Asura stood up and stretched, feeling tense from rapid growth. He took a moment to carefully stretch every part of his body—starting from the head; followed by shoulders, arms and waist; and finally the legs.

As he finished stretching, his long white hair slowly slid off his shoulder and straightened out.

"Hng... let's go, Xia!"

The white-haired boy leaned down and stretched out his hand to the little girl. Her deep black hair lay scattered on the ground, forming an enchanting scene paired together with her mesmerizing red eyes. Despite being so young and small, the beauty these two kids exuded was indisputable.

"Mnn?", a faint questioning sound came from below.

Glancing at his hand, little girl tilted her head to the side, as if not understanding Asura's intentions.

Seeing her confusion, Asura couldn't help but wonder what troubled her. "What's wrong, Xia? Do you not want to go?"

Xia took a look at him and shook her small head slightly. Her hand slowly neared Asura's, slightly flinching when the two came in contact. After a brief moment, Xia relaxed and slowly gripped his hand, only then pulling herself up.

Looking at her current appearance, Asura felt a heavy feeling forming in his heart. What served as Xia's clothing was a single thin fabric with lots of holes in it. It was chipped at the edges, even torn at some places, revealing Xia's delicate yet pure skin.

This scene invoked various memories from Asura's life on Earth. He had stumbled on various depictions like this one in his youthful days, while reading mangas and novels. Even though his life wasn't long-lasting, as he died at 30, it was still enough to make him feel like an old man recalling his younger days.

Xia's long hair reached all the way to the floor, one part even completely falling flat on it. Compared to the length of her hair, Asura's was shorter—it didn't touch the floor, after all. It was pointless competing with a girl in hair length, according to his thoughts.

Asura was absorbed in his thoughts until he noticed a weird gaze directed his way. Turning his head, he saw Xia with her head pointing slightly below his chest and her eyes centered on a certain area of his body. Following her gaze, Asura looked down and realized what Xia was staring at.

He was naked, after all. Surely a young girl would be curious about something she doesn't have, wouldn't she? He didn't feel shame because she saw him, nor was there any reaction—most likely because his mentality was that of a child. However, he was very thankful that there was no reaction, otherwise her curiosity may have grown even bigger.

Now that he thought about it, him not feeling like a thirty-year-old man was strange. He died at thirty in his past life, so shouldn't he feel like someone who was thirty even now? This was completely different from the novels he had read before. Even though he kept most of his past memories, the current him only thought of them as a very vivid dream, nothing more than that.

As his thoughts reached this point, he subconsciously smiled and murmured, "Interesting. To think it will be like this—truly interesting!"

Looking at Xia's confused gaze, he smiled and quickly thought up of an excuse for speaking his thoughts aloud. "Isn't it interesting? This world, that is."

Xia's brows furrowed as she nibbled on her thumb, trying to process the meaning behind his words, but seeing her eyes full of confusion even after a while, Asura realized that a child can't process the complex meaning behind his words, probably.

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He scratched the side of his head in helplessness, "Haa... nevermind. We've already been here long enough—let's go! Do you have anything you need to take here before we leave?"

*nod*, *nod*

Seeing her cheerfully nod like that, he could only smile and ruffle her hair.

"Emm...", a soft moan came from Xia's mouth as questioning look filled her red eyes.

"Mm? What's wrong?", the boy asked.

Xia pointed her finger towards Asura's hand which was currently messing with her hair and furrowed her brows, showing her confusion directed at this event.

"Huh? Oh... you wanna ask why am I doing this?"

With a nod, her eyebrows relaxed again as her long black eyelashes fluttered, like the wings of a butterfly.

"Hehe, I see... When someone does this, it usually means they care about you a lot, so they feel a need to do it. Do you understand what that means?"

"Haue?"

"Haue... care? You don't know what 'care' means, right?"

"Umu."

"Caring about someone simply means you love them and want to help them in any way you can. Like, for example, protecting them from danger, or helping them get up when they fall and such. Mostly just being with them and spending time together unconditionally."

Xia's eyes glowed with a particular light as she went, "Ooh! Haue! Haue!!"

Seeing her jumping for joy because of learning something new, Asura smiled brightly, just like a child would. That pure, beaming smile—it represented his first dear memory in this world. With that, he had truly become someone belonging to this foreign world where he knew nobody except that angel from before and this curious little girl.

A sudden surprise brought him back to the past when Xia stretched her hand out and started ruffling his hair just like she had experienced a while ago. The smile on Asura's face that was previously fading rapidly returned with an even stronger intensity!

"Hehe, you little... Do you 'care' about me as well?"

"Umu! Umu!! Haue. Ahuah, haue!", a rapid series of responses came back.

"Haha, okay, okay! Good girl. Let's go now—you can 'care' about me when we leave this place, okay?"

*nod*, *nod*

Those nods of hers' were very powerful weapons aimed at Asura's fragile heart. It made him feel like he would melt any second if he let this little girl run wild with her actions and curiosity. A child's curiosity was truly dangerous—even more when coupled with cuteness.

Asura took a deep breath to calm himself and the two finally set off brimming with smiles.

>>>

Asura and Xia didn't even make two steps before they had to stop again. The reason that made them stop was simple - they stumbled upon a staff that had fallen from the old man's hands previously.

Asura crouched and slowly touched the staff with the back of his hand. This was a habit from the past life that he had learnt of in school.

Touching something dangerous—like electricity or fire—would make one's hand jerk. That's why it was better to touch potential danger with the back of one's hand—It will surely move away from the source of danger, rather than touching with the palm facing toward it and taking a risk to reflexively grab the source, creating an even firmer contact between the source and the hand.

There were many accidents involving humans and electricity, just because many didn't know this simple solution.

Noticing this, Asura couldn't help but smile. Various memories from his school days flashed by as the back of his hand slowly slid against the surface of the staff. He had a tendency to get absent-minded like this all the time, even for the smallest of things. However, he had adapted to it over time and it didn't hinder his life at all.

"How nostalgic...", he murmured.

Xia looked at him, then at the staff on the ground and then at her hand. Either she didn't want to feel excluded or she was just curious—whatever the reason was, it resulted in her imitating the moves of this strange white-haired boy she had just met.

And the result of that was...

"Hehe!"

Her oh-so-sweet chuckle of happiness - a bullet to the boy's heart.

By the time this all took place, Asura had already left his wandering thoughts alone and paid attention to Xia's actions. Witnessing the entire process, the only thing he could do was chuckle as well.

Xia turned her head around and looked straight at the green eyes waiting on the other end. Her deadliest weapon—the silent finisher, appeared! Eyes closed, beaming smile and a mischievous giggle. That was all it took to thoroughly pierce the young boy's heart and brand herself in it.

Asura's thoughts surged. "Kgh... if she keeps doing that, I will die! So cuteeee!!! I've never seen a girl so cute in my life. God, what is this? How can such a cute thing exist?! It's like a little fluffy animal without fluff and in human form... whatever that meant!"

Yet, the sounds of doom gave him no mercy.

"Ahuah! Haui!! I auf haui!"

Asura's eyes filled with surprise as he quickly looked at the red eyes hidden in the veil of darkness.

"You're happy?"

"Mmf! Haui!"

With a smile, he ruffled her hair once again, "If you're happy, then I'm happy too! That means we are both happy!"

"Mm! Mm! Vof haui!"

"Yeah, both happy!"

"Tee-hee!"

While Xia giggled in joy and let Asura's hand freely glide along her hair, Asura's expression turned slightly more serious because of something he had just noticed.

"Her pupils turned into vertical slits... Is she a beast in human form perhaps? Also, what led to that happening?", he thought.