Chapter 18

 September 15th, 2222. "... the bodies were found early in the morning following signs of what looked like a break-in late last night." The news says as Mathias watches from a bar in Seeira. "This is strange, why are we hearing about some homicide in America from Seeira news channels?" Mathis thinks to himself. "After searching the house for potential robber, a calling card was found as there was no sign of a robbery." The news says. "The calling card is well known to come from infamous and previous thought to only target political figures, Skell. Skell is a terrorist seemingly working alone, and in all cases has only targeted political figures up to this point. What does this mean for our safety? Is he moving on to more people after expanding his target list or was there more to this? We reached out to some local neighbors to find out more."

 "No, they were a completely normal family." A stranger that the news interviewed. "We lived next door to them for years. I can't possibly see what would've justified killing them out of the blue. I think whoever this Skell is needs to be taken down, and fast."

 Mathias stares in horror as the news explains the death of Jade's family. "But..." he thinks to himself. "Did... did they know I was going to back out? Did they prepare a backup assassin to kill a completely normal family and make it look like me? Why would they go so far as to kill a family? What is their game? Why was this so important to them? Are they... trying to set up this agent of theirs as a potential target? What are they learning that the CIA is so afraid of?" Mathias drinks the last of his drink and leaves some money on the table on top of the bill, held under an ashtray on the counter. As he walks out, he thinks to himself "Think, Mathias, think! Do they know about Gladio? What else have they been up to? Would that Silas guy be able to tell me anything without me arousing suspicion? How and where do I find him?"

 "If there's any one thing I wanna find out" Jade says at the next meeting in the HQ control room, "it's where the hell Skell is and why the hell America is going so far for control and what the hell I can do to get back at them."

 "I understand the anger, but we have to consider diplomacy." Haru replies. "Look, believe it or not, most if not all of us have some bone to pick with... well, many countries. We'd rather not commit to all out war. We'll be observing them, but for now there's also a rise in power control related conflict in Russia. I know this seems off topic, but we are a counter terrorist unit. Gumiho is formed to prevent a rise in terrorism worldwide."

 "Yeah, what about this Skell character in the news?" Dana asks.

 "We need more time to track him down." Haru replies.

 "Do it quicker." Jade growls. "That little rat fucker killed my family. I'm not going to let him live nor breathe without knowing I'm breathing down his neck. I want the little fuck dead. I want everyone around him dead! I want him to be removed with extreme prejudice!"

 "I promise, we'll track down Skell." Silas adds as Jade breathes heavily in a fit of rage. "I'll be making it my personal mission to keep tabs on him. As for currently, we have to move to make sure there aren't more Skells on the loose and more dead families on our hands. I promise, we will have Skell taken down, one way or another."

 "Silas is right." Holly adds. "It's best to keep a level head. From here on out, you five represent something bigger than yourselves. We may be busy for a very long time and yes I do mean we. Remember, Haru and I may be mages, we may have to lead a whole country, but we are you current and only supervisors. We're your best ally and greatest resource. Do not feel afraid to reach out to us. When we send you out to Russia, you can be sure we're busting our asses to gain any intel as legally as possible... maybe bending a few of the rules here and there. Until we can find a notorious criminal, we can not chase a notorious criminal. You'd be setting yourselves up for failure if you don't practice intense control of every situation. And yes, I do mean every situation. Have I made myself clear?"

 "So, with all of that crazy magic you have at our age, what do you think you wanna be when you grow up?" Asahi asks Laibah after school. "Do you think you're gonna be like your big brother some day?"

 "You really think I could?" Laibah asks with a shy grin.

 "You could totally be a hero!" Asahi cheers.

 "It's not often you see someone in grade school comprehend any amount of magic." Kei adds. "Let alone, be able to cast without a charm. Even mom can't do that."

 "Does your mom often use magic around the house?" Asahi asks.

 "Only sometimes." Kei replies.

 "A hero, huh?" Laibah says to herself. When Laibah finally returns home, she was still lost in thought when her mother was speaking to her. After a while, she asks her mom "How do I become a hero like Silas?"

 "A hero like Silas?" Zia asks. "Hunny, why do you want to become a hero like Silas? Do you look up to your brother?" Laibah nods her head and Zia laughs softly. "That's really sweet. I bet it would really cheer him up to hear that. Though, I'm not sure there's really much room to aim for something like a hero."

 "There's a policeman." Laibah answers. "O-or a detective! I can track people down and stop bad guys with guns!"

 Zia laughs nervously, then says "You're certainly your father's kid... Look, there really isn't glory in things like using guns. It's really not a-"

 "Then why do you and dad have one?" Laibah asks. Zia froze in fear and surprise when she heard that. "I know mom and dad used to fight bad guys and stuff and I know you guys had guns. They even called you The Six Guns!"

 "Where did you hear all of that?" Zia asks.

 "Hear all of what?" Siran asks as he enters the house.

 "Dad!" Laibah says as she runs up to hug her dad.

 "The Six Guns..." Zia says with her arms crossed. "Who told her about all of that stuff?"

 "Well, it sure wasn't me." Siran says.

 "Do you and mom still have guns?" Laibah asks.

 "Don't be silly." Siran says with a smile. "It's not legal to have something like that in Japan. Mommy and daddy are focusing on living good and honest lives to take care of their sweet and adorable daughter."

 "What are guns like?" Laibah asks. "I wanna be a hero like a detective or secret agent! Bang! Bang!"

 "What has you all caught up in this now?" Siran asks as he laughs. "Secret agent or detective? With a gun? Well, I'd hope you could be such a great detective that you wouldn't even need to use a gun."

 "Really?" Laibah asks as Siran picks her up. Laibah was getting visibly more excited. "You think I could?"

 "Of course you could!" Siran says. When Siran looks up, he sees Zia with her arms crossed and a frown on her face as she stared angrily at Siran. "What? It's not a bad dream! She could do it. She'd be safer doing that here in Japan too. Besides, the crime rates here are pretty low. It's not like she'd even need a gun."

 "How many guns are there?" Laibah asks.

 "How many?" Siran asks. "Millions?"

 "Millions!?" Laibah asks as she gets excited. "What do they do!?"

 "Well, there's really only three different kinds of magic guns, dear." Zia says as she walks over to Laibah. "There's all sorts of different body shapes and all, but when it comes to magic guns, there's really only three categories. There's precision, impact and force type guns. Precision focuses the magic beam fired into a more concentrated but strong ballistic. This causes it to be more powerful, typically used to punch through armor or for long ranges. Impact is a type of weapon that disperses the force of the magic into a cone-like area for a strong but non-lethal blast. As for force, it's the standard type of gun. It discharges magic and usable in most situations. It's versatile and all of that but as for you-" Zia this picks up Laibah and places her gently on the ground. Zia then gently pats her head as she continues to say "I don't really want to see you ever have to wield a gun. I don't want that danger for you, sweetie. It's not a site a mother would ever be excited to see her daughter be in."

 "But Silas-"

 "But Silas doesn't use guns either, sweetie." Zia says. "Your big brother doesn't kill bad guys. Silas is very careful and that's something he studied for a very long time."

 "Whoaaa!" Laibah says in awe. "When I grow up, I wanna be like Silas."

 "I'm sure you do." Siran replies. "But first things first, you need to stay out of trouble at school. Whoever heard of a hero who was a troublemaker at school?"

 "But, dad... my grades are fine!" Laibah argues.

 "No buts." Siran answers. "Keep doing that and you'll be on your way to being a hero just like your brother. Just as long as you promise to always be safe for your dad. Deal?"

 "Deal!" Laibah replies.