My Soul card is a Reaper

As Orion was going through a whirlwind of emotions, Leiza got out of her stupor and spoke as she reached out to Orion's hand, her voice turned soft. "I'm sorry that I acted harshly toward you earlier. Truth to be told, I was always guilty that you didn't have a father you could spend time with, and so, I just spoiled you with materialistic things. I should have spent more time with you instead. But when I realized my fault, to make sure you don't get in trouble and not regret my own actions, I had to implant the neural chip in your head to track you down and control your movements, if necessary. And today, when your father has returned, I wanted to show him that I raised you well in his absence. But when I see that I didn't, to cover up my own mistake again, I acted on you, again. I'm sorry."

Orion's face remained unreadable as he stared at his mother. Tears almost welled up in his eyes, listening to her heartfelt apology.

He opened his mouth to speak but then closed it again, unsure of what to say. His eyes darted from his mother and then his father, and then to his mother again.

"I... I don't know what to say," Orion muttered, running a hand through his hair. "I… I… I… sigh… alright, I'll try burying my hatred and try to get along with you… Dad…"

Azzy blinked, his heart skipped a beat, hearing his son addressing him as a dad. Until now, he wasn't sure how he felt as a dad, but when his own blood called him, Azzy felt a myriad of emotions at once to the point that he wasn't even sure what is that he was feeling.

In the end, Azzy let out a pleasant smile as he said. "Thanks."

Leiza, meanwhile, her eyes still filled with tears of joy, thought. "I don't care about those lies he told, but what matters is that Rael is here, Orion is here, and both getting along. My family looks complete now. Today is the best day I've had in years."

The rest of the dinner passed in a surprisingly peaceful manner, as if the storm had passed for the time being.

As the night grew late and they all finished their meal, Orion stood up, ready to head to bed. "Goodnight," he muttered, already feeling the weight of the day's revelations pulling at him.

But before he could leave, Azzy called out to him. "Wait, Orion. I actually have something for you. I know you have everything you need. So, I have a present for you that you can't buy with money."

Orion turned, his curiosity piqued. "A gift? What is it?"

Azzy reached into his pocket and pulled out a card. It was a strange, golden material with an intricate image of a box on the front. "This was something my grandfather gave to me on my eighth birthday. I want you to have it."

Orion took it from his father, flipping it over in his hands, unsure of what to make of it.

"What is this?" he asked, raising an eyebrow. "Some sort of VIP membership?"

Leiza gasped in surprise. "Is this a storage card?"

Azzy nodded. "Yes, it is."

Orion's frown deepened. He didn't know whether to laugh or be insulted. Was this some kind of joke? "What exactly is it?"

Without answering directly, Azzy placed his card against a nearby chair. Orion's eyes widened as the chair was sucked into the card, disappearing in an instant.

"Wait, what the hell just happened?" Orion gasped, his brain struggling to process what he had just seen. He rubbed his eyes in confusion.

Azzy gave him a knowing smile as he explained. "It's a storage space, Orion. A spatial inventory where you can store things without having to carry them around. You can store pretty much anything inside it."

Orion was stunned. His mouth went dry as he stared at the card in his hand, his mind racing. "This is... this is insane. We might have androids, and just today, mom launched an AGI program, which people term as something that should have occurred like fifty years later, but when did our technology reach the levels of sci-fi movies? You are tricking me, aren't you?"

Azzy chuckled softly. "It's not a trick. You can store up to 10,000 cubic meters of items in that card. And don't worry—everything stays preserved. If you store food in there, it won't spoil, even if it's in there for a year."

Orion's eyes widened even further. "Where did you even get something like this?" His voice was a mix of awe and disbelief. "This kind of technology doesn't just exist... not in the real world, at least."

"Seriously? Who made it? Your Blackwings?" He asked.

Azzy's face grew serious, and he looked at Orion with a mixture of pride and caution. "Actually, the reason you couldn't see or hear it anywhere is because it's not from this world. It has alien origins."

Orion stared at his father, his disbelief palpable. "Alien origins? You're telling me that this tech is from aliens? Please… Aliens don't exist."

Leiza smiled at her son's reaction, her eyes twinkling with amusement. "You'll be surprised how much more real alien civilizations are than you think," she said. "In time, you'll understand certain things, as you spend more time with your dad."

Orion's mind was reeling. Alien civilizations? A storage card that could hold practically anything without losing its contents?

An hour ago, he would have thought that it was all some BS. But right now, he was confused as hell.

"And you can't go around telling people about it either," Leiza added, her tone serious. "If you do, you'll either be laughed at or, worse, targeted by secret organizations. Like... Blackwing." Azzy added. "And of course, for the moment, you can only store things. Slowly, over time, I'll teach you how to get things out of it."

Orion's gaze flicked to Azzy, who nodded in agreement. "Yes, Blackwing knows about this technology. And trust me, you don't want them after you."

Orion held the card in his hand, feeling its weight. "Okay, but I need more than a chair disappearance to believe the story."

Azzy replied with a shrug. "Just touch whatever you want then. Not a living thing, though."

Orion, charmed by the storage card, observed it intensely for a few seconds before reaching out to the dining table. The entire table with the plates and water glass, all of them disappeared at once.

He nodded slowly, still in awe as his gaze fixated on the card. "I won't say anything. I'll keep it quiet..."

Leiza and Azzy exchanged glances with smiles.

A while later, the three of them were about to leave the restaurant, escorted by the hotel manager. Azzy urged them to go on, and he would go ahead to the restroom and join them at the helipad. He asked the hotel manager to stay as he needed to talk about a party he wanted to throw. Once they left, Azzy walked back into the restaurant with the hotel manager, his eyes glowed, and his facial expression turned serious as he stretched his arms wide. "Forget what you have seen for the past 20 minutes." A dark yet divine aura escaped Azzy's fingers like tendrils of energy and spread to the surroundings.

The manager was standing beside him, and the waiters around, in fact, everyone present in the restaurant became blank. At the same time, the CCTVs are placed in the corners of the ceiling everywhere and were instantly destroyed, alongside other electronic appliances in the kitchen.

Azzy nodded with satisfaction and walked outside the restaurant soon after.

A couple of moments after Azzy's disappearance, the manager, who stood there near the exit of the restaurant, came back to his senses and looked around in confusion. "Uhh… why am I standing here? Where did Mrs Garcia's family go?" He scratched his head in confusion.