Rai knew that the crystalakrum in the penthouse was designed to be the best of the best. But this... this was insane...

Somehow, Rai could see his mother and Jin on the crystalakrum screen. Kallad gave him instructions on how to use it. Rai figured that it would be intuitive, but he didn’t expect this function to work in such a simple way.

A static-y sound came from the screen, then he could hear his mother’s voice.

“Rai?! I can see you! Are you okay? Please tell me you’re okay. If you’re not okay I’ll kill you!”

“I can see you too. Can you hear me?” Rai asked as he smiled at the screen.

His mum nodded. Jin simply stared at the screen, dumbfounded.

“Haha! Even the great Jin can’t figure out how to communicate through a screen! You should see the look on your face right now, it’s way too funny!”

“We’re not there, and you’re not here. How can we see each other? That Tinkerer... This must be his work.”

“You know the Tinkerer as well?! Well, I guess it makes sense since you’re you and all.”

“Just the rumours. I’d heard-”

“Move dad.” Reiki said as she shoved Jin out of the centre of the screen. She stared at Rai through the screen on their end. “I don’t know how bad you got hurt but... if you’re alive then that’s all I need to hear. They said that you got injured pretty badly, but they didn’t give us any details. What actually happened Rai?”

Rai noticed that Jin looked ready to hunt. He was glad that he had such an amazing mother and grandfather. Grateful to the universe for his fortunes, Rai wanted nothing more than to make them happy.

Rai thought back to the event. The last thing he wanted to do was worry his mum and Jin right now. But he felt like he owed it to them to tell them the truth. After raising him and caring for him, loving him more than anything else... they both deserved to know what happened.

“... It was... pretty bad. I can’t explain it in full detail right now, but I will whenever we can properly meet! For now, all I can say is that I was considered dead for a minute.”

Jin’s eyes widened.

Reiki gasped.

She started tearing up. Rai's heart ached seeing his mother like this.

“Rai... do you want to come home? I want you to come home... I don’t want you in a place like that!”

Silence followed. Jin held her as she sobbed.

“Come... please. Come home.” Reiki whispered.

Rai cried as well. Seeing his mother so terrified wasn’t something he wanted to see ever again. But he couldn’t leave the Academy... not yet at least.

“Mum... I love you so much. You don’t know how much I’ve missed you both since this whole thing happened. But I have to stay, at least for now. I still have a lot more to learn, and the Academy is the best way for me to accomplish that right now. I don’t have to stay forever, but I’ll stay for as long as it can help me accomplish that goal. Plus, I think I’ll be able to find a clue about dad while I’m here. So please... ”

Reiki continued sobbing. “I love you more than anything in the entirety of Zenith Rai. Do you know how it feels to hear what you’ve just gone through? I don’t want you to get hurt anymore...”

Rai started to panic. His heart was breaking, and he felt like he was about to be taken away from those he'd grown close to. That was, until Jin intervened.

“Reiki, how will he grow like that?”

The adopted daughter looked up at her adoptive father. “I... I don’t...”

Jin hugged her. He held her head like that of a baby.

“He has to go through hardships to learn. Rai cannot become a grown man if he’s stuck on the farm with us.”

Reiki quietly sobbed into Jin’s chest.

“It’ll be fine Rai. Your mother will come around. Take your recovery seriously, and we’ll see you in person as soon as we can.” He smiled at the screen.

Rai nodded, holding back his tears. “I’ll... I’ll be more careful... I love you both.”

“We love you too.” A tear leaked from Jin’s scarred eye.

Rai pushed the button on the remote to turn off the crystalakrum.

He sat back on the couch and coughed.

That...

... was awful...

Rai laid down on the couch. He covered his eyes with his arm and cried.

I need to be more careful. For my mum and Jin, for my friends. I don’t want to make them deal with the consequences of my actions like this ever again. Seeing mum like that...

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

It broke him.

Rai broke down. He cried so much that his ears felt wet from the tears flowing down the sides of his cheeks. All he wanted was to hug his mum and tell her how sorry he was.

After a solid ten or so minutes, Rai slowly sat up. He felt groggy, and his eyes were sore. There were napkins on the table, which he reached for.

As he wiped his face, Rai attempted to steel himself. While he might not be that mentally strong right now, Rai would treat this as his turning point. It was time for him to stop hurting the people he loved and start growing up.

----------------------------------------

Rodrick would stop by every now and then to see how Rai’d progressed, and to make sure the Daem family hadn’t attempted anything shady.

There was no trial, no due process, nothing. For just over a month there was almost radio silence from them. The only thing they did was publicly acknowledge Pico’s death after he was announced braindead.

Rodrick pondered as he sat in his office. Perhaps they don’t care about it that much. Pico was an outlier in their family. He was more of an experimental guinea pig than a true member from what the investigation showed... No, they wouldn’t be so dismissive of this. There’s bound to be some form of retribution at hand. Or... maybe they’ll pay him to stay quiet? There’s no way it’d be that easy... Rodrick continued to ponder about the possibilities.

Rai’d more or less recovered by now, and was to return to the Academy tomorrow. He’d missed a lot of lessons, but Rodrick wasn’t worried about that. He knew Rai was talented, so any concerns about his ability wouldn’t be very well founded. Fortunately, the story wasn’t made public, and Pico’s death was attributed to a heart attack during a spar. Typical. They covered up the fact that he was illegally augmented, what else did I expect.

Some of the noble financial contributors to the Academy were furious, but had no grounds to seek revenge against Rai for it. On the official record, Rai was as much of a victim as Pico was. But, in reality, the only person who knew exactly what happened was Rai.

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“I still don’t know what the fuck actually happened, Sin.” Rai sat on the couch beside Sin in the penthouse. They both wore comfortable loose fitting clothes and had plates of sandwiches on the table in front of them.

Sin took a bite of one of the smaller sandwiches and gulped it down pretty quickly.

“Come on, there’s no way that you don’t remember by now.”

“No, that’s not it. I do remember, but it’s so confusing that I don’t actually know what to make of it. I’m pretty sure I only used Antithesis... but that wouldn’t have killed him by itself. Maybe he died because it completely destroyed all of the magical augmentation in his body? Maybe Pico became so reliant on the augments that without them he died. Maybe it was the Daemon possessing him that replaced his soul completely. Honestly, I have no fucking clue.”

Sin nonchalantly devoured more sandwiches.

“I can’t believe you even beat a Daemon... They’re ancient beings, supposedly as old or even older than the Ancients according to dad. He said that not much was known about them, except for that fact. So you defeating one is... pretty crazy!”

“Ye-mmph, but I had help. Antithesis was very gulp useful, especially since I poured all of my mana into it.”

Sin pinched him.

“Oww!”

“Don’t talk while you’re eating. You look like an oaf.”

She took a bite out of her sandwich.

“I figured that you unsealed all of your mana from what you said to dad on that day.”

“I had no choice.” Rai said, before pinching her. “You're doing the same thing, silly.”

Sin didn’t even realise it, but he was right.

She gulped down the chunk of the sandwich that she'd ground into mush. Then, she made as serious of a face as she could.

“I was just showing you what not to do. Hmph!” She pouted.

“Of course, thank you for teaching me oh wise one!”

“I’m glad that you’ve learned!”

They stared at each other. Then they laughed together.

After a moment, Sin thought back to the questions she had after Rai initially insinuated that he used all of his mana.

“How... how did it feel to unseal all of your mana?”

Rai leaned back, wanting to enjoy the sandwich that he just picked up. This one had chicken in it. “I’m not too sure. My body felt like it was ripping itself apart. Then, when I used Antithesis, the world went black and white, and all sound was gone. The worst part was the backlash after using the spell. My body felt like it was being torn apart and put back together over and over and over. Then my eyes burned like hell.” He took a bite of his chicken sandwich.

Sin had a tear drop from her face onto her sandwich. She put the sandwich down and hugged Rai tightly. He nearly choked on his chicken sandwich, but happily accepted the gesture. “That’s horrible!”

“It’s fine now. I’m here, with you. Also... were you always this freakishly strong?”

“Hahaha! It’s just because your body’s still weak, dummy.”

Sin let go and returned to the plates on the table in front of them. They still had a whole slew of sandwiches on them, and there was a pair of glasses with a fruity looking liquid in both of them.

“How was the meeting with your mum and Jin?” She asked.

“Mum... was really hurt.” He smiled, “But I was glad to see them. I didn’t want to die without seeing them at least one more time, so I’m happy that I got to see them.”

“They’re fine just leaving you in the Academy after something like that?”

“Mum brought it up. After something like that, I wouldn’t hold it against them if they wanted me back home. But... I think Jin convinced mum that this was part of my journey, and that I needed to go through hardships to grow.”

“That sounds like something the wise old Sword Dancer would say.”

“It really does, haha.” He had a solemn expression on his face, “But I... think I learned a lot. I feel like I’ll grow from this.”

“As you should. Next time, bring me with you! I don’t want to miss out on the fun, okay?”

“I don’t think dying is particularly fun... but I’ll make sure to bring you with me whenever I can.”

“Good.”

She reached past him to grab the plate of sandwiches on his side of the table.

Rai caught a whiff of Sin’s rose perfume.

“That scent will never grow old on you. It really does suit you best.” He said.

Sin blushed, causing her face to have the same colour as her hair and eyes. “T-t-t-thank you.” She stuffed her face into the sandwiches, trying to avoid the embarrassment. Sin only became more embarrassed because now her face was buried in a bunch of sandwiches.

Rai giggled. Sin was always adorable when she acted like this. He enjoyed teasing her whenever he could.

He still wanted to test out if he could still use magic properly, as well as try to figure out the new version of antithesis, but there would be time for that later.

“It’s getting late now. We should get some sleep before we go to the Academy tomorrow. I think we have our mentorship session in the morning, so we shouldn’t be late!”

Rai stood up and stretched with a satisfied sigh.

Sin unburrowed herself from the pile of sandwiches she’d so neatly made a home in. She nodded profusely, with crumbs falling off her face all over her lap and the couch.

“I’ll s-see you tom-morrow. Goodnight!”

“Goodnight!”

Rai smiled at her, then went off to his bedroom for the night. It would be his first day back at the Academy after his first day at the Academy as a whole. Funnily enough, they were about a month apart. What a strange turn of events, he thought.

After a heavy series of events, Rai couldn’t wait for a simple and relaxed day at school tomorrow. That’s all he wanted. He hoped that he could actually get what he wanted, for once.