William was running barefoot inside a never-ending stone tunnel. People were screaming after him with weapons and he was covered in blood. He was caring something in his broken arms, the noise was unbearable, and it was hard to see. While he was running, something started to slap his chin and the screams started to become crying sounds.
He woke up with his daughter, Blair, slapping his face trying to wake him up.
- Oh. Good morning. -
He sat down on the couch and started calming her down. Later, he started preparing breakfest. A woman appeared in the kitchen wearing a uniform, with a messy bun and had clearly just woke up.
- Uhn... Good morning...? -
She asked.
- Here some pancakes. Are you ok? -
William gave her a beatiful pile of pancakes.
- I have another mission in two hours, can you believe it? My last mission was like 6 hours ago! And they also gave me a ton of paperwork to do too! I hate them! -
She was ranting while eating the pancakes.
- Please don't talk with your mouth full in front of Blair. -
William said while Blair finished drinking her milk the to pay stare at him after he said her name. Then he took her of the highchair.
- You should look for a new job maybe. -
William said.
- I really can't. It's like everyday that pass by they need more and more heroes, but like, people with powers are a minority, and people with usefull and strong powers that can become heroes are a smaller minority and you also have to count how many people that have useful powers that are old enough to be heroes actually WANT to become heroes! The only way for me to get out of it without being labeled as a villian is either coma, dementia, wheelchair or death! -
The woman almost almost cried while explaing. William tried to calm her down by rubbing her back.
Thanks to the miscegenation between elves, beastmen, dwarfs, merfolk, fairies, vampires and humans for the last 10000 years, most of the population is categorized as demihuman, which is an humanoid sapient individual with characteristics from other magical species but with little to no use or very weak magical powers. However, some of those demihuman are way above average, usually due to having a non human dominant gene or a family tree that makes said individual stronger instead of anulating each other's powers. Because most demihuman have a dominant human gene, they have little to no magical power, but there are still a handfull of issues, like monsters, dungeons or powerful criminals that require magic to be solved. There is were the heroes and the hunters come in.
The woman was a hero and her name was Dustine Ann, a rank C hero. William on the other hand, lived in her house as a favor. Dustine doesn't even brush her teeth or her hair and goes to her mission mumbling bye between her exausted ranting.
William did the dishes and went brush Blair's gum, since she doesn't have teeth yet. He plays with her until it's close to lunch time, when he looks at the drawers and the frigde and notices he should go to the market. After a yummy warm bottle of milk, William gets them ready to go out. He looks himself at the mirror and think if he really should go, it's not a party or a photoshot for a magazine, but he knows he is not the same person, or at least, doesn't look like. There is a wound on the left side of his face, going from his hairline to his upperlip, it's not bleeding anymore, but it is noticable it's recent. His left eye barely sees anything, and most likely will be blinded very soon and most of his left ear is gone. He can't hide it with hair, it's too big and he had his bangs cut short to stop irritation. His other wounds were easily covered by his baggy clothes and not even noticable, but it was hard to cover his face without people noticing.
He kept starring at the mirror until Blair started blabbering and giggling while trying to get to him with her tiny hands. He gets her on his arms, cuddles her a little, finally decides to put some bandages across his face to cover most of his wound and puts Blair on a kangaroo bag and goes to the market.
Michael had recently moved out to the capital to study. As someone who had recently been ranked, depending of the rank someone gets, they can get a hunter or a hero license. Michael was very excited with his new life, living in a place called students resting area, which were the lesser buildings inside the hero school. Usually, the hunters and heros don't enconter eachother, especially in non-disastrous ocasions, but, since Dustine is an ex-hunter, her house was closer to the hunter headquarters, so was the market William went. Michael got out to get the food for the weekend he planned to spend at his room watching crappy old movies.
Michael was looking for frozen and junk food when he passed by the vegetables and saw a familiar face. He went back to double check and it really was him, or at least, looked exactly like him.
- William Bloodstone? -
Michael asked. That scared William, someone knew him. He didn't even reconized the voice, he just decided to ignore in the hopes the person would give up and assume it's the wrong guy. Sadly for him, Michael went after him and grabbed his shoulder trying to make him look at him.
- Will! That's really you! -
Michael put a big smile on his face and tried to hug him, just to be stopped by the kangaroo bag and finally look down to notice there was a baby with William.
- Who's that? -
Micheal points at Blair. She got confused. William just grabb his groceries and go in line to pay, but Micheal follows him.
- I haven't seen you in ages! How have you been? Are you going to become a hunter too? Or a hero? That would be cool. Also, seriously, who's that kid? Is it yours or are you babysitting? Is that a boy or a girl? What happend to your face? Are you married already? That's kinda weird. Are you just gonna ignore me? Rude! -
Micheal continues to shower William with questions until they are both outside, without a single answer or look from William. It was raining.
- Micheal, listen. Just pretend that you have never seen me here. Just keep acting like I'm dead or something. -
William finally said something to Micheal, while trying to open his umbrella.
- Micheal? What happend to Mike? What happend to YOU? -
Micheal interferes and opens William's umbrella for him.
- I'm dead, Micheal. That's the only thing you should know. -
William leaves back to Dustine's house.
Micheal keep thinking about it for the rest of the day, regreting just letting William leave and wondering if he tells anyone else. William never had been very social, but he's missed deeply by his friends and family.
William on the other hand decided to make Blair nap and clean Dustine's house to forget what happend. Some hours later, while he was tickling Blair, Dustine came back home, earlier than expected.
- I ended my missions in record time! Also, I stopped a robbery in the way back home. -
She said, clearly bothered.
- And what's the problem with that? -
- As a C rank, I am considered too weak to be used as much as the B and A ranks are being used. The only ones that aren't overworked are the S ranks because that would be like throwing a bomb in a half dead goldfish! I think that if they noticed that I'm somehow getting stronger I might even become a B rank. -
Dustine said, angrily and disapointed.
- Why don't you try to become an S rank then? -
William asked. Dustine laughted hard and then answered.
- In what world do you think a C rank can turn into an S rank? The best I can do is B! -
She said and continued laughing.
- So... What do you want for dinner? -
He asked.
- I don't know... Wanna order some pizza? -
- Okay I guess. -
In his dark bedroom at night, Micheal was thinking about what had happend. Why he just doesn't seen to like him all of the suddent? Should he contact William's family? Who's that baby? Who's that kid's mother? What happend to William's face? Why did William faked his death?
Neither Micheal or William slept that night at all. Micheal's head was full of questions, William had that feeling that the worst was still yet to come.