A week or so had passed since the classroom incident. Erica was now a lot closer to Miche since she immediately thought he was the only one who could fight off those coming out of portals. To Miche, he imagined that she thought it was some kind of crazy government thing where they were after her.

“Were they always that close?”

“Miche and Erica huh? It should’ve been me!”

Miche could feel the burns in the back of his head from jealous boys. Sadly, they had the wrong idea about the whole situation. Miche looked back quickly at him and Erica’s conversation after the incident.

A week ago, minutes after incident:

“Erica. You absolutely cannot tell anyone what happened here today. Otherwise, we’ll both be in trouble.” Miche said scarily.

Erica nodded nervously.

“Will you protect me from them if someone like that assassin comes back?” She begged.

Miche blushed a little after seeing her puppy eyes and then promised to protect her until they were all gone.

Present:

“I guess she can be cute sometimes.” Miche thought.

Soon, the school day came to an end and Miche walked home with Erica.

“I’m not really into her but I’m happy I can walk home with a cute girl. It makes me look tough to other people passing us by.” Miche puffed out his chest confidently.

While walking, they both ran into a group of tall beefy boys from the neighbouring high school.

“Hey beautiful, why’re you with a nerd like this.” One of them said, reaching his meaty hands out towards Erica.

She moved and hid behind Miche, who had to keep his cool. He’d never dealt with a group of big bullies before so it was honestly nerve racking for a coward like him.

“Yeah come with us. We’ll show you a better time than what this stick like loser can do for you.”

Erica shook her head quickly and Miche looked at her. He turned back towards the bullies nervously.

“Hey, I don’t think she wants to go with you guys. Could you let us through please, I have to take her home.”

“What did you just say.” The one at the front threw a fist at Miche’s face. He pulled up his hand and grabbed the fist with ease.

“Good. My strength can stop attacks like these. It’s nothing like when I fought that beast of an assassin. I was lucky enough to kick him back into the portal.” Miche thought.

The boy became furious and begun swinging at Miche. They were younger than Miche so he definitely had to hold back. He was able to get behind this one boy and knock him down by breaking his knee. The other two came attacking together. Miche dodged their attacks with ease and eventually beat them as well. He made sure not to leave bruises or scars.

While the boys rolled around on the floor while Miche and Erica walked ahead.

“Will they be alright?” Erica asked.

“Yeah. I hope so at least. I didn’t think you would care.”

“Of course I don’t, I was just worried about what might happen to you.”

She quickly ran into her home and Miche watched from below.

“Worried about me huh?” He smiled.

The next week came quickly, but at this point, Miche wasn’t just protecting Erica. They were now close friends.

The weekend was nearing and both Miche and Erica made plans to go into town for the day to spend some time together.

“Remember to come at 14:00 since the movie starts at 14:30 .” Erica said while leaving the class.

“I’ll get you a drink when we get there. Bye.” He waved as she waved back.

Now he was alone in the room at least five pairs of eyes glaring at him.

“Don’t forget who you were Miche.” A voice said.

“Yeah, did falling into a coma suddenly make you hot to girls or something.” Another voice said.

“IT SHOULD BE ME WITH HER! Not you!” Someone screamed.

“SHUT THE FUCK UP!” Miche screamed.

Everyone flinched and looked at him nervously.

“I don’t know who you losers think you are by making fun of me, but you better stop. The guy who screamed at me just now that you should’ve been with her? You should’ve talked to her yourself when you had the chance instead of staring at her all day like a creep and drawing pictures of you and her together. That’s right I’ve seen it.”

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Some people in the room looked at the guy weirdly after his odd fantasies were brought to light.

Miche walked out of the room and immediately slumped on the wall.

“This new me is so much more confident. I’m loving it but on the inside, I’m screaming in fear. It’s funny, but I had to say something to the Erica fan club. More losers in that classroom than me.” He thought to himself.

It didn’t take long for the day to come. Erica and Miche had a great time watching the movie, going out to eat, playing mini games at the arcade and winning prizes with tickets. The day was almost coming to an end and they both enjoyed it deeply. Maybe Miche liked this girl more than he thought, a loser like him with a beauty like her was something he couldn’t have imagined ever.

“I had a great time Miche.” She said.

“So did I.”

While eyeing each other and slowly leaning in, another red portal appeared in the middle of the town plaza where they were. Lots of street laps crashed, water began to rise out of the fountain and so did many different things around.

“Erica get out of here. He’s back, or maybe another one.”

“I can’t leave you.” She screamed.

“It’s fine don’t worry. Just hide nearby.” He smiled.

She quickly ran away as he smiled watching her. He turned back with a dark look in his face, washed in anger.

“This bastard is back and he ruined my first kiss. I can’t let this shit slide.” He thought angrily.

A foot came out of the portal but it was a different man in a black suit. Another assassin and not the one from before. He had large broad shoulders and arms.

“He’s definitely strong. I need to knock him back into that portal.” Miche thought while summoning the lightning sword he attained from the last assassin.

He lunged at the man as fast he could and swung the sword hard. It cut the man’s cubit as he jumped back.

“You’re fast. I see why we’re being sent to kill you.” The man said.

Miche didn’t want another conversation. He jumped and tried to land a spinning back kick which was easily dodged once again. Luckily the man was on the side of Miche’s short sword. Miche swung it up and it cut the man’s nose as he duck. He went for an uppercut and it landed in Miche’s face. He went flying into the air and crashed into the floor.

People in the crowd were recording with their phones but Erica was only watching in fear as the boy she gained feelings for was getting tossed about.

“He’s way stronger than the last assassin. What an I gonna do.” While Miche thought he realised he wasn’t too far away from the portal. But, to him, this tactic would risk everything. His family, the girl he loved and the passion he had for art.

“TO HELL WITH IT!” He screamed.

The big man in the suit walked closer and closer ready to kill Miche.

“Don’t get too angry that you’ll die boy. Just know it’ll be painless. It’ll be painless for your family and your little girlfriend over there too.” The man said.

Miche got even more angry by those words but waited for the man to get closer and closer until he was in grabbing distance. Miche knew he was too weak right now to kick this absolute Goliath back into the portal so he had to do it to save himself and to get rid of the possibility that this assassin might try and kill anything close to Miche.

Miche jumped forward and put all of his strength into this move. He grabbed tightly onto the assassin and they both fell back into the portal. He could hear the screams of Erica running towards him.

“Miche don’t!” She cried.

“Damn it. I’m sorry Erica.” He said to himself.

The portal immediately shut and everything went black.

“It’s all black. I sort of assumed death was beyond this portal. Is death just nothingness?” Miche thought to himself.

“Erica, mom, dad… I’m so sorry…”

A few minutes passed and Miche could feel light touching his eye lids.

He could feel himself on a bed of green grass. He stood up with sticks on the floor all around him, along with trees. The air smelt so clean and satisfactory, nothing like the city he lived in. He looked at his hands and they looked small, his body felt much more compact and skinny compared to before. His hair felt more curly and soft compared to his casual scruffy hair from before as well.

“Where am I?” He asked.

The green holographic text box appeared in front of him once again. This time the text was in red.

‘SYSTEM ALERT: New body entered after old body was crushed during portal transportation. Therefore, your consciousness and soul were placed into a corpse. Would you like details on the corpse?’

“What the hell? So my old body was destroyed in the portal and now I’m here in this new one? Hmm, Actually, yes I would like information on this new body.” Miche said.

A picture of the boy popped up along with a few lines of description.

‘The owner of this body was a boy named ‘Rold’, he was twelve years old and died of natural causes here in this forest while gathering sticks for fire wood for his family. He goes to a school called ‘Gallness education’ in the nearby town but is much more poor compared to other students so he was usually picked on physically and verbally at school. He never said anything to his parents or sister since he didn’t want to cause them trouble. Your simultaneous deaths allowed for the system to replace your old body and move your consciousness and soul here.’

Miche began to tear up a little and sniffled. This kid was tormented almost his entire time at school and never said a word to his parents.

“He’s a true man, I’ll never forget you Rold. You were truly something else. Something that my old loser self could never live up to.” Miche thought sadly.

“Wait, then that means I’m in a different world. If that’s how it is, those assassin guys must have been coming from here. But why were they after me? The system maybe? One of them said that I would cause havoc in this world, and even if I do get back to my previous world, no one will recognise me since I’m in this body of a child who’s surprisingly way better looking than me. It’s sad, but I don’t want to cause trouble for my family and Erica…” He thought while sitting down.

While wiping his eyes of tears and finally coming to his sad but realistic conclusion, Miche stood up quickly.

“I’ll take on the name Rold and forget about trying to find a way home. If I go home those assassins will try and kill the people I love. I can’t cause trouble for them, I’ll learn from you Rold and how you kept quiet to release stress from your parents. I’ll do the same and protect them for you.” Miche said determined.

“Thank you mister. Take care of them for me.” Rold said in a faint whisper.

“Was that Rold?” Miche thought while being a little startled by the sudden voice.

After convincing himself to protecting Rold’s family and to give up on returning to his past life, to protect them, Miche picked up the sticks and went over to the house he saw in Rold’s memories. He had to pass through the town and down an alley to an open field, then around the forest and to a cottage.

“Let’s go. To my new life and to finding those damn assassins who ruined my last life.”