Two weeks had passed since the events in Romania. Naginata planned to return to Balaur for training once she straightened out some affairs in her real life. She wouldn’t tell me what those were, but it wasn’t my place to press the issue.

EDGE Command were ecstatic that Balaur wanted to connect. I hope their conversations would be fruitful. I was sure I would find out the outcome when I returned to Romania for further training.

But at that moment, I was content to leave the moniker of Hatchet behind. The only title that mattered to me was Dad.

I was sprawled out on a sun lounge, neck-deep in a paperback while the kids played in the pool in my back yard. If I’m being honest, these days I do most of my reading on my phone through apps, but there’s just something about sitting and relaxing with a paperback in my hands that takes me back to a simpler time.

This one was a pleasant romp through a sleepy small town in outback Australia that was at the mercy of a murderous, demonic kangaroo, and I was thoroughly enjoying it.

“Hey Dad, watch this!” Seth called out.

I put the paperback down and watched as Seth got ready to jump into the pool from the side.

“This is called a ringer stinger!” he cried out gleefully as he took a running jump, then grabbed both legs and slammed into the water arse-first.

My initial fatherly reaction was to chide him for doing something that might result in an injury, but the name had me laughing. Ringer stinger? Nine years old, and this kid was already a comedic genius.

Lorelei rolled her eyes at her brother as she floated on a pool ring. The scoff she uttered reminded me too much of her mother, but I’m sure I was instilling just as many bad habits in my kids as my ex-wife was.

Seth’s head broke the surface. “Did you see that?”

“I sure did, mate. How’s your ring?”

“It’s stinging a bit actually,” he said with an awkward laugh.

“You know your limits. Just try not to splash your sister, okay?” I said, then I mouthed the next words silently while covering my face from Lorelei’s view. “Definitely try to splash your sister.”

Seth grinned and climbed out of the pool again, ready for another jump.

I reached down and lazily rumpled the scruff on the back of Kaiser’s neck. We’d survived another mission together, and EDGE Command had still let him come home.

When they extricated the EDGE Augment from my system, Kaiser had gone back to his regular German Shepherd form. I was a little thankful for that, because there’s no way you can hide a harbinger of doom in your backyard without attracting of slew of complaints to the council about having a dangerous dog.

There was an extremely lucrative publishing offer waiting for me when I got home this time, and for some reason I felt like EDGE Command had something to do with it. My career had stalled half a decade ago, and sure I was writing a lot now and chugging along, but this deal was insane.

My agent was already talking movie deals and meetings with bigshot Hollywood producers and directors.

I was just about to pick my paperback up again when my phone rang.

The number was hidden, which meant that it was probably a scammer. I really didn’t want to argue with some arsehole who was trying to cheat his way to a fortune, so I almost didn’t answer it.

But what if it was one of those movie industry big shots? They’d protect their identities, for sure.

I answered. “Hello?”

“Is this JD Rideout?” a familiar voice asked.

“Yes, it is. To whom am I speaking?”

“My name is Hikaru. Hikaru Hayashi. I’m sorry for calling you out of the blue like this.”

The penny dropped.

“Naginata, is that you?”

She laughed. “Yes, but please call me Hikaru. We’re not on a mission anymore.”

“God damn it’s good to hear your voice, Hikaru. How are you? How have you been since Romania?”

“I’m good. My parents are getting older, and my oto-san – my father – is not doing so well, but I am here taking care of them. My brother should be here soon to help.”

Ah, so that was the business that she had to take care of. All the feelings of familial connection that passed between us on the mission started to make sense.

“I’m sorry to hear that. Is your dad going to be okay?”

“The doctors think so, as long as he rests and doesn’t take on too much stress. But he’s getting old. It’s time for him to pass the business on to my brother, which is why Kenshi is not here with me yet. There’s too much to do at the company while my father is unwell.”

“Well I’m glad to be a friendly voice whenever you need it. You’ve got my number now, so feel free to call any time. Just… Whatever you need, okay?” I felt like a stupid, bumbling teenager all over again.

I liked Hikaru. There was no denying that. We were tied together by fate now, so why couldn’t I get muster the courage to ask her out?

“Arigato gozaimasu, JD. Thank you.”

“I think I’m going to have to brush up on my Japanese.”

“You may,” she said, and I could hear the smile in her voice. Then her voice went quiet, almost reluctant. “I have missed you.”

Had she been thinking about me as much as I’d been thinking about her?

“I missed you too,” I admitted.

“I was wondering if you might want to see me at some time? Before we go back to Romania. Get to know each other a little better without being covered in monster guts?”

“I’d love to, Hikaru. I really would. You should just know that I come with baggage. I have kids, and there’s Kaiser, and an ex-wife who is scarier than anything we fought in Romania.”

Hikaru laughed at that. “I have my own history too, JD. My own ghosts. But I must be true to my heart.”

“Well now how can a guy refuse when you put it like that?”

“I would hope that he cannot.”

I smiled. “So where are you now?”

“Tokyo. It’s where my father’s – my brother’s company is located. I want to begin my training with Balaur, but my family needs me.”

I looked over at my kids. Seth was getting ready for another dive bomb, and Lorelei covered herself with her pool umbrella, waiting for the impending splash.

“Hey kids!” I called out. “How would you feel about taking a trip to Japan?”

Seth stopped mid-stride, his eyes going wide. “Can I take an extra suitcase for Transformers and Gundam models?”

I laughed. “Sure, mate.”

“Woohoo!” Seth cried.

“Does this mean I’m finally getting my passport?” Lorelei asked, then she got dumped under the wave that Seth’s latest divebomb produced.

Lorelei flailed about, which caused her pool ring to tip over, completely dunking her into the water. She came up for air, wiped her long hair out of her eyes and shot daggers at her brother.

“I’m going to kill you, Seth!”

Seth was already halfway up the ladder. “You’ll have to catch me first!”

When Seth reached the top, he jumped onto the bricks and his legs slipped out from underneath him. With nothing to catch himself on, he went straight back and slammed the back of his head into the edge of the pool

He screamed the kind of scream that immediately puts a chill in your heart as a parent. The moment one of your kids gets hurt, you become someone else. Instinct takes over. I dropped the phone and rushed over to Seth, who was in a sitting position now.

The impact opened a jagged red gash on the back of his head, and blood cascaded down the back of his neck.

“How bad is it? Am I hurt?” Seth pleaded. His wide eyes were filled with fear.

I cupped the back of his head and concentrated. A dim green glow, hopefully invisible in the light of day, flowed out of my palm and into the wound.

When I took my hand away, the cut had mostly healed itself. The tide of blood had been dammed, but I stopped it from being completely repaired. I couldn’t just magically fix my kid without raising some questions that I couldn’t answer.

“It’s not as bad as it looks, mate,” I said. “That was a lot of blood, but it’s stopped now.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah, mate. You’re all good. Maybe go have a rinse off in the shower before you hop back in, hey?”

Seth shook his head. “I think I’m going to go have a shower, then go play some World of Warcraft.”

“All right mate. Go get yourself cleaned up.”

Then I noticed that Lorelei was looking at me with a strange expression.

“He’ll be fine,” I said.

“How did you do that, Dad?”

Ah, shit.

“Do what?” I asked. “It wasn’t as bad as it looked, it-”

“I saw the flap of skin when he sat up. Then you touched it and you did something. You fixed him.” The look on her face reminded me of her mother. She’d looked at me the same way any time I tried to dance around saying what needed to be said.

“We’ll talk about it later, okay?” I paused a moment. “There are some things that I need to tell you both, but I need to figure out how.”

“As long as you tell us the truth,” Lorelei said. “Promise me.”

I nodded, swallowing that bitter pill. My daughter was getting older, and so was my son. There would come a time when I couldn’t shield them from what was coming, and there was less than a year until the reality crash.

“I promise,” I said.

“Good. I’m going to check on Seth,” Lorelei said as she swam towards the ladder, then got out of the pool.

“I’ll be up in a minute.” I headed back to my chair and picked up the phone. “I’m sorry about that Hikaru. I’ve got a bit of a situation here.”

“It sounded very fun at your place until the screaming,” Hikaru said.

“Frantic. Chaotic? Terrifying. That’s life with a teenager and another kid on the cusp of becoming one. I’d love to talk to you some more, but I need to see to my boy. Do you think you could call back in a little bit?”

“My father has just gone back to sleep, so I’m yours as long as you’ll have me.”

“You might regret saying that, because I have a lot of free time these days.”

There was a pause on the other end of the line, and I wondered if I’d taken it a little far. But Hikaru had already seen me corrupted by the touch of an ancient cosmic dragon and covered in the blood and guts of innumerable monsters. I figured she’d have a good idea of what she was getting into already.

“I doubt very much that I will regret it,” Hikaru said.