The seagulls from shore flew over the little, unknown prefecture. The birds were chirping before they landed on the rooftops, spectating the townsfolk that walked down the street with many stores and markets surrounding it. The few cars that stayed idle on the street were slowly warming up, turning them into deadly metal saunas, thus, people avoid using the cars on this hot day. One of the people who walked down the pavement was Jibriel, also known as Jee by his close friends. He’s heading to the cloth shop to buy new clothing for the money he saved for months. His demeanor was enough to startle the workers in the shop when he entered the shop. His grassy-green eyes scattered the varied assortment of clothing; ranging from trench coats and jackets, to jeans and chinos. He locked his eyes on the trench coats before he closely inspected the trench coats. One of the workers approached Jibriel and asked him, “I-Is there anything I can help you with, s-sir?”, her voice was shaking when she asked him, scared of his response. 

He turned around with his fully-bandaged hand holding onto the railing of the trench coat stand, replying with “Oh thank you for coming over here, I was a little shy to ask any of you!”, his voice was gentle and spoken with an alien accent, “I need some help with the choice of coats. Any ideas on what would look nice on me?” 

She giggled, looking away as her giggle grew into a quiet laughter. She looked back at him with a soft smile on her face as she said, “Well, I think all of these would look great on you!”, she quickly looks at his physique before she picks out a wavy, jet-black coat with a red inside and shows it to him, “I think this black piece would suit you great! Try it!” 

He takes it off the hanger and puts it on, enveloping his lean build. He straightens the collar, covering his neck with a little exposure of his neck in the front. She looks at him after he put it on, giggling as she inspects his look. Agitated, Jibriel asks her with a worried voice “W-Wha?! It’s that bad?” 

“N-No! It’s just a bold move to straighten your collar like that, but it looks pretty good on you!” 

“R-Really?! That’s a relief!” 

They continued with Jibriel’s shopping-spree; he bought the wavy black coat, a pair of black jogging chinos, and a pair of red loafer shoes. As the worker typed in the prices of the clothing, her face slowly turned more and more sad. She looked at him with sad eyes and says “It got very expensive, I can give you a voucher for one of the pieces, but I can’t do anything else. I’m sorry--” 

Jibriel took out his wallet and pulled out a bundle of money and left it on the counter, grabbing the pieces of clothing and walked out from the store. He shouted right before he exited the shop, “Keep the change, honey! I’m sure you need it!”, giggling as he leaves with a little wave. 

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He leaves the shop and is met with a bunch of teenagers, similar to his age. They glared at him before one of them says, “You put Mikaelo bed-ridden... I think you know why we’re here.”, they kept their hands hidden by either having them in their pockets, or just hiding them from his sight. 

“I understand.”, he looks at a nearby alley before he says, “Let’s go over there.” 

They followed Jibriel into the alley, closely walking behind him like a pack of predators. Their eyes are piercing his back as they near the end of the alley. 

“This is it, huh?” Jibriel takes off his t-shirt and places it on the ground and lays the newly-bought clothing on top of it. “You got to respect the fashion nowadays.” 

“Did you get that money from beating up Mikaelo?” 

“No.” 

“You’re lying!” 

“Listen, it’s not my fault for picking me just because of my appearance. If someone calls you a green-eyed Germanic fuck, prepare yourself to get a tooth knocked out of your skull.”, Jibriel starts slowly unwrapping his bandage, revealing a forearm with horrid clusters of scars all over. The one who has been talking all the time in their group brandishes a knife, lunges forward. The rest of the group readies to join in, some of them are taking out their knives. The chatty one diligently follows up with Jibriel evading, only missing him by a hair. Jibriel pulls the bandage tightly between his fists, doing nothing but dodging his attacks. As the stab was about to connect with Jibriel, he flies by him, catching his neck in the bandage before he forcibly wraps the bandage around his neck. As he tightens the wrap, he forces him down against the ground. He traps him in a bandage-chokehold and stares at the rest of the group as he proceeds to tightens the bandage. 

“Let go of him, scum!” 

“If you care about this chatty friend of yours. Let me pass through.” 

“Let go of him!!” 

Jibriel lifts up the chatter’s knife and pushes it against his side. He looks at them through the space in his hair, saying “Do you want another one of yours be bed-ridden, huh? Make a way!” 

The group, still a bit resistant, slowly make a way for the two of them. Jibriel drops the knife and fold his t-shirt into a little package with his clothes. He cautiously walks through the group with the chatter, gasping for air. Jibriel gets through the group and releases the chatter. The group gathers around the chatter, checking him. Jibriel, looks at them before saying “Tell Mikaelo that I’m sorry. We’ll have a rematch when he’s in one piece again. You have my word!” 

He leaves the scene, recollection his breath as he walks back home. He starts wrapping his forearm again as he thinks to himself “That was way too close! I could’ve ended up at the butcherer’s place. I hope Rey doesn’t find out any of this, he’ll fucken punish me for being so reckless. And Gio... he’ll fucken hunt them down and put them all into the same coffin.” The bandaging was done and he saw the driveway of his house. “I love them to bits though... they are like a family to me, those mongos...”