"Is it me or you didn't tidy up the place?" Lena was looking at her brother, she had a devious looking smile on. It was clear she wanted to torment him, he was not going to like it, but then what was he going to do.
Darius stared at the house in disbelief, he was sure he had cleaned it up, but there was no evidence backing that up.
"That is no way for you to talk to your brother, besides I have been busy." Darius walked in, the room wasn't all that messy, it had things lying around in places they weren't meant to be.
Lena walked in, she looked around, and she could feel the nostalgia. She had been sick for months, keeping her away from the house so she could hardly remember the order of things there.
She stood still looking around, trying to put things together in her mind. Memories of when she was still growing up surfaced, she could remember that for as long as she could. Darius was always the one there for her, he had taken care of her for thirteen years, always promising to make sure that nothing would hurt her.
'You always do keep your promises,' She thought to herself as she looked at her brother trying to put the chores.
"You know we can do this together and we will never be done." Darius was calculating what he was going to be doing with the chores, "So what do you say Lena?"
Darius turned to see Lena looking around the room, she was lost in thought. He smiled knowing that she was trying to put everything back together in her head, he couldn't help but smile.
"Welcome home Lena," Darius said with a smile on his face, he had achieved one of the things he set off when he took his first raid.
Lena looked at her brother and smiled. "It's good to be home brother. Now, let's get cleaning!" She waltzed over to the side, picking out a broom she was going to be using.
"Alright!" Darius smiled as he walked in and grabbed his broom. Both of them began tidying up the house, it was the first time both of them were spending time together outside the hospital.
***
Back at the warrior association, they were trying to understand why there was a change in dungeon appearances and their levels. It was normal for three dungeons to be found in a day, but then it had changed to more than ten in a day, and each dungeon that appeared would be an A-ranked dungeon.
It was strange and many of them were trying to understand what was happening.
"Someone needs to help me understand, this has to be one of the worst years to be a warrior." Keith was looking at the files on his table. He knew it was either the workload or the fact that there were reports of two S-ranked Dungeons in the past hour. "Because the rate these dungeons keep popping up, it feels like we are missing something."
"Huh? What makes you say that?" His partner Liu asked, he was going through his own set of files.
"I mean look at it, we got a call saying that another S-ranked Dungeon appeared out of nowhere and we had to look for independent SS-ranks who would help us." Keith sat down, he was looking at the files and they seemed rather endless to him. "I mean if it was bad enough for us to bother Raya Tegeshi then you should know something huge is happening,"
Liu turned to Keith, he gave him a heartfelt smile. "Don't worry about these things, it might be a bad week." He was trying to make sure that he would get Keith not to think much about it, but in reality he was also bothered.
'It is almost like they are reacting to a stronger power…'
***
"289, 290, 291!" Darius yelled as he finished up his evening workout session, they had finished with the cleaning, everything was back in order, Lena was in her room reading her comics.
Darius could finally breathe easily knowing that nothing was going to happen to his sister. But he was going to be attending to raids to make sure he was not going to fall back.
'This is no time for me to get lazy, we need money to survive and I am not going to give my sister up to any foster care for help.' Darius looked at his hand, he stared at the card in his hand. It was a card from the Lobby when he had gone there for his first rank assessment. It was that day he thought he was never going to amount to anything.
"An F rank? What in the world is he going to do for us?"
"He is going to be a problem for us out there! He is not even meant to get an ID!"
Darius had only gone on a few raids, he was always the one taking the most hits. He would always curse his luck when they would hand him a little pay, saying that was what he deserved.
'This time, I will make sure I will be the one standing on top!' Darius swore to himself, he was not going to let Lena down.
The next morning, after Darius had finished up his training early. He bought things for breakfast, he wanted to make sure that there was food for Lena when he went out that day.
He was busy in the kitchen when he didn't notice Lena step out of her room, she still had her bed hair as she strolled into the kitchen.
"Someone's finally awake from their hibernation." Darius teased, Lena went to the fridge as he took milk.
"For the first time in six months I am not waking up to the horrible smell of the hospital, always felt like I had no hope there." Lena poured herself a glass of milk before heading to the living room, she sat down and stared at the TV.
Darius had finished up there, he walked into the living room where he took a hair band and began helping Lena dress her hair.
"I made you lunch in case I don't come back early,"
"Where are you going?" Lena asked, looking up, she was staring into Darius' eyes.
He gently pushed her head down so he would be able to finish with it. "I am heading out to see if I would be able to join on any raid. If you have any problem, you remember Aunt Shirely, right?"
"The lady that brought me pudding at the hospital?" Lena was looking at the TV, she was not paying any attention to what was going on there at the moment.
"Yeah, her number is on the phonebook so you will…"
"I will be fine. Besides, there's TV here, and I am going to enjoy the shows." Lena didn't want Darius to worry in any way, she was trying to make sure that nothing would make him worried. She didn't want him to still be worried about her after he did all that to make sure that she was saved.
Darius smiled, he was done with packing her hair. He gave Lena a forehead kiss before heading to his room, he picked out his black shirt.
After dressing up, he stepped out of the room. "Maybe this weekend we will head to that amusement park you always wanted to go to?"
Lena's face glowed up with excitement, she gave her brother a thumbs up. "I will hold you to your words."
Darius waved her goodbye before leaving the house. He would see Hanzo first before heading to the Lobby.
He needed his weapons so nothing would hold him back in a dungeon. When he was on the street, he looked around, he was trying to see if anyone spotted him.
'All clear,' Darius smiled before he sped off, he got to Hanzo's workshop in two minutes.
"Hello Mr. Hanzo!" Darius had a smile on his face, Hanzo was with a customer, but when he heard Darius' voice, he had switched up.
"Mr. Winters! It is good to see you, give me two minutes, I will attend to you." Hanzo smiled as he turned back to the warrior in front of him.
Darius was looking around the store, admiring the many swords, spears, axes, and every other weapon on the wall. He then spotted a huge picture, it was the picture of a guild, everyone there was smiling. Under the picture, the words. 'The Storm Fangs..'
'He was part of a guild?' Darius thought to himself, he was still looking at it when he felt someone walking up behind him.
"That was me back in my glory days," Hanzo sounded happy, he was looking at the picture and there was a smile on his face.
Darius turned to look at him, "You were a warrior?"
Hanzo nodded, he walked to the wall and pointed to a long spear, 350 cm in length. It was decorated with rings and corals.
"The Storm Fangs was one of the strongest guilds during my time, we had 2 A-ranks, 3 S-ranks, 4 SS-ranks including myself." Hanzo turned to look at Darius, he could see the surprised look on his face. "Surprised?"
"No, I felt you were not just any kind of blacksmith. But then you don't look like a warrior." Darius was looking at Hanzo, the man laughed.
"I can say the same about you, Mr. Winters, I thought you were a weakling at first but then you turned out to be an S-rank, maybe an SS-rank who knows." Hanzo walked to the counter, Darius stood there looking at him.
'I don't know how I am going to be able to hide this for long.' Darius was looking at the man as he pulled out a case, he walked closer to see what was inside.
"I made your swords, they are twin blades that will suit you in battle and I made the dragons as the handle. Once you run your energy through the swords you will be fine." Hanzo handed Darius the swords, they were like samurai katanas, well polished and crafted.
The dragon design went from the handle down to the blade itself, Darius was admiring the sword, after it was his first weapon.
"And this too," Hanzo put his hand into the counter and pulled out an orb.
Darius was confused, he didn't know what he was trying to do.
"Give me your hands," Hanzo smiled, Darius was still lost but didn't complain. He raised his hand for Hanzo, the man placed the orb on it, immediately the orb turned into gauntlets on Darius' hands.
"Just as I thought," Hanzo smiled, he went back to his counter. "I knew you had a power energy, like I said, you are an S-rank trying to hide it. Why didn't you say anything?"
Darius was looking at him, he was not sure if Hanzo would take it lightly.
"Cause I am still ranked F." He said in a low tone.