Everything Turns Red!

CHAPTER 9

*After a long dreadful war with the creatures humanity had to come to know as demons, there have been rumours that both sides are likely to agree on a peace treaty.*

" Pfft. What a whole bunch of bullshit." Yuki mumbled, staring at the monitor before her.

Megumi was seated beside her with his eyes also fixed on the screen. His thoughts could only focus on the very words he had just as the thought of a peace treaty between humanity's long mortal enemies surprised him.

Even if a peace treaty was to be signed, then it was most likely only going to be temporary, and the war would only be worse if it was to ever be reignited.

" Well, at least we'll be able to rest easy as we train during the peace treaty. Of course, the adults will be able to see through their schemes, so we don't have to worry about them." He assured, turning towards her with a smile.

She immediately got up from her seat and walked away with a loud sigh. She wasn't ready to hear anything Megumi just said.

He simply decided to ignore it and continued watching the news report by himself, quickly closing the laptop a few minutes later.

" I might as well go a walk." He thought, slowly standing up from the chair.

After days of intense training with his teacher, he was finally taking a short break. It had been a while since his mother and Mrs Aoi wasn't visiting them as usual either.

It seemed that something serious must have happened for the peace treaty to even have been suggested. There were still many things he didn't understand about this world which was the very reason why he spent most of his free time reading books.

But, for every answer he couldn't find, he never tried too hard to know. The world was too fast, and many things simply couldn't be comprehended and, better still, left unknown.

He still trained as hard as he could and had managed to evolve his innate energy control to the next half-rank: semi-rank four. The development of his external energy control was as slow as ever while Yuki had somehow managed to grow past him.

With the thoughts of how behind he was running through his mind each day everything he had at the moment felt very insignificant to him.

" If I'm to get stronger then I'll have to be better somehow. I won't be getting a familiar anytime soon and no mystic creature would wanna hang around me either." He thought, heaving a loud sigh, " My dreams sure are big for a five-year-old, but I have to at least get stronger."

While he was walking forward, he didn't realize when he arrived at a park that had many kids of his age running around inside it. He could only see that unlike him, they were free from all the worries he faced.

Maybe it was the fact that he was too in a rush to get stronger that every slight progress seemed too insignificant to him. He was still stronger than most of his peers, but his strength never seemed enough to him.

A slight smile crossed his lips before he slowly turned around and continued forward. Since his current method of training seemed to have come to a steadfast halt in terms of development, he wanted to see if he could get acquainted with a few weapons in the meantime.

And he couldn't do all that because his mother hadn't returned home for the past week ever since the possibility of a peace treaty between the two sides became a widespread topic.

There wasn't anyone who could use a sword he knew and it wasn't like he was that close with the few he knew either way.

After a long walk, he stopped as he placed his palm on his forehead, and stared up at the sky with his eyes widened as much as possible.

It was late in the morning and the sun and his direct gaze at the sun wasn't as painful as it usually would be but after a while, he began to see something quite strange, one he wasn't expecting.

He wasn't the only one who seemed to notice as well as the rays of the sun suddenly began to change colour and became more violent.

Attacks like this were on a global scale, usually just before the appearance of a mystic divine beast. And right now, everyone out in the open was in danger of being attacked.

" Damnit." He mumbled, quickly turning around as he ran back home as fast as he could.

He looked around as he ran, and it was only then that he noticed that most others were standing and admiring the sudden change the sub underwent rather than taking cover for whatever could happen next.

Luckily, the guards seemed to be knowledgeable enough about the sudden occurrence, quickly taking everyone at the park to safety, but there were some who retaliated, arguing over what could possibly happen.

He stood watching for a few seconds before continuing onward towards his house. Yuki was still there before he left and he wasn't sure if she would still be there by the time he returned.

He was able to reach his house a few minutes later with his pace and the guards stationed around the house had already taken action.

" Yuki!" He screamed at the top of his lungs as soon as he ran into the building.

" She left a few minutes ago." One of the maids said, slowly approaching him as she bowed her head.

Without another word said to him, he already knew where she could possibly be since it had only been a while since she walked off on him.

" The woods should be the last place anyone should be in right now. What the hell was she thinking?" He thought, running twice as fast as he ran earlier.

By the time he arrived at the entrance to the woods, he could already hear leaves ruffling and the cries of many tiny creatures as they scurried toward safety as fast as they could.

He quickly rushed in, screaming her name, screaming her name with each step he took hoping that she would hear his voice no matter where she was.

" Megumi!?." She called out to him from a distance, "Wait, right there!"

While he stood there waiting for her, a red void suddenly appeared before him and a humanoid figure came jumping out from inside it.

Soon came a great surge of flames coming from within the void and it quickly ravaged everything in its path in that instant. Everything within a hundred-meter radius was caught in the flames, including him and Yuki.

******

Somewhere in the city of Inazuma, Megumi's mother was currently seated in her office, looking out through the window with a book in her hand, when she heard a knock on her door.

She immediately closed the book as soon as she heard the knock and turned to face the door.

" Come in." She said.

The door slowly opened up and in walked a lady who seemed to be in her early twenties. She was dressed in shining white armor with a sword sheathed by the right side of her waist.

" Nice to see you miss Himeko." She said, slowly walking in.

A smile immediately went across his face as she stood up from the chair and quickly walked towards her and said, " Miku, please have a seat."

" How is my mom doing, ma'am?" She asked, taking the seat she had been offered.

" She's doing great actua..." She suddenly paused as she turned towards the window once again, staring at the sun with a worried look on her face, " Is there anything you would like for me to tell her?"

She slowly looked up at her Himeko, trying as much as possible to maintain eye contact with her, and said, " I'll be on break for the next week, so I was wondering if I could spend the break with you. I was really hoping I could see Rikiyo one more time."

" Huh." She said, turning towards the window once again, gritting her teeth as she noticed the sun getting redder with each passing second, " can you go now?"

" What do you mean now?"

" I mean if you can go see my daughter now. She's currently at the lake and you'll find Megumi in the woods next to it. I have a bad feeling about today?" She said, walking closer to her, "Send a warning to the guards in the clan as well."

" Yes ma'am." She said, quickly vanishing into thin flames.

She appeared beside the lake Himeko had mentioned, and in that instant, the sky had taken a darkened red color while its rays became a lot harsher.

There was a void in the distance into the woods, and something else also had her very worried; the scent of blood.