The rest of the school passed by in a rather strange way. People were awkwardly silent around us the whole time. I knew that the reason was the earlier incident related to me slapping Niko across the cheek. Well, atleast no major problems arose right? Well, that's what I thought of while trying my best to avoid looking at the massive red bruise on Niko's cheek.
By the time school ended, we parted ways, going to out houses respectively. Well, we did agree to meet at Midiac park by 5:50 p.m. to meet that creepy adult. It wasn't like I was afraid or anything. I justed needed an eye witness for legal reasons.
Niko arrived at the exact time I asked him to, and I instructed him to hide behind the closest bushes to us. At exactly 6 p.m, that creepy man, probably in his late 40s walked in and approached me. I immediately took a step back and got into a fighting stance, but just as I was about to rush forward to land a punch, Niko came out of the bushes as if he were a whack-a-mole, and exclaimed as he pointed at the man. "Raphael!"
The creepy man turned to look at Niko with a warm smile, and while completely ignoring me, started talking to Niko. "Ah, Niko, so you were here. We received the memory transmission of your past lives from Mary this morning."
"Niko, you know this old man?" I asked as I raised an eyebrow.
"Old man?!" Niko looked at me as if I had insulted his whole family line. He sighed and continued. "Well, I guess I can understand why you think he's old."
"What? What do you mean 'I think'? He's obviously an old geezer." I asked Niko with a hint of annoyance in my tone.
"Well, let me introduce him to you." Niko turned to me and raised an arm to gesture toward Raphael. "This here is Raphael. He is the leader of the Freaks. And also for your information, he's a 13 year old with the divine curse, 'Fixed Age'."
I stood there in stunned silence as my brain tried to process that this six feet tall (or taller) man who seemed to be atleast in his late 40s was actually a 13 year old twerp.
"Oh my Gosh! I was about to beat up a 13 year old twerp if things went south." I muttered out, still reeling in shock that this man was actually younger than me.
Raphael looked at me as if he were seeing a Demon Lord and asked, "You were gonna what?!"
Wait, actually, the real question here was why did I immediately connect Raphael's expression to be of someone who was facing a Demon Lord?
I muttered out what I was going to do as I used the full capacity of my brain to process all the information. "I was going to break both of your femur bones into atleast 3 pieces, cut off a few of your tendons, and make sure atleast a few of your major joints never function ever again."
"And you said you achieved Nirvana?! What kind of sick person has those kinds of thoughts after enlightenment?!" Niko asked in a completely baffled tone.
"Yeah, Nirvana isn't enlightenment like the scriptures say, sorry to tell you that." I said as continued. "The state of enlightenment is actually called Shakyamuni's samsara." I said in a 'in fact' tone that kids usually use to describe something interesting.
Raphael, perhaps feeling left out, spoke up to make his presence acknowledge. "Isn't the skill 'Shakyamuni's samsara' a 12 million point skill? He could've saved up 3 million points by not getting the Nirvana skill."
Niko sheepishly chuckled a little, scratching the back of his head as he spoke. "About that... Vynn doesn't actually know of skills or even the skill system. He achieved Nirvana through sheer effort."
Raphael's composure cracked a little more that it already had as he exclaimed in surprise. "Sheer effort?!" He shouted as if it were blasphemy as he continued. "What the fuck even is his divine curse that it's so over powered?!"
"Reincarnation." I put it out bluntly.
"So... not to be rude, but how old are you?" Raphael asked curiously.
"I'm 15."
"No, not that! The age of your soul!!"
"Well... I'm 3.4 million years old."
"You're so old!!!" Niko and Raphael exclaimed at the same time.
"That's rude, kids!!" I played along, though, I genuinely did feel annoyed.
"Um... can we go to the Base already? We have a little crisis on our hands, Raphael." Niko butted in.
"A crisis?" I asked in curiosity.
"Yeah, today's the day the members of the Freaks get killed." Niko said, his voice weak.
At the same time in a building...
A man ran up to his superior. "Mr. Luo! We've got the warrant and proof! We can finally kill the Freaks!! We can finally take them down!"
The superior looked at the man, his sky blue eyes piercing right through him. He smirked and spoke up, his tone filled with malice. "Finally, after I get rid of these pests, I'll finally have time to spend with my son."
In another place that seemed to resemble a room with green walls that seemed too vibrant yet ugly the more you look at it, a man- no, a creature remained seated on a chair. It's body was completely black and it was emitting a dense and opaque black aura. It spoke in a voice that felt like it was the highest pitch ever, yet at the same time, it was also the lowest pitch ever. The voice was a pure calamity by itself. [NoW, L3t Th3 StORy fiNaLly BeG1n.]