Brent shook his head, motioning for her to stay back. He approached the door slowly,
A tall man stood outside, just out of the direct light. Brent didn't recognize him, but something about the man's presence made him uneasy.
"Who are you?" Brent demanded, keeping his voice low. He had never seen the man, but what he didn't know was that he was never at his home. Kino Kaoru was an agito, the only one in Kino's mind who was capable of fighting these unknowns.
The man looked at him, his expression unreadable. He was calm and composed, like none of this fazed him. "Call the cops," the man said flatly.
The man didn't explain. He just stared at Brent for a moment longer, then turned on his heel and started walking away, not bothering to say another word.
Brent hesitated. Calling the cops after everything that had happened? It didn't feel right. But that guy had said it with such certainty. And Brent's instincts, sharp as ever, told him not to ignore it.
"Grhk.." a man groaned out Brent didn't notice him at first he looked in bad shape his arm was twisted in a way that turned hands left to right to right and right.
brent was going to go help until he heard the words of the man below him.
"I was gonna... fix it," he whimpered, choking on his words. "I was gonna make it right... why... why didn't she just..." His thoughts scrambled, lost in the ache of his shattered reality.
He thought about the moment she'd stepped through the door, oblivious to him, happy in a life that didn't include him. The sight of her living so casually without him had been too much. He'd convinced himself that it wasn't just jealousy—it was betrayal. But now? Now, nothing made sense. His world had fractured beyond repair.
Hearing those words, Brent looked around. He had heard of these types of people before. AI had warned him about it when talking about idol culture, about obsessive fans who would go out of their way to kill.
"Oh, yeah, buddy, you're going to jail." Those were the words uttered upon spotting the knife. It was very obvious what was going to happen.
one cop call anf witness report later.
Brent paced back and forth in the apartment, the weight of everything pressing down on him. The police station had been a blur, the tense standoff with Hikawa and the others, the questions he couldn't answer, and then the sudden, almost casual dismissal that left him walking out the door like nothing had happened. The whole situation made no sense, but it had become clear that his so-called powers were drawing dangerous attention.
Now, back home, the apartment felt different. Not quite right. Something in the air was tense, like a storm about to break. He couldn't shake the feeling that something bad was coming, and soon.
He turned toward the bedroom, where Ai was resting with the kids. The sight of them sleeping so peacefully gave him a moment of calm, but that creeping sense of danger remained. He knew it wasn't just paranoia—his instincts, sharp as ever, were practically screaming at him. Something was coming for them.
Brent moved toward the window, glancing outside at the dimly lit street. Everything looked normal, but he knew better than to trust appearances. His powers had opened a door to a world he didn't understand, one full of strange creatures and threats he couldn't predict.
Just then, the bedroom door creaked softly open. Ai stepped out, their youngest child nestled in her arms, still half-asleep. She looked at him, worry in her eyes.
"You've been pacing since you got back," Ai said, her voice quiet. "What happened?"
Brent turned away from the window, running a hand through his hair. He wasn't good with words, especially when it came to explaining things he didn't fully understand himself. "I… don't know, Ai. Something feels off. At the station, they were asking questions I couldn't answer. About the things I can do—my powers. I think… someone or something is after us."
Ai's face tightened, but she stayed calm, as always. "What do you mean? After us?"
Brent shook his head. "I don't know exactly, but I heard something. There are more like me out there, with powers. And they're being targeted. I think we're in danger."
Ai gently placed Ruby in the crib, and as Aqua was already pretending to sleep, she came to stand beside him. "So what do we do?"
Ai appeared behind him, her voice tense. "Brent, what's going on?
"I don't know," Brent said finally, rubbing the back of his neck. "Maybe. But I feel like there's more going on here than we realize."
Ai nodded, though Brent could see the worry in her eyes. "Whatever we do, we need to be careful. For the kids' sake."
Aqua couldn't believe what they were hearing. Their parents were talking about superpowers. They knew the first chance they got to be alone, they would talk.
The monsters Aqua saw in his last life were enough for him to accept the existence of the supernatural, but when their normally dim-witted father started talking about powers and monsters, he sounded dead serious and determined.
That raised the question of how he would stop such beings. In his mind, the only thing capable of stopping them was the golden man.