The image of his beloved grandmother had appeared right in front of Mako like magic, he didn’t know what to think or what to say.

Time slowed as tears rolled down Mako’s cheeks as he could no longer bear another emotion. The appearance of his grandmother was too much for Mako to take as he couldn’t hold back any longer.

The illusory figure of Amy Grey knelt down to give a warm embracing hug to Mako. She held him in her arms for a couple of moments until Mako got his bearings back together. After some time, Mako finally let go of the hug and they made eye contact once again.

“You seem troubled, Mako. What’s on your mind?” Amy said in the same beautiful and soothing voice that Mako would trade anything to hear again and again.

Mako sniffed as he didn’t resist whatsoever, telling her every bad thing that happened to him after her death. Mind you, Mako was just 14 when his grandmother died, and he had kept all these emotions locked inside him all this time. Now seeing that image of his grandmother again, Mako couldn’t hold himself back anymore.

Mako told her about Bill, and how he was bullied every single day. How he was treated by everyone and how he had gotten into so many fights recently, and finally he also told the fact that he was responsible for the death of 19 individual men.

Amy listened through all of it, while still holding onto Mako’s hands. Mako poured his heart out complaining about everything that troubled him and at last, he was feeling a whole lot better finally getting everything off his chest.

This was the same as when Mako was younger. Mako would come crying home about something that had happened to him and his grandmother would hold his hand while he explained everything to her and let everything out.

After everything was said, Amy gently raised her hands to wipe away Mako’s tears.

“Oh, my poor boy, you have been through a lot,” Amy said with love and compassion.

“But you have chosen your path Mako, and you will stand on it with pride.”

Mako had told himself the same thing again and again, but surprisingly hearing it from her grandmother had a greater effect than he could ever produce.

“You have chosen the destiny that my father had laid out for you and you will face many hardships along the way, and you will have to pass through each of them with resilience and an unwavering will if you ever wish to achieve your goals and even surpass them,” Amy said words that filled Mako’s heart with hope and determination.

“But what about all those that I have killed?” Mako asked as he couldn’t just let this go by.

Amy sighed as she asked Mako,” My boy, do you think that if you would have let those horrible people live and showed them mercy, would they have stopped committing the crimes that they were committing for so long?”

Mako thought about it for a second before nodding no to his grandmother’s questions.

“If you would have let them carry on living, they would continue to rain tyranny and injustice on those weaker than them just like before.”

“Listen to my words carefully Mako, always remember that all life is sacred and you absolutely shouldn’t sacrifice it if it is not needed, but you will have to decide whether the soul is capable of being forgiven or repented. Not every soul is worth saving, nor will you be able to save all of them. You have to remember that. It is okay to mourn, it is okay to grieve, but don’t beat yourself over what you did rather try to learn from it so that you do better in the future.” Amy said with a firm yet soothing tone as Mako ingrained these words into his memory completely.

“I hope you achieve great things, far greater than my father, and I know you will make me very proud!” Amy declared as her figure slowly started to fade.

“HUH?” Mako was too caught up to notice before, but now it was very noticeable. 𝘯𝑜𝘷𝑙．𝑐𝘰𝘮

“Grandmother, please don’t leave me again!” Mako pleaded with tears forming in his eyes once again.

Before Amy Grey’s figure completely faded from existence Mako saw her give the most beautiful and heart-warming smile she had ever given him as she left him with some final words.

“I will always be by your side Mako, so don’t worry. Focus on your own goals and achieve the best you can, I know you can do it!”

Time resumed as Sophia and Anna continued to stare at Mako who was still just staring blankly of to his right. The aura that he was releasing was completely gone now as the girls felt a bit more at ease than before.

Mako slowly got back to reality the girls could see Mako’s eye becoming red with water around the edges as if Mako had cried a lot, which he had in fact done, but the girls were oblivious to Mako’s entire conversation.

Mako slowly regained his composure as he stood up from the couch and proceeded to pick up his things.

“Ummm…., where do you think you are going?” Sophia asked Mako in a low and respectful tone.

Mako turned to face the two girls as he bowed down slightly and thanked them for bringing him to their residence but now he had to leave before he involved them any further. Anna quickly abstained from the apology stating that it was the least she could have done for someone who had saved her life.

Mako nodded to Anna’s response and he proceeded to leave their apartment to finally return home.

“Anna! Why did you let him leave just like that?” Sophia asked in a very jumpy and childish manner.

“What? Did you expect me to hold him in our apartment forever? He has his own things to do and it is best that we don’t get involved any further. It was very lucky for us that someone like him was around when we were ambushed, otherwise who knows what would have happened to us.” Anna replied in a sympathetic tone as she was clearly touched by the level of emotion that Mako showed towards worthless criminals.

Even though she said that she didn’t want to get further involved, she hoped that she would be able to see him again even though he acted in the weirdest ways possible.

***********

Mako was back on the main street that used to be the festival from last night, he was still wearing Anna’s clothes which she let him have as he didn’t have anything else to wear. His clothes had multiple tears, burns, and holes while the Oni mask was surprisingly not damaged at all.

Mako didn’t question why as he had other important though going on in his mind. He wasn’t even sure how he was able to visualize his grandmother, but he wasn’t going to question it one bit as it was the greatest gift he had ever received. He didn’t want to upset his grandmother in any way and he would his best to continue the legacy that was set by Lionel Grey.

walking through a busy city street, Mako opened the system interface to see the many notifications that were still not read by him.

‘Open system interface’

[The remaining Rage mode bar will be compensated to the user by the system]

[Compensation made: +5000 EXP]

[18 Level 3 Opponents Have Been Defeated]

[+9000 EXP]

[ A Difficult Level 3 Opponent Has Been Defeated]

[+2000 EXP]

[Hidden Quest Complete]

[Kill your first enemy]

[Reward: +2000 EXP, Random Skill, Fireball level increase]

[Fireball is now level 3]

[Choosing Random Skill]

[New Skill Learned: High Jump] ?

[User has leveled up!]

[Reward: +10 Attribute points, Random Attribute Increase]

[Current Level: Lvl 9]

[Intelligence has been elevated to 25]

Many prompts rose up in Mako’s eyes as he quickly breezed through all of them, with the only one that was of note being a brand-new skill that he had unlocked.

(New!) [Skill: High Jump] ?

‘Analyze’

[(E-Tier) High Jump] ? (LEVEL 1)

[High jump is a special mobility move granted to the user by the system, High jump provides the user with insane mobility that can make it possible for the user to reach height minimum of 5 and a maximum of 30 meters high. Once the High Jump is activated, The user goes in a crouch position, while sending Energy to his legs charging them for the jump. An instant jump will result in a 5-meter high jump, with every second passing by while charging the legs with more energy, the user can achieve 5 meters worth of more height.]

[Requirements: 10 Agility, 10 Stamina, 20 Fortitude]

[Cost: 50 Energy]

It was a great skill to have as Mako could think of many ways in which a skill like this could come in clutch and with that, the system prompts had ended. Mako picked up the pace to reach home as soon as possible because he was worried that Bill might go out looking for him which would be safe for him since he was still wanted by El-Diablo’s gang.

From the information that Bill had provided, Mako knew of the areas under the influence of El-Diablo and areas which were not. Mako’s home and Sir Derek’s bakery came under the area of the Black Ravens which was why it was safe for Bill and Mako to go outside, and it was also the reason how Leon was able to know about Bill living with him.

After about 20 minutes of sprinting past many streets, Mako finally made it back home. He never knew he could miss his home so much in one day and yet here he was. He slowly opened the backdoor that led straight into the kitchen, when he was bombarded with a strong and unique aura that was thickening the air around Mako, making it hard to breathe.

“What the…” Mako said as pushed to open the backdoor completely.