Three nights, two days.

  Jin didn’t sleep a wink. The records Old Man Sid had given him lay sprawled across the coffee table, the floor, on the dinner table and even on the stairways. Some were still left in the room Eleana had used up until two years ago.

  Two years ago. That was when she awakened to her power.

  A fact that made Jin’s jaw drop when he first heard about it the night he got home. Since then, he’d spent all his time scouring every little detail that Old Man Sid had kept about his daughter.

  And details were something that the veteran Cleaner was an expert in, although the manner in which he kept them organised left much to be desired.

  < Genius Star Rookie>

  < White Raven’s Latest Rookie Coup Newest Darling >

  < History Maker! Neo-Tokyo and the World’s First Triple-Class Player >

  Those were some of the headlines right after Eleana’s awakening. Jin’s fingers traced the laminated edges of an unlabelled hardcover file, packed with printed screenshots from online forums. Every word made his chest tighter.

  On board walls, newspaper and magazine cuttings were laminated and pinned, but not in chronological order. On the couch where Jin sat was a holo-tablet, its screen still bright. Earlier, he had visited various websites Old Man Sid had bookmarked for him, each containing news about Eleana.

  In such a short time, she had become Neo-Tokyo’s latest shining star, carrying the hopes of a new generation of Players in this part of the world. A far cry from the cheeky, almost too rebellious Eleana that Jin knew.

  If that wasn’t enough, there was even a large chest brought down from the attic – the fancy kind where you could fit a few bodies inside. It contained Eleana’s older belongings that Old Man Sid had brought with him from Jin’s old home, including her school reports and uniform, all kept clean and spotless.

  In the beginning, her stay with Old Man Sid had been normal. Or as normal as it could be for a girl who’d recently lost her father. She still attended the all-girls boarding school, and despite her grief, her grades were top-notch.

  ‘An honour student with limitless potential.’

  Jin clung to the report, smiling. But that smile soon vanished as he went through her school records one by one. Her Year One senior high school report – her last one – labelled Eleana as ‘anti-social with prodigious talent.’

  Jin’s fingers tightened around the paper. Rebellious phase, he’d told himself. Everyone has one. She’ll grow out of it.

  But the records didn’t lie. And Old Man Sid’s words gave them more weight.

  "The lass never lashed out. Nor did she do weird things behind my back. But damn if I know what goes on inside her mind."

  "What about her friends? Timmy?"

  Old Man Sid shrugged. "Never talked about them. All she ever did was spend her time inside her room doing God knows what. Coming out only to eat and wash herself. But there’s one thing she kept doing."

  "What’s that?"

  "Kept changing the damn lock. And if you’re asking if I had the keys, fuck no. She never gave me any."

  "So, how did you get all these things from her room, then? Wait. Don’t tell me you used that trick?"

  Old Man Sid laughed. "Glad you’re still sharp. Change all the locks she wants. A little tap on the hinges and voila – Open Sesame."

  Jin chuckled. Despite what he’d read about his daughter, that little cheekiness was still her. Typical Eleana. But Old Man Sid had always been a few steps ahead.

  "Thanks, Sid. I really owe you one."

  "The least I could do for a bastard who I thought was dead," Old Man Sid replied, his eyes still glued to the late-night sitcom on the television. He then toasted a half-empty beer can. "If you want to thank me, buy a pack, alright? Cheers, arsehole."

  Jin laughed and raised a can in reply, but the beer’s cardboard taste slapped his tongue before he could swallow. He spat it out, coughing.

  Old Man Sid chuckled. "That thing has been sitting on your table for three nights straight. Get a new one. Better still, get some sleep."

  Jin’s fingers tightened around the beer can, almost crumpling it. His voice softened as tiredness started to kick in. "I can’t. Not now. Not before I know everything there is to know about Eleana. Especially after she became a Player."

  "Aren’t you a doting father, eh? But isn’t it a bit much?"

  Old Man Sid finally tore his eyes from the TV. A catchy advertisement tune kicked in the background.

  "Lemme give you some advice, father to father. Unless the kid asks for our help, we sit our arses on the side and do nothing. Besides, she’s one of them now. What can normal folks like you or me do for her? Her world’s different from ours."

  "You don’t get it, Sid. This is the last thing I wanted for her. To be a Player."

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  Old Man Sid raised his eyebrows. "You what, mate? You alright in the head?" He tapped the side of his temple. "She’s not your typical single-class Player, you know. She’s a one-lass army. Fucking Triple-Class. Unheard of, if you ask me. If this were my kid, there’d already be a shrine for her."

  "Power like that changes people, Sid," Jin said, his voice low. He turned to the records his friend had painstakingly kept for him all these years. "You can see it, right? What she became? What she’s becoming? School was one thing, but this? This is the real world."

  Old Man Sid switched off the television, stood, and grabbed a couple of beers from the fridge. He handed one to Jin before taking a seat on the lazy chair opposite him. "I’ve been taking care of her since you’ve been gone. Of course, I know. Kids grow up so fast before we realise it. Heck, the same goes for you. And you’re a fecking adult. But my gut says it’s not about that. So, spit it out already."

  Jin heaved a long, deep sigh. He looked up at the ceiling, stared at it for a while, then back at the records lying around him, and finally at his old friend. "She’s in danger."

  Old Man Sid paused mid-drink. "She’s what? In danger?"

  "If she’s not already in one."

  Old Man Sid set the can down. "How? From who?" His voice carried the same exasperation as Jin’s, only louder. “Doing RIFT stuffs?”

  Jin shook his head. "No. From her mother’s family."

  "Come again?" Old Man Sid leaned forward. "You mean your wife’s family?"

  Jin nodded. An awkward silence fell between the two men. Old Man Sid wanted to press further, but he knew Jin wasn’t the kind to succumb to pressure. If he wanted the truth, it had to come willingly.

  And it did.

  "The von Engelhardt," Jin said, almost in a whisper.

  But for Old Man Sid, it was as if a bomb had exploded in front of his face.

  "Ohh…" The man slumped back into his lazy chair. "We’re fucked, alright. So, tell me, Jin. Who did you – a fucking nobody – marry in that damned family?"

  "E-Elyzabeth von Engelhardt…"

  This time, it wasn’t just a proverbial bomb. It was nuclear. "Oh my God, please have mercy on this poor soul."

  ***

  Elyzabeth von Engelhardt.

  That was Sasaki Jin – or, to be more precise, Ishikawa Kazuma’s late wife. The youngest and the heir apparent of the famed von Engelhardt noble family. But it wasn’t her family’s name, their political influence, or their wealth that made her famous.

  She was a Dual-Class Player without peers. A prodigious talent without competitors. An unrivalled beauty who charmed the world.

  She was also the one and only Valkyrie. The world once dubbed her its saviour, sent by the gods to guide humanity’s champions against the invaders from beyond the RIFT.

  "So, you didn’t know who she was before you married her?" Old Man Sid asked after gulping down three cans of beer.

  Jin shook his head. "She didn’t tell me much about her family. All she said was that she’d had enough."

  "Had enough? Enough of what?"

  "Wished I knew at the time," Jin said, his voice thick with regret. "I thought maybe she was just a spoiled brat. You know how rich folks can be. Snobbish and stuck-up. Always saying ‘you can’t do this, you can’t do that.’ But…"

  "But?"

  "But I was wrong. Dead wrong." Jin’s hands clenched, his knuckles turned white. "I didn’t realise it until the very end. By then, she… she-"

  He couldn’t finish – regret filled his every fibre of being. Cursing his naivety and stupidity. His blindness to her plight.

  Old Man Sid didn’t press further. Instead, he tossed the last can of beer Jin’s way. The man caught it with ease and downed it in a few gulps before his mumbled cursing stopped and breathing steadied.

  "I think I get the gist of it. And why you’re so worried about Eleana." Old Man Sid leaned forward. "But I’ll be honest, Jin. She’s in good hands. White Raven ain’t no chumps. They’re Neo-Tokyo’s top three companies. Top ten in the whole damn Alliance. Even the von Engelhardts would think twice before messing with them."

  "Won’t stop them from trying," Jin replied. "If there’s one thing I know about them, it’s that they’ll do whatever it takes to get what they want."

  "That bad?"

  "Worse. Way worse."

  Something in Jin’s voice spooked Old Man Sid to his core. "Oh, hell no. That means your daughter is in a right pickle, ain’t she? Feck me sideways."

  Jin managed a bittersweet smile. "I’ve read everything there is about Eleana. Two pieces of good news, and one very shitty one. Want to hear them?"

  "Shoot the bad news first."

  "The von Engelhardts will come for her. That’s certain. We don’t know how. We don’t know who they’ll send. And we don’t know when."

  "That’s the bad news?"

  "No." Jin’s voice dropped. "The bad news is that when they do, there’s nothing I can do to stop them. And with how Eleana’s putting herself out there, it’s a matter of when, not if."

  Old Man Sid stared blankly. "Shit. So, what’s the good news, then?"

  "One, those bastards won’t move until they’re absolutely sure of her bloodline. Until they know she’s worth the trouble. That buys us a little time."

  "What good is a little time for us? It’s inevitable, ain’t it?"

  "Inevitable, yes." Jin’s voice hardened, his eyes filled with a certain resolution. "But it’s also inevitable that in that time, I’ll have the strength to fight them head-on. And if I don’t? I won’t go down without a fight. That’s the second piece of good news."

  "Strength?" Sid scoffed. "What the fuck are you talking about? You said yourself you can’t stop them!"

  "If they strike tomorrow? Next week? Yeah. But give me a few months… and it’ll be a different story."

  Old Man Sid raised an eyebrow. "You gone crazy, Jin? What the hell can you do? Heck. Even with me backing you up, we’re just two normies-"

  "But I’m not normal."

  "Huh?" Old Man Sid blinked once. Twice. Jin’s words stung him like a crack. "The hell are you on about? High or something?"

  Jin smiled. "I have power, Sid."

  "You?" Old Man barked a laugh. "Yeah, you look different, but power? What? You gonna raise an army of zombies? Necromancy, is it? Arise, my shadows or some of that fancy pew-pew?"

  Before Jin could answer, Bahamut, who’d been silent all night, suddenly spoke. "I do not bestow such filthy power! Raising the dead defiles everything I stand for. Departed souls are not meant to be toyed with by the living!"

  "Hear, hear," Jin said. "No bringing the dead back. Ever." He turned to Bahamut. "About that… when is it again, Bee? Next week?"

  "Next week," Bahamut replied. "The full moon, when your manasoul is full."

  "So, I’ve got one week to prepare."

  "Prepare?" Old Man Sid straightened from the lazy chair, his eyes alight with excitement. A childish glee cracked on his face. "You got fuzzies in your head, Jin?"

  "A few," Jin said, grinning. "But before that, how fast can you make me a new ID?"

  "Again?” Old Man Sid rubbed his chin. “The same. Two days. You’re going by the old name?"

  Jin didn’t answer right away. His gaze lingered on Eleana’s records, a longing expression etched on his face. After three nights of scouring every detail, he’d made his decision.

  "You’re right, Sid. Eleana might no longer need me as her father. But I’ll be damned if I’m not there when she needs me most."

  Old Man Sid understood. "Frank Stein it is, then. You want your old job back? As a Cleaner?"

  "No." Jin’s voice was calm, but cold. "About time I stopped dawdling. I’ll be a Player."

  "Then it’ll take at least three days for your new ID. You know how strict HQ is with Player background checks."

  “Doesn’t matter. We have a week, after all. Until I’m ready.”

  “Ready? For what?”

  “You’ll see, my friend. You’ll see.”

  Jin clenched his fist, feeling the very power that Bahamut had bestowed on him thrumming through his veins. His physical attributes had changed for the better. Far beyond what he had hoped for.

  Yet, that was only the surface level. Not his true power. As per Bahamut’s words, that power lay elsewhere. Deep in the recesses of the ‘void’. Primal in origin. And otherworldly in nature.