"Mom, it's okay."
They heard the little girl speak, her words pointed to her mother who, thankfully, survived with her as she turned to look back to the rift, still not getting out.
"There's no bad guy waiting for you." She giggled, her voice high pitched with excitement, enthusiasm radiating from her smile alone.
Raid stepped forward and opened his mouth to ask the little girl if she was okay, but couldn't because she got tucked inside the rift as she was suddenly pulled back inside, a quiet yelp was the only thing she let out.
A brief moment passed and a woman peaked her head out, eyes and hair black as the night sky, looking around the rift as if she's scanning the surroundings for any danger.
Raid and Shangria flinched in their spot when she accidentally locked eyes with them.
Ryuuko should know who they are, right? Shangria, the S-class Guide of Nexus Guardian Guild, expected her to smile and start fangirling just like the other girls and boys around them.
However, his expectation broke when the glare that she sent his way was like a dagger, piercing his heart into pieces.
Shangria grabbed his buttoned up shirt, clasping his fingers around where his heart was supposed to be, a hurt and crestfallen expression falling on his face.
The woman looked away, stepped out of the rift and stepped forward, making everyone surrounding the rift drop their heart into their stomach because she would hurt herself if she fell out of the rift.
However, something shone as she placed her foot on a barely visible platform, it shone faintly with a golden hue, supporting her weight as she assisted the twins out of the rift.
Is that the woman's ability? Force field? Everyone could only wonder as they watched Ryuuko as she helped them out of the rift, the pain on her ankle barely throbbing due to the adrenaline pumping through her veins.
"Be careful." Ryuuko smiled softly at the kids, holding their hands as the faint golden platform created a makeshift staircase for them.
For some unknown reason to Ryuuko, there is a large crate under the rift which doesn't make sense because her apartment is on the first floor of the complex, but the said apartment complex is nowhere to be seen.
Did the rift suck the complex inside? Ryuuko thought, eyeing the empty lot where the apartment complex should be.
Whatever, as long as my twins are safe. she thought to herself as she hummed, brushing it off and not thinking too much about it.
The bruise in her ankle is still visible, but it doesn't hurt as much as it did when she first twisted her ankle.
It's probably because I awakened as an Esper. Ryuuko thought, pushing the matter about her physique on the back of her mind for now.
"Careful." Ryuuko spoke up and reminded the twins again as she stepped down on the broken pavements, holding her arms out to her kids and carrying them in her arms unannounced which made them scream.
"Mom!"
"Mommy!"
Their worried cries were loud, snapping the people around them out of their trance.
"We're heavy! You're still hurt!" Rozia squealed out, her voice full of worry and fear as she tried to not struggle because she's afraid that her mother will get hurt further.
"You don't weigh anything for me now because mommy is stronger than before." Ryuuko said, laughing under her breath as she leaned in to kiss the twins on their cheeks, "Don't worry. I'm strong now. I won't die easily."
"Still!" Ruziel pouted, liking the way his mother carried him like how she did when he was still a toddler.
She stopped carrying them when they turned six because they got heavier as the days passed. They understood that she can't carry them at the same time anymore so they ask to be carried every once in awhile.
"I swear I'm fine." Ryuuko smiled at them, doing her best to convince them that she could carry them just fine.
"But, mom.." Rozia's lips turned downwards.
Ryuuko kept her smile as she made her way up the crate, it was quite deep and navigating through the broken pavements was slightly difficult because she doesn't know if it will hold the weight of three people.
Just as she stepped up, the stone she stepped into fell down which made her lose her footing and made her stumble forward, making the twins let out terrified shrieks as they wrapped their arms around her neck out of instinct.
"Fuck—" She hissed, her eyes wide, but then, she felt something cushion her fall, soft and fluffy, kind of watery, too.
"Are you guys okay?!" An Elemental Esper rushed towards them, his hand raised in the air, indicating that he was the one who catched them using his ability.
"Are you two good?" She asked her twins instead of answering the Esper, her eyes shifting from him to her twins and feeling them nod their head against her shoulders.
She breathed out a sigh of relief before she answered the Esper who watched them, "Yeah! They're okay!"
She placed the children down and stood up. Well, she tried, but she felt two pairs of hands on both arms which didn't belong to her twins.
Suddenly, she felt her world spin, her eyes lost its focus as she felt the heaviness in her body disappear slowly.
She felt like her stress or whatever it was, was getting cleansed out.
"Are you okay?" The sound of a woman's slightly high-pitched voice snapped her out of her thoughts.
Ryuuko blinked rapidly, trying to clear her mind.
It was difficult though. The sensation felt so good that she couldn't help, but lean on those pairs of hands, wanting to let her body relax on them and fall asleep.
"She's on the verge of rampant."
Ryuuko couldn't understand what they were saying due to the feeling of a strange sense of relief and newfound control over her abilities, as if the burden of her power had eased off her heart.
It was like a cleansing or purification, leaving her feeling lighter and made her dazed, leaving her breathless, craving for more.
There was another sensation that went down her spine that came with it, but she could not pinpoint what it was.
"Is that bad, big sis?" Rozia asked quietly, looking up to her mother, a worried expression on her face when she saw Ryuuko's furrowed eyebrows.
"In a sense, yes." Shingo answered truthfully, pulling Ryuuko close to her body and letting the newly awakened Esper receive more of a efficient guiding, "But your mother will be fine, we just need to bring her to the guild—"
"No!" Rozia was quick to cut her off, her voice frantic and her eyes wide in panic.
They will take mom away! The little girl thought.
The sound of her daughter's panicked scream had snapped Ryuuko out of her trance, she blinked, seeing Rozia holding back her tears as she glared at the person who's holding her.
The look on her daughter's face alarmed her.
Her eyebrows furrowed, pushing the person who's holding her away gently and reached towards her daughter, but she was stopped, an invisible force forcing her to stay still.
"You can't touch your kids." A pink haired male Esper spoke, grabbing her daughter's shoulders, "You're not in the right state of mind right now."
"You.." Ryuuko can feel her blood pressure rising, glaring menacingly towards the man who dares to touch her child without Rozia's permission.
Just like what happened inside the rift, a faintly golden energy enveloped both Rozia and Ruziel, throwing the male Esper to his back.
They saw the force field protect the children before they felt the impact of it around them, a strong gust of wind made them step back, away from Ryuuko and her twins.
"You're the ones who can't and shouldn't dare to touch my kids without their permission." Her eyes glowed, changing from midnight black to a golden yellow as she shot them a warning glare.
A chill runs down their spines as Ryuuko's protection around the twins confirmed their earlier suspension. So, that's really the mother's power, right? A force field? She can control pure energy around them?
"Alright, alright." Shingo spoke for the Espers and Guides surrounding them, raising her hands in the air to show that she's not a threat to the family, "We just need to guide you, as far as I can tell, you have accumulated corruption inside the rift."
Ryuuko's eyes lost the golden glow, blinking owlishly with eyebrows furrowed, "Corruption?"
"The guild will explain it to you." Shingo started with a calm tone, "You can bring the children if you want, but you need immediate guidance because if you don't, you might not just become a threat to us, but to your twins as well."
"Shingo!" Shangria was quick to hiss towards his sister, walking to her side and whispered in hushed, but worried tone, "We both know that children is not allowed in the building—"
"I won't go anywhere unless I can see or hear my twins." Ryuuko narrowed her eyes towards the Zubair siblings, "Whispering won't do anything. I can hear everything you're saying."
"Our guild will gladly take you in!" Lavanya saw the rising tension between the Zubairs and the new Esper so she took that chance to tell Ryuuko to go to Paragon Alliance Guild instead of Nexus Guardian Guild.
"Yes, we will take care of your twins while we take care of you." Xavier stepped forward, beside Lavanya.
"Take care of me?" Ryuuko grew wary.
She flicked her wrist to her side and almost immediately, the golden bubble surrounding the twins swept them off their feet, making them float inside the bubble as the bubble placed themselves behind Ryuuko.
Seriously, she still can't trust anyone around her right now.
Espers and Guides alike are surrounding her, each one of them having a nervous expression on their face.
They are looking at her like she's kind of a monster that they haven't encountered, like this was their first time dealing with someone like her, they might say that they wouldn't do anything, but their body language ratted them out.
She feel cornered.
"I didn't mean it the bad way." Xavier forced a smile on his pale face, his white hair bouncing when he tried to step forward, only to be pinned in place as a golden bubble appeared around him.
"Ah.. I won't hurt you nor your twins. I'm an S-class Guide." Xavier assured her while raising his hand in the air, "I'm just going to check if I'm a good match for you."
"I don't care what class you are." Ryuuko growled, "I can't accept anything unless I can be reassured that my babies will be fine."
"They will be fine, damn it!" Raid snapped, fed up with her bullshits.
That was a mistake though, he shouldn't have said that in front of the twins because in the blink of an eye, he vanished in his spot, making the super humans around step back from her.
John looked up, whistling when he saw Raid slamming his fists against whatever's around him, he couldn't see well because he's inside of something golden and he's very high up in the air, almost touching the clouds in the sky.
"Step back if you don't want to end up like that guy." Ryuuko's warning is enough to tell that she's not bluffing.