Owari looked at him curiously. “What kind of problems have I caused for you?”
“Now that your platinum rank and most people know about it they’ve been sending us letters nonstop trying to get more information about you. They all know about your relationship with my daughter. So they assume we know more than them.” He seemed amused more than annoyed, though there was still annoyance in his tone.
“I take it you’ve been dealing with these letters and not grandfather?” Noel asked with a laugh.
“‘He’s your son in law’ he said, and then dumped it all on me.” He said with a smile that seemed fake.
“So it’s gone past being annoying?” Noel was still amused.
“The son in law thing was annoying, but the amount of times I got to politely tell people to go screw themselves was nice. After all we don’t know anything more than them. Though we wish we did.” He looked at Owari pointedly.
“You can always ask.” Owari smiled.
“What’s your last name?” He asked curiously.
Owari thought for a bit as if trying to remember it. “It’s Yamada.” Owari answered simply.
“That’s it?” Dustin said incredulously. Both because of how easy it was and because it was so common.
“Yes. My family was quite common.” He nodded.
“What was the name of your parents?” For some reason Dustin felt it was important to ask this when he still had the chance.
“My mother is Yunis. My father was Gin.” Owari answered again.
“Was?” Dustin was surprised. He didn’t think Owari’s father would be dead.
“He died almost 10 years ago now. He was a gold rank hunter I do believe.” Owari just laughed it off. His father was a bit above average being 25 and a gold rank. Most independent hunters that age were silver rank.
“Gin Yamada? Died 10 years ago? Lived in Leviathan city?” Dustin asked as if to confirm.
“Sounds about right.” Owari answered dutifully.
“I know your father.” Dustin suddenly said.
“Huh? How could you know him? He lived so far away from you.” Owari found it impossible. Not to mention their difference in rank being so high, even their status was nothing.
“I never met him, but I heard of him. Let me think.” He started to tap his head and after a few moments answered. “He started hunting at the age of 22 and within three years rose from low silver to high gold despite being past the age of growth. That’s why I knew him.”
“Sounds slow to me.” Owari said with a laugh. He was even faster than his old man after all.
“Only to you. And probably only because you don’t know how much your growth slows after 20. To rise even to high silver within that time from his starting point would have been impressive, let alone what he accomplished.” Dustin said seriously. “No wonder you grew so fast. What did he teach you?” He asked with curiosity.
“He mostly just beat me up until I learned how to not get beaten up as badly. It was a lot of fun trying to hit him with my practice sword. Whenever I did he would get me something which was nice.” Owari began to reminisce. It was rare that he thought about his time from back then. It was already blurry to him.
“Is that all?” Dustin was doubtful.
“No. But that’s my secret.” Owari answered with a smile.
Dustin looked at Noel who also smiled. “Yes he told me.” She answered the unasked question. “And no I won’t tell you, unless he tells me to.”
“Alright.” He shrugged helplessly. He wouldn’t force it. However he had a feeling with how open Owari had been so far that he wasn’t actually hiding it because it was a secret.
At that time knocks came on the door. Dustin went over and answered and a voice unfamiliar to Owari but familiar to Noel spoke. “Hey dad, how have you been?” It was obviously her brother.
“I’ve been good, how have you been?” He seemed more curious about how his son had been than he felt like complaining about his wife.
“I’ve been well. Training was hard as usual. My teacher has to be a sadist.” He said helplessly. Noel and Owaari both laughed at that. They had heard it many times spoken by Kent when he thought they couldn’t hear him. “Is that Noel?” Suddenly he sidestepped his dad and looked in to see both her and Owari.
“Hello brother, it’s been a while.” Noel said with a wide smile.
“It sure has kid. So who’s this?” He looked over at Owari.
“This is Owari. Owari, this is my brother Joshua.” Noel introduced.
“Just call me Josh.” He held out his hand which Owari took.
“I don’t have a nickname so feel free to just call me by my name.” Owari said with a smile as the two shared an ordinary handshake.
“Funny.” Josh laughed a bit. “So you’re the one my sister chose huh? I heard you were quite impressive.”
“Chose?” Owari asked about the weird wording.
“She told practically everyone in the family that she wanted to be with you first. At least everyone who implied otherwise.” Josh smiled while thinking about the looks on their faces when they heard it.
“It’s true though.” Noel said from the side.
“Fair enough.” Josh didn’t deny it.
“So what did you hear?” Owari was curious.
“Well most people only had good things to say on my way here. I also heard my mother gave you a bunch of trouble. I even heard you were platinum rank.” He fired off in quick succession.
“I’d hope they would say good things about him after the trouble they caused.” Noel spoke up.
“Me too.” Josh seemed a bit embarrassed by his family. He had also heard what happened after they did that and how much damage it could have done to the family. It wouldn’t have been a massive problem, but it was definitely enough to warrant significant punishment.
“Are you all going to keep ignoring me?” Dustin said from the side.
“Have you been talking?” Owari asked.
“No.” Dustin said with some impatience.
“Then we weren’t ignoring you. You just failed to add to the conversation.” Owari chuckled.
“Let’s not be so hostile.” Josh interrupted them before they could argue. “Let’s all go sit down and talk.” He suggested and walked over to the dinner table to sit down, gesturing for everyone else to do the same. Owari and Noel sat down next to one another naturally, while her brother and father were on each end of the table. “So now then, how have you been since I last saw you?” He asked Noel.
Noel then began narrating things from about three years back including her life here before she left. She talked about how worried her father had been before she left, as well as the train crash and what happened. She even talked about the embarrassing part where Owari saved her and she almost got him killed. After that she talked about her life in the city, which was dull and boring except for when she talked to her new friends. She also mentioned how she had gained a few new beasts and even showed off Scythe who had been hiding in her coat until that point.
“So now you come out?” Owari looked at the shivering weasel.
“Don’t scare him.” Noel sighed. The weasel hissed at him as if to agree.
“I wasn’t threatening him. He’s just a wimp. Besides he started it. I could sense his hostility every time you bring him with you.” Owari seemed offended.
“That’s why I usually leave him at home.” Noel agreed the weasel was a bit too obsessive.
“It looks interesting.” Her brother said as if trying to think of a word for it.
“It’s very lazy.” Noel said. It still hadn’t increased in rank and refused to eat raw or stewed beast meat.
“It’s a freeloader.” Owari stated eliciting a hiss from the weasel.
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“Stop fighting already.” Noel shoved the weasel back into her coat with a sigh. She would take the weasels' side except that Owari was right. She had already acclimated to its earth affinity. If she ditched it she wouldn’t lose anything. In fact she wouldn’t have to spend money to feed it anymore. Unfortunately she was already attached to it so she turned it into a common house pet.
“By the way I was curious, what rank are you?” Owari asked Josh curiously.
“I’m only high gold.” He said with an awkward smile.
“That’s still pretty impressive.” Owari didn’t at all discount him. “What’s keeping you from reaching platinum?”
“My mystic art is a bit special so it’s taking me longer to breakthrough.” Of course he was aware of what Owari was talking about, it was about spirit arts. It was hard to gain understanding of your mystic art when it was more complex, even if you made it yourself.
“Just go fight a platinum rank beast. That’s what I did.” Owari shrugged.
“Not everyone is suicidal like you.” Noel noted from the side.
“So you won’t do it either?” Owari looked at her with amusement.
“I didn’t say that.” She denied immediately.
“See?” Owari looked over at Josh.
“My affinity is a bit weird so that probably wouldn’t work. Also I don’t really want to die.” He couldn’t help but sweat at the thought.
“Weird?” Owari picked up on this.
“It’s the aurora affinity. I was born with it. It’s a mutant light affinity with heat and cold traits. It can freeze and burn at the same time.” He said proudly.
“That sounds pretty interesting.” Owari was indeed impressed. It was rare to find affinities that could have a duality effect.
“It looks nice too.” Noel spoke up.
“It really does.” Her father finally talked.
“I suppose so, but I’m used to it.” Josh clutched his hand causing it to be surrounded by a slew of colors that rapidly shifted.
“That’s cool.” Owari thought it was interesting.
After seeing the look in his eyes, Noel changed the topic. “So when should we pass out presents?”
“Now is as good a time as any. Best to get it out of the way.” Josh shrugged.
“Sure, I don’t mind.” Dustin agreed.
“Then who goes first?” Noel had no problem with it.
“I can go first.” Owari chuckled when he saw the surprise on the two other’s faces. “I didn’t come just to watch you know.”
“We don’t have anything for you though.” Dustin said awkwardly.
“I didn’t expect you to.” Owari stated what he felt was obvious. “So first is you.” He took out a box from his coat and handed it over. When he opened the box somewhat hesitantly he saw a bracelet within. “It’s made of orichalcum. The gemstone is made of the same material as a crystal card. If you use spirit arts through the bracelet it will enhance their effect by up to 10%.”
Dustin was surprised by this gift. “Who designed this? I wasn’t aware such a thing existed.”
“It’s a prototype developed by the makers of the music disk player. One of the investors recommended looking into the mana enhancing abilities of the crystal cards. I later added in my own thoughts and this is what came of it.” Owari explained.
“Sounds like the company is moving away from just one thing.” Dustin was surprised.
“They are the leaders in terms of crystal card development. They know more about it than most after all their work with it. I’m surprised more people didn’t notice these properties before.” Owari felt it was quite unfortunate such technology wasn’t discovered already or it would be even further along.
“The original creators had a monopoly on the creation method for the longest time. It was made by a banking business after all so they weren’t interested in non-banking uses. Bunch of short-sided fools in the end. They lost the monopoly a few decades ago so research was still just beginning.” Dustin explained why it might be like this, it was the only explanation he could give.
“Unless they were purposely hiding those other uses so nobody would pressure them into releasing the methods to make them. After all if the government knew, then they would definitely pressure them.” Owari gave his own opinion.
“Please no more business talk.” Noel interrupted them.
“Sorry, my bad.” Owari apologized immediately, sometimes it was important to know when you messed up.
“So now for the gift to Josh.” Noel nudged Owari.
“Right.” He pulled out a second, bigger box. “This is from both of us. She picked it out and I paid for it.” He handed it over.
“What is it?” he asked as he opened it and saw a bar of silvery metal.
“It’s mana reinforced steel. It has a typeless affinity. It will develop into the same affinity as whatever passes through it regularly until it becomes that affinity. It’s very rare and I found it by luck. But it fits you well.” Noel explained.
“There’s enough here to make a pair of sabers. It’s perfect. But this had to be expensive.” He looked at Owari strangely.
“Not really. It was only a few thousand credits.” He casually said.
“That’s a lot to most people.” He sighed.
“Not to me.” Owari chuckled.
“I can see that.” He smiled back, not at all bothered by Owari’s show of wealth. He could tell Owari was being genuine with the gift at least. As was Noel.
“Now I know why she was so adamant to get it for you though. With a mutant affinity it’s probably impossible to find an appropriate weapon huh?” Owari knew it would be impossible unless he went up north where auroras were so he could find materials born from light affinity mana. There was a very very tiny chance it might have the aurora affinity.
“Definitely impossible, not from lack of trying though.” He replied.
“So now it’s time for my gift to father.” Noel naturally went next. She pulled out a box from her own coat and handed it over to her father. When he opened it he saw an almost identical bracelet as the one Owari gave him. This one however had a glittering violet gem. It was made of mana infused amethyst. “It has the crystal affinity like you. It will resonate with your crystal affinity and enhance it.”
“Thank you.” Obviously he saw that the two had coordinated on this. The two gifts significantly increased his strength.
“Who’s next?” Noel asked. She was happy enough with his thanks.
“I can go next.” Josh volunteered. “First is father.” he pulled something out of his pocket and tossed it over. It was a coin.
His father looked at it for a bit before a shine came to his eye. “A vintage silver phoenix coin. These haven’t been made for almost 100 years. How did you find it?”
“I got it from someone I did a job for. Their husband was a coin collector but when he died she had no way to do anything with them. She didn’t have the money to pay for certificates of authenticity so she couldn’t sell them. After I bought that one she started getting them authenticated and made a lot of money. I bought a few more if you’re interested. But those one’s aren’t freebies.” He chuckled.
“Of course, they had to be expensive.” He was just happy to have the chance.
“Now for Noel.” He let his dad play with his new coin and looked over at Noel. Then he reached around and undid a necklace he had on and handed it over. It was really just a chain with a ring on the end.
“Isn’t this grandma’s ring?” She asked as she carefully took it. “Why give it to me?”
“She originally gave it to me because she wanted me to give it to you when you got older. You were closer to her than I was.” Josh shrugged.
“Why now?” Noel directly put it on, her grandmother had died when she was quite young, but before that they had been inseparable. She was the only one with the free time to humor Noel’s stories for so long.
“I was going to give it to you last year but I didn’t have a chance.” He smiled a bit awkwardly. He had come over but forgot to check if she would be here first. He didn’t make that mistake this time.
“I was visiting Owari’s mother.” Noel remembered that time as both good and bad. She had fun, but she was drilled with a lot of questions.
“So you went there before coming back here?” Her father seemed surprised.
“Well at that time Owari and I were unsure where our relationship stood. If I came back with or without him it would have muddled things up. Besides, he invited me. Not only that but I’ve spent my whole life celebrating with you.” Noel fired off one reason after another.
“I get it already.” Dustin couldn’t help but accept it.
“Good.” Noel nodded. She was just glad he didn’t bother her over the first thing. “You’re next.”
“Alright alright.” He chuckled. “I’ll do both at once.” He pulled out a pair of boxes that looked similar and handed one to each. They both opened the boxes and found a necklace inside of it. “They’re resonance gems.” As soon as he said it Noel couldn’t help but snicker. “Is something wrong?” He asked confused.
“Grandfather gave me one. Which type is this?” She couldn’t help but smile, the two were always very similar.
“I couldn’t find a kinetic affinity for you so I got a force affinity one. I got light for you Josh because I know light affinity helps boost your aurora affinity.” He explained.
“This should be good. Now my main two affinities will be enhanced.” Noel wasn’t disappointed at all.
“You have the force affinity already?” Her father was somewhat surprised.
“Did I not tell you? I tamed a large pangolin type magical beast with the force affinity.” She even still visited it on occasion. She had been looking into ways to bring it back, with no luck unfortunately.
“Oh, I don’t think you did.” He thought for a moment but didn’t recall it.
“It must have slipped my mind.” It wasn’t exactly the most important thing in the world so it made sense.
After that the conversation turned towards mundane matters. Dustin asked Owari about his family both out of curiosity for him, as well as for his father. When he heard about the situation he felt some pity. All of Owari’s grandparents passed away before he was six, meanwhile his father died when he was eight. He had no aunts or uncles on either side. It was basically his mother all by herself with no support who raised him. It made sense why he was so mature and independent. He had to be for his mother’s sake.
Noel decided she would make lunch for everyone and cook dinner. Both were quite delightful. Owari knew she had gone to that cook who ran the restaurant they would visit for lunch on occasion to get some lessons. She enjoyed the homemade feel all the food gave off and wanted to have something similar in her cooking. He naturally accepted after finding out she was a recurring customer, especially since she was so polite when she asked. The fact that she was a Silverblood admittedly helped.
Eventually they all finished up so Noel and Owari made their way back to the guest house. “When should we go home?” She asked him as they settled in on the couch to relax.
“That depends. Is there any reason to stay?” Owari asked back.
“We could hunt around here. Could be a new experience.” Noel suggested.
“That depends on if there is anything of interest to hunt here.” Owari decided to look into it tomorrow. Instead he yawned and leaned into the couch. He was exhausted.
“Tired huh?” Noel asked. Owari had answered a lot of questions today. Luckily he had left a much better impression this time and under Joshua’s persistence her father admitted Owari wasn’t all bad.
“Definitely. I don’t like stuff like this.” It might be easy to forget, but Owari preferred simple things. He didn’t like politics, or business, or interrogations. He just wanted a simple easy life.
“I know. How about we go to sleep?” Noel suggested.
“Sure, if you want.” Without even answering Noel went into the bedroom and the two ended up going to sleep instead of staying up to talk as they usually did these days.
The next day they went around asking some people about the local wildlife and what kinds of magical beasts had been spotted lately. They even visited the local hunter’s outpost to gather information. By the time they finished it was noonish so they ate some lunch. Unfortunately they hadn’t heard of any platinum ranked beasts in the area. It made sense though, would the Silverbloods sit idly if one was found? Most of them would be in hiding.
They thought about whether to go out but still decided to. They had some time to burn and it wasn’t like they were doing this to grow themselves. It was mostly for fun. “So the genius gathering this year is in Leviathan city.” Owari noted.
“It’s being held by the Luna family if I remember correctly. Why bring it up?” Noel was curious.
“Well I was wondering why the Luna family? They are only big in the Leviathan territory.” Owari was a bit uncertain as to why the big groups would entrust this event to such a small family.
“This is their chance to break out. Whenever a family starts to rise in prominence they’re given a chance to host the gathering. If things go well then they’ll be accepted into the bigger world of politics and business. Otherwise they’ll remain in obscurity. As for this occasion they’ve decided to also invite anyone below 22 who is platinum rank.” Noel explained.
“Makes sense. I wonder how those platinum ranks will react to me.” Owari chuckled.
“There probably won’t be a lot. The difference between high gold and low platinum is large. Maybe a few dozen at most. Being able to reach low platinum by 22 is considered about the same as high gold by 17. It’s impressive but not absurd. At least among the geniuses. For ordinary members of the agencies and families the average 17-year-old is only silver rank. For 22-year-olds it would be the lower end of gold.” Noel listed some basic statistics.
“I sometimes forget that people our age are usually so weak. They also die a lot.” Owari felt it was unfortunate.
“That’s mostly independent hunters. No offense but on average they’re even weaker than agency and family hunters. 17-year-olds are closer to upper copper to lower silver ranks. While 22-year-olds tend to be silver rank. In fact silver is common for independent hunters all the way until the thirties.” Noel gave some more statistics.
“I never really thought about it. But we really are freaks huh?” Owari laughed.
“Well you should have guessed as much when you fought those silver ranks way back when who were in their twenties while you were still 16.” Noel had already been told the story of how Owari first fought human enemies.
“True, but I thought they were below average. To think they were average.” Owari was almost disappointed.
“It makes sense, after all most people grow by fighting enemies of lower rank then them and build up their skills over time. The real thrill-seekers face enemies on the same level as them, these tend to be the geniuses. Then there’s you who suicidally charges at enemies stronger than you to grow.” Noel said with a hint of amusement in her tone.
“It’s the only way I can keep up after all.” Owari laughed.
“‘Keep up’ you say? You’ve already gone beyond that.” Noel was even more amused.
“Because I work harder. If everyone worked as hard as you do they would be at your rank. The only reason you aren’t ahead of me is the fact that you use so much time to do your familial duties. If not for that you would be much higher ranking than me. Maybe even mid platinum.” When he said this Noel couldn’t think of a way to refute him. It was true that she spent less than half the amount of time out on hunts that he has. In the end she just laughed and the two moved on to less awkward topics. They tended to avoid the topic of their strength and skills because of how Noel felt about being the weaker of the two and how Owari felt about being the less talented of the two. It was a topic rife with complications and places to argue.