I stared at my mom.
Her red, long hair was messed up, and her black eyes were filled with tears.
I never thought I would see my mom in a state like this. She was always taking care of the whole house, my younger sister, and my grandpa, who had been paralyzed for a few years. On top of that, he had lots of health problems, yet I had never seen or heard her complain.
"He died from a heart attack..." she sobbed. The thing is, I was a guy who didn't care that much about anything, but seeing my mom cry made me sad.
I heard footsteps behind me. I turned to see Mr. and Mrs. Sakako, our neighbors."Hello, Akira," said Mr. Sakako, forcing a smile.
While I didn't know much about Mrs. Sakako, I used to spend a lot of time with Mr. Sakako when I was younger. We used to play a lot of different games, and he seemed to enjoy games involving luck."Unpredictable is fun, don't you think?" This was his response whenever I complained about playing yet another dice game.
Both he and Mrs. Sakako had grey hair, yet they still looked younger than they were."Sup. So, why are we in your house?" I said in a casual tone, quickly realizing it was a mistake as the mood in the room darkened even more.I left the question unanswered as I heard a deep, quiet voice behind me."Alright, Lili is sleeping."
It was my dad. Lili was my younger sister, just 5 years old. She never seemed to like me, which didn't bother me. My dad looked at me with a serious expression."Where have you been?" he asked, frustration evident in his voice.
"Outside," I replied casually.
"What do you mean 'outside,' you ignorant rat!" he snapped. I looked at him, confused.
Had Grandpa's death affected them that much? Dad was usually very calm and understanding. He rarely yelled at me and would even defend me occasionally, even when he knew I was at fault.
Then I remembered.
Earlier that day, my dad had told me to get a bottle containing some liquid from his cousin, who lived in another part of town. I had wandered around until I eventually forgot about the bottle and ended up at the bookstore.
"That bottle was for Grandpa?" I asked.
"Yes," he replied simply.
Everyone was staring at me, making me uncomfortable."Listen, I understand that Grandpa died and you all miss him. I also wanted to ask him some questions. But since he's dead, just let him be, right? I mean, what can you do if he's gone?" I said.
My mom got up and left instantly, crying, with Mrs. Sakako following her. I saw Dad's face filled with anger. The next second, he punched me. I could feel he used magic to strengthen his fist, and it caused me to faint.
---
I woke up in my room with a crazy headache. My face hurt, and I couldn't open my mouth without feeling a sharp pain across it. I got up and tried to leave, but my dad had used a spell to make my door as hard as metal—it wouldn't open.
I looked around. My room was the same as always: grey walls, my bed pressed against the left wall, and a big closet against the right wall. Next to the bed was a small desk with a chair, and on the desk sat a lamp and a few sheets of paper with random things written and drawn on them.
I made my way to the window between my desk and the closet. As I drew the curtains, I realized it was daytime."Did that punch knock me out for that long?" I thought to myself.
Since I couldn't open the door, I decided to use the window to get out. I took a deep breath, drawing particles of mana from my surroundings.
Mana was used to create different magic spells. It was everywhere—everything had some mana. My parents never taught me how to properly use it, though. They kept saying it was for my safety, so I had to learn on my own.
I used mana to strengthen my legs so I could jump down without getting hurt. Since I didn't feel like wandering around town, I decided to head to the beach.
I wasn't sure about the other zones, but the Eastern Zone was surrounded by a vast ocean on three sides. The beach was unusually quiet, with no one there. It had soft sand, and the water was clean.
You could even go fishing a little further out. I didn't do anything exciting—just imbued my fists with mana, punched the sand to create a hole, and waited for the water to fill it. I was so focused on the hole that I didn't notice the old man who approached me.
"Hello." He startled me.
"Oh... hello. Can I help you?"
The man took a quick glance at the hole."I was wondering why you punch the sand instead of just reforming it to create the hole," he said.
"Oh, I can't do that yet," I replied casually.
I could only manipulate mana from inside my body. Also, I noticed he didn't assume I was a kid.
"Yet? Boy, kids five years younger than you can do that naturally!" he said, surprised.
"My parents just don't want to teach me, and I'm not particularly interested in being a powerful mage," I said, finally focusing my attention on him.
Despite being old, he was very fit and had a scar on his right cheek."May I ask, what would you like to do?" he asked politely, sitting next to me.
"I don't know. I don't really do anything except wander around and try different fun stuff."
Though he had just sat down, he got up."Here's some advice," he said in the tone of a scolding parent.
"You will definitely need to use magic at some point in life. And you don't want to learn to control mana better. In fact, you don't want to do anything. So I advise you to stop playing in the sand and do something productive."
This felt different. I could tell he didn't truly care, unlike my parents.
I bit my lip."As you are now, you are completely worthless," said the man.
Before I could say anything, he just disappeared.