Chapter 258: Home
Late afternoon settled over Mythal as Kai finished up after clearing Terra Vine. Instead of heading toward headquarters, he turned down a familiar street toward home.
Nothing dramatic. Just another ordinary walk.
A hunter waved casually as he passed. A shopkeeper called out a greeting. Children kept playing in the street without so much as glancing up at him. One shop owner leaned out over his counter, smiling.
"Back already?"
Kai nodded. "Finished earlier than expected."
The owner laughed. "Good. Means the city stays quiet another day."
Kai smiled. "That’s the plan."
He kept walking, noticing small things without meaning to. More hunter shops open than there used to be. Better equipment on display in the windows. Beginner hunters walking with a confidence that hadn’t been there a few months ago. Less tension in the air overall, the kind he’d stopped consciously registering until it wasn’t there anymore.
Kai smiled to himself. "Everyone’s working hard."
He opened the front door. "I’m home."
Mina’s voice carried immediately from the kitchen. "Wash your hands first."
Kai laughed. "Hello to you too."
"I already said hello."
"No, you didn’t."
"You heard it in my tone."
He walked into the kitchen, where Mina was already halfway through preparing dinner, not even turning around as he entered.
"Dungeon?"
"Yep."
"Hard?"
"A little."
"Win?"
"Obviously."
She finally glanced over her shoulder. "Good."
Kai smiled. "That’s it?"
"What?"
"I expected more."
"You came back."
"So?"
"So obviously you won."
Kai laughed. "Fair enough."
Then Mina’s eyes caught the small tear along his sleeve. "You ripped another shirt."
Kai looked down. "I did."
"You’re buying the next one."
He sighed dramatically. "I was hoping you didn’t notice."
"I always notice."
Leo came thundering down the stairs a few minutes later, notebook tucked under one arm. "Kai."
Kai smiled. "Homework?"
"I already finished."
Kai raised an eyebrow. "Already?"
"I wanted to ask you something."
"What?"
"How many dungeons did you clear today?"
Kai thought about it. "One."
Leo nodded seriously, like this confirmed something. "Makes sense."
Kai laughed. "What makes sense?"
"The teachers said Abyssal Watchers almost never waste time."
Mina immediately teased him from the counter. "Or maybe someone just thinks his brother is cool."
Leo went bright red. "W-What? N-No!"
Kai grinned. "Really?"
"It’s not because you’re my brother." Leo paused, gathering himself. "It’s because they’re actually amazing."
"Go on," Kai said, settling into a chair.
Leo lit up. "They’ve been solving hunter disputes. They helped stop people from cheating new hunters. They’ve been escorting the injured ones back home. They’re helping new guilds get started. They even helped rebuild damaged streets last week." He took a breath. "The whole city talks about them."
Kai listened without interrupting, quietly proud of every word without needing to say so out loud.
"The Hunter Market changed too," Leo added.
Kai looked over. "You know about that?"
Leo nodded. "The older students at the college near our school talk about it constantly." He counted it off on his fingers. "They said equipment’s cheaper now. Monster materials are easier to buy. Even healing potions cost less than they used to. Beginner hunters aren’t scared to actually buy gear anymore."
Mina chimed in from the stove. "I heard that too. The bakery owner mentioned more hunters actually have money left over after buying their supplies now."
Kai nodded quietly. "Good."
Leo looked at him, confused. "You don’t seem surprised."
Kai smiled. "Because we wanted that to happen."
Leo blinked. "Wait. You guys actually planned all that?"
Kai shrugged. "Lily. Mira. Mayor Ko. They deserve most of the credit, honestly."
Leo slowly grinned. "That’s actually really cool."
Conversation drifted naturally after that, Leo describing how kids at school had started pretending to be different hunters during recess. One of them had apparently taken to playing Raze, and Leo demonstrated without warning, chest puffed out, voice pitched low.
"BIGGER EXPLOSION!"
Kai burst out laughing. "That’s exactly him."
Mina joined in from the counter. "What about Lily?"
Leo immediately straightened his back, pretending to adjust a pair of glasses that didn’t exist. "Actually, according to my calculations"
Kai nearly choked laughing. "Don’t ever do that around Lily."
"Too late."
Kai froze. "What?"
Leo grinned proudly. "I already did it in front of her once."
"She laughed."
Kai sighed, resigned. "Of course she did."
The rest of dinner went the same easy way, food and homework complaints and a story from Leo about a classmate who’d apparently tried to convince their teacher that dungeon clearing counted as gym credit.
Dinner wound down, and Leo stood up. "I’m taking a shower."
Before heading upstairs, he paused at the doorway and looked back at Kai.
"Thanks."
Kai blinked. "For what?"
Leo smiled. "For making the city safer."
Silence held for a second, and then Leo bolted up the stairs before Kai could respond.
Mina watched him go, a soft look crossing her face. "He’s been saying things like that more often lately."
Kai smiled quietly. "He’s growing up."
The kitchen settled into a quieter rhythm as they cleared the table together, Kai washing while Mina dried and put things away. Conversation kept flowing easily between them until it slowed on its own, and Kai found himself just watching the water run over the last plate in his hands.
"Something happened recently," he said quietly.
Mina noticed the shift in his tone immediately. She set the towel down on the counter.
Kai started explaining, and once he began, it all came out in order. The Candidate. The previous civilizations he’d watched rise and fall inside the Archive. The Three Disasters. The simulations they’d been running for weeks. Entire civilizations he’d watched disappear, one after another, no matter how far they’d advanced. The Forgotten Capital, buried beneath the city they both lived in without ever knowing it was there. The plans. The relics. Gabriel, and the Astral Church. The First Filter, and the fact that something worse might still wait beyond it. The evacuation contingencies. The fact that they could now actually practice against something approximating Tiamat before ever facing the real thing.
He didn’t rush any of it. After each piece, he let her sit with it before continuing.
"Entire civilizations?" she asked at one point, voice quiet.
"You watched them disappear?"
Later: "There are more disasters after these three?"
"You’re planning to evacuate everyone, if it comes to that?"
"You can actually practice against Tiamat now?"
She asked, and Kai answered honestly every time. Sometimes it was "I don’t know." Sometimes, "We’re still figuring it out." Sometimes, quieter than the rest, "We finally found some hope."
A long silence followed once he’d finished.
Mina reached across the counter and took both of his hands, gripping them firmly, not letting go.
She looked directly at him. "No matter what."
"You survive."
Kai nodded quietly.
"If you don’t—" she sniffed once, blinking hard, "—I’ll find a way to revive you."
Kai smiled despite himself.
"Then I’ll beat you up," she added immediately.
Kai laughed. "As expected of our Mina."
"I’m serious."
"I know."
"You better be."
"I will."
She narrowed her eyes at him. "Promise?"
He squeezed her hands back. "Promise."
Only then did Mina finally smile again, the tension in her shoulders easing.
Later that evening, Kai helped wash the last plate while Mina put everything away in its proper place. Leo came back downstairs with wet hair, already scanning the kitchen.
"Dessert?"
Mina rolled her eyes. "You were waiting for that this whole time, weren’t you?"
"Maybe."
Kai laughed, and the three of them sat together at the table sharing dessert, no mention of Disaster, no plans spread out between them, no relics waiting to be catalogued.
Just quiet, ordinary conversation.
Kai looked around the familiar kitchen, listened to Leo complain that Mina’s slice was bigger than his while Mina insisted they were exactly the same size, and found himself laughing at both of them without meaning to.
This was why he kept doing any of it.
Outside these walls, Mythal kept growing, kept changing, kept preparing for something none of them could fully picture yet.
Inside, home stayed exactly the same.
Kai smiled quietly to himself.
"Let’s keep it that way."