Chapter 2
(Eneo's Pov)
"Wake up, papa!" I heard Hanae yelling and knocking on my door very loudly, "Uncle Ryan is here!"
'For fuck sake...it's morning already?' I got up and got dressed for the day, "I'll be there in a minute."
I went to the bathroom and took a shit for probably 10 minutes. After wiping and washing my hands properly, I took my time brushing my teeth and slowly walked downstairs. I was greeted by my wife and daughter playing with a baby.
"Is that the fish baby?" I asked, "How ugly is he? Let me see it."
Harumi shifted so I could see the baby, "Yakakakaka! My expectations were low but holy fuck!"
"Honey," Harumi glared at me, "not in front of Hanae"
'What is wrong with her? It's good to teach 'em young how things ought to be!' I thought before saying, "Yeah, yeah...I'm off to work."
"Dude" Ryan chimed in, "it's the 13th anniversary of King Richard the LXIX's coronation. You're supposed to celebrate the joyous event for the whole day!"
"...right, king Richard the LXIX..." I sighed
"Hey, papa! We were waiting so we could pick a name for him." She said pointing at the fish.
"Oh, you haven't given it a name yet?" I asked, to which Hanae shook her head, "good, good...it should have a name fitting for its hideous heritage. How about Pe-"
"Marcus," Ryan interrupted yet again, "named after your great grandfather...fitting isn't it, Eneo?" He said with a stupid grin on his face.
I generated cinder particles in the air and forced them down Ryan's mouth. He started to cough violently, "You...bastard!" He yelled in between violent coughs.
"Stop overacting, it's not enough to kill you....I think...", I said nonchalantly, "I don't care what you name the thing, just make sure to feed it, take it for walks, and make sure it doesn't pee in my room or something."
---
-8-year time skip- (Marcus Cantù's pov)
"I don't care if you bring your deadbeat father with you next time, I'll kick his ass too!" I said, standing over the 'leader' of the group.
His name is William Morir, a boy 3 years older than me who tried to attack me with a group of his friends. Why did he attack me? I killed his dog. The mutt started chasing me while I was playing and I put it down in self-defense.
I tried to explain the situation to him rationally, but he wasn't having it. I decided to let him go scot-free initially because I felt bad for killing his dog, but when he jumped me with his friends, I acted in self-defense again.
"Marcus, where are you? It's getting dark, you won today's match" I heard Hanae calling for me.
I looked at William smugly and said, "Watch this". I started punching myself multiple times, hopefully enough to cause some injuries because it hurt like hell.
I answered back with a "HELP!" and I saw her run faster than I thought she could, "What happened here?!" She asked/yelled, clutching me into her arms while facing the other kids.
I put up my innocent act, "They ganged up on me and beat me up..." I said meekly with crocodile tears flowing from my eyes.
"He's lying! We didn't do anything to him!"
"He's the bully! He always beats us up!"
"He hospitalized my brother last year!"
Everything they were saying went in through one ear and right out the other because Hanae gave them an even worse beating than I did, "You bastards! How dare you hurt my brother!"
After battering them, she stood over the 'leader' and asked, "Aren't you Erat Morir's son?"
He nervously said, "y-yeah..?"
"You realize that your father works for us, right?"
His expression completely dropped and he meekly said, "...yes"
"How do you think your father would react if he found out you injured his boss's son? Moreover, how do you think our parents would react if they learned of this?"
Goodness, she's ruthless. I felt bad for the dude. He lost his dog just the other day and now this...
"Apologize for hurting him!" She demanded loudly.
"I'm sorry." He said with his face down.
"What are you sorry for?" Hanae was making it worse and worse for poor William.
"I'm sorry for hurting you, Marcus. I swear on my mother I'll never do anything to you again." Willaim got up crying and started walking away with his friends.
While we walked away, I turned around and said, "William, I forgive you. Just be nicer to people!" with a big bright smile and a thumbs up to add salt to the wound.
He gave me a glare, so I replied with a middle finger, "You've got to stop playing those kids, Marcus. They're bad people." She said.
"I don't think they're bad," I said, "they're just misunderstood."
I see her look at me with a proud smile. It's strange. Problems become a whole lot easier when you have a strong step-sister who's overly protective.
After a nice 5 minute walk, we made it home, "We're back" we said.
"Welcome back," I heard Mrs. Harumi say, "Who won today's game?"
"Marcus did. He almost skipped a stone 16 times!" Hanae responded gleefully.
"That's amazing!"
"Where's Mr. Eneo?" I asked.
"Father. He's your dad, Marcus" She reprimanded me.
"Right, where is he?"
"He's busy. He called a couple of hours ago; he should be back by next week." I sighed hearing her answer.
Mr. Eneo is supposed to be my father, but I've never had a father-son moment with him...ever. Any amount of time I've spent with him, he makes sure that I know that I'm not his son. Mrs. Harumi treats me a little better, but she still off-handedly shows her distain for me. I'm extremely grateful to have people I can call family, but sometimes.....I just wish...
"Go take a shower first, then I'll treat your injuries," Hanae said, taking me out of my thoughts.
"Do I have to...?" I love water but the soap tastes funny AND hurts my eyes. Seeing the blank expression on her face, I reluctantly went and took a shower. Little did she know, I didn't use soap -- I just let the hot water run through my body for 15 minutes.
After Hanae did some stuff with the medicine kit, we went and ate dinner. After dinner, I hurriedly went to bed because tomorrow was the day I registered to be a Marine. I would finally be able to explore the world and help people fight against the filthy pirates.
---
I woke up the next day at 9:10 AM, a little later than usual, but that's fine!
I was about to go to the bathroom to brush my teeth and stuff, but a strange translucent hologram appeared in front of me that read, "You're now the owner of the 'System' ".
'The fuck is a system?' I threw my pillow at it to see if it would do something, but it just went through it and hit my desk.
I got out of bed to grab my pillow, but the hologram followed, always staying within my arm's reach. After stalling for a while to see if it would do anything, I decided to touch it. The screen changed to an information page about myself.
『_____
Name: Marcus Cantù
Race: Fishman, Human
Age: 8
Level: 1 (69/100)
____
‣ Str (strength): 10
‣ End (endurance): 10
‣ Agi (agility): 7
‣ Int (intellect): 9
‣ Chr (charisma): 12
‣ Luk (Luck): 10
____
〔Stat points: 6〕
_____』
Below the information page was a 〚Talent〛and 〚Skill〛page. The 〚Skill〛 page had one thing listed.
『 〚Dominator:〛The Player is capable of subjugating anything He defeats; as well as beings that agree or submit to be under the User's control. 』
Sadly the 〚Talent〛 page didn't have anything.
After reading the description of 〚Dominator〛 my jaw dropped, 'That's so cool!"
I wanted to see what else this thing had, but I heard Mrs. Harumi call me for breakfast. I swiftly brushed my teeth and splashed cold water on my face after.
I went down and ate nervously because I was afraid Hanae and Mrs. Harumi would ask about the hologram thingy, but luckily they didn't mention it.
After finishing breakfast, Mrs. Harumi told me to wait until she finished doing the dishes so we could go to the trial for being a marine.
I went outside while she did the dishes to see what else the system could do. I looked through it and found an 'Inventory' page where I could store things. Inside was an item with the name, '『Memories of Adam Zhou』'.
'Is that the memories of the person who gave me the system?' The temptation to open it increased exponentially every passing second.
'Curiosity is such a bitch...' I thought as I opened the item.
My mind was immediately flooded by the memories and experiences of Adam Zhou.
'oh...hahaha get fucked.' I laughed at his attempt.
Although I was laughing, this newfound knowledge made me feel extremely lost. What or who am I now? Am I just someone's imagination? I feel and know I'm real, but this new information tells me otherwise.
Do memories define a person? I still feel like Marcus, nothing really has changed...well, other than that I now have the intelligence and foresight of...basically a GOD!
While I was pondering this deep question, Mrs. Harumi came outside and asked if I was ready. Having said yes, we traveled to the "Marine Academy" located on our island, which is relatively close, only about a 20-minute walk.
We arrived there and saw a line of kids around my age and their parents, however, we got escorted right in by a marine.
Normally it's a random marine that interviews someone, but I got special treatment and was interviewed by the captain of the main base of the island himself.
"It's a pleasure to meet you again, Mrs. Cantù." He said
"Same here, nice to meet you again." Mrs. Harumi said, "We only needed an identification card, right?"
He laughed, "No need. Mr. Cantù sent someone 3 hours ago. Your son is enrolled.
"He did?" She said, "He should've given me a heads up."
He then took out a piece of paper and filled in some of the lines. He finished it and gave it to Mrs. Harumi, "That is what I will be handing to the instructors so they know who he is and have basic information about him."
She read it carefully.
"I'm going to ask you some questions to get to know you better in case you get me as your instructor, ok?"
I nodded, "Marcus is your name correct?"
"Correct."
"How old are you?"
"I'm 8 years old."
"Obviously you have no criminal record, no drug use, etc. etc. None of that stuff, correct?", He said with a smile
"Correct," I responded
"Right. Marcus, why do you want to be a marine?"
"I want to be a Marine so I could rid the world of filthy pirates!" I said with the conviction that I had prior to my new knowledge.
"Very ambitious, that's good. Hmmm....have you ever used a firearm before or went fishing with your dad?"
Before I could answer, Mrs. Harumi interjected, "He hasn't."
It seemed as though they had an entire conversation just in a moment's eye contact.
"Understood." He got up from his desk, "That'll be all. I just need you to go through a medical examination and then you'll do a physical aptitude test...if it's alright with you, Mrs. Cantù?"
She said nothing for a second, before saying, "Is that necessary? Can't he just...join? This is, after all, just a training camp to prepare for the real Marines."
He smiled, "Of course! I could just make fake medicals or whatever, but it'd be better for his growth if we knew what his potential was. Plus, we can check if there's any underlying heath issues."
"Hmm, I guess." She reluctantly agreed.
"Alrighty then, please follow me." He said with a smile.
I followed him to a doctor's office. They checked my weight, height, body fat %, eyes, hair, teeth, etc, etc. After finishing, it took 30 minutes for the results to come back.
"Would you like a copy of his medical, Mrs. Cantú?" The captain asked.
"Yes."
He gave her a copy. After that, I followed him to a field where other would-be future marines my age were. I spotted William and waved at him, when he saw me, he immediately looked the other way.
"Please wait here with the others, the physical test will begin shortly." The captain said and walked away with Mrs. Harumi.
I looked around to see if I recognized anyone there. I saw my good pal William Morir, whom I waved at with a bright smile with. He didn't wave back -- how devastating. Thankfully I survived.
I kept looking saw the son of someone that works for us. I went over and conversed with him. After a lengthy conversation about why our island's king sucks, we were interrupted by a loud voice.
"ATTENTION!!", A woman in Marine gear yelled, "Start doing some stretches because you're doing a 5-mile (6.2km ) run for warm-up. We'll see what I feel like doing after that ."
She lined us up alphabetically and made us do stretches for 10 minutes. She explained the length of the field and how many laps we would have to do. She then lifted a gun in air and shot, "START!!"
...
Author's Note:
Please be mindful of the fact that the MC is currently 8. He's going to be childish and get some stuff wrong. (i.e. Mrs.Harumi -- Harumi is her first name but he insists on calling her that.)
Harumi isn't as bad as Eneo but she's still a piece of shit.