Ch. 1: Just Another Day

“Son, wake up! You will end up being late for school. Wake up! Or I am coming in!”, said a woman in her thirties. Standing in front of a bland brown door, she knocked twice before saying,” I am coming in!”

She put her hand on the door handle and a translucent blue colored fluid suddenly came into existence emanating from her outwards and into the door handle. She shows no changes in her facial expression due to this.

The fluid then leaks into the room and surrounds the inner door handle that’s on the opposite side of the door handle on the outside. There is a gem, an orb colored red, on the inner door handle, it starts to absorb this fluid attracting it inwards.

She then says, “hah!” with a smile and little bit of pride seeping through her facial expression.

And then suddenly, the bluish fluid which was earlier a translucent cyan blue has now become a translucent ice blue fluid.

At that point the orb couldn’t absorb the fluid any longer and the fluid surrounded the inner handle completely, moving it so as to open the door.

She enters her son’s room.

She found her son lying on the bed with manga volumes covering his chest and face like a blanket. While his own blanket is by his right side acting as a pillow to not let his body touch the wall.

The book on his face slips as he turns in his sleep to lie straight on the bed. He still grabbing on the book with his left hand dangling it over the fall off his bed.

She looks at the inner door handle, and sees that the orb has a light red color and a small scratch on it right at the middle of the exposed semi-sphere.

“ You will have to change this, a security measure like this will not protect you. Better go for any other higher quality absorber because this one won’t even fly on the- Son, wake up and listen.”

She proceeds to shake his foot. No response.

The mother sighs and starts picking up the books that have fallen on the ground during the night. She looks at the analog alarm clock on the study table, it displays 8:15 AM. The study table is placed parallel to the bed.

She sees that her son’s study table is covered with books on human anatomy , 'Concepts of Physics' by H.C. Verma, two volumes of 'The Beginning after the end', a 'Bleach' manga volume, and an open notebook.

She picks them up and closes them. And then picks the notebook up and reads,” ‘the manifest rules of the second form can be deduced to involve a realm or domain formation rule, expansion of the realm permanently for the user or a limitation rule on increasing area, and…’ ”

“Whose rules are you deducing here?” She turns back a page.

She reads, “ ‘Hero Name: Red Minton’. I think I have heard that name before isn’t that the one who uses a badminton based manifest.”

She closes the notebook and puts it on the top of the books she put on the study table. She glances over to the laptop and stares at the blinking power key, only to realize a few microseconds later.

“Oh, you son of mine!” She turns his laptop on and logs in.

She knows her son’s password because he did tell her when he got his laptop for the first time, promising at that moment by himself that he will never mind sharing passwords if it’s his parents asking, putting his trust and unknowingly to himself in them that they will not share it with anybody.

The laptop screen after logging in shows a paused anime episode of 'The beginning after the end' season 3 on one tab, on the other tab is a YouTube video paused on 'Red Minton’s third consecutive victory match in BRICS international magic-manifest combat tourney in 2369', and another app other than the web browser is open the app being a PDF reader with the PDF being 'Encyclopedia to new possibilities Vol. 3'.

She whispered, “Hmm, that’s last year’s combat tourney.”

She takes a screenshot of the screen by pressing the print screen button and windows button. “Now I can shut it off and plug it to charge. Boy, children always make a mess even after they turn 15.”

She turns her head sideways and looks at her kid. “So, adorable.”

The boy sleeping soundly, unbeknownst of his surroundings and his mother. He is completely entranced by his dream while his face is completely at peace. His right hand on the books on his chest while the left hand is still clutching on the volume 7 of “The beginning after the end” he was reading before he fell asleep reading.