Father

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Letter to Resi, my child

Even though we are not blood-related, I treat you as if you were my own. I know our styles differ from each other and that makes you feel that you are a stranger in our group. It doesn't. That trait of yours is straight from the genes of your parents. It is their gift to you in this world.

You might not remember this but your parents and I were discussing about our future going forward. We were drinking green tea in the living room while you were sitting down and playing with your clay toys talking to yourself. Your parents were debating whether to establish a group by themselves. Of course, like the free spirits that they were, they couldn't arrange something like that on their own.

They entrusted me with the responsibility of creating a group and leading it. I was the defender in the base while your parents were out adventuring together. When we started, we were just naive youths trying to make a name for ourselves but as time passed by, it became our life's mission.

More and more people joined the group and we could no longer treat our responsibility and the lives of others as a side job. We grew up and made a name for ourselves bit by bit and our goal throughout was to become an established group with our own property. The only way to do that was to uncover an artifact hidden in the most dangerous places here in this world.

Although I have failed in completing my mission, your life is still ahead of you. Join Bang's crew and you will accomplish things that you and I have never thought possible. The Defending Tip is your nest but it is now time for you to fly on your own. I know you will probably hate to go back to our base because of all the memories you have there but remember that their arms are always open for you.

Your trauma is deeply buried within you and some day or another you are going to have to deal with it. You can deal with it any way you want but always have someone by your side when you do it.

I have been very hard on you because I know you can advance further. Your strength is your aggressiveness but it is also your weakness. If you learn how to hone that skill and know the timing when to use it, you will be unstoppable.

I don't know what to say more because I have so much more to say but good luck and I love you. I will be watching your adventures on the other side.

From your father, Gotang

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Resi's world shattered as he saw Gotang's face frozen in time, sinking into the pool of acid. His mind went into a blank and he felt his consciousness break into pieces. This is not happening, right? Gotang will use his skill to get out of this right? No, this can't be happening again!

Why did this happen? Did he do this? Why did he not listen to Gotang when he said not to approach the holy grail?

'No. It's not my fault. It's Ligi's fault. He should have let me die instead of him!'

Resi's guilt wreaked havoc on his mind. Deep inside his heart, he knew that he was the one to blame. If he had not been too aggressive then they would not have been in that position; Gotang would not have died.

His emotions were in disarray as he looked towards where Gotang used to be. Even his corpse was nowhere to be seen. He was now gone forever, just because of his mistake. Resi clutched his chest and squinted. His eyes were red and moist as he looked at the missing remnant of Gotang's legacy.

He smelled the scent of lavender. The same familiar scent of one of his memories back in the day. The memories of his mother caressing his hair while he laid his head on her lap. He closed his eyes and the scent of nostalgia took over him.

She had silky brown hair tied up behind her back and an earring pierced to her ears. It was lined with silver ornaments and a ruby was placed at the center, complimenting her mature yet youthful face. He didn't remember much about what had happened before this took place.

He looked up into the smiling eyes of his mother with the bright shining sun behind her head. It felt hot all over as his mother's sweat dripped down from her face and onto his cheeks. He raised his hand and touched her face. It was oily, probably from the sweat she produced.

He looked to his left and saw his father sitting in his chair, sedentary. Resi felt it was weird that his father was unmoving when usually he couldn't stand to sit in one place for too long. One time when they were out wandering the streets as a family. His mother went away to pick something up from the store and told his father to stay in one place so she could come back to him. His father couldn't wait any longer and walked away with Resi to explore the city. They ended up being lost and had to go to the precinct to search for each other.

These were the memories that swirled in his head as his mother caressed his hair with her long fingers. He then remembered that his mother felt tired and closed her eyes as her head fell into her chest. Her fingers stopped caressing his fingers as he also felt tired and went to sleep.

The next thing he remembered was waking up to Gotang holding both his shoulders and looking at him with knitted eyebrows. He even remembered Gotang's disheveled hair flowing in the wind in the night sky. Half of Gotang's face was hidden in the shadows and only a reddish light illuminated the other half.

He rubbed his eyes as he still felt tired after sleeping for so long. He felt a stinging pain in his eyes as he used his right hand to rub his eyes. His hand was wet. He did not know if it was from the rain or from his own sweat. He looked at his hands and saw a reddish tint smeared all over his hands. Was it because of the reddish lighting that caused the water to look like it was red?

He suddenly felt overwhelmed as Gotang hugged him with all his might. He felt a bit suffocated and felt a little bit awkward at the sudden show of affection.

After that was a blurry sequence of events that he already forgot. He only remembered that after that happy memory with his parents, he became more and more unruly and he disobeyed the motto of the Defending Tip. He didn't know why but he felt hatred at the way the Defending Tip was being passive. He didn't know why but he just felt animosity from it.

His vision blurred and he was back in reality, the horrendous reality that he witnessed only a few meters away from him. He saw an unjust death caused by himself, perpetrated by the man next to him. He looked at Ligi and his blood boiled.

They tumbled down into the safe ground and Resi immediately went towards Ligi. He balled up his fists and punched Ligi in his face. A resounding thump entered everyone's ears as Resi's knuckles were deep red. His eyes were red and moist as a single tear dropped onto Ligi's face.

Resi kept punching Ligi's face even though Ligi was not affected by it. Ligi was still wearing his head gear and Resi was only hurting himself by punching Ligi yet he kept doing it. His knuckles were bleeding as tears and blood mixed together and dirtied the ground.

"AARGHH!!!!"

Resi shouted out his frustrations and grabbed Ligi's collar lifted him up. Resi's tear stained face displayed anguish, fury, and sadness. It was a sorrowful sight to see as Ligi looked at Resi with an expressionless face.

"Why couldn't you have let me die!!!"

Resi pounded his fists on Ligi's chest and gave him another right handed punch. Seeing Ligi's deadpan face only served to fuel the fire in Resi's anger as a barrage of punches showed up on Ligi's face.

Ligi did not dodge as the punches did not affect him. Every punch Resi did would only move Ligi's head a centimeter to the side.

"Come ON! Fight ME!!"

Resi used every punch, kick, and slap he could to enrage Ligi or even elicit some kind of emotion from him yet there were none. A punch in the gut did nothing. A kick in the leg did nothing. He felt alone. He was the only one suffering in this place and he couldn't even vent out his frustrations on himself and on Ligi.

Ligi's headgear made of the demon's head suddenly dissolved back into a black sludge that crawled into his heart. His cape turned inwards and disappeared in his back. Ligi's demonic form was now gone and the normal Ligi returned to his basic state. Ligi balled up his fist and punched Resi right in his face.