I wake Milim up after a few minutes of her laying on the ground asleep. She immediately stands up and looks to her left. Laying on the ground a small distance away from us lays the two pieces of the Sword Tenma. We run over to it and look at the pieces. They are perfectly split in half. A perfectly clean cut straight through. That's ridiculous.
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"Waah!" Milim picks up the two pieces and panics. The sword has been rendered completely useless as it is. Repairing it would be difficult for almost everyone. But, I'm not almost everyone.
As Milim looks at the sword with tears in her eyes I proclaim, "Wait, Milim. I can fix it."
"Eh? You can?"
"Sure, it shouldn't be that hard. Give me a few moments." [Solomon], you can fix this right?
{Of course I can.}
Overconfident aren't you? Well, let's do this. I eat the sword and absorb it into my [Stomach]. That is where I can start the repairing process. But if I'm going to fix it. Might as well upgrade it right? This'll be a good test to see if I can replicate what happened with the Adamant Blade again. Going through all the same steps again, I pull out a noticeably weaker sword than theAdamant Blade, despite it going through the same process as it. That's strange, what's different?
It's still been upgraded to Deutite in makeup and has been upgraded to have more overall magical power, but that's about it. It's definitely darker in color, and it has a slight glow to it but none of the crazy properties in my Adamant Blade are present in it. Was what happened to the Adamant Blade a one time thing? I need to do more testing.
I turn back to Milim, "Here. It's fixed. I even made it a little stronger for you."
She grabs the sword and looks at it with a much more serious look than normal, although it's still a little childish. She comments, "This is amazing!"
"Really huh? It's strange."
"Strange?"
"Hm, no, sorry. Just ignore that for now." I look at the Adamant Blade which I had put back in its scabbard, now hanging off the side of a belt. This is weirder than the shining light.
A few months pass by. Occasionally looking through old memories by manifesting them, Milim gets a much better understanding of who exactly I am and why I have a strange obsession with learning everything about the fundamentals of this world. She learns it's not really as much because of a curiosity as I give off, more like a need to use it to develop better defenses for Tempest and the people around me. When she asks why though, I think about it. Why? It's this thought that makes two separate events appear when [Solomon] looks for the answer. Those two events being the ones that shaped my personality the most.
When the first one appears, Milim looks around. We're in a small field connected to a Middle School courtyard. Next to us stands a Middle School version of the old me unable to do anything as a group of taller kids insult him. Milim looks a little confused, of all people, me, getting picked on. However, after overcoming the initial shock, she looks angry at them.
Old me stares down, unable to look up as they yell at him. With an emotionless stare, I watch as a younger girl walks up to them. She yells, "What are you doing you stupid idiot!"
My old self looks over at her, "Sister?"
This catches the attention of the other kids who look at her. Sizing her up. She continues, "Why are you letting them do this!? Fight back! Come on!"
The other kids start laughing and turn to look at me. "Yeah, fight back! Come on, or you gonna let her...oof!"
My sister punched him in the gut with a deadly glare. "What were you gonna say to him?"
"You little." He pushes her, knocking her to the ground.
That's when I tried to step in, "Hey!"
"What? Are you gonna fight me?"
"Uh...I...I..." Tears appear in old me's eyes. "I..." He goes limp and looks down.
He smiles, "Exactly. Like you would ever fight back."
As I visibly break down, my sister stands up. "Leave him alone!"
"And what're you gonna do about it little girl?" She was a year younger than me and noticeably shorter even compared to other girls her age. She looked anything but intimidating and the guy was tall and muscular, much bigger than me. But, even despite all that, she proved to them that underestimating her was a very bad idea.
She spoke in an emotionless tone, "Kill you."
"Kill me!? Haha! Aww, look at the little-augh!" She leaps at him with her full weight, managing to pin him down, and starts clawing and scratching at his face.
"What the fuck!? Get off me!" He struggles to push her off to no avail. She wrapped her leg around his body to hold him in place. "Help! Get her off me!"
The other guys with him run up and try to pull her off but can't. She's like a wild animal as she struggles free from them and keeps clawing at the big guy. Eventually they manage to get her off only for her to bite one of them in the arm. "Ah! You bit me! What the hell is wrong with you!?" He pushes her down. He immediately leaps back at him. As he gets pinned, the others step in and bodyslam her, pinning her down, each one holding a different part of her body. "Augh, why is she so strong!?"
"Let me go!" She thrashes around violently.
Old me looks at her. "L-leave her alone."
The big guy gets up with multiple cuts and scratches on his face. "What? Let that little psycho go?"
"D-Don't call her that."
He looks at me, "What? Are you defending her? Can't you see she's crazy?"
"I-I..." Old me tries to punch him but with a weak I was it doesn't do much.
"What!? Was that supposed to hurt?" He pushes old me. "Step down. You're not going to win."
Old me hears my sister yell, "Let me go!" again. Fueled by anger he picks up a large rock and throws it as hard as he can at the big guy. Hitting him in the forehead. He holds his head in pain as blood rushes down his face. Holding his face he looks at old me and is prepared to say something before he sees me. A large grin appears as he chuckles. The big guy, creeped out, runs away quickly followed by his friends.
Milim watches the boys run away noticeably angry at them. As she looks at me running up to my sister to help her get up the scene fades. We are moved to a bedroom. There sits a 20 year old me and my, at the time, 19 year old sister watching TV.
The news broadcasts, "The famous scientist and inventor, Alexander Sarmos has yet to turn up after going missing a few weeks ago. Eyewitness reports have said the his last whereabouts were..."
My sister complains, "Augh, this is so boring! Change the channel~! Please~! I want to watch a movie~!"
"Come on. It's not that boring." Old me looks at her, "You're not even paying attention. You're too busy stuffing your face to watch you fatty."
She looks annoyed,"Huh!? No I'm not!"
Old me smiles, "Really? You've eaten an entire bag of chocolates and three bags of chips in the past hour." She looks a little mad as she realizes old me is right.
She turns away, "Hmph, you didn't have to say it."
"Hahahaha! You didn't have to eat it all either!" She turns and laughs a little before punching the old me lightly. We seemed to have been having fun. Milim sees this and smiles after seeing this. She had just seen a very bad memory after all. How naive of her, a memory like this could never be life changing. Something bad is about to happen.
Suddenly the news catches old me's attention as it states, "Breaking News! After a devastating terrorist attack on the Geffel Theatre, 50 people have been killed by..."
I see old me tune out the rest as he realizes. Our parents had gone there earlier. That was the whole reason we were alone in their house at the time. He mutters, "That..." He turns around and sees my sister with terror in her eyes. She had also realized it. Old me immediately says, "Get in the car."
Milim realizes what's about to be shown immediately. After all, she had dealt with this before as well. As the scene skips to when we arrived, she watches as the old me jumps out of the car and runs around yelling for my parents. He's stopped by police who warn him to stay back. "But my parents! They were here! They were..."
The policeman looks at him seriously. "I understand your concern. But I can't let you run inside. I recommend you try to calm down sir."
"Calm down! Calm down!? How!? My parents were here when the..."
I look away from the old version of me and look at my sister. I hadn't seen how she was acting during that event but thanks to [Solomon] I can tell exactly how the event went down. She was sitting in the car, crying. This day was the only time I had seen her seriously cry in her entire life.
The scene changes again to a hospital. There the two of our old selves sit there waiting. A doctor walks up to us and tries to tell us the worst piece of news I had ever heard. My parents were dead. My dad had been instantly killed in the attack and my mom had died peacefully in her sleep after being knocked out. I look at my old self jump up and pin him to the wall. "What do you mean they're dead!? You couldn't do anything to save them!? Nothing!?"
"I'm terribly sorry sir but I'm afraid that..."
"Grr!" I had pulled my arm back ready to punch him but was held back by other people. Current me turns away from this scene and look at my sister during this. Again she had burst into tears and broke down after receiving the news. I watch as they calm me down and eventually leave the two of us together. Old me looks at my sister and hugs her, trying to comfort her but starts crying not long after. With no family and friends the two of us had been left all alone.
The scene cuts off a little after that as my memory ends. As everything goes back to a void with a floor Milim turns around with tears in her eyes. I ask, "Are you okay?"
"Did this happen to you?"
I respond, "Well, they are my old memories so yeah."
"Okay." She walks over to me, "Are you okay?"
"From watching them? I can't exactly say I'm happy to see them but they aren't that bad either. These things happened a long time ago so I guess I've moved on but...they definitely still affect me. I can't let that happen again so I work to keep people safe." I think back, "After my parents died it was up to me to protect my sister and up to her to protect me. I had already started college and got on the path that led to my greatest achievement then but I had thought about quitting and working instead after that. It was my sister's encouragement that kept me on my path I guess and it's that path that I follow even right now. These things shook me at the time but I can't let them rule over my life. That's not how I deal with things."
"I...see." She gives a fake smile, "I'm glad."
"That reminded you of your parents, didn't it?"
She looks at me, "You...knew?"
I laugh a little, "Of course I did. You can't hide anything from me, remember? I know you felt like you were alone when they were gone. I had my sister then but you didn't have anyone. I guess that's another reason why I try to stick to you so much. To remind you you're not alone.. I just didn't expect to show you this when I thought about how I was going to give you that message."