Riley Ross-Chapter 74: Refusing To Look

"There doesn’t seem to be any squatters."

The egg landed softly on the ground. Tomoe hadn’t opened it yet—part of her worried there might be people hiding nearby. After all, anyone in the vicinity would have surely noticed a massive dark crystal egg descending from the sky.

Still, anyone outside wouldn’t be able to see them. Tomoe’s darker variant of crystal was opaque unless you were standing almost right against it.

They waited in silence for several seconds, scanning for movement, before Tomoe finally pressed her fingers to the crystal wall. A sharp crack rang out as the structure shattered, revealing the world outside.

Riley immediately sent out a telekinetic wave, like a radar pulse, scanning for life or motion. Other than the slight shifting of metal scraps scattered across the warehouse floor, his radar detected nothing. No movement, no breathing—aside from himself, Tomoe, her mother, and Erik. And of course, not Rob.

"I was hoping we would run into a few of them."

Disappointment laced Riley’s voice. He shook his head as he sent out another pulse, but once again, the response was silence.

"Let us go, Tomoe," he muttered, turning toward the entrance of the warehouse.

Tomoe didn’t follow immediately. She took a moment to carefully survey the building—its facade riddled with cracks, vines curling through the gaps. The entire structure looked like it hadn’t seen human presence in years, maybe longer. Possibly a decade.

Even the concrete beneath them had surrendered to nature, with tufts of dry grass and weeds breaking through its brittle surface. The warehouse was surrounded by nothing but overgrown brush, an eerie, silent island on its own in the middle of nowhere.

Both the loading dock and the main door were also left completely open, and anyone could walk in if they wanted to.

But of course, now that she knew Bernard’s true identity, she was careful even with her breaths..

"Are you sure your father doesn’t have surveillance in this building?"

"Yes. I asked Mr. AI," Riley nodded, "And Mr. AI does not lie to me, Tomoe."

Riley nodded before casually raising his hand and finally lifting the crystal cage in the air. The crystal cage followed behind him, and it almost seemed as if he was just walking a dog with the way he casually strutted into the warehouse.

Inside the cage, Tomoe’s mother began to thrash and slam her fists against the walls, her tears and snot painting her face as she begged her daughter to let her go.

At least, that’s what they assumed she was doing. They couldn’t hear her—Tomoe had sealed the cage to mute all sound.

This time, it was Erik who sat silently on the floor. His expression was blank, his eyes fixed on the crystallized corpse of his son. He seemed to be speaking to Tomoe’s mother now and then, casting glances her way between muttered words.

And when he looked at the warehouse they were being led into, Erik closed his eyes and shook his head.

He saw how empty it was—completely gutted. The stains on the floor and the faded outlines on the walls hinted at heavy machinery that had long since been removed, stolen, or repurposed. Even the catwalks and metal railings up above had been stripped bare.

...And from his brief introduction with Riley, that was the same thing that was about to happen to them.

"Mr. AI told me there should still be electricity here, Tomoe." Riley looked up at the lights hanging from the ceiling, and most were already either shattered or browned with age. "I believe some of them might still work. Wait here—I am going to find the generator."

"Wait."

He was about to leave, but Tomoe stopped him. She nearly reached for his arm but remembered what happened to Erik—how all of this mess started when he touched Riley without permission.

"I’ll turn on the generator," she said. "I also need to check the area for surveillance before we power anything on. We have to be extremely careful."

"Are you sure? I do not know what condition it is in—it could be covered in dirt. My power would make cleaning it convenient."

"Do you know how to operate a generator?"

"Maybe."

"I do."

"You truly are very handy, Tomoe. You know how to hack computers, servers... and now this."

Tomoe’s expression didn’t change, but her monotonous voice turned quiet ever so slightly.

"I... wanted to be like your father when I grew up." She glanced briefly at Riley.

"Obviously, I’m not as smart as he. He was already a multimillionaire at my age. Sold one of his companies a few years later for two billion. But I wanted to at least try."

Riley let out a soft sigh. "Then I apologize for completely straying you from that path, Tomoe."

"No. My path was always going to be different." Tomoe looked at his visor, hoping to catch a glimpse of herself, but there was only darkness staring back, not a single hint of her reflection at all.

"And now I know what it is... my path is to follow the trail of darkness you’ll leave behind, Riley Ross."

"Well, I’m sure you’ll still have other career options, Tomoe. What we are doing here does not exactly earn money."

"You said it yourself—you could snap your fingers and have an island with your name on it." Tomoe walked away, "The world must have done something very wrong for you to exist. I’ll... scout the warehouse now and turn the generator after."

"Okay."

Riley told her where the generator was located. And after what seemed like half an hour, the lights hanging from the ceiling began to flicker. A few exploded in bursts of dust and glass, while others flickered to life and cast pale yellow light through the warehouse.

Then came a loud cracking sound as the loading and docking doors began to rumble shut. The vibrations rippled through the floor. Some doors rolled down surprisingly smoothly. Others, however, jammed halfway, the rust they built up all these years grinding in protest.

Riley stepped over and snapped his fingers toward one of the control panels, trying to stop the jammed door—and accidentally flattened the entire console instead.

"Oh." Riley looked at his hand.

"I thought I had my powers under control. Is it an aiming issue?"

"It’s a strength issue."

Riley wasn’t expecting an answer, but Tomoe returned. She stepped into view, now wearing denim overalls over her clothes, with wrenches and tools strapped to the front.

"From what I’ve seen, your powers are growing almost exponentially," she added. "You need to test them every hour to recalibrate."

"Hmm." Riley nodded before looking at her from head to toe, "What are you wearing, Tomoe?"

"I found it in one of the rooms," she replied, glancing down at herself. "There’s a lot here that needs fixing, so I thought I’d get started. I figured we don’t have class today, so losing a little sleep should be fine."

"Very well, Tomoe. I will leave you to whatever it is you are planning to do." Riley then turned toward the crystal cage at the center of the warehouse. "As for me—may I use your mother and her boyfriend to practice my abilities?"

Tomoe didn’t answer right away. She just looked at Riley for a few quiet seconds before nodding.

"Yes."

She began walking toward the cage, but Riley gently raised a hand to stop her.

"It is fine, Tomoe. I want to see how long it takes me to destroy your crystal by myself." freewёbnoνel-com

"O...kay. Just—don’t kill them yet. We need to space out their time of death from Stephanie’s."

"Of course, Tomoe...

...I had no plans of killing them just yet in the first place."

With that, Riley turned his full attention to the cage.

Tomoe, meanwhile, didn’t look back. She didn’t watch him, didn’t even glance. Instead, she made her way to one of the jammed rolling doors, heading first to the panel Riley destroyed. But before she could even reach it—

She heard the cage shatter.

...Already?

Then came her mother’s scream—loud and raw, slicing through the hollow warehouse.

Tomoe flinched at the sound, but she didn’t turn around. She didn’t stop walking, didn’t stop moving. She approached the damaged controls and leaned in, letting the grinding noise of stubborn gears drown out the screams behind her.

Then Erik’s voice joined in, shouting something she couldn’t make out. It didn’t matter.

She stayed focused—on tools, on circuits, on rusted bolts and jammed doors...on anything else, really. Even after she managed to fix one, she kept her eyes locked on the next. She swapped tools without thinking. Her body moved like a machine that only had a single purpose.

The screams shifted from pleading, to panicked, to bloodcurdling horror. But Tomoe never looked.

Hours passed just like this.

Eventually, fatigue overtook her. She slumped down against the wall, and her eyes instantly turned heavy and closed. Throughout all of this, she never once turned toward the center of the warehouse.

And the next thing she knew—

"Wake up, Tomoe."

Her eyes opened to see Riley standing in front of her, his silhouette framed by beams of morning light slipping through the gaps in the warehouse doors she hasn’t fixed yet. He looked like a crude sketch—a stick figure etched against the rising sun.

"It’s... morning?" Tomoe blinked groggily, taking in her surroundings.

"5:50 AM, to be exact."

Riley stepped to the side, and in that brief moment, Tomoe’s gaze flicked to what stood behind him.

She saw it for only a second... and that was enough.

She turned away instantly, holding her breath so as not to feel anything. A glimpse was all it took for her stomach to twist.

"Are they... still alive?" she asked quietly, forcing herself up on her feet, her eyes fixed on the floor.

"Of course, Tomoe. Very much alive." Riley shrugged. "Also, the Academy sent us an email."

"An... email?"

"Yes. They recommend we rest today and prepare some clothes for tomorrow."

"Prepare...?" Tomoe shook her head slightly, still dazed. She pulled her phone from her pocket, checking it with sluggish fingers.

"A field trip? On the first week of school?"

"Yes." Riley nodded,

"We are going to Ohio, Tomoe...

...to the city my biological mother destroyed."

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