The Shadow Manipulator

Chapter 34: A Challenge

"O-onee-chan?" I muttered.

Yuki hugged me tighter, relieved that I'm okay. For once, I didn't stop her from hugging me since she was probably very worried. I could tell since she was trying to hold back her tears. It was the second time that I saw Yuki's face like that. The first time was when she and her family moved overseas when we were kids. Yuki was always cheerful and bright but now she's the total opposite, as if she was a split personality of hers. In return, I hugged her as well to calm her down. "I'm glad you're okay." She whispered.

"I'm really sorry for making you worry. I won't do it again." I told her. By the looks of it, she won't be able to calm down for quite some time so I decided to tell her that it won't happen again. Although I think that it would most likely happen again since I'm connected to Master Ryu and the Blue Fire- the two, most renowned, and famous irregulars. Not to mention my dad, who is the Light Bringer himself.

Now that I think about it, I couldn't escape the fact that I'm connected to Irregulars even if I had not met Master Ryu. My dad was probably planning to make me his Inheritor of the Name when the time comes but because of my connections, I became both a shadow manipulator and a light bringer quite earlier than I had expected. And due to recent events, I am now wearing three suppressor stones or else I would die. The fact that I myself is a walking bomb couldn't be taken for granted, I guess. Now that I had these irregularities, I am now close to death than ever before.

Always on the verge of death must be the best way to describe the state I'm in now.

Yuki finally let go of me after calming herself down even just a little bit. "Sorry! I totally forgot about your head. I'm going to get a pack of ice to treat it." She told me as she ran towards one of the rooms.

.....

"What?! So, you mean? Someone brought them in the Institute? How?!" Hana exclaimed on the phone.

"We don't know! I think the Institute has been breached but we're not sure. But someone did bring them in the Institute since we found them here." Yuki replied. "I still need to apply first-aid on Hikari so I'll call you later."

Yuki brought the phone down and grabbed a pack of ice from the fridge in front of her. She couldn't figure out who brought Hikari and his mom in the Institute. But she knew that there's more to it than that.

The Institute has been breached and no one knows who did it.

.....

It's been a week since the incident about my mom's kidnapping happened. The Black Wolf Organization has been thrown down by the Institute of Irregulars making the rest of us feel relieved.

Yuki and Hana told me that someone named Kirihara tipped them about the Black Wolf Organization, that's why they were able to get to the scene in time and rescue Master Ryu and the Yukines. The Institute also found Saika with my dad. According to them, Saik protected my dad y fighting the group of golems that attacked them, not to mention the people that were sent by the Organization.

My dad is still in the Intensive Care Unit in one of the Institute's branch hospital here in Japan. Last week, I didn't miss a day visiting him there. He was recovering, but the damage that he sustained were much worse compared to mine. It's still a mystery to me that someone could beat the Light-Bringer in a fight, but what scares me is that someone out there is powerful than my dad- that, or they use some cheap tricks to beat him. I also couldn't ignore the fact that it's possible to have lot of irregularities at once. It has happened to me so it should work for other people, especially those stronger than me.

I've been excused for a week in class because of my injuries. Well, not that my classmates care about it. They were probably happy since I was absent for a week. Now that the week has passed, my homeworks have drastically piled up. Being absent sure back-fired on me.