The heavy steel doors of the medical ward slid shut behind them. For a few tense seconds, Joshua and Saria walked in complete silence down the empty corridor. Only when they were finally enclosed in the private elevator did they let the facade drop.
"Phew... that was close. Way, way too close," Joshua exhaled, wiping a bead of imaginary sweat from his brow.
He immediately began inspecting his attire from head to toe. He checked his long trench coat, his heavy grey trousers, the thick black leather gloves, and even tugged at the collar of his skin-tight, insulating under-suit. He was looking for any tears or frayed fabric where his body heat—and his anomalous field—might be leaking out.
Finding nothing, he sighed in relief, but Saria was not nearly as relaxed. She circled him, her sharp eyes scanning every inch of his clothing that he might have missed.
"It's getting worse," Saria said, her voice unusually tight.
Joshua looked up. Saria, the unflappable Director of Defense, was trembling. Her hands were clenched so tightly into fists that her knuckles were entirely white. The dark, terrifying image of what would happen if Columbia's military or Blacksteel discovered Joshua's true nature was eating her alive. He wouldn't just be a celebrity anymore; he would be a lab rat, dissected to replicate his miraculous anomaly.
Seeing the sheer terror behind her stoic mask, Joshua stepped forward. "Hey... there's no need to make such a grim face, Buttercup."
He gently took her shaking fists, wrapping his warm, gloved hands around hers. The steady warmth of his touch slowly bled into her skin, grounding her.
Looking up into his ruby-and-sapphire eyes—the exact same eyes that always offered her a safe haven—Saria felt the suffocating weight in her chest slowly begin to fade. She uncurled her fists, lacing her fingers with his.
"If these containment clothes stop working, then I'll just put on more layers until I become a walking mummy," Joshua joked, trying to lighten the mood. He extended his arms stiffly in front of him and let out a dramatic, moaning groan, mimicking a movie monster.
Saria couldn't help but roll her eyes. "Not only would you look ridiculous, but you would bake yourself alive in that amount of clothing." Despite her chiding tone, the corners of her lips twitched upward. He always knew exactly how to alleviate her anxiety.
"I know, I know. But hey, the changes in me aren't entirely without merit, right?"
Just then, a synchronized alarm chimed from Saria's phone and Joshua's custom-built wristwatch. Both screens flashed with the exact same label: Latina / Mom's Special Treatment. They shared a knowing nod. Playtime was over.
[The Obsidian Household]
Joshua unlocked the front door, stepping into his childhood home with Saria close behind.
"Welcome back, you two!" a cheerful voice called out. A pristine water-clone of Muelsyses waved at them from the living room sofa, offering a playful smile. Her relaxed demeanor signaled that the perimeter was secure and everything was fine.
"Thanks for watching her, Mumu. I hope my mother didn't cause you too much trouble," Joshua said apologetically.
"Are you intending to talk behind your mother's back the moment you walk in, son?"
A woman stepped out from the hallway. She looked incredibly young to be his mother, sharing Joshua's striking sapphire eyes and wearing her hair in a long, tied ponytail. Latina Obsidian planted her hands on her hips, pouting in mock dissatisfaction.
"Given the fact that you nearly scared Saria half to death when I first introduced you two, I'd say it's a valid concern," Joshua fired back. Latina simply waved off the complaint with a laugh.
The group moved to the living room to begin Latina's usual routine inspection.
"How have you been feeling lately?" Joshua asked, his tone shifting into something more clinical.
"Great! Never better," Latina answered confidently.
"Okay. Any discomfort, lethargy, or unusual aches?" he pressed, while Saria gently began checking Latina's pulse and breathing.
"Nope. I feel light as a feather."
"Have you been following the agreed-upon routine we set this past week?"
Latina hesitated for a fraction of a second. "…Uhh, yes. Absolutely."
Joshua immediately turned his gaze to the water-elf sitting on the couch. "Mumu?"
Under Latina's pleading, desperate gaze, Muelsyses cracked a nervous smile. "Yes, she did! But... sometimes she was just a little too tired, so I cut her some slack. Just a bit!"
Joshua sighed, not pressing the issue of the routine. Latina visibly relaxed. But Joshua had one final, crucial question.
"Have any rocks grown on you again?"
The room went dead silent. Latina froze, suddenly finding the living room carpet incredibly interesting. She couldn't meet his gaze, nor Saria's.
"When and where, Mom?" Joshua demanded gently. Only silence followed.
With no other choice, Joshua played his trump card. "Alfred. Tell me Latina's medical status."
In the corner of the room, a metallic cube roughly the size of a yoga ball suddenly lit up. A pair of mechanical arms and a binocular-like head popped out of the chassis. Deploying two crawler tracks, the little housekeeper robot rolled toward the group.
[Greeting, Master Joshua. Regarding your query: Mrs. Latina experienced new Originium crystallization on her left shoulder approximately 6 days, 8 hours, 36 minutes, and 15 seconds ago.] "Alfred! How could you!?" Latina gasped, clutching her chest in betrayal. "I thought you were my loyal housekeeper!"
"He is, Mom. But I also specifically programmed him to monitor your vitals," Joshua said.
Without needing to be told, Saria gently rolled up Latina's left sleeve. There, embedded in the flesh of her shoulder, was a small, dark cluster of shiny black ore.
Latina was Infected.
Looking at the dark crystal, Joshua's mind was violently pulled back to a night three months ago.
He and Saria had returned home late from the lab, only to find Latina collapsed on the living room floor, her breathing shallow and ragged, her skin burning with fever. Saria had immediately leaped into action, tearing open her medical kit and stabilizing her. When Saria found the massive Originium lesion hidden under Latina's clothes, the horrifying truth had come crashing down on them.
That night had been a blur of terror and arguments. They had called Kristen and Muelsyses in a panic. Saria had wanted to hospitalize Latina immediately, but the older woman, slipping in and out of consciousness, had stubbornly refused to become a registered Infected.
With all conventional hopes dashed, Joshua had looked at his own hands. He knew his body naturally repelled Originium Arts. He proposed doing the unthinkable: using his quirk directly on her infection.
Saria and Muelsyses had vehemently opposed it, calling it reckless and suicidal. But Kristen, ever the pragmatic visionary, had pointed out the grim reality: without a cure, Latina would die anyway.
Taking a leap of faith, Joshua had removed his gloves and placed his bare hands over his mother's lesion. The moment skin made contact with the crystal, something inside him had... shifted. It felt as though his innate quirk was evolving, expanding outward.
Then, the miracle happened. The Originium—the terrifying, incurable scourge of Terra—began to flake away. Little by little, the crystals withered and fell from her skin like dead leaves, stabilizing her condition entirely.
They later learned Latina had contracted Oripathy almost a year prior from mishandling a client's Originium device, hiding the terminal illness to protect Joshua's rising career. The ensuing lecture from Saria and Joshua had lasted for hours, resulting in Latina closing her workshop to lay low while they managed her condition in absolute secret.
A soft ping brought Joshua back to the present.
[Notification! Master, Miss Kristen is requesting a secure video connection,] Alfred chimed.
Joshua accepted the prompt, and Alfred projected a bluish, encrypted hologram of Kristen from his chest screen.
"For a second there, I thought you couldn't make it, Kristen," Joshua said.
The holographic Perro sighed heavily, rubbing her temples. "I would have come in person, but some of our so-called 'investors' held me up in a board meeting. I couldn't get away." Her face remained neutral, but her voice dripped with disdain for the corporate suits. "Let's get down to business."
Latina's treatment commenced. Saria began by preparing a localized anesthetic for the shoulder—a process that involved Latina dramatically whining about her fear of needles until Mumu held her hand.
Once the area was numb, Joshua removed his heavy gloves. Taking a deep breath, he placed his bare hand over the dark crystals. The air in the room shimmered slightly as his innate field flared. Within minutes, the Originium cluster began to crack, wither, and turn to harmless dust, leaving behind nothing but a fresh, easily treatable wound.
Saria quickly sterilized the area, skillfully suturing and bandaging the wound, and carefully collecting the Originium dust into a sealed vial for analysis. Through the entire process, Kristen's holographic avatar recorded and monitored the telemetry data.
Once Saria confirmed Latina's vitals were perfectly stable, the founders gathered around the living room table to review the data.
Kristen pulled up the encrypted analytics. "Status report on Joshua's Originium Nullification Field—or ONF—treatment. The rate of clearing the Oripathy outer membrane has increased by thirty-six percent compared to last month. We are also seeing a nineteen-point-eight percent increase in the suppressing effect on the Originium particulates in Latina's bloodstream. The subject's overall Originium blood-crystal density is projected to regress to that of a standard, healthy, non-infected person within two quarters."
Kristen paused, swiping to a second document. "Now, regarding Joshua's ONF anomaly itself. The quirk is exhibiting exponential growth, far exceeding our initial models. The radius of his passive nullification effect without insulator clothing has expanded from two meters to five meters. With insulators, the leakage radius has grown from half a meter to one point one meters. Furthermore, absolutely no Originium-based devices or Arts can be successfully cast within this radius. Complete environmental suppression."
She looked up through the hologram, her eyes dead serious. "Any questions regarding the data?"
Silence fell over the room. Confirming that everyone understood the sheer gravity of what they had just measured, Kristen pressed a button on her terminal.
Files Purged. She permanently deleted the entire report, wiping it from existence. A cure for Oripathy was the most dangerous secret in the world, and it would stay strictly between the five of them.
With the heavy, medical portion of the evening concluded, the atmosphere shifted to warmth and comfort. Joshua headed to the kitchen to begin preparing a massive dinner for the group.
About an hour later, the sound of the front door opening signaled the arrival of the rest of their family.
"We're here! And I brought dessert!" the physical Muelsyses announced brightly, stepping into the entryway. As she walked in, the water clone that had been keeping Latina company all afternoon cheerfully waved before dissolving into a harmless puddle of clean water on the floor, its memories seamlessly syncing with the original Elf.
Trailing closely behind her was Kristen, looking utterly exhausted. She slung her coat over a chair with a heavy sigh, her Perro ears drooping slightly. "I thought those board members were never going to stop talking. The sheer amount of bureaucratic red tape is enough to give anyone a migraine."
"Welcome home, you two," Joshua called out from the dining room, setting down a large platter of roasted meats. "Perfect timing. Dinner is served."
With everyone finally gathered in person, the feast commenced in full swing. The dining room was filled with the sounds of clinking silverware and lively conversation.
Latina, having fully recovered her chaotic energy, was happily chatting with Muelsyses over a glass of wine. Suddenly, a deeply mischievous glint sparked in the mother's eyes.
"You know, Mumu," Latina cooed, leaning in close. "You are such a cute, lovely lady, and I truly adore your company. Would you consider dating my son so you could officially be my daughter?"
Pffft—!
Joshua violently spit his water back into his cup, followed by a fit of aggressive hacking coughs. A sharp SNAP echoed across the room as Saria accidentally broke her metal fork cleanly in half.
Only Kristen remained completely unbothered, calmly taking a sip of her soup while watching the chaos unfold.
"Cough! Hack! Mom! What the hell are you saying!?" Joshua wheezed, his face entirely red. He knew she was just trying to get payback for the syringe shot earlier, but she was throwing him directly into a minefield.
"Oh, hush. I know you're dating Saria, but why stop at one when you have such big dreams?" Latina pushed harder, a wicked smirk on her face. "Really, Joshua! I distinctly remember you telling me when you were younger that you wanted your very own 'little harem' to add some flavor to your life."
To rub salt in the fatal wound, she looked Mumu up and down. "And if I recall correctly... one of your absolute favorite types was girls with 'exotic ears'."
The dining room descended into a multifaceted tableau of absolute disaster.
Muelsyses's face flushed as red as a tomato, her pointy elf ears twitching in shy embarrassment as she hid behind her hands. Joshua's soul actively left his body, his face draining of all color as pure fright took over.
Saria... Saria simply turned her head toward Joshua. Her expression was utterly blank, but the room temperature seemed to drop ten degrees. Her heavy Vouivre tail whipped the floor in a slow, rhythmic, terrifying cadence.
Kristen smirked over her soup bowl, highly amused by the impending murder.
"P-Please believe me, Buttercup!" Joshua pleaded, throwing his hands up in a desperate bid for his life, trying to stop Saria's piercing glare from melting him alive. "I was young and naive! I didn't know any better! It was just a stupid phase! You are my one and only, I swear it!"
"Of course, Joshua. I believe you," Saria said. Her voice was perfectly calm.
Her intensely cold expression and the violent flipping of her tail told an entirely different story.
It took Joshua nearly an hour of groveling, sweet-talking, and backpedaling to finally smooth over Saria's jealousy, cursing his traitorous mother the entire time.
Once dinner finally concluded and the group had cleared out the dishes, Latina slumped back onto the living room couch with a satisfied sigh.
"Fuuu... that hits the spot," Latina mumbled, happily watching the founders do the chores for her. As Saria and Joshua wiped down the kitchen counters together, Latina tilted her head.
"Say, Joshua... Saria... given how incredibly busy you two always are with the Lab, do you guys even have time to go on actual dates?"
Joshua scrubbed a plate, replying nonchalantly without thinking. "No. We've actually never been on a date."
Latina froze. Muelsyses, carrying a stack of plates, stopped dead in her tracks. Saria blinked, realizing the truth of the statement.
Latina sat up straight, her eyes wide with absolute horror.
"...WHHHHHHAAAT?!"
It was the loudest shout Latina Obsidian had ever produced in her life.