14 Reminiscing

"Ugh, I'm beat, I'll just lay down here for a bit"(Luis)

"I know what you mean."(Tara)

"You didn't do shit."

"Do you have a problem with it?"

"Yes, I do."

"Well, that sounds like a you problem."

"Exactly, and you asked me if I had a problem with it."

"Touché."

Another moment of silent ensues the night sky while both of them lay down looking at the stars.

"Look at the stars, aren't they pretty?"(Tara)

"...Not really, I think stars are a bit horrible in their own sense."(Luis)

"How so?"

"Well, don't you think it must be horrible and lonely up there. Despite seeming so close the stars are a couple of million light years away from one another. Almost as if they have no one else in space." I say as I extend my hand towards the night's sky.

"Really? I think it's the opposite."

"Do enlighten me."

" I think that despite being so far away from each other they seem so close. Even if they are distant they can still be close if looked this. It's almost as if no matter how far away they are from one another they can be close if you broaden your vision enough."

"Hmmmmm" I hum as I hear her last statement maybe she's right, maybe she isn't. I'm not sure. We stayed there staring at the sky without saying a single word until we felt it was time to head down.

Ughhhh, It looks like I dozed off for a bit there and remembered one of the few times Tara was serious. That was after I finished trying out my healing and fire element for my first time and I felt like complete crap. I look at my right wrist and touch my black bracelet, then I look at my left wrist and see the white bracelet on it. A proof of friendship huh. I guess I've become more grateful to Mary now. I didn't really start using it until Tara died two weeks ago.

Since it's proof that reminds me of my carelessness and the oath I made of finding whoever did this to Tara as well as getting rid of the fucking crime in this stupid city. I guess now I realize the meaning behind, 'you don't realize what you have until you lose it.' After Tara died two weeks ago and I calmed down I called the police. Gave them a testimony, omitting my magic powers of course. After the report and everything was settled it all became worse after that.

Tara's family blamed it entirely for her death. Saying unreasonable things like 'if it weren't for you being irresponsible she wouldn't have died,' or 'the rest of your relatives were right to not want you with them.' Because of that, I wasn't allowed to attend Tara's funeral, at least not formally. I wasn't allowed to go with them to the location so I just followed behind them and had my own goodbye the day after. I swore on Tara's bracelet that day that I would hunt down the guy that killed her before I leave, and to hunt down whoever else commits crimes in this city for as long as I am here.

Why do I say that I need to do so 'before I leave.' After some serious yelling and the worse beating Uncle had ever given me they decided that they 'couldn't bear to look at my face anymore.' Probably cause you deformed it, anyways both aunt and uncle Smith decided on two things. First, to kick me out of the house and send me to a small apartment in Manhattan.

Well, I didn't really mind that much, after Tara's death I wouldn't want to stay at there apartment anymore either way. The second was that they would either find me another relative to live with or put me in an adoption house by the end of the summer. So, for now, I'll do what I want and grow stronger as I hunt down people at night. I am a bit concerned about Mary since my phone is broken and there's no way for me to contact her. So there's no way to know if she knows what is going on here. Well, I'll leave it at that for now.

Right now I'm walking down Manhattan. It is currently 12 a.m. and I'm 'patrolling the area.' The shit who killed Tara has not been found and I somewhat remember how his presence felt from back then. There's no way I would ever forget how that signature feels.

I've been patrolling the area in New York City for about a week or so and I've gained a bit of information about the underground here. Firstly, there are three major underground organizations in New York. For now, I don't know the name of these organizations here.

The only thing I know for now is that all three have about equal power. There's been a belief that there might be some major power shift in power since one of them is trying to make a move. Well, I don't know any specifics since I've been around here for only a week or so but I'll at least destroy each and every single one so that they don't touch anyone in this city anymore.

All of the organizations deal with smuggled goods such as weapons among other illegal things like drugs and narcotics. I've been trying to find information on these organizations to no avail. Well, for now...

I sense some people about 2 blocks away. Some gun holsters, guns, and a briefcase. They are here. Should I follow them? What kind of stupid question is that? This might contain some valuable information so I'll restrict myself to tailing for now.

I go up the emergency stairs and wait until they reach where I was, after that I follow them jumping from building to building. Crazy how this trick started back when... let's not lose focus for now. I jump using air step, or so I call it whenever I step on air and gain an extra jump.

I follow them until they enter some hotel. It will be hard following them in there but not impossible I guess. I focus on their presence and they seem to be waiting at the reception room. Now they are going up the elevator. I'm losing my focus a bit, this is a bit straining. Come on!! 15th floors, got it.

I retract my presence sensing to relax my brain a bit. Another trick I trained was a fixed presence feeling. I can extend the presence I can feel to a designated place and position.

The drawback to this is that I can't sense immediately around me and the more I use it the more mind straining it becomes, I trained this just in case I need it for another time, and it looks like it was useful today. For now, I'll stop and search their presence again once I'm inside.

The bigger question is how do I get Inside. I search around the building and spot a locked entrance. Well, there's my point of entry. I use wind magic to unlock the lock. These are the emergency stairs.

Nice, floor 27 here I come. I start running up the stairs and fatigue starts building up and with it the use of fatigue relieving, shit this hurts! I get to the 27th floor, a little out of breath but otherwise fine.

I expand my presence around the whole floor, I don't sense any cameras on this floor. I guess this makes it convenient for me... and for them as well. I find the presence in a small room around the corner and there are guards guarding the door.

I will have to make do around this corner. This time I expand my hearing towards the room as well as my presence. Looks like there's a 6th and 7th presence in there. For now, I will just listen.

"That's great to know. Now, onto the main business.".(Voice 1)

"Like cutting to the chase don't you, aren't you interested in some small chat?"(Voice 2)

"I'm only interested in Benjamins." (Author's note: Bejamins= Hundred dollar bills just to clarify in case you didn't know) (Voice 1)

"I see, in that case...The cargo will arrive a week from today. This is just a small sample of that cargo." I sense him open the briefcase." This will be loaded on in a fishing boat at shipyard number 3. And they are to give you it on a certain password."( Voice 2)

A man behind voice number one takes a small sample, inspects it and whiffs it a bit. After that, he gives a nod, puts the sample back and voice 1 speaks.

"Name your price."

"3 million dollars."

"Isn't that way over? 2 million."

"You're killing me, man! it's 10,000 ounces. 2.8 million"

"Yeah, however, the quality isn't that good, 2.2 million"

"Yeah but you still need to pay for risks and employment 2.7 million."

"And that risk is your fault, word in the street is that your goons have been getting caught left and right. Making the police more alert to our activities. 2.4 million, Take it or leave it"

That might've been me. I've made myself night watch and after capturing people I usually make sure to leave them near police stations.

"... Make it 2.5 and we have a deal."

"Deal."

"Now that the deal is underway here's a bit of information. You will be asked, 'How many fishes do you think we have caught.' The answer to that is 'not enough to feed New York.' The boat will arrive at 19:00 and the man you will make contact with will be at the entrance around 19:30. If you hand him the money he will bring you to the package, that's all."

I tune out of it, that's all I needed to know. I head out the emergency staircase and lock the doors behind me with wind magic. I guess I'll head back to my apartment and sleep. I usually sleep between 4-5 hours a day.

Due to all the training that I've done with the fatigue relieving magic, it's become second nature to my body as long as it is in small quantities. So I don't need much sleep since the fatigue that I accumulated through the day already get's relieved and when I sleep the fatigue is also slowly dealt with so I only sleep to relieve mental fatigue.

I start heading back towards the subway. I wait for it and take it back to my stop. Well, I call it apartment but it's just a small room with a small bed and a small bathroom with barely any room. I eat a shit ton of food due to all the fatigue relieving.

I've also realized something, I can speed up my vitamin and protein distribution as well as food digestion with healing magic and I can make sure that it's all used. So I did exactly that. I did my assimilation routine and fell asleep.