It had been nearly three days since Zen's soul had been taken to a place the system didn't have enough time to say. Celia had woken up the building which Zen quite literally destroyed was nearly completely repaired. Murphy was currently in his office looking distressed tomorrow would be the day sentinel academy took in new students yet Zen showed no signs of waking up. Murphy had brought in dozens of doctors with healing abilities to try and find out what exactly was wrong with Zen yet none of them could find anything wrong with him , he had even brought someone with the ability to remove debuffs but nothing happened, The boy was in perfect health yet he was still unconscious. He had even asked celia what she had done and celia who saw no point in lying as her father knew all of the active and passive skills of her bracelets was completely honest with him. Celia herself was curious. What she did shouldn't have put him in a coma so she was honestly confused although not worried , she had seen the extent of what Zen could take and she didn't think he'd be down for long. Not that she was rooting for him but she genuinely believed it. The actual problem would be how much he remembered and how he would react if he would wake up.
It was nighttime and Murphy was in his office except he didn't look as refined as he did a few days ago, he had a picture in his hand. He looked at it intensely and couldn't help talking
"I'm sorry, it seems I'm going to be the cause of your son's death as well"
He suddenly heard a sound at the door but saw that nothing happened. Not surprised he simply said
"You know you don't have to do that"
Immediately after he spoke alma appeared from seemingly thin air inside his office. Murphy calmly looked at her
"I still don't know why you picked that ability"
Alma's ability was in fact not invisibility. Her ability was to project illusions . She simply created an effect similar to invisibility by surrounding herself with illusions of her surroundings
"I wanted to make a name for myself"
Murphy couldn't help but think his sister was speaking like a child but simply gestured for her to sit. Celia complied and sat down in a rather relaxed manner, it was her younger brother's place after all. Murphy wasn't fazed by her nonchalant attitude, he had gotten used to it by now.
"What are you looking at?" Asked alma as she looked at the picture in his hand.
Murphy passed it to her and the moment alma saw it she had mixed feelings.
The picture was of the younger versions of Murphy and Alma as with two girls and one other boy. The two girls looked somewhat similar almost identical except for their Hair clothes and eyes which were all red for one and all blue for the other. The blue haired girls had grown her hair out long and wavy but the one with red hair had her's in a slightly boyish cut as she had cut her hair short and a little spiky. The boy on the other hand had ash colored hair and a medium length parted cut. Each and every one of them had at least one piece of aether gear on them and had bright smiles on their faces. They all seemed close .
Murphy looked at his sister's expression and decided to tease her a little
"Getting sentimental sis?"
"Fuck off. This means nothing to me.
Murphy simply smiled
"If that's true why is that thing still on your wrist?"
Said Murphy before he pointed at a bangle on her wrists which had many gemstones and glitter on it making it seem a bit childish. A closer look at the picture and one would notice that everyone in that photo had a similar one.
Murphy pulled down his sleeve to reveal he had one as well .
"Guess what, I kept mine too.
Alma simply let out a snort and acted like she didn't hear him.
"Since you're already hear why not join me for a drink ". Said murphy who seemed to have lost all his anger towards her. Although he and his sister weren't very close as of late they weren't distant either.
Alma simply shrugged her shoulders lazily. Murphy who knew his sister better than anyone understood she was just pretending and decided to get them a drink.
He poured some for alma and himself and himself and they began to chat.
Thirty minutes later they were both slightly drunk and the bottle was nearly empty. Alma once again looked at the photo on the table and a single tear suddenly fell and she lightly said
"I never wanted it to be this way".
Murphy looked at his sister and comforted her.
Meanwhile it was around 10:00pm . While Murphy and Alma were drinking away their worries something big was about to happen.
In Zen's new room. Zen's lifeless body was laying on the large bed and his head was on Celia's lap as she rubbed his head.
In a deep dark void there was a woman with long blue hair and blue eyes. She was clad in a black and blue dress and she exuded an air of calmness as she floated through the void.
She suddenly heard a mechanical sound and smiled after hearing what it said.
[System reboot complete]
[Host's soul will return in 10 seconds, please stand by ]
[10...9...8...7...6...5...4...3...3...1]
At the end of the countdown the darkness was suddenly replaced by a brilliant flash of light.
Zen's eyes slowly fluttered opened and released a faint light, At least his left eye did, his right eye was still being covered by his hair "
"What's going on?" He thought confused by what was happening
[Welcome back host]
"That voice again"
. Zen looked up and he saw something a bit strange looking like mounds blocking his vision but he was just waking up after three days so his mind was still a bit slow so he just ignored it.
Zen quickly noticed that his head was elevated and whatever his head was on didn't feel like a pillow. He rubbed his head on the strange soft surface softly a few times and suddenly heard a surprised voice
"Huh? Is that....?"
Zen looked up and saw a face looking at him over the two mounds.
At that point his mind was completely awake and he realized what was happening. Zen quickly slammed his fists down on the bed and used his arms to support himself as he launched himself from the bed and basically jumping with his arms. He flipped in the air as he landed a few feet away from the bed with visible coldness in his eyes.
Celia who seemed as excited as can be crawled on the bed towards Zen but she suddenly halted after seeing the look in his eye .
"Zen?"
"....."
She could guess what he was thinking and tried to explain
"Zen listen, you don't understand. I've been doing everything i could to help you. You've been asleep for..."
Before she could finish Zen suddenly remembered what the voice in his head had said and interrupted her repeating it's words
"75 hours, 29 minutes and 34 seconds".
"Y-yes" said celia confused at how he could give such a specific guess however she didn't have time for that now and continued.
"I've been taking care of you this whole time. I even..." Her face suddenly turned beet red as she continued
"I...i even bathed you and changed your clothes "
Zen looked at his body and noticed that his clothes were different from when he had passed out. He currently had a black shirt and pants on with a hoodie. Zen suddenly noticed that his hair was wet and newly combed and tended to, Zen also felt his body was a bit refreshed similar to how one would feel after a cold bath. That plus his wet and newly combed hair as well as his new clothes told him that she was telling the truth.
Celia's face suddenly turned weird
"I must admit you're pretty impressive Zen, no matter how many times i saw it i could never get over or get used to that size " said celia with a face as red as a tomato.
Zen raised an eyebrow not knowing how to react and honestly not caring about what she said .
Zen saw the bracelets on her wrists and said
"So that's why"
"What do you mean"
Something suddenly changed in Zen's stone cold eyes. She could feel the way he looked at her was different although only slightly.
"You said it yourself , everyone needs an edge right? Looks like you got two"
"Zen,it's not like that at all "
"Like what?"
"Okay if you have something to say Zen just say it. You're not exactly the kind to beat around the bush"
"I'm not exactly sure what happened but it doesn't seem like you did this just for gear....."
Zen didn't feel like talking anymore and simply raised his fist. In all honesty Zen couldn't help feeling it was unnecessary for a fight to break out , his intention wasn't to fight with celia but to test a theory, he'd be stupid to try to attack her in her father's house.
Almost as if sensing his intent Zen's necklace suddenly began to glow and Zen's destructive aether as well as some strange energy began to seep out of his body. Zen suddenly felt like there was a presence behind him guiding his movements,a feeling he had come to get accustomed with mostly because of Transcend . His arm moved back as he clenched his fist and punched outward. In a way he knew what he was doing and in a way he didn't as these actions seemed both foreign and familiar at the same time.
As Zen threw out his fist a translucent yet visible stream of energy flowed out of his fist and headed straight towards celia.
[Aether force]
[AE -1]
"That's enough "
Murphy suddenly appeared in front of celia one moment and the next they had both teleported away from the direction of the blast and appeared at the other side of the room. Murphy could just have easily knocked away Zen's attack however that would put his daughter at risk so he didn't risk it.
Zen suddenly felt what felt like a pair of hands on his face but he was confused as he couldn't see anyone in front of him. Noticing Zen's confused look Murphy directed a burst of aether in Zen's direction. Alma's illusion promptly fell revealing alma who was gently holding Zen's face. She had leaned in so close that she was right in front of him. She kept staring at him with curiosity. There was no ulterior motive to her actions she was simply curious . Every time she looked at Zen she would see a faint image of that blue haired girl. She just couldn't understand. He wasn't even her real son and their personalities were nothing like each other so why would she always be reminded of her whenever she saw this kid. Was it due to her inner guilt or something else? she wondered.
"Alright Alma, you've freaked him out enough " said Murphy while rolling his eyes .
Alma let go and she didn't know whether she imagined it but she felt like she heard a familiar voice saying
"It was nice seeing you again". Alma froze for a few seconds but brushed it off and went to stand next to Murphy.
Zen on the other hand also directed a curious look at Alma . How could he not when she was identical to Celia's accomplice that night. He stared at her but the longer he did the more he believed she wasn't his attacker. The person who had attacked him had a clear goal in mind and saw him as unimportant. Alma on the other hand seemed to have mixed feelings about him although he wasn't sure why.
Murphy turned to celia
"Wait here" he said authoritatively as he, alma and Zen suddenly vanished from the room.
The Three of them suddenly appeared at a random location in the city. Murphy had made sure they were alone and decided to first clear things out
"First of all let me apologize on behalf of my sister and daughter".
Zen looked around and noticed he was out in the city
"You're letting me go?". He asked not at all interested in Murphy's apology
"Not just yet" replied Murphy
"What do you want?"
"Actually it's what do YOU want?"
Zen raised an eyebrow confused.
"Let me explain. Truth is i won't feel at ease if I just send you away after what I put you through. So tell me kid, what do you want . Credits? Materials? Cores? Equipment? Well, what'll it be*
Zen thought for only a second and said
"Don't go after me. No matter what happens after today don't bother me ever again. Were strangers now"
"A...are you sure that's all you want" asked Murphy who was surprised he'd ask for something so low but also a bit hesitant to fulfill that request.
"Yes that is all i want"
"Well in that case take this" said Murphy immediately after passing a thumb drive to him
"That's the map of the entire city, you'll need it to get to where you'll need to go".
Zen plugged the drive into a small port on his watch which was about the size of a grain of rice. A few seconds later his watch beeped and he removed it. He tapped on the watch and a small holographic projection of the entire city appeared above the watch it was projected out of.
Murphy looked at the map and marked a location as well as the route zen would have to take before wishing him good luck and vanishing with Alma.
Zen watched them disappear and retracted the hologram into the watch . He looked towards the city and pulled up his hood before he started walking in a random direction.
"Finally i can deal with this thing" said Zen looking at the system screen in front of him.