Asaru had spent the past two weeks at the hospital, recovering from the injuries he got during the bus accident. Now, he was finally going to be discharged and allowed to go back home.
"Thank you for everything that you've done for us," Mio Takayoshi, a 41-year-old woman of late teen-like figure with long black hair, supple lips and bright brown eyes, thanked the doctor who had treated and cared for her son.
"My pleasure," responded the doctor. "I was simply doing my duty that's all."
"Still, we thank you from the bottom of our hearts," Rihan Takayoshi, a 43-year-old man with trimmed black hair, toned build and ash-grey eyes, added while bowing his head in gratitude.
"Hahaha!" the doctor laughed, his voice tinged with a mix of joy and embarrassment. "You're welcome."
"To the pleasure of never seeing you again Doc," Asaru said, as he said his farewell to the doctor.
"Hey you!" Mio raised her voice.
"Hahaha! It's okay. As they say no news is good news," the doctor intervened, knowing that if there's no patient, it simply means that they are healthy.
"Please forgive his behaviour," Rihan said.
"As I said, it's okay. Well then, farewell," the doctor excused himself as the family went out of the hospital and entered their car.
While Rihan was driving and exchanging words with Mio, Asaru had a lingering sensation in his mind that there was something amiss. But the more he tried to know and remember what it was, the more it became blurry in his mind.
Leaning back in his seat, "Well, if I can't remember what it is, then maybe it wasn't that important to begin with. I was in an accident after all. It's no wonder my mind is a little jumbled up."
The same way his surroundings were only blurs being replaced by other things as the car moved, his thoughts quickly shifted to other things beside what he seemed to have forgotten.
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Rolling onto his side as an alarm rang him awake, a man, seemingly in his early thirties, tall with sparkling brown hair, focused blue eyes, hugged the woman that was sleeping beside him.
She was a beautiful red-haired woman, with emerald-green eyes, and though her body was covered by drapes, it was evident that she was blessed with a generous figure.
"Good morning," the woman said as she felt the man's warm embrace.
"Good morning," the man responded. "Did you sleep well?"
"Yes. And you?"
"Same. But I really would have preferred staying here with you instead of going to work."
"You sound like a child who doesn't want to go to school."
"Work is simply school ten times worse."
"Okay enough with the jokes now. I'll prepare breakfast while you get ready."
"Yes ma'am," the man replied as he then got out of bed.
As the man was heading to the bathroom, the woman also got out of bed and headed towards the kitchen where she started preparing breakfast.
The breakfast she was preparing was a traditional bacon with eggs accompanied by toasted bread and orange juice.
"Ellie!" the man called out to the woman. "Have you seen where I put my wallet?"
"It's in the drawer right beside the bed!" Ellie replied.
"Okay. Thanks!"
Several minutes later, the man had finished to bathe and wear clothes. Just as he entered the living room ready to sit on the dining table, a young child, a seemingly spirited 10-year-old boy with reddish-orange curly hair, green eyes sparkling with an innocent wonder and a small face lit up with mischief, suddenly jumped on him.
"Dad!"
"Wha?!" exclaimed the man, taken by surprise by his son.
"Come on Shaw. How many times do I have to tell you it's dangerous to suddenly surprise people like that?"
"C'mon. There's no harm done, right?"
"I swear Chris. It's because you spoil him that he never learns."
"True that," Chris, the man, affirmed.
"Don't sound so proud of it," Ellie retorted, a tinge of annoyance in her voice.
"Haha," Chris laughed, seemingly unbothered by his wife's words.
"In any case, breakfast is ready."
"Yay! Breakfast! I'm hungry," exclaimed Shaw as his stomach growled, making his parents chuckle.
"Thank you for the food!"
After a peaceful and enjoyable breakfast, Chris took his coat and car keys, ready to head out.
"Have a good day at work, dear," said Ellie as she gave him a peck on the cheeks.
"You too have a good day."
"See you later dad," said Shaw as he hugged Chris who then patted his head.
"Yeah. Listen to mom and remember to do your homework okay?"
"Okay!"
"Well, I'm heading out," said Chris as he opened the door.
"Have a safe trip!"
As the door closed, "Okay. Now Shaw, it's time to take a bathe," commanded Ellie.
"Yes ma'am."
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While Chris was on his way to work, his phone rang.
Answering it, "Hello?"
"Chief Blakelord, it's me Maria," a woman's voice came out.
"Maria? What does the Association Master want to relay to me now?" Chris asked, a tinge of worry and exasperation in his voice.
"I'm sorry to disturb and trouble you but the Association Master has asked me to inform you about an incident that happened at the Therion Public Library."
"The library?"
"Yes. A Vanishing Point appeared inside the library."
"And what does that have to do with me? Surely a raid team has already been sent to deal with situation, right? So why am I needed?" he inquired.
"This Vanishing Point wasn't detected by the G-System, nor did it form an Abyss when it appeared. Hence it was only recently discovered when the library staff opened their doors."
"What?! How is that possible?" Chris was surprised by the news.
"We're not sure ourselves. Our sensors within the area didn't identify any spike in mana when it formed. We suspect that it's already been several hours since it formed."
"And no Abyss was formed?" Chris asked, still not believing what he was hearing.
"No sir," Maria's voice stood firm.
"I see. I'm on my way right now," he made a sharp turn, heading towards the library.
In just 25 minutes, Chris arrived at the library, and what he was welcomed with was something he wasn't expecting.
"They're all in a pretty bad shape," he thought, taking in the scene before him, making him anxious about what kind of monster had come out of the Vanishing Point. "Thanks to the healers spells they'll be able to survive, but just what the hell happened here?"
"Chief Blakelord!" someone called out.
"Oh! Maria."
It was Maria Williams, a young woman in her mid-20s with long purple hair and purple haze eyes who is also a Realizer specializing in magic and the secretary of Jaegers Association Master.
"Good to see you," greeted Chris.
"Same here," Maria returned the greeting.
After their meetup, they went to a nearby tent that was setup to discuss the next step of the operations.
"Do you know what happened for things to end up like this?" asked Chris.
"Yes," she replied before she started explaining what happened.
"In the simplest terms, it was a single opponent that caused this."
"Only one?!" he asked surprised.
"Yes," she answered with the same expression of someone trying to swallow a bitter pill.
"Now I understand why you called me."
"Yes. In total, they were five Level 3 and three Level 4 agents, but as you can see, the enemy is probably Grade A at least."
"And since I'm a Level 5 and the closest in the vicinity, I was the most optimal option."
"Exactly."
Scratching his head, "So what are we up against? An orc? An ogre?"
"Neither. From the reports, it's a human."
"What? A human?"
"Yes."
"You're telling me that a human came out of a Vanishing Point?"
"Without a doubt. Additionally, the Vanishing Point disappeared after he came out?" she explained as she read the report to him.
"He?" Chris was perplexed.
"Yes. It's been confirmed that the target has a young appearance. He's been estimated to be approximately 12 or 13 years old."
"Is it possible that it's a monster wearing human skin?" asked Chris, his expression grim.
"No way of confirming but here is the footage we got from the library's CCTV cameras," said Maria as she engaged a video footage on screen.
"This is the footage of when the portal opened at 02:13 A.M. today."
On the screen, a Vanishing Point opened at the entrance of the library, and when it opened, a young boy with messy jet-black hair, walked out of the portal wearing ragged clothes.
"We also tried to zoom in on his face to identify him, but he doesn't correspond with anyone in our database."
The resemblance was striking. This young boy looked like Asaru but younger. Of course, they had no idea about who it was.