Chapter 257: Reach Out For The Truth

'Wake up…'

'Wake up…'

'Wake up…' 

That same odd voice had been ringing in his head for a very long time, yet he had only just realized it in his hazy, blank mind… 

"H-huh…"

Moby mumbled to himself, as he slowly regained control of his own body that still felt extremely numb, trying to twitch his fingers. 

He slowly tried to open his eyes, which was a harder task than he had first anticipated, failing the first time as it felt like the weight of the world was sitting right on his eyelids. 

Finally, after the room came into view, the first light he had seen in a long time entered his eyes, revealing a white blurry mess that after using all the energy in his body to rub his eyes, discerned as a tiled ceiling that he could not recognize. 

"W-where am I…" 

He mumbled as he found himself in an unfamiliar place before suddenly, a massive pain hit him in his head, returning all of his hazy memories.

His body instantly began hyperventilating, shaking in panic as the sudden realization of something struck him in the head.

'Have I been captured by the enemy!? Where am I!?'

He thought, forcing his body to sit up and examine his surroundings. 

He found himself sat on a soft, white bed in what seemed like a hospital room, various machines connected to his head and tools on shelves, tables and white for everything that was in his vision.

Yet, that information did not serve him well as he sat up straight and tried to contact his family.

'Can you guys hear me?! Jayden! Abby! Nags! Alex… Alex… FUCK! I'M SUCH A WEAK, BRAINDEAD FAILURE!'

Yet, despite his cries, no one answered… An odd pain striking and stabbing straight through his heart especially remembering the sight of Alex's death…

For some odd, seemingly inexplicable reason, it was as if it was the worst pain he had ever felt in his life… 

Now, the memory of that pain resurfaced along with another pain right after. There were only 2 reasons why he couldn't contact them, either there was an anti-communication crystal in the room or they were also all dead which was a reality he did not even want to imagine. 

He needed to find answers for himself, and to do that he needed to move. 

Yet, no matter how hard he tried, moving his body seemed almost completely impossible, despite knowing for a fact that his injuries had all been completely healed. 

"Huh?"

Suddenly, in his futile attempt to get out of bed, he felt something heavy yet rather small that he nudged with his knee. 

As he focused his attention on where that hard thing was, he noticed that it was not a thing at all, but a small white-haired girl, her mouth covered by her clothes, sitting on his lap almost completely camouflaging with the environment. 

Slowly she lifted her head, yawning, rubbing her eyes as he stretched.

However, that tired, casual demeanour stopped as soon as her eyes landed on Moby's panicked, heavily breathing visage as tears began running down her face.

"B-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-big brother… YOU'RE ALIVE!"

Like a white tiger, she immediately pounced on Moby, hugging him with all her might which gave him several feelings. 

Other than the pain of her crushing him and his clothes getting soaked with tears, he felt odd comfort and rage welling up inside him.

Comfort from knowing that he was on earth, not captured, that along with seeing a familiar face that seemed to care about him, a person that even went as far as to save his life. Yet, he could not shake off the feeling of hatred, like he wanted to kill her on the spot, crush her tiny skull for what she had done, it was all her fault that Abby was captured and that led to so much pain and anguish, including the death of both Alex and Jason…

'Jason? Why the fuck am I thinking about Jason?' A part of him thought in confusion, as he tried to suppress his dark side, for now, trying to calm himself down and look for answers, finding a hint of ease in looking at her caring, crying figure.

"Where am I… What happened…"

"S-sorry for hugging you all of a sudden… Big brother has been unconscious for over 2 days now and the nurse said that there was a high chance that you would never wake up... I'm so happy your alive... So, so, so, so, so, happy... I love my big brother... I owe you my life… You're my hero... I was so, so, worried…"

Moby's eyes grew wide hearing her words as many things began running through his mind. 

"2 days!? 2 days?! What happened while I was asleep?! Did another war start!? Did anyone else die on the battlefield!? Did the shalker leader get captured, killed, or did he run away!? Are my fr—"

"Calm down Kane, everything will be alright… I'm happy to see you alive and kicking son. Things have been really wild this month, stressful for all of us. Losing someone like you would have been the final nail in the coffin,"

All of a sudden, the room's door was thrust wide open, a dark-haired man wearing a black business suit walked in, coffee cup in hand, bags under his eyes and rather neatly kept hair unlike he usually had.

"General Ryker? Why are you here!?"

Moby's eyes grew wide, seeing the face of a man he didn't expect.

"It was actually all by chance, lucky me right? I was actually here to check up on you and a few of the injured soldiers and I noticed that you had suddenly woken up… Kid, you might have made a lot of stupid choices out there. But, despite your recklessness, I still see you as a hero… This has all shed some light on many things previously unknown…" 

*Sigh*

"You know, this kid stayed up 2 days straight to watch over you to see when or if you would even wake up, she only took a small nap from exhaustion 3 hours ago when I last came in. I bet she must have been very disappointed that she didn't catch you the second you woke,"

As the general spoke, Moby took a closer look at Hikari, and the ugly blackness under her still tear-filled eyes.

"General-sama! Thank you so much for allowing me to skip training to watch my big brother…"

Hikari stood up and bowed, looking at the ground with her eyes closed. 

"No problem kid, but that doesn't get you out of things! You're still in deep trouble young lady! Fooling your instructor with a fake light projection so you could go out and play! I told you people shouldn't even know you exist! And you go around working with gangs! A gang owned by a shalker nonetheless!"

Hikari's sad face of disappointment suddenly turned serious, her hair shifting into black darkness.

"Hey! General! Stop being a dickhead to my sister! You have her caged up all day so it's only natural she wanted to escape! Even though now she hates the hell out of that disgusting shalker! Emilia was the only person nice to her a—"

Yet, before her sister insulted the general too much, Hikari switched back into control and bowed once more, apologizing.

"I'm s-sorry general… It won't happen again…" 

*Sigh*

"I might have been a little harsh on you, if  all goes well and you don't cause any trouble for the rest of the year, I promise you a big surprise at the end of the school year,"

"Pinky promise?"

"Yes, pinky promise,"

Hikari's face became more excited hearing the general's word, as she turned around to face Moby once more with tear-filled eyes, an unseen smile on her covered face.

"Sorry about that, I'm sure you still have many things on your mind…"

The general sighed once more, as he took a sip of his coffee mug, his eyes fixated on Moby.

Moby slowly lifted his right hand, noticing a familiar warm imprint on it with a hint of sweat.

"Hikari… Was someone else here with me too?"

"Yes, Jayden Griffith was also here. She only just left a few hours ago right before I went to sleep,"

"Really!? She's alright?! Where did she go!? So, everyone else is alright too?"

Although Moby had fully expected to see Jayden by his side if everything went well, she wasn't there which was the cause of most of his doubts and worries, but for her to leave his side like that, something rather important must be going on…

"Why did she leave?"

"I think she said something about an execution and introducing her new sister to her new home…"

"What!? N-new sister?! Execution!? What's going on!? Explain! I need answers about everything!"

The General took another sip of his coffee, sighing once more as he sat down on a chair beside Moby.

"Kane, A lot has happened while you were asleep. So, just calm down and I'll explain everything you need to know before I ask you some questions of my own..."