Surprising Visitors

It was just another day for Erika. For the past few weeks, she has been focusing on being able to speak fluently with her mother, often talking with her out of nowhere and asking her random questions like what if cockroaches started to develop quirks, or if she can fly using a strong enough wind.

Their conversations grew longer and more complicated by the day. Her mother being the patient woman she was was always willing to listen to her babbling and was even proud to notice how quickly her daughter was learning to speak both Tagalog and Cebuano fluently. Her joy shows in the ridiculous faces she makes in the equally ridiculous questions that Erika asks and her pride shows when she listens intently to Erika rambling about the possibilities of her theories being true. Sometimes she corrected her sentence structure, other times she let herself be and corrected herself.

Outside of that, Erika has also put an effort to properly cultivate the mana. She may not know her quirk but if she were to cultivate her mana, she may just have enough to perform magic in this world, which sounded impossible with the current progress she made.

The method she used as soon as she had access to her mana was circulating the existing mana in her body to strengthen it faster than any other infant can, this helped her remain awake for longer times as well as had her crawling at just 3-4 months old. However, this method had already proven to be ineffective when it came to gathering enough mana to perform even the most basic spells, her body simply doesn't produce enough mana.

What was her solution? Well if the amount her body was producing wasn't enough, then she would simply gather mana from her surroundings. Sounds rather simple, right? The problem was the lack of the mana that she could gather. This world was entirely restrictive when it came to the powers that it gave to its inhabitants.

Still, even with knowing this, Erika gathered what little she could and then cultivated it to the highest quality she could ever make. The difference in her energy levels was incredible but she wasn't satisfied.

With her current pace, she wasn't going to be reaching her previous level of power anytime soon. While she was satisfied with the present that she spent with her mother, as evidenced by the villain attack a few weeks back, this world was dangerous.

Suddenly, there was a knock on the door.

Erika looked up from her Rubix cube, she was currently settled in the living room watching her mother do her household chores.

Her mother came into the room with a confused look. "Is that my package? No, it can't be, I had only placed the order the day before yesterday..." She mumbled.

She approached the door cautiously, her hand reaching inside the purse that hung by the entrance, and pulled out a weapon similar to a dagger. The silence descended among them as she observed the door as if it would become alive and try to kill her.

Another knock echoed.

"Erika, be a dear to me and go find a hiding spot. I'll give you tons of sweets later when I find you, okay?" Her mother's voice was awfully quiet but Erika heard her nonetheless.

The little girl was torn between leaving her mother alone or staying to help her. With how she acted, Erika was also starting to get nervous about the following events.

Eventually, she did follow her mother's words, just because even if she stayed she doesn't have the strength to protect herself and the idea of protecting her mother sounded like a fever dream. So she hid, albeit very unwillingly.

When she was sure her daughter was safer, Erika's mother opened the door cautiously. It creaked and groaned under the rusted hinges. The Philippine heat was starting to get to her as she sweated, the sticky feeling of her limbs in contact didn't help the quell the nervousness she felt.

Why was she so nervous? Why can't she calm down? She has been like this since this morning. A bad pit at the bottom of her stomach gnawing at her as if it was a premonition. As much as she wanted to believe otherwise, over the years she has learned to trust in her gut, and throughout the whole day, her gut has been telling her that something bad was about to happen.

The door's slow creak was starting to drive her mad as her thoughts raced for any possibilities until it finally opened enough for her to see who was on the other side.

"Hello. I have a delivery for Amanda Reyes?" Orange uniform with a large S in the middle of their shirt.

"Oh!" Amanda exclaimed in genuine surprise, "Wow that's fast. I'm sorry, I wasn't expecting any deliveries today. I'm Amanda Reyes." She stabbed the dagger into the wall as she opened both of her hands to accept the parcel from the man.

The man didn't acknowledge what she said and simply went on to confirm the delivery on his phone before looking back at her, "Could you please stand still with the parcel to confirm my delivery." His tone sounded so drawl for a question. He looked pathetic with the bags under his eyes and Amanda felt pity toward him.

She awkwardly stood as she waited for him to finish taking the picture, 'To each their own, I guess...' Despite pitying him, she held respect for doing this kind of job and helping thousands of people around the world get their parcels safely to their houses.

"Thank you for using Shopee Delivery, have a good day, Ma'am."

With that, the man retreated to his motorbike and went away.

Amanda closed the door behind her and sighed in relief. It should be a good thing that it wasn't anything urgent, however, she was still skeptical. The sinking feeling in her stomach had not yet settled down.

For now, she would set her parcel aside and continue with household chores.

"Erika! Where are you, dear?"

She called out to her daughter, placing the article underneath the coffee table in their living room. Amanda then noticed the Television which was still turned on and showcased another episode of Superbook.

"It's almost lunchtime and I haven't even finished cleaning the bathroom..." She mumbled to herself, grabbing the remote and turning the TV off.

On the blackened screen she saw a man standing behind her.

Her instincts were quick and with the remote in hand, used it to try and hit the man in the side of his head. The keyword here is try, for the man had easily caught her hand before it even made contact with him.

That sinking feeling she'd had come back to her in full force, the feeling so sick that she wanted to puke. Venom laced her voice as she spit out a spiteful, "You."

"We need to talk."

Panic filled her eyes, "Where is Erika?"

"She's asleep in her room," He said, "Don't worry, I didn't do anything to harm her. I simply had a lackey put some sleeping gas in her room."