Chapter 168: Our Future
Kai was putting the groceries away when Leo slid off the couch and landed on the floor, apparently intentionally.
He stayed there for a moment. Then looked up at the ceiling.
"So," he said.
Kai already knew where this was going.
"You watched the second fight," Kai said.
"I watched it three times," Leo said.
Mina walked past carrying the bread to the counter. "Five," she said.
Leo coughed. "Five."
He sat up.
"Which one was harder," he said.
"Mira," Kai said.
Leo blinked. "Really? Not Raze?"
Kai stacked two cans on the shelf. "Mira made me think. Raze made me react."
Leo tilted his head. "What’s the difference."
"Mira forced me to solve a problem," Kai said. "Raze forced me to survive one."
Leo’s eyes went wide. "That sounds amazing."
Mina raised an eyebrow at Kai. "That’s one word for it."
Leo scrambled back onto the couch. "Were you scared?"
Kai thought about the Blood Spears.
The crater.
The moment Raze’s sword had almost reached him.
"...Yeah."
Leo blinked. "You actually were?"
"Being scared isn’t the problem." Kai nodded. "It’s letting it stop you."
"Still, I did see you were smiling," Leo said. "I watched. You were actually smiling."
Kai laughed. "I like difficult fights."
Leo nodded with the seriousness of someone filing away important information. "I think I would too." Leo suddenly stood up. He grabbed a wooden spoon from the kitchen counter. "This is my sword."
Mina looked over. "Don’t."
Leo ignored her.
He pointed the spoon dramatically at Kai. "Come on."
Kai blinked.
"You literally just fought Rank Two." Leo puff his chest out. "Fight me."
Kai looked at the spoon. "...No."
Leo swung anyway. "Hya!"
Kai casually stepped to the side and Leo stumbled past him.
Kai gently tapped Leo on the forehead. "You lost."
Leo frowned. "...I demand a rematch."
Mina laughed. "No."
Leo laughed.
He was quiet for a moment after that. He looked at his hands, turned them over, then back. The specific silence of someone thinking about something they had not said yet.
"I wonder what class I’ll get," he said.
The kitchen was quiet for a moment.
Kai looked at him. "You still want to become a hunter?"
Leo smiled. "At first? Definitely. Who wouldn’t?" He jumped to his feet. "Superpowers. Crazy dungeons. Giant monsters. Adventure." He threw both arms into the air. "It sounded amazing."
"But now?" Mina said.
Leo scratched his cheek. "Well." He sat back down. "What if I get a terrible class? What if I’m weak? What if I can only do F-rank gates and I’m stuck there forever?"
He looked at Kai.
"What if I have to rely on you forever?"
Kai was quiet.
Leo kept going. "I don’t want to be someone you always have to protect. I want to help. I don’t want to slow everyone down."
Leo looked down. "When people talk about you... They don’t just say you’re strong. They say you save everyone."
He smiled awkwardly. "I don’t know if I could ever do that."
"Leo..." Mina says softly.
Silence.
"What if..." He hesitated. "...I’m just normal?"
Kai looked at him for several seconds and then smiled. "So?"
Leo blinked. "So?"
Kai nodded. "Then you’ll be the strongest normal person I’ve ever met."
Leo stared.
Kai continued. "You don’t have to become me. You only have to become you."
Mina smiled. "Besides, you forgot something," she said.
Leo looked up. "What?"
She pointed at Kai. "Your brother doesn’t even have a real class and he’s Rank One."
Leo opened his mouth. Then closed it. "Yeah but." He laughed awkwardly. "Kai’s different. He’s." He scratched the back of his head. "He’s amazing. Unlike."
He did not finish the sentence because Kai reached over and pinched one cheek and Mina pinched the other one simultaneously.
"Wah?!"
"Never say that again," Kai said.
"Never," Mina agreed.
"But I." Leo’s words came out distorted. "The comparison doesn’t."
"No," Mina said.
Kai let go first. He reached over and ruffled Leo’s hair, which Leo immediately tried to duck away from and failed. "So what if your class is weak," Kai said. "I’ve met people with incredible classes who wasted them. I’ve met people with completely ordinary abilities who became something else entirely." He looked at Leo. "I don’t care what class you awaken. I already know you’ll become amazing."
Mina nodded. "You’re our little brother. We’ll always believe in you."
Leo’s face went red. He turned away immediately and looked at the wall. "That’s embarrassing," he said, to the wall.
Kai laughed.
Mina laughed.
"You know what’s funny?" Leo looked over at Mina. "When Kai awakened... He thought his future was over."
Leo gasped. "I-Is that really true, Kai?"
"Kind of." He nodded.
Mina smiled. "Now look at him." She shrugged. "So maybe we should wait before deciding what your future looks like."
Leo trembled before smiling and then pointed at Kai without turning around. "Then! When I awaken. I’m surpassing you."
"I won’t make it easy," Kai said.
Leo turned back around, and the red was still on his face but his expression was the one he had when he meant something completely. "I’d be disappointed if you did."
For a second the apartment was just the three of them in a quiet kitchen, and it was one of those seconds that would have been easy to miss if you were not paying attention.
Then Leo pointed at Mina. "What class do you want? When they eventually expand awakening to more people."
Mina thought about it. "Healer."
Leo immediately frowned. "Really?"
"I like helping people," she said.
Leo thought about this. "Actually." He nodded. "Yeah. That fits."
Kai asked, "What about researcher?"
Mina smiled. "Maybe."
"What about both," Leo said. "Healing Researcher. You heal people and then write about it."
"That’s just medicine," Mina said.
"Super medicine," Leo said.
Mina looked at him. "That’s also just medicine."
"Legendary Super Medicine Queen," Leo said.
Mina picked up a couch cushion.
Leo read the room and started backing up. "Supreme Healer of." He ran out of words before he ran out of apartment and the cushion hit him in the shoulder.
Kai sat down on the couch while Leo and Mina negotiated the terms of the cushion’s return, which involved Leo claiming it had been an unprovoked attack and Mina providing a clear and accurate account of provocation.
Leo eventually ended up back on the couch holding the cushion he had been hit with and looking like he had won something.
"What class would you give yourself if you could pick," Leo said to Kai.
Kai thought about this. "I wouldn’t pick a different one."
"Really?" Leo looked skeptical. "Not even something with more." He waved his hand vaguely.
"More what," Kai said.
"I don’t know. Something bigger."
"NULL is fine," Kai said.
Leo looked at him for a long moment. "You’re very weird," he said, with a great deal of affection.
"Thank you," Kai said.
The evening settled into its normal version of itself. Mina finished putting away the groceries and started making something for dinner. Leo migrated to the table with his schoolwork, which he opened and then mostly ignored while asking Kai questions about the fights that he had already asked three versions of. The apartment had noise in it, the comfortable kind that meant everyone was present and nothing was wrong.
Leo was halfway through a homework problem he was not actually doing when he suddenly looked up.
"Wait," he said.
Kai looked at him.
"Who’s next?" Leo said.
Kai reached for his phone.
The screen had a notification he had not opened yet. Unknown number. One message.
He opened it.
Tomorrow. I’d like to talk.
Elden.
Kai looked at it for a moment.
"Looks like I have plans tomorrow," he said.
Leo’s head came up so fast he nearly knocked his homework off the table. "Elden?" He stood up. "YES." He pointed at Kai. "Another fight."
"You only heard the word fight," Mina said from the kitchen.
Leo nodded proudly. "Correct."
Kai smiled and set the phone down.
Outside the apartment the city was still running on what it had watched today. The footage from both fights was still circulating, still being analyzed, still being argued about in training halls and guild offices and restaurants.
In here it was just dinner coming together in the kitchen and Leo already asking which fighting style Elden would use and whether Kai had a plan yet.
Tomorrow was coming.
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