A slow flow of amber hair with sun-kissed skin, his eyes radiated an inviting neon-orange, the same which physically emanated from his very being in comforting waves of hushed light. If one were to escape the enigma of his colorful, androgynous face, and Buddhist-like serenity, they'd be surprised to find a chained metal plate adorning his neck that complemented his color; that of course being gold. Straining ones eyes further to read the strange engravings upon it was useless. They were comprised of indiscernible markings which continuously shifted at a moderate pace, dizzyingly. His relatively short stature was loosely clothed in a plain and simple poncho with ancient styled drawstring pants.

His eyes widened to take in the environment beyond the door for just a moment, before a big grin appeared on his face.

Like a blur of light, he instantly he dove for the young adult inside with opened arms; tackling him down and joyously cooing,

"Brother!!"

It was the dawn of a new day when the occupants of the bunker received a gentle knocking at their door. The visitor was all but too quick to let himself in after Knox opened it, resulting in the current predicament.

Viktor blinked his eyes to a squint as he struggled to regain his breath and refocus his vision.

"Brother?" Viktor squeezed out.

"Mm-hm!" His apparent brother nodded his head energetically in reply.

Kaoru and Suzu stood in combative surprise before a calm fondness stole their hearts.

Viktor awkwardly wrapped his arms lightly around the weight on his chest, and patted him mildly on the back.

"Heh-uhm, so can you uh, get off me now?" He asked looking down at him.

"Mhm." Was all he got before getting lifted off his feet and vertically set down again like a sack of potatoes.

While he regained his footing and straightened his clothing, the glowing anomaly languidly floated around him like a flying carpet, apparently inspecting him and boring holes all through his privacy before landing on his feet as well.

Suzu now absent, Knox bowed with welcome—facing up near the end with raised brows, "I welcome you to my humble abode, mister...?"

The foreign entity regarded him normally, but appeared puzzled. He turned towards Viktor asking, "What did he say?"

Viktor still slightly caught off-guard managed to glance at his Holoject logs and respond, "Uh, he was just welcoming you and wondering who you were."

"Ohhh." Was the answer.

With a swift return bow, the orange glow reciprocated with a hearty smile, "Ah! Sorry, nice to meet you! My name is Lígílio!"

He then held up his hand and mouthed sideways to Viktor through a whisper, "He can understand me, right?'

Viktor crossed his arms in thought and nodded his head.

"Yes, and you can call him Mr. Knox. His wife was the cat-lady that just left us. But I have a couple of questions Lígílio, how did you get here if you don't know Japanese?"

Lígílio tipped his head to the side as if he didn't understand the complexity of the situation.

"Hm? I just followed the tracing spell father gave me. Did he not tell you I was coming?"

Knox nodded as Viktor shook his head and pursed his lips before slowly wording out, "No, he's uhh—he's gone. Most of everything soo far has just been what he's left behind. Didn't even know he was my dad was until just yesterday or so, much less that I even had a brother for that matter..."

Lígílio was briefly stunned.

He softly grabbed Viktor's shoulder in consolation, as a comforting calm radiated from him.

"I'm sorry. If I knew, I would have came as soon as possible..." He spoke with a tinge of sadness.

Eventually, the short-lived silence ended as his facial features recovered with a solemn smile.

"At least now he is free from his bondage."

Viktor missed this line as he inwardly contemplated the many missing members of his family, while Knox posed an inquiry, "Right... I understand you're his brother, but where exactly have you been? Surely you must have known about some of this?"

Lígílio knew he was being spoken to, so he turned once more to Viktor, who was currently trapped in his thoughts. He did later notice though as Viktor relayed, "Yea, where have you been?"

"I'm not sure what unit of measure would be best for me to tell you, but very far from here—and that's not counting any spaces that altered my time. I could point you in its direction after we surface, but it's called Vivuve, though dad always liked to call it Zwicky for some reason." The glowing one replied.

Zwicky? He thought.

As a quick check, Viktor went ahead and searched it up on his Holojects, and sure enough, it was there. It was a dwarf galaxy about fifty-nine million light years away with two bluish-white knots in its heart.

How strange...

He flicked the projection over to Knox's wall display for all to see and asked, "Is this it?"

Lígílio took a peak at it before disagreeing.

"No. That's the star-bundle its in."

He floated over to the depiction and brought his finger to a small spec towards the left after observing it and said, "This is Vivuve."

Knox appeared mildly impressed with the information. Going by the distance, that was quite the journey.

An alien from outer space huh.

Avante, what the hell did you stick your little brother in to get that? Knox wondered as he inspected him with fascination.

After the small talk subsided, it was time to leave.

Knox looked to Viktor and double checked, "Can you make sure he knows where he's taking you to, please?"

"Oh, yea. Lígílio, you know where you're taking me from here, right?"

"Mhm. It will be both my last spell and task received from dad. The rest will be up to you, but don't worry, I'll protect you bro!"

It wasn't long thereafter that the group had made their farewells, despite the apparent gain in baggage. Luckily, with some much appreciated assistance, Viktor needn't concern himself further with such burdens.

He could refresh himself in the short-lived adventure of unfamiliar grounds as they unearthed themselves from the cold stone below.

"Say, when am I going to put on the blindfold and those earplugs?" Viktor turned to ask.

"Mmmm... That's a good question, actually." His kin responded.

As he thought on it for a short moment, they both relieved their nerves in the warm spring winds flowing by which mingled with the incessant tide of surf and seagull squawking created by their rural location.

They were standing close to the beach residing west of Akita, waiting for Lígílio to complete his spell and gather his bearings.

"I don't think you'll need it until we get there." He concluded, finishing his task.

Hunching over slightly, Lígílio gripped the luggage tightly and readied himself, looking at Viktor and stating with anticipation, "Come on, let's go!"

Viktor looked around with slight embarrassment, unable to spot anyone who could intrude on his getaway.

"I'm not sure if piggybacking would be a good idea..." He wiggled out.

"What? You think I'll drop you? Not a chance! I'll just drop the stuff and catch you, though I doubt I'd even need to."

He turned his smug face towards him with a taunt, "Would you rather I carry you like a princess?"

"No! Just—don't go too fast, alright?"

Regarding the following lull in response, he just sighed and assumed the position he'd be taking the whole way; holding on for dear life.

"AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!! SSLOOOOOW DOOOWNNN!!!" Could faintly be heard intertwined with merry laughter in the distance as the duo became a speck in the sky.

Not too far from their launch site, a man covered in casual vacation attire wielded a watermelon with a hole in it—a crudely taped picture of a woman pictured on top. Temporarily, he halted his overly suggestive ongoing actions.

"Lilulilulilulilulilululululululu—huh?"

He tilted the poor fruit in front of his face down, partially withdrawing his long tongue, and allowed his sunglasses to shift enough as to unimpede his line of sight.

Oh, it's moving away, phew.

His tongue began again once over with vigor, "LILULILYLILULILULILULILULILILILI!!"

The brothers landed on pavement across the sea with a, "Smack-tah-tah-tah-ta-ta!" As Lígílio intentionally slapped his feet upon landing to wake his brother.

"Hm? Oh, we're here!" Viktor cried, raising his head up.

It was a decently long trip due to the fact that the energetic light source had to slow his role. Ultimately, it became dark outside as the time flew by at their leisurely pace. The trip was surprisingly peaceful throughout the way, as they had only encountered a few birds and passing ships through the East China Sea onward towards what was Nanchang.

Lígílio was internally admonishing himself however, for not waking up his brother to see much of the pretty sights as they reached the shores, but his earlier battle with himself resulted in the victory for the side which favored non-interventionism.

Mhm. I'm sure we'll get to see them again later!

Viktor slowly slid himself off of his brother's back and stretched his ligaments with a yawn. Unzipping his bag, grabbing some food, quenching himself, fetching his gear, and equipping it; he blinded himself yet again while waiting for the system to quickly boot and adjust.

They should honestly fix that...

Wait, is that Chinese?

After glancing around and observing he came to a conclusion, "Oh wow, so we're in New China! Always wanted to visit this place."

Well, among others. I still want to see the rest world now that I can...

He spoke to his patiently waiting partner as he regarded the marvelous and futuristic cityscape, "There's still some food if you're hungry as well. Man do I have some cool stories about this place! You just came here recently, right?" Viktor inquired.

"Yup! And I'm fine for now, thanks."

"Yea, then I'll definitely have to tell you."

He observed the one next to him sitting in a zen-like state in the air, and remembered their purpose being there.

"Right, so how close are we to this doctor? I'll just tell you on the way."

Lígílio smiled happily as he held his hands behind his back—forming a V-shape, and landed, gaining a comfortable strolling pose.

"Absolutely! We still have some time."

Viktor held his chin after picking back up his belongings and following his guide.

Hmm... Where to start?

Should I tell him about the rumors first, or just general history?

Wait, that's a terrible idea now that we're here!

Though despite the closeted army of seven-thousand skeletons, this place looks pretty nice on the outside as I expected. A lot more... Plain—than I imagined, though.

"A-Ahem. Anyway, so, New China—the, 'home of heroes!' as it's called."

"Actually, are you aware of the event here which gave everyone their powers?"

"Vaguely? Dad sorta mentioned it in passing before he left; sounded like some kind of ancient inheritance that was on course to strike here."

"Inheritance?"

"Yes. Some species enjoy sending out 'seeds' or inheritances in different forms containing things like knowledge or elements—sometimes even life—but most just wander or become lost in space."

"Can't say I'm surprised, honestly. We did the same thing at one point."

"So where is it?"

"Where's what?"

"The seed!"

"That piece of junk we sent out? Just a couple lightyears out."

"No, the one that hit here!"

"Oh! Yeah, no. That thing was the size of this continent. We had to literally bomb the hell out of it just to narrowly avoid it."

Viktor leaned in for a whisper, "And if you ask me, I think it's the cause of these powers we got."

"Which reminds me—since you're not from here, how did you get like that?"

Lígílio stopped and closed his eyes.

"I'm not sure if this would be the best location to tell you, brother. Besides, we're here!" He said, turning his head, pointing his finger, and opening his eyes.

Viktor blinked in confusion.

"Uhh... Lígílio?"

"Yes?"

"...This is a post office."