This Is What It Feels Like
“Aaah…” A brown man with a luxurious but more decent suit sat on a bench to rest. It was the morning, so few people were out of work, taking a break. Most would long for their lunch, or not, if they were masochistic and maybe good at their job. Others, such as the legendary freelancers, might be taking a break at this time, like now.
The brown man, a handsome, proper man with thin hair, spread his arms on a bench and looked at a digital thin screen in a store. A good, quick, well-paid consultation was his every day’s breakfast, second only to having actual breakfast with his wife, which was second to only waking up with her every morning.
Looking at the screen, he blinked, wearing a thin smile that wasn’t a smile, and feeling in a good mood. The screen showed a news anchor that had rapidly grown in population. The In Between Life and Future news anchor; BLF.
They started with small footage and meaningless interviews in Preut, although they had a channel, profile, and account in every social media beforehand. That was until they struck gold with a nowadays prestigious person. From then on, it seemed like their heavy steps up the ladder were paid with their respective worth.
Having a lot of interviews with the public servants who had worked up until now under president Luis Heartez’s 2nd term, and reporting news of the happenings around the country, they had become the spokesfolk of the government’s deeds. As they expanded, instead of taking the usual route, they ‘hired’ content creators with alike minds.
It was rocky at first, having many fake pro-Heartez individuals sign up, but they learned from their mistakes. Currently, they had a lot of people, but still could not cover even half the states of Lýmoca. Still, they were gaining as much if not more views than conventional news anchors.
“Today, 13% of the known brands taking ‘pact’ in this group of businesses cartel have been confirmed to be successfully prosecuted. Even then, compared to 65% being arrested but absolved from their charges by the Supreme Court ministers themselves, this is but a diminutive fraction… if you can see here…”
The screen showed footage of people lowering their heads as they were grabbed by soldiers and brought into a contention precinct. It was clear the government wasn’t even willing to let these scum anywhere near the Supreme Court Justice’s reach.
The brown man looked at this channel for a few more moments, not like he could change it, when he felt his body vibrate. He sat up as his face fell. It wasn’t his phone that was called, or notified, but his ‘work’ phone.
Standing up, the brown man checked his work phone before sweating, yet also with his eyes becoming severe. With the hard-set notion of an enraged husband, he walked away and… took a PVT.
***
Proteros, in one of many street condominiums. Late morning.
A woman with Dawn aesthetics opened the door after seeing it was cops who were calling to her door. But as soon as she did, the cops stepped aside and revealed 2 men who didn’t look Ly. She frowned, but she was also questioned by them right away.
“Ma’am, we know you might be threatened by your husband. In the past, he dealt with companies from overseas and ANS, we came here to talk about this. If you could let us in, we’ll talk about this, and we can help you out of this situation.”
“Ma’am, if you are afraid, you must tell us. We’ll bring this man to justice, paying for his deficit and trickery against other companies. Armando Peña is a monster! We will not let him get near you ever again!”
“I- you are both mistaken!” The woman was about to try and dialogue with a calm tone, but her face changed as she seemed to think of something. She frowned at them and barked out with sternness. The men weren’t pleased, their eyebrows sinking. Just as they were about to stop her door from closing, stepping past her doorstep, a whistling sound went off.
Pank- pffuph! A couple of items flew from who knew where, hitting the head of one man and the chest of another. The first one seemed fine, no blood was spilled, and only a slight dent was visible as the woman looked with terror. The other man, however, had a half-circular object, without sharpness or heavy weight, impaled in the chest.
The latter’s body twitched, his heart crushed between the ribs and the item, before finally stopping, dying paralyzed.
On a rooftop of the community service building, Fox stood up after lazily throwing those 2 unfinished bions to rescue the wife of an erstwhile client. Fox was 140 meters away from the house, so he had to use his left arm. Otherwise, with those unfinished products, he would have sent it 40 to 50 meters away, at best.
He looked at the street, where Armando Peña rushed to his house, breathless, before sliding down to clarify things. He didn’t want them to flee, making him run a few tens of meters more than necessary.
“Wife!” The husband exclaimed, rushing to his home after seeing the corpses on the garden and her wife on the doorstep. The wife responded in kind, “Husband!”
They rushed into each other’s arms. They were fine, perfect, even. After exchanging a passionate kiss, they heard someone walk to them. Fox looked at Armando and Yue with uncaring eyes, wearing Red Blood paint as he walked to them carrying a rifle on his back.
It was a short model of the one he usually uses, with greater projectile speed but less long range effectiveness. Regardless, Fox walked to them. Armando looked at him with hardened eyes before recognizing him. “Fox!”
“Being a lawyer is hard,” Fox commented. “Old contractors from ANS come to check on you daily until they grow bold enough to approach your wife… Will you accept the government’s invitation, or am I also not enough for you?”
“A…hahaha,” Armando’s eyes were a bit dumb as he looked at Fox, who complained a bit. Yue worriedly stared at the young man. Armando stepped up and extended his hand, scratching the back of his head, “It’s been a long time. And no, I’m not refusing… I can’t anymore.”
Armando looked back before walking over to inspect the corpses. Meanwhile, Yue walked to Fox with tears in her eyes, cleaning them with her wrists. “It’s good to see you again, Fox. How have you been? I hope you’ve been eating well. Would you like me to do something for you?”
Fox stared at the wife with a blank expression, “Ma’am, we’re already moving away. You can’t stay in this place. Other special agents will bring your stuff later.”
“…Hehe,” Yue giggled after narrowing her eyes. Just then, Armando made an exclamation. Fox leaned to the side and saw the ex-lawyer try to grab one of the unfinished bions, only to realize how heavy it was and stumble into the grass. By sheer luck, he didn’t fall.
“Others will pick those, too.” Fox felt like notifying him. Armando looked down with some shyness before nodding, returning with empty hands. Fox nodded before staring at Yue, nodding again as he guided them to a vehicle on the street.
… Fox drove them to the presidential precinct. The car was a simple one, with armored structure and fortified windows, so the couple could relax. Once at the precinct, the ex-lawyer, who has been ostracized after being the reason an entire firm was closed, felt somewhat inferior to be here. But nothing like one’s virtuous wife to encourage oneself to believe in oneself.
Fox brought them before the president’s office, walking through the renovations that took place over the course of 2 weeks. Armando Peña and Yue were amazed. It was the first time they came here, and it already blew their mind. If only they knew it didn’t look as extravagant and wealthy as it used to, who knew their reactions then.
Knock, knock. “It’s Fox, President. The targets are here.” Fox said before stepping backwards. The doors opened after a mechanism only special agents could hear sounded. Armando Peña’s eyes darted a bit in anticipation to meet the president.
“Go in, he usually has letters to respond to. Just talk to him like any other,” Fox looked at Armando Peña and felt like giving some advice. The ex-lawyer, soon to be a lawyer again, nodded before Yue winked at Fox and thumbed him up.
“Ah, Fox. Come back at night, before your first time. Let’s discuss something else,” Luis’s voice shouted, bringing the couple’s attention to Fox before he nodded, not caring whether Luis saw or not. Then, Fox left. Armando Peña and Yue sat before Luis’s desk, gulping in anticipation.
Luis waited a bit before looking at the door, where the long gone Fox was far enough, perhaps. He looked at Armando and his wife. He smiled politely at them before saying, “Armando Peña, I expect you know why you’re here.”
Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.
“I am willing to do my best to sort any legal problems you give me, president. It’s an honor to meet you, and this is but the perfect dream work that any ambitious lawyer with ideals like mine could hope for. I’m truly apologetic for the previous situation, I wished to keep a low profile and live with my life. We were planning to get pregnant, so we couldn’t help but…”
“Hmf!” Luis blew from his nostrils, a bit harder than he intended. He donned a smile. “You think I’m a petty leader who is offended by your constant refuses? It’s not me who should. Anyhow.”
“No,” Luis worded before stating, putting his pen down, “The reason I brought you here, mainly, isn’t to have you work like any other capacitated lawyer. I could have had you brought to the vice president instead. The work you’re going to do here is different, much more… unique.”
Armando Peña slightly widened his eyes. Of course, he wasn’t clueless. Since he had ambition, he had that head well-trained. There was the possibility that he could get ‘a job’ under the president as a ‘quirky’ lawyer. It was just the way the president put it, as if it correlated to the safekeeping of the nation’s secrets. It made Armando Peña apprehensive. He listened…
***
Center of Proteros City, a prosperous business district at noon.
It had been 3 weeks since the event in the Ly Ocean. After Fox checked the islands, practically horrifying the moral heart of the world, he could only return and do nothing. The Lýmocan government, on the other hand, acted quickly. Over a few dozen people were arrested in the first day. A week later, they were released by the Supreme Court Justice.
One would think Lýmoca would unify before this controversy and face it accordingly. One could also be naïve.
Regardless, with Fox becoming the new political party’s leader and president of such, Fox had to get a few photos from a single photoshoot and press conference under the president. Fox couldn’t believe it, let alone those who still knew him in the ordinary world.
From a kid escaping Preut to a most-important figure in the country in less than 4 years. Naturally, without the president’s thin shade of honor within his political party, he put Fox’s record to the test and ran the road for the ‘kid’ right away.
Now, Lýmoca knew of Fox more than whenever else. There weren’t many ads about him, mostly that he was showing his subservience to Luis, ‘the tyrant’. While countless media put him down socially like a dog, the amount of glares Fox received before a nod of trust were… so many.
During these 3 weeks, the Blackflower Boutique had flourished, redundancy omitted. Even though the 11th month’s last week had just started, the calculated gains for the Boutique had been successfully mathed.
Individually, Fox has earned 7,346,000 credits on his own. The boutique, as expected, had gross sales of 820,000 credits, and 246,000 credits from his monthly profit. Fox had accumulated 24,969,000 credits in his bank account, while the Blackflower Boutique now counts with 504,000 credits in reserve just from the monthly net sales of 168,000 credits.
They could begin talks with the next, third floor, of the boutique, although at a slow pace.
Fox’s individual credit came mostly from his tasks, bions, and the contract as the political party president. Colmillo now bought 1.85 million credits worth of bions from him, which would increase next month, little by little. The assignations he’s attended with his team were also helpful, among a few other individual tasks. Then, 2.2 million credits from crafted bions both months, which were sold to PSD.
Fox hit the iron while it was hot and requested to be granted more rare materials for his research, although the latter didn’t need to be known by the government and PSD. Either way, it was accepted, but Fox had to give some of his bions until his time as the president finished. However, the materials would still be delivered to his ‘storage bank’ in the HQ every 2 weeks if he didn’t use them all.
Fox also wouldn’t idiotically try to trick neither. It would also be simply stupid for him to not continue practicing and accumulating experience to learn how to build excellent quality bions with a higher chance and ease.
Regardless, Fox didn’t doubt pouring money to his current projects. Most importantly, he paid the remaining millions to the old man of the boutique’s second floor, and paid the 5.1 million credits to the mechanics, who were now motivated to work his baby.
Fox didn’t continue paying for the Myertha, as it would need a couple of months and a bit more for the current paid reparations to finish. Turning to his business, however, Fox didn’t hesitate to pour 11,000,000 credits from his almost 16,000,000 remaining credits to the Blackflower Boutique’s reserves. Thus, the idea to begin negotiation for the third and fourth floor one at a time and slowly went down the gutter.
With Fabiola studying hard, and her vacations just around the corner after the exams and expositions of her work, of which Fox let her use his boutique as part of her project, the Blackflower Boutique neared a brighter bloom.
Fox couldn’t wait to leave, tour the country, and return to see his Blackflower Boutique twice as big as now, taking a third of the 11-story building.
… After bidding farewell to Pamela, the second clerk, and checking the possible 2 new clerk candidates, Fox prepared for his ‘big’ starting day. He also notified Fabiola, who was engrossed with studying. Furthermore, since she would remain in the academy after graduating for classes, which she could pay with the money Fox gave her before, and kindly asking her parents, they decided to postpone her ‘rejoining’ to the business.
It was great for Fox, who was amidst the largest expansion he’s ever made, and a bonafide gesture from Fabiola, who clearly wanted to call the boutique her own again in the future.
Like this, as advised by Lesly, Fox took a bus that left him nearest to the presidential precinct.
When he was still a couple of minutes from the stop, Fox felt a little stare, different to the surprised or disbelieving stares, and turned to see who it was. Fox found a short man looking up at him with hostile eyes. He never met him, nor someone like that, so Fox blinked and tilted his head, further infuriating the unknown man.
When coming out of the bus, the short fella rushed to him and tried upper punching Fox, who didn’t even bother blocking and just smoothly swayed his body to the side. The people stopped, even the bus driver, refusing to leave.
Fox looked at the short man, who felt everyone’s gazes, except Fox’s behind some sunglasses, and pointed at his face. “You! What can a killer, womanizer, corrupt young naïve man like you achieve for my country? You are just a military son from a poor, violent state!”
Fox lifted his left eyebrow, truly not expecting this. The intensity the man accused him with was sincere. Fox looked at the man before shrugging his shoulders and shaking his head a little, “I don’t know what you’re talking about. Since when am I a military’s son?”
“Don’t try to hide it!” The short man bellowed, begging his throat to emit more righteous words. Fox blinked, not moving from his standing point, “Do you have proof then?”
Fox asked that, but he was already smiling since he questioned his ‘identity’ as a military child from Preut’s infamous once-upon-a-time military camps. Asking the man for proof was the opposition killer, and sure enough, the short man didn’t break apart the bad image Fox was engraved into by Lesly and Sona.
“It’s all on the social media!” As soon as the short man said this, the people began to leave, some rolling or half rolling their eyes, bothered. The short man felt his spirits down and just turned and walked away like his brain was divided into halves and these exchanged positions instantly. Fox shook his head before heading to the presidential precinct.
Fox walked to the ‘presidential’ streets, which were known like that only because few vehicles ever passed every day. Before he crossed the gate, with the guards, soldiers, looking at him sternly; some people went to him and bombarded him with questions.
Fox ignored them, only offering some words at the end, having to do with the Lys learning about the happenings in the country that they can’t hear anywhere else, because it doesn’t exist in those media.
Then, as evening approached, and some guards arrived to bring the news anchors away, Fox stood before the president’s office again. Before he knocked, the doors opened, letting Fox inside, who placed his hands behind his back and walked to Luis’s desk.
“What is there to talk that is so important, President?” Fox looked at the man who just finished writing 2 letters and let them pile up at the borders of his desk. Luis looked up. His gray-black eyes seemed a little sharp. But when they looked at him, Fox saw consideration, not disdain, a sort of ‘temptation’, and the lack of the latter accompanied by the prospect of cooperation.
“You don’t have to sob story the people. It’s good to tell them about you, but don’t reveal cards nobody is expecting. You’ve seen it yourself, I wonder if you’ve experienced it, but their only weapon is disinformation. If you become an opened book-” Luis half-sermonized Fox before he nodded and patiently interrupted. “Yes, I know. I let them pick me from anywhere they could possibly grab or shut their beaks to hold onto, and my image becomes flooded with that.”
“It’s good you understand,” Luis intertwined his fingers and said, looking up at Fox with his chin against them. After a few more seconds, Luis seemed to mentally sigh before opening his mouth, “It seems you don’t need any more explanation. You have most of it figured out. You just need to find the method or you. Just don’t be ‘intimidated’ from repeating yourself through the tours. Repeat, repeat, and repeat with a proof of loyalty and truth at the side, and they’ll learn what they don’t think they require. They will understand where we come from with this.”
“I got it,” Fox looked down and bent a little to look at the letters. He returned his gaze to Luis, “Would it be better to announce you won’t be taking care of the letters yourself if you remain in the presidency?”
“… You know what?” Luis rubbed the thin bridge of his nose before lifting his face. “Yes, go ahead. Now, an important matter. You are leading Defending Our Home, but the name, and ‘DOH’, are simply not talked about by the people. As the new president, you will also be the first president of this ‘renewed’ political party. Choose a new name, sigh, unless you want to keep it?”
“Defending Our home?” Fox asked, his eyebrows sunk. Luis looked at this and nodded with his hand covering his face, glancing through the gaps. Fox’s eyebrows slowly eased, seemingly finding some sort of positive thought. Then, Luis heard Fox spout a flat out, “No.”
Luis: “…”
“I’ll call it National Front… with your permission, President.” Fox didn’t feel compelled to not act this way, but doing so still made him roll his eyes. That he didn’t hide from Luis Heartez. After the initial stupefaction, Luis leaned his back on his chair and thought before repeating, “National Front, National Front… NF… It seems somehow defying to the other 2. I see.”
“You have all the necessary rights to do that, no need to ask me. But, yes.” Luis nodded, blinking his eyes ceremoniously. Fox nodded in return before taking his leave.
As Fox left, Luis followed the young man’s back with his gaze. His face unreadable, and his eyes thoughtful.
…
----------------------------------------
This is the beginning of Volume 4 — Rave of Blood.