Chapter 4, No traces

Cauli wakes up and starts preparing for Emile's visit. After a while, Cauli went downstairs and saw their mother who was preparing to go outside. Strange, today is Sunday so she doesn't have work today.

"Good morning Cauli" ~Flora

"Morning mom" ~Cauli

"I already prepared breakfast. I'll come back later." ~Flora

"If you need me, I'm at Amy's house just call for me." ~Flora

Amy is their neighbor, she is close to Flora. She is a very cheerful person and likes gardening. Cauli knows when Flora goes to Amy she'll be home late because they like discussing a lot. So Cauli prepares the kitchen so that It'll be easier if Cauli were to cook later. Eventually, Emile rang the doorbell and Cauli lets him in.

"What should we eat first?" ~Emile

"Rice cake" ~Cauli

"Okay, wait let's start this up first" ~Emile while holding the game cd

"What game is it about?" ~Cauli

"Rpg" ~Emile

While they were playing, Emile brought out the topic of Randy and Renae.

"Randy really likes Renae. Do you think it'll work out?" ~Emile

"I don't know. I'm not really the master of that. I just thought Randy should be a little more honest, then maybe it'll work out?" ~Cauli

"How about Renae what do you think?" ~Emile

"I think she's okay with him? She's been pretty passive so far" ~Cauli

"I think they're good just a little more push, Randy really needs to man up." ~Emile

"How about Kelly?" ~Cauli

"Huh? What about Kelly?" ~Emile looks at Cauli

"Nevermind" ~Cauli [Is this guy for real?] ~Cauli thought

Emile noticed the loot was already gone the moment he looks back at the screen "Hey, where did my loot go?"

"First come first serve" ~Cauli

"That's not fair, you did it on purpose" ~Emile

"Did what?" ~Cauli chuckled

"Just give me some of it, I saw a violet item when it dropped" ~Emile

"Okay but give me the extra shoes you got earlier" ~Cauli

"Sure, mine is better anyway" ~Emile

"Here" ~Cauli

"What this item sucks as hell" ~Emile "You scammed me. How dare you, I'll take the next drop"

"I thought you wanted it?" ~Cauli chuckled

"What am I supposed to do with this int robe, I'm a warrior you're the ninja you can use this" ~Emile

So they played until noon. They paused for a while then Cauli starts preparing for lunch. While cooking, Cauli's phone rang. It was Jin.

"Hello?" ~Jin

"Yes?" ~Cauli

"Are you free today?" ~Jin

"No, I'm kind of busy. Why?" ~Cauli

"Nothing. Just asking if you want to come over. My aunt came and gave me a huge cake. I thought you'd like some. I don't have anyone to share it with anyway." ~Jin

"Sorry, I'm really busy. Thanks for the offer" ~Cauli ends the call

"Who's that?" ~Emile suddenly says behind Cauli

This surprised Cauli and took a step back.

"Why are you always doing that?" ~Cauli

Emile Laughs

"It was Jin, he offered me a cake." ~Cauli

"You two were close?" ~Emile

"Not really" ~Cauli

"Wait, I just noticed. What's with that new phone?" ~Emile

"I got it from Jin---" ~Cauli paused and thought they shouldn't tell Emile why

"Yo, Jin is hitting on you" ~Emile

This sent shivers down Cauli's spine

"Stop that" ~Cauli

"I swear" ~Emile

"Shut up" ~Cauli

Meanwhile at Jin's house. His aunt, Jess is Jack's younger sister, she came to visit her nephew's house. It was because she is going to travel overseas to fulfill her dream. She brought a huge cake with her but it was too large for Jin and he isn't a fan of sweets.

After Jin's call with Cauli

"So who's that?" ~Jess asked Jin

"An Acquaintance" ~Jin

Jess continued to look at Jack's old picture book. Jin noticed that she was feeling down because she is usually very talkative. So he took some liquor that his father left behind and put it on the table.

"Do you drink?" ~Jess

"I don't, but I know you do" ~Jin

Jess paused for a while and smiled. She thought that Jin knew her well

"Thank you." ~Jess

After a while, tears stream out of Jess' eyes. Jin knew that she was the one who got affected the most.

"Here" ~Jin passes his handkerchief

"I'm fine, I have my own" ~Jess wipes her tears

"It's been 4 years since" ~Jess

"Your father must be very proud of you" ~Jess

"Thanks" ~Jin

"So how are you? Want to come with me? Don't you feel lonely here?" ~Jess

"I'm comfortable here and I still have to finish my studies" ~Jin

"Want to invite your friends over? This cake is really nice. I'd love to know what kind of people my nephew goes with" ~Jess

"Sorry but I don't have friends" ~Jin

"Is that so?" ~Jess

"I don't really do well talking to other people" ~Jin

After a while, Jess reaches out a glass to Jin.

"No, I really don't-" ~Jin

"Just for today, drink with me" ~Jess

"Just a few glasses" ~Jin

After this, they talked for a while about their lives every day. Jess shared that before Jin was born, Jack and Jess were very close, and Jack was always looking forward to her dream of traveling overseas. Their talk continued until the evening when Jin insist that Jess should sleep there because it was going dark and she drank liquor.

Jess accepted. After a while, Jin decides to keep the cake in the fridge and give some to the neighbors by tomorrow morning.

While Jess is sleeping Jin begins to clean his wound. He remembered what happened two days earlier, the day he encountered the man that shot him.

~Two days ago

While Jin is strolling around the city, He passed through the restaurant where Cauli and their friends usually go. He looked inside and noticed that Renae was there and she is covering her hand with a bandage. But Jin kept strolling. Jin likes strolling around after his classes, he does this to cool his head off and entertain himself because he's usually alone at his house.

After a while, he saw a huge group of suspicious-looking men at an abandoned parking building. This made Jin curious and observed them while hiding behind a pillar. The group of men brought a weird-looking machine out of the van.

"This is a bad idea after all. We're about to commit genocide, there are a lot of innocent people living here" ~Man A

Jin now knows that the machine was a bomb and based on what the masked man said, it can cause severe damage near the area.

"This is why we didn't let the boss know this, besides this is just a small sacrifice compared to all the other deaths in the near future" ~Man B

"Didn't you know how the world has changed for the worst because of them?" ~Man C

"I know, but this is overkill" ~Man A

"If we don't do this, more people will suffer" ~Man C

"Besides we can always disarm it if Reginald succeeds in killing the kid" ~Man D

"Where is Reginald? How is he planning to kill him?" ~Man E

"He's at the rooftop, obviously he's going to shoot him. That's the initial plan after all" ~Man D

"Why did we even bring this thing?" ~Man A while pointing at the bomb

"Because the first group that tried to assassinate the kid was annihilated by a girl" ~Man D

[A girl?] ~In Jin's mind

"That girl is dangerous, we can't even identify her so stay alert" ~Man B

"I heard that she's a drifter from another time, the world has been stupid since" ~Man D

[A drifter from another time..] ~Jin

"So we just leave Reginald here after we set this up?" ~Man C

"Don't worry the bomb takes 2 hours to detonate, he'll have time to escape once he fails to kill the kid" ~Man D

"What's the kid's name again? Jet was it?" ~Man C

[Jet?] ~Jin

"Yeah, he's the unfortunate kid who'll discover the "branches" " ~Man D

After hearing this, Jin decides to act fast. He knows that if he were to call the cops it'll be too late the moment they arrive. So he grabs his gun, then waited for the right moment.

Then the right moment came. Everyone was looking away from his position. He then points at the nearest but when he pulls the trigger the gun jams causing some clicking sound, this makes Jin hide and fix the gun for a while. The group noticed this.

"Did you hear that? ~Man A

"It came from there, Go check it out" ~Man D

"I'll do it" ~Man B

Man B then readies his gun and went to the pillar where Jin was hiding. When the man reaches the pillar he got shot repeatedly in the head by Jin who was crouching down. Then the group starts shooting at where Jin was.

"Activate the bomb, we're leaving!" ~Man C to Man E

The group prepares to retreat while shooting back

Jin then waits for another chance. When a good number of them stop shooting and try to reload. He jumps to a long concrete barrier and then shot 3 in the head.

"Let's hurry and leave what are you guys doing!" ~Man D

"The moment we stop shooting we'll all die" ~Man C

"Keep on firing back and retreat carefully'' ~Man E

"It's just one man how can you guys not hit him? Are you blind?!!" ~Man D

Man D runs towards the vehicle and left his group behind.

"Tch, mother******" ~Man E

"What do we do now?" Man A

"We have no choice but to kill him" ~Man E

Man E signals to stop shooting and wait for Jin's head. Jin then appeared a few distances away from where they were shooting and then killed another 3. Man E shoots at him but it is missed by a hair then Jin hid again.

Man A panics and starts to run away

"You idiot!!!" ~Man E yells

Jin noticed this so he shot Man A. Jin also noticed that he only have a few bullets left so he pretends to have an empty magazine.

"Let's go!" ~Man E to the group after noticing Jin seemingly out of bullets

As the group runs towards the concrete barrier, Jin gambles to stand up to shoot all of them. This surprised them causing them to miss their shots. Jin then decimates them. After this, he is met with a dilemma, kill Reginald upstairs or do something about the bomb. Jin picked to do something about the bomb, he's confident that he can defuse this because of his father's old notes.

After 15 minutes of disarming its modules, Jin successfully defused the bomb. Jin was thankful that the bomb was primitive and that he didn't have trouble disarming it. Following that, he went upstairs to see if Reginald is still there. When he went upstairs he saw a dead body lying down seemingly reaching for the sniper rifle. He went near it to confirm that it was dead. Suddenly he noticed there was a tall man hiding in the corner. The man proceeds to shoot Jin. Jin hid but not before getting his arm hit. Jin then proceeds to shoot back but he misses due to the injury on his arm. The man throws a stun grenade and dazes Jin. when Jin came back to his senses the man is gone.

~End of flashback

Jin sighed while looking at his bandage [What an exhausting week]