CHAPTER 25
WHO WAS SOREN PARK?
Her eyes widened. Then the tears started to flow, devastation and betrayal clear on her face. She grabbed his shirt, clutching at him as if it would help keep him from getting away.
“What’s wrong?!” she demanded. “Why can’t you tell me what’s wrong?!”
Even directly facing her, caught in her grasp, he couldn’t bear to look at her. He clenched his teeth, choking back his own tears. His long, handsome hair drew a shadow over his eyes.
“I’m… I’m sorry.”
And Pike grabbed and pulled at his hair in a fit of frustration, cursing in parents’ Eastern tongue. “Tanginang— Why can’t you just tell her?!”
He flopped back in his chair, causing it to teeter back slightly from the force before correcting itself upright. The ending theme rolled through his computer monitor. Pike couldn’t believe it. It was one of those anime tropes that, as an aspiring writer, he couldn’t comprehend. What was so hard about explaining to her that she was being threatened by the big bad? She could probably help him too; it wasn’t like she was some oblivious damsel.
It forced a growling sigh out of him. With a few more episodes before the season finale, he supposed it was an easy way to keep the plot going. Although if he were writing the story, he doubted that he would resort to such a throwaway story tactic. In other words, Pike DeSanto prided himself on being a writer of quality (by amateur standards, of course).
His phone rang, vibrating beside him on the desk.
Pike picked it up—and was surprised by the name on his caller ID. He answered.
“Hey, Tita She. What’s up?”
…
“Huh? Help you at High Tower?”
…
“Yeah, sure thing. I’ll ask Mindie if she wants to help out too, if that’s okay.”
…
“Sige (Okay).” He beamed. “See you tomorrow.”
=-=-=
Ryan stood outside High Tower, looking over the statue that had been erected. At the base was a memorial plaque:
Seong-Ho “Soren” Park
1970 – 2008
The brightest star to ever shine over Halo Ridge
It dawned on him then. The co-author of that older edition of Luminescence 101. So, this is where he saw the name.
Artreius had just finished giving him a pep talk, leaving him to admire the statue outside High Tower. To have something erected in your memory, you must need to have been someone extraordinary. The golden boy found himself humbled by that thought.
“He was a former Number One.” Mindie approached him, coming from inside the building.
Ryan shot her a surprised look, which quickly melted into a smug grin. “Spending the afternoon in the library? Have you gone full nerd on me?”
Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
“Don’t sass me, golden boy; nerds are cool. And I was helping Pike and Professor DeSanto clean up a bit.”
She stopped and stood next to him, taking her own moment to admire the memorial with a grin. “I heard the professor asked for this statue to be made in his honor after he passed away.”
“The brightest star, huh. Must’ve been an amazing guy. Coach Nor says he sees a lot of him in me.” He wasn’t humble bragging at all.
“That’s a huge compliment!” Mindie exclaimed, bouncing on her feet. “I mean, I don’t know a whole lot about him myself since he passed when I was still little. But he was good friends with my mom. I heard they were the best Superstars in the world, along with Professor DeSanto.”
She laughed. “Some people even called them The Big Three. Sooo tropey!”
“Tropey?”
Mindie caught herself. She coughed out the rest of her laughter and cleared her throat self-consciously, waving her hands to erase what she said. “Nothing, nothing! I-It’s an anime thing.”
Ryan didn’t get it. “Anyway TC, I’ve been wondering… what does a Superstar do? You know, different from just us regular Stars.”
An excited glint twinkled in those emerald eyes. “So, right now. Do you think we’d be able to stop an earthquake on our own at our level?”
“I’m assuming the answer is no.”
“What about a mega volcano from erupting? Or a freak accident that causes a massive explosion?”
“Also no?”
Mindie’s smile widened. She crossed her arms with a slight patronizing air, nodding her head. “Mhm. You catch on quick, Mr. Belmont. Not every Shade results from a single person having a bad day. Superstars take on assignments around the world, purging some of the most dangerous levels of chaotic energy—the stuff that causes massive havoc if they’re not dealt with right away. Ideally, they reduce that chaos to rubble before it can even cause trouble.”
The golden boy looked nonplussed. “But stuff like that can happen in the blink of an eye. It’s not like you can sense impending chaos halfway around the world, right?”
They stared at each other.
“…Can you?”
Mindie brought her fingers up to her earring thoughtfully, considering what he said. “Hmm… Well, I hear that some Stars have a really refined sense of predicting when chaos will strike. My mom says any luminescent can really, if you’re paying attention.”
She shut her eyes tightly, scouring her memory. “I remember she told me once that Uncle Soren sometimes just knew when something felt wrong. Like, he’d just look at a news report and suddenly get the sense there was chaos amassing somewhere.”
Ryan raised a skeptical eyebrow. “So, it’s the same as what we have with the bulletin board?”
“No, it’s like…” Mindie racked her brain in frustration. A more outlandish example came to mind, her eyes popping open as she pointed at him to drive home what she was trying to say. “Think of like… you’re walking through a crowd, right? And you suddenly just… know that a city some hundred miles away is gonna have a chaos-related incident—even if it hasn’t happened yet.”
“Uh-huh…” At this point, Ryan was just humoring her. Even this explanation felt like it missed its mark, and Mindie knew it.
Growling at her inability to put it into words, Mindie yanked off her hair tie. She shook out her copper-brown hair, then started to remake her haphazard, messy bun. “Look, I don’t really get it myself. Maybe we’ll get it once our levels are stronger or something.”
A quick moment later, her hair was deftly tied back together. Mindie heaved out a sigh, letting out her frustrations and recuperating from them. Then she turned back to Ryan.
“In any case, you probably didn’t need to have a Superstar lumi level to sense the incident that happened the day Uncle Soren died.”
She noticed him staring. She guessed he must’ve spaced out a moment from boredom or confusion. “Ryan?”
Ryan blinked out of his daze. Staring at her out of boredom wasn’t exactly how he would’ve phrased it. “Sorry. You were saying? The day he died?”
Mindie went on to explain.
Ten years ago, a massive influx of chaotic energy washed over Halo Ridge. Stars and Superstars would go on to say it happened without warning. The perpetrating Shade drained the energy of half the town’s residents, and its amassed aura grew as large as the plaza.
Had Soren and Chiaki not been there, it would surely have grown much larger and render all of Halo Ridge comatose for who knew how long. The two fought tooth and nail. Unfortunately, the Shade got the better of the world’s Number One, harvesting his energy and absorbing it into the rest of its chaos to use against the town. It fell to Chiaki to finish the job—and finish it, she did.
“Sacrificing himself for the sake of the world…” Ryan nodded along. He glanced up at the statue in newfound admiration, a smile touching his lips. “Your mom’s no slouch either.”
“Damn straight.” Mindie brimmed with pride. “Uncle Soren may have been Number One, but Mom says he never won a single duel against her.”
“I’m thankful Coach Nor took me under his wing, but…” His smile contorted into a mix of irritation and resignation—the face of a wounded ego. “I won’t lie; getting rejected by her kind of hurt. A lot.”
Mindie waved hand waved dismissively. “Don’t take it personally. Both my sister and I think she’s gradually lost a lot of her old fire. Sometimes it doesn’t even feel like she cares about being Number One.”
She joined him in gazing up at the Soren’s memorial statue, a small exhale escaping her pursed lips. “I dunno. Maybe it was hard for her to swallow that she inherited the top spot because Uncle Soren met his end like that. Like, instead of dethroning him herself.”
Then she shot a smirk at him. “I got my competitive edge from her, you know.”
Ryan mirrored her smug look. He had no doubt about that. It took a woman with real drive to become the best Superstar in the world.