A Father's Duty

Meanwhile after the chipmunks pulled Brandish they went to the backyard.

"Oh, what're you doing here? And who's the little girl?" Asked Regis who is sitting on his makeshift bed.

"Father said that her name is Brandish." Erza said in her older sister persona.

"Hi. I'm Bwandish." Brandish said as Regis chuckled.

"I see, so Brandish, how did you come here?" He asked.

"Uhm... Gwandfathew bwought me hewe." She answered.

"I see, then are you here to play? Have you introduced yourselves to Brandish?" Father asked the former to Brandish and the latter to the chipmunks.

"Not yet. We're about to." Erza said as she pulled Brandish with her to their little playground.

When Brandish saw the playground she was happy. Usually only August plays with her, now she could play with other childrens.

"I'm Erza and she's Pitou and lastly she's Kagura." Erza said to Brandish.

"Ewza, Pitou, Kaguwa?" She asked in confirmation.

"Its Erza, Pitou, and Kagura." Erza repeated.

"Ewza, Pitou, Kaguwa." Brandish repeated after her.

"Erza, Pitou, Kagura." Erza repeated once more.

"Ewza, Pitou, Kaguwa." Brandish repeated as she got confused.

"Fine. Call us whatever you want." Erza gave up in correcting Brandish.

"Okay!" Brandish said cheerfully.

"Do you want to play hide and seek with us?" Kagura asked.

"What's hide and seek?" Brandish asked.

Kagura then explained the rules to Brandish and she nodded her head in understanding. Whether she really got it or not, only God knows.

"Then do you want to be the hider or the seeker?" Asked Pitou.

"Uhm. I want to be a hidew." Brandish said after thought about it.

"Then Kagura, you're the seeker?" Asked Erza.

"Fineeeeeee." Kagura slumped down as she gave up and turned around before she started counting.

"Let's go and hide!" Brandish said enthusiastically as Erza and Pitou immediately ran inside to hide leaving Brandish to find a hiding spot. Since she didn't know where to hide, she went to the perfect hiding spot she knows.

"Ready or noooot. Here I cooome." Kagura shouted.

After counting, Kagura turned around and went inside and started finding the hiders.

When she went inside she saw the customers and scanned every hiding place she knew in the house. She looked at one customer in particular as she can see small legs inside customer's cape.

"Found you!" Kagura jumped and found someone hiding behind August's cape.

Kagura then became confused because the person didn't come out of her hiding place so she lifted the cape and saw Brandish hiding with her palms covering her face.

"Brandish. Found you." She repeated and Brandish removed her hand covering her face.

"Aww, Gwandpa, Kaguwa found me." She said and looked at August who was chuckling.

"I told you its not good to hide in there." August said and Brandish pouted as she joined Kagura on finding Erza and Pitou.

Meanwhile I on the other hand, found it interesting because someone else is also hiding in the first floor. Its just that she's cheating.

Soon Kagura and Brandish found Erza hiding under her grandparent's luggage. And now the three of them started to do the most impossible thing they had done in their time of playing hide and seek. Finding Pitou. They just can't find her.

Soon the kids gave up and asked me.

"Father, have you seen Pitou?" Kagura asked.

"Yes." I said.

"Do you know where is she?" Erza asked.

"Yes, I do." I replied.

"Uncle, tell us, tell us!" Brandish said.

"Oh, she's been here for a long time already. You just have to look with your eyes." I said as I looked at Pitou's hiding spot and the kids started finding every nook and cranny of the first floor but they still can't find her.

"Father, you're lying to us." Kagura said as Erza and Brandish behind her nodded.

"Uncle, you can't do that. Gwandfathew said that lying is bad." Brandish said.

"I'm not lying to you. Okay, Pitou that's enough, reveal yourself." I said and made her presence known to others. She is sitting on Brandish's seat when she came and eating the pretzel that mother offered to Brandish.

August who is sitting beside her is really astonished to see Pitou's skill in losing her presence. He is already there when Pitou sat down there and watched as he saw Pitou diminish her presence completely. If not for his skill and experience, he might not have noticed Pitou taking her granddaughter's seat. If specially trained, he could be an unrivalled assassin but he also knew that the owner wouldn't let Pitou become one.

Brandish seeing her seat and pretzel stolen exclaimed.

"Ahh! My pwetzel!" She shouted as mother chuckled and took out one more pretzel and placed it on a plate before putting it on the counter.

Erza and Kagura on the other hand, just can't seem to understand how they can't find Pitou when she's just there sitting and eating a pretzel.

Brandish grabbed the pretzel and started eating it as her eyes brightened.

"Sho shooooft." Brandish said as she chewed on the pretzel.

I on the other hand have other thoughts.

'If she covered herself with a protective barrier of nen, I'm afraid not even August beside her could find her, only those who could use nen could find her. She doesn't want to because she would be bullying her sisters if she did that.' I thought before chuckling in my mind.

The kids then started playing with each other. When August finished eating, he was about to call Brandish but I stopped him.

"Its fine, you can leave Brandish to play here so you could concentrate on your job, you can return here at dinner and pick her up then. It must've been hard on you." I said and consoled him. Imagine, August has been working for his father all this time, for his sake and he does not even received any acknowledgement for it as his son, and I'm pretty sure he would bury that fact in his grave. I don't want to meddle on other family's problems.

"Fine. I'll come back later for dinner. Your dish is good as always, owner. Thanks for your help as well...?" August trailed his words since he didn't know my mother's name.

"Just call me Hera." Mother said.

"Then thank you, Hera. You must be proud for having a son like him." He said.

"Of course. I raised that little devil myself." She said.

"Then I'll take my leave." He said as he went out of the tavern. I stared at his lonely back before he got out and sighed.

'It would take more than courage if he wants to tell his parents about himself.' I thought before going back to work.

August got out of the door then stared at the open sky as he muttered something in a low voice.

'Family, huh? How nice. I wonder... how it feels to have something like that?' He said before shaking his head and started to be on his way back to Alvares to complete his job.

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AoT's Final Season trailer has come out and many people were hyped for it... BUT.... a big BUT.... for those who have read the manga, some would feel anger towards Eren for what he did to Mikasa, though I somehow understand Eren's thoughts. He wants Mikasa to love him as Mikasa not because her source code tells her so. I'm not going to spoil much about it. All I want to say is I somehow understand Eren's thoughts.

I have also read that group chat about Furuichi and other disasters and first chapter, well...first chapter, moral boundaries are already broken. There are lots more to say but let's just support every author since they write for their own sake and enjoyment as well. No hate, just my own review after reading it, you could also say that its just not my cup of tea.

Also grinding on TI10 BP is f*cking hard this year its frustrating. Its like Gaben made it that way so that users would buy level bundles instead of grinding and he will earn more money that way.