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Holy Sin #01: Astorion
Chapter 02: The Iron Kid

Chapter 02: The Iron Kid

In the last chapter, Arriving to defend his friends, Aiffel Roseholic used his trademark 'Iron Fist' to take out 'Knuckle Fist Gang' and incapacitate their pet bull, 'Reaper'.

But let's go back to earlier this morning.

A mobile home in a trailer park in an urban region in Roseholics City, Locria.

A woman was trying to flee while holding a baby when she suddenly tripped, sending the baby flying into the air, where it was caught by another woman and vanished from sight. This was Aiffel's nightmare while he was sleeping. A woman came and woke him up while he was having this nightmare and having problems sleeping. Rubbing his eyes, Aiffel sat up and muttered, "Lady Ahora?" in a drowsy voice. His aunt and caregiver, Lady Ahora, was the only person who resided in that mobile home with him.

"Chipiko, what's wrong?", Ahora inquired. "Are you experiencing that nightmare once again?"

"I wake up to this ridiculous dream almost every morning.", Aiffel remarked.

"Take it easy. You'll be alright.", said Ahora while Aiffel yawned and laid back down again. Ahora got him back up and said, "No, dear. You can't sleep anymore."

Exasperated, Aiffel said, "Come on, Lady Ahora. I can't wake up at this early hour. Give me a few more hours to sleep."

"Not anymore. You are late. Don't you have University orientation today?", Ahora reminded her.

With renewed alertness and clarity, Aiffel enquired, "What time is it?"

"8:37.", said Ahora.

"Orientation is at 9.", Aiffel cried in a panic. "Crap!"

So he hurried to the bathroom, where he brushed his teeth, showered, used a brush to straighten his unruly hair, changed into elegant clothing, and ate breakfast. Everything moved quite quickly. Then he bolted for it, bolting from his mobile home.

Ahora screamed from the back, "Chipiko! All the best!" Aiffel smiled at her and continued to bolt.

Aiffel rushed toward the city as fast as possible. While on his way, Aiffel narrated, "My name is Aiffel Roseholic. I'm 17 years old. I have lived here in Roseholics City since I was just a kid. I don't have any parents. Not even their faces are in my memory. Furthermore, I'm not even sure if I ever saw them. It's always been me and my aunt; Lady Ahora. She told me that my parents died shortly after my birth. I don't know why but I wonder. I also had a sensei who taught me martial arts and helped me become a fighter. In my eyes, he was the greatest man to have ever lived. But he passed away a few years back. Since then, I've been training with Lady Ahora. When she learned that I got accepted into Astorion, she teared up. She claimed it to be the best moment of her life. She looks after me very well. I therefore wish to never let her down. By the way, she works in construction, which is unusual for a woman. How does she manage to put in so much work? But by sparring with her, I can tell you that she is strong. All she ever wants is to see me become successful in life, and I try my best to fulfill her wishes... After my sensei died, this country became a rotten and cruel place. People fight every day in their daily lives to survive. People were what I saw the most and, as well, what I knew the least. People do not remember a hundred days of hard work, but they remember a day of laziness. People do not remember a hundred days of your sacrifice, but they remember a day of yours thinking about yourself. People do not remember a hundred days of helping them, but they remember a day of not helping them. People do not remember a hundred days of good behavior, but they remember a day of anger. People remember and will remember. They are humans, after all. People are so strange and stupid. They lose health while acquiring wealth. Then again, to regain that health, they spend that same wealth. They destroy the present by thinking of the future, and they weep in the future by remembering the past. They live as if they will never die, but they die as if they were never born... This city is full of deficiencies; some people lack food, others lack love, others lack knowledge, and others lack humanity. They use people and love things. We live in a world where taking a life is free and saving a life is expensive, where murder is daily news headline, where honesty is rare, where cruelty is satisfactory, where money is more valuable than life, where modernization means bullying, where it is fashionable to get drunk and use drugs, where cheating your loved one is smartness and deceiving your trusted one is cleverness, where the children are left to raise themselves, where juvenile are much convinced in holding a gun than holding a pen, where the rich are respected for their money and the poor are neglected for their poverty, where strong is followed and weak is bullied, where well-educated are unemployed and illiterates are idolized, where society means laughing at the failure and envying the successful, where the rich have more anger, the poor have more hunger, and the middle class have more dreams, where they lust other people's wealth when they can't build their own, where people decay when they die and change when they live, where bullying and harassment is cool and standing up for someone is stupidity, where corruption is legal and starting a movement is a crime, where captivity is universal truth and freedom is just a lie, and where civilization is falling behind and humanity is sleeping. There is no question if the world where we were sent to pay for our own mistakes is a good place. The good is never supposed to be good here. It is natural that bad people will be good in bad places... We live on such a beautiful planet but in such an ugly world. And if you can't escape them, be them... Things I love? Well, I love cars. This is why I work as a mechanic in a car workshop after school. I had to work to support myself, take care of my parents, and pay for my education since they passed away. My hobby is playing guitar. I’m addicted to Rock music a lot. There is a great rock band called 'Halogen' that I listen to the most. They are my favorite. I've been to their concert a couple of times. They are one of the leading bands in the world. The lead guitarist of the band, Bobby Darrell, is my idol. I hope that someday I will be able to play the guitar as fast as he does… My favorite foods are sweets, candies, and Grapes. Well, let’s leave all that for later. Today is my first day in University and damn! I'm late!!"

Aiffel became disoriented by all of these thoughts, losing awareness of his surroundings. Suddenly, he realized he was standing in the center of a busy road, ready to be struck by an extremely fast truck. He looked dead as stone at that moment. The driver applied the brakes but realized that it would be too late. The truck halted as if it had collided with something all of a sudden. Quickly, the driver exited the truck. Everybody on that road came to a stop to witness the incident. Sitting on the ground, Aiffel was hurt a little.

"Are you alright, kid?" The driver questioned him cautiously, but as soon as Aiffel spotted him, he quickly apologized and hurried to get to his destination.

The driver lost his temper and exclaimed, "Watch where you are going, kid!" Then he realized that his truck's front end was somewhat damaged, looking as though it had been hit rather severely, and black smoke was emerging from it.

There are seven countries in this Human Realm: Aeol, Ion, Dori, Phrygy, Lyd, Mixolyd, and Locria. Locria is the setting for this tale. There are 21 million people living in Locria. Roseholics is the most populated state in Locria, and Times New Square serves as its capital. Aiffel Roseholic resides in the city of Roseholics. This city bears the name of a great hero who played a pivotal role in Locria's triumph against Ion during the historic Ionian-Locrian Blood War more than a century ago. About 8 million people live here in Roseholics state. 100 Horned Larks from an island called Harmon were released into Roseholics' Central Park in 1890. There are now over 200 million of them in Locria, all descending from that original flock.

Aiffel looked at his watch; it was 8:53. He stiffened up a little and picked up his pace. As he approached the Astorion University alley, he paused to hear some small talk:

"*enraged* University, huh? What a waste of time! But what do I want, you say? Why don’t you all give us 100 bucks each so you can help us calm down? How about it, huh?"

"*frightened* 100 bucks?!"

"Yes! Come on! Bring 'em out! Nice and easy."

"*familiar voice* Hey! You are messing with the wrong people, buddy! Mess with someone your own size, pal!"

"Grate?", Suspicious, Aiffel asked himself before peeking to find out what was going on. Grate was being roped up by Knuckle Fist Gang as they banded together against him. At that, Aiffel started rolling around on the ground in laughter. Then he came to a stop, furious.

"It was a bad idea to come today, and it's all your fault! We wouldn’t have to fall into this mess either.", Grate said to Irene and Twinkle.

"Don’t ignore me!", Bazooka yelled at them.

Aiffel said, "Hey!" with a somewhat sour attitude.

"Aiffel… You are finally here!", Grate teared up in happiness.

"Huh? Another 100 bucks. Don’t matter. Get in the line!", said a bored Bazooka.

The members of the Knuckle Fist Gang looked very frightened as they were saying:

"It's… It’s him!"

"What is he doing here?"

"Don't tell me he got accepted into Astorion!?"

"What!?"

"Boss! Of all the people in this world, don’t mess with him!"

"Shut up! It doesn't matter who he is; I’m in a bad mood today!", Bazooka yelled.

"You are not the only one in a bad mood today, buddy! Why don’t you leave my friends alone and get lost!", Aiffel yelled back.

"Huh? Who are you, Punk?", Bazooka yelled again.

"Boss! Be careful with him! He is the infamous Iron Kid! A former member and the sole survivor of the Iron Club!", one of Knuckle Fist Gang whispered.

"Yes, that's right! It's the Iron Kid! Aiffel Roseholic! The man when he goes walking with his dog, his dog says to people 'he doesn't bite.'", Grate joked excitedly.

"But I don't have a dog.", said Aiffel.

"Oh? The Iron Kid, huh? Hmph. He is just a kid and besides, there are so many of us and he is all alone.", Bazooka bragged.

One knowledgeable Knuckle Fist Gang member spoke up, "No, Boss. It would be a grave mistake to underestimate him. He is the Iron Kid for a reason. He is making a name for himself. Following in his sensei's footsteps, Aiffel is quite the prodigy. Even the Hunting Party thinks of him as a great potential. Wherever there is a major problem in Roseholics City, doesn't matter if it's a crime, a murder, a robbery, or detective work, whether the HP is there or not, Aiffel Roseholic is always there to solve the problem."

"Oh, look. A Knuckle Fist with brains.", Aiffel chuckled.

"Oh? A Problem Child, then? Haha!", Bazooka laughed.

The knowledgeable member continued, "You may have heard or not, a couple of years ago, there was a major incident in Sixxity (Sick City) involving some Helveltica students. An incident that messed up a Godfather's plan and shook the world. Rumors were floating around that Aiffel Roseholic was one of those students and that is where he made his name famous." Other knuckle-fist gang members were astonished to learn about it.

"Is that so? And you are underestimating me and who we are. We are Knuckle Fist Gang! Maybe you are overestimating him. He is nowhere near my level! Even if his small fry friends stand by his side, they won’t be able to touch the mighty Knuckle Fist Gang! Bring it on! You are gonna get the Knuckle Fist!!!", said Bazooka with damn care as he was gonna punch Aiffel. *very slow-motion moment here*

Aiffel dodged it and said, "The knuckle fist, huh?" before using an uppercut to the jaw of Bazooka. Bazooka was knocked out cold.

The rest of the Knuckle Fists Gang got scared and reacted, "It’s the Iron Fist!"

"So? You want some of the small fries, huh?", Aiffel grinned.

"Boys! Remember we are Knuckle Fists Gang! We are the most fearsome stable of Locria! He is just a kid and we still have dozens of us to teach that bastard a lesson!", one brave member encouraged the rest of the gang.

"That’s the spirit! Bring it on!", Aiffel smirked.

"Yeah! Beat them up, Aiffel! Avenge me!", Grate yelled.

Aiffel kept on fighting them and beat them down using his Iron Fist and Iron Kick.

One member of Knuckle Fist Gang brought out their pet, a Black Bull that had big knuckles on its snout, and they called it 'The Reaper'.

The member yelled, "This is the end for you, Iron Kid! The Reaper is here to take your soul! It will send you to the heavens where your master is! Reaper, go! Kill that Iron trash!" The bull then started charging at Aiffel, who, hearing those words, fell mute, went into a dark place in his mind, and remained motionless.

"Aiffel, get out of the way! It's too dangerous!" "Aiffel! It's best if you just let it go this time.", Twinkle and Irene worried.

Meanwhile, Grate looked confident and said, "Do this, buddy..."

The bull was closing on its way to Aiffel.

"Aiffel... It might be the best time for you to make a move.", Twinkle worried.

After a while, Aiffel finally raised his voice, "Guys... I think I know what we are gonna have for a barbeque tonight!", and as the bull got closer, he charged with his fist. Then, bam! Up to the knuckle on its snout, an Iron Fist. The bull was knocked out cold, shattering the knuckle into fragments. The entire Knuckle Fist Gang became frightened and withdrew in extreme horror.

Aiffel told them, "Get lost and never come back! And yeah, take that brainless idiot with you too!" He picked up Bazooka and threw him to them.

Then Aiffel turned to his friends, and said, "Hey, guys!"

"Don't 'hey guys' me! Get these ropes off!", Grate barked.

"On second thought... Twinkle. Irene. We are late. Let's get in.", said Aiffel as he went ahead. "Come. Let's go." Grate trailed behind while Twinkle and Irene went with him.

"Hey! Where you goin'? Get back here! Untie me! Get back!!!", Grate yelled.

Then Aiffel, Grate, Twinkle, and Irene were walking on the University campus ground.

"I swear! One of these days, you are going to get killed by me!", said Grate to Aiffel annoyingly.

"Yeah, right. But before that, we gotta find where orientation is happening. There's not much time left.", Aiffel replied.

They went into the University building, walked up to the receptionist, and inquired about the location of the orientation.

"The freshmen gathered in the University's backyard. Join them. Professors will be there soon.", said the receptionist.

Aiffel and his friends thanked her.

"You can go there through that hallway.", the receptionist added.

After that, the students started moving through the hallway. Above it was an inside balcony with a few senior students standing on it, decked out in stylish jackets emblazoned with the words "H&R" and "Que". They began to call the freshmen using funny names.

"Ignore them. Keep walking.", Aiffel said to his friends.

The guy in the middle from that balcony called Aiffel, "Hey, Rooster!"

The guy had a dark sneer on his face and was attractive, cool, and had emo hair. Upon hearing it, Aiffel looked up and met his gaze. The biggest rivalry in history began as a result of their eye-to-eye collaboration; which is yet to be told.

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