The sun was rising from the horizon, it looked beautiful and was worth admiring, but the aberrants and Quicks around with chaos around. The perfect picture was just destroyed.
Zen squinted his eyes as the sun rays from the curtain slits shined on his face, he used his hand to block the sun before opening his eyes. He attempted to sit up but felt a weight on his arm, he looked to see Sakura hugging him and using his arm as a pillow.
Looking at the damsel, he noticed how beautiful she looked while sleeping, from her eyelashes to her nose and soft lips.
Zen was still admiring her when Sakura opened her eyes. Brown eyes met Purple eyes.
"G-good morning" Zen said with an awkward smile.
Sakura replied with a good morning without leaving his embrace instead she buried herself into him. "You're so warm"
"Onee-chan?" A little voice called out groggily at their feet.
Zen looked to see the little girl sitting up while scratching her eyes with the back of her right hand.
"Come here, Xi"
The little girl crawled towards him before grabbing onto him and falling asleep again. Zen chuckled wryly and closed his eyes.
**The little girl had told Sakura her name while Zen was unconscious. She is binational, she's half chinese and half japanese.
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Zen, Xi and Sakura were sitting together as they ate their breakfast which consisted of cup noodles, biscuits and some milk.
"We'll have to continue our journey to your parents" Zen said as he bit off from a pair of sausages.
"Yeah" Sakura nodded.
Xi looked at the two of them, "Can I come along?"
Zen and Sakura looked at each other before Zen nodded.
"Of course you can, big brother and big sister here, will protect you" Sakura said as she caressed Xi's hair.
"Hmm... I believe..." Xi agreed with a smile before she looked at Zen who was staring into space while eating his sausages.
"Big brother, I want to become strong like you and big sister" Xi said as she pulled on Zen's camo jeans.
"Eh, are you sure?" The latter asked in surprise, she was just twelve years old, about to clock thirteen in three months.
Xi looked back at him with determination in her eyes, "I don't want to be the only one being protected, I want to protect big sister and you too"
Zen went silent for a while as he examined Xi, he never had a little sister, so he didn't know how to feel about Xi fighting aberrants. She should have been in school by this time, learning stuffs but the world is no longer like that. It's become the survival of the fittest.
"Alright, I'll pave your path to being the strongest... First, let's check a few things" Zen said as he caressed Xi's hair.
<
Name: Xi
Race: Human
Stage: Unawakened
Level: Nil
Lineage: Elven
Class: Unassigned
Gift: Tamer(SSS)
...
Zen looked through Xi's stats with his appraisal eye, her constitution stats were all single digits, while her mana points were off the charts, while being a level zero, her mana capacity was over 1 million.
Maybe it has to do with lineage.
Zen remembered that Sakura's mana capacity was around five hundred thousand when she was just level one.
He continued to look at Xi's stats, everything else was simple, then he looked at her Gift.
[Tamer(SSS)- Due to a fateful encounter, the gift has been upgraded to from B tier to SSS tier, who can keep all legendary beasts under control other than I]
Zen thought it was the perfect gift, as long as she tames a beast, she would not need to fight herself, instead her beasts would fight for her.
"How is it?" Sakura asks.
"It's good, her gift which gives her the ability to tame wild beasts, is enough for her" Zen answered.
"But I haven't an animal yet, we could have tried her gift" Zen continued and Sakura nodded in agreement.
"Big sister, is my gift strong?" Xi asked as she looked at Sakura who sent a gentle smile.
"Of course, since big brother and big sister skills are strong, you are not an exception"
"Aah, what are your gifts?" Xi was suddenly curious.
Zen's face suddenly became serious which startled Xi, thinking she had done something wrong.
"Don't be afraid, Xi... You didn't do anything wrong..." Zen said gently. "... You must never tell anyone your gift only those you trust, I'll tell you my gift because I trust you, you must never tell someone else"
"I will not" Xi promised as she made a fist on her chest.
Zen chuckled as he found her cute. "No need to fret too much"
He then told Xi about his and Sakura's gift telepathically. Xi was startled when she suddenly heard Zen's voice in her head, but she calmed down after he explained that it was one of his skills.
Zen didn't tell her about his second gift, Sakura didn't even know about his second gift or the fact that he had a second.
Meanwhile, Scarlet was looking at Zen through her binoculars, where he was was no longer far from where her and her group were.
Suddenly, she saw Zen looked directly at her, which made her stunned, when she looked well enough, he had turned away and continued speaking with Sakura and Xi.
Scarlet was confused, she felt he had looked directly at her or was it just a coincidence. She was not thinking wrong, Zen had actually looked at her.
His perfection had increased, so he could any gaze on him no matter how far, so when he felt someone watching, he looked in that direction and saw Scarlet clearly. His appraisal eye jad activated and he had seen her status.
He remembered he had felt her gaze when he was fighting the revenant. He was confused about why she was just watching them, she did not seem to have any killing intents.
Zen also knew she was not alone, as he had felt six other people watching their battle along with her.
"Let's meet some people..." Zen said causing Sakura to look at him with raised eyebrows.
"Who are they?"
Zen just smiled, "you'll see..."
Scarlet who had been watching Zen was surprised when he suddenly disappeared, along with Sakura and Xi.
"Where did he go? " She muttered, when she suddenly felt some presence behind her.
When Scarlet turned around, she was stunned.
"Spying on someone is a really bad habit, you know?"
What do you think of this Chapter?