In his dream, the boy is well, sort of in a pickle. He is currently being yeeted from an unrecognizable sea over a deep gorge of hell and towards a very large mountain he believes to be Mount Everest.

He thinks to himself, ‘why am I being thrown about this time? Huh, is that mom’s voice?’

From a deep sudden cavern opening in between the gorge over which he is flying, comes the following sound.

“Son” in a loud voice, shattering the gorge further and raising hell’s flames upwards.

“Oh, no! I am not getting caught in that!” He tries changing his direction by turning in mid-air. Not much is achieved. He still goes through a fountain of hell’s flame.

“Uh, yes! Nothing’s like fire, umm-hmm, now what’s this weight on me?” He flails his arms around for no avail as there is nothing that he captures. He looks down and stares into the cavern.

He sees stars and light seeping in. He looks forward and sees a huge mountain, a very icy one and hard at that. ‘So splat? Is that the theme this time?’

Another burst of sound from the cavern happens, this time more clearly. “Arthur Leywin! WAKE UP!”

Two hands as soft as feather emerges and color of the room’s wall seeps in through the cavern’s gap while a most lovable and comforting face is looking through the gap. The hands reach him.

‘So soft. Uh, huh, Mom, just waking up.’ The hands caressing his hair and his cheek.

The boy opens his eyes. “So, Arthur Leywin is the name you have for this morning”, declares the mother. “Mom! I did wake up with in your first call so don’t do that”, replies the boy still motion sick from all the getting thrown around.

‘Huh, I didn’t tidy up before sleeping?’ Smacks his head as he looks around him and sees that his mom has already correctly collected the books on his study table that were on the floor and scattered on the table. He sits up. “Still I did wake up so why did you start with-“

“Nuh, uh!” His mom places her index finger on his forehead and pokes it at each word.

“You didn’t wake up when I called out to you at 7:30 AM. And you didn’t wake up when your sister knocked on your door, and now when I came in I had to unlock the door using aura.”

‘He thought, wait, mom used aura but the absorber was supposed to absorb aura upto small-district level or C tier aura and alert if aura is applied beyond that.’ He looks towards his door handle.

His mom lectures him after again poking at his forehead,” the absorber you are using is of low-medium quality, use a higher quality absorber as any absorber in low range can’t generally handle change in aura density or aura unit construction. Also you should have atleast gotten that one run through someone in Chor Bazaar or have it run through your dad before using it.”

He closes all the books around him on the bed and collects them according to titles, which being ‘Naruto’, ’One Piece’, ‘Encyclopedia to new possibilities Vol. 5’, ‘The Beginning after the end’, ‘The Eminence in Shadow’, ‘A Returner’s Magic should be Special’ and ‘Mathematics of Manifests’.

His mom moves onto the door and turns around to say, ”Come on, or you will be late for school for the sixth time this month.” Her hands on her hips.

He looks at his mom, a lady in her late thirties but is exactly 39 and yet looks like a 23 or younger. Her complexion is same as his, which being somewhere between wheatish and medium skin tone. Her eyes are brown while his is blue just like his grandma. Her height is five foot eight and a half inches while his is at 15 years of age just about 5 foot 7 inches, just a little bit short than his own mother.

He stands up, shaking his black hair with his right hand to correct it. He first picks up his books and puts them in their places on the two bookshelves next to the study table. He shifts his wooden chair back in place under the table. He pulls out his uniform from the cabinet in front of the bookshelf closer to the window that faces outward onto a clear sky. He thinks,’ really even a clear sky and light at my face didn’t wake me up. Well any way.’ He closes the wardrobe side of the cabinet and opens the cupboard side to pull out his empty school bag he tossed in last night.

*******************

His mom still waiting for him. He looks at her and sighs,”Yes, I am coming.”

And moving on, out of the room, following his mom out into the corridor and down the stairs.

“Ma, what’s the name this time?” arrived a girl’s voice from right of the stairs.

His mom, announcing to rest of the denizens of the house,” King Arthur Leywin has risen from his slumber!”

A male, in his early forties, looks up from him scouring the newspaper towards the descending angel of his heart and smiles, “Well so be it, just don’t taunt him too much.”

“Well, someone has to! Or how would he correct something that he can correct.”

The sister, aged 14, looks up from the Bhagavad Gita she is reading, and looks towards the stairs from where her brother emerges still in his last night’s clothes, a t-shirt and a grey sports lower. She says,” Well if you don’t want to be called by other names you should sleep with a notebook filled with your name only so mom doesn’t end up using her taunting tricks.”

“Right, right. Morning to you too headache,” said the boy. “Ouch! Mom!” His mom pinched him on his cheeks.

“You woke up late so you only get to be called by the name you responded to wake up to. You could have woken up at your name, Naruto, Sauske, Luffy, Zoro, Cid, Aurora, but you chose to wake up at Arthur Leywin. So. It’s. On. You.”

“Yeah, sorry. Good morning, Mahira.”

“Good morning, Arthur Leywin,” said the girl, turning her face and giving a wide smile. “You will have a really lovely day again.”

A girl just about 14 years and smarter than required to read pure Sanskrit of Bhagavad Gita without her train of thought breaking apart, loosing translation or where she was. This was her third time reading Bhagavad Gita. Her brown eyes fixing back on the text of the old book, an original from Prayagraj printed in early 21st century, a rarity indeed.

“You should go brush your teeth and shower yourself. Your friend has been waiting for you,” said his father, resuming his scouring the newspaper. Another set of brown eyes and black hair with a skin tone closer to medium skin tone.

The boy walks downwards into the hall where everyone is. There is a small library parallel to the stairs, while the stairs don’t have a rail for last few steps, there is a sofa adjacent to the stair wall and a table in front of it, which is Mahira using, while his father sits in the chair comfortably to the left side of the bookshelves in light coming from the window.

“Look in front and then to your right.” “Yes, sir!” came as a reply automatically from the boy. Only to realize that it was just his grandfather telling him to notice, while he literally spawned from the emptiness that is there in front of the gym which is on the right side of the bookshelves.

His grandfather looks at him with a smile. The boy looks forward having reached the ground floor.

In the hall, there is a large 55 inch TV straight in front from the stairs. The news is on and they are telling about this morning’s conflict in middle east Asia.

The news reporter says, “the conflict of extremists against the governments of the middle east Asia and the continent of Jerusa is still ongoing even after 6 weeks of constant battle between magic users and manifest users on each side.”

‘Jerusa is being attacked still’, the boy thinks. The news goes on, “since the continent’s discovery in 2029 AD, this conflict is one of the many conflicts still active. A manifest continent whose main portal is in Israel with several manifest pathways connecting it to other manifest continents is still under constant vigilance by the Continental nation of Jerusa.”

A commercial comes on singing in a cheerful voice, some may call it as saying, “always plan your manifest and-”

“Take help from the government or local manifest guides”, copying it’s cheerful tune said Fushi.

************************

Fushi Jason, the boy’s best friend and a camper some might say as he mostly stays at the Karna household, where he is right now.

The boy looks towards the left of the sofa in front of the TV as he walks towards it. And sees his best friend lying on the ground spread out with his hands holding a diary and a pen.

His best friend, currently being called ‘Arthur Leywin’ by his family as he has taken note of it. “You really don’t have to write about that,” says the boy looking over Fushi with his towering height. Fushi replies, “nope, it’s going in my diary and being delivered after editing to people who may want to read this diary as there are people who do.”

Fushi looks up, “I lost to your sister again, just before you woke up Lance Arthur.” The boy face palms himself and extends his right hand to Fushi.

“You need to freshen up, go.” Says the mother. “Do I also need to, auntie Sanya?” asks Fushi. Sanya replies, “yes you too. You just had a match with Mahira and you should wipe the sweat off before taking the metro to school.”

“Sanya, check kitchen.” Says the father . “Already on it, Abhishek. Are you going for the weekly attendance to Nagar Nigam today? It’s Wednesday, you should get it done during the week.” Says Sanya while walking towards kitchen.

Abhishek replies looking upwards from the newspaper to ceiling contemplating something nostalgic, “maybe, but I was thinking of going tomorrow.”

“Don’t slouch off like you used to before the seventh world war and before fourth magic manifest war. Stand up and get that attendance!” spoke up grandpa.

Even before the first word was out, Mahira and Abhishek both had already stood up reflexively. Mahira at that moment just looked around and realized, ‘oh, yeah, I am not the one in trouble, I can sit and read.’

She sat back down on the sofa by stairs.

Her father put his newspaper down with a slight hint of a repressed smile and said, “yes, dad, I will. I just wanted…It’s nothing, I am going.” Nodding his head to his own thoughts, Abhishek went towards the other hallway across the hall on the left side of the TV.

Fushi told his best friend that he came to his best friend’s home at 7:30 AM as he just wanted a break from his morning marathon routine and his best friend’s mom told him to dress up and go to school while she goes to wake him up.

Then Fushi extended his hand to grab on his friend’s hand and stood up. He let go off his hand, his friend looking towards the news running, while his hand still is in mid-air.

Fushi taunts, “Ah, yes, yes, you need your treat. Now who’s a good boy. You are.” Fushi pats the boy’s head. The boy unfocuses from the news and looks his friend dead in the eye, “Oh, the parrot speaks. How intriguing.”

Both of them laughing at their weird jokes. Mahira looks over thinking, ‘boys and their weirdness.’ Sanya also looking at both her kids and Fushi thinking these kids they need to live a little more only if...

Her thoughts drowning her in her past as she stirred poha she is making for breakfast.

The boy went to the bathroom on the ground floor while his best friend took the one in the guest room. Both ready for school and in their uniforms already, while Fushi was in uniform to begin with.

They both and the boy’s family sat for breakfast at the dinner table next to kitchen, while the boys ran through the breakfast as if they were about to miss a train. Well, in their case they could as they have to board the nearest metro to Avanti Vihar from the underground city district 3 of Raipur, a very busy route indeed.