"I'm home."
…
No answer came from the house. This was strange because, to the man's knowledge, there should have been someone home.
"I guess Pax must be sleeping or something."
He still remembered the days when Pax would jump into his arms every time he got home from work. Now, it was a gamble as to whether or not his son would even greet him at the door.
He calmly stepped inside and slipped out of his shoes, but for some reason he couldn't shake the idea that something was wrong. There was a faint yet strange smell entering his nostrils. When he focused on it, it smelled suffocating and disgusting-- Like something rotting.
Sprinting over to the bathroom, the source of that horrid smell, the man prayed that it wasn't what he feared it might be deep down.
Stepping into the bathroom, he saw a sight no father should ever be forced to see. A sight too horrible to be put into words. A sight that made his world spin and his stomach flip.
Falling to his knees, the man choked on his breath as tears began forming in his eyes.
"No…" he croaked.
He didn't want to believe what his eyes were showing him.
But even if his eyes were shut, he couldn't get that horrible smell out of his nostrils-- That stench of a rotting corpse.
Even if he had covered his nose, he wouldn't be able to close off that horrible sound: The buzzing of flies eating his precious son's corpse and laying their disgusting eggs in his body.
He felt the dampness of blood in the air sticking to his skin. With such irrefutable evidence, his heart couldn't possibly deny the present truth. Pax was dead, and by the looks of it, he had killed himself.
"No, we don't know that yet."
Looking up, he saw a half-empty bottle of vodka and a strange-looking knife lying on the floor next to the tub.
"Since when have we had that knife?"
The man had never seen this strange knife before. It was pitch black and had some strange symbol on its side. It looked like four circles partially overlapping one another in a strange way.
Why was this man focusing so much on the knife his son used to kill himself? Perhaps he was just trying to distract himself from the truth, but he couldn't help thinking that there was something more to it.
This knife had a weird energy coming from it. For some reason it reminded him of some of the items that his late wife had once showed him. Supposedly they had come from another world.
"It was this knife that did it then, wasn't it? That despicable knife killed you..."
Refusing to believe that his own son would commit suicide, the man used an inanimate object as a scapegoat.
"In that case, there's still a chance, isn't there?… That Pax went to another world and is still alive."
He knew he was jumping to impossible conclusions. He knew that the odds were completely against him. He knew that he was probably just lying to himself and forcing himself to believe in something impossible. He knew that there was only a one in a million chance that his son was actually still alive.
Even so, he had to believe in that one in a million chance. Because that's what a good father would do. Because Pax needed him, now more than ever.
"I'll get my revenge on who did this to you, and I'll bring you home... Just wait for me, Pax."
He sat still on the ground for hours after that. Even if he believed that his son wasn't dead, he had no idea what he should be doing at that moment.
It took a while, but eventually he decided on his next actions. He looked at the knife that still lay on the floor, picked it up, and gripped it until his knuckles turned white. Then he got up and walked to his kitchen.
He found a knife that was the same size as it, and covered the new knife with Pax's blood. Then he called the cops and hid the real knife that Pax had actually used to kill himself.
When the cops came, they asked him some questions. It was obvious that it had been a suicide, though, so they weren't too harsh with him.
He was still in shock a week later, after they had cleaned up the scene of the suicide. When he walked into that bathroom, he found it hard to believe that he had once found a corpse in its bathtub. He doubted that he could ever look at this house the same. Perhaps he should've moved somewhere else, otherwise the memories might haunt him forever. But no, letting go of that was not something he intended to do.
He pulled out the suicide knife from his hidden safe in the living room. This was the only lead he had on getting his son back. He looked to a picture hung in the hallway. It showed the last time his entire family had been together and healthy. Pax had been young back then, only about nine years old. Pax's mother died only a few months after this photo had been taken.
Then the last remaining family member walked out the front door, leaving the house empty for now, but still holding on to the knife that had killed his son.
- - - - - - -
I had a strange dream.
???: [Don't fall asleep in the middle of my lectures dumbass.]
In it, I saw a strange symbol glowing before me.
I feel like it was the same symbol that was on the knife that I... held in my final moments. I also feel like I have seen that symbol appear before me in the past, right before I was reborn into this world, but my memory of it feels so fuzzy...
???: [Hey, can you hear me!]
If what I'm thinking is right, could it be? Is it possible that knife is the reason that I reincarnated in this world?
That knife saved my life and gave me a second chance?
???: [PAX!]
Ash was really in my face at that point, so I figured I should ask her if she's seen that symbol before.
Ignoring her shouts, I drew the symbol as I remembered it on a piece of paper before me.
Adam: [Have you seen this symbol before?]
For some reason Ash seemed annoyed, but after sighing she answered my question.
Ash: [No, I have not. You can check if the library has anything on it later... Where have you seen this symbol anyways?]
Adam: [...Uh, In my dreams?]
Ash gave me a look like she was tired of my bullshit. Then she walked back to the chalkboard and went back into teacher mode.
Ash: [I guess since you're so bored of history lessons, we can move onto magic for now.]
I should probably pay attention to this...
Ash: [From your divination ceremony, we now know that you are both a Manipulator and an Augmenter–]
Adam: [Question sensei!]
Ash: [Shoot]
Adam: [How common is it to be a dual Familia user?]
Ash: [Well… It's uncommon but not unheard of. Usually about 12 in 100 people have two affinities. Of that 12%, the most common dual affinities are Augmenter and Manipulator. If someone has two affinities, they almost always have Manipulator as one of them... Anyways, you shouldn't let it get to your head. Anyone can use multiple affinities with enough practice. I personally can use Creation, Manipulation, and a little bit of Augmentation even though I only have affinity for Creation…]
Ash certainly had high expectations for me, so I vowed in that moment to work hard not to let her down.
Ash: […As I said in my previous lectures, emotions are the pathways that we use to cast spells. That is why every person's chants are unique. Say, for example, you want to cast a warming spell. You need to recall the emotion that corresponds with warmth and use it to trace out your visualization.]
Most simple magic system I've ever seen, no doubt.
Ash: […For now, let's get you up to snuff in Manipulation magic.]
Ash exited the room for a second then came back with a caged rabbit and then placed it on my desk.
Adam: [What…]
Ash: [The basic principle behind Manipulation magic is ordering the world to obey your will. This is commonly done to inanimate objects, but for beginners it's best to start with a small animal. Hence, the rabbit. Order it to run in a circle.]
She took out the rabbit from the cage and set it down in front of me. Then she crossed her arms and looked at me, as if expecting me to just figure it out.
Okay then, here goes...
I stuck my arm out, closed my eyes, and imagined the rabbit running in circles on the table.
After a while, I opened my eyes, and to my dismay, the rabbit was just sitting and doing nothing.
Pax: [No dice.]
Ash: [sigh. Adam, when learning a new spell, you need to enter Trance and seek the method. Then you try casting the spell. Just because this is something simple, doesn't mean you can skip steps.]
Trance is basically a state of deep meditation. I wasn't sure how it worked, but if you focused hard enough, the answers just appear inside your head. But the answers gained from Trance were always just a vague intuitive kind. It gave you enough information to feel things out, but not enough to actually be able to put it into words.
Anyways, I entered Trance and sought out the way to make rabbits run in circles. It felt kind of stupid, but I trusted Ash's teaching.
Eventually, I intuitively understood how to make rabbits run in circles, and when I forced my will on the rabbit, it eventually started running in circles.
Adam: [Oh, that wasn't so bad.]
I now understood how magic generally worked in this world. Each Familia is just a different way of willing the world to do your bidding.
Ash: [Right, now that you have gotten a feel for Manipulation, you can decide what class you want to focus on. Because you have affinity for both Augmentation and Manipulation, you should choose something that can be affected by both... Try something you're emotionally attached to. But whatever you choose, you should only focus on one thing because magic only gets stronger with a deeper understanding, not a widespread surface-level one.]
Then she plopped a couple textbooks on top of my desk.
Ash: [Here are some ideas for you. Take your time.]
With that, she left the room... It looked like class was dismissed for the day and this would be my homework.
Ash is just as lazy as ever, not sure what I expected.
Alone in the classroom, I pondered what magic I would be using.
Well, because I already had a decent amount of biology and anatomy knowledge, I initially chose muscle Augmentation. But now I needed something I can both Manipulate and Augment.
So naturally my decision was… Blood Magic.
I would Manipulate the blood into whatever shape I needed and then Augment it to make it lethal.
…Sounds badass