The Magician of Sound

Kai was rendered speechless when he heard her call him son. There was nothing established yet between him and Ayaka. He shook his head and sighed. "Madam, we still have magical beasts coming our way, you know. We might kill a few of them, but there are still at least a few hundred magical beasts there, so please don't joke around like that."

"You're not fun. Even though I'm being completely serious," Kudo Chiyo complained before looking at the magical beasts again. "Indeed. But let Becca and I take care of the rest. You should go back to the helicopter as we might need your power in the worst case."

Kai nodded. "I will come again if the situation worsens."

"Sure." She nodded and made a magic circle. "Icicle."

She shot out several icicles again to reduce their number. On the other hand, Becca started killing the magical beasts that managed to escape from their ice trap.

Kai had come back to the helicopter and immediately helped Kudo Yoshihiro. Meanwhile, Ayaka was still in shock. She never expected that he could easily have a good combination attack with her mother and Becca without difficulty.

Kai didn't know about their abilities prior to that moment, so she thought maybe she wasn't special. She managed to catch a little bit with Kai and executed every plan together with him in school, and she was proud of it. That was why when she saw this, Ayaka became downcast. However, there was another feeling that crept inside her heart.

She wanted to become stronger. She had been saved by Kai every time, and even in this situation, her parents asked her to protect the helicopters. She knew that it was so she didn't need to fight the magical beasts. It was to protect her.

Even though she wanted to help her parents and grandparents, even though she wanted to become Kai's strength and help him back, she had never been of help to them. They did everything by themselves and never needed her help.

She knew that they were doing this to help her, but that was why it irritated her even more. She was sick of always needing to be protected. She was sick of being nothing but trouble to them. She bit her lips and clenched her fists until it bled.

That was why when nobody noticed her, she suddenly left her position, searching for something.

Kai suddenly stopped helping Kudo Yoshihiro and looked at her departure. She went toward one of the hotels. Kai checked the magical beasts in that hotel, but it seemed that nothing needed to be worried about in that hotel, so he then started helping him again.

"Kai… I can call you this, right?" Yoshihiro asked.

"Yes." Kai nodded.

"What do you think about Ayaka?"

"Friend? Maybe comrade?"

"What about the romantic aspect?"

"I don't know." He shook his head. "She's smart and powerful. She has big potential and might become more powerful than me in the future. Even after teaching her back at school from my experience, she absorbs lessons like a sponge. She's reliable, and truthfully, I like her as a friend. But if you ask me how I see her romantically... I don't know.

"I don't want my choice to trouble my partner or me in the future. Ayaka and I have only known each other for about a month. That's why I can't truly say anything about it."

Yoshihiro was slightly amused when he heard that. "You're a bit different from other people. If it were other people, they might even say they like her whether it's because of her appearance, money, power, or background," Yoshihiro said while glancing at Kai. "However, what you see is if she doesn't have anything to give but love. Will you accept her or not? I see, even I didn't think of it that thoroughly. Still, you know that my daughter is harboring feelings toward you, right?"

Kai didn't say anything. He might be a bit dense, but he was not a fool. That was why back when Tasha asked about Ayaka and love, he decided to change the topic with something on the internet. If he was that dense, there was no way he would accept Michelle or his step-sister.

"No. You don't need to answer it," Yoshihiro took back his question. "All in all, please treat her the way you usually do. Don't avoid her or push her away because I asked this."

"I'm not that kind of person." Kai shook his head. "By the way, I have bad news for us."

"What is it?"

"We're at the border of Russia now, and after calculating the fuel, we'll need to change the fuel at the area where the S-rank magical beast resides. What are we going to do with this?" Kai asked.

"I know. I've checked the map too. I plan to land around fifty kilometers away from that place and change the fuel there before continuing the journey. We'll try to fly over the Pacific Ocean."

"But… it will be our last fuel, right?" Kai asked. He looked at a big core on the helicopter's body. They wanted to grab more, but Kai could only grab three since the chopper wouldn't be able to load more.

"The only thing we can do is to run. With our speed, we should be able to reach Uelen in a few hours if we don't have to take care of the magical beasts. I'm not worried about this. What I'm worried about is when we arrive in Alaska." Yoshihiro sighed.

"When we teleport and don't have any vehicle to ride on?" Kai furrowed his eyebrows.

"Yeah. You can only use your teleportation in one direction, and you won't know where we'll arrive, right?"

Kai nodded before realizing the problem. "This is a big problem."

"This is why I decided to accompany you on this journey," Yoshihiro said. When he heard that Kai wanted to teleport there despite not having enough power to teleport directly, he knew that they would most likely arrive in Alaska.

If he teleported to Alaska, they would be surrounded by magical beasts unless they were lucky to appear in a hidden spot or something. The US base also had yet to reach the depths of Alaska as they were occupied in conquering Canada. If that were to happen, they would need to run under the pursuit of magical beasts until Kai could teleport them again.

That was why he decided to retreat despite being ready to fight it out with the Katsuragi family and Ikeda family.

"If only I could contact her…" Kai looked down, sighing on his fate. At first, he just wanted to stay in Russia until he could contact Michelle. However, it seemed that he didn't think it through. They needed to find a safe place first in Uelen before they could wait for the reinforcement. They might need to fight against the magical beasts nearby for a few days since it would still take a long time before Michelle finished her business. He was wondering whether he could survive for that many days with only his family. That was why he thought 'screw it,' and recklessly teleported to the US base even if he would be badly hurt after using teleportation magic consecutively.

However, it would be different if Ayaka and Becca joined together with Kudo Yoshihiro and Kudo Chiyo. Their fighting power increased drastically, and the possibility of surviving the magical beasts was higher than ever. Although the distance of his teleportation shrank, their group strength had increased.

"You must be planning to teleport from United Asia to Korea, then to Russia before teleporting to Alaska and finally the US base. Still, it seems that we've become your additional burden," Kudo Yoshihiro said.

Kai shook his head. "I would be too tired to teleport again after I use my full power to teleport. And we might even appear in the middle of a magical beast horde. If that happens, my sister alone wouldn't be able to win, and our group would be destroyed in an instant.

"How about we stay in Uelen until we get reinforcements?" Kai suggested.

"You're underestimating the front lines too much. There are still a few thousand magical beasts in Uelen even though it's a small place," he said.

"I see. We can only rush, huh…" Kai sighed.

"Yep. That's what we're going to do." He nodded.

"Wait… how about I teleport all of you before we meet the S-rank magical beast? The fuel should be enough for us to reach Uelen before replacing it to the last magic core?" Kai asked.

"Are you sure? By the time you're about to teleport all of us together, the distance would have already shrunk too much. If you teleport us together with this helicopter…" Yoshihiro looked at him with a troubled expression.

"It's fine. I can still teleport all of us 100 km. However, it will take all of my power. That's why you're going to fend off all the magical beasts without me," Kai said.

Yoshihiro frowned, weighing something in his mind. Kai's plan was indeed their safest route. "I'm sorry to burden you like this."

"It's fine. Please take care of my parents and sister when I'm unconscious." Kai shrugged.

"I'll protect them like how I would protect my daughter," he said with a serious expression.

Feeling relieved, he nodded.

"All right. That's the plan. The fuel should start pumping in two minutes," Yoshihiro said while closing the fuel tank.

Kai nodded before his eyes widened. "This is going to be bad…"

"What happened?"

"It seems that our fight here attracted more magical beasts nearby. There are at least two thousand… They'll arrive here in about a minute," he said.

Kudo Yoshihiro frowned.