Eizen - All Strings Attached 1

I thought nothing else could surprise me after learning I had two gay dads.

But then I received a strange notebook about the dad, who abandoned me, detailing all the adventurers he completed with my birth mother in another world.

I received that notebook 4 days after my dad, Willard Modiav, who raised me for the past 12 years, died.

I thought little when I received that notebook at Willard's funeral. The man who gave me it had short grayish hair, a scruffy beard, and wore shades. I only knew him as Notebook-man.

I found out later that Notebook-man paid for the entire funeral. The halls and memorial room with Willard's enlarged picture frame were filled with cool-looking white, blue, and purple flowers that I learned were called Hyacinths.

It was a nice Japanese funeral. Although I was half Japanese, I didn't understand Japanese customs. Then again, it's not like Willard would have either.

Willard's Japanese parents died when he was young. Adopted by a Russian couple shortly afterward, he spent all his life in Moscow until hell literally froze over 10 years ago. That's when the skies were flooded with magical beasts from Rehten–a world of monsters and magic connected to Earth.

Willard told me many people feared it would be the end of the world, but there was a mass awakening of people gaining extraordinary abilities. Thanks to those people, humanity survived, but there were many casualties, including my dad's adopted parents.

I know Willard regretted not having a funeral for them, but he used what money they left him behind to travel the world with me. We moved to a lot of different countries until we ended up here in New York City.

"Your father was a good man. He would have wanted you to have that Eizen."

The Notebook-man had a hoarse voice as he continued to talk about Willard. It seemed he was really friends with him, and Willard didn't have many.

"When you get older, I'll come back for you. In the meantime, try to do some exercises in that notebook."

I tried to flip through the pages of the notebook, and I couldn't read anything. It was all in some foreign language.

"I can't read any of this, though."

"Oh? Is that so?"

Notebook-man walked over to a dark-skinned man with light spots on his hand and face. He looked like an athlete, though he was much shorter than Notebook-man. Maybe 16 or 17? Notebook-man whispered to him, and he took out a pair of glasses from inside of his black suit.

Notebook-man told me to try on the glasses, but I didn't understand why. I have a perfect vision. However, when I put those glasses on, something weird happened. It was like a little spark of lightning zapped me, which made my head hurt a little.

Despite the pain, I looked at the notebook in my hand, and my glasses translated the words into English.

Well, this sucks because I sucked bad at English compared to Japanese and German

"This is in English. I can't read this either."

"You have time to learn."

You have time to learn, he says.

In case Notebook-man hasn't realized, my dad just died, and I'm only 12 years old last time I checked. I didn't have money to learn English. I had no more family on Earth.

Basically, I was homeless…

Notebook-man must have noticed that I wasn't exactly thrilled about this.

"Learn English and do a few of those exercises. It'll lead you to your family in Rehten."

My head snapped up. Rehten? My other family was in another world filled with monsters and magic? What? How?

So many questions rushed through my head. How did Willard and Notebook-man know each other? Why didn't my dad tell me my parents were in another world?

Ugh. I was pissed because none of it mattered in the long run.

I still didn't know how I was going to take care of myself. Learning my other dad is in Rehten with my birth mother is excellent, but I was most likely going to a foster home.

What if I get adopted by foreign-speaking parents like my dad? I didn't want to move to another country again.

But then a scary thought came into my mind.

If I had two dads and a birth mom, then I should have more love than an average child receives. What does that mean now that none of them are here?

My chest began to hurt as my throat closed. I never felt something like this before.

But then I heard a faint voice.

"Eizen?"

It was low, but a sweet voice had called my name. I couldn't tell the direction it came from.

Notebook-man stepped aside and from behind him was a pretty caramel-skinned woman in a long black coat with long black hair. She was shorter than Notebook-man, but there was someone else behind her.

"Eizen!"

Until this point in my life, I can only recall one other person other than my dad hugging me, and that was a girl I confessed my feelings to while I lived in Manila for 4 years. This woman hugging me was entirely different, like way different.

I was being choked by her chest, but as strange as it felt, something was calming about her embrace.

While I was taking in her strong peach-like scent, I had noticed that I was hugging her. I didn't even realize at what point that even happened.

Throughout the entire funeral service, I spent the entire time practically being silent while accepting condolences. But now, this random woman is hugging me, drawing all of this unnecessary attention towards me.

Only that she wasn't as random as my mind was telling me. My body was betraying me as my tiny arms tried to wrap around her back. My body was clearly familiar with her as her sobbing began.

With her palm stroking the back of my frizzy black hair, I said something I never got to say in 12 years.

Mom?

Those words escaped my mouth by mistake. I really didn't want it to be mistaken. Even if this random woman wasn't my mom, I just wanted her to lie to me.

When I felt the warm embrace of her arms of her tighten around my waist, I knew.

Her sobbing became louder as she broke down to her knees.

"Yes," she said.

Mom.

My mom. She was my mom? She can't be my birth mom, as Notebook-man said she was in another world. Adopted? Stepmom? No, that doesn't make any sense. She's not my birth mom. She couldn't be my stepmom, and she's not my adopted mom. But she is my mom, right? What other kind of mom is there? I said she could lie to me, but I didn't think that through.

This was too much for me to process.

She sank further until she practically had her forehead on the floor. My mom was holding on to my ankles, repeating the words I'm sorry, repeatedly.

My right hand shook for a bit until I clutched it with my left. It was a habit that happened now and then when things got tough.

Taking my eyes off my mom, I looked at the older girl in a one-piece black dress. She, too, had caramel skin like my mom, but had the hazel eyes that made Willard popular.

I wished I inherited those hazel eyes. My life would have been infinitely better.

That curvy girl would have looked more like me if my hair wasn't permed, but there was no mistaking that she was my sister.

I was already having difficulty processing what kind of mom my mom is, so I didn't want to even consider the sister possibilities.

Tears were in my sister's eyes as she walked over to our mom, attempting to help her off the floor while she wallowed in despair, still apologizing.

"Mom, if you keep crying like this, then what are the babies in the world going to do?"

Kudos to my sister for trying to lighten the situation.

I was so stunned by the thought of meeting my mother and sister that I overlooked Notebook-man leaving with his friends in black suits.

The last image I saw Notebook-man was him putting on a black cowboy hat like the famous wrestler that had gongs ringing before his dark and scary music played. He was my dad's favorite wrestler, and if this Notebook-man was anything like him, I thought I better sleep with one eye open.

Willard Eizen Modiav

August 28th, 1978 CE-June 28th, 2033 AR

He Lies A Badass Man Of Unrivaled Pride

It was a beautiful headstone with those words engraved in Japanese. My mom left me to stare at the tombstone for a bit longer as she rubbed my head again.

As the sunset, I sat there and wrestled with a lot of thoughts.

However, one thought came to me above the others.

When you get older, I'll come back for you.

To me, it was clear that the Notebook-man knows more about both of my dads and birth mom. He may have brought my current mom and sister into my life, but I've watched too many dramas to just blindly trust a complete stranger.

Well, for that matter, I didn't completely trust my new mom, Tala, or my older sister, Diwa either. Even if they were super cute, my limited experience with girls hasn't been well.

Still, I was grateful to Notebook-man for giving Willard a great funeral service.

After all, before he came into my life, I thought I had lost everything.

***

"Oi, Eizen! You took extra money!"

"I did all the work, so of course I did."

6 years had passed since Willard died, and I was hustling money from price-gouging gaming consoles with my close friends from my time in high school. They actually tried to bully me, but after I beat all of their asses, they became my groupies before becoming my close friends.

"You took a whole $200 extra dollars, though! The PS-OMEGA has a retail value of $1200. How the fuck are you gonna just take $500? The rest of us gotta eat too!"

"Reginald, mind telling me who was the mastermind that created the bot system that nabs all of those PS-OMEGA's?"

"Yeah, but-"

"Exactly."

Ping. Ping.

"Another PS-OMEGA bought?"

"No, that's the signal from Myra. Let's rollout."

As the rest of the guys exited my mother's burgundy caravan, I zipped up my royal blue striped tracksuit.

"Last chance for any of you if you want to chicken out now."

Even though I made that announcement, I already knew it was going to be met with laughter. These guys have been around the block a few times when it comes to danger.

"This girl must be special if you're willing to risk it all. You sure you don't want to quit, Eizen? Wouldn't it be a tragic story if you of all people got caught?"

"Me? Caught? Just who the hell do you think I am?"

"Surely not Kamina," said Ashton.

Laughter erupted again between all of us as we did a few customary stretches.

"Everyone, synchronize your watches to 14:08 Eastern Time. Be at your positions in exactly 15-minutes."

"Roger that boss," said Ashton.

"Copy boss," said Reginald.

"Let's get a move on before Myra gets cold feet."

Thanks to Notebook-man, I pushed myself to learn English and decipher the first pages in the notebook. It was essential to figure this out because the handwriting for the first pages confused me when I first saw it. It differed completely from all the other entries in the notebook.

I didn't know how much of this was a coincidence and how much of this was planned, but my mother Tala kept all the love notes my father Willard used to send her back to when they were teenagers living in different countries.

From there, I could conclude that Willard wrote the first pages of the notebook.

In that notebook, on the first page, Willard had clearly written the objective and circle it twice in red ink.

New York City, United States

September 7th, 2022

Diamond District

On those following pages was a two-page spread of a very elaborate and thoroughly constructed map of a specific building–XALES diamond store.

The day that Willard became a changed man.

The day of his first adventurer.

The day he successfully carried out a heist to steal a diamond ring worth $400,000 and proposed to the love of his life.

And now, 19 years later to that date, I attempted to follow in his footsteps.