04

The next morning, they woke up at 7:00 in the morning and took a shower. They changed clothes into regular street clothes because the school they were going to didn't have a uniform. It was supposed to be a way to make people feel better when going to school, and not give another reason to quit school in this apocalyptic world.

William put on a black shirt with black pants, while Mia matched him with a black shirt and a blue skirt. They looked pretty good in the outfits, Mia looked beautiful and William looked handsome.

After changing, they went back downstairs and saw Mary already finished cooking. After eating, they gave their goodbyes to Mary and left the house. They had a special status, so they didn't need to bring books or anything, they didn't even need to be present in classes. They were supposed to just be there in case of portals opening and take care of them. It was only temporary anyway. Most of the Trigger rankers were in different missions around the other continents at this time, so Trigger was short in personnel. The other rankers were patrolling the streets of Starlight, working in the headquarters, or training, so the only ones who can take care of the school right is William and Mia. William would have been enough, but he wouldn't do it if it wasn't for Mia going as well.

The school was close to the house, about 10 minutes walking. The neighborhood had many houses and buildings, and many of the students came from these places. William and Mia saw many other kids going to the school with the bags on their backs. William didn't have a bag, but Mia did because she wanted to try living like a normal person. William wanted to just relax somewhere all day, but Mia made him go to her classes so she would feel better, so he had to go.

There were a lot of people, so not many people paid attention to them, except for a few people who William had already sensed since a long time ago. As they were about to reach the entrance of the school territory, a group of bulky men stopped them. They were a little older than William, so they were probably on their last year. They had been following right behind him and Mia a little bit after they left their house. They probably saw Mia walking in front of them, and she was the more beautiful woman they had ever seen so they couldn't keep their eyes off her.

"Hello!", said the man in the middle of the group, who was probably the leader. "My name is Mike, and I saw that you guys were coming to this school, but I had never seen you guys before. So I guessed you guys were new to the school."

"Yes. What about it?", said William coldly. He has seen this kind of person all of his life because he was always together with Mia, so he knew what they were planning from the beginning.

"Woah!, calm down my boy, I just wanted to give you guys a tour around here. I just want to be friendly to leave a better image of myself to you," said Mike when he saw that William was irritated. He wanted to take them away from the entrance and bring them to a secluded place, but William had already guessed that and was about to give them a lesson.

"Ok, since you guys insist, we'll be in your care for a quick tour," answered William with a bright smile.

'Stupid kid', thought Mike because that was just what they wanted to do. He took the lead and moved away from the entrance with William and Mia following right behind. The others on the group were snickering behind them. Mike went into a dark alley but William didn't say anything as he followed him. When they were deeper in the alley, he turned around and smiled. The others behind covered the way they came in through and closed all the exits.

"You guys are pretty naive, you stupid kids. Anyway, that lady over there is truly beautiful," said Mike while licking his lips.

William already knew this, but he showed an expression of fear and stepped in front of Mia. While all of this happened, Mia was aware of what was going on because this had happened before, so she didn't need to say anything but act scared too. "What's the meaning of this?", asked William.

"You still don't understand? We just want to have fun with the lady behind you. You surely don't want to keep her to yourself, right? hehe." said Mike.

"I thought you guys were students too, so why are you doing this?" asked William, "This is truly stupid, if you do anything, I'll call the police."

"The police? You think we'll let you go so that you can report us? We have done this many times, so I know how to deal with everything. Now, just fall and let us begin. Hahaha." said Mike, he then got closer and a red ax appeared in his hand. The ones behind William also had weapons appear in their hands just like the leader. However, they saw William standing there sneering at them. "What's the problem? Got too scared to think clearly? We are Trigger rankers, you have no power against us, you are just a weak kid with bad luck." They were angry because a nobody was mocking them.

"You are disgusting." the quiet and calm Mia, who had been standing there without doing anything, finally spoke.

"What did you say? Just you wait, we'll first finish with this kid right and we'll follow up having fun with you~" said the angry Mike.

"I said you are disgusting," repeated Mia. Mike's face distorted when hearing the word 'disgusting'.

"You said just now that you were a Trigger ranker, that is just the funniest thing I've heard in my entire life. Such a weak and stupid kid saying he is a ranker? Ha, don't make me laugh, this is stupid. And, just so you know, the only person who can have fun with me is William, then nobody else is worthy." mocked Mia. She was getting angry because these lowly persons were lying saying that they were Rankers.

"You guys are too weak to be Rankers, even the F Rankers are way stronger than you guys can imagine, they can beat you with a finger. Let's also talk about those stupid weapons. An ax? really? Couldn't you get something better out of your low self? at least the one behind me has an animal as a weapon, that's already way better than you." continued William while pointing at a person int he group blocking the way.

"You, how do you know he has an animal as a weapon?" questioned Mike, he was getting more uneasy because these 'kids' knew things that normal people shouldn't know. They were indeed way weaker than F Rankers, but not many people knew this. "It doesn't matter anymore, I'll just kill you already." Mike was getting more uneasy, so he decided to finish this quickly. He ran at full speed towards William. He was sure that William wouldn't react on time because the speed was way faster than normal people.

'Naive fool,' thought William and then he disappeared. Mike was confused because he didn't know what happened, and as he was running, everything turned dark. William had moved behind Mike and grabbed his neck, then he just threw him face-first into the floor, but it was so fast that Mike couldn't see what happened.

The group that was blocking the exists were shocked to see their leader being defeated in such an easy manner. They strongly believed that their boss was stronger than anybody else, so seeing their boss being this easily defeated by such a young boy made them speechless.

Mike stood back up but his face was all bloody and swollen. He was scared because he couldn't even see when William moved to attack him, so he knew that William was a strong opponent. He then remembered what William was saying before. He had said how stupid it was for him to lie about being a Ranker. He realized that William didn't say this as a guess or because he was crazy, it was because he knew that a Ranker wasn't so weak.

"W-who are you?!", asked Mike with a trembling voice.

"I am just a normal Ranker, not a stupid thug in the street lying about being a Ranker like the guys in front of me.", said William with a bright smile, which really scared Mike because William was too young to be a Ranker.

"No, no, no you're not. You are too young to be a Ranker!"

"You don't know anything. You are barely learning the basics while being a recruit, so don't come over here saying that you know what's going on. There are people way stronger and younger than you in Trigger." answered William. "Now, there have been many people that have tried to do the same thing you just did right now. Do you know what happened to them?" William's smile turned cold when he asked this. "They were all killed by me, so now you know what is going to happen to you. Just make sure to not come after my wife in your next life." He was truly angry and would really kill him.

Then, a pistol appeared in his hand. It wasn't like a normal pistol used before. It was a black and silver-colored pistol with a long barrel that was created using SP (Spiritual Power), like how Mike used his SP to create his ax. They were stronger than normal weapons, but their strength also depended on the strength of the persons SP. Mike was too weak, while William is on another level compared to Mike.

When William was pointing the gun at Mike's forehead, Mia called out to him.

"Liam, don't do it. He is still a student at Trigger, so we can just get him expelled." Mia talked to William because she didn't want to see blood today. She found another solution and told William. "Please."

William looked at Mia's face and smiled lightly. "Really? now? Fine, I'll listen to you for today." He then turned to Mike and his face turned cold again. "If I see you again near me or Mia, I will kill you and everyone behind us as well."

Mike was relieved because the pressure he felt just now when William was staring down at him was killing him. He knew that William would kill him and he wasn't lying. So he felt glad that Mia was here as well to save his life. "Thank you." He then turned around and ran away with the other guys right behind him.

William looked at the smiling Mia and said, "Really?".

"It is the first day of school! So please no blood today, ok?" She answered with a cute tone so William couldn't say anything else. He then hugged Mia and started walking to the school again.