2 Birthday!

Zai Kuro moved his eyes away from the book. "Is someone here?" he asked and looked around by turning his head both to the left and to the right, but even after looking at these two directions, he saw that there was nothing else in the room but him.

A confused expression appeared on his face, he thought, "I swear I heard something or was it just my imagination?" A moment passed and he mumbled, "I guess it was just my imagination."

Zai Kuro lowered his eyes back to the book and he was stunned by what he saw. The Zqer characters that he was somewhat familiar with were now replaced with small squares. "What is this? Where did the characters go? Why are these squares in place of the characters? He thought – shocked.

Zai Kuro rubbed his eyes and looked at the page one more time but nothing changed, he frowned and thought, "I should show this to mom." He stood up from the table and with the book in hand rushed out of the room. "Its rather early but she should already be up," he thought as he walked into the kitchen and as he stepped inside, he saw his mom in the kitchen – cooking.

"Mom!" he shouted out.

Tchi Ya glanced behind and smiled. "Good morning, Zai Kuro'er," she said with a smile.

"I have to show you something, mom!"

"What is it?" she said and looked back at the cooking stove.

Zai Kuro approached closer and opened the book to the first page, after making sure that the squares were indeed there, he said, "Mom, look here!"

Tchi Ya glanced behind and looked at the page that was shown to her, "Do you need help with this part?" she asked.

"You can read it, mom?" he asked surprised.

Tchi Ya laughed lightly, looked back at the stove and said, "Yes, I can. Let me finish cooking I will read it for you, alright?"

Zai Kuro frowned, "You can read those squares, mom?"

Tchi Ya shook her head, "What do you mean by squares they are proper Zqer characters."

Zai Kuro frowned and thought, "Proper Zqer characters? Am I the only one that can see those squares? I should make sure." He said, "Mom these characters don't they look like squares to you?"

Tchi Ya shook her head, "I told you earlier these are proper Zqer characters."

"Wait here, mom!" Zai Kuro rushed back to his room and from there, he took an orange ink pen and a sheet of grey paper, he returned back to the kitchen and drew the square just how he saw it in the book. "Mom, how does this look?"

Tchi Ya turned off the fire and moved the pot from the stove, onto the table. She looked at the sheet of paper that her son pointed at. "This is a square."

Zai Kuro nodded, "And this is?"

"This is the character 'Miuo'."

Zai Kuro nodded and thought, "So, I am the only one that can see those squares on the book?" He said, "I am going to my room, mom!"

"Stop right there!"

"What is it, mom?"

"Tell me what was that about? You can't identify Miuo character? Even though it was the easiest one for you to memorise?"

"Mom, you see, I these characters are all squares to me…" he said in a low voice.

Tchi Ya tilted her head in confusion, "What?" she narrowed her eyes, "Does your head hurt? She touched the boy's head." She thought, "It doesn't seem that he has a high temperature."

Zai Kuro took a step back, "I am not sick, mom!"

Tchi Ya nodded, "It doesn't seem that you are."

"Can I go to my room now?"

"No, before you go, eat breakfast."

"I am not hungry right now, mom."

"Sit and eat!"

Zai Kuro grumbled but still nodded, "Alright, mom." He sat down at the table and asked, "What's for breakfast and where is dad?"

"Orange Vegetable soup – Ziokl as for your father, he went out to get some fresh meat."

"We are eating meat today?!" He jumped up and asked with surprise in his voice.

"Yes, after all, today is a very important day for you," she smiled.

Zai Kuro giggled happily and sit back down. Tchi Ya took a plate and filled it with the orange vegetable soup and placed a bowl in front of her son, "Eat up!" He nodded and began eating.

Tchi Ya also put in some for herself and ate together with her son. After he was finished with the breakfast he stood up and prepared to leave for his room but before he did, he was stopped by his mother once again. "What is it mom?" he asked.

"Happy birthday!"

"Thank you, mom!" he smiled, turned around and ran back to his room.

…

Zai Kuro returned back to his room, sat down at the table and flipped open the book once more. Like before, he saw squares all over the first page of the book, he frowned and flipped over to the next page, but even on the second and the third page, he only saw squares. "What is happening here?" he thought. He closed his eyes but once he did, he became stunned.

Zai Kuro now stood in an open space and before him, several lines of text appeared. What was even more shocking to him, was that he was able to read the text, he was able to read the characters that he saw for the very first time in his life.

<Name: Zai Kuro, Race: Human>

<Health: 100, Emergy: 10>

<Strength: 5, Dexterity: 3, Vitality: 3, Intelligence: 1, Luck: 0>

And below the text, there were several buttons.

And to the right of the text and the buttons, a 3D image of Zai Kuro rotated slowly.

"Health? Energy? Gene points? Level? DNA?" What is all this?" he mumbled. His eyes moved towards the rotating 3D image of him and he mumbled, "That's me," he looked left of the 3D image, "And that's my name but why is race written as 'human', my race is Zqer and not this human?" He frowned and thought, "How do I leave this thing?"

Zai Kuro glanced over all the text and the buttons, his eyes stopped on the button – 'Exit'. "This must be it," he thought and tapped it. His surroundings changed and he was back in his room – sitting at a table with a flipped open book in front of him.

Zai Kuro once again looked at the book in front of him and he once again saw the same squares all over the two flipped open pages, he sighed and closed the book. He jumped down from the chair and walked over to the bed and lied down. He closed his eyes and before long – fell asleep.

During this nap, Zai Kuro had a strange dream. In this dream, he saw a man, that he never saw before. In the dream, this man carried him and put him into an object which he couldn't recognise and said, "Live well my son! I don't know where you will end up, but I hope in that new place you will find a home for yourself," he sighed. "It is a shame that you will never know your roots. But that doesn't matter. As long as you can live. It is more than enough for me. I love you, my son!"

Even though Zai Kuro heard this language for the first time, he still understood it perfectly well.

Zai Kuro jumped up from his bed with cold sweat both on his forehead and back.

"What was that dream? Why could I understand him speaking in that strange language?" he thought then extended his hand and looked at it, "That man referred to me as 'son'."

He shook his head, "No! My only parents are Zai Drao and Tchi Ya, I have no other parents!" He nodded and his eyes closed once again.

…

Zai Kuro's eyes opened and he saw a smiling face of his mother, "Mom?"

"Good morning, Zai Kuro'er"

"Why are you in my room, mom?"

Tchi Ya extended her hand and caressed the boy's cheek, "Well I came to get you for your birthday party but you were sleeping so soundly, so I was just watching."

Zai Kuro looked at her and then lunged at her and hugged her tightly, "You will always be my only mom!"

"I am your mom so of course I will." She caressed the back of his head for a few breaths of time before separating herself from her son. She looked at him, "Are you ready to have your birthday party?"

"Umu!"

The two walked out of the room and walked into the dining room. "Hi, dad!" he said with a smile.

"Hello, son!" he said without emotion.

Tchi Ya smiled, "Let's begin your birthday celebration!"

…

Zai Kuro's eyelids wavered and his eyes opened – he yawned and looked around the room. He smiled, "It was fun yesterday." He jumped off his bed and walked out of the room. When he walked out of the room, he quickly found his mother, "Good morning, mom!"

She turned around and smiled, "Morning, Zai Kuro'er."

"Where is dad?"

"He already left."

Zai Kuro nodded and opened his mouth to speak but before he could say another word, an explosion rang out, the door was destroyed and five men rushed inside. These men were armoured from head to toe in heavy white armour and wore long silver capes. There was not a single part of the skin that was visible.

The leading man that rushed In first, spotted both Tchi Ya and Zai Kuro, he roared, "Our intel was right, peacekeeper 23 catch that thing!"

The man that was referred to as peacekeeper 23 rushed at the child and pushed him down to the ground. The man came in so fast that neither Zai Kuro or Tchi Ya could react and he applied so much force that Zai Kuro couldn't let out a single sound and if he tried to move his arms or legs they would immediately break.

"What are you doing to my son?!" Tchi Ya roared at the peacekeeper 23.

The man showed no reaction, he only held the child down and did nothing else, reacted to nothing else, he only focused on the child below him.

The leader of the men took a step forward and announced, "We are the peacekeepers. We heard rumours that a strange thing was living in this house and it seems the intel was right, this thing will be executed tomorrow at dawn. If you value your life back down now!"

"He is not a thing, he is my son Zai Kuro! Don't you dare harm him!" she roared.

"Mam, this is your last warning. If you want to keep your life, get down on your knees and we will spare you otherwise you will die!" the leader of the men said.

The woman shook her head and roared, "I won't let you take him!" The man frowned, "Peacekeeper 3 deal with her, peacekeeper 23 bring the boy in. Peacekeeper 23 nodded and stood up, he raised the boy up and Zai Kuro finally could speak again.

At the same moment when Zai Kuro was raised up, Peacekeeper 3 moved. From his gauntlet, a weapon appeared. The weapon was blue in colour and had the appearance of the sword but was much wider and slightly thinner. The weapon was fused with the man's gauntlet, he rushed at the woman and in a single attack impaled her.

Tchi Ya showed no reaction as it just happened too fast, she fell to the ground with a loud THUMP! sound. Her eyes showed disbelief and at her last moment she looked at her son which was held by peacekeeper 23 and she softly mumbled with her last breath, "You have to live, my son!"

"Mom!" the boy bellowed in despair.

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