16

Standing back on my feet with Komainu holding on to me, I wiped away the strange liquid fire tears that had been splashing to the ground.

Gingerly I opened my Grimoire and flipped to the newest page that had grown in. It was titled Shard of a Selfless Wish and described what it was.

However, I saw a small note written in a different handwriting than the Grimoire's typical writing style. It was childish, as if written by somebody who did not spend much time writing. The ink was also pink as opposed to thick black.

It had a single sentence "Everything will be ok." Taking a deep breath, I closed the Grimoire and gave Komainu another hug before gently peeling her off me.

I sat back down, letting her lean against me before she turned to gaze at me and ask questions.

"Why did you cry, Aidan?" She asked in the guileless voice of a child, a girl that sounded so familiar it hurt. Running a hand that appeared unchanged through her brown hair, I struggled to formulate a reply.

"I-I, this shard reminded me of a better future and of the fact that everything will be ok."

"How can you know this?" She asked, tilting her head to the side slightly.

"I can't. I just have to believe that so long as I keep striving towards that golden morning, I can pass through the darkest nights." A few moments passed before I let out a small chuckle.

"Look at me, I get a single uplifting thing, and I get all philosophical."

Looking back at Komainu, I stopped rubbing her hair, earning me a pout as I stood up and replied to her.

"I have something I need to do tonight; however, tomorrow, would you like to go out. Eat some food, see the sights, that sort of thing."

Brightening like a thousand-watt bulb, she nodded her head rapidly. I had been spending too much time working, and in my head, I needed to live a little.

However, I still had work to do before I could enjoy the day. Leaving my lab, I closed the door behind me. While it would be good to bring my minions, they lacked my rapid movement abilities.

While the Cu minion was the fastest, he could only move slightly quicker than peak humans, which was much too slow. Teleporting on top of a nearby abanded warehouse, I started in the direction that the Brunestud spirit found out.

It didn't take long to arrive near a seemingly abandoned warehouse. I could spot the sign that said Redmond Welding hanging out front, rusted with disuse.

Most of what I could see was covered in dust except for a few spots where the door would open into the bottom floor. I could hear the faint sounds of a controller clicking and footsteps walking around.

Appearing on the well-worn steel stairs, I could spot faint light pouring from the bottom of the cracked open door along with shadows moving inside.

Slowly moving up the stairs I pressed my metaphorical ear up against the door, careful not to open it.

I heard a young woman's voice; it sounded shrill and on the verge of panic while a deeper male voice attempted to calm her down.

"You don't understand!" The young woman's voice shrieked out. "There is somebody kidnapping capes."

The man's voice responded calm and collected. "Alright, that is dangerous. What does the boss have to say bout this? What should we do?"

"That's the worst part! He just fell off the map. I can't find head nor tail of him." Her voice said, the pitch growing higher. "Something is wrong in the bay, and I don't know what!"

I then heard the sound of headsets being taken off as a lazy, apathetic voice drifted out. "So, are we just screwed, cuz if he is, let me know. I want a last slice of pizza before we go out."

Now tinted with the barest edge of fear, the man's voice ground out. "Not helping Alec."

The Grimoire's power grew once again as I pushed the door open slightly. However, the old door creaked, which caused the blonde-haired figure with bags under her eyes to look over panic written on her face.

The other two also looked in my direction; Brian took a few steps back as darkness started to billow out from him. Alec pushed himself up and grabbed a scepter leaning against the couch.

Flicking my wrist to the right, I conjured half a dozen swords before sending them flying at the Undersiders. They were regular blades; however, they were still fast and deadly.

While I could not see them inside the cloud of darkness, Clairvoyance and Eye of the Mind (True) gave me a general sense of where they were.

I didn't want to teleport into the middle of the cloud of darkness. That would, even with a time stop, leave me vulnerable. The other option was a rain of swords; I could fix it with healing potions.

Another salvo of blades flew out. I intermixed it with my superior blades using my knowledge of projection gained from the EMYIA class card.

While a vast majority of them slammed into the wall, a couple didn't emerge from the cloud. However, the darkness was fast approaching so I needed to act.

Peering at the void that formed the darkness, I could tell it was some kind of portal that absorbed only energy that was emitted as opposed to all energy.

Usually, I wouldn't be able to affect powers; however, this was a portal, and the Space Arcanum granted information on what to do when space was tampered with.

Letting it wash over me, I focused on the massive portal surrounding me and focused. The darkness seemed to twist for a moment before it dissipated without a trace.

Three figures were revealed; the first was Brain, who was face down on the floor, attempting to move with several swords embedded in his lower body.

The second was Lisa, who was shaking as she fumbled in her pocket for something. That something turned out to be a gun and she managed to squeeze off a few shots.

The last was Alec, who was moving around the edge of the room, attempting to avoid my vision. Brian and Alec were not threats. The bullets were the most prominent issue.

I teleported a few steps behind Lisa, and as her mouth opened in one of her pathetic attempts to psychologically attack people, I pushed out my blue world.

I missed Alec by a few inches; however, he was pinned into place a few seconds later by another salvo of swords. I followed that up with a blast of hypnotism that had him slumping bonelessly to the floor.

Looking around, I nodded in satisfaction. I needed to get Alec and Brain a healing potion; besides that, I had achieved my goal.

Walking around in front of Lisa, I hit her with hypnotism that knocked her out. The last step was to dismiss the swords pinning Brian, flip him over, and knock him out.

Dismissing my time stop, I walked over to Alec and did the same thing leaving everybody unharmed and unconscious.

Now I had to haul them all back to my lab, which was as easy as tossing them in Castle Brunestud and then teleporting outside to my lab.

I pushed the door open and saw my menagerie of strange folk waiting for me. Komainu was tossing her necklace in the air and catching it.

Walking in, I let out a chuckle as Komainu darted over to me, pestering me about what I did. Rubbing a hand through her hair, I responded.

"Nothing much, your phylactery needs a ton of energy, so I had to kidnap a few people hooked up to massive batteries."

Nodding as if she understood, Komainu walked by my side as I drew the bodies out and placed Brain's and Alec's next to Bitch's.

I wanted to see if I could access Lisa's power without the lowercase bitch that had it, so her body was placed off to the side.

The ritual was practically the same and only took around an hour to complete. Looking at the necklace, I could see new energy filling the phylactery.

Handing it back to Komainu, I told her. "Remind me to check it every morning, ok. I don't care if you need to kick me in the ribs. Make sure I check on it."

Nodding solemnly for a brief moment, she immediately brightened up before grabbing my arm and pulling me over to a small pile of papers I had missed while entering the room.

Picking the top one up, she pushed it in my face while talking a mile a minute.

"I found this! It talks about a place called Fugly Bob's; it sells fast food. Does that mean the food runs away? Do you have to chase the food down? It claims that if you eat a 6-pound burger, it's free, and you get a picture!"

Raising a hand to forestall any further questions, I ran the rapid-fire questions back in my mind. I then tried to answer them simply.

"First question, how did you find it? Secondly, the food does not run away, which means that the food is made quickly. Lastly, we can tomorrow if you want to try the challenge."

Hopping up and down, she hugged me before darting off. I reached out, snagged the back of her dress, and tugged her back towards me.

"Don't think I didn't see you avoiding the question. How did you find this pamphlet?"

Looking down and scuffing her shoe against the ground, I forced myself to remain strong as it looked almost the same as when my sister tried to get out of trouble.

As she turned her head up to speak, the Grimoire's power grew again without benefit. Finally, she talked to me, eyes tinged with nervousness.

"I set a you minion out to find them."

I froze, eyes darting around before fury overtook me. I was about to start shouting at her before I looked at her face. She obviously did not bring the PRT down. Otherwise, they would be kicking in the door, and looking at her proved that she felt awful.

Sighing, I pulled her close, ran my fingers through her hair, and talked to her in a soothing voice.

"It's fine; I understand you were bored and wanted something to do. It is my fault for forcing you to sit here and do nothing. You have been studying my Magecraft, but that is still boring without a teacher."

The fury was still bubbling, but it was my fault in this case. I couldn't just leave a young girl (my sister) all alone for hours on end.

Tears bubbling up in the corner of her eyes, she replied.

"I'm sorry. I was so bored and and and...." She trailed off as she took in what I said and brightened up slightly.

"Tell you what," I said. "Tomorrow, unless it is an absolute emergency, I will spend all day with you; we can do whatever you want."

Seeing her mind racing, I added a condition. "Within reason, no blowing up buildings or whatever."

She then asked, "What time is it?" with a guileless expression. I stopped and checked my mental clock. 11:59:46,

I laughed as time ticked over to the next day, and she tugged me over to a pile of bedsheets she had collected as a makeshift cot.

"The first thing you will do is get a full eight hours of sleep." Seeing me about to interpret her, she stomped a foot down in a heart-crushing manner(sister).

I put my hands up in surrender before flicking my wrist and conjuring a nice bed identical to the one in my old room, cup stilts and all.

She let out a childish shriek of joy before grabbing my wrist and pulling us under the covers. I usually hated being in the same bed as anybody; however, I will make an exception just this once.

Peering over at one of the before me's, I sent it a mental message to act as me around Taylor and, if need be, to wake me up; that would be a last resort. Pulling Komainu close, I closed my eye sockets and snuck one of my boney hands into hers before settling in for my first night of sleep in a long while.

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