Chapter 4: A presence

   "OWWW- "Kaito yelped in pain. After going through the gate, he hit the upper part of his back onto solid concrete but luckily, he didn't break anything.  

   "Hey kid, you good there?" Dr. Leo said while offering Kaito a hand. "The first warp usually causes some people to get a little dizzy" he chuckled.  

   Kaito took the doctor's hand, still in pain, but enough energy to stand on his feet. Looking around, he could count many tall buildings, and somewhere not too far from where they were, he heard busy streets and honking cars, bringing him back to the nightmare he tried so hard to forget. He flinched a bit but still had hope that what he witnessed the day before was merely some type of delusion or lie. Currently, they were in some type of alley way that didn't look normal at all. It didn't have the same vibes as an alley way either, he actually felt safe in the alley way, and it sort of felt like his back was getting healed?  

   "You feel the mana here huh? Your back should be feeling better than it did a couple of minutes ago kid." Dr. Leo said, patting his head with a sweet smile. 

   "Where are we Mister?" Kaito questioned, trying to look at his back to see if even the scratches were gone. 

   "We're in a place where our mana is something that we use on a daily basis, unlike where you're from where no one used their powers as much. It's pretty normal to see a floating bag of chips around here!" He laughed to himself. 

   "But how did my scratches get fixed up?? I didn't put any of ma's special cream on it either!" Kai said, trying to lift his shirt up checking for any marks.

   "Let's not do that kid… "the doc said while pulling his shirt back down. "Right now, we're in a zone called the safe zone. The safe zone is a place where mana is heavily concentrated but not in the bad way, this here is pure mana. Standing in this place can recover our mana, and heal our exterior physical injuries, but we can't stay in here for longer than 30 minutes because that's when the heavy concentration begins to get to our heads and make us … a little delulu" he laughed while slowly making his way to the other side of the alley. His steps were full of grace but very precautious, and it was clear that he really took a liking to talking about mana and power. 

   "There are approximately 3 of these areas in every city, and that's a small amount because these cities of mana are hugeeee!" He said looking up with a bright expression. "I'm surprised we jumped into an empty one because usually you'd catch 5-8 other people in here." The Doctor continued. He seemed to love talking about mana because of the way his face just lit up while explaining this space, like it was something truly magical. 

   Kaito looked at Dr Leo with admiration, but then realized that the doctor missed a key detail about when they entered the safe zone. "Hey Mister, I did feel like someone was here when we entered though." Kaito said, tilting his head like a confused puppy.  

   "What… Do you mean...?" Dr. Leo questioned with a look of concern while slowly turning his head towards Kaito. 

   "It felt like someone was here, but I don't think they're here anymore." Kaito replied while toying with his little figure and not having a care in the world, but to the doctor, this was horrifying information to hear. 'They found us??? But… how?' He thought, staring at the kid with a little panic.  

   "Okay, thanks for the info, and stay close to me kid, I have yet to take you to where I need to." Dr Leo said with a straight face. He managed to stay calm because of the fact that Kai said that the person wasn't there anymore, but the fact that someone was here, and HE couldn't sense it was very concerning. He scanned the area to see if he could see any clues on who it was, but no sign of anything. All there really was the damp areas in the alley way and the stench of mold and dirt consuming their noses. 

   "Alright kid, grab onto my hand and don't let go for a single second. Once we're outside of the safe zone, people can hurt us any time that they want, capeesh?" Dr. Leo said while reaching his hand down to hold onto Kaito. 

    "Okay Mister, I'll try to stay close..." Kaito said while grasping the doctor's hand. Even though Kaito knew he was supposed to be careful, his curiosity always gets the best of him, so what he was about to see would make him want to examine and touch everything.  

End of chapter 4