What happened?

Going from one dark alleyway to another, I enjoyed my leisurely walk. The night sky and the smell of the city were still mesmerising to me, even after having been in this world for three odd weeks.

Stopping for a second and looking at the overcast sky I guessed it was probably going to rain soon enough. Hurrying up my pace to cover a bit more ground tonight, I was already 5 blocks or so from my apartment.

Suddenly, I heard a faint noise not that far off from me.

Walking a little bit faster, I turned two corners, one left, and then one right. Inside of that back alley, that was roughly 6 meters/yards wide, was a boy.

With his entire face bruised, his leg hanging limply from the side, I guessed how much the poor kid had endured. Yet seeing the still simmering, charcoalified shack in front of him, he collapsed on the ground with tears streaming in his eyes.

I faintly heard him muttering something about not deserving something.

Suddenly, he stopped, and then I heard a much quieter girls voice resound from his location.

Straining myself to the limit to try to make out what was said, I was ready to jump out and help the poor bugger. After all, with the messy brown hair and dead fish eyes he had, it reminded me of myself when I was still a smelly kid myself. 

Making out the words that she's his sister, I finally relaxed seeing as he wasn't in immediate danger. Turning around, I was about to go on my way. Yet a voice interrupted my walk, stopping me dead in my tracks. 

"Awww, what a touching reunion."

Slowly turning around and looking back into the alley, a very tall gangster, with a look that screamed that he's the bad guy, appeared at the other end of the alleyway. The grating voice was much easier to hear than the two kids, and I already had decided that I would blow his head off if he tried anything. Not only that, twenty odd shadows had Sprung out from their hiding spots and encircled the kids. 

"I had guessed the two of you would've made it out alive and then try to reunite. The villains usually live long you know?" 

The children? Villains? 

Hearing the garbage that kept spilling out of his mouth, I was started to slowly lose it. Seeing him approach them I was decidedly planning to blow his head off. 

"You know, kids, you shouldn't really blame me.You should blame yourselves for being different. It's human nature to despise things that are different. And I'm only human, right? ~" 

Scum. Trash. Animal. Why are you hesitating. 

The next thing I saw was him grabbing a baseball bat from one of his men. 

I dont remember what happened, I know something inside of me snapped. The first shot, straight through the shoulder, knocked the animal down. 

And from their recount, that i heard of later, of what had happened:

I had shot all of them like a maniac, only aiming for fatal shots. Twenty animals all had died to my guns in that one secluded alleyway. 

Animals. All fucking animals. Waste of space in this damned world. 

What i do remember, however, is that I approached the bastard lying on the ground. The one bastard I had left alive who had tried to escape. This garbage didn't deserve an easy way out. 

"Please... Spare me," he begged me with tears flowing down his face. "I have a family, please, spa-AAAARGH" 

BANG! 

Putting a hole in his shoulder, I reloaded my redhawk, putting in the a new bullet instantly in case there were more animals that needed to eat lead. 

"You bastard... Im, Huuup" with laborious breaths, either due to the pain or blood loss, he continued, "im part of Vipers gang. You wou-" 

Interrupting him with a kick to the stomach, the spittle flew out of his mouth, vomit following soon after. Turning to look at my skull mask, the man wanted to keep going. 

STOMP

KICK

STOMP 

KICK

STOMP 

Realising something, I looked at the bleeding man, pausing my foot that was going for his already bloody face. I turned to look at the kids, with the invisible girls silhouette highlighted by the rain, watching this spectacle. 

"Kids shouldn't see something like this. Close your eyes or uhh..." looking at the state of the boy, I guessed he had already been traumatised for life. Still, I didn't want to add more to it, so I continued "You may be traumatised. It's gona be pretty bloody, after all." 

"We want to watch." came the reply from both of them. 

"Absolutely not. What if I get in trouble with child protective services or something for making you see this" pointing my finger at the 'human', i decided to change my wording to "spectacle." 

Yet they still insisted on seeing it. The resentment in their eyes made it clear they wanted this man dead more than anything. 

11 minutes later, roughly. 

"So uh... Wanna work for me?" I asked casually, since I hadn't really planned on what wording I'd use. The rain was already getting rid of the bloodstains on my boots. One less headache for me to deal with, going around collecting the casings to deal with the rest of the headache. Seeing all 20 of them recovered, I relaxed, and I turned to the two kids who said made a huh sound as a reply. 

"Yeah. I'm a vigilante. I shoot bad people in the face because I'm also a bad person." getting up to here, I smiled under the mask. " So~ if you do agree to work for me I'll pay you part of what I get from whatever shit bags I fill with lead. As for your work, find locations with gangs and their rough number, illegal shops that could be useful or would need to be closed for good. That kinda stuff you know? Oh and obviously black market dealers because I'd need to buy myself more ammo and maybe more guns. So what do you two say?" putting on my most charming smile, obscured by the skull mask I'm wearing, I asked the two kids. 

"Please leave my sister out of this. I'll gladly do it, but promise me to help us with one thing." the boy, a glimmer of hope back in his eyes, asked me. 

The sister not saying anything but faintly trembling didn't escape my attention. Noticing the weird atmosphere I asked "... What exactly do you need?"

"Help my sister walk again." determination burned in his eyes as he spoke every word with a resolve that far surpassed most adults. The boy... Was ready to walk through hell for her. 

"NO! I don't want to keep being a burden to you Bruce. This man... Seems somewhat reliable. He was the first one to treat us like humans. Please, please..." as the tears started flowing down her eyes, "please just run away from here with him and leave me.... Please... You got this hurt because of me... Sob.... If anything worse had.... Hiik... happened... Sob... " as the sister started her full blown crying. 

I approached them slowly. Noticing my movements, both of them paused and had a expression of fear on their faces, a habit of old im guessing. 

Reaching out my hands slowly, I put them on their heads while they both had tears pour out of their eyes. 

And I gently ruffled their hair. 

"Its okay, the nightmare is over. I'll protect you." whispering those words, I hugged both of them. 

Not even five seconds later, both of them started crying like the kids they were. The boy having that expression didn't suit him, he was just a... A smelly brat. He shouldn't really bear the burdens of the world just yet, that's our duty as adults. 

Like that, several minutes passed of them crying in my arms, before the boy, Bruce, passed out. 

The girl, looking at her brother that was asleep, then turned her puffy eyes towards me and asked a question in a quiet voice. 

"Will you really... Protect us?" the anxiety, and the endless doubt, and a faint spark of hope all resounding in her voice. 

"I can't guarantee it, but I can try my hardest, you know? I'm not a big shot just yet, I'm still a small fry. But, I'll try to protect you and take care of the two of you." 

"Why?" she asked. 

Giving her a piggyback ride, and then grabbing the boy and carrying him under my shoulder... I really looked like a child kidnapper now don't I? 

"Three reasons. " I said.

 "For one" I said, as I started walking down the dark alleys where I didn't sense any people, "I have gone through my fair share of bad things, enough to write a book or even two about it. And I want to help people, or more specifically, people who really didn't do anything wrong. If I can do something to help two kids out of deep shit like this, I'd put my life on the line for it. I'm no saint, but I want to do what I can, you get it right?"

As I kept walking and passing building after building, I continued. 

"Next up, I came across the two of you. Meaning, this is fate." recalling the weird go happy guy that helped me reincarnate, I smiled. I went from someone who had absolutely nothing to his name in the first life to someone who could end up turning into a big boss with enough power to live freely and unrestrainedly. 

"You believe in fate?" she asked, the curiousity and surprise apparent in her voice. 

"I never did before. Yet at one point, I experienced the hand of fate itself at work. Needless to say, I do somewhat believe in it now." 

"Somewhat? Then are you not fully convinced in fate?" she asked. 

"No, fate is a real thing. Its the destiny that is predetermined for everyone. Yet, I do believe that no matter what fate you have, you can change it. A humans spirit and body carry endless potential, and like fireflies we will illuminate the dark web of fate with our own light. Even if we burn out and die, we will be remembered by the lights we have shown to the other fireflies. " I replied, still smiling, recalling some ballooney I heard from god knows where. 

"That sounds like a street scammer hoaxes..." she replied, then whispered, "You weren't a street scammer at some point, were you?" 

"Oy, I'm no scammer you stinky brat. " my complaints were voiced loud and clear. Yet she continued. 

"So, mister scammer, where are you taking us?" she asked in a joking tone, yet nervousness was apparent in her voice. 

"An abandoned residential building near my own. It's easy for you guys to crash my place if you need anything, it's remote and it only recently closed down so it should be clean. Plus I can drop by groceries for you two, so you don't have to risk going outside and being seen. As for why not my own apartment, I don't think you'd be willing to trust me enough. And it could get us all into trouble. Ah right, miss? "

"Yes?" she asked. 

"What's your name, I know the boy is Bruce but what about you. I can't just keep referring to you with the word you, right?" making a sound point, I asked her that. 

"Not telling you unless you tell me yours." the girl replied. 

She was making fun of me, right? She was absolutely making fun of me, right? 

Sighing, I kept my mouth shut in defeat. Luckily, it wasn't long before I stood in front of the residential building. 

Carrying them both up the stairs to the safety of the higher floors proved a bit tougher than I expected, but I finally stood on the 4th floor. Other than a thin layer of dust, this place was maintained very well. Trying my luck with opening a random apartment door, and seeing it wouldnt budge, I gently put the two kids down. Pulling out my gun just in case, under her shocked gaze... 

"HUUUP" 

CRASH! 

Going inside and quickly confirming the area is clear, I carried the girl in, and the boy who was jolted awake kept looking around with bloodshot eyes. The somewhat empty apartment that greeted them didn't seem like that bad of a place to hide compared to their previous shack. 

Pulling out the dirty money from my wallet that I had originally prepared to use for purchasing information, I put it on the table. 

"I'll be back in 10 minutes roughly." knowing they probably didn't trust me at all, I still headed out. If they did trust me and stayed, that would probably be the good ending, right?.