Chapter 3 Back to the future?

  The gates being suddenly closed was something the citizens of Azeas had faced many times. It meant that the city was soon going to face some disaster, which had sadly happened many times before.

Some were taking it with indifference while some looked irritated and various cusses were heard from all over the carriage. Things were taking a bad turn when the announcement from the train's unfortunate staff who had opted to speak themselves instead of using the transcribed voice: "Hello, dear passengers, I'm the captain of this train Mirthold-34, me and crew would we would like to apologize for your inconveniences but this train will not be operated until the gate is opened or further instructions from our higher ups are provided. For now, you can either remain seated or move outside until this train moves''

Masato muttered to himself.

"Maybe something big is going on outside for them to act like this..."

For the captain of the train himself to do the announcement, it meant that the situation was as serious as it could get and people understood this.

The old man replied to him anyway

"Yep, it seems like they're trying to keep the people inside the city as well as protect them from something."

Masato's thoughts had also reached the same conclusion.

"Well, the question is who or what they're trying to confine outside or inside the city..."

Suddenly the people outside were frantically pointing at the sky shouting to others to get their attention.

Both Ozzy and Masato noticed this and hurried out of the damn train, and they too noticed the phenomena going outside.

Masato cursed out loud along with many others near him.

"God damn it!"

"what a shitty day..."

"what the hell is going on today?"

The sky of the Azeas was covered by a semi-transparent dome of mana barrier...

This meant the city was possibly under threat of both land and aerial entities.

-ping!

Masato suddenly heard chimes all around him including his communicator and

Ozzy's as well...Masato looked over at his communicator tied around his wrist like a watch and the old man's communicator was his pocket watch itself

"What...?''

Masato was flabbergasted after reading the message in his communicator.

It said: "First year, Masato. You are requested to immediately return to the academy with haste. Various warping points have been established in areas near you. They are marked in your communicator. Choose the one you are nearest to.

The wrap point will lead to your designated location where you'll meet your senior.

If that isn't an option you are advised to seek shelter in an underground shelter..."

Both Masato and Ozzy gave each other a look and both understood each other's intentions.

"You got the same message from the academy, right? Was it to return there as soon as possible?"

"Yep, maybe it's because of the dome going down."

Suddenly, the holographs all around the area displayed an armored man standing with a solemn expression.:

"All citizens of Azeas including other visitors; the city is under a lockdown for some time. There was a monster outbreak near our city and we request everyone to head towards their nearest underground shelter. If you're a combatant or an awakened, I, Alister III, request your help in this en devour to deal with the threat. We need all the help we can get to maintain the peace we oh so have enjoyed till now. Further instructions will be sent to your respective communicators. Thank you."

"welp, I got my answer..." Masato said with a sigh...

The old man looked towards the sky and muttered:

"Well, the situation must have led them to do that"

"Yeah, I think I should return to the academy for now. what about you old man?"

"I'll be dealing with things here. It's not like this old man is shameless enough to hide inside some bunker."

The old man stated that with a grin as if it was the most obvious thing to do.

"Really? Well, good luck then. I'll inform Ryoko about you as well."

"heh...You're not gonna ask anything? Thought you were the curious type..."

"Nope, why would I? only thing I need to know is that you're Ryoko's dad and that's it; plus with mana you released before, I can say that you're definitely a wizard, and by how you knew about the message from the academy, you were either a graduate from there or someone who still works for them, and I have a suspicion that you probably knew that this was going to happen."

The old man was someone special, and Masato could sense it from the old man.

"haha, I guess it's time to do the real introductions. Brat, meet your Headmaster: the great Ozzy." the old man said smugly fishing for a reaction from Masato.

"Did you have to add 'great' before your nickname?" Masato rolled his eyes.

"Couldn't you at least act surprised?"

"You could also answer my question." Masato pressed the old man for answers.

"Well, I do know some things but you will also know about them soon."

The old man then patted Masato and shamelessly praised himself again.

"Now, time to deal with whatever comes from the gate or the sky..."

"Welp, what do they say? Happy hunting...? anyways, don't hurt your old back."

Masato didn't know what people said to send people off...

"You brat, I'm not old enough to have back problems. It's you who should be careful."

After that Ozzy patted Masato's back one last time and added:

"Make sure to be careful brat. Oh, and you're returning through the warp points right?"

"Yep, how did you know?"

"Haha, it's the standard procedure for a crisis. Anyway, be cautious about warp points or anything related to warping."

"hmm...why though? Is there any problem with them?"

"Nope, the problem is not warp gates of problems but rather with whoever decided to tinker with it. Can't tell you more than this, sorry."

Masato felt that the old man was being very vague and mysterious for no reason...

'Maybe he gets off at things like this?'

After that, he headed towards the gates after giving Masato one last wave with that shit-eating grin...

Masato was worried, but he didn't show it to the old man but gave the same shit-eating grin to that old bastard...

'Don't die on me old man...though Ryoko would probably get mad at me for sending that old man without informing her...'

'Wait...shouldn't I have given her a call?'

Masato had her Id so he could have called her, but he had never called her before...Yeah, they were friendly to each other but Masato thought that Ryoko never thought much of a boy like him...so he was quite distraught about calling her but also scared that Ryoko would admonish him for not telling her about meeting her dad, while the said that gone out to defend the city, and the old man probably hadn't bothered to inform Ryoko about it...

Masato now knew what it felt like to choose between a rock and a hard place...

However, he soon called Ryoko before he could make any more excuses.

So what if Ryoko didn't care about where the old man was? He wanted to talk to Ryoko so he would do just that.

Soon, the call connected, and a surprised voice was heard.

|Hello? Masato? It's quite surprising that you called me first, and didn't you return to your hometown?|

"Um..I'm still inside due to some unforeseen circumstances..." Masato said while sighing, while also trying to go far away from the mob of people.

|Oh, so you were still inside the city during the lockdown. I think you were quite lucky then.|

"Lucky? Why so? Can you tell me about it?"

|Well, I heard that things are quite chaotic out there...at least more than usual... Anyway, you should hurry back to the academy. It's kind of safe here. |

Masato noticed the hesitation in her voice and guess that Ryoko was unable to say some things so he changed the topic:

"Okay, I'll return there soon. Oh and I met your dad inside the train, and It was the actual reason I called you for."

Ryoko lost her cheerfulness from before replied in a serious tone.

|huh...you met my dad? In a train of all places? Where is he right now?|

"uh...wasn't he suppose to return to your hometown? He said to me that he was going there..."

|I think he was lying to you then. And how did you know that he was my dad in the first place? I haven't told you about him before, right?|

Masato stopped in his tracks after hearing a slightly angry tone from Ryoko, probably directed at the old man. Then he recounted everything that had happened after he had met the old man.

| So he gave you his Id? Forward it to me, I will check his mana signature.|

'Mana signature huh...It's a good idea, and Ryoko can identify his mana signature if the old man was really who he claimed to be.' Masato thought to himself and swiftly forwarded the Id to Ryoko.

|hmm...It really was him...the mana signature matched and his appearance matches as well. though, I don't know what he was doing getting on a train. And well, our hometown can't be reached by train...anyways, meet me when you reach the academy. I need to go now.|

"Okay, take care."

|fufu, you too Masato.|

Masato sighed after ending the call.

Masato had somehow gotten close with that old even with the hell of an age gap

between them...so It stung a bit to know that the old man had lied to him, but he quickly got over it. The old man had definitely had his reasons and even if he didn't it didn't matter.

'hah. That old man turned out to be the headmaster of the academy and as far as I know, the academy is apparently a very important place.'

'Welp, I don't even know how I got accepted there in the first place...'

This was something that had been bugging Masato for some time. How had he, an orphan from some backwater place gotten accepted to such a prestigious academy?

Masato didn't know, but he had an inkling that it was related to his dad. His dad had always been an enigma to him. He was too small to ask any questions when he was still around, but there were many things that Masato realized as he grew older; both the empire and his father himself knew that he would be gone as Masato had been sent to an orphanage the same day he had gone missing. This was something he had known after secretly going through the records from the orphanage.

There were many other discrepancies with his dad's disappearance. His dad wasn't a normal person as far as Masato remembered. He was a high rank awakened as mentioned by the news before. So there was no way he would 'disappear' so easily unless someone was behind it...

Masato had some very dark thoughts right now, as he went through his memories.

'No. It's not time for that. Yet...' Masato kept his thoughts at the back of his mind.

For now, he had to return to the academy as soon as possible and he had finally reached the road.

The academy was on the southern edge of the city and he was at the far north end near the gate...normally it would take some time to reach there even with the mana trains as warp gates were not activated. The people at the academy didn't want some people infiltrating their premises... Warp gates were convenient but they were vulnerable as well and quite expensive to build. That's why the warp gates were only activated in case of emergency or if someone high-profile had arrived at the city, *requested* its service. And the first case applied here since it was a time of emergency so the warp gates all over the city had been activated. But the one he was supposed to head to was a temporary one as well as one-way and they were called warp point for that reason. While warp gates were quite big warp points could be installed at any place wanted. It was like a one-way portal.

Masato looked at the warp points highlighted on his communicator.

There were five points he could go to and he chose the one closest to him.

'hmm...it'll probably take around 30 min if I go there with my usual speed...10 if I use "flash" .'

'Welp, it's better to conserve my stamina first...'

Masato couldn't just run for 30 mins straight and just appear at the academy to face whatever the hell that was going over there...so he beamed 'flash' with a flash....(horrible pun intended)

"Flash" was a rectangular board with...with nothing...it just looked like an ordinary board and the only thing of interest about this board, which looked like a big chopping board was its fractals, which also looked like decorations but they were anything but that... Masato, after beaming the flash from his spatial storage, held it with his right hand and started "pouring" this mana, (which he actually didn't need to since the fractals could automatically absorb mana) activating the fractals inside flash, and threw it on the ground. and instead of the sound produced by the wood hitting the solid ground a low hum was heard and the board hovered a meter above the ground and Masato jumped onto it balancing in it with practiced ease...Both of his feet got attached to the board, like a metal with a magnet.

Soon his left foot which was facing forward glowed, then Masato riding the flash hovered towards his destination...His speed wasn't something to write home about but it was still a little bit faster than him just running.

Masato knew that it was a weird sight to see someone hovering on a wooden board but he didn't care.

Masato wasn't the best combatant but he was a decent tinker...of course, he wasn't an awakened tinker. "Flash" was his invention but it wasn't the most complex as what he had used was a simple anti-gravity fractal along with other fractals that helped him change directions in the air and stick to the board without falling. And all of this navigation was simply done through his mana, which he was using to avoid all the PTVs on the road.

A strange scene of a boy hovering on a board while shouting to people who were blocking him was seen by the people.