Chapter 08: A strange act called Kindness

- "Timekeeper."

- "Wake up."

- "Timekeeper. Awaken. It is not the time to be resting in slumber."

- "Timekeeper, you've been called upon."

- "It's time, awaken."

- "Timekeeper, time walker."

Yami can faintly hear these sounds. He can't feel anything, can't see anything but surreal, pitch black darkness. All he can do is listen to these chants. It sounds like a very very large group of people is chanting some kind of ritual incantations. Most of the things they're saying sounds like a different language, but he still could make out some words.

*"Time walker? Where have I heard that before?"*

He heard it again.

- "Timekeeper, wake up. We were wrong, the sacrifice is incomplete. The slayer awakens. Timekeeper, we call upon you."

- "Timekeeper, wake up."

- "Wake up."

- "WAKE UP."

Yami gasped for air as he opened his eyes and jumped up. He's sweating, and looks panicked. It took him a minute to finally calm down and analyze his surroundings, and after looking around a bit, his eyes narrowed as he grew a little skeptical. He's bare bodied, lying on a sofa, the ones with synthetic leathery covers, usually you'd see at cafes and bars. It seems like the same sub joint-cafe he passed by last night.

- "Why am I here? Hmm....wait. last night, huh....what happened last night?" Yami scratched his head with great enthusiasm, "can't seem to remember much. Damn."

- "So you're up. Want something to drink?"

Yami followed the source of the voice, and his brain jammed up.

*"Sensei is here"*, he thought looking at Lisa Akane with a blank expression, who stood there with an open beer can in her hand.

- "Sensei", Yami said, "You're here."

- "That I am."

- "Why?"

Lisa Akane seemed to get a little mad at this, "The real question should be why are YOU here. What a mess you made of yourself last night. You should be grateful to me instead of asking meaningless questions."

- "No I mean how did you know that I would be here?"

- "I didn't," Lisa Akane sighed and lit a cigar. "This cafe is run by a friend of mine. She found you lying unconscious in the alleyway behind the cafe and carried you in. When she recognised the raven wing insignia on you, she contacted me." Yami looked past Lisa at the counter, a woman similar to Lisa's age with golden hair and dark skin nodded in agreement, "So then," Lisa took a deep puff of the cigar, "what happened last night?"

*"Well damn, it's late again tonight,"* Cyrus wondered, *"It's always cold around these parts. Chilly weather and I don't really go well together, but somehow I don't like going home early. What irony. When I'm at home I don't want to get out, when I'm out I don't feel like going home. Really, what irony"*. Cyrus kept walking. His home is quite far from the academy, and some of the teachers and students suggested him to move to the dorms, so he's actually considering to take the offer.

*"Am I? Mm. It just feels like I may lose some of my freedom if I do. It does come with quite a few benefits though."* Cyrus looked up at the sky. The wind is sharply cold, and damp. *"Rain again tonight, huh?"* He thought. *"Well, can't say I hate it. Everything looks so gray. It feels like newsprint reality."* Cyrus stopped thinking and tilted his head a little, *"Newsprint reality? Huh, I like the way it sounds. Yeah, I like it."* He started walking towards his home. He has a serious hunch that he won't make it to home before it starts raining. *".....better hurry back, I guess."*

Unsurprisingly, his hunch was right. It started downright pouring within a couple of minutes.

Cyrus isn't bothered by it. Somehow, like the other day, he isn't getting soaked in the rain. It's almost as if he's phasing through the raindrops, or the raindrops are specifically avoiding him. *"Past couple days have been boring. No commissions, I'm running a little low on cash too. Even after all these years, I still have trouble maintaining finances."* Cyrus looked up at the sky, looking bored as ever. *"It's not like I'm flat broke, but it's always better to have some cash on hand."* He forgot to buy meds and supplies again. *"What a day. Is there enough food at home for the night? Huh."* Cyrus let out a tiny sigh, *"Well, doesn't matter. I'm tired, I don't want to cook tonight."*

Just when Cyrus could see his home from a distance, he slowed down a bit.

*"Lesser demons."* He took his hands out of his pockets and put his earphones in them.

*"What a day to be alive."* Cyrus smirked. His bored expressions changed in the blink of an eye *"what a great day to be alive"*, he said again.

A girl is sitting Infront of a house in this heavy rain. The half shade of the house gate is keeping her head somewhat protected from the rain, but the high wind is spraying the rest of her body with water. Since she's sitting down tucking her legs in, she's basically getting soaked. From her complexion, she can't possibly be any older than 7. The sharp wind feels like it's enough to cut through flesh and freeze the bones. She's shaking, but that might not be because of the cold alone. Although she can't see anything, she gets a very strong feeling that something is surrounding her from within the dark, watching her carefully. She can hear faint growling noises. She's afraid, but helpless as she doesn't know what she can possibly do in this situation. The cold rainy night is already unbearable for the tiny body, sending shivers down her spine. The shabby rag she's wearing is not enough to keep the cold out. The little girl only wants the rain to stop, so that she can get a little warmer, or maybe a dry place to stay the night. She just wants a little rest, maybe some sleep for the night if she's lucky enough. The fear of the unknown in the dark is making her tired by every minute, yet keeping her awake.

Suddenly, a thunderclap stunned her hard. It's clear that the sudden jumpscare has shaken her up quite a bit. Her hands are now trembling. The loud thunderclap almost deafened her for a few seconds and averted her attention, but by the time her senses became normal again, something in her surrounding environment had changed.

In a snap she realised that the growling noises had stopped completely, and instead she could sense something standing really close to her. Although she could hear the storm, she was no longer getting soaked in water, as if something really big is standing between her and the rain.

The girl pressed her lips and held her breath, awaiting for what happens next.

Cyrus is a bit confused.

*"Wut?"*

*"There seems to be a child Infront of my house."* He cocked his head a little. *"Strange. Is this child lost?"* He looked up at the sky. *"Very unlikely. There aren't any children in this neighborhood, never was. And also..."* He looked back at her. Weak complexion, shabby rag. A very miserable state. *"Was she abandoned here?"* Although Cyrus asks himself, he knows that this is not a valid possibility. As far from the academy as his home may be, it still falls under the school district. There aren't even any slums in this district. Cyrus is hesitating to ask the girl anything, because from the position she's sitting in and how weak her physique looks it's unclear if she's asleep or not.

*"Well, I can't really leave her getting all wet out here in this raging storm."* He carefully decided to sit down beside her for the moment, and at that moment he realised that she's trembling.

*"Must feel very cold."* His eyes softened. Assuming she's actually awake, Cyrus decided to ask her inside.

- "Mm...hey?"

The girl was clearly shaken by his voice. She slowly looked up.

*"Wut?"* Cyrus thought again.

There's no reason to look upwards, because Cyrus was sitting on his knees, at her eye level as he called her.

Strangely, the girl did look at Cyrus once too, then proceeded to look at every direction as if trying to identify the source of the sound.

Cyrus was surprised and became silent. Then the sadness seeped in. It was just for a moment, but the instant the child looked at him, Cyrus saw absolutely beautiful big watery eyes, almost unreal, like a piece of art. But, those eyes were completely hollow, blank. He realized that this little child is actually blind.

*"What the hell, why?"* He thought. It pained him to think that this lost little child in this sorry state couldn't even see anything.

He looked at her again, only to see her scared expression looking restlessly around to confirm what is it that called her from within the eternal darkness.

Cyrus gently held one of her hands, shaking her in surprise once again.

- "Hey kid, it's cold out here. Let's go inside." Once they're inside, he could ask her about herself, Cyrus thought. "Can you stand up?"

The girl didn't answer, but she lowered her head even more.

- "Come here kid", Cyrus picked her up, she didn't show a shred of resistance at this. "You've earned yourself a shelter, at least for the night."

Carrying the child inside his house, Cyrus thought as he watched the demon remains around his home turn to ashes and wash away in the rain, *Maybe not being able to see isn't always a bad thing. Some ugly things are better unseen...* He looked back at her resting silently on his shoulder, *Well, at least this gives me a reason to cook dinner tonight.*

- "So you're telling me", Lisa finished her cigar, dumped the remaining in the empty beer can from which she was drinking a moment before, and lit another one, "something actually managed to scare you shitless enough to make you lose consciousness?" She's observing Yami with keen sharp eyes.

- "Simply put, yes. But there was more. It was a humanoid figure, sure, but the tremendous aura coming from it didn't feel human. And the way it altered my senses to escape didn't feel like an illusion either. Maybe he..." Yami stopped for a second, "...it, was using alteration magic. I couldn't be sure though."

- "Mm. Well, you'll have to file a detailed report to the academy tomorrow. We can't do much about it here now."

Yami scratched his head. He has this strange feeling that he's forgetting something important, but can't figure out what exactly is it.

- "Where's my shirt?"

After giving him his Shirt back, Lisa asked if he's going back to the dorms, and if he'd be willing to have dinner here with her tonight.

- "I don't mind. But I'll need to hurry, I have to catch up with the class tomorrow."

Sayori was thinking about teaming up with someone for the academy commissions. After all, she does need to earn for herself and the harder the commission the higher the rank, the higher the commission rank the better the pay. So it's often nice to have another pair of hands. So far she knows Cyrus just a little better than the others in her class, so naturally she was thinking if she could team up with him, and Cyrus seems like a great person, flexible enough, so it shouldn't be a problem talking to him about it.

The only problem is, Cyrus is absent from class. He didn't come to the academy that day, or the next day, or the day after.

*"Should I talk to some other classmates? Or do I wait a little longer?" Sayori sighed as she kept hesitating to make a decision.

Cyrus finally came to the academy after 3 days. Same old loose white turtleneck full sleeve, bored expression, earphones plugged in. The only change is for once there is no visible injury or bandages on him. As he walked through the corridor, he could feel the stare of other students. Some were looking at him curiously, some were smiling. Cyrus ignored the curious stares, and returned the smiles.

*I really think I should be talking to someone more suitable for this, but Alastair is my class teacher, so I guess he'll have to do.*

Cyrus opened the door to the teachers office to peek instead, and was immediately confronted by 4 pairs of curious eyes.

All of them were Cyrus's familiar. There was Yami, standing in front of the desk, accompanied by Nine and Mirai. On the other side of the desk Lisa Akane was sitting down filing what looked like some sort of report paper. Suddenly peeking inside, Cyrus seemed to have grabbed their attention.

- "Pardon my disturbance, I was looking for sir Wolfe...?"

Lisa put the papers down. Yami and the others were equally surprised.

- "It seems we keep running into each other," Yami smiled. "What brings you here, brother?"

- "Well we're in the same year, so it might not be as strange as you think." Cyrus replied with a charming smile, still standing outside.

- "Elric Cyrus, What a coincidence. Wolfe wanted to meet you personally too. Come in come in, did you have anything you wanted?" Lisa Akane started arranging the pages again.

Cyrus slowly got in, and with him got in the source of all the curious staring, a little child, maybe 6 or 7 years old. She was behind Cyrus all this time, tugging on the edge of his t-shirt and following him everywhere. She was wearing similar dress as Cyrus, a full sleeve white hoodie, and a blue skirt underneath it. It's pretty clear that the dress she's wearing is newly bought. The girl had puffy almost shoulder length short navy blue hair, and big blue eyes. Somehow she really really looked very similar to Cyrus.

- "Holy- Cyrus! you have a daughter?!" Yami looked at Cyrus with confusion and a little panic in his eyes. The other two had similarly shocked facial expressions.

Cyrus stared at them for about 5 seconds, completely unfazed or undisturbed by the question, before answering,

- "Yes."

His straight face and voice made the whole situation more awkward. Everyone became dumbfounded for a second, even Lisa Akane who had been ignoring her student's stupidities stopped filing and looked straight at Cyrus.

Cyrus enjoyed the silence for a few moments, then said, "learn to take a joke. How old do you think biologically I am?"

- "Who is she? Your sister? Relative?" Lisa asked. She's very curiously looking at the girl. The girl hasn't moved an inch from behind Cyrus, tightly holding onto his t-shirt, and although everyone's talking in the room she hasn't once blinked or took her eyes off Cyrus's face, not once. Although her looking up at Cyrus with extreme attention looks kinda cute, Lisa couldn't help but feel like something isn't quite right here.

- "I need to know something," Cyrus said, "does our academy provide facilities for caring lost children?"

- "Lost?" Mirai looked a bit surprised.

- "Long story short, I found her in front my house. Now, I have decent earnings for someone who lives alone, so keeping a child with me is not something I can't afford, it's no trouble." Cyrus looked down at the girl, who still hasn't stopped staring at Cyrus, or let go of him yet. He put his hand on her head. "But I don't know where she came from, and there's also a small possibility that she has been abandoned, in which case her identity probably has not been registered as of now. Keeping an unregistered individual in the school district, as far as I know, is against the rules." Cyrus looked back at Lisa Akane, "And if she's just lost, there should be information on her in the academy servers, in which case it's probably optimal decision to find her parents and return her. Although, I think that's not the case here," Cyrus remembered the state he found her in, "So, help me out, if possible, will you?"

Lisa Akane was carefully observing the girl. "What's her name? You haven't asked her anything about herself?"

- "Yeah, well, here's the thing," Cyrus looked a little serious, "this girl here, is blind. She can't see anything."

The room went silent again.

Cyrus continued, "I've examined her eyes, and it very much shows the symptoms of a curse. Seems like like she was born with it. Unfortunately curses related to people other than myself fall outside of my field of expertise. She can definitely understand what I'm saying, for example she does as told when I'm feeding her, but she's never once said a word or made a noise in past few days she's been living with me. So I'm not sure if she can talk."

- "Well," Lisa hesitated for a moment, "Umm, can I....?" She pointed at the child.

- "Mmhmm. Sure, but she won't go to anyone else, nor will let go of me. If you want to examine her eyes, you'll have to bear with it."

- "No, it's okay. Seems like she's grown on you in the past couple days," she left her desk and came closer, and got down to the child's eye level. She carefully examined her eyes for about a minute, and declared, "Well, you're not wrong. It's a curse alright." As unfortunate as it may sound, this isn't an uncommon problem. Every year many children are born with various permanent or semi permanent curses due to their parents having defective mana vessels. "Well, you certainly have very impressive knowledge at this age, young man."

Cyrus replied with a tiny smile, extremely friendly, yet somewhat hollow.

- "well," Lisa thought for a minute, and got back to the main topic, "there's no such "facility" provided by the academy, at least not the one you want. There are orphanages run by the academy, you can send her there if we don't find any information on her background."

Cyrus clearly didn't like the idea, and the others could perfectly see it on his face. But he didn't say anything against it.

- "Or you could keep her at your place for now like you're doing right now. If we can get information on her, we'll act accordingly, if we don't get any, I'll just make sure to register her in the academy servers and you'll be out of legal troubles regarding unregistered residents."

- "And in case something happens to me?"

- "Huh?" The others seemed not to understand his question.

- "I'm a Sirius, there's no guarantee that I'll come back home from the next commission. What happens to her in this case?"

*"Well that's certainly pretty straightforward of him, he's asking questions nonstop and without any pause, it's almost like he decided all his questions before coming here."* It's not as if Lisa Akane doesn't know why Cyrus is being considerate of this girl he had barely known for 3 days. It's natural humane act of concern for children. *"But then again, he looks a bit over prepared. Also, he doesn't look much like the caring type. Well, I guess looks can be deceiving sometimes."*

- "Don't worry about that." Nine stepped forward, "If a Sirius, say in this case you, are registered as her guardian," Nine pointed at the girl, "and if something were to happen to you, in that case the academy will bear her full responsibilities."

- "Yup, Nine should know, he also has a younger sister," Mirai agreed, "although she's not as young as this child over here." She was smiling the whole time looking at her. *"Very cute"*, she thought.

- "Well, thank you for your time and cooperation. This concludes my questions. Now if you'll excuse me," Cyrus turned back with a view to leave the room.

- "Wait. I still have something to confirm on behalf of Alastair." Lisa called Cyrus back.

- "Hm?", Cyrus, attempting to put his earphones in, stopped midway and looked back.

- "You're a class 5, correct?"

Every pair of eyes turned to Cyrus.

- "Yes?" Cyrus looked just a tad bit surprised, as if he didn't really expect such an obvious question. "I thought there I was already registered as a class 5 Sirius here, was I not?"

- "No it's not that. There's nothing wrong with your information records. It's just this year we're getting more class 5s than usual, so Alastair was getting really excited, and frankly speaking so was I."

- "Excited about what, exactly?"

- "The upcoming evaluation test of course. Some may see this as a normal examination, but this is more than that. Depending on how you fair, each of us, the senior teachers, will pick our knight nominees and train them personally till the day they graduate from the academy. So of course, we get excited to see students with potential."

- "I see." Cyrus looked pretty nonchalant on this topic. "Well, I'll meet up with sir Wolfe later after class I guess. And," his tone sounded very sincere, "thank you for your help." He gently tugged on the little girl's sleeve, "let's go now", and she got closer to Cyrus and started walking behind him.

After Cyrus left, there was a moment of awkward silence in the room.

- "Well, so," Yami cleared his throat, "Cyrus is classified as a class 5, huh?"

- "Yeah. That makes 5 second year class 5s from Nightfall this year. Promising to say the least." Having only 3 class 5s among all the 3rd year students and none yet from first years, Lisa Akane was wondering if this year they were going to get beaten by the other academics in the intercross academic tournament. The second years came in time as a blessing. Cyrus applied to change course, one other student was an exchange student, and another one was promoted from class 4 to 5 last year after the semester finals.

- "Guess I was wrong. Really makes you wonder how he got injured that bad that day." Yami looked like he had a lot of unanswered questions.

- "So Alastair Wolfe is interested in that guy huh?" Mirai asked.

- "That's what it looks like at least." Lisa replied. "Things will get lively in the coming days that's one thing to be sure."

- "Uh-huh. Guess so."