This world hides a lot of secrets, a lot of mysteries yet to be uncovered, a lot of wars yet to be fought, and a lot of unknown yet to be discovered. Legends and myths about existence of mythical creatures like dragons, unicorns, immortal warriors with powers beyond understanding, all have been a part of the culture of society. The reality behind these legends remain untouched.
This tale is about a guy named Ron. How his fate and life took a flip, for the better or for the worse, remains a mystery. Ron was a college student, living in Ontario, Canada for almost twenty years. When he was just three, his parents moved to Ontario because of their job. They were both professors who worked in the University of Toronto. A normal life with a small family, they couldn't ask for more. One night, everything changed for Ron, when his parents' car crashed down from a mountain, blasted, and drowned in a river, killing them both. When the car was retrieved by the police, their bodies were found but were totally burnt, with not even a part that could be recognized. Ron, with his uncle and aunt, reached the spot when he noticed a peculiar dent of their car's body, a blue vortex mark. Though being just three, Ron couldn't think much of it.
Not much changes came to his life after his parent's death as his uncle and aunt adopted him and raised his as their own. They cared a lot for him and never made him feel unloved. His uncle was a police officer and mostly stayed in his office late, which his aunt was a homemaker. They had a girl who was two years younger than Ron.
20th November 2015, the day everything took a turn in Ron's life.
Ron was a student of Orology in University of Toronto. Orology was the study of mountains. He was pretty decent in studies which helped him score a seat on the upcoming educational trip. Ron had only one friend, Sam, who was his best friend, who was lucky enough to hack in a seat for himself on the trip. Ron had been trying for an internship all over Canada but was unsuccessful, so he was utterly excited to be a part of this trip as he could grab an opportunity for an internship if he gets one. And even if he doesn't, he would still be able to study mountains, with a different topology than Canada.
In the evening, Ron was returning home from college when he saw some suspicious people, in a weird outfit, standing in front of his house. As he approached his house, they saw him and stopped him, "Hey you! What's your name?" One of them asked. "What? You folks are weird. Halloween is over guys, what are y'all even wearing? And asking for my name, while standing in front of my house? Weird. Why do you even wanna know it in the first place?" Ron replied. He knew these guys would probably be a bad call though he wasn't worried as since childhood, he's been training in different combat arts and had mastered most of them. "Trying to act smart with us? Tell us your name right now!" The man shouted. "Argh, it's Ron. Happy?" Ron grunted. "Target confirmed." The man said as he smirked. "What?" Ron questioned confusingly. They took out some weird weapons from their suit. One of them came in to punch Ron, which he dodged by backing off. Ron attacked at the back of his neck with a couple of chops, which broke through the man's suit and knocked him out. "What the freak?" Ron grunted again. The others backed off a little as they were surprised with how easily Ron was able to knock him out. Ron felt a bit confident and smirked when one of the guys concentrated his energy towards his fist, which started glowing with a red vapor surrounding it, giving it a glow. He rushed at Ron to punch him but before he could even touch him, Ron backed off and grabbed the knocked-out person and used him as a shield. The punch blasted open the knocked-out guy, which created a hole in his body. Ron instantly dropped the body as chills ran down his body. He had to calm himself down as this was a life and death situation for him. He noticed the armor these guys were wearing, which made them a bit slower than Ron due to heaviness. He thought of using that to his advantage. He grabbed the weapon from the dead guy's pocket which turned on automatically. The man charged at Ron and tried to punch him but was unsuccessful. Ron redirected his hand by punching it. His hand got directed upwards which gave Ron an opening. Using all his strength, Ron struck at his chest, blasting his armor in a second and sending him flying to the next house's gate. "What!" Ron exclaimed. He was full of adrenaline and checked his surroundings to see if anybody saw that. The man tried to stand up, but he couldn't and fainted. There was one more guy who pissed his pants and before he could run, Ron stuck him with the weapon as well, knocking him out. He tried to check their armor for a clue of their origin, but as soon as he touched them, their body vaporized and disappeared into thin air. "What the hell did just happen with me? Who are these guys? I'm sure somebody recorded this. Well, I'll see it on Instagram later on!" Ron exclaimed. He turned the weapon off by turning a vial on it and safely put in inside his bag. He ran inside the house.
He rushed to his room and laid on the bed that whole evening. His aunt and uncle had an anniversary that day, so they went out for dinner, leaving him and his cousin alone at the house. Ron wasn't close to her. They rarely talked and knew nearly nothing about each other. Ron stood up and took out his luggage bag as he had to prepare for the trip. They had to leave the next day, and Ron didn't pack anything till that point. While his anxiety was taking a toll on him as he couldn't keep the saga which happened with him in the afternoon within himself. He tried calling Sam, but he was already asleep. "What if while I'm in Japan, those men come back and this time, aunt or uncle become their target? They won't be able to fend for themselves." Ron thought. These thoughts started eating him up, so he finally decided to talk about this with his cousin. Her name was Ela. She was in her final year of high school. "Yo Ela! Can you help me pack things up for tomorrow?" Ron shouted from his room. Ela froze for a second. "You alive?" Ron shouted again. "I'm alive, stop shouting. Jeez, what do you want?" She shouted back. "Can you help me pack things up?" Ron shouted again. "Stop shouting! I can hear you normally as well. I'm coming up wait." Ela shouted back as she rushed to his room. "Damn!" She exclaimed as soon as she entered. "What? You good?" Ron asked. "How is your room so clean? Why does it smell good? It's so weird." She responded. "What do you mean?" Ron asked. "This is the very first time I've entered your room." Ela replied. "And?" Ron asked. "Well, I expected it to be, not clean. You're a guy." Ela replied. Ron felt a bit embarrassed. "Also, how come in so many years, you asked for MY help, and that also for the first time?" Ela asked. "Sorry, I wouldn't have if it weren't urgent. Didn't really had any other choice with aunt gone." Ron explained.
They talked for the next 3 hours that day, about the past, their childhood, how she didn't really resemble aunt or uncle, declaring that she's adopted, how she won multiple competitions in school, and her interest in zoology and his university and many other things while packing up. When the packing was nearly finished, Ron decided to tell Ela. "Yo, I wanted to tell you about something, but you have to promise not to tell anyone about this." Ron said. "Did you kill someone? If you did, that means, you didn't tell, I didn't ask you, just hide the body properly." Ela responded. "What, what? No, I did not kill someone. I mean, it isn't about that." Ron replied. "Lemme guess, wait you're not gonna confess your love for me, right?" She gasped. "Eh? What!? NO! Why would I do that?" Ron gasped as well. I thought you were gonna! Sorry." Ela exclaimed as she giggled. "Stop laughing you moron!" Ron grunted. He was embarrassed. "Oky no funny business anymore, what was it?" Ela asked. "Okay, so think with an open mind and try to believe me. I had a bad fight today." Ron said. "I see, we'll I ain't hiding that from mom for free!" She exclaimed. "Wait, shut up, let me complete and do the listening. The problem here is, those guys that I beat up, they weren't normal dudes. They were armed with some weird technological weapons. They asked for my name and then started attacking me. I managed to knock one of them out but the other, he was able to use magic to attack me. I had to use the knocked-out guy as shield, but to my surprise, the punch created a massive hole in his body. So, I kind of stole on of the weapons I'm talking about. Well, I used it for self-defense, and it blasted the other two guys off." He exclaimed. "Ahh, I see. Here's the thing Ron, I did tell you that I love watching anime and reading manga, but THAT DOESN'T MEAN YOU GONNA MAKE UP A STORY JUST TO IMPRESS ME!" Ela shouted. Ron was in disbelief. "First of all, stop thinking that the world revolves around you and I'm tryna hit on you. Secondly, I'm definitely not making this up. You don't believe me? I'll show you the weapon." He grunted. "What? Okay, fine show me. Trust me, if it's one of those showpieces from the figurine store down the road, I'll kill you. I saw you going in there yesterday." She said. "Wait, don't tell aunt about the store. Pass me my bag, thank you. I'll give you the weapon, but don't be careless with it. I still don't know the extent of its powers." Ron explained as he took out the weapon from the bag. After some careful examination, Ela shouted, "I ain't no fool Ron, this is from the store! I'm a 100% sure it is." She started toggling with the weapon carelessly turning it on. "Wait! It turned on. Stop!" Ron shouted. Ela started swinging it around carelessly. "Hey, Stop! You'll hurt yourself. It literally vaporized the guys! It's dangerous." Ron shouted some more. "Oh? It can kill someone? Let me just use it on you, I feel like killing you!" She exclaimed as suddenly charged at him with the weapon. Ron blocked the attack with his hands, and Ela got pushed back on the bed. "Shit! Hey, you all right Ela?" Ron asked as he rushed to pick her up. He grabbed the weapon from her hand and turned it off. "What even is that? I'm so nauseous right now. My head." Ela gasped. "Drink some water. You should take some rest; I'll take you to your room. Come on, try standing up." Ron said. "I can't. I feel really dizzy. I'll just rest here." She gasped and dozed off.
Ron went to the bathroom to wash his face when he realized that he had blocked the weapon with his bare hands with no sign of mortal damage. He started feeling itchiness on his forearm. After inspecting, he noticed small burns on his hand. A weapon that was able to blast off a person who had heavy armor on, just burned his bare hands a little. The burns weren't even painful but really itchy. "How was I able to stop the attack? How come I'm alive? That person vaporized into a gaseous state and here I am standing in a solid form. Who were those guys in the first place? What were they after? I need some answers." Ron talked to himself as his mind was filled with so many questions. They both decided not to tell anyone about this as it could cause problems.
"When I attacked the guy with that weapon, a peculiar mark which I think I've seen before was formed. It was a bluish-black vortex mark." Ron said. "I see. Try remembering." Ela responded. "Wait, I have glimpses of seeing that mark somewhere. It was...on my parent's…car." Ron's voice faded. He stood up and grabbed a folder from his cupboard. "What is this?" Ela asked. "This file contains all the documents related to my parents. After their death, their report was also put in this folder. I might get some kind of clue here." Ron explained as he looked through the papers and found the accident report which had a picture of the car retrieved from the river. "There it is. The mark. It was the exact same mark. That means, these people played a role in my parent's accident. It was a murder I think." Ron grunted. "Hey, I don't know what's going on and to be honest with you, I think you should rest at the moment. With all that happened in the last 24 hours, you should definitely rest. After you come back from Japan, we can talk about this, get to the brink of it, and solve it. We can talk to father about this. I'll go to my room for now. Have some dinner and rest well. You have a flight to catch tomorrow. Take care." Ela reassured him as she left.
Ron laid down on his bed, trying to make sense of everything that happened to him that day. "Looks like something's up, and from now on, it'll all be interesting." He exclaimed.