#21 - Fated Encounter

It's today.

Or maybe tomorrow, but if i think that is today, then i won't be surprised if it really is today.

Today I'll die a horrible death, or have a fate-defining victory.

I think that Apolonia mentioned Straizo having the aja on him right?

If i beat him, I'll just have to go to rome and find the special mask kars had on him.

I'll have to be very sneaky, but the biggest problem would be solved.

Without the influence of Dio either, i can consider this world safe.

I'll do my normal human life, fake my death around my 70s and retire to a random somewhere in a beautiful country.

Maybe i could even transform someone into a vampire to keep me company...

Maybe Jack, or someone nice i'll meet.

Hmmm.

"Brando".

I hear someone randomly say.

What? Dio's dead right? Why is someone saying that name?

"Mr Brando, Can you answer this question?"

The teacher, looking at me said.

Oh yeah, i had forgotten about him.

It's just a standard history question.

We're in history class?

"Yes, The battle of Waterloo was fought in 1815, by Bonaparte against the duke of Wellington".

"Good".

The teacher set his sights on dark haired boy, who i should begin to have a name for him in my head, calling him dark haired doesn't really make too much sense, but his hair is pitch dark, like, really dark, so you can picture him nicely, but still, most of the people have dark hair, i have dark hair, the only different ones are-

*BAM*

A hand is slapped in my desk.

I follow the hand up it's arm.

It's Jack.

"What?"

"Stop staring at the void, you just did it twice in a row now"

I did?

I was just thinking a lot.

"I was?"

"Yeah, you were staring at nothing and you stopped breathing too"

"Huh"

Huh, i didn't notice.

Why is that?

I should be able to have complete control of my mind and body, losing my focus like that it's unbecoming of me, not to say weird.

He snaps his fingers in front of me.

"Alright dude, i get it"

I start writing some notes down in my notebook.

Why is it that I'm losing focus?

Am i getting tired? Is my body refusing to opperate? Is doing two days of hardcore training catching up to me?

Well, i think i know the answer, and it isn't any of the above.

I'm, well, a bit nervous.

And you would be too, I'm basically living my last day on earth right now.

I'm afraid of dying of course, I'm ready, but afraid nontheless.

I don't want to start sweating in class out of nowhere, so let me monologue a little.

With Dio it was different in various other ways.

I knew that he was no different from a human at this point, still young and stronger than me of course, but nothing that a little underhanded tactics could overcome.

Now, I'm facing against two fully grown man and Hamon masters, while i can't compare the Hamon mastery, they are definitly better than me in every aspect.

Experience? Yes, Physical prowess? Yes, Teamwork? Most likely.

And it's not the gap in power that you can overcome with smart thinking.

I could kill Dio because he understimated me, i made him believe i was weak, then i cut him with a weapon he didn't knew i had.

While i may get my oppponents to understimate me, they will take it a bit seriosly seeing my Hamon, things like sneak attacks won't probably work.

My best weapon now would be-

"Aroa Brando!"

The teacher screamed at me.

Dammit.

---|---

"It's today".

That's the first thing Apolonia said, no greetings, no softening the blow.

Straight up.

I liked that.

"Oh yeah?, Any advise?"

I try to start a light banter.

"Don't die".

She said seriously, not humoring me.

"Don't worry, I'll live long enough to fullfill my part of the deal".

"Deal?"

"...The one where i get information of my demise and i save your family from their fate?"

She gets a bit closer, her eyes narrowed."

"Aroa, while i want you to save my parents, that's not the only reason while you should take care of yourself."

"What do you mean?"

"You are a human, valuable to the people around you, more than benefits, they see you as a good person, someone they want to be around with and someone who can treat them with the respect they deserve, while also being playful with, someone that is their friend".

Wait, when did this conversation became like that.

I'm a bit astonished at this.

Perhaps misunderstanding my expresion, she continued.

"Don't look at life in such a ¨Black and white¨ way, in such a ¨Benefits and losses¨ way".

"Sometimes you have to look out to keep your humanity alive".

Recovered from my initial shock, i answer her.

"Uh yeah, Sure".

What was that? Answer properly!

"Thanks for that, i have been a bit nervous lately, i think you just helped me with that".

"Don't worry, It's the least i could do".

And she left.

Damn, did i really got an anime speech right now?

Well, i have been getting nervous recently.

Let's just go to my classroom.

Actually, where's Jack?

---|---

School's finished so now I'm going back with Jack.

In my school bag there are two things out of common.

The satiporoja scarf, and the stone mask.

The first one is self explainatory, but the mask is for my plan B.

In case that i die against the Hamon masters, they will search my bag and find the stone mask.

If they were to kill me, they will quickly discover where i live, then break into the mansion to steal the mask.

Best case sceneario, they enter, get the mask and get out.

But What if someone sees them? What if they don't sneak in, but do a big entrance? What if they poison everyone in the mansion just to be safe? What if they take someone to interrogate them for the location of the mask? What if...

Yeah, it would be best if they take the mask and leave quickly.

I said before that I'm ready to die right?

This is it, If i die, then they will leave satisfied, no reason to linger around and kill anyone else apart from me and Jack.

Naturally, the best way that this could go is by Jack and I killing the both of them, while not sustaining any life threatening injuries.

Unfortunately, chances are that it's going to be a middle point.

Something like a win, but we will lose something.

I just hope it's not too important.

Something like losing the pinky finger, or a bit of the ear.

"Hey, those guys look weird".

"Jack it's the 1880s, everyone looks like they are going to mur-".

"Dude they look weird weird".

"I hate how that statement makes sense".

I turn my head to the guys mentioned.

Wow they do look weird.

Both wear hoods in the blazing heat of 3 pm.

The first one is tall and his muscles overflow are noticable even with the fullbody cape.

While the other one is tall, he's a bit shorter than the first, and his body is smaller too.

Still, both are adults, a head or two above the both of us.

"Hey, let's follow them".

"I was about to say that".

Discreetly, we follow them through the streets, some people turn to look at them weirdly, but think nothing of it and continue their way.

Jack's proposition had some value in it, those two may be the ones that we'll have to fight later.

They follow a path that both of us are familiar with.

A path to the warehouse.

That settles it.

There's no reason for anyone else to go to an abandoned warehouse.

Jack seems to agree and inmediatly takes a more serious stance.

"Wait, let's go back".

"Why? We could just take them by surprise"

"Let's wait to the night, for a sneak attack, plus we will definitly be making a scene, and we can't let the police get involved".

"Mmm".

He doesn't answer, but he starts to back off.

We quickly sprint towards the mansion.

---|---

We are greeted by some servants.

Maria isn't there, but i pay it no mind, quickly going to my room.

Looking for comfortable clothing to fight in.

Jack is already changing himself.

He's wearing something like a combat uniform from the british army, but in black.

Where did he dye that?

I on the other hand...

I went all up and above, and used my tickets to summon an apropiate uniform.

I'm using a miniature version of the Arctic Region Chaldea Uniform.

It's actually really soft, and comfortable, and streatchable.

Perfect for combat.

You might be asking, ¨Isn't this too op?¨ or ¨Why not the combat uniform?¨

And it would be in normal situations, I mean this thing had attack and defense buffs that affected the servants, so it would be a game breaker.

But there's a twist, apart from being extremely high quality, there's not a big difference between this and the uniform that i use for school.

Actually, I'll talk about that later, now it's time to focus a bit.

Oh and about the second question, it's because the combat uniform is white, not really sneaky.

And it looks weird, like one of the eva outfits.

It's basically a jumpsuit.

I finish putting the gloves and look at myself in the mirror.

It's perfect.

I grab the stilleto-like knives and stuff it in my waist pockets.

I couldn't think of any other small weapons to bring, so i'll have to make do.

Where did you got them?

Tickets, but the specifics later.

Btw I'm poor on tickets now.

I have four, since the the uniform was 3, and the knives were one each.

But it's fine, i have to use them now or never.

Anyways, time for final battle i guess.

Hopefully not ¨final¨.

Wait, but that's in the night.

That means i have like three hours to kill.

It looks like Jack just realized that too.

And we can't go out in this.

"Hey, what now?"

"We wait i guess"

And we did as i said.

Until 7pm

We went out of the house and directly to the warehouse.

Let's have a nice battle.