Chapter 13 : School (1)

Morning came.. And like usual. I ran to Alice's house. Eh? It's still 5 km right? Is it always this close?

"Noah Bakery!"

"Oh, Liam! Nice to see you early in the morning!"

Noah Bakery is… well… Noah.. but more feminine and wore a baker's clothes… She's talking with a logistic worker… whose moving things… I wonder what those are…

"These? Oh they're food! Speaking of which, I hear from Captain Noah that you want to learn to cook?"

"Well… yeah!"

Learning to cook from Noah? Hell yeah!

"Ok… come by tomorrow morning by this time, I'll try my best to impart knowledge to that thick skull of yours!"

Spoken sweetly… WAIT! What's with that last statement!

===

And thenI wanted to bid farewell to Nemo Bakery, I was dragged by her… him… Nemo? Yeah I was dragged by Nemo to the kitchen… Eh? Understaffed? You're kidding right?

"No, really, it seems that there's going to be visitors today, so I'd love it if there's someone who can accompany me this morning!"

And Accompany Nemo I did… And by Rodin's bald head!

"HEY! THE DUCKS BURNT! YOU'RE COOKING IN A BURNT PAN YOU FREAKING DONKEY!!"

"I TOLD YOU THE EXACT AMOUNT OF GARLIC! WITH THIS MUCH AND EVERY VAMPIRE IN EUROPE MIND AS WELL BE DEAD!

"OH IS THAT A CHICKEN I SEE CROSSING THE ROAD! LET ME GUESS YOU DIDN'T F***** COOK IT!"

"THIS FISH IS SO RAW, IT'S STILL FINDING NEMO!"

Mommy, help!

===

The heat that the stove gave off… Is nothing compared to Nemo Bakery's roasting.

"LIAM!"

Ah… My savior is here…

"ALICE!"

"LIAM!"

"ALICE!"

*WHACK*

I'm whacked as I was thrown out of the kitchen.

"YOU FREAKING DONKEY! IT'S SURPRISING HOW BAD AND LOUD YOU ARE! GET OUT OF MY KITCHEN IF YOU DON'T WANT TO LEARN ANYMORE!"

*BANG*

The door closed in front of me… That's an… experience…

===

"So, How have you been Liam? Tell me!"

An overly enthusiastic Alice swung my arms up and down.

"Calm down Alice… Wait, did you know I went to Laguna?"

"Yeah! And you didn't even invite me! Imagine all those classes I have to sit through without you!"

"I don't think that's my fault in the least…"

"Meanie!"

"..."

"But, I'm glad you're back! If you disappear again I swear I'll just chain you in my bedroom!"

The last part is eerily spoken… NOPE! And then we spent our time talking about what I've done… how i died… and … what she's done…

"OOOOH! I wish I'm there too with you ! Their blood must be beautiful!"

"... well it's golden… if it makes sense…"

"Oh yeah Liam!"

"Yeah…"

"I heard that Shiho and Ann got something from you!"

"!"

"Sooooo…. Where's mine!?"

"Ummm…. Alice…."

"Yes?"

The air in the car suddenly dropped… I even saw Captain Nemo shivering…

"... It's not ready …. Yet… I haven't gone into my… forge…"

"WOW! SO YOU'RE GIVING ME A WEAPON!? PLEASE TELL ME YES!"

"Yes?"

"Yippee! I want a trick weapon ok! I like using two katanas like my mother…! Oh! I know I also love my father's arquebus! "

That's easy… IF ONLY I HAD THE MATERIALS! SIGH…. Well I hope that the angel bloods can do something….

And so… the atmosphere in the car returned to normal… ish…

===

School is… Strange to say the least. I Felt like I'm going in as a new student.

"Eh? Do we have a new student?"

"Yeah, it seems like it!"

"I wonder if he's a hunk!?"

Oi oi oi … I'm just a returnee student ok! No need for all this–

"Hey isn't that Mori-san?"

"Yeah, why is he there!"

"No dummy, that's Liam, his twin!"

"Oh yeah I forgot about him!"

"You said it! He's so… unbelievably average…"

Baby, don't hurt me… don't hurt me… no more…

"Anyway, Liam's back from the US. Everybody be kind to him!"

"HAI!"

And with that the class began, I sat next to Alice, as usual. Today's class are all… boring…

"Psst! Liam!"

"...Yeah?"

"Let's skip school!"

"... Nope~"

"Ehhh? Why?"

"I just came to class today!"

"... I don't see how that's a problem?"

Well she got a point… But I at least want to keep whatever good impression I have left… I didn't say this out loud of course as class continues like usual.

===

*ring ring*

"It's lunch! Liam, let's go eat! I can't wait to try your roasted duck!"

… I'm not too thrilled about being called an idiot sandwich again… I unpacked my lunch, as the aroma courses throughout the classroom.

"Holy crap! Who did that!"

"It smells good!"

"DAMN! HEY! It's Liam!"

"Do you think he mind us calling him weak and idiotic? I want to shamelessly ask for a bite!"

"With your face! Hell naw!"

And then the class gets rowdy… It's not my cooking per-se it's… barely a fraction of Nemo Bakery's skills… a failed product… Now I know how high of a palate Alice had everyday… I don't envy her… Yep!

"*click*"

A camera flash came from Alice's phone… Why are you taking a picture of my meal?

"Hehehe, Ann and Shiho will be so jealous of me right now!"

Nope… I have no interest in any of her business…

"Oh yeah Liam, speaking of girls… Do you remember the girls you saved that day?"

"Oh… what about them?"

"It seems that she's a national level athlete… and they're transferring to this school!"

"She? Not them?"

"Oh you haven't heard huh…"

Wait… don't tell me… even after all I've been through… she still didn't make it?

"What's with that face? You tried your best!"

"But…"

"Well it's not like she's dead… she's just in a coma…"

… So… I still failed huh… Sigh…

"The doctors said that the body's all fine, but the impact of your jump… she managed to hit her head… "

… So is fate huh…. It's good that I'm not emotionally attached to her… but it still sucks that even with my effort…

"... are you sad you can't save her?"

"... no… I'm just disappointed that–"

*Bang*

"LIAM-Senpai!"

"Huh?"

A blonde girl with twintails barged into my classroom.

"Have you seen Shiho anywhere?"

"... not today no…"

My heart sank as I stood up… Don't tell me, today's the day!

"GASP! LOOK AT THAT SOMEONE'S ON THE ROOF!"

"HEY IS SHE CRAZY!"

I ran outside the class, I shoved the bystanders out of the way to see a clearer view, and as I feared. It's Shiho… and she's about to jump…

No, Not on my watch!

The third years have their classes on the first floor, so I ran up the stairs… It seems that for some reason there's people blocking the stairs. SHIT. I HAVE NO TIME FOR THIS!

I shoved myself through the crowds, but to no avail, as the stairs are all full of human bodies… one part of me wanted to slaughter everyone here…

[Calm down Protagonist-san, I can feel your killing intent from here.]

CALM DOWN!? HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO–

[You can go through the second floor's window. If you time it right–]

I didn't listen anymore as I just rushed through the second floor hall, passing by the teachers office who were scrambling, and panicking… I rushed towards the end of the hallway, this should be directly below where I saw Shiho was positioned, and thankfully there's a window.

[She's losing herself, i hope you're in position, 3… 2…]

I jumped out of the window, the glass tearing me up a new one, and just on Moriarty's queue, I caught Shiho midair, she looked surprised, I quickly held her close in my arms… the pain of the glass sticking on my flesh is of no importance to me as I hug her close…

*Splat*

As I reached the ground, I felt like I've landed on… sharp objects… the greeneries broke my fall, but I can now feel the vines digging into my skin…

"I'm not worth it! WHY SENPAI! I'm SULLIED, I CAN'T BE WITH YOU! I'll JUST TAINT YOU! WHY WHY WHY! YOU AND ALICE SHOULD BE A COUPLE ALREADY! I CAN'T STEAL YOUR HAPPINESS FROM YOU NOR ALICE!"

Her little fist hits my chest… I feel no pain from it, but it made me dug deeper and deeper into the vines…

You're right about one thing though… it's that you can't steal happiness away from alice…

"*sob sob*…"

I tried to calm her down, by patting her hair repeatedly… I made sure that no glass is present in my arm before I did that… I can't speak… as I fell the familiar blood present in my lungs… If I speak I fear that I'll just end up like an uncool dude… so I just shut the hell up…

Not long after the ambulance came… Wait, nope it's just moriarty.

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Mori's Pov:

*sigh*... that stupid Liam just have to go and do it… Guess there's no turning back now… If only you were more… unrestrained…

I walked to the scene of the 'crime' to plant evidences… as usual… to make it more convincing.

[Hey what are you doing! That hurts you bastard!]

[Cleaning up after your mess you idiot! You think paramedics can't tell if you're injured or not!?]

I purposefully impaled him deeper, and made a bit more cuts with the glass… I even had to use my mana to move his hands all over Shiho to 'paint' the scene. A criminal consultant's work is never done…

While I do that I purposefully act like I was trying my best to get Liam out… or else it'll be suspicious… I even used a bit of mana to forcefully open his wounds again… My goal? To cover this whole thing up. It's a pain to take care of this idiot…

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Liam Pov:

"Liam! You're a genius at skipping school!"

Currently we're inside an ambulance, Shiho's fast asleep, the driver seems to be… on our side… while Alice is right there beside me… I still can't talk as I still taste the blood inside of my mouth… it's… disturbing… and what's more my whole jaw is bandaged… that damn moriarty did a number on me…

"But hey, Liam… Why do I have a feeling you know this will happen?"

Because I do…

"And… I'm glad that you're going as far as jumping out like that to save someone… but how I wish that girl was me… Should I jump from Millenium tower so you'll hug me tightly too?"

… Wait…

My brain goes into overdrive thinking about what to say… , in the end just extended my hand to hers. When my hand reaches hers… I felt this cold… sensation… but it's not something unbearable… I just held her hand tightly.

"..."

My hand slowly crawled it's way to her cheeks… and I mustered all the strength that I can to straighten my back, and give her a gentle peck on the lips… WHICH SHE DEVOURED, HELD MY HEAD, AND FORCEFULLY INSERTED HER TONGUE! WITH HER STRENGTH I CAN ONLY BE HELPLESSLY HELD!

I can feel her sucking out all the blood in my mouth. After a full minute of making out, she releases me.

"*burp* delish! So this is what a kiss feels like…"

Wait… the Alice I know is not a vampire… but isn't she supposed to be a denizen of hell… does that mean all dem hell denizens like blood!? Should I just give her those golden chicken bloods?

"Since you're not complaining, I'll be digging in! Thanks for the meal!"

*Smooch*

She ended up sucking the soul out of me…

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