Chapter 75: The First Time He Left Home
Chapter 75: The First Time He Left Home
The knock came again as soon as Jin said he was ready.
This one was harder.
Apparently, the world had accepted his answer before he had.
Elsa opened the door. An Association transit officer stood outside in a neat grey-and-blue uniform, tablet in one hand, wearing the patient look of someone with a schedule to keep. He was polite, professional, and entirely unmoved by the fact that this morning meant everything to the Astor family.
"Jin Astor?"
A nod was enough for him.
"Identity confirmation, please. Thumb on the pad."
Jin pressed his thumb against the tablet. A green light flashed with a soft chime.
"Enrollment confirmation—Meridian Beast High School, scholarship intake. Transport authorization confirmed." The officer scrolled down. "Contracted beast registration. That’s the—"
His gaze dropped to Glitch.
The small lizard had taken up a heroic position in the doorway.
The officer showed no reaction.
"—Grey Rock Lizard. Iron-quality. Registered. How many bags?"
"One," Jin said.
"One bag, one student, one beast. Good." The officer finally looked up. "The shuttle’s waiting on the pad below. We’re working with a narrow window. You have about six minutes before we need to depart to stay on the inter-shelter schedule. I’d suggest saying whatever you need to say while you’re heading down."
Six minutes.
The number fell into the apartment and changed everything.
Until then, Jin leaving had still belonged to later. Later that morning. Sometime soon. A thing waiting ahead of them.
Now it had a number.
Six minutes.
Everyone felt it.
"We’ll walk him down," Arthur said, already reaching for his cane.
The stairwell had never been built for four people and a lizard to move through with grace, so no one bothered trying.
Elsa went first. Jin followed with his bag. Elena stayed close behind him, while Arthur came last, lowering himself one careful step at a time at the speed his damaged leg allowed.
Whenever anyone tried to slow down for him, he refused.
Elena filled the stairwell with words because silence would have been worse.
"You packed enough shirts? I saw the bag. It looked too thin. If you get cold, don’t go buying things. Message us. We’ll handle it."
Halfway down a step, she reached around him and adjusted the collar of the shirt she had repaired. The mended seam sat exactly where she wanted it.
"And eat properly. Three meals. Actual meals, not whatever a boy decides counts when no one’s there to stop him. They have a cafeteria, so use it. And if you get injured in that combat program—"
Her voice tightened.
"—you tell someone. You don’t hide it. Do you hear me? Don’t do what your father does and pretend nothing’s wrong. The scholarship includes medical care. Let them check you."
"I’ll let them check me," Jin said.
"Promise you’ll call after registration. The first night. Not tomorrow. Not when you finally remember. That night."
"That night," Jin said. "I promise."
At the bottom of the stairs, Elena pushed a small cloth bundle into his hands.
It was warm, neatly folded, and tied shut with a strip of string.
Jin knew what it contained without opening it.
Travel food.
Ration bread, along with something that had likely been meant to stretch across three family dinners, now packed for one of his.
Meridian would feed him for free in a few hours.
His mother had made it anyway.
"Thanks, Mom."
The relief on her face told him he had answered correctly.
The shuttle waited on the lower transit pad.
It was cleaner and sleeker than anything else in the neighbourhood. There wasn’t a mark on its hull, and even the steady filtered hum of its systems sounded expensive.
Several children had gathered near the edge of the pad to stare.
Outer Ring children always stared at things that had come down from higher levels.
Arthur pulled Jin aside, out of the officer’s immediate path, and set a firm hand on his shoulder.
"When you get there, listen before you start talking," he said. "Watch people. Figure out who actually has authority and who just likes hearing themselves speak. Read every page before you sign it, especially if someone says there isn’t enough time."
"I know, Dad."
"Know it when following it becomes inconvenient." Arthur’s grip tightened slightly. "And when some rich kid insults Glitch—and someone will—don’t lose your place over words. You have nothing to be ashamed of. That doesn’t mean you need to fight every fool who opens his mouth."
Jin glanced at the little lizard standing near them.
"I’ll remember."
"Keep him safe. Let him keep you safe too. You’ve built something with that beast most Tamers never manage. When it matters, don’t get in his way."
Arthur held his gaze.
"And come home alive. Meridian is an opportunity. It does not give you permission to become an idiot. You don’t owe that school your life because it offered you a bed."
Jin swallowed.
"I’ll make this worth it."
Arthur’s face hardened at once.
"No. You’ll make something from it. That isn’t the same thing."
His hand stayed solid on Jin’s shoulder.
"We didn’t buy that egg so you’d spend the rest of your life paying us back. We bought it to put a door in front of you. Walk through because it belongs to you. Understand?"
Jin had to work to get the answer out.
"...Yeah. I understand."
Arthur watched him for another second before nodding.
His hand remained there a little longer than it needed to.
Elsa had managed the morning by staying angry.
That worked until it suddenly didn’t.
"Twice a day," she said. "You message me in the morning and at night. I told you already, and I’m saying it again because I know what you’re like. If you disappear, I’ll assume you died, and I’ll be completely justified to come knocking on your door."
She raised a hand and started counting points on her fingers.
"You wash your clothes. You don’t let them become a pile. I put a dirty-clothes bag in your luggage, so use it. And don’t trust every rich student who acts nice on day one."
"Noted."
"And you—"
She crouched and pointed directly at Glitch.
"—you’re responsible for stopping him when he tries to do something stupid. He will try. That’s what he does. Bite him if necessary."
Jin lifted an eyebrow.
"You know Glitch usually joins me in the stupid things, right? He’s not exactly the cautious one. Last week he climbed into a boss arena out of principle."
"Then I’m blaming both of you. I’m already extremely disappointed."
Elsa stood and aimed a glare at him.
"Message me when you arrive."
"You’ll know I arrived because I’ll message you."
"That sentence," Elsa said, "is exactly why you can’t be trusted."
Then she threw her arms around him.
The hug came without warning and hit hard. Her arms locked around his ribs, and she buried her face against his shoulder where nobody could see it.
He felt her breath catch once.
She forced it steady.
"If you tell anyone this happened," she said into his jacket, voice muffled and threatening, "I’ll kill you."
"Wouldn’t dream of it."
Jin hugged her back.
He left the joke there.
For a few seconds, he only held his little sister on a transit pad that smelled of recycled air and allowed the moment to be exactly as big as it was.
Glitch understood something was happening.
Not in the human sense. He didn’t know Jin was leaving the shelter to attend school somewhere else. But he understood that Jin would go while the rest of the family stayed behind.
The tension of the household travelled through their bond, and for once, it made Glitch solemn.
Elena crouched and stroked his head one final time. Then she pulled a scrap from the food bundle and offered it to him.
Glitch accepted it gently instead of snapping it from her fingers.
Arthur regarded him the way one Tamer looked at another Tamer’s partner, not at an animal.
"You," he said to the little obsidian lizard. "Bring him back. Every time. Do you hear me?"
Glitch met Arthur’s eyes.
He straightened with immense seriousness, receiving the duty like a knight being given a sacred oath.
Then, now responsible for Jin’s entire continued existence, he turned around and attempted to climb into the travel bag.
Apparently, the safest place from which to guard Jin was inside the luggage.
"He isn’t packed," Elsa said automatically as she wiped at her eyes. "Climbing into the bag does not mean he’s packed. Some things really don’t change."
"Thirty seconds," the officer called.
He didn’t sound unkind.
Jin pulled Glitch out of the bag and placed him on his shoulder, where he belonged.
Then he looked at his family again.
Elena’s tired, careful hands.
Arthur holding himself as straight as his injured body would permit.
Elsa standing with her arms crossed, chin lifted, and wetness still shining in her eyes.
"I’ll be fine," Jin told them.
None of them fully believed him.
Neither did he.
"The first break they give me, I’m coming home," he said. "I mean it."
Then Jin stepped onto the shuttle.
The door sealed behind him.
Through the filtered-glass window, he watched his family shrink as the shuttle rose and the transit pad fell away beneath them.