A long ti ago...
My mother told two things.
The first was simple:
"Never forget to smile."
The second was even simpler:
"Your father loves you, even if he doesn’t show it."
I believed her.
I always believed her.
Because back then, I was just a little girl who wanted nothing more than to hold her dad’s hand and hear him say he was proud of .
But when Mother passed away, only one of those truths stayed with .
I kept smiling.
And Father... well, Father beca everything.
He wasn’t a bad man at first.
When he first awakened as a Stream Hunter, he was so happy.
He kept telling over and over, "C-rank! Your dad is C-rank!"
He bought food that day.
He laughed.
He said we would finally have a better life.
I didn’t understand what it ant back then, but I clapped my hands and laughed with him, because his smile was all I needed.
But things changed when I awakened too.
I was only ten.
I still rember the way Father stared at that day.
His eyes... they didn’t shine with joy.
Instead they seed to represent sothing else, sothing I was too young to na...
I thought he was proud.
I thought the silence ant he was too shocked to say anything.
But the truth?
The truth was that I had stolen his light.
Because I had awakened as an A-rank.
My ability was strange, but powerful.
Whenever sothing threatened , the world around seed to freeze.
Ti itself bent away from .
My barrier would hold, and the bullets, blades, or claws would stop in midair like toys hanging on invisible strings.
Father called it Absolute Stasis.
I didn’t really care what it was called.
I was just happy when Father looked at again, even if his gaze had changed.
From that day on, Father and I entered the Tower together.
I was scared at first, but Father held my shoulder and told to trust him.
"Just do as I say, Guin. Nothing more, nothing less."
And so, I listened.
When monsters appeared, I would freeze them in place.
Father would rush forward, spear in hand, and strike them down.
He told not to kill them myself.
"You don’t need to fight. Just support ."
I believed him...
He was my father.
He knew better.
And when the Tower offered rewards for kills, I noticed Father always claid them before I could.
I didn’t complain.
I thought it was normal.
I thought he was just protecting from leveling too quickly.
After all, he said often, "You’re too young to carry that weight."
So I smiled and said.
"Okay, Dad."
Days turned into weeks.
Weeks into months.
We cleared floor after floor, Father growing better, faster, more skilled.
I stayed at his side, freezing the enemies that scared him most.
Sotis, when the monsters roared too loudly or rushed too quickly, I wanted to cry.
But when I looked at Father and saw his back standing tall, I forced myself to smile.
Because I believed in him.
Because Mother told he loved .
Even when he rarely spoke.
Even when he stopped looking at the sa way.
Even when his words beca commands instead of comfort.
I told myself... He’s just carrying a burden I can’t understand yet.
When we reached the Sixth Floor, everything changed.
The city was huge and strange.
Filled with machines that walked like people.
Father’s eyes shone with an emotion the mont he saw it...
Not with fear... but with greed.
An artificial human, different from the rest.
It held sothing in its hands...
A weapon that glead with a power even I could feel!
His grip on my shoulder tightened.
"Guin. Freeze it. Kill it. Bring that weapon."
I hesitated.
My heart pounded.
It wasn’t like the monsters before... It looked too much like a person!
A cold fear trickled down my spine.
I’d never killed anything before. I
only ever stopped things.
"Dad, I..."
"Do it!"
He hissed, his voice losing all patience.
"Now, Guin! This is our chance! Do you want us to be nobodies forever?"
The words struck like a physical blow.
Nobodies...
I didn’t want that.
I wanted him to be proud.
I wanted us to be a team.
I took a shaky breath.
I focused on the Artificial Human.
I didn’t want to kill it...
I just wanted it to stop.
To be still.
I reached for my power, but my father’s command voiced out constantly in my head: Kill it.
I pushed my ability further than I ever had.
Instead of just freezing the space around it,
I focused the stasis inward, on the delicate energy core at its chest.
There was a sound like shattering crystal.
The Artificial Human’s glowing eyes flickered and died.
It crumpled to the ground, motionless.
The spear clattered on the tal ground.
For a single, heart-lifting mont, I thought I’d done it...
I’d made him proud!
I turned to him, a small, hopeful smile on my lips.
But he wasn’t looking at .
[You have been marked as an enemy by the sixth floor]
[The entirety of the sixth floor will now be against your existence and will hunt you down]
The artificial humans turned towards ...
Every single one of them.
Their eyes glowed red, their arms lifted, their weapons aid.
And then the bullets ca.
I froze them at first... I always did.
But there were too many.
Too fast...!
My barrier cracked again and again, healing only by instinct.
My knees trembled as my throat went dry.
I turned to Father.
I thought he would stand by .
I thought he would protect like always.
But when I reached for him, he was gone.
He had run.
Without a word and without a look.
He left there.
The first day, I waited.
I told myself he went to find help.
Maybe he needed ti to plan.
He would co back... He had to.
The second day, I told myself the sa.
The third day, my stomach hurt so much I could barely stand.
My eyes burned, but no tears ca out anymore.
The fourth day, I stopped calling his na.
By the fifth, the bullets never stopped.
I stayed pressed against the wall, holding my barrier as tightly as I could.
Sixth day, seventh day... ti blurred.
I no longer knew how many hours had passed.
The machines never grew tired.
They never stopped firing.
I hadn’t eaten... I hadn’t slept.
My body scread.
My mind begged to collapse.
But every ti I almost let go, I rembered my father’s voice.
"Do as I say, Guin. Nothing more, nothing less."
So I held on.
Because if I gave up... he would never co back.
And now.
Now, after all this ti, after the endless rain of bullets and the silence of my own heart, soone walked into the line of fire.
A man with pitch black hair and eyes that resembled a calm black night.
There was no hesitation with his steps.
He walked forward as if the bullets ant nothing, as if the whole world couldn’t touch him...
He knelt in front of .
His eyes t mine.
I looked up.
The light was behind him, outlining his form.
For a heart-stopping, foolish second, the shape of him, the timing of it...
"Do you want to be saved?"
He asked.
The words cut through the numbness in my chest.
Do I want to be saved?
My lips trembled.
My throat ached.
I couldn’t answer.
But in my heart, a thought surfaced.
Had Dad chosen to co back after all?
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