Chapter 1

 June 5th, 2216. "You know, I get that you three are very... enthusiastic about training, but you know we're still supposed to give you time off, right?" Holly asks as Silas, Dana and Carl reported to Holly in the main conference room in HQ at Pilloa, Omnia. "... Mandatory time off?" Holly clarifies. "As in, if you don't take a vacation, I'm liable for labor investigations. In other words, take you vacation or I'm dismissing you from service before you ever deploy."

"Aw, come on, aunty Holly." Dana protests. "We haven't even done anything with all of our training. At least give us something to do before telling us to take time off!"

"Yeah!" Carl agrees. "We learned the three types of magic guns. Force: the standard endo-powered gun that shoots raw force. Precision: condenses the beam into a precise and much more powerful form at the cost of faster heat buildup and charging time. Then impact: spreads the force of the magic into a cone-like spread to enforce with non-lethal impacts."

"Plus, we're like... super good at magic now." Dana adds. "Not just Silas this time. You can count on us! You don't have to hold back."

Holly raises an eyebrow and says in a low, yet firm voice "There's are no assignments. There's nothing to do. The world is in a weird spot right now, but all issues we need dealing with are not issues you can deal with. Also, you're not a child anymore. Stop calling me aunty Holly. I'm your intelligence advisor and first seat in the Mages Guild. Try to be a little more professional."

"Eh?" Dana asks in a snarky manner. "Don't you think you're being a bit cold? I've known you far too long as aunty Holly. That isn't changing anytime soon."

Holly turns around to face the three of them and points directly at Dana. "Don't you two have like a honeymoon or something to be doing?"

"First off, it's called anniversary." Dana argues.

"Also, that's not until September 21st." Carl adds, proudly.

Holly shakes her head, then points at Silas. "And you. Don't you have a little sister you should be visiting? She was just born this week. Take some time to go visit your parents in Japan. Get yourselves out of my hair and do something productive. I am not running a daycare here. You're all 20-year-olds now. Take care of yourselves... and your family. For the love of God, do something. Just do it away from me."

Holly gently pushes the three of them out of the conference room and closes the door. "Man, what's her rush?" Carl asks.

"She didn't even tell us how long of a vacation we're supposed to be taking." Dana adds.

"Four weeks!" Holly shouts from behind the door as the sounds of footsteps walking away could be heard.

"Four weeks?..." Dana asks. "Well, what about you, Silas? Are you gonna go see your new little sister?"

"Well, I have no reason not to now." Silas says. "It just seems a little weird having a baby sister at the age of twenty."

"Oh, come on." Carl says. "It's only weird because you're making it weird. Besides, I'm sure she'll be cute."

"Yeah, talk about making it weird..." Dana says, looking at her husband, Carl. "Anyways, if she's your sister, do you think she's also... like..."

"A laibah?" Silas asks. "I don't doubt it. I just worry if she'll have the same troubles as I did in school. What are you two gonna do?"

"Go to the Bahamas, visit Paris, check out some sites..." Dana says. "What do you think we're doing? We aren't rich, we're staying home. I ain't got money for a vacation."

"Well, we do still get paid our salary while on vacation, right?" Carl asks as he and Dana walk away. "... Right?"

"Visit mom and dad in Japan?..." Silas says as he thinks to himself and takes out his phone. Silas checks his bank account and thinks some more. "I guess I do have extra money. I don't see why not."

After a few days, Silas shows up in Sendai, Japan. Here, he followed instructions given to him by his dad; Siran; outside of the city to a recluse and rural town. Here on the outskirts of this town, Silas found a small house Siran and Zia, his mom and dad call home. "Silas!" Zia says as she answers the door and hugs Silas. "How have you been? Has Holly been too rough on you?"

"No, quite the opposite, actually..." Silas answers, embarrassed.

"Well, come in!" Zia says as she gently pulls on his arm. "There's someone we want you to meet." As Silas was led to the living room, he met with his father who was holding his baby sister as she sleeps. "Silas, meet your little sister, Laibah."

"So she is a laibah, just like me?" Silas asks.

Zia nods her head and clarifies "Her name is Laibah as well."

"You named her after our... race?" Silas asks.

"Well, no." Zia says.

"I originally wanted to name her something like Aeris." Siran says.

"We had lots of names planned for her." Zia replies. "But all of our plans changed the day she was born. You see, you recall the... Ishmael and Inari story, right?"

"Right." Silas replies.

"Well, in our previous lives as Ishmael and Inari, we had a daughter much like her." Zia says. "Her name was Laibah. The race, laibah, were actually named after her and not the other way around. When your sister was born, all of our plans were scrapped when we saw her beautiful eyes. It became clear what we should name her. We named her Laibah."

"Here." Siran says as he gently hands Laibah over to Silas to hold. "Take a look at your baby sister."

As Silas looked down and tried to hold Laibah as gently as possible, he saw Laibah wake up and slowly open her eyes. She had a little bit of hair on her head, and all of her hair was a brilliant silver, and the very tips of her hair seemed to darken. Her eyes, however, were a mesmerizing deep purple color, that seemed to shine like a gemstone. Though she woke up, she didn't cry as she looked up at her older brother. "The responsibility I bestow unto you is to be what you were born to be and be the leader of this new generation of laibah once they finally come forth." Silas remembers hearing Gaia say before she died. "Your role isn't to protect the world from gods. It's to herald in your race safely and protect them." Sudden, Silas felt like his life began to fill with purpose. As Silas held her, she moved around without coordination, as if she were trying to learn how to stretch. Silas could see on her lower left side of her stomach was a rhombus shaped birthmark.

"She likes you already." Siran says with a smile. "You should come by more often to keep her company as she grows up. I know it seems like you have all the time in the world, but trust me. You look away for just a second and she'll be all grown up without you. And I don't want her detached from her brother. Especially her brother who saved the world from the Black Skies Incident."

"Y-yeah..." Silas says, awkwardly. "I'll come when I can."

"Thanks, Silas." Zia says. "It really means the world to us."

"Oh! If you're going to be here for a while, we should take you to go see the rest!" Siran proposes. "I know you remember Benjie and Ali. Those two, plus us and Mikoto and Satomi are the last members of The Six Guns now. But I'm sure, at the very least, Mikoto and Satomi would appreciate a visit. They each have a kid of their own now too. Why not see them while you're in Japan? I'll take ya there."

"Oh, sure." Silas agrees.

Silas began to come around at least once every year to visit his family in Japan. Ali and Benjie each lived close to Siran but lived alone. Mikoto is married to Daiki Sakai. He was the drummer when Mikoto and Satomi had their own band named Sweet Justice. Together, they had a son by the name of Asahi Sakai. Though Mikoto was very much the bookworm between her and Satomi, her son grows up to be very rebellious and rowdy. He was a good and kind kid, but he seemed like the opposite of his mother most of the time. Satomi married Haruki Watanabe. He was a very business minded workaholic, but a kind father too. He's the younger brother to Sota Watanabe, a member of an SAT squad that used to be commanded by Haru Nakamura, one of the mages. Together, Satomi and Haruki had a son named Kei Watanabe. Though Satomi was sporty and athletic as a kid, she was very stern about raising Kei by the books. Even in elementary school, Kei was always second to top of the class, only second to Laibah Mahina. Though she denied that she was smart at all, Kei and Asahi always admired her for being smart. The three of them grew up together as best friends and neighbors. Everything they did, they did together. When Silas came around to visit each year, Laibah would always run to hug her "best friend", her older brother who kept using his vacation time to visit. Life began to seemingly speed up as the world began to go through some more changes. Eventually, there was too much going on, and Silas's team known as MTRU Delta-9 or Squad 9 for short had become much too busy to take time off.