13 A Family

I was sitting on top of a bed in a room. It was a small room that a third of the space was taken by this single-sized bed. I was playing a game with a controller stick on my hand. It seemed that I couldn't afford a console, so every new game I played was on the PC.

I didn't have a chair and the PC's desk was built low so that I played while sitting on the bed or just sat cross-legged on the floor.

I was playing Legend of Zelda, Ocarina of Time on the emulator after going home from works.

Huh? What was my job before?

It seemed that I couldn't remember anything aside from this room and the games that I played.

What was my name? Do I have a family?

I keep questioning the memories that I should've remembered. I got dazed and my character died.

Goddamn it. I hate fighting Morpha. I put down the controller and stood up. There was a door to my right, it probably leads to the living room, right? Huh? I couldn't even remember my house? Is it even a house?

When I grabbed the knob, suddenly I heard a voice. "Don't open it." the voice was echoing inside my head.

Huh? who's there?

I looked around, but nobody was there. I waited for an answer but there was nothing. Not a single voice.

I turned the knob and just held it. Is it just my imagination? The voice wasn't there anymore. I opened the door.

Wh... what the hell is this?

In front of me was not the living room that I thought it would be. Instead, it was a deep dark space filled with glittering stars and cosmic dust.

Where the hell am I? I panicked, it must be a dream, right? It must be.

"Don't look!" Suddenly an arm wrapped my eyes. The door closed. She continued, "Close your eyes."

I closed my eyes just like what the voice told me to do. Somehow the voice was familiar, I think I heard it somewhere before. "Take a deep breath, my baby."

Huh?

[And open your eyes]

I woke up under a tent. Cold sweat was drenching my body. I looked around. It was a big tent, around me were children sleeping and some even wrapped in bandages. Their hollow eyes looking at something, somewhere. I could hear people talking outside the tent, the atmosphere seemed to be depressed.

[Are you awake, Sir?] Regina asked.

"Huh? Regina? Was that you?" I recalled the dream that I had before, of me in a room.

[What do you mean, Sir? I am always me.]

"No, not that. I remembered that you were saying something to me."

Huh, what is it? Why I can't remember it?

[Are you okay, Sir? You seemed to have a bad dream.]

I held my forehead. Yes, it must be just a dream. There's no need to keep lamenting on it.

"What happens, where am I?"

Regina then began to narrate what happened after I fell asleep.

After we defeated Brainstern, Michelle took the initiative to bring us into the east outpost with a military truck. Samanosuke, being concerned accompanied us, up until the front of the outpost. She then got a call on her radio that seemed to be an emergency and left with Samanosuke. Chris was being treated at another tent that wasn't far from here.

"How long have I been asleep?"

[Three hours, Sir.]

Damn. That long? How far has Samanosuke gone? Did he already meet Ranmaru Mori?

Ranmaru Mori was a vassal of Nobunaga oda. In the past, Samanosuke had already defeated him and he died afterward. However, Guildenstern resurrected him by fusing him with Genma powers and he turned stronger as he came here, to the present Paris.

I need to go out now and started grinding. With my existence alone there might be a lot of things changed. There was even a possibility that the Genma would win this war. I reached into my spatial pocket, but it wasn't there. I looked down and only saw a shirt.

"Wh... Where's my hoodie!?" I started panicking and shouted aloud. The hoodie was filled to the brim with the guns and magazine clips. I felt naked without access to the armory. A nurse that was giving a glass of water to a brunette girl, heard my voice, and approached me.

"It's okay, you are safe now." Her immediate response was to calm me down. She thought I was being terrified after waking up. A lot of children she met earlier was like this. Their mind was already scarred. Looking at these children, broke her heart.

"Miss, where is it? Where's my hoodie jacket?" I grabbed the nurse's hand and keep asking.

[You need to calm down, Sir. Your hoodie was on your left.]

Regina's voice woke me up from my panicked state. I seemed to be too dependent on the guns, that their existence alone affects my mental state.

Shit. I lost my cool.

I looked on my left and saw the folded hoodie. I finally calmed and apologized to the nurse.

"It's okay, you don't have to. I'll call your relatives to come here soon." The nurse smiled and left the tent.

Now, calm down me. This is not the time to break down. I need to make a plan to go outside.

Five minutes later, a man in a bulletproof vest came in, it was Barry. He looked heavily armed, I wondered if anything happens to him.

"Edward. How is it? Are you injured? Sick?" Barry looked worried.

"I'm okay uncle Barry, I might have been too tired and hungry."

"Oh right. You haven't eaten anything since arriving here. I'll notify the nurse to bring you food. For now, here, I have a chocolate bar for you." He gave me a few pieces of the chocolate bar and pat my head. He continued, "it must be rough, but I know you're stronger than me. I won't say anything to you, that would be Chris's job."

He seemed to have an idea or two about my power. An 8-year-old boy, that could fight a pack of monsters couldn't be a normal kid. Since it was the world of MARVEL, there was "the mutant human" term, which is kinda taboo and dangerous from a normal human's perspective. It wasn't strange to think that I am one of them.

Barry then asks me to visit Chris with him. He said that Chris was already awake for an hour ago. Because I wasn't injured or anything, the doctor allowed me to go. We went into a bigger tent that was two tents away from where I was in before. This place was surrounded by walls of the building. We couldn't see what was happening outside. There were occasional gunshots and explosions far away.

After I get in, there were rows of patients. I didn't look and just walk straight toward Chris's bed.

"Chris, are you okay?" Chris looked weak and an IV drip was connected to his left arm. There were bandages wrapped around his neck and head.

"I'm fine, Ed. I'm sorry for being too careless." Chris was feeling worried. He already heard what was happening when he passed out from Barry. He already heard how his 8-year-old nephew grabbed a gun and protected them.

At first, he was in disbelief, then it turned into grieve and anger. To force a kid to hold a gun was the worst sin for an adult. He already knew that Edward was special.

Before he took the flight for France, he got a call from Mervin, Edward's dad's friend whom he met at the hospital in Congo. The guns that were confiscated were already tested in the central city. Mervin was an ex-FBI, finding a kids fingerprint in the US was easy for him and Edward's fingerprint was found on them. Unless they gave them the gun, it was impossible for a kid to steal their gun. Mervin and Chris agreed that the one who finished the mob found in the forest was Edward himself. He didn't know why or how, but he was still his nephew, his responsibility.

"Edward, come close. Barry, would you mind?"

Barry just nood and closed the curtain, covering them.

"What is it, uncle?" Edward was nervous, wondering why his uncle wanted to talk alone.

"Edward. Who am I?"

The sudden question confused me. Did he lost his mind on that concrete and got amnesia?

"You...uhh... My uncle Chris."

"That's right. We are family." he paused. I waited for him to continue and sat right beside him. "Family should never hide a secret to each other."

Darn it. What did he found out?

"What do you mean, uncle."

"I wouldn't ask how you got those power or what that power is." I was taken aback by his words. He knew, what should I do? Should I tell him everything?

In my confusion, Chris grabbed my hand. I looked at him. "It's okay, you don't have to tell me anything if you're not ready yet."

And he smiled. I saw my mom's smile on him, it was a smile they would make whenever I was depressed. She always made that smile whenever we moved out of town, again and again. They really resembled each other. Chris continued, "I won't hold you off or tell you to stop. But, if someday it feels too tough, just tell me or your aunt. We will always be there for you."

His words warmed my heart. I recalled how I struggled against the genmas, how I almost lost another part of my family. It seemed too hard. Just being reincarnated doesn't instantly make you a hero.

I envied those characters in novels that were unafraid of what was happening around them. Those that instantly know how to kill once they were powerful enough and felt unburdened by it. I was just a normal guy that you could find everywhere.

I might forget who I was before, but I know that I was just a guy that played a game after coming home. The guy that stayed up late just to play an online game. The guy that spent half of his day in front of a computer, typing. The worst sin that I remembered was throwing the baby penguin off the cliff on Super Mario 64, and I even felt bad about it for days.

I dropped my head. Looking on the ground, I then said, "Someday...if it really happens. Would you buy me an ice cream?"

Chris smiled, "I'll buy you a whole ice cream truck."

I hugged Chris's weak body. I promised you, that I will do everything to protect you all in this messed up world.

...

In front of the East Outpost's gate. There was a barricade of Tanks and trucks. Heavy machine guns were installed in several spots and high ground. The patrol squad came in and out from times to times. The tall building's rooftops around were filled with armed soldiers. Nothing could get out of their sight.

1st Lieutenant Henry Moreau was an officer tasked with the east outpost defense. The saved civilians would be transferred to safety out of Paris every one hour. Now, was the time to set out, and he was nervous because some of the soldiers would be assigned to protect them. This in itself would weaken their defense on the outpost.

There would be occasional attacks done by the monsters. He needs to prepare it well. One mistake would lead to another. He didn't want it to happen at this crucial time.

Gurrr...Gurrr...

He felt tremors in an interval manner on the ground. This wasn't theirs. He felt a bad premonition, something much worst is coming. Then he heard shouting from the west direction.

"INCOMING!!"

*Boom!!

One of the soldiers on a building 100 meters from the outpost shouted his lung out before being drowned in an explosion. Because of how close the buildings were built, Genma Ogres could leap from one to another easily. Under them, a horde of Genma, hundreds upon hundreds of then charging toward the east outposts.

Henry, looking at them started giving orders. "MEN!! ON YOUR POST!! READY TO ENGAGE!!"

...and then he silently muttered.

"May God saves us..."