{Monday, 26th September 2022}
At 13:00PM, the day following the attacks, any and all television broadcasts across the entire country were suddenly interrupted. Alongside the interruption came a live stream across any and all major social media platforms. Eyes from all across the world watched together as Benjamin Steele, the head of the Spirit Hunter Association took to the stage. His speech went exactly as follows...
Yesterday on Sunday, the twenty-fifth of September, an unprecedented and tragic incident occurred within our beloved City. First and foremost I would personally like to express our deepest and most sincere prayers to those who have lost their lives or remain in critical condition following the events. Despite our greatest effort to maximise security and mitigate any and all potential risks, we were still unprepared to deal with an attack of this magnitude. Considering that this was, and still is, our one and only job, I understand why your trust in us may have plummeted...
Please, if you have any feelings of negativity regarding the circumstances, direct them at me. That is my cross to bear. Rest assured, we're moving forward with plans to aid in the reconstruction of the city as swiftly as we possibly can. We will not rest until the capital is brought back to its former glory, and the perpetrators are brought to justice. It may be a bit much to ask, but I beg of you all...
Please, put your faith in us once more.
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{Monday, 5th September 2022 - Three weeks earlier}
ADRIAN HUNTER
There was once a time when Adrian could make the dumbest spontaneous decisions and comfortably get away with little to no consequences, attributing them all to the simplest of reasons.
"I'll have all three tubs of ice cream in the freezer for myself!" The reason being that it was strawberry, and that was his favourite. Brain freeze, be damned, he would eat all three.
“I wanna climb that tree and jump into the paddle pool!” The reason for that one? Plain boredom. And because in video games he could survive any fall as long as he landed in water.
At ten years old, the decisions he made hardly ever held any weight. That’s why when it came to that decision, he once again approached it with the same spontaneous nature as everything else. He didn’t know when, but somewhere along the four years spent trying to realise the goal brought upon by that decision, he stopped trying to use those simple reasons as excuses, and not once did he ever wish to go back to the way he was before. He felt it was for the best...
On any other day, he wouldn't be caught dead hiding away from any kind of lively atmosphere. On that particular morning, however, his usually quaint back yard had somehow become just that. Familiar cheery faces shuffled around in time with the rhythmic blaring of his dad’s old rap playlist. The sweet aroma of a good barbeque was permeating the air too, beckoning him closer. Regardless, he remained hidden away in the corner of it all, sinking himself into the sturdiest plastic chair he could find. His desire to be alone was clear, but his neighbour, Mr Brown, still made it a point to come over and say hi anyway.
"Ain't this your party, kid?" He said, balancing a plate full of wings in each hand, "Get up and move a little before you go off to that fancy new school of yours!"
"Uh, I'll be up in a sec, Mr. B," Adrian groaned, "Feeling kinda tired right now." He instinctively started rubbing both his eyes, preparing himself for the inevitable earful he'd grown way too accustomed to over the years.
"Ah, for real? Well, I just had a talk with your dad 'n' he was telling me how proud he is of you for studying 'n' training as hard as you have, Y'know? Everyone on planet earth knows that before he retired, your old man was the greatest spirit hunter on earth, so I said that with his genes, you're set up to be a world-class spirit hunter pretty nicely, don't you think?" He let out a laugh so hearty that Adrian would have felt bad if he didn't laugh along, but all he could manage was a half-hearted chuckle.
"Well, my dad's the main reason I decided to leave for the academy in the first place!" The smile he displayed was nothing but plastic. In the past hour alone, some variation of those same words had left his mouth more times than he even wanted to count. He would never mean any offence to Mr. Brown, but holding this conversation for any longer just wasn't on his agenda. He needed an escape, ASAP.
He slyly looked around as the old man continued to ramble, peering through the gaps within the crowd for any hope of an excuse. After a short while, he managed to lock eyes with his cousin, Mira, sitting on a table by herself, and swiping away at her phone. He smiled at her, and she glared back at him, her eyes sharp and intense as always. No words could be said between them at that distance, but a conversation was, in fact, had.
She rolled her eyes, picking up a small, colourful box that was beside her, and trudged her way through the crowd, coming face-to-face with him.
"Yo, golden boy." she said, not even bothering to phone in any acting, "I'm bored. Do me a favour and come help light these up." She tossed him the box of sparklers she had picked up before quickly turning around.
"On my way, ice queen," he said, mustering a smug look towards her. She darted a quick glance his way. Her way of telling him to wipe the smirk off his face, which he did immediately, before turning back to his neighbour. "Oh, uh, looks like I'm needed over there for a sec, Mr. B."
Mr. Brown smiled and saw the two of them off. "You go off and do whatever you young folk do, kid. I just wanted you to know that our little Satum Town can’t wait for that first success story. Go do us proud, alright?”
He couldn’t bring himself to reply with anything other than a quick nod.
The crowd ahead of him was full of people who would have taken one second of eye contact as their opportunity to stop and remind him how big of a task he had ahead of him. His eyes remained glued to the grass as Mira led him back to her spot against the fence on the other side of the yard. "Thanks," he said, beginning to open the box of sparklers.
She lightly punched him in the arm. "You owe me one whenever you come back from the big city." There was a serious look on her face, as if she didn’t know getting a serious response out of him after any type of request was impossible.
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"Hey man, if I find any cool rocks, they're all yours."
"...Maybe I should punch you for real this time?" She jolted her fist towards his face to no reaction. His lips tightened, trying to hold in his laughter, but it wasn't long before they were both giggling with their heads in their hands. "You're so annoying, I swear."
He handed her one of the sparklers as their laughter dissipated and held his index finger underneath it. From its tip, he emitted a small flame, bringing to life the sparkler's glittering red shimmer.
"I bet if I asked you to do this last year, it would have taken you like ten whole minutes," she said quietly.
Adrian flinched slightly, not looking up to see what kind of face she was making. "Yeah, that's 'cause there's a certain, like, flow to it you have to get right. Using spirit abilities is actually more meticulous than you think. First, there's the three-"
He jerked his head up to continue defending himself, but stopped, seeing that the sharpness Mira's eyes usually displayed had disappeared, leaving a vacant gaze in its place. Without a word, he leaned against the table next to her, knowing that this was one of the last moments they'd have together for a while. For all the times they spent bickering, it was the brief moments like these that had nested themselves the deepest within his memories. Something he’d probably never say out loud.
"You know you've technically gotta live up to both your parents, right?" She said, teasing him after a couple seconds of silence, "Your dad’s stopped almost too many huge threats to different cities ‘n’ stuff. Your mom’s still a pretty successful scientist for the association too."
"Yup. Don't even know if it's possible to begin with. Might as well try anyways, though." He held out his hand and created a small flame above his palm; manipulating it further, it weaved gracefully in-between his fingers. "It's probably my own pride playing a part here too, but, living up to everyone’s expectations is pretty important to me too.”
Mira remained still for a split second then got off the wall and stretched, replying to him with her familiar sarcasm, "Of course I’d get an answer like that from you." He scoffed and rolled his eyes. "I'm just playing… You really are starting to grow up on me, huh?"
“We’re both fourteen, stupid.”
"But speaking of Uncle Will, where's he at anyways?"
Like clockwork, the sound of someone tapping a microphone started vibrating through the air. The bass of the music began to die down and everyone promptly turned their attention to the wooden patio where the speakers were. None other than Adrian's own father stood there, phone in hand, and grinning from ear to ear. A pair of sunglasses covered his eyes, which would have been strange considering the clouds looming overhead, but Adrian was well aware of the things his dad found amusing by this point.
"This just in!" he announced," A text from the Academy! Adrian's getting picked up in less than two minutes! Two minutes, everyone!"
Adrian awkwardly waved as the whole party directed a barrage of clapping and cheering towards him. As flustered as he felt, he also couldn't help but feel warm inside seeing his dad getting so pumped up for him.
He waved his microphone up and down to calm the crowd down, ready to continue. "I just wanna say before you leave," his dad started, "We all know you're gonna go far, bud. You're more talented than even you know. And even if you get knocked down, I know you're not a quitter. That's the part of you that inspires me the most... It's also the part you do NOT get from me at ALL! That's your mother's side right there!"
An involuntary smile spread itself across Adrian's face. What the hell... He sneakily covered it up, pretending he had something in his eye, while everyone else ate that joke right up.
“That wasn't funny,” Adrian said after composing himself.
"I guess anything goes when everyone loves you like that," Mira whispered.
"Hey, I got scared 'n' retired a while ago!" His dad said, leaning against the speakers for support, "She's the one still out there working!" His laughter turned to heavy breaths as he wiped the tears from his eyes, and the sweat from his brow. "In all seriousness though, I don't think I need to say this, but go out there and kill it, bud. Go Show 'em why your last name's Hunter!"
It was the corniest possible way he could have been wished good luck, but he got a good laugh out of it, and right then, that was just what he needed. His dad always did have a knack for picking the correct words to motivate him at just the right times. His shoulders were just starting to relax when a beeping sound from the front of the house caught his, and everybody else's, attention.
“Looks like they’re here,” His dad said.
That was Adrian’s cue to start confidently walking out of the party. That’s what he thought everyone else expected him to do, but a heavy lingering feeling was boiling up in his chest and both his feet remained planted on the ground. Knowing that this day would eventually come, and mentally preparing for it, didn't make it seem any more real in his mind.
Eventually, the sounds of everyone cheering him on from behind snapped him out of his daydream. He didn't even realise that both Mira and his dad had already walked ahead of him into the house. Forcing his blank expression into one of determination, he waved everyone goodbye while taking his last steps through the kitchen's sliding door. Slowing his walk down, he panned around, taking in everything like he was seeing it for the first time. Pictures of him and his family from a time long ago were hung up in the passageway leading to the front door. He didn’t know when, but at some point he had stopped needing to strain his neck trying to look up at them.
“They’re right in front of me, now…”
Mira’s calling turned his attention to the front door, where he could see a sleek jet black car sat out in the driveway. He laughed and ran out the front door to get a closer look. It was almost funny how out of place it looked, parked within such a normal neighbourhood. A stern-faced man dressed in a black suit and a chauffeur's cap got out of the driver's seat and walked around to the pavement. His face began to mellow out the closer he got to them.
"Good morning," He said, scanning everyone's faces, "I must say, it certainly is a pleasure to meet you." He walked up to Adrian’s dad and greeted him with a firm handshake. “It’s not everyday you get to meet someone as high profile as you, sir.”
“No please, the pleasure is all mine.” He chuckled a bit then gently tapped Adrian’s head. “Well, I’m leaving this one in your care.”
The chauffeur opened up the car’s back door and Adrian carefully climbed inside, being careful to not spoil its pristine white leather seats. He traced his fingers along them, almost feeling the expert craftsmanship that went into every subtle bump and crevice. It almost felt wrong to sit there, but he was. He’d trained hard for four years, and earned the right to do so.
Searching within himself for the words he wanted to say, he took one last look at his family, but was unable to find anything to convey exactly what he wanted to.
"What, do you actually wanna stay here all of a sudden?” Mira said, “Get lost.”
He definitely would have had a more inspired and creative collection of words for her if his dad wasn't there, but alas, he was forced to censor himself. "Shut up, Mira." Not the best he could have come up with, but It'd have to do until he returned.
"We'll be waiting to hear all about what you get up to, son."
"...I'll do my best!"
Before he knew it, the town where he'd spent his entire life was nothing but a speck on the horizon behind him. And in front of him, his new school was a three hour drive away.