Under The Veil of Night

The young boy spared no time to waste as he dashed to Kanae. He lunged and hugged the young girl. Because of his height, he could only reach Kanae’s hips.

Kanae smiled behind her mouth cover. This young boy was still as cute as she remembered. She raised her hand and stroked the boy’s head.

"How are you, James?"

"I’m good, Big Brother," James raised his head. "Accompany me to play, Big Brother!"

"Okay."

Pulling Kanae’s hand, James sat down near his toys again. There were numerous toys in front of him that Kanae was unsure what this boy was doing. There were blocks, train toys, car toys, and many others toys in numerous shapes.

"Big Brother, are you busy lately?" James asked as he put the scattered blocks to the front.

"You can say that. Do you miss me?"

"Yes!"

Kanae smiled lightly when she heard his answer. This boy was simply too adorable. "I’m visiting you today. Are you having fun in this place?"

James looked rather troubled. "It’s fun, but they’re not letting me meet my father anymore. Big brother, tell me the truth, my father is no longer here, right?"

Seeing the pleading gaze from the young boy, Kanae didn’t know whether she should answer him or not. Obviously, she felt bad for not letting him knew, but she was not sure about his reaction to the matter.

"I can’t tell you, James."

James stared at Kanae’s face. Even though only her eyes and part of her hair visible, he seemed to be able to see her expression very clearly. The young boy turned his gaze away and picked up one of the blocks in front of him.

"Big Brother, there are many people who never show their real side outside," James murmured slightly. "I’m happy that Big Brother is honest with me."

Kanae stared at the young boy with narrowed eyes. How did he know that there were people telling the truth and not? It should be only something expert who had trained in the field knew. However, she was pretty sure that James was telling the truth.

Her mind recalled the news about the downfall of Doha Family once again. If she was not wrong, she heard about them turning the entire residence upside down when they have finished. Should they just aim for Albert to agree with their terms, there was no need to go this far.

There should be something or someone they searched: James.

’No wonder Kevin put him under heavy protection in this place. Those who didn’t know Taro well will never know that he has good relationship with Kevin.’

If not because she accompanied Kevin a few times in the past, she wouldn’t have known that Taro and Kevin were friends. They rarely met with each other, and even when they met, Taro was dressing up as a woman. This made people unable to know about this matter.

"James, can you see people’s inner thought?"

James tilted his head. "It’s not inner thoughts, but it’s like, I know when they’re telling the truth, what their intention is, or what their purpose is."

"It’s an admirable ability, James," Kanae remarked slowly. Not only admirable, it was an extremely dangerous ability. It was as if everyone was stripped naked in front of this boy as they wouldn’t be able to hide anything in their mind. If they wished harm, he would know right away.

James raised his head. "But Father didn’t seem to be happy when he knew about my ability."

Towards this boy’s remark, Kanae didn’t know what she should answer. It would be something really amazing if he managed to awaken his talent during the age range of 13-15 as it would bring his potential to the highest. At the same time, it would be a terrible disaster to awaken them too late or too early.

She was not too sure about the consequences of them, but it should be anything but good. After all, the awakening put a lot of strain in their body, much more than normal people could handle.

If they were not strong enough, they might be killed because of their awakening.

"You shouldn’t show it to anyone else," Kanae said after a while.

James nodded his head obediently. He didn’t have any plan to tell anyone about his ability because his father told him that it could be dangerous.

Kanae stayed and played with the boy for the next couple of minutes. After making sure that James was happy, she stood up and patted the boy’s head tenderly.

"I have to go, little brat. Take care of yourself."

"Visit me again in the future, Big Brother. I’ll show you more toys to play with," James said with large eyes.

Kanae smiled. "Sure."

She walked towards the other end of the garden before blending into the darkness. When she played with James, she sensed that someone was watching her secretly. Judging from the strength this person exerted, she had some inkling that it should be either Kevin or Patrick.

After all, only the two of them could perfectly hide from her, which made her only found out about it much later.

Under the shadow, Kanae traveled the headquarters again. This time, she used a different route and passed through the training hall. From the large hall, sounds of people training could be heard loud and clear.

Out of curiosity, she walked to the training hall. Standing near the door, she could see Mike was training intensely. His body was fully drenched in sweats, but he didn’t have any intention to stop.

"Who’s there?" Mike turned his head towards the door.

Kanae arched her eyebrows. He has grown sharper as she only let her intention leaked out for a moment.

Mike couldn’t see the other person clearly because she was standing under the shadow of the building. However, he could feel the pressure she emanated the moment he called out. It was so heavy that he didn’t dare to move. Chills run down on his spine when he realized how weak he was.

The slight pressure was already enough to tell him their discrepancy in strength.

’Who is he?’

He had been training like a madman lately, wishing to reach the highest level as soon as possible, yet a trespasser showed him a much greater strength. Although he didn’t know who the other party was, he knew that she didn’t mean harm. If she wanted to, he would be dead by a thousand times.

Kanae stood silently for a few seconds. It took her a moment to disappear into the darkness once again, completely blended.

Mike snapped back to reality when the pressure disappeared. He dashed to the door and stood in the same place where Kanae stood previously.

"There’s no trace at all."

It seemed unreal that someone could disappear just like that. Mike felt that his common sense was broken thoroughly. At the same time, he wanted to be able to do the same as this person as it showed that he would grow stronger.

’I’ll train again.’

He quickly forgotten about the incident as his thoughts focused solely on getting stronger. He didn’t want to be a burden for his friends.