Chapter 3:

The time is 11:40 and lunch is about to start. Prf. Morrigan taught her lessons in a very easy to understand way, so taking notes was breeze.

She gave us the lesson schedules as well as the rooms where we need to go if the subject requires it.

I know she is weird, but she is surprisingly capable.

“*POP* It’s finally over, we got half of the day free since they told us to check out any circles we want to join, right?”

Bikini top wants to start a conversation, huh? No need to panic, I still have my acting skills. *Cough, Cough*

“That’s what I heard to. Guess I’ll roam around the campus and see for myself.”

Hehehe, my acting skill are so good, I scare myself.

By the way, bikini top finally let go of my arm, but she is sited really close to me, that both of our arms tend to touch. She has so much space, but she isn’t moving away.

Well… I guess I could consider myself lucky. After all, the only ones that is bothering me right now is Lusty Professor and Bikini Pop.

As for Ms. Fairy, she was quiet the whole session; I guess she is the smart quiet type.

“…!!!...”

Huh? Was she just staring at me? Her face suddenly turned red, a fever maybe?

*DING DONG!*

“Alright, that is it for the day, so go out there and find a club you want to join. Oh right, you brats better remember what I just said, or I’ll fail you on the spot. Got that?”

Lusty professor sure is strict.

“James! Its lunch time, so let’s go out and I’ll show you a good place that serves great lasagna. That is your favorite,

right?”

I do love lasagna, if she would bring me to a place that serves great lasagna, then maybe…wait…

How the hell does she know that!?

Now that I remember, she even knew my name…

While I ponder on how my class advisor knew about my favorite food, the classroom’s speaker made an announcement.

*Ping Poing*

“TO ALL FIRST YEAR PROFESSORS, PLEASE COME TO THE FACULTY FOR THE FIRST SIMESTER MEETING. I REPEAT. TO ALL FIRST YEAR PROFESSORS………”

Is this a ray of hope? Did god actually help me?

“Tch! Stinking old farts getting in my way…”

Ms. Morrigan suddenly gave a scary look, but turned back to normal when she faced me and gave me a forced smile.

“Sorry about this James, but it looks like I won’t be able to join you for lunch today.”

“Don’t worry; we can just eat lunch together next time.”

She gave me another smile and waved at me while heading out of the classroom.

FREEDOM!!!

“*POP* Guess it’s going to be just the two of us.”

“What?”

“You and me are going to tour the place right? *POP* Come on, let’s go find that lasagna the Prof was talking about.”

This girl’s way of talking is as if us going out together is the most common thing in the world.

But if I refuse, my classmate might think I’m too stuck up, but if I accepted, everyone would think I’m some kind of playboy.

If I need to pick an option between being hated or being the target of jealousy, then…

“Alright, but let’s not look for the lasagna place for now. Let’s just go to the cafeteria.”

“*POP* OK, let’s get going then.”

I can take a single girl, no problem. All I have to do is keep up the act.

“Um…will it be alright if I join you two as well?”

“I’m cool with that. *POP* What about you, are you cool with her joining us?”

“Sure, I don’t mind.”

Two of them now…don’t worry. I…I can handle this much.

Now I have two people to accompany me, not only that they’re both girls.

We started to make our way to the door, but suddenly four men blocked our way to the door and gave, not me  but the girls a dirty look.

“Hey there ladies, why don’t you let us join you.”

“Yeah, it’ll be a lot of fun.”

These four ignored me and just talked to the two girls who are next to me.

It’s true that I want to gain friends, but these kinds of friends aren’t exactly what I’m looking for. I can tell that these guys are nothing but bad news.

“I’m sorry, but we already have plans for the rest of the day.”

“Come on, don’t be like that and have fun with us.”

“*POP* What is wrong with you guys? Didn’t hear what the lady just said? She just said she isn’t interested coming with you guys.”

This girl is pretty brave to say something like that in front these men.

“Hey, come one. We weren’t asking for trouble we just want to ask her out. If you want, you can even come with us.”

Wow, this guy is pretty impressive, asking a girl out then aims for another.

“Hmm?”

Someone just grabbed my jacket from behind. It was on my left side so I already knew who it was.

“*POP*”

She didn’t say anything, she just blow on her gum and make it pop like usual.

But I could feel it, her hand is trembling. Were girls really this fragile?

“P…Please, let go of me. I already planned to accompany these two.”

“Come on, it’s not like we’re planning anything bad.”

Nope, this guy has “lust” written all over his face, same goes for his goons.

“She already said NO, so why can you people get that through your thick skull!?”

Ms. Bikini top, who is at my left, smacked the man’s hand away that was grabbing on to Ms. Fairy’s who made a small shout, Ms. Bikini top then gave an angry stare at them. But her right hand is still grabbing on to my jacket while trembling.

That must have taken a lot of courage.

“You’re starting to get on my nerves, you know that?”

“Yeah, we just want to ask you girls out.”

This is bad. I can feel hostility coming out of these monkeys, especially the one in the back that seems to be the leader of the group.

Ms. Bikini top walked forward while maintaining her grip on my clothes and said…

”Just because you idiots failed to hit on girls in campus, doesn’t mean that you can just force a one!”

“WHY YOU LITTLE BITCH!!!”

I don’t know the leader’s name is but let’s just call him “tons-of-fun” for now, after hearing the sad truth that Bikini-top said, veins popped out of “tons-of-fun’s” forehead and raised his clenched fist.

“KYAA!!!”

*CLENCH!!!*

This guy was seriously trying to hurt her and not only that, that punch just now was like the type that is used on fighting.

I don’t like girls that much, with their trickery and lies.

But what I hate the most is when the strong picks on the weak just because they can.

“Did you just try to hit her just now?”

I was able to stop his hand before it even reaches her.

My body is trained, so this kind of power is nothing to me. But that punch could break a few bones and this prick is planning to hit a girl with this?

The leader’s goons were surprised to see their leader’s punch stopped. But the leader seemed to get even more frantic from my action.

“You little punk, just because you’re a little popular with the girls doesn’t mean you can look down on us.”

“First of all, I am not looking down on anyone; second, you are the one who started this fiasco. So I don’t think you have any right to complain here.”

As I stare at the man who is standing 6 feet in height, I didn’t flinch or talked back and just stared straight at his eyes.

Truth be told, my mother already made me fight something even bigger than 6 feet when I was 7, so this isn’t really scary for me…

That weird polar bear just won’t stay down…damn memories.

Seeing as I stood still and didn’t even give in the pressure, one of the goons whispered something to his ear and finally felt the hostile aura disappear slowly.

“You better watch your back, punk.”

Last words fitting for a bad guy, it’s just like the shows I see in Saturday mornings.

After giving a small sigh, I face Ms. Fairy and asked if she was O.K.

“Are you alright? You arm isn’t in pain is it?”

“I’m fine, thank you for asking and thank you protecting us.”

That’s good I guess. Wait, since when did she grab my arm?

“What about you? Are you doing alright?”

She didn’t answer for while; she just lay her head on my arm and slowly answered back.

“Yeah, I’m alright. Thanks for saving me there.”

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She said she was fine but her hand is still clenched tightly on to my jacket.

“Wow, did you see that?”

“He didn’t even flinch on that big guy’s threats.”

“Two girls on each arm, huh? For some reason I just can’t hate him for it now.”

“Maybe he isn’t such a bad guy after all.”

“That was actually pretty cool.”

I guess I did something worthwhile, since my classmates are giving me compliments. This might actually work out in the end.

“*POP* Come on, we better get going or the only ones left in the cafeteria will be least tasty food.”

Their goes her usual pop, I guess she is starting to calm down.

“That’s true; we should get going if we are to find a suitable club after we eat.”  

“But the question is, *POP* where is the closest cafeteria?”

These two doesn’t seem like a bad bunch, so I’ll just help them out for now. But I still need to be cautious, there still girls after all.

“I know where it is, it’s actually pretty close by.”

It took us only 10 minutes walk to get to the cafeteria. But the place we were expecting was inside a building not an open field food court.

There are a lot of different kinds of choices to western, Japanese, Indian and much more.

“This is quite impressive; they even have desserts in one of the stalls.”

“I think I’ll go western *POP* and get myself a burger and fries.”

Hmm… there are so many choices, but…

“I think I’ll go with the Carbonara.”

We temporally separate ourselves and got to our designated food stalls.

I was the first one who got my food so I searched for an open table. I was able find one easily since there were a lot of them, so I got to sit down quick.

“I’m back, everything in the stalls look so good so I had a hard time choosing.”

“No worries, I didn’t really wait that long.”

“Oh, that’s right. Please help yourself with this.”

“A blue berry cheese cake? Why?”

“I know it isn’t much, but it’s my way of thanking you and I thought you might like this, so please take it.”

“Really? Thanks. I actually like this. But how did you know?”

“I overheard your talk with the professor about the lasagna and you ordered carbonara, so I thought you might like food with cheese as an ingredient.”  

“I can’t deny that. I do love cheesy food like pizza and carbonara.”

While Ms. Fairy and I talk about our favorite food, bikini top finally came back and sat at the same position where she was in class, at my left side.

“*POP* Sorry for the wait, the line was pretty long so it took me a few minutes to get my food.”

Just like what she said, the food she got is a double cheese burger, French fries with sour cream powder and mid size coke.

As for Ms. Fairy, she got a vegetable salad with a Cesar dressing together with a soft boiled chicken and ice tea.

I in the other hand got myself two plates of carbonara, one big roll of shawarma and a large size mountain dew. Plus the blue berry cheese cake that Ms. Fairy gave me.

Bikini top took one tissue from the table and took out her gum and we begin to eat.

“That reminds me, we haven’t really introduced our self yet.”

Now that I think about it…

“Oh my, you are right. If I may, I would like to start first.”

Ms. Fairy stood up while still looking dignified and gave us a bow.

“My name is Anastasia Douva. It’s very nice to meet both of you.”

“That’s a pretty fancy name you have their, Anastasia.”

I agree, that “Anastasia” part really give her a Fairy feel around her.

“Please, you don’t have to call me by my full name. It’s too long so you can just call me Ana.”

“Alright then Ana, I’m Robin Altorez, but you can just call me Robin.”

The two finished their introduction and both faced my direction, waiting for my turn to start.

They seriously want to know my name?

But I can’t! It’s too embarrassing to say my name!

They would definitely laugh at me! Just like the other girls I met so far.

“If it’s alright with you, can you please tell us your name to?”

Ugh…I guess there is no escape now. I no long have any choice but to give up and just tell them.

“My name is…Ja…James Moriarty...”

“James Moriarty? I think I heard that name somewhere before.”

“That’s it; it’s the really evil villain in the book of “Sherlock Holmes” isn’t it?”

Urk! They knew…this won’t be good. But it’s not like I can slip my way through this.

“My mother was a big fan, so I couldn’t really help it and ended up with that name.”

Alright, I’m ready. Go right ahead and laugh…

“That’s kind of cool, having a name of a character in a book.”

“I agree, I have read Sherlock Holmes before and the character James Moriarty was really amazing.”

Huh? No laughing?

For a second I thought Anastasia was only pretending, but since Robin asked on how is the character James Moriarty amazing.

When I was a kid, I got curious on what kind of character is that James Moriarty that my mother is so fond of, so I read one of the Sherlock Holmes book.

I admit that I to was impressed. I mean, Sherlock Holmes is a very intelligent guy, but somehow James Moriarty is always two or three steps ahead of him. So I also thought he was pretty cool…

But my classmates in high school didn’t think so. All they did was ether laugh at me or just think my name is weird.

So this reaction is new to me, it kind of feels nice to be friendly with others for once.

Anastasia explained about the character James Moriarty while we continue to eat our food.

A few minutes passed and the three of us finally finish eating, which in the same time Anastasia explanation has finished.

“*POP* That James guy is really something. It’s like he can see Sherlock’s next move.”

A soon as Robin finished eating; she took out a few mint bubble gums and put three in her mouth. She offered Anastasia and I some, but we politely refused.

We were so engrossed on our food and our talk; we were able to finish our food quicker that we supposed to.

“It’s quite amazing on how much a boy can eat.”

“That was considered normal for us guys though.”

“Considering on your built, I guess you do need to eat a lot. Have you ever done martial arts before, James?”

“…What makes you ask that?”

“You were able to stop the punch *POP* that almost hit me earlier.

Guess I can’t make any excuses here.

“I did, I was taught different kinds of martial arts when I was 4.”

When I gave my answer, both girls gave a surprised and worried look directed to me.

Having that kind of reaction is normal. Training the arts of killing in the age of 4 is just messed up, so it’s understandable to give me that kind of expression.

“Isn’t that age too young? Didn’t your parents say anything?”

“I never met my dad and as for my mother, she was the one who made me train.”

“Wow,*POP* that is some family background you have there.”

“I can’t deny that. Oh, but my mother passed away when I was 15 so I live alone ever since then.”

“Is…is that so, we’re sorry for asking something so impropriate.”

Ana and Robin looked down with an apologetic look.

“It’s alright, that happed a long time ago, so I’m O.K.”

I’m actually still conflicted if I should be happy or not she is gone, but like I said that happened a long time ago.

“*POP* Do you still do it? Training I mean.”

“Not so much.”

That was a lie just now. My body got so used in daily training so much, I always wake up 2 in the morning just so I could start my daily routine, by the way, my training last to 2 in the morning until 9 and another 5 hour when I get home. But I spend my training even longer when it’s the holidays.

But what is more important right now is that I have to avoid this topic before they start asking any more questions about me.

“By the way, aren’t we supposed to tour the campus?”

Anastasia and Robin came to realize that and we all left the food court.

Evasion of exposing my secret: Clear!!!