Chira studied the two for a while. Chira knew their existence was very unique to them and only them. The Eldest slowly nodded and looked at the others.
"General Halys stays with . The rest of you scatter. Make sure nothing gets to us." Chira commanded.
"Yes, Commander!" The group saluted and they all vanished from Lee Seng's sight. Chira held their hands behind their back as they turned back to Lee Seng and Keng. "Let's take a walk. I'll answer your questions." Lee Seng slowly stood up, keeping his eyes on the Commander and General. Keng stood up and hovered behind Lee Seng as they began to walk up the small floral forest hill.
"To answer your questions, I must explain to you why we've been watching you." Chira started. "I take it you've t, Father?"
"Mmmhm, I did." Lee Seng answered.
"What do you think of, Father?"
"What does this have to do with… anything?" Lee Seng glanced at the Eldest sibling. Chira looked at him, waiting for his answer. Lee Seng cleared his throat as he thought about it. "Well… It's been a day here since I t him. I found it strange that God King wanted to et with and Keng out of the blue, but… Initial reactions…? I don't think he's bad. He answered the questions I had."
"And what kind of questions did you ask?"
"I guess regular questions anyone would ask. Why did you pick ? What makes unique from the rest of his children? Why did he say sothing about eradicating the Protocol? The initial questions that had confused on all of this."
"So you know your Father captured Eshra and took his blood?" Chira asked. Lee Seng simply nodded. They stopped at the top of the hill. Lee Seng could see the flowers all around them. "After Eshra was captured and he didn't et at the correct ti at one of the natural Realm points, I personally went looking for him. I followed his scent and it led to the lab. I managed to infiltrate the lab and find Eshra. Only when I did find him…" Chira's hand tightened into a fist. Lee Seng could hear the squeezing.
"When I found him… He had been unconscious for hours. He didn't know where he was so I had to pull him into the Realm between life and death. Only then did we manage to escape and after we had gotten far away enough to go back to this Realm, I asked him what happened." Chira paused. They stared at the scenery unfolding around them for a while before they spoke again.
"Eshra told he didn't rember much. All he rembered was arriving in the Human Realm. The Realm's energy was still growing after what happened there twenty-five years ago. Eshra was going to study the new profound energy and creatures in the Human Realm. Monsters had appeared there, so we sent Foxes to check on the Human Realm because of the new profound changes.
"Eshra went like many had gone. I told him to go and check on the settling Realm energy. He spent a couple of weeks studying the energy, blending in with the Humans when that man managed to see through his strong mirage and captured him." Chira's head lowered. "When Father heard about this, he decided that he would allow to stay in the Human Realm and watch the one who captured Eshra… Dr. Chang. I took a small group with . We've been in and out of the Realm a couple of tis since. Even now, I have so people stationed and watching the doctor."
'The Creator's been watched ever since Eshra got taken… A year before I was born.' Lee Seng pieced together the tiline of things. 'Why did he beco paranoid five years later…?' Lee Seng turned to look at the Commander.
"What happened in 2007 then? Five years after Eshra was captured and taken back you guys started to watch the Creator, right?" Lee Seng asked.
"I guess we started watching him weeks after Eshra returned." Halys answered. "You must feel the ti difference on this Realm versus Earth."
"Mmm, I still don't know the difference in ti, honestly."
"4 days go by here, 1 day goes by there." Halys explained. Lee Seng took a ntal note of that while Keng popped his head to the side, curious.
"What happened five years after you started watching him then? Commander Chira, you said you weren't there when Lee Seng saw a man with erald scales on the beach that day… But sothing doesn't add up to this…" Keng thought aloud.
"That was the day that my life spiraled into hell." Lee Seng told them. "The Creator beca distant and cold… All that warmth, gone. He started the endless tests and shut Mom out of a lot of things…"
"Commander, do you think—"
"How would he know? He would've had soone by his side that could see true intentions." Chira cut Halys off.
"Soone who could see through true intentions…" Lee Seng muttered in Japanese. "Who could do that?" The Foxes turned to look at him as Keng looked at the scenery around them.
"Are any of the Numbers capable of doing that?" Keng asked.
"The only way soone could see soone's true nature would be Number 1. If anyone has weak ntal walls, she can get into your head and figure out everything." Lee Seng answered in English. He tapped his head. "But none of the Numbers were at the beach that day… So sothing must've happened after the beach. The Creator was fine that day."
"If Commander Chira and their n were watching you and the others the whole ti, they would've followed you wherever you went, right?" Keng asked. Lee Seng nodded. "So that could only an that whoever was left to watch the Numbers, must've been found during that ti."
"That couldn't be true. None of the soldiers were near the Numbers. They all stayed a safe distance away, blending in with workers. None of them would've went near the Numbers that day." Halys disagreed with Keng's theory.
"You probably have so sort of check-ins with your team, right?" Lee Seng looked at Chira.
"Yes and why do you know so much about these things?" Chira asked.
"I grew up around this, so I know a lot about these kind of operations." Lee Seng answered. "If your team periodically checked in with you then there must've been a window of ti they had, right? Every 6 to 12 hours?"
"Six hours." Chira answered. They were getting intrigued by the young human's knowledge.
'He's only… Seventeen and he knows how this goes. He could play by the books well if it weren't for what happened.' Chira thought.
"Everyone checked in at the six hour mark." Halys told Lee Seng. "Why are we even giving information out to this kid? He could easily be picked by Number 1!"
"She can't pick his head." Keng grabbed a small stalk of a flower and twirled it in his fingers. "He had a high ntal fortitude against her when he was younger. The Creator put him through grueling tasks and he sohow has a thick head."
"Thick wall." Lee Seng corrected.
"I know. You just have a thick head." Keng playfully pushed Lee Seng's head away.
"God, you're annoying." Lee Seng swatted his annoying look-a-like away.
"You're theorizing either one of my n was found and checked in so there was no suspicion or your Father sohow found out that day and did what he did." Chira summarized.
"The Numbers are really good at what they do." Lee Seng shrugged. "Each excels in a certain path. Recon, assassination, information, world knowledge, etc. Each Number was created to excel in that one area and slowly built up power around it. They have obvious weaknesses that have been covered by their partner and overti they've grew to be able to protect themselves." Lee Seng told Chira sothing they already knew. "So, if none of your n slipped up on that Sumr's day in 2007, then they were already suspicious before then."
"They didn't have any reason to be suspicious. We went through the right channels and got ourselves into his lab with ease." Halys defended.
"Right channels, right timings and you just got into the place with ease?" Lee Seng looked at Halys with an unsure look.
"Look, kid, you should mind yourself or else–" Halyus began to move towards Lee Seng when Chira set his hand on Halys's chest and shook his head.
"Why would you go this far to suspect sothing went wrong?" Chira asked. "There's no clear evidence that one of my n was caught while there's also no reason for us to believe the doctor just sohow, magically, found out." Lee Seng looked at his hands. He flexed it and looked at the flower bulbs atop the large stalks.
"I'm sure you know, but I do have Eshra's blood turned into a serum in ." Lee Seng looked at Chira. Chira didn't make eye contact. They stared off into the distance as they listened. "What if and this is a big what if," Lee Seng waddled in his spot as he made his decision. "What if there's sothing we both haven't seen before? What if that thing alerted the Creator about spies and so he changed and beca the man he is today because he's paranoid you're coming for him."
"So he turns his only family mber, his son, into an irregular Biohuman with multiple powers?" Chira finished.
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