Escape (I)

Running away would be the best course of action for me, but that too came with its own problems. I was only 7 years old, nobody was going to give me a job and I had no money. Yes, I was planning to take my allowance, and even though my savings were not insignificant, I wasn't going to last for long just with that.

I needed a source of income to keep me afloat… The easiest way would be to take over a gang or a villain group. I might get branded as a villain if I walked down that path, but I didn't care… I was already screwed either way, so why should I care what the system thought of me?

Now, it might seem like I am jumping the gun or I am being overly paranoid, but I knew enough to realize when the shit was about to blow… 

They could call me whatever they wanted, but I was planning to live my life to the fullest. Previously, I was planning to join the Heroes and make a life for myself, but now I was going to crave my own path. Did I sound edgy? Most probably. I always hated the idea of working under someone.

I don't know why I hated the idea… Maybe, it had something to do with all the memories stuffed inside my head, or I might be simply hardwired like that. Rikiya simply enforced the idea with the stunt he pulled at the party and now the books he sent me. I should have snapped his neck right then.

It would have spared me so much trouble… Meh. Probably not. Killing would have caused his underlings to come after me, but killing him would have been satisfying. Am I turning into a psycho murderhobo? Most likely. I groaned and slammed my head on the wall.

Counting today, it has been three days since I had slept and I could feel that my lack of sleep was taxing my mind. I realized that even with my powers, going without sleep for multiple days was not good for my health, my mental health specifically since I was completely fine physically.

"Adachi-kun, are you alright?" Someone asked me and turned around to find my homeroom teacher staring at me with a look of concern on her face. Shit! She must have seen me bang my head on that wall.

"I am fine, sensei. Thank you for worrying" I answered as I didn't want her to get involved and I was a loner. I was not an introvert, but I never liked mingling with others.

"You just hit your head on the wall. You are not alright. Come on, let's go to the nurse's office. It's obvious that you are still ill" The teacher scolded me gently with a stern look on her face. The school called my parents when I didn't come to school for the last two days and they used the most common excuse that I was ill.

"...Alright" I relented since she wasn't going to let it go and I didn't want her to call my parents. She took me to the office and helped me lie down on one of the beds. The nurse inspected me and gave me a clean sheet, but she agreed to keep me under her watch for the next couple of hours. 

I decided to use this opportunity to close my eyes, but I didn't dare to fall asleep… I needed my mind to rest if I wanted to carry out my plan as smoothly as possible. I was going to do it tomorrow, at least if nothing went wrong. I could have taken more time, but I wasn't sure what Rikiya was cooking for me.

I needed to leave before he could finally enact his plan… Rikiya was probably going to be mad at Ren and Mai, but I didn't care. I owed them for a lot of stuff and I paid them back by saving them from Chitose… In my books, we were even. The only reason I made Rikiya promise their safety was because I wanted to mislead him.

I wanted Rikiya and everyone else to believe that I still cared about them… As an orphan starved for familial love and bonding, they would have expected me to care for them to a certain extent. That was probably why Chitose tried to use them in the first place… 

Ren and Mai might have adopted me just for the sake of their plan, but they never treated me wrongly… They were not good parents, but they were good people and that is why I saved them, but if they got in trouble again then they would be on their own. Sucks to be them I suppose, after all, they shouldn't have joined MLA in the first place…

Well, they were no longer my problem, however, I intended to pay them back the money I was planning to take in the future, in case they survived the aftermath. I have already managed to come up with a list of cities I could go to after escaping Deika City. Any city with any of the top 50 Heroes didn't interest me much since those cities didn't have high crime rates.

Cities with high crime rates were going to have more bad guys in them, which meant more opportunities for me. Now, there were quite a few types of shady businesses I could take over, but I was going to avoid overtaking any prostitution rings, loan business, and collection rackets. All of the mentioned businesses reminded me of ABB and I wasn't planning to recreate ABB in this world.

Jaku city was the most appealing option for me at this moment since there were no high-ranking Heroes in the city and the city was filled with nightclubs and casinos. I would have loved to take over a casino, but it would also draw more attention to me, so my best choice would be to take over a nightclub. 

Yeah, I might be starting small, but I had no intention of stopping there… I was going to expand and swallow Jaku city completely…