“Mom, Dad… you’ll come back safe again this time, right?” I asked my parents with a worried voice, my hands fidgeting as they prepared for yet another Raid, their third this month.

  Both of my parents were quite famous Reapers in the Tokyo prefecture. My mother, Angelica Ozaki, was an A-rank healer, while my father, Tetsuo Ozaki, was a B-rank swordsman known for owning several Kendo dojos across the city.

  Mom and Dad were both part of a Guild called Omega. Together, they faced two raids a month, always telling me that taking on more would be risky and unnecessarily expose them to danger. They were well-paid for each completed raid, and with the added income from my father’s dojos, they didn’t need to take on any additional ones.

  But this time was different. On the island of Okinawa, an overlooked dungeon had transformed into a “Breach,” and at the stroke of midnight, all the monsters inside would flood the island, spreading chaos. Nothing was known about this Dungeon; the portal’s sudden transformation into a breach had left the Japanese Association with no opportunity to study it. However, judging by the size and color of the breach, scientists concluded it was almost certainly a C-rank breach, which led to some optimism among the Reapers called to handle the situation.

  That day, I was quite sure my parents would have preferred to refuse the call, but as it was a direct order from the Japanese Reaper Association, they couldn’t turn it down—otherwise, they would face hefty fines and risk suspension from Reaper work.

  My father looked at me with a reassuring gaze as my mother put Ariel, my twin sister to bed. She hadn’t been able to stop crying moments earlier, wanting to stay with our mother that night.

  “Listen, kid!” my father said, ruffling my hair with a bit too much force. “In the end, the monsters we’ll face today are the same as those we deal with in the raids! No need to worry!” he said, flashing a big, reassuring smile.

  But even with his comforting words, I couldn’t shake my unease. Maybe it was because I’d heard about the violent breaches from 45 years before, or maybe I was just worried about my parents.

  “Dad… don’t go… please!” I said, clutching his black pants and doing my best to convince him to stay, even starting to cry.

  This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

  My father was surprised by my reaction, not knowing what to say or do. It wasn’t just because I was crying; usually, I’d be begging to go with them on their missions. My behavior was so different that it left him speechless, looking a bit flustered. My mother quickly stepped in, hugging me from behind and kissing my cheek.

  “Hey, Ryu, don’t worry. We’ll be back before you even wake up. And afterward, we’ll take you to the amusement park, okay?”

  Even though I was still hesitant, I was just a child, and it was easy to distract me with something else.

  “... Okay… but then I want to go to McDonald’s too!”

  “Hahaha, alright, alright! Now go to bed, my sweet boy!” my mother said, giving me another little kiss, this time on my forehead.

  Calmed by her words, I headed upstairs to our rooms, but just before climbing the stairs, I looked back at my parents one more time. They watched me go up with warm, affectionate expressions. I looked at them intensely, then smiled and waved before finally heading to my room.

  As I climbed the stairs, I thought about all the fun things we’d do at the amusement park tomorrow and all the junk food I’d eat with my parents and Ariel. Little did I know it would be the last time I’d ever see them.

  The breach, which scientists estimated would release C-rank monsters, inexplicably mutated, unleashing a colossal S-rank monster onto Okinawa—a beast resembling a dragon, powerful enough to devastate the entire island with a single roar. Several A-rank and a handful of S-rank Reapers from neighboring nations had to intervene to bring down such a creature. The Raid was a total failure on every front, with over 200 Reapers brutally killed by the monster’s fiery wrath, including my poor parents, whose bodies, like many others, were reduced to ash in those demonic flames.

  I still remember that day as if it were yesterday… every moment of that terrible day is burned into my mind. I remember how my sister and I waited for hours by the front door, hoping to see our parents return. And then, late at night, two men from the Japanese Association came to our home to deliver the tragic news. I’ll never forget my sister’s tears, nor the coldness of those two bastards who, after giving us the news, left as if it were nothing, abandoning two kids to a harsh and unforgiving reality.

  Nor will I forget the hypocrisy of my father’s “relatives,” who exploited our youth, our grief, and our naivety to steal everything my parents had built with years of sacrifice and hard work as Reapers, leaving us to fend for ourselves. If it hadn’t been for Masari Jin, a dear friend of Mom and Dad, we would have starved to death on the streets.

  And it was in those harsh, difficult moments that a seed of vengeance slowly began to grow inside me—a thirst for revenge against those damned monsters that had shattered our lives and the lives of so many others, and, most of all, revenge against my father’s miserable family. They hadn’t hesitated to rob us and abandon us like trash. In that moment, I decided I would become a Reaper, one of the strongest Reapers in history, wiping out every monster from every Gate and reclaiming what rightfully belonged to us. This was my new dream.