Chapter 2

The world around me was shaking. People were shouting, crying, running. I was issuing orders to people around me. I looked at the crowd and I saw a silver-haired girl. She wore a white plain dress that made her look completely out-of-place in the ongoing chaos. She stared at me while saying words that I cannot hear.

Beep-beep-beep-beep...

The alarm...

Beep-beep-beep-beep...

I wonder what's new today...

Beep-beep-be-

All right..., Time to get out of bed.

October 21, 11th After Fall year – Apartment 3018 Signal Tower, Manila

As he got out of bed, he went to his bathroom and brushed his teeth. A usual routine upon waking up.

Knock, knock.

"Big bro, you awake now?" said a girl as she went into the room. He could see her reflected from the bathroom mirror. A young girl wearing a middle school uniform with a joyful look on her face, his little sister, Lisa Aoi Blake, Aoi means "blue" in Japanese. She was named as such because she was born with blue eyes and that their mother was Japanese, hence the Japanese name. Though she had Japanese blood, she was still Caucasian, and are normally born having a different eye color which changes to blue as they grow up. Lisa's eyes were blue from the start.

"Yu, am en da batrum" he said while brushing his teeth.

"Is there something wrong with you?" she said as she went to the bathroom door. "Oh, you're brushing your teeth, I thought there was something wrong with you since-" she stopped speaking since he made a stop sign with his free hand.

He rinsed his mouth and said "What happened this morning?" Normally she would just cook by herself in the kitchen or be in the living room watching the morning news while he was fixing himself up. But she went and intruded in his room.

"Didn't you get Mom's message? She said she'll be here this afternoon." Their mother Mia Aikawa Blake works for a big-shot company and is the Advanced R&D Division Head and because of her high position, she is either in another office in another country or in another lab in another country. So it was Big-Foot-and-Yeti-Making-Out-Sighting rare for her to come home. The last time she's been here was about 8 months ago. He checked his watch, 6:30. He didn't like talking about his mother so he changed the subject, "Have you cooked breakfast already? Or is it my turn to cook?"

"Nope, you cooked dinner last night so I've already cooked for breakfast." She replied. They do all of the chores including laundry in rotation. If he did breakfast, she would make dinner. If he did laundry today, she would do it tomorrow. They both clean the house on Saturdays. His guardian, Lily, always help though.

"You've already eaten breakfast, right?"

"Yeah, I already have..."

"What about Lily?" he inquired. Lily is his guardian, a fairy. There are two different summons, familiars and guardians. Familiars are normally gained by mages when they reach a certain level of spiritual maturity, usually by summoning. A guardian however is sentient and sometimes appear by themselves. In Lily's case she appeared to him one full moon in an egg of light about the size of a person's head. Inside was Lily, she was like a small human with tiny wings that looks like light. They made their contract then the same night, and he had a mark appear on his arm that proves contract-ship.

"She's still asleep. The full moon from last night must have left a hangover for her." she said. A full moon weakens some familiars but strengthens others as well. Implying that Lily must have had a rough time then.

"Then go to school already, my first class for today starts at 8:30. So it will be a while before I head out."

"Well, at least be at the door when I leave, so I can say Itikimasu like mom and dad used to." Her face suddenly got sad. The mood gets lonely whenever their father was mentioned. Jameson Blake, their father, used to be in the Monarchy's private investigation force, or so he said. After they moved to the Philippines, Lisa was born, and he applied for the National Bureau of Investigation, the PH's equivalent to the aforementioned investigation force. He was quickly accepted because of his work history. After a year, he was murdered by a notorious gang lord because he snooped around too much. They didn't have enough to prove that he was guilty so they let him go, even though common sense would know he wasn't innocent.

"Don't worry, you should cheer up" he said in quick response.

"Yeah..." she said lifelessly.

"Okay, go get your things, I'll go down before you leave" he said smiling.

Her face suddenly brightened and she nodded at him then rushed out of the room. He was alone again now, seems like the usual boring routine changed today. He was washing his face and when he looked up at the mirror, he saw the silver-haired girl again. Seeing her made him shout in surprise. But when he looked behind him, she wasn't there. He looked back in the mirror, she was gone... What the hell? I'll have to ask Lily about this. He went back into his room, and found no one there.

"Are you alright?!" Lisa shouted from outside the room.

"Nothing!" he shouted back. "I thought I saw a cockroach or something," he half-joked.

She was back at the door now "How the heck can you joke like that?! I thought you saw a ghost or something good, you rarely even get spooked" she said with a worried look.

Well, kind of...

"Wait a minute. You're making that face when I hit something real. You really did see a ghost or something didn't you?"

"No, I just remembered that I had to go to university early today because I had a project to work on." Bad bullshit.

"Okay, if you say so." she replied back.

As they went down the stairs the smell of burnt eggs mixed with the smell of bacon wafted through the air. She burned the eggs again.

As if in response to what he was thinking she said "I'm not as good as you, so..."

"It's okay. I burned more food when I was your age."

They were at the door when she asked "Are you really sure you're okay? Recently you seem very detached, like your head is in another dimension,"

He was silent for a while. Then said "I'm fine, you don't have to worry about me."

She said "If you say so." She rose, picked up her bag. Then he remembered to ask "When is mom getting home again?" She then said "You really didn't read her message didn't you? It only said she wanted to surprise us."

"Our mother has always been an airhead hasn't she? She just ruined the surprise by texting that she's coming home," he sighed then continued, "She probably realized her mistake after she sent the message."

"Then, I'll be going now, Itikimasu." she said in a once more cheerful tone.

"Itarashai." he said as the traditional Japanese response.

The Signal Tower is a 50 floor condominium with its own park, club and Olympic-sized swimming pool. The view to the city was good and they could see both their schools from here. They could also see the Yggdrasil Island from there. Yggdrasil, aptly named for its gigantic glowing tree appearance. Since decades ago, it seems to have appeared shortly after the war had started. However, any attempts to fully investigate the "tree" fail due to a strange occurrence of literally not being able to go near it. Which is why no one knows its true nature even till this day.

After Lisa left, he turned on the internet TV and chose the Interesting News bookmark "An assumed terrorist attack happened in the city of Moscow last night at approximately 1:09 am. A few of the suspects found at the scene of crime are currently being held by the police. Authorities are led to believe there was an NGME involved, since most of the damage was done with a blast that could not have been done with current non-NGME weaponry. Soon after, the case was forwarded immediately to the CMIO, the Monarchy's own Intelligence and Investigations unit"

"I feel exhausted." Lily said while half-asleep.

"Oh, you're awake now" he said while eating the burnt egg. Terrible, perhaps the bacon is better. He took some of the bacon and a slice of bread. The news kept going as background noise but a particular phrase piqued his interest. "The Patriarch himself issued the order to investigate this case, authorities say." Interesting…

"Yeah, the TV woke me up. The full moon really gave me a run this time, kind of made me drunk."

"You were kind of drunk. You were acting like a super zombie last night."

"I really don't like the feeling I get after a full moon. I get weird dreams."

"Speaking of which, I had that dream again, this time a little more clear" he said while making a bacon sandwich. This might be better with mayonnaise. He then said what he dreamt about.

"That might be some kind of spiritual memory you had in a past life."Lily explained.

"Then what does the silver-haired girl have to do with it," he then took a bite out of the sandwich. Not bad...

"Well, you said that her clothes were different and somewhat more modern. That might just mean that a silver-haired girl will have a part to play in your life," said Lily while flying over to the table.

"Also, I saw her behind me in the mirror when I washed my face."

"That might mean that whatever it is might be soon,"she said while cleaning up.

"Thanks, even though I'm still confused."

"Just don't worry about it."

He finished breakfast and washed the leftover plates, then headed up to his room to get dressed. Lily cleaned up the remaining mess while he was changing into his school clothes. He wore a plain white t-shirt, then his school polo, blazer, usual black slacks, and took some socks and a handkerchief from the drawer. He opened his comms-transreciever from the bedside table and checked the messages. She did send a message. It said "I'll be coming home for today as a surprise, about this afternoon, Love you." and included her flight number. Short, direct, and stupid has always been the motto of her texts. He put on the comms device and turned on his bedside terminal, went to Google and typed in the flight number for his mother's plane. The plane will land at about 4:25 this afternoon. He replied to her message "I'll be there about 4:30 to come pick you up". He turned his terminal off then put his mobile terminal in his bag together with his other belongings. He went down the stairs and went to the door. Lily flew up behind him and hovered for a while.

"Lily, I forgot to turn the TV off, can you turn it off for me?" while he wore his shoes.

"Okay" she simply replied.

"In the local news due to the recent terrorist threats, it seems there has been a gradual increase in gang violence in the city and everyone is advised to stay away from the slums as to avoi-"

"TV turned off..., let's get going now you might get late." said Lily while she lied down on his head.

"You shouldn't stay on my head, I'll be wearing a helmet."

"But it's so soft and curly, it's comfortable."

"It's only a little curly," he sighed and said "You're going to have to stay in my chest pocket when I'm driving, okay?"

"Okay…" Lily replied lazily

"Okay, Itikimasu" he picked up his bag, headed out the door, and locked it.

He went in the elevator and chose to go to the underground parking lot. When he got there, most of the parking spaces were empty since it was also a work day. The lights were bright and a few of them needed replacing. He went to his hybrid bike's parking space. It was a black Neo-Tech Orion Mach 4, a birthday gift from his mother. Lisa doesn't have one since she's not old enough for a license. He inserted the small card key to activate the engine, let it whir for a while then went ahead to the gate. The security in the building was good. At the gate was a screen showing him in his bike. The hand scanner went to life as the computer said "Please put your hand on the scanner."

He went ahead and put it on, same as always.

The computer screen showed his profile from the Signal security system and the Genesis Register system. The camera took a picture of him and updated what he looked like in the system. He had trimmed dark brown hair, was 5'11" and decently fit. Name: Ethan Yuusha Blake. Record: 2 warnings, No violations. Registered vehicles: Neo-Tech Orion Mach 4 solar-powered hybrid-bike and a Pleiades Paradox solar-powered SUV also registered to a Mia Blake. The SUV was a family vehicle. Most vehicles these days are electrically powered or had a hybrid-engine. The computer registered what time he left and what vehicle he brought. It always asked for a password. There were two accepted passwords, one was used for normal everyday uses, while the second still opens the gate but will trigger an alarm in the system, alerting the cops, and both needed his voice. This same security system was developed by his mother's company, Neo-Tech.

"Voice verification".

That was the signal that he had to say his password. He said into the computer "The world may change, but the heart and soul of mankind never do." He chose this password to remind himself of the good and evil actions that humanity is capable of, as well as a past he must never forget.

The gate opened and he took a large visor out of a compartment that then became a helmet. The helmet has a HUD function that lets him see the status and GPS data of his bike. He set his destination for New World International and drove off.