once again, but this time she has landed down to the floor and gently touched her father head. However, it was not enough to ease the pain that the sorrowful cat man had inside him now.
“Please stop crying Dad, or you will make me cry too.” Titani now held her father’s head with her little arms and also starting to cry.
“I…I am sorry Dad…I don’t want to hurt you… I just…just hate how you love those figures more than me. I am so lonely, Dad. I just want you to be with me. I am so selfish to want you to myself, am I?”Titani said in tears.
Professor Spear suddenly sat up. His eyes were still teary, but now there was a smile on his face. “It is alright dear…” The Professor said as he gently picked Titani up and held her close to him.
Titani curled herself up in her father embrace, feeling his warmth and listened to his big heart beating beside her, and then she also smiled.
“Well, let’s watch some anime, ok? Maybe some GUNDAM. You always said that you want one of those to ride on. I think I actually have one in the basement…”Professor Spear said as he putting Titani on his head.
“Sure, Dad.” Titani happily replied and teasingly pulled her father ears.
“Hey! That’s tickle!”
They were having a good time watching anime that night.
(To be continued)
