Toru Niles. It was a name given to me by my parents. I lived in Elm City alone in a small apartment near the center of city, I inherited money from my parents however it's nowhere near enough and barely met the minimum of daily life with my online school.
Luckily, the lease was an easy bargain cause I convinced the owner that I still a middle school student. With all of its drawbacks including the leaking tap, hard bed and barely function stove. I'm grateful and that's what mattered.
I couldn't help but laugh when I picked a dice humming some catchy popular songs. It felt like a dream come true when I awakened my ability. A room filled with random weight, size and quality dices towered around his apartment like a castle. I grinned crazily at my works. Running away from my aunt's home working perfectly and gained an ability in return, are worth that much to this life. Of course the part about assets inherited from my parents was not one of them.
According to the current law, they must be managed by related family or guardian as I was not an adult. Thankfully, they didn't bother me as long as I'm not causing trouble.
"Little dice, little dice what I will do to you..." I hummed again, this time a random tunes. I live here almost a year ago. I already registered myself among a few who had the courage to registered.
There is a copy of papers I always kept. A sign from the Elm Security Administration and a stamp from the mayor. Not to mention an ID card issued by Stray Investigastion Unit (SIU) with invisible tracker implanted around my wrist. It seemed like government are taking more precaution to prevent an incident like before. A stray caused some trouble, killing a member of SIU in acidic substance she created out of hatred towards the deceased victim.
Lately, I heard some rumors of SIU catching strays around here. Reportedly, around this area and it's still hard to find a job because i'm a minor. At least they didn't arrest me of illegal use of ability when I tried to use mine as long as it's in public or harming a citizen.
There's one thing that bothered me. Why did my ability awaken? It's not like i'm dying to know but why dice and why now? Is it really only that it's happening? SIU Officer only told me it was a sudden awakening but I knew there's something, especially the professor who kept whispering to each other when they tested me. I can barely hear a few words.
"... it must be... desire. I—.. no proof..."
"It's... dormant gene. If not—... explain the..."
And that's it. Nothing was heard anymore. Well, there are rules of not seeing other strays. Dangerous, they said. You know, why they didn't create a team formed only by strays? Or put them into a facility altogether? It's been two years, and I know the government gathered around lots of money. I had a hunch, though, to awaken human dormant gene. I'm not smart though it's possible to assume it is what they did.
Oh well, their plan was not my problem. I already did my duty to registered my ability and no laws was broken. If they intended to make a world full of strays, I don't mind. But I don't intend to sit around if they began to experiment on me or doing illegal experiment to make an ability user. No matter how good it becomes, it's against the law because I'm still a human too.
What I didn't plan was discovering something. Another side of my ability and the other was seeing another unregistered strays, who had no sense of responsibility to uphold the law.
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