Chapter - 4 : I Forgive You

A man stood a distance away from the two unconscious bodies, gawking at the scene of utter carnage and what had resulted from it. And then it sunk in as what this meant.

'The brat actually won?'

No, he's passed out as well so it's a draw? He scratched his chin in thought as he walked to pick them up.

He looked at the craters made by the knives and the numerous red marks on his wife, the fire and ice still present on the ground and branches, deducting the sequence of the fight to great accuracy. But it didn't do anything but made him even more confused. The planning was ingenious, he was not underestimating his son, but his wife was one of the strongest people he knew, even if she was holding back, which she apparently forgot to do in her last attack...This could have taken out any serious Huntsman of B rank and below and made a careless A ranker retreat only if his son was allowed to set his plan up. (unlikely but possible)

But the fact of his 'victory' remains, so there was only one possible way he could have won. The grinned.

"The damn boy unlocked his Semblance in the pressure of the fight." He faced the sky and erupted in laughter.

He walked all around the devastated field to pick up all his son's tools and storing them in the bag he had brought. Soon he was done, started to go back home with his son and wife under his shoulders like barrels.

-+-+-+-+-+-

I woke up to a familiar ceiling, assaulted by prickling pain all over my body. I attempted to scream but all I managed was a dry choke. My body was covered in bandages. I stretched my aching arm to grab the bottle from the side table and chugged it in the most uncivilised way possible.

Placing the bottle back to its place, I saw the gentle light peeking through the curtains from the window on my left and sat upright with a struggle.

"7:05 AM, Saturday. I was passed out for a whole day." I rasped out.

'Time to organised this chaotic mess in my head.'

He controlled his breathing into steady rhythms. He recalled everything that happened in yesterday's fight; his plan failing to end the fight, his last struggle and that sudden eruption of emotion, the world of grey and finally his last swing before passing out.

"I unlocked my Semblance..."

He knew intrinsically what his semblance did to an extend. The same way you know you can swing a sword, it would be a pathetic display of skill but you can do it. This felt the same.

"Time Alter," I whispered.

Chronokinesis, Time Manipulation/Alteration - Time Alter for short; the ability to manipulate time. One of the laws/dimensions of the universe was a prisoner to my will...No, that way of thinking was dangerous. This is something profound and it deserved the respect I can provide. This is not a privilege but a responsibility over something beyond my wildest imagination and comprehension. I can perceive the flow of time and its partial compliance to my will even in my weakened state. Testing is required to confirm the limits of my control when at full capacity.

As I held my chin in contemplation, I was brought out of my reverie by a knock on the door.

"You up son?" I heard my dad behind the door.

"Yeah," I said, my throat a lot better now.

Both of my parents entered. My mom seemed to have recovered for the most part but my father looked tired. Their faces betrayed no particular emotion. I meet their eyes with no idea as to what they were thinking.

"What's the Verdict?" I asked not averting my gaze.

They both looked at each other and then back at me.

"It's a.....draw." My father declared with a difficult expression on his face.

"....I see." I held my chin in thought.

I was a bit disappointed. But I had already done all that I could, so it was not devastating. I had learnt a long time ago, that we humans are only entitled to our actions and not the result. Our role is over right after the deed is done, the rest is up to the world. All that is left to do was brace for the consequence, good or bad. You move on. Such was the philosophy of Stoicism.

I could see my mom clasping her hands on her chest and my father standing rigid straight, somehow expecting a volatile reaction. Though such actions never occurred from me, they were wise to be cautious, after my display of strong defiance towards the marriage. Heh, knowing mom she might be thinking I'm going to flee from the house or something.

'I've made them wait long enough.'

"I suppose we need to discuss the proper course of action father, and no mom I'm not planning on running away from the house at night."

Both of them visibly relaxed as if a mountain was off their shoulders.

'Just how bad did you both think I was gonna act? Maybe my over competence from a young age has made you both suck at real parenting. My condolences if ya decide to have another child.'

"We have a lot to discuss, but first..."

Grumble~

"I need food."

"Ah! Of course, how could I forget, my poor baby has not eaten for a whole day! Give me a moment Grey, mom will cook up something super healing and tasty."

And off she bolted to the kitchen in a flurry.

Now only my and father were there alone in my room. I just noticed the bags under his eyes.

"You were always like this. An air of calm and self-assurance that was baffling. As I saw you grow up the more you surprised me and your mom, we knew you were special, even more so after the result of the battle. You spoke of interesting ideas and perspectives I couldn't even fathom, and many of which went against a lot of what I thought was normal. Those let to long arguments didn't it?"

He gave me a weary smile.

"Yes. Yes, they did." I returned one of my own.

" 'The strength of a person can be measured by knowing how much Truth they can endure.' was it? In a world where strength is widely measured by the power that person possesses, your words echoed in my head for some reason. And it rang in my head for the past few days, I couldn't even sleep...I know you. You are my son. You've always been right in what you say, so after we made the vow after the fight, I laid on the bed and I began to wonder...I was wrong? And..."

My father went on and talked about all he had in his mind that plagued him for the past few days. He had a confrontation with the Truth. It was brutal, and painful, but here he is, a stronger man.

"....I'm sorry, son."

I lifted my aching body and hugged him. He was on his knees by the time he was done.

"The strength of a person's spirit is measured by how much 'truth' he could tolerate, or more precisely, to what extent he needs to have it diluted, disguised, sweetened, muted, falsified." I quoted.

'These are not my words but were of one of the greatest minds on Earth.'

"There is nothing to forgive dad, for the old you did not survive the fire. But I know you won't be satisfied so, I'll say it anyway- I forgive you, dear father. You have redeemed yourself in my eyes."

"Thank you, son." I could feel the lightness in this voice.

"No probs dad. No probs." I just smiled as we gave each other a long hug.

-+-+-+-+-+-

"...Could you please repeat that one more time son?"

"Time Alter," I repeated once again.

Feeling no small amount of amusement from their dumbstruck reaction.

"Your Semblance...lets you...control Time." My dad stated, more for himself than anyone.

"Wao~! My son's amazing!" squeeze

While my dad found it hard to wrap his head around the fact that I can control time, my mom just looked very happy and proud after her initial shock faded.

"You know what that means son..."

"Sigh* I know dad, more training and keeping the truth of my Semblance a secret."

"Precisely, though I think it will be easy to disguise it as a speed semblance." I could see a menacing grin forming on his face.

"H-hm, now it's time to discuss the consequences of battle being a Draw." With that prompt, they both perked up their ears and took on a serious expression.

"So..."

This discussion took a while but in conclusion, the marriage will not happen (phew~), but she will still be somewhat of a companion of mine in any of my future endeavours, but ONLY if she chooses to do so after spending 5 years as my.....maid. Her becoming my maid for 5 years was my compromise while no marriage was their compromise. So rather than a lifetime of service, she will be free after 5 years.

'This is all I could do, mai dear.' I expressed my thoughts to a person I had never even met before.

'Well, I will be meeting her when I turn 12. Meeting a girl on the eve of her puberty and being the source of her unfortunate situation will not be pleasant.'

I was in the backyard now with my parents to test the effects of my semblance. It was after lunch we decided to test it out.

I want fully recovered but with my Aura full, it was enough for initial testing.

"Here I come, son." Dad prepared his stance.

I just gave him a nod and he dashed towards me. Speed half of what he is when we spar.

'Let's try this.'

Bend before my Will.

Tic Tok Tic Tok

'It is done.'

The world turned grey once more. But this time I didn't stop it, just slowed it down by half. But that was more than enough to dodge my father's flurry of punches and kicks. Eventually, he back to his usual level of strength and speed when sparing with me. But to me, he was slow enough for me to dodge with normal difficulty rather than barely surviving the onslaught.

We disengaged and made some distance between us. I could tell he was impressed. His eyes turned silver so I knew he had activated his semblance.

'Let's try something different.'

Slowing down Time by half took a small percentage of my Aura but it ahhed up fast due to its active drain. Though I'm sure it was partially due to my lack of finesse. I wonder if I can isolate the effects of Time manipulation to an area. In this case, just my body.

Another exchange of blows occurred with me at the struggling end but it wasn't a beatdown like past spars. I was defending, dodging and almost landing a blow on him. Even if he can see 5 seconds into the future, it's useless if he can't keep up with my attack.

What I did was alter the flow of time of only myself. I accelerated my flow of time by 3 times. So I moved and perceived everything at three times speed. This was a lot more economical in terms of aura use but difficult in terms of micromanaging the area of effect. But even that was done 3 times the speed so it was doable and hopefully effortless after a few years of training.

But even with that, I wasn't even close to winning.

Ugh

I got a spinning kick to the chest that sent me flying. That hurt quite a bit as my momentum was stopped by a tree. My father prepared to finish the spar as he came for a strike. Now for the final test(for now).

I just stood still and concentrated.

Tic Tok.....Tic.......Tok

The sound of the ticking time stopped and the world lost its colour.

'This is really draining on my reserves. Only a few seconds at max right now?'

It seems I am able to interact with worlds even when it's frozen in time. So with no time to lose, I made my dad lay on his stomach and then sat on him barely on time before my aura reached 5% and then let the time flow.

Boof

"Arrgh. It hurts even if I know this was coming. Enjoying your seat son?" My dad grumbled.

"Did you see the frozen time?"

"No, all I saw was the outcome after Times resumes. Would you get up any time soon?"

"Aw, I was getting comfortable."

"You brat."

I got up as we bantered back and forth, telling my observations and hypothesis after which he would ask some questions and suggest some practical may of using it.

He looked a lot better now, the same with my mom. It seemed this whole situation took a toll on them. Such trials are common in parenting, only due to me it happened so late. I'll need to properly educate them about parenting if they ever decide to have another child.