I placed my thumb on the door and the lock opened right up. Swinging the door open, I sighed and stepped inside.
Standing right at the door with hair as red as mine was a woman so beautiful she could be hired as a model on the streets. She puffed her cheeks.
"It's late."
"Sorry, I bought cake though, so it's all good?"
I handed the box to my mom and closed the door. She was once the world's greatest villain, a person so infamous that even the best of the hunters would tremble in their feet at the very mention of her name.
But now.
She was cutely pouting at me.
I ignored my mom and stepped further inside the house, it was tiring to hang out with Em at times. Behind me, Mom was pushing the box open.
"They are pastries."
"Right, that."
"And… there's four."
I stopped in my tracks.
Fuck.
Again.
I raised my hand and shook my head. "T-that extra one, is for the fridge."
"Oh?" Mom hummed. "For the fridge?"
"Yeah, it gets real hangry when I go for a midnight snack."
"The fridge. Gets hangry?"
"I-it's a modern thing, Mom, you won't get it. You're too old to get—Ow ow ow!"
Mom kneaded my head with her telekinesis at my words.
It was only when I was kneaded into fine mush did she finally stop.
"I'll be eating that one too."
Mom said with a giddy smile as she patted my head. She loved cakes too much, my brother probably got that from her.
I picked up my bag once more and walked over to the living room while she headed for the kitchen.
I said that my mom was once the biggest villain in the world, but for that kind of status, we lived in a fairly modest and normal house. Just two small floors, narrow stairs, walkways, a fairly big living room plus dining room, and a very small lawn.
Of course.
My brother and I were a little mad when we were kids. He used to say things about how strong people need secret bases, so we dug under the house and turned it into a makeshift bunker.
But.
Now that's empty.
Tossing my bag on a chair, I plopped myself down on the couch and tapped the buttons on my watch a few times before the wall in front of me was replaced by another enormous holographic screen.
It hid away all the family photos in the back, which I liked quite a lot amongst all of the positives of a giant TV.
I started a streaming service and started a fairly recent animated film. I had been hearing a lot of good reviews about it and got pretty curious.
Mom walked into the room too and smiled when she saw me. I could tell everything around me without needing to turn around, my senses were sharp enough.
"You're watching Duckman."
I patted the space next to me and Mom let herself fall on the seat too.
She slowly leaned over to the side and rested her head on my shoulder as we watched the film.
It had its fair bit of ups and downs.
When I looked to the side, I saw my mom staring at the screen with a seriously blank gaze. Almost as if she was not watching the movie but something other than it.
"What?" I asked, annoyed.
"You know, your brother used to like Duckman a lot too. While he could still see faces that is."
"Is that so?" I muttered. "I thought he never watched anything."
"Not after that, no! Hahaha."
The film continued as Mom started telling me stories about my brother once more. There wasn't anything I hadn't heard before, but I let her speak anyway.
I doubt she watched the film at first, but at the end when Duckman's uncle Goose died, she ended up muttering something I didn't expect.
"Do you think your brother is watching over us?"
A chuckle left me.
"You think? I'd bet he's thinking we're alright and training or something."
Mom smiled too.
"Right? That sounds just like him."
She slowly pressed herself closer to me, wrapping her hands around my back.
I could feel her head slightly tremble.
No Duckman in the future. Noted.
"Don't leave me like him, Nari."
I also had to listen to all this, emotional… porridge? I'd say it was probably the toughest part of my day.
But.
This was strength too. I guess.
"I won't," I said, gently tapping her back. "Where's dad?"
She sniffled in my shirt as she spoke.
"He's been pretty late… since he started helping the Hunter Association again. I heard they called that game developer guy and were discussing all those orbs they've been finding in the gates."
I sighed and leaned back on the couch, Mom still clinging to me.
With a few more taps, the streaming service switched out for a live news channel.
[We're present here in front of the Hunter Association again, for the third day. As you can see, a lot of people have gathered demanding clarification on the situation. After the Cosmic Dragon and the presence of Outer Gods that was revealed after the sacrifice of two brave students, another anomaly has popped up in the world with the Orbs being the result of every single gate.]
"Stupid," I clicked my tongue. "Calling even that game developer. This whole outer god thing is not that unique a concept, I've read them in a lot of web novels and stuff."
"Webnovels huh?" Mom grinned.
It wasn't such a bad hobby now.
[WOAH! W-WHAT IS THIS!?!]
[KYAAAAA!]
The screams through the tv screen made us both shift our gaze.
On the screen, a sudden enormous gate had opened right next to the hunter association.
Mom sat up straight and watched with widened eyes.
An unknown gate.
This….
It was just like.
A small hand emerged from the gate and out stepped a platinum-blonde with pointed ears.
And then a small, almost tiny man with a beard reaching down to his toes.
Elves.
Dwarves.
Giants.
Werewolves, vampires, lizard men, all kinds of beings came strolling out of the gate all at once.
The cameraman and the reporter at the scene were frozen stiff in fear.
And then.
At the very end.
Out came a woman with hauntingly beautiful red eyes and hair of white fluttering to the ground.
No one could say a word. No one could move.
All the beings that streamed out turned toward the woman as she stepped forward. Her eyes widened at the mic of the reporter and she slowly walked over in front of the camera, snatching the mic from the reporter.
[Ahem…]
A screeching, strange, word-like assemblage spilled from her lips before she turned back at sighed. The elf behind her snapped her fingers and the white-haired woman looked at the camera.
[That's better. I guess they can understand me now.]
"What is…"
The woman on the screen smiled.
[My name is Charlotte, I am from a different world.]
[Bring me your god]
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