-Vol 5: A New Life-

-Something Happened-

“Wow!! A Skillez model!! Man, you never told you got one of these? Wait! It's not the regular Skillez…damn! It’s a limited edition too!!” Joy instantly recognized the model the first time he saw it. Kenshin didn’t know it, but Joy was a hardcore car enthusiast. He even had a collection of limited edition cars back in his garage.

“Yep! I ordered it online… its finally arrived! But…it looks even cooler than the picture!” Kenshin also marveled at the beauty parked in front of him. No matter if it was a boy or girl, everyone had a weakness for this kind of sports car. Its looks, power, and attraction…no body could resist them.

“Online? You mean you get one of these online? How can that be possible? Perhaps you don’t know, but this model has just recently arrived. Not only it's very rare, and only limited numbers are produced, it was also very expensive. One didn’t just buy it online like some electrical products!” Joy was even more surprised when he heard Kenshin’s words of buying it online. Unlike Kenshin, he owned many cars. He knew exactly which cars could be bought online and which not. How could he believe that Kenshin had ordered it online?

One has to know that expensive car like this needs to be booked before a long time in order to buy them. Even though hunters enjoy a few privileges, they still couldn’t buy such rare commodities online.

“Really! But I only dialed the number of the showroom, and the receptionist on the other side said that I could. She was the one who recommended me this model.” Kenshin furrowed his brows.

“Man! I can’t believe how lucky you are.” Joy shook his head and continued to admire the car.

“Lucky, huh! Yeah…lucky indeed,” Kenshin suddenly remembered his unbelievable amount of luck. He had never analyzed this stat of his. Definitely, LUK’s effects weren’t tangible. In fact, until now, Kenshin never had enjoyed the fruits of his high amount of LUK. But now, under the reminder of Joy, he finally noticed some subtle things that happened throughout his everyday life.

“Hey, let's get a quick drive of this. I am dying to try this baby out.” Joy mimicked the expression of a hungry dog with his tounges out and panting heavily. As a car enthusiast, he wanted to try out the thrill of driving a special limited edition car.

“Hmm! Let me get the keys first.” Turning around, Kenshin ran back to his home and changed into a spare set of clothes that he usually wears. He just had to change out of the outfit Yuki had chosen for him. He wasn’t used to wearing short pants in public. After that, he ran back to Mrs. Yui’s house and knocked on her door.

A few minutes later, with a small ‘click’ the door opened and white headband wearing Mrs. Yui poked her head out. White flour dusted on her cheeks, perhaps from baking the bread. Seeing that it was Kenshin, she opened her mouth wide and then gasped loudly. After that she grabbed his hand and pulled him inside, clicking the door shut behind her back. Then she looked at him in the eye before staring “You-you! Did you know what happened during the past few days? How can you be so careless?”

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“EH! What happened?” Kenshin didn’t understand her extreme behavior. Her acting distress like this, it was his first time seeing it.

“That day when you handed me that letter, you should have told me it was because you are importing a foreign car. You know how much troubled I was these days? Not only the arrival of the car attracted a huge crowd that day, but also every day after that. These days, many people in black coats are regularly coming to ask about the owner of the car. You…how can you be so careless?” furrowing her brows, and clutching her tiny and soft fists in front of her chest she complained about all her might, pouring out all the grievances she had been facing these days.

“Sorry!...wait, you said men in black suits? Who are they?” Kenshin caught on to another point. Right now, he was going head-on with two groups of people, a hundred years old family and a secret organization who trained their members to be professional killers. Neither of them was easy to deal with.

‘Which one of these two?’ Kenshin wondered in his heart. Worried about her and Ellie, he asked, “Who are they? Did they give a name or something? And where is Axel? He should be with you?”

“They said they are from the Income Tax department of the government. Although I doubted them since they didn’t show their ID cards even after I politely asked them to. I have sent Axel to school with Ellie. It's three days already since he has started school, you know!”

“Wow really? Did he managed to pass the entrance exam?” like a concerned parent, Kenshin instantly asked about the thing that mattered the most. Unlike Mrs. Yui and Ellie, he had spent too little time with Axel…but, he was still a kid whom he brought home from the roadside and quite literally at that. He held a form of brotherly affection at him, although not to the level of Akari and Ellie.

“He is a smart kid. He managed to understand everything in just a week. He aced the exam. Even now, the principal was singing praises of him.” Mrs. Gushed at him as she recounted the events of exam day.

“Really? That’s good for him. We will talk about this later, for now, can you give me my car’s keys?” Kenshin was also excited about Axel’s examination day, he still had an unfinished work to be done right now.

“Okay. Wait here.” After that, she walked up upstairs to retrieve keys.

Ring* Ring*

While he was waiting patiently, he suddenly saw Mrs. Yui’s phone on the dining table started to ring loudly. Absentmindedly peering, he saw it belonged to Ellie. Mrs. Yui had given her a phone to notify her in case of emergencies. Narrowing his eyes, he grabbed the phone and pushed the green button on it.

A few minutes later, Mrs. Yui returned with Kenshin’s keys in her hands. “Here. I have hidden away the keys-!? Kenshin?” finding no one in the room, Mrs. Yui looked around in wonder.

“Did he forget something? Kenshin?” while murmuring she went out of her house and peered towards Kenshin’s room. But found it closed, to her left, she saw the new car’s cover was undone. Looking down, she found Kenshin’s slippers were still outside her door. It looked like he ran away hastily without bothering about his feet.

“What happened?” for a second, she looked around in confusion; then, with a frown, she closed the door and went back inside the house.

…

“Kenshin, what happened? Why are running so fast?”

“No time to explain. My sister is in danger. let’s just hurry.”

Currently, both Kenshin and Joy were running at their top speed as they streaked across the busy road of Mito, leaving behind a trail of ruptured airwaves. Currently, they were running faster than a sports car.

“Your sister? Isn’t she in Tokyo?” Joy, who was aware of Kenshin’s family condition by now asked, surprised. The direction they were running was completely the opposite of Tokyo.

“Not Akari. My landlady’s daughter. Ellie.” Kenshin answered although his brows were sweating from worry and anxiety.

“The little devil you talked to me about?”

“Yeah. Her” Kenshin remained silent after that as he recalled what Ellie spoke when he received her call.

[Mom! Help me! There are weird people in weird dresses beating Axel. They also caught me. I don’t know where they are taking us.] the call was cut off after that with a static. Kenshin could hear some shout in the background.

‘Dammit! Ellie…don’t worry, I am coming!’