1 Prologue: Drowning In Darkness

~Burble~

~Burble~

Huh? Where am I?

~Burble~

Wait, I know this place, I'm here... again?

~Burble~

It's beginning to feel familiar...no, it has always been familiar even the first time I came here.

~Burble~

It's dark, and it feels as if I'm inside a warm water

~Burble~

Yet, each time I'm here, I feel so comfortable, I feel protected and warm. 

It's the kind of place I would love to stay in even if it's forever.

~Burble~

It feels so much like home, this is how a home should be right?

This is the kind of feeling a home should give a person right?

In the background were some voices which weren't so clear.

"Hello Gideon," a soft feminine voice said

It feels as if my ears are covered in water and I barely hear the voice, but yet, I understand every word it's saying.

"Gideon, I think by now you should already recognize." The voice continued.

"In case of next time, just know that it's your mom that's speaking OK? 

I see you're growing well and I also hope I'm not disturbing you, I hope you don't mind my weird sleeping posture.

Hehe

I know you'll grow up to be a very good-looking kid, although it doesn't matter what you turn out to look like or what you turn out to be, Mom and Dad will always love you, but just for your information, I love you more.

"Hey! I love him more and you know that, stop trying to buy my son over to your side"  

I heard a masculine voice this time.

"No, you don't"

"Yes I do"

The two voices argued

"Hush, you're interrupting, I'm still talking to Gideon you know"

"Okay, fine, I'll have my turn too, I'll be back with the dinner"

"Alright, now shuu, run along" 

"Don't shuu me, I'm not a chicken" 

He said in a baby tone before his voice slowly left the background.

~Sigh~

"He's still such a baby, so Gideon where were we?

Aha, as I was saying.

We both love you ok.

I was usually lonely before I met your dad, but after meeting him I was never lonely, it feels as if he dragged me out of solitude and made me addicted to him, I only feel bored when he's not around, even for a minute.

But the good news is that you've filled that spot.

Since having you, I've never been bored and I will never be.

You both are all I need, you're a good boy who always keeps his mom company and I'll always be there for you no matter what, it's my promise.

And dad? 

He'll protect us, or I'll give him a beating, OK?" The feminine voice said.

These words found their way to my heart, I'm not a person who usually lets his guard down, but I can't help it.

Whenever I'm here I feel like there's no need to keep my guard up, nothing can harm me.

It feels like...like, my safe zone

"I'm done, now may I have a word with my son?"

"But I've not yet finished talking to him"

"Oh, come on"

"Fine, quit whining already, you can talk to him."

"Hehe, awesome.

Hey Gideon, it's your super awesome and handsome dad.

If you have my looks, I'm sure you'll get the girls."

"Ok, that's enough I think you're done taking"

"Wait, just a minute, I'll be serious now"

"You have just a minute, I'm counting" 

~Takes a deep breath~

"Look kid, you and your mom, both of you are my reason for living, you're my only family, after all, I'm an orphan.

Your mom's my heart and you're my oxygen, if anything's to happen to any of you, I'd probably die.

So here's my promise, I'll protect you and Mom with my life until you're old enough to protect yourself.

Even then, I'll always be watching, so when you mess up, I'll step in and fight for you.

I'll be your knight in shining armor!" The masculine voice said

"Ugh, that's kind of a weird thing to say though"

"I'm sure when he grows up, he'll understand what I mean"

"Speaking of growing up, what do you want him to be, as for me I want him to be a pilot, he'd have a lot of fun."

"But he'll be vulnerable to attacks.

You know what he can be and he'll be safe forever?" The masculine voice asked

"What?"

"An overpowered anime MC, he can either be Goku, Saitama, Naruto, or Luffy, then he'll never be harmed..."

~Smack!~

"Ouch! What was that for?" 

"I've told you not to involve my son in your anime obsession"

"But he's my son too" 

"Not as long as you keep being obsessed with anime."

"Oh, come on," The man said in a sad tone

The voices faded

~Hee~

A smile curved up my lips.

That last part always puts a smile on my face, it's great to find out that I'm not the only person obsessed with anime

Those voices I hear, always end up making me happy, it always makes my day when I wake up.

Too bad it's just a dream.

 ********************************

~Yawns~

"It's morning already?

I guess I should prepare for school then"

My name's Gideon Promise and I'm seventeen years old.

I think I'm the most incomplete human being ever.

In the sense that I don't have any memory of what happened in the past fifteen years of my life. 

And what makes up a human is their memories, isn't it?

I'll try to explain.

Two years ago, I woke up in this luxurious apartment but somehow I couldn't remember anything including my name.

I'm not sure if Gideon is my real name 

I just gave myself Gideon after seeing the name imprinted on a necklace that I was wearing when I woke up. 

And also this dream I keep having every morning before I wake up, I think they refer to me as Gideon.

As for the "Promise" that serves as my surname, it just popped into my head at an urgent time. 

So literally, I'm living with a fake identity. 

The only knowledge I seem to retain are languages, skills, and general educational knowledge.

I have no memory regarding my personal information.

It is a funny feeling, I feel so empty like I'm living in a shell that is for another person.

When I woke up two years ago.

Everything around me felt unfamiliar.

The environment, the people, and their behavior.

It's as if I was just born at that moment, with some educational knowledge and skills, as a headstart.

I hate this feeling so much, it feels as if there was a hole in my brain, like I am forgetting something really important.

It feels as if there's a missing piece of the puzzle that was intentionally hidden from me. 

And anytime I tried recollecting, I ended up getting dizzy after which a headache followed.

I have to get rid of this feeling because I hate it so much.

To get rid of this feeling, I have to adapt, and as we all know, the first step to adapting is information. 

I need to study and understand more about the present situation and human biology in general, so I might as well get strong during the process.

Power doesn't solely depend on physical strength. 

A person with strength, information, a calm personality, good judgment from analyzing the situation, and a good reputation is the embodiment of power.

So I started to look for any information I could get, no matter how irrelevant it seemed.

I know you must be wondering how I know my age right?

Well, when I woke up, I saw a note on the nearest table saying

 |•You're fifteen years of age•|

And later I found about seven money-filled cases under my bed.

Weird right?

My situation will prove difficult for even a professional detective to unfold.

But here are some clues I've gotten from what I've noticed so far.

Although there are countless possibilities of what could have happened to me.

I'll only be considering the most likely-to-be-the-case situation.

My first observation is that; anyone who did this to me is filthy rich.

Second of all, either I have amnesia or my memory was forcefully hijacked, which is possible with modern technology.

I doubt there's a level of amnesia that can make you forget about almost your whole life

Thirdly; they need me alive, there's a possibility of me being a threat to them, and if that were the case, simply taking me out of the picture would have done it.

But I was left to live, in a good and comfortable environment.

The only thing it cost me was my memory which leads us to the fourth idea; which is that: 

There's a possibility that I come from a very well-recognized family and my position in that family matters, that if I were to be harmed physically, the culprits would also be a victim of the consequences.

I won't lie, if that's the case then, this is just the perfect plan, since they are not hurting me physically.

Therefore no evidence can be held against them.

Are you thinking; "What about your lost memory?"

Nah, anybody can fake that they have lost memory, there's no way to prove that it's true and even if there is, there are accidents that can lead to loss of memory.

There's no sure way to identify the culprit from just memory loss, it's not solid enough evidence 

And lastly, whoever did this to me needs me to be aware of my age.

That doesn't mean we can rule out the possibility of the information regarding my age being false.

After that, I spent most of my time, observing and studying different human characters.

Also, I was acquiring other useful skills.

Due to the highly advanced technology, it wasn't such a difficult task.

I did enjoy studying biology.

Oh, I also did study about other animals when I got too addicted to biology. 

[Warning❗: info dumb below]

During that time, I learned that humanity is a race that is yet to be fully understood.

This is because each individual varies in their character, some are kind and selfless, while some would do anything to get what they want.

Humanity is the balance of good and evil...ok Maybe there's more evil than good.

Every human being is born with a unique and peculiar talent.

But twenty-five percent of human, at the time of my research, has yet to understand what exactly their talent is.

Fifty percent already know what their talent is but are not able to hone it due to many cases which include, poverty, illiteracy, laziness, doubt, and fear of failure.

While twenty percent are people who have refined their talents and are what we call "superstars" or "celebrities".

Note: Some of these people are not even talented in the field they are popular for, they are just people who honed their skills to the highest possible level they could, and they made use of the opportunities they had, no matter how small it seemed.

And the remaining five percent?

Those are people who managed to get their skills to the peak.

Why are they so small? You ask.

It's because to get to the top you have to take risks, and some of those risks end up being life-or-death situations.

And sometimes you'll have to leave everything else behind to get to the bigger part, it's a gamble.

It's all about change and adaptation.

I'm not talking about a situation where you have to hurt someone to get to the top, I'm talking about a situation of putting yourself in a life-or-death situation and that's what humanity is afraid of the most.

"Death"

Fear of death coupled with fear of change is the main cap blocking humans from reaching the peak, and only a handful get there ignoring those feelings.

I mean, why do you have to be afraid of the inevitable? 

I understand, because this fear is not our choice, it's how we're made and to erase it is almost impossible.

That's why it was only a few that could make it to the top

I understand that to be stronger I have to overcome that instinctive fear, the fear of death.

It's built in a human body, that's why anytime you sense danger your instincts tell you to run immediately.

It was hard but I did get rid of that bottleneck, and now my growth is limitless.

It wasn't easy though, but I think my curiosity for the afterlife helped.

Also, I don't have anything emotions whatsoever bonding me to Earth, I think that's also a reason 

Now watch me live my life.

A life devoid of fear,

 "The Fear of Death"