[6] Fate & its Defiant
<strong>Chapter 6: Fate & its Defiant</strong>
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<b>[Third Person Point of View – Ai Hoshino]</b>
<span style="font-weight:400">It has been two years since her son did that acting gig, and it was better received than she thought. Though sadly for her son, she stole his and, well, even the main actress'' limelight with her own acting.
<i><span style="font-weight:400">''My cuties will have to try harder than this if they want to match up against mommy.''</i>
<span style="font-weight:400">Ai couldn''t help but giggle as she walked into the telephone booth located at the side of the road. She couldn''t use her own phone for this call she was about to make.
<span style="font-weight:400">Both her children were geniuses, maybe a bit too suspiciously so, but they were still kids. Ai was avoiding this for a long time but… it was time she introduced them to their father.
<span style="font-weight:400">More than once, she had heard the two kids talking about their father. Usually, it went about Ruby bad talking about him, asking Aqua why that man would leave someone as bright as their mama, while Aqua told her to forget it.
<span style="font-weight:400">Frankly, her rtionship with that man was strange. Maybe that''d be an understatement. Logically speaking, it was her fault that she didn''t have the abortion for the kids, so the father isn''t obliged to do anything. To begin with, they weren''t married, just two teens who didn''t know the best for themselves and made a mistake.
<span style="font-weight:400">So, she felt a little awkward calling him now of all times. Still, it was for the sake of her kids. Aqua was lost oncest year, and she felt like her world had crumbled. She looked everywhere, but he was nowhere to be found. Atst, when he returned the next day with tattered clothes that had flowers sticking to them, she hugged him tighter than ever while crying.
<span style="font-weight:400">In thest four years, Ai hadn’t regretted giving birth to them even once, so she was going to take this mother''s job seriously.
<span style="font-weight:400">She hesitated after fully dialing the number and then called. It rang for a long minute but was ultimately picked.
<span style="font-weight:400">["Hello? Who is this?"]
<span style="font-weight:400">The voice sent various shivers of emotions across her heart. Ai took a shivering breath in and began to talk.
<span style="font-weight:400">"Hey… it''s me, do you remember?"
<span style="font-weight:400">["...Ai?"]
<span style="font-weight:400">He did remember! Well, she would have been mad if he didn''t, given he was the father of her children.
<span style="font-weight:400">For the next few minutes, they talked in an awkward tone, until she managed to pull the courage to get to the point.
<span style="font-weight:400">"So, you know… the kids grew up. They are four years old now. I was wondering if they should meet their father once."
<span style="font-weight:400">["Hey, are you…"]
<span style="font-weight:400">"I''m not s-suggesting we get back together. We both know it won''t work out. Just… I am asking for a visit. To manage a few hours of your schedule ande see us."
<span style="font-weight:400">There was a long silence from the other side, and for a moment she wondered if he had cut the call. Just when she was about to ask if he was there, his voice returned.
<span style="font-weight:400">["Sure. Tell me your current address."]
<span style="font-weight:400">* * *
<b>[First Person Point of View – Aqua]</b>
<span style="font-weight:400">A year has passed since I advanced to Iron. I do hate the fact that my growth is so slow, that I wasn''t a Jade yet, but there is nothing to change this.
<span style="font-weight:400">I don''t really have any sparring partners, and thick storm auras are rare. So, I have decided to teach my little sister some tricks. I wouldn''t have done this if this was a truly normal world, but if DxD was real, then that means there were mages in this world, there were Heroes, Gods, and Devils. The smart choice for me would be to teach Ruby some tricks so that she can protect herself.
<span style="font-weight:400">Besides, it''s entertaining to train someone. I did have a few disciples in my earlier lives when I grew too bored and old, and those were somewhat of a fun time.
<span style="font-weight:400">"Hey! Teach me some magic already, this is doing nothing!"
<span style="font-weight:400">Yet, teaching her was annoying. She had no respect for him as her Master and just yelled to teach her magic when she hadn''t even formed a Mana Core.
<span style="font-weight:400">"This is the 13th time I am telling you, you need to form a mana core first. Without it, you can''t cast jack-shit."
<span style="font-weight:400">She gasped. "Don''t curse."
<span style="font-weight:400">"...Oh right, my bad." I knew better than to not curse, in case Ai or Miyako heard.
<span style="font-weight:400">He had chosen to teach Ruby Magic and not Martial Arts, because her body is more mana sensitive than qi sensitive. She could sense mana with ease and had learned how to do so after a week''s worth of training. It seems her good gics went further than just her looks.
<span style="font-weight:400">I said quietly this time, "You need to form a Mana Core in your heart."
<span style="font-weight:400">"But I can''t do it!"
<span style="font-weight:400">She threw her hands around, and if she was anybody other than who she was, I would have thrown her out of the window at this moment.
<span style="font-weight:400">I''ve regained some of my memories from my 4th to 8th life. In my 4th life, I was dragged into bing a wandering hermit, it was a humble life. However, in my 5th life, I was called the <b>Sorcerer of Eternity</b><span style="font-weight:400">. People would sell their daughters for a single lesson from me, and yet this puny mortal dares to…!
<span style="font-weight:400">I quickly dispersed those thoughts when I looked outside the window. It was night and the stars were twinkling at me. Indeed, in this entire cosmos, I am the most benevolent one. Why must I be mad at this innocent soul?
<span style="font-weight:400">I turned to look at Ruby again, smiling.
<span style="font-weight:400">"I understand, my cutest imouto-"
<span style="font-weight:400">"Eww, creep!"
<span style="font-weight:400">She screeched in fright and dashed off the room. How rude.
<span style="font-weight:400">* * *
<span style="font-weight:400">Last night was fun when I got up and ran after her. She kept yelling until she began to cry in Ai''s arms. It weirded her out when I act too nice because usually, something bad happens afterward.
<span style="font-weight:400">However, when I woke up today none ofst night''s smile remained. There was a bell I heard that startled me awake.
<span style="font-weight:400">Since the day of my acting, doorbells have been my utmost priority. Whenever I hear a doorbell, I rush to the door before anybody. Nobody was suspicious as children usually did that a lot, so I got away with it.
<span style="font-weight:400">However, today a bell rang when I was sleeping. I am an early riser, so someone at the door when I was sleeping is rare. In the four years of my life, that has happened a rare few times.
<span style="font-weight:400">I jumped awake from my casket and leaped across the door. I couldn''t take any chances.
<span style="font-weight:400">I soared through the air, leaving a trail of lightning behind me. I was supposed to pause before a turn and take a sneak peek, but my enhanced nose picked up a scent that told me not to waste time. I made a sharp drift in the air and found myself facing the door.
<span style="font-weight:400">“Good morning, Ai. How are the twins doing?”
<span style="font-weight:400">My mother, Ai was just there, and the world was slow as her smile was vanishing and her eyes were widening. She had just epted a bouquet of white roses from the hooded man at the door, which were quickly turning red from the ssh of blooding from her abdomen.
<span style="font-weight:400">My mouth widened for a moment before I shut my lips tight. My eyes went cold as I found myself moving like a trail of lightning. I side-stepped near Ai, pushing her away with a gentle push, while my hand leaped out to grab the bastard in a choke.
<span style="font-weight:400">“Augh!”
<span style="font-weight:400">The idiotic son of a bitch who hade to kill Ai just because she had kids because she had fallen in love and wasn’t a virgin, groaned as I pushed him against the grass outside our house.
<span style="font-weight:400">I was old, I have lived through a lot. Only a few things made my emotions stir, and this happened to be one of them.
<span style="font-weight:400">“Pathetic shut-in bastard!” He’ll pay with his soul for this foolishness.
<span style="font-weight:400">The disgusting loser tried to say something, but my strength was beyond any normal human now. I wasn’t here to listen to him talk, I wasn’t Ai, I wasn’t going to talk to him about the wrongness of life, the lie of love.
<span style="font-weight:400">I am only here to destroy his soul. Qi swelled up on my palm as I emptied out half of my core with a single attack. The raging Storm Qi rushed out of my channels in a specific pattern, as I performed one of the basic three techniques of my Path.
<span style="font-weight:400">[<b>Wrath of the Roaring Sky</b><span style="font-weight:400">]
<span style="font-weight:400">Electric blue energy spread through the loser shun-in in a split second, the sound of meat sizzling filling the air, as the garden was lit up as if another sun had risen here. The otaku’s body was pulverized into fine dust a secondter.
<span style="font-weight:400">Not even bones remained as mere ash rested on the grass, my hand clutching down on it.
<span style="font-weight:400">I stood up, turning my head to look at the bleeding woman leaning against the wall. She looked frightened at the sight, her eyes locked on the ashes, and she gulped. When her eyes met mine, she paused, hesitating before she called.
<span style="font-weight:400">“A-aqua?”
<span style="font-weight:400">I walked over to her when she spat out blood trying to say my name. She was too careless, too innocent. If I hadn’t intervened, she would have recognized the face of that loser and would have talked to him nicely instead of calling for help. Na?ve.
<span style="font-weight:400">I walked over to her and suddenly felt angry at myself instead. She… wore an apron, and from the scent I got from the kitchen, she was making a cake just now. She was making a cake for us because it’s a holiday.
<span style="font-weight:400">Her white apron was red; a knife was sticking out of her abdominal aorta. It was a serious injury.
<span style="font-weight:400">“Aqua-”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Don’t speak.”
<span style="font-weight:400">I didn’t meet gazes with her. I will just pretend to have been possessedter, for now, I had to pretend to be someone else and save her. I wish this didn’te to this, that she wasn’t stabbed and I would have taken care of that lowly loser earlier.
<span style="font-weight:400">I grabbed the knife and pulled it out. She tried to tell me to stop because the wound would bleed more with the knife out, but I didn’t listen. I then grabbed her apron and gently took it off over her outfit.
<span style="font-weight:400">Why the hell is she wearing a maxi?
<span style="font-weight:400">It would have been easier if she was wearing a tee shirt, but fine. I grabbed the hole in the maxi through which the knife had prated, and tore apart the fabric. I identally tore it apart too much, but my eyes were focused on the wound alone.
<span style="font-weight:400">I gently ced my palm over the wound.
<span style="font-weight:400">“Aqua, I-”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Shh.”
<span style="font-weight:400">I couldn’t help but look into her eyes once.
<span style="font-weight:400">“You are fine.”
<span style="font-weight:400">I didn’t want to admit it back when I chose my Path, but one of the main reasons why I chose the Raging Sky path was because of the healing properties. Without this, she would have died today.
<span style="font-weight:400">[<b>The</b> <b>Pure Storm Baptism</b><span style="font-weight:400">]
<span style="font-weight:400">A warm light emanated from my hand, in a circr shape, and Ai took in a sharp breath. It must hurt like hell, but her eyes went wide for something else. She realized what was happening to the wound as she stared at me in shock.
<span style="font-weight:400">I sped up the process, cursing in my head at how much energy such simple healing was required since she herself didn’t have any Mana or Qi until I lifted my hand a minuteter.
<span style="font-weight:400">No wound remained on her skin, it was as clean as ever.
<span style="font-weight:400">I smiled and then felt my body falling over, exhausted and out of Qi. Only for a moment did I realize that my face had fallen on her naked chest before I passed out.
<span style="font-weight:400">Today, I have once more defeated fate with ultimate ease. Truly, Cannon Events are no match for the most venerable one in this cosmos.
<span style="font-weight:400">**
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<b>Master4thWall: With this, the childhood arc is done! My drive to write this was unmatched for the past few days since I just wanted toe to this scene where MC would stop Ai’s death. Now I can rx. Post some reviews, guys!</b>
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