Sword Saint Of The Omniverse (On Indefinite Hiatus)

Original Sin: Kaede van Astrea

Edit(June 23): changed The Contingency into Alayashiki. Felt it more fitting

I had forgotten what my birth parents look like.

All I remember about them was that my mother was a brunette and my father...He was wearing a black shirt.

When I first gained self-awareness, we were living in an apartment in a large city, the dogs would often bark at me when I walked down the street with mother and I would hide behind her legs. She would ignore my feelings and continue on without pause while I'm forced to muster up the courage and carry on.

The day they gave me to the orphanage started out inconspicuous enough, bright sky, sunny, and overall a great day.

I don't know what happened between that morning and them checking me into the orphanage but they did it before nightfall.

Looking back on it, I was scared, so I did the only thing logical for a child: I waited by the door every evening, waiting for my parents to retrieve me.

They never did.

It was only after the 7th evening when the caretakers shoo-ed me away due to I being an..."eyesore"? "Unloved child"? Whatever it was, I ran away crying in the building's play area.

Children can be so cruel.

I learned that personally when another kid walked up to me, asked what was wrong, and laughed at my worthlessness to my parents.

Why? I said, anger overwhelming my sadness. I became extra aggressive since I had this huge amount of emotions that needed to go somewhere. Aren't you here also? Doesn't that mean your parents don't love you as well? In fact they loved you so little you-

That was as far as I got before the kid slugged a punch at me.

When I tired to fight back, I failed miserably as the kid was much larger than me.

The other orphans were cheering the bigger kid on, egging him to brutalize me even more as penalty.

The adults didn't even do anything to stop it.

In fact, it got so badly that I was knocked out.

When I woke up outside, I was feeling pretty vengeful. So as any kid with a grudge I headed inside the orphanage, either to report what had occurred or to teach the kid a lesson.

That was the first time I had seen dead bodies.

I saw a scene of blood. Severed limb, thrown across the floor and room, I think I also saw an arm on the ceiling fan.

The walls was red all over, as if someone took a bucket of red paint and launched it at the wall.

With much caution, I started to move around to investigate.

Do not ask me what I was thinking because frankly, I don't know. My Dad would tell me that I was in shock, my adrenaline was pumping like crazy so the feeling of fear and pain from the bruises I got dulled.

I was startled from my investigation when sirens were heard.

The police officers were nice. They gave me a full meal as they asked the questions. I answered honestly.

They let me go pretty soon afterwards. After all, how would a child, outside with visible bruises be a suspect in a case where, in order to cause the same amount of damage, heavy machinery was used.

I went to a new orphanage soon after.

Obviously, my pain about not being wanted was still there, so I cried myself to sleep for the first 12 nights of my stay at the new orphanage.

There was one kid who comforted me, they had long blond hair so I'm assuming they are female.

That's when I made my first friend.

It was so long ago I had forgotten her name, I did ask Dad whether he could find her for me or not but after doing a little bit of searching as well as hiring a Private Investigator, a single name came up.

Misaki Shokuhou

That was my first friend.

She was adopted by a rich couple not soon after we had first met.

When we met again after a decade of separation, she was...Less than ideal. I mean, her physical health couldn't be better, but it's mainly her psychology that's changed drastically.

I would later find out that at age 7, her ability, dubbed by Dad as "Mental Out", first manifested and she became a Gemstone, a natural borne esper that's extremely important to Dad's work.

She was controlling her parents using that ability, bending them to her whim.

Obviously she didn't know who I was and-

There was a blank in my memory of that time.

Dad didn't tell me what happened, and he was apprehensive about me meeting up with Shokuhou.

Misaki didn't speak much of that day either, only apologizing immediately when I woke up and always kept me at arm's length.

Even going as far as pushing me away when I tried to get close.

Our relationship never was the same again that day. My old friend who always smiled at me became a distant memory, replaced by a lukewarm and balance obsessed girl.

After being adopted by Dad, it's always been an interesting time.

At first I was afraid he would beat me since I caused so much death.

Yet he merely comforted me, and always spoke to me gently, never raising his voice unless either my or someone else's safety was involved.

I think I began to truly think of him as a father came after one year of adoption, when a group of rogue researchers came after us.

We were shopping for the day before Dad suddenly hurried me along. When I asked why he had a grim look on his face.

Being abused for much of your childhood makes you extremely perceptive to human emotion and facial movement. Right then and there I realized that this is serious and not to joke around with.

As we were leaving out the door, a gunmen opened fire on us and Dad took the hit when he pushed me onto the ground, using his body to cover me in an embrace like a shield.

Even with each shot and blood spewing from his wound, he never did stop protecting me.

Even through gritted teeth, he stilled whispered to me that everything will be alright and he'll live.

It's alright, I'll be fine, as long as you are.

The Doctors at his workplace would say that he took 17 rounds and would've died had we waited 2 minutes more.

I was 2 minutes away from losing my Dad. The one who protected me even as he laid dying on the ground. Who even if had died would still serve as a shield, protecting me from the gunmen.

I felt guilty.

I had wanted to leave, I had planned to leave his care.

I felt disgusted at myself, here was someone who legit cared more for me than their own life.

As he had promised when he took me in.

That single phrase broke my will to leave.

I now have a true parent, a suicidal one but one that'll care for me regardless of their own pain and regardless, sees me as a family member nonetheless.

Family.

That word has always felt foreign on my lips.

Yet this warm feeling, and the relieve of seeing him alive...

I decided to not leave him. I can search for Issei when I grow up or when I meet him by fate again.

Instead, if my Dad loves me so much that he's willing to comfort me even as he lay dying, I will help him in turn. Lord knows he need it. I will serve as the early alarm system that'll warn him of any danger that people possess.

After all, I do have a keen knack for judging people, don't I?