"…huh? What are you talking about?"

I gaped at Dad, not sure I heard him correctly.

"Did you forget?" Dad knocked on my head. "That blacksmith dude threw you down here from the King's Palace because he wanted you to know your roots. Otherwise you'll never be able to master your Zhan Po Dao."

"WRONG STORY! This isn't even a manga!"

I threw my hands up in exasperation, trying not to blow up and failing miserably. I didn't know whether I was angrier at myself for actually catching the reference. Granted, that was one of my favorite manga, what with all the awesome s.h.i.+nigami and their Zanpakuto, but we would get into copyright trouble if I started mastering Bankai right here and now.

Forcing myself to calm down, I glanced at where Angelica had been, but she had disappeared when Dad began his tale. Probably because she didn't want to listen to her own life story being told. I knew how that felt. It was really awkward listening to someone tell other people a story about you. And in my experience, it tended to be people making fun of me and telling everyone how much of an idiot or a r.e.t.a.r.d I was, which made it more humiliating.

"Then why were you asking about Angelica? I thought you wanted to know about your mother and your Quincy origins."

"WRONG! Since when am I a Quincy?!"

"But your most powerful spells are the ranged ones, right? And you use a bow and arrow pretty often."

"I'm just ripping off Archer-cla.s.s Servants from another anime! The one with the Holy Grail War! Not s.h.i.+nigami!"

I was clutching my head, regretting ever asking Dad about Angelica and spirit summoning. Dad stared at me strangely, his face scrunched up for a moment, and then he scratched his head before sighing.

"Sorry. It has been forty-five chapters and probably almost a whole month of reading, even including the double ma.s.s releases. I know there are readers screaming in the comments about the whole flashback arc being fillers and extremely boring, and that they want you to get back to the 'real' story, never mind that this flashback arc is a vital part of the real story. Why do they think they know what's the real story better than the writer of the story himself? But that's not important. I forgot why you even asked me about this in the first place."

"Because of the sacrifice necessary to make a contract with a spirit in order to tether it to this world…the requirement of a host to bind the spirit to you. And for that to be possible, the host has to be someone close to you."

"Oh, right." Dad paused for a moment and gave me a strange stare. "How did you know about that? I don't recall ever telling you anything about that."

"No, you didn't. I found out on my own."

I briefly told him about my encounter with Selina and Hades. He listened for a moment, unsurprised because he had already heard of my hard-fought victory over the legendary Grim Reaper. While I recounted, I wondered inwardly if Selina and Hades were related to Serena and Cronus. It would be one h.e.l.l of a coincidence if Selina and Hades were the children of Serena and Cronus. That would mean that the battle our parents fought had continued down to our generation. That said, Serena was clearly several years older than I was, so it wasn't accurate to categorize her as part of my generation.

It didn't matter. She was now dead.

"So they told you." Dad nodded thoughtfully, but he didn't seem shocked at the revelation. "I knew the a.s.sa.s.sins Guild would continue using that spirit summoning technology to create more of those Spirit a.s.sa.s.sins."

Having just heard the entire story, I could only nod.

"d.a.m.n them," Dad muttered. Then he sighed. "But then again, if those two are really the children of Cronus and Serena Wright, it's only natural that they would take up the mantle of their parents and delve into forbidden technology. Furthermore, if there's anyone who would be able to preserve the spirit summoning technology, it would be the a.s.sa.s.sins."

"Are you hunting down the a.s.sa.s.sins Guild?" I asked. "Do you intend to destroy them completely?"

"I don't know if it's even possible. Even after a couple of decades, I'm still unable to locate their elusive Grand Master and real base. They are a tough nut to crack." Dad sighed heavily. "I'll fight them and stop them whenever I see them, but I'm not optimistic enough to think I'll find their real headquarters and leader and end them decisively."

He leaned closer, his face turning grim.

"Furthermore, the Grand Master of a.s.sa.s.sins is the deadliest man alive. I don't know whether I stand a chance against him."

"You'll do fine, Dad," I a.s.sured him. "You're invincible! n.o.body can beat you!"

Dad gave me a really sad smile, and I suddenly had déjà vu for some reason. That look on his face – it was as if he was staring at his younger self.

"No, I'm not invincible."

"But you…"

"Remember the story I told you about my past?" Dad's smile was hollow. "I also thought that Michael Porter was invincible. That he would never die, no matter what. That he would overcome all obstacles and emerge a s.h.i.+ning hero whose figure gave hope to everyone. That he would become the symbol for peace."

"Are we going to my Hero Academia now?" I asked sarcastically. Dad raised a hand.

"My point," he continued, as if he ever had a point to begin. Hah! "Is that n.o.body is invincible. Even Michael died. And I will die too…one day. I hope the day will never come, just like everyone else except my enemies, but in my line of work, it's very likely. And when that day arrives, I hope you will be mentally prepared."

He shrugged.

"I know we aren't related by blood, and there's still quite a wall between us. Honestly, despite my meta commentary back then, I never thought I would adopt a son. I…honestly have no idea how to be a father, and being a single parent at that."

"You did a good job," I a.s.sured him. Dad smiled at that, but he shook his head.

"Thanks. But I probably should have spent more time taking care of you instead of watching anime all the time. And…" he stared at me thoughtfully. "Maybe I should have spent money for the healing procedure to correct your eyesight permanently instead of just buying you gla.s.ses."

"That's fine. I'm used to wearing gla.s.ses. I feel weird not wearing gla.s.ses. Besides, it's a waste of money. It's not worth the cost."

While most healing spells and procedures, such as injuries sustained in the battlefield or illnesses, were covered by the national healthcare insurance plan, cosmetic surgeries such as eyesight correction, plastic surgery, slimming, and pigmentation were not because they were considered non-essential. Furthermore, in an ultrcapitalistic society such as the Global Federation, corporations wanted to continue making profits, and the industry that manufactured and sold gla.s.ses was a lucrative one. They were better served keeping the prices of eyesight correction up while maintaining cheap prices of gla.s.ses, otherwise they would go out of business.

Welcome to capitalism.

"But I can afford it and I chose not to…"

"Because you wanted to buy the latest DVD collection of Gun d.a.m.n, as well as the new model kits, didn't you?"

Dad looked sheepish and he shrugged. Yeah, I caught him red-handed.

"Anyway, I didn't know Uncle Glen was from the Porter clan." I returned to the subject at hand. I had met Uncle Glen a few times, but he never gave any sign that he was from one of the top ten great families. Granted, from what Dad had just told me, the Porter clan was pretty much decimated about twenty years ago and were struggling to recover ever since. But even so, I thought either one of them would at least mention it.

"Oh." Dad rubbed his head. "Yeah…we didn't mean to hide it from you. It's just that Glen gets annoying sometimes, so…"

"Right."

It was at that moment, the doorbell rang. Dad raised an eyebrow, but I was already up and going forward to answer the door.

"Hey, Richie! It's been a while!"

"Uncle Glen?"

"What a coincidence." Dad also appeared behind me as I gaped at the visitor after opening the door. "We were just talking about you."

"…huh?" Glen Porter stared at the both of us for a few moments, and then he scowled. "I hope it's not something bad."

"No, no. Not at all. It seems we've completely forgotten to mention that you're from the Porter clan."

"Oh, that!" Glen was guffawing as he followed us into the house. At a nod from Dad, I headed to the kitchen to grab a drink for my father's best friend. "I completely forgot that I was supposed to be from the Porter clan too!"

"Uh huh." Dad led Glen to the couch, and both grown men took a seat. For a moment, as I brought the drink to Glen, I thought the both of them would resume their usual get-together and play games. Dad had a console and a couple of controllers, and they enjoyed playing co-op shooter games. I sometimes played with Dad, but not too often because I was terrible and always got wrecked by online opponents. "What's up today?"

"Right. I'm here to inform you about the Spiritual Road training camp. You know, the training camp that takes place for high school students every year? The Spiritual Road is open again, and I believe the academies will be sending their representatives to take part, as preparation for the international tournament. As you know, representatives from all the schools will be present, so it also counts as an opportunity to collect information on each other, a.s.sess each other's strengths and weaknesses, and be a mock preliminary for the actual tournament itself."

"Oh, right." Dad looked at Glen blankly, and I could tell that he had no idea what Glen was talking about. "I see."

"Your adopted son has been making quite a few waves recently, and I thought that he might end up being one of the representatives," Glen continued with a wink. Dad grinned proudly.

"Of course! I was the one who trained him."

"I didn't expect him to be a summoner, though. I thought he would be a fire mage like you."

"Oh, Richie came up with his own summoning magic." Dad waved, as if trying to push the credit toward me. "I merely taught him the basics, but he really grew into his own and became his own person. He's not going to be a clone of me, if that was what you thought."

"No, indeed." Glen was musing thoughtfully. "But yeah, that's pretty much it."

"You came all the way just to tell me that?" Dad looked a little astonished. "You could just have called."

"Nah, I also came to hang out." Glen grinned. "It's been a while since we've answered the Call of Duty."

I wasn't a big fan of that game, so I made preparations to hide in my room before they began owning newbie players online. Before I could leave, however, Glen turned to me.

"How about it, Richie? If you go to the Spiritual Road, you should meet…"

"No," Dad interrupted. Glen sulked at that, but Dad continued. "Richie already has a girlfriend, so don't even think about it."

"Really?"

Not really. Alicia was dead. I didn't want to say I had moved on, but that was life. I couldn't use her as an excuse to continue like this forever. As callous as it was, I was still alive and I had to move on with my own life without dwelling on her memory forever. Remember the dead, but do not allow them to shackle you.

However, from Dad's hasty interruption, I sort of understood what was going on, and therefore I nodded.

"Yeah."

"I see." Glen looked a little disappointed. I couldn't care less. It was not my job to make him happy. Quite the contrary, actually.

Leaving the two grown men to play their game, I disappeared into my room and began reading a bunch of translated web comics that included some ability user with a zombie girlfriend and growing zombie harem, a prince who released that witch, and cultivators in the 41st Millennium. Not to mention a certain Mary Sue Garrulous King who won his every match in the OP system.