Chp 72 : Ragnarok?

First chapter for this week, Thanks to my Patron giving me chain store idea of Ragnarok, thank you Jarvis.

Happy reading everyone!! And enjoy the chapter!!

~~~

School, an impending government system that gave oppression to youngsters, brainwashed them, limiting their creativity, and crushing the individuality that remained left in the mind of youth.

Everyone tried so hard to escape that system, but even after being patience for 12 years hoping to free from that system, they were ended up in another worst system called society.

As people of the system, one could never escape, even if they did, they would be brought back to the square ones.

So what should a person do, is it by trying to break free?

Nope, few have done that and most of them failed, then they were left scorned, ridiculed, and held in contempt.

Then, what should men do?

Easy, just enjoy the little things while we still could, like these teenagers who also had problems on their own.

For example, at the end of their periods, most of the common students here preferred to just sit on the grass dried by not so cold winter, in their front schoolyard.

From all of the students present there, only 2 people have enjoyed their simple thing the most, such as staring at the boundless sky, pointing at fluffy clouds.

"Uh, I think I see a bear there." He pointed to one of the passing clouds.

She frowned, she had a different idea, "I think that is a rabbit."

Al cracked his head to get a different angle, but he even see more ridiculous things, "I changed my mind, that's a Tasmanian Devil, Robbie."

"Hmm, you're right." She said, their 3 friends were just amused at both of them.

It's always so cute to see the two of them acted like kindergarten children.

Nature seemed to want them to stop their little games as the wind blows so hard and wiping out the white stains that covering the sky.

Seeing their little game finished, the two of them just laying there in silence.

"What if we are just a superfluous being in this universe, and what happened to us just... it, there's no such thing as a higher power, nothing really care about us, even if we did something terrible, nothing will punish us, we are just... it." Out of nowhere, Al rambling nonsense.

"Stop being like hippies E.D..., enjoy the day." Robin ignored him while his 3 other friends felt afraid at his rambling.

'Sighed'

Everyone heard Al sighed again, but this time louder than he did before.

"You have sighed like how many times this day? If I'm not wrong, it was already 12 times." Robin said.

"Really? That much?" He turned to see his friend who also nodded in confirmation at Robin's statement.

"Girl problem?" Robin blurted out.

"One of it." He answered with a short sentence.

This time, Al heard everyone else snickered at him.

"Okay, why everyone snickering at me? Just tell me what's going on?" He jerked his body up in a sitting position and staring at them.

"Ed, I think you are the last person on earth who will be having that kind of problem," Anthony remarked.

Seeing the confusion on his face made all of them felt frustrated, especially Ione who used to, ahem, still had been had a crush on him.

"Ed didn't someone ever told you that you are charming, no... what I mean is, dangerously charming?" This one was said by Ione.

Al knew he was good looking, he had the same look as most common Hollywood stars who were put into the sexiest man alive magazine.

He did win roulette by fusing with this soul and got this body with a good look, but he used to have ordinary look and winning a woman's heart by making them fall in love with his personality.

"I don't want to sound narcissistic, but yes, I think so. Wait, are you thinking that my problem is that I was getting dumped?"

Everyone felt that their assumption was wrong after looking at his smug face.

He hummed and shook his head, "My friend, you underestimate my power here."

So Al told his girl's problem which was the opposite of what they thought.

After Al told him about what happened with Gwen, now they feel that they want to kick this asshole's ass.

"You are a jerk, Ed," Ione said in anger, with Robin also glaring madly at him.

Al felt his joke went too far this time, he just realized that Gwen's thing was the same as her. "I'm sorry Ione, I don't mean that's going to happen. You know, I thought bringing her to date will be eased up the conversation a little."

His face turned to discomfort and he scratched the nonexistent itch because he felt so guilty to her.

Ione just sighed after seeing Al like that. She fell for him was her mistake, and he also didn't mean to play with her feelings, "It's okay Ed, just don't do that anymore."

He knew every word he said would be just an empty promise, so he just nodded at her.

"Man, save your couple banter at home. You know, you both look like an old married couple." Anthony joked, and a book suddenly found a way to his head, thrown by blushing Ione.

Al, Robin, and Max laughed at them, inside their mind wished that this thing will never change

"Hey, where's River? I haven't seen him like, since a month ago." Al suddenly asked them.

"He used to hang out with Keanu while we were in school, but currently, he said he got a role in the film from Stephen King's novel and if I'm not wrong, he said he was shooting in Oregon." Max who hadn't spoken before finally let out his voice.

"Wow, that's far, I kinda started to miss both River and Keanu, seemed like we kinda ignore those two." He said.

"Yes we do, hey I got an idea. How about we played those consoles your Godfather released next Christmas with them?"

"I knew you just want a discounted price from him, Tony, admit it." Max laughed at Anthony's shamelessness, followed by everyone.

"I could get you those for free. I made them." Al offered.

"What!?" Anthony and Max cracked their neck in his direction.

"Yeah, own the company, from console design to game concept. This also includes one of my problems, Vivian has been staying in the orphanage for a month now, and she has been addicted to that game. I don't know how I'm gonna tell her father about this thing."

They tried to recalled who Vivian was, and remembered that she was Stanley Kubrick's daughter

Anthony and Max cursed Al's luck with women while Ione and Robin we're frowning.

Sensed something wrong, he immediately spoke again before things got worsen, "However, I can only give you out the consoles 10 days before Christmas. The mass production will finish that day."

The news cheered Anthony and Max who were upset at him before.

"If you remembered that time, we used to hang out in arcades before, now the console will be released, I doubt we will still have time to go there." His eyes drifted back to the not so far past.

"Yeah, kinda miss the day we play arcade together, too bad we can't do that anymore."

"What do you mean we can't do it anymore?" Al showed a surprising look.

"They'll soon close almost 75% of the arcade in Los Angeles, as for the rest 25% are facing financial problems with the game market crash happening," Max explained.

"You mean, all arcade in LA will face bankruptcy?" Max nodded.

Al suddenly got a bright idea about this. Saw a smile on his face, they got curious about their friend's new idea this time.

Before he could explain, a sound of annoying laughter was heard from the school entrance.

They saw Billy and his gang were bullying a skinny teen in an oversized white shirt.

His two friends were holding that kid and forced him to kneel while he talking smugly an inch from the kid's face.

"Not again." Al sighed, he stood up and took out 2 pepper spray from his bag, and threw it to Max and Anthony.

"We join too?" Anthony shrieked.

"Why not? This will be fun, we gotta save that kid."

"Be careful Ed," Ione said.

"Kick his arse, E.D. no mercy!" Ione screamed out loud until she was heard by every student in the front yard.

Whilst everyone knew the war would happen, everyone started to gather and watch the show. Al grabbed Anthony and Max's neck and dragged them to the battlefield.

A few moments later, after the commotion made by them, the war ended with Al's team's victory.

He stood tall, watching the jocks escaped with the tail between their legs.

"Man, I should've asked John to train you both, in case this thing will happen again." He said to Max and Anthony who were sitting on the ground, collecting their breath.

"You are shit Ed, don't drag us in your battle man. Luckily you gave us this spray." Anthony started to throw tantrums and point his finger at him

"I need to buy a tazzer if this happened again," Max murmured.

Al chuckled at them, he turned his head to the bullied kid's direction who was fell on the ground.

"You okay bro?"

Al helped the guy to stand up but the guy just slapped Al's helping hand.

"I don't need your help." His mouth was bleeding by Billy's punch, his gaze was hollow and his face was pale as a ghost.

The guy grabbed his bag and ran away from the scene.

"He was rude, at least thank you is enough," Anthony said beside him.

Al frowned, "It's okay Tony, but I'm worried about him. There's something weird about that guy."

"Forget that guy, the class will be starting soon, let's go," Anthony said.

In near future, Al will regret his choice for ignoring this little big thing.

~~~

At night, everyone held a slumber party in his room and it turned into a pillow fight and Pokemon battles.

Everyone was present, except Mrs. K and Mary, although in the end, the girls decided to hold their private slumber party in their room.

After the party ended, he somehow forgot to tell Mary this evening, about his plan after heard the news from Anthony.

Looking at the clock that indicated the day was turning midnight, he immediately rushed into the front door of her room.

He knocked on her door and waited for her to reply, "Mary?" He called her name in case she didn't sleep yet.

A commotion was heard from her room, "Al, is that you? Wait a minute, I'll come out to get you."

She opened the door in half and Al could see her wearing a disheveled pink nightgown and a strong woman's scent was permeated from her room, striking hard to his nose.

His pupils shrank and decided to retreat, "Sorry Mary, I think it's not a good time, bye." He tried to escape the scene, but a hand suddenly appeared, clutching his shoulder.

'Damn, she got a strong grip with that petite body.' Al mused.

"It's not what you are thinking Al!" Mary with a cracking voice and cold sweat said.

He with a forced smile, "Oh yeah, what am I thinking?"

"I'm not doing woman's business okay! It's a smell of my new soap." With an embarrassed face.

"Mary, are you sure you don't need me to introduce you to someone. There's a guy name Keanu here, younger than you but I'm sure he was a genuine person." Mary gave him a glare at him which immediately shut his mouth.

"No, cut the chase, tell me what are you doing in front of my room this late-night, now!" In her mind, she thought, 'Damn, I should've not replied and opened the door, I panicked.'

He felt so nervous after hearing her threat and finally said to her that he had another idea about good business prospects with her.

She sighed and praised him for his idea but she told him that he should discuss it by tomorrow when they were having breakfast.

She warned him again to forget everything about this have ever happened and Al fiercely nodded.

Al apologized once more, and they parted ways, with him being unable to forget how she looks tonight. He retreated to his room with a blushed face.

The next day, Al, Mary, and Nancy were standing in front of the shutdown arcade center that was just closed today.

They were able to secure 10 arcade centers at a cheap price and they planned to open a home video rental store, and game center and calling it Ragnarok.

All the operation was the same as Blockbuster in their golden era, but to evade the mistake Blockbuster has made, they will hire a people who like movies, and making databases with modern technology like a computer, and reduce the fine policy.

They also invited another guest here, that person is Quentin Tarantino. With experiences working in home video stores, he had become a good source and supervisor to make this video rental shop better.

"Hey, Al, it's a coincidence you know. I've planned to give you a script, and can you check it?"

"Sure, why not? Coming from you, I want to know how fucked up the script is." He smirked, and Quentin replied with a grin.

'From Dusk till Dawn' When he read the title, his head immediately jerked in Mary's direction.

He read all the pages by pages and he stopped at the scene where the queen of the night dancing striptease to the character.

He turned his head again to Mary's direction. He had watched the movie and series in the previous life.

The movie version was played by Salma Hayek and the series played by Eiza Gonzales who had the same features as Mary.

He admitted he got a celebrity crush on Eiza Gonzales in the past, but with Mary? Well a little bit but not anymore, he saw her more like a sister now.

Suddenly he remembered the scene from last night and blood rushed again to his face... and downwards, but only a little bit.

Quentin peeked a little and saw which pages he was at, seeing that he remained at that page for a while now.

He silently screamed because that page he was at, was his favorite scene, the foot drinking scene. But he also saw Al was peeking over in his boss's direction and realization struck into him.

He patted Al's shoulder and said, "Al, go get her!" He whispered, "Although you said she was your sister, you are not connected by blood. I'm sure you can get her."

His right eye was twitching, "I don't want to hear any advice from someone like you, you foot fetish freak."

Al pushed the script to his chest and escaped from Quentin who grinned at him.

Al turned around back to his direction and said, "Oh, the script has a good concept, only need few polishments, and put the script in Muspelheim library, if you want to direct it in future, I'll definitely give you a green light."

Al then approached Mary and Nancy who were talking to the previous owner of this building.

Quentin smiled and made a fist pump. He saw Al was teasing Mary that made him got a whack to his shoulder, Quentin just shook his head at those two.

So far, the creation of Ragnarok LLC, a 'Home Video Rentals and Game Center' was successfully done, with the start of 10 stores in Los Angeles.

This will be their starting point for taking over the retail home video and video games stores, home video VHS rentals, and arcade center business.

At the same moments, Blockbusters Video who has made its appearance a month ago has opened another chain of stores in some parts of California.

The rental war between them will soon be recorded in history.

The company registered in Delaware, under Yggdrasil Corp. and Mary's company, named Garcia's LLC.

~~~

On a certain beautiful morning in Hope Institute Orphanage, the tenant was having a nice breakfast. Their peace was shattered by a ringing of a bell from the front door.

Mrs. K who was in the living room, closest to the front door said to everyone that she will get it. When she opened the door, she was surprised to find men in 007 suits was standing at the front door.

"Excuse me, is this the orphanage where Alphonse lived?"

"No, you must be wrong." She closed the door but the agent hurriedly held the door.

"We mean no harm, Madam, we just want to deliver this for him." The agent took out an expensive-looking envelope and gave it to her.

Before the agent explained further, Mrs. K slammed the door right in front of his face. The agent gaped, this is the first time he was outplayed, by an old lady more so.

Mrs. K came to the dining room and gave the envelope to him. "For you Al, weird-looking James Bond gave it to me."

He took the envelope and see how nice it was.

"Thanks, Mom."

Everyone got curious and started to gather around him.

He opened the letter and read it out loud.

"By order by her majesty,

Alphonse Brandt, you have been invited to the new year's eve party in Buckingham Palace...

You can bring one person as your escort..."

To Be Continued...

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Produced by:

JJTS

Emmanuel Sawoka (Striker)

Directed by:

Jarvis