Chapter 50.1

  Emily pushed her powers to the limit, trying her best to heal Ms. Grace as quickly as she could. A few minutes had already passed since Alice had left and this left her feeling very worried for the latter and Maple. Thus, Emily decided to compress her Esper power to try and accelerate her healing ability, despite knowing that it was risky and harmful for her to do so. She recalled how Jason had mentioned during his lessons that this was a viable way to improve her Esper skill and, ever since then, she had practiced it occasionally, quickly coming to the conclusion that it could also enhance her healing powers, albeit temporality.

C'mon, c'mon, Emily thought as the green glow around her hands increased. The muscle and fat around it started to knit itself back together at an increasingly incredible rate but when the skin began to close, Ms. Grace grabbed Emily's hand and shook her head as she came to.

"Thank you, you've done enough," Grace said and politely shook her head again when Emily opened her mouth. "You shouldn't worry about me, but them."

Grace turned to the children that were surrounding her with motherly concern and love. Despite the pain she felt, Grace smiled as soon as she saw the teary-eyed children. Although, almost immediately, her brows furrowed and the smile faded.

"Where's Maple? And that young girl, Alice was it?" She turned to Emily and asked. The latter turned her face down, her cheeks red with shame.

"I'm sorry," Emily whispered hoarsely. "I couldn't run after them and leave you and the children alone. I couldn't."

Grace was silent for a moment before reaching out and patting Emily's head while consoling her. "I'm sure you did your best."

Tears fell from Emily's face as she felt the comfort emanating from Grace's hand. For as long as she can remember, everyone around her pushed her to do more without thinking of how much of a burden it was. But finally, she felt satisfied knowing that she was complemented for doing her best.

No, I haven't done my best yet, Emily thought as she looked up Grace with gritted teeth. "Not yet."

"Emily, dear?"

Emily stood up and looked around at the children before turning to Grace.

"I'm going after Alice and Maple now," she finally replied. She could hear sirens approaching and knew that the police and AEM were on their way. "I've already called the police and they should be here soon. But I need to look for Alice and Maple, I can't leave them alone."

Grace nodded with a gentle smile.

"Go. Bring them back," she told Emily with encouragement and Emily took a deep breath before walking out. She slipped on the bloody pavement and told herself not to look down as her stomach churned with uneasiness; the corpses of gunmen, sliced like animals, made her feel sick and she couldn't imagine how disturbed a person needed to be to commit such an act.

Please be safe, Emily thought as she raced into the alleyway.

***

Maple ran and crouched behind a few containers. She shut her eyes firmly before clasping her hands over her ears. Despite doing all that, she could vaguely hear the ringing of battle echoing from afar, causing her heart to palpitate. She tried calming herself and started humming under her breath to distract herself.

"Row, row, row your boat

Gently down the stream

Merrily merrily, merrily, merrily

Life is but a dream,"

The clanking of metal, of sword and claws clashing, of fists pounding, slowly turned into a melody that played along with Maple's chorus in a surreal moment.

"Maple . . ." a fair but small hand reached out for Maple and the latter almost screamed with horror before opening her eyes.

"A-Alice?"

In front of Maple was Alice, blood dripping from her face but Alice, her blue eyes flashing brightly with several emotions. Alice turned to look at Fenrir's battle with Salamander before both she and Maple stared at each silently with watery eyes.

"Alice! Alice . . ." Maple grabbed onto Alice, hugging her tightly while sobbing. "I'm sorry . . . I'm so sorry, it was all my fault."

"Maple you idiot," Alice also had tears as she admonished Maple. She thought about how close she came to almost losing her first friend, and the tears fell even faster. "Don't do that again, you scared me. And I . . . I don't want to say goodbye. Not yet."

"Mhm," Maple acquiesced easily with a nod and a watery smile before pulling away from Alice and checking her carefully. "But . . . I thought that . . . you were - ?"

"Tougher than I look? Yep!" Alice answered cheekily before hugging Maple again, preventing the latter from noticing how she winced in pain. "Don't worry, it's fine. I'm fine."

The sounds of battle died away and both girls shrieked when an explosion rocked their eardrums. They covered their ears and kneeled down to the ground. Only after the ringing stop did they turn to look in the direction of the fight. Fenrir, who had finished Salamander off, walked towards them. He reached out to call them but paused when he saw the look of surprise and fear in Alice's face.

This . . .

Fenrir stopped, with a hand halfway up. He realized that Alice had never seen his armour and his heart ached when he saw her wary face full of apprehension.

Alice squeezed the corner of Maple's sleeve and the latter turned to look at her in confusion.

She . . . doesn't know? Maple thought, then firmly made up her mind.

Maple clasped onto Alice's hand and when the latter turned to look at her, she nodded with encouragement and a smile. Realization dawned on Alice, who took a deep breath before taking a step forward.

"I-is that you, daddy?" Alice called out to Fenrir with hesitation and fear and the latter looked away while taking a step back with a swallow, unsure of whether he should reveal himself or not.

"Daddy?" Alice asked again as both she and Maple edged closer to Fenrir.

When they were only an arm's length away from him, Fenrir realized that they were straining their necks to look up at him, and he slowly took a knee, kneeling down till they were almost faced to face. Even then, he refused to stare at Alice, his head tilted away as though he were afraid to frighten her with his eyes. Alice slowly reached out and touched Fenrir's helmet. Her tiny hands grazed his sharp teeth before moving to the side of his face where his cheeks should've been.

"Daddy . . ." Alice repeated, this time with the firm conviction of her suspicion, and Fenrir turned to look at her for the first time. Two pairs of blue eyes collided, and Fenrir noticed Alice smiling. "Those eyes . . . they look like mommy's."

"A-are they?" Fenrir asked instinctively, taken back at her words and Alice's smile only widened.

"The colour," Alice answered. Her hands were still on Fenrir and she gazed into Fenrir's eyes with hidden emotions. "Daddy . . . No matter what, I'll still love you."

Kid . . .

Fenrir understood what Alice was conveying, and his hand moved and landed atop her own, covering it with his warmth as he squeezed it. At the same time, he used his powers to accelerate her healing and push the shards of glass out of her body. Soon, she was completely healthy and even her scars had faded away. His eyes then moved to Maple and he noticed that she was gazing at the two with tears and envy. Fenrir's other hand tousled Maple's hair, and the latter turned to look at him in surprise before beaming with happiness.

"Alice! Maple!"

Emily's voice came from afar and all three, Fenrir, Alice, Maple, paused.

Emily soon appeared at the edge of the alleyway and she saw a crouching figure mired in shadows. Alice and Maple were in front of the figure and she sighed with relief at seeing them safe.

"Oh, thank god . . ." Emily's sigh of relief faded and the rest of the words she was about to say died in her throat when the figure slowly stood up and turned to face her.

Her heart pounded out of her chest in fear when she saw his gleaming teeth and large blue eyes and she froze without being able to move a muscle. The blurry lights and distant shadows played havoc on her vision and, for a moment, she could see his large mouth opening and his teeth gashing like a hungry wolf. Unbeknownst to her, it was the aura of having killed someone recently that covered Fenrir, making him appear even more frightening.

"Oh . . . Ok," Emily took several deep breaths to calm herself before putting a hand out to Alice and Maple. "Y-you two, c-come here slowly."

This entire time, Fenrir was frozen with complicated emotions. He despised the gaze of fear Emily sent him and he wanted to reveal himself to her. But the thought possibly being feared, or even outright rejected, by Emily halted his thoughts.

"It's alright," Maple reassured Emily with a whisper but the latter refused to listen to her.

"Come here, right now!" Emily's voice broke with panic and desperation as she urged the two to move in a more commanding tone.

The two, Alice and Maple, hesitated and turned to look at Fenrir one more time before slowly moving towards Emily. The latter grabbed them tightly and protectively before turning to look back at Fenrir but this time, with confusion in her eyes.

Who is he? Do I know him? Emily thought with furrowed brows. Her heart, pounding with fear, prevented her from thinking critically and thus, she failed to suspect that it was Jason.

Fenrir gazed at them for a moment before he turned his head slightly as though he heard something. He then started moving backwards, walking slowly as the shadows slowly swallowed his figure. Soon, only his bright blue eyes remained, staring at them quietly in the shadows before eventually fading away into the abyss, leaving nothing behind.

"Hey, you three okay?" Footsteps sounded out from behind and Junco, followed by Dhole, soon appeared. Noticing the direction that Emily was staring at, Junco raised her rifle and the flashlight attached to her weapon shone a bright light upon the dark spot that Fenrir previously was at, but that area was now empty without a trace of Fenrir. "What happened here?"

"I-I don't - I don't know," Emily stuttered, her face full of confusion at how Fenrir had vanished.

"Dhole, secure the parameter," Junco ordered before turning to Emily, Alice, and Maple. "I'll take them back."

"Understood," Dhole answered and he moved forward while aiming his LMG.

"Let's go back, there are paramedics there," Junco gestured back to the entrance of the alleyway and all three followed her back to where the bus was.

Above them, perched on a rooftop, was Fenrir. He watched them leave before standing up and leaving the area himself. Dhole, on the other hand, came across the corpse of Salamander and swore. The HUD in his helmet had already identified Salamander as a Phantom, and he realized that things were gonna be hectic once more.

"Sukin syn," he swore in Russian. Just when things were getting better . . .