Christmas Party

Christmas eve, the time when every couple enjoy their time together, just by walking randomly it's easy to spot lovers everywhere

it's different for me though, I'm in a house bigger than most of the castles I've been to, a lot of people are dancing and enjoying some chatter

even though I'm wearing an expensive suit provided by the boss, I still feel that I shouldn't be here. why I'm I even here?

as I was seriously considering going home someone called out to me

"hey Aru! it's nice to see someone I'm familiar with here!"

in a red dress Emma looked prettier than usual it's not weird that every guy in this place is aiming for her

just by having some small talk with her I can feel everyone's gaze burning my back

"do you have parties like this every year?"

the food is a top tier, and I can see different types of expensive alcohol, the money that was spent for preparing this should be enough to help a lot of people in need

"yes, every Christmas we're invited to a party like this, it's a chance for people to make new connections. I don't think that everyone here is actually enjoying their time, it's work for them"

when you see it you can't unsee it, even if the music might make the mood better it's not good at all, most of the smiles are fake and many of the guests are throwing their pride away to entertain someone with more influence

"it must be hard huh? spending time with your family should be more important in this occasion"

"I already got used to it, but this time I'm really glad that you are here"

she smiled and held my hand tightly with both of her hands, there's no way I can escape now

"Hello Emma-san, I'm pleased to meet you again this year"

a good looking man interrupted us, even though he was smiling a second ago he looked pissed when he glanced at me

"who are you?"

he's not even hiding the difference in attitude

"I'm a bodyguard"

he smiled again after hearing my answer and patted my shoulder lightly

"I see, I see"

suddenly he pressed with more force on my shoulder

"how can I help you?"

I asked him with a smile, he has a strong body but that won't be enough to wake me up if I was asleep

"hoho, you're a good one. don't get cocky just because you were hired by some rich family"

I'm not cocky though, I literally did nothing so why does he hate me this much?

I turned to Emma to ask her for help but she appears to be more troubled than I,so it's not the first time he tried to approach her? boss didn't give me any specific orders so I wonder if I should stop him

"let's leave it at this, it's a party today so how about you share a drink with me?"

he took a bottle of wine from one of the waitresses and filled a glass cup with it

"I'm not an adult yet so I can't...."

"don't worry! I used to drink all the time when I was your age, rules aren't applied to us"

what a weird logic, I probably should stop him here

"excuse me, but I don't think the boss would be h-"

"shut it, don't you teach your bodyguards to not interfere when their masters are talking? "

damn dude, you're a lucky one. if I didn't dislike violence you would have been dead by now.

"I'm gonna forgive your ignorance, so leave now, this place isn't for people like you"

when did I start getting order from you? I swallowed my words and looked at Emma to see what she wants

"I'm sorry Aru, he's the host of the party so I can't do much about him"

she whispered close to my ears, I hate that she's apologizing when she did nothing wrong but I have to keep my calm

I took a step back and watched from a far corner, that jerk seemed to be happy when I got away, why's he so jealous from a bodyguard? that's disgusting

I'm letting him go now because Emma looked troubled but if he tries anything funny I'm gonna reduce this place to ash

by the way, I can't see many bodyguards here is it because this place's security is good?

"please let me guide you"

someone came to me, a man who looked surprisingly strong considering he's just a butler, if I had to guess he's retired from the army

the man said that he was sent by Saiki(the rich dude from before apparently).

I followed him without hesitation since Emma told me to not make a fuss

sudde my phone started vibrating, the man who was accompanying me looked mad so I turned it off after checking that it was just Makoto

oh right I didn't ask him about his plans for Christmas, I wonder if he's with Naru right now

as I was thinking about useless stuff to waste time I reached a special room

"there's no one here though..."

at this moment my phone vibrated again, I'm sure I turned it off so just by feeling the vibration I understood everything

[someone close to you is in danger]

the moment I turned around the man who was me in the room closed the door loudly

"what are you going to do?"

I asked him trying to control my anger

he didn't answer me, he's holding a knife in his hand and I don't see any cake to slice here

in just a second he was already right before me, from this distance he should be able to have a clean hit on my stomach.

yes he's definitely trying to kill me I don't need to hold back

the knife broke the moment it touched me and used the chance to grab his right his right hand, I accidentally used more strength than I wanted and broke it completely

if I wanted it, my skin will be harder than Iron,and my grip can break his entire body

"I'll ask you again, what are you doing?"

the man looked surprised at first, but he's not scared at all

"do you think you're special becau-"

I grabbed his head to silence him, I don't have time for useless chat all I want is answers

"haha you can kill me if you think you can"

he sent a spit towards my face but it didn't make contact, it was vaporized with the body of the man who sent it

"only ash remains"

I killed a person, I burned him alive yet I don't feel anything about it... he tried to kill me so I had to kill him.

"that's a lie"

I said as I broke through the locked door, it wasn't hard to just immobilize him so he won't be a danger and I know that what I did wasn't forgivable

the only reason I did it was just that.... I'm angry

***

the way to the main hall was filled by blood, I used a lot of time to heal as many people as I could but even I can bring back the dead...but thanks to that time I finally can understand what's happening

Saiki is working with some terrorists, he will be attacked and everyone in the party won't suspect him

does he need money? he should have enough so why's he so greedy?

I opened the final door, all the guests are on the ground crying and begging for their life, while some of the attackers are stealing everything they can hold

I searched for Emma but she wasn't here and neither was Saiki, I checked my phone to locate her quickly but time started to move slowly, I turned to see abullet coming at me it was aimed exactly at my head, there's no mistake he's definitely trying to kill me

I followed it's trajectory to find the sniper how tried to kill me

"I found you"

nearly a kilometer away but everything in my teleportation range is close to me

I nearly killed the sniper but I'm more calmer tgan I was when I killed the guy from before

"please let me go, I have a family"

"didn't ask though"

I crashed his head into the floor while controlling my power to not kill him

[Watanabe Emma has been located]

"she's still in the house... I have to move fast"

I used too much mana I don't know if I should use teleportation...

"let's keep calm, she's not dead everything else is no problem"

I jumped with my full power to go back, now that I think about it did the boss know something like this would happen?

"of course he won't put his daughter in danger no matter even if he trusted me so much"

it took only some seconds for me to come back to the house and I heard two people arguing in the yard

"that wasn't our deal!"

that's Saiki's voice, he's holding his arm in pain while screaming, the one he's talking to was a masked man holding a gun

that doesn't matter now, the most important thing is that I located Emma safely

"it's about time you opened you eyes, you were nothing but a tool for us to get money and deliver the punishment you deserve!"

*Bam*

"No!"

Emma tried to cover him as fast as she could, there's no way she can stop a bullet like this but fortunately I can

"Aru!"

"sorry for making you wait so long my lady"

the bullet crashed in my hand and lost it's momentum completely

Saiki is injured but Emma is completely fine, physically at least.

"don't worry Emma, I'll take care of the rest so just rest now"

as soon as they said that she collapsed from the exhaustion, I'm surprised she pulled through everything this good

"now that she's not conscious we can finish this without interruption right?"

he could have attacked me when I wasn't giving him attention but the masked man didn't care at all

"I don't see myself winning this fight, let's wish our next meeting won't be this bad"

he tried to run away as if nothing happened

"as if I'm letting you go away like this!"

I was ready to use "only ash remain" to burn him completely but he pulled something from his pocket

"there's 23 bombs inside, no matter how fast or strong you are you can't reach me before I peess it"

"I see, you can go this time but don't expect to survive the next time I see you"

he laughed a bit and walked away until he wasn't visible to the normal eye

"thank you thank you, I was mistaken about you"

I looked at Saiki who's sitting on the ground unable to move and suffering a lot of blood loss, normally I would like to take him to the hospital but....

"you should tell me about this deal you were talking about don't you think?"

after he saw my expression he fainted, that wasn't my intention....

I'm just gonna leave the rest to the police, I carried Emma and jumped through building to take her home as fast as possible

***

"thank you for taking care of my daughter"

the boss looked genuinely sad when he saw Emma, there's no way he would let her suffer...right?

"how much....how much did you know?"

I asked him without hiding my anger

"nothing at all, the only thing I had was suspicions and they weren't even close to what happened"

"do you know why did Saiki do it?"

that's the only thing I couldn't understand, I don't really need to because I know that it's useless

"as far as my investigations go, he tried to look cool by stooping them alone and they will do anything they want if doesn't involve hurting him"

"..."

I want to kill him do bad, I want to....

a big hand was placed on my shoulder, when I looked at the boss he was smiling warmly

"I know how strong you are, but you're just a kid in my eyes. please leave the rest to me"

"it's fine..."

I walked away remembering every thing that happened today, it wasn't the Christmas party I wanted...

"oh it's snowing"

I didn't notice it until now when did it start?

I finished this crazy day with watching the snow and forgot everything about what happened.