Paranoia!

"Mom? Do you find it amusing?" her daughter"s voice stripped her from her musings, "Jered is bullying me and here you are, smiling to yourself." she ended with an indignant huff.

Jered rolled his eyes, "Oh please, it"s your fault for picking fights you know you can"t win."

"You recourse to your force, you brute!" Jasmine didn"t give up, "Don"t you have any shame for posing your hands upon a woman in such a vulgar manner?" she wrinkled her nose, "The same hands you use to beat your meat!"

Jered almost choked on his own saliva, "It"s you who resort to bodily harms, you d.a.m.n vile woman!" he shot back, "I"m just defending myself, and don"t speak as if you"re that innocent, we all know what you do as well, apparently you don"t know how to keep your f.u.c.king voice down."

"That"s not true!"

"Oh for the love of G.o.d..."

"Take back what you said!"

"Nope."

"Moooom...."

Jane raised an eyebrow as she regarded her daughter, "Jammie, he"s not wrong, I did hear you." she chuckled.

"..." Jasmine fought back the blush that was slowly dusting her cheeks, "T-that was not me..."

"Why are you still denying it? It"s not a crime or anything, but it would really be appropriate if you learn how to pick the suitable times to do that."

"Can we just change topics, please?" Jasmine pleaded, her shoulders slumping in defeat as she tried to salvage what was left of her pride, "It"s f.u.c.king weird talking about this."

"You brought it up, sis."

"I know! Just... let"s drop it, "kay?"

Jered shrugged, "Sure thing, sis." he drummed his fingers on the table before standing up and declaring, "Welp, I"m full, I shall retire myself to my chamber." he bowed and then headed upstairs.

"Hmph." Jasmine shook her head at her brother"s antics before getting up as well, "I"m going to take a shower,"

"Sure," her mother took on a thinking pose before adding, "If you"re going to that there, tone down your timbre, will ya?"

"I hate you all..."

━━━━━━▲━━━━━━

With a click, the door closed. Jered made his way to the window and opened it up, looking skywards in hopes of glimpsing at his feathery friend. Squinting his eyes, he could vaguely make out a small dot diving towards him.

He cackled, "Here she is..."

The crow flapped her wings before halting atop the window"s ledge, peering at him curiously, "Hey there..." he nudged his forefinger forward, letting himself be preened by her peck. He smiled before his expression morphed into bafflement as he caught sight of a flock of crows moving acrobatically in the air, dipping down at him.

"Well s.h.i.t..." just as he was about to retreat, the wave of black dots that were about to flood him over stopped mid-air before each of them settled somewhere, looking at him with an intensity he wasn"t aware crows were capable of. Something that he found to be queerly incredible was the emotions he felt behind those black beady eyes, which was ridiculous for he couldn"t comprehend how it was possible, yet it was like there was a strand of thoughts interlinking them all to him, allowing him to feel what they were feeling.

Jered gently brought his hand up and beckoned to one of the foreign crows to scoot closer, which it did without hesitation as it landed on his shoulder after a relatively short flight. He shifted his finger upon it, caressing the bird"s feathery body from its head down to its tail as it cawed in delight.

"As much as I"d like to study this weird phenomenon, which I link it to my so-called affinity to crows, it"d draw too much attention having such a large flock of you buzzing around here..." he mumbled to himself, uttering the last words loud enough for them to hear, "Hmm... could you please go settle down somewhere else?" he asked whilst concentrating on the intention behind his request, knowing it was the trick to successfully communicate with them, "Oh, you can stay there." he stopped the emerald-eyed female crow.

The crow on his shoulder tilted its head sideways, its eyes blinking at him before it took off and departed from his house into the sky, the rest of the flock following its example as they each relocated themselves elsewhere, with only his apparent Spiritual Animal remaining there.

"Well then... I should give you a name considering you"ll be staying with me for a long time." he smiled, hustling closer to the ledge as he wholly examined her, "I"m not good with names but..." he stared at her eyes, "... I believe Esmeralda would be fitting for you, wouldn"t you agree?" he chuckled when he saw her waving her wings in supposed agreement, not that the connection between them was telling him otherwise.

"Esmeralda it is then..."

[ You have named your Spiritual Animal "Esmeralda", confirm your choice? ]

[ AcceptCancel ]

He unhesitatingly tapped on the "Accept" hovering b.u.t.ton, prompting it to pop out.

"Good, hmm, the problem now is that I don"t have any... pet"s supplies?" he groaned, "Welp, I"ll get them for you tomorrow."

Jered spent the rest of his time studying and completing his homework before switching to training his skills he knew he would have to depend upon soon or later. His physical attributes were now higher than the average by a few points each, thus more effort was required into leveling the "Bodybuilding" skill, which he managed to bring it up a level only a few hours later in the afternoon, upping both his Strength and Endurance by 1.

After a refreshing shower, he decided to focus on his magical skills before a sudden knock disrupted his concentration.

"Come in."

The door creaked open with Jasmine"s head poking out as she smiled at him, "Sup, lil bro."

"I was about to start practicing my skills actually."

"Ohh, cool." she tapped her chin thoughtfully, "Mind if I join you?"

"Not at all, close the door."

"Sure thing."

Jasmine leaned the door shut with her back as she started scanning his room which was surprisingly devoid of posters or any trinkets that"d show a teenager was living there. She made her way to his bed where he was sitting on. She tucked a chock of hair behind her ear, "So what are you up to exactly?" she queried sitting down next to him, her hands resting on her legs.

"I want to hone my control over my flames," he replied before he stretched out his palm and summoned a green orb of fire, "Like changing their shape into something artistic, hmm..." he furrowed his brow in concentration, "But it seems to be harder than I thought it"d be..." he let out a breath, but he had just gotten started so he wouldn"t give up that easily, "I"m also interested to know if the size of the flame is dependent on the quant.i.ty of the mana I have at my disposal or the control I have over it."

"Ohh, then I must definitely watch you and try to--" she cut herself off when she caught sight of Esmeralda nonchalantly perching atop a nightstand, looking at them, "Jered? Why is there a... crow here? Is that even a crow? Why does it have green eyes?"

"Ah, Jasmine, meet Esmeralda, my... Spiritual Animal, it"s a long story I hope you"ll allow me to telltale another day."

"Uh huh... can I get one too?"

Jered thought over it. Considering that it didn"t seem to be a reserved function of his system, there was a high chance that her sister, now a Death Apostle, could eventually get her own familiar, "I don"t see why not," he replied with a nod, "But even I am unaware of all the details concerning the acquisition of a Spiritual Animal, you can say I was fairly lucky in even getting one." he added.

"Hmm. It"s okay."

He smiled, getting back to his endeavor. He streamed his mana all over his hand, trying to fuel his green flame into a bigger size, but apparently, it wouldn"t get bigger than a basketball, despite his constant discharge of mana. Sweat started soaking his forehead as he started losing track of time. The green burning sphere floating in his hand was perpetually flickering and moving, as if trying to morph into something.

Jered started panting, his eyes squeezed shut, but his efforts were rewarded when he finally achieved his first success, the orb of fire had been completely altered into a scorching green square, tamed and subdued, like a glowing cube whose edges were perfectly streamlined. He fluttered his eyes open, a satisfied grin tugging at his lips.

[ Alert: The skill "Fire Manipulation" has leveled up to "5" ]

"Finally..." he exhaled, feeling the drain of his mana taking effect, making his limbs heavier and weaker, "d.a.m.n... that was exhausting..."

"Congratulations, bro." Jasmine"s voice rang out, prompting him to realize she was still there, "You look like s.h.i.t, though." she giggled.

"How long have I been training for?"

"Hmm, one hour, give or take a few minutes."

"And you"ve been here all along?" he raised an eyebrow, "Wasn"t it boring? I mean..."

Jasmine waved his concerns away, "Don"t worry. Actually... I was a bit touched seeing you pushing yourself that much for my sake." she gnawed her bottom-lip absentmindedly, "After everything that happened, not even a day has pa.s.sed by, yet I feel like I"ve been through years of s.h.i.tstorms, with all of that emotional rollercoaster ya know. I think I still have to come to terms with what I"m supposed to be now..."

She bored her eyes into his, "Thank you, Jered, really... you"re... my only emotional support right now, you have no idea how much I"m grateful for having you here with me." she didn"t realize for she was lost in her brother"s magnetic eyes, but her cheeks were slowly taking in a red hue before she forcefully cut herself off from the staring contest, flurriedly standing up, "Well... I"m going to rest, tomorrow we gotta wake up early, um, yes... you should go to sleep too... goodnight." she waltzed out of the room, dazedly touching her face, leaving a confused Jered behind.

"What"s gotten to her?" he mumbled to himself with a shake of his head, "She"s not wrong, though. Tomorrow I have school... that"s gonna be a ha.s.sle..." he threw himself onto his bed, cringing at the thought of the questions that would surely bombard him once he set foot at school. Maybe upgrading his appearance was not a smart idea, but it was not like it wouldn"t have been upped either way. He mused as his memories rolled back to Opak"s enhancement.

Turning the lights off, he closed his eyes, letting sleepiness embrace him.