Slowly, Benji, Sophia and Kim turned around toward the Kitchen, where they soon saw Michael try to stand up again, before he slowly made his way to the livingroom. Immediately, Sophia jumped up and Benji tried to block Michael"s path, because he was obviously trying to walk up to his daughter right now.
Michael didn"t really have much energy in him right now and slowly turned toward Benjamin to see what he was supposed to do, and the old man just nodded at him before looking at Sophia. And with a tired, defeated expression, Michael just looked at his daughter from across the room.
"I"m… I"m sorry, Sophia…" He muttered quietly, his eyes red and swollen, and the girl looked at her father surprised. She hadn"t ever heard him apologize for anything before, at least not genuinely, "I know that the way I have been acting was wrong… I was just so convinced I had to act like that that I didn"t treat you and your mother right…" Michael explained, as a tear slowly ran down his cheek and he dug his fingernails into his arm as he saw that Sophia was simply scared of what he might do.
"Do you know why I started believing in G.o.d like this?" He asked, and slowly, Sophia shook her head in response. "When I was young, I was raised by a man that could be said to be anything but religious… A drunkard, addict, abbuser… It didn"t take long for his body to give in, so I was left alone… Then, the family that took me in was a family of Latter Day Sai-… Mormons… It was the first time I received genuine love, so this religion was everything to me after I had nothing left anymore." Michael explained, and even Benjamin felt somewhat bad for him after hearing about this for the first time.
"But now, I lost something that I care for even more because of my obsession with religion… I fell deeper than ever, even deeper than the man that raised me ever could have… I"m truly, genuinely disgusted by what I have become. I can understand if you never want to see a single hair of mine, but just know, who matter what happens, no matter who you are and who you are with, whether you become religious, atheistic, or even satanistic, I will always love you as my daughter… It might take a while for me to be able to openly show that, but I"ll do my best to work on myself…" Doing his best to stop himself from freaking out and basically breaking down, Michael just stared at the ground while everyone else stayed completely silent. And then just a few seconds later, every one of which felt like an eternity, Sophia spoke up. Of course, what she was just told was strong enough to make her mind waver, but years of fearfully hiding who you are can"t be that easily turned around.
"Is… Is that so?" She asked, just looking over toward her father with a complicated expression, "Then prove it to me… There"s half a bottle of cooking wine in the fridge… drink it all right now… That way I can see that we really are more important to you than-"
"Sophia." Benjamin said with a rather strict tone, immediately making the girl flinch and look over toward her grandfather, "Even if he did close to everything wrong, he"s trying to make it right. Don"t force him to do something that"s against what he believes in." The old man said with a deep frown, and Sophia slowly looked down at the floor, "B-But how else should I know..?" She asked, but before Benjamin could actually reply this time, he heard some gla.s.s clatter against gla.s.s followed by a small popping sound.
While his sight was still not what it would usually be, Benjamin was still able to make out what exactly was going on right now. He hadn"t even hesitated. The moment that Sophia told him to, Michael made his way to the kitchen and opened the fridge, and immediately opened the bottle of wine and started pouring it down his throat.
"Michael, stop it!" Benjamin exclaimed, but the man simply didn"t listen to him, and although he was obviously struggling to drink it all, he forced himself to down the half liter of wine in just a few seconds, before placing the bottle down on the counter, his already dirty white b.u.t.ton-up now covered in a few spots of red from the wine that was pouring down the sides of his mouth.
While trying to hold himself back from immediately throwing up, since he had already been feeling sick, Michael then turned back toward his daughter. "I-Is this enough..?" He asked quietly as he tried to hold his body up with the help of the kitchen-counter, and Sophia just stared at her father.
She hadn"t expected him to actually do it… She had never even seen her father around alcohol, not to mention drinking it. Sophia was just experiencing rather complicated feelings right now, and just couldn"t handle it anymore and ran out of the livingroom through the hallway, while Kim just slightly awkwardly followed her to see if she was alright, while Michael just stood there completely defeated, while neither Benjamin-Senior nor -Junior could believe what they just saw.
"Benji, there"s a bucket under the bathroom sink, could you get it real quick?" Benjamin asked as he did his best to stand up again, and just walked up to Michael while Benji did as asked. "Come here, lay down on the couch for a while." The old man suggested, and Michael just slowly shook his head, "I can"t, I need to speak to Sophia…"
"Just let her think for a while, alright?" Benjamin suggested, placing his hand on the back of his son-in-law. He really couldn"t stand him before, and it wasn"t like Benjamin just completely forgot about the way Michael has acted ever since he married his daughter, but to the old man it seemed like he really wanted to turn things around, maybe get a little less extreme. Benjamin never cared or minded that Michael was religious, the way he acted while using his religion as an excuse was the thing he really didn"t like. And that was the part that even Michael seemed to have understood to be anything but good at this point.
Michael had a few things about him that Benjamin actually respected, like the fact that he didn"t mind standing up for what he believed in, and that he wanted his family to live a healthy lifestyle. And it wasn"t like he always acted like a complete a.s.s either, those times were just a little too frequent for Benjamin"s taste.
Carefully, Michael dropped down onto the couch, and Benjamin slightly sighed as he told him to properly lay down. He wanted Michael to calm down properly and then hopefully fall asleep before or immediately after the wine actually kicked in so that he didn"t end up drunkenly doing some stuff that n.o.body wanted to happen. And then by tonight once most of the others arrived, they could start asking Michael about the thing that happened to him before the barbecue that he mentioned only momentarily.
Soon, Benji came back with the bucket and placed it down next to Michael"s head so that he had somewhere to throw up in if it was necessary, and for a short while, the old man and his grandson just sat there in silence while they waited for Tony to come back, and just when Benjamin was thinking that he was taking his time, he heard the sound of the door opening, as well as two pairs of footsteps.
That alone was weird enough… Since Jasmin was in a wheelchair. So, Benjamin immediately jumped up, although he was actually rather pleasantly surprised when he saw who the extra person with them was.
"Jyuuk?" Benjamin asked, and the j.a.panese man who was currently holding a phone to his ear turned over toward the old man. It took a short moment for Benjamin to recognize him, since he looked quite different to his in-"game" character due to the natural changes that came with being a Monkey-Beastperson. And soon, the young man smiled at Benjamin and nodded his head.
"Evalia, we just got to Eisen"s house." Haruo reported with a smile, and Benjamin sighed in relief. It seemed like everyone would be here by tonight, even if he hadn"t been aware that Haruo came to visit Jasmin.
With a big smile, Haruo then hung up before Benji"s phone quickly started ringing again, and Benjamin walked up to Haruo and Jasmin once they came in.
"Nice to finally meet you like this." Haruo said as he slightly bowed forward, and Benjamin just chuckled and pulled him into a hug, even if it was a rather weird hug with just one arm.
"Likewise. So you came to spend some time with Xenia? Why didn"t you tell me about it?" The old man asked, and Haruo scratched the back of his head with a wry smile, "It was a bit of a last-second decision, and I just arrived as well. I will explain it to you later, once we"re alone and the others get here." Haruo explained, so Benjamin nodded his head. "Alright then, sounds good to me. For now… Tony, could you go down into the Bas.e.m.e.nt with Jyuuk and set it up a bit? The third underground is currently empty and only has some empty large-scale barrels…" Benjamin explained, although he then remembered that Tony wasn"t even there when he spoke to Andrew, so he just sighed and moved his fingers through his beard.
"Brody is coming, and their situation is a little dangerous. Same with Evalia"s, actually… Either way, we need a place where they"re all safe. You can change the temperature to be more normal, and I"ll get some futons out or something, so-"
"Dad, I get it. You just rest and go back there, you seem to have other, more important things to deal with." Tony interrupted, and the old man just slowly nodded his head, greatful that his son was so understanding and helpful. Haruo himself wasn"t sure what was going on entirely, but he did hear about Nataly"s situation just now, so he figured that was a good enough reason to help out, and Benji figured he should do the same thing.
And so, while the bas.e.m.e.nt was being prepared for everything, Benjamin made his way back to his room to get back into his capsule. He really had to continue as quickly as possible. Level 300 was a fair amount of time away, but that didn"t change anything about the fact that it was something Benjamin had to try and achieve as quickly as he just possibly could.