Chapter Fifteen - Can we just not talk about last night?

"Well, this turned out better than I expected" Tia floated excitedly around Locke.

"I told you it had nothing to do with yesterday." Locke replied confidently. "It looks like things are going to start improving for us."

"You have to be careful, Mamma Cop is incredibly perceptive, much more than an ordinary human should be."

"What do you mean?"

"Nothing ... I don't want to mean nothing..." replied Tia. 'At least not until I'm sure...' she thought. "There is something more important to solve at the moment, right?"

"Yes, you are right! I need to find a new rift to hunt and I need to keep increasing my status and skills! " replied Locke.

"I'm not talking about this! I missed a day because of everything that happened, but when do you intend to keep your promise? You promised me a whole cake! Just for me!"

Locke smiled at the fairy's childsh demands, she always managed to cheer his day.

***

"I... can't... eat any more..." Tia fell on her back, her stomach as round as a ball, her face dirty with frosting.

"I told you to choose a smaller cake" Locke sighed "Why did you have to choose the biggest cake in the store?"

"Too much... full... to argue..." the fairy still lying with open arms, she soon fell into a deep sleep.

Locke put the rest of the ten-inches cake, now reduced to four, in the fridge, he looked at the fairy and wondered where all that food was going.

Locke stretched, he was training for hours while Tia ate her cake, he finally managed to complete the dragon's fist, he gave two quick punches in the air, causing two small sonic booms.

"This is f*cking cool!" Locke smiled.

He went to his old desk and turned on his battered computer, he was thinking about changing the machine for a while and the Azalea's proposal came at a more than opportune time. Locke spent time browsing news, urban legends, reports of missing persons and related things, looking for signs of potential new targets. After searching for a few hours the fairy began to show signs of life again.

"Hunng..." the fairy moaned "Such a good sleep... What are you doing?"

"Just looking over the internet, looking for anything that can help us, even if just a little," Locke replied.

"Hey, I think we need to talk"

Locke looked at Tia, her serious tone didn't match her bed hair and her cake-stained face at all. "One second..." the fairy was covered with light, her appearance became impeccable "There... We have to talk about this Locke."

"Can we just not talk about last night?" Locke replied.

"No, we really need to talk about it! You killed a person, a human being!"

Locke looked away from the monitor. "He deserved it!"

"Yes, and I have no problem with that," replied the fairy, leaving Locke surprised, "I don't think that sh*t is going to be missed, I just want to know why this is affecting you!"

"What do you mean?"

"Since I was able to manifest myself, since I 'got out' of you I have tried to avoid reading your thoughts, I told you before that I want to be your partner, more than a system tool, equals, and for that I have avoided reading your mind, I want you to share things with me of your own free will, but since you saw that boy, things got out of control."

Tia floated in and landed on the table next to the monitor screen, and continued.

"Locke, talk to me." Tia put her small hands on Locke's hand. "Please."

Locke stopped for a few seconds in silence, searching for the right words to express himself, at last he found more or less everything he needed.

"I killed a man Tia, he was a b*stard f*cker who enjouys killing little children, and so he deserved to die..." Locke was serious "The problem is that I don't care! I killed someone, isn't it am I supposed to feel at least a little remorse? I know the world has become a better place without him, but I still killed a guy! And I killed him slowly! And I liked it! I really enjoyed it! What does that make me? Doesn't that make me another monster? "

"You are not a monster!" Tia's tone was intense and almost maternal "Yours emotions, your anger at that moment, was so intense that it leaked, for me and the system!" The fairy floated in front of Locke's face.

"You saw the evil in the world and in that moment you stopped being Locke Driscoll, the sweet and hardworking human boy, you became Locke, the dragon! You hunted and killed a man without needing for a system mission, you killed him out of your pure desire, you decided that his existence should be extinguished and you destroyed him, and that was f*cking good!" the fairy was smiling, a surprisingly innocent smile, in contrast to her words.

"You are a dragon, dragons are the most arrogant beings of all creation! Your father had a personal motto: Save those you want to save! Destroy those you want to destroy! Now, where's the rest of my cake?"

Faced with the fairy's arguments, Locke was at a loss for words, he took the rest of the cake from the fridge and Tia ate the rest while watching TV.

Sitting at his desk, Locke thought in the Tia's words, 'save those you want to save, destroy those you want to destroy'.

"Can I live like this?" the question for himself was left unanswered.

Locke then turned to the other delicate point about the previous night, after killing the psychopath Locke noticed a somewhat disturbing detail.

The amount of experience he received was very, very high.

From the night he was almost electrocuted to death Locke was stuck at level 10, it had taken him a week from the awakening to reaching that point, the number of monsters he had to hunt to got in the level 10 had been very high.

The psychopath he had killed was very weak, he had no supernatural powers, no abnormal fighting techniques, no points that differentiated him from an ordinary human, nothing but his absurd cruelty. Killing that man had been easy, absurdly easy, the human body was more fragile than Locke expected, He had used up all his mana and attacked with shadowmancy, he expected a fight or a chase, but it was over in minutes, Locke had had more difficult fights with zombies or estirges.

But the amount of experience Locke received was absurdly high, enough for him to reach level 12.

'Do humans give more experience than monsters? Why?' Locke looked out the window at people walking down the street. 'If humans give more experience...'

"No, this is not a path I want to walk on!"

"Hmm?" Tia turned around at Locke's sudden outburst.

"I decided!" Locke smiled "I am a dragon, but I am also a human. If I have to kill someone who deserves it, I will, but I will not go out of my way to target humans specifically."

"Ok?" the fairy replied and went back to TV.

***

"DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA OF THE PROBLEM THAT YOU GOT IN THIS TIME BOY?" the old man screamed fiercely, just inches from Sean's face.

"But grandpa-" Sean tried to answer but his grandfather wouldn't let him.

"SHUT UP! YOU HAVE TAKEN R*PE DR*GS TO THE HOUSE OF THE POLICE COMMISSIONER! YOU AND YOUR SH*TTLE FRIENDS TRY TO STAB SOMEONE IN FRONT OF EVERYONE! WHAT IS YOUR PROBLEM?!!!"

Sean lowered his face in shame, his hands were shaking with anger, but he didn't have the courage to challenge his grandfather.

Allan Carmichael was a powerful man, his family was wealthy for generations and he was dean of one of the most prestigious colleges in the country, his business expanded in various branches throughout the city without problems, the only thing that always brought him a headache was his grandchild.

Allan didn't know if he had spoiled the boy too much or if another reason made him to be so stupid, but that boy always got him in trouble. "WHAT WAS THE ONLY THING I ASKED YOU FOR?"

"To stay away from the Moongraves..." Sean replied in a low voice, looking at the floor.

"DO YOU HAVE AN IDEA OF WHAT I HAD TO DO TO PREVENT YOU FROM BEING ARRESTED? THE MOONGRAVES WANT YOUR HEAD! DO YOU HAVE AN IDEA OF HOW MUCH I WILL HAVE TO SPEND WITH LAWYERS? THEY HAVE EVEN VIDEO RECORDINGS! RECORDINGS OF THE IMBECIL THAT I CALL GRANDCHILD TRYING TO STAB THE COMMISSIONER'S DAUGHTER!" Allan's anger was so great that his mouth foamed "GET OUT! NOW!"

Sean left the room in a rage, after locking himself in his room Sean started shouting bad words and breaking things.

"Damn old man! How dare you treat me like a child! If it weren't for me, that shitty faculty wouldn't win a single game! I always get what I want! Always!" his face showed a crazy smile, he took his cell phone out of his pocket and looked for a certain number. "If it is not for good, it will be for bad."

The phone rang for a few seconds and finally someone answered.

"It's Sean, I need you to do something for me..."

***

Hanna was sitting behind the counter curling a lock of hair between her fingers, her eyes were lost on the horizon as she daydreamed.

She didn't need that job but she always did her best, she did styling in college and experience time was a mandatory part of the course, luckily that was one of the few stores of her style in the city, with a high turnover of clothes, which they give her a lot of ideas for her own drawings.

Usually she spent her entire part-time work counting the hours, but today she was daydreaming about one person in particular. Locke.

'I have a boyfriend...' Hanna laughed innocently at the thought, she had never been interested in anyone romantically, for a long time she even thought she was asexual, when she met Locke she didn't realize that he attracted her, at first she thought she just wanted to help him fit in, as she had helped a lot of people before him, when he purposely excluded herself she couldn't give up on him, but she only realized that she was attracted when they met again during the holidays.

Locke was changed, his pale, thin appearance was completely gone, Locke was now manly and energetic, but that made no difference to Hanna, the feeling she felt coming from Locke was stronger than ever when he kissed her during her party it was as if her whole body was melting and she longed for it.

"Hey, Hanna? Are you listening to me?"

The voice brought Hanna back to reality, she turned and came face to face with Pamela, her service mate, a girl just a little older with pink hair and tattoos that covered both arms completely.

"Sorry Pam" Hanna gave an embarrassed smile "I was daydreaming ..."

"Huuuuuummmm ... That smells like romance ... So, did someone finally win this little heart?"

Hanna smiled sheepishly.

"Oh my! I nailed it, right? Who was? Who was the hero who conquered this castle?"

The store's door bell rang at that moment and the two women turned to the door, ready to give their customary standard greetings to the customer, when Hanna's face lit up in a smile of pure happiness.

"Locke!" Hanna called happily.

Pam was lost for a moment, a tanned man with curly black hair, tall and muscular had entered the door, the man opened a smile of pure joy at the call of her companion, he went straight to the counter.

"Hanna..." the man spoke in a sweet voice, he approached Hanna's face and she reluctantly avoided the kiss.

"Not at my job, you silly..." She was as red as a tomato.

"What time do you leave today?" Locke asked.

"I leave at eight ... but I'm going to have to close the store ..." Hanna replied.

"Okay, I'll come and pick you up at eight" Locke smiled, he turned to Pam and held out his hand

"Hi, I'm Locke, Hanna's boyfriend"

"Pamela... friends call me Pam..." Pam accepted the length.

"See you, Hanna, bye Pam!" Locke left the Store as he had entered.

After a few seconds Pam came out of her trance "Is this your boyfriend? Damn girl you're good! How did you get that handsome? "

Hanna smiled sheepishly.

"Commom Girl! I want to know everything!" Pam continued.

***

Locke was running around town, the camouflage magic was incredible and Locke had recently started training on another technique. The technique was called ethereal steps, it was an art of movement that used mana to strengthen muscles and move with extreme agility. Completing this technique was surprisingly easy, perhaps because he had become accustomed to moving the mana along with attacks, moving the mana to the muscles in the middle of a movement was not a hard challenge.

The effects of the technique were incredible, Locke jumped from building to building like a superhero without anyone noticing his presence, it was strangely liberating and he moved faster than when he was driving.

He was not completely invisible, but his appearance was just a little more than a transparent blur, hardly detectable against the environment, the fact that very few people looked up without reason also facilitated his movements.

Locke had taken advantage of that afternoon to look for new rifts, he had found some, some were too fragile to open, others gave off a dangerous sensation, at last he found four crevices suitable for his future incursions.

The first rift he found is on the grounds of a public school, with a little research Locke discovered that the said school had a series of urban legends, and there were rumors of disappearances, he decided that it would be his first target.

Rift two and three were in less problematic locations, one in an abandoned building, the other in a tunnel on the edge of the city.

Rift four was the biggest problem, it was at the bottom of a lake in the city park, Locke had no idea how he would investigate this.

"Hey, it's almost time, we can't keep Goth Chick waiting!" Said Tia.

Locke crouched at the edge of a building, he took his cell phone out of his pocket and confirmed the time, fifteen minutes to eight.

"Heh, you look like Sp*derman!" Tia scoffed.

Locke circulated the mana through his legs and jumped in the air, his legs launched him like a missile, he fell on another roof, the mana on his legs absorbing the impact.

He went down the dark side of the building and went out into the street, undoing the camouflage and going out into the street.

Five minutes before eight he was in the street opposite the entrance to the store where Hanna worked, the store, 'Nevermore darkness' was a store focused on dark clothes, Gothic style, rock style and leather clothes. One thing caught Locke's attention, there were two men standing at a distance, apparently busy with their own things, but for some reason their presence made him feel strange.

Locke activated the dragon's eyes at once, the aura of the two men was certainly human, so his first impression was thrown out the window. But the odd feeling has not gone away.

'Tia, when I leave eith Hanna, I need you to pay attention to these two, see if they'll follow us' The mental message was sent to the fairy, who responded in an instant. "Sir, yes sir!"

Locke entered the store, Hanna looked beautiful, dressed in a black frilly dress and makeup on her face.

"Wow, you look wonderful" Locke praised.

"Thank you, Pam helped me get ready, she said she will close the store for me" replied Hanna.

Locke looked at Pam, she gave a thumbs up and nodded.

The inventory was a wonderful thing, and Locke had changed into clean clothes just before he came out of the darkness, together they went to the cinema, walking embraced.

"The two doofus are following us!"